Protracted dirty war

That's what we are likely to see in Ukraine in the foreseeable future.

Russia is reportedly recruiting mercenary soldiers in Syria at present with monthly salary offerings of $8,000. These soldiers will likely be put on the front lines to confront Ukrainian forces while Russian soldiers with more technical skills will operate in the background, launching missiles, etc.

And, as usual, civilians will bear the brunt of the violence from an ever more ruthless bunch of soldiers operating under Russia's flag.

The legacy of all this will be a seething hatred reaching far into the future.

A comparison

The 2003 invasion of Iraq[a] was the first stage of the Iraq War. The invasion phase began on 19 March 2003 (air) and 20 March 2003 (ground) and lasted just over one month,[24] including 26 days of major combat operations, in which a combined force of troops from the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia and Poland invaded Iraq. 22 days after the first day of the invasion, the capital city of Baghdad was captured by Coalition forces on 9 April 2003 after the six day long Battle of Baghdad.

The Iraq Body Count project (IBC) documented a higher number of civilian deaths up to the end of the major combat phase (May 1, 2003). In a 2005 report,[86] using updated information, the IBC reported that 7,299 civilians are documented to have been killed, primarily by U.S. air and ground forces. There were 17,338 civilian injuries inflicted up to May 1, 2003. The IBC says its figures are probably underestimates because: "many deaths will probably go unreported or unrecorded by officials and media."[19] (WIKI)

Compare that against Putin's war in Ukraine. That's not to say that Putin is a "nice guy".

There are no nice guys in wars. None.

On freedom

The post-pandemic cry "freedom!"has been heard loud and clear across Canada, meaning freedom from restrictions and mandates.

And there are many indications of a universal "putch" to deprive the population of choices that are not approved by self appointed 'elites'.

In the distant past this tendency, towards universal regulation and uniformity, was physically embedded in giant structures that we now call "pyramids".

They have a broad and rectangular base and an apex point representing the multitudes and the ruler, closer to Sol (the Sun god) than the base.

So, the world hasn't changed very much, as empires come and go. The dynamic is the same: The few constantly try to subjugate the many, this time using electronic technology.

Next time you use your smartphone, think about who is actually smart.

There is one positive here: The societies that created the pyramids across the world no longer exist, because they were not compatible with the human mind that requires individual freedoms in order to thrive.

There comes a point when the multitudes turn on their masters and start anew.

Premier Jason Kenney's strategy

The (not so) United Conservative Party board did a flip flop on how to conduct the internal leadership question vote a little while ago.

Originally planned for a venue capable of dealing with some 2000+ people in attendance, something had to change in order to accommodate 15,000 registrants wanting to vote on whether Kenney should remain party leader.

Several options were available to the party board, including the use of The Westerner Park facility in Red Deer.

Instead, after many ruminations, the board decided on a mail in vote conducted during April, rather than an in-person vote on April 9, as originally planned.

This is where it gets interesting, Kenney has been busy conducting telephone town halls with members of the party (two of which I have participated in with more to come), and also has a one hour phone in show on local radio stations every Saturday morning from 10am to 11am.

In other words, he is "blitzing" the electorate with his version of why he should stay in power in order to bypass the perceived hardcore anti-Kenney people prepared to pay $99 to vote in Red Deer.

And the rules were changed after the closing date for registrations to the event.

The initial party leadership contest between Jason Kenney and Brian Jean is still being investigated for irregularities, including a "black horse" candidate working for Kenney, and has not passed the smell test.

Funny how stench has a tendency to persist...

The long war ahead

Today, US President Joe Biden effectively declared war on Russia by calling for the removal of Putin.

He also implied that the war will not last for months, but much longer, meaning years.

That means that the whole world economy will, once again, be focussed on supplying the war effort with men and materials, bleeding the youth away from many nations

The military/industrial complex will thrive as the generals come and go, along with countless enlisted men and women and even more so, civilians.

