The Spirit of Helsinki
by Stephen Lendman (stephenlendman.org - Home - Stephen Lendman)
In 1975, 35 nations in the city agreed on the Helsinki Final Act (Helsinki Accords) - including the US, Soviet Russia, Canada, and all European states except Albania.
The agreement included resolving differences diplomatically, defusing tensions over military and economic issues, borders, human rights, freedom of emigration, cultural exchanges and press freedom, along with other issues, follow-up meetings covering implementation procedures.
Helsinki agreed on principles led to greater East/West cooperation, including START I and II, SALT I and II, the ABM and INF Treaties, along with ending the Cold War under Reagan and Gorbachev - no peace dividend forthcoming as hoped for.
Things aren’t the same today as earlier - with bipartisan Russophobic neocons infesting Washington. Bilateral US/Russia relations are more dismal than ever, responsibility lying with Washington, notably since Soviet Russia’s 1991 dissolution.
The business of America is militarism and war, peace and stability considered anathema notions - undemocratic Dems as belligerent as Republicans.
Trust isn’t in their vocabulary, agreeing to one thing, doing something entirely different time and again.
The interests of Wall Street and America’s military/industrial/security and media complex matter most - at the expense of the general welfare and world peace.
On Monday, Helsinki again will be the center of global diplomacy, hosting Putin/Trump summit talks.
Dark forces in Washington want them undermined, media scoundrels leading the way, unapologetically Russophobic, featuring countless hostile reports and commentaries in the run-up to Monday’s summit.
The latest from NYT disgracefully headlined “Just Sitting Down With Trump, Putin Comes Out Ahead,” saying:
Summit talks “provid(e) a symbolic end to Western efforts to isolate Russia over its actions against Ukraine in 2014, its meddling in the United States election in 2016 and other examples of what the United States Treasury Department has described as Russia’s ‘malign activity’ around the world.”
No Russian geopolitical “malign activity” exists, no unlawful actions in Ukraine, no US election meddling - longstanding US policies, not Moscow’s.
The Times: “Deploying hackers, disinformation campaigns and support for far-right populist forces in Europe, Mr. Putin has long sought to fracture the West and upend the established geopolitical order” - bald-faced lies! Just the opposite is true.
The self-styled newspaper of record is a national disgrace. The neocon CIA house organ Washington Post is no better.
In its Sunday edition alone, it cheerled for special counsel Mueller to indict more Russians on phony charges.
It expressed support for Russophobic deputy AG/turncoat/serial liar Rod Rosenstein for president.
It headlined “Mueller stood up to Putin. Now it’s Trump’s turn.”
Its editors headlined “Of all at stake at the Trump-Putin summit, Syria is most in peril” - ignoring Obama launched aggression, escalated by Trump, attacking a sovereign state threatening no one, using ISIS and other terrorists as imperial foot soldiers, supported by terror-bombing, massacring thousands of civilians, high crimes media scoundrels suppress.
Three WaPo Sunday front-page stories headlined:
“National Security For Mueller pushing to finish parts of Russia probe, question of American involvement remains” - promoting the disgraceful witch-hunt.
“With Trump strategy unclear, US allies turn to Moscow to secure their interests in Syria,” referring mainly to Israel wanting what Putin rejects - removing Iranian military advisors from the country, wanting it weakened and more vulnerable to toppling its legitimate government.
“Trump holes up at his Scottish golf resort, tweeting about Russia before next week’s Putin meeting” - slamming his failure to criticize Kremlin US election meddling despite none of it occurring.
What matters from Monday talks isn’t what Putin and Trump say publicly or in a post-summit press release.
Longstanding US hostility toward Russia won’t change. US dark forces dominating NATO need a Kremlin enemy most of all to justify the alliance’s existence -enriching America’s war-profiteers by countless billions of dollars spent annually, despite no enemies of the state existing, none since WW II ended.
The sovereign independence of Russia, China, Iran and other nations stand in the way of US global hegemonic aims.
Treating them as adversaries drives US foreign policy - its malign nature not about to change from Putin/Trump summit talks or follow-up ones if they occur.
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My newest book as editor and contributor is titled "Flashpoint in Ukraine: How the US Drive for Hegemony Risks WW III."
