Quote (chopstickz777 @ Feb 15 2022 02:03pm)

Russia is "for sure" invading at 1 am tonight according to US 'intelligence' - they are now even going so far as to give exact times for the invasion!

Hahahaha, oh man.

You just can't make this shit up.

They should rename US "intelligence" services to the stupidity services. Total morons are running the show now, at practically every level of government.

Biden may have some major false flag provocation planned for tomorrow - elsewise, he is going to have even more egg on his face than during his botched withdrawal from Afghanistan.

Quote (fender @ Feb 15 2022 09:17pm)

not only did you completely dodge the point that you just uncritically regurgitated russian propaganda and misrepresented it as facts, it's also entirely irrelevant how "valuable" or "easy" the annexation of crimea was. it still was an act of war, russia attacking and invading a sovereign nation. you constantly licking putin (a murderer and dictator) boot doesn't change that. making excuses for war while projecting about alleged warmongers - typical right wing hypocrisy...

Quote (JohnnyMcCoy @ 15 Feb 2022 21:51)

it was reported everywhere in the mainstream media and i took it from there, so with your dumbass logic even the mainstream is russian propaganda now

what you say does not even make sense, of course it matters when you can achieve a geopolitical goal with no casualties vs a massive escalation

and its the fault of the west, without the coup ukraine would maybe be more pro russian in its politics, but at least still whole and without civil war

thats why the crimea invasion happened and thats why absolutely nothing will happen now

lets say your stupid opinion about me being a putin bootlicker is true.....then you are a NATO/US bootlicker

responsible for millions of deaths in multiple wars and regime changes around the globe in the name of freedom ^_^

good stuff buddy, you are one of the good guys

Quote (fender @ Feb 15 2022 02:13pm)

and again, you blaming "the west" for russia invading ukraine, constantly making excuses for a murdering, corrupt dictator, won't rewrite history. there were events prior to the annexation that the west got wrong. hands were overplayed, ambitions clouded judgements. i have NEVER denied, let alone supported those efforts, you're literally making that shit up. importantly though, NONE of that means that anyone other than putin is responsible for invading a sovereign nation. that's like rapists blaming their actions on the clothes their victim wore. foh with that idiocy, putin simp.

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Okay, then one of two things will happen tomorrow:

Option 1: nothing happens
Option 2: something happens
Option 1: If nothing happens, then, as Lavrov has spelled out recently, the Biden Administration will have to declared that “led by the glorious and invincible USA, and fully united against the Russian aggression, the West has deterred Putin from his bloodthirsty plans“. The problem with this version is that considering the abject and cowardly flight from all the western embassies and organizations to Lvov or even the EU, it will be hard to explain how such a panicked flight has “deterred Putin”. Only ignorant and terminally stupid people could take that kind of self evident nonsense seriously.

The most hilarious part of this option will be that the Ukronazis will ALSO want the title of “defender of the Western White Civilization” and they will claim that it was *their* glorious and invincible military which deterred Putin and saved the western civilization from the looting Asiatic hordes.

As for (the always constipated and terrified looking) Jens Stoltenberg, he has already declared that the end of the Russian military exercises proves nothing, they the Russian could have pre-positioned equipment near the Ukie border and that they can come back in a blink of an eye. Yes, that imbecile still thinks that he will see thousands Russian tanks stream across the border like some historical recreation of a famous 20th century tank battle…

As for the geniuses at the CIA, they are probably still modeling whether the weather tomorrow will freeze or not (apparently, they think that Ukie weather conditions can limit Russian tank operations).

So if nothing happens, the end result will be victory for Russia

Option 2: If something happens, the West will blame it on Russia, irrespective of whatever actually happened. Then the verbiage will change to “lead by the glorious USA, and fully united against the Russian aggression, the West will impose sanctions from hell on Russia and stand my the heroic people of the Ukraine“. The minor problem here is that the West has already imposed pretty much all the sanctions it could and they only made the Russian economy prosper. The much bigger problem with that option will be that this will ruin the EU’s economy, something which the US leaders of the Empire not only want, but desperately need. But that is also something which will have an truly devastating impact on the EU’s economy and political atmosphere.

