BY TYLER DURDEN
Authored by Oscar Silva-Valladares via OrientalReview.org,
As the Ukraine conflict continues, a basic question with ethical dimensions has risen and will need to be answered soon by European politicians: how moral it is to support Ukraine “as long as it takes” against the necessity of protecting your own citizens’ welfare and the constitutional duty to follow your people’s mandate which is the basic rule of democracy?
European naive, blind support for US/UK/NATO policies in the Ukraine conflict, and the dire economic and political consequences it has unleashed in Europe, is bringing the continent’s political architecture to a defining moment, which may only be resolved through the end of the European Union (EU), and the emergence of a new, and still undefined political structure.
Betting on Russia’s defeat and Vladimir Putin’s demise, the EU has followed the US-led economic war against Russia, via sanctions, which now far outnumber those directed against any other country on earth, but nevertheless have failed.
On the other hand, beyond the adverse impact on consumers and small/medium businesses, caused by rising energy bills, general inflation, and the prospects of serious heating scarcity this winter, EU’s sanctions against Russia are causing irreparable damage to the continent’s economy.
Energy intensive manufacturing companies are going bankrupt or movi... , attracted by lower energy costs, prompting business closures, a deterioration of trade balances, a severe erosion of the Euro currency, job losses, the destruction of the continent’s manufacturing competitive advantage built over decades and an inevitable and severe recession in the coming months.
The overall political and social impact of these events on the continent’s future is still unclear as there is no escaping to Europe's lack of natural resources.
EU’s decisions in support of Ukraine have purportedly been taken in the name of democracy, the rule of law, and western values, and against a military action by Russia, often-mentioned as unprovoked and illegal.
The EU appears to have been also concerned about the unsettling of post-World War II borders – or rather the national frontiers that followed the end of the Cold War – and has expressed unfounded fears that Russia’s actions in Ukraine are the prelude for further aggression in Europe.
Deep down, through its actions against Russia, the European leadership psyche seems to have had a cathartic release, unleashing an old Russophobia manifested in Europe over decades, if not centuries, melding together Czarist Russia, the Soviet Union and the Russian Federation, in an effort to portray and convince the average European about an inherent Russian malignity that needs to be rooted out once and for all.
In its one-sided defense of Ukraine, the EU has been unwilling to recognize and accept the civil war character of the Ukraine conflict, Russia’s legitimate security concerns, and its ongoing warnings about it over years, the historical background of a conflict rooted on the mistreatment of Ukraine’s Russian-speaking population, that worsened after the US-financed Ukraine coup in 2014, and its failure to support a diplomatic settlement in 2015 – i.e. the Minsk agreements -, in which they played a mayor facilitating role.
The EU ignores the deep flaws of the current Ukraine government, and the society it has tried to create, both defined now by blatant corruption, political persecution of opposition (official kill lists), and an ultra-nationalist ideology, all this hardly reflecting so-called European values.
Sadly, the EU has been incapable to develop an autonomous and justly self-serving European alternative in the conflict and has become hostage of the US-hegemonist agenda.
By refusing to take a balanced approach, the EU is disqualifying itself to be an honest broker on peace negotiations that sooner rather than later will need to start, to end the conflict.
Non-European countries, like Turkey and Saudi Arabia, are now taking the lead, reflected for instance in the recent Russo-Ukrainian prisoner exchange, a prominent role unthinkable only a few months ago, which is embarrassing for Europe given its traditional place in diplomacy.
Europe’s capitulation to the US agenda is of course not new and had a glaring precedent in the support of NATO’s bombing of Serbia in 1999 and the dismemberment of Serbia, with the creation of the Kosovo enclave.
Nowadays, the EU upper crust tramples on basic principles of democracy, and sovereignty, through its attempts to drop the unanimity principle in the EU’s decision-making process.
Furthermore, the EU leadership is opportunistically using the Ukraine conflict to preserve its existence, and even trying to morph itself into a de facto military alliance, an aberration from its original aims.
The EU behavior reflects a political and military marasmus that had its roots in the outcome of World War II.
The United Kingdom has had a similar trajectory in international relations, but at least it has been consistent with its old pro-Atlantic views, and has had a bit more of care and concern for its own independence and sovereignty, at least insofar as dominance by continental Europe is concerned.
Only an existential shock in Europe, which may come this coming winter, will enable its society, and their politicians to understand where their true interests lie and how to take proper action.
Comment
EU Dependence on Russian Oil, Gas, Coal, etc.
Trump told the Germans, they were too dependent on Russian gas, in 2018.
They pooh-poohed and laughed at him.
The Germans are not laughing now, as they face de-industrialization on a massive scale.
Assimilating Ukraine into the Western World
Europe was foolishly supporting the US-instigated/financed, color revolution, in Ukraine, in 2014, which violently ousted a democratically elected President.
