Timothy Birdnow

I was chatting with Nikki Grace this morning and we discussed a point worth mentioning  here. Russia believes that what they are doing in the Ukraine is about the survival of their nation, even if we disagree, and hence this war will drag on and on as long as NATO is supplying the Ukrainians with weapons.

Think about the Opium Wars.

As you may remember, in the 19th century the British found a wonderful use for the pretty poppy flowers that grow in Afghanistan and the surrounding regions; they could make a highly addictive narcotic called opium. The British, eager to take control of the vast Chinese market but knowing they couldn't just conquer so large a nation with a direct military invasion, came up with the simply solution. They would flood China with drugs, make the Chinese people complacent and weak, and then reap the rewards of a strangling economic power.

The British actually fought a number of military campaigns to force China to allow opium into the country.

The Chinese emperor was humiliated, and the Chinese People were debased.

In the end Britain didn't seize control of the Chinese economy, but they gave it a good try. It was one of the things that led to the revolution by Sun Yat-Sen and the Kuomintang, and it was that revolution that set the stage for the rise of Mao and the Chinese Communists. China was totally humiliated by being forced into the British sphere of influence and economic bondage.

In fact, the infamous Rape of Nanking was justified by the Japanese as punishment for the Chinese for allowing this to happen. They argued China had no honor and deserved it.

But Japan had been forced open by the U.S. (itself a thing which ruined the Japanese culture in many ways and led to Japan's arming itself and ultimately  attacking America at Pearl Harbor) and the U.S. was far less abusive than the British had been to the Chinese.

But the point is both nations had to "endure the unendurable" and were forced to accept the boot of Western imperialism on it's throat - indirectly, but it was there.

Russia is not a Western nation. It is a bridge between the West and the Orient, and it always has been. Vladivostok is an Oriental city owned by Russians, for instance. Lake Baikal is closer to Beijing than it is Moscow. Russia sits on two continents.

The Russians know what happened in China and Japan. And they don't want to become another colony of the West.

Which, in many ways, is what they see happening with the Ukraine. They  have watched NATO, their old enemy, gobble up nation after nation that were formerly under the Russian sphere of influence. It was galling, no doubt, but Poland, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, etc. all fell to the Western coalition. That was  frightening; their enemies moving to their borders. Russia has been invaded countless times from the West and East and South; she has no natural defenses. The Urals are the only mountains protecting them from vast plains, and they aren't much (about the size of the Appalachians.) Russia always fears a potential enemy at her door.

But NATO began expanding into the Baltic States - former Soviet Republics - and now wants to expand into Georgia and Ukraine. Ukraine is one of "the Russias" and that is to them like it wold be if they had expanded into Texas.

So the average Russian sees what has been  happening as an existential threat. The U.S. led a revolution to kick out the pro-Russian President and installed a puppet government in 2004. The Orange Revolution was fomented largely by the CIA. See here and here.

And since then the U.S., particularly the Democrats, have used Ukraine as a piggy bank, which essentially gives them colonial status.

Also, America has been deploying missile defense systems right up to Russia's doorstep, and Ukraine would be the ideal place from a military standpoint. The know this.

The U.S. maintained biological labs in Ukraine, ostensibly to get rid of old Soviet biological weapons, but those sites continued to operate and probably still do. Even if they are what the U.S. claims, that doesn't matter; what matters is that the Russian People think they are weapons labs. Certainly the good work of the labs in Wuhan buttress this fear.

What Russia sees is an attempt to force them into the New World Order, the so-called "rules based order" which will essentially make them a pseudo-colony similar to China in the 19th century.

Russia has it's own unique culture and heritage and has always maintained a sphere of influence. They have to if they are to retain their independence as they have no natural defendable borders. So all of what we have been doing makes them very nervous.

I am not downplaying other things (the lust for power, the desire to profit from control of the flow of energy to  Europe) but I am saying the People themselves fear an ever-expanding West. They like their Russia. And just like Obama said "if you like your doctor you can keep him" when pushing Obamacare so too the Russians know the claims by the West "if you like your country you can keep it" is probably a farce.

When the Russians withdrew from the U.S.S.R. a bunch of carpet-baggers showed up and tried to carve the country up. This culminated in the financial crisis caused by George Soros which wrecked their whole economy and precipitated the rise of Putin.

Putin was a strong leader promising a restoration of the old Tsarist empire. The Russians were humiliated in a manner similar to the  Imperial Chinese. They wanted what Putin was selling.

So this is more than just a fight over territory or oil or any of the other things we normally associate with a military invasion. It's a clash of civilizations. Russia wants to be Russian and fear they are being slowly eaten by the flesh-eating organisms of the multi-corporatist West. This is, to them, a struggle for their way of life.

I would remind everybody that the U.S. tried to invade Cuba during the Kennedy Administration, and while we did not actually invade Nicaragua we fought a proxy war very similar to the one being waged now by NATO in Central America. Why? Because we wanted to stop the Soviets from creating hostile vassal states in both places. And we actually invaded the small island nation of Granada to kick the Communists out. And we fomented a revolution in Chile to kick the Communists out. We have done repeatedly what the Russians are now doing and for the same reasons. We invaded Afghanistan, Iraq, sent troopsinto Syria,  etc. I do not think we can claim any moral high ground.

I'm not saying that Russia is right to invade Ukraine, or that Putin is some good guy. But I am saying that they have their point. They don't want to end up like the Quing Dynasty of China after the Opium wars.

Now all sorts of commercial pirates sit in wait, salivating over the bits and pieces of Russia they can snatch up at fire-sale prices. Russia does not intend to become another colony of Western Imperialists, or a pony to be ridden by the New World Order.

Putin and Russia will  keep fighting. This can only end in two ways - either a negotiated settlement or one side is completely wiped out. The Russians have the nukes and other advanced weaponry, much of which they have held in reserve. If it comes to a skirmish to the death they intend to be the last living souls.

Do we? Are we that willing to die for Green Energy and the profits of the uber rich and their mad schemes of depopulation and world socialism?

Posted by: Timothy Birdnow at 11:05 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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