The US is not a "mediator" between Russia and Ukraine, but the aggressor.
The recent New York Times article on the "truth behind the Ukraine war" has admitted that the Ukraine war was a collective long planned and unprovoked war against Russia led by the US with the aim of balkanising Russia and imposing pro western regime change. Ukraine was very far down the chain of command.
The plan was for the US to entice Russia into a war with Ukraine and then finish the Russians off and get rid of Putin. The US even tried to assassinate Putin by the drone attack on the Kremlin.
The aim was to regain access to Russia's immense natural resources for western corporate interests and to stave off looming financial crisis in the west. Our ruling class have never forgiven Putin for recovering control of Russian national assets and removing the oligarchs who enriched themselves after the collapse of the USSR.
It was run by US generals planning and controlling the fighting from Wiesbaden in Germany, using Ukrainian manpower, with European special forces mainly Polish but many UK and French military intelligence experts.
The US generals ordered the weapons, rockets, and drones they needed themselves as their battlefield situation and tactics evolved and they also planned all the Ukraine military's attacks and responses.
Pretending all the while that Ukraine was independently fighting this war.
The US now blames Ukraine for their battlefield defeats and cannot accept that the US was out-generalled by Russia.
The neonazi CIA backed regime in Ukraine were duped by the US into believing they could not lose and are now abandoned. Ukraine has been ruined and destroyed in this process
Trump wants to extract as much loot for Blackrock as he can before moving on to attack China.
For God's sake give up these transparent lies, this is all in the public domain now.
It was all an interesting theoretical exercise until author mentioned a specific conflict of national interests, one between "Ukraine" and Russia?
While somehow overlooking the real world lack of strategic agency among the leadership of "Ukraine" and without mentioning that "side's" actual controlling interests (an unacknowledged transnational power elite)- Or naming them as parties to the conflict.
Not even the Realist commentators can deal with the reality of evil. It’d be delicious irony if so many hadn’t already died, in no small part because of this refusal to acknowledge what is smacking them in the face.
The death and misery perpetrated by these degenerate criminals is unbearable. They, and their apologists, can lie to themselves but they cannot lie to me.
Transient ‘values’ are much more often used to disguise something else. If the EU politicians and citizens ever thought defending Ukraine was about defending democracy, then they were foolish. And this MAY explain why they don't seem to know where their interests lie because they were foolish. Or much more likely, because the ruling elites and the masses have fairly different interests.
Very good essay. I absolutely agree that interests make for better diplomacy than values.
But perhaps Realism would do well to invest some analysis into how values are used as smokescreens to cover for interests, in both the domestic and the international spheres? I am far from convinced that the dug-in rump pro war parties in Europe and the US are motivated by values. I think their motivation to surround, collapse and exploit Russia is every bit as realist as Trump’s intention to cooperate with Russia for mutual advantage. Just a lot less honest.
The EU globalists want war for the bankers to make money, to justify more authoritarian societies and take away civil rights, and to divert their citizens attention from the misery their energy and food policies are creating. They want the transhuman New World Order, and I pray for revolutions.
As the historian A J P Taylor once said, autocracies fight necessary wars and kill thousands, while democracies fight just wars and kill millions. It is the misplaced idea of the just war that has led Ukraine to the tragic state it now finds itself in. Whether the likes of Kaja Kallas or Ursula Von Der Layen even want to stop the bloodshed is highly debatable.
Taylor may have confused correlation with causation here?
Perhaps groups having the sophistication (and spare resources!) to spend effort putting democratic lipstick on the pig of brute self interest also have bigger plans, larger military budgets and more sophisticated weapon systems than smaller time operations without the resources for hiring the best PR firms to manage their brand imagery?
A brilliant article. I especially appreciate the distinction between sovereign interests and transient ‘values’ as it demonstrates the moral pettifogging of Eurocrat and Atlanticist think tanks. Also, Ian outlines the limits of Euro oversight and NATO ‘governance’ and how they presume the power of dictate.
NATO, Brussels and the beltway elite use the rhetoric of values - the rules-based order - to vaunt and elevate their perceived virtue. Behind this virtue-signalling is a grandiose, exceptionalist mindset: they are the civic garden, the rest, the brutish jungle.
