Briefly Noted: Who's Getting Bled?
In his most recent substack, Michael Tracy—just recently returned from Poland where he was attempting to document US involvement in the Russia - Ukraine conflict or special operation, depending on your point of view—summarizes the US strategy in its proxy war against Russia. What becomes immediately apparent, upon reflection, is that the US doesn’t really have a Plan B—something prudent aggressors should have. I dunno whether Sun Tzu said that, but is seems like something he would have said. Instead, the Zhou regime appears to be stuck on Plan A, which is to bleed Russia by prolonging the conflict and encouraging Ukrainians to evolve the conflict into an Afghan style “insurgency”—as opposed, presumably, to a J6 style “insurgency.”
Meanwhile, Putin seems to be going about his business while paying just about zero attention to anything going on in the West, at least as far what his military plans and intentions are supposed to be. He seems to be following a different script than the one assigned to him by the Neocons.
The money front—which is the front on which the US’s Plan A is essentially based—is a different matter. The money war—in which the US has totally torn off any proxy masking—is going no better than the proxy war via the US supplied and trained Ukrainian military.
First, from Tracy’s concluding paragraphs:
That the Biden Administration was pursuing a policy of regime change in Russia is something that could’ve been inferred even before Biden’s latest outburst. Bloomberg published a column this week reporting that an Administration “official” was caught ranting at a private event that “the only end game now is the end of the Putin regime.” The strategy being employed to achieve this objective reportedly entails “bleeding Russia dry” through a combination of sanctions designed to destroy their economy, plus continued efforts to maximize the number of Russians killed on the battlefield.
So, that’s Plan A, and it appears to be the only plan the US has—no exit strategy that would be plausibly superior to the Zhou gang’s Afghan exit strategy has been identified, yet they’re manifestly courting monetary and economic disaster through blowback from the sanctions.
This means any feigned concern that US Government officials express for the humanitarian suffering of Ukrainians is pure bunk, since they’re actively working to exacerbate and prolong the war, rather than end it, out of some blinkered geopolitical crusade to topple the Russian government. Bloomberg author Niall Ferguson reasonably observes that this would explain “the lack of any diplomatic effort by the US to secure a cease-fire.” If the US wanted to end the war, the number one thing you’d expect its top government officials to do is encourage cease-fire negotiations, but the US is doing the opposite. The country’s top diplomat, Antony Blinken, has not even attempted to contact his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, since the invasion began, according to the Washington Post.
So, mounting evidence had already demonstrated that the US is undertaking yet another one of its infamous regime change initiatives, which have historically gone super well. But for Biden to proclaim it publicly, during the most dramatic portion of a “legacy-defining” speech in a foreign capital, removed any remaining doubt. Spinners and lackeys subsequently tried to claim that Biden’s remark doesn’t constitute “official US policy,” but that makes zero sense. For better or worse (usually worse) the president has an enormous amount of unilateral authority to craft and articulate US foreign policy. That’s why he’s elected: in theory, he’s the one who makes the policy. Biden notably did not stutter when he issued his call for regime change. It was an unusually lucid moment, and therefore a manifestly purposeful one. As was the choice of venue in Poland, which as I discovered on my recent visit is brimming with desire to eliminate the contemporary Russian state by whatever means necessary.
A few comments. First, I think Tracy is absolutely correct that Zhou’s regime change proclamation directed at Russia was scripted—not a gaffe. The plan, part of Plan A, was probably to first go to Brussels to reinforce the notion that NATO has “never been more united,” then proceed to the Poland—the US/NATO proxy war frontline—to proclaim the united policy: To oust Putin and install a regime of our choosing in Russia. The rest is history. NATO was not, is not, and will not be united in any such delusional scheme, and Zhou’s speech—pre-primed in US state run media as a triumph—flopped with all sane Americans. Meaning, those who haven’t been bought off by Globalists and Neocons and so have no financial interest in WW3.
The recent Ukrainian proposals for a cease fire that were presented the other day in Turkey simply confirm that Putin’s military strategy is carrying the day, without regard to Plan A. Ukraine essentially proposed most of what Putin was demanding, with a few face-saving caveats—the winning side in a war never does that, so that was a dead giveaway. The Russians, for their part, said (in effect): Nice try, we accept your concessions to our demands and we’ll talk about the rest some other time—meanwhile the war continues.
Regarding pro-war sentiment in Poland, Tracy delves into that again in an incredibly lengthy and rambling video session (over two hours). Basically, he recounts that during his travels in Poland he found huge support among Poles for eliminating the current Russian state by whatever means necessary—up to and including military action. He also discovered that those same Poles were, prudently, mostly unanimous in wanting the US to do that for them. You first! In the meantime, Poland is hosting an extensive US military presence in support of a proxy war against Russia. No word on whether Poland has any fallback plan for the eventuality of the US’s Plan A not panning out.
Meanwhile, on the monetary front, we’re getting a lot of maneuvering behind the scenes, to undercut the brave official statements. Bleeding Russia dry financially? The EU taketh with one hand and the EU giveth back with the other:
The Russian stock market also appears to be taking “sanctions” in stride:
This totally undercuts sanctions:
It appears that the EU, led by Germany, is taking stock of the shifting monetary landscape—as evidenced by international backing for Russia’s new payment plan. King Dollar is under threat, and that wasn’t supposed to happen, according to Plan A. What’s next? Ah, that could be tricky, but we know there are elections coming up in November. The real question is probably: Will the GOP, against all odds, get smart?
At home, another sign emerges of the economic hurt that Zhou has assured Americans they’ll be enjoying soon—to go with the gas pump stickers:
https://andmagazine.substack.com/p/biden-stumbles-toward-war-russians?s=r
A wag on Althouse's blog wrote this about about the Biden war plans:
"If you don't know what you are doing, neither does your enemy."
-Sun Biden