Monthly Archives: March 2022

Western Hegemony's Collapse

Breaking! How Russia Wins, the West in Disarray

Leave a comment

The change will affect energy exports to “unfriendly countries”.

Russia will now accept payment for gas exports to “unfriendly countries” in rubles only, President Vladimir Putin said at a meeting with the government on Wednesday.

The president explained that Russia plans to abandon all “compromised” currencies in payment settlements. He added that illegitimate decisions by a number of Western countries to freeze Russia’s assets destroyed all confidence in their currencies.

“I have decided to implement in the shortest possible time a set of measures to change the payments for – yes, let’s start with this – for our natural gas supplied to the so-called unfriendly countries in Russian rubles, that is to stop using all compromised currencies for transactions,” the Russian president said.

“It doesn’t make sense to deliver our goods to the EU and the US and get paid in dollars and euros,” he added.

Putin gave the Central Bank and the government a week to determine the procedure for operations for buying rubles on the domestic market for importers of Russian gas.

The president added that Russia will continue to supply gas in accordance with the volumes and pricing principles of the contracts. Only the currency of payment will change.

The announcement caused a spike in the cost of contracts for gas supply at the TTF European hub, Forbes Russia quoted data from the Intercontinental Exchange as indicating. During Wednesday’s trading, the gas price rose from €97 per megawatt hour (MWh) to approximately €108.5 per 1MWh, but after the president’s speech, it jumped by another €10 to €118.75 per 1MWh, before retreating to €114 per 1MWh as of 1pm GMT.

In the past month, Russia has been hit with several rounds of unprecedented international sanctions over its military operation in Ukraine. The US, EU, and their allies have cut off the country from their financial systems, limited dollar and euro transactions, and froze roughly $300 billion in Russian forex reserves abroad, among other measures. At the same time, they have continued to buy Russian oil and gas.

Anglozionism

The Bolshevik Revolution and the Ukraine Crisis: What Can They Possibly Have in Common?

Leave a comment

by

Dr. Karin Kneissl is Austria’s former minister of foreign affairs. In June 2020, Dr. Kneissl published her book titled ‘Diplomacy Makes History – The Art of Dialogue in Uncertain Times’ (Olms Verlag, Hildesheim). The central point of the book is “Diplomacy means commitment to dialogue – no matter the circumstances.”

Almost 40 years ago, I learnt in history class that the German general staff had organised a secret operation during World War I to bring Russian communist Vladimir Lenin from his exile in Geneva to Petrograd (now known as St. Petersburg) in a sealed train in April 1917. This chapter of the war fascinated me. Since then, I have been under the impression that it was a spontaneous operation to pacify the so-called Eastern Front. The real consequences, of course, were the October Revolution and the collapse of Russia.

The warlike chessboard of Helphand, aka Parvus

It wasn’t until I read a book written in 2000 by Austrian historian Elisabeth Heresch titled ‘Geheimakte Parvus – Die Gekaufte Revolution’ (‘Secret Files: Parvus – The Bought Revolution’), that I realized preparations for a power change in Russia had been long in the making. It was almost a fixed agenda of the foreign ministries in Vienna and Berlin. In their traditional rivalry with the Russian tsars, the Habsburgs were primarily concerned with their power in the Balkans.

The key lobbyist for this foreign interference in Russia was a Minsk-born man, Israel Lazarevich Helphand, who later went by the name of Alexander Parvus. As a publicist and, above all, as a financier of various revolutionary circles in Europe and in the Ottoman Empire, he pulled many strings from the 1890s onwards. On his chessboard, he moved figures such as Lenin and Trotsky but also the revolutionary Young Turks.

Using thoroughly researched documents, Heresch describes the intrigues of European diplomacy at the beginning of the 20th century, which aimed to stop Russia through anarchy and bring down the country and its people. So, it was not an ad hoc decision to ship the sidelined extreme Bolshevik Lenin to Russia, where the pragmatic Mensheviks had gained the upper hand. Rather, it was the last stone to be added to a pile of stones that had been building up for a long time. It would first affect Europe and later bury Russia.

Germany’s General Erich Ludendorff wrote in 1917: “Lenin’s entry into Russia was successful. It is working just as we wanted.” Parvus was always involved in this operation. Not only did he pull the strings and place his pieces on the political chessboard, he also made millions doing it. However, his plan to become a minister in Lenin’s revolutionary cabinet did not work out as intended.

Interference then and now

“Only internal unrest will shake the Russian colossus,” wrote the Viennese diplomat Alexander Hoyos in September 1914. A few weeks earlier, the old Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria had sent Serbia a declaration of war. The text was based on false reports and the world staggered into the Great War. All attempts by Russian Emperor Nicholas II, in particular with telegrams to the German Emperor Wilhelm II, his cousin, to persuade him to find a diplomatic solution failed. Nicholas suggested in vain that the facts surrounding the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria in June 1914 should be clarified by means of a precise legal investigation. Incidentally, the two cousins, Niki and Willi, often corresponded in English.

Austrian diplomacy also proved to be particularly active in its commitment to promoting revolutionary movements in Russia, as well as the formation of a Ukrainian state. In her book, Heresch cites reports such as the following: “Simultaneously, with the beginning of Austria-Hungary’s war with Russia, the Austrian government took measures to spark revolutionary unrest in Russia. To this end, Austrian politicians offered some political émigrés staying in Austria the opportunity to leave for Russia – after providing them with false passports – and carry out revolutionary propaganda there. They were also offered sums of money.”

At the same time, an effort by Vienna and Lausanne was underway to promote the separation of Ukraine via publications such as the German-language daily Der Bund. It was supposedly about “freeing the Ukrainian people from the Russian yoke once and for all”.

Heresch goes on to say that these “proclamations were received extremely negatively by Russian socialists, largely thanks to the fact that the venality of their authors was so clearly expressed”.

Some parallels may come to mind in view of the current situation regarding Ukraine, in which it is almost impossible to distinguish between right and wrong. The media machine started up in October with a Washington Post report on Russian troop movements on Russian soil, which apparently agitated Ukraine less than it did NATO.

Military Affairs

The US is Now Doing to China What It’s Done in the Build-up to Every War

Leave a comment

by Tom Fowdy

Tom Fowdy is a British writer and analyst of politics and international relations with a primary focus on East Asia.

