I remember the day Russian President Vladimir Putin signed the Olympic Truce Wallbefore the Sochi games. In the same way a young athlete hopes to clutch miraculous victory from sure defeat, I had hoped America would sign along with him. But I awoke, as the world did, to the reality. Obama was a “no show” in Sochi, and a truce was really, and finally, nowhere in sight. Now let me tell you the reality of where we really are, and a shameful truth I see in America today.

The Stain of Mediocrity

As an American who grew up revering giants of sport, brilliant statesmen, epic heroes of America and the world, leadership roles today seem filled with masquerading greatness. As Americans, we’ve all been somehow immunized from recognizing what excellence is, and worse, we’re incised from our own values. Right has become wrong, good is evil, and mediocrity an acceptable curse. Make no mistake; we are largely led by mediocre people, especially in the west. And since America leads the west, this buck has to stop at the Oval Office and with Barack Obama.

You reading this, you’ve seen on Facebook and Twitter, the rants and ravings about Obama winning the Nobel Peace Prize, and then perpetuating endless war. You watched and read how British Petroleum (BP) polluted an American treasure, the Caribbean Sea, and how Obama let them off the hook. Americans and the world witnessed in dazed obliqueness, Washington bailing out Wall Street. Our government propped up General Motors, rescued Goldman Sachs, arrested no one, and ignored the biggest banking heist in world history. And America’s chief executive, what did he do? Why he wheeled and dealt, right before our eyes, whitewashing that stain on every American’s legacy. Then in the ultimate betrayal of Americans, Barack Obama and the Washington elite not only veiled NSA surveillance of Americans and foreigners from us, they condoned the necessity of trashing constitutional rights, when all was said and done.

America: Bigger, Badder, and Better Than the World?

Even before Mr. Putin was signing that “truce wall” American Senator and lead Neo-Con John McCain had visited Kiev in Ukraine. In a wholly unprecedented move, the biggest supporter of militarism in the United States government joined a revolution next door to Russia. The audacity of the move by these new conservatives in the US, was stunning, and telling. The moves being made by Obama and the other Washington psychopaths now, they speak of utter disdain toward the people. Obama speaks of utter disdain, even superiority and elitism, above the entire world.

“I believe in American exceptionalism with every fiber of my being.  But what makes us exceptional is not our ability to flout international norms and the rule of law; it is our willingness to affirm them through our actions.”

This statement came at one of America’s most revered institutions, at the commencement ceremony before Cadets graduating the military academy at West Point. So the reader understands fully, there is only one more sacred place of honor in America. For if the courageous and brave of the United States are born at West Point, the bravest of all die buried at Arlington Cemetery. So for a president to so lie and dishonor Americans there, it’s a sacrilege if it’s found out. Sadly, and with bitter disgust, millions around the world are finding out now.

In this same speech the president talks about human rights, democracy and stabilizing the world for “free market” harmony. It strikes me strangely, even the notion business should be mentioned not one breath away from China conflicts, not an eye blink from Arab conflicts. Does it strike you as ironic that the man who controls US national intelligence has the unmitigated audacity to feign innocence over world conflicts we’ve largely caused?

Walls Fall, Arabs Spring, and Peace Fails

When the Berlin Wall fell, people of the world cheered in hopeful rejoicing, peace had its great chance. But Americans today have to grapple, with the concept at least, we are may not be wearing the “white hats” for peace today. As part evidence of this probability, a recent book (which I know you have not read) entitled Arabesque Americaine (website), by Dr. Ahmed Bensaada, assembles telling evidence the so-called Arab Spring was a destabilization operation, funded and orchestrated by the CIA, State Department and historic CIA-funded foundations. I’m not here to debate whether or not Dr. Bensaada’s revelations are true, or not. It’s generally accepted our own CIA and intelligence community plays a role in ALL world geo-strategy, as do all intelligence communities.

