W.J. Astore
Say “no” to killing, “no” to war
Two articles I read yesterday are typical of polarized, indeed antithetical, views on the Russia-Ukraine War.
At the British Guardian, Simon Tisdall says this is Europe’s moment to step up and support Ukraine in a righteous war against Putin. He concludes, with passion:
Zelenskiy is right. Risk-averse Nato has been too slow and too cautious from the start. To outpace tyranny, Europe must fight – and fight to win. Our common future depends on it.
Putin, the tyrant, must be stopped in Ukraine, or Poland and Germany could be next. Fighting to win means that Ukraine must be given not only hundreds of Leopard 2 tanks but also combat jets. The combination of tanks, jets, and related ancillary equipment will enable Ukraine to drive Russian forces out of the country in a quasi-Blitzkrieg operation. Victory to the West!
At Antiwar.com, Edward Curtin predicts Russia will win this war even as he suggests it’s mainly the West’s fault for inciting it via NATO expansion and U.S. involvement in the 2014 coup in Ukraine:
we are being subjected to a vast tapestry of lies told by the corporate media for their bosses, as the US continues its doomed efforts to control the world. It is not Russia that is desperate now, but propagandists such as the writers of this strident and stupid editorial [by the New York Times]. It is not the Russian people who need to wake up, as they claim, but the American people and those who still cling to the myth that The New York Times Corporation is an organ of truth. It is the Ministry of Truth with its newspeak, doublespeak, and its efforts to change the past.
Which is it? Is this a war that the U.S. and NATO must win, along with Ukraine, to stop an evil and expansionist dictator, or is this a war that the U.S. and NATO provoked, and surely will lose, given Russia’s military superiority empowered in part by the justice of its cause?
To me, the disturbing part of such polarized, us versus them, views is that they really guarantee only one thing: more fighting and more death. Let the weapons flow and the body count grow: that is the result of these debates.
War, as almost any military historian will tell you, is inherently unpredictable. I have no idea who’s going to “win” this war. I do know the Ukrainians are losing. I say this only because the war is being fought on their soil, and the longer it lasts, the more Ukraine will suffer.
That doesn’t mean I want Ukraine to surrender, nor do I want it to lose. But I don’t think it will win with more Western tanks and planes. Just about any escalation by the West can be matched by Russia. I see further stalemate, not Blitzkrieg-like victories, and stalemate means more and more suffering.
It’s said the pen can prove mightier than the sword. Why not try talking in place of tanks? Put those mighty pens to work by signing an armistice or even an enduring peace treaty. Ukraine and Russia are neighbors; unless they want perpetual war, they must find a way to live together.
More weaponry to Ukraine is unlikely to produce decisive victory, but it is likely to produce far more death and destruction in that country. It’s high time both sides said “no” to killing, “no” to yet more war.
Bracing Views 
Zbigniew Brzezinski, President Jimmy Carter’s National Security Advisor from 1977 to 1981 –
“It cannot be stressed enough that without Ukraine, Russia ceases to be an empire, but with Ukraine suborned and then subordinated, Russia automatically becomes an empire.”
The US WAR with Russia over Ukraine was already in the works when President Clinton ordered NATO to advance toward Russia after the Promise was given that would never happen..
Brzezinski was alive and well starting The Trilateral Commission having the ear of President Clinton, convincing him what he said in the late 70s still applied in 1993-2001
TODAY we can see that long held US objective and plan being played out in Ukraine with horrific consequences for Ukrainians.
They are the pawns fighting that long planned US WAR with Russia in the larger US Vision and Goal of being the only unchallenged POWER on Earth, able to set the Rules in the Rules Based Order for the other Nations on Earth to follow, the US being the only Exceptional Nation except for Israel!
The rise of China started with the fall of Soviet Russia in 1991.
When NATO Today is following Zbigniew Brzezinski’s objective to the letter, with the US and it’s 30 NATO suborned European Nations making it 31 Nations against Russia, that’s WWIII in the making.
