On the quality of the Western command
The current Ukrainian offensive may go down in history as the worst debacle in the history of warfare. It is certainly one of the greatest debacles. Yes, there have been amazing videos made and many positive articles written. But beyond that, the Ukrainian NATO forces managed to lose on the order of half their army without being able to threaten the Russian positions, even in a single place. A purely suicidal action.
It is now worth revisiting what NATO experts, including the most senior US generals, said before the offensive. The entire Western plan was based on the Russian soldiers dropping their weapons and running away at first contact. But what if they don’t? No one seems to have asked a similar question. It wasn’t asked by any of the journalists, and it probably wasn’t asked in the headquarters where it was planned. There was no plan B. And with this, they drove tens of thousands of men against Russian guns and rockets.
There was no plan B. And with this, they drove tens of thousands of men against Russian guns and rockets.
The next NATO summit starts in a few days and there are rumors that the “coalition of the willing” will also be discussed. This means that some Central European states would send their citizens to the Ukrainian battlefield (involuntarily, of course). If it comes to that, they will be commanded by the same people who prepared the current offensive.
On insecurity
I have not yet read Pranab Barhan’s book “The World of Insecurity” in its entirety, but I can see why it has attracted so much attention and so much acclaim. That it is a book about the impoverished Western world would not be extraordinary. It’s just that the book is not about those who have fallen into unbearable poverty, symbolized by images of American cities full of homeless people and the utter powerlessness of society. One proclaims the “rights of the homeless” (most recently, for example, the right to sleep outdoors at night in New York City), the other would like to address this with even more police and even longer batons. What both sides have in common is that they don’t know how to deal with the issue at all.
What insecurity? I mean, there are food stamps and there’s plenty of room in the Salvation Army dormitory.
But Pranan Barhan isn’t writing about this appalling poverty. He writes about the spreading fear. Anyone can lose their job at any time. Or a job may no longer be enough to pay for housing and basic necessities. You can’t plan for life if you don’t know what’s going to happen in a few months. You don’t know if you can afford to have children. You don’t know what kind of house you can afford. So you’d rather put the last of your money towards a vacation. This year you’ll still have fun, no one will take that away from you, and we’ll see.
Interestingly, the reviewer at Foreign Affair can’t understand what is being said at all. What insecurity? I mean, there are food stamps and there’s plenty of room in the Salvation Army dormitory. What are these whiny, spoiled people afraid of? It’s incomprehensible.
On Trump
So Donald Trump is under investigation again. He has become a symbol for the liberal rabble. The mob is determined to destroy him at any cost. Which is just further confirmation of the sheer incompetence of that social class.
In fact, Donald Trump is exactly what they need. A media warrior and a symbol that actually does nothing. In four years in office, he hasn’t even been able to push through something as small as cutting off the worst nutcases from federal subsidies. Let alone any major change. Let alone declassifying documents. There hasn’t even been action against the big tech companies. There hasn’t even been a recall of those security officials who ran operations (more or less illegally) against Trump. The end of his presidency, when he allowed the election to be rigged under his own hands, fits right in. Yes, Donald Trump did not approve of new war campaigns. But he did not change the power relations in America; on the contrary, the power of the new aristocracy continued to grow.
If members of the new aristocracy could use their brains, they would coddle Donald Trump.
Now imagine if they manage to shoot Trump down that the new president will be Desantis. A man who really managed to clean the Florida schools of transgender propaganda. And when Disney decided they were going to put crap in movies that harmed children, Desantis made sure it cost them a lot of money. That would be a rival! Or the erratic conspiracy theorist Kennedy, whose presidency may be about finding space lizards, but who is capable of doing a lot of damage and disrupting power structures.
If members of the new aristocracy could use their brains, they would coddle Donald Trump.
On consistent multiculturalism
In Paris, cars are burning again, shops are being demolished and riffraff are destroying everything they can get their hands on. There will be a lot of injured and maybe some dead. It has become a habit that this is what happens every time the police shoot a dangerous criminal. They call it multiculturalism.
I recommend that French police officers take their fellow citizens with a migrant background seriously and adapt to their customs.
I recommend that French police officers take their fellow citizens with a migrant background seriously and adapt to their customs. Every time a policeman is killed or seriously injured on duty, have the police storm the neighbourhood where the person lived and set fire to and smash everything there. After all, it is right to accommodate foreigners and respect their culture.
On the comparison between two societies
My favorite blogger Big Serge posted a long account of Prigozhin’s riot and made – among other things – an interesting observation. Namely, a comparison of the reaction of American and Russian society. The year before last, when Soros activists took over city centers with their violent protests, society effectively collapsed. The police stopped intervening, the crowds started looting, various groups of people started shooting at each other (there were some dead) and the Chief of General Staff was dealing with what pictures he had on social media. If the protesters had been more capable and even better organized, they could have destroyed or taken over much of the US.
Last week there was a mutiny in Russia by an elite military unit. A combat column, including armored personnel carriers and tanks, marched on Moscow. An incomparably more serious situation. And how else did Russia react! Everyone stayed in their places, everyone continued to perform their duties, no one started looting, no riots broke out anywhere, and everyone of importance made it clear that they would defend the existing order.
Well, as long as they don’t have flush toilets.
