RM, I agree with most of what you said in that post.
I just want to make one comment:
Then Putin wins without firing a single shot. I think that, and the collapse of NATO, are his true goals, not MAD. This is obvious, which makes PooTin's three day war of choice one of the dumbest decisions he could have ever made.
He should have held back, maybe bite off some more territory from Ukraine here and there, continued building up his wealth and his military industrial complex with revenues from European trade, and allowed the West to collapse upon itself.
But he got greedy, and he got impatient. He wanted to precipitate the collapse of the West sooner rather than later, probably because he was getting older and his health isn't where it used to be.
So he goes in and invades Ukraine, fully expecting to take over Kyiv with the residents welcoming their new conquerors with open arms.
Despite his reputation as a mAsTeR cHeSs pLaYeR, it didn't go according to plan.
Now PooTin is all-in and trying to transition RuZZia into a permanent war economy. This can't last, but PooTin is hoping and praying that the West will once again break down in the face of conflict.
He did have a glimmer of hope when U.S. military aid to Ukraine was held up for six months thanks to a small super-minority in Congress who was playing political games. Even though that eventually got resolved, the damage was done. The U.S. cannot be counted upon as a trustworthy ally.
The only bright spot in all of this is that the West (along with Asia) is now waking up to a post-American future.
But that bodes very ill for us Americans despite what the isolationists and the Buchananites believe.
Tenchusatsu |
