Russia Has Won on All Counts

Russia has assimilated the Donbas. NATO forces have abandoned the Ukrainians, and Russia will soon take as much of Ukraine as it wants to. If you watch CNN, you will hear how Russians were just driven out of Liman, but wait a few days, then check on that again (CNN may not update you when Russia retakes it). Zelensky and the west continually provoked conflict rather than trying to negotiate even once. Let’s see how long Zelenksy stays in Ukraine now; hundreds of millions of aid dollars that he embezzled are already waiting for him in accounts in other countries.

Despite all the hyperbole in the west to the contrary, discerning people will see that it was Putin who, although the invader, has been the rational actor in all of this. Now Russia, China, and other countries like Saudi Arabia are forming bonds. Western countries used to have better relations with these states but severed them with sanctions, that only hurt western economies and energy security. And now that Biden has bombed the Nordstream pipeline in order to remove the option for European governments to back-off from sanctions and begin to deal with Putin, the US has begun to sever itself even from it European allies.

If interested in more details, this interview with UN weapons inspector Scott Ritter is worthwhile (though the host of the interview is an odd character). Since the breakup of the Soviet Union US foreign policy has been driven by a deep state cabal of neoconservatives who have abused the outsize influence of the US dollar, military, and economic heft to push around the rest of the world in ways that too many Americans aren’t adequately aware of (and would disapprove of if they were). But sadly, the USA has now burned too many bridges and shot itself in the foot. As Ritter says: “The US is now the worst country to have as enemy, but also the worst one to have as your friends”. What a waste.