Boy, I am getting old. I was invited to do an interview on Sputnik News and was told the host is Dmitri Simes. I was expecting the man pictured above. Nope. Imagine my surprise when the young man in the video starts asking questions — I was being interviewed by Dmitri Simes Jr. Twenty-one years ago Dmitri’s father, Dmitri Simes Sr., hosted me, Pat Lang, Ambassador Joe Wilson, Charles Krauthammer, former CIA Director James R. Schlesinger and a few other experts at the Nixon Center in Washington, DC in December 2002 to discuss the impending U.S. invasion of Iraq. I participated as a speaker and panelist at several events at the Nixon Center during Dmitri Sr.’s tenure there. Dmitri Sr. is a good man who was unfairly and wrongfully accused of being part of a Russia plot to interfere in the 2016 Presidential election.
He immigrated to the United States in 1973, seeking intellectual and political freedom; he had twice been expelled from university in Russia for protesting Soviet involvement in the Vietnam War.
Talk about irony –the U.S. Department of Justice in 2016 treated Dmitri Sr. just like the Soviets in the 1970s, who viewed him as an enemy of the state. He came to America seeking a honorable political and judicial system and, forty years later, was a target of political persecution by a corrupt Department of Justice. Dmitri Sr. is now back in Russia and enjoying more freedom and dignity then he experienced in the United States. Anyway, his son is now working for Sputnik and is doing some fine work.
And here is a quick update on the Wagner Group, courtesy of the Russian Ministry of Defense:
Russian Armed Forces completed receiving weapons and military equipment from units of Wagner Group in accordance with the plan
◽️ More than 2,000 items of equipment and armaments have been handed over. (https://t.me/mod_russia_en/8375) This includes hundreds of units of heavy weapons: T-90, T-80, T-72B3 tanks, Grad and Uragan multiple-launch rocket systems, Pantsir surface-to-air missile systems, 2S1 Gvozdika 122 mm self-propelled artillery systems, 2S3 Akatsiya 152 mm, 2S5 Giatsint 152 mm, 2S4 Tulpan 240 mm, howitzers and anti-tank guns, mortar systems, multipurpose armoured tractors, armoured personnel carriers, as well as motor vehicles and small arms.
◽️ Among the transferred equipment, dozens of units have never been used in combat conditions.
◽️ More than two and a half thousand tonnes of ammunition and about 20,000 small arms have also been received.
◽️ Heavy tracked equipment, high-power self-propelled artillery units and tanks are being transported to field bases by wheeled tractors on trawls in order to prevent damage to paved roads. Wheeled vehicles arrive on their own.
◽️ All equipment and armaments are transported to rear areas, where repair and recovery units of the Russian Armed Forces carry out maintenance and prepare them for use for their intended purpose.
Looks like the reports that the Wagner commanders and their troops were balking at integrating into the Russian Army were not true.
I’m 24 minutes into the interview and appreciating someone new asking questions. I’m going to get a cup of 4am coffee and enjoy the rest.
Always enjoyed Simes’ articles and interviews. Then without really following him, I sensed him disappearing from the mainstream bit by bit. Simes wouldn’t pull punches when criticizing Russia’s policies, yet he eventually became more accepted there than here, if I’m reading things correctly. If so, it tells a lot.
Dmitri Simes and Stephen Cohen were often diverse in their views and conclusions but ended up being treated much the same.
He’ll do much better influencing Russian polity during and after this war than he did here, which wasn’t insignificant by any means. He’ll be missed. Kudos to his son. We need more of such folks if we’re ever going to escape the ‘great slumber’.
Anti Soviet help to Vietnam then – was it such a good endeavour? letting the US carry on its murderous policies in that land unhindered by Soviet arms?
Anti Russia war of liberation in Novorossia – is that what the man is advising whomever may be listening to him nowadays?
Perish the thought.
There are plenty of fools, enamoured of their own superior morality, that become veritable dim-wits when discerning the true moral high ground of this or that conflict. Their idiotic blank assessment of international quarrels – the professional “pacifist’s” prerogative – always prevent them from judging a war as (possibly) just on one side and wicked on the other.
(It is of course quite possible that both sides of a quarrel be equally wrong – but that was not the case in Vietnam and it is not the case in Russian Ukraine)
Bravo Sam.
Relativization is harmfull. I want to remind you of the movie Man of the Year, where Robbie Williams resignedly describes a possible talk show between a highly educated historian who is a Holocaust expert and an uneducated (of course) nazi who claims that the Holocaust is a fabrication. After an hour of conversation, the average viewer will think that the truth is somewhere in between.
Relativisation is used to confuse people. Confused people don’t have moral clarity. When nothing is immoral any more and we are good by the sole virtue of being us, endless wars, medicine whose purpose isn’t to cure but to make you dependent, vaccines that are not vaccines, sexual deviance propaganda in schools and mutilation of children become the new normal. We’re not yet at replacing meat with bugs or normalising paedophilia – though euthanasia of children has already made big inroads – but we’re getting close.
