Here is a video link to Charlotte Iserbyt "The Deliberate Dumbing Down..."  watch it  to learn some history of education.  You will need 1 hour but its worth it if you have kids or grandchildren.  Thanks heyhey!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9RTSZH2xDV4

Some interesting points about our abysmal education standards and why they have deteriorated
http://www.thrivemovement.com/redefining-school-and-reclaiming-our-lives-how-create-real-opportunities-meaningful-education.blog

Putin: A Friendly Warning—Don’t Push America Too Hard!! You May Regret It!!

In the late 1970’s under the Nixon Administration,  I was sent to Moscow to negotiate sotto voce a deal in which I would give the KGB/GRU Wang computers in exchange for Christian dissidents “hospitalized” at the Kaschenko Psychiatric Hospital.  This may have been the first time that Christian lives were commoditized.  No mention was made of potentially embarrassing statements like: “human rights violations”; “repression”; or psychiatric abuse,  using the term ‘Sluggish Schizophrenia’ to negate the legal rights of Soviet political dissidents.  We worked quietly and effectively to resolve our mutual national security interests and retained a modicum of good-will to allow for the ‘dissolution’ of the Soviet Union.

Mr Putin,  contrary to your public statements bemoaning the downfall of the Soviet Union,  you know all too well that it was crumbling from fifty years of Stalinist repression; economic dystrophy; and military fatigue.   At that time when I was part of a select group of  “architects” for the dismantling of the Soviet Union,  both your Stasi and KGB bosses understood that Communism had failed it’s revolutionary mandates over the past decades.  The Russians were impoverished,  hungry for both freedom and bread.   That was the reality when Reagan/Bush accomplished in the transformation.

  Now,  you inflame the nostalgia for an era that was replete with Gulags [prison camps]; torture; ethnic cleansing; and an assortment of genocides of different forms.  You can stir the flames of Russian nationalism.  That’s fine. 

But please do not think of doing that at the expense of invoking anti-Americanism or anti-western sentiments.

  That won’t work!
  I can assure you!
  Let me tell you a personal anecdote.

  In the late 1970’s when I was in Moscow,  several Soviet Intelligence officials were kind enough to invite me to their house for a private dinner.   As you know, Putin, no one can be as hospitable as the Russians.  We drank.  We ate. We sang in English and in Russian.   Then we each toasted the other—to health and peace.

  It was touching moment,  broken by a faux pas, unintended.  A GRU [military agent] told me in a sarcastic way that we,  Americans, were very immature and childish.  I asked him how he came to his conclusion.  There was no hostility.   I even felt the warm sense of friendship that only ostensible enemies can share with each other in a moment of danger-- especially in the secret world of silence.  The well-informed GRU agent correctly accused us,  Americans,  of loving childish items like Disneyland and cartoon characters.  I raised my glass of vodka and laughingly added:

  “Of course, my comrade, as usual you are right.  But please remember that simple fact that those same Americans who created Disneyland and the Disney cartoons are creating ICBMs pointed straight at the USSR.”

  Silence erupted .  Everyone was stunned.

  I simply added, “Nasdarovy!”  “To your collective health”.

Putin, we all know that you are the leader of the Russian Federation because our intelligence community decided that you would be the best replacement for the drunkard Yeltsin.  Please remember the very important element of the Soviet dissolution,  there was not one shot fired in the dismantling of your precious evil empire.   How that was done remains classified.   However,  I can assure you that it was based on understanding  the Russian National Character and how it is at odds with the operational code of Bolshevism/USSR. 

  We,  Americans, may seem simplistic to you, but don’t make the mistake that we don’t understand you,  Russia and the ex-Soviet Union.  We know you may crave some sort of revenge for what Americans did to your country, your relatives and your former bosses.  Your former leader, the great Stalin, who murdered 27 million of his own people helped by your former colleagues at the KGB, GRU and NK VD created an institution called the U.S.S.R. that America dismantled with  no battles, no guns.  Trust me,  what we accomplished in the dissolution of the Soviet Union was not child’s play.  

We empathize with your need to poke fun at the spy novelists who claim that they dismantled the soviet union.  Just remember that some of the great ones,  Somerset Maugham, John Le Carre and others were also intelligence officers.  I caution you to fight your own narcissism and tendency toward self aggrandizement.  If unchecked,  you could do great harm to the Russian Federation.

Most importantly,  temper your own ENVY.  It will lead to your destruction.  How do I know this?  Because I used ENVY to manipulate the downfall of the Soviet Union.  Don’t fall for the same old trap again!  The Russians have been nursing an inferiority complex since Catherine the Great ruled.  Remember that she was German and she ruled with patience, wiliness and charm.  Recommendation:  partner with Angela Merkel to come up with some practical solutions for a workable detente.  That could be very productive for you and the Russian Federation.  Germany and Russia have always had a special relationship.  

