By Pepe Escobar
December 05, 202:
Information Clearing House
-- American hysteria over
the “imminent” Russian invasion of Ukraine has
exploded every geopolitical Stupid-o-Meter in sight
– and that’s quite an accomplishment.
What a mess. Sections of the U.S. Deep
State are in open revolt against the combo that
remote controls Crash Test Dummy, who impersonates
POTUS. The neocon-neoliberal axis is itching for a
war – but has no idea how to sell it to an immensely
fractured public opinion.
UKUS, which de facto controls the Five
Eyes spy scam, excels only in propaganda. So in the
end it’s up to the CIA/MI6 intel axis and their vast
network of media chihuahuas to accelerate Fear and
Loathing ad infinitum.
Russophobic U.S. Think Tankland would
very much cherish a Russian “invasion”, out of the
blue, and could not give a damn about the inevitable
trouncing of Ukraine. The problem is the White House
– and the Pentagon – must “intervene”, forcefully;
otherwise that will represent a catastrophic loss of
“credibility” for the Empire.
So what do these people want? They
want to provoke Moscow by all means available to
exercise “Russian aggression”, resulting in a
lightning fast war that will be a highway to hell
for Ukraine, but with zero casualties for NATO and
the Pentagon.
Then the Empire of Chaos will blame
Russia; unleash a tsunami of fresh sanctions,
especially financial; and try to shut off all
economic links between Russia and NATOstan.
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Reality dictates that none of the
above is going to happen.
All exponents of Russian leadership,
starting with President Putin, have already made it
clear, over and over again, what happens if the
Ukro-dementials start a blitzkrieg over Donbass:
Ukraine will be mercilessly smashed – and that
applies not only to the ethno-fascist gang in Kiev.
Ukraine will cease to exist as a state.
Defense Minister Shoigu, for his part,
has staged all manner of not exactly soft
persuasion, featuring Tu-22M3 bombers or Tu-160
White Swan bombers.
The inestimable Andrei Martyanov has
conclusively explained, over and over again,
that “NATO doesn’t have forces not only to
‘counter-act’ anything Russia does but even if it
wanted to it still has no means to fight a war with
Russia.”
Martyanov notes, “there is nothing in
the U.S. arsenal now and in the foreseeable future
which can intercept Mach=9-10+, let alone M=20-27,
targets. That’s the issue. Same analytical method
applies to a situation in 404. The only thing U.S.
(NATO) can hope for is to somehow provoke Russia
into the invasion of this shithole of a country and
then get all SIGINT it can once Russia’s C4ISR gets
into full combat mode.”
Translation: anything the Empire of
Chaos and its NATO subsidiary try in Donbass,
directly or indirectly, the humiliation will make
the Afghanistan “withdrawal” look like a House of
Gucci dinner party.
No one should expect clueless NATO
puppets – starting with secretary-general
Stoltenberg – to understand the military stakes.
After all, these are the same puppets who have been
building up a situation which might ultimately leave
Moscow with a single, stark choice: be ready to
fight a full scale hot war in Europe – which could
become nuclear in a flash. And ready they are.
It’s all about Minsk
In a parallel reality, “meddling in
404” – a delightful Martyanov reference to a
hellhole that is little more than a computer error –
is a totally different story. That perfectly fits
American juvenilia ethos.
At least some of the adults in
selected rooms are talking. The CIA’s Burns went to
Moscow to try to extract some assurance that in the
event NATO Special Forces were caught in the
cauldrons – Debaltsevo 2015-style – that the
People’s Republics of Donetsk and Lugansk, with
Russian help, will concoct, they would be allowed to
escape.
His interlocutor, Patrushev, told
Burns – diplomatically – to get lost.
Chief of the General Staff, Gen
Valery Gerasimov, had a phone call with Chairman of
the Joint Chiefs, Gen Mark Milley, ostensibly to
ensure, in Pentagonese, “risk-reduction and
operational de-confliction”. No substantial details
were leaked.
