Russians in Retreat - Panic in the Pentagon

When Russians retreat, their enemies always meet a horrible end. Perhaps that's why the Pentagon is eager for peace in Ukraine.

Napoleon in 1812: Will modern western leaders follow in his footsteps?

Are literature professors more perceptive than western journalists and politicians? Apparently so.

Recently, I dined with a professor of literature and he asked what was happening in Ukraine. I responded: “The Russians are retreating. The smug liberal media is gloating, but the Pentagon is panicking”.

My point wasn’t lost on the astute professor who responded laconically: “Yes, ‘War and Peace’. 1812. Napoleon. Such hubris.”

1812. 1941. 2022. Three times, European powers have assembled and marched confidently eastward to destroy Russia. While the Russians retreated to Moscow — in 1812 the Europeans under Napoleon occupied the city — eventually the Russians were victorious and went on to occupy Paris (1814) and Berlin (1945). 

Today, we’re witnessing Europe’s third attempt in the past 200 years to subjugate Russia. Will they succeed this time? Or will the Russian tricolor eventually fly over Brussels? And let’s remember: the root cause of the war in Ukraine is NATO’s 25 years of expansion eastward. Let’s be very clear about that. It’s a fact not subject to debate, no matter how much western ‘experts’ wail and try to ‘debunk’ that fact.

I doubt NATO’s Ukrainian army will reach Moscow, but it seems that the Kremlin is taking a cue from the past. By giving up territory in Ukrainian separatist regions that recently voted to rejoin Russia, the Kremlin has a bigger plan — to suck NATO deeper into a quagmire that will eventually fracture and severely weaken the alliance.

I’m not saying that every move by Moscow in the past nine months has been made according to a grand master plan. Certainly Moscow made mistakes, but at the same time, don’t think that Moscow doesn’t have a plan. And don’t expect Moscow to give any indication as to what that plan might be. Hence, we have to decipher this matter by understanding the geopolitical, economical and historical context.

Pro-Russian troops of the Donbas are fighting for their homeland

Kremlin confidante and billionaire Evgeny Prigozhin, who also owns the Wagner special forces group, recently made a tantalizing statement regarding the Russian siege of Bakhmut. He indicates that Donbas is a trap to lure in NATO’s Ukrainian army and destroy it:

“Our task is not Bakhmut itself, but the destruction of the Ukrainian army and the reduction of its combat potential, which has an extremely positive effect on other areas, which is why this operation is dubbed the Bakhmut Meat Grinder.”

One thing is for certain — the Pentagon is worried. In early November, at a private event in New York, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark Milley endorsed the idea of peace talks in Ukraine. The White House went ballistic, forcing the general to walk back his comments.

Now, if Kiev is winning – as western media propagandists claim — then why is the top U.S. general eager to reach a peace deal? The Pentagon knows NATO can’t win, and as the conflict goes on, Russia grows stronger by mobilizing its vast potential in natural resources and industrial production; as well as increasing global support from countries furious with decades of U.S. militarism and imperialism. 

Washington is reaping a bitter harvest that it planted over the past 25 years with its many brutal invasions, bombings and illegal occupations, not to mention its hundreds of military bases across the globe.

Ukrainian 2S7 Pion used to bomb and terrorize civilian areas in Donbas

A closer look at the ‘retreats’

The mythical ‘Battle of Kiev’ that western media still swoon over was in fact a Russian feint, a diversion to pin down a large part of Ukraine’s army while a relatively small Russian army seized the sizable territory north of Crimea and routed the brutal Neo-Nazi Azov battalion that held Mariupol hostage. And just as quickly as Russian troops appeared outside of Kiev, they left and regrouped for operations in Donbas.

As far as Russian retreats in Izyum and Kherson, both were in large part due to NATO-trained and armed Ukrainian forces having a tremendous numerical superiority after Kiev’s national mobilization. In contrast, Moscow has deployed limited forces and hardware to a conflict that stretches over a 800-mile front. 

One very peculiar detail about both retreats — In each case, within days, the actor-president Vladimir Zelensky paid a visit to both fronts. Each time, he was well within range of Russian artillery and aviation, but they didn’t take a shot at him, not even to scare him. How odd. How very strange.

It seems that Moscow wants Zelensky alive. Why? Perhaps because, like the fictional 1920s Ukrainian con-artist Ostap Bender, Zelensky is helpful at bamboozling NATO and sucking it deeper into the quagmire — Keep sending money, weapons and more.

Actor Vladimir Zelensky is playing his greatest role ever and is justly rewarded

“No peace with Russia!” says Zelensky, a native Russian speaker who worked closely with Moscow when he was an actor. He still is very talented, receiving Sean Penn’s Best Actor Oscar statue as a personal gift on Nov 8.

Zelensky’s wife, Olena, has joined this macabre ‘theater of the absurd’, and she seems determined to play the role of Marie Antoinette. In between luxurious jet-setting to Europe and the U.S., she said Ukrainians are ready to “endure [suffering] for years” and "without victory there won’t be peace". Let them eat cake!

Ukraine is the planet’s largest black hole, and after 9 months of war many NATO countries report that their military arsenals are depleted or soon to be depleted. Restoring those arsenals won’t be easy, especially given inflation, high energy prices, and difficulties in international supply chains for strategic metals.

The longer the war drags on, the more severe the economic crisis for EU members of NATO. They face huge debts, rapid inflation, de-industrialization, boiling social discontent, tremendous public health crises, rising crime and corruption, political repression and censorship, as well as a migration crisis that resembles an invasion.

Peace protests are increasing, especially in Czechia, Germany and Italy. Many activists openly call for friendship with Russia. The EU is starting to realize that it pays an enormous price while the U.S. profits immensely from the war; for example, selling natural gas to the EU at exorbitant prices in place of cheap Russian gas.

NATO will eventually fracture as more Europeans realize that Washington is manipulating and abusing them.

An estimated 200,000 Ukrainian soldiers killed or wounded fighting for NATO

Or let’s look at it this way — if I’m wrong, and Moscow doesn’t have a plan to stop NATO, and is reacting chaotically and haphazardly, and is thoroughly corrupt as Russian liberals claim, then, Yes, Russia will be defeated, broken up and its people reduced to abject misery. Certainly, the Kremlin understands this.

Maniacal leaders in Europe, such as German politician and president of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen, seem determined to realize the Third Reich’s plans to subjugate the Eastern Slavs. Ukraine is already theirs, with nearly 200,000 soldiers killed and wounded, and up to 10 million refugees. Depopulating Ukraine serves NATO’s interests and they gladly use Ukrainians as cannon fodder.

We’re witnessing an epic struggle for the future of Europe and the world. There might be truces and ceasefires, but be certain, we’ve crossed the Rubicon. Russia can’t expect peace with radical Neo-liberal regimes that consider themselves superior to the untermenschen of the world. The EU’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, recently admitted this when he described the world as “a jungle” and Europe as “a garden”. 

I’d like to believe that cooler heads will eventually prevail and an agreement can be reached, and that we can forget about Ukraine. But again, I think we’ve crossed the point of no return. I’m not a betting man, but if I were, I’d put my money on Moscow. History is not kind to European nations that attack and seek to destroy Russia.