“We” must be kept in a permanent state of fear …

 

In a change to the current program running in the MSM – will Johnson go? Will the ‘rebel MPs’ plot be successful? Will the covid tsardom fall? – I’ll look at the latest ‘fear and horror’ scenario. It looks as if the various Foreign Secretaries of ‘Teh West’ are desirous of making headlines again, something which was so difficult during the pandemic and the various covid lockdowns and ‘measures’. I am talking of the ‘Threat to Peace’ by Putin. 

There have been ongoing, low-key reports in the MSM last year about the Ukraine being threatened by Putin’s army which has been stationed near the Ukrainian border. There were warnings by the Ukrainian government that Putin was going to stage a coup in Kiev, announced for the days before Christmas. That didn’t happen. There were warnings by the Ukrainian government that Putin would invade, fersure, right after New Year’s day. Well, that didn’t happen either. 

The Ukrainian government kept making ‘desperate pleas’ to Western governments for more weapons. These weren’t forthcoming. Now however … now there’s this scary headline in the DT this morning: 

“UK goes into ‘crisis mode’, as weapons flown to Ukraine to defend against Russian invasion .Evidence from US intelligence suggests Moscow is planning an attempt to take over Kyiv and overthrow the government.” (paywalled link)

“We”, that is the UK, is in yet another ‘crisis mode’? Omigawd! And all because ‘US evidence suggests …’? Well, we’ve become conditioned to be in ‘fear mode’ during those last two years, haven’t we – or is it ‘addicted’? In their disjointed report the DT writes that:

“Ben Wallace, the Defence Secretary, announced on Monday that the UK had started supplying Ukraine with Next Generation Light Anti-tank Weapons (NLAW) to help it defend itself from a potential invasion. Officials at the Foreign Office have been told to be ready to move into “crisis mode” at very short notice, highlighting the increased concern that Russia’s aggression toward Ukraine could lead to an invasion.” (paywalled link)

Good grief! We can’t even keep dinghy drivers from our shores because our RN deems it to be inhumane to push them back into French waters – but we can sell the latest weapons to the Ukraine? Note also that it’s the Foreign Office being told ‘to prepare for crisis mode’ – not the whole country. And why should “we”, ahem: Ms Truss’ new domain, prepare for ‘crisis’? Because:

“The White House reviews evidence from US intelligence suggesting Russia is planning to attempt to take Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and overthrow the government. Joe Biden is now thought to be weighing up new options for dealing with the crisis, including providing more arms to Ukraine. Jen Psaki, White House spokesman, said: “We believe we’re now at a stage where Russia could at any point launch an attack on Ukraine.” A White House official warned that Russian troops being sent for exercises in Belarus could be used to attack Ukraine.” (paywalled link)

Note well that these paragraphs heave with expressions like: could, might, ‘we suspect’, ‘we believe they could’. The DM is doubling down on this threat – see their headline here. The first sentence is “Vladimir Putin will opt for the ‘nightmare scenario’ of a full invasion of Ukraine as tensions rise towards tipping point, UK defence chiefs fear.” (link). Never mind that these Russian troops have been stationed near that border – about 100km away, I recall – since September last year. Of course, given all the ongoing covid shenanigans, the odd ‘fear’ report here and there notwithstanding, nobody paid much attention. There’s more:

“Last night a senior defence source said: ‘We strongly believe [Putin’s] preference is for a full invasion rather than a limited offensive. In a sense he might as well go for as much of Ukraine as he can get hold of because the penalties are just the same.” (link)

Crikey! That source’ strongly believes’ … now that’s what I call ‘proof’! Not! Opinion pieces in the DT on this international Project Fear aim to stir this witches’ brew even more, one claiming that ‘Berlin’, now under a Red-Green government is incapable of standing up to Putin. The headline of that opinion piece is un-effing-believable: 

“Reckless Germany is making war in Ukraine more likely – Compromised by reliance on Russian gas, Berlin is undermining the West’s ability to deter Putin” (paywalled link)

Is the author unaware of the fact that Germany has already shut down three of their last nuclear reactors and is shutting down coal power stations as well? Should Germans freeze because ‘The West’ wants to slap down Putin? In an accompanying opinion piece we’re told that the EU has ‘abandoned’ the Ukraine because Germany is no longer “the pivot of Europe but a power vacuum at its heart” (paywalled link). The author spreads blame a bit further:

“Ms Baerbock’s [the new, green German Foreign Secretary] double visit to Kiev and Moscow has demoralised the Ukrainians and emboldened the Russians. They see that she has only words. Even the hints of sanctions suggest how little Germany will do rather than how firmly it will act. Germany isn’t alone to blame for splitting the Nato response. President Macron has talked a big game of asserting the strategic sovereignty of  a “united Europe” able to pool its diplomatic, military and economic weight. But when trouble looms, and his re-election fight in April approaches, Macron chooses the path of strategic silence.” (paywalled link)

Ah. Note how elegantly the author shifts from ‘The EU’ to ‘NATO. Also odd is that apparently elections or vows not to sell arms into crisis regions don’t matter to international correspondents when it’s about Putin. Perhaps it’s really about selling arms to stimulate the covid-ravaged national economies in the US and here. Perhaps it’s also about giving arms to the Ukraine with weapons to attack Russia. Astonishingly, the ‘cowed’ Ukrainian government is now ‘demanding’ that Germany provide them with anti-aircraft weapons – and war ships (paywalled link, in German)!

So what is going on? Is it that Biden desperately needs some ‘foreign crisis’ to distract from his scandalous covid policies? Or is it that the foot-stamping last year, about ‘moar sanctions’ against Putin wasn’t that successful? The Times, also reporting on this ‘threat’, writes that:

“Europe and the US have shelved a plan to expel Russia from the world’s dominant international payments system [Swift] if it invades Ukraine” (link, paywalled).

Ah! So there’s the dilemma: this ‘nuclear option’ of kicking Russia out of Swift would not only not work, it would seriously damage the economies of EU countries trading with Russia. And there’s worse:

“[This] might also undermine Swift itself by encouraging Russia and China to develop rival networks for payments. About 400 Russian banks and 20 per cent of Russia’s internal payments have already switched to Moscow’s own system, known as SPFS, which was created at the height of the last Ukraine crisis in 2014.” (link, paywalled)

Oh dear. So it’s better to create instead a new international ‘fear porn scenario’, allowing Western governments to sell arms to the Ukraine ‘because: Putin!’. Old cynic that I am, I wonder how soon all this ‘crisis’ talk, the breathless reports about the US Sec of State doing ‘crisis shuttle diplomacy’, will die down. After all, there’ still the covid ‘pandemic’ to deal with, and there are of course the Winter Olympics in China looming over the horizon. I somehow don’t think Mr Xi will permit such Western warmongering to persist, distracting the world from China’s latest achievements.

But it’s good for our MSM to have a new, nice, ‘foreign object’ to create more fear. After all, we peasants must be kept in a permanent state of fright, mustn’t we, to keep us in abject submission.

 

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