WORLD AT WAR: 2.26.22 - The Russia-Ukraine Update

The Russia-Ukraine Update – Pete Garcia - https://www.rev310.net/post/the-russia-ukraine-update “If your opponent is of choleric temper, seek to irritate him. Pretend to be weak, that he may grow arrogant.” – Sun Tzu, The Art of War I wanted to put some thoughts out there regarding our current situation. I intended to do this by video and spent about an hour today trying to figure out Rumble live recordingsand for whatever reasons, technology seems to have gotten the better of me today. Anyway, I will reengage with that line of effort early next week until I figure it out. .. Technology- 1 Me- 0 Nevertheless, back to Russia. So far we have our president and his staff saying one thing, and Vladimir Putin saying another. Also chiming in and muddying the geopoliticalwaters are comments by both Ukraine leadership, as well as NATO. It's hard to make sense of it all. I'll link two really good articles for you at the bottom for you to follow up and perhaps make it less muddy. However, I have some personal observations thatI would like to add here so you can get a gist of where my mind is at regarding this volatile situation. Personal Observations and Concerns 1.The last time the US fought a peer, or near-peer level opponent, was with China in the latter half of the Korean War (1950-53). So some 69 yearsago. Keep this in mind 2.We have spent the last 20 years, fighting in counter-insurgency (COIN) operations. As compared to fighting a peer, or near-peer military force, theseare very different things. Rapid response Ranger Regiments can deploy quickly but aren't much good against heavily armored units (and the Russians know it) 3.The repeated deployments to Afghanistan and Iraq from 2003-2021, have essentially drained all the heavy military units out of Europe (robbing Peterto pay Paul). 4.On January 26, 2012, President Obama ordered two Brigade Combat Teams (170th and 172nd) to be removed from Europe. These were our last two heavy-armorBCTs (around 10,000 soldiers) that would be deployed to the Middle East, and then relocated back to the US at the end of those deployments (see here) 5.The predominant feeling during the early to mid-2000s amongst Army Soldiers (I can't speak for the Air Force, Navy, or Marines) was that Russia wasnot a threat. Their economy was in the tank. Their populations and economy were dwindling. And their armies fought with antiquated weapon systems 6.Simultaneous to this, US forces received more upgrades, modifications, and new systems than we knew what to do with. I mean, the Army changed serviceuniforms some three separate times, and we retired the M16 rifle and upgraded to the M-4 with all of its bells and whistles. Add to that, all the new electronic gadgets we got. The last twenty years (while I was in) felt like this non-stop roller coaster ofupgrades we were continually having to relearn how to use 7.It wasn't until around 2016 that I started hearing the upper echelons (like GEN Milley) really start to address his concerns about Russia. Once hedid it, the Russian threat filled the flag officer echo chambers like a broken record. Like it was taboo to talk about it before then, but once he did, they all had tacit approval to now voice their concerns 8.After Russia, it soon became China, and then Iran and North Korea. Keep in mind this is after we pulled out of Iraq, and before we cleaned the floorwith ISIS 9.If having to learn how to use all new equipment, upgrades, and modifications weren't enough, the DOD decided to add on some 300 hours of online andclassroom training that had to be completed each fiscal year, or you weren't being "compliant." While some of it was important (anti-terrorism, cyber threats, etc), a lot of it either wasn't (transgender training, inclusivity training, etc.) or was overkill(PTSD awareness, sexual harassment, sexual assault, anti-racism, etc.). As for the latter group, you'd often walk out of those classes feeling like you were guilty by just being the wrong gender (male) and race (white). Nevertheless, the amount of training(both essential and non-essential) piled on so high, that the Pentagon was forced to review it and start scaling it back. I mean, it took more priority at times than actually learning how to fight and win wars 10.The US Army didn't have any land-based, long-range conventional missile systems. All of those were either air or sea-based platforms. The best theArmy could do was MLRS (Multiple Launch Rocket Systems) or HIMARS (High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems). Neither had a range longer than 310 miles. It didn't matter so much when fighting COIN Operations, but against a peer or near-peer with those capabilities,it put the US Army (the US's largest component of the fighting force) at a huge disadvantage 11.Of the Air and Sea-based missile systems, the US only possessed low flight level, subsonic cruise missiles. Russia has tens of thousands of Zirconhypersonic missiles, which can fly up to 28,000 feet, up to Mach 9 (9,800–11,000 km/h), and traverse a distance of up 620 miles 12.If there was a war with Russia, the US Navy would not get a carrier or carrier group through the Istanbul Strait into the Black Sea. If it did, theyprobably would not be floating long. At best, the US would have to remain in the Mediterranean, and either fly around Turkish airspace (as they would most likely not allow us to use their airspace). 