Once emotions have been tempered,  feel free to channel your energy into writing your auto-biography.  If that’s too close to home, then why not a spy novel?  You could call it Putin’s Paradox.  I can even suggest a book agent and possibly a publisher.  Then who knows?  Movie and TV rights,  speaking tours,  there is some serious money to be made.  And you’ll be famous- in a good way. 

This is a much better way to crown your career!  I am talking Legacy, here!  Do you really want to be known as a “Stalin” or the “Butcher of the Ukraine” like Khrushchev?  That is so last century, so primitive!  Good luck with controlling those demons and ghosts, you will need it.  But think of the long lasting pay off if you do.

Good video on the Sandy Hook Farce, interview with Wolfgang Halbig
http://www.activistpost.com/2014/02/school-safety-expert-exposes-sandy-hook.html

15 minute video from our Aussie friend hey hey (TY) this is worth the watch to understand history of SERCO
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=utMV3SuWT60

I will be posting soon,  here is the American "leadership" that heads SERCO,  notice the Intel backgrounds of the corporate big shots.  They have grown VERY FAST in 25 years,  they have HHS contracts for Obamacare and control our Navy submarines as well.  How's that working for us?
http://www.serco-na.com/about-us/leadership

I am overwhelmed with input on this Serco cancer,  here's some FBI stuff for you, with a splash of NSA.  Please provide more.
http://www.serco-na.com/news-article/2011/06/07/serco-executive-maureen-baginski-receives-fbi-intelligence-analysts-association-award

Who makes money in the Ukraine???  U.S. Lobbyist!
http://news.muckety.com/2014/02/23/dc-lobbyists-have-stake-in-ukraine-unrest/46041

This is interesting.  SERCO.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ulP0QdvexFg

The biggest company that you never heard of...SERCO's hands are in everything.  Check out their wikipedia
http://www.serco-na.com/cms-es

Food for thought in today's world.
http://www.working-minds.com/galtmini.htm

The Ukrainian Revolution/Civil War  is Fueled By Corrupt Oligarchs!

  Money! not ideology will determine the outcome of the Ukraine.

  A wise man [Roger Starr] said the following:

  “Money is the most EGALITARIAN FORCE IN SOCIETY [my emphasis].  It confers POWER [my emphasis] on whoever holds it.”

  When the Ukraine became independent from Russia,  most if not all of its major industries were privatized.   This privatization program resulted in the creation of a new class of KLEPTOCRATS called OLIGARCHS in Russia and the Ukraine.   Like many societies that proclaim ‘liberty’ or ‘independence’ , including our own 1776 Revolution,  the motivating force was and is money.   The political elite usually employs lofty words in order to cover a more basic truth when a HEGEMONY is torn apart,  like that of the Soviet Union.   In the case of the Ukraine, the words ‘freedom’  and ‘democracy’ were spewing forth like a broken spigot in 2004 during the Orange Revolution [OR].

  How many people realized that this OR was fueled by good old American greenbacks????

  I won’t identify the sources;  but there is some perverse logic in the fact that one of the major backers of the “OR” was an associate and co-conspirator of the discredited Drexel Burnham Lambert Investment Banking house of the 1980’s.  Now we have a similar but more interesting situation where politically corrupt oligarchs are backing both sides of the so-called ‘revolution’. 

  In the west,  Ihor Kolomoyskyi,  a banking/industrial oligarch has maintained direct lines of communications with the ‘rebels’.   On the other side of the financial chessboard called ‘the Ukraine’ is Rinat Akhmetov,  ostensibly the country’s richest political crook.

  Remember that none of these oligarchs,  including the ones in Russia, ever earned, worked or deserved their assets/fortune.   The Oligarch’s vast holdings which include steel,  coal,  gas, and other commodities,  were given to these ex-KGB officials as a form of political patronage.   No questions were asked.  No answers were given.   This transfer of state assets to undeserved political sycophants was swift and opaque.

  By the time that both Russia and Ukraine became cannibalized fiefdoms of the oligarchs,  both national economies went into the proverbial toilet.  The Ukraine, with fewer  resources,  descended into a financial limbo to the tune of 15 Billion Dollars which evaporated into the oligarchs’  Swiss bank accounts; Cayman Island off-shore banks;  USA real estate etc.

  Does this sound familiar?

 

Of course, we in the USA are no different. 

It’s just that we are far larger in size than the Ukraine and possessed of greater natural resources and the unique existence of a well-armed citizenry--both self-possessed and self-determined.  Unfortunately,  the Ukraine is very much controlled by the Russians.   Old loyalties to whomever was in power quickly shift to those who will determine the next succession of the power elite.  Therefore most,  if not all of the Ukrainian oligarchs, will quickly align their fate with the wishes and plans of Vladimir Putin. 

