The 2014 "Saker's Man of the Year": the Russian soldier

It's this time of the year again when the corporate media engages in the silly "man of the year" exercise and when I offer my own nominations just as a small sign of defiance towards the Imperial propaganda.  Last year, I decided that the title of "Saker man of the year" should go to the Syrian solider without whom neither Russia, nor Iran, nor Hezbollah would have been able to save Syria from the NATO-Wahabi aggression.  I also listed Vladimir Putin as a "runner up" and Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah as honored by a "special distinction".  Looking back, I would say that these were very good nominations and I hope that this year I will get it right again.  So here we go.

The 2014 Saker man of the year nomination goes to the masked Russian solider: the "Polite Men in Green" and the Novorussian volunteer.

I decided that, if anybody, the Polite Man in Green deserved this honor because of the absolutely brilliant way he liberated Crimea and protected the Crimean people during the referendum while the Novorussian volunteer deserved the distinction because of the no less brilliant way he defeated a much larger Ukrainian force.

The Polite Man in Green

The Polite Man in Green:

It is often forgotten that the Ukrainians had a very large force on the Crimean Peninsula composed of their best trained and equipped units.  The operation to disarm them all with a minimum of violence was far from being risk free.  Of course, the Ukrainians had no chance to prevail against the Russian Special Forces, but they sure had the manpower and resources to give them a very good fight.  What prevented them from doing so what the lightening speed of the Russian operation as well as the overwhelming force clearly represented by a large number of fully equipped Spetsnaz operators.  Simply put - the Ukrainians understood that they had no chance, none at all, against such a formidable enemy.  The calm but very self-confident behavior of these Polite Man in Green psychologically crushed the Ukrainian will to resist.

But that is not why I wanted to honor these man.  There are, after all, plenty of skill soldiers worldwide.  No, main the reason why I felt that these men deserved to be recognized is because they were truly liberators in the most noble sense of the world.  The AngloZionist Empire and the Nazi junta leader in Kiev had already decided that Crimea was theirs, the USN even had plans to built special facilities on the peninsula and they were all sure that there was nothing the locals could do about it, that they were irrelevant.  The Polite Man in Green proved them wrong: they liberated them and gave them a chance to freely decide their future themselves, they gave them back a dignity which had been taken away from them by Nikita Khrushchev.

The Novorussian volunteer

The Novorussian volunteer:

Here again I am honoring a collective "man", all those who did not wait for an order from above or for somebody else to do the right thing and who decided that I will not stand by and I will fight against the Nazi regime which is trying to oppress my people.

Unlike the Polite Man in Green, the Novorussian Volunteer had all the odds staked against him and even his hope that the Russian Federation would do for Novorussia what she had done for Crimea was soon proven wrong: no Polite Man in Green were sent to Novorussia (or very few).  The Nazis had an overwhelming advantage in firepower, in armor, in artillery, in heavy weapons and they had a total control of the skies, yet - unlike the Ukrainian soldiers in Crimea - the Novorussian volunteer did not let his will to resist be crushed, he fought on, very skillfully, and not only defeated his enemy but even launched a highly successful counter-offensive which was stopped on political grounds but which could have been sustained much further (though probably not as far as some believe it could have).

Together, the Polite Man in Green and the Novorussian volunteer stand against the Empire and its Nazi allies just as the Syrian soldier stood against the Empire and his Wahabi allies.  All of them have proven, yet again, that the most powerful weapon in any conflict still remains the fighting spirit and the individual courage of the fighting man.

Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinpin

The runner up(s): Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinpin

For a second time I am going to chose Vladimir Putin as the runner up for "2014 Saker Man of the Year", but this time with Xi Jinpin.  Together these two man have taken the unprecedented step for creating something much more complex than just a strategic alliance: they have decided to integrate their two nations in a symbiotic relationship which will truly turn them into a type of "Siamese twins" except that they will share most of their "vital organs" while keeping to separate "heads".  Through a series of huge multi-billion contracts in such key areas as energy and defense (along many more comparatively smaller ones), the Russian and the Chinese leaders have basically decided to "marry" their two nations for a common future.  Not only that, but by not following the US model of hegemonic and planetary full-spectrum dominance Russia and China are now offering a new model of international relations one in which multi-polarity is actively sought, in which security is viewed as collective and in which the sovereignization, not subjugation, of the rest of the world promoted.  Thanks to Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinpin, we will probably end up with a new world order, but most definitely not the one envisioned by AngloZionist imperialists and for that I think that they most definitely deserved to be recognized.

