Without a Change in Policy, the West Will Lose on Two Fronts
Two important meetings marked week three of January: the annual World Economic Forum (WEF) get-together in Davos Jan. 16-20, and the “League for Ukraine” meeting, as U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin renamed the Ramstein conference of the Ukraine contact group that took place Jan. 20.
In terms of results, both were a complete failure — at least initially. Whereas very few political leaders attended the billionaires club in Davos, the Ramstein meeting ended without a decision by Germany to supply Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine. However, according to information not yet confirmed officially, after four days of intense pressure from Washington and a threatened government crisis, Berlin reportedly capitulated and decided to send… 14 Leopard 2 tanks. And it gave a green light to a more consistent contingent from Poland and other countries (cf. below). Berlin justified this with the U.S. decision – also unconfirmed – to send some ultra-modern Abrams tanks, a precondition originally set by Berlin to join the escalation.
It seems that the German leadership has not learned the lesson of Stalingrad, and is not listening to warnings from its military (cf. below). But beyond the farcical proposition that a few hundred modern tanks could turn the tide of the war in Ukraine, even the U.S. military is aware that the war has been lost, and is imploring political leaders to find a face-saving solution. Thus, a discussion has begun among military and strategic analysts in the West on what the situation will look like, once Russia’s expected “spring offensive” has succeeded in taking over the entire Donbass territory. Some point to the Korean war, which ended with an armistice and an iron curtain at the 38th parallel, with the country remaining divided in two and armed against each other, with no peace treaty to this day, 70 years later!
What the Davos meeting revealed, is the real dynamic behind the western push for conflict with Russia: war is needed to keep the financial system alive. Canadian Finance minister Chrystia Freeland let the cat out of the bag, by stating in a round table discussion that fueling the war will be a “huge boost for the global economy” (cf. below). Note that Chrystia Freeland is not just any participant, she is also a member of the board of Trustees of the WEF. Her statements indicate the desperate state of a global economy threatened by a collapse brought on by the monetary policy implemented by central banks to try and control inflation. They also confirm what this newsletter has always insisted: the WEF’s “Great Reset” is nothing but a modern version of a Schachtian economy, based on a green bubble and defense spending.
The German decision to send modern tanks will be seen as crossing a red line, Moscow has warned. Duma speaker Vyacheslav Volodin cautioned that Russia will respond with “more powerful weapons”, adding: “Arguments that the nuclear powers have not previously used weapons of mass destruction in local conflicts are untenable. Because these states did not face a situation where there was a threat to the security of their citizens and the territorial integrity of the country.”
The difference between today and the Korean War, is that President Eisenhower was in the White House at the time, and he took the decision to end that conflict. Such a figure is lacking today. Hence, the Schiller Institute’s mobilization for a new “Helsinki”-style global security and economic development conference. Join the SI international webcast on February 4 (cf. below).
