The U.S. makes plain its plan is not just to win its proxy war in Ukraine, but to continue flooding the country with weapons systems and ammunition, long enough to “weaken” Russia, reports Joe Lauria.
Austin and Blinken meeting Zelensky in Kiev on Monday. (State Dept.)
By Joe Lauria
Special to Consortium News
The United States on Monday gave away a bit more of its ultimate goals in Ukraine by saying for the first time that it aims to “weaken” Russia’s military capabilities as a result of the war.
“We want to see Russia weakened to the degree it cannot do the kind things that it has done in invading Ukraine,” U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin told a press conference in Poland after returning from an unannounced visit to Ukraine. “It has already lost a lot of military capability and a lot of its troops, quite frankly, and we want to see them not have the capability to very quickly reproduce that capability.”
Austin was accompanied on the trip to Ukraine by U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken. “When it comes to Russia’s war aims, Russia is failing. Ukraine is succeeding,” Blinken told the press conference. “Russia has sought as its principal aim to totally subjugate Ukraine, to take away its sovereignty, to take away its independence. That has failed.”
Blinken then hinted that the U.S. goal is to remove Russian President Vladimir Putin from power. He said:
“The strategy that we’ve put in place — massive support for Ukraine, massive pressure against Russia, solidarity with more than 30 countries engaged in these efforts — is having real results. The bottom line is this: We don’t know how the rest of this war will unfold, but we do know that a sovereign independent Ukraine will be around a lot longer than Vladimir Putin is on the scene.”
What Russia Says
Russia says its aim was never to take control of Ukraine but to defend Russian-speakers in the eastern Donbass region who have fought an 8-year civil war of independence against Ukraine after it resisted the U.S.-backed unconstitutional change of government in 2014.
Moscow says it “demilitarizing” Ukraine and “de-nazifying” it of neo-fascist groups that took part in the overthrow of the elected government in 2014, and in the Donbass war. The West has been saying that Ukraine is winning the war since it began at the end of February. It claims that the Ukrainian forces defeated a Russian attempt to takeover Kiev.
But Russia says it never had any intention of taking the capital and had only parked its forces outside the city as a diversion to pin down Ukrainian forces while Russia fought to gain control of Mariopuol in the south. Russia says it withdraw its troops from near Kiev to join the battle for Donbass.
Bogging Down Russia
“What’s at stake here is much greater than Ukraine.”
Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, talks to CNN's @JimSciutto about Russia's invasion into Ukraine and the US' role in the conflict. pic.twitter.com/d0w0g7bCuG
— CNN (@CNN) April 26, 2022
Austin did not spell out how the U.S. would achieve the goal of “weakening” Russia’s “capability to very quickly reproduce that [military] capability” without a direct military confrontation with Russia. The Pentagon has been putting the brakes on rhetoric in the U.S. media and among some lawmakers about NATO directly intervening in the war, which could lead to a U.S.-Russia conflict that could escalate to the use of nuclear weapons. Western sanctions could inhibit Russia’s military industry as it appeared to depend on Western technology imports.
The U.S. plan seems to be to continue flooding Ukraine with weapons systems and ammunition, as well as foreign fighters, to prolong the war long enough to bleed Russia, giving it its “Vietnam” to bring down Putin.
Austin’s remarks are the clearest indication of U.S. goals for Russia via a proxy war in Ukraine since President Joe Biden said in Poland on March 26, “For God’s sake, this man cannot remain in power,” referring to Putin. Biden also said on two occasions that the reason for the economic sanctions on Russia was never to prevent an invasion but to get the Russian people to rise up against its government.
In fact the U.S. needed the invasion to launch its economic and information warfare against Russia. It got the invasion by dismissing Russia’s treaty proposals to remove NATO troops and missiles from Eastern Europe, even though Russia threatened war. The U.S. ignored the Minsk accords to resolve the civil war in the Donbass and did not stop Ukraine from beginning an offensive there at the end of February, luring Russia to invade.