Well, there’s that too.
My favorite current thing is the Bradley captured by a group of Russian troops that look to be about 14 years old. Completely undamaged. Evidently the chickenshit Nazi’s just ran off. That is 4.35 Million dollars of my tax money. That is on the way to a Russian military lab. So that our children can be more easily killed when they learn all our technology.
Hey! Let’s send them Abrams tanks and F16’s! On Twitter search “captured Bradley”. Oh, it was crammed with another million of Javelins and other shit.
Don’t sweat it. There is nothing innovative to be hacked from a Bradley. The innovative initiative in the US is devoted to finding novel ways to bribe congressmen.
NATO has nothing the Rooskies havnt seen n done already, its us that are well behind the Russian curve.
“Pentagon Wars”, short version: hair-curling tale of how the Bradley was designed to be the Kitchen Sink of troop transport vehicles:
https://youtu.be/aXQ2lO3ieBA
Correct.
U made my day .
What is Russian for a “Bradley Burger.”
Answer …..They all come with Fries and coke.
Funny and yet sad at the same time.
Yep. It’s off to a museum. Kubinka lacks modern Western stuff.
@ Pym “The innovative initiative in the US is devoted to finding novel ways to bribe congressmen.”
The US (and its “military”) are also devoted to finding more and more “genders” as well. LOL. Complete and utter morons.
Bradleys were designed to engage enemies that couldn’t hit the broad side of a barn.
I hear Resnikov is negotiating to sell off what remains of them to African safari tour operators. Whether a rhino can flip them over remains to be seen.
Are you sure you are talking about the Bradley Fighting Vehicle BFV? It has tracks and variants support reactive armor. No rhinoceros can flip it over.
Was thinking of a MaxxPro I guess.
That’s funny. A little trivia. The Indian rhino can run 34-35 mph, the Bradley also goes 35 mph. The rhino is also in the unicorn family just the same as the US Bradleys ;D
Well, Ukraine was the most corrupt (or second most) country on the planet. Why did the scorpion sting the frog?
Its not as if this was unpredictable.
There’s nothing useful Russians can glean from the Bradleys. Their continuous destruction is proof.
NATO Hawks betrays their Proxy
Prior to the summit, NATO leaders were boasting language that “looked like” progress for Ukraine.
At the first day of the summit, Zelensky was given commitment to NATO membership and security guarantees from the Group of Seven.
However, over dinner, NATO leaders delivered the message to Zelensky: You have to cool down.
The next morning UK Defense Secretary Ben Wallace told reporters: “People want to see gratitude as we’re persuading countries to give up their stock of weapons and ammunition”.
And during the next day, a ‘hero to zero’ attitude was given to Zelensky who previously enjoyed rockstar status in Western capitals.
But the US and Germany changes their minds just before the summit.
Biden on Monday stated the reality that Ukraine’s admission into NATO would unleash WW3.
The NATO declaration after the summit is with a prospect bleaker than that of the 2008 summit.
NATO will continue to review Ukraine’s progress on interoperability as well as required democratic reforms. NATO Foreign Ministers will assess Ukraine’s progress annually.
The Alliance urges Ukraine to make these reforms on its path towards future membership.
We will extend an invitation to Ukraine to join NATO, when all members agree that the conditions are met.
Ukraine has been used by NATO to attack Russia and ends up as a discarded rag when Ukraine is eradicated from the map by war, while the Empire moves on to drive Finland or Lithuania or Poland or Turkey or Georgia into a NATO frontline war with Russia. ´
The Imperial Elites prior muscular optimism and support have been exposed for what it is: Arrogance toward the death of 350.000 Ukrainian soldiers and 14.000 civilians, + an entire Nation lying in Ruins.
Now that huge amounts of over promoted Western armor lay smoldering on the battlefield, and NATO has run out of ammunition, the Western population will enter the Great RESET to find alternative energy sources and restock its defenses at hyper inflated price. Mission accomplished.
I wonder what NATO’s betrayal will do to the morale of the Ukrainian people.
Maybe Zelensky should pick up the phone and call Putin to seek some real friends.
Nothing to add. Chapeau bas.
How could those enlightened NATO leaders have left Zelensky sidelined and shuffling his feet like that? Don’t they realize that he’s sacrificing Ukraine to keep the Russians from yelling ‘bistro, bistro’ in Parisian cafes again? Ungrateful wenches!
Meanwhile, I viewed a revealing vid yesterday that pretty much wraps up how and why NATO found Ukraine such a ‘useful ally/vassal’, and enthusiastic sharer of NATO ‘goals’, as did so many empire builders before them
Vid: ‘Russian POWS being ‘educated’ by I assume an enthusiastic banderite nationalist of the history of Ukraine, as the legitimate heir to Russia, via a modified version of Russia’s history.
https://www.bitchute.com/video/tuoWucSmnvqd/
Apparently, the Rus’ factional migration path of a millennium past was not Novgorod->Kiev->Muskovy but only half that of Kiev->Muskovy, ergo Ukraine’s destiny to displace the Muskovy usurpers and claim the throne for itself. Such goes their mythical ideology. Remind you of anyone?
