This is a superb discussion involving two well-placed interlocutors, who have been in the middle of international and strategic affairs for at least the last four decades. It comes in three parts. The first looks at the war in Ukraine, its antecedents, and its prospects, particular whether the situation is entering its culminating phase. The second is concerned with the strategic failure of NATO, the cultivation of poor relations with Russia, as well as the role of the media, think tanks, etc. in propagandizing to the American electorate. And, lastly, the third part, considers how the two are interrelated; namely how the failure of American strategic policy are culminating now in Ukraine, and what prospects there are for correction in the coming years. Highly recommended.
Luigi’s Top Men (and Women and Trannies) have been busy playing Smart Politics in the last few weeks. Firstly they…
I found the things they didn’t directly talk about but alluded to with more than oriental obliquity very interesting.
Thank you dover0beach.
Bookmarked.
and downloaded.
The Democrats and the RINOs in America want to keep the War in Ukraine going so they cans siphon off the Money back to themselves and the American War Weapons Manufacturers!
Do you think this is not escalation by the Americans?
Incoming House Foreign Affairs Chairman Michael McCaul Calls for More Arms to Ukraine to Destroy Russian Military
Incoming House Foreign Affairs Chairman Michael McCaul (R-TX) called for arms to Ukraine to help destroy the Russian military as public officials have increasingly warned about the prospect of a “major war” between the West and Russia.
CBS News asked McCaul about House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy’s (R-CA) claim that a House Republican majority would not send a “blank check” to Ukraine.
McCaul did not speak to any limitations on aid to Ukraine; instead, the Texas Republican spoke about how arming Ukraine is doing well to destroy the Russian military.
“I support Ukraine. I think going with the amount of investment we’ve had is very small relative to destroying the Russian military. And that’s what we’ve done without one American soldier being attacked, killed, or in country. To me, that’s a pretty good investment,” McCaul said in a Friday interview with CBS News.
McCaul then said that more aid to help Ukraine’s conflict with Russia will come with “oversight,” “transparency,” and “accountability.”
Asked if he favors sending heavier arms to Ukraine in its protracted war with Russia, he said, “One hundred percent because the longer you drag this out, the more bloodshed. And the will of the American people and the Congress will dwindle until we can get this thing over with.”
McCaul spoke after NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg warned on Friday that a full-blown “major war” between Russia and the West could possibly break out over Ukraine.
“I fear that the war in Ukraine will get out of control, and spread into a major war between NATO and Russia,” the NATO secretary general cautioned. However, he added that he believes that such a possibility could be avoided.
McCaul’s enthusiastic support for more arms to Ukraine remains in conflict with a near majority of Republican voters, who have said that they would like to decrease foreign aid to Ukraine.
Congress is poised to grant as much as $37 billion in aid to Ukraine, which would likely be in either a continuing resolution (CR) or omnibus spending bill this winter. So far, Congress has appropriated $66 billion in aid to Ukraine.
From the Comments
– we have some short memories, no? Send weapons. Then send advisors to show the Ukrainians how to use them. Then send armed combat forces to offer protection for the advisors. Then begin a “limited” campaign of air recon. After reports of a recon aircraft shot down we will need to take some retaliatory action, accompanied by “limited” air strikes. Any questions?
– Ukraine is a political money grab and as long as there is money to be made Beltway Bob and Betty are completely fine watching these people destroy each other.
– It is time for a negotiated settlement. They can’t win. The death and destruction needs to stop.
– I trust Russia more than my own country. That’s how bad it is..
Meanwhile from Peace-Mongering, Ukraine style Thread
OldOzziesays:
December 10, 2022 at 1:28 pm
Two different stories about the same place
‘They are just meat to Putin… and we are the meat grinder’: Ukrainian soldier says ‘conveyor belt’ of Russian troops are being cut down as Battle of Bakhmut descends into ‘First World war hell’
Vs
American instructor reveals Ukrainian frontline death rates
Mozart Group says dire media reports about the situation in Artyomovsk/Bakhmut are true
Now
Battle for Donbas: Zelensky Says Russians Have ‘Actually Destroyed Bakhmut’
America gets rich while NATO Countries stare down the Barrel
US State Dept. clears sale of Abrams tanks to Poland
WASHINGTON — The U.S. State Dept. cleared a possible sale of M1A1 Abrams main battle tanks to Poland, according to a Dec. 6 announcement by the Defense Security Cooperation Agency.