I may sound somewhat cynical; but I have seen this similar scenario all over the world during my thirty years of experience: 

▪ Thailand [military coups]

▪ The Philippines [Marcos to Aquino] 

▪ Egypt [Mubarak to Military]

▪ Panama [Noriega to corrupt politicians] 

▪ Italy [constant corruption] 

▪ South Africa [Mandela to Zuma, ANC] 

▪ Cambodia [Khmer Rouge to Hun Sen]

▪ Malaysia [Dr Mahatir to same party]

 

Clearly the most important considerations for the Ukrainian oligarchs is to be flexible in their political loyalties.  After all,  they must at any cost,  preserve their wealth even if it means the destruction of their own country.   For example Ahkmetov and Firtash,  two of the most powerful corrupt magnates, will move in whatever direction Putin will dictate.   As we have mentioned in the former blogs on the Ukraine,  Putin will use whatever force or show of force is required in order to once again establish Russian hegemony over the Ukraine.   The pathetic utterances of the Merkel,  Cameron,  Kerry, or Obama just add to the farce that we in the west have any conceivable leverage in which to threaten or manipulate Putin.

As we have said many times before,  Putin was trained by the masters of deception,  intimidation and threat—Markus Wolf [East German Stasi] and Andropov [KGB].   In contrast,  Obama went to private school in Hawaii.  He attended a second tier college—Occidental College,  L.A. and of course was recruited by the same CIA which created our own ‘false flag’.

  As long as we appoint losers as Presidents,  the Putins of the world will keep bullying any country anywhere in the world where our glorious outmoded navy may sail.   Thank you Presidents Clinton,  Bush, and Obama for placing the USA in a supplicant position;  posturing; and blustering like the Wizard of Oz on a broken track of cacophony.

We are now the very ‘super power’ that England had been around the 1900—bloated,  dysfunctional and self-delusional.   What we have in the Russian invasion of the Ukraine is not a geopolitical nor a historical imperative but rather a basic PSYCHOLOGICAL WAR…. in which the USA is not winning…. and will not win with our present motley characters of misfits and wannabes.  

  Boshen Daragoy! 

“When it is a question of money,  everybody is of the same religion.”
  Voltaire

This is pretty funny,  thank you to FB friend for sharing....its called "Jump you F.....kers" by Gene Burnett.  Enjoy!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yge311sFhC8

Need to verify but its interesting, bankers dying.
http://beforeitsnews.com/alternative/2014/03/another-jp-morgan-banker-leaps-to-his-death-in-new-york-city-video-2920836.html?utm_source=direct-b4in.info&utm_term=http%3A%2F%2Fb4in.info%2FhVff&utm_medium=verticalresponse&utm_campaign=&utm_content=beforeit39snews-verticalresponse

Tit For Tat: Obama Engages in a Mud Wrestling Fight with Putin!

We are witness to the rarely seen mud-wrestling fight between two world leaders.   In previous blogs, we talked about the fact that the confrontation between the USA and Russia over the Ukraine/Crimea would result in a standoff which I mistakenly described as ‘psychological warfare’.

  Clearly I was misled by the nature of the representatives of our great nation.

  Usually,  when the USA has a problem with a foreign country over legitimate concerns,  whatever they might be,  the US officials have always acted discreetly,  forcefully,  but quietly.   I hasten back to the memories of the US Presidents whom I had served and  I cannot remember one instance when nation state differences became so personal and so low brow.

When Reagan uttered the famous words about the evil empire,  the Soviet Union,  he never engaged in a tit-for-tat mudslinging fight- daring individual Soviet officials to stand down or they would be ‘black balled’---with  a sanction, of course.  It’s hard for me to conceive of Putin’s two mentors, both Master-Spies,  Markus Wolf [Stasi] and Andropov[ KGB], having been personally sanctioned by either Reagan or Bush Sr.  They were too elegant and too restrained.

  Even Henry Kissinger would resort to public palaver that would allow for a resolution of the Vietnam War without personally insulting or publicly deprecating Ho Chi Minh.  In other words,  diplomacy is the art of stating public non-offensive comments while in private expressing the personal frustrations of the different leaders.

  What we have here between Putin and Obama is the closest thing I have ever seen to a mud-slinging fight which was initiated by Obama and Victoria Nuland,  Assistant Secretary of State [who uttered the words “Fuck the Eu”].

  The article, “U.S. and Europe Step Up Sanctions On Russian Officials” written by Peter Baker, NYTimes March 17, 2014,  illustrates the scope and absurdity of our administration selecting individuals within the Russian Government to ‘punish’ with ‘sanctions’.   In turn,  the article points out a very serious problem for the USG.   While Obama is highlighting Russian individuals who may or may not have visas to the USA and the EU,  Putin has the major trump card, as usual.

