After over 10 months of fighting between Russian and Ukrainian forces, there’s no sign that 2023 will bring peace to Ukraine as the warring parties have radically different demands, and the US continues to escalate aid for Kyiv and its role in the war.
Ukrainian officials are demanding that Russia withdraw from all the territory it has captured and face war crimes tribunals before peace talks can even begin, while Russian officials say they’re open to talks but insist any peace deal must involve the territories it has annexed joining the Russian Federation.
The only way Ukraine would likely be compelled to talk with Russia is if the US leverages aid to push them to do so, as the Ukrainian war effort is entirely reliant on support from its Western backers. There was a glimmer of hope in November when Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley said winter would provide a good opportunity for peace talks, but his view was not a popular one within the Biden administration.
Milley said that the warring sides should “seize the moment” to achieve peace, but following his comments, the US reassured Ukraine that negotiations don’t need to happen. Media reports said that other high-level officials, including Secretary of State Antony Blinken and National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, were against the idea of talks.
The only time a peace deal seemed possible during the war was after Russian and Ukrainian negotiators held in-person talks in Istanbul back in March, but reaching an agreement with Russia was discouraged by the West. Then-British Prime Minister Boris Johnson visited Kyiv in April and urged Zelensky not to negotiate with Moscow, likely at the behest of the US and NATO.
According to a Ukrainian media report, Johnson’s visit was a major factor in the scuttling of negotiations. Turkey said later in April that some NATO members wanted the war in Ukraine to continue to make Russia “weaker.” A few days later, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin admitted that a US goal in Ukraine was to “weaken” Russia.
While discouraging negotiations throughout the 10 months of the war, the Biden administration has continued to escalate military aid for Kyiv, and so far, Congress has authorized $112 billion in spending to support Ukraine. In the latest escalation, the administration will be providing Patriot missiles, considered the US’s most advanced air defense system, although Russia said it received assurances that no US troops would be deployed to Ukraine with the systems.
The administration has still held off from sending Ukraine the longer-range missiles, fighter jets, and advanced tanks that it seeks. But Biden will be under pressure to oblige Ukraine from Republicans as they take control of the House. While there is some significant dissent among the GOP on the policy of arming Ukraine, Republican leadership has been critical of Biden for not sending more advanced weapons.
Rep. Michael McCaul, who is expected to lead the House Foreign Affairs Committee next year, has accused President Biden of “slow walking” military aid to Kyiv. McCaul said the US should provide Ukraine with more advanced weapons to hit targets in Crimea.
McCaul and other hawkish Republicans have come out in favor of more transparency of the tens of billions the US is spending on the war. But the calls for more oversight have been used to justify the presence of US troops inside Ukraine as the Pentagon now acknowledges it has a small number of personnel in the country for “onsite” weapons inspections, which are based at the US embassy in Kyiv.
NBC News reported earlier this month that the Pentagon is mulling sending a small number of additional troops to track weapons, a plan a former US official called “classic mission creep.” The report said Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin wanted to add more troops for oversight and to ensure there are “experts in country to help Ukraine use critical weapons systems,” signaling they may be doing more than tracking weapons.
The small group of US military weapons inside Ukraine is the only presence that has been officially confirmed. The Intercept reported in October that US special operations forces and CIA personnel are also inside the country, but the US hasn’t officially acknowledged the covert campaign.
As the US is escalating its role in the war, the Pentagon has also shifted its view on Ukrainian attacks inside Russian territory. After Ukrainian drones hit airfields deep inside Russia earlier this month, The Times reported that the Pentagon tacitly endorses such operations, and Asia Times reported that the drones used US satellite GPS data to hit their targets.
Since those Ukrainian drone attacks at the beginning of December, the Engels airfield, about 300 miles from the Ukrainian border, which houses Russian strategic bombers, has come under another drone attack. In total, six Russian soldiers were killed at the air base in Ukrainian drone attacks in the month of December.
According to a report from investigative journalist and US Army Special Operations veteran Jack Murphy, the US has also been involved in a covert campaign inside Russia. Citing unnamed former US military and intelligence officials, Murphy reported that the CIA has been using an unnamed European NATO country’s intelligence services to conduct sabotage attacks inside Russia since the February invasion of Ukraine.
Both the covert campaign inside Russia and the US-backed Ukrainian attacks in the country risk provoking a major escalation from Moscow. But US officials are not as concerned with an escalation based only on the fact that up to this point, Russia hasn’t responded to attacks on its territory with nuclear weapons or by attacking NATO countries.
While US officials aren’t concerned by a nuclear escalation, experts have warned that the chance of nuclear war is greater today than at any time during the Cold War. President Biden himself acknowledged that there is a risk of nuclear “armageddon,” and NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg has warned a full-blown war between Russia and NATO is possible. But both men insist the Western powers should continue supporting Ukraine in its war with Russia despite the risks, and 2023 will likely bring more dangerous escalations.
I cannot fit in any kind of nuclear war. They need to come up with something different. “Higher than ever…” Time to smoke a joint…
Can Biden spell Armageddon? If he can’t spell it, we can’t have it…
Being an arms dealer is dangerous work.
“Dangerous escalations”…? Excuse me while I light up. Deep inhale.
Exhale…. Biden is the closest thing we have to a “village idiot”…. If he has to press the nuclear button, he could mess it up. Perhaps he’ll bomb us, instead of them…
President Obama recognized this. He allegedly said this about Joe: “never underestimate the ability of Joe to f*ck things up”
Unfortunately, the coup happened under Obama’s watch. He was mostly able to stand above the fray. But here’s how Obama inflamed tensions rather than to quell them:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ROTwyP5no08
A New Cold War? Ukraine Violence Escalates, Leaked Tape Suggests U.S. Was Plotting Coup
Obama has been revealed as far more than perceived.
Yes. Admittedly I voted for him and now I think I was hoodwinked with the speeches. It was also a Trump-like pass (like what is happening with Biden and some, not me). Bush was terrible, so hopium was the drug.
Touche’! Oh, p.s. and by the way, I need some hopium. I have a highly addictive personality… 😉
That’s two of us. Not again, barring a sudden, earth-shattering epiphany on the part of the entire mainstream Democratic party.
He’s the perfect puppet of plutocrats. That’s why he was installed.
PEACE….
Bye-Done……………………………………………………………………………..
My top wish for 2023: not perish in a nuclear crater. I live next to a military base that will be likely be a target. All of our politicians and foreign policy blob are hard at work making nuclear war more likely and most of my fellow Americans cheer on the escalation of war after reading mainstream media. What a sad time to be alive.
Well on the bright side you will likely be incinerated and not have to linger with the aftermath of radiation and the rest of what’s left.
Monty Python needs to reunite and get on this right away.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SJUhlRoBL8M
The US will back down if it comes to nukes , just as they did with the Cuban nuke crises , the whole point of Russian nukes in Cuba was to get Nukes out of Turkey which JFK did , JFK asked the Russian President not to say anything about the deal , saying the folks back home won`t like it .
I wish I could be as certain as you are. There is a difference in desperation at this time in history.
Also a demented head of state, a perfect dummy for the augmented PNAC crowd.
I’m inclined to agree ED.
And in the quality of leadership.
But we were fortunate, we had real statesmen at the helm.
Now we have real duds governing the USA/NATO alliance nations.
It takes two to dance and Putin has no partner to dance with.
Our so-called leaders are duds.
If this keeps ramping up, even the calmer leaders could lose it.
I’m with you in “feeling” JFK was a “real statesmen at the helm” especially after he died in a possible conspiracy by the deep state. But when I blink the “romantic feelings” away, I can’t help facts from bleeding through my rosy glasses. He was one of the most successful salesmen of the idea of “US exceptionalism,” while still threatening lives all over the globe. Examples? He effectively hid the fact that the Russians’ nuclear weapons in Cuba were in response to the US installing them in Turkey. He substantially increased our involvement in Vietnam by growing our military presence to 11,000 by the end of 1962. When I sober up from the romantic fantasy, I see a typical parasitic/opportunistic politician with exceptional good looks and smarts. This is not going to make me popular here.
I totally agree with you, but everyone has flaws too, maybe Kennedy was lucky to serve only one term, on the other hand he had the potential to become a great statesman if the real powers would have let him. We will never know.
Obama too was a man with potentials to be a good or even great president, but the powers that be blocked him, and he served them, so we will never know what could have been.
I don’t see much of a chance for it to change soon. I can only see opportunistic politicians, no real statesman/woman in sight.
“Duds” is actually a compliment to the likes of the Creatures from the Black Lagoon who are in charge of our regime, IMO, Renate.
I would tend more towards “murderous thugs” who need to be dealt with in whatever way possible.
Is ‘23 the planet’s last year? Wonder what Nostradamus had to say about this matter….
Happy New Year, Renate, as far as it’s possible…
Webdud (dŭd) n. 1. A bomb, shell, or explosive round that fails to detonate.
That is the dud I had in mind, murderous thug is just as good, the same by any name.
And a very happy New Year to you and family too.
We hope things will improve, they have to get better.
I tell myself that things will get better everyday, I’m still waiting for it to materialize… 😉
We can hope, it is all we can do.
Well said dear Gypsy, well said. I’m not sure, for certain but I think we have gone further than he thought, meaning by now we should have dropped ‘the big one’ and expired… Yet, we are still here and there is still war… Status Quo.
Let’s hope we’ll still be here sans war Donna!
If you have to perish a nuclear crater is a pretty good way to do it, those who don’t get lucky and die immediately are looking at a pretty grim future. So cheer up!
This war is making Russia stronger, not weaker. US is also okay despite the fact that geopolitical situation is changing pretty fast in favor of Russia/China. The main losers are Ukrainians and European members of NATO.
Kiev regime can last to the end of 2023 only with a huge help from NATO, and not only weapons and money, but also cannon fodder. So far, only Poland is sending troops to Ukraine; it is not enough. Few thousands of mercenaries from NATO countries can’t save the situation either.
Yes.
The only thing that can save Ukraine is a complete cancellation of weapons to Ukraine and a sitdown with Putin. Needless to say this ain’t going to happen. The bigger problem is what happens after the US gets its ass kicked. Bullies never know when to quit
It is unlikely that Ukraine can exist as a neutral state. Americans will never allow this. So Russia has no choice but incorporate pro-Russian regions in Russian Federation and leave the rest to NATO.
Ukrainians have no problems in Russia. In Crimea, for example, where there is a quite substantial Ukrainian minority, Ukrainian language is recognized as a state language together with Russian and Tatar.
“Bullies never know when to quit” Yes that is the danger. If Putin wins and takes over Ukraine, which country is next?
In 1945, while liberating Europe of Nazism, Russians went as far as Berlin. East Germany, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Rumania and Bulgaria were occupied by Russian army.