The enthusiastic banderite is not the legitimate heir to Russia.
Danes know what we called Gardariget (Russia) was settled by our forefathers the Vikings in what we called Holmgard (Novgorod) in year 854 and later settle in Kiev in 882.
Both places were trading stations and winter camp for Vikings on their long journey (2 years) traveling from the Nordic Nations to what we called Miklagard (Constantinople).
This is the major waterways that Vikings traveled through:
https://cdn-dk-hi-me.clio.me/user_upload/Vikingetiden._Dk_i_verden._Vikings-Voyages._wiki.jpg?_ga=2.190883043.852803992.1689289491-654892936.1689289490
However the smaller Viking boats were able to travel down small rivers (what is called creeks in America)
During the winter Vikings also traveled through Russia by sleigh drawn by horses.
The Nordic population is related to the Vikings settling in the western part of Russia and Eastern Ukraine.
One more thing we have in common is that neither of us cares much for the Pope in Rome.
Try to explain that to a Ukrainian.
They think the Rus sailed the Baltic and North Seas to the Atlantic through the Mediterranean and Black Seas and up the Dnieper to Kiev. 😉
With regard to the statement from G7 …
HOW is this different from “NATO” providing security? Is RF supposed to ignore because of rebranding? Sounds like another of the ‘Cookie Lady’s STUPID, RECKLESS ideas. They [Ukrainians] fight and die so that more weapons can be sold, so that MIC companies can line their pockets… and throw back payment to politicians to ensure their reelection.
So, they didn’t want to take heed of Putin’s twenty+ long year appeal for a new European security architecture that would have avoided all of this but they’re willing to twist themselves into pretzels and stick their heads up their arses to think up a new European security architecture for Ukraine, lame that it may be.
Best they leave their heads buried where they’re most useful.
Do you really believe the Russians have never dissected a Bradley or Abrams.
Not sure but I know that the Ukrainians have dissected more than a few wounded Ihors and Dmytros for recycling.
What technology? What children?
The troops were 14 year olds? I thought only Ukraine did that.
I totally agree with you, we are sending our weapons to Ukraine only for the Ukrainians to abandon or worse still sell these ‘sophisticated’ weapons to the Russians and the blackmarket. This Ukrainian misadventure will come back to bite us soon just watch this space.
There’s nothing to be “learned” about those tin cans other than just how much money was skimmed to build them. Your kids would be better served by staying completely away from the military. Do something productive. Build instead of destroy.
Is the title a ‘trick question?’ Must be. Any names on who is running the show? Really running the show?
The pillow biter!
This is premier content.
A Russian soldier unloads on US propaganda against Russians. It confirms that US and NATO including Germany war contractors manufacture weapons and munitions to sell, whereas the Russians manufacture weapons and munitions to wage war.
https://abeldanger.blogspot.com/2023/07/all-of-our-equipment-is-meant-for-war.html
The video is age-restricted. Here’s a BitChute link:
https://www.bitchute.com/video/mVDz8UlFYCPF/
Why is that age-restricted? I thought they were already teaching pre-school kids the opah opah in America?
No Great Reset Leap Forward without WWIII.
Brandon signs the orders with his pen or else he gets the stairs again.
Cities blown off the map is a feature to the indispensable apparatchik hive.
Prepare accordingly.
It’s already WW3. We are on an escalation ladder. More than midway at this point.
“There are times when I wish Noah and his party had missed the boat.” — Mark Twain.
And this is sure one of them.
The banality of all that skinny assed, over-dressed, property, turning their backs on a cross dressing, drug addicted, midget at the woke “Vassalage Ball” called the NATO summit. Cancel culture? Try DOA.
“Heh! Let’s have a party in Vilnius, Lithuania that no real people are invited to. We can behave as badly as we want.”
World War III is humanity’s last chance to miss the boat.
I think a more accurate comment would be “they are continuously trying to start WW3.” However, if you have noticed, every attempt at ignition has been thwarted. The English elites are psychos, who used to sending other fools to fight their wars including the US, but nothing is happening. This is the scary part because some believe that the aforementioned inbred psychos might prefer to setoff a false flag nuke to the whole thing then loose their power.
These demon worshippers must be eliminated should this planet wish for a chance at some happiness. Otherwise, it’s DCBC and bugs or communism.
There is also the fact of a divide country. The oligarchs divide the US, to make US citizens fight each other and blame either the Dems or Republicans for the country’s many woes, so the US will not pull together for any kind of war, particularly since Trump is saying he would stop the war. RFK, Jr ditto. (Sort of a triangulation whereby old Joe is the unpopular man out.)
I certainly would not trust anything from from the mafia virtuoso Biden family. Nobody can believe anything coming out of the federal government anymore. It is like the US is walking on a knife’s edge.
I’m surprised there isn’t some gang of oligarchs that haven’t plotted of throwing “old Joe” and his stupid son under a bus because old Joe is driving the US right off a cliff along with the EU.
