One of the pitfalls of writing history is that things that happened tend to seem inevitable in retrospect. Coupled with wishful thinking, this can lead to a dialectic mindset, in which the course of human events seems preordained somehow. The “end of history” wasn’t the invention of “liberal democrats” – before them, Communists and Nazis alike believed their ideology was the pinnacle of political evolution that would last forever. In actuality, “forever” translated to 12 years for the National-Socialists, and 74 years for the Bolsheviks.
From Bosnia onwards, the power of the Atlantic Empire – and the EU – rested on the carefully manufactured perception of unprecedented power and wealth leading to inevitable triumph. That perception came close to cracking during the 1999 war on Yugoslavia, only to be salvaged by the “color revolutions” in the first decade of the 21st century. Then reality began to strike back.
The first real check on Empire’s impunity came in August 2008. Then came the financial crisis, very much the inevitable consequence of an economic con job required to fund the modern Imperial state. The supposedly undefeatable military has been sapped by the long campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan – with one dead terrorist not enough to offset war profiteers and legions of traumatized veterans. Libya was done on the cheap, the sloppiness predictably exacting a price.
And then came Syria. Or, rather, didn’t. Everything appeared ready to go, until the seemingly inevitable march to war simply halted. The official, self-serving fiction is that the mere threat of Imperial intervention scared President Assad into offering to surrender the chemical stockpiles. Far more likely is that a Russian fleet squadron off the Syrian coast had something to do with it.
Now the elaborate illusion of invincibility is breaking apart. But neither the Empire, nor the EU, are willing to let it go without a fight.
The Pipeline Cometh
One setback came on November 25, when the construction of “South Stream” pipeline ceremonially began in Serbia. EU’s energy needs are principally served by Russian – and central Asian – natural gas. The main gas pipeline currently runs through Ukraine. But when the Empire-installed Orange regime disrupted the supply, in early 2009, Moscow moved to deploy alternatives. “North Stream” bypassed Poland to supply Germany directly. “South Stream” was to run through Bulgaria, Serbia, Hungary and Slovenia to Italy and points West.
Washington in particular fought “South Stream” tooth and nail, going so far to propose an alternate pipeline called “Nabucco,” while resorting to regime change in countries along the route if they were perceived to be getting too friendly with Moscow. In the end, “Nabucco” died a quiet death, and even such abject quislings as Serbia’s current regime were unwilling to renege on contracts with Moscow, despite tremendous pressure from Empire-funded media and “activists.”
At that point, Brussels played the regulatory card: the European Commission declared that the contracts with Russia “contradicted European legislation.” Moscow responded with a shrug. The countless volumes of EU legislation might actually be useful for heating the shivering millions throughout Brusselreich, if this winter turns out to be as freezing as forecast.
Indecent Proposal
Earlier this year, Iceland gave up on joining the EU. In 2011, Icelanders also rejected a government bailout of EU banksters. But Iceland is small and far away, and the mainstream media thus could – and did – dismiss it as irrelevant.
Ukraine, however, is a different story. A victory there would be the geopolitical brass ring for the EUrocrats. Not only because present-day Ukraine is the cradle of Russian history and civilization, or even because extending the EU to Donetsk would be a thrust into Russia’s soft underbelly last seen in 1942. Roping Ukraine into the Union is an existential issue for Brussels, a proof of concept that the EU is actually worth something – even as a quarter of EU’s population has serious grounds for doubt.
So it came as a surprise that the EU offer to Ukraine at the Vilnius summit was “indecent” – the “aid” offered by Brussels didn’t come close to covering 1 percent of the expense changing everything over to EU requirements would have cost Kiev. Still struggling from years of Orange kleptocracy, Ukraine simply can’t afford it.
Down with… Lenin?