13.Given that reality, it makes sense why Russia needs to secure its foothold in Syria. If it can secure a permanent military presence in Syria, itcan control the eastern half of the Mediterranean Sea pushing US naval forces out even further 14.While the US does have more advanced equipment, the loss of each one (say a UH-60M, or F35) is stratospherically more expensive to replace, thansay a Russian HIND helicopter or MIG. IOW, it would cost us A LOT more to fight it and lose aircraft, than it would the Russian (war of attrition?) 15.Our over-reliance on communication systems and satellites, while advantageous to us, is also a huge liability should either or both of those capabilitiesbe taken away from us. The Russians and Chinese know this as well and have devoted more energies and resources to finding ways to nullify our advantage through anti-satellite systems, as well as thousands of soldiers solely dedicated to cyber-attack us intooblivion 16.Our over-reliance on air power. While F35's are the more superior aircraft, the Russian's could throw MIGs at us all day and not run out. There isfew and far between F35's in the European theater 17.Our economy, while the strongest in the world, is also fragile due to the growing weakness of the US Dollar. The Russians and Chinese know this aswell 18.While we don't know exactly what was discussed, we do know China's Xi Xiping and Russia's Putin can and will align when necessary to support eachother's agenda 19.Given our surrendering of Bagram Airbase (a huge strategic mistake) and our disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021, our enemies smell bloodin the water and are now probing and prodding and testing our willingness to put our money where our mouth is. IOW, we just showed massive weakness to the entire world, and our enemies are thinking now is the time to knock us off the top of the geopoliticalpyramid While Russia does have a failing economy, a declining population, using more antiquated combat systems, and thus, appearing weaker, I'm willing to bet both Putin and XiXiPing have both studiously read the Art of War. Furthermore, our inept and choleric leader, and their shared issues, i.e., both China and Russia want to reclaim what they think is rightfully theirs. They also know if they work in tandem, and possibly throwin a North v. South Korea scenario, the US would be at its breaking point. It would be a monumental mistake to underestimate them. However, to put a counter-perspective to all of this, let me include a piece of additional information as to why Putin won'tattack Ukraine. After considering everything, what do you think will happen? -------------------------------------------------- 22 Observations About The New World War Which Just Started In Ukraine- by Michael Snyder - http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/22-observations-about-the-new-world-war-which-just-started-in-ukraine/ Like many of you, I have been spending a great deal of time keeping up with coverage of Russia�s horrifying invasion of Ukraine. I am very upset with the Russians for choosingto invade the whole country, because now a line has been crossed that will never, ever be able to be uncrossed. From here on out, there will be endless wars and rumors of wars, and countless numbers of people are going to die. In the future, some historiansmay look back and determine that the coming Chinese invasion of Taiwan was the start of World War III, and others may point to the coming conflict between Israel and Iran. But to me, February 23rd, 2022 was the start of World War III, and nothing will everbe the same again. Since most of you have been closely following news coverage of the war, I am not going to rehash the basic facts here. The Russians are winning victory after victory, andit appears that the battle for Ukraine could be over in a matter of days. But once the battle for Ukraine is over, the real war will begin. The following are 22 observations about the new world war which just started in Ukraine� #1 Now that Russia has invaded Ukraine, any hope for peace betweenthe United States and Russia is gone forever. #2 The conflict between our two nations will continue untilone side or the other is totally defeated. #3 Both sides are armed with nuclear weapons, and it is justa matter of time before somebody decides to use them. #4 As he launched the invasion of Ukraine, Vladimir Putin actuallywarned other countries that he could use nuclear weapons against them if they attempted to intervene. #5 The Biden administration, the Ukrainians and the Russiansall lied to us over and over again. #6 We should all be very angry at Vladimir Putin. He completelydestroyed the last hope that the world had for peace when he launched a full invasion of Ukraine. If he would have kept his forces in just Donetsk and Luhansk there still would have been the possibility of a diplomatic solution. #7 Joe Biden says that he is considering hitting Russia withthe biggest cyberattack in history. That would be an act of war. #8 If we launch a cyberattack against Russia, they will retaliatewith a cyberattack of their own, and we are extremely vulnerable. #9 The Russians have more than 1,000 different ways of makingus feel pain, and they are not afraid to play dirty. #10 I think that Volodymyr Zelensky is perhaps the stupidesthead of state that I have ever seen. #11 Zelensky pushed all of his chips into the middle of thetable when the Russians knew full well that he wasn�t holding any cards. Now he is going to lose his entire country. #12 It appears that