The US is now doing to China what it's done in the build-up to every war
Protesters hold placards as they take part in a rally against the extradition bill ahead of 2019 G20 Osaka summit at Edinburgh Place in Central district on June 26, 2019 in Hong Kong, China. © Anthony Kwan / Getty Images

A recent article published by Joshua Kurlantzick in the Council of Foreign Relations dissects what he describes as the declining public image of China. At first glance, he isn’t wrong. Over the past two years, positive opinion of China has indeed collapsed in Western and US-aligned countries. But the reasons he states for why that has happened are as disingenuous as they are outright false. The piece goes off on a tirade listing all the ways he thinks China is bad. From Covid-19, to so-called “wolf warrior diplomacy,” to the Belt & Road Initiative (BRI) “being a debt-trap,” to “aggressive and coercive behavior,” to Chinese vaccines apparently being “ineffective” and so on.

What is curious about these reasons is that they do not seem to resemble actual facts as much as anti-China cliches which are commonplace in American discourse, irrespective of whether they’re true or not. For example, he claims that “BRI is stalling” – but there is no evidence of this happening, with much to the contrary.

The author obliviously fails to mention what is in fact truly going on here concerning opinions of China in the West: The United States is and has been, in conjunction with its closest partners, waging a propaganda war against Beijing in order to legitimize its goals of containing China.

If you believe this conventional narrative, China is to be disliked now because all of a sudden it one day started doing bad things, such as those mentioned above, and became an “aggressive” country, alienating everyone with its “wolf warrior diplomacy.” It is as if this randomly happened for no reason, and other countries are perfectly vindicated in their response to it.

At least that’s how the average Westerner has been conditioned to understand it. They would not believe that China is effectively the same state it has been since 1949, with the same ruling party, with highly consistent territorial claims and goals, even if it has different policies to achieve those, but only that it suddenly started “changing for the worse” under Xi Jinping who set it on a course for “world domination.”

What Westerners might never be inclined to think is that they have been manipulated into these beliefs by a deliberate US campaign to change public opinion against China, to demonize, discredit and isolate the country, to derail its international engagement and justify Washington’s new priorities against it.

However, that, of course, is exactly what has happened. America’s foreign policy engine relies on a playbook which is known as “manufacturing consent” – the weaponization of the resources of the state to coordinate experts, think tanks and journalists to focus attention on issues which subsequently sway public opinion to create organic support for Washington’s policy preferences.

It is a strategy designed to create a “self-fulfilling prophecy” by masking aggression under the guise of inciting a “moral case” against the target in question. This is often done using the mantra of human rights, exploiting and manipulating people’s goodwill through the theatrical orchestration of crisis, and subsequently masking the intended foreign policy objectives as a justified act of benevolence and“concern.” It’s what the US has done in the build-up to every war, and it’s what they are doing now regarding China.

It was in 2018 that America, under the Trump administration, launched its public opinion war against China. After having “dealt” with the North Korea issue, the White House turned its focus on Beijing and unleashed a swathe of initiatives against it. It was that year that the national security strategy labeled China a “geopolitical competitor” and launched wars against Chinese trade and technology. In conjunction, the march to manufacture public consent against China began. It was no matter of coincidence that allegations and coverage regarding Xinjiang suddenly began to emerge. There is evidence showing how the wheels were placed in motion here.

The Victims of Communism group, a vitriolic right-wing think tank in Washington, reported that its donations suddenly surged from $2 million to $12 million in 2018. What was going on? Where did the sudden influx of donations come from? And more importantly: Why? The answer was Washington’s new focus on China. This organization suddenly went from something obscure into an important voice advocating anti-China content on Xinjiang through the scholar Adrian Zenz. Other hawkish think tanks, such as the Australian Strategic Policy Institute in Canberra, which receives US State Department funding, also rose to prominence, publishing allegations of“forced labor.” Again, Xinjiang was the focus, and Western mainstream media followed in tandem. The campaign to demonize Beijing was underway.

The Trump administration then used the Covid-19 pandemic to build on this new consensus, scapegoating China for an alleged cover-up. Utilizing this “atrocity propaganda” and jibes about the “China virus” was designed to whip up paranoia and fear against all things China-related. Every Chinese company, organization, or individual were vehicles for espionage, such as Huawei and the Confucius Institutes. Governments who sought to engage with Beijing favorably were denounced, lobbied, and strong-armed into changing their minds.

This is the art of “manufacturing consent” – the US uses its extensive networks to big up dissidents, coordinate mainstream media, set the agenda, poison civil society by weaponizing human rights activists against the target country by giving them preferential coverage and resources (whilst ignoring atrocities elsewhere), and create a self-sustaining narrative that conforms to its own foreign policy goals.

The US conducted an active and successful sledgehammer operation on Western opinion of China. When Beijing has the temerity to hit back at this propaganda war against it, then, insidiously, as you can see with articles like the Council of Foreign Relations, its own analysts blame Beijing for the geopolitical context they created.

The discourse of “wolf warrior diplomacy” in this light is dishonest, misleading, and unhelpful because it frames China as the perpetrator when it is simply reacting to hostility weaponized against it. Beijing is scorned for being forced to make political responses to hostile moves by the US. For example, by the kidnapping of Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou in Canada in 2018 and forcing China to respond in turn, Beijing is then framed as the aggressor and “commits hostage diplomacy.” Likewise, China’s positions on Taiwan, the South China Sea, Hong Kong, and so on, are not new at all, but America has gaslighted these issues by moving the goalposts on them and seeking to force Beijing’s hand.

In a nutshell, there is scant analysis in the West as to how America’s active and deliberative stoking of geopolitical conflict creates such hostility, or any holding Washington to account for its global propaganda.

However, its cold war against China is very much real. It can only truly be understood in the framework of the rivalry between the two powers and appreciating US foreign policy in the dynamics of its continuing desire for sole power, and not the facade of a righteous and heroic nation having “concerns” about certain issues. Such articles as Kurlantzickin’s ultimately insult the public’s intelligence, who are fed an endless array of lies teaching them to hate and fear China. It’s time to wake up to the truth.

Energy Wars

Energy War Not in West’s Favor

Leave a comment

I think that we will see a much greater integration of Iran with Russia, recent actions point to this – Iran increasing imports from Russia, and this movement on the North-South transport corridor. There is also the coordination and agreement about the resources under the Caspian Sea. If the JCPOA is reinstated and Iran sanctions lifted, Iran can also build the pipeline through Pakistan and also the northern route to China (Iran, through Afghanistan or the other Stans to China).

I find it ridiculous that the West thinks that they can make up for the potential loss of Russian gas supplies to Europe by going nice on some of the nations that they have previously bullied mercilessly. They seem to forget that the Chinese demand for natural gas will probably double in the next decade, sucking up any available new sources. India and Pakistan can also very significantly increase natural gas usage in the next decade.

