Guest Post by Paul Craig Roberts
My forebodings/predictions about the Kremlin’s limited go-slow war in Ukraine are proving correct. Putin and Russia are demonized. Unprecedented sanctions amounting to piracy and theft have been imposed on Russia. The US and Europe are joining the war as de facto combatants. More countries are joining NATO with the result being the prospect of more US missile bases on Russia’s borders. The Western media controls the narrative, which is Russia is losing and can be defeated with more many billions of dollars from the US and more weapons that enrich the US military/security complex. Why any Russian government would expose itself to this and so many chances for miscalculation that ends in WW III is a mystery. What did the Kremlin imagine it was achieving by creating a situation that exposed Russia to many months of war propaganda, punishment, and Western preparations for wider war?
What peace needed was a quick decisive Russian victory that demonstrated extraordinary military power that completely stopped any further Western provocations of Russia. But the Kremlin was too liberal-minded to do what was necessary. Consequently the Kremlin made a strategic error, dropped the ball and has failed to protect Russia from provocations that are leading to WW III.
Instead, the Kremlin filled with liberal delusions long discarded in the West decided to show a good side by limiting itself to the rescue of the Donbass Russians. This gave the West all it needed to present Russia as a military incompetent upstart. Among the Kremlin’s errors, the Kremlin overlooked that Ukraine’s distress from the limited Russian intervention created an opportunity for Poland to claim former Polish territories in western Ukraine where there are no Russian troops engaged. It is possible that the Polish government, disinformed by Western media’s picture of Russian military failure in Ukraine, will occupy western Ukraine as preparation to reclaiming it as Russia did Crimea and now Donbass. As Russia will have eastern and southern Ukraine, the country could simply disappear as Poland resurrects greater Poland. In its history, Ukraine has either been part of Poland’s empire or part of Russia.
If Poland moves into western Ukraine as it is tempted to do, opportunities for Polish-Russian conflict arise. As Poland is a NATO member, Washington has given Poland, as the British government did with World War II’s “Polish Guarantee,” the power to start a world war.
The Polish government has a penchant for emotional decisons, not responsible decisions. Just as the Polish military dictatorship thought the “British Guarantee” protected them, causing them to spurn Hitler’s demand for the return of German territory stripped from Germany in the Versailles Treaty despite President Wilson’s “guarantee” of no territorial losses, the Polish government thinks today that NATO membership protects Poland from Russian retaliation.
The government in Warsaw does not comprehend that the “NATO Guarantee” is worth no more than the British Government’s guarantee that launched WW II.
The governments that comprise the Western World have given Poland, once again, the decision whether there is to be a World War.
This deplorable and unsettling fact stares us in the face, but no Western media, not even online media, acknowledges it.
The situation that exists today is that either Russia and China must accept US hegemony or the neoconservatives will push Russia and China into war with the West. The hegemonic ambition of the neoconservatives is inconsistent with a peaceful world.
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I’m not sure Bill Gates wants to conquer Russia.
Just cause energy disruption.
Either way he’s winning.
I wonder if the war is more about defeating the dollar than anything else.
It’s about defeating the whole Western “philosophy”, i.e. irreligious Modernity.
Yeah, worked like a charm for Germany in 1940 (against France.)
The longer this drags on, the weaker the West becomes. All Putin needs to do is sit back while NATO delivers ALL of its weapons to Ukraine so as to be destroyed, captured or sold on the black market.
Yuri Dolgorukiy (ruled 1149-1151) Peter I ‘The Great’ (ruled: 1682-1725) Joseph Stalin (in office: 1924-1953 Vladimir Putin (rule: 2000-Present) and so many more.
These people historically won’t back down for fear of blood shed or facing an over whelming force. Look at some history regarding Russia. They defeated the Mongols, they defeated Napoleon, They defeated Germany- more than once. Where Russian homeland is concerned we are picking a fight with a people who will fight to last man, women and child. We better think twice for those of us rattling our sabers itching for a fight. We may get what we asked for this time.
Growing up in the ’40s/’50s, it seemed that the United States was a people that would fight to the last man, woman and child … but marxist/progressive politics since the ’60s has gotten rid of that prospect by blurring — if not destroying — any line between ‘man’ and ‘woman’ while murdering more than 63,000,000 unborn children …
And they call it ‘progress’ …
Agree Anthony, we are as a people a far cry from what we once were. It was a long term planned destruction of a once proud people who got to comfortable for our own good
Oh, shut the fuck up already!!
