NOVANEWS
The following is an approximate transcript of the interview.
Press TV: The fact that Russia says that it will help Syria in the event of a war. Just how much can a war with Russia potentially dissuade America from invading Syria?
Dankof: Well, frankly it’s ironic coming from me because I’m an old Pat Buchanan Republican, an old cold warrior in the days of the cold war; but this time I’m on the Russian side and the Vladimir Putin side of things and I frankly hope that President Putin’s understandable moves here deter the United States from doing something that’s absolutely illegal and irresponsible and reckless to the point of being crazy.
Press TV: What would be the regional repercussion of what may call a possible World War III?
Dankof: Clearly it would be a disaster, you would be talking about the potential deaths of hundreds of thousands or even millions of people; you’d be talking about global economic catastrophe; and frankly the United States would find itself around the world being completely embattled because I think the global blowback from this if [Barack] Obama chooses to proceed will be absolutely catastrophic. So I think Putin is among those who frankly have had enough of this sort of thing.
We took advantage of Russia with everything that happened with the dissolution of the old Soviet Union in terms of recruiting all of these former Soviet bloc countries to be involved with NATO – we placed a ballistic missile in some of these countries.
We have attempted to undermine Mr. Putin with the National Endowment for Democracy and its Republican and Democratic counterparts in Russia, which have been trying to subvert his regime in an illegitimate way.
And Putin has found himself in a situation as well where these Russian oligarchs that were stealing Russia blind at the end of the cold war, many of these oligarchs were duel citizens of Israel and working in conjunction with the United States in allowing this sort of thing to go on when Yeltsin was running Russia after the dissolution of the old Soviet Union.
So, Mr. Putin has plenty of reasons to be angry with us and I would simply say in warning to the American people that Vladimir Putin is nobody to be fooled around with, he is absolutely serious; and frankly in a high stakes poker game with Mr. Obama I think the United States needs to watch its step.
Press TV: How likely do you think Washington will go to war without a UN mandate?
Dankof: I think it’s clear that Mr. Obama and Mr. Kerry and people of their ilk think that they have the right to do this without a UN mandate.
The most interesting thing now is that antiwar.com in the United States is reporting serious problems with Mr. Obama’s vote count in the House of Representatives. The fact of the matter is that this whole war resolution will pass in the Senate, but as of right now it has no better than a 50/50 chance to passing in the House.
And you have a latest quiz that has been produced of approximately 150 representatives who are on the fence on this thing – they’re undecided, they could go either way depending on public pressure.
And all of the available evidence indicates that the vast percentage of the American people want nothing to do with this and that could well produce a very embarrassing outcome [if] this Congressional vote [is]for Mr. Obama when it happens.
Press TV: Militarily speaking how ready do you think the US army and US armed forces are ready to go to a war with Syria? Many say the US armed forces are experiencing fatigue especially with the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan?
Dankof: I think there is an emerging consensus among the American military people who’s statements I read that the United States is woefully overextended both in Iraq and Afghanistan. I think even more importantly the American public is fed up with this – They’re fed up with the never-ending character of it; they’re fed up with what it’s doing to our economy; they’re fed up with what it’s doing to our image in the world…
And frankly when they consider going into yet another phase of this war in Syria now with no real consensus if this policy makes any sense whatsoever, except for the fact that Israel obviously wants it done, this may not be good enough to obtain the imprimatur of the American public that it would be expressed by elected representatives.
The fact of the matter is this may be a real breaking point both for the American empire and for the neo-conservative pro-Zionist stranglehold on the American government. This could be the beginning of a whole new phase of resistance within the domestic United States to what these people have been doing, especially in the last 12 years.
