Since ancient times, the great civilizations have been divided into two distinct categories, land powers and sea powers. The best example is the rivalry between Athens and Sparta that culminated in the Peloponnesian wars. The Peloponnesian League was led by Sparta, the dominant land power. The Delian League was led by Athens, the dominant sea power. The great ancient conflict still casts a shadow over the West because the dynamic is still with us.
To be a great sea power requires different human capital than what is required of a land power, which makes them cultural opposites. As a result, they look at war differently and they fight their wars for different reasons. Sea powers tend to be driven by profit while land powers tend to be driven by cultural forces. Culture and economics play a role for both, but the priorities tend to be reversed. The sea power is moved to act by money while the land power is moved by cultural issues.
The Athenians were arguably the first financial empire. They built their power through shrewd business relations with the other city-states. The alliances that were established to fight the Persians quickly became a business for Athens. They provided security while their “allies” provided money and men for the ships. Their aggression toward the other city-states was driven by opportunities for trade and profit. The Athenian empire was as much about business as Athenian culture.
The Spartans, on the other hand, were not driven by profit. Their willingness to join the rest of Greece against the Persians was purely in defense. When the Athenians wanted to take the fight to the Persians after the Greeks had successfully driven the Persians back across the sea, the Spartans were not interested. Their eventual war with the Athenians was purely defensive from their point of view. It is probably why they chose not to obliterate Athens after they won the war.
We see the same dynamic today. The Global American Empire is the new Delian League, spreading democracy to the world at gun point. The Russian Federation is the new Peloponnesian League. The Cold War was often cast the same way, but it did not work as an analogy. The communists were just as obsessed with spreading their form of utopian politics as the West. This time it works as the Russians are at war with an ideological and financial empire.
The clash of cultures is clear. The GAE just assumed the Russians would do what the GAE always does in war, which is systematically destroy the civilization of the opposing culture with air power. The West is still puzzled as to why the Russians never unleashed shock and awe at the start of the war. Further, the West concluded that the incremental approach was due to a lack of resources. The GAE is a sea power so it thinks like a sea power and fights like one as well.
The Russian Federation is a land power, so putting on a big symbolic light show to start a war makes no sense to them. Sea powers move like the sea, while land powers move like the land, slowly and incrementally. This is why the Russians had not bothered to put together a public relations campaign for the West. They saw no point in it as their purpose was to force the Ukrainians to submit. That happens at the bargaining table and on the battlefield, not on Twitter.
Another contrast in the two sides is in the weapons. The Russian have the best air defenses in the world. They have the best artillery in the world. The GAE has the best air force in the world and the best navy in the world. This contrast is due to the assumptions of both sides. The Russians assume their great wars will be defensive while the GAE assumes its great wars will be offensive. The two contrasting worldviews results in two entirely different military postures.
This contrast in warfighting is turning up in the weapons. Land powers assume long wars of attrition so they plan accordingly. That means squeezing the maximum from the resources available. The Russians are famous for making cheap, reliable weapons that can be used by anyone. The Kalashnikov is the prime example. The new drones the Russians are now using follow the same pattern. They are cheap, easy to operate and extremely effective against enemy targets.
Sea powers have to assume short wars. You can only keep a fleet at sea for so long so you have to inflict maximum damage up front. A naval battle is not going to last months like a land battle, so you need to prepare for the short haul. In the old days, ships were expensive, complex weapons. Today, the jet fighter is the cutting edge of technology and human organization. All of America’s best weapons are complex systems that require lots of training to utilize.
The flip side of the time preference aspect is that sea powers can take a loss and bounce back quickly, while land powers take time to recover. The GAE suffered a humiliating defeat in Afghanistan, but quickly shook it off. The loss in Vietnam stung for a few years, but then the war machine was back in business. In contrast, the Russians needed decades to overcome the failure in Afghanistan. It has only been in the last decade that they have moved past it.
What that means for the Ukraine is that barring a collapse of the EU or the global financial system, the GAE will shake of this failure too. Whatever is left of Ukraine will be ignored and the GAE will turn its sights to some new opponent. Land powers must always be on defense, because it is their nature. Sea power must always be on offense, because it is their nature. That means when one war ends a new war must start, regardless of how the prior war ended.
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Oh, I see, so the VKS didn’t achieve air dominance in the first week of the war because the Kremlin was too worried that destroying all of Ukraine’s SA 300s and MiGs will prove too much of a blow for its enemy’s civilization. I bet they looked at the allied Gulf War I air campaign and said to themselves “Oh no! We must never do that! Never mind the Americans managed to minimize civilian casualties and leave most of the civilian infrastructure intact, but effectively destroying Ukraine’s ability to wage war is just too much of the shock and awe,… Read more »
I’m not a fan of Mackinder’s like theories (no, the one which control the heartland didn’t get control, see USSR).
I prefer Paul Kennedy. The side which control the more ressources (i.e. energy, human power) win.
China+Russia (and maybe Arabia+Iran+Brazil) will have more oil, gas,solid currency than GloboLGBT.
Also, they will have more troops, less fat tatooes garbage, and zero wokism.
This is a bit caricatural, I know, but that’s the way I see it in large scale.
West can’t survive unless it conquers the entire world. Otherwise, its currency will go full Weimar.
” Bill Clinton played an amusing character and was rewarded with the top job.”
That line indicates an IQ at least two standard deviations above the mean.
And just when you thought the DC filth couldn’t get more stupid, ignorant, arrogat and entitled:
https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/nopec-bill-would-mean-end-aramco-and-opec-we-know-them
What it will mean is the end of the West.
Not so. America/Greater Britannia are completely sufficient in energy.
Maybe you didn’t notice, but after Trump, we don’t need those losers in Arabia anymore. They can compete for hind-teat with the Sino-Russian gang now.
– An Aramco expat oil-field brat : 1 year in Ahwaz, Iran, 8 years in Saudi Arabia.
It’s high time we cut this gang loose.
