Posted on 05/01/2026 7:59:49 AM PDT by Ultra Sonic 007
[...]
So the two no-longer-quite-so-superpowers of the Cold War are both fighting proxy wars: Since Lindsey Graham backdoored his way into the "Maidan Revolution" in 2012, America has been using Ukraine to get at the Russians. And yet America is now totally stunned that Russia is happy to use Iran to get at the Americans: witness Putin giving the Iranian foreign minister, on this week's visit to Moscow, the King Charles treatment. Meanwhile, China sits off to one side, staying focused on its overriding goal of ensuring the end of what it regards as an aberrent half-millennium of Euro-American domination.
The two wars are meeting in fairly obvious ways and bigging up their proxies: Iranian drones are falling on Europe, and the famously No-Cards Zelenskyyy is off touring Araby selling Ukrainian drone-interceptors to the Gulf monarchies. As the proxy wars merge, they also become rather less proxy, which does not strike me as a very promising development. Having been dismissed as all outta cards, Zelenskyyyy is going somewhat rogue, striking key Russian energy infrastructure that Washington wants to keep open and flowing in order to hold oil below a hundred bucks a barrel.
As I write, it's $112. Meanwhile, the Chinese have invented a battery that runs for sixteen years. That's longer than anything remotely recognisable as "western civilisation" has to run, so the good news for England, Ireland, France, Germany, Austria, Sweden, etc is that this will be a one-time purchase. The price of fertiliser has "mysteriously" doubled since the February 28th "decapitation", and some fertiliser honcho is now warning that that will mean ten billion fewer meals every week. So it's like the entire planet is on Ozempic, but with all the moolah going to Big Fert rather than Big Pharm.
It's a big, complicated, messy world, and...
(Excerpt) Read more at steynonline.com ...
Russia and China can (and apparently do) hire the same consultants the U.S. hires.
Well, we need an article by the loquacious Mark Steyn to define a WORLD WAR? Hmmm
China is NOT a country.
China is a geographic area that is 100% controlled by Emperor Xi Jinping and the Communist Party.
zeestephen: China is NOT a country. China is a geographic area that is 100% controlled by Emperor Xi Jinping and the Communist Party.
First, semantics: of course China is a country by any relevant definition (and they're a conventionally nationalistic ethnostate, as Han represent over 90% of the Chinese populace). Second, even if it weren't semantics, that doesn't contradict the part from Mark's article that you quoted. Are you agreeing with Mark? Disagreeing?
Right, the only reason to help Ukraine fend off a Russian invasion is to get back at Russia. It is way past time to drop this “proxy war” nonsense. Russia is not the victim here. They could stop the fighting in a single afternoon by just going home.
Six months or a year from now, Trump and the US and their Mideast oil allies will pump out enough oil and gas to collapse world prices. That will deprive Russia of a large share of her remaining export earnings. Then a peace deal can imposed on Putin or his regime can be placed under severe and unendurable stress.
Cool story, Bro'. They're eating our lunch. Meanwhile the Eurofags have already passed the point of no return with their own brand of socialism and suicide by islam. Meanwhile the Trump administration is a temporary braking action on following the Euros into the dustbin of history. Generations of communist public school edumacashun and turning our backs on God have guaranteed it.
Six months or a year from now, Trump and the US and their Mideast oil allies will pump out enough oil and gas to collapse world prices.
—
Only if that includes Iranian oil - lowering prices is no based on sheer quantity, but on efficiency of the refining process. The efficiency of the refining process is based on molecular chemistry created by the best blends of the types of crude: WTI, Iranian, Venezuelan.
The more difficult the process, the fewer products produced, the more the process costs, the less of a particular product made, the higher the consumer cost becomes. Without Iranian crude in the mix, prices may come down a bit, but not as much as they could be with Iranian crude.
Wasn't aware that Mr. Steyn was an America-hater.
