Ukraine: Straws In The Wind?

Tomorrow will be a baby sitting day for me, so I want to get this out this evening.

The last handful of days have seen remarkable political developments surrounding the Neocon war on Russia. The developments came in the form of bombshell revelations of recordings of German generals discussing 1) how to use advanced German Taurus missiles to attack Russia’s Kerch bridge while hiding the necessary role of German personnel, and 2) the role of French and British personnel on the ground in Ukraine directing attacks with their weapon systems. Of course, it has always been known that these Western missile strikes—including US strikes—are dependent on highly trained (i.e., non-Ukrainian) personnel utilizing NATO controlled ISR resources. However, hearing NATO generals themselves actually speaking about these matters and confirming all this has made a difference. As Matt Hoh puts it, it provides “color” to what previously was “black and white” knowledge. German chancellor Olaf Scholz has firmly declined to pursue the course of action that his generals apparently wanted to follow.

Not surprisingly, this is also a big story in Russia. In fact, it has been the top story in Russia for the past three days. Foreign ministry Spox Maria Zakharova spoke of Germany needing “de-Nazification”—a clear suggestion that perhaps the old USSR didn’t finish the job on Germany during WW2. President Putin explicitly evoked the danger of nuclear warfare as a result of Western escalation. Putin was clearly asking the West to demonstrate a minimal amount of sanity.

At the same time, divisions in the NATO ranks are on full display. Scholz has taken a stand against France and the UK—and, implicitly, the US. In a way Scholz strengthened that new found independence by calling for Julian Assange not to be extradited to the US, saying Assange could not get a fair trial.

However, there was an interesting signal of sanity over the weekend, as well. It came from the US Army’s Chief of Staff and largely flew under the radar—but the Hindustan Times, in one of its typically colorful videos, covered the story:

Ryan Milton @1860rm

U.S. Army Chief of Staff Gen. Randy George, the highest-ranking military officer in the Department of the Army, stated that #Russia has “done very well by pumping money and energy into [its] industrial base.”

He spoke at a Feb. 27 forum hosted by the Washington-based Defense Writers Group. He explained that Russia has expanded its industrial base amid the conflict with Ukraine. “Don’t underestimate your enemy. That’s never a good place to start.”

Secretary of the U.S. Army Christine Wormuth agreed that Russia has proved capable of regenerating its industrial base. She added that they had done so in spite of the sanctions imposed by the West.

While the Kiev regime’s “Center for Countering Disinformation” (funded by the US State Department) states that such talk is Russian propaganda, it used to be a matter of course for anti-Soviet analysts in the U.S. military to acknowledge just such realities. Today, it begs the question, what miscalculations by our modern “sanction warriors” missed such a development?

8:57 AM · Mar 1, 2024

Ray McGovern, speaking with Judge Nap, suggested that George’s statement was a “straw in the wind.” You have to assume that George has made the same, if not stronger, statements to committees on the Hill. And perhaps this knowledge was behind Marco Rubio’s distancing from Ukraine over the weekend—stating that he had always known that Ukraine couldn’t win. Mike Johnson must also know. Is this what’s behind the continued refusal by Johnson to send more billions to be divided up by the corrupt Ukraine puppet government? Like Rubio, Johnson must know that the American people do not support shoveling more billions to Ukraine.

Here’s McGovern:

General Randy George, the highest US Army official, Chief of Staff for the Army, was in Washington three days ago, and this wasn't publicized for obvious reasons. But he said, You know, it's a real bad idea, it's a mistake to underestimate the Russians. They have incredible industrial capability, they're not going to stop, it would be really bad to underestimate what the Russians can do.

Now that's sort of a playback to Madeline Albright saying to saying to Chief of Staff Colin and Powell, Hey, you got this great Army, for God's sake why don't you use it? And she persuaded that to happen in the Balkans. Okay, here are people in the White House who never wore a uniform, don't know from Shinola what war is like, and they're going to tell the Army Chief of Staff what to do, and Ukraine.

I think this is another straw in the wind blowing in the right direction, where the head of the Army is saying, Look you guys, don't underestimate Russia.

I’ll end with a remarkable interview of Judge Nap and Doug Macgregor. Macgregor doesn’t pull any punches. Among other things, he maintains that the US is simply attempting to bluff Russia—and that Russia knows it. The judge sets it up by asking, Are we waging war on Russia? Macgregor waxes eloquent in discussing how out of control things have gotten. Scholz appears, improbably, to be the sane Western leader, because he feels the risk and feels the fear inspired by Russia’s very clear statements about escalation. Macron and Sunak, by contrast, seem to still believe that the US can provide them with a shield that will protect them from their miscalculations. Macgroger states that the situation is now as serious as it has ever been since the start of the war on Russia. As a result the Army Chief of Staff is having to go public to communicate the lack of preparedness of the US military by emphasizing the very high level of preparedness of Russia’s military. This is a must listen.