Prolonging the war as long as possible — Blinken said ten days ago it would last at least until the end of this year — is part of the trap the U.S. has set for Russia, similar to the one that former Carter national security adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski admitted he set for Moscow in Afghanistan to bring down the Soviet Union by giving it its “Vietnam,” much as the U.S. is aiming to topple Putin.
Joe Lauria is editor-in-chief of Consortium News and a former U.N. correspondent for The Wall Street Journal, Boston Globe, and numerous other newspapers. He was an investigative reporter for the Sunday Times of London and began his professional work as a 19-year old stringer for The New York Times. He can be reached at [email protected] and followed on Twitter @unjoe
We can all see that the US plan is simply to weaken Russia.
There is no need to speculate on why the US would re-run Brzezinski 30 years after the fall of the USSR.
It is not to steal assets: the US could do that far more easily in states that are not nuclear powers.
There is only place on Earth where Russia impedes the interest of Any western state, and that is Syria.
There is only one nation on Earth that can benefit by weakening Russia in Syria, and that is Israel.
Hard to argue that the purpose was to weaken Russia and US behavor on this matter, arming Ukraine so that more Ukrainian and Russian men will die is both sick and cynical. If our behavior is not criminal, then what is.
After seeing photos of Ukrainian hardware and ammunition that they Russian military has confiscated, US Defense Secretary Austin’s claiming that Russia will be “weakened,” seems as much folly as US Secretary of State Blinken claiming that Russia is not meeting it’s “goals.”
From the outset, Ukraine’s President Zelensky has been on course that has inevitably led to vast destruction caused by his military engaged in guerrilla warfare from civilian occupied apartment buildings, with tanks firing from it’s courtyards or nearby.
Zelensky is not likely not to surrender even when faced with almost certain defeat.
He’s taken the Ukrainian people down a path that could have been easily been avoided if he did not seek to join NATO and stopped firing upon the mostly Russian ethnics civilians residing in Eastern Ukraine.
I’m eager to read a reputable source that describes Zekensky’s forces intentionally shooting civilians in Eastern Ukraine.
It is noteworthy that neither Austin or Blinken mentioned the cost of the war to Ukraine, which is sustaining massive losses of lives and infrastructure. Millions of citizens have migrated out of the country, many of whom will never return. Ukraine’s economy is practically at a standstill. Ignoring that reality is another way in which Western leaders gave away their true goal, which has nothing to do with the welfare of Ukraine. BTW, I suspect that Russia can keep the game going a lot longer than Europe.
So true. The true goal of the US is admitted. But the propaganda in the US is unbelievable. Zelensky says one night Russis is killing babies and killing civilians. The next night he says Russia is losing the war and Ukraine is winning. But one thing is certain, every night he just throws out what he expects will keep the populations on his side. And you are right that the poor country of Ukraine is being bombed into oblivion. And the US could care less. I hope you are right about Russia. I think you are. And at the end when the US gets bored, Ukraine will be ruined and nobody will care.
yeah, some stubborn folks will fight for their freedom, cost to infrastructure be damned… ye would not understand, ye have not those ideals, obviously…
Rob
strangely missing from yer post is any sympathyfor , or even understanding of, the people of Ukraine choosing to fight for their freedom rather than roll over. probably not ideals ye would consider dying for.
Washington has lost its mind ensconced in a whirlwind of hubris.
Did it ever really have one?
Didn’t the USA constantly tell their citizens they were winning the Vietnam war. I think they also tried to convince folk they were winning in Syria too. The propaganda these elites spread is so damaging to their Nation’s credibility. At the end of the day America and EU only know how to destabilise and destroy. They smash and grab and think nothing of the poverty, sickness and devastation of civilians they leave behind. They then return a few years later offering to rebuild on condition they drill for oil, gas, minerals etc. The West needs to be taught a few lessons on empathy and respect.
More recently they were, constantly telling citizens they were winning the Afghan war.
It matters not if the USA or Russia is doing the killing, the Gods of War (MICIMATT) always make a killing!
The US politicians acting with the CIA cannot give up their diabolical plots to control the world. Douglas Valentine’s 2016 book “The CIA as Organized Crime” has a chapter on the CIA in Ukraine in order to maintain pressure on Russia; the 2014 coup and support for neo-Nazis is the latest push.
