Interesting Articles: 2024, mid November

War without strategy, expert BS prediction, a bungling cover up and some confirmations.

[A graphic borrowed from John Helmer’s article at Dances with Bears.]

Published: 2024-11-11

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Full Steam Ahead

In "Notes of a Non-Voter" Patrick Lawrence related the vomit of meaningless political commentary from the neo-liberals after the recent US election. Some of it looks to me like Trump Derangement Syndrome 2.0. The commentators are losing their minds partially because they recognize Trump's wandering ramblings in themselves. How long can one proclaim the importance of minority rights while accepting the murder of children? I mean, which war is peace and which white black?

The recent election was, first and foremost, an election. To borrow a phrase from demonstration marches: "This is what democracy looks like". The bottom line is that both viable candidates proffered by the US political duopoly are happy to allow Israel to continue the genocide in Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem and the massacring of civilians in Lebanon all while the US military maintains control of northeastern Syria to secure an oil supply for the Israeli Zionists.

Nothing is new: the US duopoly offers no choice in foreign policy. Over here in the rest of the world, we're used to it and are still hoping for the pacification of the lumbering empire.

Good luck with your new CEO when he takes the reins.

Notes of a Non-Voter, Patrick Lawrence, The Unz Review, 2024-11-09

The Iceberg

The empire does have some challenges. Some of these were discussed between Col. Wilkerson and Chris Hedges, to which we'll come. One significant problem is the national debt, interest payments on which exceed the almighty budget for the US Dept. of Defence.

Ellen Brown noted that the damage cause by Hurricane Helene in this year's season of destruction was exacerbated by the ongoing lack of maintenance of US national infrastructure. Her point was that dams had to have their spillways opened during the flooding, else they risked collapsing which would have been disastrous. A report by a professional organisation of US engineers declared that triple the "defence" budget is required to complete urgent repairs on critical infrastructure, over and above that already funded.

Ellen Brown: Our Fragile Infrastructure: Lessons From Hurricane Helene, Ellen Brown, ScheerPost, 2024-11-04

MI-6 and Novichok

John Helmer has been devoting hours to parsing the testimonies being provided at the "Dawn Sturgess Inquiry" (DSI). It is an effort by the British authorities to wrap up a failed intelligence operation designed to label Russia as evil. If memory serves, the "Skripal affair" was the first allegation of Russia's consistent failure to poison anyone using Novichok. That narrative was re-flown for the late Navalny who died of being imprisoned in Russia after serving as a western stooge and embezzling funds.

The DSI is covered with a legal patina but fails all tests for acceptable evidence and representation of a defendant. Nonetheless, the bungled intelligence operation is being unearthed anyway. The British authorities were keeping the Skripals sedated with drugs to maintain plausible comas, even though Julia awoke. It seems that unnecessary, invasive surgery was performed on them too. We have learned of a possible poison. It was not Novichok, but the synthetic opiate carfentanyl.

The DSI cover up will close soon enough and the episode will be added to the list failed British intelligence operations. One can understand why some elements of the US hierarchy are nervous about the competency of their British counterparts.

British Chemical Warfare Agent Reveals Novichok Was Not Detected In Dawn Sturgess & Charles Rowley At First & Second Try - But There Was Cocaine, John Helmer, Dances with Bears, 2024-11-05

The Scary North Koreans

Your author took particular joy in Moon of Alabama's Bernard identifying precisely the narrative hogwash to be issued for the "North Korea troops" scare. He predicted not only who would speak but exactly what they would say, days before the garbage was published.

The independent media need an award for this. Perhaps the Here comes the BS: Nailed It! award.

Moon of Alabama's title was 'Ukraine - North Korean Soldiers Are "Disguised As Buryats"', in which he quoted Ukrainian Minister of Defense, Rustem Umerov who had given a hint for the soon to arrive BS.

Sure enough, 3 days later, Al Jazeera published this:

Ukrainian Defence Minister Rustem Umerov said the clashes were “small scale” and that the North Korean troops were not fighting as separate formations but were embedded in Russian units disguised as Buryats from the Russian Federation.

Nailed it!!

Ukraine - North Korean Soldiers Are "Disguised As Buryats", b., Moon of Alabama, 2024-11-05

North Korean troops ‘enter’ battle; Trump win throws Ukraine aid in doubt, John T Psaropoulos, Al Jazeera, 2024-11-08

What Strategy?

On a more serious note, Big Serge has published a summary of the conflict in Ukraine for 2024. The lovely read weaves two components together. One is an annual military summary. This is set against a backdrop of the risk inherent in longer conflicts of the political leadership behind them completely losing sight of any coherent strategy for victory. The loss of strategy considers the whole conflict since Russia overtly entered it, as opposed to the temporal constraint on the military activity.

