Putin will be remembered fondly by history far more than crime bill Joe. He has put up with so much imperial nonsense, the fact there are still living Ukrainians is a testament to his, well, desire to not be slaves to the US hegemony at least.
Dude's biggest internal issue was convincing his own people to not go full Braveheart on those baby burning nazis.
Get that thing out of the white house, toss him into the prison hospital he'll die in, and maybe we can all have an uncensored conversation about going forward.
The fundamental problem that Russia faces is that, short of nuclear war, there is little that Russia can do that will so much as mildly inconvenience the decisionmakers in the West. So they have every incentive to keep doubling down.
Surely feezing Europe to death won't cause any trouble. You are aware of the whole point of this right? The petrodollar? The fact Biden and money machine J did this deliberately? We blew up ordstream 2 and then hilariously lied to the world about it? Any of this ring a bell?
The People Who Matter in Europe will neither freeze nor starve.
And what has Europe done about Nordstream? Sholz scurried off to Biden for photo-ops while the European political class stared at its proverbial shoes. Even when you get a European to admit the obvious, that the United States blew up Nordstream, they counter that they are bad slaves who deserve to be beaten.
Russia's not even trying to freeze the citizens of Europe. They're just selling energy *around* the sanctions/pipeline issues.
And I don't think they will use tactical nukes either. What they are being pushed into doing is hurrying up and "winning" the war by rendering Ukraine unable to fight.
To flipshod—this is an interesting idea. And it fits with the kind of convoluted “planning” the CIA would do to get out of this war without having to admit wrong doing. “O, those Ukrainians just weren’t tough enough, no matter what we did for them”. Its a Kissinger kind of thinking.
It remains to be seen whether the Russian leadership has the stomach to do so. The other problem is selling tot he Russian people the cost that such escalation will require.
Most Russians are in favor of the war, as long as it doesn't inconvenience them too much. However, whether Kherson is or is not part of the Russian Federation doesn't really affect the life of the average frustrated Russian living in Vologonsk all that much either way. So Putin is going to have to convince them that the human sacrifices that are necessarily part of an offensive will be worth it to them.
By contrast, even forgetting the hard core of Nazis, Ukraine is spoiling for a fight, because they have been convinced that the war is their ticket to The Golden Billion, their entrance to The Magical Land Where Institutions Basically Work.
"The US empire depends on keeping the world asleep to its abusiveness"..............but today, it is mainly the citizens of the USA who are asleep.
"And the world depends on everyone waking up to it"...............which is happening more and more through independent, truthful journalists, the likes of Caitlin and her analysis, Consortium News, etc., and almost all the other countries in the world (other than the Anglo / Christian bunch of Canada, subservient little Australia, France, yesterday's master colonisers England and the like), adding all the NATO puppets along for the ride.
Too slow, indeed, but it is the American people who can make the difference once over 50% see that one politician in the USA is no different to the next. Corrupted and totally owned by Israel. And it shows, daily. Ask Palestinians, which criminal apartheid regime occupies their country, receiving support from 85% of all US politicians since the 1960’s with their inhumane crimes, of no concern to US politicians.
What an absolutely disgraceful record. Apartheid in South Africa finished in 1990 but in Palestine 33 years later, still 100% supported by the hypocritical United States.
Find one person as a decent President? History says that's not possible after Bush 1 and Bush 2, Obama, Clinton and Trump and the current feeble Biden, slave to the military / defence / industrial / pharmaceutical / banking / Blackrock / Vanguard controllers and hidden by the whore media.
Yes, an entirely different and disliked country since the well planned death of JFK, his nephew, Robert, looking like a chance for a decent President, now having sold his soul to Israel’s dictates to 330 million American people.
It's just staggering that the truth in everything can be so well hidden by the corrupt media since JFK, Iraq, Chile, CIA drug running, Abu Ghraib torture chambers, assassinations on demand, wars, million death sanctions, theft of oil, resulting failed states like Yemen, Afghanistan, Libya, and on it goes, not ever forgetting the likes of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Laos and Cambodia. Hated by almost the whole world, a world certainly not jealous of the US standard of living and lifestyle any more because everyone knows that the end for the “exceptional” US dictator, staffed by its Neocon Brigades, is just around the corner.
When? Check with Netanyahu. He'll know.
Now if the American people, the voters in the USA take too long to see what all this means, then perhaps the fast expanding BRICS alliance may be best placed to make it all happen, very much sooner. By then, for the average paid / employed citizen of that once respected USA, back in 1945 that is, it will be too late and the rest of the world will rub America's nose in the destruction they have caused over the past 78 years..
India is paying for Chinese imports in Yuan, as is Argentina. Saudi Arabia, Bangladesh, India, Brazil, Pakistan, Iraq, and Bolivia—have recently either traded in the yuan or expressed interest in doing so in the near future. Meanwhile, US poised to descend into recession (projection calls for two consecutive quarters of negative growth in GDP) like western Europe already is, while the IMF is projecting positive growth for Russia in 2024, which has recently vaulted into 4th largest economy in the world in GDP/PPP, supplanting Germany and closing in on 3rd place Japan.
VW and BMW are both giving serious consideration to relocating everything except management to China and BASF making plans to move at least a large part of it's operations to the US.
France has now lost it's source of uranium in Niger, upon which it is highly reliant for energy, moreso than any other country.
Russia is experiencing virtually zero unemployment with it's factories humming 24/7. Both the kinetic and economic aspects of the war are being won by Russia while the US predictably wins the information aspect war in the west where it controls the information flow, but only in the west.
One effect of the war in Ukraine that goes unnoticed by most pundits is the comparison between Russian vs. US weapons systems. In every major category Russian systems have been proven superior.
