After provoking what is increasingly a devastating and expanding conflict in Ukraine, NATO appears to be out of options as its proxy regime loses its grip on both its military campaign against its own population in eastern Ukraine, as well as political control in the capital of Kiev itself. However, despite the turn of events, with NATO apparently rudderless, those seeking to undo and reserve the damage the West has created in Eastern Europe must not become complacent.

NATO still possesses several options with which it can respond to its deteriorating proxy regime and the eroding of its interests both in the region, and around the world.

Propaganda Retrenchment Before Aggressive Military Aid

As the West has done in Syria, it now seeks to do in Ukraine - a complete retrenchment of the official narrative regarding the nature of the ongoing conflict. Previously, the Western media has gone through great lengths to obscure overt Nazism running throughout both the political front it is propping up in Kiev, as well as across the irregular forces sent alongside what remains of Ukraine's national army. Western media outlets have briefly touched on the issue in attempts to mitigate and manage growing public concern.

Regarding the formation by the Interior Ministry in Kiev of a battalion of Nazis - the Azov Battalion - the BBC would publish, "Ukraine conflict: 'White power' warrior from Sweden," the Telegraph would publish, "Ukraine crisis: the neo-Nazi brigade fighting pro-Russian separatists," and Al Jazeera would publish, "Driven by far-right ideology, Azov Battalion mans Ukraine's front line." Each would in turn, admit that literal Nazis are fighting on behalf of the NATO-backed regime in Kiev - with the regime itself raising ultra-right, Neo-Nazi battle formations. But each would also attempt to downplay the implications and role of Nazism within the ongoing conflict.

But whether people see what's happening in Ukraine, and Russia's aggression towards its neighbors in the manner in which it's financing and arming separatists; to what's happened in Syria - the devastation that [President Bashar al-]Assad has wrought on his own people; to the failure in Iraq for Sunni and Shia and Kurd to compromise - although we're trying to see if we can put together a government that actually can function; to ongoing terrorist threats; to what's happening in Israel and Gaza - part of peoples' concern is just the sense that around the world the old order isn't holding and we're not quite yet to where we need to be in terms of a new order that's based on a set of different principles, that's based on a sense of common humanity, that's based on economies that work for all people. - President Barack Obama

Looks like US President Barack Obama made a royal mess of what his mentor Dr Zbigniew "Grand Chessboard" Brzezinski taught him.

Dr Zbig always quotes Sir Halford John Mackinder's three grand imperatives of imperial geostrategy; to prevent collusion and maintain security dependence among the vassals; to keep tributaries pliant and protected; and to keep the barbarians from coming together.

After dabbling briefly with "leading from behind" - a non-starter - Obama finally went Mackinderesque with his stellar "Don't Do Stupid Stuff" foreign policy doctrine.

Nevertheless, an always alert former secretary of state Hillary Clinton said "Don't do Stupid Stuff" isn't a "foreign policy organizing principle". Yet "Stupid Stuff" is all that the Obama foreign policy team knows how to do.

Following comments from Ukraine's Defense Minister Valery Geletey of Moscow threatening with a nuclear attack on its neighbor, Moscow said it was shocked by the statement. Russia warned that such rhetoric only deepens the civil stand-off in Ukraine.


"Geletey's calls to get ready for 'tens of thousands' of new victims in what he called 'Great Patriotic War' and what in fact is a new punitive operation in his own country are appalling. He only drags the Ukrainian people into a new round of the bloody civil stand-off," Russia's Foreign Ministry said in a statement Monday.

Earlier Geletey wrote in his Facebook that the operation "to cleanse Ukraine's east from terrorists" was over. He, however, proceeded to accuse Russia of direct military involvement in the east that followed the rebels' "defeat."

"A big war has come to our home, a war Europe has not seen since WWII," Geletey wrote alleging that Russia not only attempted to secure its position on the rebel-held territories, but also advance onto other regions.

He said that Moscow - through "unofficial channels" - has "repeatedly threatened to use tactical nuclear weapons" on Ukraine if Kiev continues to resist.

Israel announced on Sunday the appropriation of nearly 1,000 acres of Palestinian land in the occupied West Bank. The land grab is thought to be the largest in 30 years and would pave the way for an expansion of the Jewish settlement bloc in the area. "The land, which is near the small Jewish settlement of Gvaot in the Etzion bloc south of Jerusalem, has now officially been declared 'state land,' as opposed to land privately owned by Palestinians, clearing the way for the potential approval of Israeli building plans there," the New York Times reports.