Here again, one of two things can happen:

Option 3: the LDNR holds the line with minimal Russian support (C4ISTAR) and maybe a no-fly zone (which Russian can impose without moving gear into the LDNR or without even leaving Russian airspace).
Option 4: the Anglo provocation leaves Russia no option but to openly intervene.
If option 3 happens, this will be a true triumph for Russia and a nightmare come true for the West.

Is it possible? I think that yes, it is (I discuss that here).

However, we cannot make that assumption, and we need to look at the consequences of option 4.

Option 4: if Russia is forced to intervene, then two things will happen simultaneously:

The US and NATO will have succeeded in their goals to force Russia to intervene and
The West will recoil in terror once it sees what the Russian military actually can do
So if something forces Russia to intervene tomorrow (or in the future), this will be a triumph for the Anglos, a disaster for the EU and a political defeat for Russia.

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The Ukrainian crisis has nothing to do with Ukraine. It’s about Germany and, in particular, a pipeline that connects Germany to Russia called Nord Stream 2. Washington sees the pipeline as a threat to its primacy in Europe and has tried to sabotage the project at every turn. Even so, Nord Stream has pushed ahead and is now fully-operational and ready-to-go. Once German regulators provide the final certification, the gas deliveries will begin. German homeowners and businesses will have a reliable source of clean and inexpensive energy while Russia will see a significant boost to their gas revenues. It’s a win-win situation for both parties.

The US Foreign Policy establishment is not happy about these developments. They don’t want Germany to become more dependent on Russian gas because commerce builds trust and trust leads to the expansion of trade. As relations grow warmer, more trade barriers are lifted, regulations are eased, travel and tourism increase, and a new security architecture evolves. In a world where Germany and Russia are friends and trading partners, there is no need for US military bases, no need for expensive US-made weapons and missile systems, and no need for NATO. There’s also no need to transact energy deals in US Dollars or to stockpile US Treasuries to balance accounts. Transactions between business partners can be conducted in their own currencies which is bound to precipitate a sharp decline in the value of the dollar and a dramatic shift in economic power. This is why the Biden administration opposes Nord Stream. It’s not just a pipeline, it’s a window into the future; a future in which Europe and Asia are drawn closer together into a massive free trade zone that increases their mutual power and prosperity while leaving the US on the outside looking in. Warmer relations between Germany and Russia signal an end to the “unipolar” world order the US has overseen for the last 75 years. A German-Russo alliance threatens to hasten the decline of the Superpower that is presently inching closer to the abyss. This is why Washington is determined to do everything it can to sabotage Nord Stream and keep Germany within its orbit. It’s a matter of survival.

That’s where Ukraine comes into the picture. Ukraine is Washington’s ‘weapon of choice’ for torpedoing Nord Stream and putting a wedge between Germany and Russia. The strategy is taken from page one of the US Foreign Policy Handbook under the rubric: Divide and Rule. Washington needs to create the perception that Russia poses a security threat to Europe. That’s the goal. They need to show that Putin is a bloodthirsty aggressor with a hair-trigger temper who cannot be trusted. To that end, the media has been given the assignment of reiterating over and over again, “Russia is planning to invade Ukraine.” What’s left unsaid is that Russia has not invaded any country since the dissolution of the Soviet Union, and that the US has invaded or toppled regimes in more than 50 countries in the same period of time, and that the US maintains over 800 military bases in countries around the world. None of this is reported by the media, instead the focus is on “evil Putin” who has amassed an estimated 100,000 troops along the Ukrainian border threatening to plunge all of Europe into another bloody war.

All of the hysterical war propaganda is created with the intention of manufacturing a crisis that can be used to isolate, demonize and, ultimately, splinter Russia into smaller units. The real target, however, is not Russia, but Germany. Check out this excerpt from an article by Michael Hudson at The Unz Review:

“The only way left for U.S. diplomats to block European purchases is to goad Russia into a military response and then claim that avenging this response outweighs any purely national economic interest. As hawkish Under-Secretary of State for Political Affairs, Victoria Nuland, explained in a State Department press briefing on January 27: “If Russia invades Ukraine one way or another Nord Stream 2 will not move forward.” (“America’s Real Adversaries Are Its European and Other Allies”, The Unz Review)

There it is in black and white. The Biden team wants to “goad Russia into a military response” in order to sabotage NordStream. That implies there will be some kind of provocation designed to induce Putin to send his troops across the border to defend the ethnic Russians in the eastern part of the country. If Putin takes the bait, the response would be swift and harsh. The media will excoriate the action as a threat to all of Europe while leaders around the world will denounce Putin as the “new Hitler”. This is Washington’s strategy in a nutshell, and the whole production is being orchestrated with one goal in mind; to make it politically impossible for the German Chancellor Olaf Scholz to wave NordStream through the final approval process.

