The Diem Option

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In the autumn of 1963, the Kennedy administration was made aware of a plot against the president of South Vietnam, Ngo Dinh Diem. There had been growing unhappiness within the elite of South Vietnam over his handling of the Buddhist crisis and the Viet Cong insurgency. Earlier in the year a plot had been hatched by junior officers, but it had been suppressed. This new plot had the support of the generals.

Unhappy with Diem’s leadership, the Kennedy administration, upon learning of the pending coup, sent a cable to the American ambassador in Vietnam, Henry Cabot Lodge, instructing him to inform Diem of their unhappiness with him and to let the generals know that they would not intervene in a coup attempt. This, in effect, gave Washington’s stamp of approval to the plot.

On November 1, 1963, the coup was launched, led by General Duong Van Minh, the senior general in the army and the main coup plotter. Diem’s loyalists were quickly scooped up by the army and then Diem and his brother were arrested. Instead of just deposing him, which was the plan communicated to the American government, both were executed in the back of an America armored personnel carrier.

The reason that this long forgotten bit of 20th century trivial still matters is it led directly to what Americans refer to as the Vietnam War. Instead of realizing that they had no idea what they were doing in that part of the world, the Kennedy administration plunged the country into a guerilla war in Asia. The result was a calamity for both the military and the political class of the United States.

In one of life’s great ironies, the people who cut their political teeth in the domestic revolts over the Vietnam War now find themselves in the same situation. This time they are the people in charge and the client state is Ukraine. Similar to 60 years ago, the American government has to deal with an erratic and reckless leader who may not be long for this world. That leader is Volodymyr Zelensky.

Contrary to all of the happy talk in Western media, the proxy war against Russia is not going well for the West. On the battlefield, the Russians are slowly grinding down the Ukrainian army, which has become a blackhole for Western arms. Everyone is waiting for the winter offensive that the Russians have been planning for months. This promises to put the Ukrainian army in an even more difficult position.

The Russians are also systematically dismantling the infrastructure of Ukraine with waves of missile and drone strikes. The Ukrainians have no way to defend against these attacks and contrary to the predictions of Western planners, the Russians are no where near running out of missiles. If anything, it appears they have ramped up their production of missiles and drones.

This promises to unleash a humanitarian disaster on the rest of Europe as Ukrainians flee the collapse of their country. Current estimates say that as many as eight million Ukrainians could make their way to Europe this winter. Europe is teetering on the abyss economically because of soaring energy and food costs, so waves of migrants from Ukraine could not come at a worse time.

This is where the Zelensky – Diem comparison comes into play. Like Diem, Zelensky is becoming a serious problem for Washington. They built him into a folk hero who must be supported at all costs. The trouble is Zelensky is a loose cannon who seems to be hell bent on escalating the war. The most recent example is the Ukrainian missile that landed in Poland. Zelensky still insists it was the Russians.

To make matters worse, Zelensky has surrounded himself with ultranationalist and Bandera fanatics. Even if Washington could find a way to have him agree to negotiations, the fanatics would probably kill him. Zelensky understands this perfectly well, which is why he continues with the overheated rhetoric. There is only one way out for him and that is getting NATO directly involved in the war.

This is an impossibility for Washington. The military sees that the foreign policy establishment badly miscalculated. There is zero appetite for getting involved in a war for which NATO is clearly not prepared. Compounding it is a growing Ukraine fatigue around the West, as the cost of this debacle begins to bite. Not only is there no appetite for escalation, but everyone is also growing tired of Zelensky and Ukraine.

This is where the Diem solution could become an attractive option. If something unfortunate were to happen to Zelensky, then that would solve a lot of problems for Washington and the collective West. They would be free of this folk hero they created and maybe have a villain on whom they could blame the defeat. Those nationalists around Zelensky would be easy to characterize as the bad guys.

It may seem a bit farfetched given the way in which the collective West has behaved over the last year, but they have no better options. Russian public opinion has shifted steadily against negotiations. The pressure on Putin to unleash the full fury of the Russian war machine on Ukraine grows daily. The destruction of the Ukraine energy grid is just the beginning of what lies ahead this winter.

This means the West has two options at this point. One is to find a way to keep Ukraine going as a civil society, which will cost hundreds of billions. This may not even be possible, given the complexity of the problem. The other is to accept the inevitable collapse of Ukraine, millions of refugees flooding into Europe and a total defeat of the Ukrainian army. In other words, the West can bleed to death or commit suicide.

That is why Zelensky will have to go and go soon. It offers a third way out of this problem that allows everyone to save face. Washington can blame the fanatics for his demise and the collapse of Ukraine. The Europeans will be free to abandon the ruinous sanctions regime. Worst case scenario Russia installs a new government. Best case scenario Russia is stuck with a failed state and thousands of armed lunatics.

Whether or not there is anyone in Washington smart enough to understand what is happening is hard to know. It may be left to the Europeans to save Washington from itself or maybe the Ukrainians make the same error as the Vietnamese. At some point someone with the power to make it happen is going to figure out that the way out of this quagmire is to get rid of Zelensky.


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160 thoughts on “The Diem Option

  1. Per Douglas MacGregor; Ice Solid mud frozen Dec 10-19. RU has on border 540K troops, 5000 armored vehicles, 1000 rocket artillery launchers, several hundred aircraft and several hundred helicopters. Offensive likely 12/10-12/19.

    Now Ukraine is done, fighting with old men conscripted, no gas, heat, fuel, water infrastructure many cities, all the way to Lyov in West near Poland. Russians finally took out infrastructure.

    And frankly I disagree Z. A quite valid option is letting the Russians win, since it can’t be stopped, and negotiate peace under their conditions. Remember in February Biden et al thought Ukraine would be defeated in 48 hours.

    So since its not our house on fire, this is fine.

    And it is fine. Seldom in history does one find a worse waste of manpower than the Ukrainian infantry offensives into artillery fire sacs of this year. A study in criminal incompetence.

  2. It’s always a hoot to read Zman’s Anti-Libertarian ravings. No matter has he finished pointing out their utter lack of practicality than someone slaps together this.

    https://tomwoods.lpages.co/school-of-life-2023/
    “WHAT IS THE PRACTICAL LIBERTY SUMMIT?

    We love speeches about libertarian theory as much as anyone, but our movement already has plenty of that. The practical liberty summit is for people who have mastered the ideas, and are now ready to take action.

    How do you thrive and flourish in a hostile world? That’s our focus at this summit, whose every presenter will teach you something practical that can be implemented in your life here and now. No theorizing about how Ancapistan will deal with space exploration. This is about taking practical action right now.

    Our last conference was filled with energetic, action-oriented liberty lovers who came together with a shared determination to accomplish great things. This one will be no different!”

    I;m sure Z will share the one being run by dissidents, when it happens.

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    • Bilejones, your conference sounds interesting. Please report back.

      I think that libertarianism is persuasive only to the extent that one lives in a model of what reality should be rather than the world that is. For this reason, a libertarian conference that focuses on a hostile world might be productive.

      Ask the people you talk to:
      * Why does (right) libertarianism only appeal to white men of above average intelligence and almost nobody else?
      * For a libertarian society to preserve itself, doesn’t it need to suppress people in that society that want big government?

      • I’m not a Libertarian, it’s not my conference.
        I do believe that the Libertarian ethic should be the first lens through which a new program/solution should be viewed.
        Is it one that consists of informed men working together or is coercian involved? If so, is that aspect entirely necessary and how can that power be prevented from metastasis.

