• Kaplya
    ·
    edit-2
    10 months ago

    What we know for certain is that Zelensky met with Biden soon after he was inaugurated in 2021, and that caused a 180-degree face turn on Zelensky’s part. While he was elected as the “peace president” who was supposed to bridge the divide between the Russian-majority eastern Ukraine (he swept the votes in those regions) and western Ukraine, Zelensky almost immediately began to ramp up all sorts of inflammatory rhetoric, like joining NATO.

    Understandably, this spooked Russia, who then spent the rest of 2021 trying to deescalate the situation. This culminated in the US-Russia Summit in June 2021, during which the Russian diplomatic team sent hundreds of pages of proposal and presented various options to address their security concerns. It was ignored by the US. In less than two months, first in August 2021, the US would send Stingers and Javelins to Ukraine, followed by another shipment in December 2021. Two months later, Russia invaded Ukraine.

    However, let’s not give Trump any slack here. Trump was the one who resumed the military aid to Azov after it was paused under the Obama admin. He was also the one who pushed Merkel to build a massive LNG terminal for Germany to purchase American LNG instead of Russian gas. When both Trump and Merkel left offices, the project was not pursued further, until… Europe sanctioned Russia and Nord Stream was bombed. We should also note that the construction of Nord Stream 2 was completed around the same time in 2021, but its certification process kept getting “delayed” with no end in sight. This undoubtedly added further doubts for the Russians on whether the US is interested in a good faith de-escalation. With all the events happening leading up to February 2022, it may very well have convinced the Russians that the US always had intended on an aggressive provocation. Later events would prove this reading of the situation correct.

    So, there really isn’t a difference between Trump and Biden when it comes to implementing the strategic policies of the US. What sets them apart is Biden’s willingness to be ruthless and decisive about it. Ending Europe’s prosperity, who cares? As Victoria Nuland once said, fuck the EU, right? One million Ukrainian casualties, who cares? Starting new wars with every continent on the planet, who cares?

    But the most disturbing part is that, now that Biden has already crossed the line, it means every president that comes after him, Democrat or Republican, will no longer have to worry about taking their masks off anymore. It’s now a race to the bottom, a race to see who is the most hawkish president (who can deliver a better profit making scheme for the capitalists like Biden has accomplished). There is no turning back from here. The mask has been taken down. Millions will die.

    • BynarsAreOk [none/use name]
      ·
      10 months ago

      This is mostly correct, I don't believe for a second Trump had any idea what he was doing with that LNG terminal, I seriously honestly doubt he even knows what LNG is, this is literaly the clean coal guy so that part of the explanation is rough imo. IMO Trump would have been more likely to say fuck Ukraine once he realized the majority of the right wing base wanted war with China instead.

      While liberals were quick to make Ukrainians into honorary whites, as far as chuds go white christian fundamentalist Russia is already as "white" as it gets so there would be no benefit on a political level to be "tough" on Putin. Why would he do that? To please libs only.

      The thing with Trump is that you're ultimately correct there was only minor differences in the grand scheme both served US imperialism very similarly, but otoh Trump does have that unpredictability and personal petty/ego that somehow manages to bypass all the common sense/no good principles of being a neoliberal ghoul.

      To put it bluntly Trump doesn't care nearly as much about any sort of grand US project or even political power(on a world level) as much as living life like a literal king. Competent neoliberals can't afford to be this shallow.

      • Kaplya
        ·
        edit-2
        10 months ago

        I agree in the sense that neither Trump nor Biden know what they’re actually doing, they simply carry out what the neocons are telling them to do.

        I disagree, however, with the “realists” faction who think the US can ally with Europe and Russia against China. In fact, I am one of the few people with the unpopular take that the “neocons”, as deranged as they are, are actually correct in their assessment about the US geopolitical position. Post-2009 crash, the US simply does not have the capacity to counter China if the EU (the second largest economic body in the world) takes China’s side.

        While the EU was also weakened by the post-2009 recession, it was also saved by Nord Stream and allowed a relatively rapid recovery of their industrial sector. This is why the EU has every incentive to move closer to Russia, and eventually China. The US financial capital also suffered massively from the 2009 crash, and they are rightfully afraid of the EU exerting its influence to tilt the balance of power towards China.

        In other words, the EU must be destroyed before the US can take on China. And that means engineering a war with Russia and forcing Europe to abandon its Eurasia ambitions. It is simply too risky to leave the EU unchecked.