Ukraine 5
The Bully With the Bloody Nose
This is Part 5 in Sour Milk’s Ukraine series. You can read Part 1 here , Part 2 here, Part 3 here, and Part 4 here.
“Nations slithered over the brink into the boiling cauldron of war without any trace of apprehension or dismay.”
—David Lloyd George, British Prime Minister 1916–1922
One day during recess in grade school, a sixth grader started to bully a third grader. Much to the sixth grader’s surprise, the third grader punched him in the face. When the aggressor tasted his own blood, he quailed, and no longer wanted to fight. The tormentor’s life was never the same because everyone he had ever bullied now wanted to fight him. The failed Global War on Terror culminated with the humiliating withdrawal from Afghanistan, and today America is an international relations version of the bully with the bloody nose.
Last week, U.S. policymakers, crippled by a feigned innocence that would have embarrassed even Alden Pyle, “The Quiet American” himself, demonstrated that the Biden administration is incapable of making the kind of clear-eyed military, diplomatic, and economic calculations necessary to win what is rapidly escalating into a world war. President Biden is no FDR, Vice President Harris is certainly not Harry Truman, and Victoria Nuland is a pale imitation of George Kennan. This recent crop of U.S. leaders has confused public relations with statecraft. As Russian armor surrounded Ukraine’s cities, pounded them with missiles, rockets, and artillery, and millions of refugees poured into Europe, the West’s weakness was on display for all to see. Ukraine’s President Zelenskyy put it best, “‘Never Again’ has been the slogan. But now it looks like it does not mean anything. A people is being destroyed in Europe.”
Vice President Harris showed that America no longer has a coherent geopolitical vision. When she attempted to explain “the root causes” of the present conflict, she sounded more like a “Valley Girl” than a stateswoman: “So, Ukraine is a country in Europe. It exists next to another country called Russia. Russia is a bigger country. Russia is a powerful country. Russia decided to invade a smaller country called Ukraine. So, basically, that’s wrong, and it goes against everything that we stand for.”
As the longest and most painful-to-watch week in recent American diplomatic history dragged on, it only got worse. Next, the Vice President stood next to the Polish President and cackled with mad laughter while he tried to discuss the fate of the refugees pouring into his country.
Finally, Harris did not even appear to know that Ukraine is not a member of NATO and said, “The U.S. stands firmly with the Ukrainian people in defense of the NATO alliance.”
Not to be outdone, U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken was the personification of weakness. First, he suggested that Poland send MiG fighter jets to Ukraine, but when Poland agreed, the Biden administration balked. “Most of the western support is just flag waving shit, war by virtue signaling,” Nug (introduced in Ukraine 4) reported from Ukraine, “It’s hard to stand and fight an enemy that likes to fight you from 20-200 miles away. The Ukrainians have very little tech. The West is only trickle feeding them and it makes no sense given that we knew what the Russians were going to do and they did it.” Instead of anti-tank weapons like M72 LAWs and Javelin missiles, “they need Goalkeepers and Phalanxes [Close In Weapons Systems]. This dribble is shocking. This will go down in history, so much talk and zero action, but hey, Taiwan sang the Ukrainian national anthem! It’s akin to lighting candles for the slaughtered.”
It is certainly true that when it comes to logistics, Russia has not learned much since World War II. It is also true that the Ukrainian countryside is littered with abandoned vehicles and tanks. However, the western media’s breathless portrayal of every Russian setback as a modern day fall of Berlin is nothing short of “buffoons, calling buffoons, buffoons,” according to Nug. After learning the harsh lessons in Grozny, Chechnya, the Russian military is not using conventional light infantry tactics and fighting force on force. Instead, they are using area weapons and causing large scale destruction by pulverizing Ukrainian cities from afar and causing panic and fear.
Two weeks ago, Nug reached the outskirts of a city under Russian attack and cars were driving at crazy speeds into oncoming traffic, “We passed cars on their sides, people were fleeing in panic. One car smashed into a truck, spun, and was wrapped around a tree. All five on board were dead, including three children, the side of the road and the hedge was covered with body parts.” What struck the retired commando most was that the majority of people escaping “were driving really expensive cars. All males 16-60 aren’t allowed to leave the country. But I guess if you drive a Range Rover, Porsche, or Merc it’s ok. Only the poor men stay here now and only the poor are fighting.”
