“America should tacitly accept the reality of China’s geopolitical pre-eminence on the mainland of Asia, as well as China’s ongoing emergence as the predominant Asian economic power” – coldest of America’s Cold War warriors, Zbigniew Brzezinski, who served under President Jimmy Carter (1977–1981).
It is very stupid of the United States to try to upset the post-Cold War balance in the world. What is its motivation?
Firstly there is a lot of money in war, for some. Many US corporations profit by war: Lockheed Martin Corporation, Boeing (that makes the Apache attack helicopter), DuPont, to name three. Over US forty (40) companies are exhibiting arms and electronic warfare machines at an arms dealers convention in Brisbane, Australia, from 4-6 October 2022. See LAND-FORCES-2022-Participating-Exhibitor-List
Also there was a time when you could not become President of the United States unless you were connected with the military – twelve (12) generals and eighteen (18) army officers have become US President. Eisenhower was a five-star general, Teddy Roosevelt was in the Rough Riders, a unit that fought the Spanish army in Cuba … even John F Kennedy was made a hero in the Navy during WWII. Of course to become President you always had to kowtow to Israel because of its strong lobby in places like New York. The current United States secretary of defense, Lloyd Austin, is a retired United States Army four-star general who served in Iraq and was chief of staff of the army.
The US has been trying to stop Germany buying gas from Gazprom via two Nordstream pipelines under the Baltic Sea. Gazprom is a Russian majority state-owned multinational energy corporation and the largest publicly listed natural gas company in the world and the largest company in Russia by revenue. This week the Nordstream pipeline may have been sabotaged. Anyhow gas is spewing forth into the Baltic sea. This is an environmental catastrophe as huge amounts of methane gas go into the atmosphere equivalent to all of Denmarks greenhouse gases for one year.
The scuttlebutt from the Biden administration is that the Russians blew up their own pipeline. This does not make sense because Putin had already turned off the Russian gas. The gas spewing forth may be from the rupturing of the Baltic Pipe that was being opened for natural gas to come in from the North Sea through Denmark to Poland. Nord Stream 2 was not yet operational.
Who or what blew up Russian Nord Stream gas pipelines?
If it was sabotage, my first suspicion is the United States. “If Russia invades, that means tanks or troops crossing the border of Ukraine again, then there will be – there will be no longer a Nord Stream 2,” Biden said during a news conference prior to invasion. “We will bring an end to it … I promise you we will be able to do it.” he said menacingly.
My second suspicion is Zelenski, perhaps in concert with other NATO countries, blew up the pipeline. Ukraine has most to gain. Ukraine was losing natural gas transit fees of up to $720 million per year from Nord Stream 1. Plus its expands the battlefield with Russia taking losses especially if the pipelines are corroded by seawater before the time repair crews can get in. Added to this it puts Putin under enormous pressure because Moscow relies on hydrocarbons for 60% of its national budget (according to Forbes).
Pointing the finger at Putin, Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki declared: “The era of Russian domination in the gas sphere is coming to an end, an era that was marked by blackmail, threats and extortion.” It is possible that Putin authorised sabotage, but I can’t see why he would, given that he had the ability to turn the pipeline ‘on’ or ‘off’. At the time of the gas blow-out Putin had turned Nord Stream 1 off. The reason why gas was escaping was that Gazprom had kept the pipeline pressurised even though it had been turned off.
Risk to Germany
When US/NATO imposed sanctions on Russia, drastically reducing the flow of gas: “The German public was coming to understand what it will mean if their steel companies, fertilizer companies, glass companies and toilet-paper companies were shutting down. These companies were forecasting that they would have to go out of business entirely – or shift operations to the United States – if Germany did not withdraw from the trade and currency sanctions against Russia and permit Russian gas and oil imports to resume, and presumably to fall back from their astronomical eight to tenfold price increase.” Michael Hudson in ‘The Euro Without German Industry‘.
US global companies and the administration seem to think that embargoes on Russian energy to Europe would benefit the US economy. But at what price? The sabotage of the joint Russian/Europe Nordstream pipelines has caused environmental damage and created economic hardship for many in Europe with Germany the greatest loser. Meanwhile US stock-markets have shot up.