When President Yanukovich announced he would pass on the deal, however, EU- and US-funded Astroturf “activists” attempted a reprise of the 2004 “Orange revolution” in the streets of Kiev. Yanukovich’s government responded with restraint, defending its sovereignty and refusing to be drawn into the drama conjured from Gene Sharp’s revolutionary playbook. Meanwhile, the “opposition” – led by a retired professional boxer – has been hamming it up: offering celebrity endorsements and taking hammers to a statue of Lenin on Kiev’s main square.
Why Lenin? Didn’t the Soviets recognize Ukraine as a separate entity for the first time ever? Isn’t the EU downright Leninist in its values? And will those celebrity endorsers donate some of their wealth to make up the mastodonic fiscal gap between EU’s demands and Ukraine’s ability? None of this makes sense – but in the world of politics as reality TV, and perception management over facts, logic has long since left the building. Or the square, as the case may be.
Tea and Biscuits
Math is cold, hard and merciless: the EU can’t offer Ukraine a better deal, because the money simply isn’t there. According to Eurostat, some 124 million people – a quarter of EU’s population – are “at risk of poverty or social exclusion.”
Legions of unemployed, rioting immigrants, banksters running rampant and pilfering people’s savings – this is the reality no amount of smoke and mirrors – such as the dour Baroness Upholland strolling along the barricades, or Assistant Secretary Nuland giving out biscuits – can change. But again, Washington and Brussels don’t think in terms of reality, but in terms of virtuality, shaped by perception management.
Calling the Bluff
Hysterical accusations of “Russian coercion” and alleged plots to re-create the Soviet Union serve as a smokescreen for the real revival of something the Soviets fought to death in the 1940s. The Empire has been gunning for Moscow for over a decade, rightly seeing in Vladimir Putin a danger to their entire edifice of lies. If it is possible to be sovereign and independent, to not take orders from Assistant Undersecretaries and Deputy Commissioners, then the entire illusion of Empire’s “end-of-history” triumph amounts to a hill of beans.
Moscow understand this all too well, refusing to be fooled by false overtures from Washington after the debacle of the 1990s. On Thursday, the chairman of the Russian legislature’s Committee for International Affairs, Alexei Pushkov, told the media that the Ukrainian crisis was an attempt by Washington to retaliate for being thwarted in Syria. According to Pushkov, by organizing the theater in Kiev, the West is trying to demonstrate it is still calling the shots in global affairs. But it is becoming increasingly obvious that the West is playing with a horrible hand, and the world is beginning to call the bluff.
Read more by Nebojsa Malic
- An Unlikely Peace – November 22nd, 2013
- Breaking the Game – November 7th, 2013
- The Sorrow and the Pity – October 24th, 2013
- Reality Bites Back – October 4th, 2013
- Imperial ‘Exemptionalism’ – September 20th, 2013
Eileen K.
December 12th, 2013 at 10:49 pm
The Roman Empire lasted over 500 years; the British Empire lasted around 400; and the Soviet Empire lasted only 74. All three Empires' demise began from within; and, of the three, only Rome was finished off from invading barbarian tribes. The other two collapsed from within by economic meltdowns.
Now, the current Empire is shriveling from within, its days surely numbered. Greed is the culprit; it has been the culprit in the demise of every Empire in history. Russia and China are on the rise; the US and the EU are quickly declining, their economies on the brink of collapse.
The truth is, reality bites; and it bites hard.
The Long Retreat | Omaha Free Press
December 12th, 2013 at 11:02 pm
[…] post The Long Retreat appeared first on The Bat Country […]
eric siverson
December 13th, 2013 at 12:39 am
The question is can the American empire last long enough to form a world government that no one can defeat in a war . Who is to say the German mark would have become worthless if Germany had not lost the war . The leader of the EU is not a elected office it is a appointed office for life . So what if the money is not backed by anything except a government promises . As long as the people will work to get that money it maybe as good as gold . We maybe heading for unchartered waters where we have a government we can't get rid of and a government no army can defeat . This government will be the most powerful government that ever existed in the world and will surely not so gradually become the most corrupt government that ever existed in world . Already we can see the protection of our constitution leaving us for more government power . don't worry at all the bill of rights will disappear when the constitution is gone . We have judges and courts that don't even know what justice is right now . If you don't believe me sit in the world court in the Hague for a few days , or read some of the resolution coming from the United Nations security council .