Yes, bullies never know when to quit. And haven’t we seen that with the world’s greatest bully–the U.S.? How many countries has the Russian Federation invaded in the past 30 years, and how many countries has the U.S. invaded in that same time frame?
See Afghanistan, Cuba and Venezuela, and Japan and Germany. You said it, they don’t know when to quit, that is why they push Ukraine to go for broke, UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER, compromise is out and many more people will die because of it.
Unconditional Surrender is as American as Apple Pie.
Plus:
Russia dropping US dollar for Chinese yuan – and fast
In response to Western sanctions, Russia’s central bank is dropping the US dollar and will buy Chinese yuan on the foreign exchange market. The yuan’s share of Moscow’s currency trading increased from 1% to 40-45% in 2022, while dollar trade halved from 80% to 40%.
https://multipolarista.com/2022/12/26/russia-us-dollar-chinese-yuan/
and also:thread
Philip Pilkington@philippilk
1/ There’s some really interesting stuff happening in the gold market right now that people should pay attention to because it could have implications for the global monetary system
https://twitter.com/philippilk/status/1608395197926330370
Unlike Libya which was proposing shifting to gold backed money, and payments in their currency, paying for it with our invasion, the countries of China and Russia who are going away from the dollar do not fear invasion.
Saddam wanted to do it too, both gave up nuclear weapons and with it their lives.
China too has nuclear weapons and bot China and Russia have the same interests and the Saudis are interested.
The neocons in D.C. are unaware that the world of fake friends is crumbling, breaking away.
They are replacing dollar by other currencies not only in Russia. Many other countries are doing the same.
Yes.
“Kiev regime can last to the end of 2023 only with a huge help from NATO, and not only weapons and money, but also cannon fodder…Poland…sending troops…is not enough”
hey tell yr inner editor to wake up – in 12 mo Ukr’s gonna run outa cannon fodder? how the hell could you or anyone know such a thing?
what a dreadful time it must be for a Ukrainian woman to be pregnant…or get pregnant…or give birth to, or raise a male child now: knowing what you love more than anything in the world can only be counted on to have just an 18 yr lifespan before getting sucked into the combat of a forever war where he’ll kill other young men or be killed. this is what everyday yr protecting your dear loved one from want and from harm for.
Millions of young Ukrainians left their country in the last 10 months. They are running from Ukraine in all directions. Ukraine had several waves of mobilization but the soldiers are killed faster than recruited. One can’t send untrained soldiers to the battlefield; it takes time to make them ready for the fight. If 10 months ago Ukrainians had 4 soldiers for each Russian. Now, first time, Russians are more numerous (if we count only those soldiers who are ready to fight in Ukraine) leave alone that Russians are better equipped.
Given these ‘facts’ you’d be surprised to learn that the Russians have had to vacate much more territory each month since August – one would have assumed that it was the reverse that would happen if the ‘facts’ were in reality true.
1/ the ‘in 12 mo.’ part of your assertion is on the face of it implausible due to the many variables that make such exact, confident prediction impossible;
2/ and that undermines yr credibility as a commentator
3/in ‘supporting’ yr claim, rather than sourcing it, you’ve made 5 or 6 more unsupported claims. how ’bout you back up even one? – your choice.
otherwise, in any field of argument beyond those who agree w/you, yr claims are worthless,
‘less you don’t care about persuading citizens not on the exact page w/you, in which case you can forget all the above
I am not persuading. I am informing those people who wish to know what is going on.
I highly recommend that everyone who wants to be educated on the crisis in Ukraine get the little book, “How the West Brought War to Ukraine” by Benjamin Abelow. The subtitle reads, “Understanding how the U.S. and NATO policies led to crisis, war, and the risk of nuclear catastrophe.” It’s a concise, to the point, quick read. You can order it on line as Barnes & Noble won’t stock it.
Sound and good advice Mary.
You have tremendous compassion good sir…
that is nice of you to say
i mean it equally for bereaved russian mothers and their children
and the mothers and children on both sides – they are all victims of 30 years of u.s. foreign policy which – as predicted by foreign policy experts for 30 years – made this war predictable, and now is fine with young ukrainian and russian men slaughtering each other. forever.
It is not fine for the majority of the people posting here. All of us know the war was avoidable and even now it could be stopped if only Biden/Zelensky and their cabal had real morals and basic human decency. The neocon warmongers in Washington and the neo-Nazis in Ukraine are the war criminals going back some 3 decades like you said. They have a Russia phobia but they are also after the natural resources and the profits and the power that come with it. War is business.
Russia was always willing to negotiate, but the Biden people never did. They keep talking about a long war, like they had Afghanistan. Zelensky has nothing to say, he gets paid well to do as told.
That is correct, but unfortunately, because the main media resources are controlled by oligarchs, majority of people in The West are misinformed and see it differently. They believe that far-right coupe in Kiev in 2014 was legitimate and the referendum for the independence in Crimea, which happened after the coup, illegitimate. They never heard about thousands civilians of Donbass which were killed by Ukrainian artillery between 2014 and 2022. Maybe they know about the American military biolabs in Ukraine (they should know it from Fox News), but they are so brainwashed that actually they don’t care about that. Maybe they would be even glad if US uses suddenly the biological weapon against Russians and kill all of them.
In Russia people know about that and have no illusions. That’s why Putin is accepted by majority of Russians as the national leader. Not only by ethnic Russians, but by the people of other ethnos too, including Chechens.
They believe that the process of ousting the democratically elected government was legitimized by the following democratic elections – which is about the only way to make the process of an untimely ousting of a government in any way legitimate, and even so it is shady, and most people were informed about it at the time and only ‘won over’ by this process – and possibly by the fact that Russia took it upon itself to make the process seem more legitimate by occupying Crimea just 5 days after the old government fled the country – several days before Viktor Yanukovych called for them to do so.
Because it obviously were so – holding such a referendum has to precede taking control of the area. The sad thing being that had they actually had such a referendum they likely would have had a majority for independence or unification with Russia – but then that was apparently not an option.
They can look it up and if they do they will realize that those killings were on both sides and had been reduced dramatically by 2017 so much so that the civilian deaths since 2018 are quite small i.e. not thousands
Year - Controlled by:--------LPR
--------DPR----Ukr-- none
2018 - 128 --- 27 --- 7
2019 -- 85 --- 18 --- 2
2020 -- 61 ---- 9 --- 0
2021 -- 36 ---- 8 --- 0
Or perhaps they know that the story was not what it was purported to be:
https://eu.usatoday.com/story/news/factcheck/2022/02/25/fact-check-claim-us-biolabs-ukraine-disinformation/6937923001/
The idea that it is possible to develop bio weapons that only targets Russians is plainly absurd – the Russians are simply not that different from the rest of most of us, for it to be possible to single them out as a target for a bioweapon – if you knew anything about biology or genetics you would know.
Well they would have to be as misinformed as you, for them to justify supporting Putin because the US and Ukraine was developing bioweapons to target ‘Russians’ only.
“the war was avoidable”
this is the damned crying tragedy of the thing – the u.s. positively refused to take nato off the table, which alone likely woulda’ defused the sit. – refused even as it was increasingly clear what the ultimate and then impending alternative was gonna be
Off topic, but concerning Ukraine. Article run in The American Conservative: https://www.theamericanconservative.com/blackrock-plots-to-buy-ukraine/
Thanks for putting up this article.
The money will be spent on infrastructure Projects that can be robbed from the Ukrainian people when the bills can`t be paid , it`s what the Americans do best , usually with the help of the IMF / WB both of witch answer to Washington .
a must read.
Of course the USA/Blackrock will rebuild a ‘portion’ of whatever is left of Ukraine when this conflict is over. These true war criminals have already acquired an excellent business model, particularly in Iraq.
“In the run-up to the Iraq War, Halliburton was awarded a $7 billion contract for which only Halliburton was allowed to bid.”
An ethical approach to business is their mission statement 😉
When will this start? Precisely when we see Zelinsky switch wardrobe to Carhartt and start wearing a construction helmet.
The only problem with their business model is that it will have far less land than they first envisioned. LNG and petroleum infrastructure may also pose a problem 😉
I just wonder if Blackwater (is the name a coincidence?) will provide security and if Dick Cheney is on the payroll as a consultant out of retirement?
Sorry, couldn’t resist.
While the nation was concentrating on bedroom affairs’ they privatized the nations taxpayer paid war machine. Even the soldiers are contractors. The elected officials are selling the nation and its wealth as if they own it.
Nope, no propaganda../s
Danish Reporter Says Ukrainian Intelligence Tried to Coerce Her Into Working as a Propagandist
Subtlety just isn’t a thing in today’s halls of power in Ukraine.
Glory to the heroes! 🙄
They were blackmailing her into propaganda while claiming she was writing propaganda.
You could only make this up if you understood just how ham-handed these ham-handed thugs can be. Which means plenty of us could make it up.
I’m glad that she is reporting this, but there will be kool aid defenders who will immediately gulp down the SBU talking points.
Have you seen the absolute horseshit that “Newsguard” is putting Consortium News through?
https://consortiumnews.com/
BTW, WTF is Newsguard?
Oh gawd, Newsguard. Joe Lauria has had several pieces on that very creepy operation on CN, going back to, maybe, mid-summer. The details are almost guaranteed to make you shudder. I think this is the first post:
https://consortiumnews.com/2022/06/02/us-state-affiliated-newsguard-targets-consortium-news/
If I understand correctly they claim to be fact checkers to guard the news. They must be joking.
From that paper I found, it’s clear that they are a propaganda outlet posing as curator of “truth”. Devastatingly Orwellian.
The Case Against NewsGuard
The adoption of this tool by educational organizations and institutions has been criticized on the ground that the NewsGuard Advisory Board includes people from agencies known for producing false news and opponents of organized educators, as well as studies that show that critical news literacy is more effective than a label approach and concerns over pupil exploitation through data mining.[24]
NewsGuard’s Advisory Board raises concerns about the organization’s commitment to education and organized labor. The Board consists of former U.S. government officials and journalists associated with agencies known for producing false news; for example, board members such as Tom Ridge served in the Department of Homeland Security and General Michael Hayden at theCentral Intelligence Agency and National Security Agency (Higdon, 2020; Maret, 2018; NewsGuard, 2021a; Phillips, 2018). In addition, the Advisory Board includes individuals who publicly defended the use of propaganda such as former U.S. State Department official Richard Stengel (Norton, 2020).
