Authored by Eric Zuesse,
Foreign policy is both economic and military. An interpretation of U.S. President Barack Obama’s foreign policy will be presented here that explains both his economic and his military decisions to-date, and that shows he’s been carrying out the policies of his predecessors in office.
Operation Barbarossa 2 – As the U.S. makes preparations to face a Russian threat in eastern Europe and Syria, Russia feels that the past is about to repeat itself and sees an invasion plan in place that looks very much like Nazi Germany’s build up of forces prior to Operation Barbarossa. Except this time, Russia is different from the former Soviet Union and the Nazis and their allies are the Americans and their friends in Ukraine and the Islamic State.
Last Monday, Washington and Moscow hailed an agreement that would see a temporary cessation of hostilities in Syria.
The “ceasefire” went into effect on Saturday and so far, so good. “Clashes and airstrikes across western Syria largely abated Saturday morning, as an internationally backed truce took hold in parts of the country where rebels have been fighting the regime,” WSJ reported this morning. Although the SAA apparently hit a few rebel positions east of Damascus, overall, “it was a calm morning.”
NATO Supreme Commander Philip Breedlove has accused Russia of deliberately becoming an adversary of the West, and has warned that Russia poses an “existential threat” to the U.S. and the Western world. U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter added fuel to the fire by accusing Russia of intimidating its neighbours, saying that he doubts Moscow is committed to strategic stability on nuclear weapons. Both of these anti-Russian views were given by Carter and Breedlove in testimony before two congressional committees on February 25, reflecting the growing anti-Russian mood in Washington and Europe.
On Thursday night the U.S. test-fired its second intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) in the last seven days, as a clear warning to Russia that America is prepared to use a nuclear missile against Russia in the future. The Minuteman III missile was fired from the Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, racing across the sky at 15,000 mph before landing 30 minutes later at Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands of the South Pacific.