Given what we know about Washington’s opposition to Nord Stream, readers may wonder why earlier in the year the Biden administration lobbied Congress NOT to impose more sanctions on the project. The answer to that question is simple: Domestic politics. Germany is currently decommissioning its nuclear power plants and needs natural gas to make up for the energy shortfall. Also, the threat of economic sanctions is a “turn-off” for Germans who see them as a sign of foreign meddling. “Why is the United States interfering in our energy decisions,” asks the average German. “Washington should mind its own business and stay out of ours.” This is precisely the response one would expect from any reasonable person.

Then, there’s this from Al Jazeera:

“Germans in the majority support the project, it is only parts of the elite and media who are against the pipeline…

“The more the US talks about sanctioning or criticizes the project, the more it becomes popular in German society,” said Stefan Meister, a Russia and eastern Europe expert at the German Council on Foreign Relations.” (“Nord Stream 2: Why Russia’s pipeline to Europe divides the West”, AlJazeera)

So, public opinion is solidly behind Nord Stream which helps to explain why Washington settled on a new approach. Sanctions are not going to work, so Uncle Sam has flipped to Plan B: Create a big enough external threat that Germany will be forced to block the opening of the pipeline. Frankly, the strategy smacks of desperation, but you have to be impressed by Washington’s perseverance. They might be down by 5 runs in the bottom of the 9th, but they haven’t thrown in the towel just yet. They’re going to give it one last shot and see if they can make some headway.

On Monday, President Biden held his first joint-press conference with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz at the White House. The ballyhoo surrounding the event was simply unprecedented. Everything was orchestrated to manufacture a “crisis atmosphere” that Biden used to pressure the chancellor in the direction of US policy. Earlier in the week, White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki repeatedly said that a “Russian invasion was imminent.” Her comments were followed by State Department flak Nick Price opining that the Intel agencies had provided him with details of an alleged Russian-backed “false flag” operation they expected to take place in the near future in east Ukraine. Price’s warning was followed on Sunday morning by national security advisor Jake Sullivan claiming that a Russian invasion could happen at any time maybe “even tomorrow.” This was just days after Bloomberg News agency had published its sensational and utterly-false headline that “Russia Invades Ukraine”.

Can you see the pattern here? Can you see how these baseless claims were all used to apply pressure to the unsuspecting German chancellor who seemed oblivious to the campaign that was aimed at him?

As one might expect, the final blow was delivered by the American president himself. During the press conference Biden stated emphatically that,

“If Russia invades … there will no longer [be] a Nord Stream 2.. We will bring an end to it.”

So, now Washington sets policy for Germany???

What insufferable arrogance!

The German chancellor was taken aback by Biden’s comments which clearly were not part of the original script. Even so, Scholz never agreed to cancel Nord Stream and refused to even mention the pipeline by name. If Biden thought he could sandbag the leader of the world’s third biggest economy by cornering him in a public forum, he guessed wrong. Germany remains committed to launching Nord Stream regardless of potential flare-ups in far-flung Ukraine. But that could change at any time. After all, who knows what incitements Washington might be planning in the near future? Who knows how many lives they are prepared to sacrifice in order to put a wedge between Germany and Russia? Who knows what risks Biden is willing to take to slow America’s decline and prevent a new “polycentric” world order from emerging? Anything could happen in the weeks ahead. Anything.

For now, Germany is in the catbird seat. It’s up to Scholz to decide how the matter will be settled. Will he implement the policy that best serves the interests of the German people or will he cave in to Biden’s relentless arm twisting? Will he chart a new course that strengthens new alliances in the bustling Eurasian corridor or will he throw his support behind Washington’s crazed geopolitical ambitions? Will he accept Germany’s pivotal role in a new world order— in which many emerging centers of power share equally in global governance and where the leadership remains unflinchingly committed to multilateralism, peaceful development and security for all– or will he try to prop up the tattered post-War system that has clearly outlived its shelf-life?

One thing is certain; whatever Germany decides is bound to affect us all.