Treating the latest Russian spy scandal as mere entertainment misses the point. Sure, all the makings of a Hollywood blockbuster are there. But U.S. media are likening the plot to 1960s thrillers (or parodies of them), to obscure the stubborn fact that U.S. and Russian capitalist rulers still aim at destroying one another, while killing millions of workers in the process.
Despite Obama’s promised “reset,” the imperialist rivalry between U.S. and Russian rulers is getting hotter. The two remain the most heavily-armed contenders — followed by Chinese and European bosses — in a sharpening competition for control of the world’s resources, markets and labor.
Kremlin bosses bent on economic, political and military expansion practice espionage seriously. So do their Pentagon foes, charged with maintaining the tottering U.S. empire. Some U.S. pundits dismiss the spy incident as a harmless, out-dated holdover of a Cold War mindset that no longer applies. In fact, it reflects the ongoing inter-imperialist struggle, headed to escalate into armed conflict.
Obama & Co. Step Up Missile,
Nuke Face-Off
While front pages and web pages featured images of Russian agent Anna Chapman, Hillary Clinton was in Krakow on July 2 signing a pact that puts U.S. Patriot and SM-3 missiles on Polish soil. Obama’s envoy absurdly claimed the missiles will defend Europe from a potential attack by Iran. But it’s Russia, not Iran, which lies on Poland’s border.
Clinton just wound up a whirlwind tour of former Soviet and Soviet-bloc states seeking their military allegiance to Washington. “Poland has been rattled by Russia’s more assertive foreign policy on the territory of the ex-Soviet Union, especially in Georgia, and the Patriot deal is seen as symbolically important in underlining U.S. commitment to its security.” (Reuters, 7/1) She also visited the Ukraine, Georgia, Azerbaijan and Armenia, areas hotly contested by Russia’s military presence and by George Soros-financed pro-U.S. election rigging.
More ominously, U.S. and Russian rulers continue to jockey for supremacy in city-destroying nuclear arms. But the U.S. wants the lethal edge in current arms talks that may soon limit strategic warheads to 1,550 a side, mainly for financial reasons.
Asked how the spy flap might affect his stance on the treaty, liberal warhawk Senator Joe Lieberman said, “I’d like to be assured that we’re investing enough money in modernization. In a world in which there will be nuclear weapons for a good long time... I want to make sure that the smaller number of weapons we’re left with in our stockpile work.” He no doubt worried about Russian infiltration into the U.S.’s bomb program. One Russian agent had “made contact with an individual who works for a U.S. research facility that works on small-yield, high-penetration nuclear warheads.” (Christian Science Monitor, 6/28)
Russian Spies Not As Incompetent As U.S. Bosses Pretend
Though probably not top agents, the seized Russians were hardly incompetent bunglers. Their influence reached fairly high into the U.S. Establishment. One spy, Cambridge, Mass.-based Donald Heathfield, had discussed a business deal with strategist Leon Fuerth, who would have been Al Gore’s national security advisor if Bush hadn’t stolen the 2000 election. And another spy, Manhattan Mata Hari Chapman, met Nouriel Roubini several times on “social” occasions. Economist Roubini has become a darling in U.S. rulers’ eyes because he foretold the current economic crash.
What we are witnessing in the spy case is not theatre, but a deadly aspect of what Lenin called “the highest stage of capitalism.” He was referring to the imperialist rivalry that underlay World War I. Forget the “James Bond” jokes. For workers today, the stakes are as high as in 1917.