War in Ukraine: Elon Musk on The Reason Why

 

The Republican Nation website today published a 2014 video “Linking US To Ukraine’s Political Crisis” that Elon Musk has drawn attention (to). https://republicannation.com/musk-resurfaces-2014-video-linking-us-to-ukraines-political-crisis/ The video is an interview with Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) admitting that U.S. policies played a role in removing Viktor Yanukovych,  President of Ukraine (2010 -- 2014), from power.

By releasing the video now, Musk is bringing renewed attention to the role the U.S. played in setting Ukraine on a path to war. Well, that’s today’s news, but on March 7, 2025, exactly 11 years ago, I wrote a similar essay https://thegreygrater.blogspot.com/2014/03/plan-x-for-ukraine-game-changer.html. I am republishing it here because if you want to end this war, you damn well better know why it started.

Now (2014) that Russian President Vladimir Putin has gotten his way in Crimea and Ukraine, thanks in no small measure to the bumbling bureaucrats in Brussels, and the naïve amateurs in America (Obama Administration).  

There is nothing this administration and its allies have but excuses. American military action in the Ukraine, with Mr. Obama as Commander in Chief, is off the table. We’re spread too thin. NATO intervention requiring the support of European capitals – never happened. Besides, Ukraine is not a member of NATO, so no Charter obligation. Economic sanctions sure, but the other side can play that game too. In fact, the crisis has increased energy prices that will compensate Russia for lost revenue from other sources. Other sanctions such as visas, suspending multi-lateral talks, canceling meeting participation, and White House non-participation in the Sochi Paralympics Games, are all under consideration.

This explains a lot as to why American and European foreign policy has been so risible and pathetic. The Russians, Chinese, Israelis, Egyptians, and others, understand that the world is a dangerous place, even deadly, not classroom exercises. Lives are at stake, and the possibility of a catastrophic event is not science fiction. History for these people is long and incredibly serious, and not correlated to today’s bankrupt sensibilities and cultural deprivation.

If you follow the dialogue between Messrs. Putin and Sergey Lavrov on the one side, and Messrs. Obama and Kerry on the other, you would think you went through time and found yourself in March 1999. But, it would be confusing. Then it was Bill Clinton and Madeleine Albright, playing the parts of Putin and Lavrov defending NATO’s duty to go to war in Kosovo, and Boris Yeltsin and Igor Ivanov searching for a peaceful solution. It’s true, where you sit is where you stand.

Bill Clinton and Madeleine Albright lied about the “atrocities” being committed in Kosovo leading up to the war in March 1999. What was going on in Kosovo in 1999 was a military campaign waged by the Kosovo Liberation Army (“KLA”), to separate Kosovo from Serbia, and eventually create a greater Albania, made up of Albania, Kosovo, northern Macedonia, and the Preševo Valley in Serbia. The so-called humanitarian disaster in Kosovo was orchestrated by the KLA, not Serbia. Mr. Clinton’s statement to the nation, read: “We act to protect thousands of innocent people,” while Madeleine Albright chirped endlessly about atrocities being committed by the Serbs. It was all lies. The real perpetrator was the KLA, Mr. Clinton’s and Madame Albright’s “freedom fighters.”

Moreover, the KLA took advantage of the Holbrooke Agreement (Rambouillet) in October 1998, in which Serbia removed its forces from Kosovo, to conduct its bloody military campaign. This was never made public. There were very few incidents of Albanian civilians being attacked by Serbian forces (see OSCE reports of monitoring groups). The total number of Albanian civilians killed before the war started in March 1999, was at most, 47. So the rai·son d'être for NATO to go to war was at best suspicious.

Today we know we were being told more lies by the Obama Administration and the European Union (“EU”).  On February 18, protesters attack police lines and set fires outside parliament. Riot police respond to the violence by trying to push protesters off Independence Square. At least 26 people died and hundreds were injured. On February 20, hours after a truce is announced, violence resumes, with snipers shooting protesters from the rooftops. All the Western media and government officials reported that the snipers were under orders from the Ukrainian Government of President Viktor Yanukovych.