It’s like “Mr. Toad’s wild ride”. A full blown nightmare.
From NATO’s ambiguous statement about Ukraine’s future and also, from Kirby’s announcement about Ukraine, one can safely conclude that the Biden WH has officially abandoned the Ukraine. Biden doesn’t wish for a WW3, however, that doesn’t mean that the psychopath demon worshippers of the City of London will not attempt at false flagging one.
PS. The English have a seperate, outside of NATO, defense agreement with Poland. I hope the Pols remember the empty English promises of WW2.
It’d be funny if someone faked a Zelensky’s tweet and put out that if they don’t have F-16s next week with NATO pilots, he’s going to spill Biden’s Burisma beans.
Historical events or developments are always sold to us as episodes. But history is in reality like a river that winds and seeks its way. Often it meets obstacles. But it cannot be stopped. World War 1 and 2 were two successive parts of a whole. The so-called “Cold War” took place worldwide and claimed millions of lives. In this respect, it can be called World War 3. In 1990, the Anglo-Saxon oligarchs thought they had almost reached their goal. But in Russia, resistance was consolidated a short time later, and since then a man named Putin has been at the helm. But, as if that weren’t trouble enough, another power emerged to offer resistance, China. What we have observed worldwide since then can be called World War 4.
The goal of the Anglo-Saxon oligarchy, from then until now, has been the satisfaction of its own greed and the unfettered exploitation of the entire planet Earth.
Wagnerites could still move to Belarus, new equipment awaits them there. The important thing is their competence. My theory is they (Kremlin) are grooming Prigozhin for management of Ukraine after Zelensky is ousted. The Wagners will be his Pretorian guard. Afterwards the three old buddies; Putin, Lukasjenko and Prigozhin will rule the three most important states in the ortodox realm.
Prig top dog in a new jUkraine? Can’t envisage that.
My theory dovetails with your theory.
My theory: The Wagner PMC “mutiny” was a well conceived counter intelligence ploy against the west that involved Vladislav Surkov if you know who he is. Sergey Lavrov does.
It worked perfectly.
Maybe Surkov will be Prigozhin’s president in Ukraine?
Hand over Ukraine to Prigozhin? Hand over a country to a corporate oligarch? Privatize a country, or what’s left of a country when Putin gets through with Ukraine? You have a war but don’t take responsibility for the having a war in the first place. Sounds like the United States, NATO, the EU, the UK. Sure as sh*t sounds like France today.
Kind of gives a whole new reason to become an elected-for-life professional politician. You too can abdicate all responsibility for governing to the profit motive.
Putin will say what Russia did in Ukraine wasn’t a war, it was a Special Military Operation (SMO). When is a war a euphemism for something else?
A privatized prison system here in the United States justifies all kinds of horrors, beyond just institutionalizing bread and water. Now let’s mandate the corporate oligarchy worldwide, in this case by privatizing countries and politics.
The wealthy used to be referred to as: “Old Sinners.” Kind of quashed that one. Amazing what you can get away with by owning everything.
The whole world is rotten to the core.
super
Some of the best questions ever asked by one of the youngest journalists. A very bright you young guy. Can somebody please find his equivalent in the west.
Can somebody please find his equivalent in the west.
Aaron Maté
He interviewed me today. It will post tomorrow.
Amazing. What’s the best word for that – happenstance?
I’m tempted to say ‘great minds think alike’ with tongue in cheek but there’s already enough hubris in the world for comfort. 😉
I am pretty sure that fighters and commanders will be integrated, just not as one separate unit but will probably be mixed in with other units
Excellent interview.
It seems that the Russian state faced a close call with that army-within-an-army that were the Wagners within Russia. Hopefully Putin and the leadership have learned the lesson and avoid falling into the trap of continuing being seduced by the rotten ideology of “private enterprises”, as the “most efficient” means of carrying out national tasks.
The demon personal-profit and the demon personal-aggrandisement will pollute any such endeavours.
Putin’s behaviour towards their leadership – including the traitor himself – soon after the mutiny was over (and considering the aviators murdered by the rebels in the process) leaves a bitter taste in the mouth. It is a blot in Putin’s otherwise wise, honest and consistent record.
(The amount and variety of hardware they had at their disposal would allow them to spill a great deal of blood in the country, even if for a little while – and there wouldn’t be an assurance that under such conditions of open rebellion circumstantial fifth columnists would not tear off their masks and join the fray)
“Out of 9 junionr officers 7 are woke” or did he say 5 are women and 2 non white
Maybe he meant out of nine, seven are awake and two are taking naps during class.
Kind of looks like me after being scolded, “maintenance personnel are supposed to enter around back.”
https://twitter.com/TheBabylonBee/status/1679133277058113536?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1679133277058113536%7Ctwgr%5E2be7d35e37465af3316c64593e3bc7bc82711f6a%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.zerohedge.com%2Fgeopolitical%2Fnato-leaders-tell-zelensky-cool-it-rare-dressing-down-summit
In discussions of the current Ukrainian offensive, many people refer to the Battle of Kursk and other battles between the Nazis and the USSR involving assaults against prepared defenses.
