General Milley, the Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman, offered as his assessment of the war in Ukraine that it may very well last another two years before ‘rational folks’ in Russia will reach the conclusion that they need to cave in to NATO’s demands. I don’t think that is a realistic scenario, since there won’t be a NATO left by then. Nor anything you might call an ‘economy’ in the ‘Collective West’. Less so if Milley is ordered to strike China too. His focus seems to have shifted to this upcoming war with China, and to let Ukraine ‘rot’. Because, if I understand the American chairman of the ‘Military Industrial Complex’ correctly, Russia is in no position to win this proxy war on Ukrainian soil.
Clearly that assessment hinges on the ‘Intelligence’ he received, which claims that 250.000 Russian soldiers perished up till now, and Russia is struggling to stay in the war as it is, and prevent losing more territory to Ukraine. The ‘Collective West’ provided Ukraine with nine brigades worth of combined arms, armor and mechanized infantry, as well as some light infantry, after the original strategy, which hinged on extracting the maximum number of casualties when the Russians would storm the well prepared fortifications, and to be ‘bled white’ with ‘Stay Behind Forces’ after Russia would have occupied all of Ukraine, in combination with crippling ‘Sanctions from Hell’, went ‘South’. Milley does not exclude the possibility that Ukraine might achieve some success if it decides to use these new forces to replace the losses in an offensive manner, but it does sound as if he advises against it.
The Russians laughed about his claim that Russia lost as many soldiers as Milley said they did, and one has to wonder if the ‘Intelligence’ he is receiving is the same ‘horse manure’ given to us through the media, when those ‘Agencies’ blundered about Russia’s capacity to produce missiles and ammo, as well as ‘hardware’ in abundance for this ‘War of Attrition’. I have no way to *know* the correct numbers of anything, and whether or not Milley is honest, or not. Honest and misguided, fooled by his Ukrainian ‘friends’, and the ‘Agencies’ with their own agenda’s. It is not entirely impossible that he is lying, about everything, but since the Russians turned this war into a ‘War of Attrition’, his assumption could very well be that the Russians won’t turn it into a ‘War of Conquest’ anyway, in which case it doesn’t really matter what he says about troop strengths and losses. As long as the war stays in ‘Attrition Mode’, strengths and losses are largely irrelevant from his point of view. The only task he has, is to make sure we ‘last’ longer than the Russians at the psychological level. Which ‘side’ will get tired of this war first? And to talk people into opening the spigot for lost cases is a specialty in the ‘Collective West’. The ‘Collective West’ was clearly winning in Afghanistan, and prepared the country well to prevent the Taliban from returning to power. Remember that one?
It is not a given that the Russians will stay in ‘Attrition Mode’ though. Less so since sabotage on Russian soil, relying on ‘Al Qaeda’-type operations, are becoming more frequent. The only question is how Russia will respond? Nobody in the ‘Kremlin’ isn’t aware of the fact that this entire thing is driven by NATO, and at some moment in time they will have to find a way to make the ‘Collective West’ understand that they themselves will suffer badly if they insist on going down that path. But that is a problem, because even without active sabotage in NATO-countries the ‘Collective West’ will go down economically and at the social level, and an ‘Eye for an Eye’ respons could very well be what they are hoping for, to avoid the blame.
Take a step back, and observe. For some time now, the US/‘Collective West’ has been pirating oil tankers and stealing Iranian oil. It stole Venezuelan gold, parked in London. It stole every single Russian asset, and plundered Russian accounts. It is kidnapping and holding people hostage as leverage against countries it wants to submit. If your next door neighbor would behave like that, you might, at some point, be tempted to act as if you were an illegal emigrant from Mexico, and shoot the place up without any warning. Why would you keep your calm, and act as if you were like a family from Honduras, begging this criminal next door to stop unloading his guns in the backyard? There seems to be some sort of consensus in our part of the world, in the ‘Collective West’, that Russia, China, and almost literally the entire world by now, won’t respond, because they fear our military might. Milley said that he was convinced that Russia and China knew that the US would crush them if they dared to oppose them ‘for real’. I don’t know who told him that, but before long he will be a General without an army. We won’t be able to pay for it any longer, even if we wanted to. And I know of no one who is encouraging his of her kids to enlist, because soon this youngster will have this unique possibility to die on the island of Taiwan. Or in the trenches in Ukraine, since the people so inclined are dead already, or hurried back to write a ‘bestseller’ and tell their friends about dipping their toe in the ice cold water, before high-tailing out of Ukraine, and make the best of their status as a true ‘war-hero’.