  If the mud fight continues ad nauseum,  Putin can simply exclude our major companies—Exxon Mobil, Boeing, Ford, PepsiCo—from the growing Russian economy which supplies the major source of gas/oil to the EU.   So Obama/Kerry keep slinging mud pies at Putin, while Putin cancels billions of American dollars, depriving major American corporations of their just rewards for their hard work.  Hows that for sanctions???

Please remember that the aforementioned American companies are publicly owned and reflect the financial interests of the stockholders and not Obama or Kerry.  Yet a far more serious problem looms for Europe.   Most of the EU depends on the Russian gas transmission through the Ukraine.   Putin can decrease the amount of gas flowing into Germany and other EU countries and watch while their people suffer, forcing the EU citizenry to defy their respective governments.

  In this mud fight,  one can simply say that Putin has the leverage and Obama has the mud to fling without a strategy or a clearly defined goal.   If Obama thinks that placing sanctions on Putin’s cronies is effective and would result in some kind of internal turmoil in Russia which would then result in the overthrow of Putin then POTUS is completely wrong.

Once again, we Americans are witnessed to inept President who understands very little about the dynamics of foreign leaders;  the nature of nation states; or the practicality of foreign policy instruments.   As I have repeatedly stated before in my other blogs,  arrogance and ignorance are the bellwether of Obama’s domestic and foreign policy.  Those two particular attributes lead to one conclusion---self-destruction.

  Our military is strained and fatigued as is the America citizenry from wars that were costly and pointless.   Putin knows our military better than Obama because Putin forced our military to pay him money in order for our troops to fight in the costly, inane Afghanistan War.

Having been part of the Cold War team under Reagan/Bush Sr,  I can categorically state that what is happening now has no correspondence to the quiet, covert, effective actions that were initiated by Reagan/Bush Sr.  Where not one word of threat was ever uttered.  Not one individual was black-balled in the Soviet Regime or even East Germany.

Even the great Markus Wolf was never arrested or convicted for spying.  He was allowed to end his life quietly as a chef on German TV.

  Quirky! But true.

  

Dignity,  respect,  knowledge and quiet strength are the virtues that we need to resuscitate if America is to retain more than a moribund foreign policy.   I think that the most important individual in this mud-slinging disaster is Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany.  Merkel is an accomplished PhD Physicist who grew up in East Germany and therefore understands Putin’s authoritarian ways,  somewhat reminiscent of the Soviet occupation.   Unlike our own senior officials,  she speaks German and Russian.  Merkel understands the importance of Russian gas for the EU.   Germany,  in particular,  has a major reliance on Russian gas passing through the Ukraine. 

Therefore its in Merkel’s best interest to quickly resolve this rapidly escalating mud fight.

I think the following quote is appropriate for this occasion:
“The office of the president is such a bastardized thing,  half royalty and half democracy, that nobody know whether to genuflect or spit.” 

Jimmy Breslin,  Journalist.

   

This is seven minutes, worth the watch.  Additional perspective on the Ukraine from Thrive.
http://www.thrivemovement.com/whats-really-going-on-ukraine.blog

Den of Vipers Finally Biting Each Other! Senator Diane Feinstein Vs. John Brennan, DCI.

Like all venomous creatures in the animal kingdom,  eventually they start to attack each other for want of any external threats or fear that the other may pre-emptively attack.  These two vipers are not exempt from the Darwinian reality that only the strong survive.    Senator Diane Feinstein has accused DCI John Brennan and his CIA staff of ‘snooping on her legislative staff’, “breach of the separation of power between the Executive and the Legislative branches of government”.

Of course,  King Viper,  John Brennan of 9/11 fame, counters Lady Di’s accusations as ‘complete fiction’.

This Gunfight at the Senate “OK Corral” was bound to happen.

  Why?
When you run out of lies that one can tell the American  public and you have nothing else to do,  except to garner more power in order to maintain one’s political position,  then all bets are off.

  Allies turn into enemies.   And enemies turn into greater enemies.

If someone like Lady Di pronounces one lie after another as she did in the enactment of the Patriot’s Act after the ‘false flag’ of 9/11,  she becomes a victim of her own lies.   This truism also applies to a ‘professional liar’ like the Director of the CIA,  John Brennan.   The DCI eventually becomes eviscerated by the constant falsehoods he has to propagate [for one reason or another] on behalf of the White House and its minions. 

This became clear to me while watching John Brennan lie.  Brennan seemed to be channeling “The Man Nobody Knew’---the honorable, extremely Catholic man of faith and duty, William Colby, the former DCI.

In a brilliant documentary by Carl Colby, the son of William Colby, one watches in bewilderment how a brave American former OSS Officer becomes eviscerated by the Senate Intelligence Committee, led by Senator Frank Church [D-Idaho] as they probed the dark secrets of the CIA and its ‘illegal’ operations during the Vietnam War. 

