U.S. versus Russia: Haunting Heiligendamm

Rabid American neocons systematically provoking Russia by Nebojsa Malic Shadows of the Cold War stalked the German spa resort of Heiligendamm this week, as the annual G-8 summit got underway. Relations between Russia and the United States have grown steadily worse for months. The latest animosity can be traced to Washington's belligerent insistence on severing the occupied province of Kosovo from Serbia, and deploying anti-missile installations in eastern Europe, ostensibly to protect the U.S. from "rogue states."

Washington points the finger at Moscow, blaming president Vladimir Putin for being an "autocrat" and "authoritarian," undermining democracy, stifling opposition and conducting a belligerent foreign policy. The same reporters and thinktanks who clamored for an illegal invasion of Iraq because "Saddam had WMDs" are now expounding on Russia's belligerence and threat to peace, freedom, and puppies.

One reason, certainly, is the dominance of "neoconservatives" in the U.S. ruling circles - people who clawed their way to power in the 1980s by harping about the (nonexistent) new threats from the Soviet Union and a need for a more "assertive" policy. Faced with the ongoing disaster that is the "War on Terror" - conveniently not mentioned by name any more - the neocons revert to type and seek a new conflict, this time with Moscow.

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