Apart from the effect on the battlefield, this will have an effect on international arms sales of which Russia is the number two provider after the USA. Russian systems are more effective and cheaper than their US counterparts, but the key point is they are now capable of defending against attack by the US or NATO.
That's a game changer for smaller nations that don't want to be victims of US gunboat diplomacy. It's also the reason behind the hesitancy and weak excuses being offered on supplying F-16s to Ukraine. Apart from the fact they have no one to fly them, even with NATO pilots they'd be shot down as soon as they took to the air, which is very bad for future sales.
I try to look beyond the immediate political effects of the war to see the longer term economic impact, and this is a major one. In the coming years, more nations are going be buying not only Russia AD systems but also civilian aircraft. Russia has been on a drive in recent years to eliminate dependency on foreign supplied aviation technology and has largely achieved that goal, the recent replacement of Pratt & Whitney jet engines with a domestically produced engine being a major example.
Another factor that goes unnoticed is that Russia is a major world supplier of titanium and can cut off exports to the west if they so choose.
If you're an investor interested in a longer term short play, I'd be looking at Raytheon (makers of P&W jet engines) as well as Boeing and Airbus. Not only are the Russian engines in competition with P&W on new builds, they can also be used as replacements on existing fleets. If you need a good argument for why you might want to do that, here it is:
It sounds as if you already know what it takes to win. Personally I don't assume greater knowledge of the situation than the people charged with its execution. I simply look at what they're doing and try to figure out why they took a particular path, not argue what they should have done instead, since I can't possibly know all the conditions that led to their decision.
This is something I learned the hard way through 20 years as a trader in stocks and options. It doesn't matter what I *think* is the correct course of action in a given circumstance. What matters are the underlying material conditions and the way the principle actors respond to them. For example, If a CEO is telling me the future of his company is bright, yet at the same time he's selling out his position, that's useful information, whereas just listening to what he says isn't. That example is analogous to the current situation with Ukraine. They're telling us victory is possible, but at the same time slowly backing away and preparing to throw Ukraine under the bus, using excuses like "they could have won if only they'd followed our advice."
The other element in play here is the tendency to become impatient when an anticipated outcome takes longer than expected to materialize. I've sold positions that later were big winners - I just didn't have the patience to wait for that to happen. Apple is a case in point. I made a huge gain in 2000 selling just before the crash, but had I just held on, I'd have been in much better shape today.
I regard Russia in the same way. They'll have setbacks no doubt, and unintended consequences are always a potential threat, but based on the material conditions and the actions of their leaders, I have confidence in the longer term outlook, and if I were still a player I'd be heavily invested there.
The fundamental problem with that logic is that in one, you assume that the CEO is bullshitting but the president isn't.
In this case, I am ignoring the rhetoric and watching what is done, or rather, what isn't done on the part of Russia. And the West is not backing away - far from it. They keep on doubling down, while Russia is loathe to escalate even as red line after Russian red line is ignored.
How would you define winning? More to the point, what are the post war effects of that victory? In military terms, Russia has largely achieved its stated objectives. If they've taken their time about it and western observers are reading that as weakness, how doe that affect the outcome? They have their own schedule, which I'm sure takes into account the follow on effects of victory. That's the tough part, not the actual defeat of Ukraine, but what follows. A new Iron Curtain at the Polish border? An allied Ukraine run by rational actors? An occupied Ukraine with continuing insurgency? Winning the war is a technical issue at this point, the geopolitical consequences of victory are what really matters.
That is a good question. If you consider the present situation "winning", for a geostrategic perspective, then I hate to see what would constitute "losing".
I wonder which country in the vicinity of the USA would like to be part of an attack on the USA? All they would need would be a shipload of Russian or Chinese made missiles.
What we need is a crowd-funding exercise from all the countries around the globe to support a similar scenario as has been approved of by Blinken and his Neocons positioned in Cuba, Venezuela, Nicaragua or almost any of the South American countries who have been threatened, sanctioned and generally disadvantaged by the USA overtime.
It is time for a proxy AGAINST the USA. See how you like it, Blinken.
Can you imagine it? All the Israeli controlled Neocons living in Florida, which with New York City could be a likely target. Alternatively, a couple of well positioned submarines in international waters with a couple of big nuclear warheads just waiting for the word "Fire".
What a performance! You'd have Biden taking off for Alaska, Blinken heading home to Israel more than half the senior cabinet gracing the corridors of power in Washington chartering every EL Al flight to avoid the risk of what they are now suggesting is fully approved in Ukraine.
What's good for the goose is good for the gander
Might just be the trigger that the US needs to make them face the reality of their years of dirty deeds, worldwide. 20 million deaths and still counting
Blinken and his minion Nuland are clinically certifiable psychopaths and deserve the rope.
The sad news is that there is no operating justice system in the West that can deal with these criminals. They will both retire to corporate boards and think tanks and live the rest of their miserable lives in the lap of luxury.
Yes, or like the other certifiable psychopaths—Dick and Bush—will go on Ellen as doddering old fools looking for solace and praise. And Ellen will give it to them. Never underestimate america’s ability to forgive our war crims.
Well NO--that's how it would have played out in the past, but now we are marching into an Armageddon, maybe the nuclear one this piece focuses on, or maybe the ecological breakdown ALL the leaders are rushing toward if we avert nuclear war. Either way, there will be no safe havens.