This inchoate conflagration between two political animals,  Lady Di and DCI,   reminds me of how disposable both entities are. They can be manipulated out of history by the fourth and fifth estates of our nation.   Or these Vipers can be destroyed by the whimsical  indifference of our body politic that cares not for governance nor rule of law.  Both requirements for a vibrant democracy, such as it may be. 

  One only has to see the history of William Colby in order to capture the redundant nature of such political sophistry and its inevitable lethal consequences.  Rightfully or wrongfully,  Colby ended up to be the scapegoat of three Presidents and countless years of operational deceptions in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia.

Colby was literally ‘forced’ by Senator Church to reveal the ‘family jewels’ of the CIA,  much in the same way that Lady Di is forcing Brennan to reveal his  secrets about his electronic surveillance over the Feinstein’s staffers.

Unfortunately, there is no new moral imperative that I can foresee in this duel between these two old vipers.  Their confrontation was and is inevitable. 

Political alliances based on lies and mistrust must end in the eventual destruction of not one party but of both parties.  Call it the ‘implosion theory of dual mistrust’.

Nothing can be done about these two vipers attacking each other.   Predictably one will kill the other and the victorious viper will have been so wounded and delegitimized that he/she will have won a pyrrhic victory.

  Therefore, citizens of Pax Americana,  enjoy the Gladiators fighting each other to the death, lest they start to take down the Republic with them.

In time, citizens of our grand Republic, all the Centurion Guards ‘protecting’ the Empire will seek revenge and recourse to those who set them on the path to ignominious self-destruction. 

I am writing this blog not to ‘bury’ Brennan nor Feinstein … but to…. PRAISE THEM!!!

The fault lies not in the stars but in us,  the American people. 

Citizens must learn from history.

This makes sense,  take the combat/quasi military capacity away from CIA.  CIA should stick to INTEL.  Let the Military do what it supposed to do.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/13/opinion/let-the-military-run-drone-warfare.html?emc=eta1&_r=0

The New American Whac-A-Mole Foreign Policy!

Just months ago,  we were talking of impending conflict between China and Japan over a small group of islands in the South China Sea.  Then we quickly shifted our foreign policy attention to the cauldron of conflict in Syria that has festered with increasing violence and countless refugees.  Without a moment’s hesitation,  soon after the splendid Sochi Olympics,  Americans were directed to a conflagration in the Ukraine.

  Apparently this street protest which had started months before attained a proportion of condemnation wherein the inestimable distinguished Ex Sec State  Hillary Clinton made the astounding pronouncement that Russia was like Nazi Germany in ‘invading Crimea’.   The world also heard the elegant profanity of a State Department Assistant Secretary of State, Victoria Nuland,  utter the words on a non-encrypted cellphone,  saying ”Fuck EU”. 

  What in God’s name is going on? 

  

I feel that I have entered an alter-universe,  unbeknownst to me or anyone  with any direct historical experience in American foreign policy,  where the characters are playing the childhood game of Whac-a-mole.

For those of you who may not know what Whac-A-Mole is,  it entails a very sophisticated level of anger and beating strokes to hit every mole-like character that appears suddenly in front of you to ensure that the particular mole does not arise again.  One must keep banging the table with a hammer and you must bang as quickly and randomly as possible.  Whac-A-Mole is a childish game of useless pursuit,  expressing nothing more than the ability to bang at a non-existent mole or in the case of foreign policy non-existent enemy.  

Have we Americans descended so low that an Assistant Secretary of State has purposefully used profanity as a ‘diplomatic way’ of explaining American disdain for their Nato/European Allies?

Have we come to the nadir of intellectual ignorance when the esteemed ex-Senator,  ex-wife of a President and most importantly the ex-Secretary of State, Hillary Rodham Clinton is so completely ignorant of the dynamics and historical facts of WWII that she compares Russia, an American Ally during WWII  to the rise of the Third Reich?  If she had been Sec State she would have been fired by any of the former Presidents with whom I had worked.  More importantly,  Hillary once again showed her opportunistic self-aggrandizement by espousing ill-conceived and dangerous concepts and ideas of war as she did in the Iraq Invasion, Afghanistan invasion, Libya Travesty and Syrian conflict.

 

Nothing brings out the sheer stupidity of people in power than the Whac-A-Mole game of foreign policy.

  [1] The game shows that we, Americans, after thirty years adrift still have no viable, sustainable foreign policy that serves our collective national security interests.

  [2] Whac-A-Mole often bears the trademark of covert operatives who without consent and advice of our congress [oops, our people] have gone AMOK and started all kinds of conflagrations around the world in order to entertain themselves at the expense of the American public and Republic.

  [3] Whac-A-Mole shows once again that Clinton,  Bush Jr, and Obama have no foreign policy and really has exhausted what little talent,  if they had any.

