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Russia drastically miscalculated the sociopathy of western leaders. They would destroy 99% of life on earth without hesitation, if that were the price of dominion over what remained.

They see Russian restraint not as reasonableness or humanitarianism, but as contemptible weakness.

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Feb 27·edited Feb 27

What astounds me is the lack of thought, going all the way back to 1997. And, of course, no-one was ever punished for any disasters, no matter how bad (e.g., the invasion of Iraq in 2003), so the system never learns from its mistakes.

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You are absolutely right. The lack of accountability is astounding.

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E.G. the Gates/Ignatius interview this week on youtube. Incredible.

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Zelensky's new military chief recently claimed that 'Russia is losing' on the Eastern Front, and that 'everything is going to plan' as his army 'relocates to prepared better positions' - of which there are no sign on recent satellite imagery, while the chaotic retreat or rout continues: it seems either that no engineers or other soldiers could be spared from the front to prepare fallback positions, or that Kiev simply wasn't prepared to consider defeat at Avdiivka, or both.

So Zelensky has now, for the first time since Boris Johnson told him almost 2 years ago that talking to Russia wasn't allowed, from his new position of strength, begun to suggest he might consider accepting a Russian surrender.

Of course Russia, according to the Ukrainian law he introduced in 2022, will in any settlement have to withdraw from all the land of Ukraine in 1992 (when Kiev formally annexed Crimea despite a majority vote there in 1991 for independence). Also they will have to pay all the costs, now estimated at over $1tn, for rebuilding his new country, along with vast reparations, and submit to prosecution for war crimes.

But as he and the Troika with Yermak and (CIA-trained) Budanov are so clearly winning, it's time to stop further bloodshed, and he will be magnanimous in victory after a complete Russian surrender.

A senior aide, according to the last Time profile called him 'delusional'.

But totally insane now seems a better description.

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Regime change is sorely needed, but in the US and Europe (particularly France and Germany), not in Russia.

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The problem in Germany is that there is no real alternative in sight. According to Heinrich Mann, "THE SUBJECT", the German people make it more than easy for the elites. The farmers took to the streets and were with the rest, isolated other industries yes, but the rest ... The railway union made it more than clear, they staged their own theater.

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I grew up in Germany and zi agree, it's a hopeless basket case. The US bombed Nordstream and instead of prosecuting the perpetrator, Scholz flies to Washington with a big smile on his face... all the while the German manufacturing industry is suffering and many jobs are being lost.

The Germans have a cool saying, I would laugh about it, if it wasn't so sad.

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Those who do not know history will not understand the present and will not be able to shape the future (author unknown) France and the UK have together driven into a war twice, those who deny it do not know better or do not want to know. Macron wants to bring the European power center from Berlin to Paris in the spirit of the WEF, the finances of the EURO have long since been sold by a prosecuted Frenchwoman to the ECB or the City of London etc. If you look at the indebtedness of the individual European states, Germany is only at about 60 % - which means that the largest net contributor as an adversary must be finally flattened. Let us remember Klaus Schwab and his statement for the future: "You will have nothing and be happy"

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We are back at the beginning. Ukraine needs to stay neutral. No NATO membership but they can and will trade with the west. Ukraine will be a buffer state for Russa and NATO.

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That assumes a west not led by sociopaths. For that matter, had Ukraine carried out Minsk-2, it would have gotten all that and saved a lot of death and destruction.

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Yes and no. There is no way back to where we were. Too much bridge under the water (Kerch, I mean). Too many ships targeted and sunk and assassinations. And now so much to rebuild there in Ukraine. Probably now, once some kind of agreement is made with Ukraine, is when things will get "interesting."

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EU leaders continue to disgrace themselves as feckless windbags. Putin must be rolling his eyes. Problem is, none of these heads of state don't fear losing their jobs. The (anti-war/anti-Imperialist) right wing parties top off their vote share at <40%... and no other parties will form a coalition with them to gain a majority... except Trump (probably) ... and he'll gladly go to war against Iran. We're screwed.

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Alexander Mercouris is telling his audience that Stephen Bryen's columns in AT are indispensable reading. He's right!

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To me the most shocking thing in the NYT report of close CIA cooperation with Ukraine from 2014 was the unanimous praise, and appetite for endless war against the Red Peril, in the readers' comments.

Jeez... Will they never learn?

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Stoltenburg only said there are no plans to put “combat troops” on “the ground” in Ukraine. Perhaps it’s semantics. Or perhaps the wording was chosen very carefully.

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he was trotted out to squelch the Macron statement, so I think he meant what he said

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Macron's party's constituency includes an important number of European federalists who would be disposed to swap putting the French nuclear force under a prospective EU "commandment" in exchange for the Northern fiscally "virtuous" countries consenting to sharing all EU members' debt.

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Even Macron, as dumb as he is, would not give away the Force d' Frappe. He would be guillotined.

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He is just testing the waters

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wonder if he got burnt

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Preparing to a possible new Trump term as president of the US, Macron might not have been so much pushing against Russia as testing the echo of a prospective EU coalition autonomous from NATO. With the success that we saw.

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author

Good point.

