This is one of those cases of Ukraine being a fatal friend of the west. It's done absolutely nothing for them and has decimated their population.
And I blame the west. The broke Minsk agreement, the CIA backed coup overthrowing Ukraine's democratically elected leader in 2014, the endless propaganda, the denial of the fascists calling the shots in the Ukraine, the stymied peace agreements...the list goes on.
How can people ignore this? Why on earth should Ukrainians keep getting themselves killed for the sake of the west?
It would do western leaders a lot of good to get over their colonialist thinking, and start looking at things in a more just and peaceful light. Like so many of the rest of us.
I blame them too. Without the constant ethnic-cleansing going on in the Donbass, without the rejection of any sort of negotiations, without the lack of implementation of the Minsk agreements, without the Ukrainian nationalist threat to invade the breakaway oblasts, all of which in my opinion, is on the West, none of this would have happened.
Diana van Eyk, people who have the behaviour you describe ARE IN DENIAL. They are in cognitive dissonace, they opt for "blindness at all cost" rather than be expelled from the herd. It is so coward it gives me a nausea feeling!
Some people also just need to educate themselves. They aren’t necessarily cowards, they are just believing the propaganda and haven’t gone deeper than the surface to know what’s really going on. Just tonight I helped a friend to understand the truth of the Ukraine conflict and that has changed her perspective and she’s doing her own research.
its all about a massive financial collateral operation around the three seas project (3C), now failed, by which City of London capitals aimed to take over eastern Europe. These countries wealth were collateralized in advanced in order to cover the existing debt and be able to issue new one. This is the reason why the British are so desperately holding to Ukraine in order to make the stake holders believe the project is still viable. The Americans were brought in by bribery of the Biden mafia family and other Democrats, who were in charge to pay the military industrial complex with money from the Federal budget. All in all, a gigantic racket on the American tax payer, as usual I might say...
Not a fan of Trump, but I give him major ups for taking a strong stand for a ceasefire against a culture that is committed to continue the killing. Trump is assailed by his political rivals for, among other things, professing to be only acting in favor of America, as if the liberals and conservatives have done anything in the people’s interest.
But the elites who scorn and fear Trump have looted the American worker and have skimmed billions of dollars from the poor and the weak around the globe.
If Trump does what he says he wants to do, Russia and China and India and the U.S. will all sign onto nuclear weapons reduction treaties, and integrate their economies to an unprecedented degree. The perpetual war may become endangered.
Trump has as a basic political tenet, “You do you, and I’ll do me,” and to the indoctrinated ears of American consumers that cones across as cold and uncaring, but as you noted nations that think they’re friends of America inevitably come to feel used and regretful. So the cold and uncaring is international relations sans the phony rhetoric, which dupes citizens and nations alike. So it’s ultimately kinder to be honest than chummy. If Ukraine has learned this painful lesson, hopefully its leaders won’t be fooled again.
You do realize/remember that trump terminated two nuclear arms treaties during his first term.
Has he halted every and all American arms shipments to Ukraine???
Withdrawn all the American advisors to Ukraine???
Isn’t he the one continuing to send two thousand pound bunker buster bombs and MOABS to Israel???
Initiated a trade war with Canada, Mexico, and China???
Threatening to annex Greenland, the Panama Canal, et al???
Dismantling the new deal, like the bastard, bitch, billionaire bankers have been begging for since before Raygun???
I’ve heard that there is some vague promise of a possibility that the u.s. military budget will be cut by fifty percent.
I’ll believe it when I see it.
So what again is it I’m supposed to give trump credit for???
Trying to take Ukraine’s mineral wealth after the u.s. couped the government, tried to set up NATO shop on Russia’s front door, and lined the arms manufacture’s pockets by shipping tens, of tens of billions of taxpayer dollars to antagonize the Russians???
The whole shit show in Russia/Ukraine is an American production from front to horse’s back(side).
Europe is/was just the U$A’s toadie in this whole horror show.
As for the genocide in Gaza, I’m not absolutely certain who is the tail, and who is the dog, but trump is all in on scratching Israel’s itch.
If trump ever does anything worthy of accolades, let me know about it.
Four years in and counting, and I haven’t seen anything but self enrichment from the orange oligarch.
The u.s. empire is unraveling in real time.
The question is, how much peripheral damage will the u.s. do around the globe in this process.
Let’s not forget the worldwide economic nightmare that the u.s. shared with the 2008 mortgage meltdown, and who suffered.
And, who didn’t.
The dolts, dunces, and dullards in “the states” are about to experience austerity on steroids, at the hands of their orange deity.
It would be wise to make a run for it now.
Problem is, no one knows what the blast radius is, and how far flung the fallout will be.
I’d love to be proved wrong in my assessment.
Time will tell if it’s going to be purgatory or hell.
Promises made, promises kept???
Didn’t dumb donald say he’d end this conflict in twenty four hours???
I don’t disagree with any word in your comment. I do think that the dog is in Tel Aviv, and the masters occupy the Capital. I also think that simply talking to Putin is worthy of accolades. I know that it hasn’t yet delivered a cessation of the killing, but the groundwork has been laid. Just overtly thumbing his nose at the neocons is praiseworthy.
Let's wait and see whether any deal is actually made, first, what say?
Or will Zelenskii put on a suit and grovel, the european leaders abase themselves and promise statues, and once they have sufficiently humiliated themselves, so that the arms and cash resume?
Every word … but … the American people waving the damn Ukraine 🇺🇦 flag have no understanding nor willingness to accept the timetable of events leading up to this shit show.
The real question is why is Trump seemingly working to end war against Russia but to increase it against Palestine, Syria, Lebanon and potentially Iran?
Yes, thank you Caitlin. The US is a war economy and has been for a very long time. It needs wars for gargantuan profits. Not to mention raping and pillaging oil and resources at whatever the cost to human beings, animals, vegetation, the poisoning of the land and the wanton destruction of our Mother Earth.
Wow - I wasn't aware of that "report," which almost reads like science fiction and was alternately called a "hoax," "satire," "conspiracy theory," etc. but in fact was totally real! Thank you for this notation. It is surreal to read even the summary of the reasoning as if by rational human beings when the creators are actually clinically insane and life destroying. The deeper into this bottomless pit of power and domination we descend the scarier the sub human forces we're up against look. Now combined with AI, surveillance, drones and industrialized weapons of death. But so important that it's seen! I think of the beautiful African saying: "It takes a village to raise a chld," but in this case it takes an expansive worldwide "village" of seekers of truth and justice, each contributing some critically important piece of the jigsaw puzzle, to raise the consciousness level and motivation necessary to battle this beast. Here's just a small piece From Iron Mountain:
[As an alternative to the Rand Corporation's project summarizing the results of its two-and-a-half-year study and its recommendation to maintain a state of permanent war] the report (published 1967) "goes on to suggest some substitutes for the non-military functions of war, including medical research, health care for all citizens, improved education, housing, public transportation, poverty reduction, and so forth, but ultimately notes that these do not answer the need for an EXTERNAL threat to maintain social stability." One writer was John Galbraith, though he later disavowed his involvement, but it was on tape. The report suggests "some alternative enemy could be manufactured, such as hostile space aliens or the threat of environmental pollution, which, the authors say, is not yet dire enough yet but could be "increased selectively for this purpose."[13][we could add migrants/refugees/LGBTQI/skin color, etc.] The report ultimately concludes "that the war system cannot responsibly be allowed to disappear." This gives a clue as to the fake "Peace" Trump hammers on about (that so many people believe!). But it's all strategic power games and profit. He has no clue what "peace" even is. It's not in his DNA.
Anyway, thank you for this, Bernard. It not only sheds new light upon the twisted super wealthy self serving entrenched masters of war and their goals (the next war), but also expands the time frame, and its application to all the many countries including the Palestinians, Sudan, Iraq, Afghanistant, Ukraine, Iran, Venezuela etc. etc. who have already or are slated to become victims of this wealthy western colonial insatiable Hydra.
Part one…….Russia (and Ukraine, obviously) have something that the USA needs and more importantly, tucked away in this deal are commercial opportunities for Jared Kushner, Trump's Jewish son-in-law along with the Gaza tourist activity plans proceeding at full speed ahead. Opportunities galore!
Those minerals are important, very important, in the ground in Ukraine in big quantities. Some also available in places like China. Russia now has control of a large section of Ukraine since the war began. Hence Trump’s interest in the end of the war. (Watch out NATO puppets….he is serious).
