On 23 August, 2018, National Security Adviser to the President of the United States of America J. R. Bolton, using his auspices as the representative of the President of the United States of America, officially declared war on Russia.
J. R. Bolton had an official meeting with Patrushev, N. P., Secretary of the Russian Security Council, in Geneva. There was no after meeting joint statement, and this in and of itself says the meeting went nowhere. According to Tass News Russia:
“The Russian side’s statement dedicated to negotiations between Patrushev and Bolton obtained by TASS states that during the meeting in Geneva the parties brought up a wide range of issues, including, those concerning nuclear nonproliferation with regard to the Korean Peninsula problem and Iran’s nuclear program, the Russian-US treaties on the elimination of intermediate-range and shorter-range missiles and the reduction of strategic offensive arms, the situation in various parts of the world, including the Middle East and North Africa, specifically Syria and Afghanistan as well as Europe, in particular Ukraine.
More: http://tass.com/politics/
One would hope that someone of Bolton’s long service would have developed somewhat of a sense of who is doing what, with which and to whom, but it is apparent that his distinguished service in the Maryland National Guard from 1970-1976 (odd, he managed to stay out of Vietnam during those turbulent times) and his appointment oriented times under R.Reagan and both Presidents Bush, did little to educate him in regards to the current, and perhaps past, world. That being said, perhaps Mr. Bolton needs a little education in regards to recent, and not so recent, history concerning Russia and USA.
In the early eighteen hundreds, a rather well known general named Napoleon had roughly the same attitude and designs on Russia as USA has today. When Russia did not knuckle under to the ever increasing and strident demands emanating from Paris, nothing would do but for General Napoleon to invade Russia, using the entire French army. As an aside, this ‘French’ army was about 40% French, the 60% was made up of a pretty good cross section of Europe both then and today, many ‘press ganged’ in to service by the French control of their countries, many also joining with alacrity with the thoughts of easily defeating Russia and looting the country to the bones.
On the route leading from Moskau west, then and today the Capitol of Russia, to what is eastern Poland today, if one is observant, one will see curious small, and some not so small, hillocks and mounds visible from the main road. Those are the burial mounts of the ‘French’ Army. As the army retreated with ever increasing speed, the roads were littered with the dead from the continuous skirmishes, the savage Russian Winter, and the ever more indignant locals whose villages and towns were looted to the very ground by the ‘French’ army advancing and retreating. Napoleon was dumb enough to retreat along the same route he took to Moskau, that route being picked clean for 30 kilometers on each side on the way to Moskau. On the retreat, there was nothing left but the local citizenry, those who survived, and their revenge was the stuff of legend. Read up on that, Mr. Bolton, and remember well what you read. Less than 20% of the ‘French army’ returned to Europe, the rest are buried or moldering in the forests of Russia.
As a curious little aside, the ‘French’ army crossed the river Berezina in it’s retreat. At that crossing point are two small islands in the river. Those islands were formed over the large numbers of dead, carriages and equipment that fell off the two hastily thrown up bridges over the Berezina or who tried to cross the freezing and ice filled waters of the river as the Russian Army approached and fought the French rear guard. Now, it is acknowledged that if Kutuzov had pushed a bit instead of keeping a somewhat distant but never ending pressure on the French army, it is conceivable that he could have captured General Napoleon at the crossing, but he didn’t and he didn’t. These islands are still there, Mr. Bolton. And to this day, ‘French’ remains are being found in that AO along with a never ending plethora of accouterments, weapons, bits and pieces of equipment, and French medals. Lots of French medals. Unbelievable numbers of French medals, decorations, ‘shoulder brushes’, remains of carriages, wagons, limbers, you name it.
In 1941, Germany invaded Russia, again with some of the same pretexts and in general, in my opinion, out of pure stupidity and cussedness. In November of 1941, the fighting was in the outskirts of Moskau. In April of 1945, the fighting was in and around Berlin. The context of the German Army was different from General Napoleon’s army in that roughly 65% of the German army invading Russia was German, the 35% consisted of volunteers from EVERY country in Europe plus parts of the armies of various German allies, notably being Romanian and Italian contingents. They died in their millions, as did Russians, and Germany died, too, never to rise again. To this day, we are finding the soldiers, and civilians, killed in that horrid epoch of history. But Russia did not die, nor did USA. Russia and USA were the only two powers to survive that hideous war, and Russia was in ruins from Moskau to her west borders, as was Europe. To your never ending horror, Russia rebuilt herself. Sans help from you.
However, since mid May of ’45, US has embarked on a somewhat adventurous international policy. And what has that brought you?
Korea. When they are shooting at you as you retreat to the demarcation line, you lost.
Vietnam. When they are shooting at you when you leave, you lost.
Afghan. When they are shooting at you when you run, you lost.
Iraq. When they are shooting at you when you withdraw, you lost.
Gruzya. Your HUMMV’s were kind of cute running around our village for a few days, but they were rapidly relegated to the scrap iron pile. You were also kind of cute when you asked for your equipment back after Gruzya, at your urging, went stupid and got their nostrils braided. If I remember correctly, President Putin told you that Russia is not in the habit of returning war trophies.
Libya. What happened to your gomik ‘ambassador’ there? And what bright light decided to send an openly gomik as ‘ambassador’ to a Muslim country? Have you taken leave of your senses?
Serbia. How many airframes did you lose? We know how many thousands of civilians you killed, and you can rest assured, the Serbians have not forgotten a single one of those many thousands of dead civilians.
Afghan, yet again. What, you learned nothing the first time? How many more body bags do you want?
Syria. You are still there, illegally by international law, UN regulations and Syrian law, and everyone is shooting at you.
And now, with your resurrection from the dead, you personally are back in play again, and your target this time, as ever, is Russia. Your demands, not all and not a request for negotiations but demands, during the meeting with Patroshev, N. P., were:
Get out of Syria. Sorry, but the Government of the Sovereign State of Syria invited Russia’s assistance to fight against your paid minions. You and yours, sir, were NOT invited to Syria and now you are standing there with your skivvies in your hands and The World is laughing at you. Bitter laughter, yes, but laughter just the same. As for the chemical attacks and countless atrocities against both civilians and Syrian Armed Forces, you and yours did it, you know it, Russia knows it, The World knows it, and you, like some fugitive from the insane asylum, continue with outright lies knowing full well The World knows you are lying.
Admit, and apologize, for the idiotic Brit mess with Skripal. Get real, you and the Brits poisoned that ex, and unsuccessful, spy, if he was indeed poisoned, no one has seen him since. Did you kill him? If Mother wanted him dead, he’d have been run over by a garbage truck or had a heart attack after eating one too many plates of those hideous fish and chips, or simply disappeared. Not all The World is as stupid as your electorate.
Return Krimea and Sevastopol to Ukraine. Are you on drugs? Do you have mental problems? The entire process of giving the administration of the Autonomous Republic of Krimea and the Federal City of Sevastopol to the Ukraine by Kruschov 60 year ago was and is illegal, ergo the process is null and void. Besides, The People have spoken. You want both entities back? Send in your best and try it. See above, ‘when they are shooting at you when you when you leave, you lost’. Problem in Krimea is, you will not leave, anyone you send to Krimea and Sevastopol will be counting trees for a long, very long, time if they don’t get thrown them off the cliffs of 35th Battery, just like your German and Romanian friends did to Russian wounded and prisoners on 03 July 1942.
Abandon Novorossiya to it’s fate. See above concerning drugs and mental problems. Do you honestly thing Russia will abandon 3 million people to the tender mercies of the Ukrainians, those who have publicly stated they will kill all the citizens of Novorossiya?
Here is a flash piece of news for you, Bolton. Russia has armed up. Your repeated violations of agreements, both written and ‘gentleman’s’, have left Russia no other choice but to assume you are planning an aggression. I can not fathom why you or your neocon buddies would think that Russia would sit and idly watch you move your weapons, including nuclear capable, to the very borders of Russia, and Russia would not arm up.
Now, here’s a little truism for you, sir, you who have not faced cold steel and the roar of the guns. You are working day and night to provoke Russia in to fighting. Even a functional idiot locked up in Yellow Dome knows that The World as we know it will cease to exist within 24 hours if it comes to war between US and Russia, and I can guaranty you, sir, that Russia will not back down. Ever. Neither I, nor you, nor our respective families, will survive a war between the two. You can wish, you can plan, you can pray (doubtful), but you and I won’t survive. However, the odds are I, my wife and most of our wonderful children will be gone before you are, and trust me, my friend, I’ll be sitting at the gates of Hell waiting for you.
