Washington DC has not excelled in grand strategy; the art and science of cost-effectively employing the diplomatic, economic, and informational powers of the United States in combination with its armed forces to secure its national goals and interests. Most of the strategic decisions to use American military power that were made over the last 30 years resulted in one of two strategic outcomes: abject failure (Somalia, Haiti, Afghanistan, and Iraq) or a new regional status quo that is untenable without a permanent U.S. military presence far from America’s borders (the Balkans).

The reasons for the discouraging outcomes of the last 30 years can be traced to Washington’s failure to clearly define realistic, attainable goals for U.S. military power. That requires an acknowledgement that American resources and the electorate’s patience are not limitless, and a thorough understanding of the opponent’s interests and capabilities. It seems that regardless of party affiliation Washington approaches national strategy the way the British approach sex, “romantically remote from the distressing biological crudities.”

This inability to recognize that conditions once conducive to Washington’s control of world events are weakening is why the war in Ukraine will end at Russia’s convenience, not ours.

Washington prolonged the war in Ukraine far past the point where it could and should have stopped. Instead of acknowledging Russia’s vital strategic interests in its near abroad and implementing the Minsk Agreements, the Biden administration made conflict unavoidable, then, stonewalled any serious negotiations with Moscow as either surrender or treason. The White House now finds it impossible to retreat from a policy position of implacable hostility to Moscow that from its inception made no strategic sense.

When Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin urged Moscow to arrange an immediate ceasefire, Ukraine’s internal crisis—the use of untrained manpower unfit for service to replace the many thousands of patriotic Ukrainian killed and wounded—was already perilous. In the words of an informed observer with strong ties to the region, conditions in Ukraine are grave:

The average Ukrainian brigade that began the war in late February with at least 100% of its strength is now down by 60% or 70% percent. Some brigades like the 81st and 36th Marine brigades have ceased to exist. There are already reports of recent mobilized civilians contacting Russian commanders and arranging to desert in platoon strength. At what point will [that] go up to companies and battalions; Especially as the dedicated professionals and patriots who volunteered at the start of the war are already dead?

Washington’s provision of ninety M777 Howitzers to Ukraine will certainly stiffen Ukrainian resolve, but the Russians have destroyed so many artillery systems that those new guns will likely be demolished be in few weeks. In addition, Russia is the world’s largest exporter of titanium, a critical component of the M777 gun system. Roughly one-third to half of the U.S. military’s stockpile of Javelin and Stinger missiles have already been shipped to Ukraine. Is the U.S. industrial base really prepared to sustain this effort?

The Biden administration can certainly argue that if there are still Ukrainian soldiers willing to fight, then U.S. military assistance can plausibly keep the war with Russia going. But at what cost? Eastern Ukraine is wrecked. Is the plan to wreck Western Ukraine too?

Turning Western Ukraine, a critical part of the world’s breadbasket into “Ukrainistan” purely to satisfy Washington’s determination to bleed Russia white must be an ominous prospect for Ukrainians and many European leaders. As always, it’s the bravest of the brave in Washington DC who are most eager to consign the people of Ukraine to years of this hell. The advocates for conflict with Russia certainly do not include the vast majority of American voters.

Only Warsaw rivals Washington in its hatred of Russia. In recent remarks, Poland’s Prime Minister insisted that Russia’s monstrous ideology—in his mind the equivalent of 20th-century communism and Nazism—must be destroyed. How the Polish PM can reconcile these claims with the indisputable Nazi presence in Ukraine’s forces is incomprehensible, but so is Washington’s unrelenting hatred of Moscow.

The question now is whether Europe’s leaders in Berlin, Paris, Rome, and the continental capitals are willing to put their governments and societies at risk of internal political upheaval to maintain Washington’s endless war in Ukraine against Russia. According to the German government, Russia is preventing Ukraine from exporting twenty million tons of grain, mainly to North Africa and Asia. Meanwhile, Berlin declines to support calls for a German or European embargo or tariff on Russian oil and gas (their reasons are not without merit).

Americans and Europeans are not experiencing a market correction. Our problems are not cyclical. They are structural and systemic. A food/energy crisis is here. Supply chain problems are a symptom—the underlying problem is misallocation of capital, insufficient or mismanaged infrastructure, and a broken political system. Why? The Federal Reserve has lost control. The bull market is finished.

From this point onward, stocks will experience a rolling, downward correction. Whatever Chairman Jerome Powell and his colleagues do now, their actions are unlikely to make much difference. If the Fed hikes interest rates, markets will collapse. If the Fed suppresses interest rates as they have to date, inflation will exacerbate leading to demand destruction. Inflation is not the only or even the core problem. The far more dangerous outcome is deflation; a collapse of asset prices that are artificially inflated in value. Today, the two most important assets propping up the global economy are mortgage bonds and treasuries; both are in danger as yields rise.

Either way, the end result is the same: serious economic crisis at home and abroad in Europe. The crisis will affect all assets and all markets. It will also widen the gap between Washington’s wish list for conflict overseas and the needs of American citizens at home.

Whether the internal crises confronting Washington will force a sober-minded reappraisal of our national security interests along with a decent respect for the culture and interests of other states is unknown. But in the words of the late Angelo Codevilla, “It should be possible, even for Americans who hate one another, to agree that the consequences of foreign wars, especially of wars unsupported by the American public, are not good for anyone.”