This story gives some good background information, wrt to natural gas:

  • Germany imports 142 billion cubic metres (bcm) of natural gas each year, all by pipeline; 55% from Russia, 30% Norway, 13% from Holland (see Groningen field closure below – this source will soon disappear)
  • Germany has no LNG terminals, and its domestic gas production of about 6 bcm is near depletion
  • Germany plans to close its remaining nuclear and coal based electricity production, increasing the demand for natural gas (the whole reason NS2 was built!)

  • Europe imports a total of about 168 bcm per year from Russia, about 45% of gas imports – the balance mostly from Norway.

  • The Groningen field in Holland is already down to about 10 bcm / year and will be closed within the next few years due to land subsidence issues. German domestic natural gas production of 6 bcm/yr close to depletion.
  • The move to renewables, and to reduce CO2 emissions, will increase the demand for natural gas across Europe

  • Norway is pretty much maxed out, its actually pumping more than normal to help Europe out but must reduce that for required maintenance etc. It supplies about the same amount of gas to Europe as Russia.

  • Qatar currently exports about 106bcm of LNG per year, which will double by 2025. Most of this gas is used in Asia, a market which has a rapidly growing level of demand.

  • Iran has the second largest natural gas reserves in the world, but it also has a population of 90 million and an industrial sector that use pretty much all of that natural gas. It only exported about 17 bcm of natural gas in 2020. Also, why would Iran want to help out the Europeans who didn’t help it when the US walked away from the JCPOA. Iran also has a huge energy for investment trade deal with China.

Basically Europe is planning to cut itself off from Russian gas supplies at exactly the time when (i) its own gas production is finishing (ii) Norway is maxed out (iii) its own policies will significantly increase the demand for gas (iv) demand from Asia is set to expand substantially.

LNG tanker supplies are fundamentally more limited than pipeline supplies, and more expensive due to the cost of gassification/degassification and transport. The US may be able to supply more gas to Europe, but this will lead to increased domestic gas prices as domestic consumers compete with exports. Another hit to US consumers who are already paying the costs of increased oil prices and the sanctions on China.

On the Road to Serfdom ?

New Evidence; US Hijacks, Monitors Users’ Full Internet Activity

Leave a comment

by Zhao Siwei via Global Times

Cybersecurity. Photo: VCG

Cybersecurity. Photo: VCG

Chinese cybersecurity experts for the first time disclosed a typical weapon used by US National Security Agency (NSA) to target China. The weapon can monitor and hijack users’ social media accounts, emails and communication information, the Global Times learned from a leading cybersecurity company exclusively on Tuesday.

This is the second time in less than a month that internet security company 360 has revealed evidence of the NSA’s ongoing large-scale cyber operations around the world, particularly targeting China.

In early March, 360 provided a series of evidence to prove that the NSA targeted the communications industry and other key areas, and hundreds of millions of citizens around the world had no safe place to hide their private and sensitive information, just like “running naked.” China, as one of NSA’s top targets, suffered millions of attacks.

According to a report published by 360 on Tuesday, Quantum attack is a cyber hijacking tool that the NSA especially designed for attacking users on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Amazon and other websites. Users of Chinese social media applications such as QQ, developed by Tencent, have also been a key target.

Cybersecurity experts from the company told the Global Times on Tuesday that the data stolen by the NSA around the world includes network profiles, account numbers and passwords, office and private documents, databases, online friends’ information, communications information, emails, real-time data from cameras and microphones.

“The attacks are undifferentiated. In addition to China, many countries that cooperate with the US are also the targets of NSA’s cyberattacks,” the anonymous expert said.

Fully automatic, AI

According to the report, the Quantum attack system is the most powerful cyberattack tool of the NSA, and also one of its most important capability systems for cyber intelligence warfare. The Quantum attack system was founded in 2004 and contains several sub-projects, whose names all begin with “Quantum.” 360 Cloud Security Brain lab has discovered that it contains nine advanced cyberattack capability modules, including Quantumbot, Quantumhand, Quantumcopper and Quantummackdown.

The quantum attack system could hijack national network communications to carry out a series of complex network attacks such as vulnerability exploitation, communication manipulation and intelligence theft.

“A Quantum attack can hijack the normal web traffic of any internet user anywhere in the world and remotely implant a backdoor program,” the cybersecurity expert said.

According to the report, the Quantum attack was usually implemented in three stages. In the first stage, the Quantum attacker would first locate the target. According to NSA’s confidential documents, such attacks could position global websites and accounts such as emails, social media platforms, search engines, video sites, quickly finding out the targets’ addresses.

In the second stage, the attacker would fully monitor the targets’ accounts and their activities. The NSA’s confidential documents show the details of how Quantum attack system monitors users’ information on Yahoo, Facebook and Hotmail. This proves that the NSA is monitoring internet users around the world.

In the third stage, the NSA began to implement vulnerability exploitation attacks, implanted its backdoor programs into victims’ accounts and stole a large number of personal data. The vast amount of data collected throughout the attack was obtained without users’ knowledge, the report shows.

Undifferentiated attack

The undifferentiated attacks conducted by the NSA across the globe could not have been achieved without the support of a huge and complex network of cyber weapons platform. As the technical personnel mentioned above said, cyberattacks launched by the US are undifferentiated, targeting the entire globe including its allies.

The undifferentiated cyberattack from the US also refers to the fact that all internet users of e-mails, social networks, search engines, and video websites are targeted. No country can stand alone under the sickle of US’ cyberattacks, which is global and immoderate, the expert said.

Chinese cybersecurity analysts also noted US’ cyber-warfare strategy may not be limited to cyber-theft and the next goal of the US will be even more ambitious.

They warned that the US may install hardware or backdoor programs in victims’ computers, achieve remote control on targets including military systems, servers in the field of national public security, civil aviation transportation systems and bank financial systems, which will make its rivals have no room for negotiation.

To be the dominant power of cyber warfare, the US, with an already advanced internet technology, has incorporated a large number of top technological means such as Quantum attack systems, high-end talents, and intelligence forces into the warfare dispositions. It highlights how the US attaches great importance to developing its power in cyber warfare, regardless of cost and pouring in resources and leverage, they said.

Military Affairs

US Pardoned Japan’s War Criminals in Exchange for Unit 731 Bio Weapons

3 Comments
By Global Times staff reporter
The US is a country with a long history of using and developing chemical and biological weapons in other countries, and such moves, that contravene human rights bills and international laws that could be traced back to 1940s after World War II, have been largely ignored by most mainstream Western media outlets, and analysts have predicted that the US’ dirty record in this field could spike global concerns over its recent operating of biological laboratories worldwide.
According to information gathered and gleaned from interviews done by the Global Times reporters, the US government has cooperated and colluded with Japanese war criminals to obtain data and technologies for the making of biological and chemical weapons for which Japan conducted inhumane live human experiments on innocent Chinese people during Japan’s invasion of China. 