To quote a quote from my writings in 2014, just for you. Damn your eyes, damn your soul, damn you to Hell, back to where you came from.
Juan
Books written by my very close friend and comrade in arms, Auslander. Read them, he’s a far better writer than I am.
Never The Last One. https://www.amazon.com/ A deep look in to Russia, her culture and her Armed Forces, in essence a look at the emergence of Russian Federation.
Sevastopol, The Third Defense. https://www.amazon. Book 1, A Premonition. Set against a backdrop of real events and real places, the reader is left to filter fact from fiction.
An Incident On Simonka https://www.amazon. NATO Is Invited To Leave Sevastopol, One Way Or The Other.
The US has completely lost all control of its self. The NWO Neocon’s are try as best they can to start another war. WAR is profitable and that is all they car about. They have NO aligence to anyone other than profit.
Let’s hope President Trump can flush out the sewer of rats running Washington and get the world working toward peace.
Not holding my breath.
Yeah, I still don’t understand this “trying to start a war” mentality. If you want to start a war just start shooting and pray that you win so you can rewrite history.
They want to start a war but they don’t want to shoot first. They need to stand on the high moral ground. They can’t be seen as aggressors. So they must make the others shoot first.
Alex Jones network is promoting iranian backed sleeper cells in the US. Here’s the piece by tribe member (((Adam Kredo))). Thats one way to get war on iran since (((their))) endless proclaiming iran is trying to get a nuclear weapon psyop hasnt work. Blame a new false flag attack on iran.
https://freebeacon.com/national-security/iranian-backed-sleeper-cell-militants-hibernating-u-s-positioned-attack/
https://www.real.video/5823943663001
https://www.infowars.com/iranian-backed-sleeper-cell-militants-hibernating-in-u-s-positioned-for-attack/
When last seen, Trump was feeding the swamp rats. Don’t expect an exodus any time soon.
On the other hand, the reason why Bolton has the title “National Security Adviser” instead of something like “Secretary of State” is because Bolton could not win a confirmation vote. Not even with the Republicans in the majority of the Senate. IIRC, Trump considered Bolton for Sec of State, but didn’t nominate him because Bolton is so poorly thought of in Washington that it was considered doubtful that he could win a Senate vote and Trump didn’t need yet another political defeat. A Senate dominated by Defense Industry money and Banker money thinks that Bolton is too much of a whack job to approve him.
Juan, a great speech, full of good advice. But it’s wasted. The U$ regime is stuffed full of well connected dunderheads. So well connected they don’t need to understand anything. Just look at that Presidential Adviser’s face. Nothing has ever penetrated his skull.
Any effort is worth a try, forlorn hope or not.
Juan
Juan
Yes, every effort is worth a try. However, nothing short of a miracle will change Washington’s attitude, which is controlled by Wall Street, and Wall Street cannot back down, because if it does, it will be in an even worse state than it is now. The Military Industrial Complex would cease to function, followed by the economy, while the dollar would be discarded by the international community. It already is being discarded.
Will something happen ? The answer is “yes”. I don’t think Washington will attack Russia, as even the worst neocons probably realize what would happen, namely mutual destruction. Then again, who can guarantee this. At the moment the chief candidate for attack is Iran, followed by North Korea. Even an attack against Iran would cause immense military and political damage to the US. However, the neocons don’t care. As one analyst, who personally wrote to me stated, the US is where the neocons just live. They have no loyalties to the country, which to them is just a tool for personal gratification. The US troops who are sent to war are just pawns, every single one of them expendable.
Some people in Washington will certainly read this article. They will agree with it. And what will they do ? Nothing. They are helpless to change anything, doing as commanded by the neocons.
As more than one analyst has stated, the only thing which can change the political situation in the US is a military coup d’etat. However, the question is who controls he military. When Obama was President, the military was purged of officers. At the same time generals were bribed with millions of dollars and colonels with hundreds of thousands of dollars. Not a good sign for the US.
There may well be a military coup, or perhaps I should say the military will prevent the ongoing coup against the President.
Obama purged large numbers of experienced field grade and company grade officers, those who had seen it all. However, enough remain to stop this coup and the surrounding idiocy.
There are two precedents for such action. First was during the successful coup against R. M. Nixon, when at the very end, when the President was almost ready to resign, the word came down from the very top of Military Command that no unit larger than a company could be moved off any base in USA without the written permission of the OiC in Pentagon, if memory serves it was Abrams but I might be wrong on that, and it’s late and I’m too tired to research who issued that order. ‘We’ were at Bragg involved in a training deal, and when that order came down, we and those we were training were told to stand down, turn in all weapons and return to barrack. We did stand down and lagered in place, in the field, for the several day duration.
Second precedent was the attempted coup d’etat against R. W. Reagan. That coup was stopped, so I was told, when Senator Kennedy was approached by someone in senior uniform and invited to call down to an armored division and ask the OD what was happening there. On being informed that the division was loading on trains, full combat ready including ammo, and the trains were heading north towards DC, the coup attempt was over in an hour. The trains were recalled only when folks involved were certain the coup was over.
Will that happen again? I don’t know, but there are enough patriotic officers and EM’s in the US Military to prevent this coup against the sitting President of the United States of America. I don’t think there will be a military coup per se, but I have few doubts that if the mess in DC gets much worse, the neocons will be reminded who has the weapons, and the ability, to forestall any coup against the Government.
I also had a conversation last week with someone I know in USA. He lives in a large town in the general area of the southeast, and he told me, and I trust what he says, that the locals, including him, were quietly arming up and preparing. He also told me that the police were 100% behind the citizens and assisting them as much as they could, off the record. He said if the crap hits the whirling blades, in 3 hours there will be no career criminals in his town, no narcotics business in his town, and the town admin top dogs would be down to 3 from 14. He told me other towns and villages were doing the same.
Interesting times we are living in.
Auslander
The officer corps that Obama purged can not be said to have “seen it all.”
Gen Colin Powell was Chair of the JCS (highest rank in military) under Clinton and Secretary of State under Bush. Powell was the generation of the officers who came through Vietnam. Powell was at the level of serving on the staff of an infantry division. He is famous for this because it was on his desk that landed the early reports of the masscre at My Lai. Powell secured his future advancement and buried the reports so no one knew about it until an investigative reporter named Seymore Hersh heard the rumors and looked into it and then told the world about the village full of dead bodies.
The point is, the officer class that saw Vietnam was already at the peak of their careers under Clinton. That junior staff officer from Divisional command in Vietnam was then the chair of the JCS. Those who came after had not seen everything, as they certainly had not seen a losing guerilla war in Vietnam.
The American military has been quite odd in this time of war. Normally, when a nation goes to war, the early months of the war are marked by a lot of very incompetent officers who’ve risen in rank in the peacetime army but turned out to be horrible at warfare. They tend to die or get fired. Most wars begin with a rapid shuffling of commanders until they find ones who can actually do the job. Yet, the American military still shows all of the signs of being such a peacetime officer corps.
I suppose the difference is that this is not a war for survival that demands that the best officers be found and put into charge as soon as possible. Because of that, there are still the peacetime habits of letting politics decide who succeeds in the officer corps. Of course, one of the features of a political officer corps is that they make bets on backing a particular horse for advancing their careers, and sometimes that doesn’t work out. You pay your money and you take your chances. A fact not lost on the current generation of political officers who are wondering whether to back Trump, or whether that would be a bad career move in the long run.
The older of the officers under Obama may have seen the invasion of Granada. More likely is the invasion and bombardment of Panama City. They probably served in the campaign in the former state of Yugoslavia. Before 9/11, that was likely about it. Or perhaps its more correct to say some of them may have seen those actions, as only a fraction of the serving officers did.
After 9/11, they would have served in Afghanistan. They would have served in the invasion of Iraq. The would have fought the insurgents in Iraq. And the rest of the adventures of the Terror Wars. But it still remained largely a political, peacetime officer corps.
What they certainly have not seen is a full scale war against a major power. And, even in Iraq, they haven’t seen the sort of large effort at a guerrilla war that still lost that was the Vietnam Experience.
