Tag: war

Everyone Watched… and Learned

Thomas Friedman was correct about the battle in Ukraine being massively significant with regards to the future direction of the world, but he had it precisely backwards with regards to what the inevitable conclusions of the various third parties watching the conflict would be.

While the battle on the ground that triggered World War Wired is ostensibly over who should control Ukraine, do not be fooled. This has quickly turned into “the big battle” between the two most dominant political systems in the world today: free-market, “rule-of-law democracy versus authoritarian kleptocracy,” the Swedish expert on the Russian economy Anders Aslund remarked to me.

Though this war is far from over, and Vladimir Putin may still find a way to prevail and come out stronger, if he doesn’t, it could be a watershed in the conflict between democratic and undemocratic systems. It is worth recalling that World War II put an end to fascism, and that the Cold War put an end to orthodox communism, eventually even in China. So, what happens on the streets of Kyiv, Mariupol and the Donbas region could influence political systems far beyond Ukraine and far into the future.

Indeed, other autocratic leaders, like China’s, are watching Russia carefully. They see its economy being weakened by Western sanctions, thousands of its young technologists fleeing to escape a government denying them access to the internet and credible news and its inept army seemingly unable to gather, share and funnel accurate information to the top. Those leaders have to be asking themselves: “Holy cow — am I that vulnerable? Am I presiding over a similar house of cards?”

Everyone is watching.

Putin Had No Clue How Many of Us Would Be Watching, THE NEW YORK TIMES, 4 August 2022

Directly counter to the Clown World narrative, it is the self-styled “democratic” systems championed by credentialed neoclowns like Friedman that have been exposed as ineffective and fragile frauds. In fact, in his 2018 book entitled Losing Military Supremacy, Andrei Martyanov described as “the strategic folly of the 21st century” something that has already come to pass.

In what can only be described as the strategic folly of the 21st century—the United States missed a historic opportunity to ally with Russia based on equal and mutually beneficial relations. This opportunity today is gone. Pushing Russia, through condescension, blackmail, humiliation and ignorance, away from itself in the 1990s, the United States committed the cardinal sin of Anglo-Saxon and now neo-conservative geopolitical calculus—they pushed Russia and China together, while simultaneously providing China with all the necessary tools, from investment to access to markets, thus making her the largest economy in the world. Today, the United States faces two nuclear and industrial superpowers, one of which fields a world-class armed forces. If the military-political, as opposed to merely economic, alliance between Russia and China, is ever formalized—this will spell the final doom for the United States as a global power. 

Andrei Martyanov LOSING MILITARY SUPREMACY, 2018

That military-politico-economic alliance has already been formalized in the form of BRICS, and exceeds the scope of which Martyanov expected would be necessary to “spell the final doom of the United States as a global power”. WWIII is already as over as WWII was the moment Japan attacked Pearl Harbor; given the combined demographic and industrial power that BRICS can bring to bear, the eventual outcome is not even remotely in doubt. While there are still a lot of questions of what the post-WWIII, post-Clown World world, post-liberal world will look like, and who will be the foremost power, there can be absolutely no doubt about which side is going to win it. And it’s not going to be NATO, the USA, the liberal world order, or Clown World.

History is a reliable guide in this context. All the geostrategic analysis, however excellent, isn’t even necessary. The oldest society and its decadent empire ruled by foreigners, with its massive amount of debt and an aging currency, never wins. It is always eventually challenged, then superseded, by nations with newer and less-corrupted societal organizations.

Clown World and its liberal Enlightenment philosophy has had a successful, though not particularly long historical run. But its fundamental philosophies have proven themselves to be both false, as well as an insufficient foundation for national, or even societal, survival. Its fate is certain and its collapse has begun, although it obviously hasn’t been completed yet.