The ClintBubamas have not demonstrated any mature leadership skills on the world stage.  They act like children playing dangerous games.  These so called American leaders have a childish obsession with getting our country into needless wars and squeezing meaningless pimples of geo-political agitation that garner a distorted proportion of world wide attention.  Grow up!  The American people are busy living constructive lives and they have had enough of such nonsense!  Stop wasting our tax dollars!  Cut the wasted money that we spend on Military/CIA/Contractors!  Build roads,  replace infrastructure and get some clean energy so our grandchildren can breathe the air and have decent water to drink!

 

Another view of the Ukraine
http://us4.campaign-archive2.com/?u=74786417f9554984d314d06bd&id=0440a55928&e=02afb276f2

WXXX provided this as well
http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/malaysia/article/b777-pilot-contacted-mh370-before-it-vanished-says-there-was-radio-interfer

Thanks WXXX, more info on MH370
http://my.news.yahoo.com/semiconductor-firm-top-management-onboard-missing-mas-flight-134107127.html

always look at the passenger list,  interesting story for reposting
http://beforeitsnews.com/events/2014/03/electronic-weaponry-hiding-malaysia-plane-24-suspects-on-board-2432744.html?utm_campaign=&utm_medium=verticalresponse&utm_term=http%3A%2F%2Fb4in.info%2FbTbT&utm_source=direct-b4in.info&utm_content=beforeit39snews-verticalresponse

This is a private letter from a Retired Special Operations Officer about the Ukraine.  Please read.

Subject: Ukraine

Sent: Mon, Mar 3, 2014      8:08 am

One of my Ukrainian colleagues  asked me if I was informing my friends back home about the situation here. I  admitted that I've only talked to my wife much about it and he accepted  that. I got to thinking and decided that I've been  delinquent.

I came here in 2005 on a contract to help build a professional corps of NCOs for the Ukrainian Army. It was a dismal failure. The military budget couldn't support building the kind of  NCO corps the US Army has. Ukraine just doesn't have the budget for the personnel and training changes that are necessary . also, ss a result of many years of European and Soviet style military doctrine, the junior leaders are officers. NCOs are just technicians. That's worked for them for a couple centuries. The current mid grade officers recognized that this wasn't the most efficient way of leadership, but they just can't convince the civilians to put enough in the budget to professionalize the force. Conscription stopped this year, but they are a long way from developing a small, professional army.

I left Ukraine and went back to Iraq, then Germany, then Afghanistan. I came back to Ukraine when I got the opportunity to work at one of the  few diamonds in the rough that I'd seen in Ukraine on my earlier contract. I'm now a NATO procedures instructor at the Ukrainian Land Forces Academy, their version of West Point.  

During my last 3 years here now, I've met and worked with several Ukrainian mid-grade (major through colonel) and junior grade (lieutenant and captain) officers.  Plus a few hundred cadets. I've made friends, a couple enemies, and a lot of good colleagues.  I've met local civilians and have eaten in some fantastic cafes. I enjoy living in Lviv, here in western Ukraine. It has a history that goes back a couple thousand years and is rich in a culture that even Soviet occupation for 50 years could not destroy.

Ukrainians are almost as much of a mixed culture as is the USA. There are leftists, rightists, centerists, and a few idiots. There is a small but vocal group that bears resemblance to the Nazi Party in Germany in 1939. There are human rights activists, well educated professionals, business entrepreneurs, and criminals. Just like  home. What amazed me, however, was  the level of corruption . I expected it, after having worked in former socialist countries before, and have seen what happens when you toss out the communists.  

The only groups ready to replace  the communists... the only groups with an formal/semi-formal  hierarchy, organization, chains of command, resource procurement procedures, etc... the only groups immediately available... are the crooks and criminal  organizations.   What usually happens is the crooks make their way into government positions, both elected and appointed, and just raise the level of their operations to a national level. The people usually get tired of it, and either vote them out, or kick their asses out. Once they do, the only groups ready to move back in and take charge are.... the old communists! They'll have a new name, but old styles. So the folks kick them out and the damned crooks come back in... usually with less power.

Ukraine has gone through these cycles. There is no civil service system here. When a new political party takes charge, everyone who      works for the government expects to lose their job. Teachers, civil works technicians, cops, secretaries, postal workers, etc. If they don't offer a bribe to their new politically appointed boss, they will lose their paycheck .

Cops are a special thing . No city cops, no state cops, just the national police. and they get paid MUCH less than minimum wage. A cop does not chase criminals, he chases his boss's political opponents. A traffic cop does not enforce traffic laws, he fights to get assigned to a check point on a good street so he can stop new cars and extort money from the driver (obviously well off...   he's driving a new car) using some trumped up charge. I've been stopped many  times. They want me to blow into a fake breathalyzer so they can charge me  with DUI. I was stopped once and they asked for my ID and drivers license. I unbuckled my seat belt to get to my wallet. The cop looked at my license and then wanted to charge me with not wearing my seatbelt. Normal Ukrainians  normally pay the cop somewhere between $12 to $20 to get on their way. I show my US passport and start dialing the embassy on my cell phone. They usually let me go.

