It captures the timeless truth about empires. They always destroy themselves; pride and slothfulness always catch up.
Overall, I think the piece offers an optimistic takeaway: empires are not immortal or undefeatable. Now we just need to practice imagining what a post-empire world looks like, both in the West and the world generally.
The question is: are we able to think outside the zero sum game “rules based order”?
It’s already happening outside the Atlanticist West. But now we have play catch up.
A "coming danger" that he was instrumental in creating. An alternative way of looking at his final address is to see it as more of an apology than a warning.
Exactly. He was POTUS for EIGHT friggin years AND had been Supreme Commander on the great holy crusade in Europe. If Ike could not fight the MIC, nobody could.
I hope the door did not slam his keester "on his way out."
His problem was Wilson’s DOD, that has already become too strong for its own good.
He famously met with Khrushchev at Camp David, and they commiserated over how little say they had over how defense budget requests happened.
Ike told Khrushchev that the DOD would come begging him for money and strongarming over the public perception of Cold War fears. Khrushchev said it was the same for him. But neither had a good way of stopping it - short of calling their defense departments out. Which for either of them, would’ve been political suicide - ensuring nothing got taken care of for years.
No head of state in the modern world has that much power. And Ike’s administration is remembered well enough today - but in his day, it was a mixed bag. Hence the democrats being able to flip seats at the end. and that’s not getting into the baby shoes incident and the mess that was Korea - and how that affected his admins optics.
That’s the national budget equivalent of saying “the president can fix inflation.” It’s painfully naive.
Ike is like W. Bush. Both their strengths and ineptitudes are overstated today. Ike had gone in wanting disarmament, and found too much resistance from the burgeoning DOD - and that led into Korea (to justify the growing Cold War defense expenditures). But he was also a “balance the budget,”candidate and a republican (if utterly unelectable today). Ike was prescient in his way, but he was, at the end of it all, a conservative. That entails not voting against your party’s interest - and the interest was as it is - having a standing army.
For the same reason Biden can’t fix inflation with a magic button, and Trump couldn’t fix whatever he purported to want. Because our executives simply don’t have that kind of power to restructure government. That has to be done by Congress. Ike didn’t have the kind of support he needed in either house to effect that. That’s politics. We don’t have emperors who can wave a hand and make the world better. The realistic option - unrealistic as it is - would’ve been to EO the dismantling of the DOD. That would’ve had the same aftermath as such an idea would today. A good chunk of the country wailing about vulnerability and Ike being anti-American, and calling for his head on a pike. Ike had been around defense long enough to know that.
A bloated defense department, emboldened by war victories, who kept coming up with expensive projects and ghosts to chase in order to justify their continued existence. Neither country’s leadership really wanted the Cold War, or even saw it as necessary. Both were tired of war, and wanted to rebuild in the 1950s.
The MIC Ike was talking about - is that. A bunch of generals with too much money, panhandling the government for increasingly-extreme budgets and supporting large-ranging small (or ideally, cold) conflicts to keep justifying it.
That led to Vietnam and virtually every quagmire we’ve had since. The Soviets had similar problems with adventurism, for the same reasons.
Neither man, supported as they were, had the power to change that on their own. Both knew their people did. But it would take them seeing the truth of it, and the reality of the severity of that threat.
Neither people did. Not until the war on terror for us, and crimea and Ukraine for what’s now Russia. Both of us locked in endless wars without any real purpose except imperialism.
This is an interesting point. It’s like the old Road Runner gag where Wile E. Coyote only falls into the ravine when he realises that he’s in mid-air… the awful truth has not yet dawned on the US ruling classes but it can’t be much longer now.
I was in the Army, but in the infantry battalion and infantry brigade I worked in as an intel analyst, the commanders deliberately made war games difficult and unbalanced so he could test the creativity and judgement of his junior officers.
The Army also has JRTC for light brigades and NTC for heavy brigades where the opfor routinely smokes the bluefor.
So if the Army and USMC plan out wargames where the good guys can and do lose, creating teachable lessons, then why can’t the Navy?
I was in the Air Force for 22 years. Unit level training, operational readiness inspections, and game scenarios were realistic as hell. They are often brutal and exhausting--at least they were when I was in. My take is that DoD war-games are different. They are rigged because the results are seen by Congress and will cause embarrassing questions and affect funding.