"The announcement follows the cabinet's decision last week to take over the land in response to the June kidnapping and killing of three teenage Jewish boys by Hamas militants in the area," Haaretz reports. "Last year, the government invited bids for the building of 1,000 housing units at the site, and 523 are currently under construction. Ten families now live on the site, which is adjacent to a yeshiva."


"We urge the government of Israel to reverse this decision," a State Department official said in Washington told Reuters. "Nabil Abu Rudeineh, a spokesman for President Mahmoud Abbas of the Palestinian Authority, condemned the announcement and called for a reversal of the land claim, saying that it would 'further deteriorate the situation,'" the Times reports. "The land appropriation has quickly turned attention back to the Israeli-occupied West Bank and exposed the contradictory visions in the Israeli government that hamper the prospects of any broader Israeli-Palestinian peace process."

The situation in Iraq, Syria and Libya, as well as bilateral relations will be discussed in Moscow on Tuesday by the Russian and Tunisian Foreign Ministers, Sergei Lavrov and Mongi Hamdi.

The talks will allow the sides "to compare notes" on important aspects of the developments in the regions of North Africa and the Middle East, in particular, in Syria, Iraq, around the Gaza Strip and the Middle East settlement state of affairs.

The ministers, said the Russian Foreign Ministry, will consider approaches to the settlement of acute regional problems, and discuss possible joint steps in this connection with the participation of the concerned members of the international community. Russia "is ready to support any constructive initiatives, aimed at stable normalization in the region's 'hot spots' by peaceful methods based on respect for universally accepted international law norms."

The bilateral relations' problems will be high on the agenda. The main emphasis will be placed on the implementation of the agreements, reached at the fifth session of the Intergovernmental Commission on trade-economic and scientific-technical co-operation that was held in the Tunisian capital in May 2014, as well as on the practical preparation of the next Commission meeting (planned in Moscow on 2015).

Hamdi, who is the Commission's co-chairman, will meet within the visit framework with Russia's chairman of the Commission - Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko.

Tunisia is among Russia's important trade partners in Africa, the Russian Foreign Ministry said. The bilateral trade volume in 2013 exceeded $360 million.

Moscow is satisfied with the good dynamics of relations with this country in the tourism sphere. Last year, about 300,000 Russians visited the country, which is by 20% more than in 2012. "We hope that the signed agreement on co-operation in the sphere of tourism for 2014-2016 will give an additional impetus to interaction in this important sphere," the ministry added.

Russia regards the visit of the Tunisian foreign minister as an important step for the further strengthening of the two countries' longstanding relations of friendship and mutually advantageous co-operation.

An important disclaimer, caveat and clarification

First, I will begin by a clear disclaimer which I ask you all to please carefully read and then keep in mind: I personally am not advocating any option for the final status of Novorussia. That is for the people of Novorussia to decide and any option that they will chose I will support. Furthermore, at this point in time I am not even personally sure what option I would recommend if asked to do so simply because the devil is in the details, not the big words. What I propose to do below is to look at a number of issues related to this question but that analysis should not be interpreted as a personal endorsement of any solution.

Second, I have carefully parsed the news out of Minsk, Novorussia and Russia and I am left with the strong feeling that nothing has really been decided, hence the apparent zig-zags and changing interpretations over the terms offered by the Novorussian delegation.

Third, I urge everybody to be extremely cautious with Russian news sources including Russian TV channels and RT. Why? Because Russia has a major stake in this fight and that I am absolutely certain that the Russian elites are split on what the best solution would be for Russia. There are also informal, shall we say, "groups of like-minded people" inside the Russian media who are trying to promote the interest of their patrons and supporters. And while it is would be an oversimplification to say that, for example, NTV stands for "position A" while RT stands for "position B", I know for a fact that inside RT, NTV, Rossia, REN-TV and the rest of various groups have various agendas: one editorial board might have a very different position than another one, even inside the same media outlet.

Alarmed at the anti-Russian hysteria sweeping Official Washington - and the specter of a new Cold War - U.S. intelligence veterans took the unusual step of sending this Aug. 30 memo to German Chancellor Merkel challenging the reliability of Ukrainian and U.S. media claims about a Russian "invasion."

MEMORANDUM FOR: Angela Merkel, Chancellor of Germany

FROM: Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS)


SUBJECT: Ukraine and NATO

We the undersigned are long-time veterans of U.S. intelligence. We take the unusual step of writing this open letter to you to ensure that you have an opportunity to be briefed on our views prior to the NATO summit on Sept. 4-5.

You need to know, for example, that accusations of a major Russian "invasion" of Ukraine appear not to be supported by reliable intelligence. Rather, the "intelligence" seems to be of the same dubious, politically "fixed" kind used 12 years ago to "justify" the U.S.-led attack on Iraq.