Mother Nature or human nature will get us in the end if we don't watch it! However, the world has many people who are perhaps better described as [temporarily] denatured/dumbed-down humans and they are a force to be reckoned with when sparked up with propaganda in National Hate Week. Truth bombs wrapped in humour appear to have a positive effect though. Every bit helps. Then we can throw the power switch to enable the people to choose a better system where power-drunk politicians cannot ever be given power over us ever again. Then we can consider remedies for the extensive eco-damage we humans have caused either wittingly or unwittingly, & whatever else.
The Russians are biding their time. The escalations of the US bespeak failure. Besides "Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake", opportunities for serious countermoves may develop, I would imagine in the summer or fall of 2024.
Russia has two problems. One is that, short of nuclear war, there is little that Russia can do that so much as mildly inconveniences the decisionmakers in Washington, or even their local lackeys in Kiev. Pointing out the vast numbers of dead Ukrainians is irrelevant. They don't care. Pointing out the manifold terrorist acts of the Kiev regime is irrelevant. They don't care.
The other is that the Russian leadership has shown little appetite for escalation, and it remains to be seen whether they can sell the cost that escalation will require to the Russian people.
Russia drastically miscalculated by not using enough force at the beginning of this war, and wishes that this war would just go away. Of course, the West sees this as an opportunity.
I think you underestimate the Russian people's support for this war. It is not become an existential war. They are all in and for the long term. They know how to sacrifice.
My guess is that the Russian's will mount an offensive pretty soon and the only solution at this point is tanks in Kiev, installation of a puppet government to permanently crush and disable any Nazi resistance, and annexation of most of the east and south of Ukraine.
Biden and Blinken will do jack shit when there are Russian tanks in Kiev.
For better or worse, Russia is a consumer society. Most Russians today basically are consumers, not the people that won The Great Patriotic Fatherland War.
Most Ukrainians also are consumers. The difference is is that Ukraine was promised membership in The Cub, The Golden Billion, The Land Where Institutions Basically Work. That the West is none of these things doesn't matter, because that is how they are perceived. (I have more experience in Russia and Ukraine than do most here.)
I hope to Bastet that you prove correct, but the response of the Russian public even to the half-assed partial mobilization last year does not give me confidence. For that matter, if Russia were preparing to go on the attack, they'd be training large numbers of troops for a while back, not this "just the tip" escalation.
The optimal time for a serious Russian move would be in the leadup to the US 2024 election. It would not necessarily be a straightforward military operation.
The other thing that I think is quite possible is that Biden will back down in this game of chicken. I think his former ambassador to Russia will talk sense to him and he will abandon this course of action because of the election. Probably talk tough and stalemate it as long as he can using Blikered. Of course, if the CIA makes another attack on Crimea, you’re right, things will get uglier.
I don't think the Russians wish to escalate the war; if they "won" they would be confronted with the tasks of occupation and fighting terrorism and guerrilla warfare. (It is said that this was the earlier plan of the US, but the Russians failed to take the bait.) Instead, I think they (the Russians) are looking to the native centrifugal and degenerative currents now active in the US and waiting to see how they turn out. Someone said that there was no people so willing to go to war as the Americans, and so unwilling to fight one. That principle was shown in Vietnam, Afghanistan, and Iraq at least and may be shown again in the approach to the upcoming election.
The idea that Ukraine was ripe for a guerilla war is seriously overrated, usually offered as a retcon to justify why Russia didn't apply more force. Not that Blinken and Co would not try it, but it wouldn't work. If you look at successful insurgencies in recent decades (Vietnam, Yemen, Afghanistan, Zimbabwe) - one thing they all have in common is a young population.
The median age in Yemen is 19 or so years old. The median age in Ukraine was over 40, and that before the war.
Victory for Russia requires nothing short of the following:
1. Eastern part of the Ukraine and Crimea staying in Russia.
2. South part of the Ukraine in Russia or as allied independent countries.
3. Western part of the Ukraine in Poland.
4. Rest of Ukraine under Russian military control so that they can never assemble a military capable of threatening Russia or its allies.
(In circumstances like these, it is unlikely that there would be a significant insurgency--as you note. The people of the east and south would be more than capable of mopping up any would-be insurgents themselves.)
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Until I see something like this, I won't accept a declaration of Russian victory.
I see that you have done a lot of work on other threads in these comments pushing back on those now standing on the deck of a Russian aircraft carrier with a "Mission Accomplished" banner behind them.
I wasn't thinking of _successful_ insurgencies, just of the sort of insurgency supplied (and sometimes inspired) by foreign powers to degrade life in the target country and cause expense and grief to the inhabitants thereof. For example, the Contras in Nicaragua. More like terrorism than revolution.
I would disagree with you on what more the Russian people can do. If this were the u.s. we would have carpet bombed Kyiv murdering a million or more. Fortunately the Russian people are far more human. That might not hold for much longer. Remember much of Ukraine is Russian. A war within family.
The only way the GAE MIL Pharma complex - the most powerful evil the world has ever seen - gets stopped is annihilating DC. Anything else would only provide pretext for them to go start another war on some other people.
The White House and State Department are certifiably insane. If these missiles are used on targets in Russia it seems quite possible that Russia might strike US military assets in Europe, or even Syria. Vessels, aircraft, missile stations, radar facilities, air bases, etc. This is American hubris beyond anything previously witnessed, imho.
oh, attack on Kyiv, that one which came from the Ukraine-controlled territory, conveniently during his visit? All to justify strikes on Russia? While he retreats to his safe haven in Washington, DC or Brussels?
I think what they are looking for is to see if Russia has the capacity to shoot down these missiles on short notice. Right now, the prevailing jingoism is that they don’t have that capability but I’ll bet pentagon planners and strategists would like to know for sure.
those pentagon planners and strategists might just get a rude lesson when they are unable to shoot down Russian hypersonic missiles into Poland or some other US logistics support operation.