They do have a very high opinions of themselves, but I’d say its quite a stretch to say they’ve “seen everything.”
Meanwhile, I do think my movie watching for the night just became “Seven Days in May.”
I wish your assessment is correct.
@B.F.
Maybe someone just planned Armageddon. Obama and Kerry plus went several times to the South Pole why?
The Cabal is old; Adelson, Kissinger, Albright, Rothschild, Rockerfeller, Queen Elizabeth, m.m.
Good arcticle comparing the arrogance and stupidity back then and now.
It has been said many times: US/UK needs a hard punch in the face before they wake up.
But we should know its not an easy task nor a fair request to give to Russia. We the silent comfortable Western armchair sheeple ever searching for proxies to do the hard dirty risky lethal work.
We are as guilty as our leaders..
Thanks for your insights . I strongly doubt that our officer corps will ever go against the dictates of Wall Street, seeing how Wall Street largely controls their pensions. It’s always about the money and the payoffs, conjured up in massive quantities out of thin air.
true, if even one sheeple wakes up by reading an article like yours it is worth all the agony of studying the insane.
Dr. NG Maroudas
You are right. Just look at Bolton’s face. Every time I see it I wonder if it is the face of a human being or the face of clone.
You think that face is the result of an intelligent design? Really?
:) :) ;)
Perhaps ……someone with time on their hands could post email it to every member of congress…Senate…administration..every one working for state departments …forces…police….national guard …etc etc ..
..the sense of hopelessness however one feels in trying to reveal truth to others subsumed by malign intentions.
Great post, but who is Juan?
Juan is on the ground in Donbass and parts nearby. Delivered very timely and accurate SitReps during the heat of the war in Donbass. Helped establish the Vineyard as reliable source in the world of news, blogs, opinion (and lies by the Hegemon and Deep State).
Great to hear from Juan again. We always worried for his health and well-being.
This is all very brave and patriotic; but it is useless when this war against Russia is being waged “by other means”.
Russia is capable of surviving this war; but it cannot prosper under these conditions.
Russia is constrained by the classic “guns vs. butter” dilemma: in order to maintain its tactical superiority and strategic parity with the United States in military terms, the ability for the Russian people to improve their material well-being will be severely constrained. In the long run, both the military capability of Russia and the economic well-being of its people will be eroded by these ever more intrusive and aggressive sanctions.
Eventually, Russia will have to make the fateful decision that the Japanese faced in 1941: either attack or surrender.
I think you’re overestimating the economic weight, of not just the USA, but the entire West, in today’s world.And Japan was denied of energy, Washington is in no position to deny Russia of energy.Between Russia,China and Iran they have everything they need to survive(and prosper) indefinitely, even with zero trade with the West.The only thing these sanctions are accomplishing is the West cutting themselves out of the economic pie.
I hope that you are right; but I think that you are wrong.
For all the chatter among the EU, Japan and Canada about defying US sanctions, I believe that each and every one of them will eventually acquiesce to American demands. It will not matter how much compliance will hurt the economies of these countries. They are all tied into the international monetary system which the US controls.
In Russia’s near abroad, Belarus and the Caucasus, plus all the “stans” of Central Asia, are all “playing nice” with the globalist capitalists of America for the same reason.
Of course, it is possible that at some point the EU and Japan could tell the Americans to get out and to stay out of their affairs. But these countries would only consider doing so if/when the US military becomes incapable of carrying out their threats to Russia and China, or if the AFD in Germany, the National Front in France, and the nationalist movements in smaller countries in Europe will join the Five Star Movement in Italy to become the ruling parties in their respective countries.
But, don’t hold your breath while you are hoping for either or both of these to happen.
“Russia is capable of surviving this war” I agree with this statement but how about the US? The US is totally dependant on debt like a junkie, it survives due to the satus of the dollar as world reserve without it the US will crumble due to its gigantic debt. A millitary defeat of the US will mean that it will loose its power to impose the dollar on other countries by force, without the power of the money printing press then the US has “to work” to pay its bills, it will mean the end of the US (hopefully not of the entire planet but not sure unfortunatly)
The US empire is nearing it’s expiration date, the next financial crisis is already around the corner. Financial experts have been talking about it for years, and now I see “financial crisis” mentioned more and more closer to mainstream. It will wipe out the dollar hegemony and the US empire with it, they already pissed off not only most of the unaligned planet, but their closest allies as well, apart from a few bootlickers in Western governments, like that dimwitted moron Theresa May. Italy, France, Germany are all basically looking at an opening to ditch the US, after the next financial crisis, when the US is unable to exert it’s power anywhere, there is no stopping mainland Europe from ditching them for good.
This is the reason for the ramping up of sanctions against Russia, the US is trying to cripple the China and Russia alliance, the OBOR, BRICS and Eurasia with them by targeting the weakest link, economically speaking, Russia. They are running out of time and are starting a last ditch effort to preserve their hegemonic ambitions, which will, of course, fail miserably. Still, like every single empire before them, they are not going down gracefully. It’s also the reason for the increasingly illegal steps they are taking. The seizure of the embassies, the sanctions on completely made up grounds, even if sanctions were legitimate, the type and amount of sanctions they use are against international law and against the WTO. It’s desperation, not strength they are displaying here.
The Russians have restructured their economy to withstand the worst the US can throw at them, which is the reason for the very modest growth in the last few years. On the flipside, they can now watch while US efforts to tank their economy fizzle out, with minor shocks, like the Ruble going down a few points. Much to the displeasure of the US elite, as evidenced by them foaming at their mouths in disbelief as to why their “mighty and powerful” financial weapon didn’t do what they hoped it would.
China and Russia have passed the point of no return, nothing short of nuclear war can stop them now, while the US is rapidly in decline. Sure, they can still bully Venezuela and Iran, to a lesser extent, but China and Russia are no longer within their grasp.
If you look at the statements coming out of Russia in terms of foreign policy as said by people like Putin, Peskov and Lavrov, they are basically saying that they are waiting out the US and are already speaking about a post-West world order. That’s also why Putin met with Trump, to pretend like they still matter while they are still powerful, to try and stop them from very foolish and dangerous demonstrations of power. He knew it would lead to nowhere, he knows the US can not be trusted and thus no agreement can be achieved with them, but at this point in time they are still too powerful to ignore and history will reflect Russias will to dialogue, even with unreasonable, deluded morons.
Serg
Well spoken. Yes, Europe is looking towards the East, as I have written many times before. Putin goes to the wedding of the Austrian FM and in the same day flies to Germany to meet with Merkel. I wonder how many people grasped the importance of Putins “wedding” attendance. He did not just go to a wedding, he went to talk. Trump was not invited, which says plenty.
I should add that both Russia and China are playing the waiting game. As we all know, everything revolves around money. By now it’s well known that both countries have accumulated large amounts of gold, preparing to introduce gold backed currencies. About a week ago I had an E-Mail exchange with a well known analyst. He assured me that Russia has accumulated more than 30.000 tonnes of gold. One of his sources privately told him that the figure could be as high as 60.000 tonnes. I would not be surprised if this was true. Patience is a Russian virtue.
By the official stats your claims about their gold accumulation is highly exaggerated. US=8000t (constant for at least 10 years), Russia = (about)2000t, China = slightly less than 2000, Germany => 3000.
Nut Russia accumulates about 200t/year for the last 8-10 years and there is no reason it will not continue the rate.
Just google “gold reserves”.
Dear Albert,
If what you say about the USA gold holding situation (8000t constant for at least ten years) then why was it that when the Chinese inspected gold bullion from the US that they found tungsten ingots instead of gold?
This also raises a couple of other questions in 1) just how many of those tungsten bars as counterfeit gold bars were shipped to China; 2) Why was it that China were concerned enough to make the necessary inspection of that gold and; 3) how many more counterfeit gold ingots remain in US banks?
My suggestion would be that the creation of tungsten counterfeit gold bars simply demonstrate that the US has run short of gold, which just may be another indicator of the decline of the Western powers.
Albert Greenbaum
I am not claiming anything, only quoting others who have experience with finances. And how much gold does the US really have ? By gold I mean gold, and not tungsten covered with a thin layer of gold.
Funny, wasn’t the announcement of this last year that Russia was reducing its defense budget?
And of course, their overall budget goes up everytime Trumps raises the price of oil. Everytime Trump sends another twit to Iran, Russia’s budget looks better.