Ukraine has deposits of 22 of the 34 minerals identified by the European Union as critical, according to Ukrainian data. They include industrial and construction materials, ferroalloy, precious and non-ferrous metals, and some rare earth elements.
According to Ukraine's Institute of Geology, the country possesses rare earths such as lanthanum and cerium, used in TVs and lighting; neodymium, used in wind turbines and EV batteries; and erbium and yttrium, whose applications range from nuclear power to lasers. EU-funded research also indicates that Ukraine has scandium reserves. Detailed data is classified. Exciting stuff.
Part two…….Just one guess…..Miriam Adelson, Elon Musk, the real President and Vice President of the USA…….based on revenues outlayed for the Trump victory.
Adelson is one of the reasons that Israel has turned into a hated ethnic cleanser, her funding having been available non-stop for years with her late husband creating the tradition for Israeli funding well before that. US gamblers in Los Vegas have made it all possible.
She is an evil influence and a large contributor to everything bad that is happening in Palestine.
She is worthy of an un-American investigation, all by herself, a cunning Israeli first citizen using the USA as a fund raiser, every day of every week.
China has the highest reserves of rare earths, followed by Brazil, India, Australia, Russia, Vietnam, US and number 8 is Greenland. Ukraine does not even make the list and the areas with most of the rare earths are now held by Russia.
And since stabilising Ukraine enough to mine anything will take years, it all sounds like a scam since the US could buy what it needs certainly from India, Australia and Denmark which Governs Greenland and probably Vietnam and Brazil while mining its own reserves?????
The Gaza plan will never happen. Hamas is undefeated and so is Hezbollah. You have to control an area to develop it. Clearing up will take decades. It is also bullshit like the Ukrainian rare earth deal.
Thank you Roslyn Ross for the much needed factual information. Too many people seem to be misled by the "rare earth metals" narrative on Ukraine. Where wwere all this "rare earth metals in Ukraine" before Feb 2022? Why did this particular narrative become important just recently? Were people in the appropriate industries simply ignorant upto now of the presence of these resources? Or is this just one more narrative to add confusion/distract from the core issues at hand? These are the kind of critical thinking questions that are needed (instead of blindly believing narratives that confirm people's biases).
And if anyone thinks that Miriam is some kind of defender of the Jewish People, they should note that she sat right up front and watched Elon give Nazi salutes without objecting.
Years ago, Israel gave funding to the Azov battalion. They don't mind actual antisemitism, just the criticism-of-Israel kind. Natanyahu once actually said that Hitler was pushed into the Holocaust by Palestinians.
Yes! And Zionists everywhere continue to claim that Israel was founded, and must exist, to save Jews from the Holocaust, like we don’t know history and can’t do math (apparently a lot of people, like the US Congress, don’t and can’t). The Balfour Declaration was 1917, after 40 years of preparation.
I think your comment is off the mark, but not by a long way. Generally, it does seem to be "white (and English speakers) versus the rest", but the underlying dynamic now is the global oligarchs versus the rest. China's ascendance is the big issue for the empire minders on both sides of the Atlantic. It's a sign of Musk's stupidity that he's decimating funding for science and scientists in the US, guaranteeing China's win. Too bad China's empire minders aren't wise enough to see that advancing faster on this path toward 5G, AI, automated everything and universal surveillance is a loss for living things including humans. Where Russia fits in all this is that they have a vast territory and a lot of reserves, so if they ally with China, that speeds the collapse of the US imperial superiority. Trump is at least smart enough to make friends with Russia rather than attacking it.
the people in charge do not 'want' war, any more than the Mafia Dons wanted to kill people. War and killing is a by-product of Control, control is to enrich yourself at the expense of others.
The purpose of a mighty military is to scare those who want to retain their resources and wealth into capitulating without fighting.
"to fight and conquer in all your battles is not supreme excellence; supreme excellence consists in breaking the enemy's resistance without fighting."
Sun Tzu
US representatives told the Taliban, 'either you accept our offer of a carpet of gold, or we bury you under a carpet of bombs',''
Brisard said in an interview in Paris.
If people do not bend to your will and hand over their wealth, then only is war and murder necessary.
-
Wealth can only be created by Mining, Manufacture and Agriculture. Laundry, insurance, government cannot create wealth it just redistributes it. When your country does not have an MMA industry or if your industry is less efficient than other countries, you become poorer and remain poor. America lost its' industries, Europe is losing its' industries, they know this, they understand this and it is driving them insane.
The Western hegemony, with the USA as its leader, is finished. Dead, buried, but they have no idea how to move forward. Trump is trying to buy/bully his way into restoring MMA ability but without the social, educational and physical resources he can (maybe) see that it is impossible.
WWIII is likely as the West will get more and more desperate as the downward spiral continues. The UK thinks that it will fight Russia, total insanity. At least the US in the form of Trump, Vance and Hegseth knows that they cannot win any physical wars, but whether they will be forced (by the insane, insatiable Israelis) into a middle east war against Iran and the Arab world supported by Russia and China is likely.
Actually, the US economic system depends very much on the Military-Industrial complex as both a producer of goods and a consumer of goods. This is permissible in the market economy because bombs and guns made by the MIC do not compete with products made for public consumption, while the employees of the MIC do spend their incomes on those ordinary products. Meanwhile, the products of the MIC can be 'consumed' either by destroying them in our own adventures or selling them to other countries to cause destruction there. Or, if they sit around long enough, that's an excuse to make new weapons to replace them.
If the military budget were cut by 50% tomorrow (and I'd love to see it cut entirely), the economic impact would be devastating and the US would be in a major depression. The US has locked itself into an economy of destruction and death.
In so far as the US MIC exports and "sells" goods, then it is a manufacturer.
However the vast majority of 'money' that the MIC spends (inputs and wages) is provided by taxes on citizens. 'Goods' given to other countries are not products but throwaway production. Any successful society can and does produce far more than it needs, hence Pyramids, colosseums, foreign aid and huge excess shows of wealth, (sports arenas and the whole 'entertainment' industry).
You are right, the MIC directly and indirectly probably accounts for some 15% - 25% of US GDP, if you then took out the defence department and actual military another 5% -10% is gone. So I estimate from 20% to 35% is wasted on defence.
I say wasted because no other country in the world has or will attack or invade the US unless they are attacked first.
This crap is not new ;
"Give me the money that has been spent in war, and I will purchase every foot of land upon the globe. I will clothe every man, woman, and child in an attire that kings and queens would be proud of; I will build a school-house upon every valley over the whole habitable earth; I will supply that school house with a competent teacher; I will build an academy in every town, and endow it; a college in every state, and fill it with able Professors; I will crown every hill with a church consecrated to the promulgation of the gospel of peace; I will support in its pulpit an able teacher of righteousness, so that on every Sabbath morning the chime on one hill should answer to the chime on another, around the earth's broad circumference; and the voice of prayer and the song of praise should ascend like a universal holocaust to heaven. "~Charles Sumner, c.1840
Since it would take years to stabilise Ukraine enough to extract resources and since Russia now controls much of the rare earth resources, it would be a very long time before that could be done. Something about it all does not make sense, unless Trump expects to fight a war against Iran and therefore needs to work toward that end instead of arming Ukraine. Making peace with Russia, might, possibly, maybe, mean that any war with Iran would leave the Russians and Chinese out of it.
How does Russia control these resources? Are they located only in the east? The usual pattern with imperialism is conquest followed by rape and plunder of “natural resources”. I would anticipate a similar approach in Ukraine.
FAKE/CORRUPT: the formula for dissecting US politics. — The skin is FAKE theater, same stupid twisted rhetorical tricks used by one party against the other, then exactly mirrored when power shifts the other way. Completely FAKE utter useless bullshit (which the NY Times daily displays).
Nothing evolves.
Dissect more deeply and you reach the stinking moribund guts, crawling with the parasitic proletarian-tissue-eating worms of Zionist and corporate money—often the same thing.
The importance of pivoting to China for the US Empire.
Mistakes were made - instead of separating Russia and China, the Ukraine war brought them closer together. So now, maybe they're trying to undo that mistake (too late IMHO) while simultaneously releasing resources for other arenas?
Yes, agree. I heard the US was also sending one tonne bombs which one would guess the Israelis would want to use on Iran. We can only hope that those who say Iran can defend itself and can hit Israel hard are right.
I don't think Iran can defend itself adequately against Israel (and when I say Israel I mean Israel AND the US by default). IMHO, Iran might need some help from Russia, China, possibly others.
