Mike Whitney – The Unz Review Jan 17, 2023
“Here’s something you must understand. We were not given any opportunity to act differently.” Vladimir Putin
The plan to engage Russia militarily is a tacit admission that the United States can no longer maintain its global dominance through economic or political means alone. After exhaustive analysis and debate, western elites have settled on a course of action aimed at dividing the world into warring blocs in order to prosecute a war on Russia and China. The ultimate strategic objective of the current policy, is to tighten the grip of western elites on the levers of global power and to prevent the dissolution of the “rules-based international order.” But after 11 months of nonstop warfare in Ukraine, the US-backed western coalition finds itself in a worse position than when it began. Aside from the fact that the economic sanctions have severely impacted Washington’s closest European allies, the West’s control of Ukraine has plunged the economy into a protracted slump, destroyed much of the country’s critical infrastructure and annihilated a sizable portion of the Ukrainian Army. More importantly, Ukrainian forces are now suffering unsustainable casualties on the battlefield which is laying the groundwork for the inevitable splintering of the state. Whatever the outcome of the conflict may be, one thing is certain: Ukraine will no longer exist as a viable, independent, contiguous state.
One of the biggest surprises of the current war, is simply the lack of preparedness on part of the US. One would assume that if the foreign policy mandarins decided to “lock horns” with the world’s biggest nuclear superpower, they would have done the necessary planning and preparation to ensure success. Clearly, that hasn’t happened. US policymakers seem surprised by the fact that the economic sanctions backfired and actually strengthened Russia’s economic situation. They also failed to anticipate that the vast majority of countries would not only ignore the sanctions but proactively explore options for “ditching the dollar” in their business transactions and in the sale of critical resources.
We see the same incompetence in the provision of lethal weapons to Ukraine. How do we explain the fact that the NATO nations have been frantically scraping the bottom of the barrel to find weapons for Ukraine? Did our leaders really start a war with Russia not knowing whether they had sufficient supplies of weapons and ammo to fight the enemy? That appears to be the case.
And were our leaders so sure that the conflict would be a low-intensity insurgency that they never planned for a full-blown, combined-arms, ground war? Once again, this appears to be true.
These aren’t trivial mistakes. The level of incompetence in the planning of this war is beyond anything we’ve ever seen before. It appears that all the preparation was focused on provoking a Russian invasion, not on the developments that would happen soon afterwards. What’s clear, is that the Pentagon never “gamed out” the actual war itself or the conflict as it is presently unfolding. Otherwise, how does one explain these glaring errors in judgement:
- They never thought the sanctions would backfire
- They never thought they’d run out of weapons and ammo
- They never thought Russia’s oil receipts would skyrocket
- They never thought that the majority of countries would maintain normal relations with Russia
- They never figured they’d actually need a coherent military strategy for fighting a ground war in eastern Europe.
Is there anything they got right?
Not that we can see.
Take a look at this excerpt from an interview with ex-Brigade General Erich Vad who served as Angela Merkel’s policy advisor from 2006 to 2013:
Question– You too have been attacked for calling for negotiations.
Brigade General Erich Vad–Yes, as did the Inspector General of the German Armed Forces, General Eberhard Zorn, who, like me, warned against overestimating the Ukrainians’ regionally limited offensives in the summer months. Military experts – who know what’s going on among the secret services, what it’s like on the ground and what war really means – are largely excluded from the discourse. They don’t fit in with media opinion-forming. We are largely experiencing a media synchronization that I have never experienced in the Federal Republic…
Military operations must always be coupled with attempts to bring about political solutions. The one-dimensionality of current foreign policy is hard to bear. She is very heavily focused on weapons. The main task of foreign policy is and remains diplomacy, reconciliation of interests, understanding and conflict management. I miss that here. I’m glad that we finally have a foreign minister in Germany, but it’s not enough to just use war rhetoric and walk around in Kyiv or Donbass with a helmet and flak jacket. This is too little….
