Category Archives: Eurasia

FTAC – Opinion on the UN Vote Hostile to Israel (Resolution 2334 / 2016)

29 Thursday Dec 2016

Posted by in 21st Century Feudal, American Domestic Affairs, Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Philosophy, Political Psychology, Politics, Russia, United States of America

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , ,

The fingers were erect and wagging at Obama as anti-Semite and turncoat, which I found a bit radical.

Of course, other analyst-pundits have been weighing in on the UN’s latest gang-up on the world’s One Jewish State and the Administration’s dithering abstention, and that cacophony doubtless includes similar charges (or language) from Right side of the aisle.

Be that as it may, the chorus was heard with the original poster’s complaint that no dissent had been heard.

Well, at least let there be an argument.

I’ll dissent.

https://conflict-backchannels.com/2016/12/24/ftac-moscows-presence-in-the-middle-east-conflict/

https://conflict-backchannels.com/2016/11/23/moscows-rules-a-module/

If there is, has been, or will be a contest between “medieval political absolutism” and the “modern democratic and checked distribution of power”, the same involves meeting the challenges posed by the “Phantoms of the Soviet” (the Union died 25 years, Dec. 25, 1991).

I think the west too quick to march on in post-Cold War glory — and the rush to do business with the reforming new Russia — and it got taken in by Moscow while Moscow, as represented by “Vertical-of-Power” Putin has gently but firmly twisted the state’s narrative from “Glasnost” all the way back to proto-fascist ultra-nationalism and neo-imperialism — backed by the demonstration of barbarism (in Syria), aggression (in Ukraine), and the possession of nuclear arms and updated weapons systems.

Is anyone feeling lucky?

While it’s true the Obama Administration has avoided direct confrontation with Moscow (how unseemly that would look! And I say that as cynically as any here), it has weakened Moscow’s ability to project and sustain military aggression in the near abroad. It will then be left to President Trump to address Putin and either abet, contain, or push back against what the Moscow Revival presents to western interests.

The UN resolution was execrable in every dimension!

https://www.un.org/press/en/2016/sc12657.doc.htm

However, the true target in east-west relations and in the middle east conflict remains a recalcitrant Moscow. A dangerous Moscow. A dictator’s Moscow (and check out the alignments on the voting).

Between Trump (Manafort, Millian, Kilimnik) and Putin, let’s hope the superficial media-relayed “bromance” is over — or it will be our lives more organized along more feudal principles in conflict with modern (democratic) ones.

Loosely related but from another conversation —

I wanted to suggest to you that a working “secular democracy” actually enables the full expression of religious passion as a private and private community matter. The system supports boundaries and a common agreement on the prudence and sensibility of good law, i.e., law that sustains a free and vibrant social order.

Jihad, provocation, and terrorism mean to upset civil order — and they can do it!

When will the west again push back against criminal, fascist, and proto-fascist aggression, I don’t know but know that as it loses its principles and values, if it does, it will have to respond to absolutism.

 

–33–

Also in Media: “The Collapse of the Soviet Union: 25 Years Later” | Frontpage Mag | Jamie Glazov Interviews David Satter, December 26, 2016

29 Thursday Dec 2016

Posted by in 21st Century Feudal, Also in Media, Political Psychology, Politics, Russia

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , ,

The ironies of absolute power were evident in Tsarist Russia. In the 19th century, the Russian philosopher Pyotr Chaadaev said that Russia existed to teach the world how not to live. He was referring to Russia’s contempt for the individual. “Alone in the world,” he wrote in his First Philosophical Letter,”we gave the world nothing and have taken nothing. We have in no way contributed to the progress of human reason and everything that came to us as a result of this progress, we distorted.”

Source: The Collapse of the Soviet Union: 25 Years Later | Frontpage Mag – 12/26/2016.

A little further on —

Satter: Soviet rule was based on lying as a substitute for truth. What mattered was not what was true but what could be made to appear to be true and the criterion for this ersatz truth was whatever was in the interest of the regime.

Against this background, the introduction of genuinely truthful information as a result of Gorbachev’s policy of glasnost could only lead to the destruction of the system. The elements of truth that were introduced as a result of glasnost became part of a delusionary system with which they were totally incompatible. The result was a confrontation over core principles and either the system or the truth had to be destroyed. Fortunately, it was the system that collapsed. In the end, massive falsification was formidable only as long as it was unchallenged. Once the truth was allowed in a limited form, the dykes holding back the reality of the outside world ruptured and the system became part of the past.

