Is China for peace, or Putin, or both?

[alvnv]

6 hours ago, unicorn said:

That article's behind a paywall. Can you summarize it?

Just posted it under: “Interview with Stephen Kotkin”

[njf]

This is an interesting interview with Lawrence Wilkerson, retired Army Colonel and former Chief of Staff to Colin Powell, about the latest developments in the war in Ukraine.

[Moses]

12 hours ago, unicorn said:

If he goes too kooky, Japan might even get the southern Kuril islands back...

Japan has no military power for it.

[stevenkesslar]

6 hours ago, njf said:

This is an interesting interview with Lawrence Wilkerson, retired Army Colonel and former Chief of Staff to Colin Powell, about the latest developments in the war in Ukraine.

Kudos to Wilkerson for being a voice for diplomacy. And for applauding Chinese and Russian diplomats like Wang Yi he worked with closely.  He also makes a good case for why Ukraine may well end up not regaining all, or any, of the territory it has lost.  His idea of putting it to a vote is not a bad idea.  That said, there was a vote in 2011.  Other than Crimea, in every oblast - including the four Putin says he owns now - over 80 % of the people voted for Ukrainian independence.    I have to assume from that election that if a fair election were held today, they would still say they don't want to be part of Russia.

It is funny listening to that.  Much of what Wilkerson said about US militarism and "hegemony" has been catnip to me all my life.  I was rabidly opposed to the Iraq War.  So I can say with fairness that Wilkerson has a problem being the guy in the glass house throwing stones.  He is the one who prepared Colin Powell's UN speech on WMD.  Powell was later furious he was lied to.  So Wilkerson has very good reason to be suspicious of the CIA.  I could have told him that two decades ago.  When he was basically scripting Powell to cheerlead the warmongers.  To be blunt, Wilkerson's credibility on the matter is shit.  Because he completely fucked it up and bought the bullshit on WMD when it really mattered.  Maybe this is now his way of atoning for the fact that HE PERSONALLY COMPLETELY FUCKED IT UP AND FED THE US PUBLIC LIES ABOUT WMD.

So I can say with credibility that I'm tired of hearing that the problem in Ukraine is "US hegemony."  That sounds like a good Maoist rant to me.  But people in Ukraine who had their babies bombed or had to flee don't see the problem as US or NATO hegemony.  Sorry, but as much as Germany always wants to be in the middle - because it literally is in the middle - there is no evidence that Germans are protesting "US hegemony."  They are protesting Putin's invasion.  Period. Vlad has united the US, the EU, and NATO in a way no US President could.  He has made Ukrainians detest Russia and Russians - probably for the rest of their lives.  I'd love to see a referendum in these oblasts.  They'd probably vote to slowly torture Murderous Vlad to death, if they could.  Not very diplomatic.  But very human.

I applaud Wilkerson's honesty in his applauding W.'s policy of "strategic competition" with China.  But, it should be pointed out that it was precisely that policy that helped destroy 6 million US factory jobs.  And led to the rise of Trump as the cynical gadfly who promised to help those factory towns.  But completely failed to do so.  

Zhou Bo says that the word "cooperation" sounds better than "competition."  Great.  But I basically view that as diplomatic bullshit.  If China prioritized cooperation with the US over all else, the no brainer move would be for Xi to cooperate with the US and EU in condemning Putin's invasion of sovereign Ukraine.  He can't do that.  Why?  Because he views China as being in "strategic competition" with the US.  Hence his marriage of convenience with Putin.  If he wants to ally with Putin to compete with the US, great.  But he shouldn't be surprised when Europeans greet his pleas for cooperation and peace with skepticism, or just outright cynicism.

Nobody forced Putin to invade Ukraine.  I don't even buy the idea that NATO "provoked" Russia by allowing a lot of former Iron Curtain nations to seek their own security arrangements against Russia.  And even if you are sympathetic to the Idea that NATO expansion "provoked" Russia, Murderous Vlad is still a strategic Bozo.   He got exactly the opposite of what he wanted from NATO.  That's his own fault.  And nobody forced Xi to align himself as closely as he has with a strategic Bozo.

