World War Roundup
Today the WaPo has run an article that should be major news—as major as the Seymour Hersh reporting on the US terror attack on the Nordstream 2 pipeline. There are some common aspects to the two stories. The Hersh revelations regarding the US terror attack wasn’t exactly news—right from the get-go, no honest person doubted that the US was behind the terror attack. The value that Hersh added was detail regarding the political process within the Zhou regime that led up to the attack. Similarly, the WaPo isn’t actually telling us anything that we didn’t already know with moral certainty about the direct US involvement in the war, but it does in a sense provide confirmation from official regime sources:
US military personnel at a European base provide GPS-targeting for Ukrainian rocket systems
The Washington Post ^ | February 9, 2023 | Isabelle Khurshudyan , Dan Lamothe , Shane Harris and Paul SonneKYIV, Ukraine — Ukrainian officials said they require coordinates provided or confirmed by the United States and its allies for the vast majority of strikes using its advanced U.S.-provided rocket systems, a previously undisclosed practice that reveals a deeper and more operationally active role for the Pentagon in the war.
The disclosure, confirmed by three senior Ukrainian officials and a senior U.S. official, comes after months of Kyiv’s forces pounding Russian targets — including headquarters, ammunition depots and barracks — on Ukrainian soil with the U.S.-provided High Mobility Artillery Rocket System, or HIMARS, and other similar precision-guided weapons such as the M270 multiple-launch rocket system.
One senior Ukrainian official said Ukrainian forces almost never launch the advanced weapons without specific coordinates provided by U.S. military personnel from a base elsewhere in Europe. Ukrainian officials say this process should give Washington confidence about providing Kyiv with longer-range weapons.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Two points here. First, is the issue of whether this revelation is part of the continuing drip, drip, drip of leaks and studies that appear to be targeting Zhou regime policies with regard to World War 3. These leaks appear to come largely from the Pentagon. Second, the focus of this revelation/confirmation—for those who choose to look past the literal details—is that the US is engaged in a hot war against a peer nuclear power, with no input from our elected representatives. It may be that the “senior US official” (notice how vague that attribution is) also intends this revelation as a sort of wake up call to our elected representatives in the hope that they will take their constitutional responsibilities seriously. The two aims are not mutually exclusive. The idea that the US should wander into a world war without any significant deliberation is a clear sign that our constitutional republic is a dead letter when it comes to foreign policy. It’s a measure of how moribund that political order now is that there are virtually no voices calling for caution or restraint.
I’m not holding my breath waiting for examples of responsibility from our ruling class—that’s not what they’re paid for, after all. Even supposed “principled conservatives” have largely covered themselves with shame, bowing to the war mongering lobby. Perhaps Rep. Mike Rogers’ suggestion that the war needs to end by summer was a sort of toe in the water—we’ll have to see. If so, it’s happening very much behind the scenes. Although Matt Taibbi and Jeff Gerth have recently confirmed that the whole Russia Hoax was part of a narrative that has played a huge role in silencing critics of the Neocon global war machine, law professor Jonathan Turley has a brief article (picked up at Zerohedge) that shows that this tactic continues to control most of the MSM narrative:
Even after the collapse of the Russian collusion investigation, Democrats seem to be doubling down on labeling opponents as Russian lovers and Putinites.
Yesterday, I testified at a hearing with members of Congress who want the House to investigate possible FBI abuses. One of the witnesses, former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, testified how her anti-war positions led to her being labeled a Russian asset by Hillary Clinton. Not to be outdone, MSNBC contributor and former Senator Claire McCaskill appeared on MSNBC following the hearing to denounce Senator Chuck Grassley and Sen. Ron Johnson as “Putin apologists” and Putin lovers.
McCaskill went on MSNBC’s Deadline: White House to declare “I mean, look at this, I mean, all three of those politicians are Putin apologists. I mean, Tulsi Gabbard loves Putin.”
(For the record, she also attacked me as not being “a real lawyer.”)
…
Will Schryver is totally on board with the notion that the Rand and CSIS reports are Pentagon directed warning calls to Congress to take steps to rein in Zhou’s Neocon puppet masters:
On the ground …
Yesterday we noted Austrian military expert Markus Reisner’s apparent confirmation that up to 20,000 Poles are fighting in Ukrainian uniforms. Again, not really news. The Poles are the largest NATO contingent engaged in the fighting on the ground—as opposed to doing the targeting remotely—but there are plenty of others. It appears that the evacuation of Bakhmut has begun, and that raises the issue of the fate of NATO personnel:
Foreign mercenaries are urgently withdrawn from Artyomovsk [the Russian name for Bakhmut]. The city is getting ready
Residents of Chasov Yar, which is located outside Artyomovsk, report that foreign mercenaries are being evacuated from the city for the second day, who are being taken out in cars towards Konstantinovka and Kramatorsk.
Local residents also note helicopter departures twice a day at low altitudes in the same direction. This mode of transport is likely used to evacuate important foreign personnel and wounded mercenaries.
Mobilized Ukrainians are sent to "compensate" the departed foreigners to hold the front. A mercenary is much more expensive for Kyiv than a forcibly mobilized citizen of Ukraine.
Let’s wrap up with some brief items.
Larry Johnson remains on the Chinese balloon case. The fact—known but largely misinterpreted by the hysterics—that NORAD was fully aware of the balloon well before it veered southeast, suggests strongly that there are procedures in place for dealing with such aircraft. Wow! What a surprise!
Next, I want to highly recommend this half hour video that features Jeffrey Sachs. The discussion starts with the Nordstream terror attack but then spends significant time on the recent interview with former Israeli PM Naftali Bennett. Bennett’s interview pretty much pulled the veil back on what caused the end of peace negotiations between Russia and Ukraine in April, 2022—also revealing how close to a final agreement those negotiations were before the US put a stop to them.
And finally, a reminder of what our Western values are, and why Russia must be destroyed:
Impressive speech by Putin - and one that even 20 years ago would have hardly raised a ripple. It's been a steep learning curve for many of us here. Those same 20 years ago, we believed we lived in democracies that stood in theory, if not in practice, for the highest human values. Fast forward to today and we find that it is our countries that are the enemy of mankind and that a nation we former Cold War warriors spent our youths opposing is now the torch bearer for the only values that matter.
I used to view Jeffrey Sachs as a run-of-the-mill globalist. His betrayal of the cabal regarding both Covid and Russia is truly remarkable.