Handshakes and diplomacy belie America’s new Cold War

Handshakes and diplomacy belie America’s new Cold War
Finian Cunningham – 12 May, 2013 – Strategic Culture Foundation

US Secretary of State John Kerry’s visit to Russia seems to herald renewed cordial relations between the former archrivals of Washington and Moscow.

The agreement to broker a peace conference on Syria appeared to signal that the two powers were prepared to bury the hatchet over a major geopolitical conflict. But, beneath the patina of diplomatic smiles and handshakes conveyed by Kerry to President Vladimir Putin and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, the ominous signs are that Washington is in fact ratcheting up a new Cold War of antagonism.

Within days of leaving his Russian hosts, Kerry was already undermining the supposed peace proposal on Syria. While the initial agreement in Moscow talked about convening a conference between the Syrian government of President Bashar al Assad and various opposition groups to chart a transition from that country’s 26-month-old conflict, Kerry is now telling other world leaders and media that Assad cannot be part of any solution.

For a start, who is Washington to dictate anything about the sovereign internal affairs of Syria? Especially given its genocidal warmongering credentials newly minted from Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya.

But that basic moral point aside, the immediate backsliding by America over Syria to set up stumbling preconditions is a disturbing echo of the Geneva accord signed by all members of the UN Security Council last June, which also called then for a transition process involving the participation of Assad; the Americans promptly reneged on that deal, thus fuelling months of more violence.

This American duplicity over Syria, no doubt reinforced by British premier David Cameron’s follow-up sniveling visit to Russia, should sound alarm bells about the supposed renewed cordial relations between Washington and Moscow.

Recent events need to be interpreted in a bigger historical picture in order to fully appreciate the underlying dynamic of diplomatic overtures.

Shortly after the Boston Marathon bombing last month, one apparent positive outcome from the mayhem was the reported cooperation between Russian and American security intelligence over the incident.

That outcome was partly because the two suspected bombers, the Tsarnaev brothers, were reportedly of Chechen origin and were being linked in much Western media coverage to Chechen militant groups. Moscow has been battling Chechen armed separatists in its Caucasus region on and off for more than two decades. Thus it appeared that the US and Russia were finding common cause in the much-vaunted «war on terror». In gratitude for Russian intelligence cooperation, US President Barack Obama said that «old suspicions» between the rival powers were giving way to a new era of mutual assistance.

The precise motivation of the alleged Boston bombers is not known. They could well turn out to be unwitting pawns in an elaborate false flag event masterminded by the CIA, FBI and so-called Homeland Security to justify further police-state powers in the US.

However, in the fallout from Boston, Washington seems to be using that event and alleged Chechen circumstances to inveigle Moscow into warmer diplomatic relations. The purpose for those warmer relations would appear to be Washington attempting to undermine Russia’s alliance with Syria and to isolate the Assad government in Damascus. That objective has taken on greater urgency especially since the US-led criminal proxy war in Syria seems to be foundering in its aim for regime change.

But let’s step back a bit. The purported rationale of renewed US cooperation with Russia as a result of alleged Boston terrorism does not bear up to closer scrutiny in the light of more ominous developments – developments that indicate that Washington, far from trying to bury a hatchet with Russia, is in reality embarking on a new Cold War of hostility. …more