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2022-05-26 Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia
Zelensky blasts Kissinger, New York Times for suggesting appeasement deal with Russia
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Posted by Besoeker 2022-05-26 03:29|| || Front Page|| [11132 views ]  Top

#1 the New York Times and American statesman Henry Kissinger

No comments from the WH or Foggy Bottom? Appears a 'back-channel' arrangement with the Russians may be in the works.
Posted by Besoeker 2022-05-26 03:34||   2022-05-26 03:34|| Front Page Top

#2 The Ukrainian forces are collapsing nearly everywhere across the Donbas. Zelensky has told his people that their forces are outnumbered by 7:1; their elite units are surrounded; others are cutting and running. One of Zelensky's top assistants had a tantrum on Telegram today, launching f-bombs at all the western leaders calling for peace talks with territorial concessions. There may be small tactical reversals here and there, but the Ukrainians are certain to lose large amounts of territory in the next 4-5 weeks.

The longer the war continues, the worse the Ukrainian negotiating position will be. Kissinger and The NY Times editors are doing the Ukrainians a huge favor by wisely recommending a swift settlement.
Posted by Jean-Paul 2022-05-26 05:45||   2022-05-26 05:45|| Front Page Top

#3 
Given the number of shady deals Kissinger worked out over his career that later fell apart. I feel his motives are more DC Elite geared than overall Pro-America.

Besides, he has always reminded me of movie character Dr. Strangelove.
Posted by NN2N1 2022-05-26 06:15||   2022-05-26 06:15|| Front Page Top

#4 One of Zelensky's top assistants had a tantrum on Telegram today, launching f-bombs at all the western leaders calling for peace talks with territorial concessions.

Here is what Zelensky's aide wrote:
"Go fuck yourselves with such proposals, you dumb fucks, to trade Ukrainian territory a little bit! Are you fucking crazy? Our children are dying, soldiers are stopping shells with their own bodies, and they are telling us how to sacrifice our territories. This will never happen"

Of course, this will never happen means that it is about to happen.

The Ukraine leaders are losing it. The foreign minister is delusional.

Yesterday Kuleba wrung his hands and gnashed his teeth, saying that the situation in the Donbas is "extremely bad." Today Kuleba claimed that"Nato as an alliance, as an institution, is completely sidelined and doing literally nothing."

This is after NATO countries including the US have given his country more military and other aid than his adversary spends in a year on its entire defence budget.
Posted by Palmerston 2022-05-26 06:55||   2022-05-26 06:55|| Front Page Top

#5 The Israelis are resisting US pressure to escalate by sending weapons to Ukraine. The Israelis have blocked the Germans from sending to the Ukrainians the Israeli anti-tank missiles produced in Germany with Israeli technology under an Israeli license. Zelensky begged the Israelis to do so but they refused.

Israel and India refuse to take the US side in the war. China refuses US demands that she put pressure on Russia. The West is fracturing and Ukraine is increasingly isolated.
Posted by Jean-Paul 2022-05-26 07:19||   2022-05-26 07:19|| Front Page Top

#6 I feel his motives are more DC Elite geared than overall Pro-America.

You "feel"? Based on what? How is prolonging this war good for anyone EXCEPT the "DC Elite"? We know that Biden and Lloyd Raytheon Austin and all the DC swampies who see Ukraine as their ATM are making millions each off of this war, but how does it benefit the American people? The longer this pointless war continues, the poorer and less safe we will be.

Kissinger is 100% right on this. Prolonging the war is a disaster for everyone except the MIC and corruptocrats in Washington and Kyiv.

No wonder Zelensky and his people are having hissy fits and telling us we've "done literally nothing" for them. Fuck off, you ungrateful bastards
Posted by Billy Budd 2022-05-26 07:30||   2022-05-26 07:30|| Front Page Top

#7 The real reason for the panic in DC is that the polling is bad. Most US citizens aren't interested in US involvement in this mess. That's why you don't see the media trumpeting polls about it.
Posted by M. Murcek 2022-05-26 07:36||   2022-05-26 07:36|| Front Page Top

#8 This is after NATO countries including the US have given his country more military and other aid than his adversary spends in a year on its entire defence budget.

