by Geoffrey Churchman

According to this headline in the Daily Mail, “China will copy Russia and invade Taiwan if Putin gets any kind of win in Ukraine, NATO chief warns.” Jens Stoltenberg today said success for Putin in Ukraine could embolden China! So NATO sees itself as unappointed World Policeman. Hmm, right.

It makes very obvious that NATO is simply an extension of the Washington War Machine, no more, no less. Stoltenberg’s claim came as he admitted the Ukrainian city of Bakhmut is likely to fall. Their Stalingrad.

The MSM never report any counter analysis, let alone the views of the targets of their vitriol.

It has never been the objective of the Russians to seize all of Ukraine, only the parts that have traditionally been Russia and have been persecuted by the fanatical neo-Nazi nationalists that the Obama administration installed by means of a coup d’etat in 2014. But you never hear that, only the American claim that Russia wants all of Ukraine. Back in February last year Ross Meurant wrote a piece for Waikanae Watch explaining why Russia isn’t interested in controlling all of Ukraine, and the reasons aren’t too far different from the Dubya Bush administration’s experience in both Afghanistan and Iraq.

Some so-called experts fail to notice one important factor about Taiwan — it’s an island in the Pacific and for China to successfully invade would require an sizeable invasion fleet of troop ships. Despite being only about 50 km away, that was enough of a problem for the Nazis in 1940 faced with the English channel that they abandoned the idea, and it was in turn a huge logistical problem for the Allies in June 1944. Taiwan is a lot further from mainland China than England is from France. And the issue in any event is why would they want to, when they can more easily achieve the same result for themselves by doing business? Back in the 1970s the phrase often heard was “Japan lost the war and won the peace.” At the time Japanese exports — particularly vehicles — were dominating the NZ market. Japan’s place in the economic scheme of things has now been replaced by China.

The same arguments apply. How many people in America or Jacindaland really give a Stuff about where the border between Russia and Ukraine is? They’re ethnically almost the same people — Slavs — speaking a very similar language. What the Russians don’t want is an aggressively hostile American war machine up against their front yard. Perfectly understandable.