With the signing of an agreement between Washington and Warsaw to erect a missile defence system in Poland, echoes of the cold war between Russia and the United States are hard to ignore. The agreement comes hot on the heels of the conflict between Russia and Georgia.
BioEric Margolis is a journalist born in New York City and holding degrees from Georgetown the University of Geneva, and New York University. During the Vietnam War he served as a US Army infantryman.
Margolis is the author of War at the Top of the World –- The Struggle for Afghanistan and Asia is a syndicated columnist and broadcaster whose articles have appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The International Herald Tribune, Mainichi Shimbun and US Naval Institute Proceedings.
Margolis is an expert of military affairs, a former instructor in strategy and tactics in the US Army, and a member of the International Institute of Strategic Studies and the Institute of Regional Studies in Islamabad, Pakistan.
Eric Margolis' books have been published in the US, Canada, Britain, and India. He often appears and contributes to national and international news items for outlets such as CNN, ABC,CBC and Voice of America to the Wall Street Journal and Maninichi-Tokyo. He broadcasts regularly on foreign affairs for Canadian TV (TV Ontario and CBC), radio, and has appeared on ABC, CBS, CNN, and PBS Comments from Registered Members | (Register or log in to make your comment.) | silesian99 2008-08-18
Gentlemen: marvelous report, but to maintain your credibility as knowledgeable observers & analysts, you might want to rerecord this session with the correct year for the Cuban Missile Crisis --it was 1962, and was over and done with before the close of October. When both journalist AND analyst get this wrong... ouch!! | h.lim 2008-08-17
Nikita Khrushchev placed missiles into Cuba had one other effect apart from provoking a US Naval blockade, which was removal of US missiles from Turkey in return for Soviets removing their missiles. Missiles (defense) in Poland and Czech Republic is EXACTLY a repetition of that provocation in 1963. Let see now, if US goes to war to support Georgia, Poland or Czech Republic maybe the US won't have to have an election this year so Bush remains as president until the war is over? Whenever that might be or the end of the world whichever comes first. | louis44 2008-08-16
At my 'guess' enery or control to energy resources is only of marginal meaning in this conflict. What Russia wants is to create a pro-Russian belt around Russia itself. It's trying to make a regional ASEAN like organization. Problem is: the presence of the West (read: the US) in the region with one particular reason: OIL.
Now since the US attacked Iraq, there's no need anymore for an oilcrisis. And as for the Russian, they allready locked a great part of the Caspian oil via concessions and treaty, etc. One could even say that there's not much oil left to transport through the BTC.
This conflict is all about influence and multipolarity. Energy is just a tiny little part of the conflict.
| SimonF 2008-08-16
Democracynow.org has a good interview with Michael Klare about the control of Caspian Energy Resources being at the source of the conflict.
Larouchepac.com also has some good inside information about the role of Britain and the USA on this conflict. | paul 2008-08-16
Part Two on Sunday | TJColatrella 2008-08-16
The United States and the Bush Administration have done all they can repeatedly to antagonize insult and encroach upon Russia for years now much of this due to Condi Rice's arrogance and yet again her incompetence which is a matter of record even in this her supposed field of expertise..!