  3. Just caught a glimpse of the new Dem House leadership caucus.

    Jeffries spoke ; then Kathleen Clarke then Pete Aguilar

    Symbolism noted. Jeffries is going to fight extremism; Clarke is going to unite America and stand up for her families; Aguilar is warning against the Republicans who go to white nationalist conferences.

    Jeffries looks like he is going to fall over searching for the next word. I think if you get him rambling on about reparations he can go on all day, any other topic and he struggles. It doesn’t matter, he is angry and his people have been annointed the top of the new caste system. It is their time now.

    This is after the red wave. The nosedive is poised to hasten its trajectory.

  4. For those who haven’t read it yet, there’s a good overview of John Calhoun’s Mouse Utopia experiments and parallels with modern society over at Mike Adam’s blog (thetruthseeker). Anyone still praying for “muddle through” to save us would do well to take heed.

  5. i haven’t seen it mentioned here, in the comments, so i’ll just throw in that JFK didn’t have to wait too long, before he had his own Diem moment; something like 3 weeks. were they connected? are there parallels with POTUS Mushbrains?

    • Ooo. Yikes, yikes, yikes.
      Just felt a chill go up my spine.

      Lots of current problems, could be “solved”, no? Since we’re ruled by mobsters, anyhoo…

      Uncle Joey! Don’t go to the spaghetti joint!

    • Malcolm X got in trouble with Elijah Muhammad when he pointed this out. It’s what led to his final break with the NOI.

  6. Anyone here think that it’s going to be weird over the next ten years when a lot of the classic rock icons will probably be dead? It’ll be a shame I think. Like will some of the star groups like the Beatles, Floyd, Zep end up as remembered as well as Perry Como or Patti Page (i.e. basically forgotten)? The reason i’m saying that is because it just got out that christine mcvie died.

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  7. Great article, CNN would print it in an instant as would the NY Times.

    Who knew the Russians have blitzed the Ukes without loss. Great to know that. How is the morale of the Russian military doing skippy?

    The Russians are doing so well they are shopping North Korean, Iranian, and Chinese arms! Sounds like a winner to me. Best of all to demonstrate their grinding down of the Ukes the effective and efficient Marxist state is reconditioning the T-64, a tank so bad it was refused by Mozambique.

    This is occurring because the same people who delivered tens of billions to Tehran allowed Putin to seize the Crimea and wage wars on formidable states like Armenia. But hey lets not talk about that.

    Anyone notice the Europeans or Americans sanctioning the Russians and their allies. I mean like Obama stopping shipments of Ben and Jerrys to show Putin who is boss.

    Pathetic. Just to demonstrate how bad this analysis is Vietnam was the product of the Ford Wizz kids who gave us the concept of limited war. Maybe it was for us but it wasn’t for Hanoi and the nations that fights like the third monkey on the ramp to Noah’s ark is going to win when the other two invoke the Marquess of Queensberry rules.

    The war in the Ukraine would be over in a week if Russian damns blew up, their oil fields went up, and the West stopped shopping for Russian goods. But this was writtten by one of McNamara’s wiz kids.

    Some people never learn.

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    • I am dense, so it is hard for me to follow this post so that I can learn something from it, which is why I read the posts here.

      Are you saying that the smart thing to do is to wage unlimited war against Russia, and that anyone who doesn’t think so is an idiot?

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    • Come back when you learn how to write coherent paragraphs and string them together in logical fashion.

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    • “Who knew the Russians have blitzed the Ukes without loss. Great to know that. How is the morale of the Russian military doing skippy?”

      Sign of a troll here. Nothing but unsupported assertions, straw man and ad hominem argument. Not to mention his first posting.

      Forget him. Otherwise, you’ll wind up “wrestling with a pig” as they say.

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    • Maybe you meant Georgia, and not Armenia. Are you by any chance taking geography lessons from Liz Truss? Well, these place names both end in “ia”, so close enough.

      Some people never learn.
      Some are unteachable.

      Fellow Zblog posters, they’re not sending their best. But maybe they are…

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    • And how are Russia’s dams and oil fields going to blow up? I assume you mean via NATO/U.S. missiles and/or combat aircraft and naval vessels? Well they could try. Russia has the best air defense systems on the planet guarding Russia proper.

      After the attempt, no matter the outcome, Russia and Putin would no doubt be somewhat upset. So I would guess that much of the EU/NATO infrastructure would be attacked and attacked enough to make the missile attacks in Ukraine look like a picnic. If some of those missiles came from U.S. Navy ships, I would not want to be a crewmember of such.

      However if your goal is a quick path to WWIII, that would be a great way to proceed.

  8. “Similar to 60 years ago, the American government has to deal with an erratic and reckless leader who may not be long for this world. That leader is Volodymyr Zelensky.”

    Well, this is the sort of thing that happens when the president’s crackhead, stripper-impregnating, sister-in-law-fucking son takes bribes from a foreign government so that the old man will go to war against a nuclear adversary on behalf of a Jewish clown who played piano with his penis onstage:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oua0Puihrkc

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  9. “…the Diem solution could become an attractive option. If something unfortunate were to happen to Zelensky, then that would solve a lot of problems for Washington and the collective West…”

    Who ya’ gonna’ call that has the experience and the ability to pull off that caper?
    I’d call on the experts at Hillarycide, Llc. Then blame the mean white macho nationalists around Zelensky – if the suicide angle can’t be foisted on John Q Public.

    Problem solved.

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    • Given that the President and VP are non compos mentis, and the State Dept is run by a gang of crazed Russian Jews, and Zelensky is a Jew, I predict that nothing will be done to stop the bleeding until the Russians have destroyed the place, and much of Europe has collapsed…

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  10. I doubt the junta wielding power from inside the Green Zone is going to go along with shooting their fellow tribesman in the head.

    Our rulers are more likely to get elesnky made an honorary citizen and have him browbeat a joint session of Congress while the junta watches to see which puppet stops clapping first.

    Practically speaking, the time when such a morally-justified killing might have made a difference passed seven or eight months ago.

    At this point, I don’t know that the Russians have any incentive in entering into serious talks until their army is on the Dnieper… and millions of Ukrainians have decamped to Germany.

    If the winter offensive succeeds, then keeping the rump west of the river as a simmering cauldron via the occasional drone wave seems a cheap way to further destabilize the globalist regimes in western Europe.

    But if elensky does scurry into exile, then Putin should have some fun and refuse to negotiate with anyone but him, as the vampire dwarf will still be the democratically-elected ruler of Ukraine.

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    • you clearly don’t understand that part of the world . for the right price , any of his “fellows” would shoot him and their mother .

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      • I agree. Elenskyyyy is ‘little people’ and they get thrown under the bus if it is necessary for the good of the tribe.

    • “…a cheap way to further destabilize the globalist regimes in western Europe.”

      Did I just feel a small surge of hope?

  11. God’s reaction to the American-backed assassination of the Diem brothers was the assassination of the Kennedy brothers. Take heart from that thought!

    On the other hand who on earth would bother assassinating Lezgo Brandon?

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  12. “… the Russians are no where near running out of missiles. If anything, it appears they have ramped up their production of missiles and drones.”

    What we are seeing is a failure of US war planners and their prediction of future war scenarios. Heretofore, we had planned for a short and decisive war between major powers. The ability to rearm and the industry capacity to so were of less concern than to have a (small) supply of the most sophisticated technical weaponry on hand. This supply would be enough to fight a “short” war in which our sophisticated, technological weapons would defeat the enemy’s less sophisticated (read dumb) weapons and victory would occur quickly and we then could rearm at leisure. This seemed to be the case for any number of years when fighting sand wars.