We may pass the point of no return in this Year of The Lord 2023?
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The latest Ukraine analysis with Col. Douglas Macgregor this afternoon
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COL M.’s analysis makes sense to me, but I don’t know how reliable his sources are. He certainly has much more knowledge of day-to-day ops than I do.
Only time will tell — time, and the test of battle, since it seems only a few people have the courage to talk of peace. No — let’s kill kill kill. Let’s be real men.
Blessed are the warmakers? I don’t recall that in the Gospel.
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About “talk of peace,” Civil War veteran Ambrose Bierce wrote in his Devil’s Dictionary:
“Peace. n. A period of cheating between two periods of fighting.”
In keeping with this cynical definition, recent/former officials/spokespersons for the U.S. government, Kiev Regime, Germany, and France have now publicly admitted that talks of “peace” with the Russian Federation had only the purpose of stalling for time until the Kiev Regime’s de-facto NATO army could build itself up sufficiently to launch the next great attack on Russian speaking Ukrainians with the ultimate goal of destabilizing Russia itself. Therefore, the Russians now have no one with whom to talk peace. So the current period of fighting will have to settle all contentious issues (in Europe, at least) until the Collected Waste cries “uncle” and begins the next period of cheating.
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Real Clear Defence – ‘Van Jackson Blames America First in the Asia-Pacific’
Since the Battle of Midway in the Second World War, the United States has dominated the Pacific Ocean. It used that dominance to push back and ultimately destroy the imperial Japanese empire. It used that dominance to wage Cold War against the Soviet Union and its allies in Asia. It used (and uses) that dominance to assure the free flow of trade and commerce. Today, it uses that dominance to contain the rising and threatening power of China. But Van Jackson thinks it is the United States, not China, that is seeking to undermine the stability of the Asia-Pacific.
Jackson teaches international relations at Victoria University in Wellington, New Zealand. He writes a far-left newsletter where he has called America “the preeminent revisionist power.” Jackson’s latest diatribe against American “hegemony” appears in Foreign Affairs. In it he lashes out in bi-partisan fashion at Presidents Obama, Trump, and Biden for what he views as their efforts to maintain U.S. primacy in the Pacific. Obama launched the “pivot to Asia.” Trump launched a “trade war” against China and “deepened” ties with Taiwan. Biden, he writes, is attempting “to assemble the beginnings of an anti-Chinese containment coalition along with local Asian powers.” According to Jackson, these U.S. policies “run headlong into what the preservation of peace demands.”………………………………………
https://www.realcleardefense.com/articles/2023/01/25/van_jackson_blames_america_first_in_the_asia-pacific_877687.html
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Written by – Elijah J. Magnier:
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg has stressed that “Ukraine should be supported with more weapons to overcome Russia”. That’s what most of NATO has been doing since 2014, years before the war started last February 2022. In fact, it was common knowledge that “the US was dragging the world towards war with Russia”. Washington’s efforts were rewarded with the West’s direct implication and support of US policy and objectives to support a war in Europe, regardless of the consequences on the continent and the slim outcome on the battlefield. Through its prime minister, Poland announced its “readiness to take unprecedented steps to supply Ukraine with German Leopard-2 tanks, even without the consent of Berlin,” the country of manufacture, which has the right to decide on the final user of its tanks. Germany will not stand in the way of Poland sending the Leopard 2 tanks. The Western media are desperately stressing the importance of delivering German tanks to Ukraine as if it would change the course of the entire war. Under incredible pressure, however, Germany hasn’t ruled out the supply of the tanks if all the Western countries agree to share the consequences and possible Russian reaction. But can these weapons liberate and restore the tens of thousands of square kilometres occupied by Russia since the beginning of the war, when the Leopard 2A4 was crushed in Syria?