teddy
December 13th, 2013 at 12:41 am
and the Current "empire's" most "exceptional" ability — since its very first creation til today seen in its TRUE nature by the definition of the recently deceased (2012) Lakota Nation Leader …Russell Means: "America is an Artificial Nation" — is the ARTIFICIALITY of its entire "right to exist" according to its high claims . it is not just an "empire" but the empire itself proceeds FROM the artificiality of its own coming to existence as a nation which is the basis of its Nature of Greed — mythologized by its own citizens , from among whom its leaderships rise as well as its own myths and self-regard — which its very existence is proof of that same Greed:
the Theft of Land and a Continent already alive and prospering with native Nations that had among them already the makings of "united" nations . it has been shown that even the origins of the USA's self-vaunted "constitution" and "federalism" was merely inspired by what the Natives already were evolving among their different nations…………and in itself is merely a "european" version amounting to not JUST theft of land but also theft of IDEAS — later to be promoted and mythologized as having been originated by "the New Nation"……
when all is said and done — from inception as a nation , long ago described by George Washington himself in letters as "……….this , our infant Empire"……– to today — the USA , both as "nation" and "empire"……..
is history's most "exceptional" ARTIFICE…..propped up , beyond economics and other material "advances", above all by MYTHS of "goodness" — which in its present form we can see as "reality perception"……or "virtual reality"……..
in its morality, its claims of righteousness, its claims of "civilization", its economics, its politics….there is no other way to define the USA…………..it IS a FRAUD beyond measure.
and of course — ALL frauds eventually fail of their own weight.
justahuman
December 13th, 2013 at 12:47 am
"the dour Baroness Upholland strolling along the barricades"
I always suspected that Ashton works for CIA.
teddy
December 13th, 2013 at 12:51 am
a further truth is this, which even many of the most upstanding american citizens (who sincerely wish well from their nation and towards the world) :
that the difference between ALL the previous empires — be they Britain, Russia, or China or Japan, or as far back as Rome and Greece or Egypt and Assyria, etc…—
and the USA is:
such empires ALL had "national origins" in countries or regions in which they were NATIVE and expanded outward – and to which they eventually returned to reduced form closer to their origins.
the USA itself — is an ENTIRELY FOREIGN Artificiality imposed FROM europe inside an entirely foreigng soil upon foreign nations (the native indians) — from which a Myth of "destiny" was then created to allow itself to "expand outwards".
the ORIGINAL SIN of the USA "empire" is its very creation in a land it does not belong to and all its other sins towards other lands are only extensions of the Original Sin against the Indians.
as Sigmund Freud remarked after some years as a visiting professor in the USA:
"I came to america seeing a generation of Neurotic Paranoids…..greedy and selfish and busy with grabbing as much for themselves…..I left America seeing a generation of Violent Lunatics………America is gigantic, yes; but a MISTAKE nonetheless………a gigantic mistake".
teddy
December 13th, 2013 at 12:59 am
i once read an article that related a long-ago anecdote (I don't know how that anecdote was handed down)…but the story went like this:
a British "citizen of empire" at the height of Victorian England's global expanse – especially with its great trophy of the subcontinent of India — went traveling to the "colonies" to admire the greatness of his Imperial Britain……….
and seeing the poverties or backwardness of countries compared to his "great britain" snubbed his nose in disdain, remarking at how backward they were — and Britain alone brought them modernity and advancement……..
at which an old man on the street heard and replied:
"sir, we were here long before any of you were even Tribes in Europe……..we shall still be here long after your Empires are no more".
bozhidar balkas
December 13th, 2013 at 6:54 am
it is true that nazism lasted only 12 years and bolshevism 74 years; however, NM willfully or unknowingly eschews to inform his readers that fascism has lasted possibly 10 k years.
