By Michael Synder

Because the mainstream media is devoting almost all of their time and energy to covering the Trump and Clinton campaigns, most Americans don’t realize that the Obama administration is bringing us perilously close to war with Russia. On Friday, Barack Obama is going to sit down with his foreign policy team and discuss “military options” in Syria. As you will see below, the options under consideration include direct strikes “on Syrian military bases”. Russia has already pledged to respond militarily to any direct strikes on Syrian forces, and so the decisions that Barack Obama makes regarding Syria on Friday could literally be the spark that sets off World War 3.

The daily drama surrounding Trump and Clinton is far less important than a potential war with Russia. This should be front page news all over the country, but unfortunately most of the big news organizations are giving it very little coverage. The following is an excerpt from an extremely important Reuters report that so far is not receiving nearly enough attention…

U.S. President Barack Obama and his top foreign policy advisers are expected to meet on Friday to consider their military and other options in Syria as Syrian and Russian aircraft continue to pummel Aleppo and other targets, U.S. officials said.

Some top officials argue the United States must act more forcefully in Syria or risk losing what influence it still has over moderate rebels and its Arab, Kurdish and Turkish allies in the fight against Islamic State, the officials told Reuters.

One set of options includes direct U.S. military action such as air strikes on Syrian military bases, munitions depots or radar and anti-aircraft bases, said one official who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations.

If Barack Obama decides to directly hit the Syrian military, that will be crossing a “red line” that Russia has already established.

And unlike Obama, Russia actually takes their red lines deadly seriously.

In my recent article entitled “Russia Is Preparing For A Nuclear War With The United States“, I included a quote from a major Russian news source that demonstrates what the Russians are thinking at this point. The Russians recently deployed additional S-300 and S-400 air defense systems to Syria, and they have warned that any strike against Syrian forces “would put Russian personnel in danger”…

Russia’s Defense Ministry has cautioned the US-led coalition of carrying out airstrikes on Syrian army positions, adding in Syria there are numerous S-300 and S-400 air defense systems up and running.

Russia currently has S-400 and S-300 air-defense systems deployed to protect its troops stationed at the Tartus naval supply base and the Khmeimim airbase. The radius of the weapons reach may be “a surprise” to all unidentified flying objects, Russian Defense Ministry spokesperson General Igor Konashenkov said.

According to the Russian Defense Ministry, any airstrike or missile hitting targets in territory controlled by the Syrian government would put Russian personnel in danger.

If the Obama administration is insane enough to start ordering airstrikes against Syrian positions, let us hope and pray that the Russians are willing to back down and show restraint.

Because if Russian S-300 and S-400 air defense systems start shooting down U.S. military aircraft, that could set off a chain of events that may be unstoppable.

And right now the Russians are taking the threat of war with the U.S. very seriously. For example, the Kremlin has ordered all top officials to return to Russia as soon as possible…

Russian citizens have reacted with fear over reports Moscow has ordered officials to fly home all relatives living abroad – with some residents claiming it is ‘another step towards war‘.

The Kremlin is said to have told high ranking officials to bring their loved ones back to the ‘Motherland’ immediately – with any who disobey being overlooked for promotion.

It comes against a backdrop of rapidly deteriorating relations with the West over Russia’s role in the Syria conflict and just days after Putin moved nuclear-ready missiles closer to the border with Poland.

In addition, the Russians recently concluded an unprecedented “civil defense drill” that involved 40 million people.

Here in the United States, we never have those kinds of drills and there isn’t even anywhere for the general population to go in the event of a nuclear war.

If and when the missiles start falling, the only thing that will be left to do is to say our prayers and kiss our family members goodbye.

Over in Russia, there is a tremendous amount of interest in the U.S. election right now, because it is widely believed that Donald Trump could dramatically improve relations between the United States and Russia.

But if Hillary Clinton gets elected, many top Russian officials believe that will make the possibility of nuclear war much more likely. For instance, just consider what Vladimir Zhirinovsky told Reuters earlier this week…

Vladimir Zhirinovsky, a flamboyant veteran lawmaker known for his fiery rhetoric, told Reuters in an interview that Trump was the only person able to de-escalate dangerous tensions between Moscow and Washington.

By contrast, Trump’s Democratic rival Hillary Clinton could spark World War Three, said Zhirinovsky, who received a top state award from Putin after his pro-Kremlin Liberal Democratic Party of Russia (LDPR) came third in Russia’s parliamentary election last month.

And anyone that watched the second debate between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump got to see the intense disdain that Clinton has for Russia.

Hillary believes that the Russians are trying very hard to keep her out of office, and she tends to take any threats to her political career very, very personally. The thought of her having her finger on the nuclear trigger is beyond terrifying.

And I am certainly not alone in this opinion. Even presidential candidate Jill Stein believes that nuclear war with Russia will be much more likely if Clinton is elected…

“It is now Hillary Clinton that wants to start an air war with Russia over Syria by calling for a no-fly zone,” Stein said. “We have 2000 nuclear missiles on hair-trigger alert. They are saying we are closer to a nuclear war than we have ever been. Under Hillary Clinton, we could slide into nuclear war very quickly from her declared policy in Syria.

“I sure won’t sleep well at night if Donald Trump is elected, but I sure won’t sleep well at night if Hillary Clinton elected. We have another choice other than these two candidates who are both promoting lethal policies,” she continued. “On the issue of war and nuclear weapons, it is actually Hillary’s policies which are much scarier than Donald Trump who does not want to go to war with Russia. He wants to seek modes of working together, which is the route that we need to follow not to go into confrontation and nuclear war with Russia.”

And the ironic thing is that Hillary Clinton actually played a key role in starting the civil war in Syria when she was Secretary of State in 2011. At the time, the “Arab Spring” was sweeping across the Middle East, and the Obama administration, Saudi Arabia and Turkey decided that it would be a wonderful time to try to overthrow the Assad regime in Syria and make Syria a full-blown Sunni puppet state. So they helped organize protests, they armed and funded the rebels, and the rest is history.

Now the civil war that Hillary Clinton played such a key role in starting has brought us to the brink of World War 3 with Russia.

And most Americans don’t realize this, but Russia now has nuclear superiority over us.

So we definitely don’t want to tangle with the Russians, because there is a very good chance that we would come out on the losing end.

But whether we would win or we would lose, there is absolutely no reason to go to war with Russia in the first place. Barack Obama has got to be absolutely insane to even consider getting us into a direct military conflict with the Russians, and let us hope that he backs off while there is still time to do so.

http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/world-war-3-barack-obama-could-take-a-major-step-toward-war-with-russia-on-friday