We don’t want to fight but by Jingo if we do,
We’ve got the ships, we’ve got the men, we’ve got the money too,
We’ve fought the Bear before, and while we’re Britons true,
The Russians shall not have Constantinople.
Such was the refrain in British pubs and music halls in 1878 during the Russo-Turkish War as the unstoppable Russian armies threatened the Ottoman capital. Written by George William Hunt, “MacDermott’s War Song” (as it was known) eventually gave rise to the English term “jingoism,” which denotes an aggressive and chauvinistic form of patriotism. Britain, then-ally of the Ottoman Empire, used diplomatic and military means to threaten Russia into bringing the war to an end. However, the rivalry between Britain and Russia – the so-called “Great Game” – did not officially end until the Anglo-Russian Convention of 1907.
Yet today we see a new “Great Game,” played out across Chechnya, Syria and now Ukraine, with the Washington-based successors of last century’s Anglo-Saxon empire beating ever-louder war drums against “the Bear.” President Biden and his lieutenants Nuland, Blinken and Milley, bolstered by a subservient media, continue to feed vast quantities of weapons and money into Ukraine in pursuit of their stated goal to bring down Putin and break up Russia into a fractured set of weak states. Provocation is laid upon provocation, from blowing up the Nord Stream pipeline to supplying the Zelensky regime with advanced weaponry and intelligence – not to mention the Western “mercenaries” on the front lines. Threats of destroying the Russian fleet and armies are issued by former functionaries such as Petraeus and Panetta (no doubt with official approval), and it is hard to escape the suspicion that this Administration is seeking a Pearl Harbor or 911 event that would enable them to stampede America into direct war with Russia.
Thus far, Putin has refused to take the bait. Nuland may be trying to reboot the same franchise, but the leading villain has not yet accepted his role in the drama. Despite America’s best efforts to throw gasoline on the flames, Moscow has shown remarkable restraint. Russia has every right to see a number of U.S. provocations in the recent past as acts of war, but will not be drawn. Yet perhaps I am speaking too soon, and the fatal wire will be tripped – what then? Will Americans, as in 1941, be stampeded into World War Three?
There are serious reasons to doubt that they will.
According to Rasmussen, YouGov and other polls, the majority of Americans now disapprove of Biden. His handling of everything from inflation to Afghanistan and the COVID vaccines has been nothing short of disastrous. People are feeling the pinch at the supermarket as the prices of goods continue to rise, fueled by unrestrained and short-sighted dollar-printing during the pandemic crisis. Furthermore, the credible corruption allegations swirling around Biden as his son Hunter, mostly Ukraine-related and still not yet seriously investigated (“one rule for them, another for us”), damage Americans’ willingness to risk themselves at the behest of someone seen as incompetent, corrupt, unaccountable, and maybe even illegitimate. Imagine if FDR in 1941 had been shown to have engaged with lucrative, corrupt deals with British and French governments and businesses in order to enrich himself and his family: how would Americans have responded?
The shambolic 2021 withdrawal from Afghanistan, which cost the lives of 13 U.S. Marines, also hammered another nail into the coffin of trust in the military. Instead of high-level resignations in the wake of that fiasco, the American public were treated to the sight of General Milley shifting uneasily in his chair, as bloated as the military budget he presides over. Nobody took responsibility, nothing changed, no one was held accountable. The same people are still in charge – and who in their right mind would want to serve under their command? American top brass appointments favor political yes-men rather than fearless warriors. It is highly unlikely that in today’s military a Patton or MacArthur would ever see high rank. No veteran I know is encouraging their children to enlist, while according to American Military News the armed forces are lowering entrance standards again in an attempt to address the “ongoing recruitment crisis” (Pentagon lowering recruitment standards again: Report (americanmilitarynews.com). All this while military spending soars and defense contractors bank billions from inflated deals.
The Iraq and Afghanistan wars made many Americans deeply distrustful of their government and military. Thousands of traumatized veterans committed suicide, thousands died and many more were scarred for life, physically and psychologically. It is hard to see people clamoring to put their lives on the line in the Ukraine, against a far more deadly enemy. Government lies initiated and prolonged American military involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan, and most people have not forgotten. Government and intelligence agency lies about Trump’s long-since-debunked “Russia collusion” are also still in the public mind. Unsurprisingly, there has been no accountability for the outlandish falsehoods flung at the former President. None of the liars and conspirators need worry about having their collars felt.
This highlights the U.S. justice system’s double standards when it comes to prosecution. Whatever his flaws, Donald Trump is being hounded for alleged crimes that are trivial in comparison with the well-documented misdeeds of George W. Bush, Hillary Clinton and the Biden family. Henry Tarrio, former leader of the right-wing Proud Boys group, was recently sentenced to 22 years in prison for “seditious conspiracy,” among other offenses related to the January 6th Capitol riots, with assistant U.S. Attorney Conor Mulroe avowing that “this defendant, and his co-conspirators targeted our entire system of government.” Meanwhile, Raz Simone and other leaders of Seattle’s 2020 “CHAZ Autonomous Zone” – which actually declared independence from the United States – have yet to be charged with anything. Several shootings occurred inside the Zone during its brief period of self-government, one of which led to the death of black teenager Antonio Mays Jr. No arrests were ever made as a result of those shootings.