Zelensky actually believed that the UnitedStates and other western powers would come to his aid if the Russians invaded. After what we have witnessed over the past year, that was an incredibly foolish thing to believe. #13 Biden and his minions had a plan for what they wanted toaccomplish in Ukraine, and that plan failed dramatically. #14 At this stage, I think that the Biden administration willtry to turn the rest of the world against the Russians and will try to suffocate the life out of them economically. But that isn�t going to work, because Russia is very self-sufficient when it comes to food, energy and other essentials, and Putin has alsosigned very extensive trade agreements with China. #15 I don�t think Putin would have made this move if he didn�thave an understanding with China behind the scenes. The Chinese are allowing the Russians to invade Ukraine, but in return I believe that there is an agreement for the Russians to support China when the Chinese finally invade Taiwan. #16 Now that the Chinese have seen how weakly the western powershave responded to the invasion of Ukraine, I that that makes an invasion of Taiwan much more likely. #17 If the Chinese decide to pull the trigger, they will almostcertainly do it while there is still plenty of time left in Biden�s term in office. #18 Putin is not as smart as I thought he was. He is going towin the battle for Ukraine, but now his country can never have positive relations with western nations ever again. #19 The global energy crisis is going to get a whole lot worse. Russiaexports a tremendous amount of energy, and European nations gobble it up like addicts. This conflict threatens to dislocate the flow of global energy to a degree that we haven�t seen since World War II. #20 Many warned that our disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistanwould embolden the Russians to move against Ukraine. Those that issued such warnings have been proven right. #21 The U.S. military is in the worst condition that I haveever seen in my entire lifetime. At this point, the U.S. military is not at all prepared to fight the Russians or anyone else for that matter. #22 Many people out there love to criticize President Trump,but even he understood that you don�t mess with the Russians. Unless they are messing with you, the best thing to do with the Russians is to just leave them alone. All throughout history, those that have chosen to pick a fight with Russia have ended up regrettingit. The Russians will do whatever it takes to win, and they are absolutely ruthless. This is truly a sad day, because this didn�t have to happen. As I have detailed in other articles, it would have been so easy to reach a diplomatic agreement that would have kept the Russians entirely out of Ukraine. Unfortunately, there is no use talking about that any longer, because the time for diplomacy has passed. Hopefully many of you are starting to grasp the gravity of what we are facing. For years, I have been relentlessly warning that war with Russia was coming, and now it ishere. I tried to warn everyone about what would happen if we stayed on the path that we were on, but now it is too late. There is nothing more than can be done, because World War III has already started. From this point forward, global events are going to escalate rapidly. I would encourage all of you to prepare accordingly. ---------------------------------------------- Something Really Evil Is Happening In Ukraine- by Michael Snyder - http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/something-really-evil-is-happening-in-ukraine/ How can we figure out exactly what is going on in Ukraine when literally everybody is lying? Anyone that willingly embraces the propaganda that is being put out by eitherside without questioning it is simply not being rational. At a time like this, we must think for ourselves and we must come to our own conclusions. And we should be doing whatever we can to stop a global war from starting. For years, I have been warning thatthe United States and Russia were heading toward war, and now we are almost there. If we can’t stop it from happening, tens of millions of people could die, and so the stakes are incredibly high. Do I trust Vladimir Putin? No way. He says that the troops that he has massed on Ukraine’s borders are not a threat. Of course they are a threat. But is it a threat to invade Ukraine, or is it a threat to strike back if Ukraine invades Donetsk and Luhansk? Of course I don’t trust the Biden administration either. You would be amazed at how many otherwise rational people are telling me that even though the Biden administration has not stopped lying ever since they took power thatI should now fully believe everything that they are telling us about Ukraine. What a joke. Anyone that has unquestioning faith in anything that Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, Anthony Blinken or Jake Sullivan has to say is being quite foolish. I don’t want propaganda. I just want the truth. So what is the truth? Well, that is going to be hard to figure out in an environment where lies are being constantly fired in our direction. To the best that I can determine, widespread artillery bombardment began less than 24 hours after Russia announced that some troops would start to be pulled back from theborder areas. On Friday, the level of shelling was particularly bad. According to the OSCE, there were over 1,400 explosions “in the rebel held regions of Donetsk and Luhansk” duringthat 24 hour