COMMENT POSTED TO AN ARTICLE BY NATALIE NOUGAYREDE IN THE
GUARDIAN AND DELETED BY BUSY GUARDIAN EDITORS
“The US sanctions bill
is a timebomb for Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin”
A genuinely obnoxious piece of Russia-phobia.
"In Russia,
propaganda-generated hope springs eternal, and no more so than at the news
agency Tass"
Sorry, but I look at Tass each morning, and I recognize no
such thing.
The remarks of some Russians quoted are in no way more out
of touch than remarks you may easily find from American politicians, American
politics at this time actually resembling a form of barely organized insanity.
'Europe is wising up
to the fact that its sanctions policy against Russia is “senseless and futile”'
Well, first that quote is simply right. There is a long list
of major figures in Europe who have spoken out against the aggression of
sanctions, including major figures in Germany and Italy.
Second, sanctions are senseless.
Europe and the entire Western world are threatened by
economic problems. Does any thinking person believe that it makes sense to cut
down trade at such times?
The Great Depression was in part induced by American
legislation, the Smoot-Haley Bill, which cut into trade out of American
protectionist sentiment.
Today, America's insane protectionist legislation takes a
different perspective. It is designed to sever as much as possible the natural
economic relationship between resource-rich Russia and industrial Europe,
especially Germany.
The truth is that from a long-term economic perspective,
this much resembles peeing against the wind.
Europe is effectively occupied by the US, and the US
establishment very much wants to keep it that way.
American sanctions have nothing to do with Russian
aggression, although that is the pretense. The simple fact is that there has
been none. But America’s $5 billion coup in Ukraine against an elected
government, including support for hideous fascist groups like the Azov
Battalion, is genuine aggression.
Russia’s entire response has been calm and reasonable in
response to an act which was the equivalent of Russia’s creating a coup in
Mexico. And we know the exact amount spent owing to the State Department’s
big-mouthed Victoria Nuland being overheard.
America has willing helpers in its new aggressive effort,
helpers in the form of NATO bureaucrats and writers like Ms. Nougayrede.
But in the end, they will fail because economic rationality
prevails.
