“War is a continuation of politics by other means” is a famous quote attributed to Carl von Clausewitz, a 19th century Prussian military theorist. This line is often used to end discussion about the causes of a war, rather than to understand the motivations of both sides, but that is the way to use it. Wars are not just about geopolitics, the disputes between the combatants, but the internal politics of the parties. In most cases, the parties to a war are in the war due to internal political reasons.
We see this with the Ukraine war. For Russia, decades of meddling around the border of the Russian Federation had reached a critical point internally. The pro-Western wing of the Russian political class had maintained that they could deal with elements in the West to address the concerns of Russia. The realist wing argued that there was no dealing with Washington, as they were implacably anti-Russian. The oligarchs sided with the former for financial reasons.
The provocations by the Biden administration along with the superheated rhetoric aimed at Putin changed the internal dynamics of Russian politics. On the one hand, this vindicated the position of the realists. They said all along that there was no way to make a deal with Washington, because Washington was not honest. It is impossible to deal with people who come to the table in bad faith. Any deal you make with them will fall apart because they will never abide by it.
Proof of this was when Angela Merkel said in an interview that the Minsk agreements over the disputed areas in eastern Ukraine were just a stalling tactic so the West could arm Ukraine for a war with Russia. This statement was done to humiliate Putin within the Russian political elite. This was when the West was sure that sanctions would topple the Russian state, so it was a bit of anticipatory celebration expecting that Putin would be out of power at any minute.
Instead, it had the opposite effect. The reason for this is both wings of the Russian political class wanted a peaceful solution to the Ukraine issue. They just disagreed about the best course. Western behavior leading up to the war and throughout the war has convinced both wings that peace can only come through the defeat of the NATO backed army in Ukraine. In other words, Russian politics brought war to their border, but now Russian politics control the prosecution of the war.
That should have been clear to the West in 2022 when the Russians reorganized their army and military industrial complex in response to the collapse of the Istanbul negotiators that were skuttled by Washington. The competition with the West had changed, so the war with the West was changing. The Russians settled in for a long war of attrition against the Ukraine army, society, and the West. The Ukraine war was now part of a larger global conflict with the West.
This is where the war reveals things about politics in the West. It was clear by the end of 2022 that there was no scenario in which the Ukrainians defeated the Russians militarily, so the set of possible outcomes was limited to a total defeat of Ukraine or some sort of negotiated settlement. This is what realists like John Mearsheimer argued even before the war started. The trouble is, there are no realists in Washington or the European capitals, at least none with influence.
Instead, foreign policy is controlled by a coalition of ideological zealots and infantilized managers who are easily led by the zealots. They do this by creating pleasing narratives that always end with the managerial elite coming out as Churchill in this new version of the last world war. Every new scheme to win the war always ends with some Western political figure giving the great speech announcing the triumph of the forces of good over the forces of evil.
As an aside, it is why the usual suspects broke out in hives when Tucker Carlson had on his show a historian who questions the role of Churchill. They immediately started calling Cooper and Carlson Nazis, not because either of them defended Hitler or the Nazis, but because they questioned the archetypical hero of the modern political narrative, the figure every managerial striver sees in the mirror. Cooper did not just question the narrative, but the point of the narrative.
That aside, we see this political dynamic in the conduct of the war. The Western political class is the audience, demanding a good war narrative. The ideologues are the producers, who collaborate with the writers and show runners in Ukraine. Together they create narratives like the Great Ukraine Counter Offensive of 2023 or now The Great Kursk Offensive for the fans in the political class. The military logic of these schemes does not matter, because it is all about the politics of the West.
Now that The Great Kursk Offensive has turned into a military disaster for Ukraine, the series will be cancelled, so the usual suspects are busy working on a new show to put on for the Western political class. This time it will probably include firing long range missiles into Russia to “humiliate the Putin!” You see, despite it all, the main plot line says that in the end, someone in the West will be the idealized Churchill, triumphing over Putin, who they have bizarrely cast as their Hitler.
This war has also altered geopolitics. The Chinese, who had a similar dynamic in their political elite as the Russians, experienced a similar evolution in thought about how they deal with the West, especially Washington. The Chinese have been quite blunt in their assessment of Washington. They have repeatedly told high ranking Biden officials that the constant lying is an impediment to good relations. If the Chinese think your candor is a problem, you have a serious problem with honesty.
Returning to Clausewitz, this war has allowed Russia and China to reorient global politics away from the unipolar, post-Cold war arrangements toward a multipolar world based in regional interests. This has been made possible by the war exposing the superciliousness of Western political leaders, but also the childish ignorance of the people allegedly making policy in the West. The world is starting to see the West as a setting sun and men close their doors to the setting sun.
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Unfortunately, the US and its foreign rulers simply aren’t built to fade away. We are a naval power ruled by a middle-man people. Our entire reason for existence is to meddle in world affairs. China, Russia, Iran and others simply want to be left alone. That won’t happen.
The West’s morality can’t allow competing moralities. In addition, the West’s rulers are not builders or leaders, but schemers and financiers. To be excluded is death for them and never tolerated. But our morality and the nature of our rulers can’t let the world live in peace.
Reality will have the last word. No, they aren’t built that way, but the fade part has slipped from their hands. It doesn’t mean they won’t continue to be a major part of the world, but “part” is the key word. Events, some self-inflicted, others not, are making way for other moralities.
No, our rulers can’t stop what’s happening. It’s just a question of how much trouble they cause as reality slowly wins.
We can no longer intimidate the big countries with our economy or military. All that the US has left is the global financial system and the dollar. That’s the last battle of this war.
Yeah, and the issue is if a nuclear exchange is a part of that trouble. We are closer to a nuclear war than anytime since Able Archer 83 and possibly closer this time. The Reagan people at least had the sense to back off once they realized what was going down. Our current people are a bunch of oblivious clowns.
Yeah, but nothing has happened thus far. Therefore continual escalation on our part is perfectly safe and carries no risk whatsoever of retaliation, nuclear or otherwise.
This idiocy absolutely pervades the ruling elite’s thinking on the war.
“I have poked that grizzly four times in the face and it hasn’t charged. Hence it is perfectly safe to poke grizzlies in the face”
V. Nyland, security expert
Let’s hope they keep poking and get their head bit off…
The problem is that all of our heads will get bitten off as well.
