-------------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 19 Nov 2003 16:35:46 +0100 Subject: Re: Joe Vialls: An amazing geopolitical assessment! From: Helene Connor <•••@••.•••> To: <•••@••.•••> Dear Richard, This analysis is earth-shaking. I wish you would not have cut the article though. What is the "fall-back plan" they have in store? Thanks for sharing with us the info that comes your way. We need to know... Best regards. Helene ------------ Dear Helene, I didn't cut the article. It ended abruptly with that reference to "Fortress Americas". Perhaps that is a teaser for a follow-on article -- I hope so. Perhaps Vialls thought stopping short would save him from suicide. Not sure. One shudders to think what Plan B might be about. rkm -------------------------------------------------------- From: •••@••.••• Date: Tue, 18 Nov 2003 22:32:18 EST Subject: Re: Joe Vialls: An amazing geopolitical assessment! To: •••@••.••• Richard, Yes, it's a very interesting article, even fascinating, but it leaves monumental questions unanswered, mainly What does Russia have against Israel that would make them make such threats or carry out such actions? Vialls doesn't make that clear enough for me. Also, he doesn't give any clue as to how he knows of Russia's plans. We can't just take his word for it, can we? As to your remark about Britain and France choosing appeasement at Munich, I think we may have gone over this before, where I pointed out that it was not appeasement, it was collusion -- a common desire to crush Bolshevism. Take care, Bill ---------- Dear Bill, Nice to hear from you. I agree that Munich was collusion, but that would have required some supporting comments, drifting from the topic. I figured that it was best to argue from the assumption that appeasement was real, making it easy for those who believe that -- and those who know better would be able to get past that and see the real lesson the East has learned: beware the West in general -- it speaks with a forked tongue. In Cantonese, the slang for "European" is "White Devil". I don't know where Viall gets his intelligence on Russia, or if he makes it up. I'm hoping someone out there might have seen something for or against credibility. But what Vialls claims makes sense in terms the motivations and capabilities of the players. With the first Gulf War, the Yugoslavia intrigues, and the post-911 aggressions, Russia and China must realize that the US will listen to power and power only. Such is the nature of bullies. Also, China & Russia are being backed into a corner. A cornered beast usually attacks -- with whatever fangs it has available. I don't think we need to assume Russia is out to get Israel, any more than we need to assume France & Britain had any great love for Poland. In both cases, there was a line drawn in the sand for reasons not to be found in the vicinity of the line. Britain and France knew that the invasion of Poland signalled ambitions on Germany's part that would burst apart the European balance of power. Similarly, the Chinese and Russians understand that US-Israeli plans in the Middle East, and US plans in the Caspian and Korean regions signal an intention to achieve global hegemony, and a line again must be drawn somewhere. regards, rkm -------------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 19 Nov 2003 11:31:20 +0800 To: •••@••.••• From: Dion Giles <•••@••.•••> Subject: Re: Joe Vialls: An amazing geopolitical assessment! Dear Richard Joe Vialls' assessment is indeed fascinating, and in these dangerous times actually encouraging: an opposing fist under the aggressors' nose is less-worse than the aggressors being able to launch adventure after adventure. But we have to remember that geopolitics is the language of grabbers, power-seekers and colonialists, not the language of the people. From the point of view of humanity, the Russians and Chinese rulers are not better than the American rulers. They are as bad or worse, and what they have to offer the people in terms of human freedom is decidedly worse. Russia's murderous colonial campaign against Chechnya dwarfs anything waged by the US, including the illegal invasion of Iraq, since the rape of Vietnam. China's human rights record (and even post-Soviet Russia's to say nothing of the Soviet Union's) is a country mile worse than America's (bad though that is). The Chinese threats to Taiwan, and colonialist annexation of Tibet, may sound fine in geopolitical terms but flies in the face of the right of peoples to self-determination. ---<snip>--- Dion Giles Western Australia ----------------- Dear Dion, Certainly we do not see a 'good guys' vs. 