Likely precipitated by U.S. President Joe Biden’s projection of weakness, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s murderous attack on, and apparent intent to destroy, Ukraine has shocked the world.
Possibly threatened by NATO’s political expansion to Russia’s western border, Putin seized the opportunity to attack under the perceived shield of weak presidential leadership and a divided, underfunded NATO.
Defending their homes, valiant Ukrainians have exposed the hitherto fearsome Russian conventional army as somewhat of a paper tiger. This has faced four major power blocks: the U.S., EU, Russia, and China with difficult choices in achieving a settlement.
The United States and NATO are led by an American president who, with his family in the pay of both Russia and China, has a clear conflict of interest.
Furthermore, Biden is a bully who tramples on the weak, but, like most bullies, cowers when faced by strength. Fresh from his disgusting, unilateral retreat from Afghanistan, he failed to stand up to Putin and hesitated for vital weeks over even supplying effective arms to Ukraine.
Meanwhile, underestimating Putin’s conviction, likely he urged Ukraine not to negotiate away an option to join NATO adding to the probability of a war.
Biden’s sanctions will cost consumers in America, and its allies, massively.
They increase the likelihood that the current official inflation rate of 7.87% or the more real rate (calculated on a pre-1980, largely politically "uncooked" basis) of 16.05% (the highest in 75 years) will herald both financial hyperinflation and economic depression.
No wonder the "woke" U.S. House and the Federal Reserve, claim only "transitory" inflation and shy away from any prompt, or even long-delayed action on interest rates.
Born in 1952, in Saint Petersburg, Putin is known as a highly patriotic, almost imperialist Russian. Apparently, he resents Lenin's creation of the USSR as a federation of states, with the potential to dissolve, rather than as a single country of Russia.
He is said to have been mortified by the advance of NATO, and even the EU, into the countries of the former buffer states of the Warsaw Pact.
Ukraine’s refusal, to commit not to apply for NATO or EU membership likely was the last straw. They had to be "brought to heal," by the threat of a punishing, Roman style, siege-invasion. Sensing a divided, underfunded and weak-minded NATO led by an American president who would not commit even 2,000 soldiers to maintain a relatively calm Afghanistan, Putin must have seen his chance.
Biden’s clear weakness, even as a guarantor of the nuclear disarmed Ukraine, must have appeared irresistible to a "good" Russian army.
However, by delaying his attack for negotiation or awaiting completion of the Olympics, Putin sacrificed that crucial element of surprise, by far the greatest of force multipliers.
The result was the partial rearming of Ukraine and the apparent stalling of his attack, necessitating an early escalation of inhumane bombardment that has appalled the world.
It appears that many Russians disapprove of Putin’s invasion.
Likely Putin is thinking seriously now of his own ability to avoid an internal coup or assassination. I have come across Putin only once. Looking into his eyes, the "window" to the man.
While I sensed a certain cold softness, I also detected a feeling of deep guilt and of a furtive fear, exhibited by his constantly surveying, by means of very quick glances, his surroundings and anyone approaching near to him.
One good thing is that Putin’s aggression has scared NATO and the EU into some sort of realism and cohesion. In particular, it has encouraged Germany, to shake off its "jackboot" guilt and rearm.
This makes Europe safer from invasion, but possibly sends shivers down the backs of some Europeans who value individual freedom over Germanic domination.
Another apparently good thing is that Putin’s creation of global revulsion is likely to cause China potential embarrassment making more awkward the potential absorption of Taiwan, even my means of a "blockade" of an air and sea "exclusion zone."
As a final thought, Putin’s war on Ukraine is turning so ugly and pyrrhic that even Putin may be prepared to negotiate his retention of only the eastern provinces of Ukraine, including the vital warm water port of Odessa, provided, that is, if Western Ukraine agrees not to apply for, nor accept, NATO or EU membership and that economic sanctions and threats of war crime trials are removed, with Russia suffering only mutually agreed "reasonable" war damage liability.
China may be considered a prime candidate as arbitrator, encouraging Russian trust and cooperation while enabling China to distance itself from an inhumane failure.
John Browne is a Newsmax contributor. He is a distinguished former member of Britain's Parliament, who also served as a principal adviser to Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher's government.
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