Realists, Thanks Christine and F.S. for this insightful piece about the limits of propaganda by Alastair Crooke. [Artillery just can't be ignored, after all.] Hubris consists in believing that a contrived narrative can, in and of itself, bring victory. It is a fantasy that has swept through the West – most emphatically since the 17th century. Recently, the Daily Telegraph published a ridiculous nine minute video purporting to show that ‘narratives win wars’, and that set-backs in the battlespace are incidentals: What matters is to have a thread of unitary narrative articulated, both vertically and horizontally, throughout the spectrum – from the special forces’ soldier in the field through to the pinnacle of the political apex.....Narrative is now how western élites imagine the world. Whether it is the pandemic emergency, the climate or Ukraine ‘emergencies’ – all are re-defined as ‘wars’. All are ‘wars’ that are to be fought with a unitary imposed narrative of ‘winning’, against which all contrarian opinion is forbidden.
The Finns are not really worth fighting. They are tough, and have too much gristle for the little bit of meat on their bones. It is best to leave them alone. Russians will remember that.
The Finns are on the whole too brainwashed to realise that joining NATO provides little protection from being on the frontline.
My only hope is that when BlackRock has 51% control of Ukraine the war will suddenly just end and they will own a country with a demoralised population of old men and women and the bulk of the arable land in Europe they can exploit and leave the rest of us alone for a little while.
Kalle, was the move to join NATO popular with ordinary Finns?
I read that a poll by the broadcasting company YLE in May showed that 76 percent of Finns were in favour of joining NATO, which I thought was shocking IF true.
On the other hand, you can't always trust the pollsters or the broadcasters.
The Poll was done with a BlackRock linked polling company with +-1000 people yet 50'000+ people signed a citizen initiative demanding parliament table a discussion about the people wanting a referendum. The citizen initiative was ignored against the law.
Earlier the president said it should need a referendum and people were happy to wait for that until it got close and he said such important matters should not be left in the hands of the people. Still a Poll was good enough to show the will of the people.
All the sheep think NATO is a great idea, fear is a powerful driver. Most of the free thinkers have been against it from the very first time it was floated 15 years ago.
We will never know what the people wanted as things stand now.
Thanks for this information. The irony is that Finland and Sweden and their populations would be much safer as neutral nations outside of an alliance than as members inside, where they could be drawn into a conflict between NATO and Russia that has nothing directly to do with them.
We can only pray that the said war doesn't happen, although I personally have a bad premonition that it probably will.
"Such important matters should not be left in the hands of the people." That's priceless.
I wrote an article last week which included this quote from French General Yakovleff:
"NATO's job is, for the next 20 years, to sort out chaos in Europe. And what is it doing? Discussing F16s or F35s or ammunition of a given type.
When Ukraine will eventually become a member of NATO, it will be a completely different member of NATO.
Of the 31 members today, half started their career as partners of NATO, and they entered NATO as supplicants, with both hands up towards the sky, saying 'Please take me and I will behave'.
With Ukraine, it will be completely different. They will become a member of NATO, one day, and they will say 'We are entitled to be a member of NATO. We have done NATO's war! No one else has done NATO's war. We have the strongest military in Europe, the most competent military in Europe. You're the ones who are going to take lessons from us.'
So, I call for Ukraine, as soon as possible, to become a member of NATO, but NATO must stop this myopic view...
What the Ukrainians say is that they want security guarantees in case of resumption of conflict. That's their words, heard in Kiev last week. And what's interesting is that 'resumption' means cessation. There's no notion of resumption if there hasn't been a cessation. So the question becomes, what does Ukraine call an acceptable cessation of conflict? And that is their issue, is their call. It's not NATO's.
So NATO's there waiting for Ukraine to decide, and then, in case of resumption, we will discuss Article 5, where does it apply and so on.
But NATO's going into a discussion, a summit to discuss what they going to do after tomorrow. I can't believe it."
Excellent summary of breaking news, as usual, Dr. John. Thank you!
One thing I would like to point out is that Brian Berletic is the guy at The New Atlas. The guy at the Military Summary channel is called Dima. I listen to Dima every day, and because there are only so many hours in a day and he speaks slowly, I find it better to up the speed to x1.25.
They look identical, sound different, and Brian used "Tony Cartalucci" as his pen-name before, which he used during Gulf-War 2. I respected that name at the time.
I am nervous about war reparations that Russia may demand from the foolish countries that sent military aid to the Ukraine.