It remains to be seen how this
“de-confliction” will happen in practice when
Defense Minister Shoigu revealed U.S.
nuclear-capable bombers have been practicing, in
their sorties across Eastern Europe, “their ability
to use nuclear weapons against Russia”. Shoigu
discussed that in detail with Chinese Defense
Minister Wei Fenghe: after all the Americans will
certainly pull the same stunt against China.
The root cause of all this drama is
stark: Kiev simply refuses to respect the February
2015 Minsk Agreement.
In a nutshell, the deal stipulated
that Kiev should grant autonomy to Donbass via a
constitutional amendment, referred to as “special
status”; issue a general amnesty; and start a
dialogue with the people’s republics of Donetsk and
Lugansk.
Over the years, Kiev fulfilled
exactly zero commitments – while the proverbial
NATOstan media machine incessantly pounded global
opinion with fake news, spinning that Russia was
violating Minsk. Russia is not even mentioned in the
agreement.
Moscow in fact always respected the
Minsk Agreement – which translates as regarding
Donbass as an integral, autonomous part of Ukraine.
Moscow has zero interest in promoting regime change
in Kiev.
This charade has come to a point that
– diplomatically – is quite unprecedented: Foreign
Minister Sergey Lavrov lost his Taoist patience.
Lavrov was forced, under the
circumstances, to publish 28 pages of correspondence
between Moscow on one hand, and Berlin and Paris on
the other, evolving around the preparation of a
high-level meeting on Ukraine.
Moscow was in fact calling for one of
the central points of the agreement to be
implemented: a direct dialogue between Kiev and
Donbass. Berlin and Paris said this was
unacceptable. So yes: both, for all practical
purposes, destroyed the Minsk Agreement. Public
opinion across NATOstan has no idea whatsoever this
actually happened.
Lavrov did not mince his words: “I am
sure that you understand the necessity of this
unconventional step, because it is a matter of
conveying to the world community the truth about who
is fulfilling, and how, the obligations under
international law that have been agreed at the
highest level.”
So it’s no wonder that the leadership
in Moscow concluded it’s an absolute waste of time
to talk to Berlin and Paris about Ukraine: they
lied, cheated – and then blamed Russia. This
“decision” at the EU level faithfully mirrors NATO’s
campaign of stoking the flames of imminent “Russian
aggression” against Ukraine.
Armchair warriors, unite!
Across NATOstan, the trademark
stupidity of U.S. Think Tankland rules unabated,
congregating countless acolytes spewing out the
talking points of choice: “relentless Russian
subversion”, “thug” Putin “intimidation” of Ukraine,
Russians as “predators”, and everything now coupled
with “power-hungry China’s war on Western values.”
Some Brit hack, in a twisted way,
actually managed to sum up the overall impotence –
and insignificance – by painting Europe as a victim,
“a beleaguered democratic island in an anarchic
world, which a rising tide of authoritarianism,
impunity and international rule-breaking threatens
to inundate”.
The answer by NATOstan Defense
Ministers is to come up with a
Strategic Compass – essentially an
anti-Russia-China scam – complete with “rapid
deployment forces”. Led by who, General Macron?
As it stands, poor NATOstan is
uncontrollably sobbing, accusing those Russian
hooligans – scary monsters, to quote David Bowie –
of staging an anti-satellite missile test and thus
“scorning European safety concerns”.
Something must have got lost in
translation. So here’s what happened: Russia
conclusively demonstrated it’s capable of
obliterating each and every one of NATO’s satellites
and blind “all their missiles, planes and ships, not
to mention ground forces” in case they decide to
materialize their warmongering ideas.
Obviously those deaf, dumb and blind
NATOstan armchair warrior clowns – fresh from their
Afghan “performance” – won’t get the message. But
NATOstan anyway was never accused of being partial
to reality.
Pepe Escobar
is correspondent-at-large at
Asia Times.
His latest book is
2030. Follow him on
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