Even worse, it seems like a safe bet that Washington is bluffing about “defending every inch of NATO territory.” We’re going to see tens of thousands of US soldiers hit the ground to defend Estonia? Really?
The Russian army has embarrassed itself in Ukraine from what we can see, but we’re not the intended audience. There’s no limit to how much economic pain the average Russian can take, so don’t look for any regime toppling coming from the public. China will buy up Russia on the cheap, and have 2 attack dogs in North Korea and Russia. Europe will become totalitarian and militarized in response. In short, liberal democracy will die, and China will rule the world. We have only ourselves to blame, who shrugged our shoulders about losing our privacy to a surveillance apparatus, and didn’t care where our consumer goods came from as long as they were cheap.
Whenever POTUS says something about “not wanting to confront Russia”, Russians escalate - this time by launching rockets 10 miles from the Polish border.
The attack on Yavoriv is a direct consequence of Biden’s statements. Just stop talking and projecting weakness.
Will see what happens next, it seems on Monday the Administration will beg the Chinese to get involved.
China will do what’s in their long term interest to do, I don’t see the US having a lot to offer them. I’m pretty sure Putin is going to be the Saruman to Xi’s Sauron for many years to come. The US seems hopelessly divided these days internally. I used to think US domestic politics didn’t matter much, as long as the 3-headed beast of Financial sector/Military Industrial Complex/Oil & Gas was running the show anyway. Guess I was wrong about that.
Empires rise and fall, nothing new under the sun. The tech evolves, but human nature never changes. They always want their empires don’t they. The Ottoman Empire is back, the Soviets are back, China will be the worlds dominant economic power (well it already is, really). Even the Germans with their European Union is trying to build an empire, though failing miserably. Human rights and freedoms are a mirage, they disappear as soon as the chips are down. Temporary privileges are all they ever were, because we don’t really believe in them. George Carlin had all this shit nailed decades ago, you can just watch his specials to see the prophet in action. You watch over the next few years, as they take away what precious little remains of your privacy, free speech, financial freedom and bodily autonomy. It will accelerate like crazy now that Putin pulled the trigger. It’s ON!
WAR IS PEACE
FREEDOM IS SLAVERY
IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH
It’s better for the plebs not to have too much information available to them, it leads to wrongthink. Ignorance is strength. It’s better for everyone if the experts in our hallowed institutions make decisions for us. It’s a dangerous world out there.
I stumbled upon this site a few months back, it’s full of anti-US and anti-Israel stuff. The editor in chief Ron Unz has a running theory that covid was a bio weapon launched by “rogue elements” in the US government against the Chinese economy. You can check it out here:
Is this guy Unz a known entity in the states, or have I stumbled on something so fringe that you guys had no idea he existed?
Yeah but they do tend to get carried away, don’t they? I dunno, maybe they shouldn’t have any army.
You give a kraut a hammer and off they go looking for nails.
You don’t think Putin was already counting on NATO not getting involved directly so long as he stayed out of NATO countries? That seems to have always been part of putins calculus, no?
To me, it sounds like the Biden admin is trying to reassure the large portion of the USA that doesn’t want a war, that the USA won’t get directly involved unless Russia attacks NATO. He doesn’t want more panic and the associated economic hit on the home front.
That Kamil Galeev account on twitter is on fire right now… I’d be more enthusiastic about his line of reasoning if my country wasn’t quite so close to the potential nuclear fallout.
Yes, but it’s having the opposite effect in Russia. That is absolutely the worst message you can send to Russia with their concept of pozor, preserving face. These statements by Biden sound reassuring to Russia, because they might not be winning on the battlefield but are obviously doing something right otherwise a sitting US President wouldn’t humiliate himself so publicly.
I don’t think we have that spirit in us anymore. I don’t see men who think that green energy is the most important thing in the world go out and slay their neighbor country’s armies again and yearn for world domination.
I think the German work ethic and virtues would make a great army but we are a few generations of strong men removed.
Speak out strongly and carve out a way for Putin to maneuver without losing face is the best option.
We should have gotten the Ukrainians fighter jets directly in the beginning. Even better, they should have bought some while being independent.
Putin won’t stop with Ukraine, I realize that now. Let him win this and he’ll just come better prepared for the next land grab in a few years time, with an economy that’s immune to western sanctions. How about a complete trade blockade with Russia and any country that trades with Russia? Anyone up for that? Not the fucking EU,that’s for sure. lol
Ron Unz is multimillionaire and physicist who used to work on Wall Street. He publishes a variety of authors from various backgrounds. What’s peculiar about Unz is that he is Jewish but publishes articles by white nationalists, historical revisionists, and so on. He’s pretty much a hard liner on freedom of speech.
If I recall correctly he created the software Wall Street Analytics.
No. US messaging was so horrendous it couldn’t have possibly been worse.
First, they published correct intel about the Russian invasion (that’s the good part) while at the same time gave a never-ending torrent of doom-and-gloom predictions how Kyiv will be taken in 72 hours and the country split in two by a giant pincer movement by Russian armor. An encouraging message to Russia “please invade, we are perfectly aware that you’ll take over the country and we won’t do anything” and that US already accepted a regime change in Ukraine.
Then, they dithered about weapons shipments in the days/weeks before the invasion, tacitly assuming that all that will be sent will fall into Russian hands unused - echoes of Kabul.
Followed by the embassy evacuation, which was a catastrophic PR move. Ok, I get it - you don’t want a repeat of Benghazi or Beirut but US is technically a non-belligerent in this war between state actors, not Libyan militia or the Taliban. They could have kept a skeleton crew (like the French) and a nominally open Embassy instead of burning papers and smashing equipment echoing the Kabul flight. This was another giant advertisement board towards Russia to proceed and that Kyiv will be easily captured.
And it only gets worse - in the first 24 hours US was already offering evacuation from Kyiv to set up a government-in-exile which he pointedly refused. Can it get any more defeatist?
Nobody is asking the US to get involved on the ground, but for God’s sake preserve some semblance of strategic ambiguity without repeatedly and earnesly telegraphing what you won’t do so that both Russia and China can plan accordingly.
Edit: I just saw that Kamil Galeev elaborated this is detail with more insight:
