When Russia took back Crimea in 2014, Vladimir Putin evidently decided he could not avoid war. So, he made ready. He then publicly played possum for eight years. But in February he told us, in no uncertain terms, Russia was ready, and that the days of Western rule were done.
We are, I believe, witnessing the changing of the guard, from American Exceptionalism to Russian Exceptionalism.
Vlad still has a strain of Marxist inevitability about him. Listen as he declares that ‘Everyone should understand that this process cannot be stopped. The course of history is inexorable.’
He crossed his Rubicon in February. In a way nobody could have predicted. Except Alexandr Svechin. Putin is the star pupil of that greatest Russian military strategist, who was perhaps Sun Tzu’s greatest disciple. Putin has taken them both to heart
Svechin’s main lesson is ‘Each war represents an isolated case, requiring an understanding of its own particular logic, its own unique character’ From that, the Special Military Operation (SMO) was born.
Americans, on the other hand, have fought every war since 1861 in the same fashion. Expeditionary forces, unleashed in an offensive onslaught designed to maximize damage, both military and civilian. Why? Because we were Exceptional, of course.
This has led us to falling for our own BS, as Andrei Martyanov says.
Martyanov is a Russian Naval officer who, in his excellent book Losing Military Supremacy makes this primary point: The West lost its right to world-wide leadership by drinking the Kool Aid of American Exceptionalism. The doctrine that says the rules apply to everyone, except Americans.
Martyanov’s book sets straight the real record of WWII. Russia absorbed the brunt of the Wehrmacht whirlwind, losing 20+ millions in the process. We came in late, fought a few battles against an already wounded army, and claimed half the spoils. And all the glory. And that faux glory went straight to our post-war heads.
Martyanov’s second point is that America never had to (learn to) fight a continental war. As in, defend our own homeland in an existential war. No, the War of 1812 doesn’t count.
America has been an offensive military power for most of our history. And specifically, not on our own turf. We have been lulled into thinking that our oceanic advantage would always prevail.
Andrei’s right: America has never had to imagine, let alone plan against, a foreign enemy that could overcome our position of oceanic protection. And so, we didn’t.
But the Russians did. And ‘somehow’ (as Andrei says) they have leapfrogged us by two generations of military technology. The whole point of their strategy has been to strip us of the safety of our God-given location of this globe. And given our abandonment of the God of The Bible, what could be a more fitting end to our Exceptional Empire?
Russia now possesses deployed weaponry that can span the globe, within the hour. And we, being offensively-oriented, have created no means to defend against them. In other words, we are naked. Our Defense Budgets have bought us nothing. Except a possible Red Button confrontation. For which Russia has prepared. And we have not. Ever seen a Civil Defense shelter? Muscovites have. They see them everywhere.
And now our ‘leaders’ are leading us to Armageddon. Vlad seems ready. We seem not.
But can Vlad play this same game with China? After all, that’s Russia’s true enemy (and ours too). Will Vlad toss our wounded Western carcass to his hungry Chinese pit bull first (thus buying him more time), or will he take them down now? If he doesn’t, will we have to suffer under the Mongols for 240 years, like Russia once did?
That’s somewhat up to us. If we would stop our insanity, Vlad could have Europe, China could have the East, and we could have our own hemisphere. In relative peace. At least, for a while. But only if we lose our exceptional attitude.
America, like the Russia of Nevsky, refused to kneel before Peter (the Apostle). Look what it got us. NeoCon rule and ruin. Now Russia is kneeling before Peter (the Great). Is she repeating our exceptional error?
Daniel the Prophet told us that there would be four empires, but that the last (Rome) would still be present at the end of time. The only question is, will Russia see herself as exceptional among the nations, or will she commit our own error of being exceptional over the nations (and the Church as well)?
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Watt writes……”We came in late, fought a few battles against an already wounded army, and claimed half the spoils. (b)And all the glory(/b). And that faux glory went straight to our post-war heads.”