$53 billion from our country, when we cannot even afford a summer road trip or provide our children with baby formula, is an astonishing waste of money. That is more money than any of our NATO "allies" spends on its military in a year -- and much or even most of it is certain to be stolen. It is nothing short of surreal to hear these little fuckers berating us for not sending even more.
Posted by Billy Budd 2022-05-26 07:53||   2022-05-26 07:53|| Front Page Top

#9 I'm totally in favor of ending all expenditures overseas until the US national debt is zero. Ain't gonna happen, but a boy can dream...
Posted by M. Murcek 2022-05-26 07:58||   2022-05-26 07:58|| Front Page Top

#10 I've been very impressed with the trolls and the amount of effort spent on a fifth (or lower) tier blog trying to rationalize naked aggression. It's not like the Rant has any special influence in the world. The best I can come up with, this is sort of their homework for progression to higher assignments or some mole in our government had to provide their bosses with some sort of excuse that they're actually working and made some outlandish claim one or more alphabet agencies are doing something more than just monitoring the place for 'disinformation'.
Posted by Procopius2k 2022-05-26 08:03||   2022-05-26 08:03|| Front Page Top

#11 ^ Rantburg punches way above its weight in intel aggregation on a variety of things. That's down to the community and the diverse (sorry, that word has not been ruined like some others yet, but it's close) backgrounds of its members.

I'm sure it's on the radar of agencies domestic and foreign.
Posted by M. Murcek 2022-05-26 08:06||   2022-05-26 08:06|| Front Page Top

#12 Hey "Procopius" - Why don't you suit up and go fight "naked aggression" (love that cliche) instead of dissing people who are appalled at what our leaders are doing to us?

The 'Rant' as you call it is an outlet for D.C. insiders to speak honestly about the foolishness of their Deep State employers.

This war is the stupidest waste of our money since ... the last pointless fuckup. Afghanistan, Syria, Libya, Iraq: How many more of these colossal botchjobs are you willing to accept before you finally say, ENOUGH? It's bullshit and you know it.
Posted by Billy Budd 2022-05-26 08:12||   2022-05-26 08:12|| Front Page Top

#13 Sorry bud, I put my life on the line for 20 years, how many did you?
Posted by Procopius2k 2022-05-26 08:15||   2022-05-26 08:15|| Front Page Top

#14 The 'Rant' as you call it is an outlet for D.C. insiders to speak honestly about the foolishness of their Deep State employers.


Hey! I'm a DC insider!!!! w00t!!!!
Posted by DarthVader 2022-05-26 08:17||   2022-05-26 08:17|| Front Page Top

#15 
Posted by Billy Budd 2022-05-26 08:17||   2022-05-26 08:17|| Front Page Top

#16 For all the trolls using the "we-us-our" constructs in your posts: Nothing sets an observant person's teeth on edge like a stranger calling me "friend," or otherwise insinuating they are in the same boat with me when I know damn well they are not. See War Drums Johnny McShame.
Posted by M. Murcek 2022-05-26 08:20||   2022-05-26 08:20|| Front Page Top

#17 Interesting ad hominem. Attacking without a declaration of war against another sovereign state by a country that has already shown an appetite for geographical aggrandizement, yeah naked aggression - see Marco Polo bridge incident China, July 1937. Doesn't matter who the parties are or where, its naked aggression. It is a simple statement of opinion. You're the one projecting that somehow I believe in becoming engaged in some overt military action. Playing the game that the Soviets played in Vietnam supplying another agent waging war on their home territory, I can see that. It's a game being played by many participants across the globe this very day.

As for the Ukraine, the historic animosity between the two parties means there will never be peace. The Russian may occupy the place, at great cost, but it will always fester. It will only be a matter of time and circumstances before another outbreak hostilities occurs.
Posted by Procopius2k 2022-05-26 08:50||   2022-05-26 08:50|| Front Page Top

#18 Whoever is blocking the responses to insults, if you don't like the response, then block the original insult as well. These childish playground taunts don't advance the discussion in any way.

Sorry bud, I put my life on the line for 20 years, how many did you?

25. Your arguments are lame. The war in Ukraine is nowhere near as simple as your simplistic retelling makes it out to be. "Naked aggression" is a stupid cliche that's most often used against us by anti-American critics.
Posted by Billy Budd 2022-05-26 09:01||   2022-05-26 09:01|| Front Page Top

#19 The war in Ukraine is nowhere near as simple as your simplistic retelling makes it out to be.

