A sudden, steep drop in the number of visitors to this website last week suggests that I annoyed the ‘algorithms’ of search-engines and social media platforms. Gradual changes are more common, and may be associated with something I said, people losing interest, or the holiday season. Sharp drops happened in the past, usually associated with ‘censored content’ related to ‘Covid’. Contrary to many bloggers I always maintained that no commercial organization can be forced to pass on content it doesn’t like. I recommended my readers to ‘bookmark’ this blog, and to use various ‘search engines’ to avoid losing track of an interesting narrative. Since broad action against a blog may render both the Dutch blog, and this ‘In English’ section untraceable, I felt like drawing your attention to this needed precaution.
A lengthy article in my Dutch language newspaper, NRC, stated that constantly moving ‘red lines’ were actually a smart strategy which would bring victory over Russia in the end. The person who inspired the narrator in that article, was former NATO-general Ben Hodges. Clearly the highest military person in Europe responsible for this failed strategy to break Russia through sanctions and ‘Stay Behind’ special forces in Ukraine after it would have conquered the entire country, and now struggling to turn a defeat into a victory. The ‘smart’ thinking behind moving ‘red lines’, according to this newspaper article, is that it avoided too much stress within NATO, and keeping the ship afloat by incrementally adding more violence, despite the fact that it meant Ukraine would suffer tremendously.
Again, like the Merkel/Hollande-lies, there is no way to escape the conclusion that this was never about Ukraine, but about Russia. The former minister of war for Ukraine Andrii Zahorodniuk, in function during six months only, is also quoted as he addressed the ‘Atlantic Council’, that this ‘Special Military Operation’ was a gift, because now NATO could talk openly about conquering Crimea, while previously that was widely considered a ‘done deal’, after the population on that semi-autonomous peninsula confirmed its choice of 1991, through the polling stations, that is was definitely done with ‘Kiev’, after a NATO-led coup in the country in 2014. One ’Think-Tank’-American, born in Moscow, named Dmitri Alperovitch, also quoted, says something similar. So don’t think disaster won’t strike because our ‘experts’ will know when to withdraw.
Here I confirm that I do understand why ‘red lines’ in NATO-countries are no ‘Red Lines’. Lying and cheating are not only allowed, but encouraged since ‘scientific’ studies reached the conclusion that the people cannot be trusted to opt for the best choice for themselves, as stated in a publication by Carlo Cipolla, ‘The Basic Laws of Human Stupidity’. When that registered, rendering the entire ‘science’ of economy as it had been taught useless, ‘scientists’ shifted gear to promote the noble art of ‘nudging’. No use trying to convince people, and no need for factual information. You need an ‘Authority’ who is smart and willing, even eager to lie and cheat, for our own good. In such a set-up, ‘red lines’ are merely empty threats to ‘nudge’ people away from an option the ‘Authority’ doesn’t want them to consider.
The trouble is, that Russian ‘Red Lines’ are not meant to ‘nudge’ anyone. They are simply ‘Red Lines’. Compare to our western ideas about border-security these days. Or drug-abuse. Or the rule of law in general. No such luxury in Russia. ‘Njet’ is ‘Njet’. And since Russia made it abundantly clear that Crimea is part of Russia since the population of that peninsula asked to join the Russian Federal Republic after the 2014 coup, any attempt to conquer Crimea will trigger a nuclear war. Not ‘may’, but it will. Moreover, if that would come to pass, Russia will not ‘nuke’ Ukraine, but Rotterdam, Hamburg, Brussels, cities in the US and UK, and every ‘node’ in the NATO network. That is what they are saying, and I trust them to live up to their promises. Especially since they are telling the world that this is the true and important difference between ‘western’ countries and the ‘Law Based’ world Russia and China are promoting.
The other obvious problem with Ben Hodge’s back-up strategy is that NATO is likely running out of stuff to send to Ukraine way before it comes close to being a threat to Crimea. He, and most people within NATO, are slowly coming to terms with that notion, but they are on the verge of trying ‘Long Range Missiles’ to bomb Crimea, in order to dislodge ‘Putin’, and destabilize Russia to a similar level as our own chaotic part of the world, leaving the county wide open to ‘Vulture Capitalism’. What is ill understood, is that Putin, the man, most certainly is important, and fairly unique as a political leader, irrespective of your own preferences with regard to the policies issued by his government, but that the Russians as a people understand the differences between ‘Vulture Capitalism’ and ‘Industrial Capitalism’, and under no circumstances will they accept a return to the ‘Vulture Capitalism’ years of the nineties, save for those who were making a fortune in those years, and some of those who were not born yet, supported by those who sold their soul to the Devil.
If you ask me how Russia will respond if NATO starts to bomb Russia itself, and yes, this includes Crimea, no longer in the form of ‘pinprick’ operations, but using so called ‘ATACMS’, I don’t know. All I know, is that after the car-bomb which partly, and temporarily damaged the Kerch-bridge, Russia ‘upgraded’ to taking out the Ukrainian electrical grid and various other strategic utilities, previously not targeted. And that Russia is past accepting that they are merely fighting Ukraine. There is a serious risk that ‘Moscow’ will decide it cannot afford to wait for the first NATO-delivered missiles hitting the Kerch bridge and other objects on the peninsula, increasing their effort to destroy anything NATO is sending into Ukraine the moment it crosses the border with Poland or Romania, as well as shooting aircraft delivering those weapons in a direct supply from the sky the moment they enter Ukrainian airspace, while stopping ships with destinations in Ukraine to search them before allowing them to pass. All the while ready to push ‘The Button’ the moment they see anything suspicious coming their way.
I have no trouble understanding why someone like Frederick Benjamin "Ben" Hodges III would ‘bet the farm’ that Russia will succumb under pressure. His entire reputation has been shredded by those ‘damned Russians’. As commander of the US military in Europe, during the ‘exiting’ years when Victoria Nuland toppled the elected government in Ukraine, and replaced it with her own hand-picked team, he took command of the American forces in Europe on November 4th 2014, only to get his ass handed to him in February 2015, as the ‘Rebels’ beat the NATO-supported Ukrainian army at the ‘Battle of Debaltseve’, which led directly to the ‘Minsk Accord’, in order to prevent an even worse outcome for NATO. Next he spent three years preparing for this rematch, carefully helping to design this strategy employed in February of last year, with an even worse result. He now is in a ‘Death or Glory’ situation where he no longer cares what happens to the world. But what about this mesmerized ‘journalist’, Rob Schoof, with ‘acces’ to the Dutch secret service ‘AIVD’, as attested by previous articles? Is he thinking any of this through? Or is he merely a ‘secret service hack’, a human ‘ChatBot’ producing ‘content’ to ‘nudge’ the people in the direction of a nuclear holocaust because that is his job? I don’t know. And it is no use asking him. All I can do, is asking you to keep your eyes peeled, and ears wide open, and to question everything. Dig deeper. Or find someone you can trust who does. Even then, don’t become a ‘cheerleader’. Watch your six!