Most of the data and files collected by said Japanese war criminals were acquired by scientists in Fort Detrick, the center of the US’ biological weapons program, and after the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) was established in 1947, the agency participated in the relevant research pertaining to the development of biowarfare weapons.

Ruins of Japan's notorious Unit 731 facilities in Harbin, Northeast China's Heilongjiang Province Photo: VCG

Ruins of Japan’s notorious Unit 731 facilities in Harbin, Northeast China’s Heilongjiang Province Photo: VCG

Nasty cooperation

Unit 731, infamous for conducting Japanese biological warfare experiments, was located near Harbin, Northeast China’s Heilongjiang Province, which was occupied by Japanese invaders. The monstrous unit was created by Japanese war criminal, microbiologist Shiro Ishii in 1936, and eventually was comprised of 150 buildings and had the capacity to hold 600 people at a time to be experimented on, according to the book titled Factories of Death: Japanese Biological Warfare, 1932-1945, and the American Cover-up.

Unit 731’s experiments involved deliberately infecting people, primarily Chinese prisoners of war and civilians, with infectious agents, and exposing prisoners to bombs designed to penetrate the skin with infectious particles.

In 1945-46, representatives of the US government made similar discoveries in both Germany and Japan, unearthing evidence of unethical experiments conducted on human beings. 

However, the US played an equally key role in concealing information about biological warfare experiments by Japan and secured immunity from prosecution for the perpetrators. Along with the data from Unit 731 and experiments inside Fort Detrick, Howard Brody, director at the Institute for the Medical Humanities, University of Texas Medical Branch, shared in an article released in 2014 details of the shady deal, titled United States Responses to Japanese Wartime Inhuman Experimentation after World War II: National Security and Wartime Exigency.

Masks used by Japan's notorious Unit 731 are exhibited in a museum in Harbin, Northeast China's Heilongjiang Province. Photo: VCG

Masks used by Japan’s notorious Unit 731 are exhibited in a museum in Harbin, Northeast China’s Heilongjiang Province. Photo: VCG

Fort Detrick, which is an enormous complex, has, for decades, been the center of American military research related to biology with only a select few being privy to details of operations, Stephen Kinzer, senior fellow at the Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs at Brown University, was cited by the Xinhua News Agency in a report in July 2021. 

Kinzer is the author of bestseller Poisoner in Chief, which revealed the little-known life story of Sidney Gottlieb, master CIA chemist and head of secret mind control experiments at Fort Detrick and elsewhere in the world.

He said in order to find out “the limits of human endurance – how can you kill people, at what moment do they die, how can you seize control of their bodies and their minds,” Gottlieb and the CIA hired “Nazi doctors who worked on the concentration camps, and their Japanese comrades,” for example, war criminal Shiro Ishii, who headed the notorious Japanese military biological warfare program called Unit 731 during World War II.

Keep it in the dark

The CIA and the US Army Chemical Corps worked closely together. When the US finalized its secret agreement of cooperation with Shiro Ishii and Unit 731 after World War II, it was decided that the cooperation would be kept strictly within “intelligence channels,” Jeffrey Kaye, a former clinical psychologist in San Francisco, told the Global Times. 

Kaye wrote a book published in 2017 on the torture of detainees in the Guantanamo Bay detention camp, and later started his research into US biological warfare during the Korean War (1950-53), most  documents of which were systematically redacted and destroyed during the McCarthy era.

Kaye said that such cooperation was kept top secret and purely on a need-to-know basis. From 1949, the CIA had a unit inside Fort Detrick – which was called Camp Detrick back in those days – which researched and developed biological weapons for use in covert operations. 

“Much of this was done in a CIA program known as MKNAOMI. It was this unit, called the Special Operations Division, that developed, for instance, the feather bomb, which was an adapted bomb used to deliver propaganda leaflets, except instead it delivered feathers and similar material coated with pathogens like anthrax. The use of infected feathers for such warfare was pioneered by Unit 731,” Kaye revealed.  

Kaye said that although he does not have a document that specifically states the US got the idea from Unit 731, it is still a reasonable inference to make given the known level of alliance between Japanese units like the Unit 731 and Fort Detrick, that the feather bomb idea came from contact with Unit 731. Moreover, an official from Fort Detrick who was involved with the initial interviews of Unit 731 officers after the war, Colonel Murray Sanders, told two British researchers that Ishii was brought to lecture at Fort Detrick. In addition, the chief of the CIA Special Operations Division at Fort Detrick, John Schwab, submitted an affidavit under oath in a criminal trial in 1959 that the US had the means to conduct biological warfare as far back as 1949, according to Kaye. 

An aerial view of the barracks in Camp Detrick (later Fort Detrick) in Maryland, September 24, 1944 Photo: VCG

An aerial view of the barracks in Camp Detrick (later Fort Detrick) in Maryland, September 24, 1944 Photo: VCG

Biolabs worldwide

Russian President Vladimir Putin gave an extensive speech on the Ukraine crisis on March 16 and he pointed out that the US is conducting military biological programs in Ukraine. 

“There was a network of dozens of laboratories in Ukraine, where military biological programs were conducted under the guidance and with the financial support of the Pentagon, including experiments with coronavirus strains, anthrax, cholera, African swine fever, and other deadly diseases,” Putin said during his speech.

Russia's Ambassador to the UN Vasily Nebenzya shows pictures during the UN Security Council meeting discussing US biological warfare labs in Ukraine, on March 11, 2022. Photo: IC

Russia’s Ambassador to the UN Vasily Nebenzya shows pictures during the UN Security Council meeting discussing US biological warfare labs in Ukraine, on March 11, 2022. Photo: IC

This is the latest example to spark global concern over the US’ biolabs worldwide. According to the information provided by the US to the Conference of Parties of the Biological Weapon Convention (BWC), there are 336 US laboratories around the world. Scientists and analysts from all around the globe have once again expressed their worries and concerns over the US biological programs.

But unfortunately, effectively enforcing the law when it comes to the US under the influence of US hegemony remains an enduring problem for the international community, said experts, noting that the countries most affected by the US biological programs should push the US to accept the protocol for monitoring biological weapons by the BWC.