Probably right. Anything bigger than brigade/airwing level involves a lot of guys and gals with stars on their collars and everyone has to cater to them
In the closing stages of WW2 the ever-bombastic US forces boasted that the Germans wouldn’t fly anymore sorties in Italy after there was a concerted effort by the Allies to rid the skies of luftwaffe. The Nazis either didn’t hear they’d been vanquished or spitefully they thought “we’ll show them” so they raided the seas near Bari and wiped out several battleships and managed to hit an illegal and obviously state-secret mustard gas ship completely by chance and gassed huge numbers of civilians in the city.
My granddad was an MD there and treated many of the casualties - he always had a dim view of the “Yanks” - he said they were arrogant, lacked cohesion and direction and relied overly on huge amounts of technology rather than strategy. It appears nothing has changed.
So the Germans bomb a chem weapons lab and it's the Yanks fault? You Brits are psychotic. Now let's talk about the RAF in 1945 bombing Jeanne D'Arc school in Copenhagen killing 86 kids. I guess that's proper strategy. You'll probably blame America for that too, along with your poorly tummy.
If these aircraft carrier strike groups are so badly beaten by the Houthi's and their make shift and dated weapons, just think how badly they would fare against Russian Kinzhal and Iskander missiles, which US Patriot battery systems have had little to no success shooting them down in the Ukraine.
It's time for the US to seriously rethink its global bullying strategy.
Aircraft carriers could be transformed into civilian rescue ships for natural disasters. They have hospitals, landing strip for planes/helicopters and plenty of room for patients.
The Millennium Challenge keeps on giving. I hope everyone knows Van Riper is Marinus, who writes on maneuver warfare for the Marine Corp Gazette, and produced this very clear eyed analysis at the outset of the Ukraine operation in 2022.
This link has the whole story, plus the article. I had to read dodgy phone pics of hard copy at the time...
My pleasure Stephen! I actually had no idea the mighty Marinus is none other than Van Riper, my mind is duly blown although that makes total sense. When Empires are on their last legs, troublesome, knowledgeable people like he who can see the wood for the trees are invariably sidelined, with catastrophic results for all!
The problem is that USA and NATO strategy’s tactics and weapons are based on WW2 combats. They are not at all capable to combat and win in real time. That’s why they always lose the wars they started Korea Vietnam Iraq Afghanistan and many other wars are all lost by USA NATO Even they are poor countries without a real army. Russia will also defeat them in Ukraine Chinese war games have proven again and again and if USA are stupid enough to attack China they will destroy the hole US navy within hours USA have about 11 carriers Why ? They don’t need them to protect USA They only have them so they can attack countries 1000 of miles from their homeland USA is the world’s biggest warmongering aggressor and will never stop their never ending illegal loser wars before someone really defeats them And then they will use their nuclear weapons Therefore are USA the biggest threat to world peace
I love this quote from your Al Mayadeen article: "Battling an enemy that can actually fight back has been a deeply ravaging experience for the US Navy. One pilot remarked, “most of the sailors…weren’t used to being fired on given the nation’s previous military engagements in recent decades.” He described the experience as “incredibly different”, “traumatizing for the group”, and “something that we don’t think about a lot.” A new experience it may be - but it’s one the US military will need to promptly and permanently adapt to."
I'm reminded of the scene in Back to the Future when Biff gets his just desserts. Bullies really hate it when people fight back.
And the fact that it's 'traumatising' for the Americans just goes to show how utterly brainwashed they all are. It's not just stupidity, in that sense.
We seem literally hell bent on destruction or in inconceivable denial that we have lost control in every aspect. Wonderful article. Thank-you, Kit Hoping to share it. No promises being that your writing is so "dangerous". 🙂 Be well.
God bless you for that Clare! At this stage we can do no other - keep pushing and fighting, no matter what the Censorship Industrial Complex throws our way. There’s more of us than there are them.
It’s led by its most corrupt and ideologically brainwashed. They operate in a bubble of self-deception. In which they spend huge sums committing futile acts of mass murder and calling non-existent victories. They were run out of Afghanistan by the Taliban and they even claim that was a “victory” too. WTF.
I wonder how long before they have to relate to reality.
The reason why they keep pumping up ww3 and nuclear war is to keep you afraid. Nuclear war will not happen.
