MCViewPoint

Opinion from a Libertarian ViewPoint

Posts Tagged ‘Vilnius Summit’

The Brutal Reality of NATO’s Vilnius Summit

Posted by M. C. on July 17, 2023

Americans might want to know how their government can spend a trillion dollars per year on “defense” and in addition add another hundred billion or so for Ukraine and end up with…no ammo. Where did it go?

As astute military analyst William Schryver aptly observed, with Biden’s admission…

…the great myth of overwhelming US armaments supremacy has been exposed as little more than a modestly scaled boutique enterprise utterly ill-suited and ill-prepared to prosecute industrial warfare against a peer adversary.

By Daniel McAdams

Ron Paul Institute

The 2023 NATO Summit at Vilnius, Lithuania, is now but a memory. If I could characterize the summit in just two words, I would say, “reality bites.” And it bites both ways.

On the one hand the US and its NATO allies came face to face with the reality that endless promises of “unlimited” military aid to Ukraine to defeat Russia would not achieve that goal. Five weeks of the much-anticipated Ukrainian counter-offensive have produced zero results. They have only snuffed out another estimated 20,000 Ukrainian soldiers, this time mostly drawn from the shrinking pool of forced – and barely trained – conscripts.

Promises are one thing, but as they say, “if wishes were horses, beggars would ride.” Or, adapted for our times, the US may be able to print money, but it cannot print weapons.

Thus when President Biden was asked right after agreeing to send Ukraine a tranche of ghastly cluster bombs why he did so, he replied, “we’ve run out of ammunition.” It was an incredible admission, particularly considering the massive increase in already astronomical US military spending.

As astute military analyst William Schryver aptly observed, with Biden’s admission…

…the great myth of overwhelming US armaments supremacy has been exposed as little more than a modestly scaled boutique enterprise utterly ill-suited and ill-prepared to prosecute industrial warfare against a peer adversary.

Americans might want to know how their government can spend a trillion dollars per year on “defense” and in addition add another hundred billion or so for Ukraine and end up with…no ammo. Where did it go?

See the rest here

Be seeing you

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: , | Leave a Comment »

The Truth About Ukraine’s Failing Counteroffensive And The Peace That Could Have Been

Posted by M. C. on June 24, 2023

How long will Biden be able to perpetuate a proxy war of choice that could have easily been avoided?

https://thefederalist.com/2023/06/20/heres-the-truth-about-ukraines-failing-counteroffensive-and-the-peace-that-could-have-been/

BY: DAVID SACKS

With each passing day, it’s becoming clear that the Ukrainian counteroffensive is failing to achieve any of its originally stated objectives. Recall: The Biden administration’s bet was that the counteroffensive would roll back Russian territorial gains, cut the land bridge to Crimea, and force Russia to the negotiating table. That is almost certainly not going to happen. On the contrary, a stalemate is more likely, or even that Russia will take more territory and win the war, as John Mearsheimer has predicted.

What are President Biden’s options now? Either escalate or admit defeat. In preparation for NATO’s Vilnius Summit, Secretary of State Antony Blinken has been floating a proposal to give “Israel status” to Ukraine. This means multi-year security guarantees including weapons, ammunition, and money that would continue even if Biden loses the next election.

This is not what the American people signed up for. Many Americans supported the $100-plus billion in appropriations for Ukraine, believing it was a one-time deal to reverse Russian territorial gains. If they had been told it was the basis for an annual appropriation in a new Forever War, they would have preferred an alternative, especially if they had known that one was available.

The Peace that Could Have Been

New evidence is emerging that a peace deal was achievable at the beginning of the war. At a recent meeting with the African delegation, Russian President Vladimir Putin reportedly showed the draft of an outline or preliminary agreement signed by the Ukrainian delegation in Istanbul in early 2022. It allegedly provided that Russia would pull back to pre-war lines if Ukraine would agree not to join NATO (but Ukraine could receive security guarantees from the West).

This document has not been publicly released yet, but no one seriously contests that it exists. The only dispute is over what happened subsequently; Ukraine contends the deal fell apart. However, the availability of a deal based on Ukrainian neutrality is consistent with previous comments from Naftali Bennett, who said among other things that a deal was attainable but rejected by the West.

See the rest here

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: , , , | Leave a Comment »