And best of all, Russia is so very isolated that they only have a billion plus Chinese to trade with.
Japan was a very different case of a small island nation without coal, iron or oil trying to compete in an industrial age where a nation’s might was based on such things.
Not having natural resources is not a problem that Russia faces.
Thus, Juan’s point is proved for him. Russia is dealing with an opponent who thinks that a strategy that worked against a small, resource-poor island nation will actually work against Russia.
I think it can. Obviously not as fast but still. They got rid of Treasuries, they accumulate gold (~200t per year for the last 8-10 years), they rapidly developing stable markets in far east, they seriously invest in human capital (no SJW, btw. thank you very much), etc. I think in a year or 2 their GDP growth will accelerate rapidly, although it is hard to estimate by how much. Most likely within 3 years it (growth in %, not GDP) will be higher than in the US.
Dear Arthur,
What happened to Libya after Reagan attacked it and killed a daughter of Gaddafi? Didn’t the US and the West ‘sanction’ Libya? What was the result?
And then finally the Head of MI6 went and brought Gaddafi in from the cold when it was seen that the sanctions had had the opposite affect to what was desired.
Ahh yes, the old Richard Dearlove, the Head of Paris Station when Diana and Dodi had that ‘accident’ in the tunnel.
Technically speaking Napoleon had no choice but to retreat along the lines of his advance as Kutozov had blocked other routes and after Borodino and typhoid had decimated his ranks his army was incapable of another major battle. Moscows burning left him low on supplies and then as he started his retreat General Winter hit. An estimated 600,000 men entered Russia under Napoleon and I think only about 20,000 came back.
In other news, somewhat related, another warmonger is no more. John McCain has passed, and it may not be good form to speak ill of the dead, but I can only find joy in the knowledge that thousands may live now that he has departed this life. I hope his replacement is less supportive of war, but I already know that I shall be disappointed.
The world seems lighter, no?
Napoleon went in with just under half a million men, not counting the camp followers and tradesmen. I have never read of Typhoid running through either army, Russian or European. The estimates I’ve read of the survivors are about 20%, perhaps less, but many of these were the officers and organizations heads. The rank and file, and camp followers, perished in their multitudes.
Juan
Juan
Most historians estimate that Napoleon took 450.000 men to Russia, with some placing the number at 500.000. However, I am slightly surprised that the article mentions that 20 % survived. From what I have read a mere 1.000 men returned to the West, with 70.000 being captured and later on released. Those who were released fought against Wellington at Waterloo.
It’s been a few years since I studied that campaign, but IIRC: the total invasion force was around the traditional 600,000. Just like in 1941, it was split by the Pripyat Marshes: the Austrian Army of 200,000 invaded Ukraine south of the marshes, but didn’t advance very far before just turning around and marching home.
On the far northern flank, the Prussian army of 50,000 men defected to the Russians after the retreat from Moscow was well underway.
The Grande Armee under Napoleon in the center contained about 200,000 Frenchmen; the rest were allied soldiers, mostly western Germans from the Kingdom of Westphalia (created by Napoleon in 1807 and ruled by his brother Jerome) and a large Polish contingent under their Count Poniatowski.
The Grande Armee left casualties coming and going from Moscow. 3,000 of it’s soldiers were recently discovered in a mass grave near Vilnius (at first thought to be WW II victims; most died from disease). Around 30,000 men were casualties at the Battle of Borodino. Marshal Ney led the rear guard of 5,000 hardy souls out of Russia at the end of the campaign.
The immense losses of men (infantry) and material (cannon) were mostly made good in time for the beginning of the 1813 campaign. The real damage was done to the cavalry arm: trained riders and (especially) mounts could not be replaced that quickly.
The quality of the 1812 Grande Armee was much superior to the 1813-14 Armee. The 1815 Armee at Waterloo was also much better than the 1813-14 version, since it was composed of many repatriated POWs (many from Great Britain that had been captured in Spain). As in 1812, most of the artillery was lost again at Waterloo.
Hello Juan,
Stephan Talty has an excellent book ‘The Illustrious Dead’ that details the effects of disease on Napolean’s army. It starts with, as Trey mentions, the excavations of his troops at Vilnius where the main disease was found to be Typhus.
In chapter 2 Talty states that there 690,000 men in the ‘Grande Armee’ and between 550,000 and 600,000 actually entered Russia. Although the figures that returned are unknown, there were about 7,000 left in Kovno and an additional 20,000 or so repatriated after the war by Russia. Some 20,000 troops entered Vilna during the retreat.
I would like to compliment you, by the way, on a well written article.
Sorry Juan,
But the Typhoid started hitting the French Army even before it left France, and has been recorded as such. Part of his army were the Irish ‘Wild Geese’ that had been forced to leave Ireland due to the moves by James 1st of England against the Popish Irish and the establishment of the ‘Orangemen’ in their place.
The world is a better place without McCain and nobody should be remotely concerned about speaking truthfully about him.
I’d have loved to have been sitting in a lounge chair and have a view of when John McCain came to the Pearly Gates and tried to get passed St. Peter.
St. Peter pulls out a very large file, and says “Where should we begin? Perhaps back when you were killing women and children by high altitude bombing in Vietnam. I don’t really remember Jesus advising that this was a good thing to do. Next ….
An earnest plea for rational behavior from rabid dogs in DC. There is very little likelihood that the US will alter its behavior any time soon.
The way all the historic events Juan points out unfolded was how a hegemon rolls. The facts have to be overwhelming and disastrous to domestic politics before the hell and chaos (including losses to Americans) is ended.
With the new exclusive tactic of using proxies, very few (comparative) losses are totaled by the US military and contractors. Thus, the pain is really manageable. 17 years and counting in Afghanistan. 15 in Iraq. And Syria is an air war for the US, relatively speaking.
What is required is a catastrophic total in one place (al Tanaf for instance) where 80 or 100 US could be black body-bagged.
We’ve heard the threats from Soleimani but he can’t pull that off in Syria.
What is interesting is how the Iraqi air force behaves. They fly into the Northeast and bomb ISIS they track from Iraq and kill them in Syria. The Iraqis also aided in al Kamal and al Mayadin when the Syrians finally got to the border. But then were pushed away by CENTCOM.
Perhaps the Iraqis could take out some of the huge Hassake base the US operates. That’s where the ISIS fighters go for R&R and new battle plans from the US handlers. Probably where al Baghdadi gets medical support and protection.
Appeals to reason has never worked with the US.
General Giap had the correct strategy and tactics. He destroyed the bases from which the US operated, making their missions largely ineffective while piling up the 200’s and 300’s in large numbers.
KIAs matter when the numbers are counted by the score.
History is irrelevant to the Hegemon. Pointing to all his military disasters falls on deaf ears.
Show him the fresh pile of American bodies. Get that image in front of the sheep and servile citizens of the Exceptional Nation. That’s what works.
What the US and the world need is some well-placed lightning on top of every neocon kingpin running the US government.
A stirring reminder for those who read history and those who participate in it.
Old saying – History is life’s teacher .
Arnold Toynbee in A Study of History (IV Volume) describes what is The suicidalness of militarism.
Three Greek words -κόρος ,ὕβρις, ἄτη- Koros Hubris Ate explain three acts leading to catastrophe .
Koros means surfeit and being spoiled by success , Hubris means Pride and Arrogance ( American exceptionalism) in form of loss mental and moral balance and Ate means disaster -the blind impulse which sweeps an unbalanced soul into attempting impossible .
This tragic drama in three acts is repeating from ancient time.
In Platonic language :
“If one sins against the law of proportion and gives something too big to something too small to carry it -too big sail to too small a ship, …., too big power to too small a soul – the result is to be a complete upset ……”
Auslander: well said, I like your style.
Russia (and China) only have to play for time as the US rots from within. The debt bomb is ticking louder as the world weans itself off the dollar. The country is hopelessly divided, and if the mid-terms go the wrong way then The Orange One will be a dead duck. The population is uneducated and becoming infantilised. The country increasingly relies on imports, but has pissed off all its suppliers. It thinks it has allies, but how many will fight? – not Turkey, not Germany, not France, not Italy. The Brits can hardly get a squadron in the air or a ship to sea, and besides the enemy is already within their gates. And don’t count on much from Australia – they will switch to China when they see the writing on the wall.
