Excellent Piece By Phil Giraldi.

Who I respect profoundly despite not always agreeing with him. But here is his piece from Strategic Culture Foundation which is very much worth reading and gets many things right, except one. This is where I disagree with him. 

One has to conclude that the United States has now become the ultimate angry imperial power, lashing out with the only thing that seems to work – its ability to interfere in and control financial markets – to punish nations that do not play by its rules. Given Washington’s diminishing clout worldwide, it is a situation that is unsustainable and which will ultimately only really punish the American people as the United States becomes more isolated and its imperial overreach bankrupts the nation. As America weakens, Russia, Turkey, Iran and all the other countries that have been steamrolled by Washington will likely seek revenge. To avoid that, a dramatic course correction by the US is needed, but, unfortunately, is unlikely to take place. 

Russia will not seek revenge on Americans, absolutely not. Not being vengeful is one of the features of Russians as people. Unless, of course, one seriously takes Anthony Beavor's Solzhenitsyn-scale, in terms of BS, claims of millions of German women raped by the Red Army. This British so called "historian" never heard of a brutal punishment including executions (IIRC, 800 soldier and officers were executed, around 4000 were court martialed for rape and sent to "GULAG") of Red Army personnel who did actually rape German women in 1945, one has to remember, paradoxically, Stalin's famous: Hitlers come and go but Germany and German people remain. Russian people have no beef with Americans (guess who were the largest contingent of tourists at the WC 2018 in Russia), they also do not hate the United States, but Russian nation DOES have issue with what today passes as an American power "elite" which is both dangerous and treasonous primarily to own people. 

But the end of US "power" is near, in fact we are in the initial stages of collapse of the edifice of what became known as Pax Americana. It is only accelerating and, I am sure, there are number of people in the whatever you want to call it--"establishment", Borg, Deep State, etc.--who may begin to fill a slight pinch from the unfolding situation. Somebody has to answer for the rise and support of ISIS, somebody has to answer for war crimes against too many nations to be listed here. After all, people like this:

have to understand that old Soviet/Russian post-Great Patriotic War slogan Nobody Is Forgotten, Nothing Is Forgotten, is not just about those fallen who fought for the motherland, but also about atrocities and those who committed them. Somebody, somewhere always keeps the score and somebody always has to answer. 

As per American state and government themselves--it is American people's task to save them and make them work, because, among those really important things about Russia's attitudes towards the United States one thing remains constant--Russia is keenly interested in the United States as peaceful, stable and prosperous nation. Why so--is a separate huge issue. Can the US become such? Some people think that the nature of current US political and economic systems completely precludes that, and these people may have a point, but at least today I personally still have to give some benefit of a doubt regarding Phil Giraldi's "unlikely" verdict, which automatically implies at least non-zero probability of positive outcome, since some healthy forces in the US do exist. If they lose (and I don't mean DJT) then, yes, the United States will be done not only as a locomotive of global "liberalism" but as a nation. There will be no coming back from the catastrophic implosion of a system. And here is my point: as I stated not for once in the last 4-5 years--Russia is not interested, neither is China, in America's catastrophic collapse, so instead of "revenge", most likely some arrangements are already being made for some sort of a "soft landing". Russia is run by the adults who are extremely well informed and aware of the world outside and they are too busy to be engaged into any kind of revenge on the US--they have a bigger fish to fry. As per this: 

Though Russian President Vladimir Putin has responded with restraint, avoiding a tit-for-tat, he is reported to be angry about the new move by the US government and now believes it to be an unreliable negotiating partner. Considering the friendly recent exchanges between Putin and Trump, the punishment of Russia has to be viewed as something of a surprise, suggesting that the president of the United States may not be in control of his own foreign policy.

I can only reiterate: current American political class is not treaty worthy, or non-agreement-capable, party and that is why this class is already doomed by the history.