There is no other way to put it, the non-stop demonizing and provoking Russian President Vladimir Putin and nuclear armed Russia is absolute insanity.
Read investigative reporter Robert Parry's latest, "Escalating the Risky Fight with Russia" [1] with his thorough analysis of the Russia bashing by the Obama administration, the neo-con and liberal interventionists, the New York Times, Washington Post editorial writers plus the reactionary fools in Congress pushing for "crippling sanctions against Russia" and one comes away believing madness has gripped "official" Washington and all its complicit enablers.
Accusations, allegations abound yet no factual evidence is given to substantiate Russian hacking in the election favoring Trump. Russia's successful intervention in Syria on the side of Syrian President Bashar Assad is condemned as is the recent liberation of the people from the beheading al Qaeda jihadist terrorists in east Aleppo by the Syrian Arab Army. After the US inspired coup in Kiev, Ukraine in 2014 it was Russia "invading" Crimea rather than the reality of the Russian military legally stationed in Crimea preventing any violence and assisting the mostly Russian speaking people in Crimea to vote overwhelmingly in a referendum to secede from Ukraine and join the Russian Federation. Or Russia "invading" in eastern Ukraine on the side of the Russian speaking people when in fact it was the post government in Kiev sending in its "Right Sector" neo- Nazi militias to invade and kill the ethnic Russian speaking population in the east. Or the downing of the Malaysian passenger jet in July, 2014 immediately blamed on the Russian backed rebels in eastern Ukraine when in fact it was only the post coup Kiev governments forces that had ground to air missiles and fighter jets capable of downing the airliner.
Then there was Putin accused of building up his military forces to invade the Baltic countries of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia. An inane accusation considering Putin is no fool as all NATO countries would then be required to come to their aid.
What seems gone down the western "memory hole" is the agreement between the Bush Sr. administration and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev in 1989 that NATO would not "move one inch to the east" if East and West Germany were allowed to reunite.
That pledge was first reneged by Bill Clinton, then "Dubya" Bush and now Obama with NATO expanding to all the former "Warsaw Pact" countries of Poland, Hungary, Bulgaria, Romania, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Albania, the Baltic countries of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia and the former Yugoslav countries of Croatia and Slovenia. Then with the US backed coup in Ukraine in 2014, though not a member, NATO is literally on the doorstep of Russia.
Such provocations are not lost on Putin or the Russian people who are no longer the pathetic remnants of Russia under President Boris Yeltsin after the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991.
As Putin related to the Russian Defense Ministry prior to the Christmas holiday, "We can say with certainty: We are stronger than any potential aggressor". "Anyone". Undoubtedly this was meant not only for the Russian people but also "official" Washington.
The question is: Is anyone in "official" Washington listening? Or are they so consumed with their own self importance, arrogant, exceptional, entitled of the "indispensible" country believing its "Full Spectrum Dominance" hypothesis still prevailed, that Russia remains a two bit non entity that eventually will accept US hegemony or crumble under some neo-con inspired "regime change".
Consider, the Soviet Union suffered some 27 million casualties during WWII. No family was left untouched by Hitler's Nazi invasion. The Russian people know war and its tragic consequences. They do not want war but are prepared to defend their country at all costs.
Yet madness has gripped "official" Washington with regards to Russia.
While a new administration is coming to power in three weeks and Trump has indicated he wants to work with Putin it may be stretch to expect him to pull it off considering the neo-cons have been in control of US foreign policy and want no detente re-set with Russia.
From here this is Trump's most important foreign policy challenge. Let's hope he prevails.
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