NM doesn't see that oposite of communism [or egalitarianism] is fascism [corporate rule or the rule by the top class]
what we see in US is an utter dictatorship of monied class of people over the masses. this class supports all fascist rules and opposes or even invades countries ruled by socialists or communists.
bozhidar balkas
December 13th, 2013 at 7:18 am
"EU leninist in values"? i thought that most european countries are governed by fascists.
and, of course, not all fascists are equally fascistic in all they do. what they can [or corporations there] get away with, depends a lot on strength or viability of a socialist party in each of the countries there.
even serbia is at least 20% socialist. in US, with no politically-organized opposition or a viable socialist party, corporate rule is just about complete.
i'm very doubtful that if europe was leninist or socialist that it would not condemn israeli crimes against its indigenes.
i know that socialist canada had held protest against israel. i, too, was a part of it!
bozhidar balkas
December 13th, 2013 at 7:32 am
how can one deem EU leninist if 124 mn people may find selves excluded from social net or find selves without job. NB is here pulling a neat trick on us: since leninists rule europe, see how they treat their own population.
in fact, its fascists [corporations/top class] who are doing that!!!
bozhidar balkas
December 13th, 2013 at 9:43 am
how can one deem EU leninist if 124 mn people may find selves excluded from social net or find selves without job. NB is here pulling a neat trick on us: since leninists rule europe, it is leninism which is causing it and not fascism.
The Kid
December 13th, 2013 at 9:48 am
Ukraine is an interesting story, an important struggle which is perhaps not discussed on this website as much as it should. I see it as a strategic frontier and the tipping point for the Empire's expansion into the east and ultimately toward Russia. The end game is unknown but you can be certain Russia will not let it slip away, closer to the west and from its influence. Similarly, those to its west see an opportunity to exploit and create havoc amongst its population, particularly those in western Ukraine. Watch this space. I don't see a happy ending, Ukraine has the potential to go the way of Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia, such is the delicate balance between opposing views, areas and demographics. Sad, avoidable and yet likely.
Nebojsa Malic
December 13th, 2013 at 9:49 am
If "bozh" (an old troll banned for good reason back in the day) bothered to check the link to "leninist values", he would have seen an essay about moral relativism ("who/whom") in the present-day West. By way of example, to the EUrocrats, "democracy" means whatever they say it means, "good" is what they do to other people, and "evil" is what those other people do to them. If Americans find that all too familiar, well…
bozhidar balkas
December 13th, 2013 at 9:51 am
keep on dreaming. fascism is at least 10k years old and still active in much of the world. imperialism, zionism are fascistic ideas. i don't expect they would disappear in decades or even centuries; provided, of course, a comet or warmings don't strike us dead before that happens!
bozhidar balkas
December 13th, 2013 at 10:00 am
"I came to america seeing a generation of Neurotic Paranoids….."
sorry, but i have to tell you that you are blaming the victims.
i never deem masses greedy, selfish, uncaring, etc. the masses have been pavlovized [conditioned] to behave that way.
most europeans, asians, and afrikans behave that way and not just americans!
if you want to help masses, tell them the truth–never ever blame them; for that is what rich people do!!!
bozhidar balkas
December 13th, 2013 at 10:28 am
my reply to you was held up.
bozhidar balkas
December 13th, 2013 at 10:30 am
my reply was held up. but id doesn't reappear i'm not going to restore it!
bozhidar balkas
December 13th, 2013 at 10:42 am
yes, i had been banned from posting on AW. i don't think it was AW itself who banned me, tho.
i've posting on truthdig for about 10 years but none of my posts was ever erased or held up.
it used to be [and may still be] a Democratic site and even tho i at times labeled myself a communist or socialist, the site never ever arased even one of my posts.
recall: christians, AFAIK, were first communists ever. and all isms lead to purest of communisms or an all out nuclear war, if not.
bozhidar balkas
December 13th, 2013 at 11:08 am
regarding NM's "pinnacle of political evolution" i find this much inadequate/inaccurate.