I wonder if they are being short-sighted.
During the Cold War, US/NATO plans were all about mobile warfare, defending against an armoured offensive with a mobile defense yielding ground and ultimately counterattack/offensive.
Assaults against defenses prepared in depth were not anticipated, therefore not seriously planned for.
The last time the US had to assault a defense prepared in depth was the assault on the Siegfried Line/Westwall between August 1944 and early 1945. This defensive line was 390 miles/630 km in length from the North Sea to the Swiss border. Shorter than but still comparable to Russia’s defensive lines in Ukraine.
Even with Allied air and artillery supremacy and trained troops, total US casualties were up to 140,000. Add to that UK, Canadian and French casualties.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siegfried_Line
In none of its wars since has the US faced a comparable defensive challenge that it had to seriously plan to defeat. Once the mobile phase of the war ended and front lines in Korea settled down, there was no serious attempt by the US to breakthrough Chinese defenses, merely attempts to take hills here or there.
Does the US Army actually have any institutional memory of what was required to defeat defenses in depth?
In other wars since 1945, so far as I can determine, the only ones to involve assaults on defenses prepared in depth were the Iran Iraq War (in its day also called the Gulf War) from 1980 to 1988 and the Eritrea-Ethiopia War of 1998 to 2000. In both of these wars the attackers suffered huge casualties. Iran failed to breakthrough and lost, Ethiopia did breakthrough and won the fighting, though the eventual final settlement was disadvantageous for it.
Surely there are lessons to be learned from these battles and wars? Perhaps not, because as we all know Shirley is a bitch, and a racist attitude that the two wars were between non-whites and therefore not relevant to US/NATO?
This going back to Russia so as to enjoy political freedom is so illustrative of the decay of our society in the Western world.
Russia is plenty decayed, too. It’s a shit show worldwide. Let’s watch them try to avoid not dancing around doing what they damn well please just because they can.
Why did we have World War III? Because we could.
How do you feel about that?
“. . . was a target of political persecution by a corrupt Department of Justice.”
Kind of begs the question: When was the DOJ not corrupt?
small correction. it is not DOJ it is the DOIj.
Heh. Heh. Heh. Heh.
I agree with Larry on the accountability topic.
It’s one thing to smear the Russian about “the purges” and another thing to be able to purges the ones that need to be. It’s sane to purge non-competent or corrupt officers , it’s insane to purge people cause of their opinions on sexual preferences or the injections they had or not.
On the weapons topic , I just remembered a video about how it was done in the US back in the days … more or less the same as actually it seems :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQ5Ru7Zu_1I
Zelensky saw that list of equipment, and shed a tear. He would have to beg at least half a year for that.
He annoyed the party goers in Vilnius so much that they threw him a few more breadcrumbs from the table and told him to shut up and be thankful.
Little did they know that there’s almost no more flour in the kitchen or gas for the oven.
Did you see how Stoltenberg moved to put his hand on his back (to burp him I guess) but hesitated at the last minute? Zelensky may be radioactive at this point. Handle with care.
Here is some footage of the equipment. Footage of Zelensky crying not yet available.
https://www.bitchute.com/video/5DrdMTZoSUsJ/
Thank you, Larry, for this lucid and clear assessment of the ongoing conflict in Ukraine. It appears that Ukraine has become an obsession of the Biden Administration. Consider- 1) For whatever reason, Joe Biden and the elite he represents, apparently have a visceral hatred of Russia. 2) This conflict began with the US-sponsored ‘Revolution of Dignity’ (aka Maidan coup) in Feb, 2014, when Joe Biden was Vice President. The goal was to incorporate Ukraine into NATO and station tactical nuclear weapons on the Ukraine-Russian border. 3) After expending so much economic, military and political capital on Ukraine, it is doubtful that Biden/NATO can extricate themselves from this conflict, as doing so is an admission of failure and by definition, military weakness. As pointed out by Andre Damon, ‘The Biden administration has created a situation where there can be no retreat, because to do so would irreparably undermine its prestige and credibility, and lead to the breakup of NATO. Victory in this war has become an existential question for American imperialism……. There are no lengths to which the US and NATO powers will not go to ensure their victory in this war.’ (see- US imperialism’s relentless escalation in Ukraine by Andre Damon May 21, 2023; https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2023/05/22/pers-m22.html
I think the war in Ukraine has progressed to an extremely dangerous phase. Alexander Mercouris [https://theduran.com/] has stated that Joe Biden and his advisors have ‘no off ramp’ for this conflict. From my perspective, Joe Biden has backed himself into the proverbial ‘corner’ with no good exit strategy, violating a fundamental tenet of Sun Tzu’s ‘The Art of War’. No doubt, Biden and the ruling elite he represents have no intention of an encore performance to their humiliating retreat from Afghanistan in Aug, 2021, which vividly showed the world the limits of US military power. Biden confronts a military/strategic debacle in Ukraine, accompanied by the accelerating decline of late-stage American capitalism, whose very survival is dependent on continuous debt monetization (aka money printing). A US defeat in Ukraine will further undermine the position of the dollar as world reserve currency, which has served as a crucial pillar of post-WWII US power. My prediction is that Biden will go for broke and provide Ukraine with tactical nuclear weapons to attack Russia. Can we say WWIII?