Finland got into bed with the Nazis WWII against Russia. The Russians did not let them forget.
The Finns are not really worth fighting. They are tough, and have too much gristle for the little bit of meat on their bones. It is best to leave them alone. Russians will remember that.
The Finns are on the whole too brainwashed to realise that joining NATO provides little protection from being on the frontline.
My only hope is that when BlackRock has 51% control of Ukraine the war will suddenly just end and they will own a country with a demoralised population of old men and women and the bulk of the arable land in Europe they can exploit and leave the rest of us alone for a little while.
Henry Kissinger: "To be an enemy of the United States is often dangerous. To be a friend is fatal."
Kalle, was the move to join NATO popular with ordinary Finns?
I read that a poll by the broadcasting company YLE in May showed that 76 percent of Finns were in favour of joining NATO, which I thought was shocking IF true.
On the other hand, you can't always trust the pollsters or the broadcasters.
The Poll was done with a BlackRock linked polling company with +-1000 people yet 50'000+ people signed a citizen initiative demanding parliament table a discussion about the people wanting a referendum. The citizen initiative was ignored against the law.
Earlier the president said it should need a referendum and people were happy to wait for that until it got close and he said such important matters should not be left in the hands of the people. Still a Poll was good enough to show the will of the people.
All the sheep think NATO is a great idea, fear is a powerful driver. Most of the free thinkers have been against it from the very first time it was floated 15 years ago.
We will never know what the people wanted as things stand now.
Thank You, Kalle.
Thanks for this information. The irony is that Finland and Sweden and their populations would be much safer as neutral nations outside of an alliance than as members inside, where they could be drawn into a conflict between NATO and Russia that has nothing directly to do with them.
We can only pray that the said war doesn't happen, although I personally have a bad premonition that it probably will.
"Such important matters should not be left in the hands of the people." That's priceless.
The interests of the "owners" diverge from those of the people.
In matters of survival "such important matters should not be left in the hands of the owners".
I wrote an article last week which included this quote from French General Yakovleff:
"NATO's job is, for the next 20 years, to sort out chaos in Europe. And what is it doing? Discussing F16s or F35s or ammunition of a given type.
When Ukraine will eventually become a member of NATO, it will be a completely different member of NATO.
Of the 31 members today, half started their career as partners of NATO, and they entered NATO as supplicants, with both hands up towards the sky, saying 'Please take me and I will behave'.
With Ukraine, it will be completely different. They will become a member of NATO, one day, and they will say 'We are entitled to be a member of NATO. We have done NATO's war! No one else has done NATO's war. We have the strongest military in Europe, the most competent military in Europe. You're the ones who are going to take lessons from us.'
So, I call for Ukraine, as soon as possible, to become a member of NATO, but NATO must stop this myopic view...
What the Ukrainians say is that they want security guarantees in case of resumption of conflict. That's their words, heard in Kiev last week. And what's interesting is that 'resumption' means cessation. There's no notion of resumption if there hasn't been a cessation. So the question becomes, what does Ukraine call an acceptable cessation of conflict? And that is their issue, is their call. It's not NATO's.
So NATO's there waiting for Ukraine to decide, and then, in case of resumption, we will discuss Article 5, where does it apply and so on.
But NATO's going into a discussion, a summit to discuss what they going to do after tomorrow. I can't believe it."
NATO is now a military alliance based upon globalist neoliberal financial-capitalism and public relations..
Russia has a military based upon artillery, land mines, helicopter gunships, lancet drones, accurate hypersonc missiles, and things like that.
The representatives of our species... sigh...
Excellent summary of breaking news, as usual, Dr. John. Thank you!
One thing I would like to point out is that Brian Berletic is the guy at The New Atlas. The guy at the Military Summary channel is called Dima. I listen to Dima every day, and because there are only so many hours in a day and he speaks slowly, I find it better to up the speed to x1.25.
My bad.
They look identical, sound different, and Brian used "Tony Cartalucci" as his pen-name before, which he used during Gulf-War 2. I respected that name at the time.
https://news.cgtn.com/news/2021-11-29/Ex-Marine-exposes-U-S-govt-s-secret-political-interference-in-Asia-15z8CfeCUEw/index.html
This is simple. 2 guys with shaved heads do good military reports.
I will fix that error.
China watching from behind the scenes, over the heads and from high above.....watching is winning, an old Chinese saying.
There is a lot of "winning" in not going to war, I'll add.