No war is. However as humans we do not engage in some sort of algorithmic calculation in making decisions of what we generally do, its behavioral. Tell me how we ended up backing Stalin who killed more Russians than Hitler did, who invaded and occupied sovereign states, and sponsored agencies to destabilize western democracies? Yeah, nothing is really simple.
Posted by Procopius2k 2022-05-26 09:23||   2022-05-26 09:23|| Front Page Top

#20  Whoever is blocking the responses to insults, if you don't like the response, then block the original insult as well.

It wasn’t me, Mr. Budd, but the first comment established the tone. I imagine the subsequent comments added nothing useful or interesting to the conversation, however pleasurable they might have been to write.

when we cannot even afford a summer road trip or provide our children with baby formula, is an astonishing waste of money.

Of course we can afford both. It’s just that President Biden’s government has chosen to prevent adequate production of either. Here’s hoping for landslide elections across the country in November driving the Democrats and their fellow travelers out of office so we can start getting that kind of nonsense under control.
Posted by trailing wife 2022-05-26 09:24||   2022-05-26 09:24|| Front Page Top

#21  It's not like the Rant has any special influence in the world.

Layers upon layers, wheels within wheels. I can say no more.
Posted by SteveS 2022-05-26 09:26||   2022-05-26 09:26|| Front Page Top

#22 ^ Why do you not block the other personal insults? The "trolls" insult is still up. So is the embarrassingly stupid insult, "Sorry bud, I put my life on the line for 20 years, how many did you?"
Posted by Billy Budd 2022-05-26 09:28||   2022-05-26 09:28|| Front Page Top

#23 I just want to know why nobody invites me to the really good cocktail parties. I’m tired of sneaking in the back entrance to take tea with whomever happens to be secretary of defense at the moment. (Yes, yes — of course they all drink good American coffee, but the permanent staff secretary admin. thoughtfully keeps a tin of tea for when I drop by.)
Posted by trailing wife 2022-05-26 09:34||   2022-05-26 09:34|| Front Page Top

#24 Layers upon layers, wheels within wheels. I can say no more.

It's Fred all the way down.
Posted by M. Murcek 2022-05-26 09:37||   2022-05-26 09:37|| Front Page Top

#25 The"trolls" insult is still up.

We have had Russian and Ukrainian trolls posting here. Obviously you have missed a lot. The gatekeepers here are able to track back the origins of many posts to foreign IPs. Before the Ukraine, long before you've shown up, the Rant has had trolls from other geographical origins. They're names that appear all the sudden and disappear when the 'world event' quiets down.
Posted by Procopius2k 2022-05-26 09:44||   2022-05-26 09:44|| Front Page Top

#26 And make no mistake, trolls are useful in a useful idiot kind of way. From giving insight into the opponents' mindsets to keeping us all sharp, they only get spamcopped when they start slinging playground psychotic insults or outright drool-a-thon garbage.
Posted by M. Murcek 2022-05-26 10:00||   2022-05-26 10:00|| Front Page Top

#27 Well, I am foreign but I sincerely hope you do not block me as a "troll."

Back on topic, the Russians are making steady gains all along the Luhansk salient. They will encircle and cut off the Ukrainians at some point during the next 7-10 days.

The Maryland-based American former paratrooper who calls himself "Jomini of the West" (after the great French military strategist) has been the most incisive analyst of the Donbas engagements since the very beginning of the conflict.

This is what he said a month ago:
"I have been stressing since March 14 this portion of the Donbas front is the key to ultimate victory or defeat in the east. I still hold to this assessment...."

A summary of @JominiW's latest analysis follows - this is actually more than 48 hours old but his analytical framework is so solid that his predictions are usually validated by events. The material point is that the Russians have learned and adapted their tactics significantly. They are no longer using throwaway units but are instead putting forth elite troops that are well-supplied and carefully integrated. This is why the Ukrainian leadership is panicking.

Here is "Jomini of the West":
@JominiW

1/ Ukrainian TVD, Day 80-88. The past 9 days has seen one of the most fluid periods to date in the Russo-Ukrainian War. The most significant developments have been the surrender of Ukrainian forces in Mariupol & the Russian breakthrough around Popasna.
...
21/ As stated previously, the breakthrough at Popasna has been the result of a better application of doctrinal methodologies and the integration of new combat assets (like BMPT AFV) that has allowed Russian forces to maneuver more effectively and outflank Ukrainian defenses.