“For whatever reason, Joe Biden and the elite he represents, apparently have a visceral hatred of Russia.”
While the globalists have a list of reasons each for hating Russia and China, the primary and shared reason is that in both countries merchants do not rule. Every country has a power architecture (how power both persuasive and coercive is distributed amongst individuals and institutions), sometimes it even overlaps with the authority (government) architecture. Merchants have been vital to development in both Russia and China, but in their countries merchants do NOT rule.
The most dyscivilizational type of merchant, the financialist rent-seekers who hinder growth and bring inevitable social instability, are especially sidelined. Their ability to use money to buy power is limited, in stark contrast to the West, especially the US where money is essentially the only means to sustained exercise of power. Thus, not only do Russia and China present alternate developmental pathways, but their choices are much more resistant to the usual indirect methods of globalist conquest.
########
“Ruin comes when the trader, lifted up by wealth, becomes ruler.”
Plato, 367 BC
“Merchants have no country. The mere spot they stand on does not constitute so strong an attachment as that from which they draw their gains.”
Thomas Jefferson
“Our future generations will be born without Rothschild chains around their wrists and ankles. This is the best present we can provide.”
V.V. Putin (unverified)
Joe Biden only has one ‘visceral hatred’, for anyone that gets in his cash flow’s way.
I picked the wrong century to start a family. (._. )
The Vietnam war wasn’t a peer to peer war but they were some tough, well led, determined, ruthless, courageous fighters. To lump them in with Iraq and Afghanistan is hubris. Let’s give them their due. I remember 200-300 US casualties per week at the height of the war.
I remember 200-300 US casualties per week at the height of the war.
So, does that mean an American is worth 7 Ukrainians? Is that in the Constitution?
The story of Dmitri Simes, Sr. is reminiscent of the story of Bertolt Brecht who fled Nazi persecution to live and work in the US until he experienced McCarthyite persecution here.
NATO-Party out:
https://ansage.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/imago0299061484h-2048×1365.jpg
Depression.
He just realized that NATO is a-suit-and-a-tie exclusive club.
https://www.memedroid.com/memes/detail/3637672/Youll-be-soon-one-of-us
So, that explains why the ravenous Saakashvili never managed to get in.
Great interview Larry, Just would add one comment on something you said toward the end when you where talking about what the US used to be and what we use to have , the important thing I think you missed in your description of what we had was Trust” we trusted one another and we trusted our government, you could do a contract on a handshake, like Frankie said in Jersey boys( jersey style) . but it was done all over like that not just jersey.
Great interview Larry, Just would add one comment on something you said toward the end when you where talking about what the US used to be and what we use to have , the important thing I think you missed in your description of what we had was Trust” we trusted one another and we trusted our government, you could do a contract on a handshake, like Frankie said in Jersey boys( jersey style) . but it was done all over like that not just jersey.
Another very substantial interview, thank you. Regarding WWII weapons production, I was reading that in three years after the Battle of Midway the US produced 17 aircraft carriers .. without computers, CAD, databases, using slide rules and so on.
Today we get … drum roll, Zumwalt Class (32 ships planned, whittled down to 3, at $8 billion per ship), Zumwalt was designed around a giant gun, the ammo cost $800,000 per round, gun didn’t work properly, scratch that idea, then they were going to do a rail gun, scratch that idea, now the plan is hypersonic missiles .. some day, Gerald Ford (started construction 2005, now on first cruise 18 years later (!) still testing stuff), Littoral class of ships, so faulty the entire (new) class of ships had to be scrapped. Isn’t modern technology wonderful?
Secondly, maybe there is a third option for NATO beyond “go big or go home”. How about, “go hungry”? Russia / China immediately have another round of sanctions targeting ALL NATO countries .. including titanium, Neon gas (chip making), all rare earths, all petroleum products, fertilizer, agricultural products, of course China supplies pharaceutical products. Starve the beast(s) eventually things will break down and I suspect they will see the light, as the riots continue.
From RT today:
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said:
The plans to supply F-16s to Kiev is yet another example of an escalatory move by the West and in itself is “an extremely dangerous development,” he stated.
“We have informed the nuclear powers – the US, UK and France – that Russia can’t ignore the ability of these aircraft to carry nuclear weapons,” the foreign minister continued.
“No assurances [by the West] will help here,” he warned. In the midst of fighting, the Russian military isn’t going to investigate whether any specific jet is equipped to deliver nuclear weapons or not, he added.
“The very fact of the appearance of such systems within the Ukrainian Armed Forces will be considered by us as a threat from the West in the nuclear domain,” Lavrov said.