US' dirty records of using, developing bio, chemical weapons. Graphic: Zhao Jun/GT
US’ dirty records of using, developing bio, chemical weapons. Graphic: Zhao Jun/GT
Western Hegemony's Collapse

The ‘Rules-Based International Order’ Is Unraveling Much Faster Than Expected

Leave a comment

Authored by Pepe Escobar, via Zero Hedge

The “rules-based international order” – as in “our way or the highway” – is unraveling much faster than anyone could have predicted.

The Eurasia Economic Union (EAEU) and China are starting to design a new monetary and financial system bypassing the U.S. dollar, supervised by Sergei Glazyev and intended to compete with the Bretton Woods system.

Saudi Arabia – perpetrator of bombing, famine and genocide in Yemen, weaponized by U.S., UK and EU – is advancing the coming of the petroyuan.

India – third largest importer of oil in the world – is about to sign a mega-contract to buy oil from Russia with a huge discount and using a ruble-rupee mechanism.

Riyadh’s oil exports amount to roughly $170 billion a year. China buys 17% of it, compared to 21% for Japan, 15% for the U.S., 12% for India and roughly 10% for the EU. The U.S. and its vassals – Japan, South Korea, EU – will remain within the petrodollar sphere. India, just like China, may not.

Sanction blowback is on the offense. Even a market/casino capitalism darling such as uber-nerd Credit Suisse strategist Zoltan Pozsar, formerly with the NY Fed, IMF and Treasury Dept., has been forced to admit, in an analytical note:

“If you think that the West can develop sanctions that will maximize the pain for Russia by minimizing the risks of financial stability and price stability for the West, then you can also trust unicorns.”

Unicorns are a trademark of the massive NATOstan psyops apparatus, lavishly illustrated by the staged, completely fake “summit” in Kiev between Comedian Ze and the Prime Ministers of Poland, Slovenia and the Czech Republic, thoroughly debunked by John Helmer and Polish sources.

Pozsar, a realist, hinted in fact at the ritual burial of the financial chapter of the “rules-based international order” in place since the early Cold War years: “After the end of this war [in Ukraine], ‘money’ will ‎never be ‎the same.”Especially when the Hegemon demonstrates its “rules” by encroaching on other people’s money.

And that configures the central tenet of 21st century martial geopolitics as monetary/ideological. The world, especially the Global South, will have to decide whether “money” is represented by the virtual, turbo-charged casino privileged by the Americans or by real, tangible assets such as energy sources. A bipolar financial world – U.S. dollar vs. yuan – is at hand.

There’s no surefire evidence – yet. But the Kremlin may have certainly gamed that by using Russia’s foreign reserves as bait, likely to be frozen by sanctions, the end result could be the smashing of the petrodollar. After all the overwhelming majority of the Global South by now has fully understood that the backed-by-nothing U.S. dollar as “money” – according to Poznar – is absolutely untrustworthy.

If that’s the case, talk about a Putin ippon from hell.

It’s gold robbery time

As I outlined the emergence of the new paradigm, from the new monetary system to be designed by a cooperation between the EAEU and China to the advent of the petroyuan, a serious informed discussion erupted about a crucial part of the puzzle: the fate of the Russian gold reserves.

Doubts swirled around the Russian Central Bank’s arguably suicidal policy of keeping assets in foreign securities or in banks vulnerable to Western sanctions.

Of course there’s always the possibility Moscow calculated that nations holding Russian reserves – such as Germany and France – have assets in Russia that can be easily nationalized. And that the total debt of the state plus Russian companies even exceeds the amount of frozen reserves.

But what about the gold?

As of February 1, three weeks before the start of Operation Z, the Russian Central Bank held $630.2 billion in reserves. Almost half –

$311.2 billion – were placed in foreign securities, and a quarter – $151.9 billion – on deposits with foreign commercial and Central Banks. Not exactly a brilliant strategy. As of June last year, strategic partner China held 13.8% of Russia’s reserves, in gold and foreign currency.

As for the physical gold, $132.2 billion – 21% of total reserves – remains in vaults in Moscow (two-thirds) and St. Petersburg (one-third).

So no Russian gold has been frozen? Well, it’s complicated.

The key problem is that more than 75% of Russian Central Bank reserves are in foreign currency. Half of these are securities, like government bonds: they never leave the nation that issued them. Roughly 25% of the reserves are linked to foreign banks, mostly private, as well as the BIS and the IMF.

Once again it’s essential to remember Sergei Glazyev in his groundbreaking essay Sanctions and Sovereignty:

“It is necessary to complete the de-dollarization of our foreign exchange reserves, replacing the dollar, euro and pound with gold. In the current conditions of the expected explosive growth in the price of gold, its mass export abroad is akin to treason and it is high time for the regulator to stop it.”

This is a powerful indictment of the Russian Central Bank – which was borrowing against gold and exporting it. For all practical purposes, the Central Bank could be accused of perpetrating an inside job. And subsequently they were caught flat-footed by the devastating American sanctions.

As a Moscow analyst puts it, the Central Bank “had delivered some volumes of gold to London in 2020-2021. This decision was motivated by a high price of gold at that time (near $2000 per ounce) and could hardly be initiated by Putin. If so, this decision can be qualified as very stupid, or even part of a diversionist tactic (…) Most of the gold delivered to London was not stored but sold and transferred into foreign currency reserves (in euro or pounds) which were frozen later.”

No wonder a lot of people in Russia are livid. A quick flashback is in order. In June last year, Putin signed a law canceling requirements for the repatriation of foreign exchange earnings from gold exports. Five months later, Russia’s gold miners were exporting like crazy. A month later, the Duma wanted to know why the Central Bank had stopped buying gold. No wonder Russia media erupted with accusations of “an unprecedented [gold] robbery”.

Now it’s way more dramatic: RIA Novosti described the American-dictated freeze as – what else – a “robbery” and duly predicted global economic chaos. As for the Central Bank, it’s back on the gold buying business.

None of the above though explains some “missing” gold that de facto is not under the possession of the Russian Central Bank. And that’s where a somewhat shady character such as Herman Gref comes in.

Let’s check this out with State Duma deputy Mikhail Delyagin, who had a few things to say about the gold-exported-to-London bonanza:

“This process has been going on for the past year. Exported, according to some estimates, 600 tons. [Head of Russian Central Bank] Nabiullina said – whoever wants to sell gold to get cash, or if you mine gold and trade it, keep in mind that the state, in my person, will not buy gold from you at a market price. We will take it at a big discount. If you want to get honest money for it, please export it. The world center of gold trading is London. Accordingly, everyone began to export and sell gold there. Including Mr. [Herman] Gref. The head of the formally state-owned Sberbank sold a huge part of his gold reserves.”