Austin is incredibly inept to head the Armed Forces, having gone “woke”, and Blinken showed he could not deal diplomatically with China some months ago. Zelensky is about the level of politician they can deal with. Do they think Vladimir Putin is the only smart, capable politician in Russia? Russia has two houses in the Duma and the President does not control all decisions. The Duma voted on this decision for a military operation and Putin acted on it with Shoigu, I have read. There are many politicians who work with Putin who are quite astute. But the US can’t give up their foolhardy narrative. All the while the US is “circling the drain” at their southern border with unchecked migrants, and more money is simply printed by the corrupt government. The Biden administration doesn’t want the corruption and biolabs in Ukraine to be exposed.
Vladimir Putin offered aid to the US after 9/11, yet all Russia has been given is a constant “kick in the teeth”. May the US politicians get their karma in spades, but we will all pay the price, unfortunately.
Biden spends Ukrainians to use up Russian ammunition.
Russia can afford to keep producing weapons indefinitely. Economic sanctions against it are already largely negated by the skyrocketing prices of natural gas, oil and other natural resources that Russia sells to the world. Unlike the US, Russia has well developed manufacturing capacity, and what they don’t manufacture for themselves, Russians can buy from China and other friendly countries. Western ruling elites do not seem to understand that the economic sanctions imposed on Russia will come back to strike them like a boomerang. If the Ukraine War does not end in Armageddon, it will most likely end because of economic collapse in the West.
What a spectacle…the EU and Ukraine going deaf, dumb and blind…Whenever all this is over, the US will want to be repaid for all it’s “help” down to the last cent – to the very last drop of blood. Parasites of our planet…
The neocon ideology (“Me first, Me only”) makes even smart people stupid, not to mention less than smart people. You know them by their works, if you cannot compete, you destroy.
Funny perhaps in retrospect how everyone was so obsessed about Trump and his “finger on the nuclear trigger.” Lucky for us that Trump was incompetent. Now we see what “competence” brings us (and what HRC would have brought). And all of this lands squarely upon what the “Democratic Party” has become.
In the meantime, while the Biden admin runs out the clock on humanity’s future, the unchanging and uncompromising, existential threat to our continued existence as a species on this planet, climate catastrophe, is speeding toward us like a barrel rolling down a mountain.
The Biden admin will be noted in whatever future is left as the most heinous and irresponsible leaders of the most malign and irresponsible nation in human history. It really did not have to be.
Our ‘policy planners’ are absolutely certifiable. And now, in the name of ‘freedom and democracy’, we are salivating over sending fracked LNG to Europe. As if climate shift wasn’t accelerating in enough unpredictable directions already. . .
Going through screenshots on my desktop, I came across this quote from a NYT article dated 12-16-2020, called
“How Russia Wins the Climate Crisis”. After tabulating Russia’s increasing agricultural output for the global market,
with exports jumping sixteen fold since 2000 and worth nearly $30 billion in 2018, the article offers up a completely
insane quote from Rod Schoonover, former director of Environment and Resources at the National Security Council
and former senior State Dept. Analyst under the Obama and (!) Trump administrations. “Russia’s agricultural
dominance,” says Schoonover, “is an emergent national security issue that is under appreciated as a geopolitical threat.”
Say What”? I simply cannot comprehend the mindset behind that statement, but it seems to be endemic in the State Dept.
Who would have ever thought it would be the Pentagon putting the brakes on a heedless rush to an escalating conflict ?
Russian farmers a threat? What has become of our country? I want to go back to the time when it was said, of the folks of Iowa, that they are so anti-war because they take their mission to feed the world very, very seriously
Quote, ” Austin’s remarks are the clearest indication of U.S. goals for Russia via a proxy war in Ukraine since President Joe Biden said in Poland on March 26, “For God’s sake, this man cannot remain in power,” Unquote.