DISCUSS ON SG

The Failure of the Artificial Nation

An insightful observation by Andrei Martyanov from his 2018 book Losing Military Supremacy : the myopia of American strategic planning:

“The Americans in their intercourse with strangers appear impatient of the smallest censure and insatiable of praise. The most slender eulogium is acceptable to them; the most exalted seldom contents them; they unceasingly harass you to extort praise, and if you resist their entreaties they fall to praising themselves.“

The American vaingloriousness described by Tocqueville has today become a clear and present danger to the world and it is, in the end, a direct threat to what’s left of America’s democratic institutions and processes. It threatens a shaky republic and it is embedded in the very foundation of a now increasingly obvious American decline. Of course, there are many opinions about American decline on the public discussion stage—some opinions reject the whole idea of an American decline out of hand as propaganda; others go to the other extreme by proposing an imminent collapse and disintegration of the United States into several states. What is lost in this contentious debate is the troubling fact of the very real and very dangerous decline of American cognitive faculties, which is also accompanied by what Robert Reilly termed de-Hellenization—a complete loss of sound reasoning across the whole spectrum of national activities from foreign policy, to economics, to war, to culture.

This decline is more than visible, it is omnipresent in the everyday lives of many Americans and even affects people from other nations and continents. This decline has deeper roots than the mere change of some economic paradigm, albeit this too matters a great deal. It portends a total existential crisis of American national mythology—a crisis of the American soul that has nothing to do with the superficial, mass-media driven ideological or party affiliations—rather, it is the decline of a national consensus. This decline reflects the American failure to form a real nation, a process which, as paradoxical as it may sound, was prevented by a sequence of historic events in the 20th century, which turned the tables on American fortunes.

That vaingloriousness and sense of exceptionalism has proven fatal, as it was exploited ruthlessly by the foreign invaders who played expertly upon the concept of “an idea nation” and “a nation of immigrants”. But contrary to those who would blame the decline of the USA solely on the two Jewish invasions – really three, in light of the Jackson-Vanik Amendment of 1974 – the seeds of the failure of Americans to successfully build a genuine nation were observably present long before the first major wave of immigration from Central Europe peaked in 1850 and the violent transformation of a Republic to an Empire in 1865.

Martyanov’s observations concerning why the USA lost its post-WWII military supremacy are particularly significant now that events in Syria, Ukraine, and the Red Sea have demonstrated to the entire world that the former superpower no longer has the ability to reliably enforce its will outside of its continental region of influence. More importantly, his diagnosis strongly suggests that the situation is not one that is amenable to fixing due to way in which the problems are not political or ideological, but intrinsic and foundational.

An artificial nation cannot, in the long term, be expected to remain cohesive and victorious in the face of a challenge from a genuine nation of similar power. This is an important military lesson, not only for the remnants of heritage America, but also for the would-be builders of a pan-European nation as well as the architects of the unitary Israeli nation, both of whom are twice-dependent upon the concept.

DISCUSS ON SG

Tragedy and Farce

It is said that history doesn’t repeat, but it rhymes. Although, in some cases, it’s just the same old thing over and over again. So once the British Armed Forces complete their stunning and brave conquest of Russia, they can head south to refight the war in the Falkland Islands. Or, as I suppose we had better get used to calling them again, the Malvinas.

The row over the sovereignty of the Falkland Islands has erupted again after the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Argentina issued a statement asking Britain to start negotiations over it again. In a statement issued on Wednesday, the South American country said it intended to restore sovereignty over the islands and intended this to be done through diplomatic means.

This is what the country believes is the “only possible way to restore the exercise of its rights”.

It’s a bit amusing to think of Britain threatening to use what little military force it has to defend British sovereignty off the coast of Argentina when it didn’t use it to resist an ongoing and active invasion of its own island by millions of invaders. Ironically, if Milei hadn’t been foolish enough to spurn Argentina’s BRICS invitation, the Argentines probably could have peacefully taken control of the islands with full support from Russia and China before the end of 2024.

The whole globalization interlude is looking less and less like the end of history and more and more like a truly retarded period of human history that caused far more problems than it could possibly have ever solved.