    The conflict in Ukraine (really a proxy war between Russia and NATO) has shown this doctrine to be questionable, especially wrt to our overwhelming weapon superiority. The Russians are doing just fine fighting with their dumb weaponry for the most part, and for special efforts, using somewhat “smarter” technology. Meanwhile, the CEO of Raytheon (here in AZ) was in the news lately stating his company’s inability to start up the production line to produce newly ordered replacement Javaline and Stinger missiles for several months to perhaps a year—and at that, they roll off the line perhaps a few dozen a week. Hell, the USS Ford, recently proclaimed “operational”, and coming back from its first deployment, was laid out in 2009. In WWII we started with 7 (IIRC) carriers, finished with a several dozen of various types in a war of less than 4 years.

    The Iranians (and perhaps and Turk’s and Chinese) are now showing that weaponry that is “good enough” and producible in quantity is decisive—and of course, we are showing the opposite with our investment in white elephants.

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    • The German jets sure made the difference in WWII and the French heavy cavalry really showed those pesky Brits at the Battle of Crecy.
      Imagine: those idiots thought they could beat jets with propeller planes and a mounted knight with yew branches.

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    • The US military is designed for targeted decapitation warfare, not massed forces slamming into each other on a field of battle. Backing that up is a game of chicken involving nuclear weapons. And don’t forget the geographic asymmetry. The US is guarded by two oceans (Mexico and Canada are irrelevant). No ground force is going to cross either ocean and invade our homeland. That is why Russia has chosen to rot out the US using cultural warfare and 3rd world refugee invasion. If the US had to fight a real war, the first step would be to nuke DC and install real leadership. Just sayin’.

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  13. The 2 biggest problems with stopping European support for Ukraine are UK and Poland.
    Their historic hatred toward the Russian Empire is alive and well and comes through in their newspapers and comments. Just couple of days ago a sophisticated British Telagraph was drooling over Olena Zelensky calling for a Nurenberg style trial for Putin.
    Poles seemed to forget the cruel mass murders Ukrainians subjected them to at the end of 17th century while breaking away from the Polish-Litwanian Commonwealth. The hatred toward Russians takes precedent over all other considerations.
    There is an official number of 1200 Polish soldiers already killed in Ukraine. And there is an expectation of much more as Poles discuss preparing an American style military cemetaries.

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    • ” Just couple of days ago a sophisticated British Telagraph was drooling over Olena Zelensky calling for a Nurenberg style trial for Putin.”

      Of all the narratives of the civic religion, the Nuremberg trials are up there with the Civil Rights era as a sacred cow that must be destroyed.

      Low hanging fruit too. Only the most bloodthirsty would argue testicle-crushing is a legitimate interrogation procedure of our Rules Based Order.

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  14. The “Voice of Reason” over at the Military and Foreign Affairs Network is saying a military defeat is a possibility for Russia in the next six months. He said the Ukrainians have a good chance of crossing the Dnieper River and cutting off Crimea and this would effectively end any chance of Russia winning.

    He also talks about the lack of air superiority of Russia and how disappointing Russian air power has been.

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    • Russia will not accept loss because they understand it means the long, slow death of their nation to a hostile west that robbed them blind the last time they let them in. They will depose Putin and put in a hardliner if necessary, and the Russian masses will cheer.

      The issue is, many factions of the MIC in the States and Britain also will not accept defeat, especially after getting embarrassed in Afghanistan.

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      • Russians have only 1 thing they achieved in the 20 century to be proud of: victory over the Nazism.
        And proud they are: the Victory Day celebrated on May 8 is presently the biggest national holiday.
        When the Russian hear of Ukrainian Nazis their blood boils.
        Just a few days ago a major Ukrainian city renamed a Leo Tolstoy Street into Bandera Street.
        Ukrainians know that Russian culture and achievements a waaaay superior to their own. That knowledge makes them hateful creatures.

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        • “Russians have only 1 thing they achieved in the 20 century to be proud of:”

          Talk about an overstatement.

          In the 20th century, Russia went from a backwards peasant country to the 2nd economic and military superpower of the world. Their technological and scientific achievements were great too.

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          • True, these people are not stupid. What hampered them in the 20th century was a failed political ideology. If they’d have been more capitalistic, they’d be way ahead of the game by now. On the other hand, we see where we are via capitalism.

          • Additionally, Prokofiev’s oeuvre alone outstrips the enitre musical output of the US in its entirety. And no American painter is the equal of Kandinsky.

          • Ostei Kozelskii: “Prokofiev’s oeuvre alone outstrips the enitre musical output of the US in its entirety”

            I find it fascinating that the early twentieth century Great Awakening in the United States [with Pentecostal preachers such as Aimee McPherson, in Los Angeles], was transpiring at more or less exactly the same time as the Imiaslavie was ripping apart the church of Constantinople.

          • They made it into space and to the goshdamn Moon, even though they were the freezing slaves of the Soviet system.

            Heck, who’s space station are we using?

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        • One of the [alleged] dirty little secrets of history is that Western (e.g. Jewish) money bankrolled the Bolsheviks. Why? I can think of at least two plausible reasons. Even in the early 20th century, there were plenty of [former] East European Jews who despised the Imperial Russian government. No doubt they’d suffered persecutions, real and imagined. Another, perhaps more salient point however: The wealthy of the West (again, disproportionately Jewish) knew that unchecked, Russia was modernizing, in other words, a potential capitalist competitor. As they say, paybacks are hell, it didn’t cost the financiers much, and it took a potential competitor out of play for generations. Even post communism, the former Soviet Union is known worldwide for its production of….just what, exactly?

          I’ll have to partially disagree with Tars Tarkas’s comment earlier. Yes, at its peak, the Soviets were surely the second power in military terms, but economically? Perhaps in absolute numbers, but nowhere near other nations in terms of per-capita wealth. They were very good at churning out military hardware, I’ll grant them that.

          [Please forgive me if I have some details wrong. You can find more on this at Unz, if curious.]

  15. Zelensky is far more of a soft puppet than Diem. If he is asked to leave by Washington, he will do so. No need for Euromaidan mk II here, he can “retire” and then hit the speech circuit (he’s already doing this while the war is still going on) for $50k a pop and just be given well paid sinecures as a thank you for his service.

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    • Yes, Zelensky make Diem look like a combination of George Washington and Patton. Diem was actually the only South Vietnamese leader who had a chance of possibly winning the war, they were elated in Hanoi when Washington was stupid enough to remove him. The “Buddhist Crisis” was mostly a creation of the American media.

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      • “they were elated in Hanoi”

        Huh. Almost as if secret sympathizers in the State Dept. saw a chance to make some real money.

    • zelenski is worth something like $4 Billion . he has a $45 million florida home and many other properties throughout the world . It pays well to be a connected money launderer for the Western politicians . We have sent ukraine north of $70 billion . zelenski and the gang get thheir cut , and the rest is laundered back to the coffers of the western GAE political complex

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      • Yes, he did lots of stupid things, but Diem actually loved his country. He employed some corrupt people, but was not corrupt himself, according to most reports. Compare to Zelensky.

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      • I did not know he was that rich. Then it means he can just step down without the sinecures. He’s not going to put his life on the line for this war.