Not so fast. First reported on ZeroHedge.com, on March 5, 2014, a new recording of a telephone conversation between EU foreign affairs head Catherine Ashton and Estonian foreign minister Urmas Paet, revealed this disturbing news: In the conversation, Mr. Paet states that:

    “the killing was from both sides, policemen and people from the street… So there is now stronger                 and stronger understanding that behind the snipers, it was not Yanukovych, but it was somebody                 from the new coalition.”

The upshot is: first the United States orchestrated and foments the overthrow of the legally elected Yanukovych government because the West did not like his decision on the EU; and now we learn the leaders of the newly installed Coalition Government, were the ones who ordered the killings in the Maidan Square in Kyiv, the capital city of the Ukraine. There is evidence to suggest that the Coalition Government that came to power with US and EU support,  murdered its own people to fabricate the pretext under which it took power. 

Does this act remind you of anything? That’s right, Kosovo.

The Coalition was running the KLA playbook, and the US and EU were laying down cover. But this time their hand is weak. NATO is a shell of its former self, and Russia is not Serbia. As a result, Crimea and Eastern Ukraine are now for all intents and purposes part of Russia.

And finally, Mr. Obama now tells us that what Russia is doing violates international law. He lectures:

    “There is a strong belief that Russia’s action is violating international law. I know President Putin                 seems to have a different set of lawyers making a different set of interpretations, but I don’t think                 that’s fooling anybody.”

Well, Mr. Obama and Mr. Putin must have hired the same lawyers Bill Clinton and Tony Blair had to justify NATO’s war in Serbia (Kosovo). Then the Russians argued that the Kosovo War and recognition of Kosovo’s independence was a violation of international law, a UN Resolution, the UN Charter, and the principle of national sovereignty forged out of the horror of World War II. So, Mr. Obama, the only one fooling anybody is you, your Administration, and the Brussels bureaucrats. Kosovo was folly, and until you correct that mistake, it is disingenuous to tell others they are acting badly.

Mr. Obama and company have another foreign policy failure on their hands. A word to the people of Ukraine -- do you really think a man like Mr. Obama, who would not save his own Ambassador in Benghazi, Libya against a band of terrorists, would come to your rescue?

He didn’t! Hence, under the Biden Administration, the war in Ukraine has raged on since February 2022 to the present with millions of lives lost on both sides. 

Well, that’s the story, and humanity can only weep.

Trump’s Gaza Proposal

During a press conference held at the White House on February 4th, with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Trump said, “The US will take over the Gaza Strip.” 

 

Trump on other occasions has said ‘he would like to see all Palestinians move to other Arab countries.’ He further proffered that Palestinian control of Gaza “will never work.” And he added: “You have to learn from history.” It should also be noted that there is no Palestinian state and no sovereign power in the territory.

 

When I was doing a residency with the Department of Hospitals, New York City, in 1968, the Commissioner would allow me to attend many of his staff meetings, in which one short phrase would silence the room: “let me tell you how it is.” Well, regarding Trump’s Gaza proposal, let me tell you how it is. As in many of President Trump’s pronouncements, the truth is in the details, and hidden from naive eyes. 

 

The idea of Gaza as an American protectorate is a red herring. Technically since Gaza is not a State, it cannot be a US protectorate. However, it can be a US quasi-protectorate, giving the US exclusive control or influence in the territory. I would posit that the Middle East would have difficulty accepting Israel's return to Gaza. however, the US in Gaza is ‘a horse of another color,’ and therefore is feasible.

 

The Palestinians, of course, don’t get it, or more likely don’t want to. This is the hard truth that Trump understands. The Palestinian population’s attitudes and ideology towards Israel have not been broken by its latest war. The war against Israel has been the policy of the Palestinians since, at least, 1948, in which every child has been indoctrinated into the hatred and destruction of the Israeli people and their state, i.e. "from the river to the sea."  

 

Senior Hamas official Khalil al-Hayya repeated the terrorist organization’s commitment to the destruction of Israel in his first public remarks (January 17, 2025). Al-Hayya described the Oct. 7, 2023, massacre of 1,200 people in Israel as a “miraculous” achievement, declaring the atrocities would “remain a source of pride” for Palestinians, “passed down through generations.” Hamas terrorists “will expel the occupation from our land and from Al Quds [Jerusalem] at the earliest time possible.” (Jewish News Syndicate)

 

Now, let me tell you this. Trump’s proposal changes the conversation, which is genius. Without a culturally bankrupt terrorist territory on Israel’s southern border, one gigantic obstacle to peace in the Middle East is solved, which also would allow Israel and other actors to concentrate on Iran, the real tyrannical state in the Middle East. Public enemy number one if you will.

