2022: Year from Hell
I know it’s just a date on the calendar, but I’ll be glad when 2022 flips into 2023. There were a couple good events this past year. Roe v. Wade was overturned – but after almost five decades of infant slaughter. And our gun rights were secured with the Bruen decision – at least until Democrats regain a majority on the Supreme Court.
The worst news was the return of the threat of nuclear annihilation, which had vanished after the Soviet Union dissolved in 1991. The new Eve of Destruction arrived courtesy of Joe Biden’s “Armageddon” foreign policy, as he described it. All he had to do was let Ukraine remain neutral and this would not have happened. Instead, he kept poking the Russian Bear, which responded by invading Ukraine. A last chance at peace was the negotiations going in March between Ukraine and Russia – until in April Biden sent his poodle, Brit PM Boris Johnson, to put the kibosh on peace.
Here's where we stand. If the Cold War taught us anything, it’s you don’t mess with a nuclear superpower in its back yard. That was the lesson of the Cuban Missile crisis.
Instead, the U.S. is seeking to extend Nato right up to Russia’s border, so it could put nuclear missiles in Eastern Ukraine, three minutes from Moscow. The proof? Here’s headline from the U.S. propaganda organ Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty from Dec. 13, 2014: “Ukraine Votes To Abandon Neutrality, Set Sights On NATO.” The story:
Ukraine's parliament has voted to abandon the country's neutral "non-bloc" status and set a course for NATO membership, a move immediately denounced by Russia as "unfriendly."…
A note explaining the changes in Ukraine's law on domestic and foreign policy said that the "non-bloc" status codified under then-President Viktor Yanukovych in 2010 had left Ukraine vulnerable to "external aggression and pressure."
It said that "the Russian Federation's aggression against Ukraine, its illegal annexation of Crimea...its military intervention in eastern regions" and other forms of pressure created the need for "more effective guarantees of independence, sovereignty, security, and territorial integrity."
The pro-Western leaders who came to power after Yanukovych fled in the face of protests last February have spoken for months of plans to renounce the neutral status, which prevented Ukraine from seeking NATO membership.
The “protests” were the CIA-induced coup against the legitimately elected government.
What followed was the Minsk II agreement in 2015, also guaranteeing Ukrainian neutrality. But the German Chancellor of that time, Angela Merkel, just let the Katze out of the bag, admitting to Die Zeit: “The 2014 [2015] Minsk Agreement was an attempt to buy time for Ukraine. Ukraine used this time to become stronger, as you can see today. Ukraine in 2014-2015 and Ukraine today are not the same.”
So it all was a pack of lies. And still is. That means the situation will be resolved by the war. As I’ve noted on this site, the Russians have said many times, for 20 years now, this is an “existential” matter for them. There are three possible outcomes:
Negotiation. That’s off the table because of Merkel’s admission of Nato, meaning U.S., mendacity.
Russia takes all or most of Eastern Ukraine and forces a settlement on the rest of Ukraine, including de-Nazification.
Armageddon.
Yet I’m hopeful 2023 will not bring Armageddon. The Europeans are getting restless as their economies implode from the sanctions limiting cheap Russian energy to their homes and industries. And they have told Biden they don’t want a wider war – certainly not a nuclear war – on their continent.
Even before the war, Ukraine’s birth rate was an extinction-level 1.2 per woman. Something like 10 million Ukrainians have fled west to the rest of Europe, where most will stay because of the higher living standards. Poland is looking hungrily at the westernmost part of Ukraine, which Stalin stole from them. The war well could end up with a small, rump Ukraine situated around Kiev, demilitarized and denazified. That is, instead of saving Ukraine, Biden might end up all but wiping it off the map.
Except for some of the younger members, who are beginning to question this deadly farce, most Republicans still back the war. Sen. Mitch McConnell said it’s “the number one priority” for most Republicans. So the GOP won’t be any help.
But I’m just speculating. Nobody knows what will happen. The only thing for certain is we will continue to be ruled by fools.
You've nailed it John,
Many thanks for your years of work and wisdom, John - much appreciated and valued.