I never thought that I would agree with Tony Blair about anything

Much like a stopped clock, Tony Blair is right once every couple decades.

The world, Blair said, was at a turning point in history comparable with the end of World War Two or the collapse of the Soviet Union: but this time the West is clearly not in the ascendant.

"We are coming to the end of Western political and economic dominance," Blair said in a lecture entitled "After Ukraine, What Lessons Now for Western Leadership?" according to a text of the speech to a forum supporting the alliance between the United States and Europe at Ditchley Park west of London.

"The world is going to be at least bi-polar and possibly multi-polar," Blair said. "The biggest geo-political change of this century will come from China not Russia."

Agreeing with anything Tony Blair has to say leaves me feeling troubled and slightly dirty. But when he speaks the truth, if only by accident, then it needs to be acknowledged.
Russia simply has too small of an economy, and too many enemies, to become a new political/economic power. However, it can and probably will become an important partner with China. This new realignment will begin around the same time that the Ukraine crisis ends.

While the coming economic crisis in Europe, partly caused by Russia turning off the natural gas taps, will likely caused a break in the EU, NATO will likely see itself break even earlier.

The senator told the Greek news agency that the United States would sell military equipment to those who share its values, “not just for financial gain,” and listed a number of problems on which Ankara should change its behavior and attitude. Among them are the issue of acquiring Russia’s S-400 system, flights over the Greek islands, Turkey’s close relations with Russia, and human rights violations, including the imprisonment of journalists and lawyers.

Menendez added that the list of outstanding issues is long, and they must be resolved in order to achieve the sale and modernization of the F-16 jets, but he had not yet seen the readiness of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to take any of these steps, the news agency reported.

I love it when we lecture other nations about "values", like "human rights" or "war crimes", and then we tell them they have "problems with their behavior".
As hard as it is to believe, I really do think that these politicians and pundits don't recognize the hypocrisy of these statements.

The United States is opposed to a possible military operation by Turkey in northern Syria, US Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for the Middle East Dana Stroul said.

“We strongly oppose any Turkish operation into northern Syria and have made clear our objections to Turkey specifically because ISIS [Islamic State terror group, banned in Russia] is going to take advantage of that campaign and not to mention the humanitarian impact,” Stroul said on Wednesday.

Ah yes. We are very worried about the "humanitarian impact" in Syria. A nation in which we have funded and armed head-chopping jihadists for over a decade, that we are illegally occupying a third of the nation in order to steal it's resources, and are now conducting a brutal economic blockade of energy, food and medicine.
After killing probably millions of people in the region over the last 30 years, we are suddenly concerned about the people there.

“The sale of American advanced fighter jets to Turkey will not incentivize Erdoğan to suddenly transform into a good ally,” Pallone said. “More likely these weapons will lead to further death and destruction in the region.”

It makes me wonder how much longer Turkey will want to be part of NATO, when it's a second-class member? India, which isn't part of NATO or an organization like NATO, gets treated better than Turkey.

On Thursday, the US House of Representatives passed a legislative amendment to the National Defence Authorisation Act (NDAA) by voice vote. The amendment paves the way for an India-specific waiver against the Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA) sanctions -- a tough law that authorises the US government to impose sanctions on countries that purchase major defence hardware from Russia.

CAATSA became a sticking point in the India-US ties after New Delhi inked a deal to secure the S-400 missile defence system from Russia. The US had been mulling whether to apply or waive CAATSA sanctions on India over the Russian deal, especially after Moscow's invasion of Ukraine this year.

That's the exact same weapon system that we are punishing Turkey for buying. What makes it OK for India that isn't OK for Turkey? Money.

"Naturally this is a requirement which the United States wants. It would be curious if they were to give a waiver if the other country was going on expanding its relationship with Russia. So India, for its own reasons, is diversifying from somewhere like 70 per cent to get to 58-60 per cent dependence on Russia and also increasing its purchases of US weaponry. So I think this is in tune with the requirements of the waiver probation," Sarna said.
Share
up
17 users have voted.

Comments

Pluto's Republic's picture

The war criminal, Tony Blair, personally conspired with George Bush and Colin Powell to create fake documents that falsely show Iraq to have acquired weapons of mass destruction.