I hope that Russia confines itself to a no-fly zone and intensive bombing of all 404 airfields.
Refreshing. An interviewer who allows his guest to speak. He does not interrupt, talk over, or overwhelm by expressing his own opinions and views.
Intelligent session. Encore.
Many intelligent people seem to be flummoxed when it comes to explaining just exactly why all US VIPs are behaving the way they are – telling the lies that they are telling, as well as why “the US” cannot accept defeat in Ukraine. I’m going to take a shot at explaining why, first by referring to a couple of rather famous videos – one of Tucker Carlson, the other of Mitch McConnell.
Tucker, in which he presents a brief segment of another network’s interview of Janet Yellen.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O7I5mrWipls&t=3s
A short video of an interview of Mitch McConnell.
https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1626244170917478400
What Yellen and McConnell say is ubiquitous. Every western leader and central bank head is saying exactly the same thing, which would be an amazing coincidence in a world of sovereign, independent nations, but as this unanimity makes obvious, that is no longer the case, if it ever was.
With such universal acclamation of this pledge of allegiance to the flag of Ukraine, you’d think that the “reporters” interviewing these people would ask the obvious question “what happens if the Russians defeat Ukraine?” But this most obvious, most important question is very deliberately almost never asked, and when it is rarely asked, the near certain answer of “an end to the rules-based international order” is never asked to be further expanded upon – for example, “and how would our lives be different after the end of the rules-based international order?”
The reason for both is the same – that average Americans and Europeans could not accept the absolute horror of what “fuel” the US and its vassals have been running on since the day Nixon closed the gold window – borrowed “money” printed out of thin air; and its purpose – to pay for their governments’ perpetual was of thievery and conquest.
In order to keep running, the US must continue to sell well over a trillion USD worth of treasury bonds year after year after year, from here to eternity. If you don’t believe me, take a look at the following Treasury web site :
https://fiscaldata.treasury.gov/americas-finance-guide/national-deficit/
From the above (my emphasis):
“In FY 2022, the federal government spent $6.27 trillion and collected $4.90 trillion in revenue, resulting in a deficit. The amount by which spending exceeds revenue, $1.38 trillion in 2022, is referred to as deficit spending.
and
“To pay for a deficit, the federal government borrows money by selling Treasury bonds, bills, and other securities.”
Again, nearly all of this $1.38 trillion in borrowing is to pay for the US’s perpetual wars. Investors in US treasury bonds must know that they’re funding perpetual war………don’t they? (Yes, the big investors do!)
Because he never says it, it seems to me that Carlson does not realize how it is fiscally possible that “the US” can continue to behave as it does, and, therefore, he supposedly cannot understand why Yellen said what she said and McConnell and Graham, etc. say what they say. For example, he seems to not understand how Yellen could NOT make a financial commitment to residents in the US that need it, while simultaneously being willing to give “Ukraine” unconditional support, literally forever. I wonder if Carlson’s behavior is deliberate “looking the other way” from the obvious, or is he really that stupid? I believe it’s the former — that it is indeed deliberate.
What should by now be obvious to every person in the world, especially Americans, is that the US has a war-based economy whose MIC and wars of theft and regime change are funded by investors around the world buying US “Treasury” (what a misnomer!) bonds. Isn’t this horrible fact deserving of a little more repetition than …………….. never!
So here is the inconvenient truth that Yellen and all the rest of the US VIPs will never say in public. If the US/NATO/EU lose their war against Russia, just exactly NOBODY is going to continue to buy US treasury paper that, ever since Nixon closed the gold window, has been “backed up” only by an MIC that has failed to defeat and subjugate Russia! And that means that the only investors in US Treasury paper will probably be idiots and The Federal Reserve. Other domestic and foreign investors will instantaneously start investing in Russian, Chinese, Iranian, etc. “investment opportunities”, including their bonds. (The question is, just exactly what “money” are they going to use to make those investments?)
This is also why interest on US treasury bonds has to remain high, and get only higher, until the US’s war is won. The high interest rate has nothing to do with “curbing inflation”. The quantity of US treasuries that must be sold is now so high that that amount cannot be sold at near zero percent interest. The fact that the US MIC has not yet defeated and subjugated Russia is the most important factor in “the bond market” demanding higher and higher rates of return on increasingly “risky” US treasuries. In other words, in the end, “the US” may not defeat and subjugate Russia, which is exactly why the US and its vassals have to hysterically go more and more “all in” on defeating and subjugating Russia and part of that all-in is raising the interest rate of return on bonds.
Why else would Yellen say that the US Treasury will support Ukraine (which is only possible by continuing to borrow money from “investors” at a high rate of return for these investors) for however long it takes to defeat Russia?
Why else would Mitch McConnell declare that the number one objective of the US is to defeat Russia?
Why else would Nuland and everyone else in the US government say the very same thing?
The irony is that if this question –Why? — is asked to pro-Russian people, their answer is almost always something similar to “these people are psychopaths who hate Russia above all else”. And if anyone asks in follow-up “why do they hate Russia so much?”, you most often get a long, historical diatribe that ends with “see, that’s why they hate Russia”. The real answer is much simpler, as I’ve described above.
