Marco, LOL))

 I love the audacity.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Sunday called for China to prevent Iran from closing the Strait of Hormuz, one of the most important trade routes for crude oil in the world. “I encourage the Chinese government in Beijing to call them about that, because they heavily depend on the Straits of Hormuz for their oil,” Rubio said in an interview on Fox News. China is Iran’s most important oil customer and maintains friendly relations with the Islamic Republic. Iran’s foreign minister warned earlier Sunday that the Islamic Republic “reserves all options to defend its sovereignty,” after the U.S. bombed three key nuclear sites over the weekend.

This is Persian Gulf. 

Actually, what George says here is exactly what I was saying all along. We all were. 

Especially in the end. 

Rubio Merely Says ...

 ... what he has to say under the conditions. 

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Monday that Ukraine would have to make concessions over land that Russia had taken since 2014 as part of any agreement to end the war. Mr. Rubio spoke as he was flying to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, for talks with senior Ukrainian officials, and 10 days after a contentious White House meeting between President Trump and his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelensky. The Trump administration halted military aid to Ukraine after the blowup, which centered on Mr. Trump’s refusal to include any security guarantees in a proposed deal involving Ukraine’s natural resources. “The most important thing that we have to leave here with is a strong sense that Ukraine is prepared to do difficult things, like the Russians are going to have to do difficult things to end this conflict or at least pause it in some way, shape or form,” Mr. Rubio told reporters. Mr. Rubio declined to offer the outline of a potential agreement but made clear that concessions by both sides would be central to diplomacy.

He simply MUST talk about Russia which is merely a PR trick to soften a dramatic truth behind the utter devastation brought on VSU and its "advisers" (you can find videos of many POWs including African American dude and such) by Russian forces. The outcome is clear. Here Daniel Davis elaborates operationally. 

I want to stress again--the main objective in real war is to kill enemy forces, the captured ground, cities and enemy's standards come later. 

This Is Critical Admission.

Of what many still cannot wrap their brains around. No, not the "stalemate" (there is no stalemate) but that SMO is a war between the US and Russia. 

This is not some "analyst" from some BS think-tank who says this, this is Marco Rubio--no matter how we dislike him--and he is a TOP American diplomat, Secretary of the State. Will wait and see if the ISR was turned off for 404 for real--but if true, this is really big. 

Point To Be Made ...

... again. Even such a moron as Blinken possibly did get a famous one-liner from military art that the victory in war is defined by achieving political objectives of said war. E.g. the political objective of NATO's war against Russia through its best proxy ever, 404, was simple--to inflict military defeat on Russia, which, in conjunction with sanctions from hell creates a massive suffering and humiliation and, hence, Putin's "regime" falls, Russian fifth column comes to power, Russia is broken up and the US and its European jackals get their hands on Russia's resources. After that the West squeezes China and the full global control is achieved. 

Keep in mind, all this was predicated on VSU taking (they were already pre-deployed for that) LDNR, defeating possible Russian attempt at relieving defeated LDNR militias and ... what a plan. But that is the POINT--Pentagon and clowns from London MoD and other NATO "experts" DID consider military defeat of Russian Army in LDNR. In fact, that WAS the plan. Here, I want to stress it, where I and Scott diverge--this IS how it was briefed in the White House. And here is an interesting quip today: 

In an interview on Sirius XM’s The Megyn Kelly Show on Thursday, Rubio reiterated US President Donald Trump’s willingness to find a diplomatic solution to the Ukraine crisis, saying that Trump believes the conflict “needs to end now.” “It needs to end to a negotiation. In any negotiation, both sides are going to have to give something up,” Rubio stated. Even a growing number Democrats who vowed to support Kiev for “as long as it takes” under the previous administration of US President Joe Biden “would now acknowledge that what we have been funding is a stalemate, a protracted conflict, and maybe even worse than a stalemate, one in which incrementally Ukraine is being destroyed and losing more and more territory,” the secretary of state said. “What the dishonesty that has existed is that we somehow led people to believe that Ukraine would be able not just to defeat Russia, but, you know, destroy them, push them all the way back to what the world looked like in... 2014,” Rubio added. 

This is a critical admission because it wasn't "somehow"--this was a belief which permeated Washington as a whole, including those people in CIA and Pentagon who spent 7 years preparing VSU for "defeating" Russia and who planned this whole catastrophe. And that brings fore this point about "American way of war", same as it goes to infamous "Prigozhin Mutiny" and other "operational" tricks NATO exercised against manifestly weak and inferior opponents and whose whole operational culture is built around turkey shoots with near impunity. I can only say--study the REAL history of WW II, not the BS which is being taught in the US military academies--that will be a good start. Don't hold your breath though. 

Larry Saved Me From Torture...

 ... of seeing and listening to these two guys and I am eternally grateful to him for that. 

Tweedledee and Tweedle-dumber Dissemble on Ukraine.

I admit, pretty much anything emanating from the Beltway, be that in writing or visual, is cringe-worthy. I feel embarrassed, those guys--don't. Read the whole thing at Larry's excellent blog. 

Meanwhile, boy Marco Rubio decided to demonstrate his professional grasp of Air Forces' operations and Scott nearly exploded:

I agree, what this boy lawyer, who never served a day in any armed forces, is suggesting is the start of the WW III. Rubio is an Exhibit A of a majority in the US Congress--cowardly chickenhawks. I also have some issues with the competence of a few "combat veterans" in US Congress, such as Tom Cotton, who have no clue about real war and neither studied nor experienced it. None of them.

LOL. Marco Rubio.

I mean it IS ridiculous, really)) Just a hint, Iranian oil is already on the market as a "ghost" oil. But,

(Bloomberg) -- Future U.S. imports of oil from Venezuela and Iran would be banned under legislation being introduced this week by Senator Marco Rubio, a Florida Republican and member of the Foreign Relations Committee. The move is an attempt to forestall any potential effort by the Biden administration to turn to Venezuela or Iran -- if a nuclear deal is reached with Tehran -- as a cushion to rising crude prices sparked by the Ukraine war and a U.S. ban on Russian oil imports. The U.S. doesn’t currently import oil from either nation, both of which are under sanctions regimes. Rubio wants to see the U.S. increase domestic oil and gas production to offset rising crude prices, and said importing petroleum from Iran and Venezuela -- both allies of Russia -- would only serve to enrich American rivals.

The issue here is not that the US cannot hypothetically grow own extraction--it can--but it is always the issue of costs for the US and, of course, who can forget the self-righteous BS:

“Under no circumstance should we be funneling money into the hands of dictators and narco-terrorists, who are also allies of Vladimir Putin,” Rubio said in a statement. “Enough is enough -- it’s time to bring energy production back home.”

And who does Rubio think US "allies" of Saudi Arabia and Qatar are? Jeffersonian democracies? Does Rubio think that the rest of the world, especially cultures much older and much more experienced in diplomacy than the US do not see this pathetic attempt at moral high ground? But then again, this is beyond the grasp of the American elites who still think that they can pontificate on moral issues when many of them qualify for the status of war criminals. A complete farce even a high school student can appreciate.