On Being A Tool...

 ... or a fool or why I stopped cooperating with RT, which is a tribune for Valdai boys with pedigrees like this:

Andrey Sushentsov

Russian Federation

Programme Director of the Valdai Discussion Club; Dean of the School of International Relations at MGIMO University. Mr. Sushentsov specializes in the US foreign policy in international conflicts, as well as in South Caucasus, Ukraine, and the Middle East. He has substantial experience of analytical work. He took part in applied researches on the United States’ foreign policy, conflict resolution in South Caucasus, Ukraine, and the Middle East. In his studies, he examines the spheres of conflicting interests of Russia and the United States in Europe, the Middle East and the post-Soviet space. He was a Visiting Professor and Research Fellow at Georgetown University, Johns Hopkins University, Guido Carli Free University of International Studies, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Harvard University and Middlebury Institute for International Studies in Monterey. He is a member of the Council on Foreign and Defense Policy and of the Working Group on the Future of Russian-American Relations. 

In other words, Sushetsov is a product of degree mills in the US and is shaped as "professional" by the environment which produced a staggering number of diplomatic and governing failures. So, it is no wonder that he writes the piece with the title which even commenters on RT board laughed at.  

Andrey Sushentsov: Here’s why the US can’t get along with the other major global powers. American elites believe in democracy at home and dictatorship abroad; that’s why the world is so dangerous right now. 

I wonder what stone did he sleep under for the last 24 years? Yes, I am talking about well coordinated assault on the American Constitution and Bill of Rights, starting from Patriot Act and final subversion of Capitol Hill by Israel. Boy, those Valdai boys are slow. But if that hasn't been enough, Sushentsov goes to prove Arthur Clark's Third Law that:

Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.

Modern military technology as well as its tactical and operational use, as well as formulation of military doctrine and strategy are extremely complex and require people with serious military and engineering background. This whole thing is in the foundation of global balance of power. But for Mr. Sushentsov who has a "soft degree" in essentially nothing, formation of the global power balance is indistinguishable from magic, because none of the Valdai boys have cognitive tools to grasp it. Because of that Sushentsov invents things trying to explain what he doesn't understand and views as magic.

Ukraine is a convenient, rather cheap tool for the US to weaken and contain Russia, and to force its European allies to keep their discipline and obey. This is all part of an international struggle for a new form of hierarchy.  Of course, it’s just a temporary phenomenon until a new balance of power, recognized by all, is established.

I have news for Sushentsov--recognition is always achieved through coercion and deterrence. In other words, this recognition and, hence, power balance are formed by those who know how to fight a war and win it. The whole structure of the international relations in XX and XXI centuries rests on warfare and industrial might. It will continue to be such until the United States is completely stripped off its grossly exaggerated military might, both through defeat in Ukraine and continuous unstoppable de-industrialization, and a complete loss of remnants of the US mythology as "the finest fighting force in history". This whole thing is in progress and it is Russia, and China, who already dictate conditions, with Russia leading the way because she did what China still cannot do--she accepted NATO's military challenge and brought about the implosion of the West as we know it. You see, magic. 

In other news, for those who still view Metternich (or Kissinger) as some kind of great diplomatic minds, as Stalin once responded to attempts to convince him on importance of Pope: "and how many divisions does the Pope have?" Until these guys understand that no diplomacy matters until one has Mr. Kinzhal and Mr. Borei-A behind diplomacy and international relations--they will continue to write this nonsense about the United States, its oligarchy selling "democracy" gospel to stupid, and power balance. Difficult to figure it out in XXI century without serving a day in armed forces and studying Theory of Operations, physics and systems integration. The might was always right in human history and it always was about the nature of this might.

Look at it--it is magic of the Project 955A Borei--it is a foundation of Russian diplomacy. I would love to quote Mr. Ostap Bender from the conclusion of the 12 Chairs immortal classics, but I only can quote Hofstadter:

… the complexity of modern life has steadily whittled away the functions the ordinary citizen can intelligently and comprehendingly perform for himself. In the original American populistic dream, the omnicompetence of the common man was fundamental and indispensable. It was believed that he could, without much special preparation, pursue the professions and run the government. Today he knows that he cannot even make his breakfast without using devices, more or less mysterious to him, which expertise has put at his disposal; and when he sits down to breakfast and looks at his morning newspaper, he reads about a whole range of vital and intricate issues and acknowledges, if he is candid with himself, that he has not acquired competence to judge most of them(c)

And don't call me Shirley.