Rolling Stone just dropped an article based on FOIA’d Pentagon info that claims the GAE’s Special Forces Olympics in Africa are going poorly:
https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/war-or-terror-africa-sahel-niger-pentagon-1234612083/
“The worsening security situation reflects most poorly on Special Operations Command Africa or SOCAFRICA”
—
Heaven help the poor souls that find themselves on the receiving end of a GAE military make-work project.
America will lose in Ukraine, but I don’t think they will shrug it off as easily as they did Afghanistan. Each new defeat grinds down the system and its reputation. It also pushes dying empires into even stupider military adventures. Look at we Brits and Suez, The Romans and their ever Eastward thrusts, the Athenians, etc. No one escapes the forces of history.
The future and legitimacy of GAE is on the line here. I suspect we will continue to fund insurrection groups, lay tougher sanctions on Russia, etc. from here on out. As we are finding out, Europe is too weak to fight back so outside of maybe the Visegrad countries, they will have no choice but to be dragged along. So all this will do is strengthen and fortify the second axis of Russia and China, with likely the Middle East and South Asia likely aligning with them. Our current “leadership” is so blind to ideology that they are eagerly destroying… Read more »
The argument between sea power (Alfred Thayer Mahon and The Influence of Seapower on History) versus land power (Halford MacKinder’s concept of the Heartland) has been going on a long time and isn’t likely to be resolved soon. I have a few observations. A sea power must have some land capability or have allies that do. Great Britain’s blockade of Germany in World War I was effective, but it required French, British (Commonwealth), American and (for three years) Russian troops to drive the Germans back and force them to agree to an armistice. Similarly the British blockade of Napoleon Bonaparte’s… Read more »
I would guess up until WW2, navies didn’t have to worry too much about a land based attack. But nowadays practically nowhere is safe for a naval group – that is unless you’re launching attacks against a landlocked third world s***hole. Cruise missiles, aircraft and drones have hundreds, if not thousands of miles range. I’m pretty sure Russia and China gave that kind of weaponry.
Moscow expected an instant coup in Ukraine akin to the takeover of Crimea. Three days, if we’re to believe the official statements. Moscow’s instincts may have led it into a worst of both worlds situation – land power speed and sea power waste.
I’m not convinced they expected a quick coup. I think they did the Kiev move in the hope that it might possibly provoke a coup, but I see no evidence that they put all their hopes on it doing so. The move was more to draw off the Ukrainian army from the East. I am sure, too, that Stavka knew in total detail about the massive investment in defences that the Ukies and the West had been putting in place since 2014 and did not expect a cake walk.
It’s hard to deduce from this distance how well Russia understands what it’s up against. I thought the tell was when Putin thought his domestic Great Patriotic War rhetoric was also fit for US/EU consumption—because Ukraine and the US/EU are both plagued by “Nazis.” Russia watches too much TV and believes what it says? Their next PR offensive was “biolabs”—which the US *immediately* confessed to, because we’re ruled by evil retards. And…Russia immediately dropped the subject. Z’s observation that Putin has been “legalistic” about things so far could be true. It’s an explicable error. Russia also can’t see from this… Read more »
“Moscow expected an instant coup in Ukraine akin to the takeover of Crimea. Three days, if we’re to believe the official statements. Moscow’s instincts may have led it into a worst of both worlds situation – land power speed and sea power waste.”
I wonder if there is really one official narrative they propogate in these cases or if they just spam a hundred different regime friendly garbage explanations all over the news and internet and see what takes. This seems like a particularly lame one and I don’t think it has much future.
NoOneAtAll: “…they just spam a hundred different regime friendly garbage explanations all over the news and internet and see what takes…” The Frankfurt School deploys an Inductivism** of Deductivism, wherein nearly infinitely many different pseudo-deductivistic narratives are tested upon target populations, with the Sanhedrin eventually settling upon that particular narrative which has the most psychological efficacy [and I imagine efficacy largely equals outright chutzpah, to include the very most blatant and obvious and grotesquely vulgar forms of projection]. **I.e. an Empiricism of Narration, promoting whichever narrative is most effective in pulling the wool over the eyes of the goyische idiots… Read more »
In regards to GAE being a sea power. I would note that in the past few years the U.S. Navy has had the following incidents: Lost a multiple billion dollar assault ship in drydock because the people working on the ship could not locate and push one of the many fire suppression system buttons on the ship, they are literally buttons. Lost two destroyers, for a long time, because the woke crews could not avoid huge container ships. Lost, for a long time, the Navy’s most advanced submarine because the woke crew could not avoid a geologic feature that rises… Read more »
Also, how potent is your sea power when your most prestigious units, the carriers, can be sunk by a cheap hypersonic missile or drone?
I suspect the carrier fleet is now totally useless against anything other than third world shitholes and even then if said shithole is buddies with Russia or China, they might be able to get their patron to install a few hypersonic cruise missiles for them. In that case it wouldn’t be that the shithole could “win” against America but sinking a carrier would be such a propaganda coup that even the risk might deter the GAE plotters. Admitting this is another matter. If the carrier fleet is really just about prestige the GAE planners need to weigh the value it… Read more »
Don’t forget the disaster that are the littoral combat ships.
Hey, don’t knock the LC’s: they are one of the Navy’s most dollar intensive ordinance delivery vectors.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=G15xcppebNg
While partially literal, the analogy/metaphor is meant more to demonstrate the opposing viewpoints / orientations of the respective cultures towards the purpose of war. It still works in that sense regardless of actual aptitude.
“Today, the jet fighter is the cutting edge of technology and human organization. All of America’s best weapons are complex systems that require lots of training to utilize.”
All this is very true, but one also has to consider the complex maintenance requirements needed to keep Top Gun in the air.
The maintenance per flight hour formula can look insane on paper. Not to mention part requirements during major inspection intervals.
One reason China keeps testing Taiwan’s air defense is that they are fully aware that Taiwan has a smaller air force with a much longer supply chain.
That makes the Taiwanese air force much less able to absorb the maintenance hours and materials required after every response to a Chinese incursion. It’s a war of attrition weighted in favor of the Chinese.