This Manicheist sub-division - the separation of the world’s citizenry into good vs bad - is the root cause of our unhappy lot. If you can turn values into virtues, you can demonise and other individuals, ethnic groups and whole countries. Real values are foundational - empathy, mutual tolerance, generosity of spirit, habeas corpus - to name but a few; they are implicit in any functional society. Virtues are different, especially when seen through the cracked lens of contemporary ethics. Today’s virtue-signallers lead the pitchfork mob of social morality; they ban and shame and exile; they preach but do not instruct; they conceal and cover but never illuminate and reveal.
In all periods of great social crisis, the virtuous appear before us, leading the craven mob. They are right. Their ideas will free us. And if we refuse their summons, they will destroy us.
However, if our minds are rooted in true values - the ones I have mentioned - then we do not preach or elevate ourselves above other peoples. In fact, such values lead the mind to a certain good humoured diffidence and tolerance. To a mind steeped in deep, humanist values, hubris is anathema, preaching is for dullards and life is a banquet to which all are invited.
The ability to waltz around large elephants in the middle of rather small rooms shown here was quite impressive, the author might well have a future at the NY Times/Washington Post?
The Ukrainians made a huge mistake in trusting the Americans because the reality was always that NATO was not going to risk war with Russia because of the inconvenient reality that President Putin has the small matter of 6,000 nuclear weapons on hand whose usage would trigger global Armageddon - and nobody wants that, apart from a few religious nutters.
This was plainly obvious from the start but the Ukrainian nationalists seemed to think they could use American muscle to push the Russians out of Ukraine for good, but whilst the Americans provided munitions and machines, they would not provide men on the ground - and that's where the plan fell apart.
Ukrainian leadership was chosen and installed with specific intent of behaving as they did. The primary cause of conflict here was not mistaken beliefs of the Ukrainian straw bosses selected nor yet among their middle managers in CIA, MI6, US DOS, USAID and NATO, AFAICT.
What are you talking about?
The US is not a "mediator" between Russia and Ukraine, but the aggressor.
The recent New York Times article on the "truth behind the Ukraine war" has admitted that the Ukraine war was a collective long planned and unprovoked war against Russia led by the US with the aim of balkanising Russia and imposing pro western regime change. Ukraine was very far down the chain of command.
The plan was for the US to entice Russia into a war with Ukraine and then finish the Russians off and get rid of Putin. The US even tried to assassinate Putin by the drone attack on the Kremlin.
The aim was to regain access to Russia's immense natural resources for western corporate interests and to stave off looming financial crisis in the west. Our ruling class have never forgiven Putin for recovering control of Russian national assets and removing the oligarchs who enriched themselves after the collapse of the USSR.
It was run by US generals planning and controlling the fighting from Wiesbaden in Germany, using Ukrainian manpower, with European special forces mainly Polish but many UK and French military intelligence experts.
The US generals ordered the weapons, rockets, and drones they needed themselves as their battlefield situation and tactics evolved and they also planned all the Ukraine military's attacks and responses.
Pretending all the while that Ukraine was independently fighting this war.
The US now blames Ukraine for their battlefield defeats and cannot accept that the US was out-generalled by Russia.
The neonazi CIA backed regime in Ukraine were duped by the US into believing they could not lose and are now abandoned. Ukraine has been ruined and destroyed in this process
Trump wants to extract as much loot for Blackrock as he can before moving on to attack China.
For God's sake give up these transparent lies, this is all in the public domain now.
Yes. The usual boring and almost transparent propaganda picture that we are getting so bored with.
@Jams O'Donnell
It was all an interesting theoretical exercise until author mentioned a specific conflict of national interests, one between "Ukraine" and Russia?
While somehow overlooking the real world lack of strategic agency among the leadership of "Ukraine" and without mentioning that "side's" actual controlling interests (an unacknowledged transnational power elite)- Or naming them as parties to the conflict.
Pull the other one, it's got bells on it.
Not even the Realist commentators can deal with the reality of evil. It’d be delicious irony if so many hadn’t already died, in no small part because of this refusal to acknowledge what is smacking them in the face.
The death and misery perpetrated by these degenerate criminals is unbearable. They, and their apologists, can lie to themselves but they cannot lie to me.
Transient ‘values’ are much more often used to disguise something else. If the EU politicians and citizens ever thought defending Ukraine was about defending democracy, then they were foolish. And this MAY explain why they don't seem to know where their interests lie because they were foolish. Or much more likely, because the ruling elites and the masses have fairly different interests.