22/ Likewise, supporting this has been a missing element of Russian offensive capability, effective supply of sustained combat operations. The Popasna OMG has remained effective largely in part because it has been better supplied than previous Russian offensives.
Posted by Jean-Paul 2022-05-26 10:01||   2022-05-26 10:01|| Front Page Top

#28 All good stuff, JP. Certainly not name calling crap. Carry on...
Posted by M. Murcek 2022-05-26 10:03||   2022-05-26 10:03|| Front Page Top

#29 ^ Merci, Jean-Paul!

Baron de Jomini's principles are quite relevant to the current battles in the Donbas. Jomini's staff officer approach is much more tactically focused than Clausewitz's theories of "friction." Jomini emphasised mobility and asserted the principal goal as being "to mobilise, at a decisive point and at the right moment, more forces than the enemy".

This is an interesting brief analysis of some of the differences in approach and outlook between Clausewitz and Jomini.
Posted by Palmerston 2022-05-26 10:14||   2022-05-26 10:14|| Front Page Top

#30 the Russians have learned and adapted their tactics significantly

Defeat is the best teacher for a military. (Success often teaches the wrong lessons -- look at WWII vet arms Westmoreland's and LeMay's failures in Vietnam.)

The Russian defeats in March have enabled their military to make more progress and develop faster in 6 weeks than they ever could have in 20 years of peacetime. Their commanding officers are now battle tested, most of the dead wood has been cleared out of the upper ranks, and they have saved their elite units for this decisive, final stage of the war.
Posted by Billy Budd 2022-05-26 10:24||   2022-05-26 10:24|| Front Page Top

#31 American statesman broker Henry Kissinger.
Posted by swksvolFF 2022-05-26 10:26||   2022-05-26 10:26|| Front Page Top

#32 #12 Hey "Procopius" - Why don't you suit up and go fight "naked aggression" (love that cliche) instead of dissing people who are appalled at what our leaders are doing to us?

Does aggression have tits and a vagina? Asking for a friend.
Posted by badanov 2022-05-26 10:28||   2022-05-26 10:28|| Front Page Top

#33 ^ Nowadays, it may have tits and a beard. Who are we to question that?
Posted by M. Murcek 2022-05-26 10:29||   2022-05-26 10:29|| Front Page Top

#34 Defeat is the best teacher for a military.

No. Not really. Sure there are a couple great stories here and there, but they are great because they are rare.
Posted by swksvolFF 2022-05-26 10:30||   2022-05-26 10:30|| Front Page Top

#35 Hey "Procopius" - Why don't you suit up and go fight "naked aggression" (love that cliche) instead of dissing people who are appalled at what our leaders are doing to us?

Does aggression have tits and a vagina? Asking for a friend.

Nowadays, it may have tits and a beard. Who are we to question that?

"Gonna head 'em off at the pass!" sure has changed meaning over the years.
Posted by swksvolFF 2022-05-26 10:32||   2022-05-26 10:32|| Front Page Top

#36 I think the "naked aggression" comments may be in line for Snark o the Day - Tag Team Edition.
Posted by M. Murcek 2022-05-26 10:34||   2022-05-26 10:34|| Front Page Top

#37 #33 "American statesman broker Henry Kissinger"

I do not understand these attacks on Kissinger's diplomatic achievements. Do American veterans of Vietnam truly think that continuing to lose tens of thousands of American lives was preferable to Kissinger and Nixon's successful "Vietnamization" policy?

Kissinger and Nixon combined diplomacy and punitive air power. They didn't "broker" a peace with the Viet Cong; they smashed them and forced them to negotiate. In this war, Russia has already been hit very hard. Kissinger is simply acknowledging realities, as he and other Realists have always done.
Posted by Jean-Paul 2022-05-26 10:37||   2022-05-26 10:37|| Front Page Top

#38 He's a closer, not a statesman.
Posted by swksvolFF 2022-05-26 10:42||   2022-05-26 10:42|| Front Page Top

#39 Defeat is the best teacher for a military. (Success often teaches the wrong lessons)

Quite true, assuming that the defeated military is willing to learn. The Russians are learning very rapidly. Don't know whether we can say the same about our own military and its 20-year losing streak.
Posted by Oye Como Va 2022-05-26 10:44||   2022-05-26 10:44|| Front Page Top

#40 I grew up in a family with some aunts and uncles who were very far-right. They considered Kissinger to be a traitor and his work to be nothing less than surrender. I don't see it that way. THE USA has really not been willing to fight to a win since Korea (not that we could have there.) With the exception of Grenada (beating on a small child) and Gulf War I (both justified and run correctly) everything else the USA has done since then, war wise, should have been skipped.
Posted by M. Murcek 2022-05-26 10:46||   2022-05-26 10:46|| Front Page Top

#41 He's a closer, not a statesman.