General Mark Milley, the chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, replies: “From a military standpoint, I still maintain that it would be very, very difficult this year to dislodge Russian forces from every inch of Ukraine militarily. The US commander-in-chief inadvertently suggested that the war and Western aid would continue for years. The US has no intention of stopping a war that costs little and in which no US soldier has died in the fiercest battle it is fighting against another superpower, even if the war’s outcome is known.
Oleksiy Arestovych, a (formal) adviser to the Ukrainian president, shared Milley’s view and said that “it is unlikely that Ukraine will win the war”. Arestovych, a driving force behind the Ukrainian cause, quoted the Polish prime minister as saying that “it is not known whether Ukraine will survive”.
Josep Borrell, the European Coordinator for External Relations and Vice-President of the European Commission, announced that ‘Europe’s stocks of arms and ammunition have been depleted after sending what was needed to Ukraine’. Borrell revealed that ‘Europe has realised that it lacks critical defence capabilities to protect itself from an increased threat on the European continent’. Europe’s shortage of weapons and ammunition has become a threat to the security of NATO and its military stockpile.
Europe is not alone in the running out of weapons to send to Ukraine. The USA is in the same situation. The Pentagon is dipping into its stockpile in Israel to keep the flame of war in Ukraine alive. The US stockpile of 155-millimetre rockets has been seriously depleted and is sparking concern in Washington. This means that Russia’s war has depleted NATO’s stockpiles and put its nations in a critical position before it has even completed its first year.
Despite US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin’s announcement that ‘Russia’s stockpiles are running low”, the fighting continues at the same pace, with the Russian army deploying its long-range missiles, artillery and infantry logistical support daily. The forces are advancing on the battlefield to reach the main towns of Bakhmut after taking control of Solidar, regularly bombing major cities with dozens of missiles.
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‘Ukraine Rocked By Corruption Scandal, Wave Of Top Officials Resign: Sports Cars, Mansions & Luxury Vacations As People Suffered’
The Ukrainian government on Tuesday confirmed the resignation of multiple high ranking officials amid large-scale corruption allegations, in what’s being called the biggest mass resignation and graft scandal since the Russian invasion began.
Some dozen officials have quit their posts after a huge political shake-up over allegations and probes into cases ranging from bribery, to mismanagement of aid funds for purchasing food, to embezzlement, to driving expensive cars while common people suffer under wartime conditions.
A top presidential adviser and four deputy ministers – among these two defense officials, along with five regional governors were forced out of their posts. And among the regional governors to step down included officials overseeing regions which have seen intense fighting, including the Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions, where Russian forces have lately reported gains…………………………………
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/ukraine-rocked-corruption-scandal-wave-top-official-resignations-sports-cars-mansions
The US/NATO MSM as MICC Propagandists calling Daily for more Weapons and more Death and Destruction in Ukraine with this US WAR vs Russia over Ukraine in NATO, don’t hype this expose of the Truth of what’s really happening in Ukraine that is as Authoritarian as US/NATO allegations against Russia.
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A written Opinion article by Scott Ritter, ‘The Nightmare of NATO Equipment Being Sent to Ukraine’
The West’s recent approval of more military assistance for Kiev risks nuclear nightmare, fails Ukrainian expectations and rebukes the World War II history enshrined in a prominent Soviet war memorial in Berlin.
On Tuesday the White House decided that it would send about 30 M1 Abrams tanks to Ukraine, which was seen as political cover for Germany, which decided to ship 14 Leopard 2 tanks to Kiev.
https://consortiumnews.com/2023/01/24/scott-ritter-the-nightmare-of-nato-equipment-being-sent-to-ukraine/
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I’m a Fan of The Duran. I think Alexander Mercouris is generally right in his down-to-earth analysis of
THE WAR.
There’s a lot of speculation in this discussion with Alex based on educated guesswork, possibilities, probabilities and totally plausible.
