A war with Russia is pointless, but that’s not going to keep the U.S. from engaging in one
The military-industrial complex and its clients sprinkled throughout both political parties seem to have decided that the next place we need to go and kill people or facilitate the killing of people
The U.S. and NATO are stepping up a war footing around Ukraine, anticipating what may be an imminent Russian invasion. (Photo: Kris Kulakovska/ukraine.ua) _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________
A bipartisan coalition of neocons in Washington has been recklessly stoking conflict between those two countries for years now. Our foreign policy establishment, in fact, has sent hundreds of millions of dollars in weapons to one of the most volatile regions in the world, hoping for some kind of explosion.
To hell with the fact that could potentially plunge Europe and the rest of the world into World War III. They don’t seem to care whether than happens or not.
And their wish seems to be coming true. That explosion looks like it’s on its way, and it could very easily suck the United States into the center of it. That’s what we said last night. But honestly, as we read those words, they seemed hard to believe. We’re really going to fight a war over some corrupt Eastern European country that is strategically irrelevant to us? With everything else that’s going on right now in our own country? No normal person would ever want to do anything like that. How can it really happen?
We’re still not sure how it could happen, but nevertheless, it does seem to be happening right now. The Biden administration has begun evacuating American civilians from Ukraine. The Pentagon has announced it is prepared to use force in the region. This country is now closer to a legitimate war than we have been in decades. And to be clear, we’re talking about an actual war here. Not a protracted series of airstrikes against some impoverished dirt patch they’re telling you is an existential threat to the nation.
The military-industrial complex and its clients sprinkled throughout both political parties seem to have decided that the next place we need to go and kill people (or at least sell weapons to help others kill people) is Ukraine, assuming that Russia decides to slice off a section of its former province ― which now seems inevitable.
Brain-Dead Biden is the weakest leader this country has seen since Woodrow Wilson had a stroke in office. That’s a problem, but it’s not the core problem. The core problem is that in America, elected officials no longer decide when we go to war, as in, say, a democracy.
Instead, bureaucrats, generals and defense contractors make those decisions, sometimes unilaterally. Failed rock star and hilariously inept Secretary of State Tony Blinken threatened severe action against Russia.
“The discussion today with Mr. Lavrov [Russian foreign minister] was frank and substantive, Blinken intoned. “I conveyed the position of the United States and our European allies and partners that we stand firmly with Ukraine in support of its sovereignty and territorial integrity. We’ve been clear if any Russian military forces move across Ukraine’s border, that’s a renewed invasion. It will be met with swift, severe and a united response from the United States and our partners and allies.”
Apparently, the president of the United States is not allowed to talk in public about Russia, he just admitted that Monday. He might say something that averts war. So instead, the same people who have botched the last five wars get to speak for him. Do you feel safer?
You’ve got to wonder what voters think of this. We don’t need to wonder what they think. Polls show that most Americans are completely opposed to fighting Russia over Ukraine because they’re not demented. But you know who’s very much in favor of it? Well, defense contractors, including Pentagon Chief Lloyd Austin’s former employer, Raytheon, a primary supplier of aid now going to Ukraine
For defense contractors, war means massive profits by definition. In just the last few years, the U.S. has spent more than $2 billion on military aid to this nation called Ukraine that most people couldn’t identify on a map. Just the other day, the administration announced $200 million more.”
Of course, the Ukrainians love this, obviously. This is the whole reason they once employed Joe Biden’s otherwise unemployable son. To keep the cash flowing to them. When Biden hinted this week that war might not be coming right away, the Ukrainians were highly distressed. In fact, they were so distressed, they said so out loud.
When Biden made his gaffe last week during a media briefing regarding a “minor incursion” of Ukraine, President Volodymyr Zelensky went ballistic, saying there is no such thing. However, the question is, who cares? (Photos: ACV Images) _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Finally, we end with an important question, one it’s well past time we asked and answered:
The question is, we’re the United States, so why are we obeying Ukraine?
There is no nice way to say this, but the idea of Ukraine as a nation-state is relatively new. In the 350 years since the Eternal Peace Treaty (actual name) was signed in 1686, Ukraine has been either a vassal state or province of Russia. Ukraine has been independent only since 1991, and that independence happened only as a consequence of the United States and its allies winning the Cold War.
Like all people living near great powers, the Ukrainians have suffered from the proximity. Ireland has suffered for 1,000 years in the shadow of England. Our own neighbors — Canada and Mexico — do not consider living on the same continent with the United States an unmixed blessing.
However, misfortunes of geographical fate do not mean that we should wander into conflict. In the long sweep of American history, no serious person has ever suggested we assist Ireland in gaining or preserving her independence from England. There’s a good reason for that. We’re Americans — not Irish and certainly not Ukrainians. Our own problems are sufficient to themselves.
Nevertheless, folks ranging from President Biden to Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-TX) have made it clear (well, sort of clear in the case of Biden) that they intend to view any crossing of the Ukrainian border as an act against the United States.
That is especially odd given that Biden and his party — and a pretty sizable chunk of the pre-Trump Republican Party — have been content to watch the slow-motion invasion of our own southern border for most of the last 50 years. Last year, for example, about 10 divisions crossed the border each month. We did nothing.
I guess there’s no money for the weapons crowd in protecting our own border.
The fixation on Ukraine is also odd because we are under no legal or moral obligations to protect Ukraine, nor do we have any treaty obligations to Ukraine. No one has explained what American interest is at risk in Ukraine, nor has anyone explained why American lives or property should be put at risk in the event of a Russian invasion into one of its former provinces.
Mr. Biden has not even done us the courtesy of pretending to seek congressional approval for whatever he might have in mind.
There are a handful of border disputes underway on this planet at any given moment. There is a 100-year-old border dispute in Ireland. There are border disputes in Sudan, India, Gibraltar, etc. There is a border dispute on our southern border where pretty much everyone on the planet believes they have the right to enter our country at will, without consequences.
There is an increasingly ominous border dispute between the Republic of Taiwan and Communist China. That one, and the one on our southern border, are far more material to specific American interests and specific American legal and moral obligations.
It is not clear why this border dispute in a corner of Eastern Europe is worthy of our attention. As the great German prime minister Otto von Bismarck once noted: “The entire Balkans are not worth the bones of one Pomeranian grenadier.” Nor are they worth the bones of a single United States soldier or Marine.
Russia is not a material threat to the United States. With a GDP of less than $2 trillion, Russia’s economy is smaller than Canada’s. It is a country with deteriorating economics and demographics. The real and existential threat we face is from the Chinese Communist Party. Russia, and by extension Ukraine, is a sideshow.
Finally, we’ve just gave up on the longest and most pointless war in the history of our nation. Our withdrawal, our loss of military personnel and hardware, are unforgiveable. Now is not the time for more foreign and military adventurism and yet another pointless war.
Mike Nichols is an advocate of the counterrevolution with a four-step plan to defeat Fascism: We Organize. We Stand. We Resist. We Fight. He is a regular contributor to several conservative news websites and has a regular blog and Facebook presence at Americas Conservative Voice-Facebook.