So there we have it, ADMISSION of the U.S.’s intent right from the start. They organised events and people in the Ukraine to ensure their end “objective” was reached and at the same time, ensuring the blame for all this was directed onto the Russians, in particular Putin’s shoulders, whilst all the time it was American planning that has brought about this war. Nothing new there, as it’s ALWAYS been U.S. planning that has bought us wars all over the planet, and the rest of the World, cowardly stands by and does nothing.
Until now. It’s Russia and their allies who are trying to save Christianity and human dignity. The rest of the world is bigger than EU (I include UK as we have not left this ghastly political project) and America. The rest of the world is fed up with being destabilised, bullied and smashed up because America wants its Dollar to rule.
The dynamics are a little different then back in the ’80s. While China is investing in agriculture, manufacturing, and technology, the U.S. is, for some insane reason, proudly continuing its FIRE economy. (Wall Street must know something we don’t)
America’s Path To A FIRE Economy
hxxps://global-macro-monitor.com/2019/06/05/americas-path-to-a-fire-economy/
China manufacturing output for 2019 was $3,823.41B, a 1.16% decline from 2018.
hxxps://www.macrotrends.net/countries/CHN/china/manufacturing-output
U.S. manufacturing output for 2019 was $2,341.85B, a 1.46% increase from 2018.
hxxps://www.macrotrends.net/countries/USA/united-states/manufacturing-output
Did not know what was meant by “FIRE economy.”
The following graph makes clear how, from 1947 to date, the USA’s economy has gone mostly from a manufacturing base to merely manipulating money. The FIRE stands for finance, insurance and real estate. Truth is, we DID start the fire.
hxxps://pragcap.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/fire-economy1.jpg
Yeah, that’s a similar graph in the link I provided.
hxxps://global-macro-monitor.com/2019/06/05/americas-path-to-a-fire-economy/
Michael Hudson is a top writer on this topic.
Hudson and Bill Black are by far my favorites. I’ve read a lot of their stuff.
I didn’t know the US manufacturing base started its decline before the 1970s. Very informative. Thanks.
That’s right. My first car in the early 70’s was a big American made Ford. The next one was a small Toyota from Japan. The other ones were all from Japan. Detroit was bleeding at the end of the 80’s. Same thing with computers. My first one was an American made Apple McIntosh. The other ones were Taiwan made Asus pc’s. Then the printer was from Korea. My next smartphone will be from China. Nothing American made anymore except the Whirlpool appliances. Even the software I use the most comes from Russia.
Thank you for your honest reporting.
We’re now seeing that regime change in Russia has always been the Western Establishment’s goal, in line with its regime change wars in the Middle East.
The silence of the Western Establishment’s mainstream media on the facts of this conflict resembles its silence on the facts of various Middle East wars.
Nobody has explained why the USA has any possible reason to take over Ukraine, or to allow it to be infested with Nazis and truly ignorant parts of the population who have ludicrous fantasies about the cruelty of Russian people especially soldiers. All the media hype is accepted and the reasonable requests(!) for Russia’s own security, reiterated in December after at least 15 years of asking, were scornfully tossed aside. Russia is NEXT DOOR, the USA is thousands of kilometres away, the EU is getting laden down with “refugees” while the Western diplomats swan in an out of Kiev, disregarding the real fighting in Donbass, the main target for Russia’s SMO. For Russia, this is an existential issue, made obvious by the frantic behaviour of the West and their counterproductive role in arming the Ze régime with obsolete weapons so the MIC can benefit. The only motive for the “support for democratic Ukraine” is domination by the USA?NATO. Pres. Putin’s fears since 2007 at least have been proven valid.
Nobody has explained why the USA has any possible reason to take over Ukraine, or to allow it to be infested with Nazis and truly ignorant parts of the population who have ludicrous fantasies about the cruelty of Russian people especially soldiers. All the media hype is accepted and the reasonable requests(!) for Russia’s own security, reiterated in December after at least 15 years of asking, were scornfully tossed aside. Russia is NEXT DOOR, the USA is thousands of kilometres away, the EU is getting laden down with “refugees” while the Western diplomats swan in an out of Kiev, disregarding the real fighting in Donbass, the main target for Russia’s SMO. For Russia, this is an existential issue, made obvious by the frantic behaviour of the West and their counterproductive role in arming the Ze régime with obsolete weapons so the MIC can benefit. The only motive for the “support for democratic Ukraine” is domination by the USA?NATO. Pres. Putin’s fears since 2007 at least have been proven valid.