For my argument it’s important to take note of the “trend,” or the trail of subversive democracy, as it were. To wit, the secret American funding of “color revolutions” in Eastern Europe  bear witness for today’s far more “volatile” situations. In Serbia (2000), Georgia (2003), Ukraine (2004) and Kirghizistan (2005) pro-Russia governments were overthrown by mobilizing disaffected, pro-Western young people. And nothing has changed where Ukraine and these other Obama led actions are concerned.

President Barack Obama and President Toomas Hendrik Ilves review the troops during an official arrival ceremony at Kadriorg Palace in Tallinn, Estonia, Sept. 3, 2014. (Official White House Photo by Amanda Lucidon)

To understand how all this could be taking place right under our noses, if’s necessary to look at into the past and US involvement into the affairs of other countries. At the same time, it’s necessary to look closely at the mechanics of strategic change in the west. As Bensaada and man others point out, organizations such as the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), National Democratic Institute for International Affairs (NDI), the International Republic Institute (IRI), Freedom House (FH), the Albert Einstein Institution (see reference below), the Center for Non Violent Action and Strategies (CANVAS), the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) — and George Soros’ Open Society Institute (OSI), these and more may be used for purpose.

We have to admit, Hollywood depictions of clandestine CIA moves, these are a reality, as are many other instituted strategies. US detente is and has been, largely imperialistic, but called the spread of democracy, dignity, and a quest for human rights. When in reality ALL we are seeing is a concrete strategy hammered out at war colleges, think thanks, and in the halls of academia. Of this, I needn’t really argue beyond pointing to American experts like Colonel Robert Helvey. For those unfamiliar, Helvey is perhaps the foremost expert (military) on so-called “non-violent” revolution. He’s lectured at Harvard and Cambridge, and advised our leadership on “strategic non-violent conflict” for decades now. No one knows more about the “color revolutions” and how they got started.

This paper (PDF) by Helvey, presented at the aforementioned Albert Einstein Institute, shows how the Neo-Cons and Obama are operating. That is, except for on immutable tenant of Helvey’s expertness, they ignore violence as a contaminant of successful overthrow. I won’t get into Helvey’s theories here, but it’s important to know how expert and spot on his expertise is.  As for Ukraine, and the current situation blamed on the Russians and Vladimir Putin, I quote from the American expert and this article by him back in February 2014:

“Today is a black day for the Ukraine… A democratically elected President and his administration have been overthrown in a postmodern coup d’état. “(Paraphrased from the German translation using Yandex browser)

The author goes on to discuss the “joke” that has been mainstream western media, as well as the abuses of power now forgotten of co-conspirator in the Orange Revolution, Julia Tymoshenko. Tymoshenko, whom the US administration probably thought was too volatile a candidate for leadership of Ukraine’s current regime, has been implicated in what amount to massive scandals surrounding gas deals, oligarchs, and even notorious underworld connections. Whether or not she’s guilty of those crimes, this bears less weight than ongoing US Neo-Con support from the likes of Senator John McCain. There was a time in American when the “appearance” of corruption prevented such associations. Today the public is held in such contempt; these people are empowered not to even care. As for the western media, Tymoshenko is depicted like a sort of Evita Peron figure.

We the People – We Don’t Matter

Contemptuous of all of us, this is how I see western leadership today. If you can remember the public outcry when Obama and McCain wanted to go into Syria, then the relentless onslaught of hate mongering toward Russia becomes not an “American” apparition and insult, but a leadership and corporate one. If you want the “truth,” let me assure you, it’s out there. It’s just nobody is funding its discovery. Worse, not many even seem to want the truth, we’d as soon bury our heads in the sand, as get up and take a stand. But you need predictions? As an American you want a crystal ball projection on your future? Here’s one to think about.

