We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Friday, February 20, 2015

Two reliable sources about the war situation in Ukraine

It appears that the Ukrainian fascist puppets have suffered another major defeat; this time it may be a very demoralizing one for their armed forces, and have consequences for their sponsor, the US Empire. Both bloggers below speculate on what happens next.

Similar to 1930s when Nazi Germany was plagued initially by major debts and needed to conquer their neighbors to pay off the debts, the US is now in a far worse debt situation. The debts are owed to capitalist creditors who support the Empire or want to park their money with the world's "top dog". The latter subverted the legitimate government of Ukraine after years of preparation as part of a plan to bring Russia under Empire domination, following which they are intent on major actions to subdue China. Thus, the capitalist ruling class of the One Percent has no alternative but to pursue this imperialist policy until the bitter end (which may be the end of all of us).   

Click here to access article by The Saker from The Vineyard of the Saker entitled "The strategic implications of the battle for Debaltsevo". [The Saker can now be accessed at his new website, A bird's eye view of the Vineyard.]

Even though this American blogger, a native of Russia, is clearly a Russophile ("Russia Stands for Freedom" [on his old website]), I have followed his blog for some time and I find it very reliable, especially compared to most other sources. He is clearly well informed on developments in Ukraine. In this article the Saker sees the defeat of the Empire-sponsored Kiev forces at Debaltsevo as having major demoralizing consequences for its armed forces.
I think that what we are witnessing these days is truly a historical event.  While the defeat in Debaltsevo is tactical in its dimension, it will most definitely have serious operational consequences and possibly even strategic ones.  Though I cannot say that with any degree of confidence I am getting the strong feeling that the entire Ukrainian military has reached the famous "breaking point" I often mentioned here in the past: the point were regardless of your remaining capabilities the entire organization of your military suddenly and rapidly breaks down.  Yes, I know, the rest of the front is currently stable, but I think that the defeat in Debaltsevo will have a crippling effect on the morale of all the junta forces.  Not only that, but as soon as the cauldron is fully eliminated, the Novorussian forces who took it will be available for operations elsewhere.
Click here to access article by Bernhard from Moon of Alabama entitled "The 'West's' Dilema [sic] After Debaltseve: What To Do About Poroshenko?"

Bernhard also recognizes this major defeat, but narrows down the implications of it to speculations about the next moves of the "neoconned State Department".
Many "western" journalist are no streaming into Debaltsevo and their will soon be reports about the real disaster and the real losses the Ukrainian government troops had there. Those will be hard to hide.

It will then be difficult for the "west" to continue working with Poroshenko. He has now been shown to be completely off his rockers. He can no longer be sold to the public as the bearer of the truth, the sincere white knight against the dark forces of Russia.

How will the "west", Obama and his neoconned State Department react to that? Will they prepare a coup against Poroshenko or do they have other means to get rid of their useless puppet or to save the situation?