Brigade General Erich Vad–Then the question arises again as to what should happen with the deliveries of the tanks at all. To take over the Crimea or the Donbass, the martens and leopards are not enough. In eastern Ukraine, in the Bakhmut area, the Russians are clearly advancing. They will probably have completely conquered the Donbass before long. One only has to consider the numerical superiority of the Russians over Ukraine. Russia can mobilize up to two million reservists. The West can send 100 martens and 100 leopards there, they don’t change anything in the overall military situation. And the all-important question is how to end such a conflict with a warlike nuclear power – mind you, the most powerful nuclear power in the world! – wants to survive without going into a third world war….
You can continue to wear down the Russians, which means hundreds of thousands of deaths, but on both sides. And it means further destruction of Ukraine. What is left of this country? It will be leveled to the ground. Ultimately, that is no longer an option for Ukraine either. The key to solving the conflict does not lie in Kyiv, nor does it lie in Berlin, Brussels or Paris, it lies in Washington and Moscow…. A broader front for peace must be built in Washington…. Otherwise we wake up one morning and we’re in the middle of World War III.” (“Erich Vad: “What are the War Aims”, Emma)
Let’s summarize:
- The media is “overestimating the (effect of) Ukrainians’ regionally limited offensives”. In short, the Ukrainians are losing the war.
- The Russians are winning the war. (“The Russians are clearly advancing. They will probably have completely conquered the Donbass before long.”)
- Weapons alone will not change the outcome of the war. (“the martens and leopards are not enough.”)
- There is no evidence that the west has clearly defined strategic objectives. (“Do you want to achieve a willingness to negotiate with the deliveries of the tanks? Do you want to reconquer Donbas or Crimea? Or do you want to defeat Russia completely? There is no realistic end state definition. And without an overall political and strategic concept, arms deliveries are pure militarism…Military operations must always be coupled with attempts to bring about political solutions.”)
This is not just an indictment of the way the war is being conducted, but of the strategic objectives which remain murky and poorly-defined. NATO is being led around by the nose by Washington, but Washington has no idea what it wants to achieve. “Weakening Russia” is not a coherent military strategy. It is, in fact, an aspirational phantasm nurtured by hawkish neocons playing armchair generals. But that is why we are in the predicament we are today, because the policy is in the hands of deranged fantasists. Does anyone seriously believe that the Ukrainian army will recover the territories in east Ukraine that have been annexed by Russia?
No, no serious person believes that. And, yet, the illusion that the “plucky Ukrainians are winning” persists, even while the casualties mount, the carnage increases and millions of Ukrainians flee the country. It’s beyond belief.
(Above) At the United Nations—China’s critique of Washington’s “rules-based international order”, which is designed to circumvent international law through violent unilateralism
Remember the Powell Doctrine? “The Powell Doctrine states that a list of questions all have to be answered affirmatively before military action is taken by the United States:
- Is a vital national security interest threatened?
- Do we have a clear attainable objective?
- Have the risks and costs been fully and frankly analyzed?
- Have all other non-violent policy means been fully exhausted?
- Is there a plausible exit strategy to avoid endless entanglement?
- Have the consequences of our action been fully considered?
- Is the action supported by the American people?
- Do we have genuine broad international support?
The former Secretary of Defense Colin Powell developed his Doctrine to avoid any future Vietnams. And while the Biden administration has not yet committed US combat troops to Ukraine, we think it’s only a matter of time. After all, the media is already beating the war drums while demonizing all-things Russia. That is traditionally how they prepare the public for war. (“Russophobia … is all about dehumanizing one’s opponents to make killing more acceptable (and destroying) all the mental restraints that keep men from barbarism.” Gilbert Doctorow)
Meanwhile, the US continues to pump Ukraine full of weapons while the Pentagon has begun training Ukrainian servicemen in Germany and Oklahoma. It looks like the decision has already been made to embroil the US in another conflict for which there is no vital national security interest and no clear path to victory. In other words, the Powell Doctrine has been shrugged off and replaced with another lunatic neocon plan aimed at dragging Russia into a bloody “Afghanistan-type” quagmire that will drain its resources and prevent it from blocking US expansion into Central Asia.
