We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Thursday, July 13, 2017

The Fatal Flaw in Washington’s New Energy Strategy

Click here to access article by F. William Engdahl from New Eastern Outlook

From the land of 10,000 lakes Minnesota to Germany where Engdahl has now settled--likely because his home country won't tolerate his criticisms--this geopolitical expert examines the US ruling capitalist class's current attempts to damage their traditional nemesis, Russia, one powerful country that stands in their way of global domination by weaning eastern European countries away from Russian energy and preventing another pipeline linking Russia with Europe. 

This energy war, that often materializes into hot destructive wars like Syria and Libya, is only one field of battle that includes other areas such as the rich natural gas resources lying between Qatar and Iran, and in the Caucasus. The race to exploit the last cost-effective sources of energy is the main weapon used by US-based transnational capitalist class against Russia. However these policies also threaten ongoing conflicts throughout the world, wreck havoc on any serious attempts to prevent environmental degradation and climate destabilization, and threaten a nuclear war conflagration. It must be emphasized that these imperialist actions against Russia and Iran are behind the many lies that media corporations contrive to justify such actions or their many attempts to divert your attention to other issues. Engdahl pierces through this veil of lies and directs our attention to the realities of the Empire's actions in the Baltic region.
What is developing are new major EU fault lines around the economic lifeline of energy, explicitly of natural gas energy. On the one side is the axis between especially Germany but also Austria, France and other EU states currently tied to major Russian gas supplies. Now emerges clearly the opposed axis of Poland allied with Washington. How this plays out in the next months and years will have major implications for war and peace not only in Europe.