period… Fears of tensions boiling over were backed up by figures released Saturday by the OSCE, which showed there were more than 1,400 explosions in the rebel held regions of Donetskand Luhansk on Friday. The OSCE’s Special Monitoring Mission that is deployed in the conflict zone said it had logged 553 explosions in Donetsk and a further 860 in neighbouring Luhansk – addingthat it had confirmed one civilian casualty in a government-controlled area of Donetsk. It put the total number of ceasefire violations on Friday at more than 1,500, compared with 870 the day before, suggesting an upwards trajectory of gunfire and mortars. What I just shared comes from a British news source, and that is important to note, because western news sources are supposed to be convincing us that the Russians are aboutto invade Ukraine. But it is the Ukrainians that appear to be prepping for an invasion as they relentlessly pound Donetsk and Luhansk. Of course the Ukrainians deny this, and some western media sources are actually trying to claim that the separatists in Donetsk and Luhansk are shelling themselves hundredsof times in an effort to justify a Russian invasion of Ukraine. So what is the truth? That is a very good question. It is certainly true that the separatists have been firing back into Ukrainian-held territory, and the government of Ukraine is calling this “provocative firing”. But as far as I can determine, it was the Ukrainians that started firing first. I certainly can’t prove that, because I am just one guy on the other side of the planet trying to figure things out as both sides relentlessly lie to all of us. However, what should be incredibly clear to everyone is that somebody out there really, really wants a war to happen. In the weeks ahead, I think that it will become clear who that is. The Russians are trying to convince us that Ukraine is preparing to invade Donetsk and Luhansk now that they have been armed to the teeth by the U.S. and other NATO countries… The Kremlin said the supply of weapons and ammunition by NATO countries to Ukraine was pushing Kyiv towards a ‘military solution’ against separatists in the country’s east. ‘As a result, civilians… who have to evacuate to Russia to escape the intensifying shelling, suffer,’ the Kremlin added. On the other hand, the Biden administration is trying to convince us that Russia is trying to “create a false pretext for invasion” because Putin is a madman that desperatelywants to get his hands on Ukraine. In fact, Kamala Harris says that what we are witnessing is right out of the “playbook of Russian aggression”… “There is a playbook of Russian aggression,” Harris told the heads of state and government, foreign dignitaries and a large delegation from the United States. “And thisplaybook is too familiar for us all. Russia will plead ignorance and innocence. It will create a false pretext for invasion. And it will amass troops and firepower in plain sight.” So who is right and who is wrong? Just hours ago, we learned that U.S. officials have supposedly gotten new “intelligence” that Putin has issued “an order to go ahead with an invasion of Ukraine”… The U.S. has picked up intelligence showing that Russian military officials were given an order to go ahead with an invasion of Ukraine, a U.S. official and another personwith knowledge of the matter told NBC News. The intelligence, which was developed very recently, informed President Joe Biden’s startling declaration Friday that the U.S. believes President Vladimir Putin has alreadydecided to invade, the people said. I don’t think that Russia is going to invade Ukraine today. Or tomorrow. Or the next day. In fact, I don’t think that he wants to invade Ukraine at all. But I do think that Putin definitely wants to keep Ukraine out of NATO and western missiles off of his doorstep. Just check out some remarks that he made late last year… “It is you who must give us guarantees, and you must do it immediately, right now,” he said at his annual news conference late last year. “Are we deploying missiles nearthe US border? No, we are not. It is the United States that has come to our home with its missiles and is already standing at our doorstep.” I also think that Putin is very interested in keeping Ukraine out of Donetsk and Luhansk. If Ukraine invades Donetsk and Luhansk and starts taking lots of territory, I think that Putin will feel forced to intervene. And then western leaders will have the “Russian invasion” that they have been promising us. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson made headlines all over the globe when he warned that the Russians are planning “the biggest war in Europe since 1945”… Evidence suggests Russia is planning “the biggest war in Europe since 1945”, Prime Minister Boris Johnson has said. He told the BBC’s Sophie Raworth in an interview: “All the signs are that the plan has already in some senses begun.” Intelligence suggests Russia intends to launch an invasion that will encircle Ukrainian capital Kyiv, Mr Johnson said. No, I don’t think that is what the Russians truly want. But if neither side backs down, I think that is exactly what we are going to get. Nobody should be invading anybody. The Russians should not invade Ukraine, and the Ukrainians should not invade Donetsk and Luhansk. Ultimately, everybody should just take a step back and relax. But it appears that is not going to happen. Thanks to all of the shelling in Donetsk and Luhansk, the Russians have announced that they will be