His masterstroke was the opening to China. No one initiated that for him to "close."

To achieve this, Kissinger and Nixon orchestrated an extraordinarily subtle, patient and sophisticated series of maneuvers involving not just Mao's China but Pakistan, India and the USSR.

"Closer" would better describe a less-accomplished ordinary diplomat like Warren Christopher.
Posted by Jean-Paul 2022-05-26 10:48||   2022-05-26 10:48|| Front Page Top

#42 Don't know whether we can say the same about our own military and its 20-year losing streak.

Can't win wars your politicians won't let you win. That means if you are unwilling to win don't go to war.
Posted by Procopius2k 2022-05-26 10:49||   2022-05-26 10:49|| Front Page Top

#43 All roads lead to Carthago Nova.
Posted by swksvolFF 2022-05-26 10:50||   2022-05-26 10:50|| Front Page Top

#44 And don't lump LeMay in. His job was to be ready to kill the Russians in an all-out nuke war. He was decidedly lukewarm on using B-52s to deliver conventional bombs in Viet Nam. He, of course, knew how to do that, and he followed his orders. Which came from the White House and the Pentagon.
Posted by M. Murcek 2022-05-26 10:51||   2022-05-26 10:51|| Front Page Top

#45 Can't win wars your politicians won't let you win.

And, the JCS absorbed that lesson. That's how we got Milley and Mullen. They figured out what the politicians want and they have delivered it in spades.
Posted by M. Murcek 2022-05-26 10:56||   2022-05-26 10:56|| Front Page Top

#46 Biden Administration's Victim of Naked Aggression (note the battle scars)
Posted by Oye Como Va 2022-05-26 10:56||   2022-05-26 10:56|| Front Page Top

#47 don't lump LeMay in. His job was to be ready to kill the Russians in an all-out nuke war. He was decidedly lukewarm on using B-52s to deliver conventional bombs in Viet Nam.

That's fair. Point taken. I do think Westmoreland should take some blame for trying to, in broad terms, fight WWII again. But you're right that it's the C-in-C and his cabinet who bear the ultimate responsibility.

Ironic that Rumsfeld was trying mightily to move the US toward a lighter, more mobile, less expensive footprint before 9/11 and the Iraq War... There's the curse of (Shock & Awe's) illusory "success" for you
Posted by Billy Budd 2022-05-26 11:05||   2022-05-26 11:05|| Front Page Top

#48 Ref# #47, Can't win wars your politicians won't let you win.

You kill (utterly vanquish and destroy) all the weeds, might be a while until you need to buy weed killer again.
Posted by Besoeker 2022-05-26 11:07||   2022-05-26 11:07|| Front Page Top

#49 You kill (utterly vanquish and destroy) all the weeds, might be a while until you need to buy weed killer again.

Reformat and bare metal build of Washington DC
Posted by DarthVader 2022-05-26 13:06||   2022-05-26 13:06|| Front Page Top

#50 I do not understand these attacks on Kissinger's diplomatic achievements. Do American veterans of Vietnam

That was not his only legacy, Jean-Paul. Were it up to him, Israel would have lost the Yom Kippur War in 1973, and the current civil war in Syria would have included the depopulated ruins of Jerusalem Al Aqsa and Tel Aviv, while Iraq, Syria, and Iran would have been flinging nuclear bombs at their enemies for the past few decades.

He's a closer, not a statesman.

A closer in the American idiom is a salesman who makes deals, persuading purchasers to sign contracts, regardless whether it’s what they need or want — so there is a certain level of skill involved. A statesman is what politicians pretend to be —looking well beyond momentary profit to the best long term outcome for all involved.
Posted by trailing wife 2022-05-26 15:38||   2022-05-26 15:38|| Front Page Top

#51 Pro tip: There have been no "statesmen" in the US gummint since the early 1800s.
Posted by M. Murcek 2022-05-26 15:42||   2022-05-26 15:42|| Front Page Top

#52 Kissinger is 99 years old.

