I personally see zero issues with that.
Russia was historical threat to all the nearby countries and eventually a new conflict would arise. No "end of history", the threat remains so it has to be neutralized, just as we tried during the Cold War.
If you are part of what's the "West", it's your natural interest to bleed your opponents dry with as few resources as possible.
A conflict with both Russia and China is inevitable. We'll try to fuck them up economically and sabotage them from the inside with the cozy glow, and if that fails, may god have mercy on us.
Most Russians want to win in a very obvious way and despise Europe.
You literally have to be retarded if you're European to not want to win and humiliate Russia. Wars are easy, you have to win, or you'll lose and get raped.
This is where I'm going to have a difference in opinion. I do not think it is at all worth it to 'bleed Russia' to the extent that we did, especially when we're hitting levels of inflation and we're entering a period of economic lethargy.
Russia is not our Cold War Enemy, and the real danger is China, as it is far more aggressive and belligerent, bordering our long-term allies, trading partners and military bases. This entire proxy war has only served to weaken us against China.
You have to consider, if a conflict with China is inevitable, then we need to keep our resources up. Right now, what we've done, is strengthened the incentive of a second economic bloc who are tired of US banks and corporations dictating policy. If Russia's economy holds despite our sanctions and ejections from Swift, then the worries of leaving the EU and US system behind is severely weakened. This system only is as strong as it is based on the potential for economic damage. You are now seeing networks being built to soak up any damage and create regional networks outside of modern multi-nationals.
This proxy war has been a huge fucking waste in terms of human life and material. The West isn't even close to getting what it wants. Russia has been at the 'brink of economic collapse' for a year now.
What I'm seeing here is a loss for everyone. Russia is eventually going to get what it came for, Ukraine will functionally cease to exist as a nation, we'll have piled on more debt and created a separate economic bloc tired of Western control of the financial markets. If the conflict with China is inevitable, then the West has fucked itself. Russia will want revenge for intervening and will probably not be as coy as China when they do so. If we had just negotiated the pro-Russian territories, we'd have saved a lot of blood and treasure and could have maybe even had a bargaining chip or provisions for Russia to keep out of any conflict with China in exchange for territory. That is not on the table.
But no, the faggots in government decided that they needed their Cold War Boner before they fucking died so they went ahead with this live presentation of Western weapon systems. The inevitability I see is Russia gets what it came for. Only instead of having it for a low cost, Ukraine is functionally dead, Russia will happily fuck us over with China and there are now serious threats to Western Economic Dominance now that it has been shown it isn't suicide for leaving these systems and bowing to corporations not in your country (I personally don't care and view more competition as good, fuck the multinationals).
So what good is it?
It's sad because as much as I've said something similar and a few academics have pointed it out, here and there some twitter account relates a sentiment like this, etc, there is no real discussion like this in the West.
Let alone in Ukraine.
I assume our leadership isn't completely retarded and actually knows this, but then that makes them dangerously sociopathic. Plunging Europe into an economic crisis, causing the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Ukranians and Russians only to weaken Russia a little bit in advance of the more serious confrontation with China.
I wonder if there are discussions like this in private in Ukraine, along the dinner table. Polls suggest that they are not willing to give up any territory in exchange for peace but who knows if that isn't just posturing.
Our leadership is completely sociopathic. They view this as all worth it. The reality is if they aren't willing to give up territory in exchange for peace, arms will eventually stop flowing due to Western public sentiment. Then its basically all downhill from there.
I agree with pretty much your entire post.
Ukraine's best chance of a favourable peace was in March/April. They caused massive loses to the Russian advance, proving their independent strength and shocking the Russian people. Since then Ukrainian lives are thrown away on futile attacks or defending isolated pockets. Sure, many of their young Russian brothers have died too, but that shouldn't be celebrated.
Crimea was never on the table without direct NATO intervention. I don't see a good end for this thing. A generation ago Ukranians and Russians happily shared a country, but reconciliation will be hard for a nation that lost so much from Russian action.
Yeah, I agree here.
www.zerohedge.com
archive.ph