And how is the neocon plan working so far?
Here’s what Colonel Douglas MacGregor said in a recent interview:
“There are now 540,000 Russian troops stationed around the outskirts of Ukraine preparing to launch a major offensive that I think will probably end the war in Ukraine. 540,000 Russian troops, 1,000 rocket artillery systems, 5000 armored fighting vehicles including at least 1,5000 tanks, hundreds and hundreds of tactical ballistic missiles. Ukraine is now going to experience war on a scale we haven’t seen since 1945.”
And if that wasn’t bleak enough, here’s more from a recent video with Alexander Mercouris and Alex Christoforou:
Alex Christoforou–“There is just a general panic that is gripping the Ukrainian military, NATO and the west. … The Russians have been masterful in concealing their fighting forces …so you have 500,000 thousand military (combat troops) waiting in the wings which leaves Ukraine wondering, “What do we do? We’re bogged down in this Bakhmut-Soledar area when these 500,000 Russian troops could be planning to hit us from any direction and we have no idea where the attack is going to come from?
Alexander Mercouris–“You are exactly right. The Russians have completely gained the strategic initiative. They’re keeping everyone guessing, and to increase the sense of panic in Kiev even more, a Russian general Sulukov has just visited the Russian grouping in Belarus which is growing in size all the time… Does that mean the Russians are planning to advance south from Belarus? We don’t actually know…. But there is this enormous buildup taking place on every front on an order of magnitude greater than anything we’ve seen before. Not just hundreds of thousands of troops deployed, but hundreds of tanks…infantry fighting vehicles, ammunition, artillery pieces…and it’s building up on an enormous scale ….and the fighting in Donbass in the last couple of weeks has been the work of two bodies that are not part of the regular Russian army (The Wagner Group and the Donbas Militia) The main force of the Russian army which has been building up in extraordinary numbers, has not yet been committed to the battle to any great extent. So, I think everybody is expecting that some big blow is coming. No one knows for sure where it will happen. I don’t know (but) the Russians have managed again to keep it all extraordinarily secret. … No one knows what they are going to do, but what we can see is these vast numbers of forces gathering around Ukraine where they Ukrainians are obviously panicking (because it looks like something is going to hit on a huge scale (but) I don’t know where it will come from.” (“Russia’s next move, keeps collective west guessing”, Alex Christoforou and Alexander Mercouris, You Tube, 15:25 minute)
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Bottom line: While Washington and its NATO allies do not have a coherent strategy for winning the war in Ukraine, it’s clear, the Russians do. In the four months since Putin ordered his partial mobilization, 300,000 additional reservists have joined their units on the battlefield or along Ukraine’s northern perimeter. The stage is now set for a conventional ground war the likes of which no one in Washington ever anticipated. We expect that the outcome of this conflict will reshape Europe’s outdated security architecture and force a realignment that will mark the end of the unipolar era.
Another thing about the potential for US involvement is if they do send forces into Ukraine they will be entering the former USSR, not a neighbouring country, but former Russia itself. How can that ever be in the US interest to do so, and how can that not be a Russian imperative to repel them militarily? US troops won’t be on the doorstep they’ll be in the hallway.
Rothschilds man in the UK winston Churcill sold the UK to the USA in ww 2 for 50 some say
100 rusting ww 1 battle ships mothballed for the purpose of the next war
This is why we have US bases here in perpetuity
this means the UK will be forced to go fight Russia, the people of the UK do not want this war
so the callup may be forced on them
but the good side is all the economic migrants will rush to go home
WHO are the Neocons behind Zelensky??? Seem to be all Jews including that awful Noland woman and her family, the Kagans. The Kagans were the Jews of the area between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea. Cholomoisky said that they want to take Ukraine to create a “Greater Israel.”
