Larry's Thoughts On Ukraine.

Not military ones, but economic ones.  

Until Joe Biden took office I thought that George W Bush had dibs on the “stupidest foreign policy blunder in history” award. His decision to invade Iraq rather than eliminate Al Qaeda hurt the United States and fueled international terrorism. But leave it to Joe Biden to one-up W by imposing sanctions on Russia that are inflicting an economic holocaust on the United States and Europe. Heck of a job, Joe. The ostensible reason for “punishing” Russia with sanctions that actually pummel the west was Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. Now we all know that Ukraine was/is the poorest nation in Europe

Truth is, in 1991 Ukraine was left with the second economy in Europe (after unified Germany) and with a massive Soviet industrial, technological and scientific heritage. Ukraine was supposed to be a massive success. But it didn't happen and a major factor in this utter failure was not just the mutually exclusive cultural mix of the country, but the mentality of people, many of who are still stuck in a village and farm (khutor) paradigm (recall onion and potato "farming" at Maidan in Kiev in 2014). It is the world-view which has been so distorted away from the reality, that the term "ukrainization" begins to sound appropriate when applied even to the American political life both figuratively and literally. Not to mention, of course, as Larry correctly states, 404 becoming both a laundromat and a good "income source" for crooked US politicos and a source of a political machinations for the benefit of primarily (not exclusively, though) Democratic Party. That is why the title of Larry's piece is so correct: Why the West Lusts After Ukraine. Read this excellent write-up by Larry.

But, it seems, it all becomes a moot point because I read somewhere (don't remember where) that even NPR had to admit that Ukraine lied about the real state of the affairs on the fronts of SMO. Well, when you have NPR, which still promotes Russiagate as a factual story, admitting this, it goes without saying that the jury is in for Ukraine and, indeed, Stoltenberg's "formula"--meaning Ukraine ceding territory for peace--begins to preoccupy Western world. But that too is a moot point, because we don't know Russia's plans for Ukraine and something tells me that Russia may not be inclined to let Ukraine exist at all. But we'll see. I could be wrong, because, obviously, I don't have any access to the information Kremlin has about intricacies of present 404's "politics" and if there are enough (if any) political forces in Kiev which could serve as a ruling class for newly reconstituted Ukraine--a fully demilitarized and denazified rump fully dependent on Russia economically. I think we'll know soon enough. 

In related news, there is a hilarious article from the Defense News (a rather comical "military" publication) which states:

WASHINGTON ― Russia’s war in Ukraine is making clear to the U.S. Department of Defense that it must get logistics and sustainment right in the Pacific theater, the Pentagon’s No. 2 civilian said Monday. Russia’s logistics and sustainment failures during its three-month-old invasion of Ukraine are a “very hard lesson” for Moscow, and the U.S. as well, U.S. Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks said at a DefenseOne event. “The Russians are operating on their own border, and yet we saw [their] substantial logistics challenges. For the United States to be effective in the Pacific, we already have a significant logistics challenge [to overcome], worsened by the reliance that we have on fuel,” Hicks said. “Making sure we understand how to go after that logistics challenge is one lesson that we can extrapolate, if you will, from what we see today.” Russia’s invasion of Ukraine almost immediately faced challenges with logistics and difficulties getting food, water and supplies to troops. It failed in its early objective of taking Kyiv and occupying a large swath of Ukraine, and has now concentrated most its forces in eastern Ukraine. Hicks on Monday praised U.S. “logistics and information sharing” in coordinating allies to arm and equip Ukrainian forces. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin is set this week to convene a third meeting of the U.S.-led Ukraine contact group, which has more than 40 member nations.

Apart from Kathleen Hicks being utterly unqualified for her job (and you guessed it, her Ph.D is in a political "science"), she also operates in alternative reality, because she continues to operate with pure BS and, obviously, she never learned real war history and didn't attend this Academy, where they actually teach how to supply modern armed forces in real wars. But then again, whatever it takes to hide oneself from being recognized as a sore loser and incompetent hack. In related news for Hicks, did she write anything on the issue of  logistics security in the war with a peer competitor which leverages its advantage in a targeting and stand-off high precision weapons, including long range hypersonic ones, when interdicting lines of communications in the ocean? I talk, of course, about China. Nah, I am being facetious. Those who want to see Hicks' "scientific contribution", you can easily read (if you have a few hours of your life to waste on a steaming pile of pseudo-academic BS) her "dissertation" here:

Change Agents: Who Leads and Why in the Execution of US National Security Policy

With such "specialists", no wonder the US finds itself in present predicament.