Russia has begun to withdraw 10,000 troops from the border with Ukraine. Fox News. The troops were participating in drills, but Western media had claimed that they were there to invade Ukraine. At the peak, there were 100,000 troops massed on the border with Ukraine. Vladimir Putin has gone on record saying that there was no plan to invade and the claims he was doing so was to justify NATO troop movements on the other side of the border. Biden and Putin are scheduled to meet next year to discuss Russian security concerns about NATO expansion.
My Comment:
Well, there goes that narrative. For about a month the US media has been stoking the flames saying that Russia was going to invade Ukraine. That's despite the fact that it is the middle of winter there and nobody launches an invasion in the middle of winter. That's despite the fact that Russia had nowhere near the number of troops it would need to do so. That's depite the fact that the media never really defined why Russia would want to do such a thing in the first place.
But now? The Russian troops are heading back to their base, just as expected. This was nothing other than saber rattling by Russia and NATO. There wasn't really any short term chance of war. None of the signs of that were happening. There wasn't a general mobilization, logistics forces weren't being put into place, leaves weren't canceled and there was no diplomatic push to try and make a deal. It just wasn't happening.
And I also don't like how the media has downplayed the United States actions in Ukraine. The CIA helped overthrow the pro-Russian leader of the country and replaced him with someone just as corrupt but one that they owned. They helped start the war in Donbass and armed actual Nazis to fight Russian speaking minorities, which the Ukrainian government were actively discriminating against racially. Not that Russia has been a choir boy in Ukraine either, but it's insane to me that we only ever hear one side of the story.
The biggest problem is that the United States seems to want Ukraine to join NATO and to use the country as a base. Is it any wonder why Russia is upset with that? Imagine if Mexico or Canada joined Russia in a defensive pact and Russia started shipping over missiles and other lethal weapons. It would be the Cuban Missile Crisis all over again. Russia's actions do appear to be logical and justified by current events.
I am also reminded by the Able Archer incident back in 1983. That was a major NATO exercise that was just an exercise. But the Soviet leadership was so paranoid and unhinged at that point that it almost started a nuclear war because they thought they were going to be invaded. The Western reaction to Russia's exercise this year seems similar. As unlikely as an invasion of Ukraine was our leaders sure were acting like it was going to happen, and if you can say anything about the Biden administration it's that they are out of touch with reality.
I do have to say that it has never been explained to the American people why Russia has to be our foe. The cold war is over and we have very little interest in Europe anymore. Russia isn't even close to our number one geopolitical foe and I would much rather have brought Russia into NATO as a counter balance against China, the true threat, than our current situation.
The good news is that diplomacy seems to be breaking out. Biden and Putin are meeting and I hope that some solution can be found, despite Biden's proclivity of screwing everything up. I don't think Putin wants war and I know damn sure that nobody outside of a few neocons wants war with Russia here in the United States. That tells me that some deal will probably be made.
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