My French neighbours were so taken in by US films of D-Day and the defeat of the Germans that they were astounded when I proved to them that British, Canadian, Australian and other Commonwealth troops were there.
No, Russia is not kneeling before Peter (the Great). Definitely not. Russia is waging a defensive war against the US lead NATO. Ukraine by geography happens to be an unfortunate proxy. Kiev is a US puppet regime lead by Neocon Victoria (‘f the EU’) Nuland since 2014 (Maidan coup). And, there is a lot to learn from Andrei Martyanov, not only by reading his books but reading his blog (https://smoothiex12.blogspot.com) and listening to his podcast as well as from Andrei Raevsky (thesaker.is). Both gentlemen happen to live in the USA since many years.
There are also high ranking former military guys like like Col McGregor and Scott Ritter as well as Ex-CIA officer Larry Johnson (https://sonar21.com – A son of the american revolution) .
All of them refuse to spit US propaganda in accordance to the guidelines handed out by Langley/VA and other so called “services”
All have been “canceled” ,of course.
As to China: I don’t think that it could be fought militarily by Russia. She is doomed. They have very sneaky ways to conquer. Most of the african continent now is under their rule. Conquered by debt traps. Easy with corrupt leaders all over the place. And they certainly are going to find ways to get as many commodities they want from Russia “for free”
America, as the Empire of Lies, IS exceptional — exceptionally stupid, prideful, avaricious, perverted, bloated, destructive, ugly, vain, futile, and ridiculous. It needs to be taken to the cleaners.
First, thanks for a readable posting!
Your points about the US’s expeditionary wars are well-taken and accurate. Compared to Russia, modern Americans have no clue what an “existential” threat to our nation is (except the Cold War nuclear threat from the Soviets). Of course, our national DNA does include long-running conflicts on our own soil–from conquering the Indians Atlantic to Pacific, to multiple British incursions, French-led conflicts, battling Mexico, and a few others. But not for a while (if you don’t count the current slow-motion invasion from the South).
America was exceptional, but not as a “world leader.” The American nation and civilization, carved out of a savage land, built on centuries of Anglo-Saxon/Roman/Greek/Christian trial and error. A constitutional republic, with the government serving the people via their states, and limited in its powers, was an exceptional creation. Assimilating, however imperfectly, non-WASPs into our civilization, was exceptional. A beacon of hope and potential to the whole world, immigrants yearned for the chance to taste freedom and to achieve prosperity. That was the exceptionalism of America. We lost our way when we were dragged by the Brits into WW1. A brief respite of minding our own business in the 1920s and ’30s ended with FDR leading a descent into what is now the neoconmen-led global nightmare of war and destruction under the fake banner of “spreading democracy” across the world.
“Martyanov’s book sets straight the real record of WWII. Russia absorbed the brunt of the Wehrmacht whirlwind, losing 20+ millions in the process. We came in late, fought a few battles against an already wounded army, and claimed half the spoils. And all the glory. And that faux glory went straight to our post-war heads. ”
Came in late?
“Late” assumes there was a “right time” for the US to have entered the UK/Soviet war. When was that? How about “never”?
The US was manipulated into WW2, by Stalin’s agents, and the Brits, long before Pearl Harbor.
America was a direct supporter of the Soviet/British war on Germany and Japan. The Lend-Lease program gifted war materiel and supplies to one side, mostly the communists and the Brits, which is generally regarded as violation of neutrality.
In support of the Brits’ (and French and Dutch) colonial holdings in Southeast Asia, the US led an economic attack on Japan, beginning in 1938. This culminated in an all-out economic war against Japan in 1940, led by the US. Cutting off the supply of oil, among other necessities, to Japan was a de facto declaration of war, a passive-aggressive provocation.
As for “spoils,” what, pray tell, were the spoils? American participation in Saudi oil production is about the only economic benefit apparent. The Marshall Plan? Funding NATO? Funding the UN? Rebuilding Japan into an economic powerhouse to rival the US? Gifting China to Mao’s communists? A half century of paying for the defense of Europe and Japan? Besides a relatively peaceful Europe providing potential markets for American companies, what spoils did America reap? European countries, and Japan, safe under the American-paid-for defense umbrella and therefore freed of the fiscal drain of defense budgets, created state-sponsored economic powerhouses that competed against American business. You call that “spoils”? Our military-industrial complex reaped the biggest benefits, but that’s not quite spoils.