We would have a better chance of surviving if GAE was focused on fighting WW3 than if they keep their focus on us…
No kidding. There is absolutely no insight on the part of our political class. BTW, this is a trait common to mentally ill people. They lack insight as well.
“Some say life she’s a lady, kinda soft, kinda shady
I can tell you life is rich, she’s no lady, she’s a bitch!”
— Krokus, “Eat the Rich”
So now I give Ned Beatty’s speech in “Network” about the recycling function of the Global Financial System. Our Overlords here surely must understand, as I know you do, that if we’re going to run perpetual trade and budget deficits, somebody has to run perpetual surpluses to finance us. Otherwise the system breaks down. At that point, morality etc. will be a sideshow. The Dollar is their ultimate Morality.
It’s going to take a while to find an alternative or alternatives to the dollar. There’s really no replacement at the moment. But the world is working on it. Eventually, alternative systems will be created. No one wants to live under their rule anymore.
Does your statement entail that countries can’t use both the dollar and alternative currencies? Seem the requirement of all or none wrt Saudi Arabia has gone by the wayside.
A basket of currencies that includes the dollar is also an alternative to the petro-dollar. It took time to build up the petro-dollar and it will take time to break it down.
When/if this happens, we will be impoverished overnight. The US runs 80 billion a month trade deficits. Probably a lot of our exports rely on the Dollar anyway, so it could be much larger without the Dollar.
Well if they start launching long range missiles deep into Russia our “middle man rulers” just might be surprised at what happens.
I suspect, missiles coming into European military centers as a reprisal. Tit for tat, so to speak. This would be a wake up call to complacent NATO allies. The world would recognize this as a just response.
But, weren’t those middle men also scheming to decamp to China where they would also have the same effects on their society? Now imagine China being the world meddler.
Asian wives and Tiger moms, the Beijing Olympics. I haven’t forgotten!
Those tiger moms would be putting dresses on their boys within a generation or two.
Whatever gets them into Harvard
Like Hollywood cowboys. Pump and dump the culture.
Won’t happen. People underestimate how important it is that the tribe looks like Europeans. Heck, genetically, they are partially. The Chinese are very ethnocentric. They’re never going to fall for the “My fellow Chinese . . .” act.
The tribe is so cocky that it hasn’t realized that it can’t take its show on the road outside of Europe and, maybe, the Middle East. (Even in the Middle East, the religion thing will keep them in check.)
Exactly. As a collective, they can only run empires for 70-80 years before a collapse. China was the next place, something that showed up by the 1990’s. However, Mark Zuckerberg’s mixed race baby lack of an official Chinese name from the Emporor, er President Xi is excellent symbol of what is going on in China. The complete disaster of the Cultural Revolution probably gave the Chinese awareness of the tribe’s incoherency and danger as “helpers”. Much of Clown World’s current chaos can be traced to what appears to be an aborted attempt to move an empire to China. They are… Read more »
People underestimate how important it is that the tribe looks like Europeans. Threat recognition is genomically hardwired into our ‘hindbrain’. All animals have behavior prediction subroutines that continuously operate and trigger physiological and cognitive responses (like suspicion, fear, fight, flight) when thresholds are crossed. When there is a threat that doesn’t trigger autonomic threat assessment (because camouflage, a deception that subverts normal self preservation behaviors) then at least in the human animal the result is stress and fear resulting in a lowered chance of dealing with threat without violence. It wasn’t just punitive when the Germans made Jews wear the… Read more »
This will be an unpopular thought: The current tribe blends in with Europeans because genetically, most of them are European descent.
That is the reality of thing, no matter what they tell themselves or even others believe of it.
That said, they don’t believe they are Europeans, so that becomes the point everyone must deal with.
Their genomes have been mapped. The Ashkenazi are hybrids (~half European and ~half other), like Mexicans (Asian with European admixture) and Americanized Africans (African with European admixture). That they have a lot more European sequence than they do sequence that can remotely be traced to the ancient Hebrews is yet another for both their self hatred and their hatred of us.
The Sephardi and Mizrahi, on the other hand, are basically the same as the gentile North African and Middle Eastern populations from which originate.
Look, China out Jewing the Jews is no reason to get upset about the prospect. I’d say it would be something like justice. I’m sincerely sorry that you can’t move to China, complain about a solid job that pays well, and have your children in 3 decades tell them how stupid they are all.
We were a naval power, not so much anymore. Our navy has degraded like everything else.
The only “Naval power” that matters are nuclear submarines. The U.S. currently has enough of them.
If I recall, Germany had a terrific submarine force in both world wars.
It is kind of hard to ship cargo or invade France with a submarine fleet.
And it’s hard to impress the natives by showing up outside the harbor in a submarine.
“It is kind of hard to ship cargo or invade France with a submarine fleet.”
I was already convinced on the all submarine fleet. You don’t have to sell me on it.
The German sub fleet was indeed advanced, but perhaps more so large at the start of the war. However, the advancement in antisubmarine warfare outmatched the German sub fleet very quickly. First, we reverted to the WWI tactic of “convoy”. That reduced sub losses tremendously. Then of course sonar and airplane surveillance came about, further making trips out of port dangerous. 1942 was the last year that sub loses exceeded the new shipping builds of the Allies. By 1943, Germany lost more sub’s than it produced. In 1944 they recalled all subs to port and to close shore duty, rather… Read more »
So does Russia and so will China.
GAE can still pack a punch. I’m not saying that. I’m saying that other countries can now punch back just as hard. China doesn’t want to invade the US. They just want the US out of their region or, at least, for the US to stop telling them what to do in their region.
The US isn’t willing to trade punches for Taiwan or Ukraine or Iran. We’re moving back to a regional power.
Yep…but the problem with naval powers has always been technological advances that either make your navy unusable for its main purposes, or render it irrelevant…Here that development is hypersonic missiles and cheap drones, against which there is no defense, which can easily destroy $20 billion carriers (counting the cost of the crew) at little cost to the attacker…e.g.Cheap Houthi drones set the Eisenhower’s deck on fire…So most of the West’s extremely costly firepower has been negated…That leaves the nukes, which retaliation for which would see DC and London destroyed within minutes…
There’s close to 6,000 crew on the Ike. If it happened, somebody would talk.
