After a history of U.S. bullying and humiliation — from a broken promise not to expand NATO to deceit over Minsk — it can’t be assumed Moscow is bluffing when it warns of nuclear war.
Silences filled with a consensus of propaganda contaminate almost everything we read, see and hear, warned the late John Pilger last May. War by media is now a key task of so-called mainstream journalism.
The U.S. empire has been surrounding China with military bases and war machinery for many years, in ways Washington would never tolerate China doing in the nations and waters surrounding the United States.
In deciding to supply Leopard battle tanks to Ukraine, Olaf Scholtz breaks the self-imposed constraints on the military’s role in German foreign policy that had been in place since the end of WWII.
Given the duplicitous history of the Minsk Accords, it is unlikely Russia can be diplomatically dissuaded from its military offensive. As such, 2023 appears to be shaping up as a year of continued violent confrontation.
This crisis is rooted in Washington’s obsession with Russia, writes Michael Brenner. The country’s Phoenix-like rise from the ashes has been unsettling to politicos, policy-makers and think tankers alike.
If the mood expressed by the new German governing coalition is that of a strong, conquering Germany, the mood in France is of national decline which needs to be stopped.