As for “all the glory”, Russia has basked in the afterglow of the Great Patriotic War since 1945, at least internally. The USSR screwed its own pooch by subjugating (reaping spoils from) Eastern Europe, and threatening western Europe for 50 years. That probably muted much of the glory that might have accrued to them.
That said, Russia is, indeed, different from the US. Now, with the Comintern gone, and lacking their old ideology of spreading their values across the globe, there’s no reason that we could not live peacefully, cooperatively, and happily with Russia, minding our own business and letting local squabbles be handled by locals.
Great guest post.
Kenan-
You might be interested in reading some of the materials that cover China’s concepts of, “unrestricted warfare.” They are clearly using these on the West, with little response in kind.
As for Russia vs. China, the Russians would have no compunctions about going nuclear. Russia’s arsenal is far larger than China’s, and her missile defenses are good enough that China probably wouldn’t get many nukes through.
The irony of all this is that Russia did everything it could to accommodate the west
after the collapse of the Soviet Union and under Putin even expressed a desire to join
NATO and the EU. We would have none of it Russia being infinitely more valuable to
the Western establishment as an enemy to continue to milk the wealth of the public for
the military arms industry. As Martyanov says China was not Russia’s first choice as an
ally but they were forced together by the hubris of western exceptionalism. His description
of their relationship is one of standing back to back not shoulder to shoulder. He also
correctly points out that the relationship is not one of equivalence but that the Chinese are
entirely dependent on the vastly superior nuclear umbrella Russia provides. People forget
Russia’s high level of technological achievements that put a probe on the surface of Venus and
developed the revolutionary RD-170 and 180 rocket engines with out peer to date. An accurate
assessment by Watts and Clibze though I’m still of the mind the NWO consists of the Biden,
Putin, and Xi triad to bring the world to it’s knees. They all appear to be pulling on the same
rope.
Elon Musk Hails Russian-Made Rocket Engine Design as ‘The Best’
https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2019/03/08/elon-musk-hails-russian-made-rocket-engine-design-as-the-best-a64748
A small aside: according to not a few authors, McMeekin, Suvurov, etc, the Soviet Union was planning a large war in Europe before Nazi Germany thought of attacking east. This does not mean, of course, that Nazi Germany would not do that later, but that is a big if. The greatest concern was with the West, France and the Anglo-American world. So, after the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact, the Soviets moved in a mirror fashion in relation to their neighbours as did Nazi Germany. And when the demands from the Kremlin started alarming Hitler and partners, they thought they had to go east. That was in the summer of 1940. Now, was this design of Stalin’s doing or was it requested of him? When he attacked Finland in 1939-40 the British and Ameicans got very upset, but did nothing regarding others, including Poland, invaded by them on the 17th of Setember, 1939. For the 1st England and France declared war on Germany, but suddenly Stalin could get away with it. For his pains, Roosevelt lauched the Moral Embargo of alluminum, but this was misteriously ended in January of 1941. At the right time for military preparations against Central Europe. We must add this perspective when one studies WWII, otherwise it will always be thought of as Hitler’s war. I believe he fell for it. This does not excuse any of his evilness, but we should be careful where we think the Devil was at that time. This will help perhaps in understanding (or not) what may be Putin’s perspective. And also, the reason’s for Biden’s unacceptable attitude regarding Chanceler Scholz, and the eagerness that the US and the UK, and the controlled (by whom?) EU show in creating a chasm between Western Europe (perhaps just Central and Eastern) and Russia. Cui bono after all?