I don’t wish to see a war at all, but half of me wants to see the playground bully put firmly in his place.
And that’s only half the picture.
Russia is recovering from the disaster that was Yeltsin and the Harvard Boys.
China is on a path to being the largest economy on the planet in a decade or three.
Just on those accounts, all they have to do is to wait. The fact that the American elite making cuts to education and teachers for decades in a row is slowly creating an incompetent, poorly informed America that is falling apart is just a tilt in the same direction from the other side of the scale.
The traditional source of US military personnel (those living in “flyover country”) are increasingly angry at the arrogant, dysfunctional US government. While there remains a significant degree of latent patriotism, many have realized that serving in the US military is unrelated to love/duty towards country and community. Due to this attitude, and widespread youth obesity, military recruitment is in serious difficulty.
Increasingly, I see and hear Americans say “there’s no way in Hell I’ll let my sons join the military.” It may require a major false flag to overcome this attitude, if it can be overcome at all.
Wow…. Respect! Nothing else to add.
Why the bizarre spellings of Moscow and Crimea?
You might think twice. Moscow and Crimea are English versions, not original.
Now ask the question.
I don’t know why the author used them here, but Moskau is the German spelling of Moscow. Krimea is a mix between the German Krim and English Crimea, I assume.
Anonymous 2:29
Крым & Москва. I sometimes use Moskau because I speak German in addition to Russian and English.
Juan
JM
Yes, your spellings are bizarre.
Juan
Oh, lovely, lovely!
I love a sense of humour!!!
JM
The Russian capital of Moscow is written and pronounced as Moskva. I always wondered why the word “cow” was introduced into the name by English speaking countries. A joke perhaps ? As for Crimea, it is written and pronounced as Krim (or “cream” in English, although the word “cream” has nothing to do with the name).
this post almost brought me to tears )).
”In the early eighteen hundreds, a rather well known general named Napoleon had roughly the same attitude and designs on Russia as USA has today.”
And that is great news. For all his undisputed competence in military matters, Napoleon Bonaparte — just like Sweden’s Charles XII a century before him — was rewarded by truly monumental defeat at the hands of Russia in general and her army in particular. Adolf Hitler couldn’t even be troubled to assess Russia’s fighting capacity, substituting utter racist madness for strategic deliberations.
The US neocons are the most depraved lot. Sure they hate Russia with a passion but, unlike Hitler, they have the same basic attitude towards the entire world, bar Israel. Hitler after all did admire his Anglo-American forerunners; aping their ideology and their practices. In view of this, one really appreciates the brilliance of Putin’s resolve: ”Never again will war be fought on Russia’s soil”.
And yes: The neocons do have very manifest mental problems indeed. The Soviets were right about Western ideology being a form of mental illness.
Nussiminen
Yes, Hitler used racial madness as an excuse to invade Russia. Just read the second part of his book Mein Kampf, where he presents his plans for Russia. Never before did anybody publicly outline his foreign policy plans. The question is why ? Perhaps to cover up his controllers ? Someone still has to explain how on earth Germany had the financial resources to fight two world wars against so many countries. Money was obviously given to it by someone. Now who can that be.
The point is that both Napoleon and Hitler were financed by private bankers. Both invaded Russia, and both were fighting for the interests of private banks. The US in 1945 took over from Hitler, using NATO against Russia. The US elite would just love to break up and plunder Russia, as it is plundering Ukraine. Well, that is just wishful thinking. That coup d’etat in Kiev in 2014 was the height foolishness, starting a chain reaction which in the end will see Ukraine inside the Russian Federation.
B.F.
Hitler’s Mein Kampf — of which I’ve read the first part — struck me as equally reactionary and retarded; Hitler was a most authentic piece of Euro-trash, that’s for sure. My take is that his ”thoughts” on the subject of Russia were brought down to him by Imperial Germany’s Officer Corps. Hitler made good use of the Russophobic soundbites as a marketing ploy, soon to be rewarded by the crucial support of Big Finance and Big Industry for Nazi expansionism — support coming both from within Germany and from the Anglosphere (Ford, Rockefeller, J P Morgan).
As for NATO, it is indeed — literally — the Nazi American Terror Organization which welcomed the bulk of Nazi Germany’s Officer Corps into its ranks a mere 10 years after WW2 ended. The prospect of looting Russia to death remains forever its core mission. Too bad the occasion to accompish that was botched in those promising 1990s in Russia. Ukraine comes nowhere close to compensate for all the fabulous loot at Russia’s expense. Now that they botched their chance in Ukraine as well — Crimea, first and foremost — it’s game over. Serves them right.
“soon to be rewarded by the crucial support of Big Finance and Big Industry for Nazi expansionism — support coming both from within Germany and from the Anglosphere (Ford, Rockefeller, J P Morgan).”
But first of all Fritz Thyssen, the owner of the Union Bank (think Prescott Bush) and many subsidiaries of the Thyssen Bank all over the world. Losing or winning the war, they made profits anyway. In the Netherlands it was a Thyssen Bank subsidiary who provided ‘Dutch’ state loans for the repairs and rebuilding of WWII German caused damages, a war and damages financed by the same bank.
Yes, these neocons have truly gone kookoo, but I do not think we have much to worry about them.
Weimerika, it’s numerous populations, it’s buerocracy, administration is in a state of a civil war, and the capacity of it’s military shall b needed at home not a minute too soon.
Sure, diversions abroad are on the way,(I hear about 8 tanks and crews being prepared in Idlib with the -surprise- appropriate gasseus materials.) but methinx it’s a bit too little, too late.
One thing to consider is, that having some assets literally minutes away from tel aviv, jerusalem, etc, Russia does not have to launch at US targets, yet, can pre-emptively decapitate/demoralize the heart of the demon.
P.S.
(I wish on Mr. McCain everything, that he has coming, only wish to send his pal, Mr. Soros after him, so he is in good company…)
When will you, and the rest of the world, snap to reality? The Neo-Cons ARE
the people of the United States. Aggression, murder, et al, are the gift the US gives to the world. It isn’t just Bolton … the entire country is greedily insane … from sea to shining sea.
Except, to become President, one has to at least pretend to be anti-war. Obama had to pretend to be anti-war. Trump had to criticize the wars and pretend to want to change things. The Americans you hate won’t vote for a Presidential candidate who doesn’t do that. The late John McCain found that out against Obama.
Bolton is so lowly regarded by the Americans you despise that if Trump had said before the election that he’d appoint Bolton, then Trump would have lost the election, even to Hillary.
You have a point, Anonymous.
But it is an inconvenient point for those who would eschew working with ANY American, no matter how sane or moral or informed, so eager are they to condemn the whole lot of them to eternal punishment, along with John McCain,…………. and the sooner the better!
People like to oversimplify. It’s so much more emotionally rewarding than the actual complexity of the situation.
Our crazies and deranged neocons are still extremely dangerous, but their grip on the mass consciousness is slipping.,as your comment illustrates.
Grease their skids.
Yes, but for whom do they pretend to be anti-war?Their own people as you say, or towards foreign peoples paying attention to the happenings in the world?The American people still pay taxes to fund these wars and join the volunteer military to fight these wars.As a general rule if a people are strongly against war then it is next to impossible for the political leadership to get into wars, especially large scale and long term ones.
you are right. And it’s not just their leaders who are nedogovorsposobni – the whole population is like that.
I lived there for 12 or more years – you cannot really trust anyone there (apart from foreigners) – everyone will promise everything and then change their minds immediately whenever it suits them.
There is no honor or balls in a country run by pathological psychopaths (they have no honor or loyalty by the nature of their illness)
That’s what makes the US of AIPAC so hopeless
Hahahahah loved it. That was a really good rant and worthy of a fine wine. Bolt-on is truly a stupid piece of s*!t.
Its a very minor quibble, but the author refers to the French retreat with the phrase “As the army retreated with ever increasing speed,”. I would doubt that this is correct. They were so hungry that they ate their horses, and its doubtful that starving men stumbling through a worsening winter went faster without horses than before.
Anonymous 8:17
Napoleon delayed leaving the burned out Moskau, for whatever reasons no one knows. The retreat began in a leisurely manner, the columns of the army heading west overburdened with loot, everything from fine women’s clothings to works of art and paintings large and small, furniture, stolen carriages and wagons, precious metal objects, anything and everything, but precious little food.
