Ukraine and the battle for Skaro      By Kari McKern

 

Over the past eighteen months, I’ve often found myself under scrutiny for not outrightly condemning Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Any acknowledgment of Russia’s stance—that the hasty expansion of NATO played a role in the current conflict—earns labels: indifferent to Ukraine’s plight, a “Putin” apologist, a victim of Kremlin misinformation.

After much contemplation, I’ve traced the origins of my heresy to formation and am ready to lay it all bare here, now.

For the majority of my life, my views on Russia were unremarkable, mirroring the balanced and enlightened perspective expressed by the leader of the free world a year after a significant international crisis.

The root of this crisis, I believe, lies not in Russian misinformation but in the West’s—particularly America’s—insistence on casting themselves as incapable of error in their own narrative, preferring denial and deceit and self deception to self awareness. Like Dr. Morbius on the Forbidden Planet; we face the consequences of being unable to accept responsibility for empowering our darker inclinations.

Let me elaborate.

In the aftermath of the “Bay of Pigs” debacle, Fidel Castro, fearing a second invasion attempt by the United States, invited the Soviet Union to station intermediate-range ballistic missiles in Cuba. What has been conveniently overlooked since then is that the Soviet Union agreed to this primarily to match a provocation—the deployment of Jupiter-C intermediate-range ballistic missiles in Turkey.

Kennedy understood that the issue at hand was strategic competition. While it is remembered that the resolution required Russia to remove missiles from Cuba, the simultaneous removal of Jupiter C’s from Turkey is often forgotten.

Look it up!

Nuclear strategists, in their quest to avoid a worst-case scenario, tended to increase the total firepower of their forces, inevitably triggering another round of escalation from their rivals. The problem with the whole doctrine was distinguishing between “effective deterrence” and escalation. Is it truly escalation when the enemy is merely doing what you would do, if placed in their position?

As a child, I found this grim situation easy to comprehend, it was well depicted; both in the news and in Doctor Who.

On Skaro, the Thals and the Kaleds were locked in a similar struggle. The Doctor assists the Thals, leaving the Kaleds reduced to a small group of strategic planners trapped in a nuclear command centre.

However, the Kaleds’ story didn’t end there. Despite the Doctor’s help, the Thals fail, and the Kaleds, led by Davros in a motorised wheelchair, transform into the Daleks, a species that seeks security through the fanatical pursuit of dominance justified by a doctrine of exceptionalism.

In my first essay for Pearls & Irritations last August, I explained that turning point in my thinking. I said I had taken the lesson to heart and concluded that nuclear states are doomed to the tragedy of the Kaleds, appointing their own Davros and morphing into Daleks.

The President of the United States, emerging from a crisis, back then, was the person who unequivocally made the case for what would become my position then and now.

“Too many of us think peace is impossible, too many think it is unreal. But that is a dangerous defeatist belief… No government or social system is so evil that its people must be considered as lacking in virtue… We can still hail the Russian people for their many achievements in science, space, economic and industrial growth, culture, and acts of courage. Among the many traits the peoples of our two countries have in common, none is stronger than our mutual abhorrence of war… (Sigh, if only) Almost unique among the major world powers, we have never been at war with each other… (Amnesia again, see my essay prior on the war in Poland 1918-1920.),.. And no nation in the history of battle ever suffered more (than Russia) in the Second World War..

“It is an ironic but accurate fact that the two strongest powers are the most at risk of devastation.

“We are both caught up in a vicious and dangerous cycle with suspicion on one side breeding suspicion on the other, and new weapons begetting counter weapons.

“Above all, nuclear powers must avert those confrontations which bring an adversary to a choice of either a humiliating retreat or a nuclear war. In the nuclear age, such bankrupt policies would be evidence only of a collective death wish for the world.”

Those were the words of President John F. Kennedy on June 10, 1963. A year after his speech, Washington and Moscow signed the Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty [KENNEDY WAS ASSASSINATED 22 November 1963 PROBABLY FOR MAKING A DEAL WITH RUSSIA].

Gore Vidal once referred to his homeland as the “United States of Amnesia.” Events since Kennedy’s speech well illustrate just how forgetful the United States can be, it gave me Cold War PTSD.

Similarly, sadly, it is the critics who have forgotten the missiles and the lesson of Skaro.

Tuning in for a moment to the gestalt of social media, I might also put it in ways shown in the postscripts below. Before we cross this river, I will have a say.

