Month: December 2024

BAXpCKGROUND

1) Joe Barnes, “Trump ‘vehemently disagrees’ with use of US missiles by Ukraine in Russia; President-elect says policy switch by Joe Biden’s administration has escalated the war between Russia and Ukraine,” The Telegraph, December 12, 2024 (2:49pm GMT);

2) “Donald Trump se dit «vivement opposé» à l’emploi de missiles américains en Russie,” Le Figaro, le 12 Decembre 2024 (

3) “Trump gibt sich im »Time«-Interview als Friedensstifter; »Ich möchte, dass alle glücklich sind«: Er werde die Konflikte dieser Welt lösen, behauptet Donald Trump. Wie er das anstellen will, lässt er offen. Weniger friedlich gibt sich der künftige US-Präsident im Umgang mit Iran,” Der zspiegel, den 12. Desember 2024 (17.58 Uhr);

4) “Trump is a peacemaker in the “Time” interview; “I want everyone to be happy”: He will solve the conflicts of this world, says Donald Trump. How he wants to do that, he leaves open. The future US president is less peaceful in dealing with Iran,” Der Spiegel, December 12, 2024 (5:58 pm);

5) “Read the full Jan. 6 report from the Justice Dept. inspector general; The FBI properly shared intelligence before the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot but made some missteps, the report says, Washington Post, December 12, 2024 ((1:06 p.m. EST);

6) Andrew Jeong, “Trump announces Kari Lake as his choice for director of Voice of America; The former news anchor is a fierce Trump loyalist and election denier. She most recently ran for a U.S. Senate seat in Arizona, losing to Democrat Ruben Gallego,” Washington Post, December 12, 2024 (7:18 a.m. EST);;

7) Stefan Beutelsbacher, Stefanie Bolzen, und Pavel Lokshin, “Schlüssel, um Putin zu unterminieren“ – Der Sanktionsirrtum des Westens, Die Welt, den 8. Dezember 2024;

8) Stefan Beutelsbacher, Stefanie Bolzen, and Pavel Lokshin, “Keys to undermining Putin” – The West’s sanctions error,” Die Welt, December 8, 2024;

***

The Washington Post did not report the most significant developmentnof tgecday. The Telegraph did. Trump will advance Moscow’s interests in general, and in the Ukraine war in particular. This should not come as a surprise to those whomhave been paying attention.

Unfortunately, like the Washington Post, most people have not been paying attention.

The time has come for mass demonstrations to oppose Trump’s selling out the interests of Ukraine and the United States to Putin and Russia.

We are in the middle of a five-alarm fire, and the flames are shooting up all around us.

Each day brings a new outrage from Donald Trump. The latest is the nomination of Kari Lake to head the Voice of America. Edward R. Murrow, who was the first director of the U.S. zinformation Agency, of which the VOA was a part, is surely turning over in his grave.

1) “We are a bunch of curious people, that’s for sure, who care about the commission of evil in this world,” The Trenchant Observer, Seprember 17, 2013.

***

We are prisoners of the moment. News media are very good at telling us everything about the moment they are focusing on, which is usually “breaking news” and new news.

With few exceptions their daily reporting does not encompass the broader historical context that would allow readers to understand why what is happening now is happening now.

Bashar al-Assad has fled Syria as his regime collapsed. That is a good thing.

But before we shift our attention to the new NOW, let us reflect on what has happened in Syria over the last 13 years, and how it relates to broader historical developments in places like Ukraine.

The U.S. and the West turned their eyes away from the massive commission of war crimes by the al-Assad government as it brutally repressed the democratic movement in Syria that was part of the Arab Spring. To be sure, the U.S. supported so-called “moderate” rebels for a while, but then abandoned them after 2012.

After Syria used chemivcal weapons in Ghouta in 2013, crossing Barack Obama’s bright “red line”, Obama flinched at taking resolute military action, punted the ball to Congress, and in the end was suckered by Vladimir Putin’s proposal to resolve the issue by a commitment by Syria to remove chemical weapons and undergo an inspection by an international chemical weapons agency.

Months later, in February 2014, Russia invaded Crimea. After seeing the tepid reaction of Washington and NATO to the February seizure and March annexation of Crimea–sanctions that were but a laughable slap on the wrist, Russia invaded the eastern region of Ukraine known as the Donbas in the summer of 2014, and launched a full-scale invasion by the Russian army beginning in August.

In September, Europe and America imposed serious sanctions on Russia on September 5, 2014, the same date on which Angela Merkel brokered agreement known as the Minsk Protocal (Minsk I) The Protocol broke down due to Russian and Russian puppet ceasefire violations, necessitating a new Minsk Protocol (aminsk II), which was agreed to on February 12, 2015. Throughout the next eight years, some 8,000 people were killed in low-level fighting in the Donbas.

Having observed the weak responses of Obama to these continuing ceasefire violations, Putin and Russia to intervened overtly in Syria in 2015, with Obama’s acquiescence. In an infamous statement, even after Russia had attacked U.S. forces, Obama declared that the U.S. was going to deal with the threat of ISIS by “working through the Russians”.

“Working through the Russians” included standing aside as they committed massive crimes against humanity by bombing Aleppo into rubble in 2015-2016.

In this period Russia built up and secured a long sought-after warm-water port at Tartus.

Putin’s dealings with Obama and Joe Biden, his Viice-President charged with Ukraine policy, seemed to have persuaded him that Biden would not react strongly as he threatened to invade Ukraine in the spring of 2021 and Biden announced the total withdrawal of U.S. forces and contractors from Afghanistan in April 2021, implementing a highly dubious withdrawal agreement with the Taliban reached by Donald Trump on February 29, 2020.

We should never forget the horrors of al-Assad and Putin in Syria. That is where Putin learned he could get away with the massive commission of war crimes and crimes against humanity, with the acquiescence of the U.S. and the West.

In a real sense, the horrors of the Syrian civil war were the prologue to the horrors of the Russian war of agression in Ukraine.

While we denounce the evils of the al-Assad regime, we should not forget the cowardice and acquiescence of the U.S. and the West and their responsibility for the evils that took place there.

BACKGROUND

1)Matt Ridley, “The explosive truth about the origin of Covid-19 may finally be about to emerge; Trump’s new lieutenants, Jay Bhattacharya and John Ratcliffe, are convinced that a lab leak was probably the source,”The Telegraph, December 6, 2024 (10:30 a.m. GMT);

BACKGROUND

1) Piotr Smolar (Washington, correspondant), “La sécurité des Etats-Unis mise en question par une série de nominations controversées de Donald Trump
Pour la direction du FBI, la tête du Pentagone et les services de renseignement, le président américain élu a choisi trois personnalités – Kash Patel, Pete Hegseth et Tulsi Gabbard – dont l’incompétence paraît faire courir un risque fort aux Américains.
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Publié le 04 décembre 2024 à 08h25, modifié le 04 décembre 2024 à 09h50

Just as in 1938 or 1939, people in Europe could not imagine tge horrors to come.

Buto what use are prescient aalyses if no one is listening and no one cares. The fate of Cassabdra, who could see the future but no one would believe.

BACKGROUNS

1) William Langewiesche, “The Secret Pentagon War Game That ​Offers a Stark​ Warning for Our Times; The devastating outcome of the 1983 game reveals that nuclear escalation inevitably spirals out of control, New York Times, December 2, 2024 (10:06 a.m. ET);

2) Phillip P. OBrien, “War Games and Nuclear Weapons: A Modest Proposal
The gap between the games and reality is so large, we need a creative solution,” Philllip’s Newsletter, December 2, 2024;