 

In conclusion, the Palestinians essentially had a “Palestinian State” in Gaza and the West Bank, since the Oslo Accords in 1993. But, have created nothing; absolutely nothing except tunnels to destroy Israel. Someone should have told them that this is not the 7th Century. Maybe living elsewhere, in a civilized society, will destroy the ideology that has prevented peace in the Middle East.  

Israel’s War on Terrorism: Lessons From History

It should be perfectly clear that Israel’s war on terrorism is both a war against state and non-state terrorists. The state actors are Hamas and Iran (Turkey under Erdogan), while the non-state actors are Hezbollah, Houthis, and the Islamic Republic. Destruction of both is essential for a lasting peace.

However, we are now told that a cease-fire and hostage exchange is scheduled for Sunday, January 19, 2025, the day before Donald J. Trump will be inaugurated as the 47th president of the United States of America. The first phase is the release of civilian women, children, and those over 50 held hostage by Hamas (approximately 33 of the 100 people held by Hamas, yet most experts believe that half of the remaining hostages are dead). In exchange, Israel will release Hamas terrorists aka prisoners (approximately 12 for 1 or 396), and a withdrawal from populated parts of Gaza. Phase two includes the release of all other hostages by Hamas and a full pullout of Israeli troops. The final phase would include a return of the bodies of the hostages who died in captivity and the start of Gaza’s reconstruction. During the phases, the United Nations would assume a leading role in governing Gaza.

This settlement for Israel borders on the psychotic! 

The lessons of history clearly predict that this settlement will result in further bloodshed and negate the sacrifices already made by Israel’s soldiers and civilian population. 

The very best understanding of this is the brilliant work of John David Lewis’s scholarly book, Nothing Less Than Victory: Decisive Wars And The Lessons of History (Princeton University Press, 2010). Professor Lewis proffers that “conflicts began (sic) with an act of military aggression (in this case against an unarmed civilian population) ... The goal of war is the subjugation of the hostile will ... the object of war is now and has always been, the overcoming of the hostile will to resist ... When that will is broken, then capitulation follows.”

Now think about this “peace deal”. Hamas’s will has not been broken. The terrorist state continues its fight. The Palestinian population’s attitudes and ideology towards Israel have not been broken. In fact, they were dancing in their streets of rubble when news of a peace deal was announced. They do not believe they were defeated -- just another ceasefire in their war to destroy the Israeli State. There has been no surrender! (1)

I would proffer that the lesson of Japan’s unconditional surrender in 1945 is the template for ending the war in Gaza and lasting peace. War was a national policy for Japan since 1889.  One of the most powerful documents in modern Japanese history was the 1890, “Imperial Rescript on Education,” which obligated every child to a system of education that focused on “worshipful obedience to the emperor, sacrifice to the nation, and warrior virtues.”

Similarly, the war against Israel has been the policy of the Palestinians since, at least, 1947, in which every child was indoctrinated into the hatred and destruction of the Israeli people and their state, i.e. "from the river to the sea."  

Professor Lewis instructs that the educational focal point for Japanese students was the imperial portraits. Similarly, Yasser Arafat’s likeness was the ubiquitous focal point for Palestinians. 

According to Professor Lewis and other historians, “To achieve victory, one must first know what victory is ... for the United States, it was the total and permanent destruction of Japan’s will and capacity to fight." That meant: unconditional surrender. Israel’s war with terrorist states and non-terrorist state actors, it means the destruction of an ideology that is based on the hatred of Israel and the Jewish people. And more importantly, every Palestinian must be convinced beyond a doubt of their defeat. (2)

In 1945, the American attitude towards Japan was: “The entire population of Japan is a proper Military Target ... There Are No Civilians in Japan.” The Potsdam Declaration of July 26, 1945, signed by the United States, Great Britain, and China was an ultimatum. There was no negotiation. It reads in part:

“The time has come for Japan to decide whether she will continue to be controlled by those self-willed militaristic advisers whose unintelligent calculations have brought the Empire of Japan to the threshold of annihilation, or whether she will follow the path of reason."

