Finally, some common sense!
A Leader of the Same Caliber as Putin Desperately Needed in US – US Analyst
http://sputniknews.com/politics/20151017/1028680362/us-needs-new-leader-putin-russia.html
A leader of the caliber of Vladimir Putin is desperately needed in the United States, US political analyst Caleb Maupin underscores, drawing parallels between the Russian leader and American Presidents Abraham Lincoln and Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
The dismantling of the USSR orchestrated by pro-western Wall Street puppets in the Yeltsin regime had catastrophic consequences for Russia and its neighboring countries: they were teetering on the brink of economic and political chaos, New York-based journalist and political analyst Caleb Maupin narrates.
This was the time when Vladimir Putin stepped up to lead the country.
"Putin is absolutely Russian, and his style of leadership draws from the vibrant and unique history of his country. However, some key aspects of his leadership style are not foreign to the United States. Two leaders, Abraham Lincoln and Franklin Delano Roosevelt, could certainly be described as 'Putinists,' if such a thing as 'Putinism' exists," Maupin emphasized in his article for New Eastern Outlook.
Indeed, during the first eight years of the Putin administration order was largely restored, the average wage has more than doubled, unemployment reduced dramatically, while industrial output increased by 125%.
Furthermore, "between 2007 and 2014, the Russian Gross Domestic Product increased from $764 billion to $2096.8 billion," the analyst noted.
In much the same spirit, in the mid-1800s Abraham Lincoln mobilized the country to fight against the slave-owners and restore economic and political order.
"Both the Russian oligarchs who oppose Putin and the slaveholders who opposed Lincoln had a powerful ally: Wall Street," the US journalist remarked.
Like Putin, Abraham Lincoln was not a Marxist or a socialist, but he was highly critical of capitalists who refused and were unwilling to shoulder the burden of social and financial responsibility.
On the other hand, Putin's style of management has much in common with that of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the 32nd President of the United States.
"In 1933, Franklin Delano Roosevelt took office, much like Putin, with his country in a state of economic ruin, reeling from the after-effects of the 1929 stock-market crash… Like Putin, Roosevelt mobilized the government sector to rescue the economy. Roosevelt passed the Glass-Steagall Act, preventing bankers from gambling with other people's money. Roosevelt began heavily taxing the wealthiest people in the United States, using the funds to hire the unemployed," Maupin elaborated.
Like Roosevelt and Lincoln, Putin comes under fierce criticism from Western plutocracy, being at the same time widely popular among its people.
Today Vladimir Putin is leading the fight against the Islamic State in Syria. However, Russia's involvement in Syria is not supported by Washington political elite who have been waging its "perpetual" war on terror in the Middle East for decades.
"The reality is that the wealthy ruling class of the United States has no interest in defeating ISIS [ISIL]. The real objective of US policy in Syria since long before 2011 has always been to overthrow the Syrian Arab Republic, a stable, anti-imperialist country with a heavily planned economy," Maupin explained.
The Islamic State originated as a faction of the anti-government terrorists who were funded by the United States and Gulf monarchies.
Washington's anti-ISIL airstrikes have been "virtually meaningless" and completely ineffective. Moreover, they were launched without the permission of the Syrian government — the only legitimate representative of the Syrian people.
In contrast, Russia stepped in in response to the official request of Damascus and therefore its involvement in Syrian affairs cannot be called "intervention." The Russian Air Force is assisting the Syrian Arab Army "as it battles a barrage of foreign terrorists, imported to their country with the help of Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Turkey, Qatar, France, Britain, and the United States."
"Putin is a leader who is rallying the world around the battle to improve peoples' livelihoods, defeat terrorism, and stand up to the source of so much evil, the wealthy global banking elite," Maupin stressed.
And such qualities of leadership demonstrated by Vladimir Putin are "not foreign" to the US, the political analyst remarked, adding that he hopes that those qualities emerge in America in some form once again.
"Another leader of the caliber of Roosevelt, Lincoln, and Putin is desperately needed in the United States," he emphasized.
Against the Clock: Pentagon Pushing Ahead With Nuclear Buildup in Europe
http://sputniknews.com/politics/20151019/1028757336/nato-nuclear-buildup-europe-danger.html
While Russia is eradicating the terrorist threat in the Middle East, the US and NATO are busy with modernizing their European nuclear arms aimed at some unknown menace and pressuring the EU, particularly Belgium, into spending more on US weaponry, founder of Agora Erasmus movement Karel Vereycken told Sputnik.
It is naïve to believe that the Obama administration, lambasted by both right and left-wing parties in the US for its inconsistent policy in the Middle East, is perplexed or distraught. Undoubtedly, it has a well-thought-out foreign strategy and Europe is one of its targets.
In his earlier interviews to Sputnik, Karel Vereycken, journalist, founder of the Belgian political organization Agora Erasmus and editor-at-large of the French newspaper Nouvelle Solidarité, called attention to the fact that the Pentagon and NATO are pushing ahead with the project of re-nuclearization of Europe.
The Pentagon aims to deliver its upgraded B61-12 thermo-nuclear warheads to Europe, as well as its new and much-talked-about the Lockheed Martin F-35 Joint Strike Fighters.
Karel Vereycken told Sputnik that NATO and the Obama administration is currently pressuring Belgium into increasing its military spending.
Meanwhile, Vereycken pointed out, on October 7, over a hundred thousand unionized Belgian workers took the streets in Brussels to protest austerity policies destroying their country.
"But for the international war party, time has come for Belgium to increase its military spending," the journalist underscored.
"True, today, military spending represents only less than 0.9 percent of Belgian GDP, while NATO members commit themselves to spend at least 2 percent. The real worry for Washington is the fact that, with the current budget, it is hard to think Belgium could come up with an extra 4 billion euros to buy 40 new US-built F-35 airplanes required to operate the upgraded version of the US atomic weapons (B61-12) to replace those already stationed on Belgian soil," Vereycken emphasized.
Needless to say, US policy-makers and their subservient European allies justify the current military buildup in Europe by an imaginary menace, allegedly posed by Russia.
Vereycken quoted Denise Campbell Bauer, the US Ambassador to Belgium, who wrote in his op-ed published by the Belgian conservative daily La Libre Belgique on September 30: "In the East, Russia has tried to redraw the borders of Europe by force by trying to annex Crimea and via destabilizing actions including Russian troop deployments in Eastern Ukraine."
Therefore, according to the US Ambassador, Belgium should immediately increase its spending on defense (and fork out for Washington's extortionately expensive F-35 jets).
"This unprecedented offensive of the US ambassador somehow comes as an answer to the petition launched early September by Agora Erasmus. Signed by over a dozen of prominent members of Parliament, the petition calls on the US to withdraw the nuclear weapons from Belgian soil rather than modernizing them," the journalist stressed.
