PRESS RELEASE
Russia Expert Cohen: Trump and Putin Stand Against Mainstream Drive for War
Aug. 10, 2017 (EIRNS)—The Nation posted an article by Russia relations expert Stephen Cohen on Aug. 10 headlined "Unverified Russiagate Allegations, Irresponsibly Promoted by Congress and the Media, Have Become a Grave Threat to American National Security." Cohen points out that the new round of sanctions passed by Congress against Russia, in a situation where the Russiagate allegations prevent Trump from seeking cooperation with Russia, creating a situation he calls a new cold war, that is more dangerous than the 40 year-long conflict we thought had been settled two decades ago.
Cohen points to the following factors to demonstrate this:
The current conflict includes three areas of potential conflict due to NATO or U.S. military activity: The Baltic and Ukraine on Russia’s borders, and Syria, where U.S. and Russian forces operate in uneasy cooperation.
There is no "mainstream" opposition to conflict, as demonstrated by the virtually unanimous sanctions vote in Congress. Fear of Russiagate has kept anti-Cold War leaders publicly silent, and the war policy has been adopted without debate.
Cohen cites obvious bias in the building coverage in which Putin is blamed for "saber-rattling," when Russia beefs up defenses on its own territory in response to NATO’s military build-up adjacent to it. Another case is the failure to cover the Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS) report that refutes the Russia hacking myth. VIPS, incidentally, was founded by officers who resigned their posts in opposition to the fraudulent assessment that Iraq was stockpiling weapons of mass destruction, which was the excuse for the murderous war that left that nation a devastated haven for Al Qaeda and ISIS. Cohen points out that this bias is buttressed by efforts, supported by establishment media and politicians to censor opposing views.
Cohen’s conclusion is to report the irony that Putin, whom the establishment voices portray as a ruthless tyrant, is a strong voice of moderation against Russian calls for harsher responses to the U. S. actions, just as Trump, with similar reputation, stands alone, possibly with some support from our European allies who are targeted along with Russia by the sanctions, as the leadership that might just save us from an open U.S./Russia conflict.
