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Meanwhile, NATO commander Gen. Philip Breedlove keeps up his fly-by-the-pants information warfare campaign citing Russian "aggression," "invasions" and plans to do still more evil things. One is tempted to dismiss him as a buffoon; but he is the NATO commander.
Lack of Control
It does not appear as though Obama has the same degree of control over foreign and defense policy that Putin enjoys in Moscow -- or at least one hopes Putin can retain such control since some hard-line Russian nationalists are fuming that Putin has been too accommodating of his Western "partners."
Perhaps the greatest danger from Obama's acquiescence to the neocons' new Cold War with Russia is that the neocon hopes for "regime change in Moscow" will be realized except that Putin will be replaced by some ultra-nationalist who would rather risk nuclear war than accept further humiliation of Mother Russia.
Meanwhile, back in Washington, the U.S. establishment is such that the generals, the arms manufacturers and weapons merchants, the Defense Department, and most of Congress have a very strong say in U.S. foreign policy -- and Obama seems powerless to change it.
The model of governing in Washington is a far cry from Russia's guiding principle of edinonachaliye -- by which one supreme authority is in clear control of decision-making on defense and foreign policy.
Even when Obama promises, he often fails to deliver. Think back to what Obama told then-President Dmitry Medvedev when they met in Seoul in March 2012, about addressing Russian concerns over European missile defense. In remarks picked up by camera crews, Obama asked for some "space" until after the U.S. election. Obama can be heard saying, "This is my last election. After my election, I have more flexibility."
Yet, even after winning reelection, Obama has remained cowed by the influential neocons -- even as he has bucked some of their more aggressive demands, such as a massive U.S. bombing campaign against Assad's military in summer 2013 and bomb-bomb-bombing Iran; instead, in 2014-15, Obama pushed for a negotiated agreement to constrain Iran's nuclear program.
Ideally, Obama should be able to show some flexibility on Syria during his last year in office, but no one should hold their breath. Obama appears to have deep fears about crossing the neocons or Israel regarding what they want for the Middle East and Eastern Europe.
Besides the neocons' close ties to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the neocons are intimately connected to the interests of the Military-Industrial Complex, which provides substantial funding for the major think tanks where many neocons hang their hats and churn out new arguments for more world conflict and thus more military spending.
Unlike Obama, Pope Francis addressed this fact-of-life head-on in his Sept. 24 address to members of the U.S. Congress -- many if not most of whom also are lavished with proceeds from the arms trade and then appropriate still more funding for arms production and sales.
"Why are deadly weapons being sold to those who plan to inflict untold suffering," Francis asked them face-to-face. "Sadly, the answer, as we all know, is simply for money: money that is drenched in blood, often innocent blood."
An Old Epithet
From my days as a CIA analyst covering the Soviet Union, I'm reminded of the epithet favored by the Soviet party daily Pravda a few decades ago --"vallstreetskiye krovopitsiy" -- or Wall St. bloodsuckers. Propaganda-ish as that term seemed, it turns out that Soviet media were not far off on that subject.
Indeed, the banks and corporations involved in arms manufacture and sales enjoy immense power -- arguably, more than a president; unarguably more than Obama. The moneyed interests -- including Congress -- are calling the shots.
The old adage "money makes the world go round" is also apparent in Washington's velvet-gloves treatment of the Saudis and is nowhere better illustrated than in the continued suppression of 28 pages of the 2002 Joint Congressional Inquiry on 9/11. Those pages deal with the Saudi role in financing and supporting some of the 9/11 hijackers, but both the Bush and Obama administrations have kept those pages hidden for 13 years.
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