It was a man called Kaganovich who went to take all the food from the Kulaks of Ukraine so that between 12 and 15 million Ukrainians died of starvation – on Stalin’s orders in the Winter of 1933 Stalin was encouraged by a woman called Anna Loise Strong, cousin of Maurice Strong – who created the Mau Mau with the help of Obama.s grandfather! So it was reported by Field McConnor at Abel Danger, many years ag
Thank God for Putin and Russia,
There is also the option, that the Ukraine war amongst other things “was designed”, to destroy Europe as part of the great reset. Indeed if that was the goal, it has been very successful. Combined with rampant immigration and the wild spending of the West’s assets, both financial and military, it is definitely playing into the hands of the SAE, self appointed elite, and their plan to destroy what we had.
Whitney and Unz are no good. The plan is the same all along–get rid of Whites and have four fake power blocs in the world who all think they are slowly taking over
The Nazi NWO is a sect. They believe their own propaganda. There’s no one in the sect that’s big enough to ‘hey, wait a minute, have you considered xyz’?
Mark Milley once told the truth to the fake news, he was sent out again to debunk his own truths.
If we look at Russia’s pre SMO military spend, its a very modest spend, so ignore the numerical spend, because the Russian GDP stats don’t do the Russian economy justice.
To set this in context, Russia out spends the UK, Germany, and France combined. Not only was this ignored, the Russians get many times more value for every dollar (for ease) spent, than any other NATO member, and especially against the US and UK, where huge sums of money is just thrown away on corporate/banker lushes. Entire projects are state funded, then many are dumped, and this cycle is none stop, because the MIC needs this gravy train, and after decades of this kind of corruption, you end up with militaries that can’t fight.
Take UKraine. It started in 2014, and earlier. They trained the Nazis to be peer NATO fighters, and armed them, and they’ve supplied an endless convoy of hardwear, mercenaries, special forces, none stop intel, and targeting, yet, they are still getting beat.
80,000 Russians against 400,000 Nazis during the SMO. Now the Nazis are down to maybe 250, 000, against 500,000 Russians, and the Russians stopped using the soft woolly mits.
The fact that the NWO Nazi sect has fecked up big time, is very concerning. They are now even more desperate to win, or save face. They can’t save face, but they can poke the bear to use nukes. I’m fed up with some pundits who keep saying the Russians won’t use nukes unless they are used against them.
We now hear stories that Russia has deployed two S400 systems near Moscow. The gist of this misleading story, is that they are being deployed to protect against missiles from UKraine.
This little detail is a lie. These two S400 systems are to the NORTH of Moscow! So clearly, the Russians believe the thick as pig shit NWO Nazis sect is going to try a ‘DECAPITATION’ strike on the Russian leadership.
As usual, they believe that the chaos from such a strike will leave the Russian state floundering, headless, and unable to strike back.
That’s my take. You’ve got to remember, the NWO sect is dominated by nutters, especially those in MI6, who I believe are behind this likely strike that’s led to the deployment of two S400 systems. Over 100 missiles each, & can take on 80 targets each at once.
Kirill, the Patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church who says Putin is a ‘miracle of God’
Story by Zeleb.es • 9h ago
1 A controversial figure
Kirill, the Patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church is a controversial religious leader. Kirill is an elusive figure on the world politics spectrum, particularly in recent times, given his comments on the war in Ukraine.
2 His relationship with Putin
Contributing to the aura of controversy surrounding Kirill is his close connection to Russian political leaders. Kirill is known for his close relationship with the Kremlin, even the BBC has written of his close ties with President Vladimir Putin.
3 Putin and Kirill need each other
The Russian Orthodox Church has an exorbitant number of believers (about 150 million), and it is not surprising that the leader of the Church plays a very important role not only on a spiritual but also on a political level.
4 Mutual support
Putin needs the support of the Russian Orthodox Church, and Kirill needs the Kremlin to maintain his leadership position in the Russian church hierarchy.
5 The Patriarch of Moscow and Russia
To understand the power that Kirill holds, one only needs to look at the Moscow skyline: around 50 churches have been built since 2010, and many more are in the works. Moscow is the seat of the Patriarchate, the Russian Orthodox Church, headed by Kirill.
6 The leader of more than 100 million believers
The Patriarch presides over thirty-six thousand congregations and has more than a hundred million believers, ie about a third of the world’s Orthodox Christians, according to the investigative report ‘God save Russia’.