WGH,
Agreed. The Chinese has the distinct advantage of having those capabilities in house. No need to wait on the supply chain thousands of miles away to deliver a Flap, or Aileron.
China could simply blockade Taiwan completely.
It only 100 miles off the coast. The next nearest land is the Philippines over 700 miles.
“Land powers must always be on defense, because it is their nature. Sea power must always be on offense, because it is their nature. That means when one war ends a new war must start, regardless of how the prior war ended.”
There’s the seed here for some kinda muscular Taoism or realist-not-pessimist Spenglerism here. Life = War so just expect it and deal with it. Christians with their “Prince of Peace” lion/wolf lying down beating swords into ploughshares are just airheads.
Human nature + nuclear weapons
I suppose it’s good America forgot how to “win” a war because that one won’t have a winner.. inevitable.
Eay drink & be merry.
A Prince of Peace lion/wolf beating swords into ploughshares, all while lying down. Yeah, those Christians are seriously fucked up. Even Durer would have a hard time drawing that image.
The lion/wolf thing is supposed to happen at the end of the world. Meanwhile, the prince of this world is Satan. This is the Christian position.
You can believe in it or not but you should criticize the real position instead of a strawman.
“Christians with their “Prince of Peace” lion/wolf lying down beating swords into ploughshares are just airheads.”
Issue: self identified christian Russia currently militarily humiliating secular western dildocracy
fedoras: “see that’s why Christianity sucks!”
Either you are ignorant or deliberately misrepresenting the lion (it’s lamb, not wolf by the way) and ploughsare thing. That’s in reference to the Second Coming, not how things work before then.
Z Man and readers, did anyone listen to the Greg Johnson versus Mark Collett debate over the Ukraine war? Greg supports Ukraine and NATO and pretty much everyone else is against him.
I’m curious about anyone’s thoughts on Greg’s position.
I find Greg Johnson credible and highly intelligent and am surprised by his stance. I’m still trying to comprehend his arguments.
It looks like the debate has already been taken down from youtube but you can find a transcript of Greg’s opening statement at https://counter-currents.com/2022/10/the-ukraine-war-one-last-time/. He further discusses his position at https://counter-currents.com/2022/10/counter-currents-radio-podcast-no-496-the-ukraine-debate-afterparty/.
Here it is on Odysee https://odysee.com/$/download/Mark-Collett-vs.-Greg-Johnson—the-Ukraine-debate/19a14e9ee88a2a8b056f7be56a6c1bf0c300d81e
https://odysee.com/@joeldavis:0/Mark-Collett-vs.-Greg-Johnson—the-Ukraine-debate:1
Zman’s link didn’t work for me. Maybe this link is better?
I listened live, I thought Mark Collet made the most sense although I thought Greg’s opening statement was a good one. If the point was solely having different homelands for different peoples that would be great. Russia going into the Ukraine violates that principle however Greg seems to discount the GAE’s damage to that same principle way to much and he downplays what will happen to the Ukraine and everyone else in the world should there be no checks on the power of the American empire. The GAE is equally as damaging as any Russian invasion into Ukraine territory in… Read more »
Greg apparently has friends in the old Soviet republics, as I do, and Russians are not very popular in those countries lucky enough to escape complete Russian saturation. For example Latvia is barely Latvian majority, and in Riga Russians are the majority. It’s not hard to imagine Moscow cooking up a scheme whereby Russians declare Riga a motherland enclave, like Kaliningrad. Latvians (and other ex-Soviet countries) really do prefer the Western Tranny over the Russian Bear, if forced to choose. Also Mad Vlad does not take kindly to homosexuals, and Greg has let’s say a personal stake in that. Greg… Read more »
It is not the idea that he embodies based nationalism, it is that he does not blindly subscribe to the idea that the west and it’s rotted out culture of gender fluidity, homosexual deviancy and worshipping of criminal negros is the defacto morality that must be embraced by all the world.
I am not going to delude myself into thinking that Putin is the beacon of morality, but compared to the ruling class in this so called country he is a breath of fresh air.
amen, seconded, upvoted, etc.
Precisely. Putin’s war, is our war—even if we don’t readily see it. He fights for many of the values that we aspire to, but have neither the numbers or perhaps the balls to take to field in support of those values.
As far as Putin the man…well the last “perfect man” died two thousand years ago.
“Precisely. Putin’s war, is our war…”
And on the other hand. Putin’s war is not our war. Ukraine is not a NATO ally, so there is no obligation to drain our national coffers and plunge our European ‘allies’ into the Dark Ages.
Ukraine has a beef with Russia? Russia has a beef with Ukraine? Goes back to World War II, kind of like the non war Korean “war” – never ended. Japan is still at war with the Soviets last I checked.
Let’s you and him fight, no?
Owlman. “Our war”, meaning DR’s on this side of the divide. “Our war”, meaning DR’s might hope for Russia to be victor—as Russia recognizes/respects ethic boundaries between “their people” and others. “Our war”, meaning better Putin prevail than that libertine, GAE sock puppet, Zelinksky.
“Our war” does *not* mean that a single American should necessarily fight and die in Ukraine. Sorry for the poor wording.
Putin is doing a lot of the right things, including a major revival of the Russian Orthodox church, and he doesn’t tolerate any of the gender/sex insanity in Western culture…Good enough for me..
It looks like Russia is going to fully ban promotion of “non-traditional sexual relations” in all media, public gatherings and books.
Good for them. Free speech only has a chance of hell of working in an ethnostate. Free speech in a multiethnic society, especially one with Earth ‘repairing’ specials, is simply handing your enemy a sharp knife to cut your throat.
I suspect that Putin might just be able to cope with this Greg dude’s contempt. Putin knows what most sane people know: mainstreaming homosexuality is a key feature in the decline of civilisations.
I started reading Counter Currents after Jim Goad started writing for Greg Johnson’s site.
Psychologically, I find something “wrong” with Greg Johnson. Along the lines of too intellectual for his own good.
I don’t care how erudite or educated he is when he sides with a thug regime like Ukraine. Sorry Greg, no more donations from me.
