Arctic Resource Wars?

In staking a claim to a large part of Arctic oil and gas reserves, Russia has fired the first shot of what may become known as Arctic Resource Wars.
The Bush Empire, willing to invent lies to justify killing for oil in the Middle East , will also pursue this new resource. Obviously a peaceful solution to opposing claims would be in the interests of all nations. But given US imperial war policies and the value of perpetual wars to the US economy and military-industrial complex, this will be viewed as an opportunity to expand the new US-Russia cold war and new nuclear arms race. That is the likely choice, rather than exploring the options for a peaceful solution.

Russian sub makes claim to resource-rich North Pole

Russian explorers dived deep below the North Pole in a submersible and planted a national flag on the seabed to stake a symbolic claim to the energy riches of the Arctic.
A mechanical arm dropped a specially made rust-proof titanium flag on to the Arctic seabed at a depth of 4261 metres under the surface, Itar-Tass news agency quoted expedition officials as saying.
Russia wants to extend right up to the North Pole the territory it controls in the Arctic, believed to hold vast reserves of untapped oil and natural gas.

Nuclear Power for NZ? No Thanks

For readers looking for pro-nuclear power arguments, Google has over 70,000 articles on this subject they may like to consider. You will also find on Google that there are 8,720,000 results for anti-nuclear power, almost 125 times as many against. . . .
. . . In our world of recurring wars, any nuclear installation can become a target. That could mean widespread radiation for centuries. It would destroy the country's agricultural export industry. That's butter, milk, meat, etc. Naturally the pro-nuclearists do not mention this factor, or play it down as unlikely, etc. in their propaganda.

As stated in other articles, stationing US missile defence systems on Russian borders, within old USSR satellite states, is a prescription for a new cold war that can quickly heat up and become World War III.
That and the US programme to militarize and dominate space will also start a new arms race.

What is a "unipolar" world?
It is a world in which there is one master, one sovereign--- one center of authority, one center of force, one center of decision-making. And at the end of the day this is pernicious not only for all those within this system, but also for the sovereign itself because it destroys itself from within.
It has nothing in common with democracy, which is the power of the majority in respect to the interests and opinions of the minority.

Relations are deteriorating between Russia and the US due to a number of factors explored by Mike Whitney in his following article. Both nations have their nuclear missiles on 'hair-trigger' alert status, ready to be launched at each other "by accident, miscalculation, act of madness" as President Kennedy warned in 1962, or today's accepted US Congressional legalised nuclear madness of an intentional pre-emptive surprise nuclear attack. Bush has his new nuclear doctrines in place to launch pre-emptive nuclear war at whoever his executive decides threaten the USA. Any excuse will do and no facts or proofs are needed. The Bush regime doesn't even have to follow its original lie-based script, but can innovate with new lies and excuses as it did with the Iraq War since 2003.

RAF fighter jets were scrambled to intercept two Russian strategic bombers heading for British airspace yesterday, as the spirit of the Cold War returned to the North Atlantic once again. The incident, described as rare by the RAF, served as a telling metaphor for the stand-off between London and Moscow over the murder of Alexander Litvinenko.” (Times Online, Richard Beeston; “RAF scrambles to intercept Russian bombers, 7-18-07)
   " Men are always wicked at bottom unless they are made good by some compulsion .” Niccoló Macchiavelli
   When a political heavyweight, like Henry Kissinger, jets-off on a secret mission to Moscow; it usually shows up in the news.   Not this time.

Placing US anti-missile defence systems in European countries is a multi-message to Russia, and another indication that the US is restarting the international arms race and a new cold war. If the US launches a pre-emptive nuclear war on Iran, as much expert testimony indicates, and it looks like it may go global, they may implement global pre-emptive nuclear strikes against some other nuclear weapon states. Bush, as Commander In Chief of US military forces, has the legal right (made law by Congress) to launch pre-emptive nuclear war. He may also introduce nuclear weapons into conventional weapon wars.

... It all sounds like the speech made by Colin Powell during his tenure as U.S. Secretary of State at a meeting of the U.N. General Assembly. In it, he argued Iraq had weapons of mass destruction and the world community was obliged to stop their proliferation and use. The upshot of all that is well known: Such weapons were never found anywhere in Mesopotamia.

Here is a UPI article that shows German enthusiasm for a US missile defence system. As might be expected, the German conservatives welcome a new arms race and cold war in Europe. By embracing Bush's and the media lies about an alleged threat from Iran, they have the flimsy excuse. In the short term they may hope for new opportunities for profits. In the long run it can lead to crippling wars, if not nuclear war. I would think that the lessons of history and the potential for far greater wars than World War II, would have taught the Germans some useful lessons. Apparently not.