7 The Patriarch and world leaders
Kirill is undoubtedly a man of great power, and it’s not just Putin who recognizes this. Other leaders have understood that he and his influence should not be underestimated, and that’s why we’ve often seen him alongside leaders on the world stage, like Barack Obama, Pope Francis, Chinese President Xi Jinping and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
8 The Patriarch and the Pope
Under Kirill’s leadership, relations with the Vatican were partially restored, overcoming a rift dating back to the Eastern Schism of 1054.
9 Meeting in Cuba in 2016
In 2016 the two leaders, Pope Francis and Kirill I, were the protagonists of a historic embrace, however these days, things have cooled down. The Christian Churches of the East and of the West have grown apart again due to the war in Ukraine.
10 The video conference between Moscow and the Vatican
On March 15, 2022, an online conversation took place between the two religious leaders. The Vatican statement on the meeting called it a meeting “…spirited by the desire to chart a path to peace, to pray for the gift of peace and the laying down of arms.”
11 Different perspectives
However, the Russian statement on the meeting only emphasized that “…the parties stressed the extreme importance of the ongoing negotiation process and expressed their hope to reach a just peace as soon as possible,” according to the Italian newspaper, La Repubblica.
12 Does the Patriarch support the war in Ukraine?
Despite an initial (and much-criticised) moment of silence on the war in Ukraine, Kirill I’s recent comments on the conflict leave no doubt about his opinion. In an analysis of the Russian Orthodox Church, ‘The Guardian’ recalls the words of Kirill, who called Putin a “miracle of God”.
13 One spiritual people
As bombs fell on Ukrainian cities, he declared that “it is God’s truth that the peoples of Russia, Ukraine and Belarus should be united as one spiritual people,” according to the British newspaper, in a message echoing the words of the Russian President Vladimir Putin.
14 Forgiveness Sunday sermon
In his sermon on Forgiveness Sunday, delivered from the pulpit of Moscow’s Cathedral of Christ the Savior, Kirill’s words about the “outbreak of hostilities” were quite inflammatory.
15 The Sins of the West
The head of the Orthodox Church justified the outbreak of war by declaring: “For eight years there have been attempts to destroy what exists in the Donbass. And in the Donbass there is a fundamental rejection of the so-called values that are offered today by those who claim world power.”
16 “The test is very simple and at the same time terrible….”
The Russian Church leader continued, “There is such a test for the loyalty of this government, a pass to the world of excess consumption, the world of freedom. The test is very simple and at the same time terrible – gay parades.
17 War to protect the people from the “sins” of the West
Kirill seems to see the war as necessary to ensure the victory of Christian moral values over the “sins” of the West.
18 Human salvation
In his homily, Kirill continued, “Therefore, what is happening in international relations has not only political significance. It is about something different and much more important than politics. We are talking about human salvation…A real war is going on around this topic today.”
19 The metaphysical meaning of war
While Putin seems to be viewing the war in Ukraine as a response to his own reinterpretation of recent history, Kirill seems to be speaking of a real clash of cultures: although he never mentions them openly, his words seem to gravitate to terms like the Crusades or the Holy War.
20 Pride Parade
For the Russian patriarch, the war in Ukraine therefore represents the Russians rejection of “the values that are being offered today by those who claim world domination”. And further: “To become a member of the club of these countries, you have to organize a Pride march. We don’t want to make a political statement that says: ‘We are on your side’, we don’t want to sign an agreement and then have a Pride parade,” reports CNN.
21 Criticism of Forgiveness Sunday sermon
Public opinion, especially in the West, has not hesitated to criticize his words. Matthew Luxmoore, the Wall Street Journal’s correspondent covering the war in Ukraine, commented on Twitter: “Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill unsurprisingly endorsing Putin’s narrative on Ukraine in a sermon today. According to him the West essentially organises genocide campaigns against countries that refuse to stage gay parades.”
