Politico Announces End Of The World
That’s actually good news, in my opinion, because the world that’s ending is their world—the world that the collective West’s ruling class aspires to inhabit. What would be bad news would be if the world inhabited by normal people came down. That would happen if the ruling class adopts something like the Samson Option, decides that a world that they don’t rule isn’t worth living in and start a nuclear war. My view is that the US military would very likely refuse to go along with such madness.
Now, who are “they” and what is the shape of the “world” they aspire to inhabit and rule? Brian Berletic has a nice video presentation today on Russia's Special Military Operation 1 Year On: How the US Started this War & Where it's Heading. At about an hour, it’s longer than his usual videos. Follow that link to start at the beginning—Berletic presents the mindset behind that world. It’s quite good. Below I start the video up where Berletic embeds a brief excerpt from a presentation by former Clintonista general Wesley Clark. Don’t be turned off. It’s well worth the listen:
Now, the Politico article was discussed by Alex Mercouris yesterday, and he got a chuckle out of it. Politico is describing the mood at the Munich Security Conference and, while the article indulges in the usual Neoconnish memes about Russia and China—fantasizing about a future Nuremberg 2.0, for example—there’s no mistaking the panic barely below the surface:
It’s the end of the world as we know it — and Munich feels nervous
February 18, 2023
MUNICH — Cut through the haze of hoary proclamations emanating from the main stage of the Munich Security Conference about Western solidarity and common purpose this weekend, and one can’t help but notice more than a hint of foreboding just beneath the surface.
Even as Western leaders congratulate themselves for their generosity toward Ukraine, the country’s armed forces are running low on ammunition, equipment and even men. ….
U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris turned the heat up on Russia on another front, accusing the country of “crimes against humanity.”...
In other words, Russian leaders could be looking at Nuremberg 2.0. ...
Politico thinks Putin is laying awake nights worrying about being hauled before a war crimes tribunal.
The outlook in Asia is no less fraught. Taiwan remains on edge, as the country tries to guess China’s next move. Here too, the news from Munich wasn’t reassuring.
“What is happening in Europe today could happen in east Asia tomorrow,” NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said.
China’s statement is certainly not controversial. It corresponds to official US policy, except that the US is busily implementing an unofficial policy that presents a direct, unambiguous, challenge to China’s sovereignty:
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi did nothing to contradict that narrative. “Let me assure the audience that Taiwan is part of Chinese territory,” Wang told the conference when asked about Beijing’s designs on the self-governed island. Taiwan “has never been a country and it will never be a country in the future.”
...
The only people smiling at this year’s security conference are the defense contractors. Arms sales are booming by all accounts.
...
MoA has a good roundup of MSM narratives from the collective West that follow Politico in signaling rising hysteria:
Recognizing The War Is Lost The 'West' Seeks An Exit
Follow the link for examples like these:
Ukraine has already lost two armies and it is begging for a third one. But the 'West' is unable to deliver it:
The Economist warns of the loss of the 'West’s authority':
An editorial in the Washington Post is blowing the same horn:
In the New York Times one David French warns that America Can’t Go ‘Wobbly’ on Ukraine:
There’s lots more, but I’ll simply quote Larry Johnson:
The war in Ukraine is not confined to the steppes of Eastern Ukraine. It is being played out as a global drama pitting Russia against the United States and Europe. The coming week will some very bizarre and potentially consequential political theater. Vladimir Putin is scheduled to speak on Tuesday amid expectations that he will announce an expanded relationship with Belarus and acknowledge that Russia is at war with NATO. Putin could draw a bright red line warning NATO that if it sends more sophisticated weaponry to Ukraine that Russia will act to protect itself.
On the same day, bumbling Joe Biden will show up in Warsaw for a speech that will not change Ukraine’s desperate situation and will likely further harden Russian resolve to seek victory on the battlefield rather than at the negotiation table. Biden is expected to plead with the Russian people to rid themselves of Putin. I am sure that will resonate with the Russian people (not!). Biden’s speech will not calm growing anxiety among NATO allies. The visual alone of a frail, demented Biden will play alongside the image of a calm but determined Putin.
Up to this point the Western strategy, under U.S. leadership, has included vilifying all things Russian and trying to punish the Russian people economically. There is a possibility that Biden will strike a more conciliatory tone in his speech towards the Russian people and try to shift the narrative that his is a war against Putin the tyrant, not the people of Russia. If he does that it will set off alarm bells in Ukraine. Zelensky and his crowd may interpret this as an early indicator that the U.S. is preparing to jettison them if the situation on the battlefield worsens for Ukraine.
We shall see. At time of writing, Moon wasn’t aware that Zhou had sought and received Putin’s permission to stage a bit of political theater in Kiev.
What’s telling is that major Russia-deranged media outlets in the collective West—such as The Financial Times—are portraying Zhou’s Kiev trip not as a sign of strength but as an attempt to “shore up” Western support for Ukraine, presumably by portraying the US as ready to stay the course. This political theater is unlikely to fool anyone. The more interesting question is this: Why did Putin give Zhou permission to train it to Kiev in the first place? (Zhou was probably surprised to learn that Amtrak went past Delaware, and across the Atlantic.) What’s in this for Russia?
Alex Mercouris presents a plausible explanation. It’s unlikely that Putin is concerned about the prospect of Zhou strengthening the pro-Ukraine resolve of Europe’s pygmy vassal states.
Instead, Putin probably likes the look of this for his own domestic purposes. Putin will likely, once again, be making the case later this week to the Russian people that Russia is under assault from the collective West—but above all from the USA and all that it stands for. You can be sure that informed Russians will be very up to date on everything that Brian Berletic discusses today (above). Zhou’s flight to Kiev—after receiving permission from Putin—is icing on Putin’s cake that he’ll be presenting to his nation. That will be a perfect for the Ukraine security chief’s statement today that Ukraine’s tanks will be parked on Red Square at the end of the war. Russians will know that those fantasy tanks are Wehrmacht Leopard and US Abrams tanks.
Meanwhile:
John McCain’s Russia quote reflects the neocon thinking:
“A Gas Station Run by a Mafia That Is Masquerading as a Country”
https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/news/john-mccain-calls-russia-gas-station-run-mafia-145800534.html
They thought Russia was the same country as the Yeltsin years that was basically broke, run by an oligarchy, using Soviet era outdated military equipment, with a hollowed out military.
And a professional Western style military built up over years in the Ukraine with Western support would easily bleed Russia dry, and economic sanctions would pressure the oligarchs to ensure Regime change.
Instead you have the West suffering economically, 10x Ukrainian casualties, two Ukrainian armies destroyed, and probably on the cusp of a huge Russian offensive that will make Ukraine landlocked, and destroy a third Ukrainian army.
To think that we are now considering China, the country that owns our political class, is now our mortal enemy is the height of absurdity. Had we not allowed so many NEOCONS to insinuate their way into our security, military and geopolitical decision making is nothing short of catastrophic. If not for their hatreds and need for revenge we could have made resource rich Russia our friend not our enemy. This friendship could have been invaluable in beating back China, the China the USA built out of the wallets of our labor and manufacturing class. The Russia of today is not the Soviet Union and it sought our friendship. The abject stupidity of our leadership class whose short-sighted and greedy quest for wealth, power and rule has put us in an extinction event that is coming closer and closer to reality is more evil than anything the monsters of the 20th century ever concocted.