Here’s a truly contrarian prediction. Whereas the current mainstream perspective is that Anders Breivik was a monster and Norman Borlaug was a scientific saint, before the end of the 21st century, Breivik will be seen as a William Tell-style national hero and Norman Borlaug will be considered a worse historical enemy of Mankind than Hitler and Mao combined.

I could be wrong, of course. It’s entirely possible that no one will remember Breivik because Norwegians and Swedes are as extinct as the Agawam or the Wicocomico, and that Borlaug and his Green Revolution mean nothing to the mixed-race hunter-gathers roaming across the ruins of Europe and America.

DISCUSS ON SG

The Shadow War Continues

Unlike the American people, the Chinese are very well aware of the way in which the CIA is attempting to spy upon them:

The WSJ has exposed quite a bit this time. Firstly, it revealed the public proclamation by the CIA of engaging in espionage activities against China, possibly in an attempt to exaggerate its own value and seek increased budgetary support from Congress. However, this also amounts to self-incrimination. When the US hypes and targets alleged “Chinese spies,” it consistently fails to provide concrete evidence. Instead, it initiates a smear campaign against China and subsequently demands China to prove its innocence. This pattern reveals that the US is fully aware of the lack of legitimacy in these “spy” allegations, yet shamelessly continues to clamor as if “no one can do anything about it.” The US is always very self-confident for being “right,” but its notion of “righteousness” differs fundamentally from the universally accepted definition.

Secondly, it proves that China’s counter-espionage work is highly effective. It has dismantled the US spy network in China and prevented it from rebuilding for 10 years. This is a major achievement in counter-espionage, causing the US to stumble in the face of China’s robust anti-espionage defense. When China revised its Counter-Espionage Law, it faced criticism from Western public opinion. Now it appears that the intention behind this criticism was to pressure China into removing its defenses and allowing their spies to operate freely within China’s borders. Fortunately, China has not fallen into this trap. China has been able to defend against espionage in the past, and will also have the ability to render CIA infiltration useless in the future.

Thirdly, it reminds us that the string of counter-espionage must be tightened. The CIA has indicated that rebuilding its spy network in China is currently their main focus and will continue to be so for the foreseeable future. In 2021, there were reports that the CIA established a mission center for China, the only single-country mission center at the agency. All of this may make the situation of China’s counter-espionage more complex and severe.

I very much doubt it is a coincidence that a) Xi unexpectedly took power, b) the CPC terminated its partnership with US Jewry, and c) the US spy network in China was dismantled at approximately the same time. Nor is it a coincidence that the BRICS framework was ready to present to the nonaligned nations within months of the US sanctions regime being imposed upon Russia in response to the Special Military Operation in Ukraine.

So, it’s interesting that China is now willing to openly discuss, in its English state media, what has been happening for the last ten years. I don’t know why this topic is being presented for discussion, but I suspect it is significant in some way.

DISCUSS ON SG

The USA’s Army of Illegals

I wouldn’t go so far as to predict that the US government’s alternative army of armed illegals will be activated against the citizenry in 2024, but the material possibility is a clear and observable danger:

Expect civil unrest to break out in 2024 as globalist elites go for the final takedown of America as we know it in preparation for their satanic digital reset of the world order. The year 2023 will go down in history as the point at which the globalists completed the assembly of a massive secret army inside the U.S. in preparation for the final takedown of America, transforming it into Amerika.

By my calculations, there are anywhere from 1.5 million to 5 million foreign soldiers already inside the U.S. awaiting orders. My math is based on the government’s own statistics for illegals entering the U.S. over the last three years and then I estimated how many were military-age males using very conservative numbers on the low end and moderately conservative numbers on the top end. The most conservative number, 1.5 million, assumes that no foreign agents of military age were already here prior to January 2021, which of course we know cannot be the case but I wanted to demonstrate just how conservative these numbers are.