Ramzan Kadyrov

Special distinction: Ramzan Kadyrov

For many years already Ramzan Kadyrov has been the driving force behind the Chechen miracle.  Let's remember what Chechnia looked like in 2000: Grozny was in such ruins that many seriously advocated completely abandoning the city and relocating the capital of Chechnia elsewhere.  All the western "experts" predicted that the Chechen insurgency would never be defeated.  Most importantly, it sure looked like Russians and Chechens hated each other with a dark and burning passion.  Fifteen years later, Grozny has turned into a superb city, with the lowest crime rate in Russia, the Wahabi insurgency has been comprehensively defeated, and traditional Sunni Islam is triumphant over Wahabism which has been completely eradicated.  As for the terrorist threat, it has become so low that when in the recent incident a group of Wahabi terrorists penetrated deep inside Grozny the world found out that the city did not even have checkpoints or roadblocks because they had been removed by the authorities a long time ago.

Furthermore, Ramzan Kadyrov fully took on the role of "protector of the Russian people" not only politically, but by getting personally involved in the conflict in Novorussia: many know that Chechen volunteers are fighting against the Nazi forces, but most people ignore that Chechnia is also accepting many Ukrainian refugees who are finding a safe heaven and, for many, a new home in the small republic.

And through this Ramzan Kadyrov arguably achieved his most amazing miracle: whereas by 2000 the Russian people hated and despised the Chechens whom they saw as vicious and evil enemies, nowadays Russian see Chechen as their most courageous and faithful allies.  It is not an exaggeration to say that Ramzan Kadyrov has restored the honor of the Chechen people in a dramatically short period of time.

Needless to say, it is precisely for all these reasons that Kadyrov is absolutely hated by the Empire and its propaganda machine and Kadyrov is presented as a bloodthirsty thug.  Truth be told, Kadyrov certainly did display some very thug-like behavior, especially in the past, but there is a lot more to the man than his natural swagger: he is a deeply principled, religious and patriotic leader who has shown in many difficult circumstances that he as fully inherited his father' wisdom and personal courage.

Now it is your turn.  Who are your men/women of the year 2014?

Cheers,

The Saker

Saker's "man of the year 2013": the Syrian soldier

Yes, I know, this "man of the year" business is silly.  But then, when I see at the pathetic choices made for man of the year by the corporate media, I feel that if they can't even do a halfway decent job in that rather easy task, why should I not indulge myself and choose my own man, or woman, of the year.  So anyway, here is my choice.

Runner up: Vladimir Putin

First, I thought of nominating Vladimir Putin.  Pretty obvious, I would say.  Not only did he stop the US in its planned attack on Syria, he thereby also prevented an almost inevitable domino effect of having Iran drawn in and then even possibly Russia.  Throughout the Syrian war, Putin showed an ironclad consistency in upholding the rule of international law and demanding that a negotiated solution be found.  If we consider that the US attack on Yugoslavia on behalf of the Kosovar guerrillas marked the official death of international law, the Russian move to stop the US attack just days before it occurred was, quite literally, the resurrection of international law.  Just for that Putin deserves the Nobel Peace Prize while Obama should be stripped of his.

Putin also firmly resisted the Saudi offer of money in exchange for caving in on the Syrian problem, and even when Bandar threatened terrorist attacks on Sochi, Putin held firm.  When Netanyahu showed up in Moscow with, basically, the same demands, Putin also warmly welcomed him, smiled a lot, and then sent him home empty handed.

Putin also did an absolutely stellar job of beating back the Anglo-Zionist propaganda machine: he did not yield on the homo-lobby's campaign to organize a "pride parade" in Moscow, instead he actually got a law passed making the propaganda of homosexuality amongst minors a criminal offense.  He did not yield in the infamous "Pussy Riot" case either - Amnesty International called these creatures "prisoners of conscience", but that did not prevent him from sticking them exactly where they belong: in the company of other petty criminals in a work camp.  Nor did Putin yield even a millimeter to the liberal crowds who attempted to organize a color-coded coup similar to the one they later attempted on the Maidan square in Kiev.  When Western oil interests dispatched Greenpeace's activist to try to stop Russia from exploring and exploiting its arctic shelf, Putin showed that he did not intend to yield to that sort of pressure either, instead he made sure that Russia would develop the means and capabilities to defend its national interests on the North Pole.  Last, but not least, he got two of his most formidable opponents (Berezovsky and Khodorkovsky) to plead for his mercy (the former was killed for doing so, the latter left Russia).

