The Meaning of Russia In Crimea and Beyond, Part II Reinventing The Cold War

Charles E. Carlson

President Obama has assured us that US intervention into the affairs of Russia and its neighboring Ukraine will not affect or endanger us, and that we have little economic stake in either country.  Yet, he is asking Congress to appropriate more than one billion dollars for aid to the new government of Ukraine, just installed by an armed coup led by the Maidan People’s Union.  Mr. Obama explained his reason:  to make the world a better place and to punish Russia for its aggression.  This is much the same argument used by his predecessors from the Bush family for going into, first, Iraq, then Afghanistan.  President Obama has  a peace-based campaign history, so he can only be yielding to the powerful war lobby.

This writer asserted some years ago, and has repeated often: ”America’s economy is war- based, which is why we have so many.”  This is the beginning text from our film, Christian Zionism, The Tragedy and the Turning, which has recently been awarded a best foreign film award at a film fair in Iran, probably because everyone in the Middle East knows, the business of the US is war. Tragedy and Turning exposes the American Christians’ role in it. (1)

Many before us have tried to warn of the war lobby.  Retiring President, General Dwight D. Eisenhower, called it “The Military-Industrial Complex.”  He worked all his life for this establishment, but he exposed it for the first time in his 1961, farewell address: “In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military–industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists, and will persist. We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals” (2)

George F. Kennan, did not wait to retire, he quit a distinguished diplomatic career after the Korean war, resigning from the State Department in disgust in 1950, over America’s conduct in Korea and the first Cold War.  Kennan wrote prolifically for the rest of his life, and in his preface to Norman Cousins’s 1987 book, The Pathology of Power, he warned us: “Were the Soviet Union to sink tomorrow under the waters of the ocean, the American military–industrial complex would have to remain, substantially unchanged, until some other adversary could be invented. Anything else would be an unacceptable shock to the American economy.”

Keegan also left insight into his soul and life purpose, as he wrote in, At a Century’s Ending:  “This habitat, the natural world around us, is, as you know, the house the Lord gave us to live in.  It’s the house we were intended to live in.  It’s the house in which man’s struggle was meant to take place and has taken place over the course of the ages.  And, it is the house in which God’s purpose will be fulfilled…Now we can not, of course, alone preserve peace.  Our Russian friends and adversaries will have to make their contribution, too.  But what we can do is to do all in our power to preserve it and promote it.  This we owe to the preservation of civilization.”(3)

We are indeed grateful to  Kennan who confirmed that we live in a war-based economy.  His words about Russia should shake us by the collar.  It took fewer than five years after the Soviet Union collapsed for the military–industrial (banking) complex to start its War On Islam, the war To Replace The Cold War.  The powerful USA Military annihilation of Iraq’s pathetically primitive army in the desert of Kuwait in early 1991, started it.  Now, 23 years later, we are returning to face the reconstructed Russia.

If Keenan and Eisenhower were alive today, they would likely tell us America should offer nothing but diplomacy to the Eurasian conflict in Crimea and Ukraine.  We have no more business interfering in Ukraine than if China decided to sanction the USA because of a border or immigration dispute we might have with Mexico!  Russia does have an vital interest there, its trade with Ukraine is nearly equal to Ukraine’s trade with the rest of the world combined! (4)

USA trade with Ukraine is nominal, as President Obama correctly assured us, in a speech on March 26, that Americans have nothing to win or lose in Ukraine.  But we do have much to lose from the dollar cost of wars, that have created more hatred of Americans around the globe.  Our President seems to ignore what the USA is some $17 trillion in debt, largely because his predecessors from both parties have yielded to the war lobby.

 Israel and American Ziochristians’ Role

We were not the first to use the term “Christian Zionism,” but we certainly  arrived at the first, best definition of it:  “It is the belief that the State Of Israel is a Biblical promise from God, fulfilling prophesy.”  Those who practice this errant belief are Ziochristians, conveying that they become Zionists first, with Christian tagged on.

Many millions of Ziochristians have been influenced by Israel’s lobby to support every war Israel desires, as well as its occupation of the land of the Philistines.  The blood of Iraqis, Afghans, Egyptians, Libyans, Syrians and Philistines is on Ziochristian hands, and, on all of our hands to the extent we knew, and did nothing.  Now we are being asked to support a Neo-Cold War already beginning in Ukraine, with USA sanctions against Russian people.

Some of us served time in the military during the original anti-Russian adventure.  We knew, we saw military waste, and some of us became pro-peace!  The best place to find Americans who can help stop the Neo-Cold war is in mainline churches where their faith calls them to peace, if they will only listen to the words they say they live by. Some 40 to 50 million have not been misled to believe warring Israel is a god figure, nor, are they influenced by the un-Christlike evil of “Islamophobia.” Christian Zionism is explained in the 32 minute video, Tragedy and Turning.

The State of Israel’s involvement in a new, Neo-Cold War will, I suspect, be behind the scenes and largely hidden from view.   Israel may already be involved in hidden terrorist acts to upset Ukraine.  Because Russians are historically thought of as “Christian,” the USA-Israel team will not be able to say they are starving and killing Russians (or Ukrainians) because they are hated Muslims.  Israel’s contribution to the Military Industrial Complex has been to whip the American grass roots into support of, what is perceived ,religious wars that are good for Israel, the world’s instructor for Islamophobia.