Because of the horrible track record when it comes to ‘Intel’ shared with the public, those digging deeper generally find the information provided by the Russians more reliable. On top of that, there are analysts in the US with a solid military background who appear to ‘cheer for Putin’, given the fact that they are predicting a ‘hands down’ win for Russia. Most of them are either from the ‘Trump campaign’, or they have an axe to grind with the Neocons for other reasons. Because of their military background, it is widely assumed that they still have sources ‘on the inside’, which may, or may not slip them ‘classified’ information, but even if they don’t, they may still ‘indicate’ if a certain number, or assumption, is closer to the truth. I do not possess sources like that myself, and wouldn’t ‘use’ them anyway. Because I wouldn’t want to endanger them, but also because I have this overwhelming sense that hardly anything floating around freely within the military is relevant. I feel strongly that those in the driver’s seat on the side of the ‘Collective West’ are running a highly compartmentalized, ‘Your Eyes Only’ operation akin to this ‘Gladio’-operation. They are using the military as décor, building their war around them.
This also flows from my ‘reading’ of the original NATO strategy, set up around ’Stay Behind Forces’, with the fortifications built over the eight years before this simmering war exploded into sight, meant only to extract the highest number of casualties on the Russian side, as they were supposed to storm these fortifications, and take all of Ukraine. The number of dead on the Ukrainian side was irrelevant for this plan to work. The Russians not taking the bait, ruined their strategy. Which they are now trying to bring back to life with attacks on Russian soil with no, or limited military value. Including a drone attack on the Kremlin, which is like attacking the White House with drones. Although the actual perpetrators didn’t leave a business card, several commentators assume this is not an operation which escaped the attention of those ‘Your Eyes Only’-type of guys and gals on our side of the fence. In other words, Ukraine and Russia are in a ‘different’ war from the war NATO is waging. NATO, in my perception, is looking for something more akin to the ‘Bologna train station bombing’, the Belgian terror campaign around the random shootings at the Delhaize supermarkets, and the murder of Aldo Moro, all attributed to ‘Gladio’. No doubt on my mind that the Russians, and the Chinese, understand this. And they also understand that Zelensky is not is charge of anything ‘Gladio’ does. Nor is Biden, who needs permanent care or he will get lost in the bathroom by the looks of it. Staring at Bakhmut is of limited value if you want to understand how the war is progressing, and who is winning.
The Russians and the Chinese, and the rest of the world, are watching Milley, his sidekicks, and their antics, wondering why nobody has the guts to tell them they are punching air. But, don’t assume anything. I’m aware of the tensions between Prigozhin of ‘Wagner’, and the ‘Kremlin’ which is using his services, where ‘Putin’s Chef’, as this restaurant owner trying his luck running a ‘PMO’ for profit is called in the West, blasted the Russian ‘opposite numbers’ of Milley in the Russian Chiefs of Staff for a lack of ammo to ‘grind’ the Ukrainian army at Bakhmut. Although his operation received as many shells per day as the entire Ukrainian army had available for the entire length of the front. Prigozhin claimed that because of those ‘slackers’ in ‘Moscow’ his forces lost ninety four dead and wounded on a single sad day when the Ukrainians launched a counter attack. Nowhere near the number this Kirby-fellow in the United States, who is a ‘spokes-person’ of yet another ‘Agency’, is claiming were killed in a month if you multiply this high loss rate by thirty, but clearly tensions like that is what NATO is praying for. And again, NATO wouldn’t mind at all if some frightening swashbuckler would replace Putin, and destroy everything still standing in Ukraine. The organization is not interested in saving Ukraine, or Taiwan, or Europe. It only wants to save itself, and become ‘Skynet’, the infamous organization running ‘Terminator cyborgs’ in that Hollywood production featuring this former Austrian bodybuilder. There is no other explanation for so much stupidity, and careless bluster.