Agreeing with anything Tony Blair has to say leaves me feeling troubled and slightly dirty. But when he speaks the truth, if only by accident, then it needs to be acknowledged.

More like Blair admits the inevitable truth. His views are irrelevant to the coming world.

Russia simply has too small of an economy, and too many enemies, to become a new political/economic power. However, it can and probably will become an important partner with China. This new realignment will begin around the same time that the Ukraine crisis ends.

Russia does have a small number of actual enemies that have had confrontations with Russia. There is also a crowd of vassal states (under US protection) pretending to be enemies of Russia. Very few nations have signed on to sanctions against Russia.

Neither Russia nor China think of themselves as "partners." If Russia has a role in the multipolar world, it will be on its own merits, independent of China.

Will the "Ukraine crisis" end any time soon? I think the US will be poking Zelansky with a stick until there is nothing left of Ukraine. The US goal is to weaken Russia, not to save Ukraine. The constant provoking of Russia will continue while the US is preparing for its attack on China.

up
17 users have voted.

____________________

The political system is what it is because the People are who they are. — Plato

@Pluto's Republic

until there is nothing left of Ukraine" Perhaps you are right in your belief of the purported
stick poking by US/NATO/EU/UK is for the purpose of weakening Russia. Unfortunately for
the pokers, the results are not having the desired results. The damages being done to the
economies of the Western Bloc are far greater than to the Red Bear. The Bloc is now stuck
in a financial/political/military trap which is draining their resources and moral status.

I think the majority of the world is able to see thru this 'peacekeeping' force.

up
9 users have voted.

@QMS
It seems that the entire world would need to be ‘softened up’, by the global economic chaos that would ensue with a sudden collapse of the dollar. Who in their right mind would embrace a global, non democratic, totalitarian New World Order unless their house and their pants were on fire?

The “own goal” self harm may be quite deliberate, including the collapse of the good old U S of A.

up
9 users have voted.

Capitalism is the extraordinary belief that the nastiest of men for the nastiest of motives will somehow work for the benefit of all."
- John Maynard Keynes

Shahryar's picture

@Pluto's Republic

whenever Tony Blair is right it's for the wrong reasons and therefore, I believe, still wrong. Just like that 2nd amendement with its "well regulated" bit, if Tony Blair is right it's because something's been left out.

up
5 users have voted.

this good old American bi partisan foreign policy. Doesn't matter who is in charge. Noble sounding platitudes, a shiv in the back for somebody and money under the table. Nice little country you have there, shame if something happened to it. Oh, and here, take this bag of money as a sign of friendship, just between us, ok?

up
8 users have voted.

If you look at Russia's economy in PPPGDP and look at the real useful output it's larger than Germany and smaller than Japan, but not by much. It's military strength is acknowledged to be second in the world, with some clear firsts in tech, e.g. hypersonic. It's the largest country, by far with the greatest resources. Want gas, oil, wheat, aluminum, titanium, fertilizer, etc, better talk to Russia. No nation has as good a relations with as many diverse non-western nations. Xi and Putin are brothers in their global outlooks. I think that Russia plays a critical role in global politics and it will only get larger. Look at what Russia is going to do to Europe this Fall and Winter.

The fossil fuel economy issue is a fallacy. It amounts to 16% of the total economy. If yoy look it up online you will get "40% of the budget". Yeah, the federal budget uses taxes on fossil fuels, which allows for an flat income tax of 13%. Eat your heart out. For that you get universal Healthcare, a college education and lots of guaranteed rights. So the statement that Russia is a gas station pretending to be a country is pure bullshit.
It's amusing to me how ineffective the "sanctions from hell" have been. But that's exactly what I would have predicted. The Ruble is the best performing currency in the world. In June Russia had Deflation, and it's expected to continue through July and August. The economy is picking up pace with increased loans to business. How is this going to work out as the West crashes? Russia spent 8 years decoupling from the US and Europe. They did a good job.

up
7 users have voted.

Capitalism has always been the rule of the people by the oligarchs. You only have two choices, eliminate them or restrict their power.

@The Wizard

Russia spent 8 years decoupling from the US and Europe.

Russia and China started the project of decoupling in 2009. Right after Wall Street blew up the global financial system, and Russia had that mini-war with Georgia.
But it certainly picked up speed after 2014. About five years ago China started taking it seriously.

up
8 users have voted.