Posted by Ken Waldron on September 27, 2023, 11:33 pm
From the "Institute for the Study of War": a "prestigious" US organisation claiming to be a "...non-partisan, non-profit, public policy research organization."
ISW
@TheStudyofWar Sep 25
"...Putin may have ordered the Russian military command to hold all Russia’s initial defensive positions to create the illusion that Ukrainian counteroffensives have not achieved any tactical or operational effects despite substantial Western support."
-The "Institute" is run by a Dr. Kimberly KaganL if the surname seems familiar that's because she's arch-Neoconservative Robert Kagan's sister-in-law and thus also his wife Victoria Newland's.
Clearly we can expect her organisation to be completely "non-partisan" on Ukraine as her dear sister-in-law only spent over $5 Billion of US government funds to started the war in the first place and indeed some of the ISW's funders go by the non-partisan names of "General Dynamics" & "Raytheon".
This one particularly interests me because it points to something broader.
Take for example us: A small group of people occupying a totally obscure newsgroup website which only exists because its funded by Dan to retain his sanity, yet we pretty much are unanimous in knowing by astute judgement which geopolitical sources are worthwhile and which are useless propaganda and to be honest make collectively good calls on that basis.
Sometimes I ask myself what makes the contrast: a bunch on nobodies who know whats happening and a bunch of somebodies such as the above with vast amounts of wealth and funding for research and all the possible political connections you might need to have your finger on the pulse.
Which proposes the first question and that of course is: "Do these people actually believe what they are saying?"
-I think that often they do.
Granting them a good allotment of intelligence, there's clearly something very different in the way we look at the world and the way these others do.
On that its obvious that a large part of their thought process involves not looking at the actual facts but squaring it with other matters, the first which is their own tendentiousness, the later financial remuneration: i.e. personal background and funding. In the case of "Institute for the Study of War" the background is anti-Soviet/Russian Lithuanian heritage of the neocon Kagans...the latter is the money from the military industrial complex. The outcome of thought under these meshed parameters is predictable.
The third part is intent.
Our "truth" is to properly understand what is actually happening but its easy to forget that theirs is to actually change that reality so far as they can.
Their standpoint is epitomised by the Karl Rove quote I mentioned below:
'We're an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you're studying that reality—judiciously, as you will—we'll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that's how things will sort out."
Our truth is about fact: to understand what is happening... but theirs is geared quite differently towards intent: i.e. how can we understand this and explain it in a way that promotes our agenda? But of course they are wrapped up in their game and quite unable to see the other players perspective.
In terms of understanding, we by far surpass them merely by acknowledging that there is still more than one player in this game. That Rove was wrong: history is not yet unipolar and created by one party.
In proof of that the failure to create the Rovian "new realities" in terms of Russia are manifold. The largest failure was of course a misjudgement of economic might: the believe that "sanctions" by themselves could destroy their opponent. Yet it was plain as day to those in the real world that any opponent self-sufficient in food, fuel and raw materials such as Russia could never be beaten by such means. The next was that Russia could not prevail over the collective war machinery of the 45 nations opposed to it. Unfortunately they had lost sight of the fact that they were pitting a "for profit" military industrial complex against an existential one made for winning wars with extensive historical experience of turning its own raw materials into armaments.
Thirdly they were relying on Colonial empire myths that should have been exploded long ago: that the Russian people were backwards, badly educated: incapable of organised opposition: savage "orks". This of course has turned out to be ludicrously false.
So...where are we?
-At the most dangerous stage of all: The empire still refuses to acknowledge that it cannot stamp its way through the world as it thought it could. Unfortunately its still working on the Rovian premise that it can "create its own realities" but the only tool left in the box is the poor proxy Ukrainian trenchfodder who are learning the hard way about the realities of Industrial war and Geopolitics.
Only Russia can end this war and it can only do so if the US shows honest compliance: paradoxically the only way the US can achieve this after so much deceit arrogance and dishonesty is by betraying the Ukrainian ally it has promised the world to.
The US has had no qualms about doing so in the past when necessary: but usually after years of procrastination and hundreds of thousands of unnecessary deaths.
I feel sorry for Ukraine: more so when I see in my minds eye the smirking face of Zelensky at the Minsk accords...laughing at Putin's frankness: believing he was a fool because with the assured backing of the west Zelensky clearly had no intention whatsoever of adhering to any peaceful settlement over Donbas.
Zelensky...not merely an actor completely out his depth but an amateur political fool who has managed to destroy an entire country: even against the wishes of the opponent it hates.
I think you need to... just calm down! No, I'm not being serious. You make, as usual, lots of valid points.
The way people use language is very complex. A root you are addressing the way language, rhetoric, is employed by the powerful to explain and legitimize their actions; just for starters. Using a broad brush, the ritualized use of language becomes a norm, a display; which doesn't mean that the individual necessarily 'believes' what they are saying, but it's what's expected and defined by the context the utterance is part of.
This whole area, language, is probably why Chomsky's critique of capitalist civilization has been so devastating.
"I think you need to... just calm down! No, I'm not being serious. You make, as usual, lots of valid points..."
-Acht, just thinking aloud on the matter of why people who should know better are still investing in this delusionary narrative on Ukraine... after how many deaths now?
Plain old "wishful thinking" doesn't seem to cover the dismal lack of factual assessment adequately: "Rovian reportage" with its absurd future clause might be better.
But yea...it's true I get angry whenever I think of that smirking bastard Zelensky. There should be a special zone of pre-hell reserved for him where he is smothered beneath the thousands of twitching shattered limbs he is responsible for: I truly wish that on his nightly cocaine dreams.
I couldn't agree more. Of course, they have succeeded in creating a new reality. They have, through their actions in Ukraine, brought about the end of the unipolar era of US dominance. Probably not what they had in mind though.
Didn't last long, did it? Pity Gore Vidal is dead, he'd enjoy this....Clio the cat, ? July 1997 - 1 May 2016 Kira the cat, ? ? 2010 - 3 August 2018 Jasper the Ruffian cat ? ? ? - 4 November 2021
Re: Fnar!
Posted by Dovetail Joint on September 28, 2023, 9:51 am, in reply to "Fnar!"
Gore Vidal imagined himself as a kind of Cicero observing the end of the Roman Republic and the rise of the Caesars. As the ultimate insider he watched the imperial project expanding outwards after WW2.
In ancient Rome, Trump would have fitted in nicely. One of the elite appealing to the great mass of the plebs was nothing unusual, more like the norm.
So when he's attacked for not being one of the ordinary people he appeals to, it's because he reveals way too much about how the country is really run. By the rich, for the rich, for no one else.
Zelensky the actor...."Exit, Pursued By A Bear" (nm)
Posted by Ed on September 28, 2023, 3:34 pm, in reply to "Re: Fnar!"
nm
Re: Zelensky the actor...."Exit, Pursued By A Bear" (nm)
I can feel my hackles rise every time I catch sight of Zelensky. Given his previous form I expect he's been making plans for when this all goes down the shitter but I'm not sure he'll be around for too long to spend his ill-gotten hoard.
...no amount of cajolery, and no attempts at ethical or social seduction, can eradicate from my heart a deep burning hatred for the Tory Party...So far as I am concerned they are lower than vermin.
I don't think the US wants to "defeat" Russia in the conventional sense, Ken
-- they want Russia engaged in , Immersed in, perpetual never-ending war that will bleed it economically dry. Of course it's bleeding the US and its allies dry too in the long run -- but as long as Lockheed Martin and Raytheon are thriving, that's okay.i
Re: I don't think the US wants to "defeat" Russia in the conventional sense, Ken
on September 27, 2023, 11:33 pm