The egotistical cretins in Washington constantly say so many outrageous things. Why should any other country stand for the insults and threats. to say nothing of the lies, that it constantly dispenses? Every other sovereign nation on earth should be looking to damage America and its purported “interests” if that’s the game it wants to play. I cringe at all the immoral actions our government does, allegedly, in our name. I’m indifferent to what our purported “enemies” do–mostly innocuous acts of self-interest or self-defense–but take offense at what our pretentious “leaders” are constantly force feeding us.
Maybe Ukrainians need to have a look at how many Afghans died since Brzezinski set his Afghan trap for the Soviets and then decide whether they want the same thing to happen to their country. At least Afghanistan survived as a country. In view of the civil war along ethnic lines, Ukraine is unlikely to have such luck.
Brzezinski didn’t have any compassion for the unwitting victims of his trap: “regret what? That secret operation was an excellent idea. It had the effect of drawing the Russians into the Afghan trap and you want me to regret it?” Biden will have less compassion for the Ukrainians that have to die to accomplish the US’s designs, especially if it turns out the the trap was for the US and not for Russia.
At an unprecedented debt/GDP ratio of 124% and inflation running near 10% the US can’t afford a war economy. Any asymmetric shock is likely to send the US economy into a tailspin. If that was Putin’s trap, he certainly chose an opportune moment.
A realist would say that Ukraine needs to negotiate an end to this conflict before it is forced to.
A corrupt politician will say that the conflict needs to continue with help from an unquestioning media and compliant voters.
This realist is amazed at the kid gloves worn by Putin in his dealings with the egotistical Zelensky and his hateful racist constituency. Such a deal is never offered by an attacking belligerent power set on military conquest and exploitation of the vanquished enemy. Russia seems willing to give Ukraine nearly anything to stop the attacks and genocide on the Donbas. Zelensky and Ukraine seem unwilling to even give the correct time of day to Putin and his inept negotiators.
I don’t know what gives them so much faith in the ability of Washington and Nato to pull their chestnuts out of the fire AND deliver debilitating punishment to Russia, as they clearly want to happen. If the West does push Russia to that point (as I immediately speculated, analysts are now admitting that maybe Washington or Nato themselves–not Ukraine–sunk the Russian flagship named after their capital city), that’s when the nukes will start flying. Does anyone in this world living west of the Dnieper not realise this or understand the definition of “existential” threat? Or is Lord Biden willing to sacrifice the lives of up to 300 million Americans to kick Russia out of what he personally thinks should constitute Russia’s borders? Clearly there is a major glitch in our so-called president’s thought processes, especially with regard to proportionality in cause and effect. And, if all the flunkies surrounding him believe the same, surely the mental disorder must be catching.
Old Mike, new email
Ooops!
No, it’s totally humanitarian to continue sending in as much hardware as we can sneek in to prolong the war and free the people. We must stop the Russians, as the Western Media clearly understands, from going on to overrun Poland, the Baltic States, Germany and, who knows, the ultimate US outpost, ‘Britannia’ – which now only waives the rules.
I hope they all ate Freedom Fries with their Chicken Kievs.
No surprise.
This is the Wolfowitz Doctrine reiterated – again. It has been US doctrine stated in various ways since 1941 when the newly formed Council on Relations understood that at the end of WWII the US could go beyond its role as another imperial power and become the global hegemon.
China, Russia – and in a decade or so, India – will all be positioned to challenge the US on that. China is already the number one economy by PPP-GDP, US number 2 and India number 3.
From Wikipedia:
[edit]
The doctrine announces the U.S.’s status as the world’s only remaining superpower following the collapse of the Soviet Union at the end of the Cold War and proclaims its main objective to be retaining that status.