Agreed. And they might get more than they bargained for as China gets involved. I’m pretty sure these Cheney-like “theory of the insane man who will do anything” war planners’ goal is to get China to step in eventually. Then the US can test its encirclement of China ideas.
I think it was more because we were at war in Vietnam and people were in the streets and LBJ was forced out of office by the peace movement and McNamara knew we couldn’t afford to intervene any place else. Besides, Czechoslovakia had no resources we wanted to steal. Viet Nam had tungsten.
Tungsten is relatively plentiful and we survived just fine without Vietnamese tungsten.
Czechoslovakia probably had as many resources, but nobody wanted to get involved, including the European countries that were not engaged in t5he war on Vietnam.
The market place mentioned is in the Donbass region, as was targeted by Ukraine using western tech. Russia does not fire its expensive missiles indiscriminately into Ukraine.
Blinken, like all deep-state frontmen, is a liar. The Luciferian Anglo-American cabal that owns him would rather rule over a smouldering cinder than tolerate an alternative, fairer world.
Blinken is the wanton warmonger who aided and abetted Biden’s cheerleading for the invasion of Iraq when Biden was chairman of Senate Foreign Relations. Biden was rewarded for his cynical warmongering by getting the Dem nomination.
Warmonger, warmonger, warmonger. Fearmonger, then sell more arms. Pump up Northrop shares. Profit take.
Then autoloop kicks in.
So make the biggest foreign policy mistake in American history and they make you president. Or Sec Of State.
WW1 was orchestrated by the elites (aristocrats) of England who knew that they could win a few more medals if their “servants” would just defeat the Hun. And it was a slaughter. So yes, I agree, but this time it’s Ukrainian servants and american elites.
Currently, only the USA has the distinction of using WMDs on civilian populations.
The only thing that would wake the USA up is a nuclear strike on THEIR home territory. And we all saw how Bush used the previous false-flag on dumbfuck gullible Yanks and Westerners.
Rome had to "Expand or Die", due to its rapacious ethos. The USA is consciously built upon the same lines.
The Yanks are hoping that Putin is saner than they are.
But they already have all the headlines stored up for if for once he shows he isn't.
Yeps, for that 24hrs until we all die - or wished we had - Western Corporate MEdia will be FULL of stories about how the End of the World is actually all Russia's fault.
Because all that matters is NARRATIVE.
One day, there wil be a 3rd "President of America" in 1 year, two others having been removed by their own guard regiments, and the area of their 'power' will be as far as they can see - and only that.
Does Blinken understand that Russia is simply concerned about securing the Donbass and Crimea? If Ukraine escalates into long range attacks inside Russia, it will force Russia to escalate attacks in the rest of Ukraine. Russia has the capability of flattening Kiev in a single day. Russia could end the war in a day if the political will is strong enough to wipe out an entire city like the US did in Raqqa, Syria. Russia has far more at stake in its borders than the US had in Syria.
Time and time again, NATO has proven that it is strategically brain-dead. "Weakening Russia" is not a strategy; neither is this policy of escalatory incrementalism. Long-range missiles to Ukraine will be used by Kiev like the "buzz bomb" V-1 and V-2 rockets by the Nazis toward the desperate end of WW 2, i.e., as terror weapons. Project Ukraine appears to be a lost cause, but NATO refuses to bite the bullet (so to speak) are start negotiating.
One last dead Russian in a "desperate end" is all benefit and no cost to an empire that believes it can endlessly print currency to pay for it and have people continuing to accept it.
These people are fucking lunatics.
You just noticed?
Stuff it starry, just because someone makes an observation doesn't mean they just noticed.
These people are lunatics!
🤣
Another Russian red line ignored.
Further proof that the West sees Russian dithering not as humanitarianism or reasonableness, but as contemptible weakness.
Putin will be remembered fondly by history far more than crime bill Joe. He has put up with so much imperial nonsense, the fact there are still living Ukrainians is a testament to his, well, desire to not be slaves to the US hegemony at least.
Dude's biggest internal issue was convincing his own people to not go full Braveheart on those baby burning nazis.
Get that thing out of the white house, toss him into the prison hospital he'll die in, and maybe we can all have an uncensored conversation about going forward.
Or nuke us all, see ya in hell I guess.
What makes you so sure?
The fundamental problem that Russia faces is that, short of nuclear war, there is little that Russia can do that will so much as mildly inconvenience the decisionmakers in the West. So they have every incentive to keep doubling down.
Surely feezing Europe to death won't cause any trouble. You are aware of the whole point of this right? The petrodollar? The fact Biden and money machine J did this deliberately? We blew up ordstream 2 and then hilariously lied to the world about it? Any of this ring a bell?
The People Who Matter in Europe will neither freeze nor starve.
And what has Europe done about Nordstream? Sholz scurried off to Biden for photo-ops while the European political class stared at its proverbial shoes. Even when you get a European to admit the obvious, that the United States blew up Nordstream, they counter that they are bad slaves who deserve to be beaten.
Russia's not even trying to freeze the citizens of Europe. They're just selling energy *around* the sanctions/pipeline issues.
And I don't think they will use tactical nukes either. What they are being pushed into doing is hurrying up and "winning" the war by rendering Ukraine unable to fight.
To flipshod—this is an interesting idea. And it fits with the kind of convoluted “planning” the CIA would do to get out of this war without having to admit wrong doing. “O, those Ukrainians just weren’t tough enough, no matter what we did for them”. Its a Kissinger kind of thinking.
Missiles and ground attack that seriously jeopardized loss of Crimea likely would prompt Russian nukes.
