lucidity
26th February 2015, 05:50
Hello Siblings,
First the background.
The US Dollar is ultimately held up by the fact it is
the world's reserve currency. After the 2008 financial
collapse the US decided to print trillions of extra
dollars into existence in order to save the "too-big-to-fail"
banks. This massive money printing devalues
all the other dollars previously printed. The major
holders of US dollars are foreign countries.
Understandably, many nations complained that this was
effectively making foreign nations (China, oil rich nations,
European countries) pay for the bailout of the American
banks. (Naturally, it also makes American savers pay
since the value of their savings will erode over the
subsequent years).
In response many countries began considering ways of
reducing their exposure to dollars. They started buying
more gold and some national leaders begin suggesting that
the world needed to terminate it's reliance on the dollar.
Those that advocated this too openly were subjected
to re-invasion and murder (Saddam Hussein in Iraq)
or invasion and murder (Gaddafi in Libya).
This however didn't stop China and Russia (in particular)
making plans to switch out the dollar by creating a new
trading block that would trade in local currencies (BRICS).
The US and Israel started by leaning on Iran. But both
Russia and China, both long time allies of Iran, voiced
strong opposition to this which made USA back away from
this strategy. Then the USA decided to lean directly on
Russia by planning and finance a coup in Ukraine.
This worked extremely well for the USA as they managed
to get their stooge into office in Ukraine: Poroshenko.
His name's not Poroshenko, it's Walzman. He's using
his mother's maiden name to sound more Ukrainian:
His family are jews from the Czech Republic.
The new Poroshenko govt set about trying to reconfigure
republic to be more akin to a centrally controlled
dictatorship. Most regions in Ukraine submitted to the
demands of the new militaristic central govt, but not
the eastern regions. Rather than negotiate with the
eastern regions, Poroshenko sent in tanks and soldiers
and, unfortunately for Poroshenko, the army only
succeeded in killing lots of Ukrainian civilians and
losing a lot of ground to the 'rebels'.
Dismayed by this apparent failure of the Ukrainian
army the western media then tried blaming Russia for
the success of rebels claiming Russia had supplied
troops, tanks and other heavy weaponry. A charge
consistently denied by Russia and US surveillance
failed to find any evidence of it. Though the Ukrainians
did try to pass off some old 2008 pictures of Russian
tanks evidence of a Russian invasion (I kid you not!)
The western media then set about blaming Russia for the
downing of flight MH17, containing hundreds of Dutch
passengers. This was part of the justification for
the imposition of sanctions against Russia in Europe.
Bizarrely, the UK, Dutch and Ukrainian accident
investigators refused to make their findings public
after signing a trilateral non-disclosure deal.
Subsequent satellite images showed that flight MH17
was brought down by a missile launched by the
Ukrainian military. The 'Russia brought down
flight MH17' story was quietly dropped and hasn't
been heard from again in the western media.
Strangely, the sanctions against Russia haven't been
lifted despite the satellite images.
Meanwhile, the Americans decide that maybe supplying
weapons to the Poroschenko Govt is a great idea.
Observing all this from the sidelines, the Germans
and the French decide that these weapons will be
used by the Poroschenko to have another go
at the rebels resulting in yet more civilian
deaths.. and possibly spilling millions of
Ukrainians into Western Europe.. and possibly
leading to WW3. Not being particularly fond of
either scenario France and Germany decide to get
Russia, Poroschenko and the rebels round the table
to agree a political solution to the fighting that
does not involve supplying weaponry.
This, it might be added, did not please the USA.
So that's the story up until a few days ago.
Here's what's happened since:
Despite all the talk at Minsk II of a diplomatic,
peaceful solution to the discord in Eastern Ukraine ...
24th Feb: Poroschenko flies off to UAE to buy weapons:
http://www.defensenews.com/story/breaking-news/2015/02/24/ukraine-signs-defense-deal-with-uae/23926101/
However, Ukraine is supposed to be heavily in debt both
to the IMF and to Russia. So where's the money coming
from ? This was underlined when Russia warned Ukraine that
unless payment for gas is made in the next few days,
gas supplies will be terminated. This is in accordance with
terms of the gas supply contract signed in Nov 2014.
http://rt.com/news/235459-putin-gas-ukraine-europe/
Note: this will focus minds on the issue since Western Europe
gets much of it's gas from Russia via the pipeline that runs
through Ukraine.
So... is Ukraine really _buying_ weapons or is the UAE being
used as an intermediary for the supply of weapons from
another country ? Perhaps America ? Perhaps Israel ?
25th Feb: Next we hear that Israel has negotiated the right
to fly over Saudi airspace to attack Iran.
http://www.timesofisrael.com/saudis-said-to-mull-air-passage-for-israeli-jets-to-attack-iran/
Russia responds by offering Iran the very latest
and best anti-aircraft and anti-missile defence system.
There's already a deal for missile defence system, but
Russia just upgraded the deal to the best, state-of-the-art system.
http://rt.com/news/234855-russia-iran-missiles-deal/
So it looks like 'tit-for-tat'
America/Israel gives weaponry to Ukraine.
Russia gives out weaponry to Iran.
The worrying part here is that the conflict over Ukraine
is now bleeding into other hot spots in other parts of
the world. And the sides are clearly arming for future
conflict.