READ MORE:

https://libertarianinstitute.org/articles/30-years-with-no-strategy-brought-us-the-war-in-ukraine/

The fiddles in US diplomacy (or lack of it) are clever distractions to hide the real purpose of the USA: the conquest of the HEARTLAND. If this REAL PURPOSE was publicly recognised, there would be a massive outcry. Thus the only way to hide it to fumble about...

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Drivers with foreign license plates can no longer buy gas in Hungary at government-capped prices – the lowest in the EU, Budapest announced on Thursday. Prime Minister Viktor Orban's chief of staff said the measure is aimed at stopping "petrol tourists" abusing Hungary’s fuel supplies.

Gergely Gulyas told journalists, during a regular press briefing, that “foreign buyers are exploiting the fact that Hungary is able to maintain petrol prices at 480 forints (€1.22) per liter, while they are at 700-900 forints elsewhere in Europe.”

According to the official, “abuse” of the low gas prices by fuel tourists has become a real issue of late, threatening his country’s own supply.

The decision means that motorists with foreign license plates are now charged higher market prices at Hungarian gas stations.

Viktor Orban’s government originally introduced the gas price cap on November 15, 2021 amid accelerating inflation. Budapest has since extended the scheme several times, with the latest coming in late April.

Along with gas, similar price caps were introduced in Hungary for some staples, like flour and sugar.

On top of announcing the new tariff at gas stations, Gulyas also touched on the economic fallout of the ongoing conflict in Ukraine, warning that the world was possibly teetering on the brink of a new economic crisis. Hungary is already bearing some of the brunt, the official noted, naming rising fuel prices among the consequences.

Gulyas went on to criticize the sanctions imposed on Russia by the EU, arguing that the punitive measures are backfiring, causing harm to Hungarians as well.

Marton Nagy, Hungary’s minister for economic development, said that Budapest’s key objective under current circumstances was to build a resilient economy while keeping the budget and national debt in check.

Hungary is among several EU member states blocking the adoption of the bloc’s sixth round of sanctions against Moscow, with an embargo on Russian oil imports being the bone of contention. Budapest insists that it cannot possibly wean itself off Russian energy overnight – a scenario, which, according to Hungarian officials, would deal a heavy blow to the nation’s economy – and is reportedly demanding that Brussels pick up the tab for the costly transition to alternative sources.

READ MORE:

https://www.rt.com/news/556176-hungary-foreign-motorists-banned-cheap-gas/

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The unity the EU demonstrated after Russia launched its offensive in Ukraine is starting to “crumble,” German Economy Minister Robert Habeck said on Sunday. The warning comes ahead of the bloc’s summit to discuss a new sanctions package against Moscow and a potential oil embargo.

“After Russia's attack on Ukraine, we saw what can happen when Europe stands united. With a view to the summit tomorrow, let's hope it continues like this. But it is already starting to crumble and crumble again," Habeck told a news conference.

The EU has struggled to agree on imposing the oil embargo on Russia, with multiple member countries voicing concerns that the move would become fatal for their economies. Hungary, which receives most of its oil from Russia, has been the most prominent opponent of the embargo, comparing the potential effect of a full ban to “an atomic bomb.” Similar concerns over the embargo have been voiced by other landlocked nations, namely Czechia and Slovakia.

Earlier this week, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen offered an explanation as to why the EU still continues to buy Russian oil.

“If we would completely, immediately, as of today cut off the [Russian] oil, [Russian President Vladimir] Putin might be able to take the oil that he does not sell to the EU to the world market, where the prices will increase, and sell it for more – and that would fill his war chests,” von der Leyen said in an interview with MSNBC.

The EU diplomats have reportedly tried to come up with a compromise solution to the sanctions deadlock, kick-starting the embargo with banning deliveries of Russian oil by sea while exempting pipelines from the potential restrictions. The attempt, however, has apparently failed, with the EU nations now set to try and agree on the restrictions during the summit scheduled for Monday and Tuesday.

The EU has imposed multiple packages of sanctions on Russia after it launched a large-scale offensive against Ukraine in late February.

Russia attacked the neighboring country following Ukraine’s failure to implement the terms of the Minsk agreements, first signed in 2014, and Moscow’s eventual recognition of the Donbass republics of Donetsk and Lugansk. The German- and French-brokered protocols were designed to give the breakaway regions special status within the Ukrainian state.

READ MORE:

https://www.rt.com/news/556307-eu-unity-russia-sanctions/

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MEANWHILE:

According to Laurence Norman, journalist for the Wall Street Journal, International Atomic Energy Agency Director Rafael Grossi told the Davos Forum that 30 tons of plutonium and 40 tons of enriched uranium are stockpiled at the Ukrainian power plant in Zaporijjia.

The enrichment rate of the uranium is not specified. Uranium enriched to 5% can only be used for civil purposes;

weapons manufacturing requires a threshold of 80%.

On 19 February 2022, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, speaking at the Munich Security Conference, announced to NATO officials that his country was considering calling into question the Budapest Memorandum (1994) so that it could acquire nuclear weapons against Russia.

On 21 February 2022, President Vladimir Putin alluded to a Ukrainian nuclear program, saying: “The only thing missing [in Ukraine] is a uranium enrichment system. But this is a technical question, and for Ukraine not an insurmountable problem.”

On 24 February 2022, Russia attacked Ukraine, noting that she was acting within the framework of international law.

READ MORE:

https://www.voltairenet.org/article217080.html

Zelenskyyy-y is a danger to humanity.....

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