The list of advisers also includes opponents of organized educators such as the former United States Secretary of Education under Barack Obama, Arne 1 NewsGuard is described as a “librarian for the Internet.” CEOs Steven Brill and Gordon Crovitz speak with CNN’s Brian Stelter on Reliable Sources (January 2022), https://www.NewsGuardtech.com/NewsGuard-praised-as- librarians-of-the-internet/
Duncan (NewsGuard, 2021a, 2021b; Nelson, 2014). While CEO of Chicago Schools, Duncan worked to weaken teacher unions (Nelson, 2014)….Further, news outlets that are traditionally accurate in their reporting can and do report false stories. For example, The New York Times has a green rating on NewsGuard, but published false stories that led the U.S. to support an invasion
of Iraq in 2003 (Higdon, 2020; Sussman 2020).2 More recently, The Washington Post, which also has a green rating on NewsGuard, lost a multi-million dollar lawsuit to the 16-year-old Covington Catholic High School student Nick Sandmann for falsely reporting that the teenager was antagonizing a Native American elder in Washington, D.C. (Kim, 2019)…These examples illustrate that NewsGuard’s approach is an intellectually vapid solution masked as literacy. https://www.projectcensored.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/The_Case_Against_Newsguard.pdf
That is much more than I had expected, and I do believe every word posted. NewsGuard is a major player in the public manipulation business. I wonder who pays the paychecks? But, no question answer necessary, the people meeting in Davos are in charge.
Consortium News should get permission to publish it. They are constantly under attack.
And as an addendum, Russia didn’t want her back either. Like “they” say, “The first thing to die in war is truth”. She must have been a great journalist in covering the war:
And as an addendum, Russia didn’t want her back either. Like “they” say, “The first thing to die in war is truth”. She must have been a great journalist in covering the war:
There will be no peace in Ukraine until Washington tells their puppet Zelensky to talk peace.
Well your friend Putin could also give up on annexing Ukrainian territory – that would also allow peace talks.
The Russians were very rational, they wanted a secure border without American nuclear missiles and autonomy for the Russian speaking Ukrainians, in return for a neutral and in peace prosperous Ukraine, it is what the Ukrainian people wanted when they voted for Zelensky.
But Washington and the neo-Nazis in Ukraine had other ideas.
Biden wants regime change and a weakened Russia with Americans controlling the mineral resources. Navalny the man in waiting would replace Putin and act like another Yeltsin and the Nazis could pick the bones of Ukraine.
I completely concur Renate.
No new NATO country (since 1991) have had nukes stationed on their territory – and Ukraine was not about to join! Ukraine could not be prosperous while not being secured against further Russian annexations – no one would invest! Finally the Russian speaking Ukrainians could only get autonomy by actually having a majority for that in the oblasts they wanted it in – that was not going to happen in Donetsk or Luhansk (or Zaporizhzhia or Kherson – as these were all majority Ukrainian speaking oblasts)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donetsk#Demographics
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luhansk_Oblast#Demographics
This is much, much less likely to be the outcome of any conflict in Ukraine than it was likely to be the outcome of the invasion of Iraq – the US did/do not have the strength to make such an outcome likely and most certainly did not think so when the Russians started building up forces to invade Ukraine in early 2021 – and even less so after the debacle in Afghanistan – so pardon me if I find this very unlikely as long as you have shown no evidence that this should have been so before the start of the SMO and only have Biden’s statement that he wanted Putin to leave as evidence that regime change is a desire – which is a very far cry from trying to force it upon the Russians.
Beyond the alliance’s three nuclear powers, five others participate in U.S. nuclear sharing: Belgium, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Turkey. Seven more participate in the Support of Nuclear Operations With Conventional Air Tactics (SNOWCAT), providing assistance in nuclear missions through conventional air support: Czech Republic, Denmark, Greece, Hungary, Norway, Poland and Romania. All 30 members of the alliance excluding France are also a part of the Nuclear Planning Group, which discusses policy issues. The North Atlantic Council remains NATO’s ultimate authority, and member states retain control over their own nuclear forces.
What point are you getting at here?
What about the Russian-speaking separatists who have been shelled since 2014? This is a civil war turned into a very general war between Russia, the U.S. and NATO.
The civil war had reduced number of casualties every year since 2018 (and thus since Zelenskyy took office) the idea that this was what turned into a general war (especially with NATO) while possible would seem odd – especially as no NATO country is directly involved.
Moreover if the issue was the shelling of the separatists then the SMO has caused more civilian deaths than something like 25 years of conflict at the level it was between 2019 and 2021 (total deaths on average per year: (85+61+36)/3 = 60.333
Deaths during the SMO: (1076 + 152) = 1228 / 9,5 months *12 = 1551.2 per year
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casualties_of_the_Russo-Ukrainian_War#Civilian_deaths
https://ukraine.un.org/sites/default/files/2022-02/Conflict-related%20civilian%20casualties%20as%20of%2031%20December%202021%20%28rev%2027%20January%202022%29%20corr%20EN_0.pdf
So a very poor plan for solving a civilian death toll – if you add to this that the LPR and especially the DPR has had to forcibly conscript people to fight the war the ‘civilian’ death toll is likely to be much higher as the death toll on the DPR forces has been high even by their own figures: 4120 DPR and 1000 LPR
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casualties_of_the_Russo-Ukrainian_War#2022_Russian_invasion_of_Ukraine
Angela Merkel was there at the birth of the fake Minsk agreements. She is reputable and does have a conscience, that could be the reason why she came out to tell the truth. The USA and the neo-Nazi Ukrainians wanted to gain time to arm and become NATO members in order for NATO to attack Russia.
Putin was right, USA/NATO can’t be trusted.
Angela can see what the friend USA is doing to Germany and Europe. Like Kissinger said to be a friend of USA is fatal.
They could not join NATO without the consent of all present members – and even then only if they were a democracy and had no ongoing conflicts. So this plan would not work for several reasons:
1) The ultranationalists had lost their last seat in parliament so no hope if they were neo-Nazi’s
2) Hungary and/or Turkey would veto them joining if they thought there was even a hint of a plan to go to war with Russia actually so would Denmark – and pretty much all other European NATO countries, but if by Russia you actually mean LPR/DPR/Crimea then that would perhaps be limited to Hungary (and likely Turkey)
3) As long as Russia had Crimea and Ukraine still claimed sovereignty over Crimea several NATO members would have veto’ed them joining.
NATO was not part of the Minsk deals and Russia already had shown that it could not be trusted by violating the Budapest Memorandum, so none of this should have come as a surprise to Putin.
Not how it is seen by any of the European electorates (save perhaps the Hungarian one) – and certainly better to be friends with the US than not and having Putin extend the Russian friendship to our nations.
The fact remains, the US/NATO armed and trained the Ukrainian military to NATO standards and together NATO and Ukrainians performed military exercises in Ukraine making Ukraine a de facto NATO member. 10 military NATO/Ukraine exercises in Ukraine had been scheduled for 2022. The exercises allowed NATO troops in Ukraine on a rotating basis since permanent NATO basis’ would have been illegal.
Russia knew all that and got ready to fight back. Russia in fact is fighting preventive war. A. Merkel confirmed it.
No a de-facto NATO member only makes sense if they are covered by the defense alliance – Ukraine is not.
Again demonstrating that they were by no means a de-facto NATO member.
Fight back, back against what? That a nation that they had recognized as independent and sovereign took independent and sovereign decisions?
To prevent Ukraine from having joint exercises with NATO????
You have completely failed to establish that Ukraine joining NATO somehow would start a war with Russia – do you think Russia is now justified in invading Finland too? Mind you Finland could actually join NATO Ukraine could not nt in 2022 nor in 2023.
NATO has no boots on the ground, at least not officially, because Ukraine is only a de facto member and NATO is not ready to take on Russia, unless they believe they can win a nuclear war.
European NATO member do not want war on the continent regardless of what the leading idiots say. Poland and the little Baltic states are crazy enough to talk war but war on their soil is not what they expect. expected.
A little correction for you: “To prevent Ukraine from attacking Russia jointly with NATO!!!!” NO ??? marks needed.
I don’t have to establish anything, actions speak louder and Ukraine and the USA have done so and A. Merkel confirmed it, she is a credible witness of history.
First point: do you even know what de-facto means?
Second point: Why would NATO put boots on the ground in a non NATO operation, the relatives of the troops would leak their whereabouts if the troops did not themselves, if they got killed their relatives would reveal their ‘status’ – the idea that NATO could deploy anything like a significant amount of troops is absurd.
It is what they feared, but you are right that they do not want it – indeed Biden does not want it – as it is about the only way the west could conceivably lose the war.
the Ukrainians are not even now trying to take Russian territory – the idea that they or they together with NATO would engage in an invasion of Russia, is plainly absurd, for any number of reasons – there would be nothing to gain from it being the very obvious one, if we had thought anything like that we would have done so in 1991/3 when Russia was at its weakest, and we did not – nuclear weapons playing its part, but the total absence of any expected gains from such an invasion being no small other reason.
In what way did their actions reveal a plan to invade or go to war with Russia??? What it did reveal was a potential plan to have a break so Ukraine could rearm and retrain to better be able to defeat the insurrection in Donetsk and Luhansk – not even remotely the same as Ukraine going to war with Russia let alone them doing so with NATO.
France, Germany, and Russia did not act for NATO, they acted in the interests of all of Europe. The USA did not allow that and all three had to be aware of that.
A. Merkel knew all about the red line and was opposed to Ukrainian NATO membership, but all Europeans’ aimed to end the civil war in Ukraine, the US was not interested and was not involved in the negotiations, that told the Europeans and Russia what was up with the neo-Nazis in power and the USA. The US was already arming and training the Ukrainian military.
Stop fooling yourself. The USA wants to control Russia and get their paws on their natural resources. They are willing to pay the price in form of throwing Ukraine and all of Europe under the bus.
When did France, Germany and Russia act in the interest of all of Europe? The French and German governments were very reluctant to act in the interests of their electorates much less the interests of the electorates of the rest of Europe.
There has been no prospects of a Ukrainian NATO membership – so really no one needed to voice their opinion on it – the simple fact that they could not enter while having a disputed border with Russia (Crimea) made it irrelevant to even debate.
I’m not aware that ‘the Europeans‘ were told ‘what was up with the neo-Nazis in power and the USA‘ – actually I’m pretty sure that we knew and still know that there are no neo-Nazi’s in power in neither Ukraine nor the US – I’ll admit that we had our doubts about ‘there were many good people on both sides‘ Trump though.
i’m not fooling myself, you seem to be, that is if you think that there is anyone in the US who thinks that they can get control over Russia using only the Ukrainians and the Europeans – I’ll be the first to admit that Russia is weaker than many thinks, but the idea that they could be beaten by the European NATO countries who would be very unwilling to even contemplate invading it is frankly absurd.
Just a reminder, the Western NATO powers have a heavily controlled press. The public has been manipulated over decades to hate Russia and the Russian people and Putin. That is a fact you can’t miss if you have any objectivity.