Remember, both the east and the west did the same thing with covid and Russia had their equally dangerous shots. They continued this shit way after we knew it was just like the flu.
Do you think the people who run both sides of the fake East vs West rap battle war want nukes? Do they want to be kings of an earth with wastelands and possible nuclear winter for a long time?
The cold war was another fake war, replete with its "close call" stories that sound ridiculous.
Nuclear war is used by big brother to keep you afraid.
Unfortunately that’s not the way it works. The U.S. has a first strike policy, despite ALL its own war scenario planning indicating that it leads to a general nuclear war , global destruction and catastrophic losses even for any supposed “victor” in any scenario.
So the rational thing to do is to NOT have a first strike policy.
But the U.S. doesn’t. Add to that the the U.S. has not got a track record of rational behaviour in military action .
Add to that the many reports historically of the world narrowly avoiding a general nuclear war, basically coming down to individuals having luckily exercised discretion that amounted to NOT following orders.
People don’t understand how fine the margin are and how insufficient the safeguards.
And not least how detached from reality the leadership of the lessening nuclear power is right now.
The difference between Russia and the US in regard to the Covid shots, being that while the US government made every attempt to mandate the Covid shot, the Russians didn't, and still gave their people the freedom to choose.
I have also not seen any "Excess Death" data coming out of Russia due to "Cause Unknown".
I really don't you should so easily discount the threat of WWIII or the threat of a Nuclear war, given that the US continues to push the boundaries of Russia's "Red Lines", until Russia says Enough, have some of this, since you don't listen, it is time for you to feel.
The West of course has Beligerant Big Stupid Mouths, and wouldn't know what to do, or actually be capable of responding if they drove Russia to that point.
The US led West has become synonymous with a loud mouthed bully in a bar, who has been beating on the little guys, until one guy stands up and punches him in the mouth with a single punch, and he hits the floor, which will be followed by silence.
The Moscow mayor attempted a compulsory vaccination program but encountered serious resistance, resulting in only approximately 13% of the Moscow population being vaccinated, and Putin himself refused to allow prosecution of those who failed to adhere.
There is stil no Excess Death data from Russia, which the West would have only been too glad to jump on of it existed.
What you don't seem to understand, is that the Oligarchs might be in conrol in the West, but they aren't in Russia, that era is past, thanks to Putin.
The danger comes with Western arrogance which guaging from their behavior since 2014 in regard to Russia, has resulted in continuous miscalculation, so you really shouldn't be that hasty to be so cock sure we won't have a nuclear attack.
If the West keeps pushing Russia they way they have, so far, there's an excellent chance of Russia shutting them down permanently, given that Russia has osdued multiple warnings, yet the West remains Stupidly Beligerant.
A very wealthy person's experience of the world is much more narrow and protected from reality than a working person's experience. It may not make them stupid, but it does make them terribly naïve. In combination with their ability to manipulate politics through the application of wealth and influence, exceedingly stupid things can and do happen, for example, the current round of Pick Your Clown presidential "elections."
You seem to think the whole world is controlled by the same people. If this were true then why have real nukes? Seems to me if the nukes are real (and I’m pretty sure they are) then different factions control them. The danger of nuclear war can come from accidents, malfunction, human error and bad luck. (ie. improbable chain of events) Even if neither side wants nuclear war it can still happen. Ever hear or Murthy’s law? My concern is that the way NATO and the west are behaving it makes nuclear war that much more likely. On the other hand if all the nuclear powers are really just the same team pretending to be enemies then the nukes don’t really exist, I mean why go to all the trouble and expense if there is just an illusion of conflict?
In the book The Secret Team by L Fletcher Prouty he basically said that once nuclear weapons were created, the type of war changed from winning into conflicts that are wars of attrition. He said this happened because they knew that this could destroy the world. Losing the war could lead the loser to launch nukes.
Wars of attrition:
Vietnam Afghanistan Iraq Afghanistan....
The cold war... Ukraine
It's very much like Orwell's 1984, where there's perpetual war to keep people afraid and accepting lower standards of living because of the war going on.
That's what we experienced since Vietnam where war made industry rich at the expense of many lives.