Here is my best attempt at summarizing Greg’s arguments: Russia is a multicultural empire just like GAE. Russia may be opposed to the culture imperialism of GAE, like homosexual parades and drag queen story hour, but white nationalists are jailed in Russia. As badly as white nationalists are treated in the USA, we are not jailed as we would be in Russia. We have a better chance of succeeding under GAE than under Russia. Ukraine joining NATO does not mean its culture will be subverted. He mentions that Poland has been a member of NATO for 25 years and has… Read more »
Fair points. It could always be worse. The people who think of Putin as some kind of saviour are mistaken. He’s no saviour. His priority is implementing his vision of Russia and the Russian people – which we are mostly not a part of. That can directly oppose Americans and Brits. He doesn’t hate the West or want to destroy it. But he’s still Russian looking out for Russia’s interest. The only problem is that the Western leaders are insane and don’t see their own people as their own people with national interests. If the West wasn’t so insane and… Read more »
When I was in school, we were told that when trying to understand non-western history we had to put aside our biases and worldview and try to see events as the people saw them at the time. All these years later I remember when I learned the word ethnocentrism. That comes to mind when listening to Greg’s take on Ukraine and Russia. He is trying to jam the present into an ideological construct that is rooted in a past that never really existed.
Interestingly there is a Han nationalist on Gab that makes he same, distilled, point, that for all the sins of GAE, oriental despotism in worse in every way and that a win by the East is a loss to humanity in general. The argument has some holes in it and I can’t bring myself around to it, but at least in GJ’s case I can admit the argument has some merit as opposed to the “Putin Man Bad” arguments that we get from the rest of the Uke cheerleaders.
“oriental despotism in worse in every way”
I will grant you that it may be worse to live under that kind of despotism RIGHT NOW, but as the white proportion of the population continues to decline, this easier living in the west is doomed.
Most of the dissident arguments against the GAE are based around unsustainablility of this way of life with the changes it is making.
That’s the big hole, “colonialism writ large”. Sure it might (*big* might) be better for Russians to live under the GAE umbrella and act to destabilize China so that the Chinese can then live happily in one giant, gay Hong Kong, but none of that does anything for us poor saps who have to live under the auspices of the GAE proper. In fact, there’s every reason to think that GAE cranking out some big wins like that would make things a good deal worse.
Line In the Sand. I have only one rebuttal—take it for what it’s worth. If Iremember one thing about the Afghanistan debacle, it’s that of the news cameras and reporters in the end reporting in Kabul. Everyone panicking and attempting to secure passage out of that crap hole. One news crew decided to do an update report with the background of a huge mural of (saint) George Floyd next to the US embassy. Yep, the US State department people had painted a mural to that drug addled, Black felon. What other purpose could there be than an attempt to spread… Read more »
Don’t forget the rainbow flag being raised at the GAE embassy in Kabul about a month before evac
That’s an accurate summation, LitS. Johnson did a very good job of laying out his case but Collett utterly destroyed him. I think the primary reason is that Johnson could not square his case against ethnonationalism for the Russian peoples in the Crimea, Donetsk, and Luhansk with his case for ethnonationalism for the Ukraine. He barely tried, to be honest. Johnson is hardly alone there, of course. The US State Department and other Western governments also come up short in that regard when they try to justify themselves. It is somewhat perverse that Zelensky himself saw this contradiction and when… Read more »
GJ has some other stake or agenda in choosing Ukraine over Russia. For example, this paragraph out his post has the feel of an overly-emotional teenage girl-
“Post-Communist Russia is an obscenely rapacious oligarchy ruled largely by former Communists, including state security agents like Putin, tyrannizing over a profoundly degraded and demoralized populace with astonishingly high rates of alcoholism, drug abuse, divorce, abortion, HIV infection, and domestic violence.”
It’s over the top and not like him, from what I have read of his other writings.
Cannot imagine what it would be like to live in an obscenely rapacious oligarchy doing all those things.
Oh wait, I can in fact, and would prefer to avoid a nuclear exchange over it. Oh and LOL HIV infection being a reason to support Ukies. No self-interest there at all.
I don’t take political advice from sodomites.
I applaud Putin authorizing the police to beat the Pussy Riot filth despoiling the churches. I approve his statements and laws establishing marriage as being a man and a woman. I applaud his refusal to allow sodomites to adopt a child.
I applaud his recognition of Russians being a distinct people this a culture that should be protected.
He also issued a post on NATO and Ukraine/Russia today: https://counter-currents.com/2022/10/questions-on-nato-russia-ukraine/ His arguments are very spurious. For example, he argues that NATO nations are committed to defending white nations. However, nearly every government in NATO is hostile to its white indigenous and/or white heritage population. What good does being in a military alliance that says it is there to defend you, when the same government in that alliance is openly sponsoring the invasion of your homeland with the stated aim of replacing you? Moreover, said government is openly hostile to you and has made it so if you even speak… Read more »
“NATO has no real responsibility for this war for the simple reason that Ukraine joining NATO was a disposable pretext.”
This is actually embarrassing that he put his name to this.
Putin jails White Nationalists. Hmm, well as someone above pointed out, the NATO powers do that too. It’s also not clear what other beliefs or actions these putative Russian WNs had that the regime might have been offended by. Are we talking about Germanophiles who like to fly the Swastika flag and carry pictures of Hitler in demonstrations? I can sort of see why the Russian authorities might frown on that. It’s important to realize that the US is pretty unique in its freedom of speech. I’m not aware of any other country that is legally obligated to respect the… Read more »
Yeah, a lot of that isn’t just fantastical opinion but slippery deception and straight up lying. For example: “NATO’s member states are not “vassals” of America. What would happen if a NATO country tried to leave? Would there be regime change? Did America attack France in 1959 when she withdrew her Mediterranean naval fleet from NATO command? Did America attack when France refused to permit foreign nuclear weapons on its territory, forcing 200 US military aircraft out of France? Was France attacked in 1963 for withdrawing its Atlantic and Channel fleets from NATO command? Were there American tanks in the… Read more »
Remember a recent past event that taught us that anyone who’s ever included a graph in a political essay is a relentless liar?
