Casus Belli
With Bill Of Particulars
President Putin’s address of February 21, 2023 to the Russian Federal Assembly is here in video with simultaneous English translation. The cameraman lingers throughout for a Who’s Who of Russian officialdom.
The address is here in English transcript.
David Sant assesses: The Dire Significance Of Putin’s Feb 21 Speech (PDF)
These three statements and events together should tell the collective West that Russia has just said “Get off my porch!”, and cocked the forty-five.
That same day, Gonzalo Lira, Larry Johnson, and Michael Vlahos discussed Putin’s address and matters pertaining to it:
Someone writing as Scipio (@ted_dwyer) commented on this Lira interview, which is part of his The Roundtable series:
Wonderful, intelligent discussion.
Mr. Vlahos (and of course Larry Johnson) remind me that the Americans I used to admire, still exist. They may not be in power now, but if the good people of the US can hold the nation together somehow, true American patriots like them may well be invaluable in any future rehabilitation of the great Republic.
Right now, I'm not sure if many understand how bad things are getting for the West, including the US. As I see it, outside it's vassal system Washington DC has lost all legitimacy, on a geopolitical level.
The key event (my opinion) was the rigged election on Nov 3/4, 2020. This was a disaster for the United States. Ever since, legitimacy has drained away. Nations (eg., Saudis) that once towed the line and even supported DC, now openly move against it. Unthinkable, even 2 years ago.
China, India, Iran, Saudis, BRICS, OPEC+, most Asian nations know what's going on. This means that each move the West makes against Russia, strengthens opposition to the West and in fact, damages the West even more. The West has lost already, badly, but these elites just can't see it/accept it. So, they escalate, hoping for a miracle.
As for American domestic issues, Mr Vlahos comments about an elite addicted to lies and delusion, and Larry's astute observations about the breakdown of fundamental moral truths that always underpinned American society, are spot on. This seems to be a very confused culture, soaked in lies and delusions. It's in steep decline.
It's always possible that the lunatics in DC may launch nukes. However, I just can't see it. If things got so bad that nukes were being considered, I think there's a reasonable chance that such an order would not be obeyed.
In addition, at the end of the day most of these powerful politicians are deeply corrupt. They're not brave enough to order launch of nukes. If things got that bad, most would prefer to flee the US with their wealth.
As for the ideological lunatics (eg., Nuland) who definitely would order nuke strikes, I honestly don't think they'd be allowed to get away with it. In fact, I think they'd be arrested before they could.
Anyway a most interesting interview, thank you. My apologies for the long post, but like many I am fascinated by what is happening right now, and there are sadly very few people in the West who I can share my thoughts with.
I replied to Scipio:
Each of your points could inspire a treatise.
An adjunct to them:
The international prestige Russia has built for herself by being careful and considerate would ebb at some point if Russia lets Nuland and claque continue on their course.
Ever seen police take down a female ripped on psychotropics? It's impressive, and instructive.
At @ 1:44:15 in Lira’s interview, Larry Johnson makes what, in context, sounds to me like a prepared zinger. I heard him say there that on 21 February 2023 — the day of Putin’s address to the Russian Federal Assembly and the day of this interview with Gonzalo — the US Ambassador to Russia was summoned to the Russian Foreign Ministry and given a threat: get US personnel and equipment out of the Ukraine or else, with the sense being, get it done NOW or Russian artillery will land on US territory.
If Larry’s zinger is accurate: Russia officially now cognizes that her engagement in the Ukraine is with The USA-NATO (aka the West, the combined / collective West) and that it is existential for Russian sovereign existence, thus satisfying one of Russia’s two conditions for the use of nuclear weapons. The other condition is being struck with nuclear weapons.
In other words, Russians have upgraded their engagement with The USA in the Ukraine from a special military operation to . . . war.
This would mean nothing to Vicki Nuland and her claque of sanctimonious defectives, but it means everything to Russians and the international community, who watch eagerly for signs to confirm their sensibility that, in this conflict, Russia is right and Vicki Nuland and claque are wrong.
It means the other 90% of Russian military power — the asset uncommitted operationally in the Ukraine — is now at the strategic start line.
It means that from a much larger and far different kind of file cabinet the Russian General Staff have retrieved plans based on a mathematics — strategical — orders of magnitude larger and more complex than the mathematics — operational — so far guiding their decisions in re the Ukraine and The USA.
It means the Russian General Staff are using, finally, calculations of strategic defense over and above calculations of operational defense, as they have been doing almost exclusively since February 24, 2022. Russians have resolved to meet Nuland and claque on the battlefield of their / NATO’s choosing and expand that to a battlefield of Russia’s choosing.
For weeks now, I experience repeated mental images of the US Capitol dome blowing inward and Capitol Hill itself chewed to pieces by Russian artillery. Russians long since stated that if they expanded the battlefield, they would prioritize decision-making centers. That would mean — besides Bankova — New York, City of London, Washington D.C., and Langley, VA. (DOD rests in Arlington, VA.)
During the morning of September 10, 2001, while I was at work, I had a single vivid mental image of a large aircraft flying into a skyscraper. It turned out to be a jetliner on glide path to our region’s international airport, but from my vantage point, several miles away and across a large lake, the jetliner appeared to disappear slowly into the skyscraper at about its mid-point and then reappear slowly from its other side. When the jetliner reappeared, I recognized what I was seeing.
However, the impression was made. It was strong and remains strong. The next morning, when I heard the news, immediately I remembered the jetliner and skyscraper I experienced in the morning of the previous day.
