It is hard to believe the Biden Administration is this clever, so it’s hard to know what to think of what follows. But then again, I’m certain someone in the bowels of the deep state could be this clever, and since we have no idea who is actually running the Biden Administration, perhaps the scenario I describe is possible.
If there are elements this clever running the show, it would also speak to their breathtaking heartlessness that they so casually use Ukraine, a country of over 44 million souls, to further their goals. Are we allowing—or worse, encouraging—Ukraine’s near complete destruction in an effort to drive regime change by turning Vladimir Putin into a worldwide, unredeemable monster?
Yet the cynic in me can’t help but note the similarities between Vladimir Putin and Ukraine with Saddam Hussein in Kuwait. Were both of these events set-ups in an effort to destroy these respective tyrants-for-life?
Hussein was upset with the Kuwaitis on a number of fronts but the final straw was their using directional drilling to steal his oil—which they were doing. In a one-on-one meeting Saddam told the U.S. ambassador to Iraq of his anger and his intentions to invade. The U.S. ambassador said nothing.
As I understand it, in diplomatic-speak this kind of silence amounts to tacit approval of actions. Thinking this action was “approved,” Saddam moved forward with his plans. Once he invaded Kuwait, the United States quickly formed an international coalition that brought hellfire down upon the Iraqi troops and the Hussein regime. The Bush Administration stopped short of taking the fight to Saddam in Iraq in the hope he would be deposed by his own people because of the humiliation in Kuwait.
This didn’t happen but Saddam was seriously and permanently damaged by his “mis-reading” of the Bush Administration. Hussein didn’t see it that way—he believed he was set up and then went so far as to try to assassinate George H.W. Bush for what he believed to be his treachery. For this he got the second Iraq war and we took care of Saddam ourselves.
The similarities with that situation and Putin in Ukraine are striking. Whether valid or not, Putin had many grievances regarding Ukraine. And just as it was with Saddam, the truth is far more nuanced than the simplistic good guy/bad guy presentation.
Putin let the world know of his intentions. For months he amassed well over 100,000 troops near the border. Response from the United States and the rest of the world? Barely a squeak. Some tough talk but little else. In diplo-speak was this lack of response a face-saving way for the United States and the rest of the world to give Putin the green light while still allowing us to cluck our tongues at these barbaric actions? Remember Biden saying a “little” incursion might be acceptable?
Did Putin therefore assume the world was giving him wink wink, nudge nudge approval, while still maintaining plausible deniability? And just like Saddam, once the action was taken, the United States led an effort to bring hellfire down upon him.
As many have asked, if the goal was to stop Putin from invading why not take significant actions before he invaded versus after? Did we in effect invite the invasion with the true goal being the end of the Putin regime? Are Ukraine’s 44 million citizens just the price to be paid? You know the old saying, you can’t make an omelet without breaking a few eggs.
Is the ultimate goal to replace the crook Putin with our own crook? Oops, sorry that is my cynicism raising its head again.
The media coverage—the loud beating of the drums of war—has been strikingly similar between both invasions.
Babies being killed! Pregnant women being murdered! Savagery beyond belief. Putin/Hussein and his troops are the embodiment of evil. Politicians telling us “we” must make sacrifices in the name of this affront to all that is good and just.
Those politicians who have never met a war they didn’t like are itching to give this one a go—letting those dumb rednecks who join the military have another chance to become cannon fodder for one of their righteous causes.
It seems everyone—media, politicians, the military—is playing his part just like those who started this thing had hoped. The drums of war are in full gear and Putin has probably irreversibly damaged himself.
And even though this country is in full-blown war mode against that bastard Putin and his cronies—whatever that means—nary a vote has been taken. Who has time for the niceties of the Constitution when babies are being killed? Somehow Planned Parenthood and millions of abortions in this country don’t seem to generate the same outrage, but that’s a rant for another day.
Just as with the “righteous” causes of the Korean War, Vietnam, Iraq (twice), Lebanon, Syria, Afghanistan, Iran (kind of), and little untold wars all over Asia, Africa, and South America, we are told that if we don’t fight them over there, we’ll have to fight them over here— and babies and pregnant women here will be killed. Hell, since we ran out of Afghanistan this country hasn’t been at war for a couple months, and that can’t be allowed!
We are all being played—Putin and the late Hussein included. I have no doubt Putin is an immoral tyrant-for-life, he’s an ex-KGB officer for God’s sake! He knows he either remains in power or swings from a rope. But there are a lot of folks like that out in the world. Why does Putin get this treatment while others who are just as bad or worse—“President” Xi comes to mind—are treated differently?
People high up in the Bush White House wanted Saddam to invade and people high up in the Biden White House wanted Putin to invade. We should never forget this reality regardless of what the drums of war might say.