It remains to be seen whether the Russian leadership has the stomach to do so. The other problem is selling tot he Russian people the cost that such escalation will require.
Most Russians are in favor of the war, as long as it doesn't inconvenience them too much. However, whether Kherson is or is not part of the Russian Federation doesn't really affect the life of the average frustrated Russian living in Vologonsk all that much either way. So Putin is going to have to convince them that the human sacrifices that are necessarily part of an offensive will be worth it to them.
By contrast, even forgetting the hard core of Nazis, Ukraine is spoiling for a fight, because they have been convinced that the war is their ticket to The Golden Billion, their entrance to The Magical Land Where Institutions Basically Work.
Of course we did all those things. But what will anyone do about it?
Russia could provide cruise missiles to Syria, ad have Syria blow away US bases on its territory. That could an escalation option for Russia.
WWIII also is an option, and if you think that the United States would stand idly by when that happens.
For that matter, Syria could attack US bases right now. There is a reason Syria has not done so.
The slow motion murder of the greenback as the world's reserve currency is as sweet a revenge as one could ever wish for.
Far as I can tell, that hasn't happened. What trade that isn't conducted in USD is conducted in EUR for the most part.
And if you look at rates on USTs, they are hardly signaling anything like "imminent distress".
"The US empire depends on keeping the world asleep to its abusiveness"..............but today, it is mainly the citizens of the USA who are asleep.
"And the world depends on everyone waking up to it"...............which is happening more and more through independent, truthful journalists, the likes of Caitlin and her analysis, Consortium News, etc., and almost all the other countries in the world (other than the Anglo / Christian bunch of Canada, subservient little Australia, France, yesterday's master colonisers England and the like), adding all the NATO puppets along for the ride.
Too slow, indeed, but it is the American people who can make the difference once over 50% see that one politician in the USA is no different to the next. Corrupted and totally owned by Israel. And it shows, daily. Ask Palestinians, which criminal apartheid regime occupies their country, receiving support from 85% of all US politicians since the 1960’s with their inhumane crimes, of no concern to US politicians.
What an absolutely disgraceful record. Apartheid in South Africa finished in 1990 but in Palestine 33 years later, still 100% supported by the hypocritical United States.
Find one person as a decent President? History says that's not possible after Bush 1 and Bush 2, Obama, Clinton and Trump and the current feeble Biden, slave to the military / defence / industrial / pharmaceutical / banking / Blackrock / Vanguard controllers and hidden by the whore media.
Yes, an entirely different and disliked country since the well planned death of JFK, his nephew, Robert, looking like a chance for a decent President, now having sold his soul to Israel’s dictates to 330 million American people.
It's just staggering that the truth in everything can be so well hidden by the corrupt media since JFK, Iraq, Chile, CIA drug running, Abu Ghraib torture chambers, assassinations on demand, wars, million death sanctions, theft of oil, resulting failed states like Yemen, Afghanistan, Libya, and on it goes, not ever forgetting the likes of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Laos and Cambodia. Hated by almost the whole world, a world certainly not jealous of the US standard of living and lifestyle any more because everyone knows that the end for the “exceptional” US dictator, staffed by its Neocon Brigades, is just around the corner.
When? Check with Netanyahu. He'll know.
Now if the American people, the voters in the USA take too long to see what all this means, then perhaps the fast expanding BRICS alliance may be best placed to make it all happen, very much sooner. By then, for the average paid / employed citizen of that once respected USA, back in 1945 that is, it will be too late and the rest of the world will rub America's nose in the destruction they have caused over the past 78 years..
It's there for all to see.
India is paying for Chinese imports in Yuan, as is Argentina. Saudi Arabia, Bangladesh, India, Brazil, Pakistan, Iraq, and Bolivia—have recently either traded in the yuan or expressed interest in doing so in the near future. Meanwhile, US poised to descend into recession (projection calls for two consecutive quarters of negative growth in GDP) like western Europe already is, while the IMF is projecting positive growth for Russia in 2024, which has recently vaulted into 4th largest economy in the world in GDP/PPP, supplanting Germany and closing in on 3rd place Japan.
VW and BMW are both giving serious consideration to relocating everything except management to China and BASF making plans to move at least a large part of it's operations to the US.
France has now lost it's source of uranium in Niger, upon which it is highly reliant for energy, moreso than any other country.
Russia is experiencing virtually zero unemployment with it's factories humming 24/7. Both the kinetic and economic aspects of the war are being won by Russia while the US predictably wins the information aspect war in the west where it controls the information flow, but only in the west.
Percentage of total global trade in USD has hardly changed.
One effect of the war in Ukraine that goes unnoticed by most pundits is the comparison between Russian vs. US weapons systems. In every major category Russian systems have been proven superior.
Apart from the effect on the battlefield, this will have an effect on international arms sales of which Russia is the number two provider after the USA. Russian systems are more effective and cheaper than their US counterparts, but the key point is they are now capable of defending against attack by the US or NATO.
That's a game changer for smaller nations that don't want to be victims of US gunboat diplomacy. It's also the reason behind the hesitancy and weak excuses being offered on supplying F-16s to Ukraine. Apart from the fact they have no one to fly them, even with NATO pilots they'd be shot down as soon as they took to the air, which is very bad for future sales.
I try to look beyond the immediate political effects of the war to see the longer term economic impact, and this is a major one. In the coming years, more nations are going be buying not only Russia AD systems but also civilian aircraft. Russia has been on a drive in recent years to eliminate dependency on foreign supplied aviation technology and has largely achieved that goal, the recent replacement of Pratt & Whitney jet engines with a domestically produced engine being a major example.
