The events in Volgograd are part of a much larger body of events and a multi-faceted struggle that has been going on for decades as part of a cold war after the Cold War—the post-Cold War cold war, if you please—that was a result of two predominately Eurocentric world wars. When George Orwell wrote his book 1984 and talked about a perpetual war between the fictional entities of Oceania and Eurasia, he may have had a general idea about the current events that are going on in mind or he may have just been thinking of the struggle between the Soviet Union and, surrounded by two great oceans, the United States of America. So what does Volgograd have to do with the dizzying notion presented? Firstly, it is not schizophrenic to tie the events in Volgograd to either the conflict in the North Caucasus and to the fighting in Syria or to tie Syria to the decades of fighting in the post-Soviet North Caucasus. The fighting in Syria and the North Caucuses are part of a broader struggle for the mastery over Eurasia. The conflicts in the Middle East are part of this very grand narrative, which to many seems to be so far from the reality of day to day life.
Tag: the United States
Over 12 years into the so-called “Global War on Terror,” the United States appears to be striking terror into the hearts of the rest of the world. In their annual End of Year survey, Win/Gallup International found that the United States is considered the number one “greatest threat to peace in the world today” by people across the globe. The poll of 67,806 respondents from 65 countries found that the U.S. won this dubious distinction by a landslide, as revealed in the chart below. The BBC explains that the U.S. was deemed a threat by geopolitical allies as well as foes, including a significant portion of U.S. society.
Former Clinton administration Labor Secretary Robert Reich explained, saying: “Of all developed nations, the United States has the most unequal distribution of income, and we’re surging towards every greater inequality.” America’s 400 richest elites have…
N. Korea warns of ‘all-out war’ Seoul (AFP) – North Korea on Saturday issued a fresh warning of an “all-out war”, urging the United States to stop military drills and what it described…
The recent Obama-Putin tiff over American exceptionalism reignited an ongoing debate over the Obama Doctrine: Is the president veering toward isolationism? Or will he proudly carry the banner of exceptionalism? The debate is narrower than it may seem. There is considerable common ground between the two positions, as was expressed clearly by Hans Morgenthau, the founder of the now dominant no-sentimentality “realist” school of international relations. Throughout his work, Morgenthau describes America as unique among all powers past and present in that it has a “transcendent purpose” that it “must defend and promote” throughout the world: “the establishment of equality in freedom.”
While the General Assembly was discussing the implementation of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), it is another matter altogether that concerned the diplomats: are the United States still the superpower they have claimed to be…
Some instances of hoodlum-like behavior (no other words to describe it) of the United States administration on the international arena could be construed as impotence and a fix of anger impossible to hide. Everything has…
We recently returned from a 12 day speaking tour in Japan that took us to Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Tokyo, and Okinawa. Before we joined forces in Hiroshima prior to the August 6 commemorative events,…
While the issue of Syrian chemical weapons stockpile is hitting the world media headlines, little attention is paid on the problem of US compliance with its international obligations related to weapons of mass destruction. The Biological Weapons Convention (BWC) is a legally binding treaty that outlaws biological arms. In force since 1975, it currently has 165 states-parties and 12 signatory states. The BWC reaffirms the 1925 Geneva Protocol which prohibits the biological weapons use. The seventh BWC review conference was held in December 2011. The Final Declaration document concluded that«under all circumstances the use of bacteriological (biological) and toxin weapons is effectively prohibited by the Convention and affirms the determination of States parties to condemn any use of biological agents or toxins other than for peaceful purposes, by anyone at any time».
Washington represents Israel and a handful of powerful organized private interests. Washington represents no one else. Washington is a plague upon the American people and a plague upon the world. The “New American Century” proclaimed…