The Cockeyed Crusade
Wednesday, September 28, 2022 11:34 PM
By what deranged thinking did meddling in a civil war over territories that have been Russian for more than 300 years merit bringing the world economy to its knees and putting the living standards of publics throughout the West in greater peril than at any time since the 1930s?—David Stockman
Dear Friends + Interlocutors,
I confess to being at wits’ end over the monstrous Ukraine affair and its ever-expanding perilous ramifications. The war was concocted and contrived in Washington. This is Joe Biden’s, Tony Blinken’s and Victoria Nuland’s war—a cockeyed crusade to destabilize Russia.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz was quoted in FT’s Weekend Edition of September 17th as stating, “We have known for a long time [my emphasis] that Russia is no longer a reliable energy supplier. That’s why it’s important to do everything we can now to safeguard Germany’s energy supply.” See Germany seizes Rosneft oil refineries. This claptrap sounds like something written for Biden’s teleprompter.
Would it not be more accurate and honest to say that Germany was no longer a reliable customer of Russian energy? I think so. Under Scholz, the German government, taking its marching-orders from Washington, has decided not to purchase Russian oil. Ditto for Russian natural gas.
Russia has the goods; Berlin declines to purchase them. Fine. All right. Russia can sell elsewhere. Status quo ante. Start over.
Subsequently, this self-destructive and yet “unavoidable” decision—unavoidable according to Herr Scholz—has been routinely gaslighted to Europe and America as a prime example of President Putin’s “weaponizing of energy”—when the exact opposite is true.
It is Berlin, the EU and NATO who are doing the weaponizing of energy—or at least who started the game by adopting Washington’s lunatic, catchall policy of economic sanctions. Yes, it is confusing.
The September 18th FT article explained that taking control of the Russian-owned refineries in Germany was “...an attempt to protect the German economy from the effects of an EU-wide embargo on Russian crude which comes into force on January 1st….”
OMG! Didn’t Berlin vote for that embargo? This begs the question, why support a scheme that you know you must protect yourself against? The time not to shoot yourself in the foot is before you pull the trigger.
One begins to wonder what Scholz (not to mention the staff at FT) has been smoking or, in the alternative, what embarrassing info do the marplots and malefactors in Washington have on Scholz with which to blackmail him and perhaps others in the EU leadership? I wonder.
Please recall that the NSA was routinely bugging the cell phone of Scholz’s predecessor, Angela Merkel, and other European officials. Why? Berlin dropped investigating the matter after getting zero cooperation from Washington. Why?
Merkel has disappeared and Scholz is the new guy in town on a tightrope. Blackmailed or not, he's not about to buck the system, to wit, Washington’s taken-for-granted hegemony over Europe. He can’t.
This is the way it is and has been for a very long time. Washington is determined to keep it that way.
Can Scholz really be so stupid or misguided to wreck the German and European economy on behalf of the Jewish-Ukrainian comedian Zelensky? Are Scholz and his advisors ignorant of the 2015 Minsk II agreement, to which Germany was a prime participant and guarantor along with France?
Peace, trade and commerce are in Germany’s and Europe's best interest, not east-west conflict. Is that so difficult for Scholz and the ultra busybody Ursula von der Leyen to understand? Really?
Now comes word that someone—who could it be?—has blown up the Nord Stream II pipeline in the Baltic Sea. Interesting development. I think Nord Stream II was Washington’s red line in Europe. It had to be stopped at all cost.
Its operation would have made Germany and Europe less in thrall to Washington. Russia has the resources—energy, minerals and agriculture—which Europe needs. The relationship was, and could continue to be, mutually beneficial and perfectly understandable. A harbinger of peace and prosperity.
The war in Ukraine was a godsend, a convenient excuse to spike Nord Stream II and thereby decouple Germany and the EU from Russia. So far, the war has been a smashing success for Biden and the American foreign policy blob. But it is a disaster for humanity at large, especially for the Europeans.
Another incentive the Washington establishment had for going after Putin was Russia’s 2015 intervention in Syria which saved Syria from the tender mercies of Jihadi-Salafi terrorists who were sponsored by the Sunni Gulf kinglets, Tel Aviv and the CIA.
Putin’s intervention prevented Syria from becoming another Washington-created basket-case along the lines of Libya and Iraq. This put a check, at least temporarily, on Tel Aviv’s territorial ambitions in Syria and Lebanon. American troops still remain in Syria please understand, ready for the next act, with no legal justification.
You can imagine the deep and enduring resentment Putin’s intervention in Syria caused in Tel Aviv and Washington. It was an affront to the “rules-based” international order. Now it's payback time for Putin.