I don’t know Brother when they see what happens when you do talk and also that no one does anything useful with the info then I could see where everyone keeps their trap shut…
They kept a lid on the U.S.S. Liberty incident for thirteen years at least in the sense it didn’t appear in the major media.
What lid? I remember hearing about the anomalies of the attack pretty much within the same year—actually within months. What has continued to drop out are repeated analyses and a bit more theory on the reasons why the attack. Certainly sailors were not kept quiet for 13 years.
I’ve deployed on the Ike. 2006-2007. There are not 6,000 people onboard. During my deployment the actual figure was less than 5,000 at any given point in time, and it changed every day, as people transferred off and on.
On a carrier, a third of the crew turns over every year.
So, when will they announce the decommissioning of the USS Eisenhower?
strike three US Navy.
If it happened, somebody would talk.
Like with the USS Liberty?
The handwriting was on the wall as early as 1982, when an Exocet missile from a third-world power sunk a UK warship (The Falklands “War”). That was 42 years ago, several lifetimes in terms of how technology changes. Further, I assume (but don’t know) that France didn’t sell its most sophisticated gear to Argentina. Nowadays, as already mentioned, a small flock of cheap drones, perhaps with some ballistic missiles thrown in, present a credible threat even to an Aircraft carrier equipped with the latest (and very expensive) countermeasures. If you’re sailing a defenseless civilian ship, well… Sure, that… Read more »
Mearsheimer and others have noted that the US is an Air and Sea power, not a land power, and it never has been.
The US, still drunk on it’s success over the sand peoples 20 years ago, seems to not realize that sea power is worthless in Russia and air power only works if you’re willing to bomb a country that spans 13 time zones.
Not to mention, nukes.
The narrative that the US is some kind of unstoppable giant is crumbling, but the people in charge of it are going to be the last who acknowledge it.
I would argue that we have not been successful over the sand peoples. But everything else you say is correct.
Desert Storm was a walk in the sandbox, back when serious people were in charge. Not only did America go in with overwhelming force, but started by securing the approval of 195 out of 198 nations – China being one of the sole dissenters. That way, nobody noticed that GHW Bush had no Security Council resolution and that the war was technically illegal.
So how old do you feel if you can remember when the SC was a big deal?
Desert Storm was a success because we had the approval of much of the world and the Iraqi army essentially chose not to fight. They generally surrendered in mass. Very few of our troops actually saw combat. It was a four day march across the desert for the vast majority of them.
The good will we had with Desert Storm and 9/11 was squandered by the Bush II administration with its perpetual war for perpetual peace.
Wasn’t one of bin Laden’s stated goals to bring down the Great Satan? I think he is on the verge of succeeding and in some respects, I can’t say I’m sorry.
I didn’t know dead men could cause empires to collapse. Interesting.
Ite, missa est.
Dead Men have done all kinds of things.
Not a full-on Gibbon-thesis follower, so I wouldn’t swear by Origen’s Balls that a dead Jew took down the Western Roman Empire. It was ‘Complicated’. But yet…
You might also like to have a word with Constantine XI Palaiologos should you happen to attend a séance. Eastern Roman Empire got taken out by a Dead Arab. Sorta kinda… again.
Dead Men have been known to tell some pretty compelling tales.
Of course they can. Depends upon what they set in motion.
Not arguing with the US being a sea and air power, but it’s crazy that we’re the 3rd largest country by area in spite of it.
Also crazy how much area the ‘British’ Empire controlled, especially that they beat traditional land power France in N. America.
Anglosphere armies don’t get the emphasis or the hype, but clearly they can be very effective.
During the colonial wars in North America, the French were limited by not having a large local population base to aid them. The British had the 13 colonies, plus the (future) Canadian Maritimes to aid them. Today’s Russian situation reminds one of the Conan movie where Arnold Schwarzenegger, playing Conan, starts smashing mirrors in the monster room to defeat the beast. Today’s Conan is a Harvard-educated bureaucrat in Washington who is smashing his own illusions to kill the beast that is Putin. One of the casualties of illusion-loss is the sense that Russia is a fragile nation-state. It is not.… Read more »
France had a much larger population and military than the UK .
France also had strong alliances with some of the largest native American tribes.
It has been argued that in early 1865 the US had the largest and best-equipped army in the world. It was certainly a “land power”, though its only function was to destroy fellow countrymen in the South, and was scrapped quickly thereafter. Point being, land powers emerge because they share land borders with potential enemies; since 1865 the enemies of the US happen to be thousands of miles away, on the other side of these things we call oceans. Given the difficulty of marching huge armies over water, it’s pretty obvious that air and sea power would loom large in… Read more »
Grant threatened England with an invasion of Canada if they didn’t pay reparations for arming the South.
I never heard that before. But if so, well, there you go. Land powers can make threats like that. He certainly didn’t threaten England itself with invasion.
From ChatGPT:
”Yes, Ulysses S. Grant did make a veiled threat regarding the potential invasion of Canada during a diplomatic dispute with England over the “Alabama Claims.” These claims arose after the American Civil War when the U.S. demanded reparations from Britain for the damage caused by Confederate warships built in British shipyards, particularly the CSS Alabama, which had inflicted significant losses on Union merchant ships.….”
Actually, Canada was invaded twice by ex-Union Irish solders in 1866 and again in 1870. This was organised by the Fenian Brotherhood.
Their aim was to provoke a war with the British Empire.