Will Americans go to war for such a system?
At the time or writing, U.S. aid to Ukraine since the start of Russia’s Special Military Operation totals roughly $76 billion, according to USA Today. By way of contrast, NBC News reported that in 2022 alone almost 3 million illegal migrants crossed America’s southern border. Washington is clearly more concerned about Ukraine’s border than that of the USA. Protecting American citizens is not Biden’s priority – but those citizens will be expected to heed his call to arms in the event Putin bombs Pearl Harbor?
Other considerations also militate against the involvement of American patriots. Edward Snowden, who took seriously his sworn oath to defend the Constitution from enemies foreign and domestic, sought refuge in Russia, perhaps the only state in the world capable of offering him protection. If Russia is defeated in Ukraine, and Putin falls, where will similar brave whistleblowers find refuge? Washington’s tentacles extend worldwide, as is evident in the case of Julian Assange. Currently, Putin’s Russia provides the only credible bulwark against Washington’s insidious abuse of power and will to silence dissent.
Given the above, why should any American patriot wish to see Russia defeated, or fight a world war for Washington? Even the dimmest bulb in the U.S. capital should be aware of this truth: more and more Americans find themselves in the position of the colonists in 1776. They have come to the realization that their real enemy is not some foreign nation or leader, not Russia or Putin, but their own hostile government.
-By Kelvin Braap
O I’m a good old rebel, now that’s just what I am. For this “fair land of freedom” I do not care at all. I’m glad I fit against it, I only wish we’d won, And I don’t want no pardon for anything I done.
Well said, and I concur completely!
One minor quibble: “It is highly unlikely that in today’s military a Patton or MacArthur would ever see high rank.”
Let us never forget that Patton, MacArthur, AND Eisenhower willingly accepted the order to ride down and rout the “Bonus Army” in Anacostia. Let’s substitute Smedley Butler instead in the sentence above and make our point stronger.
Deo Vindice!
Putin is playing a very strange game. Russia could and should have finished the job in a few weeks. But no, Donetsk is STILL getting shelled, the lights are still on and the water still flows in most of Ukraine. The front is pretty much what it was 18 months ago, the internet is still up, the trains are still running, the Rada still meets, totally unworried at the thought a Russian missile strike might interrupt a debate… and the bridges crossing the Dnieper still carry men and materiel to the front, unmolested by Russian attacks. Perhaps the wisdom in this will manifest eventually. But based on what we’ve seen so far I’d say his leadership qualities have some serious kinks in them.
Am I the only ones who listens to Putin’s speeches? His analysis of modern America is spot on! Recently Biden was in Vietnam. They are now our BFF in the war against China. Indeed, American firms that moved to China and now moving to Vietnam. Is this what 58,000 Americans died for? They lied to us about the Gulf of Tonkin incident just like they lied about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. No wonder Putin calls us the “Empire of Lies!” America is still frozen in WW II logic. It thinks its seas can protect it. Russia has four times the nuclear arsenal of the United States and the mega-tonnage power of their bombs is infinitely higher compared to the United States. America fears a multipolar world. They want to remain the only superpower on the planet. Coupled with that is making sure the dollar remains the reserve currency of the world. That too is changing with the new BRICS currency which, unlike the American dollar, is not a fiat currency. Remember Qaddafi in Libya tried to create his own currency based on oil reserves. NATO killed him.
Should America win in Russia it is on to confront China in the South Asian Sea over Taiwan. Sooner or later, they will meet their match. So, I say get off the USS Titanic before she drags you to the bottom with her or conversely gets you vaporized in a nuclear exchange over by Russian over Ukraine. After all, the Global American Empire has repudiated the “Mutually Assured Destruction” policy of the Cold War era. The United States must think it can survive a nuclear war and go on ticking. It takes a special kind of stupid to align China and Russia as one against you but that is exactly what the Insane States has now done!
Excellent comment Feric Jagger, but I don’t think it’s stupidity, so much as abject subservience, pulling the strings of the ‘Insane States’. They’ve been in thrall to Israel and the money power for a long time. Check out Benjamin Freedman’s speech at the Willard Hotel in 1963 — if you haven’t already. Once they’ve sucked their host dry it can just blow away, is Netanyahu’s sentiment.
I do wonder if the BRICS nations will prove a less willing host. I had hoped maybe they’d be able to establish free national currencies not subject to the Mammon of speculative loan capital, but a recent article I read in American Free Press kind of deflated that hope.