The US would be risking a potentially nuclear escalation if it goes after Iran. The US Foreign Policy is so screwed up (and thoroughly soaked in failure) that it can't seem to do ANYTHING right - mistakes in Ukraine (leading to European destabilization), and now trying to paint its targets on Iran (which will lead to MORE than just middle-east destabilization).
When can the planet be rid of the most dangerous threat (US, Israel) to it?
I meant defend itself from initial strikes as it did before. Yes, agree that an Israel/US war would require support for Iran from allies. At the same time the US did not really win in Iraq and Iran is far different to Iraq with a highly developed military, 90 million people, and the ability to cut off oil supplies and destroy world economies very quickly.
And yes, it says a lot that polls in recent years globally have most people identifying the United States of Yamerica as the greatest threat to world peace, with Israel tied to its shoelaces.
>>"I meant defend itself from initial strikes as it did before."
Sure, Iran can defend itself from the initial strikes. But when it comes to all-out-war against Israel (which by default includes the US), Iran has extremely low probabilities of coming out on top (on its own).
IMHO, the oil shocks that would ensue from any grand-scale war in the ME should give the US pause for thought (as it could very well backfire on the US in unpredictable ways). But again, an empire on the decline (like the US) ramps up the risks during its downward trajectory phase...
Yes agree, but, again, if Iran has the capability some military experts say it has and it wipes out Tel Aviv, ports, airports and a heap of military sites, then Israel is crippled. Remaining Israelis would leave in droves. And as a citizen army, who is then fighting? Hezbollah, Hamas, Houthis, the Syrian rebels and the Turks would take advantage of that. Possibly also the Egyptians although probably not the Jordanians but who knows?
And even if the Americans weigh in and start dropping bombs on Iran, the reality is that bombs do not win a war, as the Israelis have discovered even if they have not learned.
The only way to truly win is boots on the ground. Would the Americans do a land invasion of Iran? I don't think so. Would Americans support it? Highly unlikely, particularly if Iran takes out a few thousand Americans on a couple of ships.
Then again, who can say what the American public would do if thousands of American sailors are suddenly wiped out?
Nothing is for certain, but even leaving aside any potential Russian actions, as soon as Israel attacks Iran, Iran is simply going to flatten every military building, port, airfield, and govt buildings with a barrage of missiles the world has never seen before. Israel will almost certainly respond with a nuke - as they likely tried last year but the Russians and Americans worked together to prevent.
NK has stated that Iran is under NK's nuclear umbrella, and that cool dude in Pyongyang is crazy enough to mean it. Plus, Pakistan.
Once the nukes start flying, every automatic launch mechanism in the US and Russia is going to trigger. It's built in.
That first statement of yours sounds rather bold. How are you sure of that? Where do you get the knowledge of Iran's capacity to "flatten every military building, port, airfield, and govt buildings with a barrage of missiles the world has never seen before"?
They've been building and stockpiling missiles and drones for 20 years. 20 YEARS. The only used their older drones and and relatively older missiles in the recent attacks. They have stockpiles all over the country - and it's a big, powerful, developed country. I've been there. It is SERIOUSLY impressive.
And I've been to Israel too. It's small. Very small. Every location is mapped. Locked in to targetting systems.
Iran can fire wave after wave, all AD would be overwhelmed in the first attack - but they wouldn't stop coming.
That settler colony would not survive. The only reason Iran would take a break is to let the rats fly out on their second passports.
I am not sure of anything and did not mean to imply that I was. I should have said, Attacking Iran may also equal global nuclear holocaust.
I suspect that Iran has nuclear weapons. Why would they not? The facts are clear, with nuclear weapons like North Korea you do not get attacked. Without them like Iraq and others, you do.
I suspect the Americans also suspect Iran has nuclear weapons and they think they know where, hence the one tonne bombs being delivered to Shitrael.
Now, we all know if you blow up nuclear weapons it causes a lot of harm but the Americans only care that the harm does not involve bombs dropped on the most superior of humans on the planet, Americans, and the second most superior, Israelis. In other words, they have not thought it through. But they never do.
And because Iran is allied with Russia and China who do have nuclear capacity, it would not take much of a stretch for things to escalate, because, in that way of war and madness, the Americans might think if they can draw China into what they see as their destruction of Iran, they can take out China as well and kill two birds with one stone.
For the same reason they attacked Iraq, because Israel wants to be the dominant power in the Middle East and it would appear the Americans want the same thing.
Israel thinks it can take Syria, Lebanon and Palestine but mostly it wants Iran destroyed so it can play top dog in the region or it thinks it can. Quite what it thinks Turkey represents is the question but the Israelis are never rational.
They’re pivoting toward Asia. According to some intellectuals, including professor John Mearsheimer, the US needs to address a host of problems in the Middle East and try to contain China. Basically, they’re “pivoting” away from Europe and focusing on China. As I understand it, we’re going into another Cold War. It’s going to get ugly.
Westerners are brainwashed in hatred of the Russians. It's not that they love Ukrainians, but they truly biologically hate anything to do with Russia. It's your typical European ethno-supremacist mindset that gave us, for centuries, colonialism, world wars, and genocide.
As I said elsewhere, Trump is probably the worst choice to be negotiating peace for Ukraine, but it seems pretty obvious that nobody else was going to do it.
Trump is not negotiating peace, he is doing a 'deal'.
A deal to make him and his billionigarchs richer. If it makes the American people a little better off that is fine, but his only interest is in the wealthy. They put him in power and it is payback time.
He doesn't give a damn about Ukrainian lives, Russian lives, Palestinian lives or any other lives. Hence Gaza.
He will happily impoverish and starve 8 billion people if it makes his friends happy, and the only way to make his fiends happy is to make them richer.
Don't give Trump credit for anything because he has done absolutely nothing and has ZERO per cent negotiation power. Trump and the U.S. have absolutely no leverage or power or control over Putin and the Russian military metriculating westward. Putin has no reason to stop until he consumes Ukraine precisely because he knows if he doesn't finish taking Ukraine, the west will be right back up Russia's ass again with nuclear missile bases.
Democratic Party politicians are LYING THEIR ASSES OFF about Russia losing, Ukraine winning.
If your news source is limited to legacy media all your life there's not much that anyone can say to reverse a lifetime of cradle-to-grave anti-Russia, anti-China, anti-Iranian, anti-Muslim hasbara propaganda.
90% of Americans believe that Russia poses a strategic threat to the United States because the CIA has been promoting anti-Russia, lies and propaganda the same way the CIA did with Iraq and Afghanistan, only more so.
Americans have little to no idea that that in 2004 when Bush-era Zionist neocons in the D.C. thinktank Project for a New American Century wrote the Iraq War plan, they also wrote the U.S. plan to arm Ukrainian Nazis to overthrow the democratically-elected government of Ukraine.
After the armed insurrection Ukrainian Nazi leader terrorist Petro Porshenko took office and the first thing he and his Ukrainian Nazi thugs did was start bombing Russian-Ukrainian civilians in the Donbass region, killing thousands of men, women and children. Ukrainians are still bombing the Donbass region of Ukraine (now Russia)
Putin warned the West and the U.S. for twenty fucking years if the U.S. and NATO didn't stop trying to put a NATO missile base less than a thousand miles from Russia, Putin may take action.
Circa 2014 the U.S. placed a missile base in Romania and armed the Ukrainian Nazis who overthrew the democratically-elected government of Ukraine, which caused Putin to invade 20% of Georgia.
The last time another country put a missile base less than a thousand miles from Washington D.C., our U.S. President threatened the old Soviet Union with total nuclear annihilation if Kruschev didn't remove the Soviet missiles from Cuba.
What most Americans don't know is, Kruschev told President Kennedy that when you remove your nuclear missile base from Turkey pointed at Moscow, then we will remove our nuclear missiles from Cuba.
Kennedy quietly removed the U.S. missile base from Turkey and declared victory over Kruschev.
History is a helluva drug.
The CIA won't stop promoting war with Russia, China and Iran to create public support for more increased U.S. defense spending and global bullying.
What a lot of Americans believe is Ukraine has the “right “ to join NATO if it wants to and Russia doesn’t have the right to say no you can’t. Rehashing the history of the Cuban missile crisis makes no dent their beliefs. The mental leap is too much for them to understand Russia has legitimate security concerns that should be taken seriously.
Masterful, Caitlin! "Liberal" interventionism and the constant demonization of all things Russian have been primary reasons (among many, many others) that I have broken from the Democratic Party after a half century of support. From the perspective of 76 years, I must say that I have never seen this level of utter stupidity and recklessness coming from ostensibly rational and "well-educated" people who say they want peace but never do a damned thing to obtain it. The USA is a blight on the planet. We are lost. I'm sure there is a place for Maddow, et. al. on the front line in Ukraine. If I had the choice of allies, I'd pick Russia and Iran over Ukraine and Israel in a heartbeat.