One of the moderators on the clown show yesterday tried to gum up Trump with a “Do you want Ukraine to win?” question. He deftly dodged it, because he’s Trump and has dealt with this nonsense his whole life, but it shows the myopia of the ruling class. A sensible person knows peoples have various interests that need to be recognized. Even if you don’t recognize the interest as valid, it doesn’t automatically mean they are evil. Trump understands this, because he’s done negotiations with people ranging from honest to outright sleazeballs his entire life, and knows what is and… Read more »
Well, if Trump “aced” that question, he fell for any number of obvious “traps”. Trump gave Kamala a victory in the debate as he fell for any number of other “gotcha” questions. The first mistake he made was allowing his responses to be “fact checked” by the moderators. He surely did not read Z-man in that respect. Trump just can’t help himself. So the debate rules cut off the other debater’s mic—only to have the ABC (know nothing) moderator override a Trump reply with a “fact check” pulled out of said moderators ass. Interesting that all these “fact checks” were… Read more »
The “fact check” stuff was outrageous, as was the softballs they lobbed at Kamala along the lines of “is your opponent just a regular monster, or history’s greatest monster?”. This is especially interesting because the CNN moderators were actually pretty reasonable and fair, and they got destroyed by Democrats because of that. As for Kamala winning, I’ve been watching these things for a long time and the media always gives the Democrat the win. The only time they don’t is when it would just be ridiculous to claim otherwise, like recently or when Obama debated Romney. As long as the… Read more »
I found Trump’s answers to these questions to be beyond dodging and quite excellent, because it shows a care for this nation, this world, and the people in it that is simpy lost on the evil Washington establishment, as now embodied by Kamala Harris who proudly accepted and bragged about the endorsement of the war criminal Dick Cheney. Trump said, put simply, he wants the war to end, because millions of people have died needlessly and we are getting pushed into a nuclear World War III that will kill us all if allowed to continue. To me, this answer might… Read more »
Trump tried to make nuclear non-proliferation a household issue back in the early 80s but the media just treated it as a joke, a passing fancy of an idle princeling rather than a serious concern highlighted by a serious citizen and patriot.
As I have said, the Russians are fighting a 21st century version of kabinetskreig, which none of these retards in the Kagan cult have ever even considered, since the United States has never fought one. One would think that Western Europeans would get it, having actually fought 18th century cabinet wars but since they are now ruled by menopausal women or limp wristed men, they don’t see the blindingly obvious either.
Pickle,
Noted, yet part of me feels as though the Russians should be rolling at this point.
I think the only thing preventing this is the presence of thousands, maybe even tens of thousands of Western mercs in the field.
They aren’t being held up by bodies in the field, they’re being held up by 21st century ISR enabling precision missile strikes on any significant body of troops moving in the open
This. The Russians probably *could* launch the Big Arrow, get well inside the ISR/Strike OODA loop and do very well for days or several weeks. But they’d still have the problem of stopping to regroup and resupply — at which point they’d be extremely vulnerable and get severely whacked
Seriously, believe prime minister women who dance at the club had any power?
Do you think lawyer work at Zimmermann, Scholz and Partner and later pick up by SPD had any power whatsoever?
Europe ruled by invisible government mostly identified as Jewish financier
figurehead always looks pathetic that can’t stand alone, also had a weakness that easy to manipulate
Jesus Christ, man… Ethnically white European actually don’t have any influence to their government
For sure war is an extension of politics, but wars also have a dramatic feedback loop that changes the politics of the participants. The longer is the war, the bigger the changes. The Neocons in charge just ignore this feedback loop. But a quick world tour shows the Taliban in charge in Afg., nobody in charge in Libya, Assad still in Syria and the Iranians de facto in control of Iraq. And yet they still think Putin is leaving? Who would come next? And now we are conducting economic warfare against China. Whatever, but China isn’t going away. Meanwhile, China… Read more »
I would think that no one in the Kremlin believes a word out of DC or Brussels for that matter. And speaking of WW2, it is curious that globohomo has given itself a reputation very close to what the normative narrative have Hitler when it comes to keeping one’s word and honoring agreements. “Not one inch east” is probably very close to “my final territorial demand” ib Russian. What do you di when you can’t trust a word the enemy says? You have to crush him. Let’s hope that does not end up involving nukes
“my final territorial demand…. What do you di when you can’t trust a word the enemy says?”
Western propaganda. Hitler had no designs on anyone else’ land.
Regardless, in the standard narrative Hitler was a serial liar and cheat. And in this reality, that is exactly what globohomo is
I agree that it’s the standard narrative. I’m just saying it is wrong. The British government and the press hid Hitler’s proposed solution to the Danzig problem because of how “moderate and reasonable” it was and how unreasonable Poland was being.
I have plenty of criticisms for Hitler and the National Socialist government. But the idea that Hitler was just bound and determined to make war for territory is laughable.
Just fyi, my comment was not a criticism of you.
the british hid it and america ,france and the rest of the world were so cowed by the mighty british they wouldn’t tell the truth?
Did the cat get germany’s tongue?
France was in on it too at various times. But the specific time I’m referring to with Danzig is in late August 1939 (the invasion was postponed multiple times), they were communiques with Britain and her diplomats. America was not involved in any way. It was France and Britain that offered the war guarantees, not the US. It was the 16 point plan offered by the NS government. Everyone who saw it was shocked at the reasonableness of it. The Poles were massacring Germans. The Poles refused to even negotiate. Neither Britain or France had any interests in the place.… Read more »
”America was not involved…”
Not true, Roosevelt was pulling the strings behind the scenes. The British guarantee was not intended to protect Poland but its true purpose was to give Britain a pretext to declare war on Germany. Once this war was started, (((they))) were never going to allow Chamberlin to call it off.
Also, Churchill, in 1939, knew that America would enter the war on Britain’s side.
Churchill danced with the American devil(FDR) and had his British Empire eaten alive.
We get into the bad habit of assuming that there must be a good guy in a conflict. Hitler obviously had ambitions for a German empire. The British obviously had ambitions to keep their empire or at least their dominance and “We’re the bestest people in the world” self bestowed title. FDR was clearly gunning for a fight too.
It’s like there was bunch of high school kids running the world in the 1930’s.
Bifurcating Poland for permanent access to an Eastern German community is not a reasonable solution. The reasonable solution was to move Danzig closer to Germany, given WWII. But the Brits wanted war. And so did the Hilter. The most solid analysis can be exactly be like Murder On the Orient Express. That is, everyone was the bad guy in WWII. From the POV of the person who showed up in the early 20th wanting to live their life, they were pretty much surrounded by leaders determined to play Risk in real life. Only Franco will ultimately ever get credit for… Read more »
“But the idea that Hitler was just bound and determined to make war for territory is laughable.” So his doctrine of acquiring ‘lebensraum’ for the German people was just empty talk? He wasn’t planning on making Ukraine and other eastern conquests economic colonies of the Reich? Setting Poland aside, why did Hitler conquer or otherwise absorb Norway, Denmark, Holland, Belgium, France, Czechoslovakia, Austria, Yugoslavia? Just temporary expedients to winning a just war against those terrible, underhanded Brits? Of course blaming the Poles and the British for the German bombing of Warsaw and the strafing of fleeing civilians makes perfect sense… Read more »
Pretty much, sadly.