Iran's latest claim that it is capable of enriching uranium on an industrial level has encouraged proponents of U.S. plans for a missile shield in Eastern Europe, but Moscow is still not amused. After Tehran's nuclear threats, members of German Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservatives even said more countries in Europe should think about participating in the U.S. anti-missile system.

This article by Gorbachev is the most comprehensive article on the subject of US attempts to sell missile defence to European countries. I am amazed that they seem to be buying this expensive and dangerous fraud. It means less independence for Europe, huge expenditure,  more US domination and agenda, and an increase in the likelihood of crippling wars. How could Europeans accept American lies and propaganda and do such a self-destructive act as install missile defence systems? It makes no sense particularly after they have had the example of US lying to justify their illegal war on Iraq with over 600,000 people killed

KALININGRAD, April 12 (RIA Novosti) - Deployment of U.S. missile-defense bases in Poland and the Czech Republic is an attempt by the U.S. to control Europe, the former Soviet president said Thursday. "It is all about influence and domination in Europe," Mikhail Gorbachev said. "I believe it is wrong that America did not even bother to consult its NATO allies."

Here is the fourth authoritative article showing how the US is starting a new cold war in Europe by installing missile defence systems in European nations.
Allegedly against Iran, the missile shields are aimed at Russia and are designed to frustrate a Russian missile response to a US pre-emptive nuclear strike...
We must recognise and confront these disastrous, very threatening developments and try to help stop the Bush Administration before it is too late.

Much of Europe is arguing over a Washington proposal to plant in Poland fewer than a dozen antimissile missiles that might not work, to guard against an Iranian threat that may not exist.

Russian Ex-Chief of Defence, General Ivashov's analysis is very similar to many articles on our website and in my comments. I think it is one of the most informed professional analysis so far of US intentions to nuclear bomb Iran. He even refers to a pretext or what many have referred to as a "False Flag" incident to get the Senate and Congress to give their approval for a nuclear attack on Iran. The article should convince people that now is the time to take action if they wish to prevent a US nuclear attack on Iran and all the disastrous consequences that can follow. I can't see any effective action or purpose in protest after such an attack when casualties are already in the millions with perhaps many more to come.

In the overall flow of information coming from the Middle East, there are increasingly frequent reports indicating that within several months from now the US will deliver nuclear strikes on Iran. For example, citing well-informed but undisclosed sources, the Kuwaiti Arab Times wrote that the US plans to launch a missile and bomb attack on the territory of Iran before the end of April, 2007. The campaign will start from the sea and will be supported by the Patriot missile defense systems in order to let the US forces avoid a ground operation and to reduce the efficiency of the return strike by “any Persian Gulf country”. Strategic Cultural Foundation (Russia)

In answer to U.S. Ambassador Swindells (July 5) the theory that humanity must exist under the threat of global nuclear destruction for reasons of security was rejected by New Zealanders when they enacted the Nuclear Free Act in 1987. In spite of the end of the cold war, why do Russia and the U.S. still have thousands of nuclear missiles ready for instant launch against each other.

Uzbekistan dictator Islam Karimov's army, which last Friday opened fire on thousands of unarmed protesters in Andijan, in the Ferghana Valley, has been showered by Washington in the past few years with hundreds of millions of dollars (US$200 million in 2002 alone) - all on behalf of the "war on terror".
So you won't see the White House, or Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, hammering Karimov. You won't hear many in Washington calling for free elections in Uzbekistan. The former strongmen of color-coded, "revolutionary" Georgia, Ukraine and Kyrgyzstan were monsters who had to be removed for "freedom and democracy" to prevail. So is the dictator of Belarus. Not Karimov. He's "our" dictator: the Saddam Hussein of Central Asia is George W Bush's man.

All but unheard in the snarling din are the true voices of peace -- voices calling on the one group of nations to resist the demonic allure of nuclear arms and on the other group to rid themselves of the ones they have, leaving the world with a single standard: no nuclear weapons. Of the countries represented at the conference, fully 183 have found it entirely possible to live without atomic arsenals, and few -- barring a breakdown of the treaty -- show any sign of changing their minds. In the UN General Assembly the vast majority of them have voted regularly for nuclear abolition. Behind those votes stand the people of the world, who, when asked, agree. Even the people of the United States are in the consensus. Presented by AP pollsters in March with the statement, "No country should be allowed to have nuclear weapons," 66% agreed. In other countries, the percentage of supporters is higher. On the day their voices are heard and their will made active, the end of the nuclear age will be in sight.     www.tomdispatch.com - May 23rd edition

As the Nobel winners point out, nuclear extinction could happen in an hour - by accident. And this state of instant readiness has been going on for years. As many experts have said, a global holocaust has almost happened several times due to faults in the system, human error, miscalculation and misinterpretations of incoming data.