Yes, let's send Rachel Madcow to the front lines.... Let her go all crazy "Russia-gating" on them. (And then one last bomb can shut her blathering up for good.)
While the Oval Office tag-team beat-down of Zelensky was vulgar, crude, and ugly, Ukrainians in the future may be grateful that the puppet strings of its US masters were cut. By the puppet masters who were no longer interested in the Ukraine conflict. But cut nonetheless. To be cut off from further US military funding is the best thing Ukraine can hope for.
Russia does not seem to bear great umbrage against the nation of Ukraine; if it did, the damage to ordinary Ukrainians would be much greater, just as the damage the US inflicted against ordinary North Koreans in the Korean conflict. When the US carpet-bombed Korea relentlessly, although hardly anyone knows about it.
The sooner this war ends, the sooner Ukraine can begin to mend. It will be a smaller Ukraine with a smaller population. But I think Russia will not penalize the ordinary Ukrainians for the sins of their Banderista overlords. I think Russia will cultivate Ukraine to be a good neighbor and not an adversary. Because that is not only the geopolitically intelligent thing to do, it is also the humane and generous thing to do.
Watch the full length video, not just the short 10mins. There was no "tag-team beat-down of Zelensky [that] was vulgar, crude, and ugly", Zelensky was an offensive, petulant child who deserved considerably worse than what he got.
I wouldn't have been half as diplomatic to the little shit.
Whatever nefarious motives Trump and his oligarchs have in stage-managing that spectacle in the Oval Office, one cannot feel sorry for Zelenskyy. Believing that the world's powerful are behind him, supporting him, he strutted the world stage like there's no tomorrow, turning his people into cannon fodder.
Now he is even called to pay back the bombs and right off his country's resources. A good cautionary tale for any other country willing to be a proxy for the empire.
Now without prolonging the agony he should talk peace. Not get seduced by the European powers and the Western media and so called progressives treating him like a hero for standing up to the emperor. And weak leaders like Kier Starmer trying to seize the opportunity to act strong.They are even assembling a coalition of the willing! to support Ukrainian "democracy".
All this time they were cheering a genocide by their friendly apartheid state.
Russia always was provoked. And it was fighting alone with the US and West arraigned against it. Putin is universally reviled and the bombs and cash kept rolling in to Ukraine. It was always a cynical war to diminish Russia and isolate China. They do not seem to have achieved either.
Let the wise heads in Russia prevail and work towards peace, all the time well aware of Trump's real motives and European machinations.
"if you want to know just how close we came to nuclear annihilation during the Cuban Missile Crisis, look up the name Vasili Arkhipov" - and read https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JFK_and_the_Unspeakable for a detailed background.
" If you want this horrific war to continue, either go and fight or shut the fuck up. Stop tweeting from the sofa in your safe, comfortable home and get your ass to the frontline. Bring along as many western liberals as you can convince to join your cause."
This can't be emphasized enough. If you want the everyday Ukrainian people to continue suffering then you are one big shithead with a sadistic streak a mile long. They have suffered enough and they want peace. Western liberals salivating at the chance of destroying more of Ukraine just to get back at their favorite bogeyman, Putin, make me sick. Grow up and gain some compassion.
It would be closer for the 90% of Americans who believe Russia poses a strategic threat to the U.S. to walk to the moon than to believe what I'm saying right here right now:
Putin is the Bernie Sanders of Russia. That sounds crazy as hell but it's true.
Americans believe the western propaganda shoved down their throats 24/7/365/366.......
I've studied foreign policy and global affairs for more than three decades and I'm here to tell you that most of the non-NATO world views Putin as a humanitarian who quickly responds with food and aid as soon as disaster strikes their country......
Putin views himself as a globally-respected humanitarian and that is EXACTLY WHY Putin didn't simply carpet bomb Ukraine with Russia's advanced hi-tech bombers which could have leveled Ukraine overnight.
In fact, that's why the CIA was propagandizing through the legacy media immediately following the invasion that "Putin said this would end in about three days." Putin never did say this would end in three days or anything of the kind.
The three day claim was literally a CIA fabrication for media distribution; however the CIA and the Pentagon knew damn full well that Putin and the Russian military could have rolled up Ukraine like a newspaper within hours of invading Ukraine if Putin wanted to do so.
But Putin did not want to do so, precisely because Putin did not want to be seen as the world saw the U.S. carpet bombing civilians in Iraq - something that Putin criticized George W. Bush for doing.
And that is precisely why Putin sent his THIRD STRING ARMY to go to Kiev, park outside the outskirts of Kiev to put pressure on Zelensky and his gang to leave town.
Putin underestimated Zelensky's will to stay in Kiev, so Putin withdrew his third string army from Kiev, but the U.S. media reports it as if Ukraine defeated and stopped the Russian Army at Kiev, which was 100% false.
Putin decided to slowly advance and annex territory for Russia as the Russian military moved forward, setting up Russian government and assistance in those towns.
The truth is Putin enjoys about 90% support by voters but most Russians are upset with Putin for NOT ENDING THE WAR SOON AFTER INVADING. The Russian people and Russian military generals know that Russia could have wrapped this puppy up a long time ago.
MSNBC Lawrence O'Donnell falsely and brazenly reported that Ukrainians have killed over 900,000 Russians, while Russia had killed only 46,000 Ukrainians - which is ridiculously and patently absurd beyond belief.
Russia has been killing Ukrainians at about a ten to one ratio this entire time. Russia destroyed the original Ukrainian army within about two weeks - then destroyed about three more rag tag Ukrainian armies since then.
i think 'zelensky's will to stay in kiev' is somewhat of an overstatement. imo, the west convinced him by enacting the bucha-massacre to show they really meant business. the withdrawal from kiev was indeed a gesture of goodwill which western inspired butchers exploited to its full extent.
Exactly! No tolerance for Zelenskyy supporters or Ukraine war mongers. I like your suggestion to them -get over to the front line and fight if you want a war!
so tired of the "Russia's illegal invasion" horseshit - as if any invasion is "legal". Just look at the West's invasions of Iraq, Afghanistan, Cuba, Korea, Vietnam - the endless list - all illegal, as is Israel's invasion of Gaza and now the West Bank. People swallow the "Putin is evil" and "Iran axis of evil" crap because it saves them thinking, and leaves them cosy in their deluded bubble. No doubt when China is sufficiently provoked by the US fleet parading up and down their coastline, and the US threatens to build (more) nuclear armed bases adjacent to Taiwan, and China decides to pre-empt by moving troops into Taiwan, this will be branded 'illegal' as well.
This is one of those cases of Ukraine being a fatal friend of the west. It's done absolutely nothing for them and has decimated their population.
And I blame the west. The broke Minsk agreement, the CIA backed coup overthrowing Ukraine's democratically elected leader in 2014, the endless propaganda, the denial of the fascists calling the shots in the Ukraine, the stymied peace agreements...the list goes on.
How can people ignore this? Why on earth should Ukrainians keep getting themselves killed for the sake of the west?
It would do western leaders a lot of good to get over their colonialist thinking, and start looking at things in a more just and peaceful light. Like so many of the rest of us.
I blame them too. Without the constant ethnic-cleansing going on in the Donbass, without the rejection of any sort of negotiations, without the lack of implementation of the Minsk agreements, without the Ukrainian nationalist threat to invade the breakaway oblasts, all of which in my opinion, is on the West, none of this would have happened.
Diana van Eyk, people who have the behaviour you describe ARE IN DENIAL. They are in cognitive dissonace, they opt for "blindness at all cost" rather than be expelled from the herd. It is so coward it gives me a nausea feeling!
Some people also just need to educate themselves. They aren’t necessarily cowards, they are just believing the propaganda and haven’t gone deeper than the surface to know what’s really going on. Just tonight I helped a friend to understand the truth of the Ukraine conflict and that has changed her perspective and she’s doing her own research.
You're a hero for Truth!
its all about a massive financial collateral operation around the three seas project (3C), now failed, by which City of London capitals aimed to take over eastern Europe. These countries wealth were collateralized in advanced in order to cover the existing debt and be able to issue new one. This is the reason why the British are so desperately holding to Ukraine in order to make the stake holders believe the project is still viable. The Americans were brought in by bribery of the Biden mafia family and other Democrats, who were in charge to pay the military industrial complex with money from the Federal budget. All in all, a gigantic racket on the American tax payer, as usual I might say...