‘Isolating Zelensky. Collective West builds intervention force for west Ukraine’
https://rumble.com/v26xuze-isolating-zelensky.-collective-west-builds-intervention-force-for-west-ukra.html
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‘Time is on Russia’s side as Moscow carefully positions for an offensive’
This past week the Russian army continued its slow, crawling offensive in Donbass and the region of Zaporozhe. In Donbass, the Russians moved into the suburbs of Bakhmut, the key stronghold of the Ukrainian defensive lines, and are close to an operational encirclement of the city. They reduced their assaults against Mariyino, deciding that it was not worth the losses that would be incurred against strong Ukrainian defenses, and instead moved the center of their attacks from the southeast. Russian military sources cite considerable Russian success but caution that it’s too early to speak about a full operational encirclement of Bakhmut.
Russia’s problem remains the lack of sufficient manpower to lock up the city completely. Moscow continues to proceed slowly so as to minimize casualties. Western media has reported high Russian losses, but these unconfirmed reports do not seem accurate. Independent military experts cite the ratio of losses in Bakhmut as 1:9 in Russia’s favor. In part, this is a result of the overwhelming Russian superiority in artillery and aviation, but the main cause of high Ukrainian casualties is the deployment of poorly-trained draftees recruited in some cases only days before deployment………………..
You have to scroll down past all the Charts to get to the meat in the article.
https://mailchi.mp/atimes/risk-of-wider-war-means-volatility-oil-and-cheap-us-dollars-are-cheap?
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‘Long-range weapons could provoke a Russia-NATO war’
Washington faces a deadly choice: Accept a humiliating stalemate or an even more humiliating Russian victory, or risk full-scale war with Russia.
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In June 1963, President Kennedy uttered the essential truth that can keep us alive today:
“Above all, while defending our own vital interests, nuclear powers must avert those confrontations which bring an adversary to a choice of either a humiliating retreat or a nuclear war. To adopt that kind of course in the nuclear age would be evidence only of the bankruptcy of our policy–or of a collective death-wish for the world.”
Russia tried every way to get the US and Europe to negotiate a new Security Agreement for Europe with a Neutral Ukraine and the US refused to even consider in December 2021.
Russia finally woke up and realized appeasing the US and The West for Inclusion was a waste of Time. The US can’t be Trusted.
Russia does find itself facing an Existential Threat from US dominated NATO.
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After getting their Tanks, this is how they say “Thanks”… :
UKRAINE WILL NEED ‘FIGHTER JETS’ AFTER TANKS, FORMER PRESIDENT SAYS
While Germany’s Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine will “improve the situation”, what Kyiv really needs are fighter jets, Ukraine’s former president told Euronews.
“The real game changer now is the jet fighter. We should immediately launch training programmes for Ukrainian pilots and prepare to deliver them to Ukraine,” said Petro Poroshenko.
NATO countries have spent months debating whether to send modern battle tanks to Ukraine because of concerns it could be seen as an escalation by Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Chancellor Olaf Scholz agreed to do so on Wednesday and invited other countries to send theirs too. The US also announced plans to send at least 30 M1 Abrams tanks to Ukraine.
However, a missing element for offensive and defensive operations is still air power.
Ukraine has been asking the West to provide modern fighter jets to protect Ukrainian skies from Russia since the beginning of the war. However, so far, none have been delivered.
“We also need attack helicopters and long-range missiles to reach logistic bases and Russian commanding centres. We should receive these now before Russia attempts its great spring offensive,” Poroshenko said.
“In the beginning, Western powers said they will help Ukraine ‘survive’. Not anymore, now, we should win. But to achieve this, we need to strengthen Ukrainian armed forces,” he added.
[And in case anybody had noticed, he concluded with] “Please don’t allow the corruption scandal to undermine trust between Ukraine and Europe,” he added. [Obviously quite sure the scandal is not a problem here in America for its government and media, or its people
Ukraine is no stranger to corruption. In 2021, the country was ranked 122 out of 180 countries in Transparency International’s ranking of corrupt states.
Full article at https://www.euronews.com/my-europe/2023/01/25/ukraine-will-need-fighter-jets-after-tanks-former-president-says
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