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Almost 2 weeks now and it seems that despite the confusion - most traditional hawks are still against sending troops to Ukraine while Poland and the 3 Baltic States are showing interest in Macron's initiative - his proposal attracts more and more attention. Macron's act can be seen as dangerous brinkmanship or, is it after Victoria Nuland demise (March 5th) and facing the prospect of Trump's return as a legitimate attempt by the continent only nuclear power to re-assert its central role in containing Russia? Macron's intention might be mainly defensive - consolidate lines of defense along the Eastern borders of the EU after a possible Russian "victory" on the terrain. That does not exclude, after mobilizing and reassuring the most Russo-phobic Eastern and Scandinavian countries, and promising them the protection of the French "force de frappe" starting to talk to Russia again from a strength position and bringing Ukraine to negotiate. We should not forget that France is with Germany and Italy one of the main component of a potential European Military-Industrial complex, that at the end of Trump's first term he wishfully predicted NATO's brain death. France traditional Russophilia - Macron was one of the last European heads of state to talk to Putin - can make us doubt that he just took the place of Victoria Nuland in the driver seat of the Russophobic cart.

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The bottom line is Europe won't invest seriously in defense. Furthermore, the defense manufacturing base in Europe is a mishmash of small companies with little industrial capability (outside of the commercial part of Airbus). So all this talk about Fr, Ger, Italy doing something together is smoke: they have been doing stuff together for years and compounding their inefficiency. Anyone who believes in the military industrial complex in Europe is smoking something.

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https://deutsche-wirtschafts-nachrichten.de/513721/Deutschlands-Eliten-erhalten-Ausbildung-beim-WEF-Die-Kaderschmiede-des-Klaus-Schwab

With about 1,300 members, it is probably the most important network in the world. It includes heads of state and government, CEOs of the world's largest corporations, members of royalty as well as multibillionaires - people who exercise an extremely high amount of power because of their position, their possessions or their function: the Forum of the "Young Global Leaders", the cadre of the World Economic Forum (WEF). If you want to know who is pulling the strings in our world, you should take a look behind the scenes.

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I was surprised by Macron's move.

He's not stupid, and knew it would draw a strong, immediate, negative response in France and Europe in general (apart rrom the crazy Baltic).

So what was he playing at, the guy who (alone among Western leaders) tried to keep talking to Putin as the war started?

I think psycho Budanov wanted a disaster in Avdiivka in order to raise the stakes. And maybe Macron was just joining in that poker game?

Floating the *idea* of a wider war, knowing the idea would be shot down immediately, but would then be 'out there' as a new factor in the game?

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Obviously you would have to ask him and hope he would tell you the truth (unlikely)

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Feb 28·edited Feb 28

EU nations are indispensable suppliers of arms and contract manpower to Ukraine. That makes them a participant in the conflict. It's unfortunate they can't bear to admit their participation openly, and account for its costs openly. The costs are out of their pockets and out of their population. It would help clarify matters pretty quickly.

Also someone on twitter suggested, it would be a pretty interesting experiment to sub in a French brigade for one of the Ukrainian ones, and see what really happens.

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A French brigade will say there isn't enough camembert for them to go to Ukraine

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To the author Mr. Bryan, it should be remembered that the EU and NATO are connected by means of a treaty that has already been extended / renewed 3 times, so the EU is clearly the political arm of NATO. Russia should also pay attention to this when it talks about the fact that it has no problem if Ukraine enters the EU, which in fact means entering through the back door of NATO. Attached is the corresponding link

https://www.consilium.europa.eu/de/press/press-releases/2023/01/10/eu-nato-joint-declaration-10-january-2023/

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A political link means very little. I was referring to military links. Anyway the EU does not appear to me to represent the direction Europe is heading

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The EU is an instrument of power for the destruction of nation states. What is the smallest cell of society - the family right? What makes a nation state - a functioning society right? Neither is it in the interests of the WEF - again a tool created by whom - if it is right, it has its origins in the CIA. So the same institution (predecessor of the OSS) which, after 1945, at least supported the parties, the media, the BND (predecessor organisation Gehlen) financially and thus built up and guided them in their interests. Henrx Kissinger "The US has no friends, it has interests" is implemented precisely in this sense and the destruction of the smallest cell of society in the form of high life LBGT, early sexualisation of children etc. has nothing to do with the EU or with human rights. But what do I know I'm an old white man

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Nice, I was following as european that Conference and got the NYT article to read next days.

If Trump will slow down money and armaments and support to Nato, it'll be the finest thing he could do for Europe.

The article about Cia in Ukraine has also a date, a timing and that's the number of years they started building those centers there, safely and under the sun.

It's 8 years.

That means that Cia and US were behind the coup of Maidan and relative massacre of civilians, so Putin was right the other day calling 2014 as the start of Ukraine war to russians (east regions ones) and the start of real threats directly to Russia as you described here.

As that kind of woman former Germany PM Merkel said, Putin and Russians did the mistake to not intervene in 2014 believing Minsk 1 and 2 were something serious instead of a cover to take time to prepare a war.

That said, 2 things are pretty clear now:

first, US/Nato/Cia planned the coup and the war extremely in details and strategically in 2008 as Putin affirmed in the interview.

Second, Germany has sold his soul to US completely times ago as the Nord Stream sabotage didn't even make a title in german internal Politics...

And Macron, Macron is an i...t (I'm not allowed to write it XD). He will never be remembered as Chirac or Mitterand were, he'll be forgotten quickly as soon as he'll leave Champs Elysées. As him most of the actual EU puppets from most of the countries will fade. To be remembered you need to be a Leader, not a servant.

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