Even She Gets It.

I mean Frau Kanzlerin begins to suspect that it is not about Russia or "democracy", it is about devouring Western Europe and putting Germany at the altar of America's desperation to preserve an illusion of own hegemony, for just a little bit longer, as a first sacrificial victim. The rest of Europe will follow. Today she figured it out, sort of...

“I know that there is controversy about Nord Stream 2 and I know the opinion of many member states,” she said. “But I would like to point out that the gas delivered through Nord Stream 2, which isn’t yet flowing, is no worse than the gas from Nord Stream 1, that which flows through Ukraine, and that which comes across Turkey from Russia.”

Frau Merkel forgot only one thing, Nord Stream 1 (aka NS) was completed in 2011-12, in the times when, despite the United States already being vehemently opposed to this pipeline, it was a really bad idea to admit to Europeans that they were being held merely as a meal ready to eat (MRE) by the United States, which called them still "partners" and "allies". At that time, on Obama's watch, everything in the US was supposed to be running smoothly and efficiently, you know "the finest fighting force in history", Obama's uncle liberating Auschwitz and things of this nature. The going was good still, or at least it was viewed as good, and it was possible to play the game of "allied relations" and "common values" with Europeans who thought that the US was in Europe to "protect" them. 

Well, it is 2021 and we all know the score, more or less. The United States cannot compete with Russia or China and is in a terminal, for the America's self-proclaimed hegemony, decline; to stop it America needs Europeans to become food. Unsurprisingly, those in Europe who have some brains left after a thorough brainwashing and blackmailing do not want to become food for the United States. Who would? Well Poland and Baltic States with Ukraine would, but they are merely jackals circling the table with the main course on it, or, as Ukraine, are used condoms to be thrown into the trash bin. The main course is Germany, because once it is eaten, the rest of Europe will follow. Now Germany's colorless and not very bright Frau Merkel notes:

“I have the impression that with Nord Stream 2 we may be waging a conflict that is much wider, and touches upon the question of the extent to which we want to trade with Russia, especially in the energy sector,” 

The hell you say, Einstein. Russia can live without Germany, in fact Russia's very successful import-substitution program was launched precisely to achieve this goal--living without dependence on Europe. It is Germany which is an occupied country and which cannot admit to itself that it is being slowly cooked by the US to achieve German industrial collapse to open the road for both American (that means Russian ones bought by US and re-sold to Germany for much higher price) hydrocarbons and industrial products. One shot, two rabbits, the American thinking goes, "opening" German market while making German products much less competitive at the American one. That's the plan anyway and to implement it, Germany must be denied Russia's affordable energy. Nord Stream 2, thus, delenda est. 

There is one problem here, though, for America and her lapdog UK, America's geopolitical thinking and planning, such as Skripal Affair, Czech 2014 explosion of munitions storage, allegedly by Russians, with ensuing diplomatic comedy, or attempts to light up several simultaneous conflicts around Russia, not least through attempts at the overthrow of government of Belarus--all of those attempts failing spectacularly--are just some indicators of an extreme detachment of the US establishment from the reality and its inability to face facts. US will throw under the bus anyone, if need be, such as it happened with Czech republic, always heavy on Russophobia, and these all are desperate attempts by the US in trying to prevent integration of West European economies into the colossal Eurasian market being formed by China and Russia. As I wrote two weeks ago:

So, what’s left realistically is to push Ukraine into the suicidal campaign with Russia being designated aggressor before even the first shots are fired. What the United States does not recognize is the fact that this unties Russia’s hands who already has an overwhelming escalation dominance not only over Ukraine, but whatever might be attempted in terms of “support” for irrational regime in Kiev. Russia has many options, the United States has one—it needs war in Donbass, which, Washington’s thinking goes, will allow to drive Europeans into submission, which allegedly should allow the United States to save her hegemonic status. It will not, even if Europe is driven into submission.

So, Russia just goes about her business because she knows the game, she knows the score and she long ago calculated the United States' moves, which are not, frankly, that difficult to predict. Scott Ritter is way more than me informed about the underwater currents inside the Beltway and he may well be right when stating this:

These are policies pushed and promoted by the “Putin whisperers.” For the moment, their will continues to prevail. But their days are numbered, as realpolitik pragmatists in the White House, Pentagon and Intelligence Community are recognizing the reality that the days of taking for granted US global hegemony are over, and that for the United States to remain relevant, it must adapt to the reality of a multi-polar world, and Russia’s rightful role therein. This will not happen overnight, but it is in the process of happening. In promoting and supporting Biden’s latest round of sanctions, the “Putin whisperers” have reached their high-water mark. From here on out, their influence will begin to ebb as the national security demand for fact-based assessments outstrips the domestic political need for fact-free propaganda.

But something tells me that it is now too little, too late and cleaning what amounts to US foreign policy Stables of King Augeas will require a man of Herculean abilities and courage, especially after the wasteland left in domestic and foreign policies by America's (and Israeli-first) neocons the likes of Kagans, whose intellectual abilities are inversely proportional to their gigantic ambitions, and whose damage to Russian-American relations and America herself is profound and not easily fixed, if it is possible at all. When even meek and cowardly Frau Merkel begins to understand that the bottom is in sight, that tells you something.