Biden Predicts a "Generated Crisis"?

[goebfwai]

Thanks! By the way, you might be interested in this article below from The Washington Post I just saw. It's a month old, so the gas cartel it mentions (reported in The Guardian yesterday) has already been formed. Russia, Iran and Qatar now control 60% world gas reserves between them. The Guardian doesn't mention Venezuala was part of cartel though, so maybes those plans have been shelved. Anyway, the article below mentions a lot of stuff you don't see reported much over here.

This section is particularly interesting:

"The state-run news agency RIA Novosti reported that talks were underway on the sale of antiaircraft systems and armored personnel carriers to Venezuela. Since 2005, Venezuela has signed contracts to buy more than $4.4 billion worth of arms from Russia, including fighter jets, helicopters and assault rifles, according to the Kremlin. The arms sales have caused alarm in the United States..."

What I think were seeing happen in Venezuela - as far as America's eyes go - is the formation of a client state of Russia, not quite in the immediate backyard as Cuba was, but still too close for comfort. A Russia friendly, Venezuelan army and navy, and too well-armed for bully boy America's liking. This isn't something that America's military mandarins will feel lukewarm about. Will they tolerate it, or will they want to open up a new front-line in US military hegemony? Obama and Biden face a big problem if they win. Most of the top brass in the US military will be neocon appointees, still gunning for their Orwellian 'war without end'.

Venezuela, Russia in $1 Billion Accord
Loan to Fund Arms Purchases; 2 Leaders Also Consider Forming Gas Cartel
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/26/AR2008092603945.html?nav=rss_world

 

[TomPaine]

I'm sure the Jackals will now be dispatched to Venezuela in order to get rid of Chavez. Elements tried to get him over thrown in that coups a couple of years back, this of course failed.
Internal strife in Russia would soon knock the wind out of Russias blustering as well. The military capabilities have shrunk vastly from the days of the USSR, Russias population has shrunk and is still declining due to a combination of poverty and lack of equality.
Another attempt to ramp up for an arms race I believe would probably bankrupt Russia and may see further Russian states try to seperate.

TomPaine

 

[darkfibre]

DOD Panel: Next President to 'Likely' to Face Crisis in First 270 Days

October 24, 2008 -- The next president is likely to face a major international crisis within his first nine months in office, according to a senior group of business advisers to the defense secretary.

Accordingly, the Defense Business Board says the new administration should set a goal to win Senate confirmation of key Pentagon posts in the first 30 days of the inauguration, in order to have a full team in place to deal with such a contingency.

Michael Bayer, chairman of the Defense Business Board and veteran Pentagon consultant, this week called for the next administration to move quickly to avoid encountering civilian leadership vacuums that often accompany political transitions.

“Prepare for a likely first 270 days crisis,” Bayer warns in an Oct. 23 briefing. “Too many presidents were ill prepared for this.”

http://defensenewsstand.com/insider.asp?issue=10242008sp

 

[butchersapron]

Obama's VP candidate Joe Biden to a fund raiser in Seattle on Sunday night -

"Mark my words, it will not be six months before the world tests Barack Obama like they did John Kennedy. The world is looking. We're about to elect a brilliant 47 year old senator president of the United States of America. Remember I said it standing here...we're gonna have an international crisis, a generated crisis, to test the mettle of this guy"

What the....there's one to make the conspiracy theorists drool!

Interestingly when considering his comments on Kennedy, Biden will be the first Roman Catholic VP if he is elected.

Biden went on to talk about Russia and the Middle East and the Afghan Pakistan border and then said "He's gonna need help because its not gonna be apparent, initially, that we're right." He then added, (just to add fuel to the fire of speculation!) "I probably shouldn't have said all this because it dawned on me that the press is here"

What do people make of this?

What happened then?

 

[kyser_soze]

http://defensenewsstand.com/insider.asp?issue=10242008sp

Defence lobby group wants to get a piece of legislation changed and invents spurious possible scenario/s to scare legislators and senators into making it (especially since, in the wider scheme of things, it's a pretty small point)

Reading the rest of the article:

His briefing also notes challenges that nearly every president since Dwight Eisenhower has faced in the early days. In 1953, Eisenhower agreed to work with the British to depose Iran's prime minister and install the Shah; John Kennedy ordered the ill-fated Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba in April 1961; Lyndon Johnson in Aug. 1964 had to deal with the Gulf of Tonkin Incident, which became a pretext for escalating U.S. military involvement in Vietnam.

Richard Nixon, in the third month of this presidency in 1969, escalated U.S. military operations in Southeast Asia by ordering aerial attacks against Cambodia and Laos. Jimmy Carter, during his first month in office in 1977, directed unilateral removed of nuclear weapons from South Korea and announced plans to reduce the number of U.S. troops from the peninsula, a step that drew public criticism from then Army Maj. Gen. John Singlaub, a senior U.S. commander in South Korea, whom Carter relieved of duty. In his fifth month as president, George H.W. Bush, in the summer of 1989, sent the first wave of U.S. military personnel to Panama to set the stage for the launch of “Operation Just Cause” that December.

Finally, Bayer’s briefing notes, Bill Clinton, in Feb. 1993, his second month in office, had to manage the World Trade Center bombing; while George W. Bush, in April of his first year in office, dealt with the downing of a Navy spy plane near China. Months later, Bush was faced with the terrorist attacks in September in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania. -- Jason Sherman

So historical precedent since WW2 would also tend to suggest that something major happens early on in the administrations of lots of Presidents. Perhaps the DOD is keen to ensure that there is continuity, not uncertainty, in their administrative structure should something similar happen again?