extending their “militarydrills” in Belarus indefinitely… Russia will extend its military drills with Belarus because of rising violence in Ukraine’s Donbas region, the government in Minsk said, as Russian President Vladimir Putinaccepted a new round of talks with Kyiv amid warnings of an imminent Russian invasion. If war starts, that will plunge the U.S. and Russia into a permanent state of conflict. Of course missiles would not start flying back and forth immediately. At first, both sides would use other measures to put pressure on the opposing side. But eventually a breaking point would be reached, and someone would go for the jugular. We must not allow things to get to that point. Because if we do cross that line, tens of millions of people could die in a war that nobody wants. ----------------------------------------------- Russia Has Just Issued An Ultimatum To Ukraine, And The Conditions For War Are Now Set- by Michael Snyder - http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/russia-has-just-issued-an-ultimatum-to-ukraine-and-the-conditions-for-war-are-now-set/ This is not a game. As this crisis has been unfolding in Ukraine, I have been seeing people all over the Internet cheer for either side like they would cheer for their favoritefootball teams. But these people don�t understand what is at stake. If World War III erupts in Ukraine, it will very likely lead to nuclear war between the United States and Russia down the road. So we should all be deeply grieved over what is happening, becausewe are getting really close to a point of no return. One of the good things about the Trump years was that President Trump was not interested in messing with Russia. So the status quo in Ukraine was respected by both sidesfor four years, and there was relative peace in the region. But then Joe Biden took power, and he has surrounded himself with an all-star team of warmongers. National security adviser Jake Sullivan, Chairman of the Joint Chief ofStaff General Mark Milley, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Secretary of State Antony Blinken are all card-carrying members of the War Party, and they don�t seem interested in finding a way to have peace with Russia at all. After having his security concerns mocked and laughed at for the past year, Vladimir Putin finally admitted that negotiations are at �a dead end� on Monday. It would havebeen so easy to negotiate a peaceful solution with the Russians that would have kept Russia out of Ukraine, but that isn�t what the War Party wanted. Now Putin has run out of patience, and on Monday he greatly escalated the crisis by formally recognizing the independence of Donetsk and Luhansk and by announcing that hewould be sending troops into the two separatist republics� Russian President Vladimir Putin recognized two breakaway regions in eastern Ukraine as independent on Monday and ordered the Russian army to launch what Moscow called apeacekeeping operation in the area, upping the ante in a crisis the West fears could unleash a major war. Putin told Russia�s defense ministry to deploy troops into the two breakaway regions to �keep the peace� in a decree issued shortly after he announcedrecognition for Russia-backed separatists there, drawing US and European vows of new sanctions. I think that Putin wanted to make a move before the Ukrainians did. According to one Russian official, there were �almost 60K Ukrainian military personnel concentrated nearthe borders of the Republics of Lugansk & Donetsk�, and I think that Putin decided that the only way to keep Ukraine from overrunning the two republics was to move his own forces in first. Hopefully that actually works. Hopefully the Russians will stay in Donetsk and Luhansk, and hopefully the Ukrainians will stay on their side. If that is the end result, there may still be hope of defusing the situation. But I wouldn�t count on it. Putin sounds like a man that is convinced that war is coming. The following comes from a very rough translation of his speech on Monday� �from those who took power in kiev we demand to stop any and all military actions against donbass. otherwise, the consequences will be on ukraine. i count on the supportof all patriotic forces in russia.� Russia has essentially issued an ultimatum to Ukraine. If Ukraine invades Donetsk and Luhansk, the Russians will invade Ukraine. Of course, some western media sources are actually using the term �invasion� to describe Russian troop movements into the separatist republics. This would be a good opportunity for both sides to take a deep breath and start backing down. But that isn�t going to happen. Western leaders continue to use extremely harsh rhetoric and they continue to insist that a full-blown invasion of Ukraine is imminent. The following is what Jake Sullivanjust told the Today Show� �We believe that any military operation of the size, scope and magnitude of what we believe the Russians are planning will be extremely violent. It will cost the lives ofUkrainians and Russians, civilians and military personnel alike,� Sullivan said during an appearance on NBC�s �Today.� �But we also have intelligence to suggest that there will be an even greater form of brutality because this will not simply be some conventional war between two armies,� he added. �It will be a war waged by Russia on the Ukrainian people to repress them, to crush them, to harm them.