Look here for fascinating details about Sberbank’s Gref shenanigans.

Watch for the gold-backed ruble

It may be a case of too little too late, but at least the Kremlin has now established a committee – with authority over the Central Bank nerds – to handle the serious stuff.

It boggles the mind that the Russian Central Bank does not answer to the Russian constitution as well as to the judicial system, but in fact is subordinated to the IMF. A case can be made that this cartel-designed financial system – implying zero sovereignty – simply cannot be tackled head on by any nation on the planet, and Putin has been trying to undermine it step by step. That includes, of course, keeping Elvira Nabiullina on the job even as she duly follows the Washington consensus to the letter.

And that brings us back to the ultra high stakes possibility that the Kremlin may have wanted from the start to go no holds barred, forcing the Atlanticists to reveal their true hand, and exposing their system in a “The King is Naked” spectacular for a worldwide audience.

And that’s where the EAEU/China new monetary/financial system comes in, under Glazyev supervision. We can certainly envision Russia, China and vast swathes of Eurasia progressively divorcing from casino capitalism; the ruble reconverted to a gold-backed currency; and Russia focused on self-sufficiency, productive domestic investment and trade connectivity with most of the Global South.

Way beyond its confiscated foreign reserves and tons of gold sold in London, what matters is that Russia remains the ultimate natural resource powerhouse. Shortages? A little austerity for a little while will take care of it: nothing as dramatic as the national impoverishment under the neoliberal 1990s. And extra boost would come from exporting natural resources at premium discount prices to other BRICS and most of Eurasia and the Global South.

The collective West has just fabricated a new, tawdry East-West divide. Russia is turning it upside down, to its own profit: after all the multipolar world is rising in the East.

The Empire of Lies won’t back down, because it does not have a Plan B. Plan A is to “cancel” Russia across the – Western – spectrum. So what? Russophobia, racism, 24/7 psyops, propaganda overdrive, cancel culture online mobs, that don’t mean a thing.

Facts matter: the Bear has enough nuclear/hypersonic hardware to shatter NATO in a few minutes before breakfast and teach a lesson to the collective West before pre-dinner cocktails. There will come a time when some exceptionalist with a decent IQ will finally understand the meaning of “indivisibility of security”.

Western Hegemony's Collapse

Putin: “Simply Put, the Brave and the Strong Will Never Die the Death of the Meek and the Cowardly.”

1 Comment

Authored by Tom Luongo via Gold, Goats, ‘n Guns blog,

“Destined to hang or drown”? – Russian proverb.

As we end this third week of World War III it’s becoming clear that the West’s end-game strategy is now regime change in Russia. As the money and weapons pour into Ukraine the Ukrainian Flag further morphs into the 21st century’s version of ‘Old Shoe,’ all around the Twittersphere.

Zelenskyy’s even been invited to the Oscar’s for pity’s sake.

If you were ever in doubt about this, just watch Senator Lindsey Graham (Neocon – SC) triple-down on assassinating a world leader.

Speaking at a press conference, Graham said “I hope he will be taken out, one way or the other,” adding “I don’t care how they take him out. I don’t care if we send him to The Hague and try him. I just want him to go.”
“It’s time for him to go,” Graham further said of Putin, echoing Joe Biden’s blurted remarks that “He’s a war criminal.”
“I wish somebody had taken Hitler out in the ’30s. So yes, Vladimir Putin is not a legitimate leader. He is a war criminal.” Graham declared.
Graham further proclaimed that Russia is “going to have zero future” under Putin, adding “I think the world is better off without Putin – the sooner the better, and I don’t care how we do it.”

This is called Saying the Quiet Parts Out Loud.

Even Paul Craig Roberts is trying to figure out why Putin isn’t treating his enemies more ruthlessly. We awake Americans have a real sense of the depravity that our leaders carry and at times I think we get carried away with our own insights here.

As I said would happen, Russia’s go-slow war has played 100% into their enemies’ hands. Russia needed a quick victory to forestall a devastating psyops campaign against her and to intimidate further NATO expansion. What the Kremlin achieved by believing that the West would respect humanitarian intentions is infamy. Instead of discouraging provocations of Russia that will eventually lead to nuclear war, the Kremlin’s liberal goody-goodly war policy, which the West sees as irresolution, has encouraged more provocations

Dr. Roberts’ thesis is one I’ve heard from multiple people, including from my friend Dexter White on two recent podcasts we did (here and here). Putin’s slow rolling the Ukraine operation has further emboldened Neocon crazies whose whole being is focused on interpreting every action by their enemies as a weakness to exploit.

This analysis further solidifies my conclusion that they are left-brain possessed, betraying all the attributes of someone psychologically unbalanced to the point of madness. They become paranoid psychotics seeing everything in terms of their enemy.

It’s the most popular refrain of desperate globalists, “Putin did it.”

It doesn’t matter if it’s true or not. What matters is keeping people in that suggestible state. It’s easy to do since they, themselves, are there too.

Lindsey Graham likes to play tough guy. So does Biden. Neither of these men have ever been in a real fight with their bodies on the line in their life. They’ve never really been in a life-threatening situation. For them their fear is far worse, it’s reputational which means fear of exposure.

They hide behind cameras, their positions, and their egos.

They live in fear of being shamed.

It’s easy to dismiss Graham as a buffoon, because he is. But he’s also a very important cog in the machine. So, when he speaks it’s important. Don’t be flip about these statements, they absolutely mean something.

If you look around D.C. you see the same psychological projection of inner rot every time one of these war mongers gets in front of a camera to manufacture consent. They are also fearful of the shame of exposure which drives them to madness like Lindsey displays now on a nearly daily basis.

This push for regime change in Russia, however, begs a very important question: “Why have they gone this far? Why do they think they can get regime change when Putin has 70+% support?”

Is it because they really are scared of the emerging facts on the ground, that Russia is grinding out, inevitably and inexorably, a victory in Ukraine on Russian terms that isn’t a reflection of bad military strategy and/or poor intelligence and logistics?

Or is it something deeper.

Something Darker

Alistair Crooke and I talked about this in our latest podcast. Russia’s collective psyche is a reflection of Putin’s. You’ll see that their anger and frustration is now real and complete. The West hates Russia and Russians with a burning passion that is irrational.

The fear of loss of potency has made war-mongers out of way too many folks because they refuse to blame themselves for this mess:

  • That they allowed Biden to take the White House
  • That they believed all the crude propaganda about Trump and Putin
  • That they still wear their masks, now with Ukrainian Flags on them, to show their wisdom over those who are now clearly traitors.
  • That their paychecks are getting smaller by the day.