Another factor that goes unnoticed is that Russia is a major world supplier of titanium and can cut off exports to the west if they so choose.
https://www.reuters.com/business/aerospace-defense/aerospace-firms-brace-turbulence-russian-titanium-supplies-2022-01-28/
If you're an investor interested in a longer term short play, I'd be looking at Raytheon (makers of P&W jet engines) as well as Boeing and Airbus. Not only are the Russian engines in competition with P&W on new builds, they can also be used as replacements on existing fleets. If you need a good argument for why you might want to do that, here it is:
https://www.investopedia.com/rtx-to-take-usd3-billion-charge-as-it-recalls-inspects-pratt-and-whitney-engines-7968137
Not arguing any of that. But if Russia cannot bring itself to do what it takes to win, it doesn't matter.
It sounds as if you already know what it takes to win. Personally I don't assume greater knowledge of the situation than the people charged with its execution. I simply look at what they're doing and try to figure out why they took a particular path, not argue what they should have done instead, since I can't possibly know all the conditions that led to their decision.
This is something I learned the hard way through 20 years as a trader in stocks and options. It doesn't matter what I *think* is the correct course of action in a given circumstance. What matters are the underlying material conditions and the way the principle actors respond to them. For example, If a CEO is telling me the future of his company is bright, yet at the same time he's selling out his position, that's useful information, whereas just listening to what he says isn't. That example is analogous to the current situation with Ukraine. They're telling us victory is possible, but at the same time slowly backing away and preparing to throw Ukraine under the bus, using excuses like "they could have won if only they'd followed our advice."
The other element in play here is the tendency to become impatient when an anticipated outcome takes longer than expected to materialize. I've sold positions that later were big winners - I just didn't have the patience to wait for that to happen. Apple is a case in point. I made a huge gain in 2000 selling just before the crash, but had I just held on, I'd have been in much better shape today.
I regard Russia in the same way. They'll have setbacks no doubt, and unintended consequences are always a potential threat, but based on the material conditions and the actions of their leaders, I have confidence in the longer term outlook, and if I were still a player I'd be heavily invested there.
The fundamental problem with that logic is that in one, you assume that the CEO is bullshitting but the president isn't.
In this case, I am ignoring the rhetoric and watching what is done, or rather, what isn't done on the part of Russia. And the West is not backing away - far from it. They keep on doubling down, while Russia is loathe to escalate even as red line after Russian red line is ignored.
They won already. The WEF captured Western media won't admit it.
Funny how nobody in Russia itself seems to have recognized this.
How would you define winning? More to the point, what are the post war effects of that victory? In military terms, Russia has largely achieved its stated objectives. If they've taken their time about it and western observers are reading that as weakness, how doe that affect the outcome? They have their own schedule, which I'm sure takes into account the follow on effects of victory. That's the tough part, not the actual defeat of Ukraine, but what follows. A new Iron Curtain at the Polish border? An allied Ukraine run by rational actors? An occupied Ukraine with continuing insurgency? Winning the war is a technical issue at this point, the geopolitical consequences of victory are what really matters.
That is a good question. If you consider the present situation "winning", for a geostrategic perspective, then I hate to see what would constitute "losing".
"In military terms, Russia has largely achieved its stated objectives."
True, so long as those military objectives do not include not having your citizens shelled, droned, missiled, tanked, stormed by soldiers, etc., etc.
https://www.defensemirror.com/news/34969/Russia_s_UAC_Advances_MC_21__SJ_100_Aircraft_Deliveries_to_Aeroflot_from_2025_to_2024
That's good news, provided the Russians can keep the corruption down and the quality up.
Let's change geographies for a minute or two.
I wonder which country in the vicinity of the USA would like to be part of an attack on the USA? All they would need would be a shipload of Russian or Chinese made missiles.
What we need is a crowd-funding exercise from all the countries around the globe to support a similar scenario as has been approved of by Blinken and his Neocons positioned in Cuba, Venezuela, Nicaragua or almost any of the South American countries who have been threatened, sanctioned and generally disadvantaged by the USA overtime.
It is time for a proxy AGAINST the USA. See how you like it, Blinken.
Can you imagine it? All the Israeli controlled Neocons living in Florida, which with New York City could be a likely target. Alternatively, a couple of well positioned submarines in international waters with a couple of big nuclear warheads just waiting for the word "Fire".
What a performance! You'd have Biden taking off for Alaska, Blinken heading home to Israel more than half the senior cabinet gracing the corridors of power in Washington chartering every EL Al flight to avoid the risk of what they are now suggesting is fully approved in Ukraine.
What's good for the goose is good for the gander
Might just be the trigger that the US needs to make them face the reality of their years of dirty deeds, worldwide. 20 million deaths and still counting
Crowd-funding? Cash or card. Your choice.
Einstein called this a 'thought experiment.' Good work! Keep on thinking!
Blinken and his minion Nuland are clinically certifiable psychopaths and deserve the rope.
The sad news is that there is no operating justice system in the West that can deal with these criminals. They will both retire to corporate boards and think tanks and live the rest of their miserable lives in the lap of luxury.
Yes, or like the other certifiable psychopaths—Dick and Bush—will go on Ellen as doddering old fools looking for solace and praise. And Ellen will give it to them. Never underestimate america’s ability to forgive our war crims.
Well NO--that's how it would have played out in the past, but now we are marching into an Armageddon, maybe the nuclear one this piece focuses on, or maybe the ecological breakdown ALL the leaders are rushing toward if we avert nuclear war. Either way, there will be no safe havens.
