Operation Pillar of Cloud

[Pete]

Maybe what a person knows isn't the truth.

The Cold War’s Arab Spring

http://berlinski.com/node/176

"Stolen Kremlin records show how the Soviets, including Gorbachev, created many of today’s Middle East conflicts.

TABLET, June 20, 2012

The dominant narrative of modern Middle East history emphasizes the depredations visited upon the region by European colonization and accepts as a truism that the former colonial powers prioritized the protection of their material interests—in oil, above all—above the dignity and self-determination of the region’s inhabitants. Thus did botched decolonization result in endless instability....................."

We always knew the the USSR was involved - the question was "How much?"

I wonder how much is true, how much is twisted - and how much is pimping a new book.

[Badger52]

Originally Posted by Pete

I wonder how much is true, how much is twisted - and how much is pimping a new book.

QP Pete, thanks. I'll try to give this a critical read or three when I get the chance. Зима здесь долгая и холодная.
Must be a giant; the Kindle version is a freebie right now at Amazon.

They showered the region with an Arabic translation of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion and KGB-fabricated documents alleging that Israel and the United States were dedicated to converting the Islamic world into a Jewish colony.

I'd like to know if any of the area specialists here are aware of this being a driver/motive behind the violence seen in the region to the present day, versus the (apparently) explicit deals made. What's the sense as to whether this disinformation effort exists or existed, as a fan to the region's fires? I am conceding that they sought out, trained & embraced surrogates - totally consistent Soviet behavior. Only the source geography is different.

Ivan was always a little smoother & their motives took longer to discern (as opposed to situations where they used their ball-peen hammer Bulgaria, to whom everything looked like a nail.) I do recall reading some years back some archives that indicated their institutional paranoia took awhile to fall because they really didn't realize that NATO was geared up for a defensive war - just as they were. Unfortunately for us some of their awareness was gained in some of their best (and our most embarassing) espionage efforts.[/segue']

[Badger52]

Originally Posted by Pete

I wonder how much is true, how much is twisted - and how much is pimping a new book.

A re-look at your original question having slogged through it a first time.

First thing I noticed was the lack of anything representing a technical (or even modestly interesting) description of how the author's "moderate" modifications to a computer (not a purloined password) allowed him to have unprecedented external access from within the archives. Had to laugh, it was almost a deus ex machina literary ploy. But, ok, whatever. You completely subverted the security in the bowels of an archive - even operating from within it - of one of the most paranoid societies on the planet.
(Credibility of the source strike-1.)

To read or not to read tip: One may want to skip to Ch. 18 "The Pyrrhic Victory" - which is basically his statement as to how things came to be post DESERT STORM, and his insistence that all he's laid out before supports that. Then decide whether to go back.

I'm not convinced he does, strictly on meeting & politburo notes alone. He has words but I don't think possesses (or at least displays) sufficient knowledge of motive. I'm not saying here the Soviets weren't/aren't some pretty manipulative creatures - to the contrary. I just don't think he gets there. And, of course, his primary sources for the western side are openly-published autobiographical memoirs of the principals (G.H.W. Bush, James Baker, et al.). Even the real candid ones will come away in print, from the other side of the same meeting, with a different flavor - and are usually painted differently too.

One of the themes that plays underlying his thesis is para 10 of President Bush's NSD 54, which promised much more punitive measures and regime change as an explicit goal if Hussein had, among other things, hurt Kuwaiti oil fields. And like most I vividly remember a US consensus at the time of "C'mon! Go all the way, finish him now! What are you stopping for?"

In sum, some of the meeting records are interesting and it seems consistent with general Soviet conduct in addressing other actual or potential spheres of influence. Not really earth-shattering; alot of stuff happened just because of the way it happened.

In baseball it's a walk, but uncertain whether because he had a good eye, or was the pitcher just off his game for the moment.