� And another U.S. official is alleging that Russia has a list of people that they will be specifically targeting once the invasion has been completed� �Disturbing information recently obtained by the United States that indicates that human rights violations and abuses in the aftermath of a further invasion are being planned,� Ambassador Bathsheba Nell Crocker, the US Representative to the Office of the United Nations and Other International Organizations in Geneva, alleges in a letter to Michelle Bachelet, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. �These acts, which in past Russian operations have included targeted killings, kidnappings/forced disappearances, unjust detentions, and the use of torture, would likelytarget those who oppose Russian actions, including Russian and Belarusian dissidents in exile in Ukraine, journalists and anti-corruption activists, and vulnerable populations such as religious and ethnic minorities and LGBTQI+ persons,� reads the letter,which was first reported by The Washington Post and obtained by CNN. So Russia plans to violently round up dissidents, activists and anyone else that is opposed to their rule? Oh, you mean that it will be kind of like what just happened in Canada with the full approval of the U.S. government? If the Biden administration actually cared about human rights, they would be condemning the horrific brutality that we just witnessed in Ottawa. But of course that will never happen. Let�s watch and see what happens over in Ukraine during the next several days. One very alarming sign is that the Russians have just closed off much of the airspace overthe Sea of Azov� Russia�s Aeronautical Information Center issued a NOTAM (a Notice to Airmen) on Sunday which will close most of the airspace over the Sea of Azov starting at midnight betweenSunday and Monday, as the US continued to warn that Russia intends to invade Ukraine. I don�t think that this indicates that a full-blown invasion of Ukraine is imminent. But at this point the conditions for war have been clearly set. If Ukraine invades Donetsk and Luhansk now, the Russians have made it exceedingly clear that they will invade Ukraine. So this actually puts a lot of power into the hands of the War Party in Washington. Joe Biden and his all-star team of warmongers now know exactly what it will take to spark a war. Will they decide to pull the trigger? Let us hope not, because once World War III begins nothing will ever be the same again. ------------------------------------- Christians, wake up: If the world does not stop Putin now in Ukraine, NATO and Israel are next - Joel C. Rosenberg - https://www.allisrael.com/christians-wake-up-if-the-world-does-not-stop-putin-now-in-ukraine-nato-and-israel-are-next Putin�s alliance with Iran, Syria tells us all we need to know about his ambitions in the Middle East To misunderstand the nature and threat of evil is to risk being blindsided by it. Readers of my novels and nonfiction books know this is one of my central themes. The world was blindsided by World War II and the abject horrors of the Holocaust because it didn�t understand the evil nature of Adolf Hitler and his Nazi regime in Berlin. The U.S. was blindsided by the sneak attack at Pearl Harbor in 1941 because Washington didn�t understand the evil nature of the Imperial Japanese regime in Tokyo. The world was blindsided by the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait in 1990 because it didn�t understand the evil nature of Saddam Hussein in Baghdad. Likewise, the U.S. was blindsided by the 9/11 attacks in 2001 because it didn�t understand the evil nature of Osama bin Laden and his Al Qaeda terror network. THE WORLD IS BEING BLINDSIDED AGAIN Today, the world is being blindsided again because it doesn�t understand the evil nature of Vladimir Putin in Moscow. Leaders in Washington, London, Paris, Berlin, Brussels and beyond seem completely baffled by Putin�s lust to attack, crush and re-occupy Ukraine. The West should be: � bringing Ukraine into NATO � sending massive arms shipments to Kiev including Patriot missiles batteries � offering full NATO air support to Ukrainian President Zelensky � cutting off the Nordic 2 gas pipeline from Russia � imposing crippling economic sanctions on Moscow Instead, the West is issuing feckless press releases and wringing its hands. WHERE ARE CHRISTIAN LEADERS IN THIS CRISIS? If that weren�t bad enough, where are Christian leaders in this crisis? Where is Pope Francis? Where is the Roman Catholic Church? Where are American Evangelical leaders? Where are other Protestant leaders in Europe and around the world? Why aren�t they denouncing Putin�s flagrant and evil aggression? Why are they not calling on U.S. President Joe Biden and the rest of NATO to stop Putin now, before it�s too late? Why are they not doing everything they possibly can to mobilize Christians to pray for � and stand � their brothers and sisters in Ukraine, a democratic country with a thrivingChristian community? Why are they so silent? UNDERSTANDING THE STAKES Do Western government officials truly not understand what is at stake here? Are Christian leaders really so willfully ignorant of the threat Putin poses to both Jews and Christians? If leaders take action immediately and demonstrate true grit and resolve � militarily, diplomatically, economically and prayerfully � they might yet dissuade Putin frominvading Ukraine. But if they remain in denial � if they let themselves be blindsided and simply surrender Ukraine to Moscow without a fight because they don�t understand who Putin reallyis � they will be unleashing catastrophic consequences far beyond Ukraine. Don�t they understand what happens if you give a wolf a cookie? WHAT DOES PUTIN WANT? Christians, wake up! World leaders, wake up! Vladimir Putin is not a man we can do business with. He is a very dangerous man, as I explain in detail in my recent book, �Enemies and Allies.