Too Late For Germany...

 ... when you are born a liver sausage, you stay a liver sausage all your life. 

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz doubled down Friday on Berlin's refusal to send long-range missiles to Ukraine, even as other Western powers discussed allowing Kyiv more freedom to use such weapons. "Germany has made a clear decision about what we will do and what we will not do. This decision will not change," Scholz said when asked about the issue at a press conference. The leaders of the United States and Britain were due to meet Friday in Washington on whether to let Kyiv fire Western-provided long-range missiles into Russia -- an option that has sent tensions soaring with Moscow.

There will be no friendly relations between Germany and Russia again. Plus, the sausage states those things not because of some moment of clarity but because of sheer terror. As Dmitry Medvedev today revealed some shocking technological truths in his statement: 

Что тут скажешь: ядерный конфликт действительно никому не нужен. Это очень плохая история с тяжелейшим исходом. Именно поэтому до сих пор решение о применении ядерного оружия (нестратегического или тем более стратегического) не было принято. Хотя, прямо скажем, для этого есть формальные предпосылки, понятные всему мировому сообществу и соответствующие нашей доктрине ядерного сдерживания. Тот же Курск, например. Но Россия проявляет терпение. Ведь очевидно, что ядерный ответ – чрезвычайно сложное решение с необратимыми последствиями. Однако напыщенные англосаксонские недоноски не хотят признать одного: любому терпению приходит конец. А правы в итоге окажутся те умеренные западные аналитики, которые предупреждали: «Да, русские, скорее всего, не ответят таким образом… хотя вероятность всё же есть. К тому же ведь ответ может быть и с использованием новых средств доставки в неядерном оснащении».

Translation: What can you say: a nuclear conflict is really not needed by anyone. It is a very bad story with a very difficult outcome. That is why the decision to use nuclear weapons (non-strategic or even more so strategic) has not been made yet. Although, frankly speaking, there are formal prerequisites for this, understandable to the entire world community and consistent with our doctrine of nuclear deterrence. The same Kursk, for example. But Russia is showing patience. After all, it is obvious that a nuclear response is an extremely difficult decision with irreversible consequences. However, the pompous Anglo-Saxon runts do not want to admit one thing: any patience comes to an end. And in the end, those moderate Western analysts who warned will be right: “Yes, the Russians will most likely not respond in this way ... although there is still a possibility. In addition, the response may also be using new delivery vehicles with non-nuclear equipment.”

OK, just adds to the already extremely strong case of NATO losing arms race everywhere and confirms long time circulating rumors about new generation of explosives and delivery systems which will additionally turn warfare into some sort of sci-fi, however gruesome, affair. Thus, Larry's headline is correct:

Following Putin’s Warning that Any Attacks in Russia with Western Supplied Missiles will be Treated as an Act of War, NATO Flips. 

That is why today's Ira Alksnis' excellent piece echoes what I am repeating ad nauseam for many years:

На самом же деле медиа всегда вторичны по отношению к реальному миру. Пропаганда способна влиять на действительность только до той степени, до которой она соответствует ей. На пике однополярного мира Штаты были почти всемогущими, соответственно и их информационное и идеологическое влияние было колоссальным. Но тот однополярный мир уже фактически прекратил свое существование, а вместе с ним сжимаются и возможности западных медиа.

Translation: In reality, the media are always secondary to the real world. Propaganda can influence reality only to the extent that it corresponds to it. At the peak of the unipolar world, the United States was almost omnipotent, and accordingly, its informational and ideological influence was colossal. But that unipolar world has already effectively ceased to exist, and with it, the capabilities of Western media are shrinking.

 

Real life is hard, as are real complex skills required for operating modern society successfully--modern West doesn't have those anymore. BS, propaganda, on the other hand, it has a lot. And it is paying the price for it.