As an ultimatum, it eliminated any possibility of negotiation between the foes.

Similarly, the time has come for the Palestinians to decide. It should not be a settlement for the end of hostilities and an outrageous exchange of hostages and terrorist prisoners between Israel and the Palestinians that should be adopted, but a Potsdam-like Ultimatum. 

Furthermore, there is no place for the United Nations (UN) in post-war Gaza. The UN has failed in every peacekeeping mission and its unambiguous anti-Semitism is well documented. The most important goal of post-war Gaza must be to eliminate the ideology that has prevented peace. Teachers will need to be replaced and textbooks rewritten, to discredit the ideology that gives rise to this hatred. History has repeatedly proffered that defeat must be real, or a lasting peace is illusionary and fleeting.

In conclusion, Professor Lewis imparts to us this important lesson:

“that the fact of defeat ... led to lasting peace only when the fact of defeat was openly recognized and the legitimacy of the victor’s terms was accepted by the vanquished."

________________________________________

1. Senior Hamas official Khalil al-Hayya repeated the terrorist organization’s commitment to the destruction of Israel in his first public remarks (January 17, 2025) since green-lighting the truce deal with the Jewish state on Wednesday night. According to al-Hayya, the terrorist group during negotiations succeeded in thwarting Israel’s “declared and hidden goals…” Al-Hayya described the Oct. 7, 2023, massacre of 1,200 people in Israel as a “miraculous” achievement, declaring the atrocities would “remain a source of pride” for Palestinians, “passed down through generations.” Hamas terrorists “will expel the occupation from our land and from Al Quds [Jerusalem] at the earliest time possible,” al-Hayya promised, adding: “Our enemy will never see a moment of weakness from us” (Jewish News Syndicate). 

2. “I sat with children aged 4 and 8 who were saying ‘spit on the Jew.’ There are 2 million terrorists in Gaza, don’t be mistaken. They’re all terrorists there.” A quote from Liri Albag, who was just released from Hamas captivity ( January 27, 2025), tells what she saw in Gaza while she was a hostage.

“The Eve of Destruction” Biden’s Immigration Policy

 Don't you understand, what I'm trying to say?

Can't you feel the fears that I'm feeling today?

Take a look around you, boy, it's bound to scare you, boy

And you tell me over and over and over again my friend

Ah, you don't believe we're on the eve of destruction

 

Bob Dylan / P.F. Sloan 

Eve Of Destruction (1965)

It has taken a while for America’s oblivious Main Stream Media (MSM) to begin to comprehend that bringing in millions of undocumented aliens to boost the Democratic voter roles may not be as great an idea as once thought when it also brings in communicable diseases. 

The Biden Administration is running Obama’s playbook for the destruction of a free America. One ruled not by laws but by tyrants; both the bureaucratic and judicial types. 

Opening up the southern border to communicable diseases, Mexican Drug Cartels, and Islamic Jihadists hasn’t deterred the Biden Administration and Democratic members of Congress. So now Mr. Biden permits and dare I say encourages, the introduction of communicable diseases, to the United States and the North American Continent without deterrence.

The CDC, it should be noted, was originally an agency within the U.S. Public Health Service (USPHS). The USPHS was founded in 1798. Its earliest mission was the care of sick and disabled seamen in USPHS-established hospitals. But more significantly to the matter at hand, in 1878, the USPHS mission was expanded to take on control of infectious diseases, including quarantine, which previously had been a state function. As immigration increased, in the late 19th century, the USPHS took on the responsibility.

Yet today, millions of illegal immigrants cross our borders without even a cursory examination of their medical condition. I guess the Biden Administration did not get the memo on who is responsible in this county to evaluate and if necessary quarantine and deny admission to an individual for communicable diseases. That was not meant as a joke.

Finally, we are lectured that the American public should be compassionate with these people who only want to improve their lives for themselves and their children. Well, we have we heard that “compassion” thing a lot these past 3 years. Nevertheless, why has the Biden Administration turned a blind eye to U.S. Code, Section 34.3 of 42 CFR Part 34[1]? Should not Mr. Biden be concerned that thousands of illegal immigrants are coming across our borders with infectious diseases such as drug-resistant tuberculosis; COVID-19; hepatitis A and B; sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) - gonorrhea, syphilis, herpes, trichomoniasis, chlamydia; mumps; chickenpox; dengue fever; etc. 