It’s good to remember things.
It shouldn’t surprise anyone that Greg came out in favor of the GAE.
Haven’t seen that one , but in my friend group may have been convinced that ALL the press reports can’t be wrong. Surely they couldn’t ALL be lying . even Fox news ! so they make what would be a valid argument if all the crap about ukrain winning and russian war crimes were true. I think it’s your basic Gell-Mann Amnesia .
The Gell-Mann Amnesia has been fascinating the past year. If you take a look at the liberal/socialist independent news sites, they are solidly in the camp of “elites are lying to us about Ukraine” while adamantly convinced the same elites are being completely honest about climate change and that’s where we need to let them have all the power to remake the world, obviously. Its hilarious, disturbing, and sad.
Gell-Man Amnesia is a real thing. We have watched people who were cowering in dark closets, faces draped in rags, convinced a year later to puff out their chests and dare Putin to drop nukes on them. This has become the perfect totalitarian society, and Gell-Man was required to get there.
These times are unprecedented. We have a whole civilization – led by the US – gripped by guilt, fear, resentment, self-hatred and covert suicidal motivations; a civilization that is systematically and deliberately destroying its own functionality from the top down – but passively accepted by a distracted, cowardly and mind-controlled populace (self-destruction now under a mere veneer of the most incoherent, and indeed insane, excuses). This is not about bouncing-back from setbacks imposed by other parties – this is something the West has been doing to itself for several generations; and still getting worse. The war is self-destructive, the ‘sanctions’… Read more »
I do not have any hope for the white race. IMHO, the most basic tenet of any species is self preservation. The fact that whites have completely given up the right to exist tells me we are a dying breed with no end in sight. Just look at the family of that white football star in Georgia who was shot and killed by the feral apes. The father and girlfriend couldn’t wait to profess their forgiveness and even go so far as to defend them for not having a proper up bringing. The madness of this is exactly what drives… Read more »
Somewhat off topic, but I read yesterday that a lab at Boston university gas created some kind of hybrid omicron strain that supposedly had an 80% fatally rate in the mice that were exposed to it. WTF? My first thought is how can this even be allowed? Then I quickly remember it’s the US government and it all makes sense. Sure has Eugyppius in a rightful snit, as should everybody be. Coming at us from all sides.
Well put, Tired Citizen.
My attitude is that I didn’t leave my country or my people, they left me.
And what’s worst of all? No-one gives a damn! Because there’s a sale at Walmarts and Kim Kardashian has just done another great Tik Tok video. I’ve always doubted that the human race would survive. Now I don’t think it even deserves to survive.
So , we have ” guilt, fear, resentment, self-hatred and covert suicidal motivations; a civilization that is systematically and deliberately destroying its own functionality from the top down – but passively accepted by a distracted, cowardly and mind-controlled populace” .
and Who generated all of this ? these things don’t just happen. Who is pulling the strings of the culture?
“Who generated all of this?”
The ugly reality is that most people are human cattle. Either you have an indigenous ruling class driving them towards civilizational behaviors that improve prosperity, stability, and perpetuation, or eventually the other will drive YOUR cattle straight over the cliff for their fun and profit. The old WASP ruling class got lazy and stupid and took a hands off approach at the same time they let non-European non-Christians into our country in large numbers.
“What that means for the Ukraine is that barring a collapse of the EU or the global financial system, the GAE will shake of this failure too.” This is the only part of the essay I can quibble with. There are too many problems coming home to roost in the GAE. Victory in Ukraine (whatever that means) might buy some time. Defeat there will accelerate the decline and retreat and arguably turn the retreat into a rout. The GAE needs the resources of Eurasia as an imperative. Only this can stave off imminent implosion. And this imperative explains the bone-headed… Read more »
> Victory in Ukraine (whatever that means) might buy some time. Defeat there will accelerate the decline and retreat and arguably turn the retreat into a rout.
The U.S. Military has a massive legitimacy crisis right now. Defeat in Ukraine is largely a matter of personal honor now, which is why there is no real off-ramp anymore. My major fear is that they will want to show off one of their new top secret sci-fi toys to the world to put awe and fear back into their hearts. At that point of escalation it’s hundreds of millions dead.
I think defeat in the Ukraine means no more reserve currency and the Europeans flip. That is why it is so important to those who dictate to us. None of the reasons they actually give.
I feel one of the GAE goals of the Ukraine conflict is to implode the euro and try to force Europe into the USD on punitive terms as a means of propping up the USD printing press.
Ah. Taking out their next strongest competitor, before China becomes a self-sufficient domestic economy.
The calculations are that China gets old before it can get rich, and that the West’s brown replacements can keep things running at some level.
That’s the fear: go big or go bust. I hope there are some sane voices left in the Pentagon. Because there are none in the WH.
Wild how it never crossed their minds to exploit the resources of North and South America.
Just a guess, but that would be an American policy, and GAE ultimately isn’t American.
Sea Peoples lol. Sorry, can’t help noticing.
A la 1187 BC bronze age collapse
https://youtu.be/nmGuy0jievs
“War has changed.”— Solid Snake. 🤣
England was the great sea power up until WW1 and they were forever meddling in other places around the world throughout the 19th century – and mostly for economic reasons – though they would often also attempt to spread their way of life and modernity. Once they’d establish a beachhead or colony, they’d have to help keep it supplied and protected. If the local natives got uppity, a punitive expedition would be sent to deal with the heathen – sometimes successfully, sometimes not. Of course once word came of trouble, it might be months before help could arrive. There’s a… Read more »
Delian League, Carthaginians, Vikings, Pirate Age- mayhaps Painter’s on to something with that Sea Peoples crack.
That’s why God made the oceans so big, to discourage that sort of thing. He knew what would happen when people go naval.
Forgot one- Tahitians, Maori. The Polynesians weren’t exactly known for their gentle ways, even though they lived in a tropical paradise.