Um….France, Austria, Poland, etc. And I only know scraps of the history. NB I’m by no means a Nazi apologist, but from their actions they most certainly had designs on other land. Look up the meaning of lebensraum, perhaps.
So, why does the word “perfidious” precede the word “Albion”?
“This time it will probably include firing long range missiles into Russia”
This will inevitably lead to mushroom clouds in NYC. Washington, Chicago, Los Angeles, London, Paris, Berlin. If these shitheads can’t even see this, what the hell use are they?
It is like WWI with nukes. Everything should be obvious and predictable but apparently is not. The only reason this has not gone nuclear so far is the patience of Putin. It is a bitter pill to swallow for those of us who lived through the Cold War and thought the good guys won rather than another set of bad guys took their place.
Jack-
My greatest fear is that those behind Putin will be far less patient.
Recall, though he looks terrific, Putin himself is 77. His younger years under the Soviets were not easy. Thus, he is at risk of passing from the scene on a moment’s notice.
Great point. Putin’s strategy of studied patience so far has paid dividends, so maybe his successors will follow that tact. The problem remains, of course, that the GAE is led by emotionally incompetent people perfectly capable of burning the world to the ground.
Please look up simple points of fact. Putin is 71 yo, not 77.
Putin has shown enormous restraint. NATO, aka the GAE, has demonstrated that it regards itself as at war with Russia, despite the fact that Ukraine is not a NATO member, and that Biden himself (remember him?) said that a “small incursion” by Russia into Ukraine could be overlooked. Putin – a serious man, for all his faults – recognizes that no one in the “West” can be negotiated with, and he may be scared that he’s dealing with lunatics with nukes. Which might explain his restraint. It’s as if they are taunting him: You go first. It’s terrifying but right… Read more »
I think just cutting a few undersea internet cables would get the attention of your average citizens right quick.
Much could be rerouted to SpaceX starlink, but the current regime hates that guy.
And since they cut Russia off from SWIFT, Russia is no longer all that dependent on those cables
Russia’s ability to survive being kicked off SWIFT really stunned the policymakers. More than the utter uselessness of the degraded military, the inefficacy of financial terror shocked them to their core.
The other mistake they made was putting too much faith in our market and financial indices and this is a good lesson for all. Just because a ruble doesn’t buy so many dollars, doesn’t mean it doesn’t buy adequate goods and services within Russia. The ruble as a practical matter hampers them when it comes to buying luxury goods such as Mercedes and BMWs, not so much when it comes to everyday food and necessities made within Russia. If you don’t need to do much trade with the US, you don’t really need dollars.
Key is Russia can supply its own energy, so they don’t need dollars at all. Saudi flirting with BRICS has to be causing some soiled diapers in DC.
I’m not convinced they hate Musk. He’s still a huge government contractor. I’m coming around to thinking this is just to trick people into trusting him.
And even if it’s not psyop, the enemy of my enemy is not necessarily my friend, he might be nothing more than my enemy’s enemy.
“Enemy” overstates it. They are mad at him. Elon’s vision of our enslavement differs slightly from theirs and requires that we be allowed some freedom, enough to allow for minimal technological progress. This includes letting white guys talk shit on Twitter as their race and civilization slowly pass from the earth, leaving our “recipes” behind for the ‘jeets to make rockets and the chinks to play symphonies for Elon’s descendants, rather than silencing and killing us all ASAP. In that sense he’s a visionary futurist. To his peers—all of them—our silence and death is everything. They want to see it… Read more »
I am not so sure. What the West can provide to Ukraine is what they already have provided, which is the ATACM’s and air launched cruise missiles like the Storm Shadow. The Russians have largely solved both when used on short range targets. They would have an easier time if Ukraine reaches for longer range targets. The target worth the risk are well beyond the range of anything the West can supply Ukraine. What Ukraine is angling for is the ability to do some PR stunts, like firing at the Crimea bridge. They may think they can take shots at… Read more »
The same has happened to the French several times. The advisors were called “mercenaries” in the media after the deadliest hit back in January, but they were in fact active military according to the Russians. Possibly in anticipation of the recent election, Macron backed off somewhat in May/June sending French forces there. The Brits continue to have people on the ground getting killed from time to time, too. Do not discount an October surprise in the form of something similar happening to Americans then.
Do they need long range missiles for the Kursk nuclear power plant? The power plant is less than 100km away from the border with Ukraine.
mushroom clouds in the major cities?
a man can dream…
‘What the hell use are they?’
Seems to me they’re doing this intentionally at the direction of their masters. You can’t look at what’s happening in the West and deduce that these people are working for the benefit of their nations/people. It strikes me as a planned demolition. People like us who want what’s best for the West have a difficult time comprehending such audacious malevolence.
I confess, I didn’t watch the circus last night, but I did peak at the comments from late yesterday. There wasn’t much there, but in the end, do these debates even matter?
Im pretty sure that anyone who is voting will not be swayed one way or the other.
Can you imagine the things that could be accomplished if all the political nonsense was replaced by productive thought and behavior?
Im guessing flying cars would be a thing.
Bart-
No, it doesn’t really matter.
There are so many low/no info voters in the AINO hive mind that the candidates’ veracity is meaningless.
Sure do. By this time next year thousands of AWFLs will have had their first [ahem] encounters with Hayshinz.
Yentas will find the Hayshinz. Their husbands or brothers will monetize the videos. Brothers and married cucks of the North Shore and similar areas elsewhere will pretend not to know what’s going on. They will fight hate with love—provided that their masters haven’t gotten them nuked in the 2nd nuclear war of “our democracy”.
What in the hell are you talking about. Do you even know?
He meant “Haitians.” But there’s no reason to not just write “Haitians.” Or is it now racist to just write “Haitians?” I can’t keep up.