    • Gab:
      “Sam Bankman-Fried the corrupt kike is walking around free with a billion dollars in Panamanian accounts while grandmas who walked through the Capitol on 1/6 rot in jail.”

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  16. Z-man I think you fundamentally misunderstand the power dynamics in Washington. With the election “fortification” there is no reason or need for the neocons to change course. Its being reported that McCarthy has not got the votes to be Speaker and it will be Hakeem Jeffries with various RINOs as Speaker. Once the Professional Managerial Class can cheat its way into power they will never ever leave. Not ever. NOTHING will make them stop, because nothing ever has.

    And Ukraine is like Twitter, or Disney. Bob Chapek got fired for trying to crack down on woke and make some money. Iger is now telling his people that profit does not matter and to double down on woke with the backing of powerful investors who don’t care about making money (Blackrock, Third Point, etc). Apple and Google are pulling Twitter from their app stores unless Musk caves and restores the old regime. The PMC will not tolerate uppitiness and rebellion. Not from Musk, not from the Military. This is who they are: fighting at home and abroad to make (White) kids gay or trans and for gays/trannies to have sex with kids. That is their moral crusade, see Sam Brinton or Admiral Rachel Levine. The consequences of Republican loving to lose, being the Washington Generals to the Democrats Harlem Globetrotters, is the PMC viewing themselves as invincible supermen who can never see defeat or destruction. Its been more than 80 years of this, so no wonder the PMC is like this.

    The outcome which has been subtly signaled for some months now is massive US intervention on the ground, we already have “advisors” from the 101st Airborne there. It will require a draft, White (straight) males only, ages 17-60, and gradually escalate into bombing runs deep inside Russia to take out their air defenses, air forces, missiles, etc. Which of course will lead to WWIII which the PMC is utterly convinced it will “win.” Just ask them, articles in the Guardian, FT, Washington Post have appeared arguing we can “win” a nuclear war with Russia and should not fear it.

    Blinken, Sullivan, Nuland, Bolton, Pompeo are convinced. And they are the only ones who matter. Milley will do as he is told or be dismissed like the hired help he is.

    God help us.

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    • “Blinken, Sullivan, Nuland, Bolton, Pompeo are convinced. And they are the only ones who matter.”

      They are just the help. In other circumstances, they would be sex workers.

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    • There will be no draft.

      Half (at least) of potential draftees are obese.

      The other half won’t have to flee to Canada; they’ll “transition” into women, which at the very least will shield them from actual front line fighting units. I certainly would if I were eligible…I’m not dying because a few politicos don’t want to get a small fine for Ukraine kickbacks and general corruption.

      The days of large scale mobilization with national armies in the millions are over world wide, but especially in the GAE west.

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      • The demographic disaster has made the draft untenable under even the best of circumstances (which this is not). The very people they would need to draft they would also need in a civilian capacity to keep the inputs of the war machine running. Crap is already breaking down due to a shortage of capable people, what would it then look like if those people were scooped up and sent to the front line?

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        • If the worst case scenarios concerning the V@xxines prove to be true [i.e eventuated], then 70% or more of the conscripts will die in basic training from myocarditis/pericarditis & blood clots & the like.

  17. When you think about how long this (former) country’s government has been murderously meddling in other country’s affairs over the decades, it is horrifying. One usually wants to think well of one’s country, but in this day and age, it’s become impossible.

    I guess Uncle Spam showering those other governments with unlimited billions or trillions of dollars makes it all better – the resident dirt people be damned or slaughtered.

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    • > One usually wants to think well of one’s country, but in this day and age, it’s become impossible.

      People assume one’s country and one’s people are the same. That’s no longer the case. Once the mental separation is made, your sentiment will be directed at the correct object.

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  18. Zelensky is not the problem. The DC Regime is the problem. They’ve declared to the world that their goal is the destruction of the Russian regime. Anything less will be a defeat. They can tolerate a defeat by the Iraqis. They can tolerate a defeat by the Afghans. Those simply go down the memory hole. They cannot tolerate a defeat by the Russkis. They’re more likely to escalate than they are to seek a way out.

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    • I would argue that it is both. Zelensky is a scum bag beyond all recognition and deserves what he is going to get. That being said, I feel the scum bags in DC also deserve the same fate, so there is that.

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  19. I think there will be a coup, Zelensky will be allowed to escape and create a government in exile, while the real government (the coup organizers) negotiate with Russia.
    Russia will then take over the Ukraine, either whole or just the eastern part, while the western part stays as a client state (maybe sans some areas next to Hungarian and Polish borders).
    Zelensky’s exile government will continue to bark from London/Tel Aviv/Berlin and do occasional photoshoots.

    12
    2
    • i think not. how does zelensky living help the new govt? he has sealed his fate, and now it’s just a matter of time before he receives his just reward. hopefully there will be video of it…

      18
      • The coup will be quietly supported by the West. Zelensky living and barking from abroad will benefit all the usual grifters and propaganda in the West, while the new government will get secret promises from the west to let certain things slide.

    • I tend to agree that Zelensky will somehow, someway be disappeared from leadership, which includes being allowed to become an exile. However, I do not believe that Putin wants to physically reincorporate Ukraine into the Russian Federation. Whereas the USSR had a unifying principle in International Communism, contemporary Russia lacks such a unifying element. The ethnic Russians and ethnic Ukrainians, although similar in so many ways to our western ways of perception, are utterly foreign to each other, and have a long history of hostility that would preclude a peaceful reintegration. Many Ukies (from whom I am descended on one side of my family tree) still remember the holodomor to this day, and many Ruskies (from whom I am descended on the other side, ironically) remember the way they were treated by the Ukrainian Nazi sympathizers back in 1942-44. What Putin wants is a buffer zone against NATO; he would be happy to keep the eastern Ukrainian areas, which are majority ethnic Russian and Russian speaking, and turn the western part of the landscape into a bombed-out hellscape. If nobody lives there, it serves his purpose just as well as having an occupying force installed. Remember, it was said, “no man; no problem.” The same holds true on a civilizational scale as well.

      16
      • Yes, but Kiev is important to Russian history. I doubt Russians would want to turn that city into a bombed out hellscape.
        At the same time, it’s not part of the eastern provinces with Russian population…
        Lviv would be happy to join Poland, IMO.

    • gonzolo lira has been saying that this is exactly how this will end since about a month into it . unfortunately he has disappeared again . I hope he is OK , but once they put you on the list there , it’s a matter of time . since the SBLU hauled him in they know where he lives.

    • I don’t think Putin will take the whole of Ukraine. Why take on a basket case? Leave it to the EU, US and UN “peacekeepers” to sort out their mess.

    • Russia does not want western Ukraine. That is where the Ukrainians live, and most are Catholic, not Orthodox. Also, there are many Rumanians, Hungarians, and Poles still living in parts of western Ukraine. Russia will leave that hot mess to Europe. I’m guessing the above-mentioned nations will simply carve up the Ukrainian rump state for their own.

  20. As I recall the coup leader in Vietnam, who became Prime Minister, eventually ended up owning a liquor store in Orange County. That may be what we’re selling in the background to whomever will do it. “Hey, even if things go south for you there’s a quiet life of liquor store ownership in the OC. You can even cheat on your taxes and underreport your income.”

    The world is strewn with the dead bodies of externally empowered leaders who didn’t know their place on the chess board played by imbeciles who happen to be much bigger fish.

    17
    • all things considered, that’s a pretty soft landing :). probably got a house or two out of it, as well.