A well thought out piece but I disagree that the US will bounce back from this for several reasons. – military recruitments have dived. Would you enlist to fight Russians (arguably a peer to the US, and possibly the second most formidable military in the world) – led by officers that are degenerates, perverts, and diversity hires? – veterans with experience gained in several deployments are bailing out in droves, taking early retirement, see above for reasons. – even if the military could recruit, finding young men that don’t do drugs, are physically fit and intellectually capable grows harder every… Read more »
US military is mostly a welfare program, but it does have an amazing tip of the spear. That’s what they rely on. Our plane, pilots, missiles, surveillance, etc. The Americans are relying on our technology and training (at the very high end) to wipe the floor with the Russians and anyone else. I have no idea if they’re right or wrong, but they assumption is that our tech and high-end personnel would wipe out the Russian or Chinese military and infrastructure from afar until they submit. To use Z’s sea power analogy, we’d just sit off the coast of their… Read more »
“I’m just saying that they don’t believe that they need a huge army of mediocre recruits. They need a small number of very highly-trained people handling super high-tech weapons designed by engineers nowhere near the battlefield.” They’ve no choice in the matter and they know it. They know Americans are unwilling to tolerate large numbers of casualties. Few American soldiers are willing to die for the empire. This is in contrast to Russia and China, where their conflicts will be defensive in character. Americans are okay with war as long as it’s a spectacle they can watch on television. Recall… Read more »
I get this on a personal level. I was in the army right around the time that all of the new toys (hand-held GPS, aim point sights, etc) began to circulate through the ranks. The senior people in my unit still insisted we continue to train with everything we still had. The hand-held GPS is a perfect example. We still trained with traditional maps and plotted grid squares. Their reasoning was simple, with our luck we’ll be in the one place where the satellite won’t be able to “talk” to the thingy in your hand to give us a position… Read more »
Couldn’t agree with you more. I try to keep as much of my life as low-tech as possible. The siren song of tech doesn’t seduce me. The problem with tech is its inherently fragile and prone to failure — and this increases the further up the tech chain you go. Tech as a crutch puts in a position of learnt helplessness. I see people so dependent on the directions given by Google Maps they can’t read a regular map anymore.
Along the same lines, I was in the USMC when the TOW 1 was replaced by the TOW 2. Both were wire guided anti tank weapons and the TOW was advanced for it’s day. TOW 2 was a whole different level of complexity and gear. Lot’s of gear that had to be maintained and protected in a battlefield environment. It was fragile. It wasn’t really tested in a real war (PG War 1 doesn’t count).
In those days, land navigation using compass and map were highly prized skills. I have no idea about today with the intro of GPS.
The US’ unwillingness to take casualties is why the Ukrainian Army was sacrificed and there are reports that mercs from 30+ countries are fighting on the GAE side.
The are a myriad of whispers that thousands of Polish troops are already in Ukraine. I expect similar whispers to start about Romanian troops.
Then again, Monkeywerx is watching the flights and he’s noted a deluge of US heavy lift aircraft into an airbase in Western Poland.
” … have an amazing tip of the spear.” The GAE spear tip has been configured for buggering 3rd worlders as one component of a larger political strategy of permanent war for unending MIC profit. I’m deeply skeptical that “our plane, pilots, missiles, surveillance, etc” are superior to what the Russians currently have available, and I would not be surprised if they were already inferior. Moreover I expect this inferiority to expand rapidly in the years and decades to come. The crazy is becoming solidified into our institutions and the Russians (and the rest of the world) need merely look… Read more »
I have no idea what US military high-tech capabilities are compared to the Russians or Chinese. That’s not my point. I’m simply saying that what the US relies upon.
I would agree that the Russians (and Chinese) are getting invaluable information on US high-tech equipment and very likely using those lessons well.
Basically, even if the US had a huge technological lead before Ukraine, that lead is shrinking by the day.
“I’m deeply skeptical that “our plane, pilots, missiles, surveillance, etc” are superior to what the Russians currently have available, and I would not be surprised if they were already inferior.”
They’re not superior — or at least that’s what Andrei Martyanov argues in his book, “Losing Military Supremacy.” Indeed he argues that Russian military systems are now a generation ahead of anything the US can muster.
That immediately discredited him, IMO. Russia struggles to rebarrel its howitzers. Rocket motor cracks are memetically common. Proximity fuzes seem absent on the battlefield. Russia is incompetent at basics which GAE females and trannys can handle almost flawlessly.
There’s a parsimonious explanation of the Russian approach: build a handful of anti-platform weapons to hype as a pre-war deterrent (dependence on Western electronics is tolerable there) and use the rotting stockpiles of 1950s gear as a long war reality.
@Gringo
“There’s a parsimonious explanation of the Russian approach: build a handful of anti-platform weapons to hype as a pre-war deterrent (dependence on Western electronics is tolerable there) and use the rotting stockpiles of 1950s gear as a long war reality.”
That line of reasoning is plausible. But I’m not competent to judge rival assessments.
Gringo, why not dispose of your old stocks if you’re fighting someone who poses very little real danger to your country? I’d do the same thing if I was in that situation. Why show your hand when you know that a greater enemy, a dangerous one, is watching and taking notes? I don’t remember where I saw it, but there was an article a year or so ago about a USN destroyer in the Black Sea doing some exercises to provoke within Russian territorial waters, barely, being overflown by a Russian patrol plane. Just for a few seconds during the… Read more »
Tread with care with Martyanov, who has been posting at various forums for well over a decade as SmoothieX and before that as Andrew over at Amconmag. He’s what they call a Sovok, someone with an unreconstructed Soviet mentality. Everything was great about the USSR & Russia is always winning, is the Sovok mentality. Funny enough, in 2022 the people Sovoks like him most resemble are American boomer cons with their jingoistic patriotism, usually copium, who don’t seem to realize the 80s are over. On Telegram & a couple of forums I’ve seen Russian nationalists dismissing him as a 5D… Read more »
An excellent post, well said. As Z said, Russian air defence is probably the best in the world right along with their EW capabilities. Their missiles are also state of the art along with the best artillery in the world. I’ve never seen what I would call an honest appraisal of their air force but I suspect that the first line equipment is on a par with ours except maybe the F-22 and there are so few of those. I have an idea that our SOCOM guys are still the best and certainly more numerous and Russian special ops but… Read more »
Curious what would happen to our fighter jets if an emp exploded in their vicinity?
