PROVIDED BY CNNNEXT.COM
Published on Jun 22, 2015
The United States is escalating tensions with Russia because it needs enemies for distracting the American people from the political and economic problems facing their country, a US military veteran and journalist in Denmark says.“I think the West is provoking such a happening because they need enemies,” said Ron Ridenour said during a phone interview with Press TV on Tuesday.
“They have this big enemy, Syria and Iraq, this ISIL [terrorist] group, but it’s apparently not enough of an enemy,” Ridenour said.
“When you have enemies, you can divert your own populations from looking at you, your economy, your leadership, your governments, your parties,” he added.
The military veteran made the comments when asked about a Pentagon plan to store heavy weaponry, tanks and other vehicles for as many as 5,000 American troops in Eastern European countries bordering Russia, US officials said Saturday.
The deployment of advance equipment would be the first such move since the Cold War ended with the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.
“The United States and NATO are moving troops and war equipment as close as they can to Russia in order to provoke them.
The Soviet Union no longer exists,” Ridenour noted.
A Russian defense official said on Monday that Moscow would swiftly respond to any moves by Washington to build up military resources in Eastern Europe by fortifying its western border with more troops, tanks, planes and missile systems.
Ties between Washington and Moscow have reached an all-time low over the crisis in Ukraine, which began after pro-Western forces ousted the country’s president, Viktor Yanukovych, in February 2014.
Tensions further intensified after Ukraine’s Black Sea peninsula of Crimea voted for reunification with Russia in March last year.
Ridenour said there is a long history of scare mongering in the US by creating false enemies, adding that first there was the fear of Communism and now the threat of Russia’ takeover of Ukraine.
“Russia’s leadership, [President Vladimir] Putin included, have wanted to have peace,” he said.