However, these diseases are not just confined to border states, as illegal aliens are systematically dispersed across the nation, it becomes a potentially perilous danger for the entire nation. 

Still, the Powers To Be tells us not to worry. The United States Public Health Service, Centers for Disease Control (CDC), National Institute of Health (NIH), The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID); et al, will be there to ensure our safety. Never mind that just in the recent past, the NIH, CDC, and NIAID: 

1. Mishandled live anthrax;

2. Misplaced live smallpox;

3. Mislabeled influenza virus that had been cross-contaminated 

  with the highly deadly H5NI strain of bird flu.

4. Destroyed America’s confidence in its ability to fight infectious diseases in its handling of the COVID-19 virus.

5. Destroyed America’s confidence in effective vaccines.

If you think this is the worst that can happen - think again. Throughout history, mankind has been devastated by a pathogen commonly referred to as the “Plague." Infected with the pathogen Yersinia pestis, a disease vector will transmit to another living organism (people), and once infected, humans will transfer the disease to other humans. For example, in Simon Sebag Montefiore’s history, The World, he notes that “the plague had killed 30,000 people in the first year of James I’s reign (1603 to 1625), and 40,000 in 1625, ... then kllled 100,000 Britons out of a population of 5.2 million in the summer of 1665.” Another example in Montefiore’s history is that “in 1720, the plague’s last European wave killed 90,000 out of 150,000 people in Marseilles.” 

However, it should be noted that, today you can bypass the vector and create the bacilli and virus in a lab.[2]

These examples are left to history, however, there is always history yet to be written. We can take nothing for granted. Our government has a duty to protect the American people from all enemies, including the threat to literally the health of our Nation. 

The pandemic potential of this moronic and inept decision to allow unfettered illegal immigration into our country by the Biden Administration should alarm any rational person. And who stands between a catastrophic pandemic and us? Indeed, a politically correct DEI Dr. Rachel Levine, aka Richard Levine, the Assistant Secretary for Health at the US Department of Health and Human Services, the first openly transgender four-star officer across the nation’s eight uniformed services; the NIH; the NIAID; the CDC; and the Biden Administration. 

The salient question is this. Can a nation survive the pathological and pathetic leadership we have today in the United States? The question is rhetorical. No. Not unless there is a change in government.

[1] This provision provides specific screening and testing requirements for diseases that meet the definition of a communicable disease of public health significance.

[2] COVID-19: Made In China https://thegreygrater.blogspot.com/2021/05/covid-19-made-in-china.html

The Tucker Carlson / Putin Interview

 

Well, I heard Mr. Wallace talk about him

Well, I heard ol’ Chris put him down

Well, I hope Chris Wallace will remember

A real American don’t need him around anyhow [1]

 

Chris Wallace, the journalistic legacy tosser, was not impressed with Tucker Carlson’s interview with the Russian President, Vladimir Putin, "The Vladimir Putin Interview," a television interview, that premiered on February 8, 2024, on the Tucker Carlson Network and the social media website X (Twitter). 

 

The Legacy sarcastically opined that it was a “softball interview”, and worse, called Mr. Carlson a “useful idiot.” The latter is a phrase used by and often attributed to Joseph Stalin [2] to describe non-communists (liberals and progressives in the parlance of our day) regarded as susceptible to communist propaganda and psychological manipulation. Mr. Wallace was particularly critical of Mr. Carlson for not pressing Mr. Putin on why he (Russia) invaded Ukraine, a sovereign country. [3] However, Mr. Wallace did not disclose why he did not vigorously pressure then-President William Clinton and his Secretary of State Madeleine  Albright, in 1999, when the United States of America (officially NATO) invaded Serbia, also a sovereign country. [4]

 

In my view, Mr. Carlson’s interview with the Russian President, Vladimir Putin, was a service to America and the free world. Regardless of whether you agree or disagree with the interview’s form and substance, it was a fact that for over two hours, the international free world had an opportunity to understand Russia’s point of view on the war in Ukraine. 

 

Recently, I read 1476 pages of Michael T. Florinsky's brilliant history, Russia: A History and An Interpretation, Volumes I & II. As a student in the 1960s at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, his work was the text for my two semesters of Russian history. Professor (Columbia University) Florinsky's Russian history is an outstanding achievement that in my opinion is unparalleled. The depth of his understanding of Russian history is judicious and eminently insightful. If you wish to understand Russia and Putin today, you need to read these books.