So, we have 1.5 million, at the very least, super-fit males of military age we’ve seen entering the U.S. as “asylum seekers,” which has become the new Orwellian term for illegal aliens. It’s no longer a secret. You can go on X, formerly Twitter, and watch countless videos of waves of men entering the U.S. with no papers to identify who they are. Even if we go with the ultra-conservative figure of a 1.5 million-man army now assembled inside the United States, that is formidable by anyone’s standards.

Now, what if all those weapons purchased by U.S. federal government agencies were accumulated for the purpose of arming this assembled army? Think about that. Everyone wondered why federal agencies with no law enforcement role, like the Small Business Administration, Department of Agriculture and Health and Human Services, were buying up guns and ammo under Obama’s administration and now again under Biden’s regime. This unprecedented militarization of the federal government did not even stop under Trump, it just slowed down. I am not here to tell you why those agencies have felt the need to arm up, but I can tell you that the reason cannot be good. One plausible explanation would be that they will use these stockpiles to supply one side in a coming civil war that has probably been planned for a long time.

Strategic analysis is not about what one deems to be probable on the basis of one’s feelings, but rather, what is possible on the basis of the material facts in evidence. And the fact is that a) the army of illegals is now present in the USA, b) the federal government has stockpiled weapons far beyond the needs of its agents, and c) the federal government is presently dominated by foreigners whose interests are actively opposed, if not aggressively hostile, to the interests of the heritage American nation.

There is no question about the near-certain probability of war coming to the United States. There are virtually no examples of the mass movement of peoples not eventually resulting in war, and the territory of the USA has seen the largest movement of peoples in the history of the world over the last 50 years. But the form and scope of that war is not yet clear, nor can we be certain what the various factions involved will be.

Regardless, it’s coming, presumably sooner rather than later, and it is too late to avoid or escape the situation. It’s not too late, however, to be sure you’re not living in one of the obvious hotspots, or to begin preparing for the inevitable consequences of widescale conflict.

Remember, however, that conflict across an area as vast as the United States does not mean that it is going to directly touch everyone. In fact, it almost certainly will not touch the majority of people who are reading this; the greater part of Europe never saw any significant violence from 1939 to 1945, not even the parts occupied by Germany. Don’t despair, but be aware.

DISCUSS ON SG

Sykes-Picot is Dead

The Sykes–Picot Agreement, officially known as the Asia Minor Agreement, was a secret agreement between the governments of the United Kingdom and France, with the assent of Russia, defining their proposed spheres of influence and control in the Middle East should the Triple Entente succeed in defeating the Ottoman Empire during World War I. The negotiation of the treaty occurred between November 1915 and March 1916. The agreement was concluded on 16 May 1916. The agreement effectively divided the Arab provinces of the Ottoman Empire outside the Arabian peninsula into areas of future British and French control or influence.

Pepe Escobar describes the geo-strategic significance of the Yemeni-imposed restrictions on Red Sea traffic and how they have proven vastly more effective than the G7 sanctions on Russia:

In chess, there always comes a time when a simple pawn is able to upset the whole chessboard, usually via a move in the back rank whose effect simply cannot be calculated.

Yes, a pawn can impose a seismic checkmate. That’s where we are, geopolitically, right now.

The cascading effects of a single move on the chessboard – Yemen’s Ansarallah stunning and carefully targeted blockade of the Red Sea – reach way beyond global shipping, supply chains, and The War of Economic Corridors. Not to mention the reduction of the much lauded US Navy force projection to irrelevancy.

Yemen’s resistance movement, Ansarallah, has made it very clear that any Israel-affiliated or Israel-destined vessel will be intercepted. While the west bristles at this, and imagines itself a target, the rest of the world fully understands that all other shipping is free to pass. Russian tankers – as well as Chinese, Iranian, and Global South ships – continue to move undisturbed across the Bab al-Mandeb (narrowest point: 33 km) and the Red Sea.