"Fuck-the-EU" Ms. Victoria Nuland, Assistant Secretary of State, a former Ukrainian, was one of the on-site organizers of the Kiev Coup.
https://www.windtaskforce.org/profiles/blogs/the-plot-is-thickening...
The scenario would be to:
1) Turn Ukraine, and most of East Europe, into a NATO armed camp to "bark at the gates of Russia", per the Pope.
2) Implement a State/Defense Department dream scenario, i.e., weaken Russia by:
- Forcing it to fight a NATO-weaponized Ukraine “for as long as it takes”
- Imposing sanctions to destroy the Russian economy
- Undermine political stability in Russia, etc., with foreign-financed NGOs, to foster opposition groups, and achieve regime changes
- Break up centuries-old Russia in independent states that would be more easily manipulated
- Take control of Russia’s vast natural resources, which would be of great benefit to the Western world, especially the resource-starved EU/UK.
3) France, Germany, Ukraine, etc., stonewalling Russia regarding implementing the Minsk accords, for 8 years, while:
- Building up the Ukraine army with NATO training and weaponry
- Tattoo-ed, Neo-Nazi "army personnel" performing a punishing genocide of about 12,000 Donbass men, women and children, which was not, or insufficiently, reported by the US/UK/EU media. The EU does not have the moral right to accuse Russia of committing war crimes in Ukraine, because the EU ignored the Kiev’s nationalists shelling and killing of civilians in Donbass, for 8 years.
- Kiev nationalists, with elements of neo-NAZI-extremists, armed with all sorts of NATO weapons, are ruining Ukraine, because they refused to give "autonomy-while-being-part-of-Ukraine" to the Donbass area; a Minsk Agreement requirement.
The Donbass area is populated almost entirely by Russian-speakers, who, while enduring genocide for 8 years:
- Had been living in the Donbass area, for hundreds of years, before the state of Ukraine even existed.
- Had become "Ukrainian" in 1990, without being asked to vote on it
- Had their Russian Orthodox Church taken away from them by Kiev’s nationalists
- Had their Russian language declared illegal by Kiev’s nationalists
- Had their Russian language media replaced by Ukrainian language media by Kiev’s nationalists
NOTE: The US/EU-instigated/financed color revolutions in Belarus (big fertilizer/potash exporter) and Kazakhstan (big oil/gas exporter) in 2021 and 2022, to effect regime changes and assimilate them into the Western world, were unsuccessful.
Europe/UK Lack Natural Resources
Clueless EU bureaucrats, whose first priority is creating the appearance of being green, imposed US-demanded sanctions on Russia, resulting in a multi-year economic recession in Europe
Europe has no choice but to outsource its natural gas deliveries to the US, etc., which is charging 3 to 4 times for its LNG, as Russia was charging for its pipeline gas!!
It is highly likely, the US/UK-dominated NATO blew up Russia’s Nordstream 1 and 2 pipelines, to eliminate any future low-cost competition from Russia.
The short-sighted EU bureaucrats have screwed Europeans big-time
Europeans are burning their own household trash to stay warm.
Europeans are cutting down CO2-absorbing trees in the forests to stay warm
How good is that for the environment?
Europe’s expensive wind, solar, battery, etc., policies, to “save the planet”, have done far more damage to the planet and to Europe’s economy than foreseen
Europe Teetering on Economic Ruin
Energy-intensive factories are being shuttered, many of them permanently.
In 2022, the UK claimed the highest household electricity bills in Europe; that “honor” was earlier claimed by Denmark and Germany, both wind, solar, battery, etc., mavens.
The UK’s National Grid warned British households to prepare for blackouts between 4 pm and 7 pm on "really, really cold" weekdays in January and February.
Business bankruptcies in the UK are now at their highest level since the 2009 financial crisis.
China halted all resales of LNG sourced from Russian gas; that LNG typically would end up in Europe.
The EU's sanctions on Russian oil and gas will shut down Russian oil delivery to Europe in just over a month.
Russia will sell its oil elsewhere for rubles, or that country's currency, because dollars and euros are worthless to Russia, because of the pre-meditated sanctions
https://www.zerohedge.com/commodities/russia-leans-turkey-india-chi...
The EU sanctions are an "Economic Jonestown"
US/UK/EU climate nincompoops are celebrating the economic and human devastation as winter closes in.
US LNG shipments into Europe are pricing 3 to 4 times US prices; a very nice payday for the well-connected.
New England faces gas shortages due to a New York State ban of pipeline expansion to serve New England
The 1920 US Jones Act bans LNG shipments from Louisiana ports to Boston Harbor
US/UK destruction of Nord Stream 1 and 2 prevents Germany from making a gas deal with Russia
Clueless EU bureaucrats are craping-and-bowing to the clueless Biden regime to protect Europe’s $15 trillion of investments in the US, and its $trillion-plus annual balance of payment surpluses with the US.