 

Accordingly, I was able to listen to this interview with, I believe, a measure of clarity not common to most listeners, which certainly would include Mr. Wallace. Mr. Putin’s account of Russian history was in my view factual. 

 

It should not be doubted that Russia’s history is the sine qua non of Mr. Putin’s rationale for his policy decisions regarding Ukraine. And, if you want to end this war, you damn well better know why it started.

The Bolshevik Brest - Litovsk Peace Treaty of March 3, 1918, with the Central powers, [5] deprived Russia of her Polish, Baltic (Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania), and Belorussian provinces. Moreover, Russia also had to recognize the independence of Ukraine and Finland. It was also understood that granting Ukraine independence in 1918 meant the immediate invasion by Austro-German troops following Russian troop removal from Ukrainian territory. However, Ukraine's bid for independence at the Paris Peace Conference in 1919 was rejected, which led to the incorporation of Ukraine into the Soviet Union. 

 

Subsequently, World War II (WWII) led to Nazi Germany's invasion and occupation of the Ukraine in July 1941, as part of the German invasion of the USSR. [6] This lasted until Spring 1944 when the Red Army began to penetrate into Galicia, and by the end of October, all of Ukraine was again under Soviet control. After WWII, the Potsdam Agreement, in August 1945, [7] and the Paris Peace Treaties signed on February 10, 1947, [8] formally recognized Soviet control over the recovered territories. In 1945 Ukraine, became a Soviet quasi-state, and a charter member of the United Nations. However, Ukraine was one of the constituent republics of the Soviet Union from 1922 until 1991 and was governed by the Communist Party of the Soviet Union through, the Communist Party of Ukraine. Independence for the Ukraine was finally realized on August 24, 1991.

 

The pathological silence of Russian policy deliberations has always made it difficult to discern Russian intentions. However, when complete understanding is not knowable, it does not preclude or prohibit educated estimations, which then serve to craft intelligent policy decisions and the basis for a peace negotiation. I would proffer that Mr. Putin’s invasion of the Ukraine was taken by his perceived assessment of President Biden’s commitment to the Ukraine. [9] Meaning, that he (Russia) would not be challenged militarily by the United States or NATO. [10]

 

If Kyiv is to have peace, it will only result in a clear-headed appraisal and realistic assessment of the situ. Peace, I would proffer, is not a choice between status quo ante bellum, and the total annexation of the Ukraine by Russia, but rather something in between. Although a final solution may be onerous, the alternative may be catastrophic. The continued casus belli serves no one, except war profiteers. 

At present, the United States and its European allies seem perfectly prepared to carry on with the destruction of Ukraine, at the expense of Ukrainian and Russian lives, even though the legitimate interests of the combatants are a peaceful solution. Peace should not be sacrificed to political ambition and corruption, who at the moment seemed determined to fight this war to the last drop of blood. [11]

 1. To paraphrase Lynyrd Skynyrd’s song “Sweet Home Alabama,” recorded in June 1973, by songwriters: Ronnie Van Zant, Gary Robert Rossington, and Edward C. King.

 2. Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin, was leader of the Soviet Union from 1924 until he died in 1953.

 3. Mr. Wallace’s lament, it is believed, refers to Russia’s most recent incursion in February 2022. Yet there was an earlier incursion in 2014 that resulted in the Russian annexation of the Crimea and Donbas region of Ukraine.

 4. NATO's 1999 military campaign against Serbia (Kosovo). The Americans and Europeans via NATO made a political decision backed by its military might at the time. The U.N. Resolution 1244 negotiated to end the war, and guaranteed Serbian interests and sovereignty in Kosovo. Yet, in February 2008, then US President George W Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, supported the Albanian Kosovars' declaration of Independence from Serbia -- a clear violation of international law, a UN Resolution, and the principle of national sovereignty forged out of the horror of World War II. Moreover, the crisis in Georgia (2008) was a direct result of American and European actions in Kosovo (Serbia). 

5. The Central powers in World War I (WWI), included Germany, Austria, Italy, and Turkey. Bulgaria also joined the Central Powers late in the war, however, although it was too late in the war little attention should be given.

