Geopolitical Risk Theater Links: Iran Talks Extended, Defense Sec Hagel Fired, Neo-Nazi Risk? and more...

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Some interesting geopolitical articles:

1 Small progress between US-Iran: Iran Nuclear Talks Extended 7 Months; $700 Million In Monthly Sanctions Lifted November 24, 2014 Zero Hedge

2 China as galvanizing force? : India-Pakistan Sparring Opens Door for China in South Asia Bloomberg.com November 25, 2014

3 NATO encirclement strategy: NATO Jets Surrounding Russia: Before And After November 24, 2014 Zero Hedge

4 Europe’s tinderbox: Mapping Recent "Incidents" Between Russia And NATO November 24, 2014 Zero Hedge

5 Testing ASEAN’s response: China Said to Turn Reef Into Airstrip in Disputed Water New York Times November 23, 2014

6 War is business; UK approved Israeli arms deals worth £7mn in lead-up to Gaza conflict RT.com November 24, 2014. It’s really more of a racket.

7 Russia seals pact with Georgia’s breakway region. Getting more allies to counter NATO?: Pact Tightens Russian Ties With Abkhazia New York Times November 24, 2014

8 Despite some aerial incursions by Russian jet, Finland to stay neutral: Finland joining NATO would alienate Russia – President Niinisto RT.com November 25, 2014

9 Neo Nazis are a threat?: Ukrainian neo-Nazism threatens to spread across Europe – Russian diplomat RT.com November 24, 2014

10 Indian government itching to have a stealth fifth-generation fighter aircraft (FGFA); Can not keep waiting for stealth fighter, India tells Russia The Times of India November 25, 2014

11 The military oligarchy prevails as the risk of a world at war heightens: Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel Fired Mises Blog November 24, 2014;

Writes Ryan McMaken

Now it appears that the truly important players in US defense policy — the weapons manufacturers and financiers who benefit most from an "active" foreign policy — have gotten their way. Hagel, of course, knows that the United States is broke and relying largely on monetized debt to pay the bills. At the same time, it's his job to keep the military bureaucrats who lobby continuously for endless spending (i.e., the "generals") while also pleasing "private" contractors like Lockheed Martin who live fat and happy off the sweat of taxpayers.

Hagel was expected to be something of a budget "cutter," (the DC version of "cuts" which are slight reductions in spending growth) and it was he who presided over the DoD during the final days of the sequestration debate during which the military and its private sector allies howled over tiny reductions in military growth rates.  The "cuts" seemed politically necessary at the time since Hagel came into office during a transition period when there was not a clear global bogeyman for the US to use to justify unchecked government spending. Now, the generals and corporate lobbyists at Boeing, et al have breathed a sigh of relief as because the so-called Islamic State is the gift that keeps on giving and will allow the military-industrial complex to advocate for utterly unrestrained spending.

Of course, the taxpayers, who were once were fleeced to create and arm  ISIS at first, will now be charged to disarm it (or so the administration says).  

The landscape has greatly improved from the perspective of military spending, and Hagel can now be replaced with someone more adept at shoveling cash to powerful interest groups whom we will later be told we must thank for defending freedom.