Is 1917 returning?
The Russian government cannot escape the ghosts of the past, as much as it may want to.
(Picture taken from the Jewish American National History Museum in Philadelphia by Joshua Tartakovsky)
By Joshua Tartakovsky, 10 April 2017
There are many people, such as the corrupt junta in Moscow leading Russia, who would like us to forget 1917 and its transformative events. Indeed, Moscow has refused to commemorate the Russian Revolution, pretending it did not exist and burying its head in the sand. As expected, the Kremlin does not like questions of social justice and the control of the elite to be brought to the surface. That did not prevent, however, tens of thousands of Russians from recently taking to the streets, in opposition to the corrupt government. Dimitri Medvedev, the Russian Prime Minister, is probably involved in a major corruption ring with a network of actors that was busy smuggling money out of the country while Russians at home were faced with austerity, due to the emphasis on the control of inflation and the cutting down of social programs.
In the United States too, too many people are not fully aware of 1917. They are unaware of the fact that Imperial Germany posed no existential threat to the US and that the responsibility for provoking the war did not lie solely with it. They are unaware of the fact that US went to an unnecessary war, which later imposed severe penalties on Germany in Versailles leading to its suffocation and eventually to its rising from the ashes seeking vengeance, and seeking to expand and subjugated its neighboring countries.
Most significantly, they are unaware of the fact that World War I was a blessing for Wall Street, as US government could buy armaments and war supplies therefore increasing production and profit. Never mind that hundreds of thousands of soldiers had to join the war effort for that. History always finds its useful idiots, or ignorant volunteers.
Now the global economic situation is even worse, since on the global scale (and in most cases not personal scale) too much money has been earned for it to be invested and provide a significant return. It is hard to produce major returns when the economy is already hugely developed. And how much could really be earned via advertising through social media and applications? Therefore, the need to destroy in order to rebuild from zero. In other words, war is good economically, but bad for some countries on the receiving end, or for the soldiers who believe they are serving their nation and helping its survival.
President Trump attacked Syria on the exact day the US entered World War I. A war on Syria would mean one of two things. Either, the Russians or/and Iranians caving in, or a direct clash between the US and Russia and Iran.
But President Trump’s real sight may be on North Korea, which has the potential to cause severe damage to South Korea and Japan. If Kim Jong Un is removed or bombed, the Korean public is likely to rise behind him in any case, resisting an occupation by South Korea and the United States. The US failed to defeat North Korea during the Korean War, and the resolve of the North Korean people has only been strengthened since then. Korea is likely to become a major graveyard once again, in such a scenario.
The Russians are now in shock following President Trump’s brilliant attack on Syria. He has caught them with their pants down, entirely unsuspecting. They naively hoped they could make a deal with him, ignoring the structural economic crisis which means war is inevitable, or helping him assume power hoping he will be grateful.
Alexander Dugin, the neo-fascist thinker known as “Putin’s brain,” has been dismayed after the great hopes he placed in Trump have vanished following the strike in Syria. First he claimed that Trump’s election was the “happiest day” in his life (naturally Dugin liked Trump for his apparent dislike of minorities and of human rights). But now with Trump attacking Syria, Dugin claims that Trump has sold-out to the neo-cons and places his hopes in Stephen Bannon, as if Bannon, if elected president in an highly unlikely scenario, would not go to war over Syria now that the global market is in a structural crisis. Dugin is hoping for a worldwide conservative revolution, and as a pig who keeps eating from the food he once vomited, refuses to accept the fact that his premises have been proven wrong. Dugin refuses to look at the structural crisis of the market and instead finds solace in the demonization of Jews, liberals, the left, and socialism itself.
Moscow too hoped to bury 1917, and ignore the plight of the people, but this attempt blew up in the faces of the Russian elite as the masses took to the streets in recent weeks protesting against governmental corruption. The high turnout of youth caught the Kremlin by surprise.
President Trump is a sovereign president who does what he thinks is good for the US (or rather, for the financial interests of its elite) and is not worried about pleasing others. At the same time he does not give a facade of liberalism at home and war abroad. With him, once he made up his mind, there are no pretenses.
Perhaps Trump is what we need to shake up our world so a new one can be rebuilt. Or perhaps he will secure the obedience of Russia and Iran who will realize that if they continue opposing him they will face the consequences. A compromise appears impossible, but may come too after a disaster.
