Ukraine Tweets, Mostly Political In Orientation

As usual, these tweets are hopefully thought provoking yet mostly self explanatory.

First off he mark, a series of very acute tweets by George Szamuely:

George Szamuely @GeorgeSzamuely

A mistake? That's the coy word media "insiders" use to describe Western-led calamities. Vietnam, Iraq, Libya, etc--all mistakes. Note the shift of responsibility onto Ukraine. No, it was NATO that refused to reconsider its promise of NATO membership!

ian bremmer @ianbremmer

@ggreenwald agree. whatever you think of the perspective, should get a serious airing. (my view: ukraine’s refusal to reconsider their nato status was a huge mistake)

George Szamuely @GeorgeSzamuely

History will be very harsh on him. Blinken & Austin were pushing for rapid induction of Ukraine into NATO: "the road is open," etc. Then, from December 2021 on, Biden failed to urge Zelensky to take Minsk implementation talks seriously. Biden knew how serious the situation was.

Hans Mahncke @HansMahncke

History will judge Biden harshly for what has happened in Ukraine. He greenlighted the 2014 coup but then protected a corrupt oligarch in exchange for money. He blamed Russia for his son's laptop. Worst of all, he pushed for NATO membership when he knew it was a Russian red line. https://t.co/wrX7o2EDDi

George Szamuely @GeorgeSzamuely

During the Cold War, NATO was regarded as a joke. No one gave it a moment's thought. Who the hell even knew the name of a NATO secretary-general? All that mattered was the US. The 30-year-long effort to turn NATO into the centerpiece of Western strategy has been a calamity.

And this last one brings up the disaster of the Establishment’s 2020 coup in the US:

George Szamuely @GeorgeSzamuely

Well, we are all paying a heavy price for Biden's becoming president. The end of NATO would have been a godsend for the whole world.

The Washington Post @washingtonpost

Former national security John Bolton told The Post that he thinks former president Donald Trump would have pulled the United States out of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization had he been reelected in 2020. https://t.co/JPv4dCJ5tk

Next—it’s reassuring to know that nothing could possibly go wrong with sanctions:

Joshua Landis @joshua_landis

Sanctions on Russia show China that it's $3.3 trillion in currency reserves are not safe. The dollar and US treasuries are not a safe haven. This reality will force countries, fearful of US freezing their funds, to develop other options. wsj.com/articles/if-cu… via @WSJ

wsj.comIf Russian Currency Reserves Aren’t Really Money, the World Is in for a ShockSanctions have shown that currency reserves accumulated by central banks can be taken away. With China taking note, this may reshape geopolitics, economic management and even the international role of the U.S. dollar.

Aaron Maté hammers away at the bleeding obvious—but, really, it can’t be over emphasized. This is a total bi-partisan screwup. “Bi-partisan” being a euphemism for what Sundance calls the Uniparty:

Aaron Maté @aaronjmate

US policy of using Ukraine as cannon fodder has accompanied a bid to incorporate it into NATO. Compounding the danger, US has also dismantled the Cold War-era arms control treaties that limit the arsenals of the world's two top nuclear powers. mate.substack.com/p/by-using-ukr…

Pay attention to the second of these two tweets by Hans Mahncke:

Hans Mahncke @HansMahncke

In essence, NATO is a list of countries that the US has promised to defend, sacrificing its own blood and treasure in the process. The list should inherently be a very short one. But 30 years of foreign policy folly has made the list a lot longer and the world a lot less safe.

George Szamuely @GeorgeSzamuely

During the Cold War, NATO was regarded as a joke. No one gave it a moment's thought. Who the hell even knew the name of a NATO secretary-general? All that mattered was the US. The 30-year-long effort to turn NATO into the centerpiece of Western strategy has been a calamity.

Hans Mahncke @HansMahncke

Neocons are using the war to realign the GOP back to its pre-Trump ways. Trump himself seems to be on the fence. Astounding that no one in the America First camp has stepped up to emerge from Trump's shadow.

Mike Pence @Mike_Pence

To those who argue that NATO expansion is somehow responsible for the Russian invasion of Ukraine...Ask yourself, where would our friends in Eastern Europe be today if they were not in NATO? Where would Russian tanks be today if NATO had not expanded the borders of freedom? https://t.co/3agnZ9kMCB

Logically, this should lead to a seismic shift in US politics, with knuckleheads like Pence disgraced from public life. Are the American people paying attention?