Related on BackChannels:

https://conflict-backchannels.com/2016/11/23/moscows-rules-a-module/

–33–

Also in Media: “Putin Using All Means Against The West – Including Islamist Terrorism – Piontkovsky Says” | December 12, 2016

28 Wednesday Dec 2016

Posted by in 21st Century Feudal, Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Islamic Small Wars, Politics, Russia, Syria

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, ,

“There is a mass of evidence about the strategic cooperation of the Kremlin and ‘the Islamic State,’ about the conscious dispatch by the FSB of Caucasus militants into its ranks, about the use by Moscow of terrorists as an instrument for weakening and destroying the West” and also about Putin’s use of terrorism to build his increasingly vicious state at home.

Source: Putin Using All Means Against The West – Including Islamist Terrorism – Piontkovsky Says 12/12/2016

BackChannels has seen a related reference online recently:

Satter, David.  “Putin is No Partner on Terrorism: It’s a Mistake for Washington to Count Moscow an Ally.”  Foreign Affairs, December 22, 2016.

–33–

Also in Media: “András Kósa: The speech of the chief, Őszöd ten years later, Part III” – Hungarian Spectrum – December 24, 2016

26 Monday Dec 2016

Posted by in 21st Century Feudal, Also in Media, Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Hungary, Political Psychology, Russia

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , ,

. . . it has to be noted that in the mid-to-late 2000s, the European Union and the Obama administration viewed Putin as a leader who was democratizing cautiously. During his first visit to Berlin, the entire Bundestag gave him a standing ovation. Then, in the Russian parliamentary elections in the fall of 2011, he had to pilfer 17 percentage points to be able to win. In the spring 2012 Presidential election, he again needed to cheat to attain a “victory,” though less so this time. I think these things have changed Putin. He realized that the policies he had pursued up until then did not automatically expand his power, so he launched a campaign of harsh repression at home (including the killing of journalists and political rivals, remaking the Russian criminal code, and restricting the freedom of assembly), and again began to assert the conquering pursuits of Great Russia.

Reading highly recommended!

András Kósa: The speech of the chief, Őszöd ten years later, Part III – Hungarian Spectrum – 12/24/2016.

FTAC – Anti-Semitism – Horseshoe Theory – Amplification of Far Left / Far Right Politics

26 Monday Dec 2016

Posted by in 21st Century Feudal, Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, FTAC - From The Awesome Conversation, Political Psychology, Russia

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, ,

An Israeli with weight on the Left foot swung Right and noted the presence of anti-Semitic thought in both in quarters outside of the Jewish community.

BackChannels felt some explanation due.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horseshoe_theory

The encouragement and promotion of anti-Semitism may be viewed as an emblem of the medieval world, for it has been used to control mobs and, sadly, thieve from and murder Jews.

Today, Moscow may represent the major remnant analog for the “medieval political absolutism” that exploits such tools, and while President Putin appears to have been friendly toward Israel, KGB history, .e.g., https://conflict-backchannels.com/2015/10/12/ftac-tip-to-the-kgbs-amplification-of-middle-eastern-anti-semitism/ and Moscow’s anti-western turn in Syria, replete with, at minimum, “talk-to” relationships with PFLP, Hamas, Hezbollah, and Tehran may suggest another story running at the same time.

KGB-style political theater may be also a part of the Syrian tableaux:

https://conflict-backchannels.com/2016/12/09/syria-assad-isil-background/

“Allahu Akbar” Terrorism has encouraged patriotic nationalist responses wherever it has taken place, and so has heightened both a “New Nationalism” and a corresponding Far Left reaction to that. On my blog, Back-Channels, I refer to to “Brown” (Nationalists) vs “Red-Green” (Old Comrades, Neo-Islamists). In effect, Islamic terrorism has opened a large crack (right down the center of the aisle in U.S. politics) in the cohesion of EU and NATO states.

Notably, Putin has encouraged both Far Left and Far Right political movements, organizations, and personalities and his choice of partners beyond “Assad-Khamenei” may include Marine Le Pen, Viktor Orban, and Recep Tayyip Erdogan. I’ll leave Donald Trump out of this for the time being, but, in essence, Putin, himself rather medieval, has encouraged conditions for amplifying the medieval worldview — and it’s on display in Syria.

I have been following these post-Cold War politics for some time and feel the Big Picture perception — not conspiracy or fear mongering but analysis backed by strong sources and careful reasoning — may be helpful.

