Dakota Beacon

As we kick off 2023, the world is in a terrible place.  It is indeed difficult even to know which story we should be concentrating on - and every day we have a new, startling event which, in more normal times, would be a lead story, buried within hours by an avalanche of new ones - and all of them are bad.  All we can do is spin the wheel and write about the events on which the needle lands.

Today it just sort of landed on Ukraine and the nearly year-long war.  As of this writing, Russia is claiming an all-out assault on Soledar, in eastern Ukraine, with an expectation of collapsing Ukraine’s defense in that area.  Western media has largely attempted to manage news of the conduct and progress of this war in an effort to put the most exclusively positive spin on the Zelenskyy government’s position and image.  Unfortunately, this kind of news management and, in reality, at least misinformation, perhaps disinformation, does nothing to serve the interests of the Ukrainian people, the stability of Eastern Europe or peace in an era of nuclear capability of not only Russia and the U.S., but many other nations - one being Iran, thanks to the Obama administration.  

We must all understand fully that this war is not a pep rally.  It is a human tragedy which is killing thousands, destroying the Ukrainian economy, severely damaging its infrastructure and demoralizing citizens.  It is a massive drain on our already strained financial resources.  It is an excuse for arms dealers to ship weaponry and ammunition to an open-ended recipient.  In the past this has often resulted in arms accumulation by parties unknown or falling into the hands of adversarial forces - either of which could end up being used against Americans.  We just witnessed the shameful and damaging disorderly retreat from Afghanistan.  It would have been far better had we not had personnel or armaments anywhere near Afghanistan - at least for the American people.  For arms dealers it was, of course, a goldmine.  Afghanistan was one thing;  a nuclear power such as Russia is another matter entirely.  We are sticking our finger in the eye of a power which could destroy us and much of the rest of the world.  

Our involvement in Ukraine was never warranted.  Not legitimately, at least.  It became a necessity once our CIA began developing and running bioweapons labs there, on the Russian border, and this necessity was further emphasized by the fact that Ukraine is famous for its illicit drug and human trafficking and money laundering - the latter was noticed when FTX went under.  The money which goes over there is processed and returned as campaign contributions and other remunerations to US politicians.   Hence their enthusiastic support for keeping this going.

It seems that where decent, compassionate people would want to see this war ended, there is ample encouragement on both sides to keep it grinding along.  US politicians have a pipeline to a lot of money not only from the laundering in Ukraine, but through the support of important arms industries here.  Putin, for his part, cannot but benefit as he watches America imploding under massive debt as these corrupt politicians bleed the taxpayers dry, as we ship valuable arms to a nation they could overrun in a weekend if they so wished.  Eventually, when the inevitable Russian victory takes place, Russia will have a whole lot of pricey, advanced American war supplies in its possession.  Just like the Afghanis do.  

Obviously there is no benefit or gain of any kind for America in this war.  We can hope to achieve nothing from this.  We will only look like perennial losers once again.  This is the folly of allowing a rogue CIA to run our foreign policy and our politicians to void our formerly non-aggressive stance on the world stage.  We’re not looking very good in this.  

If Russia invades Ukraine we should ask why before we take a side.  Russia has more than enough reasons to want to draw a line with Ukraine.  

In 1991 when NATO should have been dissolved, it having achieved its mission of stopping Soviet expansion - the Soviet Union having come apart that year - it instead expanded.  NATO began with 8 nations/entities in 1949.  It kept expanding its membership.  By 1991, when it was no longer needed for its intended purpose, it had taken on a life of its own, growing for the sake of growing.  NATO and the U.S. made promises to Gorbachev that NATO would not add new members, but despite this, it doubled its size, growing to its present membership of 30 nations, including former Warsaw Pact states - Poland, the Czech Republic and others.  

Putin has warned that Russia would not tolerate further expansion of NATO, yet the U.S. and many American politicians were actively touting membership to an eager Ukraine.  The unfortunate ascension of Volodymir Zelenskyy to the presidency furthered this talk and saber-rattling by Ukraine.  Meanwhile, Russia has not made any moves on European nations with the one exception of reclaiming the Crimea (historically a part of Russia - like the Ukraine itself), its one warm-water port.  With one after another incursions - NATO’s threat of expansion into Ukraine, bringing weapons of war right to the Russian border and the CIA’s busy development of more than 40 bioweapons labs within striking distance of the people of Russia, it should have been - and was - no surprise when Putin ordered an invasion.  Yet there was even more aggravation involved.  The people of the eastern Donbass region, like the Crimeans, had voted by referendum to become a part of the Russian Federation, due largely to the cultural persecution meted out for years by the Ukrainian government.  Their towns, schools, hospitals and factories had been under physical attack for years.  With this background, it was no wonder that a conflict would occur.

Instead of being an agent of peace, helping to tamp down this conflict, the United States took advantage of the situation to pursue Washington’s favorite enterprise - exploitation of the climate of war to ship arms to its money laundering agent at the taxpayers’ expense.  Win-win for the arms dealers, the CIA and the corrupt politicians, lose-lose for us.  Yet the people of America were eager to play for the Ukraine team, waving Ukrainian flags from doorways where the Stars and Stripes had never flown, running around wearing blue and yellow, cute little Ukrainian flag lapel pins, etc.  It became a fashion statement.  Just like wearing your school's colors to the pep rally.