Putin has developed a very real resentment for the west as he has shared in the press and this can be attributed largely to Bush's insulting manner with this leader of a great and powerful nation from calling him by his first name at press conferences repeatedly to Bush policies and speeches in states that were either former Soviet and even Russian states to policies such as this dangerous placement of missiles on Russia's border region a clear provocation from the Russian prospective as well as this administrations suspect involvement and tactic support for the mass murders Saakasvilli committed against the South Ossetians over which Russia admittedly reacted to harshly and with blunt fo | kaaawa 2008-08-16
Where is part 2? |
ZAA NKWETA, PRESENTER: With the signing of an agreement between Washington and Warsaw to erect a missile defense system in Poland, echoes of the Cold War between Russia and the United States are hard to ignore. The agreement comes hot on the heels of the conflict between Russia and Georgia. To further analyze these events, Real News senior news editor Paul Jay spoke to Eric Margolis. PAUL JAY, SENIOR EDITOR: Welcome to our interview with Eric Margolis on the current situation in Poland, the United States, Russia, and the new missile crisis. Eric, so we're back in. We're not in 1963 and the Cuban Missile Crisis, but it somehow has some of the feeling of the reverse of the same equation. How serious is the situation that's developing in Poland?ERIC MARGOLIS, THE REAL NEWS ANALYST: Paul, I'm getting frissons not of the '63 missile crisis but August 1914, where you see the great powers somehow—a movement towards war, conflict, takes on its own momentum. And I'm exaggerating a little bit. Certainly what we're seeing here is an outburst of militarism, of "I'm bigger than you are," of chest beating, mixed with domestic politics, over issues that are totally unnecessary. And that's what makes this so frightening, because you have rulers, and particularly leadership in the United States, which appears ready to go to the edge and to risk a major confrontation with Russia over question of missiles in Poland and over events in Georgia, which is about as obscure place as you can get.JAY: It's somewhat like the Cuba situation in '63. Like, it was a totally provocative act for Khrushchev to put missiles in Cuba, and really completely unnecessary. And how could the Russians not expect Kennedy and the Americans to go crazy in response? But the same thing now: how could the Americans not expect the Russians to go nuts, putting nuclear weapons right on their border?MARGOLIS: Paul, that's the 64,000-ruble question. Nobody really understands it. You know, the deputy Soviet Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov, an old KGB man, very tough and smart, described Georgia as an American protectorate or as an American satellite—that was the word he used.JAY: And he should know.MARGOLIS: And he should know a thing or two about satellites. You know, he knows a satellite when he sees one. And, sure enough, Georgia did turn into an American satellite very quickly, ever since President Saakashvili came to power in a dubious election that was hailed as democratic in the US but was questionable, certainly by his critics—questions of vote-rigging and intimidation, stuffed ballot boxes, and things like that. Anyway, Saakashvili came in, and he was probably groomed in the states by US intelligence when he was a student. He opened all the doors to the US, quickly turned Georgia into a US colony. Americans poured in American military advisers, civilian advisers. On their heels came the Israelis—Israeli military men, Mossad men. Israelis were selling millions of dollars' worth of arms and military equipment to Georgia, and so on and so forth. Now, when Georgia, when Saakashvili planned the attack on the secessionist province of South Ossetia (and they've been sparring and feuding there since 1992; this was nothing new), but the massing of Georgian troops to attack had to be seen by American satellites. It had to be known to the Russians, who have very good intelligence in the area, and it had to have been approved by Washington. It's inconceivable that it could not have been.JAY: So the Russians essentially called an American bluff in Georgia. Georgia launches this initial attack, Russia calls the bluff, the bluff being that we're somehow going to protect Georgia, Bush says, and clearly they don't have the capacity to do it. So does that mean, then, so now they quickly finalize the deal with Poland to [inaudible] in theory show, "Well, we can't be pushed around by the Russians," except it's an even more provocative act?MARGOLIS: Well, that's exactly what happened. The US has been negotiating for months and months and months with Poland, and the Poles kept asking for more and more exorbitant payments—money, anti-aircraft systems—until the point where Washington said, "To hell with you. We're not going to pay this. This is highway robbery." But then, soon as the US got itself looked in Georgia and made Bush look like a fool, they immediately concluded a deal with the Poles, giving them everything they want, and paying them huge amounts of money—we don't know how much yet—and promising the Poles US anti-aircraft missile systems with some numbers of US troops.JAY: Well, in the next segment of our interview, let's discuss the response of the Russians. A Russian general today has already threatened Poland with being a target of nuclear attack if they accept this missile deal. Please join us for the next segment of our interview with Eric Margolis.DISCLAIMER:Please note that TRNN transcripts are typed from a recording of the program; The Real News Network cannot guarantee their complete accuracy. |
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