When you see a push poll by Pew that states more than one-third of Americans are willing to risk nuclear war to stop Putin in Ukraine, you know something has gone way off the rails, and it ain’t the Russians.

It’s not fear that makes the Russian people and Putin angry, it’s disappointment at having their hand of friendship consistently slapped away so thoroughly in the post-Soviet era.

What goodwill that existed in the West towards Russia in the 1990’s, seeing them as victims of a terrible evil to be pitied, has morphed into disgust for following a man into war for threatening their comfortable existence behind their iPhones.

When Putin speaks now he is visibly, viscerally angry. He’s been systematically, for years, cutting Russia off from the influences of the ill-liberalism of the West.

Putin knows he’s been pushed into this by people who are powerful but psychologically small. And the Russian people have been deeply disrespected to the point of war. That’s why his poll numbers rise while Bidens’ barely budge.

That all leads to regime change as the end-game because it may be the only option, which implies continued escalation to the point of something unthinkable.

And it makes perfect sense that’s what they are planning, not just regime change, but a wider war (see the buildup of NATO troops) to grind Russia into a paste and atomize it, Russian culture and the Russian people.

That said, Davos has very little human intelligence on the ground to actually make that happen. All the sanctions and expelling diplomats helped Russia’s and Putin’s security.

The U.S. Embassy in Moscow has less than 50 people in it.

While that is a sad state of affairs and means there is little to no hope of diplomacy, it also means there isn’t any infrastructure to do what Lindsey is so desperately saying… Someone take him out, anyone!

That’s a sign of creating the new narrative while simultaneously betraying helplessness, in my view.

Now, unfortunately that leads me into an ever darker place. They don’t just want regime change and some kind of negotiated settlement for Ukraine. That’s actually way off the table now.

They see the writing on the wall for their financial system which has failed. The only option they see now is making open preparations for WWIII thinking they still have the materiel and the manpower to enforce their Great Reset, which was always leading to war.

Lindsey Graham’s job is to build up the propaganda war to justify NATO’s entrance into Ukraine in the next few weeks.

The program now is WWIII, possibly with nukes and the abject humiliation of Russia and its eventual destruction.

And ours.

I begged off ‘working’ yesterday because of this realization. I was drained to the point of exhaustion and planned on sleeping my depression off. I re-watched part I of Oliver Stone’s The Putin Interviews from 2016.

I recommend everyone watch these films, they are an enlightenment.

If you want to know your enemy, you should study him. Demonizing him may win you friends at the water cooler, but it will cost you your soul. About 20 minutes in, during their first conversation, Stone brings up the multiple assassination attempts on Putin.

If you watch nothing else, watch this segment (click here) to get a better understanding of Russia and Putin. The punchline is simple:

“Do you know what they say among the Russian people? Those who are destined to hang, do not drown.”
– VLADIMIR PUTIN

Putin is well aware, hyper-aware of his situation. A person in his position who has been fighting this way for more than 20 years, a project he has dedicated the 2nd half of his life to, is not so stupid as to be the willing dupe of Davos nor is he blind to the capabilities or the ruthlessness of his enemies.

This is why I hold to the positions about Putin that I do. He may fail here. War is hell and nothing ever goes according to the plan on the white board.

But, if you are going to be led into war who would your bet on? People like Lindsey Graham could never stand in front of a camera and say what Putin said to Stone. Why?

Because there is no there there. He’s just a shadow projector with a hand puppet up its ass.

But if you turn the camera away from Graham and Biden and look at Putin, he’s speaking to the world now. That’s what his latest speech was about.

It wasn’t aimed at his enemies.

He’s done talking to them. They aren’t listening.

That speech was aimed at everyone else including Americans and Europeans, “This is what they think of you. This is what they are willing to do to demand your obedience,” They will steal your money, take your children, burn your life to the ground.

And it isn’t like he doesn’t have a very sound point, folks.

If anyone was calling for regime change now, it’s Putin.

It may have zero effect or play here in the West. In fact, I predict it will have almost zero effect. But it will resonate around the world in those places now very scared of the conflict that Biden and Davos are forcing on everyone.

Under those circumstances clarity comes quickly. Big decisions happen fast.

I think a global memetic collapse is in process as I type this. We can’t see it here in the West because we aren’t allowed to. But in parliaments and politburos around the that part that Davos just sees as ‘the help,’ it’s happening. The headlines are coming in almost too fast for anyone to keep up with.

This is what happens when fearful men become cornered. Davos is cornered. The drowning man will do everything to keep from drowning, including drowning his rescuer.

The hanged man has already accepted his fate. He is free.

What happens next is not in his hands, it’s in ours.

Military Affairs

China Warns of “Unimaginable Consequences” of Forcing a Nuclear Power into a Corner

Leave a comment

via RT

China’s vice foreign minister blames NATO for stoking the instability that led to the Russia-Ukraine conflict

Vice Foreign Minister Le Yucheng said that globalization should not be “weaponized” while military bloc politics must be “rejected,” a day after US President Joe Biden warned his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping of “consequences” if Beijing supported Russia’s military action in Ukraine.

Speaking at the Fourth International Forum on Security and Strategy in Beijing on Saturday, the Chinese official agreed with Moscow’s assessment that NATO’s unchecked expansion in Eastern Europe and the failure to address Russia’s national security concerns paved the way to the current crisis, saying that a simple “commitment of no eastward expansion could have easily ended the crisis and stopped the sufferings.”

“Instead, one chose to fan the flames at a safe distance, watching its own arms dealers, bankers and oil tycoons make a fortune out of the war while leaving people of a small country with the wounds of war that would take years to heal,” he said.

NATO’s pursuit of “absolute security” leads to “absolute non-security,” Le added.

The consequences of forcing a major power, especially a nuclear power, into a corner are even more unimaginable.

Moscow has vehemently opposed NATO’s presence close to its borders, and embarked on a mission to obtain written guarantees that would halt the US-led military bloc’s expansion and bar Ukraine from joining its ranks. However, the West ignored Russia’s concerns.

President Vladimir Putin announced a “special military operation” on February 24, with a stated goal to “demilitarize and denazify” the government in Kiev, ensuring that it no longer poses a threat to either Russia or the newly recognized Donbass republics, which have suffered seven years of grueling siege.

The US and its NATO allies have accused Russia of starting an “unprovoked”war to gobble up Ukraine. Moscow has seen thousands of harsh new curbs and sanctions slapped on it, with the US, EU and many other countries seeking to “isolate” and “destroy” the Russian economy.