What do you mean heavily controlled – anyone can make a news site and publish what they want – unlike in e.g. Russia and China. The ‘organized’ press is very far from controlled e.g. in many European countries and publications with a NATO ‘hostile’ agenda have no restrictions and do exist.
So just what are you referring to?
You can’t miss it if you really want to know. NewsGuard is a good point to start.
You have to do better than just giving me a site name – I can search that site for hours without finding the smoking gum with regards to the Danish media, the German media, the French media,…, the Lithuanian media, I hope you get the picture. If you believe that these countries media are all heavily controlled you have to have links to stories that show evidence of this – even just for a few of the many many – just give me something to work with!
NewsGuard is a self-appointed internet authority that claims to vet the credibility of websites—including PragerU. In reality, NewsGuard is a biased media firm led by political elites, that pressures tech companies to censor information they don’t like. Should NewsGuard have all the power to determine which information the public should get access to?
https://www.prageru.com/newsguard
Try PragerU. and take it from there.
News guard has no influence in Denmark or in most countries I have lived, so perhaps not the best example that we are living in societies where there is a tight media control – perhaps you are seeing this from a one sided perspective?
She was spied on I think because of the connection to Russia and the ever growing influence of Germany.
She is an Atlanticist, but she knows Putin for a long time, she speaks Russian and he speaks German.
Some people say they don’t like each other very much.
The Minsk agreements were good agreements, the USA was not involved to negotiate the accords.
The Russian-speaking separatists who want to be part of Russia can move to Russia.
They moved to Russia together with their land.
Only they left much of the land behind and they are likely going to leave even more behind soon.
Poland wants a big part of what might be left of Ukraine, Hungary also has some historical claims. But it will be nothing but rubble, could get very expensive.
No Poland does not want a big part of Ukraine – they know full well that though it used to be part of Poland getting it as part of a war would cost them their EU membership and have then ousted form any trade with the west – so this is just an absurd Russian fever dream.
Not bloody likely.
I am not very sure I’m right, especially about the soon part, it may take months – the issue is that I just do not see the areas being worth the price in wasted blood and treasure for the Russians.
Their problem being one of motivating their troops and their elites – none of which stands to gain even a little by holding on to what they have taken.
No one is asking you what they want, they are not Americans, so that makes it non of your business.
How you Nazis crave your Lebensraum!
You moron. That’s like saying Palestinians who don’t want to live under IsraHelli apartheid need to move to Arab -majority countries.
But I’d expect nothing less from the likes of you ( who believes the USS Liberty was attacked by mistake!) 😆
They are free to move to Russia. I do hope that a future Ukraine would respect minority rights. Didn’t some Confederates displace to Mexico and points further South?
That “Ukrainian territory” of which you speak has voting nearly unanimously to join the Russian Federation. Deal with it.
For certain definitions of “voting” that include “a whole lot of people were forced to flee, and then the others were lined up at gunpoint to register their ‘votes.'”
Can either of you supply proof that the residents of these territories were “lined up at gunpoint” and forced to vote in favor of Russia?
After what the Ukrainazis did to them, why would they wish to maintain Ukrainian citizenship?
And don’t pretend to be ignorant of which I speak.
The majority of those who fled these regions fled to Russia.
I have firsthand accounts from people who were there. And that’s all I’m going to say about it.
If you think that the Russian regime is one iota more gentle, humane, or non-self-interested than any of the other involved regimes, that thing you’re doing that you think is thinking isn’t.
Hearsay, Thomas.
Yes, hearsay.
So only about a thousand times as likely to be reliable as the official claims of the occupation regime.
I would, indeed the west would, if we believed even ever so slightly that those votes were actually representative of the actual sentiments of the people – but we just do not for very many reasons. You and Russia have to deal with the fact that holding such votes at gunpoint – well it just does not carry the weight that you think they do.
The USA wants no peace, Biden is determined to get his war with Russia, he was determined to help Bush to get his war in Iraq.
Washington D. C. is a nest of war mongers, they want war at all cost.
Biden’s whole political career is based on it.
A simple truth, but a profound truth. We are witnessing the end of the Russian Federation as a European entity, as well as the end of the Russian Federation as a tool of the two wings of the American war party.
Also revealed is the ugly hypocrisy of America’s political cabal posing as a champion of universal human rights.
I do think the US empire is now where the British empire was before the first WW. It was a century long slow death, even now they have not come to terms that their empire is gone. They were the real instigator of the war. They feared the Bismarck Germany.
On the other hand, in the last 3 centuries, The West was never so united as now. In both WW of 20th century, Anglo-Saxons fought together with Russians against Continental European powers.
Only good Russian nukes are saving us now from WW3.
It is why the Europeans need Putin more than they realize.
Both WWs they united against the industrial Germany. Then after the second WW they needed Germany against Russia, that is what saved Germany, now Germany needs Russia to survive whether they like it or not or are even aware of it, it is what it is. The US controlled Europe through NATO and EU, the hidden occupation. That is MHO. With HINDSIGHT it makes sense to me.
If we avoid WW or if the next WW will not exterminate all the humankind, the survivors should be thankful to those who contributed to their happy end. Definitely Putin is one of them. His contribution to the saving of the humankind from the extermination, probably, is greater than that of any other individual.
Why Germans are siding with neocons in this anti-Russian crusade, difficult to explain from rational viewpoint. Maybe they are hoping to participate in the robbery of Russian natural resources. Anyway, it looks, God punished them again by depriving them of the capacity to see the obvious.
My humble opinion is the American occupier behind THE CURTAIN and closed doors and via EU and NATO, still controls Europe and gave well paid orders. The EU sanctions EU member states if they refuse to follow Biden’s to sanction Russia to please Washington, as stupid as the Biden policies are. And of course money or other forms of bribery changed hands too, it takes corrupt people to act like a Baerbock or a von der Leyen and the Greens most of all. They are traitors of their nation who pay their wages. They are not stupid, they know stupid policies when they see them. How can they show their faces in public? I would hide under the biggest rock I could find.
They are not hiding under rocks; they are proud of what they have done. Both Merkel and Hollande announced openly that they considered Minsk Agreements only as a way to cheat Russians and win some time for rearming Ukraine. They never wanted peace in Ukraine. By the way, Minsk Agreements had a status of the international law. It was unanimously adopted by all member of UN Security Council, including, of course, France. In other words, the leaders of “free world” are proud of their criminal activity. By sabotaging Minsk Agreements, French and German politicians brought not only their own countries, but also all Europe, into a deep economic crisis. One may call it even an economic disaster. Leave alone the hundreds of thousands unnecessary killed. It is a real crime against humanity.
Deep inside they may have hoped against all evidence it would work. They are politicians but for some reason I think they were not as corrupt as the people we have now. Merkel and every European politician worth his salt was well aware of the red line. Ray McGovern had an article posted here were he reported it. The fact that the US Obama/Biden crew did not support it did undermine the agreements from the beginning, politicians in the know had to know it. Like you said, it was all confirmed and signed by Ukraine government and the UN. All know that the US will break agreements anytime it suits them. President Steinmeier also knew. All of them knew. So why bother?
All of them know who is in power and they were cowards by not acting accordingly and serve their nations. The corruption in Ukraine is mindboggling and Biden supported regime change because the Ukrainians are so corrupt and the Obama people would fix it, so they said. (w. help of Hunter Biden I guess)
I don’t think German and French politicians blindly obeyed the orders from Washington. Probably they agreed with the idea that economic sanctions would destroy Russian capacity to resist. What is surprising, now, when it is clear that Russia is standing strong and will never give in, Merkel and Hollande started to talk like that. I can’t believe that German and French people agree with such politics. It was a gamble where in case of success, the corporations are getting their profit, but if something go wrong, the ordinary people of EU are paying for everything. In addition, there is also a risk to be involved in a big disastrous war with unpredictable outcome.
The people don’t agree, they demonstrate AGAINST NATO, they demonstrated against not opening the pipeline before it was sabotaged too. I know of no demonstrations in support of NATO, IT IS ALL SO CRAZY.
Someone said, “war is brutal but it is business”
Yes, French and German people are demonstrating, but not so actively. It looks the majority feels too much anti-Russian. The propaganda works. What is remarkable and extremely disappointing, people accepted the persecution of Assange also as normal. He definitely has nothing to do with Russia. He only exposed illegal activities of American government. Corbyn demanded his liberation, but he was outvoted. People themselves don’t want vote for decent politicians who are ready to defend the human rights and then they are surprised why the politicians are so immoral.
We should not forget the decades of demonization and manipulation of public opinion a corporate controlled press made possible. (btw RT is back on you tube, good news ) There are consequences to not toe the line, risks to lose a job and similar inconveniences and most of all the CIA does not fund the opposition, only neocons may apply. The Zelensky performance in congress proved it and the approval of the UN resolution in favor of Palestine showed the control of political dictatorship. Most opposition came from the NATO nations, France dared to abstain, Germany, Canada, USA, Israel, Australia, Austria ,UK, and Italy were among the 26 opposition votes. The Western powers were the real opposition to bring the Palestinian issue to the ICC to get an opinion. They did lose in the UN but did make their point, human rights mean nothing to them.
I. like many others, did not know what lunatics Biden and his advisers are, and the Republicans are no better. A free press could have made a difference. The people voted for Gore and we got W. Bush and Iraq and more.
And they made people supporting Julian Assange pay for it, CN and Grayzone among others. We still have outstanding journalists, just not in MSM. They do deserve our gratitude and they know who they are. We also have some retired military officers who do not lobby for the MIC and economists and historians and they too have no access to MSM.
All you posted is so true, that makes it so hard to accept that people like Merkel, politicians yes, would be that corrupt to be traitors of their nations, their people, the whole continent. They understood the red line. What did they really think, what happened to reduce them to criminals. It can’t be just monetary corruption, what made them do it?
I admit, I can’t get my arms around so much insanity.
“The only way Ukraine would likely be compelled to talk with Russia is if the US leverages aid to push them to do so” and this: “According to a report from investigative journalist and US Army Special
Operations veteran Jack Murphy, the US has also been involved in a covert campaign inside Russia.
Citing unnamed former US military and intelligence officials, Murphy
reported that the CIA has been using an unnamed European NATO country’s intelligence services to conduct sabotage attacks inside Russia since the February invasion of Ukraine.” If it is not plain to some people that we instigated the mess and are making it messier, those people cannot be helped. Our Pentagon and our President have voiced the want and need to assassinate Russian President Putin as well. My G-d in Heaven! President Joe and his wife are taking a holiday in the midst of it all. Perhaps they will rendezvous with Z and his wife for a Vogue shoot.