Also the Chinese vaccine was a traditional one, not an mRNA. It may sound unbelievable to us after decades of brainwashing, but they do value their people. That's why they keep on investing in education and infrastructure, and that's why they lifted millions of people out of poverty in the shortest period ever in human history. Unlike us, 97% of the Chinese like their government, and that's by western polls. Oh, and they do vote, in a system that makes a lot more sense than ours, designed to allow only the absolute best to reach the top. Read about it.
Honestly? I think that's a price they're prepared to pay, as long as they remain kings. The global response to climate disaster is showing that clearly. Worse yet, there's a section of powerful evangelicals who are actively trying to bring about Armageddon, they want rivers of blood and lakes of fire because that's when Jesus comes back and invites them to heaven.
This is one of the finest written thoughts on USA Empire that i've come across in recent years...
"The Empire’s bloated, exorbitantly expensive military machine built in recent decades, exclusively suited to one-sided gang-beatings of adversaries that can’t retaliate, is now unable to meet the challenges of modern warfare"
This is a wonderful piece.
It captures the timeless truth about empires. They always destroy themselves; pride and slothfulness always catch up.
Overall, I think the piece offers an optimistic takeaway: empires are not immortal or undefeatable. Now we just need to practice imagining what a post-empire world looks like, both in the West and the world generally.
The question is: are we able to think outside the zero sum game “rules based order”?
It’s already happening outside the Atlanticist West. But now we have play catch up.
Eisenhower must be turning in his grave.
He warned us about the military-industrial complex and they named an aircraft carrier after him.
Unfortunatley President Ike did little or nothing to stop it. If you haven't, read "Legacy of Ashes", it's an eyeopener.
Remember that he was on his way out at the time that he made that speech, but foresaw its coming danger, which grew after his having left office.
A "coming danger" that he was instrumental in creating. An alternative way of looking at his final address is to see it as more of an apology than a warning.
Exactly. He was POTUS for EIGHT friggin years AND had been Supreme Commander on the great holy crusade in Europe. If Ike could not fight the MIC, nobody could.
I hope the door did not slam his keester "on his way out."
His problem was Wilson’s DOD, that has already become too strong for its own good.
He famously met with Khrushchev at Camp David, and they commiserated over how little say they had over how defense budget requests happened.
Ike told Khrushchev that the DOD would come begging him for money and strongarming over the public perception of Cold War fears. Khrushchev said it was the same for him. But neither had a good way of stopping it - short of calling their defense departments out. Which for either of them, would’ve been political suicide - ensuring nothing got taken care of for years.
No head of state in the modern world has that much power. And Ike’s administration is remembered well enough today - but in his day, it was a mixed bag. Hence the democrats being able to flip seats at the end. and that’s not getting into the baby shoes incident and the mess that was Korea - and how that affected his admins optics.
That’s the national budget equivalent of saying “the president can fix inflation.” It’s painfully naive.
Ike is like W. Bush. Both their strengths and ineptitudes are overstated today. Ike had gone in wanting disarmament, and found too much resistance from the burgeoning DOD - and that led into Korea (to justify the growing Cold War defense expenditures). But he was also a “balance the budget,”candidate and a republican (if utterly unelectable today). Ike was prescient in his way, but he was, at the end of it all, a conservative. That entails not voting against your party’s interest - and the interest was as it is - having a standing army.
For the same reason Biden can’t fix inflation with a magic button, and Trump couldn’t fix whatever he purported to want. Because our executives simply don’t have that kind of power to restructure government. That has to be done by Congress. Ike didn’t have the kind of support he needed in either house to effect that. That’s politics. We don’t have emperors who can wave a hand and make the world better. The realistic option - unrealistic as it is - would’ve been to EO the dismantling of the DOD. That would’ve had the same aftermath as such an idea would today. A good chunk of the country wailing about vulnerability and Ike being anti-American, and calling for his head on a pike. Ike had been around defense long enough to know that.
Ike and Nikita had the exact same problem.
A bloated defense department, emboldened by war victories, who kept coming up with expensive projects and ghosts to chase in order to justify their continued existence. Neither country’s leadership really wanted the Cold War, or even saw it as necessary. Both were tired of war, and wanted to rebuild in the 1950s.
The MIC Ike was talking about - is that. A bunch of generals with too much money, panhandling the government for increasingly-extreme budgets and supporting large-ranging small (or ideally, cold) conflicts to keep justifying it.
That led to Vietnam and virtually every quagmire we’ve had since. The Soviets had similar problems with adventurism, for the same reasons.
