The article of Patrick Henningsen titled 'Why Attacking Iran Will Not Work in 2012. Failure could Result in a US-Israel Military and Economic Tailspin' is very interesting view on the problem.
All signs coming out of Washington, London, Paris and Tel Aviv are pointing towards a pre-emptive military strike against Iran in 2012. But a number of key indicators are also pointing towards an unsuccessful, unlikely operation, whose failure could result in a military and economic tailspin from which the United States and Israel are unlikely to recover.
Currently, the US is following a trajectory of past unsuccessful empires that were unable to sustain themselves resulting in an eventual collapse from within. The US is currently running up a budget deficit which is not only threatening to bankrupt its entire economy, but also threatening the hegemony of its sole instrument for advantage and influence on the world stage – the US dollar. Any threat to the supremacy of the dollar is also a threat to the empire.
read complete aricle here - http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=28511
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Moscow last week’s mass protests and rallies on Sakharov Avenue in Moscow called to new parliamentary elections and wholesale liberalizing reform in Russia.
There were Tens of thousands there and according to the poll, the average participant in the rally was a male (64 percent), university graduate (70 percent), below 45-years of age (62 percent) with an average income (56 percent).
A stage at the end of the 0.43 mile avenue featured placards reading "Russia will be free" and "This election Is a farce." Heavy police cordons encircled the participants, who stood within metal barriers, and a police helicopter hovered overhead.
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A high-profile spy scandal involving Russian nationals in the U.S seems to be coming to an end. Ten Russians who admitted being agents for a foreign country were brought from the U.S. to Vienna on Friday morning, where they were later exchanged for four people convicted of spying in Russia but pardoned by President Dmitry Medvedev after they signed to admit their guilt.
At 12:40 p.m CET (Central European Time) a plane of the Russian Emergency Situations Ministry took off from the Schwechat airport in Vienna to bring the suspects to Moscow. The spy swap itself took just a bit more than an hour. The deported Russians moved from the one plane to the other and without being questioned by the Austrian customs service left for Russia.
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September 19, 2009 | Russia, USA
Accordint to theage.com.au Barack Obama will meet Russia's president week in an attempt to urge the Kremlin to back a tougher approach towards Iran. The leaders are to hold a one-hour meeting in New York on Wednesday with Russian officials promising the discussions will be wide-ranging. Mr Obama is hoping to hammer out a deal with Dmitry Medvedev on possible sanctions ahead of talks with Tehran on its nuclear weapons program set for October 1. The urgency of dealing with the Iranian nuclear threat was underscored on Friday when a leaked report revealed that the UN inspection agency believes the Islamic republic has ''sufficient information'' to make a nuclear weapon and has ''probably tested'' a key component.
The Associated Press said it had obtained material from the International Atomic Energy Agency which suggested the body was more convinced Iran was trying to make a bomb than its outgoing director, Mohamed ElBaradei, had admitted. ''The agency … assesses that Iran has sufficient information to be able to design and produce a workable implosion nuclear device based on HEU [highly enriched uranium] as the fission fuel,'' AP quoted a ''secret annexe'' to a report on Iran as saying. Western diplomats confirmed that the annexe was authentic. The meeting on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly will come less than a week after Washington dropped its missile shield plans, to the delight of Moscow. On Friday, Mr Medvedev said the decision to abandon plans for defence bases in Poland and the Czech Republic meant he would listen to US concerns more attentively in future but claimed there had been no ''primitive deals''. Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin hailed the move as ''brave and correct''.
US officials are hoping that when Mr Medvedev addresses the General Assembly this week he will signal a new approach to international relations. On Friday, there were signs of an immediate thaw in Russia's icy relations with the West less than 24 hours after Mr Obama's announcement.
In his first major speech since taking over as NATO secretary-general last month, Anders Fogh Rasmussen suggested that the US, NATO and Russia join forces when it comes to missile defence. ''Both Russia and NATO have a wealth of experience in missile defence,'' he said. ''We should now work to combine this experience.''
Dmitry Rogozin, Russia's hawkish NATO envoy, called the speech ''very positive'', promising it would be carefully analysed in Moscow.
He also confirmed reports that Russia would now shelve plans to fortify its enclave of Kaliningrad with a rocket battery of Iskander missiles and nuclear bombers in response to Washington dropping its missile shield in Eastern Europe.
But the Russian leadership remains divided on the matter of Iran as Moscow enjoys strong commercial and diplomatic ties which it seems reluctant to imperil.