“History has proven time and again that sanctions cannot solve problems,” Le said. “The sanctions against Russia are getting more and more outrageous… Sanctions will only harm ordinary people, impact the economic and financial system… and worsen the global economy.”

Beijing has come under increased Western pressure to distance itself and sever its trade ties with Moscow, after China abstained from backing the United Nations General Assembly resolution that condemned Russia’s military action in Ukraine, and chose to stay neutral alongside India, Pakistan, South Africa and 30 other countries.

In a video conference call with President Biden on Friday, China’s leader Xi Jinping stressed that Beijing has always stood “for peace and opposes war,”urging all the parties involved in the ongoing conflict between Moscow and Kiev to stick to diplomacy. Biden in response reportedly warned Xi that Beijing would face “consequences” should it provide material support or help Moscow evade Western sanctions.

Military Affairs

US/NATO vs. Russia?

Leave a comment

From my perspective, Russia is in the right on this. We have a family of 5 Ukrainian refugees staying with us and they are more or less pro-Russian. The horrors of the Nazis in Khakov they recount to me just re-affirm my belief. They are angry at Putin for NOT invading in 2014 when everyone in Ukraine was hoping for it. They felt abandoned and then horribly abused by the Nazi regime which got much worse after Zelensky came into power. Now their home was destroyed by the Ukrainians in downtown Kharkiv and they have left Ukraine forever and are heading to Spain. And yes, they are real bold-faced dyed in the wool Nazis. The US leadership’s support just shows who they are and probably always have been thus. Pelosi giving the Ukrainian Nazi salute in Congress is mind-blowing.

This brings into question another end game problem. I believe Russia will be forced to take the whole country and it will be easy once the majority is removed from battle. The way west will be unimpeded until they reach the area of Lviv and then they will systematically wipe out all Nazis. But the refugees, and it looks like a large majority leaving from west Ukraine are in fact non-Ukrainians including Indians, Africans, Middle East, etc. The ethnic Russians all went East which goes unmentioned. The Hungarians went into Hungary or Slovakia and the Nazis’ are heading into Poland. If they can manage a way to cross the border without being shot by the Ukrainian police for cowardice.

So, if Ukraine becomes split and I think this is the best solution with the Polish area hoping back to Poland, the Hungarian to Hungary, and the Romanian back to Romania which doesn’t leave too much if the country is divided down highway 95. Odessa and Mariupol will go the whatever is formed in the east but it won’t be called Ukraine. Kyiv is a big question and is a serious tar baby. So, what will be left to call Ukraine will be a tiny part west of highway 95 and east of the Polish, Hungarian, and Romanian (not to mention Moldova and Transnistria). They will have no big cities (unless Kyiv goes to them which would be a mistake) so can rule the countryside. Citizenship will be a big issue for everyone who left and from where they left from and what country that area becomes. Of course, the US will maintain the Zelensky regime as a government in exile and will try and block entry into the UN of the countries formed from the remains of Ukraine. It could end with the dissolution of the UN which is basically impotent anyway. The US breaking UN rules by denying visas for UN personnel is a symptom of why the US cannot host the UN any longer. So, maybe it is easier to form something new and leave the western nations out of it.

Russia and China both need to leave the IMF and World bank both conveniently located in Washington and very firmly under US control. They need to stop all trading in dollars everywhere that recognizes that the US crossed a line that cannot ever be redeemed by seizing Central Bank assets. No one will trust the US ever again permanently. Credibility like virginity once lost cannot ever be regained. The US is now definitely agreement incapable and absolutely untrustworthy.

One thing I have noticed is the US has slowly moved 100,000 soldiers into Europe. Most people are unaware that US forces are really quite small and even then have support to combat forces of 20:1. Meaning for everyone 20,000 soldiers there are only 1,000 gunfighters. The US depends on force multipliers like aviation to make it viable. Russia has effective anti-aircraft and aerospace forces near-peer enough to take on the NATO (US) and can easily negate their effect. Precision weapons to take out all runways and supply dumps negates the NATO ability to fight. They still organize as in WWII so easily defeated. Another thing is Russian weapons systems are designed for real combat by real men in harsh conditions. They are far simpler, more robust, repairable in the field, and can be managed by relatively unspecialized soldiers. Western stuff is delicate and requires a lot of training and specialization. Russian aircraft, as an example, all have screens to keep debris out of the engine intakes so can take off and land on damaged runways. If you look at USAF runways they must do a walk down the runway every day usually with 50 or so men to remove pebbles and small items which if ingested into the engines will destroy them. Russia doesn’t bother as it isn’t a factor at all. This is why a single cruise missile can take out a runway for days. It is like that for everything. MiA2 tanks use turbine engines and have zero user maintenance. They must be returned to depot maintenance for air filter changes etc. every 100 hours. They also consume massive amounts of JP4 which is more needed for aviation assets (and command HQ which runs turbine generators and requires 10,000 liters a day to operate) than tanks. My point is Russia designs and trains to fight actual peer adversaries. Additionally, without aviation dominance, the US cannot re-supply at all. If you examine where the S-500 batteries are located they cover all of Europe. This doesn’t even get into Russian jamming and EMP weapons which we haven’t seen much of yet.

Posted by: Old Microbiologist

An observation from reading the Russian intelligence reports on the 2003 Iraq invasion. (Stolzuntermensch’a site) All the things western analysts are saying the Russian army is going through reads like a recap of what the US/UK experienced in Iraq. It was a comedy of errors replete with running out of fuel, not having enough reserves because they just thought it would be a pleasant trip to Baghdad. The tanks didn’t work because it was sandy, the fancy imaging gear didn’t work because it was sandy, the air support they depended on couldn’t fly when it was sandy.

There were command demands that objectives be captured in a set time because of the schedule and perception. The whole thing almost failed miserably because it was poorly planned and poorly executed. The mighty US army was nearly beaten by Iraq after a decade of sanctions. The US finally “gave up” securing actual military victories, raced to the government buildings of Baghdad, took them and declared victory. While settling in for a long insurgency it is still losing.

It becomes clear that the US expectation was that Russia would act the same as the US and obviously suffer the same setbacks. That does not appear to be happening beyond the scale of all military operations not happening just as planned. NATO isn’t coming to save the day, it’s scared. It’s been 20 years since it almost got whipped by a force nothing like Russia and in an environment that should have given the US a massive advantage. In fact if not for limited Iraqi mobility on open ground against US air power, the US may well have lost.

Of particular note is an editorial that to fight the US, Russia would have to invest in air defenses and combining air defense with the Air Force was a terrible mistake. It does, however, look the Russian military took the advice to heart and concentrated on air defense systems over fighters.