Seeing this headline today in the NY Times reminds me of the West's utter depravity.: Biden Urges Unity as Nations Gather in Shadow of Russia’s War. Of course, the NYTimes calls it "Russia's War", as if the West has had nothing to do with it. (See also, Lindsay Graham, Friend of Ukraine / #unprovoked.) At least the NY Times has the good sense to move on from calling it "Putin's War".
Russian military personnel strength has been increased five-fold... Russian military gains invaluable combat experience in advanced war-fighting... Russia is increasing massively the resources it devotes to military and intelligence development... the government also plans to increase the number of Russian design centers by over 400 percent from 70 to 300 by 2030 and spend 2.7 trillion rubles to develop the electronics industry... Russia’s enhanced, more powerful military is, moreover, being more forward-deployed to the detriment of NATO countries’ national security... Russia’s territorial gains in southern Ukraine open up the possibility of forming a land bridge to Moldova’s breakaway region of Transdnistria... The war also is threatening to put to an end strategic nuclear arms control between the world’s two greatest nuclear powers... Russia announced that it would be deploying short-range tactical weapons in Belarus, and by July deployment had begun and continues as you read... economic losses in Russia have been limited and manageable, while consequences of is own sanctions and Russian counter-sanctions have driven many of the West’s economies towards recession... Indeed, the global ripples from the war are reconfiguring global politics, economics, and finances... The most damaging result of the NATO-Russia Ukrainian war for Western interests is the solidification of the Sino-Russian ‘near alliance’ and that alliance’s invigoration of efforts to build an alternative global system to the Western-dominated one... Western sanctions have pushed Russia’s military-industrial complex to sell new technology to the People’s Liberation Army, and Moscow’s reliance on rapidly developing Chinese technology accelerated nascent joint technology developmen and implementation of projects with military applications... Western pressure on other states to join its sanctions regime further energized the South’s search for an alternative order, which married simultaneous efforts by Russia and China to build a network of anti-Western trade, finance, transport, and even semi-military international blocs. Most notably are the two powers’ stepped-up efforts to construct an alternative non-Western, if not anti-Western global structures for circumventing the American world... It appears that Russia is more popular now among Latin American governments than is the U.S... The same appears to be true in Africa and Asia, with numerous countries seeking cooperation with both Russia and China, despite the latter countries’ tensions with the West, which is demanding implementation of draconian sanctions... Moscow and Beijing have succeeded in drawing oil giant Saudi Arabia away from the West and into the ‘eastern’ orbit. Russia along with friendly Algeria control natural gas prices.
Ukraine has been destroyed with enormous loss of life, but the West considers this a bargain price for the weakening of Russia. Our attitude seems to be: This is Russia's war. We're just innocent, and fortunate, bystanders.