6. AKA Operation Barbarossa, the Axis invasion of the Soviet Union.

7. The Agreement among three of the Allies of WWII: the United States, the United Kingdom, and the Soviet Union.

8. Paris Peace Treaties, (1947) series of treaties between the Allied powers and five defeated European countries that had been aligned with Germany and the Axis powers during World War II, specifically Italy, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, and Finland.

9. Vienna 1961 Redux: The Putin / Biden 2021 Geneva Summit http://thegreygrater.blogspot.com/2021/06/vienna-1961-redux-putin-biden-2021

10. There should be little doubt that the United States “is” NATO.

11. Baron Manfred von Richthofen; the full quote is, “Fight on and fly on to the last drop of blood and the last drop of fuel, to the last beat of the heart.” 

Palestinian Atrocities

On Friday, Caroline B. Glick, the exceptional senior contributing editor of the Jewish News Syndicate (https://www.jns.org/hamass-deception-and-our-self-deception/) astutely wrote:

"But Saturday’s slaughter made clear—and not for the first or the hundredth time—that this isn’t a political conflict. It is an existential one. And it isn’t only between Israel and Hamas. It is between the vast majority of the Palestinian people, and the entirety of the Palestinian leadership, who actively seek Israel’s physical annihilation and the genocide of world Jewry, and the Jews, who seek to live in peace and freedom in the Jewish State of Israel."

The salient point that must be understood is that this is not simply terrorism (Hamas, Palestinian Authority, Islamic Jihad, Hezbollah, et.al.) but state-sponsored terrorism (Iran, Qatar, Turkey, Syria, Lebanon, et.al.). Look at the scatological protests in the US, Europe, Australia, and the Middle East supporting the attack on Israel and the killing of innocents. Americans, especially American Jewry must understand that Biden and Obama and their Administrations by supporting these state and terrorist entities are also enemies of the United States. 

The world today is precariously endangered. William J. Clinton, George W. Bush, Barack H. Obama, and Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. have been American presidents. Their State Departments and National Security teams have been, by in large, incompetent and pathologically stupid. We’ve had a Christopher, an Albright, a Powell, a Rice, a Clinton, a Kerry, and an Antony John Blinken. That begs the question, who has been educating these people, at Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Georgetown, Columbia, Dartmouth, and Denver University?

The misfeasance of the past 31 years of American Diplomacy, minus the Trump Years, has been an embarrassment. But more importantly, the tumult and upheaval that sweep the world brings death and destruction to the innocent.  Their records of failures are not individual acts of misjudgment but repeated acts of institutional incompetence that manifest themselves in indefensible ignorance. In other words, realpolitik surrenders to the capriciousness of individual hubris. The consequences of limiting your circle of advisers to a small, relatively inexperienced coterie, with no creditable foreign policy experience, and a dubious record for wisdom, can prove disastrous. Again, who has been educating these people, at Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Georgetown, Columbia, Dartmouth, and Denver University? 

The brilliant historian Rebecca West proffered when writing about the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria in Sarajevo on June 14, 1914, that it defied understanding. Speaking about the Archdukes' visit to Bosnia, she wrote, "To pay that visit was an act so suicidal that one fumbles the pages of the history books to find if there is not some explanation of his going ..." The Archduke's assassination is viewed by many as the "spark" that ignited WWI. However, the truth is that Austrian Foreign Minister Leopold Berthold and Austrian Chief of the General Staff Franz Graf Conrad von Hötzendorf were together the true instigators of WWI, along with Germany's Chief of the General Staff Helmuth von Moltke, who strong-armed the Austrian's Emperor Franz Joseph I and Germany's Kaiser Wilhelm II,  respectively, to approve the Schlieffen Plan (in which Germany would stage an attack on France by marching west through the neutral territory of the Netherlands and Belgium), thus igniting histories most catastrophic war. 

