Lloyd Austin emerged from the train in Kiev, wearing sunglasses, jumping unceremoniously onto the platform to impress two ladies who were sent to escort him to his meeting with Zelensky. Though he was bringing more assurances of military aid, most of those structured as ‘loans’ these days, everybody in Kiev has to be aware of the fact that enthusiasm for the war is waning in the US and Europe. Right after two hurricanes hit the US, triggering a limited amount of relief money, dwarfed by the huge sums that went into this war in Europe, the American public is waking up to the fact that they, the tax-payers, are being neglected.
My ‘Timeline’ on ‘X’ is offering me the impression that everybody and his dog will vote for Kamala, but that is likely due to selections made by the algorithm. Because other sources insist that Trump is ahead, notwithstanding widespread criticism of the entire electoral process, and suggestions of fraud, again. Reportedly Michigan has no less than 500.000 registered voters in excess of the number of registered inhabitants. And California made it unlawful for a polling station to ask for identification, so as to establish whether or not the person presenting him- or herself to vote actually was who he or she claimed to be. Only in the US, folks! Only in the US!
Although Moldova, with a population split on the question of whether the country should join the EU, or ‘BRICS’, needed selected expats, not living in Moldova, to drag the vote to show a very narrow majority in favor of joining the EU. I say ‘selected’, because an estimated 500.000 Moldovans living in Russia received 5.000 ballots.
It is bad enough if you lose the elections fair and square, but what are these people thinking who engage in fraudulent practices? I do understand the argument that democracy is vulnerable, and has to be protected, because we don’t want another Hitler to use and abuse the system. But how is abusing the system going to protect a nation against abuse? ‘This is for your own good!’ The beatings will continu until morale improves. I feel strongly that there are better ways, like adhering to the Constitution, and limiting the power of the government, especially when there are calls to go to war.
Once you are in a war, you can’t afford to let the people decide on the strategy, because the public doesn’t know anything about the proper conduct of war, assuming you want to win. Which these days is not a given. In fact, wars to prop up the defense industry, and to have an excuse to claim money from the government, which a politician can use to buy votes for him- or herself, in the US and in the EU, seems to be the rage these days. The Baltic countries in the EU are all in favor of war with Russia, especially if it is limited to the territory of Ukraine. Someone wrote that their military could share a bus to take the soldiers from those countries to the front. While yet another ‘Institute’ found that tiny Lithuania would defeat a far larger Russian army in their ‘War Games’, because of a ‘surprise move’. To know how that may work out in the *real* world, ask Zelensky how he is doing, implementing the ‘Rand Corporation’ strategy to overextend and unbalance Russia from ‘Advantageous Ground’.
The ‘Man in Green’ has been dragged from one parliament to another to be applauded, with or without former Waffen-SS-soldiers sharing in the admiration of the elected representatives, but these days he has difficulty to get through to the ‘Quad’ deciding on his fate and that of his country. Biden, Macron, Starmer and Scholz met in Berlin, but Zelensky had to wait for the messenger boy with the sunglasses to arrive by train to hear what had been decided. Non of those in the ‘Quad’ have a military background. The messenger boy did, reaching the rank of four-star general, before retiring to this bed of roses provided by Raytheon, Nucor, Tenet Healthcare and the Auburn University. In which way did Austin accept responsibility for the execution of this plan from the ‘Rand Corporation’ to throw Ukraine under the bus in order to regime change Russia? Public statements he made in the beginning reveal that he trusted the plan. He honestly thought that the 'Sanctions from Hell', and using ‘Stay Behind Forces’ were going to be sufficient to bring Russia to its knees.
There cannot be any doubt about the political responsibility of Zelensky for decisions made in this war, and from what I heard he did not stay in the background when it came to strategic, and even tactical decisions. But what does a clown, a comedian, know about the conduct of war? It is my assumption that his decisions and instructions to Zalushny and Syrsky were not his, but decisions and instructions he received from selected generals serving in NATO, especially in the US, active and/or retired, but paid to babysit the ‘Man in Green’. I was watching a ‘YouTube’ emission the other day presenting the viewers the analysis of general Petraeus. Absolutely nothing of what the man said rang a bell. To begin with he insisted that Putin intended to conquer all of Ukraine in a ‘Blitzkrieg’ type of war, while you need to be truly stupid if you still do not understand what this ‘SMO’ was designed to do. Putin wanted to pressure Zelensky into coming around to accepting this ‘Minsk Accord’. If Zelensky would have called him within 24 hours after the Russian forces crossed into Ukraine, promising to return to the ‘Minsk’ format and make it work, the Russians would have withdrawn, very much like they did after the ‘Istanbul Accord’ was eventually reached in April. Petraeus insists that the Russians did not retreat as planned, but were driven out by the heroic Ukrainian military. He moreover completely ignores the ‘War of Attrition’ which followed after Zelensky shredded the ‘Istanbul Accord’ to continue the fight after the ‘False Flag’ (See my footnote) Bucha massacre, and Russia switched to ‘Plan B’. And he defends the Kursk-incursion as ‘brilliant’, while most military analysts I trust list it as a very costly blunder.
Which NATO-generals served as Zelensky’s ‘Minders’ I don’t know, but Petraeus sounds like he was the puppeteer running the show, even more than the other ‘suspects’ highly visible as cheerleaders, with a UK admiral running the ‘Black Sea’ campaign. But all I’m trying to say is that it is mind boggling that a general like Zalushny, or Syrsky, would take their orders from an actor turned president. For something like that to develop in the middle of a war, the leading commanders needed some kind of incentive to bend over and take it as it came. A combination of Zelensky referencing to actual military commanders with a reputation of being ‘well connected’ and influential in ‘Washington’, and Zelensky’s own conviction that if Ukraine disobeyed, it would be screwed. I can hear Zalushny objecting to launching that ‘Spring/Summer Offensive’ widely announced by NATO-affiliated pundits as a guaranteed success, with taking Crimea for sure, and Zelensky insisting because his ‘Minders’ had told him there was nothing to worry about, while Ukraine couldn’t expect NATO to be as generous if it didn’t deliver.
But now what? Zelensky allowed himself to trust his NATO ‘Minders’, who sank Ukraine, but he isn’t stupid-beyond-repair, or so it seems to me. I’m aware of all the rumors about his use of cocaine, and there may be some truth in that, as well as to his desire to own houses and stuff his foreign bankaccounts, but as I noted previously, his decision to stay in Kiev while the Russians were banging on the door, as well as his willingness to negotiate, are telling me that he was not informed about the NATO plan of allowing the Russians to take Ukraine, and ‘Bleed it White’, as Austin said, using ’Stay Behind Military’ and ‘Sanctions from Hell’. He is an angry man. First of all angry with the Russians, but increasingly also with NATO and his ‘Minders’, who proved to be utterly worthless. A very costly mistake. So what is Zelensky going to tell the messenger boy? Is Zelensky going to flip, and launch himself onto his sword to martyr himself and his country? Or is he going to save it by striking a deal with the Russians, never to look back?
Footnote:
The Russians claim that ‘Bucha’ was a ‘False Flag’ to force Zelensky into rejecting the ‘Istanbul Accord’. That sure does sound plausible. An actual killing spree as Russian soldiers went overboard should not be discounted, as cruelty in war is common, despite strict orders to refrain from such horrors. It happened in Vietnam, it happened in Afghanistan, it is happening in Gaza, and it happened in this war. A third possibility could be ‘Prigozhin’-type nationalists who didn’t like the prospect of a federalized independent Ukraine as an outcome, trying to force Putin’s hand.