LAVROV’S INTERVIEW’S CONTINUE:

               It’s been a few days, but I am still digesting the latest interview provided by Mr. Lavrov. Just about the time I thought the HARDtalk piece was a bombshell, Sputnik post yet another interview with what appears to be the man of the hour. Now, it’s a given, Sputnik is a mouthpiece for Moscow, but then again, so is CNN and MSNBC and FOX and the BBC, so in the long run, it’s just the way the game is played now. Was the timeline of this interview deliberate? Was it designed to follow what took place on HARDtalk? You bet it was. Did it add anything to the “message” coming from Moscow. Not really, but that doesn’t mean much when the HARDtalk event was a complete, “in your face” event. So the Sputnik didn’t intend to add material, but it did reinforce a concept I now find more troubling than ever.

 The Donald and the US Military:

               Below, is a slice of the Sputnik interview and you need to pay close attention to the theme Mr. Lavrov continued. What is the relationship between the US military and the US President?

Sputnik: 103 missiles were launched, 71 of them were shot down. Trump said that he called somebody to ask if all the rockets reached their targets, and the person on the other end of the line said "yes-yes, every one of them, Mr. President." Whom could he call?

Lavrov: I don't know whom, in such cases, the President of the United States calls. Our President doesn't have to call — he's reported to, when such things happen. And I would prefer not to meditate on the theme of relations inside the US Administration or how some officials in Washington treat the position and orders of their President. Speaking about the risk of a military confrontation, I feel absolutely confident in assuming that the militaries will not allow this, and of course neither will President Putin or President Trump. They are leaders, after all, elected by their people and responsible for their peace.

           

            If you can’t see the “message” here, then you will not understand the danger of what is taking place. “Relations inside the US Administration”? Now, think about that for a minute. Just how vulnerable does Moscow think the US has become? For months, some of us have been preaching just how dangerous it was for the rest of the world to see the US leadership in crisis. Was this some complex plot by the Russians to disrupt the US? Is this all some complex, Master Plan to bring the US to it’s knees? Is that what the Russians want, a world in crisis as the US teeters on disaster? It may not have been their idea, but the ability to manipulate what is taking place in the US is not lost upon the Russians and frankly, several others. How could the US look anything but dysfunctional? All anyone must do is watch the evening news from the US and it looks like the government is melting down. Why would the Russians not try to leverage this US crisis? But, what puzzles me, is the emphasis on the relationship between the US military and the President. The destructive attitudes of the US two party system is something the American people have come to expect, but questioning the loyalty of the US Military to the Commander in Chief, that is a very disturbing twist, event coming from Moscow. Do the Russians have the ability to monitor, at some level, the communications taking place between key US Military officials? Yes. If there is one thing I know for sure, it’s the reality that Senior Officers and texting is a problem that seems unsolvable. Could the Russians be capturing just enough information to weaponize what they perceive is pattern of discontent? Absolutely. Now, if you take this theory and add to it the rumor I spoke of last week, you may begin to feel even more nervous with what the Russians are doing. In case you forgot, the “Rumor” was, supported by Mr. Lavrov’s interview on HARDtalk, the US military was against the level of strikes The Donald wanted to execute in Syria. The second part of that “rumor” was the idea of the US Military communicating with the Russian Military on what was going to take place. The assumption is, The Donald didn’t authorize that communication, but the US military leadership did so anyway. For the record, I don’t buy that part of the “Rumor”. What I do find more than plausible, is the idea the US President did authorize an “unofficial” communication to take place, one that his staff would disavowal if asked by the media.  The risk were too high not to take that action. If the US President’s target list was too much for his Commanders to support, then yes, that would have been a very….very….heated event. That part is most likely true.

Trap:

            Here is the trap I think the Russians executed. If the US President stands up and tells his nation, along with his staff, that the Russians were not informed of the strike, then planting the seed that was not what took place would only add fuel to the political fire already burring inside the US. The Donald, to hear the Democrats say it, is completely in bed with Mr. Putin. If he tells the nation he didn’t inform them and then the Russians hint that he did, the only result is more damage to current President of the US. If there is one game the Russian love to play and they play it very well, it’s the “I gotcha” game.

           All of this is a great deal of speculation, but these two recent interviews by Mr. Lavrov, have a common theme. The US Military is “working” with the Russian Military. If it was anyone but The Donald, nobody would think twice about that statement. Hell, if it was Obama, they would be nominating him for the Nobel Peace Prize again. We all see how that turned out. Just asked the people of Libya!