The Neocons have won. Taking Venezuela followed the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis agenda to prevent Russia from installing nukes as a countermeasure for Ukraine. There are now even discussions about using military force to seize Greenland, but the most audacious direct slap in the face to Russia is the seizing of a tanker with a Russian flag, and Putin assumed would be enough to warn the US to keep its hands off it.
Russia had staked its reputation and geopolitical credibility on conferring official protection on the shadow-fleet oil tanker the Neocons pushing for WWIII have pursued with total disregard for the consequences. As the more than two-week pursuit of Bella 1 unfolded, Russia re-flagged the vessel with its own colors, renamed it the Marinera, and added it to an official Russian ship database. The Neocons do not give a shit. What they hell, they send other people’s children to die – never themselves. The re-flagging to a Russian ship was assumed it would say hands off or war. The Neocons want war. This is about the total destruction of Russia which they have been dreaming about since childhood. People like John Bolton joined the National Guard so he did not have to go to Vietnam.
The danger here is that when Khrushchev backed down in 1962, there was a coup and he was replaced with Brezhnev. When a proposal for Russia to join NATO, a second coup took place this time against Gorbachev. Slapping Putin across the face may make the press cheer, but this puts internal pressure on Putin. If does not respond definitively, he too will be overthrown by their Neocons.
No that the Neocons have deliberately put Americans in the direct confrontation with Russia, Putin made a fatal mistake. He assumed that nuclear weapons are still a deterent. He has limited him to rhetoric about ‘red lines’, and the Neocons are showing the world that they think that Russia is just a very large Venezuela, that can be pushed around without any real consequences. The Neocons are drooling over the idea of sending American forces into the Black Sea with Tomahawk missile carriers. They perceive Putin as weak who is afraid to push the button.
Britain and France have signed a historic agreement committing to boots on the ground in Ukraine as soon as any ceasefire with Russia comes into place. They are determined to have WWIII with Russia that they think will make Europe relavant again geopolitically.