If Wilkerson wants to take a hard line against US hegemony now, great.  But I have been there my whole life.  I wish he would have felt this way back when it mattered, and he helped Powell cheerlead at the UN for our own WMD warmongers.  Defending Ukrainians after an unprovoked attack from Putin is just not the same thing.

 

[njf]

A week has passed and the media seems to be going in a different direction now.

Here is one of the excellent analysis of the situation in Ukraine:

https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/news/articles/devastating-moment-clarity-ukraine

More troubling are rumors of a huge arms deal between Saudi and China.  Saudi is negotiating to buy over a dozen destroyers from China. Of course, the deal will not be done in dollars :-).

[unicorn]

On 2/25/2023 at 1:00 AM, Moses said:

Japan has no military power for it.

Won't need it. The USSR didn't do anything to get the southern Kuril islands ("bravely joined" the fight against Japan after the US dropped the A-bomb and Japan was on the verge of surrender), so if the Russians were defeated, Japan could just take the islands back without a fight, as these islands were taken from the Japanese in the last days of WW2. 

[unicorn]

On 2/24/2023 at 7:59 PM, njf said:

This is an interesting interview with Lawrence Wilkerson, retired Army Colonel and former Chief of Staff to Colin Powell, about the latest developments in the war in Ukraine.

"Sergei Lavrov doesn't work for Putin...Wang Yi doesn't work for Xi..." Biden is Attila the Hun and Putin is a saint. Russia is more of a democracy than the US? Yes, of course, Biden is assassinating all reporters who oppose him.  😂😂😂😂😂 He can't believe that. Never heard such BS in my life. I wonder how much RT is paying him.  

[njf]

12 hours ago, unicorn said:

I wonder how much RT is paying him.  

He is paid by some fat cats like all other lobbyists or policy experts :-).  But it is not Russian.  He is affiliated with Quincy Institute, which is funded by George Soros and Charles Koch.  

[unicorn]

24 minutes ago, njf said:

He is paid by some fat cats like all other lobbyists or policy experts :-).  But it is not Russian.  He is affiliated with Quincy Institute, which is funded by George Soros and Charles Koch.  

He's more than "affiliated" with the Quincy Institute. He founded it and is its President. The fact that this institute is funded by right-wing fat-cats doesn't exclude the possibility of his getting money under the table from Putin. No one who knows anything could seriously believe that Russia is more of a democracy that the US. Anyone of any influence in Russia who even says anything critical of Putin gets either murdered or they and their family sent to Siberian prisons. Putin has iron-clad control of the press in Russia, and no credible opponent of his is allowed to live. That's obviously not democracy. It's totalitarianism/dictatorship. According to the Institute's Wikipedia page: "During the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, there were two resignations in protest at the institute's dovish response to the conflict: non-resident fellow Joseph Cirincione of Ploughshares Fund, who had raised money for Quincy, and board member Paul Eaton, a retired senior Army major officer and adviser to Democratic politicians and liberal advocacy groups. Cirincione said he "fundamentally" disagrees with Quincy experts who "completely ignore the dangers and the horrors of Russia’s invasion and occupation and focus almost exclusively on criticism of the United States, NATO, and Ukraine". "

Equally preposterous is the notion that Lavrov isn't working for Putin. Yes, all secretaries of state work at the pleasure of their bosses, and the US's is no exception. However, if Lavrov were to say something contrary to Putin's ideals, he wouldn't just be fired, he'd be murdered, and his family probably sent to Siberian prison camps. Wilkerson also mentioned that Putin and Xi listen and take counsel from their respective legislatures. Again, so ridiculous he can't possibly believe that either. It would be interesting to look into Wilkerson's finances to see if there's evidence he takes money from Putin.