Values are a facade for the powerful and a refuge for the powerless.
@Adam Rose
Nice, efficient distillation. Could it be rendered as a haiku?
Very good essay. I absolutely agree that interests make for better diplomacy than values.
But perhaps Realism would do well to invest some analysis into how values are used as smokescreens to cover for interests, in both the domestic and the international spheres? I am far from convinced that the dug-in rump pro war parties in Europe and the US are motivated by values. I think their motivation to surround, collapse and exploit Russia is every bit as realist as Trump’s intention to cooperate with Russia for mutual advantage. Just a lot less honest.
The EU globalists want war for the bankers to make money, to justify more authoritarian societies and take away civil rights, and to divert their citizens attention from the misery their energy and food policies are creating. They want the transhuman New World Order, and I pray for revolutions.
As the historian A J P Taylor once said, autocracies fight necessary wars and kill thousands, while democracies fight just wars and kill millions. It is the misplaced idea of the just war that has led Ukraine to the tragic state it now finds itself in. Whether the likes of Kaja Kallas or Ursula Von Der Layen even want to stop the bloodshed is highly debatable.
@Roger Higginson
Taylor may have confused correlation with causation here?
Perhaps groups having the sophistication (and spare resources!) to spend effort putting democratic lipstick on the pig of brute self interest also have bigger plans, larger military budgets and more sophisticated weapon systems than smaller time operations without the resources for hiring the best PR firms to manage their brand imagery?
A brilliant article. I especially appreciate the distinction between sovereign interests and transient ‘values’ as it demonstrates the moral pettifogging of Eurocrat and Atlanticist think tanks. Also, Ian outlines the limits of Euro oversight and NATO ‘governance’ and how they presume the power of dictate.
NATO, Brussels and the beltway elite use the rhetoric of values - the rules-based order - to vaunt and elevate their perceived virtue. Behind this virtue-signalling is a grandiose, exceptionalist mindset: they are the civic garden, the rest, the brutish jungle.
This Manicheist sub-division - the separation of the world’s citizenry into good vs bad - is the root cause of our unhappy lot. If you can turn values into virtues, you can demonise and other individuals, ethnic groups and whole countries. Real values are foundational - empathy, mutual tolerance, generosity of spirit, habeas corpus - to name but a few; they are implicit in any functional society. Virtues are different, especially when seen through the cracked lens of contemporary ethics. Today’s virtue-signallers lead the pitchfork mob of social morality; they ban and shame and exile; they preach but do not instruct; they conceal and cover but never illuminate and reveal.
In all periods of great social crisis, the virtuous appear before us, leading the craven mob. They are right. Their ideas will free us. And if we refuse their summons, they will destroy us.
However, if our minds are rooted in true values - the ones I have mentioned - then we do not preach or elevate ourselves above other peoples. In fact, such values lead the mind to a certain good humoured diffidence and tolerance. To a mind steeped in deep, humanist values, hubris is anathema, preaching is for dullards and life is a banquet to which all are invited.
@Kieran O’Sullivan
How many times did you re direct the AI to achieve this?
@Kieran O’Sullivan
Ah. Sorry to have assumed AI involvement, it is easy to mistake a failure to edit first thoughts for brevity with AI word spew.
The ability to waltz around large elephants in the middle of rather small rooms shown here was quite impressive, the author might well have a future at the NY Times/Washington Post?
The Ukrainians made a huge mistake in trusting the Americans because the reality was always that NATO was not going to risk war with Russia because of the inconvenient reality that President Putin has the small matter of 6,000 nuclear weapons on hand whose usage would trigger global Armageddon - and nobody wants that, apart from a few religious nutters.
This was plainly obvious from the start but the Ukrainian nationalists seemed to think they could use American muscle to push the Russians out of Ukraine for good, but whilst the Americans provided munitions and machines, they would not provide men on the ground - and that's where the plan fell apart.
@BaronOfBelarus
(Quote)
"The Ukrainians made a huge mistake"?!
----------
"A poor craftsman blames their tools".
(And the NY Times does paid reviews)
Ukrainian leadership was chosen and installed with specific intent of behaving as they did. The primary cause of conflict here was not mistaken beliefs of the Ukrainian straw bosses selected nor yet among their middle managers in CIA, MI6, US DOS, USAID and NATO, AFAICT.