All of the above proved to the Anglo-Zionists that Russia was no longer their colony and that Russia had recovered most,though not all, of its sovereignty.  That is a huge achievement as for the first time since February 1917 a sovereign Russia reappeared on the world map.

And yet, I think that there is somebody which deserves even more praise and whom I will nominate my "man of the year 2013":

Saker Man of the Year 2013: the Syrian soldier

Simply put - if it had not been for the amazing courage of the Syrian soldier Putin would not have had the opportunity to maintain his principled stance over Syria simply because Syria would have been run over by the Wahabi liver-eaters and there would have been no more Syria to defend.  Worse, the political and military "line of defense" would have been moved by to the Iranian border and across the Persian Gulf.  As for Hezbollah, it would have been facing a much more dangerous environment stuck as it would have been between the Zionists on one hand and the medieval apes from the Gulf monarchies and their paid agents in Lebanon.

True, the Syrian military did get help from Iran and Hezbollah, and probably by Russia too, but that one remained mostly covert.  Still, the Syrian soldier was literally the cornerstone of the entire Resistance in the Middle-East and if that Syrian soldier had been overcome or discouraged, the entire Resistance would have greatly suffered.

Of course, the Syrian soldier had to show courage to fight against the international coalition which brought together western special forces officers and murderous Wahabi thugs from all over the planet.  But he also had to show a different kind of courage not to get discouraged with the so-called "friends of Syria" got together for that international meeting on how to crush Syria.  It took a very special courage for the Syrian soldier not to get disgusted and bitter when he saw the wave of betrayals coming from all over the Muslim and Arab world, especially from the political prostitutes of Hamas and the rest of the Palestinian "intellectuals" who sided with Uncle Sam and his Empire.  I can only imagine the anguish felt by the Syrian soldiers when they were told that Russia, Iran and Hezbollah would offer nothing more than words, while the West would offer money, guns and training to the insurgency.  And yet the fighting spirit  of the Syrian soldier did not break, even when some Syrian generals betrayed their fellow officers and defected to their western handlers.

And yet, somehow, even those who truly want the Syrian people to be free seem to take for granted that the Syrian military would fight with no hesitation or doubts.  Why?  They are not robots.  And I am quite sure that most of them are quite aware that the current Syrian regime is, shall we say, less than perfect and that the Syrian security services are not exactly beloved by the vast majority of the population.  In the age of the Internet, I am quite confident that the vast majority of Syrian are fully aware of all the ugly aspects of the regime Bashar al-Assad inherited from his father.  I guess they realize that he was simply not given the time to implement reforms he had been pondering as early as his years in the UK and they have forgiven him his clumsy handling of the earlier stages of the insurrection.  Whatever may be the case, the Syrian soldiers have plenty of reasons to doubt and fear that they would be swiped away like Gaddafi's regime.  And yet they stood firm, for two and a half long years and they held on long enough to finally see at least the general outline of a possible end to the conflict.

At the end of 2013 things definitely look better for Syria than in 2012 or 2011 and even though the Saudis are now clearly threatening a terrorist campaign, it is now possible to hope that 2014 will be a comparatively better year for the Syrian people.

Special distinction: Hassan Nasrallah

I have to mention another person who acted heroically in 2013: Hassan Nasrallah.  At a time when the vast majority of the Muslim and Arab world had betrayed the Syrian people and basically sold out to the Anglos, Zionists and Wahabis, Hassan Nasrallah took the very delicate decision to stand by the Syrian regime even though I am quite sure that he had little love for Assad or his brand of Baathism.  Nasrallah also must have known how corrupt the Syrian regime was, that it was chock-full of CIA/MI6/Mossad/DGSE/ agents and simply corrupt officials, and yet he made the correct call, very early on, to stand by Syria and its less-than-perfect President.  And when things got really tough, Hassan Nasrallah did send Hezbollah fighters to stand by the Syrian military even though that put him in a delicate political situation inside Lebanon.  As for Hezbollah fighters, they performed as always - in an absolutely stellar way - and they play the crucial role of turning the tide of the entire war during the battle for al-Qusayr.

The main reason why I did not give the title of man of the year to Hassan Nasrallah is that he would be more deserving of the title of "man of the decade".  Besides, think of it this way: in early 2011 who could have expected Hassan Nasrallah to act wisely and heroically?  Everybody, of course.  But who would have expected the Syrian soldier to show so much courage and fortitude?  Not very many people, I think.  What is sure is that Hassan Nasrallah remains one of the most popular leaders in the Middle-East while very few people render homage to the Syrian soldier and this is why I decided to single him out as my (collective) 'Man of the Year 2013'.

What are your candidates?

The Saker