� At his core, Putin is a mafia boss, obsessed with power and wealth, and willing to rob, kill or destroy to obtain both. Using the Red Army, he already seized control of 20% of Georgia, all of Crimea, the eastern section of Ukraine and all of Syria. And murdered and imprisoned Russian dissidents.And co-opted Belarus. The list goes on and on. At the same time, Putin sees himself following in the tradition of the Russian czars, believing he has a divine right to rule with an iron hand and is permitted to use anymeans necessary to rebuild the glory of Mother Russia. What a chilling combination. Once you understand all this, you�ll understand that Putin doesn�t simply want to retake Ukraine � he wants more. Specifically, he wants to force the collapse of NATO, as well. As senior officials in Estonia told me last week in Tallinn, a Putin in control of Ukraine will soon come after the Baltic states. Why? To bring Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania back under the Kremlin�s control. And to prove that NATO does not have the will to enforce the mutual defense pact known as Article 5, thus ending NATO once and for all. This was the premise of my 2018 political thriller, �The Kremlin Conspiracy.� But that was fiction. This is all too real. And then what? WILL PUTIN THREATEN ISRAEL? Once Putin has seized Ukraine and the Baltics, will any small country be safe from his grasp? Will Israel? No � Putin�s lust for power and wealth will be unstoppable at this point. How long would it be until Putin�s allies in Tehran and Damascus ask him: Which side are you on, ours or Israel�s? Why do let you Israel keep attacking Iranian positions in Syria? Why do you let Israel keep threatening to take out Iran�s nuclear facilities? You are the new Master of the Universe, why don�t you show Israel who�s boss? Remember: Putin has sold the Iranians and Syrians billions of dollars in advanced military hardware. Putin has sent military forces into Syria to save the Bashar Al-Assad regime. Putin is building a huge naval base in Syria. Putin has also provided continual political cover for Iran and Syria at the UN. Yet Putin has simultaneously maintained a working and even friendly relationship with Israeli officials over the past 22 years in office. How much longer do you think that will last if the West surrenders to him in Ukraine and the Baltics? NATO NEEDS UKRAINE � HERE�S WHY What�s especially troubling is that the West has vastly superior military power compared to Putin. Yet they refuse to use it. They keep dismantling it. And they refuse to join forces with Ukraine, which is one of the few major military powers left in Europe. Robert Zubrin makes a great set of points in a National Review column this morning, �NATO Needs Ukraine.� Let me close with his words. As a result of a series of decisions made during the Clinton, Bush, and, especially, Obama administrations, NATO has virtually disarmed itself. At the end of the Cold War in 1989, the United States had some 500,000 troops stationed in Western Europe. Now, we have 30,000, with practically no tanks. The British have removed virtually all their forces from the continent. Germany � which is showing itself increasingly unreliablein any case � has cut its army from twelve divisions down to four. The cold fact of the matter is that the only serious NATO ground force east of the Rhine is the Polish Army, which has 180,000 active-duty servicemen. It�s not enough. But then there is Ukraine, which has 450,000 active-duty servicemen, more than all NATO forces east of the Rhine combined. If properly armed, and backed up by Anglo-American air and sea power, they could be formidable, and consequently, very valuable. We need to be realistic. Nuclear deterrence is dead. During the Cold War, we were able to deter a Warsaw Pact invasion of West Germany by threatening nuclear war if theytried it. But no one believes that the United States would do anything like that today. If Russia moves into the Baltic States or even Poland, the United States is not about the push the thermonuclear-war button, and Putin knows that. Consequently, the only way to be able to deter war is to be strong enough to defeat a conventional attack by non-nuclear means. That requires an army. -------------------------------- Before We Go To War, Let�s Take A Look At The Current StateOf The U.S. Military� - by Michael Snyder - http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/before-we-go-to-war-lets-take-a-look-at-the-current-state-of-the-u-s-military/ If we are going to have a war with Russia, perhaps we should determine if our military is actually prepared to fight such a war first. Unfortunately, as I will detail below,the answer is very clear. At one time, the U.S. possessed the greatest fighting machine ever assembled, but decades of neglect, incompetence and cultural deterioration have taken a devastating toll. Just look at what happened in Afghanistan. After nearly twodecades of fighting, we couldn�t even defeat a ragged bunch of drug dealers and goat herders known as the Taliban. In fact, the Taliban appears to be even stronger today than when we first invaded. And now we think that we can take