To those who presumed they knew better and to paid spinners from the complicit media and to the think tank zombies caught up in the samsara of power and empire.

You’re wrong and the doctor was right.

We live on a planet where pushing an adversary to a choice of either a humiliating retreat or a nuclear war is suicidal.

After the rockets fly it’s too late to “Make Love, not War”.

Choose wisely.

 

FYI BTW We are the ones currently losing, imho.

PPS. American anti Soviet cartoons during the war with the bolsheviks 1918-1920 became the basis of the first “Red Scare”.

 

https://johnmenadue.com/ukraine-and-the-battle-for-skaro/

 

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MAKE A DEAL PRONTO BEFORE THE SHIT HITS THE FAN:

 

 

NO NATO IN "UKRAINE" (WHAT'S LEFT OF IT)

THE DONBASS REPUBLICS ARE NOW BACK IN THE RUSSIAN FOLD — AS THEY USED TO BE PRIOR 1922. THE RUSSIANS WON'T ABANDON THESE AGAIN.

CRIMEA IS RUSSIAN — AS IT USED TO BE PRIOR 1954

A MEMORANDUM OF NON-AGGRESSION BETWEEN RUSSIA AND THE USA.

 

EASY.

 

THE WEST KNOWS IT.

 

FREE JULIAN ASSANGE NOW....

 

INDEPENDENT AUSTRALIA IS RUNNING A LITERARY COMPETITION... IF THIS WAS FOR ENCOURAGING MAIN STREAM STUPID CLICHES PROMOTING FALSEHOODS WITHOUT AN OUNCE OF SATIRE, NOR WITH AN OUNCE OF UNDERSTANDING OF THE UKRAINE SITUATION, THE POEM ON VLADIMIR PUTIN IS FIRST PRIZE GOOFY MATERIAL.

 

STICK TO DEALING WITH AUSSIE DRAMAS, PLEASE DAVID (DAVID DONOVAN RUNS INDEPENDENT AUSTRALIA)... 

 

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FREE JULIAN ASSANGE NOW..............

 

WASTE OF MONEYS...

 

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has announced another military support package for Ukraine worth $110 million.

Key points:

• Australia will send more armoured vehicles as Russia's invasion of Ukraine continues
• The PM says Australia will also send ammunition and make a donation to a United Nations humanitarian fund
• Australia has already committed more than $650 million in support for Ukraine

 

Australia will send a further 70 military vehicles to Ukraine, including 28 armoured vehicles.

It will also send artillery ammunition to Ukraine, and provide $10 million to the United Nations to help meet humanitarian needs in the country in the wake of Russia's invasion.

Australia has already supplied Ukraine with support worth more than $650 million, including through providing Bushmaster armoured personnel carriers, drones and ammunition.

Mr Albanese denied Australia's extra support for Ukraine was in response to an aborted mutiny in Russia at the weekend.

He said Australia had offered additional support for Ukraine around every four months.

In February, on the anniversary of Russia's invasion, Australia pledged drone systems worth $33 million.

 

READ MORE:

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-06-26/australia-offers-more-support-to-ukraine/102523690

 

THIS IS ANOTHER WASTE OF MONEYS AS UKRAINE CANNOT WIN THIS MILITARY INTERVENTION THAT THE WEST DECIDED TO TURN INTO A WAR WHEN BORIS JOHNSON PREVENTED A PEACE DEAL LAST YEAR... UGLY BORIS IS THUS RESPONSIBLE FOR MORE THAN 350,000 DEAD UKRAINIAN SOLDIERS AND ABOUT 30,000 RUSSIAN SOLDIERS... WHEN HISTORY IS FINALLY PROPERLY WRITTEN BY THE WINNERS, THE NAME BORIS JOHNSON WILL REMIND US OF A DANGEROUS IDIOT, WHO WILL BE PROBABLY CHARGED FOR DELIBERATE IMBECILITY — AND JOIN HIS MATE TONY BLAIR, IN THE NIGHTHOOD PANTHEON.....

 

READ FROM TOP.

 

MAKE A DEAL PRONTO BEFORE THE SHIT HITS THE FAN:

 

 

NO NATO IN "UKRAINE" (WHAT'S LEFT OF IT)

THE DONBASS REPUBLICS ARE NOW BACK IN THE RUSSIAN FOLD — AS THEY USED TO BE PRIOR 1922. THE RUSSIANS WON'T ABANDON THESE AGAIN.

