THE GRAND CHESSBOARD

As Russia moved additional military forces into the Crimea the New York Times reports this morning:

On Saturday morning, the pro-Russia prime minister of Crimea, Sergei Aksyonov, declared that he had sole control over the military and the police in the disputed peninsula and appealed to Mr. Putin for Russian help in safeguarding the region. He also said a public referendum on independence would be held on March 30.

The Kremlin has denied any attempt to seize Crimea, where it maintains important military installations, including the headquarters of its Black Sea Fleet. But the Kremlin quickly issued a statement saying that Mr. Aksyonov’s plea “would not be ignored” and within hours the Federation Council, the upper chamber of Parliament, had authorized military action. 

In the same article is a comment from Europe about the Russian move: 

There was also limited response from Europe. Carl Bildt, the Swedish foreign minister, issued a statement saying that Russia’s actions in Crimea were “contrary to international law and the principles of European security.” 

I found this quite interesting that the comment came from Sweden - often thought of as a peace-loving and neutral country.  The current US Ambassador to Sweden is Mark Brzezinski, the son of Obama military adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski.  Since the younger Brzezinski has been posted to Sweden that nation has become more belligerent toward Russia and northern Sweden, in full 'cooperation' with US-NATO, has become more militarized as a space and drone test region.  (We held our Global Network annual conference there in 2013.)

I've been following the career of Zbigniew Brzezinski since he was Jimmy Carter's National Security Adviser.  He led the US into the training and arming of the Taliban in Afghanistan during the former Soviet Union's disastrous occupation.

In a book called  Trilateralism: The Trilateral Commission and Elite Planning for World Management editor Holly Sklar wrote:

In 1973 the Trilateral Commission was founded by David Rockefeller, Chase Manhattan Bank chairman, Zbignew Brzezinski, [President Jimmy] Carter's national security advisor, and other like-minded "eminent private citizens." Some 300 members are drawn from international business and banking, government, academia, media, and conservative labor. The Commission's purpose is to engineer an enduring partnership among the ruling classes of North America, Western Europe, and Japan-hence the term "trilateral"-in order to safeguard the interests of Western capitalism in an explosive world. The private Trilateral Commission is attempting to mold public policy and construct a framework for international stability in the coming decades. ..."trilateralism" refers to the doctrine of world order advanced by the Commission.

So Zbignew became the first executive director of the Trilateral Commission and one of his early jobs was to go find a new "fresh face' for president in the 1976 election.  He identified a young unknown mildly progressive southern governor named Jimmy Carter. So a man right out of the blue, with no national political base, got elected president on the basis of selling peanuts. At that time the American people had not yet recovered from the 'Vietnam war syndrome' and wanted no more tangling military conflicts.  The purpose of Carter was to create the image of a clean slate but one fully under control of the oil-i-garchy.

I voted for Carter because he said "The arms race was a disgrace to the human race."  Then he went on as president to build the Kings Bay nuclear submarine base near the Georgia and Florida border.  I stood in front of those base gates with a sign many times over the years. Toward the end of his administration Carter began cutting social programs and ramping up military spending.

Brzezinski again surfaced in my consciousness right after 9/11 when I read his book The Grand Chessboard: American Primacy And Its Geostrategic Imperatives.  In the book he talked about the need for the US to occupy Central Asia for a long time if we hoped to control the oil and natural gas in the Caspian Sea region.  He said the American people would never go along with the enormous cost of such an occupation unless there was first a "Pearl Harbor like incident".  And then there was.........

Brzezinski came to my attention again in 2008 when Obama first ran for president.  Right before that election I was reading an interview with Brzezinski in a British publication.  He was saying that he had vetted Obama early-on, while teaching at Columbia University when Obama was a student there in the early 1980's.  He told the interviewer that he was confident that Obama would fit the mold. During the presidential campaign Brzezinski was listed as a campaign adviser to Obama. Obama was the new fresh face after the hated Goerge W. Bush.  Good cop - bad cop.

MSNBC's Morning Joe TV talk show is cohosted by Mika Brzezinski, the daughter of Zbigniew.  She often has her daddy on the show to spout his anti-Russian rhetoric making it a part of the American breakfast experience.

One of my favorite contemporary journalists is Pepe Escobar who writes for Asia Times. Today he said:

Russian troops in Crimea ARE LEGAL. According to the SOFA in place Moscow may deploy up to 30,000 soldiers. At the moment, there are less than 15,000, if that.

Don’t mess with Russian intelligence. Even before neo-con Vic “fuck the EU” Nuland’s intercept, they had already identified the wider mechanics of the CIA-style coup – including Turkish intelligence financing Tatars in Crimea.

First Crimea – then there will be East Ukraine, from Dnipro to Donetsk. Like Crimea, they will ask for Russian support, military or otherwise. Thus the long-term scenario of all of them possibly joining the Russian Federation.

The coup in Kiev ONLY WORKS IF THE “WEST” – AS IN NATO – GETS CRIMEA. Otherwise it’s void.

And what will the Tatars in Crimea do? Stage a jihad? Wait: the “West” will surely try to FINANCE THIS JIHAD.

Very possible endgame: the “West” gets a bankrupt back of beyond (West Ukraine). Russia gets the industrialized East Ukraine, not to mention ultra-strategic Crimea.