22 The call to arms
The sermon on Forgiveness Sunday was followed by other controversial speeches by the Moscow Patriarch. According to the magazine Secolo XIX, in its report on Kirilll’s speech at a ceremony with the armed forces, the patriarch speaks of a veritable “call to arms”.
23 ‘All people must wake up today’
According to the various newspapers, Kirill declared: “Most of the countries of the world today are under the colossal influence of a force that unfortunately goes against the strength of our people,” adding: “We must also be very strong. When I say ‘we’, I mean first of all the armed forces, but not only them. All our people must wake up today and understand that a special time has come on which the historical destiny of our people may depend.”
24 The West is to blame
So it seems that Kirill thinks the West is responsible for the outbreak of the conflict in Ukraine. According to Russia’s religious leader the West caused the war by weakening Russia’s power and “making enemies of brotherly peoples”, without sparing “efforts and means, to attack Ukraine with arms and to inundate war trainers,” as Avvenire reports.
25 Influencing each other
Despite the different nuances, Cyril’s rhetoric is reminiscent of Putin’s, confirming the close ties between the two and likely also the mutual influence of the Russian Orthodox Church and the Kremlin.
26 The words of the expert
Cyril Hovorun, professor of ecclesiology and international relations, told Al Jazeera: “It is not just about the church’s complete submission to the political authorities. The church also tried to influence the Kremlin. In a sense, the Russian Orthodox Church was successful, because the Kremlin at some point adopted the political language of the church, which became known as the ideology of the ‘Russian world’. This ideology originated in the church and then was weaponised by the Kremlin.”
27 The “Kremlin Chaplain”
The power and influence of Kirill I should therefore not be underestimated, for it seems clear that his spiritual mission coincides with the political mission of the Kremlin (the Church is seen as a pillar of the state) and his figure with that of President Putin overlaps so that he is referred to as the “Kremlin Chaplain”.
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Copied captions.
I doubt West can claim God is on it’s side?
carl jones should be benned until he stops trying to call communists natzis
That stench you’re gagging on is the rotting intestines of the US/UK ‘Axis Of ZOG’.
Further to my earlier comment, we are messaged that they are S400s, but one system could be an S500/S550.
Remember the US attack on Tianjin? This were kentic space based weapons, so these could be used to decapitate the Russian regime.
its all jewish Rothschild hate inciting
media in the west since 1913 . they are
the mainguilty with their talmud masters .
Goy Buoy, your is masterly analysis. Thank you.
https://thedailydigest.com/en/archivo/kirill-the-controversial-orthodox-patriarch-who-calls-putin-a-miracle-of-god/
Yesterday’s Jew told us the UK is only responsible for 2% of earth’s warming problem.
When you consider it wants to install a tyrannical Anglo/American uni-polar world investing everything to achieve political division responsible for Russia to increase it’s army from a few hundred thousand to one and a half million, and in self defence having to invest hundreds of billions of dollars more to defend itself, the UK’s contribution to the earth’s problems is far greater than 2%.
Mole, from above is on the money!
If the West wants peace, I’d suppose that Biden and Kamela have to go and be replaced by somebody sensible.
The conflict in Ukraine is going exactly as planned in the jewSA. Schneerson would be proud.
Bibi told him “We are doing”. When Nordstream blew, the PM said “it’s done.”
The podium keep blaming it all on incompetence. They can’t wrap their minds around a death cult from the Old Testament that is antithetical to reason, has genetic OCD according to Kevin Mcdonald, has been described by Douglas Reed in “The Controversy of Zion” and which holds every rein of power from money to politics to industry to propaganda so can be the only obvious perpetrator of the tribulations of our age.
The FT has said Russia can expect 20years of guerilla warfare ! These morons never know when to quit
Jamesbalderson: so funny. There you go, using NWO narratives, fake narratives, to troll a truther. Oh, we live in a free market capitalist system… do we? There’s been no free markets since the PPT was set up. The banks are bust, they’ve no cash, and you think this is capitalism?
Australia just sent troops to Ukraine, no one asked the people, not voted for in parliament, Australia just turned this conflict into a world war. I hope they bomb Canberra first and save us all.