All in all... it's a dangerous escalation.
First the background.
The US Dollar is ultimately held up by the fact it is
the world's reserve currency. After the 2008 financial
collapse the US decided to print trillions of extra
dollars into existence in order to save the "too-big-to-fail"
banks. This massive money printing devalues
all the other dollars previously printed. The major
holders of US dollars are foreign countries.
Understandably, many nations complained that this was
effectively making foreign nations (China, oil rich nations,
European countries) pay for the bailout of the American
banks. (Naturally, it also makes American savers pay
since the value of their savings will erode over the
subsequent years).
In response many countries began considering ways of
reducing their exposure to dollars. They started buying
more gold and some national leaders begin suggesting that
the world needed to terminate it's reliance on the dollar.
Those that advocated this too openly were subjected
to re-invasion and murder (Saddam Hussein in Iraq)
or invasion and murder (Gaddafi in Libya).
This however didn't stop China and Russia (in particular)
making plans to switch out the dollar by creating a new
trading block that would trade in local currencies (BRICS).
The US and Israel started by leaning on Iran. But both
Russia and China, both long time allies of Iran, voiced
strong opposition to this which made USA back away from
this strategy. Then the USA decided to lean directly on
Russia by planning and finance a coup in Ukraine.
This worked extremely well for the USA as they managed
to get their stooge into office in Ukraine: Poroshenko.
His name's not Poroshenko, it's Walzman. He's using
his mother's maiden name to sound more Ukrainian:
His family are jews from the Czech Republic.
The new Poroshenko govt set about trying to reconfigure
republic to be more akin to a centrally controlled
dictatorship. Most regions in Ukraine submitted to the
demands of the new militaristic central govt, but not
the eastern regions. Rather than negotiate with the
eastern regions, Poroshenko sent in tanks and soldiers
and, unfortunately for Poroshenko, the army only
succeeded in killing lots of Ukrainian civilians and
losing a lot of ground to the 'rebels'.
Dismayed by this apparent failure of the Ukrainian
army the western media then tried blaming Russia for
the success of rebels claiming Russia had supplied
troops, tanks and other heavy weaponry. A charge
consistently denied by Russia and US surveillance
failed to find any evidence of it. Though the Ukrainians
did try to pass off some old 2008 pictures of Russian
tanks evidence of a Russian invasion (I kid you not!)
The western media then set about blaming Russia for the
downing of flight MH17, containing hundreds of Dutch
passengers. This was part of the justification for
the imposition of sanctions against Russia in Europe.
Bizarrely, the UK, Dutch and Ukrainian accident
investigators refused to make their findings public
after signing a trilateral non-disclosure deal.
Subsequent satellite images showed that flight MH17
was brought down by a missile launched by the
Ukrainian military. The 'Russia brought down
flight MH17' story was quietly dropped and hasn't
been heard from again in the western media.
Strangely, the sanctions against Russia haven't been
lifted despite the satellite images.
Meanwhile, the Americans decide that maybe supplying
weapons to the Poroschenko Govt is a great idea.
Observing all this from the sidelines, the Germans
and the French decide that these weapons will be
used by the Poroschenko to have another go
at the rebels resulting in yet more civilian
deaths.. and possibly spilling millions of
Ukrainians into Western Europe.. and possibly
leading to WW3. Not being particularly fond of
either scenario France and Germany decide to get
Russia, Poroschenko and the rebels round the table
to agree a political solution to the fighting that
does not involve supplying weaponry.
This, it might be added, did not please the USA.
So that's the story up until a few days ago.
Here's what's happened since:
Despite all the talk at Minsk II of a diplomatic,
peaceful solution to the discord in Eastern Ukraine ...
24th Feb: Poroschenko flies off to UAE to buy weapons:
http://www.defensenews.com/story/breaking-news/2015/02/24/ukraine-signs-defense-deal-with-uae/23926101/
However, Ukraine is supposed to be heavily in debt both
to the IMF and to Russia. So where's the money coming
from ? This was underlined when Russia warned Ukraine that
unless payment for gas is made in the next few days,
gas supplies will be terminated. This is in accordance with
terms of the gas supply contract signed in Nov 2014.
http://rt.com/news/235459-putin-gas-ukraine-europe/
Note: this will focus minds on the issue since Western Europe
gets much of it's gas from Russia via the pipeline that runs
through Ukraine.
So... is Ukraine really _buying_ weapons or is the UAE being
used as an intermediary for the supply of weapons from
another country ? Perhaps America ? Perhaps Israel ?
25th Feb: Next we hear that Israel has negotiated the right
to fly over Saudi airspace to attack Iran.
http://www.timesofisrael.com/saudis-said-to-mull-air-passage-for-israeli-jets-to-attack-iran/
Russia responds by offering Iran the very latest
and best anti-aircraft and anti-missile defence system.
There's already a deal for missile defence system, but
Russia just upgraded the deal to the best, state-of-the-art system.
http://rt.com/news/234855-russia-iran-missiles-deal/
So it looks like 'tit-for-tat'
America/Israel gives weaponry to Ukraine.
Russia gives out weaponry to Iran.
The worrying part here is that the conflict over Ukraine
is now bleeding into other hot spots in other parts of
the world. And the sides are clearly arming for future
conflict.
All in all... it's a dangerous escalation.