Discipline in the army had already deteriorated to be almost non existent, and Napoleon insisted on bringing every piece of artillery he had with the columns instead of spiking those he had no crews for and leaving them as scrap. This resulted in precious horses who should have been pulling wagons full of food and fodder being driven to death pulling useless cannons, and Murat’s precious and pampered cavalry were more and more marching in their thin boots with the soldiers, their horses having died off in huge numbers in their camps around Moskau, ill fed and ill cared for, and the vast majority of the remainder died within a week of the retreat westward.
The trail of the army can be found to this day with minimal archaeology, the various looted items were discarded along the entire route from Moskau to Vilnius and beyond, and while many precious objects, and virtually everything else, was picked up by the surviving local peasants and the following Russian Army and Kossaks, there was no way everything was found, or even regarded as precious. To this day, one can dig down but little and find lots of interesting goodies, the usual uniform buttons and decorations, bits of harness, weapons both edged and firearm, even the remains of soldiers and camp followers who were left to rot and molder in to the ground in both meadows and forests.
As the weather closed down and the Kossaks began to hem the retreating army in to the main roads, foraging could be, and often was fatal. Thus, were possible, the rather sedate speed of the early march increased as much as possible as the looming disaster became noticeable to the rankers and lower officers. The mid level and senior officers are a different story entirely.
Juan
“There was no after meeting joint statement, and this in and of itself says the meeting went nowhere. ”
That’s bad. Diplomats can take a meeting where the two sides do nothing but yell insults and threats at each other for two hours, and then still release a statement saying it was “a useful meeting with a frank exchange of views.”
I am getting tired of this Poor Little Russia, Watch As The Neocons Are Attacking And Abusing Her business. Come on. Russia is not Nicaragua or El Salvador, but a strong world power, despite all what Putin is NOT doing. It got more nuke power than her enemies and also an overall superiority in most military fields that count, Furthermore it could have also hurt Amerika in so many ways, as Paul Craig Roberts and many others have alredy pointed out. Stopping the sale of the RD 180 engines for example, or ending the delivery of titanium to the U.S. so crippling the U.S. aeronautical industry, and by not allowing any more US astronauts in their Soyuz trips to the ISS, not to mention letting US troops in Afghanistan hanging to dry and expelling all US financed NGOs from Russia. Those are only a few of the responses that Russia could have used to answer U.S. attacks and provocations. And what Putin has done instead…? Nothing, except warning, talking, appeasing, talking, talking…
Why should Russia do ‘more’? Do you really believe that what the Americans can do is more than talking, threatening, talking, threatening, talking?
‘Moskau’ is used jokingly referring to the German invasion because it’s how Germans pronounce the name of Moskva. When joking about Napoleon it should have been ‘Moscou’ as the French pronounce it, for more effect.
What Bolton and many people don’t know is that the Napoleon’s war against Russia ended with the Russians entering Paris and removing Napoleon and his regime altogether, and the French dominance of Europe with it. Actually rearranging Europe. The same happened with the the German-‘European’ invasions of Russia. They ended with the Russians entering Berlin and removing Hitler and his regime and ending the German dominance of Europe. Again rearranging Europe.
He certainly doesn’t know about the advice of Marshal Montgomery: ““The U.S. has broken the second rule of war. That is, don’t go fighting with your land army on the mainland of Asia. Rule One is don’t march on Moscow. I developed these two rules myself.” Hopefully American Generals are more educated in military matters than Bolton could possibly be.
Juan (or Saker or anybody who has knowledge of the following topic):
In the article you wrote:
“Serbia. How many airframes did you lose?….”
Wikipedia says that the NATO losses were: “2 aircraft shot down and 3 damaged, two Apache helicopters crashed, and 57 UAV shot down”.
(This is from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kosovo_War)
I remember seeing Venik’s website years ago (I think that it is inactive now) that claimed many more NATO planes being shot down, but I never saw any other confirmation. Was Venik’s information reliable?
The F-117 that was shot down is definitely true. But, what about the stories that one B-2 was also shot down?
Furthermore, there were stories about the successful raids of the Yugoslav Air Force against the Tuzla airport in Bosnia and the Rinas (spelling?) airport in Albania, but I have also seen witness accounts that dispute those stories. Are these stories true?
In general, could you, please, elaborate regarding these aircraft losses during the NATO aggression against Yugoslavia in 1999?
Kind regards.
What will change things quite soon, fundamentally, for all these Empire players is if Bill Holter and Jim Sinclair are correct about the collapse of the Empire’s fiat currencies and unserviceable debt……….touched off by emerging markets Turkey, Argentina, Brazil…. In essence they say, “The Pin Has Already Been Pulled Out”…..the explosion is coming soon now, with no stopping it, “the trigger has already been pulled……it’s already started…”…….in the last couple of weeks:
https://youtu.be/vM-PcocIDB0
Sinclair also says, “It’s going to be a Friday to Monday event. There is going to be an explosion, and the explosion is a change. It may blow your mind, but the explosion would not be three or four months or a year in upticks in these items (gold and silver prices). Oh, they are going to uptick. That’s for sure. The finality of this is going to be the reset. . . .It is going to be something entirely new that doesn’t exist now. It may be engineered and not happening by natural causes. . . .You need to know who President Trump is, what he is a master of and what tools he has used effectively as part of his business. It’s not “The Art of the Deal,” it’s the science of bankruptcy.”
How bad is it going to get? Holter sums it all up when he says, “The world is Venezuela.”
Currency collapse is underway. Starting with the emerging markets, but threatening all of them…….SO, ……”When?—Is NOW” according to them..
The difficulty, conceptually, is that this has been a very,very long road trip and the kids in back of the station wagon that have been asking for decades, “Are we there yet?”…are now getting OLD……and no longer believe that there is a “there” there …. a place where a reset to monetary sanity……EVER arriving…..could exist.
I think the time of any weakness in the Iranian/Russian/Chinese alliance has passed.
I think the real moment came when the US attacked Syria with 105 cruise missiles and steered clear of any Russian assets or resources. The Anglozionists blinked first. With the rapid emergence of advanced weapons technology, I believe the Russian advantage is permanent. The Russians will share all that is required with China and Iran. If America could not hurt Russia in that cruise missile strike, they won’t be able to do so for a very long time, maybe 50 or 100 years.
Chinese and Russian commitment to science, technology, economic growth and the steady reduction of the US dollar in trade has won the battle. I honestly think there is no going back now.
Putin’s patience will become legendary in the future works of historians. When you reflect on that big red map of Syria now it is astonishing what they have achieved in a a few years with relatively limited resources….. .getting Israel to back down was masterful.
Patience, persistence, wisdom. Those are the values that have allowed the Russians, Chinese and Iranians to win.
However, I do not think everything is hunky dory. The US ruling elite will retaliate and they will do so in a horrifying, vicious, violent way.
It won’t be against an adversary they have no hope of defeating. They will follow their traditional pattern of pillaging the weak.
In the future they will turn against their own citizens and attempt to squeeze them even harder than they are now.
I could see a civil war or US states separating from the union.
It will be horrifying for Americans. Most of the rest of the world will be relieved.
Crimea was annexed be Ukraine – not by Russia!
And it was annexed TWICE by Ukraine!
The first time, as mentioned here, by Khrushchev (an Ukrainian) in 1954. This was as well illegal to the then Sowjet law as it was illegal to international law, because a state cannot simply expatriate a part of his (Russia) population to another (Ukraine) state. See also: http://pennyforyourthoughts2.blogspot.com/2018/08/multipolarity-arrives-in-middle-east.html?showComment=1534669945615#c4719585574827714580 .
The second time Crimea was annexed by Ukraine was in 1994. When the Sowjet Union disintegrated, aso the people of Crimea declared themselves independent. Like did a lot of (nowadays) other countries (Kazakhstan, Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania, Georgia and so on – and yes: Ukraine).
So the Autonomous Republic of Crimea was established by the 1991. But already in 1994 Ukrainian Troops marched in and annexed Crimea. To this see: http://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2017/03/28/ukraine-annexed-crimea-1990s/
There were two referendums in Krimu and Sevastopol after SSSR was no more, one by Kravchuk and one by Kuchma, the first and second ‘presidents’ of Ukraine. Things were pretty rough at that time, but many did vote in the referendums, choice being ‘stay with Ukraine’ or ‘become independent’.