There is absolutely no reason for the United States or any of the nations of Europe to involve themselves in this conflict.  Had they stayed out of Ukraine, chances are almost 100 to 1 that Putin would never have crossed the border.  Had we not made a folk hero out of Zelenskyy, strutting about in his spike heels, stamping his foot and demanding more, more, more, no - $100 billion just isn’t enough, we should all be ashamed of our stinginess, he and Putin might have settled things amicably, Zelenskyy might have decided to quit lobbing missiles at his own citizens in the Donbass and life might have gone on relatively painlessly for the innocent people who live in that nation.  But then, there’s no money in that.

The U.S. is facing a financial crisis.  The American people are feeling it in the rapidly rising cost of living.  We can’t afford to go around the world looking for conflicts to expand and turn up the heat just to make our arms manufacturers and our military happy.  We are inflicting suffering on the people we purport to care about - the Ukrainian people - with every bullet or tank we ship over there.  We have prolonged a war that, had we minded our own business, would never have started in the first place, most likely.  If all of this were not enough, we should keep in mind that Russia is powerful in many ways.  They are a self-sustaining nation, a vast one with many natural resources and they are a well-armed nuclear power.  Would Putin deploy nuclear weapons?  We can’t say for sure, but we can say for sure he won’t lose a war without using everything he has.  Is this corrupt Ukrainian government that oppresses its own people worth this risk?  

Some will flamboyantly declare that there is no price too high to pay for “democracy”.  If so, we should use our resources somewhere other than Ukraine.  Zelenzkyy has shut down Orthodox churches and other Russian-related cultural facilities, he has jailed reporters and shut down the press in his country.  There is no “democracy” in Ukraine.  Democracy does not bombard its own people in their homes because they are Russian-speakers.  It does not erase the press or jail dissenters or reporters.  It does not shutter churches and other cultural sites.  Zelenskyy is arguably a far greater tyrant and a more dangerous “leader” than Putin.

When we step back from the “rah, rah, rah” of the cheerleading press and politicians and take an objective and honest look at this, we can see that every dollar we spend on this brings us closer to a real disaster and potentially strengthens Putin’s hand going forward.  Putin, for his part, is more intelligent that most of the leaders in the West and has none of their penchant for military, economic, political and cultural suicide so evident here.  He sees that our military, like our first-responders, has been compromised by the lethal Covid “vaccine”.  He has not mandated this horror on his people.  He sees us sending our money and our best equipment to the Ukraine and he knows, as well as we do, that we have no accounting for it.  It is getting sold, reportedly, on the black market.  He sees us emptying our coffers and our military equipment and supplies into a place where, if random terrorists don’t seize it, he can when he finishes the war.  He sees himself and Russia ascending while we drill into the ground.

Our international reputation has been lost by now - we can’t claim the high ground.  It is obvious to everyone what happened to the Nord Stream pipelines.  We were apparently willing to create a greater ecological disaster than the Exxon Valdez in order to deprive Europe of Russian gas and oil.  So Europeans get to freeze this winter - or cut down their forests, which is not environmentally optimal, so they can heat with wood fires and cook.  Still, Putin has held back.  He is aware.  

The initial demand that Putin pull out of Ukraine to reach a peaceful settlement has given way to a demand for a change of administration within Russia!  Because we’ve got such a great track record with toppling and replacing other people’s governments.  Our meddling in Libya alone created a literal flood of humanity into Europe, rendering that continent a mere extension of the Muslim Empire and creating myriad insoluble cultural and economic problems for the unfortunate Europeans.   Yet Putin has demonstrated forbearance.  Not the destruction of Russia’s pipelines, not a demand that he step down from his own government office, has brought him to lose his cool.  Why?  Maybe because every day this drags on Russia benefits at America’s expense.  

Putin has wisely steered his own course, a course away from Wokeism, away from “gender studies” or drug addiction.  He has, for the past decade, re-introduced and emphasized the Russian Orthodox Church and other cultural elements distinctly Russian.  He has eschewed the globalist agenda.  He views Russia as increasingly strong and viable while the West is busy tricking its people into poisoning their own children with drugs, with mental illness and with “vaccines”.  He undoubtedly believes he can afford to play a slow waiting game while we self-destruct.  

It is time to stop.  We need to bring about an end to NATO.  What was conceived as a peace-keeping tool to contain an aggressive Stalin has become the way to war.  It has been misused in a dozen ways, all creating more misery than relief.  It is a misguided effort at this point.  The events in Ukraine have reminded many of the seeds of World War I - a relatively local event in a remote part of the world that should not concern the “great powers” becomes the flash point which ignites a world war of unprecedented magnitude.  What we have today in Ukraine, however, has far more dangerous potential than the assassination in Sarajevo.  Back in 1914 no one had ever heard of nuclear warfare.  As we go forward, we should bear this in mind.  To this point only the United States has dropped a nuclear bomb.  It would be to everyone’s advantage if no one else ever does.  Meanwhile, we are playing Kruschev to Putin’s JFK.  We have no more business in Ukraine than the Soviet Union had in Cuba.  It’s time to ask ourselves, “Are we the baddies?”

Comments:  

WOW!  Just a well written analysis!  --JR