About that spearpoint: it would be interesting to know the vaxxed:pureblood ratio among the elite units (Seals, SF, Airborne, Recon, etc.)?
If they are on active duty, they have it. That’s the long and short of it, regardless of their feelings on the matter. I think it’s worth mentioning that less than one percent of active Army personnel have the administrative codes on their record for refusing a shot . They are published monthly.
They need a small number of very highly-trained people handling super high-tech weapons designed by engineers nowhere near the battlefield.
Germany tried that in WW2. The Wonder Weapons like the V1 and V2, jet fighters.
The overall historical perspective was too little, too late. They were crushed by just the mass of “inferior” weapons thrown at them.
It’s like a Tiger going against 12 Sherman tanks.
Eventually at least one Sherman will be able to get behind the Tiger and shoot it where the armor is thinner.
Quantity does have a quality all its own.
Everybody seems to have forgotten the little incident in the black sea when a Russian plane overflew a US ship (destroyer?) and the ship lost all power and all electronics.
One of the things about the Russians is that they don’t have the need to run their mouths .
I suspect if it came to a hot war the US would be in for some nasty surprises.
As long as the GAE can keep a safe distance. Is that possible or even probable in an all out war with Russia or China or both?
Interesting side note: when I typed “Russia or” the next word prompt was China.
From the chatter online from people leaving, the main problem wasn’t even the wokeness directly, as annoying is it was. It seems to be more but the non-stop brainless platitudes, the deflection of responsibility, hard-core favoritism, and refusal to adapt to changes on the ground of the officer class. Of course, these are all secondary effects of wokeness, though many other mind poisons create an organization that ends up in the same place. Basically when the selection criteria for leadership becomes the ability to think inside a relentlessly shrinking box as opposed to tangible results, you develop a self perpetuating… Read more »
” It seems to be more but the non-stop brainless platitudes, the deflection of responsibility, hard-core favoritism, and refusal to adapt to changes on the ground of the officer class.”
So along with woke its just like any other “US” corporation?
Wokeness is a management fad evolved to flourish—to motivate, discipline, etc.—in “not for profit” environments.
Meanwhile, corporations have evolved not to serve consumers, economies not to deliver material goods, democracies not to respond to the public, militaries not to win wars.
Yada yada yada, eternal darkness.
And as to the Wokies, their attitudes are the apotheosis of the old saw, “To a man with a hammer, everything looks like a nail to be smashed down”.
And once they have infiltrated whatever citadel of rationality, they are always looking for an opportunity to surreptitiously open the postern gate, and infiltrate more of their sort. Examples of the catastrophic results of this are numerous.
The American military was a disaster after Vietnam, far worse than now, but it bounced back quickly. You have to respect the implacability of the usual suspects when it comes to exploiting resources for their schemes. That said, nothing lasts forever and the great demographic turnover we are about to experience may make renewal impossible. I think the bigger issue for the GAE is a revolt in the provinces of Europe. This Ukraine adventure was sold as a quick win that would cripple Russia and open the taps to unlimited cheap resources. So far, the Italian government has collapsed, the… Read more »
The American military was a disaster after Vietnam, far worse than now, but it bounced back quickly.
—
How much of that was Reagan? At the time it seemed like “a lot” but it may have just been a coincidence.
The junior officers who served in Vietnam were becoming senior officers by the end of the Carter years and they were pushing hard for reform. Reagan sold the massive reform and buildup, but the process predated him. The same is true of deregulation, by the way.
That will only happen if a large proportion of the European “ruling class” members get strung up. They are so invested in this and have been groomed for decades to be so, that they might as well be sitting in a different continent churning out policy (and those that are actually directing the policy are in a different continent). Its the same Covid lock step relentless destruction of their own nations. In most of Europe the governments and institutions completely untouchable by the general population. Their only reaction will be more and more repression internally in order to continue the… Read more »
I disagree. European governments rely on the consent of the governed just like any other leadership team. If the unarmed Romanians and Indians could overthrow the commies and Brits, then unarmed Euros can also get rid of their rulers. Things do have to get worse before this happens, but that seems to be on the cards anyway.
consent of the governed is not outright revolution. Outside that the population has zero input on the decisions.
What consent is given for de-industrialisation, blackouts, forced degeneracy, shortages and planned impoverishment other than they are not hanging from lamposts yet?
That phrase is a giant con perpetrated on the proles.
Agreed.
Both land and sea powers need sound economies to fund them.
One is $31 trillion in debt.
One isn’t.
Wow. Awful, ain’t it, that all the military types will end up stuck here at home. They’ll only have each other to associate with…
Agreed, which is why this war isn’t really about Ukraine. GAE will be just move on to the next war regardless of what happens in Ukraine. The real war is on the economic and financial front – and that will be a very long war. Russia, China, India, basically everyone but W. Europe now fully understand that the Eye of Sauron will eventually fall on them and that they be told to submit or face regime change. They’re time will come. They’re trying to fight back, but the dollar is a mighty foe. It will take a long time –… Read more »
Read that Russia is tying the ruble to gold.
Contemplating endless wars is tiresome.
I’m rooting for a giant meteor instead of a global nuclear exchange. At least then it would be gods will.
At this point, I hope I’m standing right beneath it.
The lead story on NPR today cheerfully predicts a long, drawn out war that can only be permitted to end with a Ukrainian victory, almost as though the GAE is eager for another Vietnam. (How does China factor into the analogy being both a land and sea power?) from NPR: “When Russia invaded Ukraine in February, many predicted a short war. Eight months on, each new twist points toward escalation and the notion this conflict still has a long way to go. “The Ukrainians are determined to take back all of Ukraine. Now, this is the real eye opener for… Read more »
This goes to the power of the moral consensus. Petraeus knows better, but he needs to be inside the moral consensus, so he will say stupid things like to if that is what it takes. For power players in Washington, there is no downside to cheering the lunacy. The real risk is in being the first person to stop cheering.