'bad guys' in the East vs. the US. But I'm not sure I would agree with your characterization of the East being so much worse in its oppressive actions. As the years go by, I find more and more of the anti-Communist propaganda I was raised on was vastly exaggerated. And I find the US was up to much worse than I ever imagined. In Argentina during the era of The Disappeared -- a project of Nelson Rockefeller and the School of the America's -- they used to take cargo planeloads of prisoners and dump them miles out into the ocean. It doesn't get much worse than that. The significance of these recent events lies in what you call the 'opposing fist'. In the current context that amounts to a retreat from globalization, a counter-force to globalization. The article spoke of geopolitical issues. But what about economics? If China and Russia gain confidence in their ability to run an independent geopolitical course, might they then not also stop and reconsider their embracing of the disastrous capitalist economic path? Might they not return to a more socialist position, this time out of economic pragmatism rather than Marxist ideology? Might they not see that such a stance might enable them to become a point of leadership for the third world seeking to get out from under the harsh thumb of the IMF? Has the US unleashed a new Cold War in which it is this time on the defensive? Just as it has managed to cause weapons of mass destruction to be introduced where formerly there were none? Who knows? If we enter again into bi-polar world, with the lessons of the Cold War and the globalization era behind us, anything becomes possible. rkm -------------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 18 Nov 2003 18:28:43 -0800 Subject: Re: Joe Vialls: An amazing geopolitical assessment! From: Eva Lyman <•••@••.•••> To: <•••@••.•••> Hi, your point of view is interesting, but I don't agree with some of your assessment of the situation. At Munich, the French, and English betrayed (fortunately) the Czech Republic with whom they had a tri-partite agreement of mutual defense. (Had they gone to war I'm sure I wouldn't be writing you today.) My assessment of the Vials article is that the Russians and Chinese have had enough of the US encroaching on their territorial sphere of influence, and have stood up to the arrogant sole superpower and shown that there are other big players in the field. As my dad used to say, the Americans play poker and the Russians play chess (and the Chinese play 'go', a game like chess) -- what he meant was that the US foreign policy does not seem to be well thought out into the future and depends on bluff. Like poker. Then again, I think the Russians, judging by their long term history don't tend to go to war, but tend to defend, and here they are trying for a political, and strategic checkmate to defend their interests. They don't go to war but have bravely defended their territory, as we know both against Napoleon, and Hitler. I can recall only two historical occasions when Russia invaded Europe, once under Peter the Great, who attacked little Sweden (and lost), and then Catherine the Great (a German princess) attacked Poland, when Austria and Germany did at the same time. Like the Americans, Russians don't tend to attack countries any remotely their equal. I understand China doesn't have a history of expansionism either, but tends to protect its territory with determination and courage. So I feel that these two countries have simply decided that the US is stepping too close to their borders, and are making a move to check mate this. Unless the US pushes them into a corner (and that is not in its history either, look who they pick on, Panama, Iraq, historically the Indians etc.), they won't go to war. I never thought the Russians would have gone to war over the Cuban missile crisis, like I say, it's not in their historical nature. Should the USA attack them, however, they would give their defense all they've got, and that's plenty. They are a lot tougher on the whole than us coddled North Americans. We saw in 1945 what sort of conditions they were willing/able to fight under. As Churchill said it was the Asian hordes coming to civilised Europe. Some even traveled in little hay filled carts pulled by a horse. We had several dozen camped in our yard, and thousands in town, doubling the town size by their numbers. For a kid it was an unforgettable experience, as they let us play on and hang off the cannon on their tanks, and just loved little kids to pieces. They had none of the American army's support personnel, but essentially lived off the land they passed through, shooting a cow here, stealing a horse there, as needed. I just wonder if Putin will survive his effort to pull Russia out of the gutter. He seems to be ruffling a lot of powerful feathers, especially of the financiers. Didn't think I'd ever be cheering for an ex KGB man, but I must say I would feel a lot safer if there was more than one superpower. A balance of power is usually safer for all concerned. Cheers, Eva L ------------ Dear Eva, Many thanks for sharing your personally-handed-down experiences. You speak apparently of Eastern Europe...which country? cheers, rkm -- ============================================================ "...the Patriot Act followed 9-11 as smoothly as the suspension of the Weimar constitution followed the Reichstag fire." - Srdja Trifkovic There is not a problem with the system. The system is the problem. Faith in humanity, not gods, ideologies, or programs. _____________________________ cyberjournal home page: http://cyberjournal.org "Zen of Global Transformation" home page: http://www.QuayLargo.com/Transformation/ QuayLargo discussion forum: http://www.QuayLargo.com/Transformation/ShowChat/?ScreenName=ShowThreads cj list archives: http://cyberjournal.org/cj/show_archives/?lists=cj newslog list archives: http://cyberjournal.org/cj/show_archives/?lists=newslog 'Truthout' excellent news source: http://www.truthout.org subscribe addresses for cj list: •••@••.••• •••@••.••• ============================================================
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