If you can get from the underlined statements to the bolded conclusion then you do not understand how timelines work – i.e. it is entirely possible for the US (or the west) to:
1) not desire to push the Ukrainians to negotiate
2) be involved in sabotage actions in Russia post February 24 2022
3) to voice the desire for Putin to have to go (or in Lindsey Grahams words be taken out)
Without any of this meaning that the US/west instigated the SMO.
Dave DeCamp should lobby to change this site name from antiwar to antiamerica. His entire article put all the blame on US for this war. Russia invaded Ukraine, Russia seized Ukrainian land and Russia is bombing civilians. But somehow it is United States fault. Give me a break.
antiamerica = antiwar
Highly cynical…!
The more sinister side of him throwing out anti-American allegations is that restricting allowable speech to only comments that make the US look good leads to really really bad decisions being made.
The Iraqi war that EVERYONE KNEW was necessary due to WMDs really did change the narrative to “Why do they hate us so much,”
Apparently not enough, because here are more recent attempts to increase that hatred. Difference is that now there is another nation that smaller nations can turn to.
Don’t know why Kenneth is working so hard to get neutral nations to become Chinese allies.
I speak of america the Empire.
Not tge United States the Republic.
Have a break; don’t watch the fake news so much.
The US and its puppet regime started the war. That is now established fact. Go educate yourself.
Oh yes by taking over Crimea in February 2014 – oh wait that was Russia.
Russia “took over Crimea” in the late 18th century and it has been Russian ever since.
If not for the Banderists and their sponsors and fellow travelers (🙂) in the wake of the Maidan coup, It’s possible that the rather odd, and to the Crimeans unsatisfactory, post-Soviet arrangement would have continued, at least for a while. But no.
Crimea isn’t going to be recaptured by Kiev’s forces unless they can inflict an unmistakable military defeat on Russia. And that is simply not going to happen. If it were a serious threat, Russia would escalate to whatever level it believed necessary to prevent it.
Except of cause when it was not – as in the period between the Soviet union splitting up and 2014 – as the Russians acknowledged and signed a treaty to honor in 1994.
Or if the Russians decide to vacate it like they did the territory near Kyiv.
The period between the collapse of the USSR and 2014 is one in which the Crimeans attempted, on several occasions, to achieve real independence, real autonomy, or reintegration with Russia. Kiev blocked those efforts. And, in any case, that period is over, finished, and it has been since 2014. Crimea is not going to belong to Kiev again — unless the US-NATO insists on an escalation that would likely turn large areas of Ukraine, and beyond, into thoroughly-scorched earth that even the Galician crazies wouldn’t want.
You’re correct, of course, that Crimea could once again come under control of Kiev if the Russians leave voluntarily. Don’t hold your breath; oxygen is essential to life and it would be unwise to take such a risk.
I’m not denying this.
Or as I have indicated because the Russians prefer to be part of the world trade again, a status they are losing fairly fast these days – being isolated can be very damaging to their economy, and that even if they can retain some trade with China, India and a few others.
I’m not expecting it to happen within very short time saving major developments in Russia (which I do not find likely), but I am expecting the Russian economy to contract rather seriously and then we shall see how long they like to live without the conveniences they have become so used to.
Honestly, Michael, I simply do not understand how so many have bought into the notion that Russia is cut off from trade with “the world.” Nothing like that has happened or is happening.
Here’s a look at the world,, indicating sanctioning and non-sanctioning nations.
It has been clear, to those who have paid attention to reality rather than to the propagandistic bombast flowing through the Western MSM, that a large majority of the nations and populations of the world simply aren’t buying what Washington is selling.
World Majority Sides With Russia Over US
Much of the world is buying what Russia is selling. And Russia has been industriously reorienting its trade practices and policies to minimize reliance on the collective West, which it has determined to be untrustworthy. Sanctions have certainly caused pain for Russians, but not all that much pain, and their economy is doing much better than the sanctions addicts in DC and Brussels hoped. That shouldn’t be surprising, because US sanctions have virtually never achieved their intended goals.
If you’re waiting for the nation that survived Napoleon and withstood the sieges of Leningrad and Stalingrad to buckle because of a shortage of Western conveniences . . . well, again, breath-holding is probably a bad idea.
Edit: Good old Disqus. The latest, greatest upgrade is breaking simple anchor tags, core markup since HTML 1.0.
That is perhaps because you look only at which nations are behind the sanctions and not at which companies abide by the sanctions.
If you look at the latter you will find that companies in China, India, and even many of the CSTO nations are abiding by the sanctions – if you really do not know I can likely still dig up the articles documenting the very many different companies that have drastically curtailed or completely ended their business with Russia.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-11-22/us-sanctions-threat-zaps-russia-s-homegrown-mir-cards-in-setback
https://www.business-standard.com/article/markets/large-indian-lenders-shun-direct-rupee-transactions-in-russia-trade-report-122101000291_1.html
The threat of secondary sanctions is what is going to turn the tides here, and this is already working as the example of the Indian banks should demonstrate as they are acting in spite of their governments attempt at making trade easier through such transactions.
I’ll not try to convince you otherwise – as I fully accept that it will be difficult to show clearly one way or the other before probably the mid or end of 2023.
Also factually incorrect. Go educate yourself. Or, better yet, go away entirely, knee jerk, propaganda spreading, dishonest pro imperialist war monger.
Factually correct I even have the Russians words for it –
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mcCqrzctxH4
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Igor_Girkin#Involvement_in_the_War_in_Donbas_and_annexation_of_Crimea
Go educate yourself. – or if you have evidence to support your position provide it instead of your knee jerk, propaganda spreading, dishonest pro imperialist war mongering.
Can’t be arsed to read or refute your BS.. Not gonna waste my breath arguing with a war mongering, dishonest propagandist.
Now, you do what you usually do, take the last word, and declare “victory,” like a four-year old.
I did not expect you too actually educate your self or respond in any educated way to my evidence that it is you who clearly need to educate yourself. So please keep up undermining the cause you work so poorly to promote i.e. the idea that a war of territorial conquest is the best thing since sliced bread.
That will keep me pointing out the fallacies of your arguments and seeing as you will not waste your breath defending your assertions it will be for the reader to conclude which of us is more likely to be right.
Don’t care what you have to say and didn’t read it. You are a dishonest, war mongering, propagandist, and thus do not merit my reading your nonsense. Run along.
Gee and here I thought you did not want to waste your breath – but it appears that you only do not have the energy to educate yourself or provide actual intelligent arguments for your case – pretty poor lawyering 🙂
Oh and btw you needed not read what I wrote – all you needed to do was to listen to what the very pro Russian Igor Girkin had to say.
Run along now, little trolling, lying war monger!
Oh so now it is you who needs the last word, even if it is a sad declaration of your incompetence. Why do you not just give it a rest neither your sad insults nor any of your other unsupported assertions will have much effect on me.
I strongly advise you, and everyone, not to put too much faith or trust in Girkin/Strelkov. He is not a stable or trustworthy person. To say the least.
He is however fiercely pro Russian and was involved in the affairs directly – he has not been incarcerated by the authorities which he would have been had he been seen to undermine the Russian efforts – so if you have evidence that the Russians think he is lying – it would be very interesting!
Otherwise I’m not for discrediting people who are merely inconvenient to the narrative – I go out of my way to track down and document why I find the pro western sources I disagree with untrustworthy.
Here’s a snide article from the west admitting Crimea did not want the president overthrown. You know , before this kind of stuff was shoved down the memory hole:
Crimea’s Coward
Viktor Yanukovych may be a crook, but in Crimea he’s still the president.
By Noah Sneider
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2014/03/crimeans-protest-viktor-yanukovychs-ouster-rallies-in-crimeas-capital-call-for-autonomy.html
From the Guardian in 2014:
It’s not Russia that’s pushed Ukraine to the brink of war
2014
Seumas Milne
The attempt to lever Kiev into the western camp by ousting an elected leader made conflict certain. It could be a threat to us all
When the Ukrainian president was replaced by a US-selected administration, in an entirely unconstitutional takeover, politicians such as William Hague brazenly misled parliament about the legality of what had taken place: the imposition of a pro-western government on Russia’s most neuralgic and politically divided neighbour.
Putin bit back, taking a leaf out of the US street-protest playbook – even though, as in Kiev, the protests that spread from Crimea to eastern Ukraine evidently have mass support. But what had been a glorious cry for freedom in Kiev became infiltration and insatiable aggression in Sevastopol and Luhansk.
After Crimeans voted overwhelmingly to join Russia, the bulk of the western media abandoned any hint of even-handed coverage. So Putin is now routinely compared to Hitler, while the role of the fascistic right on the streets and in the new Ukrainian regime has been airbrushed out of most reporting as Putinist propaganda.
So you don’t hear much about the Ukrainian government’s veneration of wartime Nazi collaborators and pogromists, or the arson attacks on the homes and offices of elected communist leaders, or the integration of the extreme Right Sector into the national guard, while the anti-semitism and white supremacism of the government’s ultra-nationalists is assiduously played down, and false identifications of Russian special forces are relayed as fact.
The reality is that, after two decades of eastward Nato expansion, this crisis was triggered by the west’s attempt to pull Ukraine decisively into its orbit and defence structure, via an explicitly anti-Moscow EU association agreement. Its rejection led to the Maidan protests and the installation of an anti-Russian administration – rejected by half the country – that went on to sign the EU and International Monetary Fund agreements regardless.
No Russian government could have acquiesced in such a threat from territory that was at the heart of both Russia and the Soviet Union. Putin’s absorption of Crimea and support for the rebellion in eastern Ukraine is clearly defensive, and the red line now drawn: the east of Ukraine, at least, is not going to be swallowed up by Nato or the EU.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/apr/30/russia-ukraine-war-kiev-conflict
He’s beyond educating. When one thing just has to be true, everything else becomes false.
Don’t take Dave DeCamp’s word for it. Read the facts in the little book, “How The West Brought War to Ukraine” by Benjamin Abelow. It’s all documented and tells the true tale in an easy to read style.
Benjamin Abelow works from the basis that Russia has the same rights as the US had in 1823 to dominate its neighbors. He does not seem to consider the problems this involves in a much more advanced world.
The notion that we have to bend the knee to a nation with an economy smaller than that of Italy and allow it to dictate the freedoms of millions of people living along its borders, yes even annex their lands if it so feels is not acceptable in the world we have now (I’m not sure it was acceptable for the US in 1823).
So basically the idea that we brought war to Ukraine is only true in the sense that we could have left them to their own means and therefore very likely have them thoroughly beaten by the Russians if not before then in 2022 – that would have cause a huge refugee problem in Europe – millions more than we have now and permanent as there would be absolutely no incentive to return.
