*"There is no good or bad in international affairs. The childish concept of ‘good guys’ and ‘bad guys’ comes from the Bush era when simple-minded voters had to be convinced that America was somehow in grave danger from a bunch of angry Mideast goat herds."*
I remember Bush's simplistic announcement " You are either with us or against us." On Sunday, February 26, 2017 at 7:48:09 AM UTC-6, MJ wrote: > > > February 18, 2017 > > * More Reds Under Our Beds! <http://www.ericmargolis.htm>*By Eric Margolis > > President Dwight Eisenhower’s warning about the dangers of the > military-industrial complex made half a century ago ring as loud and clear > today. The soft coup being mounted against the Trump government by > America’s ‘deep state’ reached a new intensity this week as special > interests battled for control of Washington. > > The newly named national security advisor, Lt Gen Michael Flynn, was > ousted by Trump over his chats with Russia’s ambassador and what he may or > may not have told Vice President Pence. The defenestration of Flynn > appeared engineered by our national intelligence agencies in collaboration > with the mainstream media and certain Democrats. > > Flynn’s crime? Talking to the wicked Russians before and after the > election. Big, big deal. That’s what security advisors are supposed to > do: keep an open back channel to other major powers and allies. This is > also the job of our intelligence agencies. > > There is no good or bad in international affairs. The childish concept of > ‘good guys’ and ‘bad guys’ comes from the Bush era when simple-minded > voters had to be convinced that America was somehow in grave danger from a > bunch of angry Mideast goat herds. > > The only nations that could threaten America’s very existence are nuclear > powers Russia, China, India, France, Britain, and Israel (and maybe > Pakistan) in that order. > > Russia has thousands of nuclear warheads targeted on the US mainland. > Any real war with Russia would invite doom for both nations. Two near > misses are more than enough. Remember the 1962 Cuban missile confrontation > and the terrifying 1983 Able Archer scare – near thermonuclear war caused > by Ronald Reagan’s anti-Russian hysteria and Moscow’s panicked response. > > Margolis’ #1 rule of international relations: make nice and keep on good > terms with nations that have nuclear weapons pointed at you. Avoid > squabbles over almost all matters. Intelligence agencies play a key role in > maintaining the balance of nuclear terror and preventing misunderstandings > that can cause war. > > Gen. Flynn was a fanatical anti-Islamic wing nut. He was, to use Trumpese, > a bigly terrible choice. I’m glad he is gone. But Flynn’s sin was being > loopy, not talking on the phone to the Russian ambassador. The White House > and national intelligence should be talking every day to Moscow, even ‘hi > Boris, what’s new with you guys? ‘Nothing much new here either besides the > terrible traffic.’ > > The current hue and cry in the US over Flynn’s supposed infraction is > entirely a fake political ambush to cripple the Trump administration. > Trump caved in much too fast. The deep state is after his scalp: he has > threatened to cut the $80 billion per annum intelligence budget – which > alone, boys and girls, is larger than Russia’s entire defense budget! He’s > talking about rooting waste out of the Pentagon’s almost trillion-dollar > budget, spending less on NATO, and ending some of America’s imperial wars > abroad. > > What’s to like about Trump if you’re a member of the war party and > military-industrial-intelligence-Wall Street complex? The complex wants > its golden girl Hilary Clinton in charge. She unleashed the current > tsunami of anti-Russian hysteria and demonization of Vladimir Putin which > shows, sadly, that many Americans have not grown beyond the days of Joe > McCarthy. > > As a long-time student of Cold War intelligence, my conclusion is that > both sides knew pretty much what the other was up to, though KGB and GRU > were more professional and skilled than western special services. It would > be so much easier and cheaper just to share information on a demand basis. > But that would stop the Great Game. > > It’s sickening watching the arrant hypocrisy and windbaggery in Washington > over alleged Russian espionage and manipulation. The US has been buying > and manipulating foreign governments since 1945. We even tapped German > Chancellor Angela Merkel’s cell phone. This week Wikileaks issued an > intercept on CIA spying and manipulation of France’s 2012 election. We > live in a giant glass house. > > The Russians are not our pals. Nor are they the evil empire. We have to > normalize our thinking about Russia, grow up and stop using Moscow as a > political bogeyman to fight our own internal political battles. > > Right now, I’m more worried about the far right crazies in the Trump White > House than I am about the Ruskis and Vlad the Bad. > > www.ericmargolis.com > -- -- Thanks for being part of "PoliticalForum" at Google Groups. For options & help see http://groups.google.com/group/PoliticalForum * Visit our other community at http://www.PoliticalForum.com/ * It's active and moderated. Register and vote in our polls. * Read the latest breaking news, and more. --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "PoliticalForum" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