Neither man, supported as they were, had the power to change that on their own. Both knew their people did. But it would take them seeing the truth of it, and the reality of the severity of that threat.
Neither people did. Not until the war on terror for us, and crimea and Ukraine for what’s now Russia. Both of us locked in endless wars without any real purpose except imperialism.
(Yet, fast forward to today, and US military chiefs openly discuss all-out conflict with China with alarming regularity. God help us all)-
The system needs tension to justify its continued existance.
This is an interesting point. It’s like the old Road Runner gag where Wile E. Coyote only falls into the ravine when he realises that he’s in mid-air… the awful truth has not yet dawned on the US ruling classes but it can’t be much longer now.
The system is begging China to lockdown Taiwan to avoid a nuclear war and for Russia to take all of Ukraine.
The crazy's are running the asylum.
Loved this piece. I remember when Riper blew the whistle. Classic. They should have known better than to give a Marine the chance to fight the Navy.
I was in the Army, but in the infantry battalion and infantry brigade I worked in as an intel analyst, the commanders deliberately made war games difficult and unbalanced so he could test the creativity and judgement of his junior officers.
The Army also has JRTC for light brigades and NTC for heavy brigades where the opfor routinely smokes the bluefor.
So if the Army and USMC plan out wargames where the good guys can and do lose, creating teachable lessons, then why can’t the Navy?
CVs are very expensive toys that need a justification to be in our inventory. Routinely destroying them in war games nullifies their reason to exist.
I was in the Air Force for 22 years. Unit level training, operational readiness inspections, and game scenarios were realistic as hell. They are often brutal and exhausting--at least they were when I was in. My take is that DoD war-games are different. They are rigged because the results are seen by Congress and will cause embarrassing questions and affect funding.
Probably right. Anything bigger than brigade/airwing level involves a lot of guys and gals with stars on their collars and everyone has to cater to them
‘Good guys’ doing a lot of heavy lifting in that sentence.
In the closing stages of WW2 the ever-bombastic US forces boasted that the Germans wouldn’t fly anymore sorties in Italy after there was a concerted effort by the Allies to rid the skies of luftwaffe. The Nazis either didn’t hear they’d been vanquished or spitefully they thought “we’ll show them” so they raided the seas near Bari and wiped out several battleships and managed to hit an illegal and obviously state-secret mustard gas ship completely by chance and gassed huge numbers of civilians in the city.
My granddad was an MD there and treated many of the casualties - he always had a dim view of the “Yanks” - he said they were arrogant, lacked cohesion and direction and relied overly on huge amounts of technology rather than strategy. It appears nothing has changed.
I’d say he had quite a clear view of them.
So the Germans bomb a chem weapons lab and it's the Yanks fault? You Brits are psychotic. Now let's talk about the RAF in 1945 bombing Jeanne D'Arc school in Copenhagen killing 86 kids. I guess that's proper strategy. You'll probably blame America for that too, along with your poorly tummy.
Reading comments first will lend cogency to your replies
If these aircraft carrier strike groups are so badly beaten by the Houthi's and their make shift and dated weapons, just think how badly they would fare against Russian Kinzhal and Iskander missiles, which US Patriot battery systems have had little to no success shooting them down in the Ukraine.
It's time for the US to seriously rethink its global bullying strategy.
The PATRIOT has zero success hitting a hypersonic. The first time a PATRIOT does intercept a hypersonic, the CEO of Raytheon will throw a party.
Aircraft carriers could be transformed into civilian rescue ships for natural disasters. They have hospitals, landing strip for planes/helicopters and plenty of room for patients.
The Millennium Challenge keeps on giving. I hope everyone knows Van Riper is Marinus, who writes on maneuver warfare for the Marine Corp Gazette, and produced this very clear eyed analysis at the outset of the Ukraine operation in 2022.
This link has the whole story, plus the article. I had to read dodgy phone pics of hard copy at the time...
https://imetatronink.substack.com/p/a-former-us-marine-corps-officershtml
Also thanks for "cecity".
My pleasure Stephen! I actually had no idea the mighty Marinus is none other than Van Riper, my mind is duly blown although that makes total sense. When Empires are on their last legs, troublesome, knowledgeable people like he who can see the wood for the trees are invariably sidelined, with catastrophic results for all!