It appears Israel has changed its tactics in Ukraine.  We can already see change by reading its daily newsletters, one of which is from Unity Coalition For Israel (UCFI).  Its latest theme is that Obama is a weakling who will not stand up to Russia, and needs to be goaded toward war. UCFI‘s feature by Daniel Greenfield titled,  “Obama’s Appeasement Leads to War,” states:  “Every liberal today wants peace. Every diplomat wants to be a peacemaker. But their brand of peace, whether it is the negotiations with Russia, China, Iran, North Korea or Palestinian terrorists, is worthless. The only peace that counts is the one protected by the men of the Strategic Air Command who live the knowledge that the profession of peace can only be practiced with the tradecraft of war.” (5)

Unity Coalition For Israel scoffs at peace without war.  And, UCFI is not just any organization of loud Zionists, it is an Israeli agency masquerading as a volunteer organization.  It is the Godfather of Christians United For Israel (CUFI), and its stated purpose is to influence evangelical Christians.

The US-Israeli war machine should not influence Christ followers, who should be seekers of peace. Jesus Christ’s teachings are, blessed are the peacemakers, love your brother, even your enemy, turn the other cheek. There is no reprisal and retribution anywhere in Jesus’ words.  There is no room for practicing “the tradecraft of war,” that UCFI teaches. It is the military–industrial (banking) complex, whose trade is war.

Last week President Binyamin Netanyahu, speaking to Israel’s Knesset about a recent Israeli killing raid on a target in the Golan Heights, boasted: “We hurt those who hurt us.”  How different from Jesus words, Love your brother, even your enemy, and “turn the other cheek.”  In Ukraine we need not do either, we just need to stay at home and look after our own many problems, including economic ones.

As President Eisenhower warned us, “We should take nothing for granted.” Not from ambitious men including Obama, Bush and Clinton.  Let us also keep watch on how our supposed ally, Israel, markets its new message of war through Christians United for Israel into the evangelical churches.

Foreign press has reported that Israeli military mercenaries will be, and have already operated inside Ukraine.   It is also reported that US, Backwater mercenaries are already in Ukraine. If so, Russia will have no choice but to occupy or annex the Ukraine to protect its thousands of miles of pipelines. If this vast pipeline system is occupied or sabotaged.  Russia cannot back out.

Conclusion:

A typical Christian response to this story came from a young woman who visited Russia seven years ago on a Christian mission trip.  Incredulously she asks, “Why would our President do that to Russia?”  

Most of us have yet to accept that war is a business for those who control our political leaders.  Ukraine is a new money game for them.  No one wants to believe Barack Obama would start sanctions that obviously might lead to war for the sake of the war lobby.  To believe this requires one to understand that our President is some sort of puppet whose moves are called out for him like an NFL quarterback with a head set in his helmet.  Obama is so forceful, seemingly so independent, why would he allow himself to be used?

Yes, Americans have been marched into every war for three generations, led by those who foment war for the sake of war itself.  Sad, but true and as George Keenan told us, without war, our economy can no longer exist in present form.  Understanding this, many of our pragmatist friends will go along.   “I guess its better to have war than depression,” one said.  But in truth the financial bubble created by each new war only forestalls the economic inevitable. Our economy is held up by a froth of bubbles, and many of us will live to see it burst.  The rest of the world knows it, even if we do not.

Charlie Rose grilled Russian Ambassador to the UN, Vilaly Churkin on Rose’s  PBS show last week.  Rose repeatedly challenged President Putin’s intent, and Russia’s financial strength to withstand the new sanctions being placed on Russia by our President and Congress.  Churkin, irritated by the repetitions, finally retorted with mild sarcasm:  “You are scaring the hell out of me, Charlie…why don’t you do something about your national debt…this (USA) is a financial bubble…we (Russia) do not have national debt.” This exchange brought the interview to an end!

Popular resistance to more serial wars is needed from a legitimate, spiritual and morally fired up, anti-war movement.  It must place saving lives and averting the eventual destruction of our way of life, ahead of temporary comforts our war based system has provided to us. That means sacrifice.  That resolve will be best found inside America’s mainline churches, perhaps as many as 50,000 of them.  Some are  beginning to awaken to the tragedy of warring.  How about you?

NOTES: (1) 32 minute film: Christian Zionism:  http://vimeo.com/59933668)

(3 ) At a Century’s ending 1985-1997, George F. Kennan, 1982-1991, http://books.google.com/books?id=60D6qQGjMdsC&pg=PA118#v=onepage&q&f=false

(4)Ukraine trade:  http://www.bloomberg.com/visual-data/best-and-worst/ukraines-biggest-trading-partners-countries

(5) “Obama’s Appeasement Leads to War,” Daniel Greenfield, UCFI, 3/13/2014::  http://unitycoalitionforisrael.org/uci_2014/?p=6377

The Meaning of Russia In Crimea Part I, Charles E. Carlson: https://whtt.org/the-meaning-of-russia-in-crimea-and-beyond/#more-3329