Year in Review, 2023

Myopic ineptitude versus calm negotiation yields a predictable result

Jan 01, 2024

[The inimitable Mr. Fish.]

Published: 2024-01-02

The Early Months

The biggest visible story for the first half of the year before the western ideologues took their summer break and the new political block continued their integration could have been the destruction of the Nordstream pipeline. It was, however, the US Intel Leaks. Between the two was the most significant geopolitical event.

The backdrop for the more visible events was the continued US/NATO proxy war against Russia in Ukraine for which the western block was continuously signaling their new wunder weapons and the soon to be launched devastating counter attack which would sweep through Zaporozhye to the Azov sea, cut off the Russian and newly Russian territories' Crimean supply lines and thus split the "occupying" forces. Observations from knowledgeable individuals like Brian Berletic and Col Macgregor called into question whether the new tanks would be of any use due to the huge logistical and training challenges to field and maintain them. There were additional questions over continued increase in Russian control over the skies.

The Intel Leaks blew the credibility of the western bravado to smithereens. While the MSM moved quickly into questioning the legitimacy of the manner of the leaks and then the messenger, the alternative media benefited from the expertise of some former intelligence officials, particularly Larry Johnson, who could assert the authenticity of the leaks due to personal experience in the preparation of similar anthology type reports derived from numerous intelligence agencies. With the authenticity understood, the alternate media moved straight into the weeds of determining what the documents revealed. Two items stood out:

That the ratio of deaths was 8:1 for Ukraine to Russia, meaning that Ukraine was losing soldiers at a calamitous rate. This was already known, but now the alt media knew that the US military and political leadership, alongside Ukraine's must also have known.
That Ukraine had such a dwindling supply of missile defence ammunition that that Russia's dominance of the sky would continue and get even worse.

For those who mistakenly believed that the MSM or Western political leadership provide useful information in a time of war, the shock of just how terribly they'd been lied to may have been arresting. For the rest of us, it was yet more confirmation of that which knowledgeable commentators, such as those mentioned above, had been saying throughout the winter, autumn and earlier.

The Slow Turning Wheel

The geopolitical event was the almost unbelievable rapprochement between the two middle eastern/southwest Asian powers, Iran and Saudi Arabia. The surprise is that these nations are the ideological and/or geographic homes of the two major branches of Islam, the Sunni and Shia. These branches had been driven apart primarily due to manipulation at the hands of the US and Israel in a classic case of divide and rule. The re-establishment of diplomatic relations between these regional powers led to the Abraham Accords peddled by the US being stopped in their tracks. Syria was immediately re-admitted to the Arab League at a meeting in Cairo. While Russia had been working extensively behind the scenes, it was China who calmly claimed the diplomatic crown.

China has already established a long term strategic investment relationship with Iran, which included purchasing its oil. Soon to follow would be the same with Saudi Arabia with the oil to again be sold outside of the US dollar, a direct threat to the reserve currency, the petro-dollar.

The major story for the period between the ideologue's summer and Christmas breaks was most unexpectedly dominated by the response to a day's armed resistance by Palestinians against the multi-generational oppression and slow genocide in Gaza. Israel's response left the world aghast at just how brutal and barbaric the Zionists could be. The continued brutality of bombing hospitals, churches and other civilian infrastructure all the while also bombing children, pregnant women and other refugees left the world wondering how this could be allow to happen and what could be done to stop this rapid, textbook genocide which was being beamed at them via their mobile phones.

The US' reflexive support of the genocide by upping their already $3.3 billion per year supply of weaponry to the armed forces of Israel to add more than another $10 billion caused the west a collective case of cognitive dissonance. How could "western values" amount to supporting the daily murder of innocent children and mothers? The EU did themselves no favours by meekly hiding behind the US and issuing plaintive "right to defend themselves" language for a nation which was killing hundreds of refugees a day from the sky.

A Confluence of Flow

Despite all of the above, the major geopolitical changes came in the spring with the BRICS expansion from 5 to 11 members to now include geostrategically important nations like Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Iran.

This is the backdrop against which Hamas launched their outrageously successful 24 hour military assault on Israel, on the day after the anniversary of the 1973 war. Israel, relying on machine learning generated intelligence having rejected repeated human intelligence warnings, suffered an outrageous defeat, including that of their special services and digital intelligence brigades/units. The Gaza perimeter had been denuded to support yet further settler violence and displacement in the West Bank.

At the end of the year, the West's military, diplomatic and financial war against Russia and by extension China, has utterly failed on all fronts. The West does not have a moral leg to stand on. The EU's economy is failing with the US luring its remaining manufacturing to their shores because of the increase in energy costs which were imposed on the EU by its technocrats and then enforced by the US who destroyed 3 of the 4 the Nordstream pipelines, an historic attacks on energy infrastructure. The conflict in Ukraine will be settled on Russia's terms as Russia's military industrial base is outproducing that of the entire West and its economy has rebounded beyond its state before the 11 EU sanctions packages were sent to destroy it. Russia has demonstrated the precision and devastating effectiveness of its hypersonic missiles which the West is still working out how to produce.

Russia will not be fooled by the US again. It is not just that the US is agreement incapable, but that everybody knows that the US treats agreements as photo ops. This in itself explains the harking back to the founding principles of the UN by the emerging international block, the combination of BRICS+ and the SCO (Shanghai Cooperation Organisation). Whatever "international system" there is to be requires that nations can discuss and negotiate. Agreements made need in principle be able to be relied upon. This is the foundation which the new block are re-laying over the hegemon's rubble.

How the genocide in Gaza will redefine the political map of southwest Asia remains unclear. However, it has re-united some erstwhile foes against their common, local provocateur, the immoral Zionists who US leadership in the face of genocide have palpably declared represent them.

Just before the close of the calendar year, the S in the founding BRICS has invoked the UN Genocide Convention against Israel. The Republic of South Africa, armed with the horror of WWII and the experience of its own Apartheid history, has boldly detonated a cataclysmic shock to the pillar of the US' unsinkable aircraft carrier in southwest Asia.

The West's unipolar international influence achieved at the dissolution of the USSR continues to be shattered by the ineptitude and myopia of its ideological "leadership" while the global south negotiates amongst themselves the paths of multipolarity.

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Sources

The Hersh Nord Stream Report, YesXorNo, 2023-02-14

NATO Fractures at the Hands of the USA, YesXorNo, 2023-03-06

USA vs Russia, USA vs China, China Helps Saudi Arabia Welcome Iran, YesXorNo, 2023-03-14

US Intelligence Leaks, YesXorNo, 2023-04-12

Nailing Greivences to a Diplomatic Door, YesXorNo, 2023-02-28

Friggin' in the Riggin', YesXorNo, 2023-04-24

Assange: 1502 Days of Prison Following a Decade of Earlier Persecution, YesXorNo, 2023-05-22

Ukraine: The Counter-Offensive is Countered, YesXorNo, 2023-06-22

Corruption in Ukraine Results in Nazis Attacking Russia with NATO Weapons, yesXorNo, 2023-06-17

Hamas v Israel: the Latest Page of the Latest Chapter of a Long Occupation and Civil War, YesXorNo, 2023-10-09