Only the Hegemon is disturbed by this challenge to its ‘rules-based order.’ It is outraged that western vessels delivering energy or goods to law-breaking Israel can be impeded, and that the supply chain has been severed and plunged into deep crisis. The pinpointed target is the Israeli economy, which is already bleeding heavily. A single Yemeni move proves to be more efficient than a torrent of imperial sanctions.

It is the tantalizing possibility of this single move turning into a paradigm shift – with no return – that is adding to the Hegemon’s apoplexy. Especially because imperial humiliation is deeply embedded in the paradigm shift.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, on the record, is now sending an unmistakeable message: Forget the Suez Canal. The way to go is the Northern Sea Route – which the Chinese, in the framework of the Russia-China strategic partnership, call the Arctic Silk Road.

For the dumbfounded Europeans, the Russians have detailed three options: First, sail 15,000 miles around the Cap of Good Hope. Second, use Russia’s cheaper and faster Northern Sea Route. Third, send the cargo via Russian Railways.

Rosatom, which oversees the Northern Sea Route, has emphasized that non-ice-class ships are now able to sail throughout summer and autumn, and year-round navigation will soon be possible with the help of a fleet of nuclear icebreakers.

All that as direct consequences of the single Yemeni move. What next? Yemen entering BRICS+ at the summit in Kazan in late 2024, under the Russian presidency?

The US-led Armada put together for Operation Genocide Protection, which collapsed even before birth, may have been set up to “warn Iran,” apart from giving Ansarallah a scare. Just as the Houthis, Tehran is hardly intimidated because, as West Asia analyst ace Alastair Crooke succinctly put it: “Sykes-Picot is dead.”

This is a quantum shift on the chessboard. It means West Asian powers will frame the new regional architecture from now on, not US Navy “projection.”

That carries an ineffable corollary: those eleven US aircraft carrier task forces, for all practical purposes, are essentially worthless.

How Yemen changed everything, PEPE ESCOBAR, 28 December 2023

I find this move by the Yemenis, presumably made in coordination with China, Russia, and several of the Arab nations, to be utterly fascinating, and more importantly, indicative of how far ahead of Clown World the BRICS strategists appear to be thinking. While I was certain that the impotence of the US Navy was a) going to be demonstrated before 2030 and b) that demonstration would have a significant effect on the way in which the nations regarded Clown World going forward, I assumed that it would be necessary for someone to sink a carrier or three in order to demonstrate that impotence.

But this is a much more elegant approach, as the observable reluctance of the US Navy to risk any direct engagement with what is, on the international scale, a sixth-rate power, demonstrates that impotence even more clearly than the loss of an entire carrier task force in the South China Sea could. After all, only Russia possesses the striking power of the Chinese military, but most of the nations in the world have resources that exceed that of Yemen; even the military capabilities of Croatia and The Democratic Republic of the Congo are rated ahead of Yemen in the 2023 Global Firepower rankings.

It’s one thing for Russia to prove that the Empire can’t push it around, it’s another thing for the nation ranked 74th in the world to do so.

If it is not yet clear to everyone that the US empire is in rapid decline, we can be confident that it is entirely apparent to everyone whose opinion matters.

UPDATE: Meanwhile, the US government continues to demonstrate that it has not yet learned anything from the consequences of its recent attempts to poke the bear.

The United States has called for working groups from the Group of Seven (G7) countries to explore ways to confiscate hundreds of billions of dollars in frozen Russian assets, the Financial Times reported this week. The United States, backed by the UK, Japan and Canada, has proposed setting up preparatory work for expropriating over $300 billion in Russian foreign exchange reserves that were immobilized by Western nations after the start of the Ukraine conflict.

The EU, where most of the assets are blocked, is more wary of a direct confiscation, fearing possible retaliation from Moscow if the money is taken. Currently, €210 billion ($230 billion) of Russia’s reserves are held in the bloc’s financial institutions, with €191 billion in Belgium, €19 billion in France, and €7.8 billion in non-member Switzerland.

