Phil Butler -- The Looming Dark Age of Business Warfare

29.12.2019 Author: Phil Butler

The Looming Dark Age of Business Warfare

Column: Politics

Region: USA in the World

The United States of America is waging an undeclared war on Russia. It’s a war for empire, a struggle to keep in place a system that can never be sustained. And it’s a conflict that will ultimately lead to a new dark age. This is a report about the unusual business that foreign policy has become.

I woke up the day after Christmas with a strange new sense of the current world crisis. Walking down the street to my office I felt a strange urgency to check my news feed. A second after clicking my desktop to life the reason for the urgency popped up, another Bloomberg bit by Putin hater Leonid Bershidsky struck me strangely. The story was about pipelines tilted to create heroes of anti-Putin Russophobes. But something more came from the financial newspaper page. Gas streams, the competition, the whole “versus” situation we see ourselves in now. There is was!

Putin Haters – Subliminal Messengers

Bershidsky is pretty good as a writer. And he knows a bit about the banksters and the plans to chop up Russia into resource blocks for BP, Exxon, and the others. Mr. Putin’s rescue of Russia’s legacy is a foregone conclusion now, but the “west’s” play has never really been spotlighted before now. Let me cite Bershidsky on how “Putin’s Grand Gas Project Makes Sense Now.” The former Managing Director of Russia’s KIT Finance Investment Bank tells Bloomberg readers:

“In the space of just a few momentous weeks, one of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s most ambitious projects — a Russian natural gas export system to match the new geopolitical reality rather than the Cold War-era one — has taken its final shape. It will probably last, without major change, until the end of Russia’s run as a top energy exporter.”

He then goes about rewriting history as if the western hegemony waged an economic war on Russia and Putin in self-defense! Bloomberg View has become the bible of alternative creation and truth. Fortunately for those of us with brains, the “facts” actually do reveal what is happening in this undeclared war on Russia. Mr. Putin has had to adjust Russia’s energy export system to counter Washington’s monumental sanctions war. Yes, I said “sanctions war.”

Did you know that there’s a 65-page research report to the US Congress detailing crippling and often illegal sanctions on Russians, Russian companies, and international people or firms doing business with Russia? I’ll wager that no one reading here will be aware that Russia “invaded” Ukraine back in 2014. But the US Congress has upgraded its definitions to suit whatever policy it needs. Allow me to quote here:

“Many observers consider sanctions to be a central element of U.S. policy to counter Russian malign behavior. Most Russia-related sanctions implemented by the United States have been levied in response to Russia’s 2014 invasion of Ukraine.”

The report in question goes on to accuse Russia of “human rights abuses, election interference and cyberattacks, weapons proliferation, illicit trade with North Korea, support to Syria, and the use of a chemical weapon.” The US Congress is advised that the deployment of sanctions will deter further objectionable activities. The tone of the document is condescending, arrogant, and downright dangerous. It’s a declaration of utter contempt, and of economic war.

Old Pirate Strategies

Did you know of an American law entitled “Countering Russian Influence in Europe and Eurasia Act of 2017” (CRIEEA; P.L. 115-44/H.R. 3364, Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act [CAATSA], Title II)? I’ll bet you didn’t know that the United States is now punishing Russia for the alleged use of a chemical weapon on UK soil. That’s right, the tabloid news about the alleged Skripal poisoning got upgraded to become a chemical weapons violation without a shred of proof. I won’t discuss this ludicrousness here, but anyone familiar with Novichok nerve agent knows the Brits botched a false flag on that one. Nevertheless, the US Kangaroo Congress passed a series of laws that amount to World War III precursors.

What would the average American or Russian think of a law entitled “Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act?” That is if I told them about it. What if American citizens knew that our leadership is determined to “sanction” Putin and Russia regardless of whether or not said sanctions are effective? No, I am not joking. These “policy” based sanctions will remain in place whether they work or not. The report clearly outlines the fact that Congress has no proof whatsoever that sanctions are having any “desired” effect. However, key “experts” seem to think the policy is right:

“With respect to other malign activities, the relationship between sanctions and Russian behavior is difficult to determine. Nonetheless, many observers argue that sanctions help to restrain Russia or that their imposition is an appropriate foreign policy response regardless of immediate effect.”

