This post is a long time coming. I’ve been talking about putting it on the blog for years now, but for some reason or other, I’ve procrastinated in doing so.
But now, I can wait no longer.
The reason of course is because the American Establishment is hell-bent on ignoring the words of Jesus, you know, when He said “Blessed are the peacemakers” (Matt 5:9).
At worst, they are doing so because they think they can ride out WWIII. At best, it’s just a gambit to enrich their coffers. Either way, they’re evil (and the Ukraine is toast). I’m sorry, but that’s the way that that cookie’s gonna crumble. In any event, this mindset is just pure evil. (Did I mention that these people are evil?)
So, please take the time to watch President Eisenhower’s Farewell Address to the American nation. The one in which he warned us about the “Military Industrial Complex.” It will be the best 15 minutes you will have spent in quite awhile:
Ike knew. And he told our fathers.
But our fathers would not listen. And we would not listen.
And now our sins will be visited upon our children and our grandchildren…
Hmm, the militar industrial complex in Russia is as big as the American one in terms of percentage, they dedicate more of their GDP to their armed forces than the United States and their militaristic sentiment can only be compared to that of North Korea. The ones conducting a full scale war, or special operation, on an entire neighboring country are the Russians. They say its because of the Donbass but Donbass is Ukraine not Russia. At the end they just believe that Ukraine belongs to Russia, and the ones opposed to that will have to be “liberated”. Of course Ukrainians won’t give up to them just like that, their country will be destroyed but it is their country. And whether Rrrussia emerges triumphaly or not, that won’t solve the problems of the US or the West, and Ukrainians are not responsible for those problems.
The US aims for ‘full spectrum dominance’
against everybody, everywhere.
Russia does not.
I’m how many countries do they have bases? How many “regime changes” has Russia attempted? I’m not an apologist for Russia but please don’t try to pull the wool over anyone’s eyes
I disagree with this assessment. Where do you get your information from?
Langley?
Mike,
The difference is that the Russian military is under governmental control while ours is under private corporate control (much like our healthcare). This means that the motives for building a strong military are different. Russia’s is to protect itself (or its government) while ours is built to make money. War is not profitable for a country or people but it is for the weapon makers. And it is the weapon makers that are in charge in the USA. Ironically it has been the CIA that has been holding back the Def. Dept. and their contractors from all out war with Russia probably out of this sense of self-preservation.
Also if you read anything from the Russian State Dept., they are very direct is saying that their war in Ukraine is about defending itself from NATO (USA). This is not the first time we have started wars on Russia’s borders (Georgia & Chechnia) in an attempt to destabilize their country. If the tables were flipped and Russia had been giving billions of dollars of weapons to Mexico, helped to establish an anti-American government in Mexico (led by the cartel), started doing a bunch of bioweapons testing in Mexico, and then this Mexican government wanted nuclear weapons and to join and anti-American alliance with China and Russia, what do you think should be the USA’s response? And would that response have anything to do with protecting Mexican sovereignty (which had already been lost)?
Politics and international relations are a dirty game who take advantage of ignorant idealists who still think we are still the plucky colonists fighting against the big, evil empire instead of for the evil empire that we have become since the Mexican-American and Spanish-American War. Remember the Maine and to hell with…[blank] continues to be our warmongering motto. If you want to help Ukraine then throw out your Manifest Destiny and hold onto your republican values that demand that you at least listen to your enemy and respect their sovereignty.
. . . The US offense budget is close to one TRILLION dollars a year. The US currently has bases in over 100 countries on the face of the Earth. The US has been bullying countries all over the globe since at least 1950. The US left half a million children dead in Iraq (and that was BEFORE we started the war there) and then our Secretary of State went on 60 Minutes and said “it was worth it”. We Left hundreds of thousands of civilians dead in Vietnam, and sacrificed over 50,000 of our own soldiers, all to enrich the MIC. Shall I continue?
$752.9 BILLION for national defense, $715 billion of which is for the Department of Defense (DOD) https://www.defense.gov/News/Releases/Release/Article/2638711/the-department-of-defense-releases-the-presidents-fiscal-year-2022-defense-budg/
There are roughly 750 US foreign military bases; they are spread across 80 nations!
https://www.thesoldiersproject.org/how-many-us-military-bases-are-there-in-the-world/
200,000 to 250,000 South Vietnamese perished in the Vietnam War
https://vietnamembassy-pyongyang.org/how-many-vietnamese-died-in-the-vietnam-war/
But Russia keeps leaving its territory closer
to NATO members and their military bases…
Thanks Gail. Regarding the budget, what you posted is just what’s on the books. When you take into account the parts that aren’t recorded and when you consider the interest on the money we borrow to pay for all of this, it does get right near one trillion.