Our first objective is to prevent the re-emergence of a new rival, either on the territory of the former Soviet Union or elsewhere, that poses a threat on the order of that posed formerly by the Soviet Union. This is a dominant consideration underlying the new regional defense strategy and requires that we endeavor to prevent any hostile power from dominating a region whose resources would, under consolidated control, be sufficient to generate global power.
This was substantially re-written in the April 16 release.
Our most fundamental goal is to deter or defeat attack from whatever source… The second goal is to strengthen and extend the system of defense arrangements that binds democratic and like-minded nations together in common defense against aggression, build habits of cooperation, avoid the renationalization of security policies, and provide security at lower costs and with lower risks for all. Our preference for a collective response to preclude threats or, if necessary, to deal with them is a key feature of our regional defense strategy. The third goal is to preclude any hostile power from dominating a region critical to our interests, and also thereby to strengthen the barriers against the re-emergence of a global threat to the interests of the U.S. and our allies.
U.S. primacy[edit]
The doctrine establishes the U.S.’s leadership role within the new world order.
The U.S. must show the leadership necessary to establish and protect a new order that holds the promise of convincing potential competitors that they need not aspire to a greater role or pursue a more aggressive posture to protect their legitimate interests. In non-defense areas, we must account sufficiently for the interests of the advanced industrial nations to discourage them from challenging our leadership or seeking to overturn the established political and economic order. We must maintain the mechanism for deterring potential competitors from even aspiring to a larger regional or global role.
Yes, spot on. In fact, even before Wolfowitz, who is just a second rate wannabe, these ideas appear in Brizenski’s (Carter’s National Security Advisor) assumptions and strategies for maintaining US global dominance which are outlined in his book “The Grand Chessboard” published about 25 years ago.
Here is a good article on the underpinnings of US foreign policy since 1978 and its relation to the current Ukrainian conflict. It’s a sickening example of the pre-neocon-neocon ideology that has been guiding US foreign policy for the last 40+ years. In addition to being ideologically stupid, “modern” neocons are not even original. Over at antiwar.com: “Ukraine Is a Pawn on the Grand Chessboard” [hxxps://original.antiwar.com/Rick_Sterling/2022/04/24/ukraine-is-a-pawn-on-the-grand-chessboard/].
The Wolfolwitz Doctrine, I am told, was leaked to the NYTimes. It was met with outrage, especially by members of Congress who questioned what type of country would adopt such a doctrine. The Wolfowitz Doctrine was rewritten by Dick Cheney and is now part of the Bush Doctrine. I recommend a YouTube video hosted by Yale University in 2018 with Vladimir Pozner as the guest speaker. He is a citizen of France, USA and Russia and and a respected journalist and author, also made popular in the US from his show he hosted with Phil Donahue on CNBC several years ago. The title of the YouTube video is ‘How the US Created Vladimir Putin.’ I found it worthwhile and informative.
So now that President Biden, and now U.S. Secretary State Antony Blinken have made it clear that not Russia, but the US is responsible for the Russia / Ukraine conflict can the Western MSM and all the faux liberal/progressive web sites stop lying to its Western audiences. Clearly, the US and NATO are conducting a war against Russia via their proxy, Ukraine. The goal all alone was to remove Putin and replace him with another Yeltsin yes man (or women). When Ukraine placed 110,000 armed forces on the contact line with the Donetsk and Luhansk break away regions, the US and Europe did nothing. When Ukraine forces increased the shelling and mortar firing into civilian homes and schools, the Western media was silent, as they were for 8 years. It is time to face the fact that Russia did not start a war, they are trying to end the US proxy war that the US started in 2014.
Why stop lying??? As the saying goes…old habits die hard. It isn’t news anymore that the US has lied all over the world and yet, dumb-deaf-blind, the West still being payed attention to. No balls to stand up to them.
““For God’s sake, this man cannot remain in power,”
Because he’s getting in the way of The Plan.
A real ‘thinking man’s’ kind of plan. Like Russia (and China) have not foreseen what the West has had up its sleeve for all of these decades now?