    • The only way out that I can see for him under this President is if he says “look old man, anything happens to me I have your banking records over here in my dropbox.” Of course, the DNC could say hmmmm…if we want this old man to step aside, and Jill doesn’t want to go anywhere and has his ear…this may force his hand. That’s unlikely though. Ten tier chess is only for the movies, and empty Trump promises.

      8
      1
      • and just who will publish those banking records? the NYT? Assange? no Condor, that option is not a threat to President Dementia…

        14
        • Remember, there are several factions of the Juggalos. They wouldn’t hesitate to throw away another faction if their survival depended on it, or just for sport.If there is anything incriminating out there it will be deployed if there is any advantage to it.

          You can see a situation in which Brandon is thrown under the bus and Schumer, Pelosi, et al. are shocked, shocked that the Biden crime family was corrupt and they should be thrown under the jail.

          My hope in all this is that Zelinsky gets what he deserves. I can’t think of anyone I’ve ever known who is as repulsive as he is.

  21. Guess I’ve assumed from the beginning Zelensky is a puppet being pulled in two directions, hence the erratic behavior. A comic installed after a color revolution, so you figure there’s a CIA/neocon connection somewhere.

    Interesting that the Pentagon/NATO are at odds with the neocons. In recent history that seems to happen under Democratic administrations, Republican not so much. E.g., Syria or the first go-round in Ukraine. Maybe the Georgian war, didn’t watch that one too closely, though.

    Looks like factions within factions. I want to dismiss the Ukraine-as-new-Zion idea, but I can’t shake it. Grudges run deep in that part of the world, but US involvement is so nonsensical and self-destructive you almost have to think it’s zealotry and not revenge. Who knows.

    At any rate, ditching Zelensky might be a huge deal if he has the connections I suspect. Much bigger than washing hands of a problem, or a foreign policy blunder.

  22. This obviously is a different world than 1963. The arrogant narcissists in the Kennedy Administration still were patriotic men who had fought and won World War II. The United States was very powerful, had an enormous industrial capacity, and could manufacture adequate weapons for a prolonged war. The wind was at the back of the United States then.

    We are now led by greedy sociopaths who will loot everything they can and only then stop. They have no allegiance to the hollowed-out nation or its people, and those in power have no qualms about inflicting mass murder if and when it benefits them. The sun is setting on the GAE and the last dimes are being extracted from it and everything within its reach.

    There have been many proxy wars but those to my knowledge were not engineered by hostile alien elites who had seized the levers of power. This ends only when it becomes unprofitable and/or bolt holes in Tel Aviv and Auckland do not appear viable.

    44
    • Israel and New Zealand won’t be great powers, barring some incredible change in conditions. If the empire thinks they’re escape hatches, it’s already admitted defeat. More likely I’d guess they’re for the medium sized fish.

      Could be wrong, but I think somebody’s making a big play, all-in, much more than the usual cat and mouse business.

      10
      • It may be a big play, but the end goal still is wealth and resource extraction along with domestic looting. Those who are engineering this have no allegiance and are citizens of the world. The bolt holes only matter in that they represent an assured comfortable life.

        I would like to think there is a grand strategy outside of personal enrichment and empowerment but highly doubt it.

        • That’s true. It could be simply maximum looting on the way out.

          Shouldn’t say it, but maybe the devil’s taking back what was always his.

    • Playing with house money, then adding in Playing with occupant money.
      Those doing all that playing never had, or have, to face consequences. Their flights of fancy, manipulated decisions or other misguided attempts at, well, something, point toward a system that condones, nay, encourages idiotic self-destructive behaviors.

  23. The problem with the West is as our host said about the differences between sea and land powers. A sea power is obsessed with eliminating their enemy as fast as possible, because ships can’t stay deployed indefinitely.

    They need repairs, their crews need rest and the longer the supply lines, the greater the chance of an enemy disrupting them. During the Pacific War, the Japanese operating concept for their submarines was asinine in that they prioritized going after warships rather than supply ships and tankers as our submarines did. It was also a function of their martial philosophy that sinking largely defenseless supply ships and forming convoys to escort their supply ships were dishonorable. If they would’ve gone after our ever-lengthening supply lines, they would’ve extended the war by years.

    Our military-industrial complex is built around building expensive wonder weapons that eliminate an enemy’s capabilities in hours rather than days or weeks. The problem is not only are these guided munitions and cruise missiles expensive, they’re extremely time-intensive to manufacture and maintain.

    The Russians build everything in bulk because they, as a land power, are set up for battles of attrition. Everything they build is tough and simple to maintain (mainly because their military is not a professional one and composed of three-year draftees) and easy to repair. Their airplanes are enormously strong and would take damage that would easily bring one of ours down in a second (the A-10 excepted). When they build something, they build a LOT of it. They’ve probably got artillery shells in massive storage facilities all over their massive country, some of it dating back from the 60s. Would be interesting to see how the propellant has degraded on some of those rounds.

    The point is the Russians are fighting their type of war and it’s not a war we can win. Our supply chain will go Winchester (fighter pilot speak for empty) long before theirs does. The only face-saving move at this point is for the West to depose Zelensky, put someone in there who’ll negotiate a deal that keeps Ukraine out of NATO and cedes the Donbass to the Russians in exchange for an end to the war. The U.S. and its satraps will quietly eliminate the sanctions.

    My heart breaks for all of the Ukrainian and Russian dead who’d be alive if not for our moronic ruling class, who were a deal away from preventing this war.

    61
    • Allow me a little pedantry here. The phrase “going Winchester” applies to a fighter aircraft which has expended all its air-to-air missiles and must resort to, if so equipped, guns(usually a 20mm cannon)only.

      14
    • If kept in bunkers with thick earthen walls and kept dry & cool, simple munitions (arty, rifle, tank, etc.) can store INDEFINITELY.

      OTOH, items with a significant electronics component may have issues. Software “bit rot” and hardware issues, too. Again, kept dry & cool will extend shelf life.

  24. Fate had revenge for Diem in the end – Gen. Duong Van Minh, known to friend and foe alike as “Big Minh”, ended up being the general who surrendered South Vietnam to the NVA twelve years later. All of his compatriots in the coup, like Generals Thieu and Ky, got out while they could, and left poor old Big Minh holding the bag. After the communists forced him to sign the surrender documents, they marched him off to house arrest. Eventually they let him leave the country, and he ended up in Pasadena, where he lived in obscurity and died quietly in 2001. Unlike many other ex-South Vietnamese leaders, he was largely unmourned by the local Vietnamese exile community, who blamed him for surrendering their country.

    Washington isn’t going to dump Zelensky because they’re convinced that Ukraine is winning handily. Besides which, Washington’s modern satraps have learned the lessons of the unfortunate Diem, and will share neither his fate nor even that of Big Minh. Hamid Karzai used the billions he skimmed off of American aid during the war to buy an impressive town house in London. Ashraf Ghani, our last Afghan satrap, absconded in the middle of the night in an Mi-17 that, in addition to his family, was filled with cases full of American cash. He ended up in Dubai, where he lives comfortably. Zelensky, notably, owns a large mansion just outside of Miami, and it’s not there just to be a place to crash when he feels like visiting Disney World. Kissinger was right about how the only thing more dangerous than being America’s enemy is being its ally. Anyone with half a brain in this situation has their golden parachute all set and ready for when it’s time to bail.