Regarding the war, and especially how Putin/Russia choose to fight it — (hint: it is NOT how NATO/USA fight wars!!) — well, you have pretty much been wrong or full of shit every single time.
GO BACK TO WRITING ECONOMIC ARTICLES.
PCR makes an assumption about how Russians view Ukrainians–he seems to think it’s the same way the US Gov’t views adversaries, i.e. as untermenschen who need to be crushed. Not so-Russians and Ukrainians are cousins. Apparently, Russia doesn’t want a destroyed Ukraine with all the attendant rebuilding and simmering unrest that would follow. Since I haven’t spoken to V. Putin I don’t know what his plans are. However, the way the Russian MOD is prosecuting the war it doesn’t appear they want a destitute Ukraine. What is apparent is that the Russians are doing exactly what they said they would do-de-militarize and de-nazify the country. They aren’t interested in de-populating. The people in the Eastern oblasts are close to Russia culturally, linguistically and economically. It looks like the Russians will successfully clear out the forces of the Zelensky gov’t from the East and South including Odessa, establish a semi-autonomous Novosossiya and leave the Western half alone. Whether the Poles try to take Galicia away from Ukraine remains to be seem. Old borders imposed by outsiders will change as people realign with their own kind. We’ll have to wait and see how things shake out.
I agree. The first Russian hypersonic missile should’ve been dropped squarely on St. Zelensky’s head in Kiev on February 24.
Following that and the destruction of “Ukrainian” air defenses, regular sorties of heavy bombers should’ve been flown over Western “Ukraine” to destroy all existing NATO weapons storage and training facilities, as well as to bomb anything that moved in a west-to-east direction from the border.
30 years of lies and provocations from NATO and the US should’ve taught Russia something, but apparently it did not.
Once again the author demonstrates a considerable amount of ignorance concerning the reality in Ukraine. A fast victory was never a possibility given that Ukraine has one of the largest and best equipped and trained militarizes in Europe. The US and NATO have been in the process of training and equipping Ukraine for this battle for the past decade. The fact that they are being defeated is panicking both the US and NATO, and that can clearly be seen by their over reaction to the situation. The US is pouring tens of billions of dollars it cannot afford into a war in which it has no strategic interest because it is clearly showing the result of NATO strategy and weapons is no match for the strategy and weapons of the Russian Federation. Other NATO countries are depleting their own stockpiles of weapons in a feeble attempt to avoid a embarrassing defeat. Meanwhile, China is studying NATO’s tactics and assessing their declining strength while considering it’s Taiwan strategy. It is now estimated that at current levels, it will take NATO at least 2 years to replenish the weapons it has supplied to Ukraine. Many European countries have depleted their arms to the point where their own self defense capability is seriously impacted.
The goal of NATO has been to significantly weaken Russia, by supplying Ukraine with weapons, but in so doing, is also weakening itself by depleting stocks to a significant degree. With chip shortages and supply problems, rebuilding stocks may take much longer than anticipated. If China takes Taiwan, it will probably curtail chip shipments all together.
So if they’re going to lie anyway(as has been proven)then at some point IT DOES NOT MATTER……..doing NOTHING is not an option!and is CAPITULATION……,I swear,PCR and Glenn Beck have NEVER been in a fistfight…….at some point,STOP WORRYING AND START FIGHTING!…,
Before it gets to a world war the economies of the American led alliance nations will disintegrate. Look at the multitued of economic problems these nations face right now. After disintegration the global scene will be chaotic, violent, and impoverished but the threat of nuclear war will be reduced (not eliminated however)
PCR doesn’t have his eye on the ball. That was a whiff.
Poland isn’t going to scarf up the rump of Ukraine after it loses its coastline, huge oil/gas fields and industrial centers to Russia. What benefits could Poland hope to reap? Wrecked train stations housing hordes of disenfranchised Nazis? Poland won’t station NATO nukes there. Putin would have tactical nukes popping off at every military base inside of Poland.
Russia’s biggest concern today is Finland joining NATO. NATO nukes in Finland would start WW III the same day they arrived.