U.S. and Russia hold fence-mending talks

[Dover]

Source: NYT

The top military officers from the former Cold War foes met in Finland to review their tense relationship following the war in Georgia. Both agreed on the need for continued communication.


HELSINKI, FINLAND - The United States and Russia sent their top military officers to this neutral capital, with its legacy of Cold-War-era talks, for a secretly arranged meeting Tuesday to try to get their strained relations back on track, U.S. officials said.

It was the first time that Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, had met his counterpart, Gen. Nikolai Makarov, since the Russian was appointed chief of the General Staff in June. However, the two had spoken by phone multiple times during the brief August war between Russia and the former Soviet republic of Georgia.

That conflict worsened relations between Moscow and Washington, particularly after two breakaway Georgian enclaves declared their independence with Russia's backing.

"I think it's important that we talk when there isn't a crisis," Mullen said after the meeting Tuesday at an isolated manor house....>




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[Nambe]

1. ¨fence-mending¨ is an interesting choice of words. If talks fail, Is the fence mended?

[bemildred]

2. Talkin' is better than fightin.

This might be something as simple as making sure nothing stupid happens.

[Nambe]

3. I do not understand the significance of military brass negociating.

Perhaps because one country is virtually leaderless. I hope they tear the fence down.

[Peace Patriot]

4. Oh, there are a whole lot of "Gulf on Tonkins" out there, waiting to happen.

We're all familiar with the tinderbox of the Middle East, where Russian oil interests are involved. But there are others, for instance--Venezuela's and Brazil's nervousness about the newly reconstituted US 4th Fleet, and Venezuela in particular worried about its oil rich northern province of Zulia, on the Caribbean. So, Venezuela has invited the Russians to naval maneuvers in the Caribbean, as a warning off, I figure. Venezuela, Brazil, Argentina and the rest of South America have formed UNASUR, the South American "Common Market," sans the U.S. It wouldn't do to have its northern flank (Zulia, and its rich oil fields) split off by a fascist instigated civil war (as the Bushwhacks just tried in Bolivia), supported by the 4th Fleet and mercenaries (and US special forces?) crossing the border from Colombia. It's interesting what happened in Bolivia, after President Morales threw out the US ambassador. The violence stopped, and UNASUR intervened and has achieved a compromise with the white separatists that the Bushwhacks were funding and stirring up. The country will vote on the new Bolivian Constitution in January.

Bolivia, however, is landlocked, and sells most of its gas to Brazil and Argentina. It is surrounded by leftist countries. Not so Zulia, Venezuela, sitting right there on the Caribbean, defendable, if grabbed by the U.S., adjacent to Colombia ($6 BILLION in Bushwhack military funding, run by narco-fascists) and with easy sea access to get the oil out. Must look like a "sitting duck" oil supply to Dick Cheney.

Then there is the long, intense psyops/disinformation campaign against Chavez that we have all been witness to. Chavez, the "dictator." Doesn't matter that it is 100% untrue. You know, Brazil's president, Lula da Silva recently said, of Chavez: "They can make up a lot of things to criticize Chavez, but not on democracy." That's the truth of the matter. Chavez is a democrat with a small d--more like FDR than anybody else I can think of. The rightwing fuckwads also called FDR a "dictator." Anyway, truth doesn't matter here any more. All is psyops, in every sphere. And psyops is the preliminary to war--whether a hot war to slaughter a million innocent people in Iraq to get their oil, or a financial 9/11 to loot the American people unto the 7th generation, or... to set-up sleepy inattention among our people here, while they go kill Chavez, take Venezuela's oil, and tumble the new, leftist-led South American "Common Market" into turmoil.