Perhaps more importantly to many in the west is that by the same logic they would have to accept that China (which does have a more legitimate claim to it) would take back Taiwan. This would cause a nuclear arms race – not between the powers that already have nukes but all the powers that would fear more powerful neighbors would annex or dominate them otherwise.
The question I would have back to you is just how many people have to live ruled by people that they have absolutely no desire to be ruled by and have no way to vote out of power – it is all well and good to say that we have not taken Russian security concerns seriously, but just how many millions of people have to suffer for the Russians to feel safe – and that is safe from an attack from the US/NATO which would never come as we have very little to gain from it and everything to lose?
I know your standards are arbitrary and snatched from the ether and that I am therefore wasting my time even asking, Michael, but for the shits and giggles, I’ll ask you this question:
What is your methodology for determining what constitutes legitimacy as regards claims to territory? You specify Taiwan and state that P.R.o. China has a firmer claim to R.o. China than does Russia for territory or territories within Ukraine (you didn’t specify which).
I know that the true answer is closer to a coin toss! or that it sounded plausible to you at the time you wrote it, because reasons. But I’d like to hear it… or read it, more rather… in your own words, thanks.
It is fairly easy to explain why the Chinese claim to Taiwan can be seen as more legitimate than any Russian claim to any part of Ukraine:
1) China has claimed all of Taiwan since 1949 when nationalist forces withdrew to that part of china
2) China (communist) never signed a treaty to the effect of recognizing Taiwan’s borders
3) China (communist) never signed a treaty to the effect of recognizing Taiwan’s sovereignty
4) China (communist) never signed a treaty to the effect of recognizing Taiwan’s independence
Russia did all of these things with regards to all of Ukraine as it was defined in 1994.
5) Taiwan is not recognized as an independent state by only 13 of the 193 states in the UN
6) Ukraine is recognized by most of the 193
7) Only 4 states recognized the Russian annexation of any of the new areas in 2022
8) Only 6 countries have recognized Russia’s annexation of Crimea
Happy to oblige – there might be others who thought I set the standards myself as a coin toss – so happy to show that I applied international standards.
“China has claimed all of Taiwan since 1949 when nationalist forces withdrew to that part of china”
If the nationalist forces had withdrawn to Chile, would Chile have magically become “part of China” too?
I kind of doubt it, but I see what you are getting at, and you are likely right that they would have wanted to do a Trotsky on the nationalists – just to be safe that they did not face a counter revolution. But projecting power across the pacific in 1949 – not likely in my estimation – and they would not like to be seen as paranoid or ridiculous – whereas a local enemy might serve them well to keep the population on their toes.
Taiwan is not “local” to China. It is geographically distinct, separated by 100 miles of ocean, and has only been occupied by Beijing regimes for a very brief period of its history, a period which ended more than 130 years ago.
I actually agree with you on this, but as far as I can judge most nations in the UN do not it was Chinese between 1683–1895 whereupon it was under Japanese rule until 1945 – it has a primarily Chines population so perhaps that is why just about everyone agreed that it was Chinese in 1952?
The main issue now arising from the issue that the nationalists in Taiwan at the time claimed to be the legitimate Chinese government and hence Taiwan was ‘given’ to China (as many see it) and not to the independent nation of Taiwan ruled by the nationalists.
It terms of US aggression, it doesn’t matter. They made agreements for a One China. Further, the leader pushing for war, lost in almost all places in Taiwan. The people aren’t as enthusiast about war as she is. She resigned from head of the Democratic Party, or whatever it is precisely called.
People were not voting for war but local issues like pollution and functioning infrastructure.
Spoken like a true Neocon!
You ask how many people have to live ruled by people that they have absolutely no desire to be ruled by and have no way to vote out of power…
Glad to see that you have concern for the ethnic Russian people living in Crimea and the Donbas living under the cruelty of the regime in Kiev.
How is that like a Neocon? I only ask because I’m ever so slightly right of center here in Denmark – that lands me somewhere between AOC and Sanders in the US – so in what universe is that Neocon. How about engaging with the arguments instead of just dismissing it?
I do have concerns for those people – but notice that they would get a vote for the presidency in Ukraine – that was why Viktor Yanukovych got elected – and why a person like him could get elected in the future.
Yes, Victor Yanukovych got elected, but the U.S. sponsored a coup to overthrow him, going against the vote of the people who democratically elected him. Zelensky has banned any opposition parties to his rule, so Ukraine is not democratic anymore. No freedom of choice in elections there now as long as Zelensky is in power.
You are a Danish Neocon on the Left in Denmark. Sanders and AOC are as left as left can be.
Zelensky is a puppet of neocons. All his power is standing upon that. One wrong step and neocons will replace him by other sock puppet. Zaluzhny for example.
There is no evidence that the US sponsored the people who ousted Victor Yanukovych – none – there is very weak circumstantial evidence that they might have had something to do with it, but that is about it – none of the people here have been able to provide any solid evidence of a US involvement.
First point Zelenskyy banned only some opposition parties, second point he did so only after the Russians had invaded, so there is every reason to believe that the Ukrainians will end that ban when the war is over – at the very least if they want to join EU or NATO.
Again simply wrong – there was all freedoms of choice until Putin invaded – and every reason to believe that there will be again when the war is over if the Ukrainians do not lose that is.
NeoCon is neo conservatives – conservatives are very much to the right of the center – Sanders would be slightly to the right of the center in Danish politics with the proposals he has fielded, AOC perhaps a bit to the left of center in Danish politics with her proposals. So no I’m not a Danish neo-con as they are not left of center and not even remotely for the policies I’m supporting.
Have you not heard the tape of Victoria Nuland plotting with Ambassador Pyatt as to who they would put in as the leader of Ukraine after the coup? Have you not heard Victoria Nuland’s speech where she says the U.S. spent $5 Billion on getting Ukraine ready for “Democracy?”
Why don’t you do yourself a favor and purchase the little book, “How the West Brought War to Ukraine” by Benjamin Abelow? He lays it all out far better than I ever could on this tight forum.
Neocons are both liberal and so called conservatives. They are very facile and slither from administration to administration always retaining their power and influence as we saw with the Trump Administration and now the Biden Administration.
I have, but while the leaked call clearly reveals that the US were in contact with Maidan leaders, and encouraged them, it does not show neither that they started it nor that they funded it. I used this version just in case:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WV9J6sxCs5k
I have:
So also not the smoking gun you seem to think it is.
I have read enough of it to be able to see that it does not change anything regarding my view on this – I think I put it to you already, how many millions of people have to live unfree to make Putin feel safe? Mr. Abelow seems to believe that we should not treat Ukraine as an independent and sovereign state – I fundamentally disagree.
If we do so we are sending the message that only having nuclear weapons (and refusing to get rid of them) will guarantee a state against having to be at the mercy of more powerful neighbors – so this would start a race to procure nuclear weapons in many states around the world (much worse than now).
So just what defines them according to you if they need not be conservatives at all?
Suit yourself. Nuland is a liar. She was one of the architects of the coup. Ukraine is not a sovereign state. Since the coup Ukraine has been America’s colony. Zelensky has wiped out any hope of democracy there as he is a U.S. puppet. The Neocons are warmongering, one world government people. The term Neocon was coined by William Kristol’s father, Iriving Kristol. If Abelow’s well documented book doesn’t change your mind, then you are being purposely obtuse.
You have failed to show anything beyond that the US had interests in the outcome of the process whereby the legal government was ousted – i.e. no proof that the US neither funded it nor planned it – had the US had that level of involvement they would not have had to resort to phone calls to try to influence the outcome – the evidence you float only shows the opposite of what you want to show (so a US desire to reduce the influence of the far right and a US involvement that was at the level of hoping to persuade/influence the situation not dictate let alone plan it).
More baseless assertions – in all cases of US planned/executed coups there has been little democratic votes following the coups and if there were any in none of them has the original plotters of the act lost power and even representation in parliament – so if this was a coup, explain how a Russian speaking candidate running on a platform of peace could be allowed to run much less win.
Only the flaw in your ‘theory’ is that Zelenskyy only banned some opposition parties and only after Putin invaded – so more influenced by Putin than the US – and nothing suggests that the ban will stay on after the war.
I was against the activist foreign policy of the US in Libya, Iraq and Afghanistan, just to mention the most recent very significant cases – as I was against Putin’s activist foreign policy in Ukraine and Georgia. Finally I’m firmly against Putin’s annexations of territory of other states!
I happen to agree with the principle that Abelow describe – i.e. his idea that this was caused by the US can bee seen as correct, but I fundamentally disagree with the underlying idea that the neighbors of powerful nations like Russia (and the US) have to have their sovereignty curtailed.
So I do not believe that the Ukrainians have to be unable to apply for NATO membership and equally I do not believe that the Cubans should not have the right to join any defensive alliance they want.
I’m a little surprised that you support the idea that millions of people have to be subject to the whims of their very powerful neighbors – you seem to be the neocon of us!
No, it should have a nickname for people just like you:
The Truth Hurts.
Are you for real.spouting this garbage? You need to.find some different sources that don’t spout government propoganda.
What would you do, if you knew we were going to have nookular war?
Inhale, hold it……………………………………………..Exhale…..
Get a ton of cherry wine.
Or Xanax.
https://russian.rt.com/ussr/article/1092583-lnr-unichtozhenie-oficery-vsu-donbass
“They have become a living target for Ukrainian punishers”: the Investigative Committee reported on the bodies of more than 3 thousand civilians found in Mariupol
https://russian.rt.com/ussr/news/1092817-oruzhie-vsu-avtomat
“Fighter of the Wagner Group: weapons modernized by Kyiv are almost never found at the front.”
After reading through numerous Russian news publications, my sense is the number of US-supplied M177 and other artillery units and the attendant munitions is rapidly dwindling to zero.
As for HIMARS and NSAMS, I suspect the VSU is no longer operating these systems–if they ever were.
I recommend a name change for NATO: NUTO.
Fun fact, courtesy of Alex Mercouris (of the Duran) on YouTube:
Russia’s artillery includes guided missiles and ALSO unguided ones.
The leftist media mock this as outdated. Is it? The unguided ones are fired by accurate guns. No need to use guided shells unless you really need to.
Meanwhile the U.S. manufacturers produce only guided missiles, which are far more costly. They balk at the idea of producing cheaper ones. And the bought politicians agree. Only the most expensive stuff must be produced.
And that is why Ukraine is running out of artillery ammunition while Russia is doing just fine.
If you are talking about actual artillery i.e. not rockets, then the US and others produce large amounts of unguided (non Excalibur) shells. And there are far more of this type delivered to Ukraine than of the Excalibur type. For the rocket artillery it is the case AFAIK that there are few (if any) of the unguided ones delivered by the west.
But then the value of firing beyond visual range with unguided rockets is perhaps also dubious – as in this is what often cause collateral damage i.e. kills civilians, a point often made against the Ukrainians when firing such weapons across the LoC.