"Ukraine being a fatal friend of the west" it's the other way around: the west being a fatal 'friend' of Ukraine
This is a fantastic comment
Not a fan of Trump, but I give him major ups for taking a strong stand for a ceasefire against a culture that is committed to continue the killing. Trump is assailed by his political rivals for, among other things, professing to be only acting in favor of America, as if the liberals and conservatives have done anything in the people’s interest.
But the elites who scorn and fear Trump have looted the American worker and have skimmed billions of dollars from the poor and the weak around the globe.
If Trump does what he says he wants to do, Russia and China and India and the U.S. will all sign onto nuclear weapons reduction treaties, and integrate their economies to an unprecedented degree. The perpetual war may become endangered.
Trump has as a basic political tenet, “You do you, and I’ll do me,” and to the indoctrinated ears of American consumers that cones across as cold and uncaring, but as you noted nations that think they’re friends of America inevitably come to feel used and regretful. So the cold and uncaring is international relations sans the phony rhetoric, which dupes citizens and nations alike. So it’s ultimately kinder to be honest than chummy. If Ukraine has learned this painful lesson, hopefully its leaders won’t be fooled again.
You do realize/remember that trump terminated two nuclear arms treaties during his first term.
Has he halted every and all American arms shipments to Ukraine???
Withdrawn all the American advisors to Ukraine???
Isn’t he the one continuing to send two thousand pound bunker buster bombs and MOABS to Israel???
Initiated a trade war with Canada, Mexico, and China???
Threatening to annex Greenland, the Panama Canal, et al???
Dismantling the new deal, like the bastard, bitch, billionaire bankers have been begging for since before Raygun???
I’ve heard that there is some vague promise of a possibility that the u.s. military budget will be cut by fifty percent.
I’ll believe it when I see it.
So what again is it I’m supposed to give trump credit for???
Trying to take Ukraine’s mineral wealth after the u.s. couped the government, tried to set up NATO shop on Russia’s front door, and lined the arms manufacture’s pockets by shipping tens, of tens of billions of taxpayer dollars to antagonize the Russians???
The whole shit show in Russia/Ukraine is an American production from front to horse’s back(side).
Europe is/was just the U$A’s toadie in this whole horror show.
As for the genocide in Gaza, I’m not absolutely certain who is the tail, and who is the dog, but trump is all in on scratching Israel’s itch.
If trump ever does anything worthy of accolades, let me know about it.
Four years in and counting, and I haven’t seen anything but self enrichment from the orange oligarch.
The u.s. empire is unraveling in real time.
The question is, how much peripheral damage will the u.s. do around the globe in this process.
Let’s not forget the worldwide economic nightmare that the u.s. shared with the 2008 mortgage meltdown, and who suffered.
And, who didn’t.
The dolts, dunces, and dullards in “the states” are about to experience austerity on steroids, at the hands of their orange deity.
It would be wise to make a run for it now.
Problem is, no one knows what the blast radius is, and how far flung the fallout will be.
I’d love to be proved wrong in my assessment.
Time will tell if it’s going to be purgatory or hell.
Promises made, promises kept???
Didn’t dumb donald say he’d end this conflict in twenty four hours???
👏👏 Well said Mike Fish! This needs repeating for every cultish Trump sycophant out there (and unfortunately, there are quite a few)
I don’t disagree with any word in your comment. I do think that the dog is in Tel Aviv, and the masters occupy the Capital. I also think that simply talking to Putin is worthy of accolades. I know that it hasn’t yet delivered a cessation of the killing, but the groundwork has been laid. Just overtly thumbing his nose at the neocons is praiseworthy.
Let's wait and see whether any deal is actually made, first, what say?
Or will Zelenskii put on a suit and grovel, the european leaders abase themselves and promise statues, and once they have sufficiently humiliated themselves, so that the arms and cash resume?
Like ISIS put on suits in Syria and were welcomed.
It seems to me to come down to the glory of victory. As long as neither you nor your kids are doing the fighting. Horrible!
Agree on everything but that western colonialist thinking is never going to go away without "KO punch in the face".
Every word … but … the American people waving the damn Ukraine 🇺🇦 flag have no understanding nor willingness to accept the timetable of events leading up to this shit show.
A typical sheep behaviour seeking the flavour of the week, month, year.
The real question is why is Trump seemingly working to end war against Russia but to increase it against Palestine, Syria, Lebanon and potentially Iran?
The answer to your question is in your question itself: they need those resources for other wars.
Yes, thank you Caitlin. The US is a war economy and has been for a very long time. It needs wars for gargantuan profits. Not to mention raping and pillaging oil and resources at whatever the cost to human beings, animals, vegetation, the poisoning of the land and the wanton destruction of our Mother Earth.
"The report FromIron Mountain" is, I think obviously, a better explanation.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Report_from_Iron_Mountain
bc .... at one time had a first ed. copy.
Wow - I wasn't aware of that "report," which almost reads like science fiction and was alternately called a "hoax," "satire," "conspiracy theory," etc. but in fact was totally real! Thank you for this notation. It is surreal to read even the summary of the reasoning as if by rational human beings when the creators are actually clinically insane and life destroying. The deeper into this bottomless pit of power and domination we descend the scarier the sub human forces we're up against look. Now combined with AI, surveillance, drones and industrialized weapons of death. But so important that it's seen! I think of the beautiful African saying: "It takes a village to raise a chld," but in this case it takes an expansive worldwide "village" of seekers of truth and justice, each contributing some critically important piece of the jigsaw puzzle, to raise the consciousness level and motivation necessary to battle this beast. Here's just a small piece From Iron Mountain:
[As an alternative to the Rand Corporation's project summarizing the results of its two-and-a-half-year study and its recommendation to maintain a state of permanent war] the report (published 1967) "goes on to suggest some substitutes for the non-military functions of war, including medical research, health care for all citizens, improved education, housing, public transportation, poverty reduction, and so forth, but ultimately notes that these do not answer the need for an EXTERNAL threat to maintain social stability." One writer was John Galbraith, though he later disavowed his involvement, but it was on tape. The report suggests "some alternative enemy could be manufactured, such as hostile space aliens or the threat of environmental pollution, which, the authors say, is not yet dire enough yet but could be "increased selectively for this purpose."[13][we could add migrants/refugees/LGBTQI/skin color, etc.] The report ultimately concludes "that the war system cannot responsibly be allowed to disappear." This gives a clue as to the fake "Peace" Trump hammers on about (that so many people believe!). But it's all strategic power games and profit. He has no clue what "peace" even is. It's not in his DNA.
Anyway, thank you for this, Bernard. It not only sheds new light upon the twisted super wealthy self serving entrenched masters of war and their goals (the next war), but also expands the time frame, and its application to all the many countries including the Palestinians, Sudan, Iraq, Afghanistant, Ukraine, Iran, Venezuela etc. etc. who have already or are slated to become victims of this wealthy western colonial insatiable Hydra.
Now that is a good question, Roslyn.
Part one…….Russia (and Ukraine, obviously) have something that the USA needs and more importantly, tucked away in this deal are commercial opportunities for Jared Kushner, Trump's Jewish son-in-law along with the Gaza tourist activity plans proceeding at full speed ahead. Opportunities galore!
Those minerals are important, very important, in the ground in Ukraine in big quantities. Some also available in places like China. Russia now has control of a large section of Ukraine since the war began. Hence Trump’s interest in the end of the war. (Watch out NATO puppets….he is serious).
Ukraine has deposits of 22 of the 34 minerals identified by the European Union as critical, according to Ukrainian data. They include industrial and construction materials, ferroalloy, precious and non-ferrous metals, and some rare earth elements.
According to Ukraine's Institute of Geology, the country possesses rare earths such as lanthanum and cerium, used in TVs and lighting; neodymium, used in wind turbines and EV batteries; and erbium and yttrium, whose applications range from nuclear power to lasers. EU-funded research also indicates that Ukraine has scandium reserves. Detailed data is classified. Exciting stuff.
Part two…….Just one guess…..Miriam Adelson, Elon Musk, the real President and Vice President of the USA…….based on revenues outlayed for the Trump victory.
Adelson is one of the reasons that Israel has turned into a hated ethnic cleanser, her funding having been available non-stop for years with her late husband creating the tradition for Israeli funding well before that. US gamblers in Los Vegas have made it all possible.
She is an evil influence and a large contributor to everything bad that is happening in Palestine.