CRIMEA IS RUSSIAN — AS IT USED TO BE PRIOR 1954

A MEMORANDUM OF NON-AGGRESSION BETWEEN RUSSIA AND THE USA.

 

EASY.

 

THE WEST KNOWS IT.

 

FREE JULIAN ASSANGE NOW....

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DAE2qKB2R6k

Jeffrey Sachs Interivew - The Geopolitics of NATO Enlargement

 

READ FROM TOP.

 

MAKE A DEAL PRONTO BEFORE THE SHIT HITS THE FAN:

 

 

NO NATO IN "UKRAINE" (WHAT'S LEFT OF IT)

THE DONBASS REPUBLICS ARE NOW BACK IN THE RUSSIAN FOLD — AS THEY USED TO BE PRIOR 1922. THE RUSSIANS WON'T ABANDON THESE AGAIN.

CRIMEA IS RUSSIAN — AS IT USED TO BE PRIOR 1954

A MEMORANDUM OF NON-AGGRESSION BETWEEN RUSSIA AND THE USA.

 

EASY.

 

THE WEST KNOWS IT.

 

FREE JULIAN ASSANGE NOW....

 

Welcome back to the AIRPOWER channel for a discussion about A Storm Shadow air-launched cruise missile that was donated by the United Kingdom to Ukraine has reportedly fallen into Russian hands in a partially intact state.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wnZULS6aejw

 

READ FROM TOP.

 

MAKE A DEAL PRONTO BEFORE THE SHIT HITS THE FAN:

 

 

NO NATO IN "UKRAINE" (WHAT'S LEFT OF IT)

THE DONBASS REPUBLICS ARE NOW BACK IN THE RUSSIAN FOLD — AS THEY USED TO BE PRIOR 1922. THE RUSSIANS WON'T ABANDON THESE AGAIN.

CRIMEA IS RUSSIAN — AS IT USED TO BE PRIOR 1954

A MEMORANDUM OF NON-AGGRESSION BETWEEN RUSSIA AND THE USA.

 

EASY.

 

THE WEST KNOWS IT.

 

FREE JULIAN ASSANGE NOW....

French President Emmanuel Macron's decision to provide Ukraine with SCALP long-range cruise missiles won't affect the existing status quo given the experience the Russian military gained while thwarting the weapon's analog called "Storm Shadow", a Russian military expert told Sputnik.

During the NATO summit in Vilnius, President Emmanuel Macron committed to providing dozens of SCALP long-range missiles to Ukraine. However, the French president did not specify when the weapons would be delivered to Kiev. France has become the second country, after the UK, to equip Ukraine with long-range rockets.

"In light of the situation and the counteroffensive being conducted by Ukraine, I have decided to increase deliveries of weapons and equipment and to provide the Ukrainians with deep strike capabilities," Macron told journalists upon arrival at the summit.

What is the Difference Between SCALP and Storm Shadow?

The SCALP-EG (Emploi Général, meaning General Purpose) is a French name for "Storm Shadow," the stealthy air-launched long range, conventionally armed, deep strike weapon, produced by European multinational missile-maker MBDA. The missile was based on the Apache, a French-developed, air-launched, anti-runway cruise missile.

 

"The French SCALP rocket is actually a joint development of Great Britain and France," Russian military expert Yury Knutov told Sputnik. "And therefore, many aspects related to the production and use of these missiles are unified. Figuratively, we can say that the SCALP rocket is an analog of the British Storm Shadow.

 

https://sputnikglobe.com/20230712/what-are-scalp-missiles-and-how-may-they-affect-ukraines-counteroffensive-1111834010.html

 

 

READ FROM TOP.

 

MAKE A DEAL PRONTO BEFORE THE SHIT HITS THE FAN:

 

 

NO NATO IN "UKRAINE" (WHAT'S LEFT OF IT)

THE DONBASS REPUBLICS ARE NOW BACK IN THE RUSSIAN FOLD — AS THEY USED TO BE PRIOR 1922. THE RUSSIANS WON'T ABANDON THESE AGAIN.

CRIMEA IS RUSSIAN — AS IT USED TO BE PRIOR 1954

A MEMORANDUM OF NON-AGGRESSION BETWEEN RUSSIA AND THE USA.

 

EASY.

 

THE WEST KNOWS IT.

 

FREE JULIAN ASSANGE NOW....