Is the Kremlin Deluding Itself Into WW III?
Paul Craig Roberts
John Helmer and I agree that President Trump has lost control over foreign policy to his advisors. https://johnhelmer.net/trump-the-retroactive-how-the-ante-is-upped-before-trump-announces-his-decisions/ [1]
That Trump has lost control is clear from Trump’s reference to Russia as a “paper tiger” and his statement that he believes that Kiev is “in a position to fight and win all of Ukraine back and might be able “to go further,” suggesting invasion of Russia, if the EU and NATO continue to support Ukraine. Russia, Trump says, is in “BIG economic trouble” and that “this is the time for Ukraine to act.”
This is the neoconservative line, and Trump’s advisers have used it to lasso Trump. The peaceful solution seems to be off the table.
Kremlin spokesman Peskov indicates that Russia continues to prefer delusion to reality by announcing that Moscow remains open to seeking a peaceful resolution to the hostilities. While Trump mocks Russia, Peskov stresses that Putin “highly values” Trump’s efforts to mediate the Ukraine conflict and describes the Trump-Putin relationship as “warm.”
If Trump’s advice to Ukraine that it is time to win all of Ukraine back from paper tiger Russia, and perhaps invade Russia as well, is evidence of a warm relationship with Putin, what would be the words that describe a cold or hostile relationship?
https://www.rt.com/russia/625171-russia-responds-trump-paper-tiger/ [2]
President Trump echos my expressed opinion since early 2022 of the thoughtless, indeed, mindless–Trump calls it “aimless”– way Putin has mismanaged the conflict with Ukraine. By refusing to see the obvious–that the conflict was a real war that Russia needed to quickly win before the West got deeply involved and widened the war–Putin created the impression in the West that Russia was either unwilling or unable to fight. One consequence is that President Trump dismisses Russia as a military power:
“With time, patience, and the financial support of Europe and, in particular, NATO, [recovering] the original Borders from where this War started, is very much an option. Why not? Russia has been fighting aimlessly for three and a half years a War that should have taken a Real Military Power less than a week to win.”
Trump’s comments reflect the opinion of his special envoy for Ukraine, Keith Kellogg, who recently claimed the US could “kick Russia’s ass” and insisted Ukraine could win the war despite Russia’s continued gains in eastern Ukraine and its clear manpower advantage.
Some analysts suspect that Putin has been bamboozled by his pro-Western central bank director who convinced him that the Russian economy is not capable of fighting a real war. Regardless, it is clear from Trump and Kellogg’s attitudes and the plots of the neoconservatives that Washington does not take Russia seriously as a military power. The strategic blunder Putin has made most likely leads to nuclear war.
Trump again showed that the US military/security complex has already taken over US foreign policy. There is no more Trump talk of normalizing relations with Russia. Instead, there is Trump talk of shooting down Russian aircraft.
Estonia, little doubt bribed by the Zionist neoconservatives, falsely claims that Russian aircraft entered their air space. Asked about this at the UN General Assembly meeting in New York City on September 23, President Trump said that NATO countries should shoot down Russian aircraft that enter their airspace. https://headlineusa.com/trump-says-nato-should-shoot-down-russian-aircraft-that-enter-their-airspace/?utm_source=HUSA_EMAIL_NSP_PM&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=HUSAemail [4]
So, here is the “peace president” urging two-bit countries that cannot fight their way out of a wet paperbag to, in effect, declare war on Russia. Of course, Putin being averse to war, might pretend it didn’t happen, as is his wont. There seems to be no end that Putin won’t go to in order to avoid the fact that he is at war with the Western world. He has said that the West is at war with Russia a time or two, but he has never acted as if he believed it.
There is no evidence that Putin does. Putin allowed Israel to trick Syrian air defenses repelling an Israeli attack to shoot down a Russian aircraft without doing anything about it, so Estonia and the West can expect likewise. They can shoot down all the Russian aircraft they wish, and Putin will say it didn’t happen, just as he said the US/Ukrainian attack on Russia’s strategic bombing forces was merely an act of terrorism, not an act of war.
In 2015 Turkey shot down a Russian aircraft without consequences. Putin almost never holds any attack on Russia accountable. He even allowed his incompetent central bank director to hand over $300 billion to the West without firing her. Putin and his foreign minister, Lavrov, keep relying on Western good will which simply does not exist. Countries that stand aside of Israel’s genocide of Palestine, as Russia also does, have no concept of good will.
Russia dispute’s Estonia’s claim, but facts don’t matter in the West. What matters are agendas and their success. The agenda is to do in Russia, and everything Putin does helps to do in Russia.
My concern is that at some point even Putin will fight, and that is when we get nuclear war.