Stealing Russian assets is not the greatest plan in the world when Russia is going to be in a position to simply march some of its 1.5 million mobilized troops into some of those nations and take whatever it wants from whomever it wants within the next two years. Notice that the G7 countries which are within marching distance don’t appear to be quite as enthusiastic about offering Moscow yet another casus belli.

DISCUSS ON SG

By Any Means

China has been watching NATO encroach on Russia’s borders over the last two years and it is clearly not inclined to permit a similar process take place in or anywhere near its own territory:

Beijing will use “any means” to prevent the secession of Taiwan, Chinese President Xi Jinping said on Tuesday, adding that the island’s reunification with the mainland is inevitable. Xi’s comments were part of a speech to the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, at a symposium marking the 130th birthday of Mao Zedong, according to Xinhua news agency.

“We will resolutely prevent anyone from making Taiwan secede from China by any means,” Xi was quoted as saying.

Xi also described the “complete reunification” of China as “an inevitable trend”; both in the national interest and the desire of the people. He called for efforts to “promote the peaceful development” of relations with the island and further integrated development “in all fields.”

Xi sends warning over Taiwan, RUSSIA TODAY, 27 December 2023

China’s state media and diplomats have also made it clear that they are paying close attention to Japan’s historical decision to further abandon its post-WWII pacifism under pressure from the USA:

Global Times: It is reported that the Japanese government adopted the updated Three Principles on Transfer of Defense Equipment and Technology and its implementation guidelines (herein referred to as “Three Principles”) on December 22 with a decision to provide its home-made Patriot air defence missiles to the United States. It is the first time that Japan has allowed the export of destruction weapons since its Cabinet’s adoption of the Three Principles in 2014. On the same day, the Cabinet approved the budget for Fiscal Year 2024 with a record defense budget of around JPY 7.9 trillion, up by 16.6 percent year on year. What is your comment?

Mao Ning: Given Japan’s recent history of militarist aggression, Japan’s military and security moves are closely watched by its Asian neighbors and the international community. In recent years, Japan has been drastically readjusting its security policy, increasing defense spending year after year, easing the restrictions on arms export and seeking military breakthroughs. We urge Japan to earnestly respect the security concerns of neighboring countries, reflect on its history of aggression, commit itself to the path of peaceful development and earn the trust of its Asian neighbors and the wider international community through concrete actions.

There is no amount of deception and narrative massage that is going to fool the Chinese government. Whereas Russia was foolish enough to buy into the global economy narrative and accept the idea that the USA and its European satrapies could be partners, it’s very clear that the Chinese have learned from the Russian example and have no intention of being similarly bamboozled.

If the USA attempts to reconstruct SEATO, it is certain that China will take steps to prevent it, and it will do so much more quickly and aggressively than Russia did with NATO.

DISCUSS ON SG

China Connects the Dots

It’s fascinating to see the Chinese media is now openly discussing the sort of connections that tend to get one rapidly cancelled as a “conspiracy theorist” and even an “antisemite” in the West:

“A just cause enjoys abundant support, while an unjust cause finds little support.” No one feels this snippet of wisdom more deeply than the US now. A spokesman for Spain’s defense ministry told AFP on Sunday that the country will not participate in the so-called Operation Prosperity Guardian, a US-led maritime task force in the Red Sea that aims to protect the passage of Israeli-owned and Israel-bound merchant vessels.

Obviously, the US’ European allies are no longer willing to foot the bill of the US’ selfishness. Operation Prosperity Guardian organized by the US has a strong political overtone, that is, safeguarding Israel’s national interests. Israel’s actions in Gaza have aroused the anger of the international community. More than 20,000 Palestinians have reportedly been killed, more than 50,000 injured, and much of Gaza has been destroyed. Some European countries have begun to diverge from the US on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. The objective of the US creating the Red Sea alliance, on the one hand, is testing whether its allies share the same beliefs with it on this issue. On the other hand, Washington is levering multilateral diplomatic actions to cover up its unilateral support of Israel.

