C'mon, Carter. Can't you just man-up and admit the US can't compete anymore so you've decided to start a war instead. Is that so hard to say?
Of course Carter has made every effort to sweep the Gazprom story under the rug and pretend that nothing has happened, but anyone who follows these things can figure it out. The fact is, he got his clock cleaned by Putin, and not just once either. There was another bombshell on Wednesday that just added a little icing to the cake. Check this out from Oil Price.com:
"Russia's state-run gas company Gazprom says it has taken a step toward building the Turkish Stream pipeline by securing permission from Ankara to begin surveying waters of the Black Sea for the offshore leg of the project...Alexander Novak, Russia's energy minister, says he expects Ankara and Moscow will sign an agreement to build Turkish Stream by the end of June." (Controversial Gazprom Pipeline Clears Hurdle, Oil Price)
That's what you call the double whammy! Now Putin's going to be pumping gas into Europe from both directions leaving Uncle Sam out in the cold. Can you feel those Russian pincers starting to tighten around Europe? Now you can understand why Carter's been running around Europe with his knickers in a twist; it's because his glorious divide-and-conquer strategy just exploded in his face. His only option now is to scrap Plan A altogether and go back to drawing board. What a freaking disaster.
There's another story that broke during Carter's euro-junket that's also worth mentioning. This is from Bloomberg:
"Ukraine will miss a bond coupon payment in July, setting off a default on about $19 billion of debt, as a standoff with creditors shows no sign of abating, according to Goldman Sachs Group Inc...
"Ukraine is giving creditors a few weeks to accept a proposal that includes a 40 percent writedown to principal before it imposes a debt moratorium, a person familiar with the talks said on June 19.
"'Ukraine will not make the July 24 coupon payment and, as a result, will enter into default at that point,' Matheny said of his base-case scenario in the report. 'We do not expect the ad hoc committee to accept Ukraine's latest restructuring proposal.'" (Goldman Sees Ukraine Default in July as Debt Standoff Holds, Bloomberg)
Ukraine is busted, are you kidding me? The country that was so critical to US plans for luring Putin into a Vietnam-type quagmire, is headed for bankruptcy? So all that work was for nothing -- toppling the government, arming the Nazis, fomenting a civil war, incinerating buildings full of civilians in Odessa, shooting down commercial airliners, and plunging the state into Somalia-like chaotic abyss? It was all just a big miscalculation, a boo-boo; is that it?
Can you see why the United States can't be trusted as "the guarantor of global security"? Washington destroys everything it touches with its wrecking ball foreign policy; Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria. Now it's destroyed Ukraine. Who'll be next?
Putin has done us all a favor by throwing a wrench in Washington's plans and helping to bring the era of imperial overreach to a swift and merciful end. We all owe him a debt of gratitude.
Way to go, Vladimir.
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