No Lessons Learned

I struggled to arrive at a suitable title for this post.  Options considered were:

“US Pledges $30 Billion To Build Up Ukraine Military”   on top of the billions that it has already invested in setting up and bolstering its own puppet government there.  This, on the basis that Poroshenko, President of Ukraine, a bankrupt nation (can’t even pay its gas bill), yesterday vowed to spend exactly that amount for exactly that same purpose.  He hasn’t got that sort of money.  His country hasn’t got that sort of money.  So, it must be coming from his backers, the US.

“US Provides Arms To The Islamic State”  , by devious means and sleight of hand, of course.  First it gave the weapons to the Iraqi army, knowing full well that they would at the first opportunity, and in only slightly shop-soiled condition, be handed over to the first organised rebel force to show up on Iraq’s doorstep.  And since the most radical elements of the Syrian rebel forces, now known as the Islamic State, were the most likely contenders within easy reach (Al Quaeda can be pretty much dismissed as a cohesive force these days),  they were the willing participants in the huge US give-away.

“NATO Finds An Enemy  …And A Reason To Exist”   since it lost both of those causes with the collapse of the Soviet Union several decades ago.  NATO has been wandering in the wilderness of purposeless projects for so many years but now, thinking that it has something it can dig its teeth into, is rubbing its hands with glee at the thought and is once again making unfounded, aggressive and belligerent noises against Russia, the core element of its old foe.

“Kiev, Fountain Of All Lies”  based on the drivel that continues to pour out from that already discredited source, such as (these are not quotes, just summarisations) ‘Russia is shelling us from both sides of the border’, ‘Russia is amassing troops on our border’, ‘Russia has invaded us (with white trucks?)’, ‘Russia is reinforcing and arming the separatist rebels’.  None of which is supportable by anything remotely resembling a fact.

Taking all of these thoughts into account, No Lessons Learned, seems to be the most appropriate title I could come up with.

When is the US going to get tired of making bad foreign policy decisions?  Perhaps they don’t view them as bad.  Perhaps these acts actually support US foreign policy goals.

When is NATO going to realise that it has no enemy and, as Ron Paul has suggested, actually be disbanded?   Preferably before it antagonises someone, eg. Russia, into believing that they (NATO) are actually a real threat to peace and stability.

When is Kiev (current government, that is) going to realise that nobody, at least nobody who gives some thought to their pronouncements, finds them in any way credible?  When are they going to pay their gas bill?  When are they going to stop trying to annihilate their fellow countrymen in the East?

I can’t do justice to providing comprehensive answers to these questions, but Ilargi as usual makes a very good attempt at giving us some reasonable conclusions on at least some of them in one of his latest posts at The Automatic Earth, here.  It is worth reading, in my view.  As is his daily round-up and critique of news reportage.