Oh sorry, I said 100, but it’s really 80. My point still stands. If you ask the average American, how many foreign countries do we have M bases in, I’ll guess they’d answer 10 or less.
I will also say that as far as our unfunded liabilities are concerned, our national debt is ~$100 trillion.
As for comparisons btw Russia and the US, their annual military budget is $65 billion whereas ours is north of $750 billion. The difference is we have hundreds of bases overseas and spend a lot of money on pronouns and homosexual “pride” events.
The Russians spend theirs on soldiery.
And so the diplomats were lying all along as well: the West never had any intention of allowing Ukraine to become members of NATO.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xqve5DC4Hfo
The American ambassador under Obama, Michael McFaul, openly admitted this several years ago. And Zelensky went along with it.
Question: when the Ukrainians find out that they’ve been had, what will they do to Zelensky
Consider that Ramzan Kadyrov, the Chechen leader, is fighting for Russia now. There is a powerful psychological dynamic operating in these matters. What happens is that the West sponsors these separatist insurgencies but will not provide enough support to make them successful for fear of being drawn in as a combatant. As the Russians defeat these separatists decisively, the separatists undergo a psychological transformation, turning on their sponsors in favor of those who are defeating them.
It’s a kind of Stockholm Syndrome writ large. Better to be on the winning team, after all. They take all the shame of defeat and turn it onto their sponsors in the form of a sense of betrayal at having been left out to dry. This occurs deep in the feral, reptilian recesses rather than the rational faculties. Ultimately, it’s a survival mechanism.
You see glimpses of it in barbs that Zelensky and others in the Kievan govt occasionally hurl at the leaders of the West. Eventually, when it becomes clear to them that they are the cannon fodder and the West never had any intention of getting its hands dirty, rhetoric be damned, AND when it becomes crystal clear that the Russians have won and they have no sane alternative but to become a Russian protectorate, then they will turn on the West in full ferocity, much like the Chechens.
Yes, Kadyrov is not a Lt Gen in the Russian Armed Forces.
The Donbass is Ukraine no more.
The Minsk agreements were on offer for eight years,
which agreements would have restored the Donbass to Ukraine;
but (with US encouragement) Ukraine refused to implement them.
Instead they shelled the Donbass for eight years, killing thousands.
Then they amassed a vast field army to retake the Donbass by force
and carry out a genocide of the ethnically Russian inhabitants.
But Russia beat them to the punch with a pre-emptive strike
Ukraine has long forfeited all rights to the Donbass; and now,
because of its (US & UK inspired) refusal to negotiate peace,
it is fast losing its field army in the Donbass cauldrons.
For those wondering why SecDef Lloyd Austin and Chief of Staff Gen Mark Milley made hurried phone calls to Sergei Shoigu, asking for an immediate cease-fire, the answer may be found here:
” It’s now confirmed by one of my top intel sources. The call was a direct consequence of panic. The United States Government (USG) by all means wants to scotch the detailed Russian investigation – and accumulation of evidence – on the US bioweapon labs in Ukraine, as I outlined in a previous column. This phone call happened exactly after an official Russian statement to the UN Security Council on May 13: we will use articles 5 and 6 of the Convention on the Prohibition of Bioweapons to investigate the Pentagon’s biological “experiments” in Ukraine. That was reiterated by Under Secretary-General of the UN in charge of disarmament, Thomas Markram, even as all ambassadors of NATO member countries predictably denied the collected evidence as “Russian disinformation”. Shoigu cold see the call coming eons away. Reuters, merely quoting the proverbial “Pentagon official”, spun that the allegedly one-hour-long call led to nothing. Nonsense. Austin, according to the Americans, demanded a “ceasefire” – which must have originated a Siberian cat smirk on Shoigu’s face. Shoigu knows exactly which way the wind is blowing on the ground – for Ukrainian Armed Forces and UkroNazis alike. It’s not only the Azovstal debacle – and Kiev’s all-around army breakdown.” (IEmphasis added.)
Also, I commend your attention to Chip Wheeler’s latest (very short and to the point) summation of the geopolitical stakes at present. (Please click on “Handwriting on the Wall” above).
Then again, the US armed forces were decidedly less satanic in Ike’s day:
https://russian-faith.com/satanism-us-naval-academy-n2574
It is possible that Russia will run the table on this little adventure. I’m hearing more and more about the possibility that elements of European leadership are going sour on the economic war. Alexander Mercouris’s latest video suggests the possibility that the Europeans may turn on the Americans, given American impotence on display through a loss in Ukraine combined with a loss in the economic war. Evidently, Russia’s economy is recovering much better than anyone expected already.
