Briefly Noted: Ukraine Defeat, Barr-Durham

It’s been a busy day, so let’s just do a quick update on several topics.

We’re beginning to see more signs that the Deep State and the political establishment of the collective West—with the exception of the Neocons—is coming to the realization that they need to get on an off ramp from Ukraine. We’ve covered this emerging realization in several recent posts, and each day seems to bring more data to confirm the reality of this situation. After all the MBT hype last week, we’re seeing stories from multiple countries that feature the professional NATO “militaries” saying, Woops! We can’t do that. They’re already stripped bare. The UK can’t spare even a handful of tanks, same with the French. The German military is in the same boat. And the US supposed promise of M1 Abrams tanks is looking increasingly shaky. And that’s without even getting into the problems of logistics. Same goes for F-16s and every other advanced weapons systems.

How to find that off ramp is the big question. Simply cut and run? That’s a tough one, especially after Afghanistan. Negotiations? The problem with that is simply: What incentive is there now for Russia to negotiate, when they’re winning? They’re not only winning the military war, they’re also winning the economic war. BRICS and the various other pacts that Russia is busily negotiating—with Russian energy as the hook—are expanding steadily. The Saudis have basically cut loose from the petro-dollar, which happens to be the basis for the US dollar serving as the world’s reserve currency. The revision of that entire monetary regime is approaching rapidly. That will undoubtedly cause significant pain both in Europe and the US. In the meantime, Russia’s economy is predicted to actually expand in 2023.

One story I saw this morning suggested that the US is trying to lure Russia into negotiations, using Egypt as an intermediary to Russia and Israel as an intermediary to the Ukro-Nazi regime in Kiev. The difficulty is that Russia’s stated position since late 2021 has been that it will negotiate with the real party in interest—the US—and not with puppet regimes.

So the latest indicators of Western desperation are these.

Stephen Bryen is as Deep State as they come:

Center for Security Policy

Senior Fellow

Stephen Bryen is a leading expert in security strategy and technology. He has held senior positions in the Department of Defense, on Capitol Hill and as the President of a large multinational defense and technology company.

Dr. Bryen has 50 years of experience in government and industry. He has served as a senior staff director of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, as the Executive Director of a grassroots political organization, as the head of the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs, as the Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Trade Security Policy, as the founder and first director of the Defense Technology Security Administration, as the President of Finmeccanica North.

So, when a guy as Deep State connected as Bryen pens an article like this one, flat out stating that Ukraine “is losing the war” and deriding the official narratives as “propaganda, well, you know just how bad things are:

All is not well for Ukraine

Western reports parroting Ukraine’s propaganda belied by Kiev’s urgent call for better weapons as indications grow it is losing the war

Bryen goes through a long song and dance about the current situation in Ukraine. Some parts of the article are more compelling than other parts, although he makes no attempt to hide how dire the situation really is. However, this is how he concludes, his real bottom line. He first posits some supposedly possible alternative scenarios, but then gets to the likely one—short and sweet:

Washington could thus soon be faced with some dangerous choices. Should it commit US forces or US air power to Ukraine? If it did so, how quickly would the war spread in Europe?

Would NATO, always far more boisterous than can be justified by reality, support sending NATO forces to Ukraine? Or would NATO’s knees finally buckle?

The alternative – and more likely – scenario is that Washington will push for a peace settlement, something it has strictly opposed in the past. Will Russia be willing to sit down and discuss a deal? Of course, but only if the price is right.

There will be a price for peace with Russia, and Russia will be the one who will determines whether the price is right. That’s not exactly rocket science—I said as much quite a ways back in the past—but it will be a very bitter pill for the political class of the collective West. They’ve already had a foretaste of what the price will be, based on Putin’s proposed “draft treaties” from December, 2021. Those draft treaties were a proposal for a drastically revised security regime covering all of Europe and NATO. Nuland calling for a trial of Putin as a war criminal isn’t helpful in getting negotiations off to a good start, and is most unlikely to induce Putin to pay any attention at all to the Kiev Ukro-Nazis. Sooner or later, the Zhou regime will likely be forced to drop the proxy subterfuge and enter into direct negotiations with Russia. It will be a humbling experience.

A second indicator comes from Germany, courtesty of commenter Qui audet adipiscitur. Die Welt is a major German newspaper. It is quoted today by eugyppius

After months of obnoxious pro-Ukraine jingoistic war propaganda, Welt suddenly admits to its centre-right audience that it's "essentially impossible for Ukraine to win"

Odd how this happens directly after Olaf Scholz agreed to send irreplaceable German Leopard 2s to Ukraine.

Since the war in Ukraine began in February last year, Welt has relentlessly funnelled jingoistic Anglosphere war propaganda to its centre-right German readership. They reprinted this pro-Azov Battalion editorial complete with National Socialist symbols; they achieved a kind of ecstatic climax during the counteroffensive last September, when they announced that a turning point was at hand; and they have been among those predicting that Russia is on the verge of running out of missiles and artillery shells any moment now.

Well, no more. Readers opened the paper today to find these sobering remarks on why it’s all over. The problem, we read, is that “the United States, Germany and other NATO allies are more afraid” of escalation than of a nebulous “threat to Western security posed by Russia’s territorial conquests in Ukraine,” and have failed to provide adequate support.

Except for the shouting?

By the way, if you have 2 hours to spare, I highly recommend this The Duran interview with Scott Ritter: Preventing a long war w/Scott Ritter. Ritter’s style of presentation eats up time, so patience is sometimes required, but he knows what he’s talking about. Among much else of interest—and directly related to this post—he likens America’s situation today to its situation in 1973. In Vietnam. Looking for an exit strategy.

Now, Barr - Durham.

Margot Cleveland has risen to the defense of Bluto and Bull:

The Blitzkrieg On Bill Barr And John Durham Is Just Beginning

This follows another recent article:

6 Reasons The NYT’s Hit Job On John Durham’s Imminent Report Instantly Unravels

All I’m gonna say about this is, if Bluto and Bill tell us who’s been hiding Joseph Mifsud all this time, then I’ll pay a bit of attention. Never say never, of course. Perhaps Bull will have something of interest to tell us, but I’m not holding my breath.

I’m not making light of the Russia Hoax. I still believe that it was a sort of culminating existential crisis for the American Republic. As the guys at The Duran said recently, without a full accounting for the Russia Hoax—and we haven’t come close to that—there is unlikely to be a future for our republic. Defending the Bluto and Bull misdirection is misguided. I’ll gladly eat my words but, sadly, doubt that I’ll be called upon to do so.