In Washington, Joe Biden, when he is not falling up stairs or stumbling over the words on the teleprompter, is blindly checking off boxes on the “Woke Agenda” list of promises he made to every radical element of his party while campaigning. Pipelines are being canceled. Borders are being erased. Gender and biological sex are being reclassified as unscientific vestiges of an ignorant Neanderthal way of thinking. Gun rights are under assault.
The corporate media that was so instrumental in installing Joe in the Oval Office gleefully plays along. CNN reporters, who apparently skipped health class and have never been on a date, inform us with all seriousness that there is no way to tell the difference between men and women. The same prophets of doom who tell us that we must stand six feet apart at all times and wear masks even after we are vaccinated make no comment at all about the hundreds of thousands of individuals who, untested, are now being allowed to enter our country, board buses, and planes, and travel anywhere they wish in the United States. Gas prices are rising, unemployment is up, and we are to believe Joe has this all under control.
Meanwhile, in the real world, the one filled with despots, terrorist groups, and hostile regimes, events continue to unfold. In Ukraine, that means we are standing on the verge of a major war.
In 2014 Russia invaded and annexed Crimea, then a part of Ukraine. Ever since tensions have remained high along the border between Russia and Ukraine. There have been virtually continuous skirmishes in the Donbas region in particular where Ukrainian forces are matched against pro-Russian separatists who enjoy considerable support from Moscow. The fighting interrupted intermittingly by poorly observed ceasefires is believed to have killed 14,000 people.
In recent weeks, Ukrainian authorities have complained about an escalation in violence. Last week, Ukraine claimed four of its soldiers had been killed by Russian artillery in Donbas. Earlier in March, the commander-in-chief of the armed forces of Ukraine, Ruslan Khomchak, characterized Russian aggression in Donbas as a threat not only to Ukraine but to NATO as well. Khomchak also claimed that there had been a significant buildup of Russian troops on Ukraine’s border.
Whatever the truth of Khomchak’s claims then, there is no doubt now that a massive movement of Russian troops to its border with Ukraine is underway. Video – widely available on the internet – shows seemingly endless convoys of tanks, armored personnel carriers, and self-propelled artillery streaming toward the border. Multiple press reports indicate that Russia has already deployed twenty-eight battalion tactical groups and that an additional twenty-five such units will be in place at the border within days.
Just as ominous is the rhetoric coming from Moscow, which follows the predictable pattern of establishing the justification for what is about to come. Russia will not be the aggressor. Russia will only be defending itself against the threat coming from Ukraine.
SouthFront.org, a Russian government-controlled website, which masquerades online as an independent news source, has been particularly vocal and explicit in establishing the pretext that will be used to justify the coming Russian offensive.
“After months of preliminary talks, attempts at provocation, and political preparations it would appear that the crisis in Eastern Ukraine and Crimea is coming to a head.
The Armed Forces of Ukraine are increasing their grouping of troops in the Donetsk and Luhansk Oblasts, as well as in the direction of Crimea, the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Ruslan Khomchak announced.The reason given for this is the purported deployment of Russian forces to Crimea, and it is allegedly a “defensive move.”
This is clearly a pretext; indeed Moscow has repeatedly warned that Ukraine is preparing for an escalation in Eastern Ukraine and likely towards Crimea too. On the Russian side, quite a bit of heavy equipment is being deployed in order to stop any potential critical escalation.”
“In Eastern Ukraine, the stage has been set for an escalation. For weeks now, Kyiv’s forces have carried out one violation after the other, shelling the Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republic’s (DPR/LPR) military positions, but also their residential areas.”
https://southfront.org/a-spring-promise-of-war/
https://euvsdisinfo.eu/south-front-russia-hiding-being-russian/
“We express concern over the growing tension and express concern that one way or another the Ukrainian side could take provocative actions that would lead to war. We really don’t want to see that,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said recently.
Speaking on Tuesday to German Chancellor Angela Markel and French President Emmanuel Macron, Russian President Vladimir Putin expressed “serious concern about the escalation of armed confrontation on the contact line being provoked by Ukraine” and Ukraine’s “refusal” to honor agreements that were part of the latest ceasefire agreed to in July.
On Wednesday, Secretary of State Antony Blinken reiterated Washington’s support for Ukraine’s territorial integrity “in the face of Russia’s ongoing aggression.” Blinken also “expressed concern about the security situation in eastern Ukraine and offered condolences on the recent loss of four Ukrainian soldiers.”
Blinken’s comments, of course, will have no impact whatsoever on Putin’s thinking or his plans. Biden’s foreign policy team consists almost entirely of all the same players who spent eight years under Barack Obama doing absolutely nothing to oppose Communist China, Iran, or Russia. When Russia invaded Crimea in 2014 Obama’s only response was to impose virtually meaningless economic sanctions. When the Ukrainians wanted military aid so they could stand on their own Obama sent MRE’s and medical kits – neither one of which is particularly useful for taking out a Russian T-72 main battle tank.
Putin smells weakness. He senses an opening. He can see the pathetically weak, rudderless nature of this administration quite clearly from Moscow. His massing of troops will be unlikely to prove a bluff. What portion of Ukrainian territory he will seize next remains to be seen, but when the dust settles and the situation stabilizes again, Russia will be stronger, and Ukraine will be even more imperiled.
The United States will do nothing. We are adrift, with an incompetent in the Oval Office and no one at the wheel. It has been a little over two months, and already we are headed for the rocks.