From the National Archives – The Constitution of the United States of America

Senator John McCain is head of an organization known as the International Republican Institute (IRI), its dogma being, “to advance democracy worldwide.” With knowledge of the collapse of Libya’s government in mind, consider IRI’s most recent poll focus (PDF), “TUNISIA’S DEMOCRATIC TRANSITION AT A CROSSROADS.” Another Arab Spring instituted democracy is in trouble. Next door to Libya, Tunisia is on the brink of more chaos, virtually predicted by the people who brought you Egypt, Libya, Syria, Ukraine, the new Iraq, and probably Gaza as well. In fact, IRI and many other front organizations have their fingers in every pie in the Middle East or anywhere conflict is rising. Disguised as empathy for women in Jordan and across the Arab world, IRI frequently functions in an almost fully integrated capacity with the US State Department via the U.S. – Middle East Partnership Initiative (MEPI). In this case, and I quote from a recent MEPI pamphlet on Gaza:

“MEPI also supports the International Republican Institute’s (IRI) “Public Opinion Polling and Political Leadership” project. This project supports independent democratic political activists and promotes the utilization of public opinion research in public dialogue. IRI and its local polling partner, the Arab World for Research and Development (AWRAD), provide relevant public opinion research to key partners, stakeholders, civil society representatives and influential decision makers.”

The Price of Being American

The long and short of this is, such organizations, for better or worse, act as intermediaries of US strategy. This needs no corroboration for me. Turning back to the imagery of Vladimir Putin at Sochi, the spirit of the Olympic Games offered a unique opportunity. I said back then in an interview just before the opening, withRussia Today television;

“Vladimir Putin signing the Truce Wall impressed me as something we should all be doing. The Olympics is the perfect medium for us to come together and make peace, if that’s what we want to do.”

Instead of peaceful pursuits, the Obama administration has made every effort, not just to thwart a real or perceived strategic threat from Russia, but to humiliate, vilify, and insult the people of Russia, right along with their president. Glancing at all this, from a perspective of fairness, anyone can clearly see at best a mean spirited retribution for Ukraine leadership swaying away from EU assenting at the last moment. In the worst case, we’re faced with a far more grim scenario, a pattern of a type of imperialism akin to the worst conspiracy theories.

However people are predisposed, be they American, Dutch, Brit, Chinese, German or Russian, the prospect of more war, worse economics, and failures on a more magnanimous scale are unimaginable. Nevertheless, we must accept facts, even amid all our polarized doubts. Vladimir Putin is no bombing anyone, Russia does not have military outposts surrounding the people of the world, and despite claims to the contrary, citizens in Missouri are not being beheaded, not yet. To NATO’s claims against Russia, we see not images of butchered civilians in western Ukraine, Russian tanks have not entered Kiev, the air forces of Putin have not domed the skies above east Europe, not yet. Americans are, however, boots on the ground in Iraq already. NATO is overtly planning to put missiles aimed at Russia again. Even the British (as the UK is apparently dissolving too) seem poised to expand militarily.

The narrow shoulders on which rest the fates of a billion people – NATO

And all this, on a “say so” from the White House, not the Congress mind you, just the executive branch of the US government. Russia, at every turn, has somehow thwarted sanction after sanction. The EU is all but finished economically, and Washington once again leveraged leaders in Brussels – somehow. Where are the weapons of mass destruction this time? Who really shot down Malaysian flight M17? Can a US president launch World War III based on a Tweet from a fake Twitter account? Is the most powerful military force the Earth has ever known led by a maniac, or by a puppet? Or are we just so used to mediocrity it matters not? I cannot make your answers for you, but I am here to plead with you to ask the questions at least. Isn’t America worth that much to you? Isn’t peace? Isn’t the world? I’ll conclude here with another quote from Barack Obama as he addressed the graduating class of West Point:

“Ultimately, global leadership requires us to see the world as it is, with all its danger and uncertainty.  We have to be prepared for the worst, prepared for every contingency.  But American leadership also requires us to see the world as it should be — a place where the aspirations of individual human beings really matters; where hopes and not just fears govern; where the truths written into our founding documents can steer the currents of history in a direction of justice.  And we cannot do that without you.”

I’m just wondering if he meant “without American citizens,” or without brave new Army officers?

Image credits: Evita/Yulia Tymoshenko - Premier.gov.ru

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About Phil Butler