US allies always support the US and share its stance, but that does not mean they will unlimitedly support the frenzied positions taken by the US on all issues, especially when the US position is contrary to their own interests…

Song Zhongping, a Chinese military expert, believes that no matter it is the Iraq war, the Afghan war, or the current Russia-Ukraine or Palestinian-Israeli conflict, the US’ performance has made it lose its credibility and leadership. US allies see clearly that the US only causes trouble, but it is not willing to bear the consequences. Instead, it lets its allies clean up the mess. The appeal of the US has declined, as the US that is used to being echoed is now being rejected. This is a true manifestation of “A just cause enjoys abundant support, while an unjust cause finds little support.”

Cracks in Red Sea alliance underline US-Europe division, GLOBAL TIMES, 25 December 2023

The fact that China is openly connecting the dots for the benefit of the global public is highlighted by the way Clown World’s media is actively attempting to hide the nature of the Yemeni-Israeli conflict and the fact that the Yemenis are only attacking Israeli-owned ships attempting to transit the Red Sea.

This operation is now coming apart in recriminations because commercial vessel owners in France, Spain, and Italy have accepted that if they negotiate Israel-boycott deals directly with the Houthis, they can continue to operate through the Red Sea. They resent the commercial competition from Russia and China which are operating oil tankers and dry-cargo carriers without hindrance or threat.

The obviousness of the targeting by the Houthis, and of Houthi deal-making by the Russians and Chinese, are being concealed, however, in the US and UK maritime industry media and the mainstream press.

In the most recent strike, the Israeli oil tanker Chem Pluto was hit on Saturday, December 23, by a drone about 1,600 kilometres east of the Yemen coast; about 200 kilometres west of the Indian coast. Initial media reporting claimed the vessel was “affiliated” to Israel but emphasized that it was owned by a Japanese entity and managed by a Dutch one… The allies knew at once that the Chem Pluto had been targeted because it was Israeli-owned. However, the Pentagon, the Voice of America, and UK propaganda continue to pretend that the Houthi targeting is not tied to the Israel Defence Forces’ operations in Gaza, and carefully restricted to Israeli and allied targets.

As with the current economic and military situations, the Western media’s attempts to construct and maintain false narratives, and to limit the influence of alternative medias that do not respect the narrative, is being systematically undermined by Clown World’s inability to influence the Chinese and Russian medias.

It’s very interesting to see how long it will take US politicians, narrative police, and corporate interests to come to term with the fact that the USA is no longer a monopolar power and that the markets of the West are no longer the most sizable, most advanced, or the most profitable.

DISCUSS ON SG

The Collapse of the Coalition

Even Clown World’s European satrapies are beginning to refuse to go along with the USA’s desperate attempts to shore up the edges of empire:

Australia is the latest country to reject a request from the United States to send warships to the Red Sea under the command of the Pentagon’s Operation Prosperity Guardian to protect commercial vessels along the critical maritime trade route from Iran-backed Houthi.

Defense Minister Richard Marles told Sky News that Australia’s military would not send a “ship or a plane” to the Red Sea but would triple the number of troops for the US-led maritime force. “We need to be really clear around our strategic focus and our strategic focus is our region,” Marles said.

The Pentagon’s formation of Operation Prosperity Guardian, a new task force to protect shipping from Houthi drone and missile attacks in the Bab Al-Mandeb Strait and the Red Sea, requires increased warship patrols by the US and allies. This will create a security umbrella over commercial vessels to defend from attacks.

Reuters said about twenty countries have signed up for the Pentagon’s new operation. However, several countries, including Australia, Spain, Italy, and France, have rejected the Pentagon’s request to participate in the operation.

