US lecturing Russia to ‘keep out of Western Hemisphere’ is hubris & hypocrisy on steroids

With US military assets scattered to the four corners of the planet, and entrenched on Russia’s border, Washington believes the world is a playground that no other nation may enter. This is arrogance at its finest.

Imagine how less complicated life would be if American statesmen only took the time to consult a world map before speaking publicly on global events. Had John Bolton, for example, performed this simple exercise he would have avoided appearing like the representative of a nation that is hell bent on conquering every square inch of real estate on planet Earth, or at least the real estate with proven oil reserves.

“The United States will not tolerate hostile foreign military powers meddling with the Western Hemisphere’s shared goals of democracy, security, and the rule of law,” the national security advisor tweeted this week in an apparent early morning bout of Napoleon complex. “The Venezuelan military must stand with the people of Venezuela.”

For those who haven’t been following the South American saga, the “hostile foreign military powers” that Bolton speaks of is none other than globetrotting Russia, which had the incredible audacity to dispatch two (2!) military planes and some 100 Russian specialists to beleaguered Venezuela. In other words, not exactly an invading army. Judging by the alarmist nature of Bolton’s tweet, however, where he actually gives a command to the Venezuelan military, it would appear as though Attila the Hun had just docked at Caracas with a million bloodthirsty warriors in tow.   

This brings us back to the importance of consulting maps. Had Bolton done some basic cartographic research on US and NATO operations worldwide, he would have been possibly, though doubtfully, struck with a sense of awe and even embarrassment by the sheer number of US-NATO flags piercing the paper landscape. Many of those flags, incidentally, are flapping wildly in faraway places like Poland, Latvia, and Romania, where a US missile defense shield “went live” in 2016 despite repeated warnings by Moscow that the system would have “an adverse effect on global stability.” Those warnings fell on deaf ears, as Vladimir Putin reminded the world last year with much aplomb.  

In cooperation with the 21-member NATO bloc, and under direct supervision of the US, those above mentioned countries regularly conduct massive military exercises – with cuddly, reassuring codenames, like Anaconda and Saber Strike – smack on Russia’s border, and despite the fact that Moscow has never ventured to lift so much as a finger against a single Western nation (A similar sort of threatening posture, by the way, is being taken against China).

Indeed, despite the Western media’s non-stop allusions to an “aggressive Russia” that just can’t quit its latent “imperial ambitions,” it is in fact NATO that looks determined to create a global empire.                           

Since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, and despite verbal assurances given to Mikhail Gorbachev, the Western military bloc has been encroaching on Russia’s sphere of influence with utter disregard for the consequences. When Moscow is forced to take the next logical step, which is to defend itself with new weapon systems, the United States throws a tantrum and withdraws from major arms reduction agreements, like the ABM and INF treaties. Meanwhile, the European vassal states, despite being in the firing line of any hypothetical future conflict, rarely rebuke Washington for its reckless actions. 

This dogged obedience by the European capitals allows Washington to carry on around the world as it sees fit, and without a hint of legality. By way of proof, one need only look at the Arc of Insanity that stretches across the Middle East and Central Asia. Once wholly functioning modern states, like Iraq and Libya, and to a lesser degree, Afghanistan, were methodically beaten into submission by the US-led Western powers. Syria was also perched on the precipice of annihilation until Russia entered the fray to lend its assistance in the battle against Islamic State. Strangely, however, NATO was not receptive to Moscow’s help in routing the terrorist menace, and in fact on several occasions the Western alliance acted like Islamic State’s private air force as Syrian government forces came under repeated attack by US-led airstrikes. So much for the “Western Hemisphere’s shared goals of democracy, security, and the rule of law,” as Bolton alluded to in his delusional tweet.

Although Donald Trump promised on the campaign trail that he would stop Washington’s rabid regime-change ways, it seems the temptation that has presented itself – just miles from US territory, in Venezuela, where sits the largest oil reserves in the world – is simply too great to resist, and more so for a businessman who has spoken casually in the past about seizing the oil of other countries.

So, now we are confronted with a surrealistic scenario where the US, with its 800 odd military franchises straddling the planet, is warning Russia not to meddle in the Western Hemisphere. It sounds like the punchline of a bad joke when nobody laughs. Trump contributed his share to global warming when he remarked that “all options are open” as far as dealing with Russia and its handful of specialists in Venezuela goes.

Here we have a situation where Russia is giving Washington a tiny dose of its own bitter medicine and the reaction was, as to be expected, extreme to say the least. That is because, more than any other place on the planet, South America has been the private hunting grounds for US policymakers, and to suddenly have Russia show up in the Western hemisphere and take a direct interest in Venezuela is just too much. It is no secret that the United States is pursuing regime change in Caracas against the democratically elected President Nicolas Maduro. Despite Venezuela having some of the most transparent elections in the world, with voting machines that provide physical receipts, the Trump administration has taken it upon itself to elect the Venezuelan president instead.

An estimated 80 percent of Venezuelans had never heard of Juan Guaido in January of this year, but that all changed when he got a phone call from US Vice President Mike Pence.

Suddenly, Guaido had gone from relative obscurity to the puppet leader of the Latin American country. The US media then swung into action, providing some bogus democratic credentials to bolster the image of Washington’s man in Caracas, who, by the way, has promised to open up Venezuela’s oil industry to foreign companies.                                                               

Now, in a page that appears torn straight out of Ukraine’s 2014 Maidan uprising tragedy, where the late US Senator John McCain told a crowd in Kiev “We are here to support your cause,” the puppet named Guaido has announced “tactical actions” that will start next week after a nationwide protest designed to topple Maduro. With any luck, the Venezuelan people will avoid, like the Syrian people managed to do with Russian intervention, the tragic fate that has struck down numerous sovereign states over the years that lacked the power to defend themselves. And with an additional stroke of luck, the United States and Russia will be able to avoid any accidental clashes that may result from yet another regime change attempt by the United States. 

It’s a painful expression to hear, but it is during dangerous times like these when we Americans would do well to heed the crude advice that has been uttered by millions of tormented people over the last two decades of US military misadventures: ‘Yankee go home!’

@Robert_Bridge

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The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of RT.