much more elucidatory would be to replace it with the "desire to develop to its end an idyllic structure of society and governance".
nazism can be dismissed as totally an insane THINKING.
communism is about obtaining an egalitarian society [some churches already almost have such structures].
of course, we cannot know a priori if it is the only true/right structure for us since we never, AFAIK, had it yet anywhere.
btw, i'm quite impious, but like people who believe in god!
bozhidar balkas
December 13th, 2013 at 11:39 am
about the label "democracy"? this label means too much or too little.
in US, it means what the two top classes say it means.
i myself think of that label as nonsense!
this applies also to US constitution. it cannot ever be known–it can be 'known' only by interpretation. we all know who interprets it.
bible, quran falls into same category: interpretative bin or trash basket.
outsider
December 13th, 2013 at 12:56 pm
I enjoyed your posts, teddy, and your quote from Freud is telling. Much has been written about the break-up of so-called "artificial" nations such as Yugoslavia and the former USSR. What then does it say about the multi-ethnic, nomadic, warlike US empire, artificial land of manifest destiny? It's slow motion crack-up is occurring before our very eyes. The US has become ungovernable but doesn't yet know it, which makes it ever-more dangerous. Would not the world today be a safer place if it, too, collapsed, and was forced to mind its own business? As Yeats said "Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold."
bozhidar balkas
December 13th, 2013 at 1:01 pm
about the label "democracy"? this label means too much or too little.
bozhidar balkas
December 13th, 2013 at 1:56 pm
"end of history" sayeth the 'highest' class in US, europe, and elsewhere.
clearly, no so! classful society– with often chasmic different between classes in political power; and, thus, in education, healthcare, police protection, nutrition, hope, self-respect [eh, man lives for other things and not just the daily bread] etc., is still with us–and, low and behold, we don't even have god-kings like assyrians, egyptians, chaldeans had a few millennia ago.
bozhidar balkas
December 13th, 2013 at 2:01 pm
"an old troll banned for good reason"!!! no truer words were ever spoken!
bozhidar balkas
December 13th, 2013 at 2:24 pm
i don't think that EU/US would be able to wrest ukraine away from russia and asia. i hope that that ad hoc soyuz doesn't succeed.
in ukraine, the fight seems to be between socialists and asocialists.
i don't think that EU/US would ever help protestors win in ukraine if they were socialists.
regarding socialism, we saw that while the communists parties of the yugoslav republics bitterly and ominously quarreled in '90, EU looked on not helping them achieve an agreement and thus avoid break up of yugoslavia by war.
what has EU done to prevent catalonia from separating from spain?
in any case, spain was not dismembered!
conumishu
December 15th, 2013 at 9:23 am
Excellent article. Congratulations.
bozhidar balkas
December 15th, 2013 at 4:40 pm
i don't need: 'to check the link to "leninist values" ' in order to know that only a minority [say, 5% - 10% ]of europeans accept leninism or lenin's values.
definitely, 100% sure that the two top european classes abhor even democratic socialism let alone all communisms.
eric siverson
December 16th, 2013 at 3:48 pm
Young farm boys from rural America started up loan companies in California . They could loan any warm body any amount of money for any home and sell the loans . The loans could be bundled together and resold to the big banks . No one worried 1 Iota about these loans , the young farm boys got their commission . Everyone knew houses would keep increasing in value the more home you owned the better off you would .become . Now the situation reversed and four the last few yrs houses have declined in value . The middle class is being left to suck hind teat . the homes can be refinanced for 3% interest rates . Yet the public employees still wish to eat and draw double pensions at a young age . Some cities will give you a nice house for 1 dollar if you will move to their town and help pay their taxes . They have already spent all the taxes they are hoping you will pay and quit a bit extra too . You will most likely never get the services you pay for because the money is all gone This is not a unheard of or very rare problem to have , the money all gone it just disappears . These people say we need a more equitable distribution of money .. I can agree we don't have a very equitable distribution setup . The only thing that is worse is our society has a even poorer contribution setup .