Former National Security Advisor explained current Russia policy almost 20 years ago

[yurbud]

Zbigniew Brzezinski was Jimmy Carter's National Security Advisor, but he laid out in pretty blunt terms what our foreign policy was and would be for all the decades that followed.

He now brags about how the public was misled into thinking the Soviets started their Afghan War, but our support for the Mujahadeen started before that to lure the Soviets into a trap, as he says in this interview:

Brzezinski: Yes. According to the official version of history, CIA aid to the Mujahadeen began during 1980, that is to say, after the Soviet army invaded Afghanistan, 24 Dec 1979. But the reality, secretly guarded until now, is completely otherwise: Indeed, it was July 3, 1979 that President Carter signed the first directive for secret aid to the opponents of the pro-Soviet regime in Kabul. And that very day, I wrote a note to the president in which I explained to him that in my opinion this aid was going to induce a Soviet military intervention.

http://www.counterpunch.org/1998/01/15/how-jimmy-carter-and-i-started-the-mujahideen/

This astroturf rebellion has been played out over and over for decades in country after country where their governments refused to play on the terms Wall Street bankers, oil, sweatshop, and plantation corporations dictated.

In his book THE GRAND CHESSBOARD, his explanation of our goals in Eurasia are likely what is driving our current conflict with Russia:

“America is now the only global superpower, and Eurasia is the globe’s central arena. Hence, what happens to the distribution of power on the Eurasian continent will be of decisive importance to America’s global primacy and to America’s historical legacy.” (p.194) “It follows that America’s primary interest is to help ensure that no single power comes to control this geopolitical space and that the global community has unhindered financial and economic access to it.” (p148) …

The world’s energy consumption is bound to vastly increase over the next two or three decades. Estimates by the U.S. Department of energy anticipate that world demand will rise by more than 50 percent between 1993 and 2015, with the most significant increase in consumption occurring in the Far East. The momentum of Asia’s economic development is already generating massive pressures for the exploration and exploitation of new sources of energy and the Central Asian region and the Caspian Sea basin are known to contain reserves of natural gas and oil that dwarf those of Kuwait, the Gulf of Mexico, or the North Sea.” (p.125) …

“…how America `manages’ Eurasia is critical. Eurasia is the globe’s largest continent and is geopolitically axial. A power that dominates Eurasia would control two of the world’s three most advanced and economically productive regions. …About 75 per cent of the world’s people live in Eurasia, and most of the world’s physical wealth is there as well, both in its enterprises and underneath its soil. Eurasia accounts for 60 per cent of the world’s GNP and about three-fourths of the world’s known energy resources.” (p.31) …
(Excerpts from The Grand Chessboard: American Primacy And Its Geostrategic Imperatives — Zbigniew Brzezinski, Basic Books, 1997)

Taken as a whole, Brzezinski’s “Chessboard” is a pretty straightforward strategy for ruling the world. All one needs to do is seize critical energy supplies and transit lines, crush potential rivals, and subvert regional coalitions, or as Brzezinski breezily puts it, “keep the barbarians from coming together.”

http://www.counterpunch.org/2014/04/23/putins-dilemma/

Our leaders in Washington like to focus on just what happened in the last 24 hours or a few weeks at most, but it's important to look at the bigger picture and what foreign policy is about overall.

[Xipe Totec]

1. When did the fight start, Bobby? Teacher, it started when Johnny hit me back. nt

[Democracyinkind]

2. I somewhat disagree with the first part, but totally endorse the second part.

Operation Cyclone was not the beginning of the imperial struggle over Afghanistan. Afghanistan was a theater of Anglo-American vs. Russian interests way back in the 19th century, and the Soviets were heavily invested in Afghanistan at the time President Carter signed the Cyclone orders. It is somewhat true that Cyclone was the beginning of the "hot phase" of the Afghan conflict. Don't get me wrong - I think it was a colossal mistake. But if you're a committed McKinderite - such as Brzezinski - Cyclone made allot of sense.

That's why I think that the second part of the OP is pertinent. The State Department - and the MIC in general - are still hung up on this McKinderite bullshit, no matter that it is gravely outdated and has been proven to be wrong even before McKinder came up with it. Control of the Oceans is what makes a great power - the whole "heartland" idea is just imperial folly. But it jives with the long-held Anglo-American policy of containing Russia/the Soviet Union to regional influence.

I couldn't agree more with your last paragraph. The American people ignore the bigger picture at their own expense. Literally.

[yurbud]

3. when the sun never set on the British empire, it didn't make life suck less for the average Brit

at the end of the 19th century, most were still working 16 hours a day seven days a week.

The expansion of the American empire helped average Americans from the end of World War II until 1980. Since then, there have been no dividends for us.

[Democracyinkind]

4. I agree with the general sentiment.

Though I would date it a bit differently: Americans have profited from the Anglo-American imperial project for a rather long time. So have the British. Which doesn't mean that the "average" in both countries wasn't colossally fucked. But even the lowliest of Brits profited from imperialism somewhat. However, it is true that the fruits of empire were very unequally distributed, to the point of not making that great of a difference in the "average" life.

[bemildred]

5. Yes, sometimes noise, disorder, and chaos are the objective, the mission.

It's the one thing we are really good at, too.

[yurbud]

6. as someone said about Iraq, in chaos, you can steal and no one will notice