She is worthy of an un-American investigation, all by herself, a cunning Israeli first citizen using the USA as a fund raiser, every day of every week.
China has the highest reserves of rare earths, followed by Brazil, India, Australia, Russia, Vietnam, US and number 8 is Greenland. Ukraine does not even make the list and the areas with most of the rare earths are now held by Russia.
And since stabilising Ukraine enough to mine anything will take years, it all sounds like a scam since the US could buy what it needs certainly from India, Australia and Denmark which Governs Greenland and probably Vietnam and Brazil while mining its own reserves?????
https://investingnews.com/daily/resource-investing/critical-metals-investing/rare-earth-investing/rare-earth-reserves-country/
The Gaza plan will never happen. Hamas is undefeated and so is Hezbollah. You have to control an area to develop it. Clearing up will take decades. It is also bullshit like the Ukrainian rare earth deal.
Thank you Roslyn Ross for the much needed factual information. Too many people seem to be misled by the "rare earth metals" narrative on Ukraine. Where wwere all this "rare earth metals in Ukraine" before Feb 2022? Why did this particular narrative become important just recently? Were people in the appropriate industries simply ignorant upto now of the presence of these resources? Or is this just one more narrative to add confusion/distract from the core issues at hand? These are the kind of critical thinking questions that are needed (instead of blindly believing narratives that confirm people's biases).
And if anyone thinks that Miriam is some kind of defender of the Jewish People, they should note that she sat right up front and watched Elon give Nazi salutes without objecting.
She knows well on what side her bread is buttered. One salute for 100 million plus dollars ?
A small price to pay.
Years ago, Israel gave funding to the Azov battalion. They don't mind actual antisemitism, just the criticism-of-Israel kind. Natanyahu once actually said that Hitler was pushed into the Holocaust by Palestinians.
Yes! And Zionists everywhere continue to claim that Israel was founded, and must exist, to save Jews from the Holocaust, like we don’t know history and can’t do math (apparently a lot of people, like the US Congress, don’t and can’t). The Balfour Declaration was 1917, after 40 years of preparation.
I think it's ant-arabism. More accepted than anti-jew,
Off the mark by a long way.
The global split is along the whites versus the rest. Somehow the Russians are considered an undesirable race and lumped in with the global south.
The whites believe they are superior and should own the globe.
I think your comment is off the mark, but not by a long way. Generally, it does seem to be "white (and English speakers) versus the rest", but the underlying dynamic now is the global oligarchs versus the rest. China's ascendance is the big issue for the empire minders on both sides of the Atlantic. It's a sign of Musk's stupidity that he's decimating funding for science and scientists in the US, guaranteeing China's win. Too bad China's empire minders aren't wise enough to see that advancing faster on this path toward 5G, AI, automated everything and universal surveillance is a loss for living things including humans. Where Russia fits in all this is that they have a vast territory and a lot of reserves, so if they ally with China, that speeds the collapse of the US imperial superiority. Trump is at least smart enough to make friends with Russia rather than attacking it.
No Caitlin,
the people in charge do not 'want' war, any more than the Mafia Dons wanted to kill people. War and killing is a by-product of Control, control is to enrich yourself at the expense of others.
The purpose of a mighty military is to scare those who want to retain their resources and wealth into capitulating without fighting.
"to fight and conquer in all your battles is not supreme excellence; supreme excellence consists in breaking the enemy's resistance without fighting."
Sun Tzu
US representatives told the Taliban, 'either you accept our offer of a carpet of gold, or we bury you under a carpet of bombs',''
Brisard said in an interview in Paris.
If people do not bend to your will and hand over their wealth, then only is war and murder necessary.
-
Wealth can only be created by Mining, Manufacture and Agriculture. Laundry, insurance, government cannot create wealth it just redistributes it. When your country does not have an MMA industry or if your industry is less efficient than other countries, you become poorer and remain poor. America lost its' industries, Europe is losing its' industries, they know this, they understand this and it is driving them insane.
The Western hegemony, with the USA as its leader, is finished. Dead, buried, but they have no idea how to move forward. Trump is trying to buy/bully his way into restoring MMA ability but without the social, educational and physical resources he can (maybe) see that it is impossible.
WWIII is likely as the West will get more and more desperate as the downward spiral continues. The UK thinks that it will fight Russia, total insanity. At least the US in the form of Trump, Vance and Hegseth knows that they cannot win any physical wars, but whether they will be forced (by the insane, insatiable Israelis) into a middle east war against Iran and the Arab world supported by Russia and China is likely.
Damascus has fallen, and Baba Yaga has spoken.
Actually, the US economic system depends very much on the Military-Industrial complex as both a producer of goods and a consumer of goods. This is permissible in the market economy because bombs and guns made by the MIC do not compete with products made for public consumption, while the employees of the MIC do spend their incomes on those ordinary products. Meanwhile, the products of the MIC can be 'consumed' either by destroying them in our own adventures or selling them to other countries to cause destruction there. Or, if they sit around long enough, that's an excuse to make new weapons to replace them.
If the military budget were cut by 50% tomorrow (and I'd love to see it cut entirely), the economic impact would be devastating and the US would be in a major depression. The US has locked itself into an economy of destruction and death.
In so far as the US MIC exports and "sells" goods, then it is a manufacturer.
However the vast majority of 'money' that the MIC spends (inputs and wages) is provided by taxes on citizens. 'Goods' given to other countries are not products but throwaway production. Any successful society can and does produce far more than it needs, hence Pyramids, colosseums, foreign aid and huge excess shows of wealth, (sports arenas and the whole 'entertainment' industry).
You are right, the MIC directly and indirectly probably accounts for some 15% - 25% of US GDP, if you then took out the defence department and actual military another 5% -10% is gone. So I estimate from 20% to 35% is wasted on defence.
I say wasted because no other country in the world has or will attack or invade the US unless they are attacked first.
This crap is not new ;
"Give me the money that has been spent in war, and I will purchase every foot of land upon the globe. I will clothe every man, woman, and child in an attire that kings and queens would be proud of; I will build a school-house upon every valley over the whole habitable earth; I will supply that school house with a competent teacher; I will build an academy in every town, and endow it; a college in every state, and fill it with able Professors; I will crown every hill with a church consecrated to the promulgation of the gospel of peace; I will support in its pulpit an able teacher of righteousness, so that on every Sabbath morning the chime on one hill should answer to the chime on another, around the earth's broad circumference; and the voice of prayer and the song of praise should ascend like a universal holocaust to heaven. "~Charles Sumner, c.1840
If only it were possible to produce goods and spend money on projects that do not generate a negative ROI.
Someone else here quoted Senator Charles Sumner on the subject.
Since it would take years to stabilise Ukraine enough to extract resources and since Russia now controls much of the rare earth resources, it would be a very long time before that could be done. Something about it all does not make sense, unless Trump expects to fight a war against Iran and therefore needs to work toward that end instead of arming Ukraine. Making peace with Russia, might, possibly, maybe, mean that any war with Iran would leave the Russians and Chinese out of it.
By "resources" I meant the military resources they've been sending Ukraine.
Sorry, misunderstood. Yes, agree.
How does Russia control these resources? Are they located only in the east? The usual pattern with imperialism is conquest followed by rape and plunder of “natural resources”. I would anticipate a similar approach in Ukraine.
FAKE/CORRUPT: the formula for dissecting US politics. — The skin is FAKE theater, same stupid twisted rhetorical tricks used by one party against the other, then exactly mirrored when power shifts the other way. Completely FAKE utter useless bullshit (which the NY Times daily displays).
Nothing evolves.
Dissect more deeply and you reach the stinking moribund guts, crawling with the parasitic proletarian-tissue-eating worms of Zionist and corporate money—often the same thing.
Society devolves.
The importance of pivoting to China for the US Empire.
Mistakes were made - instead of separating Russia and China, the Ukraine war brought them closer together. So now, maybe they're trying to undo that mistake (too late IMHO) while simultaneously releasing resources for other arenas?
Based on Trump's decisions to send $18 billion of weapons (so far in his first 5 weeks) to Israel (including 35,000+ 2,000 pound bombs [https://www.dsca.mil/press-media/major-arms-sales/israel-munitions-and-munitions-support]), I suspect the focus will be on Iran (maybe due to their closeness in Uranium enrichment?) before they pivot to China.
Yes, agree. I heard the US was also sending one tonne bombs which one would guess the Israelis would want to use on Iran. We can only hope that those who say Iran can defend itself and can hit Israel hard are right.