Congress was notified Tuesday of the potential deal, estimated to cost $3.75 billion.
Poland intends to buy 116 Abrams tanks on top of an agreement the country signed in April to buy 250 of the systems for $4.75 billion.
The possible sale also includes 12 M88A2 Hercules combat recovery vehicles, eight M1110 Joint Assault Bridges, six M577A3 command vehicles, 26 M1152A1 High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicles, 26 M1279A1 Joint Light Tactical Vehicles, and ammunition and supporting equipment.
There are no offset agreements proposed as part of the potential sale, according to the announcement. All work to produce the systems will take place in the U.S.
According to the announcement, the principal contractors include AAR Corp.; Allison Transmissions; Anniston Army Depot; BAE Systems; General Dynamics Land Systems; Honeywell; L3Harris Technologies; Leonardo DRS; Lockheed Martin; Palomar; Pearson Engineering; and U.S. Ordnance.
Plus – US Army, NATO. Loading M1A2 Abrams tanks and armored vehicles on a ship to Europe. – Boy is that a Lot of Tanks & Armoured Vehicles
America upping more Ukrainie/European people being killed to enrich America War Machine
US greenlights Ukrainian attacks inside Russia – The Times
Washington now reportedly believes such strikes are less likely to trigger a direct clash between Moscow and NATO
While
Russia warns West about ‘consequences’ of arming Ukraine
and
NATO boss warns of potential war with Russia
A direct confrontation between Russia and the West in Europe could happen, Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg says
Who thinks America wants War in Europe?
EXCLUSIVE… UNBELIEVABLE: Multi-Billion Dollar FTX Used QuickBooks for Its Accounting Software
This is really unbelievably related to FTX.
The firm that was involved in money transfers with Ukraine and millions in donations to the Democrat Party used basic accounting software to keep its records.
For any corporate accountant, this is simply stunning.
QuickBooks is a great tool for a small company or startup but it’s not suitable for a billion-dollar company. An auditor would see this as a major issue with a company the size of FTX.
From the Comments
– FTX was a DEMOCRAT money-laundering scam from the start.
FJB and Zelensky too!
– I said from day-1 on Ukraine, when the dems, msm, and rinos support something you know they are covering up corruption and its the wrong side to be on….
Don’t blame QuickBooks, FTX are just protected thieves.
Macgregor’s remark in part 1 re the initial month of the SMO was interesting as a counterpoint to the 3-days botched invasion/ garlands and liberators claim; namely that this first phase was a ‘get Ukraine to the negotiating’ phase. When this collapsed in late March/ early April, once Johnson visited as envoy for Biden, they reassessed their situation, a second phase in which Russia went on the strategic defensive, engage in operations that can be undertaken using an economy of force. Then a third phase were they reorganized command which involved shifting from multiple theatre commanders reporting back to Gerasimov to unified command in Gen. Surovikin and shaping of the battlefield until they can bring in a sufficient number of troops that will allow them to move onto the strategic offensive, that will be the forth phase.
Where this could ultimately ends is the key. It was touched on in the last 10 minutes, but the simple facts is that all the world leaders know Biden is a fake, and they are ignoring the declining hegemon in Droves. Name a country that hasn’t humiliated him in the last two years. They know.
And, lately, Macron has been beseeching the Pope to connect with Putin. The Saudis made Biden crawl on his hands, got Khashoggi off the hook, then hosted Xi last week.
In retrospect, it’s easy to see how Trump earned the rage of the Elites when he blistered NATO. Europe wanted out of it, and now they are part of an American oil war they want no part of.
Germany is now buying American gas, not going to end well
America’s failure is the absence of a leader. Good or bad, crazy or not, dominance depends on a person at the top.