Also one should consider the many different positions he has taken on Ukraine/Russia. Back in 2014 post Russia's Crimea takeover, he said that Crimea should remain part of Ukraine, then in 2016 or so he said the opposite, then in 2018 he was back to the earlier position, now apparently back to the Crimea is part of Russia position.
Posted by Lord Garth 2022-05-26 17:21||   2022-05-26 17:21|| Front Page Top

#53 That was not his only legacy, Jean-Paul. Were it up to him, Israel would have lost the Yom Kippur War

Kissinger was the American Secretary of State. He was not representing Israeli interests
Posted by Jean-Paul 2022-05-26 18:05||   2022-05-26 18:05|| Front Page Top

#54 Kissinger, D.C. surrender monkeys, and everyone else in Washington, Euro-weenies, need to quit offering free advise and stay out of it.

Ammo and intelligence, meds, fine.... maybe. Let the Ukies prosecute the war effort and STFU.

Posted by Besoeker 2022-05-26 18:28||   2022-05-26 18:28|| Front Page Top

#55 This is exactly what Kissinger wrote in 2014 ("How the Ukraine Crisis Ends March 6, 2014) regarding the way the Crimean issue should be resolved.

In short, Russia should control this crucial southern bulwark and with it, the indispensable Russian naval base at Sevastopol and the Black Sea Fleet.

Cleverly as always, Kissinger argued that the process by which this desired result would be achieved would involve a plebiscite and that the peninsula would de jure be part of Ukraine -- while at the same time, Kissinger clearly signaled that the de facto control of this extraordinarily significant territory whose residents overwhelmingly identify with Russia would be with the winner of the plebiscite, that is, Russia.

Kissinger began by (diplomatically) criticizing Russia -- "It is incompatible with the rules of the existing world order for Russia to annex Crimea -- and then made it clear that Crimea will and must be controlled in reality, it on paper, by Russia.

Note once more the careful, subtle but unambiguous diplomatic language deployed artfully to express the central realpolitik concept, which is that control of Crimea is absolutely essential to Russian security:

"But it should be possible to put Crimea’s relationship to Ukraine on a less fraught basis. To that end, Russia would recognize Ukraine’s sovereignty over Crimea."

But this sovereignty is sharply curtailed by autonomy and elections. The Crimean population is 90% in favor of Russian control:

"Ukraine should reinforce Crimea’s autonomy in elections held in the presence of international observers. The process would include removing any ambiguities about the status of the Black Sea Fleet at Sevastopol.
Posted by Jean-Paul 2022-05-26 18:32||   2022-05-26 18:32|| Front Page Top

#56 /\ All of which, could be the very playbook Vlad is following.

Thanks for your input Jean-Paul. Irony? Yes possibly, but more likely a well supported Russian strategic analysis.
Posted by Besoeker 2022-05-26 18:38||   2022-05-26 18:38|| Front Page Top

#57 ^ It was that idiotic little shit-stirrer Zelensky, no doubt egged on by the return to the White House of Biden and Nuland and the 2014 coup-monger gang, who declared in March 2021 that he would seize Crimea for Ukraine.

Kissinger recommended a plebiscite overseen by neutral international observers. Biden and Zelensky fired shots across Russia's bow by sending the US and British fleets right up against the Black Sea Fleet last summer.

That stunt in June 2021 was an astonishingly reckless and stupid bit of saber rattling, one which was certain to be interpreted by the Russians as a sign of hostile intent to seize Crimea by force.
Posted by Billy Budd 2022-05-26 18:51||   2022-05-26 18:51|| Front Page Top

#58 /\ Exactly! Biden, Nuland, Kissinger and many other shi* stirring Washington neo-cons bloviating at the brink of a nuclear conflict.

Stay the fok out of it.
Posted by Besoeker 2022-05-26 18:57||   2022-05-26 18:57|| Front Page Top

#59 Irony?

No, not ironic at all. Realistic. There can be no peace of Ukraine is not a neutral buffer state that does not control or interfere in any way with Russia's most important military base.

To Billy Budd's point, the recklessness of the Biden people and their client has been astounding. The American and British naval exercises last summer deserve much closer attention and study, as I'm sure they will receive from future historians.

Also, cutting off Crimea's water supply as the Ukrainians did was by itself a casus belli. (I read that the Russians have just restored that supply in total. That's very good news.)
Posted by Jean-Paul 2022-05-26 18:59||   2022-05-26 18:59|| Front Page Top

#60 shi* stirring Washington neo-cons

The neo-cons hated Kissinger. They effectively ended his Washington career.