These coalitions usually aren’t more than diplomatic cover for US troops, but in this case, the involvement of the lesser navies is actually necessary in the hopes of preventing the Houthis from sinking a US warship and thereby revealing the naked state of the US military. These hopes were always futile, however, since it’s pretty obvious that while Hezbollah, Iran, Russia, and China are all being cautious about directly attacking US military assets without the benefit of US camouflage – such as the Rangers and Patriot missile teams in Ukraine, for example – the Houthis appear to be very nearly ready to take on all comers as the Taliban.

None of this is happening by accident. The unrestricted and asymmetrical nature of the conflicts popping up one by one around the world, combined with China’s apparent quiescence, is very much in keeping with the geopolitical strategy laid out 24 years ago by the Chinese military. The fact that the neoclown strategists are keeping at least one very wary eye on China, despite its seeming lack of involvement in any of these conflicts and close calls from Gaza to Georgia, tends to suggest that the imperial advisers are well aware of this.

It may be another decade of this death-by-one-thousand-cuts warfare before China bestirs itself to openly challenge the Empire. Or it may only be a few more months before one or another of the various fronts that have been opened collapses. But regardless, it is eminently clear that we are witnessing the fall of an empire that has been in decline since 1973.

DISCUSS ON SG

Did Russia Demand Surrender?

It’s pretty clear that Russia is geared up for a major offensive, which could be launched at any time. The Ukrainian military has been significantly degraded, and its morale is shot. Whenever the Russian offensive is launched, it will be successful. Which is why it makes sense that Russia is giving NATO an opportunity to surrender Ukraine before launching the offensive that would render any such surrender unnecessary.

However, the source is unreliable, so this should be regarded as possible news yet to be verified rather than actual events that have definitely taken place. And even if it is real, that doesn’t mean the neocons have enough sense to accept either the terms or the fact of their defeat in their proxy war.

Russian officials arrived in Washington, DC Thursday morning to discuss the terms of Ukraine’s SURRENDER. The “Special Flight Squadron moves Kremlin officials traveling on important matters.

TERMS: The terms given to Washington, DC for Ukraine are:

  • Complete Ukraine surrender.
  • Complete surrender of all military equipment.
  • Russian territory will range from Karkhov to Odessa, and gives Russia complete control of Black Sea coast.
  • Western Ukraine cannot join NATO, or have any military aid.
  • Russia does not care who controls western Ukraine, and have openly offered it to Poland.

Put bluntly, the Ukraine war is over and Ukraine lost. Completely.

They can no longer defend themselves in any meaningful way. If hostilities are not halted, Ukraine will simply be slaughtered and, believe it or not, Russia does NOT want to do that.

Notice this information isn’t anywhere on the mass-media news?

Notice the Washington Post STOPPED PRINTING it’s “Ukraine War Update Section?”

No reporting that Ukraine has lost – – – and not a word about Russia’s victory.

The only reason I’m a bit dubious about this is that it makes no reference to the USA ending Russian sanctions, and permitting its European and Asian satrapies to also end the sanctions. Especially in light of the recent statement by the Russian ambassador to the USA:

US attempts to hamper the development of the Russian economy through sanctions are increasingly damaging bilateral relations and making respectful dialogue between Washington and Moscow virtually impossible, Russian Ambassador Anatoly Antonov has said. His remarks followed Washington’s announcement on Friday that it is considering further sanctions on Russia over the Ukraine conflict.

Translation: the neocons won’t be able to give up Ukrainian territory without also giving up their sanctions regime. I find it very difficult to imagine that Russia would accept a Ukrainian surrender that did not involve an end to the Western sanctions. But it should be kept in mind that the fact that Hal Turner’s report did not mention sanctions does not mean that the Russian delegation is not demanding them of the US negotiators.

Which also points to the reason to take the report seriously: if it was fake, it would probably refer to the Kiev regime as the party with whom Russia is negotiating. But this has been a war between Russia and the USA from the start.

DISCUSS ON SG