    32
    • Maybe, maybe not. If I were in charge, and thought I might need a blood sacrifice to the ignorant mobs…I’d put Zelensky on a leash by keeping his family in custody.

      Will the Russians let him walk away? If he does… I can see him getting Epstein’d at a later date. At this point he knows far too much about everyone….

      10
      • Zelensky’s murder, like the war, will be by proxy. He surely realizes it is D.C. that will have a bullet put into him when the curtain falls.

  25. Russia has been systematically destroying the primary high voltage transmission transformers of the national electrical grid. These are expensive and difficult to replace. Ukraine has been scouring the world for replacements, installing them as fast as possible, and then Russia persistently destroys the replacements. Soon the only electricity in Ukraine will be via small diesel powered generators.Ditto for natural gas transmission and supply networks.

    So, no electricity, no natural gas (residential heating), no water (pumping systems require electricity), and no sanitation because toilets require water to operate. In addition, the Ukraine military is sucking up all the diesel, so no fuel for commercial trucking, which means no food in stores. Now you are thirsty, hungry, and freezing in the dark and can’t flush the toilet. And this impacts millions of people all over the place, many of which live in high rise apartment buildings with no working elevators.

    And all of this was accomplished with a few hundred missiles and drones. This is the very definition of leveraging small-scale intelligent action into a massive (likely decisive) impact. In other words, smarter not harder.

    44
    • Once the Ukraine infrastructure is wiped out, the country lies in ruins, and Europe is flooded with millions of refugees who have abandoned the place, watch for swarms of Jewish investors to buy up gazillions of acres of primo Ukrainian farmland for less than a penny on the shekel. The remaining Slavs will then be their slaves.

      As planned. The real purpose of the (((war))).

      40
      1
      • Holy chit! Yeah… I can totally see that!

        Hmmmmm…. the only fly in the ointment to that conspiracy theory would be Vlad…consider: Putler basically ran the jews out on a rail and tied the Ruble to the gold standard. (((For some inexplicable reason the Ruble is suddenly the third strongest currency in the world today))).

        Will he tolerate them if they do that? I know I wouldn’t in his place…

        • Comsidering all of the trouble already traceable to uncontrolled Jevvish oligarchs in Ukraine (the Pale of Settlement in Empire days) in recent years, they might not be leading charmed lives anymore.

        • Well, filthie, if you had a buffer state to the west, wouldn’t you want the one least likely to be bombed?

          I guess the question is, will they still allow the organ harvesting of 2-6 year-olds and biolabs on their soil.

      • so after the neocons do their thing, Vlad is going to sell their brethren Ukraine on the cheap? really?

      • Cargill, ADM, Monsanto already have the contract leases printed, as they probably do for the Netherlands, as well.

        No need to ask about these companies’ founders. Yup.

    • Sounds like you have outlined the financial incentive for US oligarchs to pressure the Potomac Regime into a deal. They don’t need to lobby for an American infrastructure project, they can do it in Ukraine with no oversight or controls.

      Sounds like the NPCs are being prepped for a new Current Thing – an infrastructure bill for Ukraine, which they will surely hoist their flags, spraypaint sidewalks and push new profile pics for.

      • “…which they will surely hoist their flags, spraypaint sidewalks and push new profile pics for.”

        I don’t know if they’d be willing to cover up the BLM sidewalks. I still think the criminal race takes them on the victim level, especially since Ukrainians are white.

        I still find it incredibly strange that the NPCs hate whites so much yet they have this undying need to support Ukraine. Perhaps just part of the insanity of this era.

        • NPC mentality isn’t exactly anti-white. It manifests as anti-white in the US and Europe, but it’s nature is more that of a compulsion to side with whichever side best acts as a whiny self-righteous victim.

          10
    • Large electrical grid transformers are over half a million pounds of equipment (assembled) and take a minimum of six months to fabricate…more like a year.

      It was a kindness for Russia not to destroy these first. If this is truly happening now (?), Russia took the gloves off.

      (I think. Maybe in the “Commission to Assess the Threat to the US from EMP Attack” back in 2008 and/or the WF book “One Second After)

      13
      • This is what you do in preparation for a major offensive. The US military did this exact same thing in the run-up to both Iraq wars; they called it “shock and awe.”

        And yes, the destruction of this equipment is real. Photographs of destroyed equipment is all over the internet if you look. Telegram is a good source.

        Finally, as you point out, it will be a long time before full power is restored to Ukraine, even if the war ended tomorrow.

  26. Two things. First, if you have never read about the last couple days of the Diem brothers, you should check it out. Secret tunnels, disguises, hiding in churches, etc. It is incredibly fascinating. Two, the Ukraine War is just another example of the age-old truth: it’s always the average person who suffers. Imagine those poor people in Ukraine – not the Zelensky’s or Washington Stooges, but the average person just trying to scrape by. It is sickening that, for the greed of the powerful (and I do think this is mostly, if not entirely, the West’s fault), the average person is going to suffer horrifically. Ukraine – winter – no power or heat. How many old people and babies will freeze to death?
    Though I much despise the USA, I am thankful I don’t live in situations such as this. Unfortunately, because most in the USA do not appreciate what they have, in all likelihood, in the coming years, we will know this desperation.

    35
    • Dear Eloi, there are approximately 320 million people in the USA. From all over the world. Do you despise all of us, or some of us, or just a few of us?

      25
      • When I say “USA,” I typically mean the Government. As another poster noted, think how many people around the world have been killed by US meddling. I’m not talking generals. Think of Iraq/Tunisia/Egypt/Libya/ Syria: I’m no Mooslim apologist, but I just like to think that most people in the world are probably just trying to live their lives as you and I do.
        I saw a video from the Syrian “Civil” War. Three generation: grandma, parents, kids (kids were adolescent). Lined up against a wall in their own basement. The problem: they had “helped” the enemy. What this probably means is these farmers were minding their own business when an army came by, pointed guns at them, and said give us food. They complied. That army left. Another group came by and said, “You just helped those people traitor!” They lined them up and killed all of them.
        I despise the government that created those conditions – those were probably people like me and mine – and then they were snuffed out.
        I also recognize that we live in a reckless era, where pompousness is rewarded and virtuosity is signaled. And that is a majority of this country. To think how hard I had to work to prevent my children from getting the Covid vaxx makes me despise every person who posted their “I just got vaccinated!!!” picture. They help create the conditions that will further erode my ability to guard my children (just as the USA led to the death of that family). Everyone who posts their Ukraine flags next to their pronouns helps encourage the conditions that allow those poor people to suffer in Ukraine. Every person who gives their five year old a cellphone and lets them have unfettered access makes it hard to deny it to my 17 year old daughter. And every American who compromises by “being friends” with their kids and allows them to fornicate freely makes it harder when I have to tell my 17 year old “no boyfriend.” In fact, I even caved on this point a bit recently. This is even harder when I know that, upon releasing my hold over her, she will probably immediately delve into the slime that is American culture.
        I want to be clear: I am not setting myself up as a paragon. I spend five days a week surrounded by teenagers, and I have for well over a decade. I have seen the change, and it is not for the better, and it is only getting worse.
        And when I think of the hardships to come, and my daughters becoming, in all likelihood, fucktoys, I despair and despise.
        We as a people have degraded, and we will reap the fruits.

        Still thou art blest, compar’d wi’ me
        The present only toucheth thee:
        But, Och! I backward cast my e’e.
        On prospects drear!
        An’ forward, tho’ I canna see,
        I guess an’ fear!

