As I was penning last week’s edition of the WRL, our Congress was busy shoving through a package of funding for every country on earth that does not begin with “United States.” I know more than a few of my readers believe that if we don’t stop Putin before he takes Kyiv, the T-14 Armata tanks will be rolling through Brussels and Paris. I disagree on several counts so please,
Demographics - Russia is in demographic decline. They have 10X the manpower that Ukraine can bring to bear, but they are rapidly running short of military aged men. Peter Zeihan wrote about this in “The Accidental Superpower,” which I highly recommend. He is the guy who predicted the Russians would invade by 2023 back in 2013 based on demographic trends.
Military Strength - the Russians are fighting a proxy war against all of Western Europe and the United States right now, he has no desire to get into a hot war with that combined force, although our side certainly seems hell bent to want to do this.
Would have done it by now - looking back on this conflict, remember the armored thrust that got within 40 clicks of Kyiv and then stalled out. More that a few Western wags were chuckling about how incompetent the Russkies were, but a few sane voices pointed out that it fit a pattern. Namely, Putin was trying to send a signal that he would negotiate and they did. A deal was worked out between the Russians and Ukranians with Turkey helping out within months of the conflict beginning. Boris Johnson (under direction from the US no doubt) flew to Ukraine to get Zelensky to break the deal. I suspect Putin would settle for a similar deal and is avoiding putting too much of his army at risk by grinding forward cautiously from one defensible front to the next. But it’s our side that keeps the war going.
Railroads - the Russian army has always used rail for their logistics. The gauge of railroad outside of Ukraine is wider than what is used inside the old Soviet Union. Even if he wanted to take all of Western Europe, his logistical problems are nightmarish.
I could go on but would finish this line of reasoning by pointing out that we essentially started this. When the old Soviet Union fell apart, we could have helped integrate them into the economy of Western Europe, but we chose a different path. The red line was ALWAYS that NATO should not be directly on Russia’s border. But in 2014 we color revolutioned Ukraine and started singing sweet songs about NATO membership to them…it became inevitable. And now we have the spectacle of our Congress doing this:
Sickening. A good take on the current situation is from Katya Sedwick over at the American Mind with “The Reply of the Ukranian Bureaucrats.” Item 1 on your reading list. All of this reminds me of the great Tom Lehrer classic, “So Long Mom, I’m Off to Drop the Bomb,” which seems to be where this Administration wants to take us:
Item 2 The continuing lawfare being conducted by the ruling party knows no bounds. A partisan judge in New York City is holding the leading Republican presidential nominee hostage in a kangaroo court to the point that he’s not allowed to attend his son’s high school graduation or his wife’s birthday. Meanwhile the judges daughter is doing some Democrat fundraising off of her 15-minutes of viciously bought fame. The destruction of the institution of equal justice, a presumption we have had in this country since our founding is truly breathtaking. The case against former Presidential attorney, John Eastman, is particularly galling. Mark Pulliam has a good piece on that sordid affair titled “The Rule of Law Depends on John Eastman.” Keep some cool water nearby to lower your blood temperature as you read that one!
Item 3 The insanity of the induced protests across America’s colleges burst on the scene this week. Peachy Keenan had a great take with her piece “Meet the Zoomerwaffen.” In her sharp and snappy style, Keenan cuts to the chase in this piece:
It’s like George Floyd Groundhog Day: same cast, same kids, same crazy people, and a new script. They just traded Kente cloth for keffiyehs.
Of course, this eruption of bigotry did not start on October 7th. This fire was lit by well-meaning liberals long ago—including, sorry, lots of Jewish progressive liberals, who cheered the new rules. The Tree of Decolonization must be watered by the blood of pale-skinned Americans.
These kids could use a refresher on the fact that if Hamas laid down their arms and surrendered the hostages, the war would be over. If Israel laid down her arms, Israel would be over. From a few months ago, Item 4, is Dan Miller’s piece at IM1776, “Israel’s Monsters.”
Item 5 My friend James Howard Kunstler (OK, I shared some good laughs with Jim at a ULI convention once, but I consider his friendly to my way of thinking) published a great piece that sums a lot of this up a couple of weeks ago: “Wake-Up Call.” James’ podcast, the Kunstlercast, is always a fun listen when I’m out walking, but this piece hit home:
That the insane call themselves “progressive,” is a signature of their insanity. Progress toward what better state of things? Toward a supremacy of fiends, sadists, degenerates, and morons seizing riches and power by every dishonest means possible outside the rule of law and common decency? It’s not even suitable to call them “communists.” They lack the necessary idealism for that. They don’t expect to put their shoulders to the wheel with their fellow man. They just want to grab your stuff and then kill you so they don’t have to hear any complaints.
Enjoy your weekend folks - I’ll take you out with a few laughs:
Be well!
Marty
It's all so very true and so very frightening. In "A War live No Other, V.D.Hanson brings the fifth century fall of Athens to life in ways that should frighten us all today. Our only possible hope is a monumental change in policies and actions in the 2024 elections