The Incredible Stupidity of the Western Statist - Let's CRUSH Russia!

Image Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/shared/spl/hi/pop_ups/05/europe_enl_1136301170/html/1.stm


Western statists in government and the media view the entire world as one big chess board wherein they only have to make a few brilliant moves to economically crush annihilate their perceived enemies to control the planet and its resources.

Matthew Yglesias at Vox.com exhibits such a mentality and arrogantly believes his own delusion that the US and Europe can so economically impair Russia that Russia can be blasted back to the Stone Age. Aside from the genocidal insanity that deliberately hurting and harming folks is indeed a desirable foreign policy goal, the stone cold reality of actual facts dismisses such dangerously juvenile aspirations, despite the best efforts of Yglesias to believe his own warped rant and he isn't focused on merely punishing Russia (who did nothing to earn punishment) but he's thoroughly focused on CRUSHING Russia.

One fact that explains how Europe could crush Russia's economy by Matt Yglesias 

Yglesias is convinced that if Europe sanctions Russia that Russia will surely end up burning in the sanctions toaster. He validates his position by asserting that the trade relationship between Europe and Russia is far more valuable to Russia and even implies that Europe doesn't even need to trade with Russia. Yglesias then proceeds to defend EU statism as if it's a force so powerful that no nation state can escape it dictates.

The fly in the ointment is that while Russia is a nation-state, the European Union is a confederation of separate countries. The EU has incredible clout when it speaks with one voice....

The European economy presently sucks, especially southern Europe, so cutting off trade doesn't just hurt Russia, it also hurts Europe because trade is always a 2 way streak. Just how much is EU-Russia trade worth? It's worth a whopping $412 billion according to a CNN infographic, yet Yglesias dismisses $400 billion in trade as if it's really nothing, a most bizarre assumption considering that Europe is Russia's largest trading partner and Russia is Europe's 3rd largest trading partner.

  
The price of 'crushing' Russia economically would be quite steep for Europe but there is much more to the Russia-EU economic alliance and mutual dependency.  Europe is also dependent upon Russia for gas.

Map: Europe's thirst for Russian gas

30% of the EU's gas comes from Russia - in Germany it's 40% and Germany is the Europe's powerhouse economy.

Europe gets very cold in the winter, especially its frigid northern nations like Germany.  Does anybody really think that Europeans and the Germans are about to risk freezing in the winter and risk losing over $400 billion a year in trade to appease the US Empire?   Well, some believe that it's no problem and that the US can supply Europe with all the gas it needs.  Mic.com (formerly policymic.com) reports, here:

Europe's reliance on Russia is temporary. By 2020, the U.S. could become a major energy exporter, supplying Europe with about half of the gas that Russia supplies now, according to the Obama administration. If the EU and the U.S. can agree upon an "energy policy," then Europe could rely on the U.S. as one of their main energy suppliers. That endangers Russia's grip over the EU, but it also means that Europe would only have to manage the next few years under Russian dominance.

The bold assumption that the US can supply Europe with all its gas needs begs the question: Who controls the largest natural gas reserves on the planet and who has the infrastructure to deliver it?  It's not the US.

Top Natural Gas Reserves by Country 2014

Russia has 1,688.00 trillion cubic feet
Iran has 1,193.00 trillion cubic feet
Qatar has 885.29 trillion cubic feet
Turkmenistan has 265.00 trillion cubic feet
US has 308.44 trillion cubic feet

Source: http://www.quandl.com/c/markets/natural-gas

Gas as a resource is worthless without a delivery system and pipelines are indeed the main delivery source. While Russia and Europe are linked by a complex network of pipelines, the US can't deliver gas to Europe because there is no infrastructure in place to accomplish such deliveries, forgetting momentarily that Russia has more than 5 times the natural gas reserves of the US.

Any efforts by the US to deliver gas to Europe will be expensive, require a huge infrastructure investment (probably one that isn't even close to being economically viable) and will also drive up energy costs across Europe, all of which will negatively impact Europe's already ailing economy.

The bottom line is that nobody can meet Europe's natural gas needs more efficiently and cost effectively than Russia, despite the grand delusions of US media foreign policy wonks preaching the hallucinations of USG policy wonks.

If you were a citizen of Europe, would you risk freezing in the winter and suffering more economic hardship just to appease the US Empire?

While the USG and its media hacks may be suffering from an acute case of inhaling way too many summer vapors, at the end of the day Europe will tell the US to take a hike with a polite "Thank you very much but we rather like our $400 billion plus trade with Russia, we very much like Russian gas and we aren't about to commit economic suicide or freeze or genuflect before DC, and by the way we still remember the NSA, YES, America can go straight to hell and we are totally fed up with the damn Yanks."