I don't think Iran can defend itself adequately against Israel (and when I say Israel I mean Israel AND the US by default). IMHO, Iran might need some help from Russia, China, possibly others.
The US would be risking a potentially nuclear escalation if it goes after Iran. The US Foreign Policy is so screwed up (and thoroughly soaked in failure) that it can't seem to do ANYTHING right - mistakes in Ukraine (leading to European destabilization), and now trying to paint its targets on Iran (which will lead to MORE than just middle-east destabilization).
When can the planet be rid of the most dangerous threat (US, Israel) to it?
I meant defend itself from initial strikes as it did before. Yes, agree that an Israel/US war would require support for Iran from allies. At the same time the US did not really win in Iraq and Iran is far different to Iraq with a highly developed military, 90 million people, and the ability to cut off oil supplies and destroy world economies very quickly.
And yes, it says a lot that polls in recent years globally have most people identifying the United States of Yamerica as the greatest threat to world peace, with Israel tied to its shoelaces.
>>"I meant defend itself from initial strikes as it did before."
Sure, Iran can defend itself from the initial strikes. But when it comes to all-out-war against Israel (which by default includes the US), Iran has extremely low probabilities of coming out on top (on its own).
IMHO, the oil shocks that would ensue from any grand-scale war in the ME should give the US pause for thought (as it could very well backfire on the US in unpredictable ways). But again, an empire on the decline (like the US) ramps up the risks during its downward trajectory phase...
Yes agree, but, again, if Iran has the capability some military experts say it has and it wipes out Tel Aviv, ports, airports and a heap of military sites, then Israel is crippled. Remaining Israelis would leave in droves. And as a citizen army, who is then fighting? Hezbollah, Hamas, Houthis, the Syrian rebels and the Turks would take advantage of that. Possibly also the Egyptians although probably not the Jordanians but who knows?
And even if the Americans weigh in and start dropping bombs on Iran, the reality is that bombs do not win a war, as the Israelis have discovered even if they have not learned.
The only way to truly win is boots on the ground. Would the Americans do a land invasion of Iran? I don't think so. Would Americans support it? Highly unlikely, particularly if Iran takes out a few thousand Americans on a couple of ships.
Then again, who can say what the American public would do if thousands of American sailors are suddenly wiped out?
These are very dangerous times.
Easy. Ukraine = global nuclear holocaust. Palestine - well, Trump Gaza.
Attacking Iran also equals global nuclear holocaust and economic meltdown globally but Trump seems to be in for that.
"Attacking Iran also equals global nuclear holocaust" - what makes you sure of that?
Nothing is for certain, but even leaving aside any potential Russian actions, as soon as Israel attacks Iran, Iran is simply going to flatten every military building, port, airfield, and govt buildings with a barrage of missiles the world has never seen before. Israel will almost certainly respond with a nuke - as they likely tried last year but the Russians and Americans worked together to prevent.
NK has stated that Iran is under NK's nuclear umbrella, and that cool dude in Pyongyang is crazy enough to mean it. Plus, Pakistan.
Once the nukes start flying, every automatic launch mechanism in the US and Russia is going to trigger. It's built in.
The lessons of the film 'Wargames' were ignored.
That first statement of yours sounds rather bold. How are you sure of that? Where do you get the knowledge of Iran's capacity to "flatten every military building, port, airfield, and govt buildings with a barrage of missiles the world has never seen before"?
They've been building and stockpiling missiles and drones for 20 years. 20 YEARS. The only used their older drones and and relatively older missiles in the recent attacks. They have stockpiles all over the country - and it's a big, powerful, developed country. I've been there. It is SERIOUSLY impressive.
And I've been to Israel too. It's small. Very small. Every location is mapped. Locked in to targetting systems.
Iran can fire wave after wave, all AD would be overwhelmed in the first attack - but they wouldn't stop coming.
That settler colony would not survive. The only reason Iran would take a break is to let the rats fly out on their second passports.
I am not sure of anything and did not mean to imply that I was. I should have said, Attacking Iran may also equal global nuclear holocaust.
I suspect that Iran has nuclear weapons. Why would they not? The facts are clear, with nuclear weapons like North Korea you do not get attacked. Without them like Iraq and others, you do.
I suspect the Americans also suspect Iran has nuclear weapons and they think they know where, hence the one tonne bombs being delivered to Shitrael.
Now, we all know if you blow up nuclear weapons it causes a lot of harm but the Americans only care that the harm does not involve bombs dropped on the most superior of humans on the planet, Americans, and the second most superior, Israelis. In other words, they have not thought it through. But they never do.
And because Iran is allied with Russia and China who do have nuclear capacity, it would not take much of a stretch for things to escalate, because, in that way of war and madness, the Americans might think if they can draw China into what they see as their destruction of Iran, they can take out China as well and kill two birds with one stone.
Let's assume Iran has nukes and the US knows it. Why would they attack it? How is Iran preventing US/Israel to wreak havoc in Palestine?
For the same reason they attacked Iraq, because Israel wants to be the dominant power in the Middle East and it would appear the Americans want the same thing.
Israel thinks it can take Syria, Lebanon and Palestine but mostly it wants Iran destroyed so it can play top dog in the region or it thinks it can. Quite what it thinks Turkey represents is the question but the Israelis are never rational.
He's not interested in peace, just in making business on the cost of the Ucranians, charing the loot with russia.
Hear, hear, Roslyn!
Thank you for asking the question that’s been on my mind these days!
They’re pivoting toward Asia. According to some intellectuals, including professor John Mearsheimer, the US needs to address a host of problems in the Middle East and try to contain China. Basically, they’re “pivoting” away from Europe and focusing on China. As I understand it, we’re going into another Cold War. It’s going to get ugly.
Westerners are brainwashed in hatred of the Russians. It's not that they love Ukrainians, but they truly biologically hate anything to do with Russia. It's your typical European ethno-supremacist mindset that gave us, for centuries, colonialism, world wars, and genocide.
As I said elsewhere, Trump is probably the worst choice to be negotiating peace for Ukraine, but it seems pretty obvious that nobody else was going to do it.
Yep, but at least he negotiates. An absurdly low bar to be sure, and terrifying that no one else would cross it.
Trump is not negotiating peace, he is doing a 'deal'.
A deal to make him and his billionigarchs richer. If it makes the American people a little better off that is fine, but his only interest is in the wealthy. They put him in power and it is payback time.
He doesn't give a damn about Ukrainian lives, Russian lives, Palestinian lives or any other lives. Hence Gaza.
He will happily impoverish and starve 8 billion people if it makes his friends happy, and the only way to make his fiends happy is to make them richer.
Doesn't matter who negotiates peace with Russia. Russia has won and they are much smarter than the USA.
Don't give Trump credit for anything because he has done absolutely nothing and has ZERO per cent negotiation power. Trump and the U.S. have absolutely no leverage or power or control over Putin and the Russian military metriculating westward. Putin has no reason to stop until he consumes Ukraine precisely because he knows if he doesn't finish taking Ukraine, the west will be right back up Russia's ass again with nuclear missile bases.
Democratic Party politicians are LYING THEIR ASSES OFF about Russia losing, Ukraine winning.
If your news source is limited to legacy media all your life there's not much that anyone can say to reverse a lifetime of cradle-to-grave anti-Russia, anti-China, anti-Iranian, anti-Muslim hasbara propaganda.
90% of Americans believe that Russia poses a strategic threat to the United States because the CIA has been promoting anti-Russia, lies and propaganda the same way the CIA did with Iraq and Afghanistan, only more so.
Americans have little to no idea that that in 2004 when Bush-era Zionist neocons in the D.C. thinktank Project for a New American Century wrote the Iraq War plan, they also wrote the U.S. plan to arm Ukrainian Nazis to overthrow the democratically-elected government of Ukraine.
After the armed insurrection Ukrainian Nazi leader terrorist Petro Porshenko took office and the first thing he and his Ukrainian Nazi thugs did was start bombing Russian-Ukrainian civilians in the Donbass region, killing thousands of men, women and children. Ukrainians are still bombing the Donbass region of Ukraine (now Russia)
Putin warned the West and the U.S. for twenty fucking years if the U.S. and NATO didn't stop trying to put a NATO missile base less than a thousand miles from Russia, Putin may take action.
Circa 2014 the U.S. placed a missile base in Romania and armed the Ukrainian Nazis who overthrew the democratically-elected government of Ukraine, which caused Putin to invade 20% of Georgia.
The last time another country put a missile base less than a thousand miles from Washington D.C., our U.S. President threatened the old Soviet Union with total nuclear annihilation if Kruschev didn't remove the Soviet missiles from Cuba.