The aforementioned portrayal of the events that precipitated WWI is proffered so as to fully appreciate the precarious nature of the global political order. These men were prepared to sacrifice world order to their interests of playing war games to settle old scores. Unlike WWII where events clearly forecasted the coming catastrophe, the First World War began almost as a lark that was forecast to be over in months, but certainly not the beginning of the nightmare it became. The insightful illocution of the brilliant poet Robert Burns says it well: 

            I'm truly sorry man's dominion

         Has broken Nature's social union,

         The best-laid schemes o' mice an' men,

                        Gang aft a-gley,

Now, what are we to make of the world today? There is no question that 'time marches on -- time waits for no man'. However, when and how it marches is not always in a straight line and with a precise timetable. Will there be WWIII or the Second American Civil War? What spark will ignite the world today?  What black swan will arise? The prediction of future events is work for an augur, not an analyst. However, today more than ever, we need an American Foreign Policy that understands the deadly seriousness the world has become, that the defense of the American people, the welfare of our troops, and the free world cannot be predicated on social justice and politically correct baloney.

"The world is a dangerous place to live; not because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who don't do anything about it," Albert Einstein

Vienna 1961 Redux: The Putin / Biden 2021 Geneva Summit

You don’t need a crystal ball to predict the consequences of the scandal over U.S. spying on European governments will have on the G7 summit in England, June 11-13 (2021). It will have little. However, it will cast a giant shadow over the critical meeting between Russian President Vladimir V. Putin, and United States President Joseph R. Biden Jr., in Geneva Switzerland, June 16th. This massive scandal, regardless how the mass media wishes to portray it, has shredded the US’s playbook for the summit.

 

The White House, and some Democratic members of Congress, as well as anti-Russian European lawmakers, were huffing and puffing that Biden would reproach Putin over allegations of the Kremlin’s malign conduct. Those allegations include Russian intelligence agencies and hackers interfering in Western democracies. How terribly ironic! For people willing to see the truth, this disclosure now, is a powerful self-indicting and hypocritical revelation of American and European elitists actual malign conduct.

The face to face summit was intended to demonstrate Mr. Biden as a world leader, which could set the stage for US / Russian superpower relationship for his presidency, and further the Russian / Chinese divide. Now, Mr. Putin can hardly believe his good fortunate. Yet, when dealing with US Presidents, except Donald Trump, he has always made out well. The general opinion in Russia is that recent liberal Democratic Presidents such as Carter (Iran), Clinton (Kosovo), Obama (Ukraine), and establishment Republicans such as Bush (Georgia), are, in the parlance of our time, “weak sisters.”

For Mr. Putin, the summit provides an opportunity to size up, or probably confirm his opinion of Mr. Biden, as then Nikita Khrushchev, First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, did in Vienna, Austria, June 3 - 4, 1961*, in his meeting with US President John Fitzgerald Kennedy. Mr. Khrushchev was concerned how Mr. Kennedy would react to Soviet interests in Berlin — meaning the recognition of East Germany as an independent state. Mr. Putin primary concern is how Mr. Biden will react to further Russian incursion in the Ukraine. 

The Geneva Summit is yet to happen. However, it would be irresponsible not to predict what results from this summit. 

Mr. Biden is in over his head. Mr. Putin’s view of Mr. Biden is that he is weak mentally and physically. That his election to President was illegitimate. That his diplomatic record is uneventful. That his political life is spectacularly inept and corrupt. 

Ukrainian unification is not a practical possibility, and I would posit, even the Ukrainians do not want to pay the price to get it back (the annexation of Crimea and the eastern region known as Donbas). So, Mr. Putin will tell Mr. Biden that Russian annexation is the actual state of affairs. Russia will never agree to give up land it has won in the Ukraine. Mr. Biden will reply, as Mr. Kennedy had done in Berlin: 'that Russia can do what it wants to with what is yours, but do not touch what is ours' (meaning the rest of Ukraine). 

However, Mr. Putin will act in accordance with his perceived assessment of Mr. Biden’s commitment to the Ukraine. In my view, this does not augur well for the Ukraine. The summit will confirm Mr. Putin’s impression of Mr. Biden that he can be easily outmaneuver, and therefore Mr. Putin can act more aggressively in his dealings with the United States, and that there would be little price to pay for future engagements.

Thus, given this plausible scenario, it begs the question — does anyone in the Biden Administration read anything but Critical Race Theory (CRT) and/or John Rawls, A Theory of Justice? 

It’s a rhetorical question people!

*For an outstanding history of the Vienna Summit and its crucial consequences, read Frederick Kempe, “Berlin 1961: Kennedy, Khrushchev, And The Most Dangerous Place On Earth,” New York, G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 2011.