Spelling. Spelling is raciss. I thought everyone knew that.
Yes, they do matter—somewhat. It’s the optics. Harris showed she could talk and animate. In that, she is not a demented corpse like Biden. That’s enough for those with doubts. Trump lost the optics. Yes, he might win debating points, or on the facts, but that’s not what the debate was about.
ABC Network lost the “debate” . The “debate” will be forgotten by next week.
Kamala kept Trump on the defensive. She thus “won.” Obviously with a lot of help from the moderators. Whether it ultimately matters is another question.
Post-debate coverage of the debate (reviews of a tv show) rationalizes changing the poll numbers, producing a “horserace” whose already written and over-telegraphed ending—remember Biden +10, the Red Mirage, “Will you pledge…” etc?—is the final decision in Our Democracy.
There is only media. Il n’y a pas de hors-X. The fags and the guys we all know are fags are worked up this election season because it’s camp, a consoomer-brained show about showbiz. The anon who first called everything fake and gay is our great seer.
The discussions on “Judging Freedom” are quite good. John Mearsheimer, Doug McGregor, Jeffery Sach (yes, I know he is a lefty, but he is one of the good guys today), Ray McGovern, Larry Johnson, and many others give the current updates on both wars. You can see “Judging Freedom” on both Youtube and Rumble. I highly recommend it.
I find it hard to get past the civnatery of the show’s host, Judge Andrew Napolitano. Perhaps reflecting upon his grandparents’ experience of Italians not being regarded as fully Europeans, he angrily dismisses any form of immigration patriotism as crass xenophobia. He is unable to perceive how our current demographics have led to the politics of agrievement and aggression he steadfastly opposes in his commentary.
I hear you. But I take the show for what it is.
Fair enough. Have you watched the The Duran? Equally oblivious when it comes to race (hey, they’re on YouTube!), but more populist than Reagan-era conservative in their politics. They have many of the same guests.
Agreed. Particularly McGregor who gives a realpolitik view and McGovern who understands the spook angle behind what’s happening. Ritter and Johnson tend to go with more of a morality angle, and, as most here probably agree, white man’s morality doesn’t map very well into some peoples and cultures.
White man morality applies in Ukraine because the combatants are white. But the more I hear from Palis themselves, the more I am convinced that Israel’s Gaza problem has a lot in common with Chicago’s South Side problem.
Overall I agree, although most of them are Boomers from a different era, so you have to ignore their occasional civnat bitching about Nazis and ‘White supremacy’. They’re still on youtube after all.
Of course, if the USA was the sort of global hegemon/world power/partner that it thinks itself to be, there would be no countries ready or willing to break away from the unipolar world. The USA would just be so great, kind, benevolent, giving that it would be insane to spurn such a beneficial relationship in favor of the unknown. The fact that countries seem so eager to do so, or at least flirt with the option, shows just what it is like having being a vassal to the USA. It’s not great, and it’s gotten a lot worse since the… Read more »
The FT on Sep. 9: “Ukraine’s Kursk offensieve has dented Vladimir Putin’s war narrative and triggered ‘questions’ among the Russian elite about the point of the war, two of the world’s leading spy chiefs have said” — at the FT’s Weekend festival in London. They are CIA Director Burns and his poodle, MI6 chief Richard Moore.
“Narrative,” it’s always the “narrative,” however inane.
The only Russian “discussion/descension” I hear about is between two factions: One backs the slow grinding war of attrition via Putin’s “plan”, the other massive invasion and destruction ala WWII style war.
Neither seems to run in Ukraines favor.
There also seems to be a schism within the West between those who think a worldwide empire still can be maintained and those who want to follow the lead of China and Russia and settle for regional dominance (North America/Western Europe in that case). The latter group clearly seems to have the upper hand, which in part is why the indigenous and heritage populations are being bullied into submission just as non-Westerners were before them. In other words, the GAE is downsizing and changing management policies even while deadenders want to continue as in the past. Those changes no longer… Read more »
Oceania with beachheads in western Eurasia.
The last several decades of Pax Americana was pretty grim from a certain POV.
Much of the world would call it the “Pox Americana”.
Feeling salty so I think a renaming of The Cathedral to The Roach Infested Basement – TRIB. The TRIB has openly written of its designs to use Ukraine as a staging ground to destabilize Russia so that TRIB’s master’s in its golden halllways in the sky can resume its partition, stripping and using as a resource base to undergird their perpetual growth global ponzi. I don’t think there are secrets between the sides since we can go to any airport and read about their scheming. It is kind of like the way they handle TGR. They are brimming with hubris,… Read more »
The war has also shown that NATO military might isn’t. None of the Western wonder weapons changed anything for Ukraine, and in many instances Russia is way ahead, like in super sonic missiles. You would think this might give people pause as this is no longer F16s against RPGs in the Middle East, but no, the US keeps escalating, so we are now at serious risk of a direct war with a military peer (or better).
It’d be a real shame if Russia sent one or ten of their hypersonic missiles to Kiev and incinerated certain high-level visiting dignitaries. I suspect it’s well within their power, and only some type of forbearance on their part keeps them from doing so. I don’t know the law of war, but to the extent this is a legitimate “war”, I would think such a target would be “legal.” In any event, it would for damned sure send a message, loud and clear, to the US and its minions that Russia is done fucking around. Assuming Russia has the ability… Read more »
The only law of war I’ve ever been able to discern is the winner is right.
Another aspect of the political dimension of the Ukraine war that Vladimir Putin has to manage is the attempts of outside parties to persuade the Russians to negotiate with the Ukrainians. The negotiating positions of the two sides are persently so far apart that there’s no point in talking, but other countries are trying to insert themselves as mediators. China proposed a peace plan some time ago, but I think China has simply given up its efforts in light of the Kursk offensive and Ukrainian/NATO intransigence. Victor Orban made trips to Kiev and Moscow, but that effort seems also to… Read more »
The Brazilians and Indians also have strong ties with America. The Indians are currently dumping their unwanted population into North America, wile slowly taking over certain sectors of the economy. Brazil is in America’s backyard. They see the old Third World game of getting free stuff from Washington by flirting with the enemies of Washington. Russia and China both imagine a post-America world. I am not sure the Indians are there yet. Brazil is not. The Saudis may be. Even so, we are a long way from the multipolar world, so Russia has to manage the Ukraine war in that… Read more »
Thanks for the insight. Your post today was excellent analysis; Clausewitz himself would have been impressed!
