The war in Ukraine rages on, and renewed statements from world leaders, like Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki’s warning to Germany to allow Leopard battle tanks to be transferred to Volodymyr Zelensky, indicate that World War III may be on the horizon. A new war simulation set in 2026 demonstrated a devastating showdown between China and the United States over Taiwan, and South Korean President Yoon Suk-Yeol announced that the country might not hesitate to attack nuclear-capable North Korea. As I have stated, the world is lining up and taking sides on the growing conflict of nationalism, entangling alliances, imperialism, and global militarism; and World War III, though not inevitable, is very likely. For even the casual observer of what is happening in Ukraine, it should not be difficult to see how a scenario similar to World War I is being built.
The United States government, under the Biden administration, has been all too willing to risk Americans’ lives by engaging in a proxy war with Russia. According to journalist Jack Murphy, the war goes even deeper, and his connections with the military and intelligence communities show that the CIA and JSOC are directly sabotaging, through a NATO ally (most likely Poland), infrastructure within Russian territory and working to destabilize the Putin regime. If true, this means that the Obama, Trump, and Biden administrations may have been engaging in direct acts of war against Russia. Plus, American, British, and European nationals are fighting inside of Ukraine, and although President Joe Biden claims that they are not mercenaries, we know that since mercenaries were employed by the Trump administration in Venezuela, is it really that hard to believe that American active-duty troops and guns-for-hire could be fighting in the war? We already know that the CIA and JSOC are engaged inside of Ukraine, so why not active-duty troops?
The Obama administration indirectly declared war on Russia when it supported the 2014 coup against the democratically-elected government under Viktor Yanukovych (do not forget about the Victoria Nuland and Geoffrey Pyatt conversation), and the ensuing Petro Poroshenko presidency committed destructive war (and potentially genocide) against ethnic Russians in Donetsk and Luhansk. Ever since that, American taxpayers have been on the hook for the tens of billions of dollars transferred to Kiev and the military-industrial complex.
The latest American aid to Ukraine comes in the form of Patriot missiles and fifty Bradley tanks. The once reluctance, which was exhibited on the part of the United States and France, to send such weapons has since faded away, as Russian officials reprimand these actions as provocative to the point where we are on the verge of a large-scale war. With all of this going on, at least the training of the Patriot missiles, which require a team of up to one hundred soldiers to operate, will take place in Oklahoma (Fort Sill), and the training of the Bradley tanks has occurred in Germany. More American troops on the ground in Ukraine (on top of the ones already “inspecting” weapons) would not bring us on good standing with our eastern foe (if peace is the objective).
In addition to aid from American taxpayers, which Zelensky appreciates very much, the United Kingdom will send over twelve Challenger 2 tanks (that will “burn,” according to Putin). While former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger was busy changing his mind about Ukraine membership in NATO at the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) 2023 Davos meeting (NATO membership for Ukraine is still on the table, of course), newly NATO-aspiring Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin spoke about how the war might drag on for over ten more years. Although Raytheon and Lockheed Martin would be thrilled by an Afghanistan-style war with no clear winner, we the people of planet realistic would prefer to find a diplomatic solution that does not erupt into nuclear war.
Amid all of the chaos, harsh assaults have been volleyed back and forth between the two warring parties, and although Russia’s attacks on Ukraine’s power grid and heat and water systems are not acceptable, as they have led to difficulties for civilians, the West is quick to condemn them without calling out its puppet state. Ukraine committed acts of terror against civilian towns in Crimea and Belgorod, and it attacked a military base within 125 miles of Moscow. It is difficult to feel sympathy for the Russian government, given its aggressive operations, but civilians within both countries have suffered greatly. The war seems to be continuing with no real end in sight.
So, what is Russia’s response to the ongoing war? Russia retaliated against Zelensky’s military by sending a New Year’s Eve parade of missiles throughout the country, including near Kiev, which led to the reciprocal action of Ukraine killing sixty-three Russians in a US-supplied HIMARS strike against a base in Donetsk. As a result, Russia may end up increasing its use of Iranian-supplied drones to seek more revenge. Is the “tit for tat” or “eye for an eye” tactic worth the pain inflicted or the escalation that might result (think of what Mohandas Gandhi said)?
And now, Russian officials believe that the United States and its allies are waging a direct war to eliminate Russia as a sovereign nation (given what we learned from Jack Murphy and the overall history of the conflict, is that really a stretch?), and although this may seem farfetched from the Western perspective, we must realize that if Putin feels that his country is on the verge of destruction, he may use nuclear weapons to defend what is left. Let us not be so arrogant that we cannot understand others’ perspectives. Russia is already looking to boost production and maintenance of nuclear-capable ballistic missiles, submarines, and strategic bombers; and with the new goal of capturing the entirety of the Donetsk and Luhansk Oblasts by March, along with the formation of the new army corps in the Republic of Karelia (on Finland’s border), we may just see an escalation that non-hawks would prefer not to experience.
Would Putin and Zelensky really push us into World War III? Well, as soon as a stray missile struck Przewodów, Poland, killing two people, the Ukrainian president was quick to condemn Russia for the attack and say, “We will survive everything.” His implication of Russian guilt was corrected, as it was determined that it was actually Ukrainian air defenses that launched the missile into Polish territory. Did Zelensky intentionally attack a NATO member in order to gain more support from the West, or was it an accident? We do not have the answer, but it does show the reckless nature of TIME’s 2022 Person of the Year and United States Representative Joe Wilson’s idol (who would have us construct a bust of the former actor in the same building that George Washington and Thomas Jefferson are honored in).
What is so great about the world’s favorite hero boy? Do people not understand the civil liberties violations and authoritarian nature of his corruption? As I have stated previously, the all-but dictator has consolidated the news media and banned opposition political parties, but now, he is taking it even further by allowing the government to “block media outlets” and shut down websites unfavorable to the regime (he will say that those websites are not registered properly). As any nation does during wartime, the argument is that this will keep Russian propaganda at bay, but in the process, it will obliterate the freedom of speech and press. Leftists in the United States are too busy praising the man and putting into place their own versions of censorship to pay any attention to what is happening domestically in Ukraine, but for the rest of us, this is a blatant violation of human rights that we are forced to support.
For anyone who might be thinking that freedom of speech does not matter but that religion is important, fear not. Zelensky is targeting that too. In fact, he is attempting to ban the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, as well as other religious organizations arbitrarily-defined as associated with Russia, because it is supposedly flooding the country with pro-Putin propaganda and undermining the country’s independence (another bogus wartime argument). Prohibiting an entire religion is necessary for national security, after all (and do not forget it). It is not clear exactly what actions the Ukrainian government will take, but preventing religious freedom is not something that Americans should support enthusiastically.
As Americans fly their Ukrainian flags and become staunch haters of everything Russian (in order to follow the propaganda being spewed by officials and the corporate media), we will continue to see headlines suggesting that World War III may soon become reality. I have been warning of such a conflict for almost ten years now, but we let the naïve position of “mutual assured destruction” or “zero-sum game” guide our thinking and lack of preparedness. We can no longer avoid discussion of nuclear war, and although we all hope that it never comes, how much are we willing to bet on that outcome? Maybe Klaus Schwab and his powerful buddies will give us hope in Davos this year by declaring that the political and corporate elites do not want a global war, but that remains to be seen.
Thank you for reading, and please check out my book, The Global Bully, and website.