–33–

Also in Media: From 2009: “The Syria-Soviet Alliance” – Jewish Policy Center – Spring 2009

19 Monday Dec 2016

Posted by in 21st Century Feudal, Also in Media, Anti-Semitism, Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Middle East, Politics, Russia, Syria

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , ,

In 1955, Moscow invited Syria, along with Egypt, to join a pro-Soviet pact. Turkey, a U.S. ally, mobilized troops along its southern border in an attempt to dissuade Syria from joining this pact. Soviet Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Molotov threatened Turkey not to use force against Syria, prompting Ankara to back down. The Syria-Soviet relationship was soon cemented. From 1955 to 1960, Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev provided Syria with more than $200 million in military aid to solidify the alliance and to counter U.S. influence in the region.

Source: The Syria-Soviet Alliance – Jewish Policy Center – Spring 2009.

FTAC – Module – 12-25-1991 -> 12-25-2016

18 Sunday Dec 2016

Posted by in 21st Century Feudal, Anti-Semitism, Books, Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, FTAC - From The Awesome Conversation, Gaza, Israel, Palestinia, Russia

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , , , , ,

https://conflict-backchannels.com/2016/10/03/palestinian-kgb/

https://conflict-backchannels.com/2016/11/28/a-short-page-referencing-works-by-or-associated-with-ion-mihai-pacepa/

The Cold War ended with the dissolving of the Soviet Union, December 25, 1991.

This represents Putin’s Russia today:

http://www.politico.eu/article/vladimir-putin-resurrects-the-kgb-moscow-security/

Those who have energy and time may want to review the “narrative arc” from 25 years ago to this day.

https://conflict-backchannels.com/2015/10/12/ftac-tip-to-the-kgbs-amplification-of-middle-eastern-anti-semitism/

The prompt: a Gaza tykes’ combat training film — uniforms, guns, and all — focused on killing Jews.


Posted by The Israel Project on Facebook, May 9, 2016.

Related Reference

Freimann, Myer.  “Hamas Killed 160 Palestinian Children to Build Tunnels: Militant group used child labor to construct underground network in Gaza.”  Tablet, July 25, 2014.

–33–

FTAC – Syria – Know What You’re Seeing

15 Thursday Dec 2016

Posted by in 21st Century Feudal, Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, FTAC - From The Awesome Conversation, Middle East, Russia, Syria

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , , , ,

Muslim moderate, gentle soul, Mohammed Daoudi had posted to his wall a VICE piece titled “I am waiting to die”: Syrians in Aleppo are posting final goodbyes online” (December 12, 2016).

The front line staff of the Fourth Estate has watched not only Aleppo’s most desperate hours but many, this editor included, has caught the arc of the narrative from its start in Daraa in 2011 and then revisited the Cold War Era, Soviet Era history, and a little more Russian history to note the threads of aristocracy, barbarism, and imperial ambition coursing across the decades.

My comment —

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/dec/15/syria-ambulances-on-the-move-as-aleppo-evacuation-operation-begins

The Soviet Union dissolved 25 years ago, but the head of the “revived” Russian state is a KGB colonel who talked a billionaire into supporting his ambition to become the top official of the new state . . . and here we are witness to atrocities in which three old dictatorships — Moscow, Damascus, Tehran — share responsibility for the slaughter of innocents.

The Soviet Union spread lies wherever it wished to leverage power, and that includes the leveraging of power in the Palestinian community. Well, look back to the Soviet’s courtship of the middle east almost 70 years ago and then again at is presence in Syria right now.

http://www.islamreligion.com/articles/1669/honesty/

Today, Moscow represents another deep “security states” (http://www.politico.eu/article/vladimir-putin-resurrects-the-kgb-moscow-security/) with Putin as the Big Boss (AKA “Vertical of Power”) and another class of aristocrats known as “The Oligarchs”. In Syria, you may not only observe Moscow’s idea of “truth” — go ahead: have a look at RT’s or Tass’s coverage of the same obscenity — but also its disregard for God, for human dignity, and such a thing as “human rights”.

Moscow’s methods in intimidation and patronage have helped reintroduce the world to barbarism and political totalitarianism.

This blog post tells how Assad himself encouraged and incubated the development of ISIL.

https://conflict-backchannels.com/2016/12/09/syria-assad-isil-background/

What kind of mentality manipulates the political image of an event using such methods?

Know what you’re seeing.

–33–