This is an old story, repeated a thousand times in the past. The pandemic was just a lead in to what we are about to experience now.

China will play a pivotal role in how long this will go on for. China's interest in the long term will be to discreetly support Putin so as to prevent the Western Empire from crushing Putin and become China's next enemy number 1.

China will seek to make Russia dependent on its support and so enhance its own power in the world. This could go on for a very long time.

What is History?

One way to illustrate the answer to this question is to take a look at local history books, created by families in a community for posterity.

Reading this material, you will get a sense of what happened where, when and why. Who is related to who, etc.

That's about all. Anything controversial that happened at the time

is conveniently left out. And you would be hard put to find any 'saucy' stories.

Official histories are not very different, as we are finding out here in Canada in regards to how Indigenous peoples were treated by the colonizers. And I know the same to be true in Australia.

Another example is the Soviet version of battles fought against enemies in times past: Allied records of battles between Russians and Germans were simply not recorded in Soviet history if the Russians were the losers.

So, to find out what really happened in the past, official histories only provide a biased skeletal version of events and you have to dig a lot deeper to even approach the truth.

The structure of empire

An empire does not emerge willy nilly. It is very consciously knitted together by a set of attitudes that give its members a common purpose: "Rule Britannia, Britannia rule the waves!"

"The sun never sets on the British Empire", "Long live the Fatherland", "Long live the Motherland", etc.

At the apex of these organizations are megalomaniacs that happily sacrifice their subjects for power and glory.

Their main skill lies in their ability to manipulate the minds of these same subjects, to foster hatred and contempt for those outside their circle of influence.

In order to cement their power over populations, very young 'suitable' people are recruited into the brainwashing apparatus and are groomed for positions of power later on.

So, conflicts between empires are inevitable as tensions build up and contests of territory come to a head.

That's where we are now in Ukraine and nobody should fool themselves into believing that this conflict will be over anytime soon.

Why Norwegians (including members of my family) should be worried

NATO exercise happening right now in Northern Norway:

"WHO: Around 30,000 troops from 27 countries from Europe and North America

WHAT: Training together in cold weather exercises – on land, in the air and at sea

WHERE: NATO Ally Norway and surrounding seas

WHEN: March-April 2022

WHY: Helping Allies and partners practise working together so that they are prepared for any situation" (Copied from NATO website)

Fact: Russia's northern nuclear defence forces are concentrated on the Kola peninsula where Norway and Russia have a shared border (not very far from the exercise area)

Just listened to NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg (former Norwegian Prime Minister) on the Norwegian radio news state that NATO will increase its number of battlegroups surrounding Russia from 4 to 8. There are currently some 100, 000 US troops posted in Europe, according to Stoltenberg and NATO has a total of about 40,000 troops under its command.

The chessboard is loaded... (I seem to be experiencing some chills; didn't Russia just conduct exercises along the Ukrainian border?)

Russian strategy in Ukraine

The stated object of the Russian "special operation" in Ukraine is to "de-nazify" that country. Taken on its face value, that would mean to remove 'undesirable elements' , presumably to be replaced by desirable ones.

The war has now settled into one of attrition, wearing down your enemy to the point of exhaustion, from lack of shelter, supplies, etc.

On the ground, the Russians are no match for the Ukrainians who are well supplied with anti tank missiles and have a motivation to fight, in contrast to Russian conscript soldiers.

So, in order to win, the Russians will just pound the crap out of Ukraine and help as many people to leave as possible. And they have the means to do so, in contrast to the Ukrainian forces.

I'm thinking, at the end of the day, Russians will likely be encouraged to settle in Ukraine to replace all those that left during the war.

Not unlike what happened after the German army occupied Polish territory at the beginning of WWII and German settlers moved in.

Postscript: At the end of WWII, the German settlers were loaded onto trains, including cattle wagons, and shipped back to Germany suffering death and disease on a huge scale.

Coffin Canada?