Russia’s indiscriminate use of force has also had unintended consequences. It has united Ukrainians and provided a front for those looking to settle scores with Russia. “Thousands have also come to join the foreign legion here. Also contrary to Russian propaganda, Chechens, Georgians are here to fight Russians,” wrote Nug, “Every town has a sign saying ‘Fuck you Putin.’ I’ve met Chechens here and they’re here to fight the fuckers and they stand beside Jews.”
Not only did all the West’s massive use of economic leverage fail to halt Russia’s aggression, the U.S. learned that economic warfare is a two-way street. With the price of oil reaching an all-time high, inflation skyrocketing, and supply chains strained to the breaking point, China and Russia consummated their strategic marriage. Unlike the U.S., Beijing speaks in deeds and not words. They have not condemned their ally, instead they are buying large shares of Russian gas, aluminum and other companies. Saudi Arabia refused to take a call from President Biden to discuss lowering oil prices and they opened discussions with China about replacing the petrodollar with the Chinese Yuan. This forced the Biden administration to grovel at the feet of once “rogue nations,” Venezuela and Iran.
There were more demonstrations of western weakness at the Iran nuclear talks. “Realistically speaking, Iran got much more than, frankly, I expected, others expected, that is a matter of fact,” gloated Russian negotiator Mikhail Ulyanov, “Our Chinese friends were very efficient and useful as co negotiators. We could rely on each other on many, many points and on many, many points, through joint efforts, we succeeded.” What did the United States get for their generosity at the bargaining table? A rocket attack on the U.S. consulate in Erbil, Iraq, that a rattled U.S. Under Secretary of State Wendy Sherman attempted to shrug off on the Sunday talk show circuit as an accident.
Instead of providing Ukraine with MiGs or a no-fly zone, the Biden administration summoned Tik Tok influencers to the White House to help with an ongoing propaganda campaign that now rivals the fact-free run-up to the invasion of Iraq. Not only do facts, logic, and history no longer matter, difficult questions are now off limits. After Under Secretary of State Victoria Nuland’s (see Ukraine 3) eyebrow raising admission that the U.S. is now worried that Ukraine’s biolabs could fall into Russian hands, the Biden administration, much of the U.S. government, and the fifth column press closed ranks.
They quickly made it clear that any departure from the official narrative of Ukrainian President Zelenskyy as a modern day Churchill, Biden as his steady FDR-like wingman, and Putin as a modern day Hitler, would not be tolerated. When former Congresswoman Lt. Col. Tulsi Gabbard asked for a more complete explanation of Nuland’s statement, draft-dodging republican Senator Mitt Romney called her question “treasonous.” Former MSNBC pundit Keith Olberman went even further and denounced the GWOT veteran as a “Russian asset” and called for her detention and trial.
The two disastrous ideologies that guided the United States in the 21st century—America the exceptional guarantor of world freedom and “the world is flat” laissez faire anarchy—are now in open conflict. Globalism has left America dependent and weak and we are hardly a “unipolar power.” Although most Americans are in denial about it, the rest of the world can see that the engine of neoliberalism has thrown a rod and smoke is pouring out from under the hood.
Over the past three weeks, it has become increasingly clear that Ukraine is merely a pawn in a much larger geopolitical struggle that will determine the course of the future: United States and the European Union versus China and Russia. Sadly, only one thing is certain, irrespective of the West’s relentless public relations campaign, Ukraine will be collateral damage. According to Nug, “NATO’s politicians plan is to let Ukraine burn.”
Today, America’s badly-used “allies” have the opportunity to play a more active role in our decline by joining a truly new, Chinese-led world order. This present conflict will be disastrous for Ukraine, and possibly the United States. The best we can hope for is that it will mark the end of the neoliberal era and relegate the neoconservatives and humanitarian hawks, who joined forces to drag America into World War III, to the dustbin of history. If we are lucky, a new generation of U.S. leaders, with new ideas, will emerge from the rubble, and hopefully, not the ashes.
“Just as a person speaking a language which he has not fully mastered, says what he does not intend, so policy will often order things which do not correspond to its own intentions.”
—Carl von Clausewitz, On War