THE WEEKLY BRIEF
BY A. JOSEPH LYNCH
WAR IN UKRAINE
RUSSIA EXPOSES THE WEST'S "EMPIRE OF LIES"
The time for diplomacy has ended. War has come. But what led to the war and what is its purpose? The events that led to war - what Russia is calling a military intervention - are many. In hindsight we should have expected this.
In the days leading up the war, President Macron of France promised Russia an endless number of diplomatic meetings - but couldn't promise that any of them would address Russia's security concerns much less reach an agreement in their regard. Olaf Scholz, the new chancellor in Germany, came to Moscow where he joked about genocide and refused to take Russia's position on Ukrainian neutrality seriously.
Amid the failed diplomacy, it appears the US and its allies cheered Ukraine on as it ceaselessly shelled the Donbas. President Zelensky - a man who is not only a comedian but also a joke - seemed to believe the lies of the United States that Ukraine would join NATO. What's more, he spent his time at the recent Munich security conference talking about Ukraine's desire to obtain nuclear weapons which it could use against Russia. European leaders - and even Kamala Harris herself - sat quietly as Zelensky gave Russia more reason to fight. What is Russia to do with a belligerent neighbor dead set on nuclear weapons while no one in "the West" is willing to stop them? Given all this, Russia officially recognized the independence of the people's republics in the Donbas. As part of that recognition, Russia warned Ukraine to stop the shelling.
Ukraine refused to comply. It poked the bear for the last time.
In a last attempt to negotiate peace, Russia planned to meet with Antony Blinken, the worst Secretary of State in US history, on Thursday, February 24. But Mr. Blinken abruptly cancelled the meeting the less than 24 hours before the planned meeting.
War thus became inevitable.
In the early hours of Thursday morning, air and missile strikes began to fall upon military targets across Ukraine. Reports surfaced of Russian attacks on the Ukrainian surface fleet at Odessa. With Russian support, the militias of the people's republics began to advance. Russian troops started marching north from Crimea, west towards Kharkov from Russia, and south towards Kiev from Belarus. It appears as though Russia plans a pincer move in the east, encircling the large Ukrainian army on the border of the Donbas, melting it away in what the Russian's military calls a "cauldron."
There is now word that Kiev is all but encircled.
Meanwhile Zelensky leads his people into complete defeat. He is handing out assault rifles to civilians - who have used them to settle scores with each other and loot parts of Kiev. One family was gunned down in their SUV less than two hours after the weapons were distributed - because they were mistaken for Russians. Ukrainian air defenses have shot down at least one of their own fighters, and a Ukrainian anti-air tank ran over a hapless Ukrainian driver in Kiev. Ukrainian artillery have also been placed in residential areas of Kiev. It seems as though Zelensky wants civilians killed.
Zelensky and his Western partners are doing their best to push war propaganda. Claims of Ukrainian soldiers fighting to the death, blowing themselves up on brides, and shooting down Russian airplanes have either proven untrue or are unverified. For example, it is said that Ukraine shot down two large paratrooper planes with upwards of 100 soldiers aboard. Thus far no images of any large Russian plane wrecks have surfaced.
Fighting slowed down during the day on Friday as Zelensky expressed his desire to reach a peace deal. It was either a lie, or his Americans overlords denied him his desires. Either way, the war has resumed and Russia is sending more forces to the fight.
It's also worth noting that the rapid Russian advances to this point were accomplished with a mere 30-40,000 troops. Compare this to the US war in Iraq. Iraq is a small nation, yet it took the United States with 300,000 troops several weeks to arrive at Baghdad. It took a further six days to conquer the city. Russia is already encircling Kiev - and that was with a pause in fighting on Friday.
But what is Russia's end game? In his "empire of lies" speech that launched the war, Vladimir Putin described the West, led by the United States, as an empire of lies:
Incidentally, US politicians, political scientists and journalists write and say that a veritable “empire of lies” has been created inside the United States in recent years. It is hard to disagree with this – it is really so. But one should not be modest about it: the United States is still a great country and a system-forming power. All its satellites not only humbly and obediently say yes to and parrot it at the slightest pretext but also imitate its behavior and enthusiastically accept the rules it is offering them. Therefore, one can say with good reason and confidence that the whole so-called Western bloc formed by the United States in its own image and likeness is, in its entirety, the very same “empire of lies.”
Putin went on to describe how the West sought to destroy Russia after the Cold War:
As for our country, after the disintegration of the USSR, given the entire unprecedented openness of the new, modern Russia, its readiness to work honestly with the United States and other Western partners, and its practically unilateral disarmament, they immediately tried to put the final squeeze on us, finish us off, and utterly destroy us. This is how it was in the 1990s and the early 2000s, when the so-called collective West was actively supporting separatism and gangs of mercenaries in southern Russia. What victims, what losses we had to sustain and what trials we had to go through at that time before we broke the back of international terrorism in the Caucasus! We remember this and will never forget.
Putin reminds us that the West not only sought to attack Russia through economic and military means, but in an even worse and more subversive way: through what Pope Francis calls ideological colonization.
Properly speaking, the attempts to use us in their own interests never ceased until quite recently: they sought to destroy our traditional values and force on us their false values that would erode us, our people from within, the attitudes they have been aggressively imposing on their countries, attitudes that are directly leading to degradation and degeneration, because they are contrary to human nature. This is not going to happen. No one has ever succeeded in doing this, nor will they succeed now.
What Russia is now doing is standing up to the atheist West. What's more, it is revealing that the wizard behind the curtain is not nearly as strong as he appears. It's what we've long suggested at AoA: the infestation of our institutions by radical Leftists are not as strong we think. When they are confronted, they run away. Russia is revealing the truth about Western leaders: they used their power to enrich themselves and spread a self-defeating ideology. As Putin said, what Left-wing leaders in the West are trying to do "are contrary to human nature... [they've] [n]ever succeeded... nor will they succeed now."
While no one wants war, the appalling lack of leadership in the atheist West has led us to this day. They sought conflict with Russia, and Russia will bring it to a dramatic end.
What we're now seeing is the last gasps of American-led globalism. The Left sought the "great reset" - a plan to dominate the world. It appears there has indeed been a "great reset" - but it has come from Russia and the world will never be the same again.