Eric S. Margolis – Lew Rockwell Jan 5, 2022
How many American soldiers will die in the battle for Luhansk? Or Kerch? Not 1 in 1,000 Americans could find these drab Ukrainian (formerly Russian) industrial cities on a map.
How many Americans are aware that a unit of the Florida National Guard is stationed in western Ukraine, of all places? It’s just a training mission, says the Pentagon. Right. Training how to pick oranges. This from the ‘invincible’ US military (I used to be a member) that got its backside whipped in Vietnam, Iraq and now Afghanistan.
No matter. The US, says President Biden, is geared up for a major fight in this obscure coal-mining region of the former Soviet Union. US Navy vessels and aircraft now challenge Russia’s Black Sea and Azov Sea borders. NATO units probe Ukraine’s air and land borders.
Washington is warning Moscow not to react to US military intrusions. And, above all, not to invade Ukraine – which was part of historic Russia and the Soviet Union until the USSR fell apart after a US-engineered coup in Kiev that created western-orientated Ukraine. Today, Ukraine is governed by a former TV comic whose career was financed by shady oligarchs and western interests.
President Biden has all but threatened war against Russia if Vlad Putin makes good on threats to attack Ukraine. Putin warns the US of his new arsenal of whizz-bang weapons, many of them nuclear. This reminds me of an Italian diplomat’s brilliant quip about the regional conflict over a barren Eritrean border region: ‘two bald men fighting over a comb.”
Ukraine is an economic black hole, with massive industrial pollution, titanic debts, unbridled thievery, and staggering corruption.
For Russia, Ukraine was its former industrial and agricultural heartland, and key component of the Russian state. Think of Ohio suddenly detached from America by pro-Trump rebels or the Red Fleet cruising the Great Lakes.
Moscow has no doubt at all that Washington’s strategic objective is to complete the amputation of Ukraine from Russia and then to go on tearing down what’s left of the current Russian Federation. Russia’s remote Far East would be a key target. No wonder Putin keeps making ever more dire warnings. He is the West’s target number one.
Yes, Moscow has moved about 80,000 troops to ‘NATO’s border.’ But this border is Russia’s own external border as well. Moscow has every right to do so.
Putin is no angel (see his repression of the Chechen) but he is quite right when he says that the West back-stabbed Russia when it orally promised not to expand NATO east in exchange for Gorbachev’s agreeing to Germany’s reunification and its inclusion in NATO
Today NATO has pushed into Moscow’s former backyard. In NATO’s vanguard are Russia-hating Poland, the three Baltic states and Hungary – all of whom have ample reason to fear and mistrust Russia. All would be happy to see the US go to war with Russia. But the US has no strategic objectives and no logical war aims in southern Russia/Ukraine. A bridge too far, as it proved for Germany in the 1940’s, one of the toughest campaigns fought by one of Germany’s top generals, Erich von Manstein.
It’s very unlikely that Joe Biden or Vlad Putin want a real shooting war in Ukraine. We see lots of breast-beating but no real military action – so far. What neither side will admit is that they both have serious shortages of ammunition, spare parts, fuel, recovery vehicles and guided missiles. Neither Kiev nor Moscow can afford to replace weapons lost even in a short war. Bankrupt America is in no position to fight for Ukraine. The other NATO allies are paper tigers. Most important, Germany has no desire to fight Russia. Unlike the snarling Republicans in the US Congress, Europeans want no new wars. Their boys are not ready to die for Luhansk.
But an accidental conflict is always close and growing nearer.
Ukraine is the breadbasket of Russia – that’s why for centuries the Germans have always desired it. The US and its British puppet want it as a jumping off point for the invasion of Russia.
The big problem is that the Pentagon and the US political establishment is filled with idiots disconnected from the real world. The British political establishment is utterly corrupt and will say and do whatever it’s US paymasters dictate.
They are blundering into war.
Quite a few mistakes in this article. The US & EU have made a huge number of foreign policy blunders over the years and Ukraine has been, and will continue to add to this ever growing list.
The Russians know what is going on. If they let Ukraine go, the NATO advance will continue elsewhere.
My own view is that Putin should invade Ukraine, and do it with such purpose that Western elites will be stunned. I disagree with the claim that Russia will lose lots of kit, or suffer many losses.
If we look at recent Russian military drills, they’ve used a lot of live fire, & there’s a reason for this. The Russians need to know about the basic reliability of its munitions, but this also means that Russia has considerable capacity to build, stockpile and ship munitions to where they are needed for as long as they need. The Russians will pummel forces fighting in Ukraine, and yes many families in the West who have no idea that daddy was fighting for the bankers in Ukraine and that daddy won’t be coming home, tut.
If this Russian invasion happens, this will be the most ruthless attack in the history of warfare. I believe the Russians will use electronic warfare at levels never understood before, even in military circles. We will see ‘all’ communication in Western Ukraine, completely jammed. Even US ships in the Med and Black Sea will be crippled, and there’s a long history of this being done. Just one Russian sub could do this, jam US military systems. How have Russian planes buzzed US carriers and ships with no lockon?
‘the three Baltic states and Hungary – all of whom have ample reason to fear and mistrust Russia’ ? b/c of Russia’s homophobic nature?
hmmmm….
American wars are not meant to be won, they are meant to get something done for the global Jew mafia and get a lot of White Americans killed. Whitey is not allowed new territory.
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But the US has no strategic objectives and no logical war aims in southern Russia/Ukraine.
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???
What?? This ended all the author´s credibility for me.
Only utterly geopolitically ignorant person or agenda paid shill could say something like that..
Even a child with basic world map overview would be able to find out. Besides the countless perks there for the one ruling this particular part of the world.
PUTIN SEND YOUR HYPERSOUND NUKES
TO VIRGINIA + NEW YORK (head of snakes) !
you do us a great favor !
Re: No US stratigic objectives?
Not true. For too many decades to count, the US government has had one chief, unwavering stratigic objective: doing whatever is best for the global agenda of Systemic Jewish Supremacy, aka Communism.