Businesses are extorted by officers attempting to enforce unwritten city codes. Driving schools don't teach kids to drive, the kids can buy a license for $50 and walk out the same day  they enrolled in the course. everything is like that.

When I got here I was just flat amazed how deep the corruption was . My translator asked me how I would handle such a situation back in south Texas. I told him we had enforceable laws, much more accountability of officials ... and as a last resort, the .45 on my hip and  the AR-15 in my bedroom gun cabinet. He sighed.... said we have none of that. We can't make changes.

Well folks. Ukrainians stood up on their hind legs these last few months, and they fought back against the crooks... and they  won! More than one hundred of them died doing it. It'll take the new folks in government to change what they had. It's hard changing a nation, a  culture of corruption, a business environment that doesn't know how to enforce contract law. But they want to give it a chance.

And now, Vladimir Putin has decided that he can't  allow the new Ukraines to succeed. Because if they do, Russians might  decide to get rid of the criminals who are the Russian Mafia, and the people  like Putin who are trying to rebuild ... not the Soviet Union ... but the old Russian Empire . There are good geo-political reasons for him to desire that, but it comes at the cost of Ukrainian freedoms to chose.  

The US will not, maybe cannot jump in here  and oppose the Russians militarily (the US has zero tanks left in Germany , folks). The Germans, Brits, French, etc don't have the forces to do it either. Nor the political will. So a NATO military option is out of the  question. The Ukrainian military is too small, too under-resourced, and too  tied to old Soviet style doctrine to go it alone .  

So, what is left?

That will be up to President  Obama, the British Prime Minister, Ban-Ki-Moon at the UN, and, believe it or not, the people and prime minister of Turkey. The Poles might go up against  the Russians. They've done it before. Polish military history is pretty brave. They've been outclassed and outmatched, but no one can ever accuse  them of cowardice. If the Russians try to take western Ukraine, the Poles might surprise everyone.

I support what the Ukrainians are trying to do. I can't do much about it, except teach my cadets. Because of  the semi-official position I work in, I can't do much more. If it gets too dangerous out here in western Ukraine, I have to go home. If it gets too politically strenuous for the US, the State Department might order us to go home. I'm not impressed with John Kerry whining that Putin doesn't respond  to our super-civilized new world society. He is "stunned" that Mr Putin acted in the same old way that Russians have always reacted. By force. By making your enemies fear you. By  taking action, not talking. I'm amazed that anyone with a clue really thinks  that this 21st century is going to be much different than the 19th century. History shows us otherwise. Every Damned Time.

So, I've made my conscience easier by writing this. The old Ukrainian colleague who asked if I had written my friends is a retired colonel.  A full professor.   And he is itching to put his uniform back on and go defend Ukraine.  Against the Russians.  Against a force a hundred times bigger.   He has a beautiful, thirteen year  old daughter.  Who wants to be a ballerina.  And he wants her to  have the opportunity to do it in a free, law-abiding, free-enterprise nation.  And he's willing to go up against the Russian Bear to do it.  

I just wanted you to know.

This is worth reading for the term "presstitutes"  commentary welcome
http://beforeitsnews.com/alternative/2014/03/bombshell-ukraine-crisis-is-a-u-s-state-department-staged-overthrow-false-flag-2912572.html?utm_term=http%3A%2F%2Fb4in.info%2FaTYV&utm_campaign=&utm_medium=verticalresponse&utm_content=beforeit39snews-verticalresponse&utm_source=direct-b4in.info

Here is another view from Paul Craig Roberts (thanks Patriarch)
http://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2014/03/03/washingtons-arrogance-hubris-evil-set-stage-war/

I will be on People Speak Radio tonight at 9pm Eastern Time.
http://www.bbsradio.com/station2schedule

Russia Invades Crimea!  Will World War III Breakout Between Ukraine and Russia??!!
  Not likely.
  Putin has just played the final move in a protracted exercise of patience and deliberate strategic movements.

  Putin has basically cleared out any existential threat [whatever that means in reality] from the doorsteps of the Russian Federation.

  For some time,  our Non-Governmental Organizations [NGOs] --- groups embossed with words like ‘democracy’, ‘freedom’, ‘foundation’ , ‘house’  have served quite pitifully as  “CIA cutouts” all over the world.    These NGOs have been stoking the flames of restlessness and revolution in Kiev,  Lviv and other western towns in the Ukraine.

Remember when a “paranoid” leader like Putin or Mubarak states publicly that there is ‘external intervention’ in ‘internal affairs’,  these autocratic leaders are usually correct.   Witness the ultimate failures of NGO interventions in Libya,  Egypt,  Syria and now the Ukraine.   The problem with NGO’s and CIA intervention is that there is no real strategy other than the simplistic tactic of Agitation Propaganda [Agit Prop].  For what end?