The Ukrainian civil war saw yet another decisive turn of events this week as the NAF (the Novorussiya Armed Forces) went on the offensive for the first time in the war. The Response by Kiev and the west was to hype up an imaginary Russian invasion. Once again the US State Department, NATO, and the western press made complete fools of themselves. The information war has also seen a decisive turn as well. To use the terminology of the civil war recent days have seen the mainstream media yet again trapped in a cauldron by their own stupidity. Now they will be hammered away at and discredited yet again by articles such as this one. Sites like Vineyard of the Saker and Slavyangrad.org were vindicated in their analysis while media dinosaurs like the New York Times were exposed once again as liars and incompetents. A lone blogger in Crimea writing under the name Colonel Cassad provided better military analysis then professionals like Janes Defense weekly.

In my last article I predicted based on reading the above mentioned sites that the mainstream media which was foolishly predicting the imminent victory of the Ukrainian army was in for a major embarrassment. The Ukraine Junta's latest offensive had resulted in them being trapped yet again in what the NAF call cauldrons (a trapped pocket of the UA army brought to boil by NAF rocket and artillery strikes). Basically the strategy has been for the Ukraine Junta to launch an offensive, the NAF allow them to enter and once they are deep into Novorussiyan territory they are surrounded, their supplies cut off and they are shelled day after day by distant artillery. The new offensive resulted in the Ukrainian army trapped yet again in a number of different pockets. After months of catastrophic losses the Ukrainian forces no longer had the troops to properly defend their territory. The NAF seized the opportunity to go on the offensive, outflanking and surrounding the forces committed to the assault on Iloviask. Then it launched an attack south and west towards Mauripol which they have since surrounded. Kiev Forces panicked and fled in abject terror. It was this dramatic turn of events which led to the story of a Russian invasion.

Since Kiev and western media had been busy turning truth on its head, how could they explain this sudden reversal? They had been promising victory and the collapse of Novorossiya. Now for the first time Novorossiya was recapturing territory lost months before. In paranoid fascist Kiev people believe that they are being actively betrayed and that their generals are secretly paid by the Russians to intentionally send their troops to their deaths. Actually, in the notoriously corrupt Ukraine this might be possible. After all, the US and NATO frequently bribe generals into betraying their country; many an Iraqi and Libyan general was rewarded with suitcases of cash and safe passage to western Europe or the US. To sort out what is truly going on behind the scenes will take years. War breeds chaos, paranoia, madness. Wild rumors proliferate since no one can trust official information which is invariably mere war propaganda.

A quote about Russian President Vladimir Putin's apparent ability "to take Kiev in two weeks," by European Commission President Jose Manual Barroso earlier in the week, was taken out of context and had a completely different meaning, presidential aide Yuri Ushakov said Tuesday.

"This is incorrect, this goes beyond the framework of diplomatic practice. This is unbecoming of a serious political figure," Ushakov said, referring to Barroso's comment.

Earlier this week, Italian newspaper La Repubblica reported that after Barroso's telephone conversation with Putin, the European Commission president claimed that the Russian leader said he could take Ukraine in two weeks.

The Kremlin later responded that Putin's words were misinterpreted and had completely different meaning.

As the Ukrainian crisis escalated, the West continued accusing Russia of meddling in Ukraine's internal affairs, sending troops to Ukraine, and went as far as to claim that Moscow planned to invade Ukraine. However, none of these statements were supported with any evidence.

The Obama Administration is furtively guarding their chosen strategy to deal with ISIL. This is reminiscent of a certain White House Correspondents' dinner where the President calmly played the part of a relaxed president enjoying a moment of levity. Meanwhile, the wheels were set in motion on a daring mission to get Osama Bin Laden once and for all. President Obama is, as Commander in Chief and Chief Executive, entitled to execute the strategy of his choosing. Divulging too much information is ill-advised. The Bin Laden raid showed us just that. The Right just isn't having it. They want to be consulted on any military operation after bankrupting the country and ruining the lives of millions with their pre-emptive wars that were so poorly planned.


Fox's curvy weekend couch-occupants figured who would be better to explain sound military policy than the man who traded arms for hostages and is damned lucky not to be making license plates in a federal penitentiary. Tucker 'Bowtie' Carlson introduced Oliver North with this ballsy statement:

There's none who's respected more by the people who fight wars than our next guest, Colonel North.

Yes, because war is something that should be perpetual and who better than a war profiteer to rally the bloodlust of the xenophobic base?