SECURITY, FEATURED STORY

United States Secretary of Defense James “Mad Dog” Mattis asserted that Russia had again sought to interfere in the 2018 midterm elections, which were completed last month.

The latest flare-up in violence between the Kiev regime and Russia is a blatant provocation aimed at strengthening the autocratic regime under President Poroshenko.

Russia and China have had to develop advanced weapons to counter the menace patrolling and probing its borders, and these could be employed effectively in the event of US confrontation getting out of hand.

The idea that scrapping nuclear weapons and increasing trust and dialogue between the nuclear powers were good things is now regarded as risible, as much by neo-liberals as by neo-conservatives.

With the announcement of President Trump’s decision to withdraw from the INF Treaty, the issue of Russia’s response comes to the fore.

President Donald Trump has announced the decision to exit from the bedrock 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF Treaty), which bans all land-based missiles carrying both nuclear and conventional warheads with ranges of 500 to 5,500 kilometers, or 310 to 3,420 miles shorter- and intermediate-range missiles.

Grotesquely, the way things are shaping up in terms of hypocritical lack of action by the Americans, British and others towards the Saudi despots, the latter might just get away with murder. Not so Russia.

Given Tel Aviv’s tendency to place its own interests above all others, it would not be surprising to find them using the possibility of attacking the S-300 with their F-35s as a weapon to blackmail Washington into getting more involved in the conflict.

Now the US has to commit to proving it can overwhelm Russian forces in Syria without concomitant losses which puncture the myths of US military dominance.

Given the level of political interest in sowing havoc in the Orthodox Church, a hands-off approach from Washington, Brussels, Berlin, etc. cannot be taken for granted.