**Re Andrei Martyanov: His current briefings and analytic thoughts concerning Ukraine (etc.) – on YouTube at: smoothieX12
Ianto asserts that Putin Played Possum (fine alliteration) from the time Crimea was very strategically reclaimed in 2014 – by stealth and with the essentially indéniable support of Crimea’s present and historical populations. I would suggest (instead) that it was the indefatigable intrigue of the Atlanticist BeeHive which closed off other routes to preserving the Russian national security (Which Putin is Pledged to Protect). Take the 5 years of EU stalling, flip-flopping and dilly-dallying on the Minsk Agreement for instance. Take also the predominance of Russian rather than Ukrainian speakers in the Donbas Regions (Republics of Donetsk and Luhansk) – a many faceted little economic and cultural kaleidoscope. Also, fold into this Cast-Iron-Cauldron the debacle which America (and its chief “ally”) stirred up for themselves by adventuring into Syria ~ which they had presumed to be just a defenseless little piece of forgotten and unloved Sykes-Picot Pie for their taking. Add an immense dash of Belarusian NGO Baltic-Bitters ~ with Belarus boldly (even stiffly) refusing to accept a VEX Deal ~ recommending fortifying vodkas and stimulating football matches to stave off the Global Cuff in a more indigenous way. One could go on-and-on down these separate but ultimately intertwined paths ~ (e.g.) mentioning Victoria Nuland’s Cookies and Petro Poroshenko’s Chocolate Oligarchy ~ but (eventually) it becomes All Too Much…
Picayune geo-political matters set aside ~ a very very nice essay by Ianto Watt.
Thank you.
I’ve read these are all Azov guys now why would Ukraine would want them dead?
Russia says 40 POWs are killed in Ukrainian shelling of prison
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11061549/Russia-says-40-POWs-killed-Ukrainian-shelling-prison-amid-false-flag-claims.html
Russia claims Ukraine had a reason to kill its own POWs
https://www.rt.com/russia/559831-ukraine-pow-missile-strike/
A concise missive from Mr Watt! The Age of Miracles is not past!
Western exceptionalism (U.S hegemony) ceased when the masses woke up to the fact that democracy was only a slogan in the mouths of the “elite” and not a reality.
If democracy was real in the West then there would be no multiculturalism, workers would of reaped the benefits of their sacrifice in two world wars with good wages.
But the greedy “elite” don’t want that.
Nealry 420,000 from the United States were killed in WWII, more than the United Kingdom or any other Allies except the Soviets. So, it’s not as if the Americans were just dilettantes who showed up at the last minute and grabbed the glory, even though that’s the current popular revisionist BS.
Nearly 420,000 from the United States were killed in WWII, more than the United Kingdom or any other Allies except the Soviets. So, it’s not as if the Americans were just dilettantes who showed up at the last minute and grabbed the glory, even though that’s the current popular revisionist BS.
There needs to be a way to edit.
Nonsense, Hitler – I mean Putin – could have turned off the gas spigot and collapsed the EU economy then walked into Ukraine unopposed. Instead he initiated this “special military operation” which will ultimately take down both the EU economy and the Russian economy. Russia, and Putin, are fully signed on to Agenda 2030, just check out the Russian government sources. WEF puppet politicians, who are in charge everywhere, are busy burning everything down so the WEF corporate/banking cartel oligarchs can “build back better” having disposed of big chunk of the population by starvation, disease, and “vaccine” damage and sterilization.
This is all as plain as day, what is wrong with you people.
“But can Vlad play this same game with China? After all, that’s Russia’s true enemy…”
Untrue. In fact, China is no one’s enemy – unless the other country deliberately makes it so. As the US government is currently trying to do.
Russia and China understand perfectly that there is one rogue nation in the world, and that is the USA. To stay safe, all others must unite to defend themselves against the USA. At the moment, Asia is showing signs of forming a united front to keep marauding Westerners out. They will be welcome as tourists or as friendly business dealers. As Prince Alexander Nevsky warned nearly 800 years ago, “Those who come to us in peace will be welcome as a guest. But those who come to us sword in hand will die by the sword!”
