Atlas Monitor | 31 July 2016
The very real potential for the new Cold War developing into a “hot war” is the biggest news story of the year but has been at best ignored and at worst covered up by Western mainstream media.
Putin has told international media that they must report on this in order to fuel a debate and that the failure to do so could take the world to the brink of world war with little to prevent an eventual thermonuclear war.
NATO’s installation of a missile defence system in Russia’s neighbouring countries such as Poland is perceived as a direct provocation and existential threat to Russia.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8PgSX-WD96Q&w=726&h=408]
Infowars’ Darrin McBreen talked to Paul Craig Roberts, a former Reagan administration Treasury official who is also a former Wall Street Journal editor and now an independent journalist.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5BVSAEJbF00&w=640&h=360]
Roberts notes that Washington is behaving in such as reckless fashion that war could very well ensue. He also notes that US mainstream media’s reluctance to conduct a rational debate on this is enabling and facilitating Washington’s actions.
Roberts is not the only one raising the alarm. Veteran journalist John Pilger recently wrote about his experience in covering the US election campaign where there has been relative silence on the potential for a world war in the news coverage.
Advance Warning
Geopolitical analyst Joel Skousen has for some time been predicting World War III which he argues will occur after 2020 between a Western alliance under NATO leadership and a neo-Axis power alliance led by Russia. He has long maintained that preparations for war would need to be completed before war can proceed. He estimates this would take until 2019-2020 for both sides to be ready.
Skousen believes that recent events such as the Syrian and Ukraine crises have been engineered and staged managed in order to build up Russia as a credible threat.
He notes that the situation in Syria, where Russia has played a leadership role in responding to the crisis, is designed to emboldened Russia as a re-emerging power on the geopolitical scene. The Ukraine crisis has served a similar function and both have enabled and facilitated the securing and reinforcement of Russian military bases in Tartus (Syria) and Sevastopol (Crimea). From these bases it could be speculated that Russia can launch major offensives against Western targets.
Skousen says the crises that Russia has been forced to respond to also serve as a reconnaissance tactic for the US and NATO in order to learn about Russia’s current military capabilities. Each time Russia mobilizes NATO gleans valuable intelligence. During US and NATO interventions in Yugoslavia, Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya and Syria; Russia was able to learn a great deal about US-NATO capabilities.
The Perfect Storm
British historian Tobias Stone says the conditions are ripe for a world war. Stone notes that the collapse of the European Union (EU) starting with Brexit and the rise of right-wing nationalism in Europe as well as neo-isolationism in America could create the perfect storm. He explains:
A divided Europe, with the leaders of France, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia, and others now pro-Russia, anti-EU, and funded by Putin, overrule calls for sanctions or a military response. NATO is slow to respond: Trump does not want America to be involved, and a large part of Europe is indifferent or blocking any action.
Russia, seeing no real resistance to their actions, move further into Latvia, and then into eastern Estonia and Lithuania. The Baltic States declare war on Russia and start to retaliate, as they have now been invaded so have no choice. Half of Europe sides with them, a few countries remain neutral, and a few side with Russia.
Skousen has suggested that the West will try to entice Russia into making the first move. He believes that the recent international sanctions and condemnation of Russia is simply political theatre and had little effect. Skousen says this is tantamount to appeasement and part of the overall strategy to build up, embolden and then ultimately provoke Russia into a conflict.
Media Blackout and the Information War
American historian Stephen F. Cohen, who is an expert on Russian history, has observed that NATO is ratcheting up tensions with Russia while avoiding a public debate. Cohen notes that NATO’s large-scale military build up on Russia’s western borders and military exercises of unprecedented scale have not gone unnoticed by Russia.
Cohen says the threat of war between NATO and Russia has gone largely unreported in the US and adds that he cannot think of a time where there has been such a media blackout or indifference over such a serious issue. He notes that the media’s talking point is fixated on the putative “Russian aggression”, a meme he suggests has little basis in reality.
Pilger says that US mainstream media present Putin as a pantomime villain and Russia’s defensive manoeuvres as offensive and thus laying the ground for escalation. Roberts suggests the media are effectively acting as Washington’s propaganda ministry.
Roberts notes that a significant number of the American people are aware of what is transpiring and that this is evident in the proliferation of independent and “alternative” media, particularly on the internet.
The Last Battle?
Whether or not this is enough to prevent World War III is to be seen. The implications of such an eventuality are dire. Albert Einstein is reported to have once said
I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones.
His point being that the widespread devastation caused by thermonuclear war would invariably leave a stone age existence for any survivors.
Roberts believes that Russia does not want war. However, it is preparing for war and is not afraid to fight one.