Serge argues convincingly that Ukraine has no idea what it is doing. Its current political "leader" has advocated a "Victory Plan" which amounted to "Please, NATO, come and save us, and you can have our mineral resources for doing so". On the ground, Ukraine lost the fortress of Avdiivka allowing the Russian army to push towards Pokrovsk on the north side of the Vovcha river. They then lost Ugledar on the south side and have the Russia army advancing downhill, northwards chewing up territory. The AFU will soon lose Kurakove, predicts Serge, in concordance with analysis published elsewhere and echoed here.

This loss of southwestern Donetsk was traded for a failed, surprise invasion of Russia's Kursk oblast. Serge noted the strategic ineptitude of this. It reinforced Russian political support for its side of the conflict.

In contrast to Ukraine's lack of any strategy, Russia is methodically calm in its confidence that it has this conflict entirely under control.

The Forest and the Trees: Ukraine's Strategic Dissipation, Big Serge, Big Serge Thought, 2024-10-31

Some Confirmation

In Dmitri Lascaris' interview with Ambassador Stepanov (Russia's to Canada) one can again see a skilled interviewer at work. Stepanov is given ample space to respond to interesting questions. Of particular note was Stepanov's characterization of the motive for the overt Russian entry into the Ukraine civil war.

Your author was watching the sudden increase in shelling in the Donbas reported by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) which was monitoring the "line of contact". The OSCE reported a dramatic 20 fold increase in shelling in a few days. Given the history of the conflict it was obvious that this was from the Ukrainian side. It had all the hallmarks of an artillery barrage to preface a major assault operation.

Within a few months of the beginning of Russia's "Special Military Operation" Russia released a captured document which they claimed was Ukrainian and which detailed some of the plans to be executed following the operation of weakening Donbas' defenses. Ambassador Stepanov reiterated that Russia knew of the dramatic build up of munitions and forces in the area which would have led to a pogrom, or ethnic cleansing, had Russia not intervened.

The interview contains many other interesting elements as Lascaris provides the Russian Ambassador to Canada space to answer his interesting questions.

EXCLUSIVE： Russia's Ambassador To Canada Discusses The U.S. Election And Western Hostility To Russia [D6JZlBlQe58], Lascaris interviews Russia's Ambassador to Canada Stepanov, Dmitri Lascaris, 2024-11-07

Discussing Directions

Col. Wilkerson is one of the most interesting and insightful commentators on the US military component of the US empire. He joined former war correspondent and distinguished author Chris Hedges to discuss the US military's position within the US government and the state of geopolitics. Both men are extremely well informed, the perfect beginning for a stimulating conversation.

Hedges was surprised to hear from Wilkerson that he understands that elements of the US military are concerned about Christian Nationalists in the US and especially within its ranks. Hedges' interest was raised as he had written a book on the topic a decade previously ("Christian Fascists"). Wilkerson relayed that the concern with the US military is that, should the US dismantle the sectarian core of its Constitution or government, then the US military may be required to defend religious extremists. This has the potential to cause a severe rift within the military itself. Although the natural continuation of this state of affairs, a civil war, was not mentioned between the two, it is obvious that this is the threat to which Wilkerson was referring.

Hedges asked the Colonel about the military situation in southwest Asia, and particularly the conflict between Israel and Iran. Wilkerson expressed concern that rash action by Israel may be allowed by President Biden during the remaining 6 or so weeks of his presidency. Hedges asked Wilkerson of his assessment of the trajectory of a serious escalation which involved the US military, should one occur.

Wilkerson declared that the US would probably lose an aircraft carrier and this would entail around 2 thousands casualties as the US navy does not have the rescue capacity. Following such an event, the US would, predicted Wilkerson, double down and commit to a war against Iran. This would take 10 years, cost $10 trillion dollars and not have a certain outcome.

He based this assessment on two war games which were run at his request. The colonel asked a Lieutenant General to perform the simulation, which the general repeated to be confident of the results. That Wilkerson could successfully ask for such speaks of the confidence which he keeps in some flag officers of the US military.

Another significant assessment offered by Wilkerson is that the US military is dangerously short of certain armaments, including air defence missiles.

NB: During the stimulating discussion one historical error was made. The attack on the USS Liberty was not during the 1973 war provoked by Israel, but the one in 1967.

The World According to Trump (w⧸ Col. Wilkerson) ｜ The Chris Hedges Report [br_xcGgoXio], Hedges interviews Wilkerson, The Chris Hedges Report, 2024-11-09

Postscript

Today is November 11th, an annual reminder of the sacrifices made in war.

Lest we forget.

Sources

In situ.

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