What most Americans don't know is, Kruschev told President Kennedy that when you remove your nuclear missile base from Turkey pointed at Moscow, then we will remove our nuclear missiles from Cuba.
Kennedy quietly removed the U.S. missile base from Turkey and declared victory over Kruschev.
History is a helluva drug.
The CIA won't stop promoting war with Russia, China and Iran to create public support for more increased U.S. defense spending and global bullying.
https://progressives.substack.com
What a lot of Americans believe is Ukraine has the “right “ to join NATO if it wants to and Russia doesn’t have the right to say no you can’t. Rehashing the history of the Cuban missile crisis makes no dent their beliefs. The mental leap is too much for them to understand Russia has legitimate security concerns that should be taken seriously.
It's called "American exceptionalism" - hence the limited perspectives of Americans.
"Americans exceptionally narrow-minded and bigoted" actually.
Masterful, Caitlin! "Liberal" interventionism and the constant demonization of all things Russian have been primary reasons (among many, many others) that I have broken from the Democratic Party after a half century of support. From the perspective of 76 years, I must say that I have never seen this level of utter stupidity and recklessness coming from ostensibly rational and "well-educated" people who say they want peace but never do a damned thing to obtain it. The USA is a blight on the planet. We are lost. I'm sure there is a place for Maddow, et. al. on the front line in Ukraine. If I had the choice of allies, I'd pick Russia and Iran over Ukraine and Israel in a heartbeat.
Yes, let's send Rachel Madcow to the front lines.... Let her go all crazy "Russia-gating" on them. (And then one last bomb can shut her blathering up for good.)
Amen, sister. Amen. And thank you.
While the Oval Office tag-team beat-down of Zelensky was vulgar, crude, and ugly, Ukrainians in the future may be grateful that the puppet strings of its US masters were cut. By the puppet masters who were no longer interested in the Ukraine conflict. But cut nonetheless. To be cut off from further US military funding is the best thing Ukraine can hope for.
Russia does not seem to bear great umbrage against the nation of Ukraine; if it did, the damage to ordinary Ukrainians would be much greater, just as the damage the US inflicted against ordinary North Koreans in the Korean conflict. When the US carpet-bombed Korea relentlessly, although hardly anyone knows about it.
The sooner this war ends, the sooner Ukraine can begin to mend. It will be a smaller Ukraine with a smaller population. But I think Russia will not penalize the ordinary Ukrainians for the sins of their Banderista overlords. I think Russia will cultivate Ukraine to be a good neighbor and not an adversary. Because that is not only the geopolitically intelligent thing to do, it is also the humane and generous thing to do.
Watch the full length video, not just the short 10mins. There was no "tag-team beat-down of Zelensky [that] was vulgar, crude, and ugly", Zelensky was an offensive, petulant child who deserved considerably worse than what he got.
I wouldn't have been half as diplomatic to the little shit.
Caitlin always zeroes in on the truth.
Whatever nefarious motives Trump and his oligarchs have in stage-managing that spectacle in the Oval Office, one cannot feel sorry for Zelenskyy. Believing that the world's powerful are behind him, supporting him, he strutted the world stage like there's no tomorrow, turning his people into cannon fodder.
Now he is even called to pay back the bombs and right off his country's resources. A good cautionary tale for any other country willing to be a proxy for the empire.
Now without prolonging the agony he should talk peace. Not get seduced by the European powers and the Western media and so called progressives treating him like a hero for standing up to the emperor. And weak leaders like Kier Starmer trying to seize the opportunity to act strong.They are even assembling a coalition of the willing! to support Ukrainian "democracy".
All this time they were cheering a genocide by their friendly apartheid state.
Russia always was provoked. And it was fighting alone with the US and West arraigned against it. Putin is universally reviled and the bombs and cash kept rolling in to Ukraine. It was always a cynical war to diminish Russia and isolate China. They do not seem to have achieved either.
Let the wise heads in Russia prevail and work towards peace, all the time well aware of Trump's real motives and European machinations.
bUt rUsSiA MuStN'T wIn Or ThEy'lL InVaDe EuRoPe NeXt BeCaUsE pUtIn iS aN EvIl DiCtAtOr WhO WaNtS To rEcReAtE tHe SovIeT UnIoN, CaItLiN!!! :'''''(
tHe tV aNd CoRpOrAtE mEdIa sAiD So tOo!!!!!
HaHa! Man, that must have been painful to type out...
It took a while. ;)
"if you want to know just how close we came to nuclear annihilation during the Cuban Missile Crisis, look up the name Vasili Arkhipov" - and read https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JFK_and_the_Unspeakable for a detailed background.
" If you want this horrific war to continue, either go and fight or shut the fuck up. Stop tweeting from the sofa in your safe, comfortable home and get your ass to the frontline. Bring along as many western liberals as you can convince to join your cause."
This can't be emphasized enough. If you want the everyday Ukrainian people to continue suffering then you are one big shithead with a sadistic streak a mile long. They have suffered enough and they want peace. Western liberals salivating at the chance of destroying more of Ukraine just to get back at their favorite bogeyman, Putin, make me sick. Grow up and gain some compassion.
It would be closer for the 90% of Americans who believe Russia poses a strategic threat to the U.S. to walk to the moon than to believe what I'm saying right here right now:
Putin is the Bernie Sanders of Russia. That sounds crazy as hell but it's true.
Americans believe the western propaganda shoved down their throats 24/7/365/366.......
I've studied foreign policy and global affairs for more than three decades and I'm here to tell you that most of the non-NATO world views Putin as a humanitarian who quickly responds with food and aid as soon as disaster strikes their country......
Putin views himself as a globally-respected humanitarian and that is EXACTLY WHY Putin didn't simply carpet bomb Ukraine with Russia's advanced hi-tech bombers which could have leveled Ukraine overnight.
In fact, that's why the CIA was propagandizing through the legacy media immediately following the invasion that "Putin said this would end in about three days." Putin never did say this would end in three days or anything of the kind.
The three day claim was literally a CIA fabrication for media distribution; however the CIA and the Pentagon knew damn full well that Putin and the Russian military could have rolled up Ukraine like a newspaper within hours of invading Ukraine if Putin wanted to do so.
But Putin did not want to do so, precisely because Putin did not want to be seen as the world saw the U.S. carpet bombing civilians in Iraq - something that Putin criticized George W. Bush for doing.
And that is precisely why Putin sent his THIRD STRING ARMY to go to Kiev, park outside the outskirts of Kiev to put pressure on Zelensky and his gang to leave town.
Putin underestimated Zelensky's will to stay in Kiev, so Putin withdrew his third string army from Kiev, but the U.S. media reports it as if Ukraine defeated and stopped the Russian Army at Kiev, which was 100% false.
Putin decided to slowly advance and annex territory for Russia as the Russian military moved forward, setting up Russian government and assistance in those towns.
The truth is Putin enjoys about 90% support by voters but most Russians are upset with Putin for NOT ENDING THE WAR SOON AFTER INVADING. The Russian people and Russian military generals know that Russia could have wrapped this puppy up a long time ago.
MSNBC Lawrence O'Donnell falsely and brazenly reported that Ukrainians have killed over 900,000 Russians, while Russia had killed only 46,000 Ukrainians - which is ridiculously and patently absurd beyond belief.
Russia has been killing Ukrainians at about a ten to one ratio this entire time. Russia destroyed the original Ukrainian army within about two weeks - then destroyed about three more rag tag Ukrainian armies since then.
i think 'zelensky's will to stay in kiev' is somewhat of an overstatement. imo, the west convinced him by enacting the bucha-massacre to show they really meant business. the withdrawal from kiev was indeed a gesture of goodwill which western inspired butchers exploited to its full extent.
Exactly! No tolerance for Zelenskyy supporters or Ukraine war mongers. I like your suggestion to them -get over to the front line and fight if you want a war!
so tired of the "Russia's illegal invasion" horseshit - as if any invasion is "legal". Just look at the West's invasions of Iraq, Afghanistan, Cuba, Korea, Vietnam - the endless list - all illegal, as is Israel's invasion of Gaza and now the West Bank. People swallow the "Putin is evil" and "Iran axis of evil" crap because it saves them thinking, and leaves them cosy in their deluded bubble. No doubt when China is sufficiently provoked by the US fleet parading up and down their coastline, and the US threatens to build (more) nuclear armed bases adjacent to Taiwan, and China decides to pre-empt by moving troops into Taiwan, this will be branded 'illegal' as well.