Finally as for the Russians doing just fine, you have to consider that they on the attack on Bakhmut have been using only a fraction of the amount of artillery fire that they did on Popasna – and the Wagner Group is now openly complaining about shortages of artillery shells, you can track down the original on telegram if you doubt this one:
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/–rI3ga2O-g
Reminder: Using another person’s or entity’s unsupported claim as support for your claim, and telling the readers you want to convince to search Telegram for confirmation, is an excellent reason to ignore your claim.
If you watched the video you would have picked up on it referencing a Wagner Group video where they complain about the shortage of artillery shells – as I indicated if you do not trust that source there are other ways to confirm it – you could track down the original or find it reported on multiple other sites.
But if you rather just ignore it – then that is naturally your prerogative – I should just like t note that you made the unsupported claim that the Russians were just fine wrt artillery shells, but I made the supported counter claim that they are not.
For 2023 my big wish is peace for the world and the end of the US hegemon to at least get some peace.
Your problem being that in a multipolar world there will in practice always be more wars.
So even if we do not like a hegemon not having just one leads to more wars not less.
History proves you wrong.
No it is actually based on history that we have this knowledge.
Europe is one good example – there were nearly always more wars when there was a multipolar situation – actually the more about equal powers the more conflicts.
We have had few hegemonic periods, but when we had close to that we had fewer conflicts – the idea of Pax Romana exists for a reason.
Take a good look at the ME and see what the US hegemon did to the ME. Look at Latin America, and of course there are Asian and Pacific nations, before the US there was the UK colonial empire, The US was the bully with the gun. Now it would be nuclear weapons.
You are kind of missing the point, i.e. that the US was not a hegemon in the ME for a very long while, but only one of two, and when Russia stopped playing its role, there naturally had to be some wars before the US could establish itself as the hegemon.
By European standards that has been a very peaceful continent!
Again very peaceful in the period when the US were the hegemon (1994 – 2010)
The US is a bully, but you are missing the point that there have been very few people killed in wars during the periods where the US was a (fairly) unrivalled hegemon. Few at least compared to the period when it was not (Vietnam, Korea, Malaysia,…)
Yes, as long as you can exploit the poorer, defenseless people and no third party interferes with your exploitation, all is in butter. That is what colonialism and slavery is really all about.
The question was under which system do you get less people killed in war – a hegemon situation or a multipolar one – the answer is a hegemon (or at least that has been the experience most of the times so far). Colonialism and slavery grew out of times when there was a multipolar world – I’m not saying that it would not also have come to exist in a hegemonic one, just that it is not caused by it!
American wars have killed millions of people. You do have a double standard, you are convinced Americans are better people. Let me tell you they are as bad as any people.
I do not believe that Americans are better people – the first example of one hegemon being better I gave you were the Romans, this is simply that with just one hegemon there will be fewer wars – not that the hegemon is good or bad – they very likely come in bad and worse versions possibly some good though I cant think of any.
The US, the BULLY, has caused a trail of scorched earth and blood and millions of people killed.
I know, by far the larger number of deaths was however caused by the years when they were having proxy conflicts with the Russians and or the Chinese. That seems to be the time you long to have back!
American hegemony, to the extent that it existed, was:
1) An historical accident of geography — the US was the only major power that wasn’t economically/industrially wrecked by World War Two, which put in good position to dictate to many of the devastated nations and to all the poorer ones; but
2) Always heavily contested. The Soviet-aligned and non-aligned regimes dominated a good part of the world.
The world was more multipolar than unipolar even at the height of US power. And US power is diminishing. That has both positive and negative consequences.
There are no negative consequences in diminishing the geopolitical weight of US. Even if US disappears altogether, still it would be not such a bad thing for the rest of the world. Hardly China can replace US as the main danger to the survival of the humankind. China is alone. Russia, India and other neighbors can counterbalance it if it is necessary.
Absent the US, the Russian alternatives are likely:
1) Become a Chinese satrapy; or
2) End up mostly parceled out to have the bones of its empire picked over by various rising regional powers; or
3) Light the big firecrackers and end it all for everyone.
Putin says he can’t imagine a world without Russia. And that’s pretty much what a world without the US would result in.
It is much easier for Russia to defend herself against China than against US because unlike pro-American “fifth column”, pro-Chinese “fifth column” never existed in Russia and hardly will ever exist. Most of Russian big business until recently kept their money in The West, not in China. From this viewpoint, China is not so attractive for Russians as The West. Probably no less than half of Russian population in 1990 were pro-American. US and The West in general looked at that time like a success story. The danger for Russia arrived from “friendship” with US, not from American hostility to Russia.
Except that the US is breaking at the seams now. There is nothing but war and divide and conquer political tactics. There is less and less for the masses who pay to kill other people and enrich the oligarchs. It may take a while, but that is not sustainable.
Yes absolutely right – there has AFAIK not yet been a situation of one world hegemon (unchallenged) – there have been situations of local hegemons though – in those cases there have been fewer wars and fewer conflicts in those local areas.
I wish to see equal “power”, by which I mean the right to self-determination, for everyone, Thomas.
Oh wait, I just woke up.
War is the biggest most profitable business, that is why we have wars, not for freedom and democracy, that is BS. There were too many stockpiles of unused weapons, the Ukraine war took care of a lot of the excess, making room for more and newer weapons.
And war will be very significantly more profitable if wars of territorial annexations are allowed to stand and we do not sanction them so much so that no one wants to even try to conduct them.
Sanctions are savage economical warfare. Israel annexed the Golan Heights, the US approved of it and no sanctions are used against Israel. The slow motion genocide of the Palestinian people too is approved by the
one hegemon monster USA. The US is a lawless rogue monster state, and a global danger.
It does not work to have a single monster hegemon like the US bullying the whole world.
Better or worse than what they did to e.g. Vietnam?
Which is actually the problem, as it has allowed Israel to continue a policy towards it neighbors that just about guarantees that there will be no peace.
Sure but that is not an argument that allowing many other nations to do the same to their neighbors will reduce the suffering – quite the opposite – i.e. when this behavior is not sanctioned they (the Israelis) continue their bad behavior.
I think you have just argued that it does – sure we could need a better economic collaboration to make it harder for the US to protect places like Israel, but that is a very far cry from trying to cure the problem by allowing all bullies to do the same as Israel to their neighbors.
Allowing other nations do the same is not the issue, the need of balance is the issue. Killing and destroying is a moral yes or no issue. You can kill in slow motion and more pain for long and short times, have parents watch their children die a slow and painful way to starve to death and not being able to help or you can watch them getting killed or tortured with bullets and bombs, chemical, biological or nuclear weapons. Where is the moral distinction? War in any shape or form is brutal, and it is always for material gains money and power all else is BS. It is the crime against humanity, morally they all are killers, instigating a war, as happened in Ukraine is as evil as invading another nation. What is the moral difference between Iraq and Ukraine? Don’t we have double standards when we judge the others?
Michael, please tell me why the US and NATO wage war against Russia, why is Ukraine being destroyed, what for? All for a useless NATO membership? The people voted for peace not NATO membership. And the Zelensky piece of scum knows it.
Hear hear. Well said.
Well not if the balance you want has to be obtained by allowing others to do the same – which is rather the point.
Quite, which is why I would have expected you to be firmly against making war a much more profitable option for far more countries in the world – so why is that not your position?
The difference is not in how the war is conducted, but in what is obtained by the war – Iraq cost the US a lot of political power and goodwill, plus a hell of a lot of money. Ukraine would be a net benefit to the Russians if it was not sanctioned and no military help had been provided to the Ukrainians.
The US and NATO are not waging war against Russia, but they are allowing the Ukrainians to fight for their freedom – the very moment the Ukrainians do no longer want to fight they have the same option as the Afghans.
the reason we in the west support the Ukrainians and apply sanctions is that if we did not then we would have made war of territorial annexation a huge advantage and we could expect the Chinese to take Taiwan in a very close future – that would then be followed by other nations doing their own version of the SMO to their weaker neighbors – simply because that would be the best policy for their countries.
Many countries in the world have already seen even the threat of the west being unable to restrain the Russians as enough of a threat that the future will bring more SMO like wars that they have dramatically increased their defense expenditures (Japan is one example).
So quite simply supporting Ukraine and should they lose keeping up the sanctions and isolating Russia even further, will be the better economic option for the west (and indeed the world except Russia and perhaps China) – as it will bring about a more peaceful world and lower defense expenditures across much of the world.
This is not an invented issue not by me, Biden or even the west but a pretty simple thing to predict as it was indeed by the Kenyan Ambassador to the UN:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tf0gb0sQI40
The people of Ukraine wanted to be members of NATO, the war was not because Ukraine was about to join NATO as this was not possible as long as Russia had Crimea and Ukraine still claimed sovereignty over Crimea – nor as long as there was a civil war in the Donbas.
So Zelenskyy may be a scum, but if so not because he violated the desires of his people, nor because he insisted upon joining NATO (because he did not). I can show you the polls that show that the Ukrainians wanted to join NATO before the war and that this desire has only grown since the war.
I don’t think you understand what I posted. Without a balanced objectivity you have a double standard, just like democracy does not work without a real constructive opposition party representing the minority interests.
A polar hegemon monster like the US, is the real global disaster. Multipolar power creates some balance, some rational to consider the other side.
I have argued that one effective opponent or a multipolar world will lead to far more conflicts – you have failed to counter this argument, so is it that you prefer more wars?
The best way to be an effective counter balance to the US hegemony is not by invading other places but by building a soft power opposition – like that of EU, if Russia and China wanted to work through peaceful means and stop actually being a military threat to their neighbors then they could have formed an alliance with EU to work against the Trump sanctions on Iran, which EU was against. Without their support and with no trust between them such an alliance was not possible.
I think you are willfully ignoring just how bad things were during e.g. the cold war – a large part of the number of conflicts that there are, are caused by not the US hegemony but the conflicts of interest between the large powers.
Seen in this perspective how does the Iraq plus the Afghan invasion and occupation stack up against the Vietnam and Korean wars? If you feel that does not do the evil that is the US hegemony justice you can add the Libyan war and the Syrian conflict – you still will not gat anywhere near the number dead during just those two wars – and I can tell you that they were very far from the only wars while there were less of a US hegemony in place.
The US and NATO are not waging war against Russia? Are you serious?
Put the crack pipe down, Michael, and sloooowly walk away.
You have to distinguish between actually waging war and just supplying weapons, intelligence, training their troops and maintaining their equipment. If you do not then you will not be able to understand the way things develop or what is going on – neither in the west nor in Russia let alone Ukraine.
You are using MSM propaganda to believe what suits the government’s narrative to make you feel good.