Brilliant. A bloated, blithering, boastful , buffoon-behemoth bungles towards its burnout....🤯
The problem is that USA and NATO strategy’s tactics and weapons are based on WW2 combats. They are not at all capable to combat and win in real time. That’s why they always lose the wars they started Korea Vietnam Iraq Afghanistan and many other wars are all lost by USA NATO Even they are poor countries without a real army. Russia will also defeat them in Ukraine Chinese war games have proven again and again and if USA are stupid enough to attack China they will destroy the hole US navy within hours USA have about 11 carriers Why ? They don’t need them to protect USA They only have them so they can attack countries 1000 of miles from their homeland USA is the world’s biggest warmongering aggressor and will never stop their never ending illegal loser wars before someone really defeats them And then they will use their nuclear weapons Therefore are USA the biggest threat to world peace
I love this quote from your Al Mayadeen article: "Battling an enemy that can actually fight back has been a deeply ravaging experience for the US Navy. One pilot remarked, “most of the sailors…weren’t used to being fired on given the nation’s previous military engagements in recent decades.” He described the experience as “incredibly different”, “traumatizing for the group”, and “something that we don’t think about a lot.” A new experience it may be - but it’s one the US military will need to promptly and permanently adapt to."
I'm reminded of the scene in Back to the Future when Biff gets his just desserts. Bullies really hate it when people fight back.
And the fact that it's 'traumatising' for the Americans just goes to show how utterly brainwashed they all are. It's not just stupidity, in that sense.
It's far worse than that.
We seem literally hell bent on destruction or in inconceivable denial that we have lost control in every aspect. Wonderful article. Thank-you, Kit Hoping to share it. No promises being that your writing is so "dangerous". 🙂 Be well.
God bless you for that Clare! At this stage we can do no other - keep pushing and fighting, no matter what the Censorship Industrial Complex throws our way. There’s more of us than there are them.
America isn’t led by its best or brightest.
It’s led by its most corrupt and ideologically brainwashed. They operate in a bubble of self-deception. In which they spend huge sums committing futile acts of mass murder and calling non-existent victories. They were run out of Afghanistan by the Taliban and they even claim that was a “victory” too. WTF.
I wonder how long before they have to relate to reality.
In the ashes of the world they will be railing against the perfidy of Putin and the stupidity of everyone who disagreed with them.
The reason why they keep pumping up ww3 and nuclear war is to keep you afraid. Nuclear war will not happen.
Remember, both the east and the west did the same thing with covid and Russia had their equally dangerous shots. They continued this shit way after we knew it was just like the flu.
Do you think the people who run both sides of the fake East vs West rap battle war want nukes? Do they want to be kings of an earth with wastelands and possible nuclear winter for a long time?
The cold war was another fake war, replete with its "close call" stories that sound ridiculous.
Nuclear war is used by big brother to keep you afraid.
Unfortunately that’s not the way it works. The U.S. has a first strike policy, despite ALL its own war scenario planning indicating that it leads to a general nuclear war , global destruction and catastrophic losses even for any supposed “victor” in any scenario.
So the rational thing to do is to NOT have a first strike policy.
But the U.S. doesn’t. Add to that the the U.S. has not got a track record of rational behaviour in military action .
Add to that the many reports historically of the world narrowly avoiding a general nuclear war, basically coming down to individuals having luckily exercised discretion that amounted to NOT following orders.
People don’t understand how fine the margin are and how insufficient the safeguards.
And not least how detached from reality the leadership of the lessening nuclear power is right now.
The difference between Russia and the US in regard to the Covid shots, being that while the US government made every attempt to mandate the Covid shot, the Russians didn't, and still gave their people the freedom to choose.
I have also not seen any "Excess Death" data coming out of Russia due to "Cause Unknown".
I really don't you should so easily discount the threat of WWIII or the threat of a Nuclear war, given that the US continues to push the boundaries of Russia's "Red Lines", until Russia says Enough, have some of this, since you don't listen, it is time for you to feel.
The West of course has Beligerant Big Stupid Mouths, and wouldn't know what to do, or actually be capable of responding if they drove Russia to that point.
The US led West has become synonymous with a loud mouthed bully in a bar, who has been beating on the little guys, until one guy stands up and punches him in the mouth with a single punch, and he hits the floor, which will be followed by silence.
Like in the US, in Russia certain cities and 'counties ' mandated it depending on the local politicians.