Probably for the reasons articulated by the pro-Israel poster in #50, above, along with their hatred of the policy of détente toward the USSR
Posted by Jean-Paul 2022-05-26 19:04||   2022-05-26 19:04|| Front Page Top

#61 #59 should read, "There can be no peace if Ukraine is not a neutral buffer state"
Posted by Jean-Paul 2022-05-26 19:06||   2022-05-26 19:06|| Front Page Top

#62 /\ A 99 year old man has no business meddling in geo-politics or war. Just my penny farthings worth.
Posted by Besoeker 2022-05-26 19:14||   2022-05-26 19:14|| Front Page Top

#63 I'm going with Air of Acceptable Gravitas for a deal made. Close second would be one of those negotiation flexes, like we want a bowl of jelly beans, but remove all the yellow and blue ones.

Whatever the reason, looks like he is being used to pass the hint to Elenskyy that his time is up. Give Elenskyy one pass at venting, already taken, but another, well, should have taken the retirement package.
Posted by swksvolFF 2022-05-26 19:42||   2022-05-26 19:42|| Front Page Top

#64 Endgame is beginning. Here is NBC News, singing a very different tune from all the BS we've been hearing for the last two months:

NBC News
Russian advances are making the battle for the Donbas a ‘different story’ to the start of the war

"Russia is tightening the noose on Ukrainian troops in the country's east.

"A fierce ground and artillery assault has seen Moscow's forces advance, and they now appear close to encircling the last two hold-out cities in Luhansk province — which together with neighboring Donetsk forms the Donbas region that has become the key focus of the Kremlin’s war.

"With Ukrainian officials voicing concern their troops are now outmanned and outgunned, this Russian push could prove a decisive moment in the conflict...."
Posted by Oye Como Va 2022-05-26 20:46||   2022-05-26 20:46|| Front Page Top

#65 Zelensky's aide Arestovich just confirmed in a livestream that the Ukrainians have lost the crucial northern Donbas city of Liman. Ukrainian forces have abandoned their positions and fled west-southwest.

Also, the ruble has climbed so high against the dollar that the Russians are going to LOWER interest rates.... even as Powell announces he will slam the US into recession by raising interests another 175bp
Posted by Billy Budd 2022-05-26 20:59||   2022-05-26 20:59|| Front Page Top

#66 Kissinger was the American Secretary of State. He was not representing Israeli interests.

President Nixon was the American chief executive at the time. And despite being more than a bit of an antisemite in both his personal and political life, he concluded that materially supporting Israel at that moment was non-negotiable. Our self-defined intellectual class to the contrary, supporting Israel has been the default position of the vast majority of American voters since the UN voted to establish the country.

Incidentally, trailing wife is both my nym (or is it nic? I’ve seen both) and my career. My pronouns grammatically match my XX DNA, so it should be ...along with her hatred of the policy of détente toward the USSR

Except I didn’t disagree with détente at the time — though I was only a schoolgirl, and so my understanding was necessarily limited. Nor have I seen reason to change my mind on that subject since.
Posted by trailing wife 2022-05-26 20:59||   2022-05-26 20:59|| Front Page Top

#67 @#65 - Into a recession? Nobody thinks we are already in one?

Fed is years late raising rates, possibly more to help other central banks. The Chinese have begged the Fed to not raise rates. And the ECB and its negative rates? LOL!
Posted by DooDahMan 2022-05-26 21:39||   2022-05-26 21:39|| Front Page Top

#68 The Ukrainians are losing their elite battalions now, one after another, with losses exceeding 60% of strength for:
- the 24th Brigade
- the 36th Brigade
- multiple Air Assault brigades

And the Azov neo-Nazi Battalion has been totally destroyed
Posted by Billy Budd 2022-05-26 22:36||   2022-05-26 22:36|| Front Page Top

22:36 Billy Budd
21:59 Cletle Shinese1880
21:39 DooDahMan
21:38 Silentbrick
21:20 Amsicora
21:16 Silentbrick
21:02 trailing wife
20:59 trailing wife
20:59 Billy Budd
20:58 NN2N1
20:46 Oye Como Va
20:45 DarthVader
20:15 DooDahMan
19:42 swksvolFF
19:40 DooDahMan
19:38 DooDahMan
19:16 Besoeker
19:14 Besoeker
19:11 Cloluck Bourbon1058
19:06 Jean-Paul
19:04 Jean-Paul
18:59 Jean-Paul
18:57 swksvolFF
18:57 Besoeker









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