Regime Change and Breaking Up Russia, a US/UK Goal Since 1990
The assimilation of Ukraine into the Western world presents opportunities for the US/UK/EU to have regime change and breakup of Russia, similar to the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1990
The US regrets not implementing its goal in the 1990s, when post-Soviet Russia lay in ruins.
Such an outcome would be more likely, if Russia’s 2022-invasion would fail, due to NATO sending weapons to Ukraine “for as long as it takes”
Sanctions Back-Firing on Vulnerable EU
The pre-meditated sanctions to economically weaken Russia largely failed.
Russia sold almost as much oil, gas and coal, etc., as before the sanctions, and at higher prices, which, in 2022, led to a very large balance of payments surplus, and a very strong ruble, and a much stronger economy than hoped for by the US/UK/EU
The sanctions backfired on Europe, which had to find new sources for oil, gas and coal, at much higher prices than it had been paying to Russia.
The sanctions benefitted US LNG producers/exporters and LNG carrier owners.
An Enlarged BRISC
Russia/China/India, etc., about 40% of the world’s population, with a GDP growing at 5 to 6 percent per year, aim to position a greatly enlarged BRICS as a viable, resource-rich, alternative to the Western World. That alternative would have:
- Its own currency, instead of dollars and euros
- Its own SWIFT-like system, instead of the western-dominated, weaponized SWIFT system
- Its own ports, its own freight insurance, and its own LNG and other ships; currently most that is dominated by the UK/EU
Ukraine Blowback onto the US
Biden's incompetent-Socialist posse, exporting our oil, gas and coal, is screwing the US people with higher oil, gas and coal prices.
The energy exports are contributing to 8+% inflation, which is impoverishing everyone.
Biden’s incompetent-Socialist posse want to send another $50 billion to Ukraine to cover 2023.
The US Congress has approved $65 billion in Ukraine aid, since Russia’s February 28, 2022, invasion of Ukraine; 2022 has not yet ended.
Biden’s incompetent-Socialist posse, and its foreign misadventures, such as the disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan, will cause Democrats to lose their ill-gotten control of the US Congress, after the November Election in 2022.
U.S. Sen Angus King
Maine as Third World Country:
CMP Transmission Rate Skyrockets 19.6% Due to Wind Power
Click here to read how the Maine ratepayer has been sold down the river by the Angus King cabal.
Maine Center For Public Interest Reporting – Three Part Series: A CRITICAL LOOK AT MAINE’S WIND ACT
******** IF LINKS BELOW DON'T WORK, GOOGLE THEM*********
(excerpts) From Part 1 – On Maine’s Wind Law “Once the committee passed the wind energy bill on to the full House and Senate, lawmakers there didn’t even debate it. They passed it unanimously and with no discussion. House Majority Leader Hannah Pingree, a Democrat from North Haven, says legislators probably didn’t know how many turbines would be constructed in Maine if the law’s goals were met." . – Maine Center for Public Interest Reporting, August 2010 https://www.pinetreewatchdog.org/wind-power-bandwagon-hits-bumps-in-the-road-3/From Part 2 – On Wind and Oil Yet using wind energy doesn’t lower dependence on imported foreign oil. That’s because the majority of imported oil in Maine is used for heating and transportation. And switching our dependence from foreign oil to Maine-produced electricity isn’t likely to happen very soon, says Bartlett. “Right now, people can’t switch to electric cars and heating – if they did, we’d be in trouble.” So was one of the fundamental premises of the task force false, or at least misleading?" https://www.pinetreewatchdog.org/wind-swept-task-force-set-the-rules/From Part 3 – On Wind-Required New Transmission Lines Finally, the building of enormous, high-voltage transmission lines that the regional electricity system operator says are required to move substantial amounts of wind power to markets south of Maine was never even discussed by the task force – an omission that Mills said will come to haunt the state.“If you try to put 2,500 or 3,000 megawatts in northern or eastern Maine – oh, my god, try to build the transmission!” said Mills. “It’s not just the towers, it’s the lines – that’s when I begin to think that the goal is a little farfetched.” https://www.pinetreewatchdog.org/flaws-in-bill-like-skating-with-dull-skates/
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Hannah Pingree - Director of Maine's Office of Innovation and the Future
"Once the committee passed the wind energy bill on to the full House and Senate, lawmakers there didn’t even debate it. They passed it unanimously and with no discussion. House Majority Leader Hannah Pingree, a Democrat from North Haven, says legislators probably didn’t know how many turbines would be constructed in Maine."
https://pinetreewatch.org/wind-power-bandwagon-hits-bumps-in-the-road-3/
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