A Demonstration of Shambles

President Obama has all but admitted defeat in the gambit to wrench Ukraine from the Russian sphere of influence.   His joint press-conference after meeting with German Chancellor Merkel was a Demonstration of Shambles.

While not ruling anything out, Obama acknowledged that “Russia obviously has an extraordinarily powerful military” and, given historical ties and geographical proximity, expecting a Ukrainian military “rebuff” is “unlikely."  

Just as unlikely were American troops doing the rebuffing.  And so,   “We continue to encourage a diplomatic resolution.”   

Of course Obama does not want borders “redrawn at the barrel of the gun” but the implication is that they can be drawn on the green felt of a table. ... just so long as the “ core principle of sovereignty and territorial integrity” are respected.   A name! A name! A kingdom for a name!

Once again, another costly humiliation has been brought to us by Washington’s  neocon network.    Where is Viriginia  ( “Fuck Europe” ) Nuland now?    Unfortunately she’s still at her post.   Obama should fire her. Until neocons are run out of town on a rail they will continue to mislead the U.S. into one disaster after another.

Was the United States so overweening in its arrogance as to think that Russia would allow military and economic penetration on its border?  For a moment of undistilled lunacy there was even talk in Washington about Russia "loosing" its historic and crucial naval base in Sevastopol.   The Russian response was swift and unmistakable.   The reaction in the United States was hysterical frothing at the mouth about Russian aggression.  The ranting might play in Peoria but not in Berlin. 

This is not to say that Paris - Berlin Axis is all sweetness and light.  They wanted to cherry pick the Ukrainian bush, and the US engineered putsch in Kiev allowed them to unleash their I.M.F. dogs on the hapless Ukrainians.   The "Europeans" got their free-meal but they are unwilling to pick up the full tab. 

The price was stiff enough.   The U.S. had no chestnuts in the fire, but the Germans certainly did and, as Putin correctly pointed out, this is going to hurt you as much as it does us.  Perhaps not exactly "as much" but enough to hurt the punisher.    

The U.S. may have mastered the art of Twitter Subversion, but the Russians are no strangers to the fifth column.    They know how to disguise their operations and, in the case of a neighboring country with large numbers of ethnic Russians and all sharing the same alphabet, this was easy enough.  The U.S. could cavil all it wanted, but given its own support for frank and forthright neo-nazis, its shrieks of tu quoque!! did not carry much moral weight.

Post Soviet Russia has no interest in lording over ethnic Ukrainians.  It simply is not necessary in the present global economy.  But neither are they about to let Ukrainian nationalists lord it over ethnic Russians just so the IMF can lay its paws on industrial assets in the east.  With the lunatics in Washington screaming for military intervention, Paris and Berlin had enough and went hat in hand to Moscow.

Ah the sweet schadenfreude!

The fact is that the Ukraine is more of a cross-roads than a country.  Its viability depends on a kind of looseness, or laissez aller between its various ethnic factions.  Even the Ukrainians don't have much stomach for the hard-line being pushed by the aggro-cons in Washington.   Not reported by the presstitutes in the West is the  fact that the Ukrainian army has spent most of its time showing its back to the Separatists.  Things have got so bad that the Kiev government announced the other day the employment of "barrier brigades" to prevent ordinary soldiers from fleeing. 

So who is doing the fighting on behalf of a rump government doing Washington's bidding? The answer is: units like Pravi Sektor and the Azov Brigade (now "regiment') -- ultra nationalists who hate Russians, Communists and Jews.     That kind of nationalism doesn't command as much as it claims even in the west of the country but it certainly doesn't play at all in the east. 

Because the Ukraine is  a cross-roads, there never was an all-or-nothing solution to its problems.  Even Yanukovich's supposed rejection of affiliation with the EU in favor of a customs union with Russia was not the bright line decision it was made out to be in the imbecile western press.  The Ukraine was already in debt to the IMF.  Trade with Russia did not exclude monetary flows to Europeans banks.  Putin was not being polite when he repeatedly made reference to "our partners in the West."   But the maniacs in Washington were not interested in sharing.  They are appalled by the notion that anyone else might have a sphere of influence.  They wanted all of the Ukraine in order to minimize Russia. 

The result has been that instead of a nominally sovereign Ukraine, loosely integrated and economically tied to Russia we have a nominally united Ukraine half of which is owned by the IMF and the other half of which remains tied to Russia.