Also health workers and some other jobs mandated it.
What gets me upset is that to this day they still talk about the shot as it's great and safe.
And then this stupid PCR testing even in 2024.
They went along with the bullshit.
Nuclear war, do you think that the wealthy that control politicians in the West and East are going to let this happen?
The oligarchs of the world aren't that stupid to allow for
Mutual assured destruction...
The Moscow mayor attempted a compulsory vaccination program but encountered serious resistance, resulting in only approximately 13% of the Moscow population being vaccinated, and Putin himself refused to allow prosecution of those who failed to adhere.
There is stil no Excess Death data from Russia, which the West would have only been too glad to jump on of it existed.
What you don't seem to understand, is that the Oligarchs might be in conrol in the West, but they aren't in Russia, that era is past, thanks to Putin.
The danger comes with Western arrogance which guaging from their behavior since 2014 in regard to Russia, has resulted in continuous miscalculation, so you really shouldn't be that hasty to be so cock sure we won't have a nuclear attack.
If the West keeps pushing Russia they way they have, so far, there's an excellent chance of Russia shutting them down permanently, given that Russia has osdued multiple warnings, yet the West remains Stupidly Beligerant.
"The oligarchs of the world aren't that stupid"
A very wealthy person's experience of the world is much more narrow and protected from reality than a working person's experience. It may not make them stupid, but it does make them terribly naïve. In combination with their ability to manipulate politics through the application of wealth and influence, exceedingly stupid things can and do happen, for example, the current round of Pick Your Clown presidential "elections."
You seem to think the whole world is controlled by the same people. If this were true then why have real nukes? Seems to me if the nukes are real (and I’m pretty sure they are) then different factions control them. The danger of nuclear war can come from accidents, malfunction, human error and bad luck. (ie. improbable chain of events) Even if neither side wants nuclear war it can still happen. Ever hear or Murthy’s law? My concern is that the way NATO and the west are behaving it makes nuclear war that much more likely. On the other hand if all the nuclear powers are really just the same team pretending to be enemies then the nukes don’t really exist, I mean why go to all the trouble and expense if there is just an illusion of conflict?
In the book The Secret Team by L Fletcher Prouty he basically said that once nuclear weapons were created, the type of war changed from winning into conflicts that are wars of attrition. He said this happened because they knew that this could destroy the world. Losing the war could lead the loser to launch nukes.
Wars of attrition:
Vietnam Afghanistan Iraq Afghanistan....
The cold war... Ukraine
It's very much like Orwell's 1984, where there's perpetual war to keep people afraid and accepting lower standards of living because of the war going on.
That's what we experienced since Vietnam where war made industry rich at the expense of many lives.
Also the Chinese vaccine was a traditional one, not an mRNA. It may sound unbelievable to us after decades of brainwashing, but they do value their people. That's why they keep on investing in education and infrastructure, and that's why they lifted millions of people out of poverty in the shortest period ever in human history. Unlike us, 97% of the Chinese like their government, and that's by western polls. Oh, and they do vote, in a system that makes a lot more sense than ours, designed to allow only the absolute best to reach the top. Read about it.
A vaccine for what, the "flu"?
Traditional flu shots have crap like aluminum.
Still toxic, do we know if China is having any issues like the west with getting pregnant?
Honestly? I think that's a price they're prepared to pay, as long as they remain kings. The global response to climate disaster is showing that clearly. Worse yet, there's a section of powerful evangelicals who are actively trying to bring about Armageddon, they want rivers of blood and lakes of fire because that's when Jesus comes back and invites them to heaven.
Superb piece....
This is one of the finest written thoughts on USA Empire that i've come across in recent years...
"The Empire’s bloated, exorbitantly expensive military machine built in recent decades, exclusively suited to one-sided gang-beatings of adversaries that can’t retaliate, is now unable to meet the challenges of modern warfare"
Thanks for your analysis! I write “Chronicles of a Dying Empire” and appreciate your analysis about how the rot in America extends beyond bipartisan corruption in Washington (eg https://shahidbuttar.substack.com/p/the-tragedy-of-cults-of-personality) and propaganda-as-journalism (eg https://shahidbuttar.substack.com/p/editors-or-propagandists) to include groupthink among military planners. It appears the pentagon’s bite might not be as strong as its bark.