Why China and Russia increased their gold stocks so extensively over the past decade. During that time Russia converted its petro dollars into physical gold following every sale of oil. Immediately. And if China has to watch the US default on its $1 trillion + in debt, I tend to think they themselves will think it worth it just to watch the US destroy itself. You might even say they bought tickets to The Greatest Show on Earth some time ago. Perhaps, if not likely, with significant anticipation.
The US lording its sanctions so sanctimoniously over Russia since 2014 just might have held a clue as to what these most recent ones might entail for cause and effect, but noooo, those simple-minded Russkies are certainly not sharp enough to have expected just this particular kind of response from the US for the actions in Ukraine the US forced them to take. They took the previous sanctions and turned them to their advantage by a major overhaul of their agricultural output (non-GMO, non-Monsanto) and internalized the manufacture of many previous imports of necessities. And have now cut-off the West from imperative raw materials and goods which make the Western economies function at all. Natural gas is just one, but that’s the EU doing their own inglorious act of seppuku/hara kiri!
These Ivy League bozos running this nation into the ground, enamored as they are with their presumed prowess in skilled diplomacy, just couldn’t imagine that their little dog and pony show was so full of flawed thinking that a longer term defensive plan long in development by Russia and China just might have the US serving up its own just desserts to itself by such impertinent, even precocious planners.
Giving these junior league ‘experts’ like Blinken, Price, and Sullivan such power way beyond their years is turning this next chapter of the US-led 2014 Maidan Coup into an all-out rout because these guys as Obama underlings thought US ‘might’ precluded any ending being anything but happy and right. That’s ‘right’ according only to their frat boy assumptions.
The US is going to pay, is paying, for their misplaced and poorly calculated enthusiasms. Nations everywhere have seen the Light, and by stealing Russia’s $300 + billion in foreign reserve currency, that Light has lit the way to flight by many of the U.S.’s erstwhile trading partners—from the US dollar.
Say hello to actual chess, played by masters. One could also conclude that knowing and practicing judo as Mr Putin does, that it might even cross his mind to use his opponent’s mass in his own favor. Bulk/mass/hubris: meet physics. You’re on the ropes and don’t even know it. Many of we the hoi polloi are Light years ahead of you in seeing what is truly going down (and fast) here.
What a perfect storm of insouciance, stupidity, and senility. And who didn’t see this toxic chemistry coming in 2016?
Clearly, if Russia needs to escalate, it can simply shut off the flow of their natural gas to Europe, and sell it all to Asia. At that point, we’d see whose regime would change whose.
Does this mean US assets anywhere are now legitimate targets for Russia to remove? I am not saying Russia will escalate the military operations outside Ukraine to hit the US, but it opens that possibiliry and it gives Russia the timing of the tesponse. Putin looks like a very patient, rational and humane person but he will face the music and he will act with the necessary force. It seems to me the people in Washington forgot the fate of the Titanic.
“The U.S. plan would appear to be to continue flooding Ukraine with weapons systems and ammunition, as well as foreign fighters, to prolong the war long enough to bleed Russia, giving it its ‘Vietnam’ to bring down Putin.”
Well, I guess headlining it as a “poxy” war is not a typo. If the goal is “‘weakening Russia’s capability to very quickly reproduce that [military] capability’ without a direct military confrontation with Russia,” why, what does it matter that Ukraine is reduced to rubble and thousands of Ukrainian lives are lost? Ukrainians will surely agree that it’s all in a good cause. And from a P.R. standpoint, “flooding Ukraine with weapons systems and ammunition” can be passed off as altruistic “help” even as it jacks up the profits of the military-industrial complex. A two-for-one. What’s not to like?
Ukrainians are sure to understand that “prolong[ing] the war long enough to bleed Russia, giving it its ‘Vietnam’ to bring down Putin” is a sacrifice worth making. They’ll be grateful, too, that their American benefactors, who made it all possible, will suffer no loss of life. Bleeding Russia is sure to bring down Putin . . . just like those sanctions against Iraq brought down Saddam Hussein.