Now, it seems unfathomable given the constant onslaught of Western false propaganda to which we are subjected 24/7, but the thought should occur to clever minds that not only might Russia turn the Ukrainians to their side, but also the Europeans. If Europe enters a depression, which is increasingly likely, then they will of course have themselves to blame for going along with US sanctions. But why blame yourself? That is why God made other people. And the other people they will blame are the Americans who led them down the primrose path to disaster.
If governments fall across Europe as a result of this foolish economic war, the new leadership may be “far-right”, like in Hungary and Poland. And the advantage such leaders would have in making nice with the Russians would be decisive. The easiest, most certain way to cure a looming European depression is to get the energy flowing once again from Russia.
This is why I have suggested in the past that Russia may end up winning a soft conquest of Europe without firing a shot outside of the Ukraine. If the economic war brings down current European governments in favor of right-wing leadership much more inclined to cooperate with Russia then, given the economic dependence, Europe could end up being a collection of Russian satellites.
If that were to happen in Europe, and the Golden Don were to return here with a vengeance, that could be all she wrote for liberalism. Of course, this is only a dream. But it is necessary to dream if you intend to change present circumstances.
“But why blame yourself? That is why
God made other people.”
Ouch! 🙂
“Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat? And the man said, The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat. And the LORD God said unto the woman, What is this that thou hast done? And the woman said, The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat.”
This is similar to the Glasgow Defence:
“It wisnae me! A big boy done it an ran away…!”
Unprecedented: US Air Force To Join Israelis In Mock Attack On Iran
As if an intense proxy war with nuclear powerhouse Russia isn’t bringing enough heat, the Biden White House has now given the greenlight for unprecedented U.S. participation in an Israeli drill simulating a massive attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities.
According to The Times of Israel, “The U.S. Air Force will serve as a complementary force, with refueling planes drilling with Israeli fighter jets as they simulate entering Iranian territory and carrying out repeated strikes.” The mock attack on Iran will happen this month, as part of a broader Israeli military exercise called “Chariots of Fire.”
In September, Israeli Defense Forces Chief of Staff Aviv Kohavi said the IDF had “greatly accelerated” preparations for an attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities.
“Dozens of Israeli air force fighter jets are expected to take part in the exercise and fly hundreds of miles from Israel to the west above the Mediterranean in a way that simulates a flight route to Iran,” reports Axios. General Michael Kurilla, commander of U.S. Central Command, landed in Israel on Tuesday to observe the exercises.
Though there’s no indication of an imminent real-world strike, U.S. participation in the drill is an implicit endorsement of an Israeli-initiated war of aggression—and a signal that the United States might not only agree to it, but participate.
If so, it wouldn’t be the first time USAF tankers facilitated aggression in the region: Before a halt was announced in 2018, American tankers controversially aided Saudi strikes in Yemen. In addition to directly killing civilians—including 131 men, women and children gathered at a 2015 wedding celebration—the Saudi campaign has plunged Yemen into one of the world’s largest humanitarian crises.
To the Quincy Institute’s Trita Parsi, the hawkish participation in the Israeli drill is a “puzzling” extension of a pattern, as Biden perpetuates an aggressive Trump-like posture toward Iran that Biden previously condemned:
“Biden heavily criticized former President Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw from the nuclear deal and opposed his ‘maximum pressure’ strategy seeking to force Iran to capitulate by crushing its economy through unprecedented sanctions. Yet, 18 months into his presidency, Biden has yet to shift away from Trump’s sanctions policy.”
The saber-rattling move by Biden comes as talks to revive the 2015 Iran nuclear deal are stalled. A key sticking point: Iran wants the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps removed from the list of designated—and sanctioned—terrorist organizations.
As with sanctions, Biden’s intransigence on the IRGC designation represents another hypocritical embrace of Trump policy. Parsi notes that, in 2017, current Secretary of State Antony Blinken wrote a New York Times op-ed arguing that such a designation by the Trump administration would needlessly escalate tensions.
But hey, whether it’s Ukraine or Iran, ditching honest diplomacy in favor of nerve-racking brinksmanship seems to be the Biden administration’s trademark.
Sure, it pushes us deeper into the threshold of World War III. On the other, as Biden’s approval rating has just reached yet another a new low, at least it helps keep our mind off surging price inflation, baby formula shortages and an economy that’s teetering along the edge off the abyss.
Maybe that’s the point.
You need to read Gene Kopelson (M.D.) Dress Rehearsal,
https://www.amazon.com/Reagans-1968-Dress-Rehearsal-Emergence/dp/0182198847
Ike was disappointed with Nixon and began to groom his fellow midwesterner, Reagan.
Consider that Reagan had a degree in economics and sociology, Today’s MBA management courses are based on sociology and finance on economics.
Interesting. Thanks for that bit of info about Ike and Reagan. I can see where that kind of makes sense.