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On the photo Marilyn Monroe is hearing the speech of Nikita Chruschev 18 september 1959
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What is the result of Obama's two days visiting to Moscow? The Russian Summit ended with mixed result: the expected agreement on deep cuts in nuclear arsenals was ended but with Kremlin's assurances that they are ready to help in solving other issues key to their foreign policy agenda.
[youtube="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qpGr69m-vZ4"]
Obama made a major speech in Moscow. The speech has been addressed New Economic School graduation
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you so much. Well, congratulations, Oxana. And to the entire Class of 2009, congratulations to you. I don't know if anybody else will meet their future wife or husband in class like I did, but I'm sure that you're all going to have wonderful careers. I want to acknowledge a few people who are here. We have President Mikhail Gorbachev is here today, and I want everybody to give him a big round of applause. (Applause.) I want to thank Sergei Gurief, Director of the New Economic School. (Applause.) Max Boiko, their Chairman of the Board. (Applause.) And Arkady Dvorkovich, who is the NES board member, President of the Alumni Association and is doing an excellent job for President Medvedev, because he was in our meeting yesterday. (Applause.) Good morning. It is a great honor for me to join you at the New Economic School. Michelle and I are so pleased to be in Moscow. And as somebody who was born in Hawaii, I'm glad to be here in July instead of January. (Laughter and applause.) I know that NES is a young school, but I speak to you today with deep respect for Russia's timeless heritage. Russian writers have helped us understand the complexity of the human experience, and recognize eternal truths. Russian painters, composers, and dancers have introduced us to new forms of beauty. Russian scientists have cured disease, sought new frontiers of progress, and helped us go to space. These are contributions that are not contained by Russia's borders, as vast as those borders are. Indeed, Russia's heritage has touched every corner of the world, and speaks to the humanity that we share. That includes my own country, which has been blessed with Russian immigrants for decades; we've been enriched by Russian culture, and enhanced by Russian cooperation. And as a resident of Washington, D.C., I continue to benefit from the contributions of Russians -- specifically, from Alexander Ovechkin. We're very pleased to have him in Washington, D.C. (Applause.) Here at NES, you have inherited this great cultural legacy, but your focus on economics is no less fundamental to the future of humanity. As Pushkin said, "Inspiration is needed in geometry just as much as poetry." And today, I want particularly to speak to those of you preparing to graduate. You're poised to be leaders in academia and industry; in finance and government. But before you move forward, it's worth reflecting on what has already taken place during your young lives. Like President Medvedev and myself, you're not old enough to have witnessed the darkest hours of the Cold War, when hydrogen bombs were tested in the atmosphere, and children drilled in fallout shelters, and we reached the brink of nuclear catastrophe. But you are the last generation born when the world was divided. At that time, the American and Soviet armies were still massed in Europe, trained and ready to fight. The ideological trenches of the last century were roughly in place. Competition in everything from astrophysics to athletics was treated as a zero-sum game. If one person won, then the other person had to lose. And then, within a few short years, the world as it was ceased to be. Now, make no mistake: This change did not come from any one nation. The Cold War reached a conclusion because of the actions of many nations over many years, and because the people of Russia and Eastern Europe stood up and decided that its end would be peaceful. With the end of the Cold War, there were extraordinary expectations -- for peace and for prosperity; for new arrangements among nations, and new opportunities for individuals. Like all periods of great change, it was a time of ambitious plans and endless possibilities. But, of course, things don't always work out exactly as planned. Back in 1993, shortly after this school opened, one NES student summed up the difficulty of change when he told a reporter, and I quote him: "The real world is not so rational as on paper." The real world is not so rational as on paper. Over two tumultuous decades, that truth has been borne out around the world. Great wealth has been created, but it has not eliminated vast pockets of crushing poverty. Poverty exists here, it exists in the United States, and it exists all around the world. More people have gone to the ballot box, but too many governments still fail to protect the rights of their people. Ideological struggles have diminished, but they've been replaced by conflicts over tribe and ethnicity and religion. A human being with a computer can hold the same amount of information stored in the Russian State Library, but that technology can also be used to do great harm. In a new Russia, the disappearance of old political and economic restrictions after the end of the Soviet Union brought both opportunity and hardship. A few prospered, but many more did not. There were tough times. But the Russian people showed strength and made sacrifices, and you achieved hard-earned progress through a growing economy and greater confidence. And despite painful times, many in Eastern Europe and Russia are much better off today than 20 years ago. We see that progress here at NES -- a school founded with Western support that is now distinctly Russian; a place of learning and inquiry where the test of an idea is not whether it is Russian or American or European, but whether it works. Above all, we see that progress in all of you -- young people with a young century to shape ...
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