It may prove to be the mother of all unintended consequences, dwarfing death by virtually any friendly fire or even an errant nuclear missile striking the wrong city.
When the newly elected (or selected, if you prefer) president put an end to the Keystone XL pipeline on his first day in office, leading to an economic disaster for the United States and globally while exacerbating the tremendous worldwide suffering instigated by a mishandled COVID-19 pandemic (real or imagined), it also opened the door for one Vladimir Putin.
U.S. President Joe Biden presented the Russian president with the wherewithal—or should we say “wherewithOIL”—including the vast sums of cash therefrom, to invade Ukraine and who knows who else.
The United States, Putin concluded, would no longer be providing the world with fossil fuels, so who was there left, speaking of mothers, to take up the slack in increasingly high-priced liquid gold but Mother Russia?
Of course, Iran and Venezuela were similarly ready, willing, and able, but they didn’t have anywhere near the firepower (i.e., the world’s largest supply of nukes) that the beleaguered and possibly paranoid Putin does.
So where are we now, besides the fact that Europe will soon be grappling with a winter that may not be nuclear but certainly will be absolutely freezing cold, possibly to death? In our case, it will just cost a small fortune to heat our homes.
Two-thirds through the month of September, we’ve learned, via Putin’s defense minister, that the perpetual Russian president has ordered a “partial” mobilization of up to 300,000 reservists.
Also, Putin himself has just reminded us of his modern, updated nuclear arsenal and assured us that he’s “not bluffing” about its use.
Is he or isn’t he?
I could be a wise guy and say “only your hairdresser knows for sure,” but not even he or she knows. Maybe even Putin himself doesn’t know ... until he does.
How is the “community of nations” reacting? Well, virtually simultaneously with the two Russian proclamations, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg announced that his organization is ramping up weapons and ammunition production.
Whether that’s to give such equipment to Ukraine or to arm NATO forces for action is unclear at this point, but for how long?
To say that we’re on the precipice of World War III is indeed scary talk, maybe too scary. But I’m not sure that it’s wrong.
Is the United States prepared for such a war?
Not well, if Afghanistan is any indication. Our military, under Biden’s direction, certainly botched that one, leaving billions of dollars worth of weaponry and one of the world’s biggest airbases in the hands of the enemy.
How does that track with the president’s out-of-nowhere promise on “60 Minutes” to defend Taiwan with U.S. troops?
It doesn’t, of course—not even slightly.
And you wonder why the stock market has been tanking. Sure, the Federal Reserve is part of it, but investors would all have to be deaf, dumb, and blind to not notice what’s going on beyond interest rates.
As Leon Trotsky famously said, “You may not be interested in war, but war is interested you.”
If the world were to survive such a conflagration, Bill Gates would likely get his wish—serious depopulation of the planet—quicker than he and his fellow globalists may have expected. They should be happy, assuming that they make it through.
There’s no telling on that one.
As someone who attended grammar school in the ’50s, I remember well our “duck and cover” exercises in which we hid under our desks during drills. I don’t think anyone would bother now, considering the power of modern nukes. but even then, as a kid, I was rather skeptical that our flimsy desks would do any good. I had seen newsreels of Hiroshima.
It was called then, by Herman Kahn and others, thinking the unthinkable. Sadly, we’re being forced to think the unthinkable again; it’s the first necessary step to avoiding this war. Whatever the case, everyone has to keep his or her (no weird pronouns here, thank you) eyes open.
Amazing what a little bad science can do to you—and civilization.
