Russia vs US. What goes around, comes around
When I was a kid, I can still remember that my parents were really worried that the United States and the Soviet Union would soon be going to nuclear war. It was 1962 and we were all going to be dead!
Cuba.
The Soviets had placed nuclear weapons in America’s backyard in Cuba, as the US had placed missiles on Russia’s doorstep in Turkey. Tit for tat. The United States was upset at this impudence and made its usual threats. President Kennedy and Nikita Khrushchev went toe to toe, and the Russians blinked.
So much for that, except Cuba is still our enemy sixty years later! Another of Washington’s foolish foreign policies decisions and one more in the series of seriously bad decisions. Fast forward to 2021, where the situation is reversed.
Russia is very worried about NATO, our European puppet organization, as is steadily expanding its membership east, and Ukraine may be soon-to-be the next NATO member in its ever increasing membership. Ukraine has a shared border with Russia, and they don’t like it as foreign troops and (secret) nuclear weapons will be installed on Ukrainian soil.
I wonder why the Russians are so upset? Take a look at the map and see why –
Just imagine that Canada and Mexico became close allies of Russia and allowed Russian troops and (nuclear) weapons to sit on our borders. I don’t think we’d like it either. If push comes to shove, I think that Russia will locate soldiers (and serious weapons) in Cuba and Venezuela, their western allies – as to have another bargaining chip and to show my government what it’s like.
We won’t like it and we’ll revisit the Cuban Missile Crisis all over again! Perhaps we’re all going to die this time. But I think not. President Biden is weak and disoriented so will back down.
So I think that Russia will invade Ukraine to make a point and, after some of the usual Washington noise, my foolish government will sulk for a while and everyone will go back to sleep without the stakes being raised too much. Just enough for our politicians to be able to use the next election cycle slogan “… we stood up to Russia…” The usual “elect me” lies.
We will not send soldiers to Ukraine as the Russians can (seriously) fight back. Plus, Europe is very nervous as Russia provides much of the natural gas and other commodities that Europe needs. So they are impotent NATO allies.
We have only sent soldiers to weak countries where we think that we’ll easily win. Afghanistan was the latest disaster. We don’t, and repeatedly fail, but it’s really good for our weapons manufacturers who need to continually supply expensive shiny toys to our government, and make huge profits.
As an aside, I suspect that China and Russia are quietly coordinating their activities, so when Ukraine is attacked, China will swoop in and take Taiwan without damaging the very valuable electronics manufacturing facilities. And then they’ll be a new global alliance, which will catch our politicians flat-footed. On the other hand, Washington will claim that they knew about it beforehand (and were doing secret things) so deserve to keep their faces in the public trough – read “reelect me.”
Politics as usual. May we live in interesting times.
Post Script –
I’ve read that our government is warning of a Russian False Flag operation, where the Russians will secretly “attack” Ukrainian pro-Russian locations to create a good reason to invade. It is positing that the United States is “shocked” by such a tactic! The Germans did it in Poland to start World War II, the United States routinely does it – Vietnam, Gulf of Tonkin incident, Iraq, Weapons of Mass Destruction, Libya, Ghadaffy and the Arab Spring, Afghanistan, Osama bin Laden and so on.
