The fight is fully engaged. There is no turning back for Russia. It will end one of three ways:
1) With a retreat by (effectively a defeat of) Russia, which is unlikely to happen in Ukraine, except in a long-term, bit-off-more-than-chewable sense above. The net result of such a defeat would be the strengthening of US/NATO imperialism, at least until a further challenge from the East; 2) With a concession by (effectively a defeat of) NATO, which is unlikely to happen without military conflict. The net result of that defeat would be the end of US unipolar hegemony; or, 3) With everyone in ashes, which is not all that unlikely.
I know which I prefer.
Under any circumstance, we all better realize: There will be no return to the status quo ante-bellum. That world has is gone. We have no idea what the new one will look like.
Legit Concern
I guess it's time for a comment on why I'm not overly interested in what for many is the elephantine question in the room: Is Russia's offensive in Ukraine illegal invasion? Is it justified under international law?
First of all, I regret to inform you that there is no "law" governing the actions of nations. There was a very imperfect architecture of international law based on the United Nations. It has been utterly destroyed over the past decades, by the United States and its allies. Its institutions have demonstrated their capture by, and impotence in the face of, imperialist power. It only exists now as a memory (and a wish).
Russia is now acting in exasperated and frank recognition of that, and forcing everyone else to recognize it. Russia is not going to be the only one still obeying the ghost of international law past that will never disturb the rest of the imperial master. It is certainly not going to accept the ruling issued by the United States, under the Bill Clinton administration during the war on Yugoslavia, that NATO was now the "international community," and would henceforth determine which invasions are "justified."
Two can play now at the games the U.S. insisted on-the reconfiguration of post-Soviet Europe game, and the "responsibility to protect" offensive attack game-and there is no referee.
Russia's implicit position is: "You cannot bring these questions to the table because there is no table. If you want to build one, that will have to be done with us, China, Iran, etc. And it will be round. If you want, with your typical self-righteous hypocrisy, to keep pretending you're in the seat of judgement, we'll ignore you and keep fighting."
The sudden and frantic Western political and media concern about international law, invasion, and occupation in relation to Ukraine is truly nauseating.
What "justified" the overthrow of the democratically-elected leader of Ukraine-chosen, according to European and NATO observers, in "a good and competitive election and very promising for the future of Ukraine's democracy"-by an insurrection sponsored by the U.S. and led by fascist militias? What justified that to the people of Eastern Ukraine who voted overwhelmingly for that leader and wanted no part of a coup regime infested with fascists? What justified the Odessa massacre and the deadly eight-year offensive against those Eastern Ukrainians, which has 14,000 killed so far-with 253 casualties last week? Do Western politicians and media ask these questions? Do they even know it happened?
In fact, the United States put Ukraine in danger to, by cynically and deliberately using it as a pawn to provoke a Russian attack, groomed to be sacrificed. Ukraine is now paying the price for that. Numerous American foreign policy specialists-from George Kennan, to US Ambassador to the Soviet Union, Jack Matlock, to the current CIA director William Burns-repeatedly said things like "eastward expansion" of NATO was a "potential military threat" to Russia and involving Ukraine would "split the country in two, ... which would force Russia to decide whether to intervene." As Matlock says, this crisis was not only "predicted" but "willfully precipitated" by the United States. A tactical victory for the U.S.
John Mearsheimer explains 90% of what you need to know about the Ukraine situation, and how the U.S. has been "leading Ukraine down a primrose path, and the end result is Ukraine is going to get wrecked," in this 90-second clip.
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