The invisible war
(John Nijzink)
As the storm in the media has settled, the moment has come to carefully examine if there are other sides to the Ukrainian drama. There may be another scenario, more in line with the hard facts and recent developments:.
Obscured by the tragic war that causes hardship to so many Ukrainians and Europeans,there is another even larger conflict, hidden from view, a trade war between Russia and The United States. This war is not about democracy. It is about oil, natural gas, uranium. During the last decade, Russia has become the main supplier of energy to Europe, More than half of Europe’s oil and gas was channelled through the giant pipelines, the last of which, North Stream II, was finished just recently. Could these developments have had anything to do with the military expansion of NATO towards the Russian border?
In the western mainstream, Vladimir Putin is depicted as this ruthless stalinist, who has set his mind on restoring the soviet empire. With the German chancellor Merkel gone, The EU in disarray, NATO severely weakened, he saw his chance o invade Ukraine, after having annexed the Crimea.
Now, my question is: did he really have an alternative? To make this clear, I would invite you to have a closer look at the map of Europe. Take some flags from a game of risk and put them on every spot where America and his allies deployed military bases and rocket installations, ranging from the Baltics to Hungary, eastwards to Rumania, in southern direction to Bulgaria, up through Turkey to the east..You have to acknowledge that there’s much to be said for the Russian fear of being closed in by the enemy, a sentiment that has a long history with the Russian people.
Most of these deployments took place under the Clinton and Bush-administration. when there was no need for this geopolitical aggression from the west. And was it really necessary to openly announce the future NATO-membership of Georgia, Ukraine, Moldavia, invoking so much resentment, . When there was no immediate Russian military threat? Why ignore a buffer zone that was until then respected. This was a provocation, plain and simple. How else is this to be explained..
All this posturing and flag waving by mostly the Americans had a purpose. It was to corner the Russian dictator – and main competitor on the European energy market. There was simply no way out for Putin. The position of a Russian leader is much that of a mob ruler: you lose face, you lose your power base. So he had to meet the challenge, or crumble before his own people and before those who helped him in his rise tho power. Remember, all these military actions by the Russians in Georgia, the Crimea, and finally Ukraine were preceded by western claims involving the what most of the Russians regard as the annexation of previous Soviet territory.
Was the invasion part of a masterplan of a megalomaniac, or a selffulfilling prophecy. You can debate endlessly about the machinations of the Russian leader. But one thing is quite clear: if this is in fact a proxy war, the American alliance succeeded in every respect: Putin had to yield the energy market to the US and its Western allies — . American tankers are heading for the Dutch harbor to fill up the terminals with liquid gas from texas. Untold profits in oil, gas: 300 billion, not to mention, the defense industry. An unprecedented rise of oil and gas tariffs, plunging the western nations in a energy crisis —
as always, there are those who will have to foot the bill: the Ukrainians, the consumer, the taxpayer: inflation has reached an all-time high, in Europe, America,.Russia. And who is to blame. Is it really only Putin who jacks up the tariffs? Those who supply our oil and gas, they don’t have to charge these absurd prices. They just do, because the market allows them to. They have a choice. And the consumer? He has no choice. He has no where else to go. on this so-called ‘free’ market. ,
© 2022