Out of the Mouths of Babes

While the mainstream media remains immersed in this stupid Clinton/Trump Twitter finger-poinitng on “he started it”/”no she started it”,  in regards to the President Obama birther issue, and we’re still titillated by General Colin Powell’s “#DickingBimbos, calling it like he sees it” personal emails leak, here’s what every American, especially our leaders need to be aware of and alarmed about. –

Russian active measures

Back in January 2013, I wrote a blog post, “Putin By A Mile”, where I mention a debate with the older of my two sons:

“Later one of my sons brought up a continuing discussion we’ve had for a long while now and finally I think he sees my point of view.  When I first mentioned to him that if  it came to picking Vladimir Putin vs Barack Obama for a hypothetical geopolitical competition , I’d pick Putin in a heartbeat.  When this conversation began a year or so ago, my son would list off all the “evils” that are Putin, such as the alleged polonium poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko (here) and his KGB  past.  The following is my reasoning for picking Putin.”

I went on to say:

“Here are  some of the things I considered.  This all goes back to something I mentioned in a previous post that I think  knowing people always trumps knowing “about” people.  Years ago, I read a book that I had signed out from our local library that was Putin’s first lengthy interview with a western reporter.  His answers provided clues to how he thinks about being a leader of his country and what his hopes and aspirations are for Russia”

And more of the same naive claptrap:

“While Putin’s actions do remain diametrically opposed to ours and most assuredly will produce future friction points, his actions make perfect strategic sense from the Russian viewpoint.  He aggressively has secured energy resources and engaged the US in nuclear arms wrangling where he certainly pushed and received the things that are advantageous to Russia.

Then we have Barack Obama where he refused to sign the Keystone Pipeline deal, he gave away too much in the nuclear arms dealing and he and Madame Secretary have made one after another terrible missteps, stabbing our allies in the back, while bowing and scraping to our adversaries.  He’s put us on the path to not only universal healthcare, but to being a universal third-rate bit player on the world stage.  If I were assessing how the strategic plane looks from others’ vantage points, I would wonder, “those stupid Americans, they don’t even have the national will to promote their own interests”.  And truly, any administration that utters a phrase like,”leading from behind” is worthy of only supreme contempt, in my opinion.

The ill-mannered TV reality urchin, Honey boo boo can keep Barack Obama, but as for me I’d pick Putin by a mile.”

Tonight my son was talking to me about Putin again and he knew from these many discussions over the years, that I had naive blinders on when it came to Putin, believing that the man who gave that first interview to a Western reporter, was the same man America is dealing with today.  I wasn’t seeing Putin as the very serious threat he is.  My son was right all along, as he’s been warning me, “Vladimir Putin is a very bad man!”… and I kept saying naive stuff,  like, “we should try to see the world from his eyes” and “at least he is a strong leader, looking out for Russian national interests”.

My son said, “Putin’s playing Alexander Dugin’s “Foundations of Geopolitics” perfectly.”

I had heard mention of this book, but didn’t really take it seriously.  My son told me he read it in Russian, while at college, and he hadn’t seen any English translation available online.  He told me about how a lot of hardline Russian nationalism was even apparent in Russia, 11 years ago, when he did a study abroad in Russia one summer.

I’ve been awakened in the past year to Russian actions dominating the world geopolitical sphere and usurping American influence around the world.

Of course, President Obama’s totally feckless and clueless foreign policy played right into the hands of all of America’s adversaries.

The book, “Foundations of Geopolitics: The Geopolitical Future of Russia”, written by Alexander Dugin and co-authored by General Nikolai Klokotov, in 1997, lays out an empire-building blueprint for Russia.   Wikipedia lays out a content listing of this book , which will give you an idea of Dugin’s Russian strategy. Wikipedia also states:

“Colonel General Leonid Ivashov, head of the International Department of theRussian Ministry of Defence, apparently advised in the project.^[1] Klokotov stated that in the future the book would “serve as a mighty ideological foundation for preparing a new military command.””

Here’s another link with the table of contents only (I have not located an English translation of the book itself). 

In 2004, John B. Dunlop, a Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, wrote an article, “Russia’s New—and Frightening—“Ism”. Dunlop writes:

“Few books published in Russia during the post-communist period have exerted such an influence on Russian military, police, and foreign policy elites as Aleksandr Dugin’s 1997 neo-fascist treatise Osnovy geopolitiki: Geopoliticheskoe budushchee Rossii(Foundations of Geopolitics: The Geo-political Future of Russia). The impact of this intended “Eurasianist” textbook on key Russian elites testifies to the worrisome rise of fascist ideas and sentiments during the late Yeltsin and the Putin periods.