“Biden also said on two occasions that the reason for the economic sanctions on Russia was never to prevent an invasion but to get the Russian people to rise up against its government. ”
That goal has failed. Putin’s Approval Rating Soars Since He Sent Troops into Ukraine, State Pollster Report: hXXps://www.reuters.com/world/europe/putins-approval-rating-soars-since-he-sent-troops-into-ukraine-state-pollster-2022-04-08/ (“The proportion of Russians who trust President Vladimir Putin has risen to 81.6% from 67.2% before he ordered troops into Ukraine on Feb. 24, according to a survey by the state-run pollster VTsIOM published on Friday.”)
Of course, the Reuters article is a hit piece against Putin and Russia.
The US empire is on its last legs. It’s trying mightily to project its waning power, but reality doesn’t respect magical thinking. US “officials” live in the Washington bubble. They will be the last to figure out the rest of the world minus Europe, Canada and Australia have passed them by. Ukraine is paying the price for its foolishness in trusting the US has its back as all other proxies have done.
Hmm…The United States surely would like to rule the world, but one, perhaps two countries stand in their way. A friend of mine and I were talking about this several weeks ago, and he said, “Being the US dictates to the rest of the world, except for four or five nations, and the world must “jump” in lockstep, when Uncle Sam imposes “sanctions,” the rest of the world should be able to vote for POTUS as well as American citizens.” Not a bad idea! I bet the majority of international voters would vote NO for sanctions and NO for perpetual war which the US profits from.
It all stems from a single THOUGHT! Everything does!
The nicest six words (translated into English)I ever heard were from the Persian spiritual Master, Zarathustra, are:
“Good Thoughts, Good Words, Good Deeds.”
Bullseye, Joe, esp. RE the Zbig playbook they seem to be copying. Lots of hype, with lots of prompting, as in today’s WAPO op/ed by Max Boot, ‘The West is finally giving Ukraine the weapons it needs to win.’ Saith he: Biden ‘is shedding some of his inhibitions about provoking the Kremlin and once again turning America into the arsenal of democracy….’
Unter das Boot, ‘on the arsenal of democracy’! Wow. While Max-type sanctions are certainly acts of war, and vicious killers of millions worldwide, his parroted armaments claims are sheer window dressing.
Here’s a truthful look at his arsensal rehearsals, by Real expert Brian Berletic:
hxxps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cuR7Q7JFUNg&t=648s
What is truly amazing is how the Ukrainians have accepted “willingly” to become cannon fodder for the US. their economy is set to contract by 40%! this year. Zelensky is indeed a dictator (he suppressed 11 political parties in opposition to his regime) so are we back in Saigon? It is a sorry moment for all: Is the US governed by a senile crook beholden to the the military industrial complex with no check? How will this play out? A very, very depressing state of affairs. Because the more a bear is pushed into a corner, at the very least tactical nukes could be his answer. Let’s hope Guterres can pull something positive out of his hat (by leaning more towards Russia).
Just like the willing Americans accepting all the crap that has come out of the WH since Jan.20.2021
“What is truly amazing is how the Ukrainians have accepted “willingly” to become cannon fodder for the US. ”
That’s the magic of the empire. Ukrainian nationalists believe they can use the US to f*ck Russia. They know that they are too weak to fight Russia on their own; however, together with the US/Nato/EU they feel they have the bigger stick.
They are dilutional of course. The empire wants its vassals (or proxies) to die for the empire. Not the other way around. That’s why the empire is the empire. It’s a game as old as humanity, yet people will not learn.
err, the notion that the people of Ukraine could be choosing to fight for their freedom is so alien to ye, it is not even in the spectre of yer imagination? just cause ye have no ideals worth dying for don’t mean other folks might not have them…
George Washington had those ideals…him not too worried about being ‘cannon fodder’, but him a fool, and ye oh-so-wise….
actually, russia was leaning towards Guterrez by firing 5 missiles into Kyiv while Guterrez was still there. but fear not, Max, ye are on the right side, them noble Russians always do da noble thang, the odd little massacre notwithstanding…
and ye may have no ideals whatsoever, and i resp[ect that, but some folks, why to them their FREEDOM means something, and they will fight for it. i knolw, ye wouldn’t understand….