No vote total was given for either referendum, just ‘the vote of the people was stay with Ukraine’ was announced both times. With all the economic turmoil of the times, early ’90’s, the citizens just shrugged and kept doing what they could to live and get by.
In late February, 2014, a raid was performed on a particular small administration building on near southside after a concerned citizen reported that ‘important documents were being burned’. Turned out these ‘important documents’ were substantial numbers of the ballots from both referendums in Sevastopol. The process was stopped, the perpetrators were detained, but too many ballots were destroyed to be able to prove beyond a doubt which way the referendums went in Krimu. However, the third referendum was the charm, Sevastopol and Krimu voted for independence from Ukraine in overwhelming numbers.
Auslander
War, like patriotism and religion is a great social integrator. It brings peoples’ and nations together who are able to withstand any hardships and privations which they would not put up with in normal times. This was clearly the case with the invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941 and the human and material sacrifices it was prepared to make. The average rational person only needs a half a brain cell to realise this. Moreover, powerful states are able to mobilise their economies onto a war footing which makes them virtually unconquerable, as both the United States and the Soviet Union did in 1941.
The war economy of the US did not stimulate the private sector it replaced the free-market and the profit motive. In many industries corporate executives resisted to converting to military production because they did not want to lose consumer market share to competitors who did not convert. Conversion thus became a goal pursued by public officials and labour leaders. Auto companies fully converted to war-time production in 1942 and only began substantially converting to aircraft production by 1943. The bombing of Pearl Harbour was of course the spur to this reconfiguration of US industry from a peace-time to a war-time structure. From the beginning of preparedness in 1939 to running at full capacity in 1944 the process was not left to the free-market capitalist sector, but was transformed into what was essentially a command economy. To organize the war economy and ensure that it produced the goods needed for war, the federal government created an array of mobilization agencies, which often produced goods, closely directed those goods manufacture, and heavily influenced the operations of private companies and whole industries.
The of this enormous project did not come gratis, but was funded by War Bonds and a meteoric rise in income tax from payable to 4 million citizens in 1939, to 43 million in 1945.
Russia and China have both been preparing meticulously for a defensive war and inexorably; hoping for the best and preparing for the worst. The present WW3 stage is informational, cybernetic and now financial/economic; the Russian’Chinese alliance are full aware that the US dollar, which underpins much of US power, is the weak link in the chain. We are moving from cold war to warm war. Whether we reach the ultimate stage of hot war, depends on whether the neo-cons have a Damascene conversion and realise that there are only two options available to them: peaceful coexistence or mutual annihilation. And of course a great deal also depends on whether the people of the Anglo-Zionist empire and the non-aligned will support such an insane path.
The more sane American strategists are fully aware of the limitations of US power:
”Defending the United States against a major Russian or Chinese ballistic missile attack is currently not feasible. A reliable and affordable defense that could protect America against a Russian ICBM and SLBM force that could launch some 1,500 ballistic missile warheads simply does not exist. While the Chinese force is much smaller, numbering several dozen ICBMs, it probably includes countermeasures that would seriously complicate disruption by missile defense systems.
For the foreseeable future, offense wins the offense-defense relationship. Offensive ballistic missile technology is far more mature than that of missile defense, and cost considerations favor the offense. Adding fourteen more GMD interceptors by 2017 will require the Pentagon to spend about $1 billion. The Russians and Chinese can each add fourteen more warheads to their strategic offensive forces at considerably less cost. One reason that the Russians are building a replacement for their heavy SS-18 ICBM is to have a missile that can carry ten-fifteen warheads as a means of overwhelming a future American missile defense.”
Stephen Pifer writing in The ”National Interest”, March, 2015
Steven Pifer directs the Brookings Arms Control and Non-Proliferation Initiative.
Please note that this was before Putin unveiled his new weapons in March 2018.
Peace or Suicide? Are the neo-cons really that crazy? Or is it just a bluff? Your guess is as good as mine.
The US controlled by the neocons and the deep state is the greatest threat to world peace and the existence of mankind. The US does not accept that other independent countries have their own interests and security boundaries and their own path of development.
Bolton is also a pro-Israel fanatic. I suspect the Jewish neocons conjure up imaginary and self-fulfilling enemies to divert attention from the criminal activities of Israel towards the palestinians and in the middle East. It is only a suspicion.
One point of importance when speaking about the Napoleon’s invasion, is that Russia was fully prepared to withstand it. Russians knew of the intentions of Napoleon at least since 1810 and had extremely detailed intelligence about the forces involved. They had time to prepare and organize the defense. Napoleon realized that he would be completely annihilated if he would not have run out at the greatest speed. His greatest mistake was to judge the Russian Army by its performance at Austerlitz, Eylau, Friedland.
Good stuff.
Seems the USA lacks what most of the East seem to have, the ability to extrapolate the ramifications of their actions over a long time frame. The USA seems incapable of thinking more than one step ahead and even then, they expect that the opposition will play by their ‘rules’ (that they ignore themselves) and throw a hissy fit when they don’t.
Yet everyone else is supposed to ignore that the USA constantly breaks treaties, violates international law, violates its own laws (Symington, amendments 1-10, etc.), ignores its own constitution, illegally starts wars, illegally enters sovereign countries, assassinates leaders, arms terrorists ……….. and about a thousand other examples.
A government of arrogance, hubris, hypocrisy, exceptionalism, narcissism, ignorance and paranoia….. with nukes. Plus, a populace so ignorant that they probably don’t actually know the meaning of the words in that list of characteristics.
USA! USA! USA! (Sieg heil! Sieg heil! Sieg heil!). Same shit, different century.
Question….rhetorical maybe …..has there in the past been situations where this kind of USA level of phobia economic military malign activity and hysteria etc against a country has escalated and ended in military action by the provocateur against that country …..any occaisions where such activity has not ended in war……has there been in the past situations where this kind of phobia economic malign activity and hysteria etc etc against a country where the defendant has not gone to war…..and situations where the defendant so to speak has taken the initiative to respond to neutralise the increasing levels of provocation etc etc…..?Hmmmmmm….
Since Napoleon has been brought up it’s really necessary to mention that Russia was not the enemy of Napoleonic France but Britain. Napoleon had previously preferred negotiations with Russia, which he wanted on his side against Britain, but the Russians continued to trade with the UK. Instead of a grand deliberate conquest campaign (unlike Hitler’s) Napoleon’s invasion of Russia was more a forced maneuver aimed to force the Russians to accept the Continental System.
It’s historically incorrect to compare Napoleon with Hitler, which is done for propagandistic purposes, although the Russian narrative is understandable (resistance to a foreign invader at the cost of high human sacrifice) I think the Russians are trapped by the Anglo-Saxon propaganda matrics which vilified Napoleon.
Turning whatever happens to be the dominant state on the European continent at the moment (France up to the defeat of Napoleon and then Germany) against Russia is old and tested Anglo-Saxon strategy. It brought ruin both to France/Germany as well as Russia.
I think the lesson has to be learned by both sides that there should be cooperation, not hostility from which the Atlanticists profit.
To that aim, comparing the current US leadership with Napoleon is totally ahistorical and incorrect. That would be highly flattering to the US leadership and humiliating for Napoleon.
In that case why didn’t Napoleon just block ports/trade routes to Britain?Or conquer Britain instead, considering it was the smaller country?
Unquestionably, the Napoleonic invasion of Russia was treated propagandistically by both sides.
But one of the propagandistic themes which prevails on both sides, is that the war was just the “Patriotic War of 1812”, the “resistance to a foreign invader at the cost of high human sacrifice” to which ‘War and Peace’ has accustomed us, the resistance of the Russian ‘people’, of the Russian generals close to the people’s heart who overcame the stupidity of the German generals and of the ‘westernizing Anglophiles’ on the Russian staff and of the indecision of a hapless Tsar, and not a stage in the grander political game which followed the French Revolution, actually of the Great Game!
