Posted on 10/03/2022 6:30:00 AM PDT by MtnClimber
So how does it all end, and Russian, Ukrainian, European and U.S. agendas become compatible? It doesn’t, and they won’t.
For all the dramatic late-summer Ukrainian success, we are witnessing yet another deadlock in the war—one that supposedly will be resolved by escalations on all sides.
Mutually Exclusive Agendas
A rebooted Ukraine is clamoring for more offensive arms. It claims it can win the war, with victory now giddily defined as sending every Russian back home in disgrace.
Russia is screaming threats about using nuclear weapons—though how Vladimir Putin would use them remains in dispute. Putin is ominously no longer qualifying his Strangelovian threat with the adjective tactical, as he calls up 300,000 more troops.
An addled and non-compos mentis Joe Biden only nominally remains the leader of the West. He initially refused to send offensive arms to Ukraine, and then offered to evacuate President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. But now Biden 2.0 has blasted Putin as a killer, someone equivalent to the domestic semi-fascists he blasted in his Phantom of the Opera hate speech.
Biden has called for Putin’s removal. But until Putin’s demise, he wants still more sanctions against Russia. Yet it is hard to distinguish who is more detached from reality—Biden, suffering from cognitive decline as he talks to dead people and shakes the hands of ghosts, or a physically ailing and paranoid Putin. Meanwhile American Vice President Kamala Harris is rambling about a mythical American alliance with lunatic North Korea and the need to disperse federal help to storm-ravaged Florida on the basis of race.
The United States is sinking knee-deep into recession. Once again it is hit with spiraling fuel prices. No matter: Biden promises to borrow still more billions of dollars for Ukrainian aid as he drains the last drops of the strategic petroleum reserve
(Excerpt) Read more at amgreatness.com ...
VDH ping
Here are the two ways this ends:
1) Putin realizes the war in unwinnable. He agrees to a peace treaty that abandons fundamental Russian demands. Problem for him is that embarrassment ends the regime.
2) Putin continues to send ill-trained Russian boys to get slaughtered along the Dnieper until the Russian people get tired of it and overthrown Putin.
The problem is it may take years for either of these to happen.
Well, whichever of his military advisors advanced the idea of sending a RELATIVELY SMALL, NOT-MOBILIZED MILITARY against a country that TOTALLY MOBILIZES, drafts large segments of the population and has ESSENTIALLY UNLIMITED MILITARY RESOURCES… they were idiots. That’s not how wars are fought.
American weapons are the best in the world—and apparently the most expensive and difficult to produce in massive numbers.
Supplying Ukraine has squeezed America’s tactical and strategic weapon reserves down to dangerous levels—the military equivalent of Joe Biden’s draining the strategic petroleum reserve, even as global oil prices are once again spiraling, and the weather disrupts supply.
Joe Biden has a bad habit of exploiting the petroleum and weapons bounty that he inherited from Trump, depleting and not replenishing it, and then covering his tracks by blaming Trump.
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Making it the perfect time for China to attack Taiwan. Almost as if it was engineered that way.
Naaa. That’s crazy talk. That would imply there are high level Chinese operatives influencing the decisions of the U.S. Government State Department. That could only happened if the CCP has bribed and compromised elected officials in the U.S.
Grim, all right.
An addled and non-compos mentis Joe Biden only nominally remains the leader of the West. He initially refused to send offensive arms to Ukraine, and then offered to evacuate President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. But now Biden 2.0 has blasted Putin as a killer, someone equivalent to the domestic semi-fascists he blasted in his Phantom of the Opera hate speech.
Biden has called for Putin’s removal. But until Putin’s demise, he wants still more sanctions against Russia. Yet it is hard to distinguish who is more detached from reality—Biden, suffering from cognitive decline as he talks to dead people and shakes the hands of ghosts, or a physically ailing and paranoid Putin. Meanwhile American Vice President Kamala Harris is rambling about a mythical American alliance with lunatic North Korea and the need to disperse federal help to storm-ravaged Florida on the basis of race.
The United States is sinking knee-deep into recession. Once again it is hit with spiraling fuel prices. No matter: Biden promises to borrow still more billions of dollars for Ukrainian aid as he drains the last drops of the strategic petroleum reserve ...
Wordsmithing at its finest! Another Victor Davis Hanson classic that one needs to read slowly to fully appreciate the damage from B!den and his puppet masters.
FR Index of his articles: Victor Davis Hanson on FR
Town Hall: Victor Davis Hanson on Town Hall
American Greatness: Victor Davis Hanson on American Greatness
His website: Victor Davis Hanson
Please let me know if you want on or off this new VDH ping list.
As a reminder, Professor Hanson has asked that we do not post the full article of his writings. Thank you for following the link to finish his article.
And who pays? The citizens of several countries. Europe's cold Winter this year may turn into a cold Winter next year for us. For some, it already will be due to fuel prices, especially in the Northeast.
Gas was $3.02/gallon yesterday, a fall of 30 cents.
Actually while China has a large army it needs more amphibious ships then it has to get those troops to Taiwan. Taiwan largely a mountainous jungle with only a few viable beachheads that are heavily defended. Not having enough amphibious ships means China is limited to the number of troops it can land on those heavily defended beaches. Havening insufficient troops means their assaults' will probably fail as it stands now. China could always build more amphibious ships but with their economy in freefall it would mean tying up resources on ships that will not be needed after Taiwan. A long blockade means China will not have access to the high end chips TSMC produces for their electronic exports.
Just as Russia, on paper, looked like they would roll over Ukraine, China too falls shorts on what they actually need to seize Taiwan. Our actions towards Russia and Ukraine sends a message to China as to the consequences of military action towards a sovereign state. Better to spend billions defending Ukraine than to spend trillions fighting China...
“Just as Russia, on paper, looked like they would roll over Ukraine, China too falls shorts on what they actually need to seize Taiwan.”
Good point. Also important is that most of China’s military tech is Russian derived. Xi must be looking at how many Russian fighter jets have ended up scattered across Ukrainian fields and wondering about the quality of his own stuff.
The winners of this will be the countries that are Natural Gas exporters:
* United States
* Qatar
* Norway
* Australia
* Canada
* Netherlands
* Algeria
With Russian supplies removed from world markets these countries will do very well over the next few years. We are high on that list, but need to hope the Greenies don’t prevent our doing well.
Exactly... Attacking Taiwan would send the Chinese back decades both militarily and domestically.
China is holding out for a “one country, two systems” set-up like Hong Kong, which they can modify over time.
They like the golden eggs in Taiwan too much to risk a Grozny-fication killing the goose.
They like the golden eggs in Taiwan too much to risk a Grozny-fication killing the goose.
It is too late for Russia but China's best strategy is to cease being militaristic and instead become a friend and ally to it's neighbors. China can get everything it may want by building trust and cooperation with the countries in the region.
4.99 in Mesa AZ
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