Four Things To Know Before You Read On
- I do not nor have I ever supported Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. I have made this clear in almost all of my previous writings about the conflict and feel no need to go into it any further in this one.
- I am of the strong opinion that the US has been criminally reckless in its eight years of grooming and then knowingly placing Ukraine in a situation that was widely considered to be incredibly dangerous and potentially deadly. I have gone into detail about this matter in previous articles that can all be viewed here at Pressenza (1).
- It is my claim, after six months of keeping up with and writing about the Ukraine-Russia conflict, that the majority (though not all) of the major Western media’s coverage of the war has been lazy, regurgitative and misleading.
- I write to convey the truth as I see it and not in a manner that is beholden to any faction, be it left, right, center or other.
The Recent Additional 3.3 Billion Dollar Weapons Package
Russia is winning the war in Ukraine and the Biden administration knows it. The additional 3.3 billion dollar weapons package that the US promised Ukraine last week is a largely insignificant piece of political gesturing that will not alter the outcome of the conflict in any substantial way. “When you see what is in this package, things that Ukraine isn’t getting for months or years, you’ll see that even if they got these things tomorrow it would make absolutely no difference.“ (2)
What the package will achieve is the drawing out of a conflict that is taking upwards of 200 Ukrainian lives per day.(3) The Biden administration is almost certainly aware of the irrelevance of this package in terms of the actual effect that it will have on the outcome of the war. They are also almost certainly aware that the US’s spending window is going to continue to shrink as it becomes more and more evident that Ukraine has little chance of attaining anything resembling victory.
Needless to say, the Raytheon and Lockheed Martin corporations are surely pleased that the US and NATO were able to push through yet another huge gift of US taxpayers’ money to them, getting it in just under the profit-window wire for this particular conflict.(4)
The Myth Of Ukraine’s Eventual Victory Via Attrition
Since the beginning of this conflict one of the main talking points put forth by Western pundits pushing for the escalation of this war has been that it will be a battle of attrition in which Ukraine will eventually gain the advantage.
What is becoming more and more clear now though is the fact that it is Russia and not Ukraine that has gained the attritional advantage in this conflict. It is Russia, despite Western media rumors to the contrary, that has a massive advantage in terms of weaponry, manpower and logistics.
Months ago Russia secured its supply line from the east which has enabled them to capture and hold an incrementally growing region across southern Ukraine.(5) Every indication now is that it is Ukraine’s forces that are being progressively ground down and it is Ukraine whose weapon supply is not nearly up to the task of competing with a far more heavily armed Russian military.(6)
US Eyeing Its Next Proxy War Candidate
As global support for the US and NATO’s “Fight To The Last Ukrainian” position progressively dwindles (7), the Biden administration is already beginning to prepare the ground for its next potential proxy war campaign. Yesterday, just two and a half weeks after Nancy Pelosi’s overtly provocative visit to Taiwan, the Biden administration announced a 1.1 Billion dollar arms sale to the Taiwanese government.(8) This sale also follows on the heels of an escalation of Chinese air and sea drills in the South China Sea.
The Western corporate media’s reporting on these events has been largely focused on the “threats” that China is posing to Taiwan, failing to mention that Taiwan is part of China.(9) This is not a secondary piece of information, it is not a small omission.
Do imagine if China started sending high ranking political leaders to Alaska and selling billions of dollars worth of weapons to them. Seriously, how ballistic, how blitzkrieg do you think the US’ response would be to such behavior? Fortunately for the world the Chinese government, despite its considerable problems, upholds a policy of restraint when it comes to leaping into conflict with other major superpowers that have nuclear capability.
Boris Johnson’s Big Gamble And Loss
Boris Johnson’s final piece of quasi-diplomacy before he is officially evicted from 10 Downing Street in mid-September, was a trip to Ukraine a week ago to meet with President Vladimir Zelensky. If you’ll recall Johnson was the person who bolted over to Ukraine in early April of this year in order to make certain that Zelensky didn’t make any concessions whatsoever in his negotiations with Putin and Russia.(10) Under no condition was the West going to see the war in Ukraine end before their goals of strangling Russia’s economy and “total victory” were met.(11)
Interestingly, this time, only a few days after Johnson left Ukraine, the Kherson counter-offensive that had been held up for over a month began in full force. Today is only the fourth day of the campaign but already reports are beginning to come through that Ukraine has suffered massive casualties (in the thousands) over the last 72 hours.
As far as any advancement by Ukrainian forces is concerned, it seems that their attempted counter-offensive is being repelled by Russian forces.(12) Johnson’s (apparent) last minute bid to save his legacy by goosing Ukraine to move ahead with this offensive has all the makings of yet another disaster for him and for Ukraine.
Europe Is Sanctioning Itself Into Economic Collapse
To add insult to injury, the multiple rounds of sanctions against Russia have so far produced the diametrically opposite result that the West was hoping for. Russia’s economy, after an upswing in April, has been holding steady since May (13), while Europe and the US have experienced inflation hikes and the beginnings of recession.
In fact, as winter approaches, Europe is bracing itself for even more massive price hikes and an energy crisis the likes of which has not been experienced in many decades.
This is not expected to be a short term problem either. The indications now are that many thousands of European citizens will go without heat and will be dealing with huge price hikes and inflation for up to a decade!(14) Poland has been instructing its citizens to gather firewood for the last two months.(15) Countries like Italy, Germany, France and England are all experiencing the beginnings of economic catastrophes that show no sign of relenting. On the contrary, the forecast is that this crisis will continue to deepen.(16)
Joe, Nancy And Curly
As stooge-like as their behavior has been in 2022, there’s nothing funny about the impetuous actions that Biden, Pelosi and Johnson have been undertaking. Their compulsive, hawkish attempts to preserve a hegemonic global power dynamic that has been collapsing for close to a decade is putting the lives of everyone on this planet in danger.
In Conclusion
In the 1990s and 2000s the United States (with NATO in tow) was able to tell any country in the world what to do and how to do it with very little to no fear of what their response would be. These other countries either did what the US told them to do or they suffered, sometimes brutally. And when these countries did do what the US instructed them to do they also suffered, usually financially, falling into massive debt.
Those days, whether you and I like it or not, are over. The world has changed dramatically in recent years. We no longer live in a unipolar world.(17) Balance of power politics didn’t die, it simply went to sleep for a couple of decades. Unfortunately, Western leadership stayed asleep while countries like China, Russia, India, etc., arose from their slumber creating alliances with each other as well as industrial and economic strongholds that now compete with and in some cases outstrip their Western competitors.
The bottom line is, The United States is now facing a choice: It will either learn to work in partnership with the other nations of the world or it will collapse completely under the weight of its own antiquation and hubris.
As my friend and fellow Pressenza staff writer David Anderson has said, “We are seeing the contradictions, the inconsistencies and ultimately the absurdity of the ‘White-West’ mentality.”(18)
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