On the side of ‘Continentals’, they could not and still can’t stomach the pain that their idols Napoleon and the ‘enlightened’ Europe have been beaten to a pulp by the ‘backward’ Russia, who theoretically wouldn’t stand a chance against the greatest military genius since Alexander the Great and devise theories after theories to excuse the political and strategical blunders of Napoleon. One being the attack on Russia and the utter underestimation of Russian capacities. Let’s not forget that Napoleon attacked at a moment when Russia was engaged in two wars (the Russian-Turkish war of 1806-1812 and Russian-Persian War of 1804-1813). Let’s not forget that Napoleon was engaged in an unwinnable war in Spain and actually in an unwinnable war with England. His invasion of Russia was indeed ‘a forced maneuver aimed to force the Russians to accept his Continental System’, which was a surrogate of the previous Continental System of alliances between the Great Powers which prevailed before the French Revolution and of which Russia was a pillar. Elimination of Russia was the necessary next step after the conquest of Prussia and Austria. Let’s not forget that Napoleon aimed at the restoration of Poland. Napoleon named the campaign the Second Polish War! (even if for the only reason that the Polish patriot Countess Walewska was the mistress of the Great Man – actually that was always an old policy of France) brandishing the ‘Will of Peter the Great’ as proof of the dark designs of the ‘scratch the Russian and you find the Tartar’ (BTW the ‘Will’ was a Polish fabrication).
So, the Russians did not fall into any ‘Anglo-Saxon propaganda matrix’ in ‘vilifying Napoleon’. They might have wondered at his hubris.They knew what he was preparing in minute details thanks to their unbeatable espionage, which reached the highest levels of Napoleon’s Government and Army. The resistance was carefully prepared years in advance, politically, militarily, logistically and propagandistically. The ‘popular resistance’ was prepared in advance by a patriotic propaganda appealing to all classes of society, orchestrated and organized by Barclay de Tolly, the War Minister. Orthodoxy vs the godless French, Holy Rus vs foreigners, Tsar vs Revolution. The ‘popular resistance’ was marshaled by Army officers. From a strictly military point of view Russians had an overwhelming superiority in cavalry and artillery.
The result of Napoleon’s defeat was the immediate defection of the Napoleon’s ‘Continental System’ partners who formed the ‘Sixth Coalition’, Austria, Prussia, Russia, the United Kingdom, Portugal, Sweden, Spain and a number of German states which finally defeated Napoleon and his kind of ‘Europe’ and permitted Russia to reinstate the former ‘continental System’ of the ‘balance of Powers’.
It is historically correct to compare Hitler with Napoleon. His objectives were the same as Napoleon’s and he faithfully repeated the same mistakes, mistakes against which Bismarck warned the hotheads of the warmongers. Now that ‘Mein Kampf’ became readily available, one can see that he dismissed Bismarck’s arguments specifically, countering them with the state of weakness of Russia after the Bolsheviks exterminated its ‘German’ leadership, who supposedly made the grandeur of Russia!
And this mistakes were the result of the same frame of mind, ignorance of Russia’s history. Nowadays ignorant politicians are prepared to repeat the same mistakes. They cannot understand that Russia is not run by benighted politicians or by accidental ‘strongmen’ who fall for whatever propaganda is foisted upon them. They read only the first part of the (generally misquoted) famous quip of Churchill: “Russia is a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma”. Actually Churchill who was a statesman, a major player in the Great Game and knew Russia well, knew what the key to the riddle was. What he said was: “I cannot forecast to you the action of Russia. It is a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma; but perhaps there is a key. That key is Russian national interest”. And Russians learn from their mistakes.
I’m not saying Russia would not have prevailed, most likely would. But the fact remains that Barbarossa was delayed and key German divisions had to be diverted to Greece to bail out the Italians. The delay was perhaps more crucial because the campaign then had to deal with the winter as well as the Russian army.
The delay was not due primarily to Germany diverting to Greece to bail out the Italians, but to the refusal of Yugoslavia to join the Axis. The defection of Yugoslavia was a much more serious matter than the skirmishes of Italy and Greece, leaving the underbelly of Germany wide open to a British action. Confident that he would finish Yugoslavia in no time (which he did) he depleted his Eastern front. He made another mistake against which Bismarck warned: “One day the great European War will come out of some damned foolish thing in the Balkans”. The foolish thing was to coax Romania and Bulgaria to join the Axis, against the misgivings of the Russians, who were still in some sort of romantic idyll with Germany. That certainly indicated to the Russians that Hitler was preparing to renege on their deals (the Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact).
In December Stalin told his generals that they should be prepared for an attack and stated that Hitler thought that the Red Army would require four years to ready itself such that “we must be ready much earlier” and “we will try to delay the war for another two years”. December is the date when Hitler received the final military plans for the invasion on which the German High Command had been working since July 1940 under the codename “Operation Otto”, reworked into the final ‘Barbarossa’. So, it is obvious that Stalin knew of the plan.
To come back to the “Russia mystery” of Churchill let’s see what he said in full on the 1st October 1939:
“I cannot forecast to you the action of Russia. It is a riddle wrapped in mystery inside an enigma; but perhaps there is a key. That key is Russian national interest.
It cannot be in accordance with the interest or safety of Russia that Nazi Germany should plant itself upon the shores of the Black Sea, or that is should overrun the Balkan States and subjugate the Slavonic peoples of south-eastern Europe. That would be contrary to the historic life-interests of Russia. But in this quarter of the world, the South East of Europe, these interests of Russia fall into the same channel as the interests of Britain and France. None of these three Powers can afford to see Rumania, Yugoslavia, Bulgaria and above all, Turkey, put under the German heel.
Through the fog of confusion and uncertainty we may discern quite plainly the community of interests which exist between England, France and Russia to prevent Germany carrying the flames of war into the Balkans or Turkey”.
The major flaw with this article and this type of thinking is the assumption that the Neocons (read Zionist Jews) care about American soldiers. They don’t. The only soldiers they care about are Israeli, and no Israeli soldiers die in any of these US-led wars. Bolton is just a puppet for Zionist Jews, as the photo accompanying this article shows. In the extremely unlikely case that a war breaks out between Russia and America, Bolton would be safely at home in Washington DC while the gullible patriotards will be doing the dying on the ground. He joined the National Guard in 1970 to avoid the draft because he had “no desire to die in a South East Asian rice paddy”. Bolton won’t be doing the fighting or dying, he’ll leave that up to the gullible idiots who actually believe in the “serving our country” nonsense.
I moot it is even worse than that.
Not ‘caring’ about the US or its soldiers is bad enough, but there is a school of thought increasingly talked of publicly, that these bastards basically have an overt demonic or satanist dimension to their ideology. It PLEASES them to see people die in huge numbers, and they exult in the carnage of war.
Bear it in mind. It is not proven by the course of history, nor is it incompatible with it. But damn, if you look at these psychos through that lens, then a lot of things make sense; their poisoning of the planet, their endless ‘blundering’ towards conflict with Russia, the need for ostensibly serially ruinous and futile wars elsewhere, for no strategic or material benefit. And yet, lots of blood, always lots of blood.
These are not human beings with souls or conscience, they are vampires who feed on death and suffering, unified by allegiance to something we can’t see, but think Satan, metaphorically or in fact.
There is a one-page summary of the 1812 campaign, available from many sources, for instance
https://datavizblog.com/2013/05/26/dataviz-history-charles-minards-flow-map-of-napoleons-russian-campaign-of-1812-part-5/
I am reading, for the third time, the three Auslander books, since the Russian names throw me a curve. I am not a veteran, am seriously old, and read a lot. I don’t think I’ve ever read books I’ve enjoyed as much. It is hard to think I enjoyed these, but I could find no other words to use.
Not having a military background, I had never even thought a lot about how war is carried out. I know now, having read the books. Brutality, suffering, surely fear and horror are apparent in “Never the Last One”. The participants on both sides in this story are committed to winning at any cost. The Russians stand in face of guns, tanks, and the ever-coming enemy, they are betrayed as they prepare to fight, and they fight, they are wounded and they fight, all around them are killed, and they fight; so few are left standing, but they fight to the bitter end of the battle, knowing the enemy will be back. And they will fight.
Whether this is a depiction of a real battle or not, it was real enough for me. Russia’s ability to stand and take it–whatever it is–should open a few eyes in the heads of those who are thinking of taking on Russia at this time.
Anyone who advocates for unnecessary war, as some of our chicken-hawks (Mr. Bolton and his neo-con friends) are so prone to do, should be in the front lines. Unfortunately, it doesn’t happen that way; some other mother’s sons are the ones called upon to bear the burden of their casual push to war.
Thank you for the time and effort you invested in this book.