What are they going to do next in Ukraine? Biden won’t take the step, and Russia, and everyone else, will just laugh at the circus tent of weirdo’s supposedly in charge. but they do have Lloyd Darth Vader Austin. He be scary.
Thanks dover.
No mention of what happened to the “gwate big battles of encirclement” whereby the Ukrainians would be “sought out in the field and destroyed”. Or of the “redeployment of the Russian forces from Kherson to the Donbas for the great Russian winter offensive”.
No?
If you are interested in learning more about the views of Mr Macgregor, I can only recommend going on Twitter and doing an Advanced Search, something along the lines of:
“until:2022-04-01 since:2022-02-24 douglas macgregor” but the former date can be flexible.
To say he is the Lord Haw-Haw of Moscow would be an unfair slight on the partiality of William Joyce.
I also note that Macgregor (I refuse to call him “Colonel”), amongst other things including calling for the Biden administration to basically greenlight the invasion of Ukraine, also rather curiously suggested in an interview with Tucker Carlson (link below) that the US should put the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty on the table as a bargaining chip to stop Russia from over-running Ukraine. I think we need to unpick the contradictions here.
I thought this point particularly interesting given Macgregor’s other views to the effect that Ukraine is NOT a US strategic interest at all (so why would there be a need to put ANYTHING on the table in that case??) and also that Macgregor was (briefly) a senior advisor to the Pentagon during the Trump adminstration. The Trump administration, of course, very sensibly pulled out of the INF treaty in 2019, originally signed with Gorbachev, on account of Russia’s systematic violations of the treaty and its propensity to handcuff the US, but not Russia.
Yet Macgregor either doesn’t appreciate this fact or has he another agenda in mind.
https://twitter.com/SKMorefield/status/1496663701662937089
..
https://funker530.com/video/that-time-a-russian-police-unit-spearheaded-an-attack-on-kyiv-by-accident/
But Arky, there was never an attempt to take Kyiv. It only looked like that because it was a brilliant feint/fixing-operation to take Kharkiv, which itself was a brilliant feint/fixing-operation to take Lyman, which in turn…
America gets rich while NATO Countries stare down the Barrel
US State Dept. clears sale of Abrams tanks to Poland
WASHINGTON — The U.S. State Dept. cleared a possible sale of M1A1 Abrams main battle tanks to Poland, according to a Dec. 6 announcement by the Defense Security Cooperation Agency.
Congress was notified Tuesday of the potential deal, estimated to cost $3.75 billion.
Poland intends to buy 116 Abrams tanks on top of an agreement the country signed in April to buy 250 of the systems for $4.75 billion.
The possible sale also includes 12 M88A2 Hercules combat recovery vehicles, eight M1110 Joint Assault Bridges, six M577A3 command vehicles, 26 M1152A1 High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicles, 26 M1279A1 Joint Light Tactical Vehicles, and ammunition and supporting equipment.
There are no offset agreements proposed as part of the potential sale, according to the announcement. All work to produce the systems will take place in the U.S.
According to the announcement, the principal contractors include AAR Corp.; Allison Transmissions; Anniston Army Depot; BAE Systems; General Dynamics Land Systems; Honeywell; L3Harris Technologies; Leonardo DRS; Lockheed Martin; Palomar; Pearson Engineering; and U.S. Ordnance.
Plus – US Army, NATO. Loading M1A2 Abrams tanks and armored vehicles on a ship to Europe. – Boy is that a Lot of Tanks & Armoured Vehicles
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ve3Iexw2w1A
America upping more Ukrainian/European people being killed to enrich America War Machine
US greenlights Ukrainian attacks inside Russia – The Times
Washington now reportedly believes such strikes are less likely to trigger a direct clash between Moscow and NATO
While
Russia warns West about ‘consequences’ of arming Ukraine
and
NATO boss warns of potential war with Russia
A direct confrontation between Russia and the West in Europe could happen, Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg says – https://www.rt.com/news/567997-nato-direct-war-russia/
Who thinks America wants War in Europe?