No one in DC gets fired for being wrong, but they get excommunicated for going against the narrative.
And it’s not just about the money. People like Petraeus live to be in the spotlight and/or to have power. That’s why these people refuse to retire. They don’t need the money. They need to be inside the power structure.
Once Russia finally decimates Ukraine, I wonder what spin the media will use. Or maybe they will just memory hole it and move onto the next “white supremacy” hoax.
It’s rather like the Covid hysteria. You learn that most people are not interested in being right or thinking critically: most people are only in interested in staying part of the herd.
China reminds me of the Spartans: predominantly a land power, but when they realized they’d need a navy to defeat the Delian League, they took the time and built one.
China is building a navy.
This is rather like the Romans in their protracted death struggle with the Carthaginians. When they needed a navy to go up against Carthage, they built one, likely drawing upon the shipwright skills of the Greeks.
It is interesting how Petraeus intentionally makes himself out to sound like a journalist. He is reporting to us that the Ukrainians in all of their agency are willing themselves to victory. Based on precedence and what we know of the Ukrainian 2014 GAE color revolution, is Ukrainian agency and resolve plausible? Petraeus being given the NPR platform to gaslight the GAE’s voter base is amazing. You have to give them credit; they are masters of propaganda. Notice how the GAE’s puppets are always an atrocious clown: Drunkin Buffoon Boris; “Dick On The Piano” Zelensky; “Ghost Handshake, and A Waffle… Read more »
Kinda in a way goes along with Tuckers interview with some conservative kid on his streaming channel, they were talking about why Bill Krystol dropped everything to oppose Trump. It happened the moment Trump criticized the wars in the middle east and W in the South Carolina primary.
The sea power wants war and must now have expansive war to survive.
Those who love war ride along in the boat and seem to have now been exposed for who they are.
Trump had me with his immigration promises, but he when called Jeb’s brother’s war in Iraq “stupid” in a debate, in maybe Florida, I went all out for him. Despite what some on the right might think, his Syrian strikes were symbolic and he involved us in no real war and had the least military action of any president since Carter. Immigration didn’t turn out so well.
I’m missing something here. How does this square with your column from yesterday (which I largely agreed with), about Tapioca Joe backing himself into a nuclear corner? Unless the Ukrainians really do win decisively (and pretty much no possibility can be ruled out in war), the GAE has gone all in on this in a way I’ve only ever seen once before… …and that was Covid, and look how that worked out. It didn’t “end” like it should’ve, with little goblins like Fauci meeting Madame Defarge, but trust in government has absolutely cratered. Even Normies and Grillers are starting to… Read more »
I think there are multiple scenarios for how this ends. I have a third scenario that I will post this week, either behind the green door or maybe as a Taki piece.
Since you brought up Covid and the Official Narrative, I’ve noticed since about a month or two ago that there are many videos appearing that are anti-vaxx.
Are they allowing them because of the overwhelming evidence? Or are there so many they can’t keep up with the censorship?
I just watched a Dr. Drew (who has changed his view on the vaxx, swayed by the evidence) YouTube video with the financial guy Ed Dowd talking about all of the excess deaths. So far 722,000 views, more than a typical CNN show.
I meant to say “appearing on YouTube.”
If it were a historic low voter turnout in November, that would be sweet!
But we now know the Regime tweaks the numbers, so the more interesting question would be….if there were an actual low turnout, would the Regime admit it? And what would be their reasoning? Saddam Hussein used to say 99% voted for him. Putin claims huge mandates. And forget about the Chinese.
Or are we in for “the most angry/contested/pivotal election and the largest turnout in history” every two years from here until the end of the GAE?
I don’t think we’ll have to worry about it, for the simple reason that The Regime can’t help cranking everything past 11. Everything they do has to be the Most Historic Thing Evar!! Brandon really got 81 million votes, you know — the most in history! Because of course he did. Her Nibs had a 99% chance of winning right up until election night in 2016, because how could she not? First Woman President!!! If The Regime decides that voter turnout isn’t where it should be, then every district will suddenly become Milwaukee in 2020, with 125% of the district’s… Read more »
Sea power is an Island flanked constantly by the Continent. Taking control of sea routes fomenting discord in the Continent is a standard security policy for those who lose the war the moment enemy troops secure landing on their turf as they lack strategic depth. Last time Britons allowed that, they went under the Dane and Norman rule.
Anyone know how the Iranian drones work are they using GPS to reach their targets, or is it something else
The delta wing drone is interesting, a cheap 2 stroke motor and some electronics, you would think its easy to shoot down but it looks effective enough for the price, using a stinger or other man pad is probably a waste of an expensive rocket
Reportedly, these drones are programmed to a location and target. Once they get to the location, then a secondary system scans for the target and then the drone flies into it. I am skeptical of this. I think the drones are most likely just hitting a target using GLONASS, but they take a variable flight path to avoid radar. This is why they are so effective. It is also possible that the Russians can redirect them midflight in order to attack multiple new locations based on real-time intelligence. In other words, what the Iranians were able to do is build… Read more »
A really simple way to cut the radar cross section of these drones would be to use a plastic that absorbs or is largely transparent to commonly used radar frequencies, particularly for point air defense.
Versus infrared, I’d have to wonder how much heat signature these two-stroke engines develop versus jet exhaust and helicopter turbine exhaust. I’d bet they could cut that right down by insulating the tailpipe and aiming it up and angled back a bit. They could also put some kind of diffuser on the tip to rapidly spread the exhaust emissions.
Well, that’s interesting. I was worried for a second there that my estimation of Iranian tech savvy was waaay off.
I heard them referred to as “suicide drone” on the news last night. Unbelievable.
A two stroke motor! I have visions of a flying weed-eater with a bomb attached. It should be called the “Iranian Weed Whacker.”
I’ve already seen the Shahed-136 drones referred to as, “Putin’s Lawnmower.”
It’d be kind of nice if someday they could mow the lawn of the Israelis for a change.