Meanwhile Putin has declared the annexation of Eastern Ukraine to serve as a buffer against attacks by Ukrainian military and the AZOV battalion armed with US missiles. Here is what the map looked like as of 29 Sept 2022.
Response from local peace movement to Land Forces Expo in Brisbane
A couple of days ago, two young women were arrested outside the Brisbane Convention Centre in the lead-up to the Land Forces Expo 2022. Why?
Here is what they had to say:
“Hi, everyone, its Cloud and Ashe here. We’ve just stopped this piece of machinery … death machinery from going into the Convention Center in South Brisbane for the Land Forces Expo. We’re standing in solidarity with the First Nations of this land … And with those in the Northern Territory, who are currently calling for a ceasefire to disarm the police in their communities, First Nations peoples were the first to experience militarized violence on this continent, and they’re still the most victimized by it today, here and all across the globe. It’s not hard to see why we are standing here today on top of this machinery in front of this expo, where the machines are designed purely to kill and disrupt … these weapons, destroy lives, homes and entire ecosystems.
When we’re at a crossroad for humanity, we’re on the break down of a climate and societal collapse. We cannot afford the division that this expo promotes. We cannot afford to fight. We cannot afford to destroy any more. We need to turn all resources and minds to equity and sustainability, war is pollution of our minds, our relationships and the earth. The military machine is burning our homes directly with these weapons and through the thirst and consumption of fossil fuels. The military oppresses culture, takes land that is not for taking; by force, by fear, leaving vulnerable people to pick up their lives in rubble.”
Land Forces
Arms dealing and government contracts are very lucrative business. The United States is a militarised society, far more so than Australia, which has only a very small standing army. Yet Australia is trying to get in on the act and is sending military equipment to Ukraine.
US Presidents who lost the support of the military usually lost the Presidency … LBJ and Nixon because of their failure in Vietnam, Jimmy Carter’s presidency (1977-81) was marked by his failures in Iran hostage crisis, the 1979 energy crisis, the Three Mile Island nuclear disaster, the Nicaraguan Revolution and the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. Some of the most successful Presidents threw the United States into military adventures like Vietnam and Afghanistan). It was the Presidents who were in power defeats in these conflicts (Viet Cong, Taliban) that were impeached (Nixon, Trump).
It is not such a great stretch to see the United States as a military dictatorship.
Immediate ceasefire and a peaceful solution in Ukraine
An immediate ceasefire is the first requirement then negotiations for a secure future for all parties.
There should be compensation for damage incurred but the problem is that much of the damage has been inflicted by the Ukrainian army, particularly the Azov battalion. Remembering that the people of eastern Ukraine came under attack by Ukrainian forces. So who has done what??
There must also be a withdrawal of forces on both sides with a peace keeping force sponsored by the UN.
Both sides, Russia and Ukraine, must be brought to the negotiation table. Both India and China have called for a ceasefire. The peace movement needs to put all the pressure we can on governments to change their position of feeding the Ukraine military with the equipment which is prolonging the war, and to join the call (by India and China) for a ceasefire and negotiations.
Ian Curr
1 October 2022
“To be an enemy of the US is dangerous, but to be a friend is fatal” – Henry Kissinger, former US Secretary of State.
On September 26, 2022, a series of explosions destroyed the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines, which shipped natural gas from Russia to Germany.
In October 2022, Workers BushTelegraph claimed the United States government blew up the Nordstrom pipeline causing the biggest release of methane gas in human history and attacking the energy resources of both Russia, the producer, and of Germany, the receiver.
This week journalist Seymour Herse says U.S. Navy divers, in a CIA operation ordered by President Joe Biden, planted explosives that destroyed three Russian gas pipelines under the Baltic Sea last September.He has confirmed this with direct sources involved in the planning of the operation. Apparently the explosives were laid beside the pipeline by the US Navy and three months later they were exploded remotely the orders from the US government.
It is a stupid act by the US government to upset the post-Cold War balance in Europe. An escalation of the war in Ukraine is likely in the next few months and a result will come pretty soon. Both sides are desperate to win. For one, both Putin and Biden’s futures depend on it. Both their popularity polls are in free fall.
I can’t see Biden’s presidency lasting.
Ian Curr
WBT editor
10 Feb 2023
Hersh alleges that:
“Last June, the Navy divers, operating under the cover of a widely publicized mid-summer NATO exercise known as BALTOPS 22, planted the remotely triggered explosives that, three months later, destroyed three of the four Nord Stream pipelines, according to a source with direct knowledge of the operational planning.