on the Russian military? Sadly, the truth is that we aren�t ready for any sort of a major conflict at this stage. Earlier this week, I came across an article that explained that only about 7 outof every 10 Air Force planes is even capable of flying right now� The latest numbers show that the Air Force has made no progress in improving the readiness of its planes with a rate of 71.5% or 7 out of 10 planes in 2021. The United States Air Force is supposed to have mission capable rates of 75% to 80%, but about the only aircraft that meet that criteria are the unmanned drones. The highratings of the drones disguise the fact that the actual numbers, when broken down by aircraft, are worse. The F-35As, the fifth-generation fighters that would be crucial in countering any sizable aerial engagement with Communist China, dropped catastrophically from 76% to 68.8%. We are supposed to be the most technologically advanced military on the planet. That is terrible. And when members of the U.S. Army were asked if their units were ready to fight, the survey results were depressingly low� In a survey of more than 5,400 soldiers and civilians of different ranks conducted by the U.S. Army in July and August 2020, 14 percent of respondents said their unit wouldbe ready to deploy, fight, and win anywhere in the world immediately. Some 13 percent of those surveyed said they would need more time, while 3 percent said they would be ready to go in a week, and 4 percent in a month. How can things possibly be this bad? Our military has one job. They are supposed to be ready to fight when we call on them. So precisely how are they spending their time if they have not been using it to do that one job? The U.S. Navy is not in great shape either. Right now, our Navy consists of only 296 vessels� In FY 2022, fleet size stays about the same, at 296 ships. Previously ordered ships arrive in large numbers, but the Navy retires 15 ships, 10 early. Navy active-duty personneldecrease by 1,600 to 346,200. 296 ships may sound like a lot, but for a superpower like the United States it is actually a pathetically low number. In fact, the number of ships in our fleet has almost been cut in half since Ronald Reagan�s second term in office... The 600-ship Navy was a strategic plan of the United States Navy during the 1980s to rebuild its fleet after cutbacks that followed the end of the Vietnam War.[1] The plan,which originated with Republican leaders, was an important campaign plank of Ronald Reagan in the 1980 presidential election, who advocated a larger military and strategic confrontation with the Soviet Union. The actual number of ships peaked at 594 in 1987, before declining sharply after the end of the Cold War in 1989�1991. Looking forward to the future, things look even more grim. At this point, over 70 percent of young Americans are automatically disqualified from military service for one reason or another� More than 70% of young Americans remain unable to join the military due to obesity, education problems, or crime and drug records. Turning that around should be an issueof national importance, said Rear Adm. Dennis Velez, the head of Navy Recruiting Command. �It is something that, as a nation, we should continue to work though � to make sure our children are healthier,� he said. If that doesn�t alarm you, it should. And thanks to the soft and comfortable lifestyles that our young people enjoy today, those that make it through the recruitment process are more physically fragile thanever before� According to a U.S. Army major, America�s youth are living a sedentary life that makes them fragile, prone to injury, and harder to successfully and easily transition fromcivilian life to the military. The news comes from an official press release posted on the Defense Visual Information Distribution Service, a hub of official pictures, videos, and news published by the Pentagon When one military official was asked about this, he stated that this generation actually has weak skeletons which �break more easily�� When asked about the youth of today, Maj. Thibodeau was straightforward. �The �Nintendo Generation� soldier skeleton is not toughened by activity prior to arrival, so someof them break more easily,� he said. Capt. Lydia Blondin, assistant chief of physical therapy at Leonard Wood Army Community Hospital, detailed the kind of injuries she�s seen in the so-called Nintendo Generation. �We see injuries ranging from acute fractures and falls, to tears in the ACL, to muscle strains and stress fractures, with the overwhelming majority of injuries related to overuse,� she said. Wow. Butat least our military is extremely good at making diversity videos� After seeing how �inclusive� we are, I am sure that the Russians must be shaking in their boots. Sending our sons and daughters off to die in a war on the other side of the globe is not something that should ever be done lightly. And a war with another superpower is something that we should try very hard to avoid even if our military was in top shape. Unfortunately, our military is nowhere near ready for such a conflict at this point, and our leaders should be honest with the American people about this. But of course most of the population is going to continue to assume that the U.S. military is still the mighty fighting force that it once was, but that hasn�t been truefor a very long time. -------------------------------------------- VISIT: PROPHECY WATCHER WEEKLY NEWS: HTTP://PROPHECY-WATCHER-WEEKLY-NEWS.BLOGSPOT.COM