The Russian Invasion of Ukraine is not a "proxy war" - but if it were, and were to be compared to the current Iran Conflict:
... RU Losses (02/24/22) ......... U.S. Losses (02/28/26)Add to that the conversion of the Baltic Sea into a NATO lake and the immobilization / confinement of the vestiges of the Russian Black Sea Fleet to the easternmost shores of the Sea.Military Personnel (killed & wounded) ... 1.3 m ... 13
Tanks ................................... 11,903 ... 0
Armored Fighting Vehicles ............... 24,496 ... 0
Artillery Systems ....................... 41,044 ... 0
Multiple Launch Rocket Sys ............... 1,757 ... 0
Air Defense Systems ...................... 1,357 ... 0
Planes ..................................... 435 .. 18
Helicopters ................................ 352 ... 4
UAVs ................................... 265,284 ... 0
Cruise Missiles .......................... 4,579 ... 0
Ships / Boats ............................... 33 ... 1
Submarines ................................... 2 ... 0
Vehicles ................................ 93,009 ... 0
Spec. Equip .............................. 4,150 ... 0
Regards,
Mark Steyn has openly disdained the "American way of war" for the past 20 years due to not accomplishing any worthwhile strategic goals that matter in the long run. (Because we've imported hordes of people who have the same beliefs as the Islamic enclaves we've been fighting overseas for two decades on.)
He would be happy for Trump to prove him wrong, but he's not optimistic that the long-term consequences will pan out any better than our last endeavors with Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, and Libya have.
He's also likewise noted for years that America/Europe have wanted to use Ukraine as a geopolitical lever against Russia long before the 2022 invasion (thanks to public statements from the likes of Nuland, McCain, et al, going back to before Euromaidan).
At this point, anyone denying that Ukraine was used as a proxy by the West at large against Russia is only kidding themselves. (And it only cost hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian men, exacerbation of Ukraine's already horrendous demographic decline in the post-Soviet era, and the inevitable discussion in Kyiv about immigration to make up for the labor shortfall.)
I’m surprised that Mark, with his serious health issues, would venture to Ukraine during a war.
Also, is it true, as he states, that all of the US’s military bases in the Middle East were completely disabled by Iranian drones?
Right, a war initiated and sustained by Russia in merely a “proxy war”. Russia could stop the war any day that it wants.
Not much of an issue. Due to sanctions, Iran’s oil production has long been constrained and absent from most of the market.
Russia openly declared for decades that Ukraine was their red line. Thus far, they seem to have committed enough blood and treasure to cement that fact.
Meanwhile, we were content to fight Russia down to the last Ukrainian.
So yes, the West has used Ukraine as a proxy against Russia (which can be a true statement even if Ukraine wants to fight Russia for perfectly legitimate reasons of their own).
I love Mark Steyn
And yet America is now totally stunned that Russia is happy to use Iran to get at the Americans:
Personally, it is exactly expected. The Russians and Chinese have been using Iran to “get at the Americans” for decades.
He was also in Budapest for the Hungarian elections; I think he wants to get a glimpse of European countries that still feel like themselves (Hungary for Hungarians, Ukraine for Ukrainians, etc), versus the globalized slop that's come to characterize other Western nations.
Also, is it true, as he states, that all of the US’s military bases in the Middle East were completely disabled by Iranian drones?
By all accounts, a fair majority of American bases through the Middle East were evacuated prior to the strikes against Iran, which did cause some damage in its retaliation (as validated with satellite imagery and other public reporting). Thus far, there's been no word as to when, or if, they'll be reclaimed.
And the note about troops being instead stationed out of hotels is likewise true.
There was a British post-punk group called “The the” back in the Eighties, who released a song with the title: “Sweet Bird of Truth” on their 1986 album “Infected”.
Some of the lyrics from that song have only become more and more relevant with each passing year, since. For example:
“...across the beaches and cranes, rivers and trains,
all the money I’ve made - bodies I’ve maimed.
Time was when I seemed to know,
just like any other GI Joe...
Should I cry like a baby, or die like a man,
while all the planet’s little wars start joining hands,
Oh what a heaven - what a hell!!
Y’know there’s nothing can be done in the whole wide world...”
And what red line was crossed? Ukraine was never invited to join NATO. Enough with the Russian propaganda.
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