32 Nobel Laureates and 237 organizations and parliamentarians from around the world have signed a Statement of Endorsement that calls for removing all strategic nuclear weapons from "hair-trigger alert and "Launch on Warning" status. In addition the Statement has been endorsed by the European Parliament and by the Australian Senate.

Pentagon transformation is well underway. The U.S. military is increasingly being converted into a global oil protection service. Secretary of War Donald Rumsfeld has a "strategy guy" whose job is to teach this new way of warfare to high-level military officers from all branches of services and to top level CIA operatives. Thomas Barnett is a professor at the Navy War College in Rhode Island. He is author of the controversial book The Pentagon’s New Map that identifies a "non-integrating gap" in the world that is resisting corporate globalization. Barnett defines the gap as parts of Latin America, Africa, Middle East and Central Asia all of which are key oil-producing regions of the world.

..... These forces are not based on lunatic religious beliefs, but rationally-based on the profits, power and prestige that draw people into the 'military - industrial - political - academic - corporate - media' complex. This is a hugely powerful force. Although it is rationally-based, it is blind to the trends and disastrous consequences of it's own behaviour or how it is used to implement the lunatic religious agenda.

We are moving toward a key fiery moment, and one that carries within it the potential for conflagration. 
As I see them, the key issues are:  Little Men and Power at All Cost
You will add you own realisations here, but the two \'little men\' of the moment are Bush and Putin. 
Small physically and with very different personalities, they have highly significant features in common:
-  They rule using fear

Pipelineistan revisited       by Pepe Escobar
A dreamer would see harmony between Russia, the United States and China in a sensible exploitation of Central Asia's massive oil and gas and minerals. Unfortunately, the cold reality is that there is simply too much at stake for each country for this ever to happen.

The Threat of Loose Nukes is One of Our Own Making
Nuclear terrorism, thankfully, is still only a specter, not a reality. But the recent wave of bloodshed in Russia underscores the urgency of the need to prevent terrorists capable of indiscriminate slaughter from acquiring nuclear bombs.
To its credit, the Bush administration has finally launched an ambitious initiative to better secure nuclear and radiological materials, particularly in violence-racked Russia. But unless the Global Threat Reduction Initiative, which was introduced in May, becomes part of a far more comprehensive approach to the challenges of nuclear theft and terrorism, it is destined to fall well short of its goal of safeguarding the American people from the threat of nuclear weapons.

Moscow: Russian television has broadcast the first remarkable pictures from inside the Beslan school during the hostage-taking, showing the masked captors who took over - and bombs tied to basketball hoops in the gym.

President Vladimir Putin attacked the West for calling on Russia to seek political dialogue with Chechen separatists in the wake of last week's school hostage siege in which at least 335 died - half of them children.
Putin also ruled out holding a public inquiry into the storming of the Beslan school after a three-day stand-off with rebels who demanded Chechnya's independence.

President Putin has drawn a line in the mountains of the North Caucasus beyond which Russia will not withdraw.
His insistence that there can be no surrender to demands for independence for Chechnya is based on a number of factors which include: ......

Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov said
"Personally, I don't see any threat to Russia's safety from the construction in the US of the first missile silos in its anti-missile defense system," Interfax quoted Ivanov as saying during a visit to a military base in the Caucasian region of North Ossetia.

Hear ye, hear ye: Russia tells us Washington is its partner in the fight against international terrorism.
Tell that to Qatar, I say, where Russian agents were convicted last week of one brazen act of such terrorism.
Russian terror, directed at the people of Chechnya, did not begin in recent years, say, in 1994 when Russian troops entered the republic to quash its independence movement, and killed up to 100,000 people.

"This fuel is of great interest to terrorists, so the program is quite significant," said Daniil Kobyakov, a nonproliferation expert at the PIR Center, an independent policy research organization in Moscow.

Central Asian Oil - renewing major US-Russian rivalry?
A dreamer would see harmony between Russia, the United States and China in a sensible exploitation of Central Asia's massive oil and gas and minerals. Unfortunately, the cold reality is that there is simply too much at stake for each country for this ever to happen.