Reply #28: I get it too...

[DavidFL]

I was disappointed to see Kerry listening to Holbrooke and Berger when he snubbed Chavez's olive branch because it signalled a Kerry administration would continue the neoliberal economic policies that have defined U.S. policy toward South America. If an article I read in NarcoNews was correct, I was hoping Kerry would have listened to the advice of his daughter Alexandra, I think, who advised him to accept Chavez's invitation and that this might possibly result in a fresh look at South American policy, hopefully moving toward respecting a sovereign nation's right to self-determination.

But this seriously disappoints me that Kerry's foreign policy advisors have adopted the neocons' beligerant position toward Russia. I'm also disappointed that more people have not taken the time to truly understand what the backstory is here, as well as the end game, instead of slapping the label "dictator" on Putin because they read it in a newspaper. A lot of what is passing for journalism on Russia here in the U.S. is simply shallow and a lot of it is neocon propaganda. Probably their habit of projecting their inadequacies on others as well. Further, I do not doubt the neocons would love nothing more than to restart another cold war with Russia because that era was their heyday.

In any event, the end game is this: Russia is sitting on top of a lot of oil and natural gas, especially the republics in the Caspian basin, and the neocons want it. I think anyone who knows what the PNAC's plans are knows why, so I won't repeat it here. The U.S. multinationals have been trying get control of Russia's energy resources for some time now, like when Yukos Oil planned a merger with either Exxon Mobil or Chevron Texaco, can't remember which offhand now. Of course, Putin had its CEO jailed and immediately the neocons started making a lot of noise about Putin shifting his country back toward Communism and away from the capitalist "reforms" commenced under Yeltsin. And for good measure, the neocons attributed some subtle hints of anti-semitism in Putin's actions, because the CEO of Yukos is Jewish. Of course, in the neocons' simpleminded worldview, anti-capitalism + anti-semitism = Soviet Communism. Right on cue, too, the neocons' media whores also made a big deal out of this issue, namely Lou Dobbs, who constantly ran with this story even on days when there were no new developments. Say what you want about Dobbs' reporting on outsourcing, but I do not trust a man who reports only the neocons' version of the Yukos story and also brings people like John Fund and Richard Perle on to talk about Iraq.

In respect to Beslan, I suggest for those that haven't yet, they read what Putin and some in his cabinent have had to say about it. Also examine the neocons' position on Chechnya and Chechyn militants and a Washington D.C. non-profit called The Jamestown Foundation. I think when one looks at these events from Putin's point of view, his measures to centralize control over Russia, however they might make one uncomfortable, start making sense. Personally, I think Putin's moves are disturbing in the sense that they signal he is aligning his country against the neocons' imperial policies and the world moving the closer toward the possibility of WWIII should the neocons' continue their saber rattling.