America gets rich while NATO Countries stare down the Barrel
US State Dept. clears sale of Abrams tanks to Poland
WASHINGTON — The U.S. State Dept. cleared a possible sale of M1A1 Abrams main battle tanks to Poland, according to a Dec. 6 announcement by the Defense Security Cooperation Agency.
Congress was notified Tuesday of the potential deal, estimated to cost $3.75 billion.
Poland intends to buy 116 Abrams tanks on top of an agreement the country signed in April to buy 250 of the systems for $4.75 billion.
The possible sale also includes 12 M88A2 Hercules combat recovery vehicles, eight M1110 Joint Assault Bridges, six M577A3 command vehicles, 26 M1152A1 High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicles, 26 M1279A1 Joint Light Tactical Vehicles, and ammunition and supporting equipment.
There are no offset agreements proposed as part of the potential sale, according to the announcement. All work to produce the systems will take place in the U.S.
According to the announcement, the principal contractors include AAR Corp.; Allison Transmissions; Anniston Army Depot; BAE Systems; General Dynamics Land Systems; Honeywell; L3Harris Technologies; Leonardo DRS; Lockheed Martin; Palomar; Pearson Engineering; and U.S. Ordnance.
Plus – US Army, NATO. Loading M1A2 Abrams tanks and armored vehicles on a ship to Europe. – Boy is that a Lot of Tanks & Armoured Vehicles
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ve3Iexw2w1A
America upping more Ukrainian/European people being killed to enrich America War Machine
US greenlights Ukrainian attacks inside Russia – The Times
Washington now reportedly believes such strikes are less likely to trigger a direct clash between Moscow and NATO
While
Russia warns West about ‘consequences’ of arming Ukraine
and
NATO boss warns of potential war with Russia
A direct confrontation between Russia and the West in Europe could happen, Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg says
Who thinks America wants War in Europe?
POSTED ON DECEMBER 10, 2022 BY JOHN HINDERAKER IN UKRAINE
UKRAINE ESCALATION?
The war in Ukraine seems to have faded as a topic of concern, but not because there is nothing to worry about. The Secretary-General of NATO sees a “real possibility” of all-out war between Russia and the NATO allies:
Then we have this headline, from the London Times: “Pentagon gives Ukraine green light for drone strikes inside Russia.”
In general I tend to be a hawk, not necessarily averse to using military force against our enemies if appropriate.
But is it wrong to worry that we may be sleepwalking into a major war, that is disproportionate, at best, to any American interests that are at stake?
OldOzzie
But is it wrong to worry that we may be sleepwalking into a major war, that is disproportionate, at best, to any American interests that are at stake?
DemonRat sleepwalking took the US into Vietnam. Is it the same now, with Ukraine?
ukraine is the epicentre of washington corruption
Trump knew when to rattle the sabre, and the great thing about him was that the opponents were never sure he wouldn’t use it. Biden wouldn’t know what it was.
Biden doesn’t seem to be running the show in USA
Domestically it seems to be Dept. of Justice and their enforcers, the FBI.
Internationally it is clearly Dept. of State and their enforcers the CIA in ahoots with the likes of MI6 from UK etc
Look up Victoria Nuland, the architect of the 2014 Maiden Revolution that evicted an elected leader of Ukraine and put the puppet leader now in place. Her famous, “F*ck the EU” statement endorces the Dept of State’s sentiments about who is running what.
The State Dept objective appears to be war with Russia, using a proxy like Ukraine or NATO. Europeans are expendable. Trump tried to get rid of her, but it shows Dept State is running international USA policy, not the president.
Brilliant stuff. Australia is also a Vassal State.
Haha Macgregor is the military Fauci and like him never disappears no matter how many failed predictions.
I know it’s a cliche to call someone a Russian stooge, but anyone who wants the US now to re-enter the INF treaty cannot possibly be anything else. Even the Biden administration, who have centuries of unilaterally poor negotiating experience with Russia and China between them, didn’t fall for that one.