Woke up to news this morning that Prince Justin has made a deal with Jagmeet Singh, leader of Canada's New Democratic Party, to prop him up in motions of confidence and supply, which would keep our prince in power (and Jagmeet in a job) until the next election in 2025.

People on the Canadian prairies already feel cheated out of any meaningful influence on federal political decisions and the fires of separatism are burning, as evidenced by the Freedom Convoy to Ottawa and the blocking of border crossings a little while ago.

Prince Justin has stated that his action is taken to stabilize the nation in the years ahead, which proves his total ignorance of political realities in Canada.

This decision will further fuel the fires of anger and cause more divisions in a nation hanging together by the skin of its teeth.

Historical parallels

Adolf Hitler and his National Socialist Party assumed power in Germany in 1933, managed to tie in to international capital and quickly rebuilt the economy using re-armament as a major economic stimulus.

Before the end of the decade, Germans had regained a sense of purpose, lost after the debacle of WWI and subsequent economic collapse. Adolf Hitler became their hero.

Vladimir Putin took over a Russia that had been run into the ground following the collapse of the Soviet Union and has, over the last 20 years, been busy building a formidable military machine.

At the same time, the Western Empire, led by the US, under the flag of NATO, has been closing in on Putin's Russia.

After a long buildup of tensions, on February 24, 2022, physical hostilities erupted following a long period of planning.

Hitler started out by claiming German ownership of Sudetenland because of its German population.

Putin makes the same claim for Crimea and Eastern Ukraine because of their Russian populations.

One can only hope that the pattern does not continue ...

Putin's edge

Putin knows that he has got the world by the "you know whats" and he is using that knowledge to get rid of the "nationalists" in Ukraine and bring that state back into the fold of "Mother Russia".

Whatever is left of Ukraine that is, after the conflict is over.

During the last 20 years or so, Putin has modernized the Russian armory to the point where he now has an arsenal of hypersonic missiles at his disposal, in contrast to the West who has been caught with its pants down.

One telling piece of evidence to this effect is that Ukrainian President Zelenski's pleas for help from Israel are falling on deaf ears. That in spite of Zelenski being a Jew and speaking on behalf of thousands of jews in Ukraine.

The powers that be in Israel know that they are at the mercy of Putin's nuclear trigger finger with no defence against a nuclear attack on Tel Aviv, for example.

Likewise, the Wall Street crew knows that Manhattan could be gone, reduced to rubble, by another Putin whim.

So, there we are. This conflict has just started.

Norwegians are getting worried

Norway has a common border with Russia in the far north and it just so happens that Russia's main northern nuclear strike force is concentrated on the Kola peninsula, not very far from northern Norwegian communities.

During my time in the Norwegian Air Force I served on a NATO early warning radar station in that area in 1962/63 during the Cold War.

The station was expected to be taken off the air by the Russians within few minutes of hostilities breaking out at that time, we were told by senior NATO analysts.

This morning I listened to radio news from Norway where this matter was discussed and concerns being expressed. To top it off, NATO is planning to hold an annual military exercise off the northern coast of Norway shortly.

That was even the case in my military days and I remember the Russians holding their own exercise in the same area after ours was finished. They used to jam our radar at the time, just to poke their nose at us.

Norway was invaded and occupied by Germany at the outset of WWII and Russian troops invaded Northern Norway at the end of that war to get rid of the Germans stationed there.

At the time there were some concerns about them staying put, after the German departure...

Is Putin a nutcase?

Many western news sources suggest that he is. I don't think so. On the contrary. He has every reason to believe that NATO countries led by the US will not interfere with his conquest of Ukraine.

Russia has an edge in the development and production of hypersonic missiles. And no nation currently has the ability to effectively intercept these missiles as they approach their targets.

Putin knows it and so does Western military and political leaders.

So Putin will just keep pouring it on in Ukraine, turning the place into rubble, knowing that the West does not dare to interfere in any meaningful way, in spite of all the hot air emanating from Western politicians.

Anyone on Earth is now a sitting duck that can be taken out at the whim of one man.