John Pate…’Russia, and Putin, are fully signed on to Agenda 2030′
Precisely…Putin’s war which has been tended like a garden for eight years is the final
nail in the world’s economy. Hungry people are malleable: “When the table is full there
are many thoughts when it is empty there is but one.” (Chinese proverb)
Russia and China are two ambitious regional superpowers that share an extensive common border. Under such circumstances, only fools would consider mutual trust seriously. No, they are not benign neighbors. At best they may be called ‘frienemies’ but this is just because is suits their current common interests. It could change in a flash.
If Americans had been smart, we live in hope, they would have worked to bring Russia into Europe after the Soviet Union fell in 1991. There were a few intelligent Americans like Diplomat, George Kennan and political analyst, John Mearsheimer who warned about American/Nato aggression and the foolishness of keeping Russia as an enemy. They were ignored by the fools running Government and vested agendas.
Russia in Europe would have denied China in its rise a powerful ally. Who would want such a thing? Duh.
So, here we are. Another war of American making by those who rampage around the world in their hegemonic boots believing in their own exceptionalism which only ranks high in arrogance and stupidity.
The Russians have outsmarted the Americans and have no doubt been planning for this war since the CIA-backed coup in Ukraine in 2014 installed an American stooge as President. Americans have no-one to blame but themselves and the world has no-one to blame but the US, yet again, a nation which has been waging war since it was invented.
An Exceptional Nation needs an Exceptional song:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=UrgpZ0fUixs
China is it’s own worst enemy. The Zero Covid Policy will finish what the One Child Policy started. So sit back and relax! Or… maybe not… assuming Beijing is undoubtedly aware of its own ticking time bomb and knows that the window of opportunity to leverage a large number of young boots on the ground is closing… will it bet all of it’s chips on ’00’ while the wheel of karma is still spinning?
Cool, Briggs has started reading Russian authors. Let us hope Andrei’s rationality rubs off on him a little, so he can dispense with the end of days mentality.
No, this is Ianto Watt. Long-read in Russian authors I beleive.
Speaking of China… will the Chinese fight for current-China any more than Americans will fight for current-America?
https://www.breitbart.com/asia/2022/07/28/xi-jinping-chinese-citizens-must-undertake-great-struggle-as-economy-crashes/
I am certain Russians will fight for Russia.
But if the Russian government keeps this up… maybe the Russians won’t fight for Russia either.
https://edwardslavsquat.substack.com/p/covid-russia-impressive-clot-shot
Maybe we’ll all enter World Civil War I together.
The status quo of “American Exceptionalism” is #gayblackprivilege
https://mycousinthecarp.blogspot.com/2022/08/gayblackprivilege-is-product-of.html
Excuse me, if it was not for the US war machine in WWII most of Europe would be speaking German and Asia Japanize. The us produce more arms and war material than all the other combatants did combined. That why WWII end the way it did. One the US aid arrived into Russia Germany was done. It was not the boot on the ground that counted it was the material that were sent that did. Idiots that don’t know history are fools.
“After all, [China’s] Russia’s true enemy (and ours too)”
Haha no. Russia and China need each other to take on the US. They need to unite the Eurasian landmass so they have the chance to take out the oceanic superpower. The optimal American strategy is to divide Russia from China and pick them off one-by-one. At times it seems like it’s what the Americans are doing (trying to isolate Russia from the international community), other times they seem to be doing their best to bring Russia and China together (saber rattling about Taiwan when Ukraine is still a thing).
As for the WW2 thing, Russia would have been absolutely creamed if it wasn’t for America’s land lease. And don’t give this crap about “America coming in at the last minute to save the day”. That’s basically what happened in the war against Japan for Russia. The US (and ANZ) did all the work while Stalin and Japan had a neutrality pact. Then Stalin decided to pile on Japan which is basically how we got North Korea. No offense, but the projection is strong on that one. Not the biggest fan of the American military, but I’ve been finding these Russian triumphalist crap when reading pro-Russian sources. It’s just as insufferable as its American counterpart. They’re both sides of the same coin from where I’m standing.