Mother Nature or human nature will get us in the end if we don't watch it! However, the world has many people who are perhaps better described as [temporarily] denatured/dumbed-down humans and they are a force to be reckoned with when sparked up with propaganda in National Hate Week. Truth bombs wrapped in humour appear to have a positive effect though. Every bit helps. Then we can throw the power switch to enable the people to choose a better system where power-drunk politicians cannot ever be given power over us ever again. Then we can consider remedies for the extensive eco-damage we humans have caused either wittingly or unwittingly, & whatever else.
What does Russia propose to do about it?
The Russians are biding their time. The escalations of the US bespeak failure. Besides "Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake", opportunities for serious countermoves may develop, I would imagine in the summer or fall of 2024.
Russia has two problems. One is that, short of nuclear war, there is little that Russia can do that so much as mildly inconveniences the decisionmakers in Washington, or even their local lackeys in Kiev. Pointing out the vast numbers of dead Ukrainians is irrelevant. They don't care. Pointing out the manifold terrorist acts of the Kiev regime is irrelevant. They don't care.
The other is that the Russian leadership has shown little appetite for escalation, and it remains to be seen whether they can sell the cost that escalation will require to the Russian people.
Russia drastically miscalculated by not using enough force at the beginning of this war, and wishes that this war would just go away. Of course, the West sees this as an opportunity.
I think you underestimate the Russian people's support for this war. It is not become an existential war. They are all in and for the long term. They know how to sacrifice.
My guess is that the Russian's will mount an offensive pretty soon and the only solution at this point is tanks in Kiev, installation of a puppet government to permanently crush and disable any Nazi resistance, and annexation of most of the east and south of Ukraine.
Biden and Blinken will do jack shit when there are Russian tanks in Kiev.
Oh, I just left a comment saying some of the same things one screen above, and it was a reply to Feral. (Here I am just scrolling along.)
For better or worse, Russia is a consumer society. Most Russians today basically are consumers, not the people that won The Great Patriotic Fatherland War.
Most Ukrainians also are consumers. The difference is is that Ukraine was promised membership in The Cub, The Golden Billion, The Land Where Institutions Basically Work. That the West is none of these things doesn't matter, because that is how they are perceived. (I have more experience in Russia and Ukraine than do most here.)
I hope to Bastet that you prove correct, but the response of the Russian public even to the half-assed partial mobilization last year does not give me confidence. For that matter, if Russia were preparing to go on the attack, they'd be training large numbers of troops for a while back, not this "just the tip" escalation.
Typo: I meant to write that "it has NOW become an existential war"
The optimal time for a serious Russian move would be in the leadup to the US 2024 election. It would not necessarily be a straightforward military operation.
The other thing that I think is quite possible is that Biden will back down in this game of chicken. I think his former ambassador to Russia will talk sense to him and he will abandon this course of action because of the election. Probably talk tough and stalemate it as long as he can using Blikered. Of course, if the CIA makes another attack on Crimea, you’re right, things will get uglier.
I don't think the Russians wish to escalate the war; if they "won" they would be confronted with the tasks of occupation and fighting terrorism and guerrilla warfare. (It is said that this was the earlier plan of the US, but the Russians failed to take the bait.) Instead, I think they (the Russians) are looking to the native centrifugal and degenerative currents now active in the US and waiting to see how they turn out. Someone said that there was no people so willing to go to war as the Americans, and so unwilling to fight one. That principle was shown in Vietnam, Afghanistan, and Iraq at least and may be shown again in the approach to the upcoming election.
The idea that Ukraine was ripe for a guerilla war is seriously overrated, usually offered as a retcon to justify why Russia didn't apply more force. Not that Blinken and Co would not try it, but it wouldn't work. If you look at successful insurgencies in recent decades (Vietnam, Yemen, Afghanistan, Zimbabwe) - one thing they all have in common is a young population.
The median age in Yemen is 19 or so years old. The median age in Ukraine was over 40, and that before the war.
Victory for Russia requires nothing short of the following:
1. Eastern part of the Ukraine and Crimea staying in Russia.
2. South part of the Ukraine in Russia or as allied independent countries.
3. Western part of the Ukraine in Poland.
4. Rest of Ukraine under Russian military control so that they can never assemble a military capable of threatening Russia or its allies.
(In circumstances like these, it is unlikely that there would be a significant insurgency--as you note. The people of the east and south would be more than capable of mopping up any would-be insurgents themselves.)
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Until I see something like this, I won't accept a declaration of Russian victory.
I see that you have done a lot of work on other threads in these comments pushing back on those now standing on the deck of a Russian aircraft carrier with a "Mission Accomplished" banner behind them.
I wasn't thinking of _successful_ insurgencies, just of the sort of insurgency supplied (and sometimes inspired) by foreign powers to degrade life in the target country and cause expense and grief to the inhabitants thereof. For example, the Contras in Nicaragua. More like terrorism than revolution.
I would disagree with you on what more the Russian people can do. If this were the u.s. we would have carpet bombed Kyiv murdering a million or more. Fortunately the Russian people are far more human. That might not hold for much longer. Remember much of Ukraine is Russian. A war within family.
We would have done all that and more. And it would have worked. Russia dithered, and now will be paying the price.
Moral arguments are wasted on sociopaths.
Not sure what they WILL do, but what they SHOULD do is nuke DC
IMO a better initial choice would be to level Al Tanf in Syria from which US crimes there are conducted
The only way the GAE MIL Pharma complex - the most powerful evil the world has ever seen - gets stopped is annihilating DC. Anything else would only provide pretext for them to go start another war on some other people.