The terrorist attack on the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines destroyed civilian infrastructure valued at over $20 billion. It resulted in the single largest spill of methane gas in human history, releasing the equivalent of 14.6 million tons of CO2, with a major climate impact. The attack contributed to a spike in energy prices through Europe and the entire world.
In congressional testimony in January, Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Victoria Nuland said, “I think the administration is very gratified to know that Nord Stream 2 is now, as you like to say, a hunk of metal at the bottom of the sea.”
According to Hersh, however, the attack was planned by the United States, and actively conducted by the US Navy.
In his report, Hersh explained the economic significance of the Nord Stream pipelines:
“From its earliest days, Nord Stream 1 was seen by Washington and its anti-Russian NATO partners as a threat to western dominance…
The direct route, which bypassed any need to transit Ukraine, had been a boon for the German economy, which enjoyed an abundance of cheap Russian natural gas—enough to run its factories and heat its homes while enabling German distributors to sell excess gas, at a profit, throughout Western Europe…
America’s political fears were real: [Russian President] Putin would now have an additional and much-needed major source of income, and Germany and the rest of Western Europe would become addicted to low-cost natural gas supplied by Russia—while diminishing European reliance on America…
As long as Europe remained dependent on the pipelines for cheap natural gas, Washington was afraid that countries like Germany would be reluctant to supply Ukraine with the money and weapons it needed to defeat Russia.
Hersh does not note that following the shutoff of European natural gas imports from Russia, the US massively increased its natural gas exports to Europe, leading to record profits for US energy companies.
As one European official told Politico, “The fact is, if you look at it soberly, the country that is most profiting from this war is the US because they are selling more gas and at higher prices, and because they are selling more weapons.”
Hersh reports that plans for the American attack on Nord Stream 2 were already in the making ahead of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. He writes:
In December of 2021, two months before the first Russian tanks rolled into Ukraine, [National Security Advisor] Jake Sullivan convened a meeting of a newly formed task force—men and women from the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the CIA, and the State and Treasury Departments—and asked for recommendations about how to respond to Putin’s impending invasion.
Hersh claims that Sullivan proposed a “plan for the destruction” and that he was “delivering on the desires of the President.”
Describing the reasoning among the war planners, Hersh writes, “This is not kiddie stuff,” the source said. If the attack were traceable to the United States, “It’s an act of war.”
On February 7, 2022, ahead of the invasion, US President Joe Biden declared publicly, “If Russia invades … there will be no longer a Nord Stream 2. We will bring an end to it.”
According to Hersh, Biden’s statements shocked the planners of the operation.
Several of those involved in planning the pipeline mission were dismayed by what they viewed as indirect references to the attack…
“It was like putting an atomic bomb on the ground in Tokyo and telling the Japanese that we are going to detonate it,” the source said. “The plan was for the options to be executed post invasion and not advertised publicly. Biden simply didn’t get it or ignored it.”
The US Navy would, according to Hersh, plant the explosives during the BALTOPS 22 military exercise, which involved dozens of warships and thousands of personnel. The US Navy published a press release regarding deep-sea diving operations during the exercise, including a picture of a deep-sea diver.
While the explosives were planted during the exercise, according to Hersh, the White House ultimately decided not to trigger the explosions immediately, and instead allowed them to be remotely detonated in September.
Hersh’s report included rebuttals from the White House, which declared in response to his story, “This is false and complete fiction,” and from the Central Intelligence Agency, which declared “This claim is completely and utterly false.”
Whistleblower Edward Snowden, who shared the article on Twitter, responded to the denials from the White House, “Can you think of any examples from history of a secret operation that the White House was responsible for, but strongly denied? Besides, you know, that little ‘mass surveillance’ kerfuffle.” Snowden was referring to the illegal NSA mass surveillance program created after the 9/11 terror attacks, which he publicly exposed in 2013.
Meanwhile, the entire US media has treated the attack as if it were an unsolved mystery, despite statements by US and NATO officials openly welcoming the bombings. Continuing a wall of silence, the New York Times, Washington Post and Wall Street Journal have not reported Hersh’s article, or even the denial by the White House.