Comments on: Obama vs. Medvedev: Nuclear Chicken in Eastern Europe

By: Brad.

Brad. — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 03:14:45 +0000

An economic system will not change by replacing this president with another, this party with that party. Finance-Capital which is in shamble constitute the base of western industrialized countries like US. It has its character and can not be changed by advice. Those who do not believe it eventually will be taught by life. Recently I read this article and think it is useful:
http://www.left.ru/inter/2003/november/salari.html

By: Deadbeat

Deadbeat — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 22:37:12 +0000

Michael Kenny writes…

The Israel Lobby has no interest in a confrontation with Russia and Rahm Emanuel has been put there (I doubt if Obama had much choice!) to ensure that the Lobby gets what it paid for.

Now we’re talking. I think also why Europe was concern is that they are now a big consumer of Russian oil therefore antagonizing Russia is not in the Europe’s best interest.

UNK writes..
Michael Kenny, I’m not really sure if the Israel Lobby is really that relevant here.

Very much so. The Israeli military was involved in the training of the Georgian military and Israelis are also helping the Georgian with a pipeline to route oil through Georgia that would find its way to Israel.

By: Don Hawkins

Don Hawkins — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 21:08:10 +0000

Here is 20,000 reasons not go to war with Russia. Those nuclear winters can get very cold.

Today, over 20,000 nuclear weapons are maintained around the globe, more than 6,000 of which are on alert, ready for use in minutes or hours. As during the cold war, the United States and Russia maintain the vast majority of nuclear weapons—more than 95 percent of the world’s total. Union of Concerned Scientists

By: UNK

UNK — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 19:58:04 +0000

Very well written. True journalism, instead of an emotional fact-less rant. The Left needs more writing like this, if it wants to win any converts. Michael Kenny, I’m not really sure if the Israel Lobby is really that relevant here. There are plenty of other, more important, reasons not to go to war with Russia.
I don’t know if Obama will be able to find a way out of the missile defence shield. Although I am not a Leftist, I agree that is more harmful than beneficial.

By: Michael Kenny

Michael Kenny — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 19:05:24 +0000

The only thing that worries me is the slightly ominous tone of Mr Whitney’s article, as if some sort of war was a realistic possibility. It isn’t. Georgia proved that. If the neocons cut and ran in Georgia, Obama is certainly not going to be more hawkish than they, Rahm notwithstanding.

Indeed, Rahm is the key to the whole thing. The Israel Lobby “owns” Obama and a conflict with Russia isn’t in Israel’s interest. Russia doesn’t in any way threaten Israel and a conflict with it diverts American attention, military forces and money away from Israel and its interests. Equally, it annoys the rest of Europe and causes it to side with Russia and back away from the US. Israel needs Europe, more particularly the NATO structure, as a legal pretext for maintaining US forces and military supplies near to their territory. Like so much else, the neocons screwed this up by trying to terrify Europe into submission by fabricating a new cold war and attacking Russian democracy. The effect was, first, to make Europeans realise that NATO was useless and that they needed to look to the defence of the homeland and, second, to cause them to bend over backwards to accommodate Russia for fear that it might fall back into dictatorship. None of that suited the Israelis or their American backers.

The Israel Lobby has no interest in a confrontation with Russia and Rahm Emanuel has been put there (I doubt if Obama had much choice!) to ensure that the Lobby gets what it paid for.