On Friday, October 17, 2008 I wrote an article entitled, “Predicting the Future” in which I stated;
“There are certain things a shrewd columnist should never do; chief amongst them is any attempt to predict the future. This article proves that I am not very shrewd as I am going to attempt some forecasting.
We start with a relative no brainer; Obama is going to be the next President of the USA. I’m not suggesting who my preference is here, as its not relevant, me not being American and therefore unable to cast a vote.
Once Obama is elected and in office I truly hope that the security services does everything to enhance his personal safety as he is sure to be a target for every nut case on the planet, particularly American lunatics who view him as if he were the anti-Christ.
The next people likely to test Obama once he’s in the White House will be the Russians, as its almost impossible to see President Putin not seeing how far he can push the new man. The likely spot for the test will be the Crimean Peninsula of the Ukraine, in which the majority of the population is ethnically Russian but the government is Ukrainian. The situation is made more volatile by the Ukrainian government wishing to move west politically whilst the Russian fleet has its base in Sebastopol within the Ukraine. This is the Georgian scenario writ large, and is a boil waiting to burst.”
Yesterday the future arrived without many people even noticing. During a speech to his military leaders President Dmitry Medvedev on Tuesday announced a "large-scale" rearmament and renewal of Russia's nuclear arsenal, accusing NATO of pushing ahead with expansion near Russian borders.
He was addressing a meeting of Russia’s defense chiefs in Moscow, Medvedev said, "From 2011, a large-scale rearmament of the army and navy will begin,”
He went on to call for a renewal of Russia's nuclear weapons arsenal whilst claiming that NATO is continuing its push to expand the alliance's physical presence surrounding Russia's borders.
"Analysis of the military-political situation in the world shows that a serious conflict potential remains in some regions," Medvedev said.
He focused on local crises and international terrorism as security threats and added: "Attempts to expand the military infrastructure of NATO near the borders of our country are continuing. The primary task is to increase the combat readiness of our forces, first of all our strategic nuclear forces. They must be able to fulfill all tasks necessary to ensure Russia's security,"
Medvedev went on to praise Russia's military thrust into Georgia last year in defense of the rebel region of South Ossetia, he also said the conflict had shown up the military's failings.
The comments came despite an apparent thawing of US-Russian relations since the inauguration of President Barack Obama in January. But this is the first test by the big beasts of the new President’s resolve.
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My dear Tony and Family: I completely agree--in fact I always believed that Iraqi Freedom was only fought to last a few weeks at most; and that Rumsfeld and Cheney hoped it was the spark to convince the American electorate and the Congress that a total makeover of the Pentagon and each particular military service was in order....As relics of the Cold War Era they saw China and Russia as the powers that might oppose their hegemony in the middle east or where ever they envisioned America's military might to be best served ( and the American military equipment was in poor repair )....Instead it turned into a quagmire and even though it became a huge money pit( for the insider contractors )--the current financial coup d'etat replaced that mission and has had the effect to realign the planet's nations--notice the battle in Assetia ( Georgia ); Russia's attending the OPEC meeting as an observer; Giving Iran 80 tons of fissionable material; also the Russians are preparing to place an air force in either/both Cuba and Venesuela; The Chinese are closely following the American Navy in the So China Sea and are reticent to purchase more US Treasury Bonds-the FED has announced they plan on "printing" $1 tr in new notes-Is this a response to the Chinese refusing to continue their presence at the Treasury bond auctions??; and other nations seem to have found a similar backbone opposing the US foreign policy initiative ( see the so called "socialist nations" joining together throughout South and Central America ). Obama will most likely visit Brazil, a country still under America's guidance, but certainly will avoid the majority of the So America nations. The Anglo-American financial community is still intact and is vigorously attempting to stay that way in spite of the cumbersome and colossal derivative phantom economy which is taking a front seat in the banking centers, steadily sucking the lifeblood out of each central bank it has infected bringing the productive economy to it's knees. Instead the G-7 governments need to declare them retroactively null and void..."Quantitative easing" is now the cause celebre in both the US and Britain--monetizing debt is bad policy as we are just in the initial stages of write downs ( credit card defaults are on the rise )...$1000tr will take many more trillions to finally balance the bank portfolios...clearly this is untenable...Currently for the mere return of just several hundred billion dollars in bonuses here (AIG), the call has been heard for the beheading of the recipients...Yes we are calmly waiting for the next violence ( formally called war ) to distract us from paying attention to the greatest transfer of wealth ever witnessed. as always, Richard
ReplyDeleteDear Tony: Just viewing a March 21, 2009 web cast on www.lyndonlarouchepac.com. Lyndon is a continuous Presidential candidate here and an astute "physical economist". He correctly begins this speech with the view that all the many "leaders" now assigned at tackling the financial debacle are without any training to do so...Such a tragedy as we are experiencing has never before been seen on the face of the planet. The "leaders" hoped to return to normalcy by 2015...Clearly they are attempting to float the existing financial structure and systems until that might happen...He goes on with a lengthy history of wealth aggrandizement back to the 1300's beginning with the Italian nation/city states.Eventually he discusses the British Empire...and that is where you might find it interesting...well..check it out if you have the time...Richard
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