Five years before President George W. Bush announced his “axis of evil,” Dugin had introduced three key neo-Eurasian axes: Moscow-Berlin, Moscow-Tokyo, and Moscow-Tehran. The basic principle underlying these three axes was said to be “a common enemy,” by which he meant the United States”

Dunlop continues further in the article on one of those axes:

“The most ambitious and complex part of Dugin’s program concerns the South, where the focal point is a Moscow-Tehran axis. “The idea of a continental Russia-Islamic alliance,” he writes, “lies at the foundation of anti-Atlanticist strategy. . . . This alliance is based on the traditional character of Russian and Islamic civilizations.” As the result of a broad Grand Alliance to be concluded with Iran, Russia-Eurasia will eventually enjoy realizing a centuries-old Russian dream of reaching the “warm seas” of the Indian Ocean. Russia is to enjoy “geopolitical access—in the first place, naval bases—on the Iranian shores.”

As the result of such an alliance, Dugin argues, Russia-Eurasia should be prepared to divide up the imperial spoils with “the Islamic Empire [of Iran] to the south.” Which part of the South should come under Russia? “What is the Russian South?” Dugin asks at one point in his book. He answers that it includes “the Caucasus [all of it],” “the eastern and northern shores of the Caspian,” “Central Asia [that is, all of the former Soviet republics],” plus Mongolia. Even these regions, he adds, should be seen “as zones of further geopolitical expansion to the south and not as ‘eternal borders of Russia.’” Turkey is seen as being almost as dangerous to Russia-Eurasia as are the United States and China. Turkish minorities must be provoked into rebellion, and there is a need, he stresses, to create “geopolitical shocks” within Turkey.”

Putin’s moves in Syria, in cahoots with the Iranians, is a key strategic  objective in the Dugin strategy. Above all else, according to the Wikipedia entry on Dugin’s “Foundations of Geopolitics”, is the strategic objective to:

“The book declares that “the battle for the world rule of [ethnic] Russians” has not ended and Russia remains “the staging area of a new anti-bourgeois, anti-American revolution.” The Eurasian Empire will be constructed “on the fundamental principle of the common enemy: the rejection of Atlanticism, strategic control of the USA, and the refusal to allow liberal values to dominate us.”[1]

Military operations play relatively little role. The textbook believes in a sophisticated program of subversion, destabilization, and disinformation spearheaded by the Russian special services. The operations should be assisted by a tough, hard-headed utilization of Russia’s gas, oil, and natural resources to bully and pressure other countries.[1]”

Further in the Wikipedia entry:

“The book emphasizes that Russia must spread Anti-Americanism everywhere: “the main ‘scapegoat’ will be precisely the U.S.”

In the United States:

Russia should use its special forces within the borders of the United States to fuel instability and separatism. For instance, provoke “Afro-American racists”. Russia should “introduce geopolitical disorder into internal American activity, encouraging all kinds of separatism and ethnic, social and racial conflicts, actively supporting all dissident movements – extremist, racist, and sectarian groups, thus destabilizing internal political processes in the U.S. It would also make sense simultaneously to support isolationist tendencies in American politics.”[1]”

So, I admit, that I, like many Americans (especially Donald Trump),  have been very naive about Putin, because this Moscow/Tehran axis is already threatening American forces.  AND  these email leaks sure seem like CYBER WARFARE, to undermine Americans’ faith in our electoral process.  All those blog posts of mine, about how the Clinton SPIN and the Obama NARRATIVES are part of an INFORMATION WARFARE strategy and antithetical to American free speech principles, well, I think I am right about that and I also think there’s a great deal of Russian influence in that information warfare.

Here again, perhaps, my son has a better sense of the problem.  He said we might not find all sorts of active agents or active willing accomplices working for the Russians.  He said the entire Democratic Party and liberals, with their constant anti-Americanism, are ready-made USEFUL IDIOTS.  He said Americans, due to celebrity cult worship and failure to study history, are a ready-made army of USEFUL IDIOTS.   Even the Russian interference in our election has been turned into a partisan debate, making it difficult to cut through these partisan blinders and get Americans to wake-up and see the threats beyond America.

In high school, I had a German/Russian teacher, who was a retired US Army translator.  He actually helped fuel my interest in military strategy, with his love of  WWII Army war footage, where he seemed to have the Army vault at his disposal.  He would explain all sorts of historical stuff and he knew a lot about Nazi propaganda.  I took 4 years of German and 2 of Russian (remember very little of either), but I remember in my Russian class, which consisted of me and a handful of boys, we decided to order these pins to wear, with Russian phrases in Cyrillic.  I don’t know what happened to those pins, but the one pin, I sure think fits this election better than Hillary’s “Stronger Together” or Trump’s “Make America Great Again”.

The pin said: Русские идут (The Russians Are Coming)