  As you know,  I have been involved in developing and implementing the ‘take down ‘ of the Soviet Regime.   We had no need of military forces nor major provocative pronouncements,  other than Reagan’s “Evil Empire” speech.   However,  what we had then and do not have now,  was a very strong President Reagan and Vice President G. H. W. Bush Sr. who were more than able and willing to use force and ‘statecraft’ when, and if needed.   For the most part, the ‘take down’ of the Soviet Union was a combined operation of CIA, MI, State Dept and the White House. 

  All of the aforementioned US departments spoke with one voice—that of Reagan’s.   Neither Schultz nor Baker went over to the Soviet Union as Sec State John Kerry is doing visiting Kiev, Ukraine, to gloat, instigate, or provoke an unnecessary psychological response of retaliation.

Currently we seem to have no foreign policy other than to go in and stir the pot and create unrest.   And those individuals supposedly responsible for US foreign policy –Susan Rice [WH] , John Brennan [DCI/CIA], John Kerry, Valerie Jarret and of course, Obama are exceedingly incompetent in executing any strategy or tactic.   Example:  during the preparations of the Sochi Olympics,  US sent the NGOs into the Ukraine in the belief that they could create a ‘Nationalistic Movement’ while Putin and Russian forces were busy preparing the Sochi Olympics.

  That was a serious strategic mistake.

  Putin is a KGB operative.   As I have written before his credentials in ‘agitprop’,  ‘psychological warfare’ are not only impressive [created by Marcus Wolfe, and Andropov] but significantly more credible than John Kerry’s.  (“Skull & Bones” recruitment into his father’s CIA notwithstanding).

Other than his continuous “selfies” during his Viet Nam days,  Kerry’s greatest gifts to posterity are his inane words about “failing Palestine-Israel Peace Talks”  and other foreign policy hot buttons such as  “Clean Air” and “domestic homosexuality”.  Kerry has become an embarrassment.

  Next Ms Susan Rice,  already burnt by Benghazi,  has not been able to steer in a direction other than a self –destructive course of making pronouncement about ‘Liberating Libya, Egypt, Syria’ from so-called ‘dictators’.   She knows all too well that we, as a people,  have neither the will nor the military capacity to engage in destructive attacks as we did in Libya,  Egypt, and Syria.   Our interference made a mess in those countries.   Susan Rice has demonstrated a malignant incompetency fueled out of arrogance and ignorance.   Rice chose to surround herself with neophytes and blustering fools like Samantha Powers and Ben Rhodes, Deputy National Security Advisor.

  But who is really to blame for these foreign policy debacles?

We are! American people!

 

We accepted a Democratic candidate who happened to be black/white without vetting him or his wife and entourage.  Just because Geo Jr sucked,  we didn’t have to take Obama at face value.   Obama is the product of a CIA mother, maternal Grandmother and Maternal Grandfather.   He was recruited early on his life, went to the CIA college of choice,  if you are not every bright—Occidental College in Los Angeles.   I have known many an operative from that college.  Believe me, we owe Jimmy Carter a BIG THANK YOU for firing 4000 HUMINT personnel.

However,  like cockroaches,  the CIA reconstituted itself,  not with the bright and talented  but with the dregs of American intelligentsia.  This re-born CIA is oblivious to the proud heritage of Don Greg,  James Lilly, Paul Rodman et. al. 

This is why Obama, by birth and education demonstrates little ability to execute an effective strategy toward Putin.  Why antagonize when we could develop cooperative tech strategies, energy innovation or space exploration.  All Obama can do is make major pronouncements which amount to worldwide embarrassments for the American public and our military.   Examples: “red line”,  “sanctions”, “consequences” and “threats to leave G8” (whatever that means).   By contrast,  we have Putin who plays this chess game like a master.   He knows his chess board and can figure out his movement five steps ahead of anyone.

  Gone are the days when Sec State Henry Kissinger bluffed the Soviet Union into submission when Nixon was completely incapacitated.

  Gone are the days when Reagan/Bush Sr quietly implemented the dissolution of the Soviet Union.

Is there any leadership in the white house?  Give us a sign!

The tables have turned and  we,  Americans find ourselves in the humiliating position that Putin once found himself when the drunk incompetent Boris Yeltsin steered post-Soviet Russia into failure,  retreat and complete dysfunction.   We need some serious Americans in foreign policy!  otherwise we will continue to create dangerous blunders as we have in recent years.   Nor more Clintons (CIA), nor more Bushes (CIA) and no more Obamas (CIA) in the white house!  Americans must get rid of the chicken hawk shit stirrers and start to implement strategic long term policies that are mutually beneficial to all great powers.  Time is running out and America is losing its edge.