I did have to read several times looking for “on the other hand.”
“I am not sure the Indians are there yet. Brazil is not. The Saudis may be.”
Everyone sees this. Even the Brazilians. Every time I visit South America I see new inroads being made by Chinese multinationals. The Monroe Doctrine may be part of US reflexive thinking, but the world has moved on in the last quarter century. The Chinese are even in a cesspool like Haiti. Huawei, to give another example, is now in Mexico. If you have the time I urge you to watch this video on Chinese investment in Mexico:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VeEzbbDohvk&list=PLRXOyEZ1z5a-UyUosWP3_094j7Hi7oZW1&index=4
I take BRICS as Russia’s attempt, via rivalry, at an alliance with globohomo, not as a big play to defeat it. Most of the BRICS countries are deeply at odds with the British and American finance/military blob—they’re other countries—but some of them aren’t. There’s no sense in which, e.g., Brazil isn’t a full member of the Axis of Anal. We’ve known Putin a long time. He’s a shitlib aspirant who can’t deal with our current leadership and has a patriotic wish that Russia survive—as the kind of multiculti empire the Anglosphere claims to be, not the planetary pederasty machine it… Read more »
That may have been true at one point. It may still be true if the West mends its ways, or the right leader comes along. But like the long departed girlfriend, I think Putin has realized it is time to move on. Maybe he still has a small ember glowing for her in the depths of his heart, but not while she is in her current junky state.
Tony Blinken isn’t fit to carry Lavrov’s briefcase.
Tony Blinken isn’t fit to lick the gum off the bottom of Lavrov’s shoe.
“If the Chinese think your candor is a problem, you have a serious problem with honesty.”
This elocution alone is worthy of a Pulitzer Prize. It is brutally apt and funny. But how could any of this be otherwise. Our president is a pedophile dementia patient. Our VP worked her way to the top of the political pyramid on her back. Our Sec of State is a failed wannabe rock guitarist.
How far we have fallen.
There are now voices in China suggesting that China should find countries in Latin America that they can treat like Russia treats Iran – basically get friendly with them and help them develop their military and nuclear capabilities. The aim would be to distract the US away from East and South East Asia. If they can pull it off, it would be great for them, but also potentially good for Europe, so I root for the Chinks.
This is a terrific analysis by the Z-man. The Foreign Policy establishment got high on toppling tin-pot dictators like Noriega and Milosvic, and thought they were the League of Justice. The Taliban took to the hills, Saddam was a bit of harder nut to crack, but he went too. Then Qaddaffi. It was all just giggles and glee for Albright, Hillary and the Neocons. W figured God was on his side, too. They ignored the wreckage, waste, mayhem and bloodshed left in their wake. Haiti, Somalia, Iraq, Afghanistan, Bosnia, Libya, Syria, and now Ukraine. “Look on my work, ye mighty,… Read more »
Good heavens, Z!!! You almost made me swallow my pipe! 😡
” If the Chinese think your candor is a problem, you have a serious problem with honesty….”
The fuggin chinks will steal anything that isn’t nailed down. Those slope headed monkeys make Washington look like pikers when it comes to carpet bagging, grift and dirty dealing. If they and Washington get in a fight, it’ll be one where you hope they both lose…
And they probably will, come to think of it… 🤔
Came here to post this gem of a quote, but found you have done it already! Not a China apologist, but I think at least their dishonesty is somewhat productive. The issue with Washington is the lies deny basic reality in a self destructive way. The Chinese are more dumbfounded about how dumb our “leaders” are. An optimistic view is that maybe they (Russia, China) realize how good is the west at creation compared to them and try to save us from our own stupidity to save the Golden Goose that is our civilization. China is great at tech adoption,… Read more »
“Not a China apologist, but I think at least their dishonesty is somewhat productive.” Yes, there is a baseline but annoying “Let’s see if the oppenent is smart enough to detect the error while saving face” sort of lying. Once you have an agreement however, the Chinese are honor bound to deliver it. I might accidentally order junk that belongs in the trash in China drop shipped from there. However it will be somewhat honoring the form of the agreement and it will make it to my door. Not all Chinese goods are total garbage either. What do you with… Read more »
“You almost made me swallow my pipe!”
Hunter? Is that you?
I highly recommend reading Quigley on the subject of WWII. He gives a comprehensive, although admittedly granular and tedious, overview of the situation leading up to the war. Economic and political forces, the different factions in each nation, etc. If you have the patience, you’ll come away with a different view of things. It is bizarre that Putin is cast as Hitler, since he’s possibly been the most pro-Western Russian leader we’ll ever get. Then again, from a different POV, pro-Western Hitler might not be such a bizarre concept, just sayin’. (No, I’m not a fan. I think the Nazis… Read more »
Admittedly I am not that familiar with the details of NatSoc racial science, but from what I understand it does not seem much different from HBD.
It isn’t, but they turned science into something like religion. It’s a modern problem. They lost, so they were discredited, but the victors deserve to be discredited, too.
As far as disaster for the West, I tend to agree with Patton.
Yep. Should’ve beaten the Reds to Berlin.
I have thought for some time that the Ukraine War originated with the Russian arresting of Pussy Riot. That was the day the Left in the West turned anti-Russian.
I place the blame on Clinton with Serbia and then W with Georgia. The former led Yeltsin to turn his country over to Putin, the latter began the slow divorce from the West. The West could have bought a few more decades of unrivaled dominance without going psycho bitch on Russia, but the scorpion and frog thing prevailed. To refresh, the Ukes started shelling the ethnic Russians in earnest the last part of 2021, and the dingbat Harris made a public display of inviting Ukraine into NATO a few months before the invasion. The war was provoked and premeditated and… Read more »
Once Yeltsin was out and Putin in, Russia began its long ascent out of darkness and de facto GAE influence. That was the turning point. Time was not on GAE’s side.
The problem is that the West keeps trying to dominate and subjugate Russia instead of treating them like an equal. The West is afraid that Russia will surpass them, that’s why the West stops trying to sabotage Russia at every turn.