        31
        • Ja, we’re all wee, little, timorous beasties in one way or t’other nowadays.

          Rage, coupled with a sense of one’s limitations in opposing the foul flood tide and its likely consequences on all that one loves and reveres squats behind my eyes observing the depressing vista. But in my own way, I rage against the dying of the light. Be like unto that little sleekie, and make the best of it, not paralysed by overmuch guessing and fearing.

  27. As my window into the Ukraine-Russia conflict is twitter I am mostly exposed to the slava ukraini types who insist Russia’s army will die frozen in a foxhole, Ukraine will liberate Crimea, and Putin will be deposed. I’m exaggerating only slightly but I’m sure it’s propaganda.

    Like many issues of our age, the popular line is to ignore reality in favor of the narrative. Here, I find a different view. Thank you.

    15
      • Well, the one-sidedness of Twatter heretofore may not hold if the censorship/deplatforming regime is weakened. But time and events will prove, won’t they?

  28. This Diem option you speak of, would that work in the US also? Probably not since the government is finally ridding us of the potentials with seditious conspiracy verdicts.
    You know, like the ones with no weapons.

    Just think of all the human carnage and the millions of lives ruined because of all of this. One almost has to be supremely stoic not to give into total despair watching all of this unfold. Same feeling I get watching WW1 documentaries.

    17
  29. Let us never forget we are discussing a regime that put a male psychopath in a dress, who taught classes in perversion and steals purses in airports, in charge of spent nuclear materials at the Department of Energy. It makes JFK’s crowd look like a pillars of sobriety.

    53
    • It’s hard not to think sanely. You put yourself in the position of the regime, look for a way to win the war, and in the absence of that, you look for a way out of it. But the regime doesn’t want to win, or even to lose. It wants normal people to suffer and die.

      Whenever one of our guys says that America/globohomo is weak or scared or failing or whatever, it’s on a false premise. Rape isn’t a marriage proposal gone wrong. A regime that fails to rule competently, never appears legitimate or rational, doesn’t see to the safety and future of its people, etc., isn’t failing—if what it desires is *none of that*.

      This can make it seem like every ruling class idiot’s idiotic stumble is “part of the plan,” that nothing they do could be, in terms of their benefit, wrong. It’s true. Things have been arranged so. It took a long time. They won—past tense.

  30. At least one of the goals of the US sponsored Ukrainian revolution was to castrate the Russian economy. That has already succeeded to some extent by the destruction of the two gas lines to Germany, whose own economy and society will be in an increasing stage of degradation. This destruction isn’t cheap. The Yankees planning and implementing this affair are writing checks on the accounts of people with no real interest in or knowledge of the realities of post-Soviet affairs. But they themselves and their stooges in Ukraine are laundering the funds as has been the case in every modern war.

    4
    11
    • “That has already succeeded to some extent …”

      You’ve got to be kidding. This whole fiasco reminds me of an episode from the British sit-com, “Till Us Do Part,” where everyone except the main character Alf Garnett is invited to a party next door. When the lights suddenly go out, he starts gloating only to discover that the lights have only gone out in his house. The party next door continues in full swing. The Europeans are suffering big time. The Russians are doing just fine. The post US-centric world continues to develop and take shape. A senile old buffoon who can’t even tie his shoelaces or knot his tie, and with a lower IQ than Caligula’s horse, is the “leader of the free world.”

      37
      • “The post US-centric world continues to develop and take shape.”

        Indeed. Even before I knew I was on this side of the great divide, I was secretly longing for the time when this would finally happen. Once you see the truth about AINO you cannot unsee it. I find the USA to be a reprehensible nation (at this point). Everything I was taught and indoctrinated to believe as a young man was a lie. This is no longer a “noble” country. It is high time that the rest of the world realizes it too.

        One upon a time, when the economic trading zone formerly known as the USA was populated with actual Americans, it was a nice place. That is long gone never to return.

        28
    • Hard to say how badly this has hurt the Russian economy. We won’t really know that for a long time.

      However, we do know that this war has severely damaged Europe’s economy and, in particular, Germany’s economy. One of the key pillars of Germany’s entire business model was below-average cost energy inputs. It now faces above-average-cost energy inputs. That’s a huge problem.

      German heavy industry will need to either:

      1. Somehow find a way to get incredibly efficient to offset the higher energy cost. (Unlikely since if those improvements were available, they would have used them already.)

      2. Cut wages – a lot

      3. Move production

      It’s likely that German industry will use a combination of 2 and 3.

      Also, Europe is dealing with high inflation, but can’t raise interest rates due to debt. This is causing serious financial stress.

      This war was and is terrible for the European economy.

      16
      • Good news: the wsj.com today trumpets the Eurozone inflation rate went down last month!

        Now it is only 10% per annum, instead of 10.6%.

        I can’t believe I used to read that paper, almost every section, 5-6 days a week.

      • 3. Move production

        They’ll have to move it within the EU proper- Eastern Europe is depolulating, lall the workers are moving west.

  31. “Whether or not there is anyone in Washington smart enough to understand what is happening is hard to know.”

    This is the key issue. The MIC/Neocons in charge obviously accept no feedback on Ukraine from the voters, from reality or anything/anybody else. So why would they pivot if the war is still showing a profit?

    This war will end when the Ukraine troops in the field mutiny or when the war no longer is a profitable business venture for the Neocon sponsors. That’s it.

    16
    • The dynamic in Washington has always been that the military goes along with the foreign policy establishment, even when they disagree, until the situation becomes untenable. Milley was out making some sober minded observations about Ukraine and then he was whistled back, but it was a hint that the Pentagon is getting restless.

      I think there may be another issue. This war has exposed the American war machine. NATO is running out of munitions. The industrial capacity to make enough weapons to supply a war of this sort does not exist. How long could America fight China over Taiwan if the warehouses are empty in nine months of this war?

      I am probably being wildly optimistic, but I suspect there are people inside the blob who see the problems.

      37
      • “The industrial capacity to make enough weapons to supply a war of this sort does not exist.”

        Absolutely. The US is being exposed as a paper tiger. That’s one key difference between today and 55 years ago. This hollowed-out country lacks the industrial wherewithal for protracted military conflict. But again, nothing new. Such is the trajectory of declining empires. Spain and Britain have both gone down this road as different times.

        23
        • When you start looking into it, the lack of capacity is shocking. It is the other side of corruption. There is massive profit in making the next space age fighter jet that may not be very useful in a real war. There is not much room for graft in the making of artillery pieces or inexpensive armored vehicles. America spend a trillion year on defense and now we are running low on munitions. Where did the money go?

          40
          • Who is ready for the big B21 reveal Friday?

            How much money will be spent developing this new plane only for its production to be cancelled after only a few copies are made.

            They need it because the B2 project was canned after only 20 planes were made.

            There is also talking about retiring the F22, because are too few of them to practically maintain them as an operating force.

            They are licking their chops at the next fighter jet development program where the art of the grift was perfected in the f35

            18
          • But isn’t that the plan for the US military.

            From what I’ve seen, they are absolutely convinced that our technological advantage would wipe the floor with the Russians. (They don’t seem as confident about the Chinese.)

            The assumption is that our air force would quickly dispatch Russia’s air force, which, admittedly, has looked pretty ineffective in Ukraine, and then a combo of our planes and missiles would destroy Russian forces from afar.

            In essence, we don’t need a huge stockpile because our weapons are so precise that we’d quickly destroy any force they faced.