In other words, whether or not the sanctions are justifiable or effective, the big thinkers in the United States figure they are righteous. Or, we’re in a “righteous war” against Russia or anyone who stands in the way of NATO expansion (American hegemony). Deep within the sanctions regime enacted by America’s leadership, lies the essence of this new kind of war for world domination. Russia has been targeted at a level that makes US sanctions on the Empire of Japan before World War II look like a slap on the wrist. Take a look at the deep directives of the Sectoral Sanctions Identifications:

“A fourth directive prohibits U.S. trade with identified entities related to the development of Russian deepwater, Arctic offshore, or shale projects that have the potential to produce oil and, amended as a result of requirements enacted in CRIEEA in 2017, such projects worldwide in which those entities have an ownership interest of at least 33% or a majority of voting interests.”

By the time you finish reading this report, you’ll be appraised that EVERYTHING negative that has transpired in Anglo-European/Russian geopolitics in the last decade has been the FAULT of Putin and Russia. EVERYTHING. All of it. The entirety of the problems in between great nations is the fault of those pesky Russians and their super-villain leader. The whole mess reads like a bad divorce trial where custody of the world goes to the litigant with the biggest mouth and the biggest lie.

Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17, Crimea, the Donbass, Amerian elections what went the wrong way, unsubstantiated chemical attacks and assassinations, and a laundry list of so-called “malign deeds” have been the justifications for unprecedented economic war. Strangely, miraculously, the public has NEVER been presented with anything but speculation as proof. Even though the NSA and other western intelligence megastructures are in place, there’s no smoking gun to show Putin or Russia did anything but operate in an extraordinary fashion. The US went so far as to sanction a company for procuring a submersible the US Treasury claimed Putin would use to mess with the transatlantic communications cables. I am no kidding.

Middle-Class Warfare

The most ludicrous list of sanctions enacted by the United States, for me, has to deal with the so-called “proliferation of weapons.” Under these sanctions, Russia is being punished for being the second biggest arms exporter in the world behind the US. These are in place largely because of Russia deals with Iran, North Korea, and Syria. What makes these sanctions so ridiculous is the fact that Iran and North Korea have attacked no one in decades, and that Syria only expunged ISIS and Al Queda in a coup attempt by America and Israel. Let’s be real here and take note of U.S. arms killing more people than the new bubonic plague.

I think it’s important to note that the US has exported over $600 trillion dollars worth of death since 1950. It also seems significant that in combination with France, Germany, Italy, Czech Republic, Netherlands, and Israel, the Anglo-European “good guys” have dealt over $1.1 quintillion dollars (that’s a million billions plus) worth of weapons worldwide since the 1950s. Russia, by contrast, sold $140 trillion (Stockholm International Peace Research Institute). Hell, now that I think about it, we could have colonized the solar system with this much money. That’s another story, though. The real tale of arms-related sanctions can be seen in the list of top weapons companies. The top five are in the US with Russia only occupying one spot in the top 10. Italy and the EU sell more than Almaz-Antey, and France comes in at position ten. Looking at the sanctions from a business point of view, it’s all really as simple as a business war for profits. I’ll bet only one in ten readers thought of World War III as a business battle.

A corporate takeover of Russia! How’s that for a new perspective? To be honest, even though I’ve reported on the west’s takeover attempt on Russia, I never really thought of the game as a corporate one. As it turns out, Putin and his team are fighting like boardroom executives who control the fate of world profits. Who gets the “win” in the end, is the whole story of today’s crises. Will the Russian people or the American horde have more toys and energy to play with? How about the rising Chinese middle class? Or, can the Europeans slink along being the new consumerists? Holy COW! Is this why so many must die? I shudder to think.

Dark Age Business

The scope of this report is limited, but it’s important that I note the impending crisis for what it really is. The global conflict taking shape today is the kindling of a middle-class war that will probably end us all. It makes no difference whose side you are on. You can be a Trump supporter from South Georgia in the United States, a Communist in Beijing, or a Putin fan in Almaty. The coming cataclysm is going to be about resources and quality of life. This report on China’s middle class from The Economist, it (strangely) reveals how the next shooting war will come to pass.

And now Mr. Putin is faced with protecting Russians from unprecedented outside propaganda. The US system is already locked down in favor of western industrialists and the status quo. So, where is the current “Business War” leading? Someone must lose, that’s where. To predict the future, all you need to do is consult history. The businessmen are going to get us all killed. This is my New Years’ prediction. Forget climate change, a billion Chinese losing their newfound freedom, or several tens of millions of Americans out of gas, this will be the catalyst for stage two of the business war. Sadly, some idiot in the boardroom thinks there will be a profit at the end, instead of another dark age for humanity.

Phil Butler, is a policy investigator and analyst, a political scientist and expert on Eastern Europe, he’s an author of the recent bestseller “Putin’s Praetorians” and other books. He writes exclusively for the online magazine “New Eastern Outlook.”