The truth, the reality, out there is ugly, and you know it.
No I simply heard the speech of the Kenyan ambassador to the UN in February and realized he was right – if you think that made me feel good then you must be mad.
Renate was pointing out the monstrous hypocrisy of the Amerikkkan regime.
And I was asking back if she actually prefer a hot war to the alternative.
Well, the New Year is upon us: 2023. My wish for the New Year is PEACE for the world. One of the things I am grateful for is the camaraderie we share here on ANTIWAR.COM.
Happy New Year, darling. God bless you.
Okay back to reality. NATO is getting on my tits (as the Brits say, when they are pissed). Nuclear war is not something I care to experience. Vaporizing is not a process I care to go through. So, get the lead out PEOPLE! PEACE IN THE NEW YEAR, For EVERYONE!
My favorite cocktail (in my drinking days) was Black Russians (yum) and if I cared for something lighter: White Russians. I think I am going to invent a new drink, which I won’t drink, called: The NATO TORNADO.
Try adding a splash (just a splash) of cola to your White Russian. It’s called (among other things) a “Colorado Bulldog” and reminds me of a chocolate shake or something like that. My favorite “dessert” cocktail.
Here’s hoping for a less bellicose new year for this planet, Thomas. All the best to you and yours.
And the same to you and yours, and to everyone who comments here!
Stoltenberg is getting on my “tits”. “A full blown war is possible”??? Would anyone care to imagine what that would look like????????????
What happens when two NUCLEAR countries get into conflict?……..
KABOOM!!!!!!!
Maybe ‘vaporizing’ isn’t that bad….!!!
Einstein said that WWIII will be our last and that the next world war would be fought with sticks and stones, primitively… It this going to be our destiny?…………………………
HAPPY NEW YEAR’S EVE PEACE KEEPERS!
And Happy New Year, my fellow kick-ass-for -peace friend!
NO WORLD WAR III. I don’t care what Stoltenberg has to say.
I just want to say, how very much you all mean to me. You’ve all helped me through some difficult times… I cannot and will not tolerate war, in any way, shape or form. AND: BLESSED ARE THE PEACEMAKERS. Let us hope (and pray) that 2023 will be a good New Year, filled with hope and PEACE.
Having said that…. If my ass gets nuked, I’m gonna be mad as hell!!!
PEACE FOR THE WORLD in 2023 and always. 🙂
If anyone is talking about Armageddon they must be responsible. NUCLEAR ARMAGEDDON?!
If a “full-blown” war is possible General, gather the world leaders at a round table and make PEACE DEALS that take the threat away. I do not want to see WWIII, I don’t want to see NUCLEAR WAR. I WANT TO SEE PEACE, UNIVERSALLY. Peace and Happiness in the New Year: For the World. https://media1.giphy.com/media/2lQCBjuFMLCOvXno4l/giphy.gif
PEACE in 2023 and forever…
PEACE IN 2023 and for always…
And meanwhile, the “peace” movement, co-opted by the Democratic party, is on its deathbed. It’s been useless since the Obama years, and now is nothing more than social groups who meet occasionally to complain about Trump, wave homemade signs, and chant the same old worthless chants they’ve recycled from the Vietnam era. Liberals and leftists never were serious about wars started by Democrats, and when Trump came along promising to end the regime change wars, the “peace” movement ignored him and instead jumped on the TDS bandwagon. And now they’re silent while Biden drains the coffers and goes all out for Nazis in Ukraine.
Leftists are completely different than liberals.
Got that right.
Kiev neo-Nazi regime is a great jewel in American imperial crown. It is a great success story. Unfortunately for neocons, it wouldn’t last long, but still it gives enough time to rob EU for a couple trillions.
It isn’t just the peace movement. We’ve evolved into a society of people passing through their lives with cell phones glued to their sensory receptors, devouring – and yes – spreading what in most cases amounts to gossip. A large percentage of these same people are living in a dream world devised by the corporate elite, whose primary goal is to keep them consuming 24-7, and in line with that goal, keeping them as ignorant and unquestioning of reports from the outer world streaming in from corporate news sources, owned by many of the same corporate elite.
What the hell else should one expect?
The peace movement has to operate independently from either major political party.
Democrats and republicans are both enemies of peace. To be fair, any politician who would be successful in promoting peace would get death threats, death threats to loved ones and family members, lots and lots of very negative press, and a loss of political power in the halls of Congress. I don’t blame the Squad for caving so fast earlier in the year. The benefit to their exercise was that Biden was publicly exposed as being 100% behind completely suppressing pro-peace commentary. Complete and total cancellation of alternative viewpoints or proposals
And republicans fully support cancel culture when it suits their needs. Which is to support Biden’s complete control of the MSM, at least on war issues. From what I have heard, Tucker Carlson is the allowed token opposition. He will be allowed to continue as long as he is not too successful.
Word of mouth will have to do for now.
PEACE TO THE WORLD!
“While US officials aren’t concerned by a nuclear escalation,”
Of course not. Our need for glory is much more important than anything else.
About a week ago, Reuters reported that Lavrov told an international conference that Moscow’s proposals to Kyev are well known and that either Ukraine fulfills them for their own good, or the Russian army will decide the issue.
That kind of toughness in his tone is new, and I have little doubt that he meant it. Tactics and strategy are changing on the ground. Forces have been reinforced. Warnings have been issued that targets once considered out-of-bounds will now be destroyed at will.
I’ve learned not to be too confident in making predictions. But I think that Russia has finally decided that neither Ukraine nor the US will ever cooperate, and that the gloves have already come off.
PEACE IN 2023 and always…
Pentagon is mulling sending a small number of additional troops to track weapons, a plan a former US official called “classic mission creep.”
And its what I call “ Operation Sacrificial Lamb”…
I call it an impeachable offense.
They have been there for a while.
Not enough for a proper tripwire for doomsday I suppose.
We keep getting these mealymouthed announcements that “maybe we;ll send some people” for MONTHS now. The CIA has been ther since 2014, and there rae others on the ground.
Yes, triple sheepdipped spooks abound in Ukraine. This deployment is different though. I think they are getting concerned about these weapons getting somewhere that will come back to bite them or their satrapies. It also serves the purpose of generating US public support if these troops are killed in the crossfire – or shot in the back by their hosts.
Yes, I think your second point is profound.
Sorry for all of the spelling errors. It’s too hard to find a comment now to edit when there are 100s of them. My “view in discussion” hasn’t worked for months now.
Well, it’s New Year’s Eve and I am doing my traditional evening, which has not started yet but here it goes: I wish for all of us PEACE IN THE NEW YEAR and for many years to come. Thank you all for being excellent activists for PEACE. May 2023 be a better year for Peace.
Beautiful sentiment, Donna!
And yeah, your awesome ass and my awesome er, chest, ain’t gettin’ nuked for no good reason! 😉
I’m going to light a joint and contemplate this mess…
Pretty sad. Everyone living in a dream-world in which all their twisted desires come true. Unconditional surrender or nothing. No chance of anything as simple as an immediate cease-fire, followed by real negotiations. No. Never that. Just a lot of hand-wringing from most decent folks who are paying for this atrocity (among so many others), and war-boosterism from some folks who are obviously paid in a kind of gelt for being on this site. As I said, sad. 🙁
Let’s bring the New Year in with a little peace…
NO MORE WAR! And most especially NO nuclear WAR.
Many thanks to all of the good people who keep this place going…ANTIWAR.COM helps to keep me sane, in the midst of insanity, which is any kind of WAR.
There won’t be peace until the neoCON warmongers get their nuclear war and there is no on left to fight.
Welcome to 2023. Is there going to be any peace in our New Year?…
One of my expectations for 2023 is no world war… I hope it is so…
It seems to be a quiet start to the day… Happy New Year with great hopes for World Peace in 2023.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=waCk_Jhnz5c&ab_channel=TheDuran
Peace in Syria Takes A Step Forward.
Peace in the New Year for the World.
https://smoothiex12.blogspot.com/2023/01/will-they-sue-for-peace.html
Will They Sue For Peace? Andrei Martyanov.
Those who thought Ukraine’s de-electrification was a Russian strategy best employed near the SMO’s beginning they’ve been proven wrong. Ukraine is continuing to shell its former oblasts and Russia.
I believe Ukraine will have more success if they order native Nazis and Banderites to front-line positions rather than rear-guard observing.
The Russian MOD is fighting a very successful war of attrition disarming NATO (Ukraine was disarmed in March), tank by tank, artillery by artillery, air defense by air defense. Poland has called up 200,000 reserves, Ukraine is collapsing and Poland/Romania are now being called up to die for empire. What the empire looses in the Ukraine, they loose for the final NATO war against Russia.
NATO overall has accumulated the following equipment losses;
354 Aircraft, 194 helicopters, 2741 UAV’s, 399 Anti Aircraft systems, 7296 tanks inc. APC’s, 953 multiple rocket launchers, 3742 rocket launchers and 7810 military automotive equipment.
In the past year we have seen the Rules Based Order act in a state of criminal insanity. They blew up the Nord Stream Pipeline which will cause the deindustrialisation of Europe. The shelling the Zaporizhia Nuclear Power Station in an effort to cause a nuclear accident. The planning of a false flag nuclear weapon detonation on their own soil!!! This is the actions of criminally insane psychopaths.
These figures are without basis in reality – but then you know this.
Reality is that NATO is getting badly defeated in Ukraine. The Russian MOD briefings i have watched every morning since NATO started shelling the Donbass just prior to Russian entering Ukraine to protect the Eastern Ukrainians from ethnic cleansing and genocide.
Right now in the Donbass the NATO coalition is about to retreat from Artemivsk (Bakhmut) after massive losses. Mozart PMC is getting the hell out, its a meat grinder.
These figures i present are based on detailed MOD briefings, they are pretty accurate.
If you were even trying to inform yourself you would know that the Ukrainians did not have as many planes as your source claims to have destroyed – thus the figures are not even remotely correct.
https://www.aerotime.aero/articles/32040-fact-check-has-russia-destroyed-the-ukrainian-air-force
Yet your source claims to have destroyed 354 out of 196 planes – now even if we allow for the that Ukrainians could have managed to repair some supposedly destroyed planes or reactivate some mothballed frames – the idea of the Russians having destroyed 58 planes more than the Ukrainians have does show just how inaccurate these figures are.
The planes are chosen to illustrate as we know that the Ukrainians have not received any fixed wing airplanes and we can see that the Russian MOD originally did not significantly disagree with the numbers from my source, yet they now claim to have destroyed 180 to 233 percent of the active planes Ukraine had.
The Mozart group is not supposed to be anywhere near the combat zone, so… They are not a NATO unit and there are no NATO coalition forces in or near Bakhmut.