            Basically, our military seems to assume that we’d never get into a slug fest. We’d have carte blanche to rain death down from above.

            Not saying that they’re right, just that’s their assumption. The real question is whether the Russians have the ability to take out U.S. planes and missiles. If so, the US has a big problem. If not, Russia has a big problem.

            Regardless, Russia doesn’t want to fight NATO anyway.

            10
          • American military doctrine starts with total air dominance. Own the skies, bomb enemy positions from a distance and then send in the infantry to clean up the rest. Ukraine should have them rethinking that doctrine. Russia has used their air force in a specific way because the S300 SAM systems they designed and Ukraine possesses. An undiscussed part of the war has been the Russian approach to eliminating those systems.

            The Russian S400 is far more lethal than the S300. It has one confirmed use in Ukraine when they used to to take out a Ukrainian fighter from about 250 miles away. The S500 is now in production and supposedly has a 400 mile range. The Russian have invested in air defense systems rather than air craft, for the same reason they have the best artillery in the world. They only ever expect to fight a land war.

            25
          • As much as it pains me to say this, Bozeman’s comment made me think that this description sounds eerily similar to a black run city or country – with the sole difference being the ability to at least plausibly develop extremely sophisticated technology.

            Then my day is ruined thinking of Maryland’s new governor and his motto, “Our time is now”, as a massive wave of Haitian refugees flee gangster run cities Haitia’s military can’t defeat, the Dominican Republic has erected a wall and harsh anti-Haitian migrant measures, and we … …

            10
          • @Citizen of a Silly Country
            Worth highlighting again that the military itself in the form of General Miley doesn’t seem to think that and would rather avoid all conflict with any near-parity foe as he knows the score. The civvies might be like “just do what you did against Saddam” but the numbers are so bad that even yes-men like Miley cannot ignore them.

          • Spoken to retired pilots who were in during the Barry O years.

            They swear that the requisition system for spare parts for planes was so bad that the mechanics were literally taking parts out of the “aircraft on a stick” displays in front of the bases to make the planes fly.

            100% right Zman. Billions for new and novel weapons system, pennies for the nuts, bolts, and lube needed to keep everything running.

            10
      • I think even the days of the State Department taking the lead in wars have long passed. Transnational intelligence services, which run the national security state(s) and have no allegiance or accountability to them, call the shots. We saw domestic glimmers of this with the Trump-Russia Collusion hoax and internationally with the formation of ISIS in Syria and the various fuckery there. What differentiates the immediate situation is the presence of nuclear weapons and no one accountable for the consequences. That is fraught with peril.

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  32. In terms of to what extent Zelensky’s role in Ukraine comes to an end, I think a Diem style ending with some overzealous praetorians would be a good thing. It could have some negatives, but on the whole, aside from some Karmic justice for the phallus piano guy to the NPC Current Thingers, there could be a host of positive effects from a dissident perspective. There could be some negative consequences too, but it is harder for me to see them. Curious to see smarter people here comment on that.

    In any case, I am stocking up on my popcorn and salted butter. Just a month or so ago the Ukrainian counter offensive was certain victory in the headlines of GAE’s Pravda, and instead of Tucker Carlson shooting up an LGBTQ+ clinic, it turned out a potential patient, (perhaps with buyers remorse), did it.

    If these demons merely had egg on their face it would be funny. Given that they have blood on their hands and thinking of Karma, maybe someday there will be some rambunctious Generals with a taste for regime teleprompter readers and DIE commissars.

    I do pray that Russia shutting down Ukraine as GAE color revolution and nuclear missile staging and launch site can wind down soon. The damage and carnage and human suffering are a tragedy. I think that area of the pontic steppes are where the earliest remains of wheels were found and is the cradle of all Indo-European languages. I would love for that cradle of our people to get back to that kind of invention and creativity in peace.

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    • Given that Zelensky is of the chosen, I find it highly unlikely that the (((US State Department))) will countenance his assassination. Maybe deposed and exiled to Israel or some island, with his opulent existence funded by Adelson/Soros money, but not assassinated.

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      • Hey Lucius Sulla –

        I expect that whoever the GAE installs next will result in the sorts of celebrations by the sorts of folks who celebrated penis-on-the-keys, comedy boy’s installment. In the end, their guy, rubs their nuts in everyone else’s faces while we pay their businesses to rebuild Ukraine. That is probably a given.

        In terms of my post, do you have thoughts on if a Diem ending has positive ramifications or negative ones that outweigh any positives?

      • Your argument has an air of plausibility. But I can think of recent counter-examples. Jeff Epstein comes to mind. I’m sure that more could be found.

        • The Handsome Epstein has a straight nose, full hair, good skin, and a strong chin-

          While the Epstein in the very few court photos was sallow, paunchy, with a receding hairline, no chin, and a noticeably hooked nose. Quite an ugly fellow, really.

      • His opulent existence should be set through the billions he’s skimmed from us, invested globally including mansions in Italy, Miami, Switzerland etc. He’ll have his choice of elegant boltholes assuming he’s allowed to live. But realistically his only threats are Mossad and Russian polonium.

    • Of the people I know whose opinions are controlled by the media, I wonder if they notice a parallel between all the stories in 2015 of, “This is it! Trump is finished! Hillary will win for sure!’ and today’s “Putin is down for the count this time! Zelensky will win for sure!”

      Probably not 🙁

  33. Of course, there could be the “Valkyrie Option” by a faction of the Ukrainian officer corps who attempt to remove the increasingly delusional fanatics in the Zelenskybunker before final, catastrophic defeat in order to salvage some territory and finally negotiate a peace rather than unconditional surrender. It could probably be handled with deposition and exile, since Zelensky is not a die in the rubble of his capital while Russian infantry are a few hundred yards away type like the Mustache Guy was in 1945.

    The situation in South Vietnam in 1963 was based on a very different set of war conditions at that point than that facing the Ukrainians today, which is much closer to July 1944.

    There has to be a breaking point where

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    • The problem with the “Valkyrie Option” is the Nazi were not the client of a larger power. They were the larger power. The officers of the German army could reasonably think they could get a better result without Hitler. The Ukrainian officers have the opposite problem. Zelensky is the face of a puppet regime. That means overthrowing the whole regime, losing all western support and making a deal with Russia. The only people with the strength to do it are the ultranationalists, who will never do a deal with the Russians.

      It is a massive problem for Washington. The potential alternatives to Zelensky are worse, so they are stuck with him until they decide to abandon the project. My hunch, and I could be very wrong here, is sane voices in the Pentagon and CIA will eventually win out and the project will be abandoned. The task will then be finding a way to blame someone else for the debacle. Promising the fanatics more money and weapons if they remove Zelensky would then let them blame the fanatics.

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      • For a client state like Ukraine, perhaps the historical analogy is the summer 1943 coup that toppled Mussolini.

        • That is not a bad idea. I have not thought about it, but at first blush it could work. I picked Diem for two reasons. One is it should have been a warning to the Kennedy administration, just as Zelensky’s antics should be a warning. The other reason is the quagmire comparison. Ukraine is quickly becoming another Vietnam for the West.

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        • Ja, what do you think Obama was doing through his bloodbath of upper ranks in the military during his time? Nothing if not installing ideologically-compliant tools down with the globalist/leftist program. Thoughtful nationalists? Not hardly, and not in any sector of the governmental or quasi-governmental apparatus. And now he’s kicking back and enjoying his handiwork, and still moving pieces on the board in conjunction with members of his prior cabal.

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