In order to keep running (and keep all of those MIC corporations in business and their investors raking in dividends, and millions of people directly or indirectly employed in the MIC), the US must continue to sell well over a trillion (soon more and more trillions of) USD worth of treasury bonds year after year after year, from here to eternity ……… and in order to justify that borrowing, the US needs perpetual enemies like Russia, China, Iran, North Korea, Cuba, etc. to conquer.
World Peace means the end of whatever you want to call what is going on in the US. Therefore, World Peace is the greatest threat to “the US” and, therefore, making peace with Russia and China will never be allowed by the powers that be in Washington or its vassal states. Again, it’s all a matter of “business”, not hatred (said the gangster to his victim). Nothing personal.
To drive the point even further home, I am not the first to state all of this. VIP George F. Kennan spelled it all out just a few years before the USSR ended.
“Were the Soviet Union to sink tomorrow under the waters of the ocean, the American military-industrial establishment would have to go on, substantially unchanged, until some other adversary could be invented. Anything else would be an unacceptable shock to the American economy.”
If you don’t believe me, let what VIP Kennan said sink in.
It means that Russia was ASSIGNED the role of “enemy” literally the day that the USSR ended and that literally nothing that Russia can say or do will release it from that assignment.
It means that World Peace is today much more of a threat to the US’s war-based economy than perpetual wars!
It explains exactly why US government VIPs say what they say about the necessity of sending weapons and absolutely anything else to Ukraine in order to defeat Russia.
It explains exactly why Zelensky can not, and will not, be allowed to negotiate a peaceful settlement with Russia (unless he “goes rogue” against the US, which is what I believe that Russia wants and why he is still alive as a western accalimed hero).
It explains exactly why Minsk II could not be followed by Poroshenko or Zelensky, and exactly why none of the signatories to that agreement (and the UN resolution making it international law) forced “Ukraine” to fulfill its commitment to that law.
It explains exactly why law, international or otherwise, no longer matters to “the US” (the microscopic percentage of the US population that actually is “the US”)…………. because following the law may lead to peace!
To boil it all down, Russia making ANY arrangement with the US and its ass-licking vassals that results in a peaceful world WILL. NOT. BE. ALLOWED. because a peaceful world would be “an unacceptable shock to the US economy”.
Unfortunately, when what must inevitably happen under the present economic “arrangement” finally happens, the millions or billions of the humans that temporarily survive the nuclear holocaust will be enduring a “lifestyle” that is infinitely worse than that of a well-thought-out economic arrangement that could replace the present one before the nukes start dropping. The survivors of the upcoming nuclear war aren’t going to be sitting around watching the value of their portfolios via an internet, eating out at restaurants and planning their next destination vacation. They’ll be desperately trying to acquire their next meal and figure out how they’re going to get through the next winter without freezing to death.
That Tucker episode was great.
A good interview that covers all the bases! On the Bradly & F35; Russian defence companies are owned by the government, weapon system procurement is what the military asks for. In general, weapon development can not take more than five years. Corruption does occur, but not mega corruption, that takes the senior officer corps along for the ride!
Larry Johnson and Colonel Douglas MacGregor provide, hands down, THE most accurate, insightful, and informative analysis of the human tragedy that has been unfolding in Ukraine. Fox News and CNN combined couldn’t hold a candle to these two men. By telling the Truth about what is REALLY happening in Ukraine, they are doing God’s work. What really amazes me is that the neocon, pie in the sky politicians in Washington, D.C. — Zelensky’s mindless, heartless, bought and paid for clapping seals — are so far gone that they are willing to turn a blind eye to this information. Their willful blindness and treachery have cost tens of thousands of people their lives.
> Among the transferred equipment, dozens of units have never been used in combat conditions.
> More than two and a half thousand tonnes of ammunition and about 20,000 small arms have also been received.
Sound like Prigozhin was hoarding ammo, without much intention to use it in actual combat. Just complaining about getting not enough to hoard, hoard, hoard…
It’s almost like he was lying about everything.
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/presidential-actions/2023/07/13/ordering-the-selected-reserve-and-certain-members-of-the-individual-ready-reserve-of-the-armed-forces-to-active-duty/
Good interview Larry, by both you and the interviewer.
Re the degradation of the US military, along with the factors you mentioned, perhaps the most critical has been the forced feminization of the military, on the false grounds that women are as good as men in most military roles.
In order to admit and advance women, critical standards have been destroyed, not only for the women admitted but also for men. Normal male behavior in groups has been derided and essentially outlawed in order to ensure women in the service were not offended. Women have been force fed up the chain of command, which means explicitly preventing more competent men being prevented from moving up.
This has fostered a public bureaucrat ethos, where people are there for what they can get out of the military, not for what they can contribute to their country through military service, and advancement depends on playing the game, not on being the most competent in combat and in being able to and willing to fight and die for your country.