Perspectives On Ukraine

Various sources. Let’s start with John Mearshimer:

Prodigal Son @ThePr0diga1S0n

Analysis & prediction on Ukraine from 6 years ago: “The West is leading Ukraine down the primrose path & the end result is Ukraine is going to get wrecked.” -John J. Mearsheimer, R. Wendell Harrison Distinguished Service Professor of Political Science at the U. of Chicago,

Candace Owens takes a different approach, but I like it:

Candace Owens @RealCandaceO

Western Strategy to deal with Ukraine: 1) Accuse all who criticize our role in this conflict of Russian Puppetry 2) Have journalists rewrite history and pretend we never provided assurances to Russia that NATO would never expand eastward. 3) Shift focus to race & LGBT issues

Commenter T. Paine Redux was extolling the prowess of Army Group South in advancing through the same terrain, negatively comparing the RF forces to von Rundstedt’s and von Manstein’s boys. For perspective, Army Group South wasn’t exactly solicitous for the civilian population:

-- GEROMAN -- 👀 - @GeromanAT

And for all who compare that to a "failed Blitzkrieg" Learn history. That time close air and artillery support flattened the ground with massive shelling - and no one cared about civilians. Whole areas received massive carpet bombings - cities town villages were wiped out.

Also, Gilbert Doctorow:

The Russian Way of War

This map illustrates what appears to be the overall Russian strategy—a major envelopment of Ukrainian forces east of the Dnieper, with a separate assault on Kiev:

-- GEROMAN -- 👀 - @GeromanAT

#Ukraine #Russia #LPR #DPR Overall situation. Fighting reported in 4 mayor cities (yellow) RF Para drop near #Zhytomir RF moving to #Kyiv from 2 axes I expect a cutting off move from #Melitopol and #Kharkiv with meeting point #Dnipro Then DRP & LPR will break out and move West

Now …

Michael Snyder specializes in disaster or even catastrophe prediction. Nevertheless, I like this perspective from two days ago:

The U.S. Government Just Admitted That This Is A War That Will Determine Who Will Rule The New World Order

…

On Thursday, State Department spokesman Ned Price made a stunning admission regarding what this war is really all about.

According to Price, Russia and China “also want a world order”, but he warned that if they win their world order “would be profoundly illiberal”…

China has given “tacit approval” for Russian President Vladimir Putin’s latest invasion of Ukraine, in the judgment of U.S. officials, as part of a joint effort to undermine the institutions that American and allied leaders established to minimize conflict in the decades following World War II.

“Russia and the PRC also want a world order,” State Department spokesman Ned Price said Wednesday. “But this is an order that is and would be profoundly illiberal. … It is an order that is, in many ways, destructive rather than additive.”

It would take an entire book to unpack everything that Price said there.

First of all, …, he was tacitly admitting that the United States and other western nations desire to have a “world order” of their own.

And he implied that what we are witnessing is a battle over who will ultimately run the “world order”.

That should deeply alarm all of us.

…

I also want to point out that Price used the term “profoundly illiberal” to describe a “world order” led by Russia and China, and that suggests that a “world order” led by the United States and other western nations would be “liberal”.

And that is actually quite an accurate statement.  In virtually every western nation today, even the political parties that are supposed to be “conservative” are extremely liberal.

If you Google the phrase “liberal world order”, you will find that it has been used by elitists for many years.  But I certainly don’t want a “liberal world order” and neither should you.

Of course I don’t want a “world order” run by Russia and China either.

Unfortunately, I don’t think that we get a vote in this.

Now that World War III has begun, things are going to move very quickly.  NBC News is reporting that Joe Biden is considering launching “massive cyberattacks” against Russia…

President Joe Biden has been presented with a menu of options for the U.S. to carry out massive cyberattacks designed to disrupt Russia’s ability to sustain its military operations in Ukraine, four people familiar with the deliberations tell NBC News.

...

That would be an act of war, and the Russians would inevitably strike back really hard.

And needless to say, we are very vulnerable to cyberattacks.

If we start going back and forth with the Russians, eventually we will be pushed to the brink of nuclear war.

In fact, Vladimir Putin has already raised the possibility of using nukes…

Broadcast live on television at 5.45am Moscow time, President Putin said: “Whoever tries to impede us, let alone create threats for our country and its people, must know that the Russian response will be immediate and lead to the consequences you have never seen in history.”

“All relevant decisions have been taken. I hope you hear me.”

When I first saw that, I could hardly believe what I was reading.

But it is right there in black and white.

It is so simple that even a child can understand what he was saying, but this is how Biden responded when he was asked about Putin’s statements…

REPORTER: “Putin said the West will face consequences greater than any you have faced in history. Is he threatening a nuclear strike?”

BIDEN: “I have no idea.”

Are you kidding me?

And so Snyder concludes—after considering the China angle:

It would be so easy for [] dominoes to start falling.

The existing “world order” is starting to come apart at the seams, and a time of great chaos is directly ahead of us.

Ultimately, someone will end up dominating the entire globe once World War III is over, and all of our lives will look very different once we get to that point.

My own view is that it won’t get to that, but …