That would be a good start
The White House and State Department are certifiably insane. If these missiles are used on targets in Russia it seems quite possible that Russia might strike US military assets in Europe, or even Syria. Vessels, aircraft, missile stations, radar facilities, air bases, etc. This is American hubris beyond anything previously witnessed, imho.
oh, attack on Kyiv, that one which came from the Ukraine-controlled territory, conveniently during his visit? All to justify strikes on Russia? While he retreats to his safe haven in Washington, DC or Brussels?
Blinken will do what he wants to do, regardless of any pretext, rationale or justification.
Power is the only language that sociopaths understand.
Blinken probably bombed that market himself, if it even happened.
I think what they are looking for is to see if Russia has the capacity to shoot down these missiles on short notice. Right now, the prevailing jingoism is that they don’t have that capability but I’ll bet pentagon planners and strategists would like to know for sure.
those pentagon planners and strategists might just get a rude lesson when they are unable to shoot down Russian hypersonic missiles into Poland or some other US logistics support operation.
Agreed. And they might get more than they bargained for as China gets involved. I’m pretty sure these Cheney-like “theory of the insane man who will do anything” war planners’ goal is to get China to step in eventually. Then the US can test its encirclement of China ideas.
Notice that nobody would have dreamt of trying such a hard brained stunt when the USSR invaded Czechoslovakia in 1968.
The West did nothing other than the diplomatic equivalent of thoughts and prayers, because they genuinely feared the Soviet Union.
I think it was more because we were at war in Vietnam and people were in the streets and LBJ was forced out of office by the peace movement and McNamara knew we couldn’t afford to intervene any place else. Besides, Czechoslovakia had no resources we wanted to steal. Viet Nam had tungsten.
Tungsten is relatively plentiful and we survived just fine without Vietnamese tungsten.
Czechoslovakia probably had as many resources, but nobody wanted to get involved, including the European countries that were not engaged in t5he war on Vietnam.
The market place mentioned is in the Donbass region, as was targeted by Ukraine using western tech. Russia does not fire its expensive missiles indiscriminately into Ukraine.
Blinken, like all deep-state frontmen, is a liar. The Luciferian Anglo-American cabal that owns him would rather rule over a smouldering cinder than tolerate an alternative, fairer world.
The fact this gleeful murderer isn't in prison right now is outrageous. The very definition of a traitor to the republic.
Most "great leaders" throughout history are but glorified sociopaths.
Blinken is the wanton warmonger who aided and abetted Biden’s cheerleading for the invasion of Iraq when Biden was chairman of Senate Foreign Relations. Biden was rewarded for his cynical warmongering by getting the Dem nomination.
Warmonger, warmonger, warmonger. Fearmonger, then sell more arms. Pump up Northrop shares. Profit take.
Then autoloop kicks in.
So make the biggest foreign policy mistake in American history and they make you president. Or Sec Of State.
It's looking more and more like a repeat of the sleepwalk into WWI.
It's looked like that this whole time. It's just progressing.
WW1 was orchestrated by the elites (aristocrats) of England who knew that they could win a few more medals if their “servants” would just defeat the Hun. And it was a slaughter. So yes, I agree, but this time it’s Ukrainian servants and american elites.
They want Russia to "Make the first move".
Currently, only the USA has the distinction of using WMDs on civilian populations.
The only thing that would wake the USA up is a nuclear strike on THEIR home territory. And we all saw how Bush used the previous false-flag on dumbfuck gullible Yanks and Westerners.
Rome had to "Expand or Die", due to its rapacious ethos. The USA is consciously built upon the same lines.
The Yanks are hoping that Putin is saner than they are.
But they already have all the headlines stored up for if for once he shows he isn't.
Yeps, for that 24hrs until we all die - or wished we had - Western Corporate MEdia will be FULL of stories about how the End of the World is actually all Russia's fault.
Because all that matters is NARRATIVE.
One day, there wil be a 3rd "President of America" in 1 year, two others having been removed by their own guard regiments, and the area of their 'power' will be as far as they can see - and only that.
What a shithole country. Trump was right on that.
Let’s hope vlad nukes DC first
Opinion polls across America might actually approve.
Does Blinken understand that Russia is simply concerned about securing the Donbass and Crimea? If Ukraine escalates into long range attacks inside Russia, it will force Russia to escalate attacks in the rest of Ukraine. Russia has the capability of flattening Kiev in a single day. Russia could end the war in a day if the political will is strong enough to wipe out an entire city like the US did in Raqqa, Syria. Russia has far more at stake in its borders than the US had in Syria.
Russia already strikes targets in Western Ukraine. The problem is that nobody in the West cares.
Incredible how brazenly moronic these monsters present themselves as they march us into an inferno.
Time and time again, NATO has proven that it is strategically brain-dead. "Weakening Russia" is not a strategy; neither is this policy of escalatory incrementalism. Long-range missiles to Ukraine will be used by Kiev like the "buzz bomb" V-1 and V-2 rockets by the Nazis toward the desperate end of WW 2, i.e., as terror weapons. Project Ukraine appears to be a lost cause, but NATO refuses to bite the bullet (so to speak) are start negotiating.
One last dead Russian in a "desperate end" is all benefit and no cost to an empire that believes it can endlessly print currency to pay for it and have people continuing to accept it.
Neurenberg trials for US terrorism and "unprovoked" war against capitalist Russia.
Unfortunately, Nuremberg now loves us. We need Beijing, or Rio to hold the trials. THAT would be a fair trial.
US blew up a Russian pipeline - they will brazenly do anything.
I guess this green lights Russian missile attacks on US arms shipments through Poland.
You know and I know that this will not happen.
Maybe there will be some form of "sabotage" with no fingerprints, like unidentified bombings of pipelines, dams, and bridges
LoL. That would require a verve and aggressiveness that the Russian leadership has not shown.