^^^ “never stops” trying to sabotage Russia
That fear is not unfounded, but any lagging behind Russia is largely of the West’s own making.
The Chinese, who had a similar dynamic in their political elite as the Russians, experienced a similar evolution in thought about how they deal with the West, especially Washington. I recall reading that the Chinese geostrategist Wang Huning was enthusiastically ‘pro’ American, until he as a young man made an extended visit to the US. He was appalled by the disparity between his preconceptions (undoubtedly formed in large part by globohomo propaganda) and the reality he observed with his own eyes. He went back and spent a career in part warning against allowing China to become culturally ‘Americanized’. The same… Read more »
Simply want to say that this is one of your best essays. The point about Merkel wanting to humiliate Putin is spot on, as is the way the managerial elite style themselves as modern Churchills, and that is the reason for their visceral reaction to Tucker.
In short, you remember to include that these are real people with, ultimately, petty, selfish motives (as we all have). So much of the modern commentators, when describing the political class (regardless of sides), act like Hamlet: making his father Hyperion and his daddy-uncle a satyr. The reality is much more mundane.
Thanks.
It doesn’t seem like all that long ago that the “left” was finding Churchill’s “racism” to be “problematic.” Now he’s a hero to them again. Kind of like Dick Cheney. The mind virus remains undefeated.
The U.S. Govt. Now Definitely Wants WW3 Against Russia – LewRockwell The dissident at the link is dissenting from the idea that the Kursk operation is a failure. But I only find it on Rockwell, and not on Doctorow’s own website. Weird.
Speaking of war and anniversaries, am I the only one who is becoming more and more regretful that UA93 didn’t reach its target in DCc
Looking at the last 23 years and where the USA is today, I’d say Bin Laden succeeded beyond his wildest imagination.
I openly said I wished it had taken out all of Congress way back when it was first hijacked. Never had any reason to reconsider my opinion. Only regret would be that there are hundreds more waiting in the wings to take their places, each and every one a POS.
Somehow I managed to sit through the entirety of last night’s debacle.
The only positives-
Trump actually managed to do the, “I’m speaking,” meme, twice!
At worst, he managed to fight his 3 debate opponents to a draw.
Show notes-
Trump did get a bit rambly at times.
Somehow, the female ABC moderator was the least worst of the opposition. She also asked Cackles a few non-softball questions.
Sun Ju say “War is humiliation by other means.”
“The world is starting to see the west as a setting sun and men close their doors to the setting sun.” With America leading the way and a possible POC sunspot to boot. And it’s about time – the west’s 20th century industrial slaughterfests are finally coming home to roost.
It’s the other way around. Global population exploded on the West’s watch, while the USSR and China were killing their own. Very different chickens coming home to roost.
I mainly meant the slaughter fest of Whites – and western Whites to be more specific.
Yes. Understood!
The Clausewitz quote is actually; “War is the continuation of politics with other means.” Subtle difference but implies the two continue together.
Dang, I never thought to look it up. Spot on: “We see, therefore, that war is not merely an act of policy but a true political instrument, a continuation of political intercourse, carried on with other means. What remains peculiar to war is simply the peculiar nature of its means. War in general, and the commander in any specific instance, is entitled to require that the trend and designs of policy shall not be inconsistent with these means. The art of war in its most comprehensive sense is therefore the understanding of the organization and conduct of war as part… Read more »
I wanted to send you my final analysis on the 2024 presidential race and why its critical to vote for Trump. This election isn’t about Trump v Harris but about symbolism. The white symbol verses the black symbol. Europeans are thinkers, analysts, and can be objective, but blacks are strictly emotional, shallow and cannot fathom systems level analysis. They live in the here and now chasing instant gratification because that’s all they’re capable of. As a result, they are a threat to a modern world they will never understand or be able to replicate. However, because Europeans think, and analyze,… Read more »
I tend to agree. Major problem: Progressivism (Wokery, whatever historical term you prefer) is 99% is a European malady in general and an American one in particular. Perhaps we are at Peak Jew in the 21st century, but they were pretty sparse on the ground in Puritan America. Even if it were a reanimated George Floyd running on the ticket, perhaps half of Whites would still vote Democrat. Dark humor: on the debate, one of Trump’s jibes was (paraphrased): “If Harris is elected, Israel will be gone in two years.” If they could get that in writing, I suspect that… Read more »
I get what you are saying, but the “Amish” control both candidates. They always set it up as a tails we win, heads you lose contest. So sure, vote for the symbol, but realize it is only symbol. Beatings will continue until morale improves. As for the malady of wokery, it is in large part a White female phenomenon. Offing your offspring has become a sacred right even if they themselves may not partake (or claim they would not). It is not unlike the normie bragging about his small arsenal even though he knows he doesn’t have the balls to… Read more »
An “agreement” with the United States has zero validity unless it is ratified by the various states through their representatives in the Senate. Any new occupant of the Executive Branch has the absolute right to ignore any or all “accords” “agreements” “alliances” of the previous administration. The world needs to understand this reality and proceed accordingly.
And all such “Treaties” shall not be “repugnant” to the US Constitution, although that has yet to be challenged in SCOTUS.
Except the 17th amendment annuls the Senate as representative of the states’ will. I think sooner rather than later the states will forcefully reassert themselves. This may throw a monkey-wrench into the plans of the Globalists in DC, especially if Harris is elected and actively pursues the admission of DC and PR as states.
Police audio confirming Haitian geese hunting in Ohio is up:
https://dougbillings.us/liberal-agenda/illegal-immigration/leaked-911-call-springfield-residents-report-haitians-with-geese/
Of particularly personal concern, without doubt
here is the what and why of the ohio hatians. well worth the time. https://thezman.com/wordpress/?p=32668#comment-423713
This is a good talk on the what and why of the hatians in ohio.
here is the link. https://thezman.com/wordpress/?p=32668#comment-423713
If you thought the possibility of nuclear tennis was bad-
https://americanstewards.us/usda-is-monetizing-natural-processes-under-the-sustains-act/
Oops. Hasty afterthought, apologies for the addition.
Vaguely hoping Putin’s strategy isn’t a backroom deal involving crap like this.