Food an Imprecise but Deadly Weapon
"Russia Says It Is Pulling Out of Grain Deal," blares an updated headline in The Wall Street Journal of July 17, 2023.
Shocking headlines from Ukraine, perhaps the worst to date, warn us that an enormous share of the world’s grain supply will not be accessible soon. Finnish Foreign Minister Elina Valtonen described the decision as "deplorable."
The grain deal, renewed three times, since the war began, had succeeded in the export of 36.2 million tons of food exports from Ukraine. On Tues. July 18, 2023, Russia put to rest any ambiguity about their motives, laying waste to a Ukrainian grain storage facility in Odessa.
Food is a weapon in this war. Moscow has made this clear.
As Russian forces contemplate resuming the offensive in the 18-month-old war, it was not lost on Moscow that almost half of the grain exported went to the European Union.
Sustaining sanctions against the Russians has come at great sacrifice to the Europeans. Putin is betting that food scarcity and affordability issues will dampen support for Ukraine at a time when it is already strained.
Food is not a precision weapon.
Making it inaccessible for exports will have collateral damage that will be felt globally.
Developed European countries will find a way to endure and will work to import as much grain as possible over land routes.
It's the most vulnerable in the Mideast and Africa that will pay with their lives.
40% of the World Food Bank’s grains come from Ukraine. Not any more.
The International Rescue Committee had concluded that the grain deal is a "lifeline for the 79 countries and 349 million people on the frontlines of food insecurity."
While the marked increase in the food security crisis affects countries disproportionately, none will be spared. Here at home prices will increase while our "print-more-money" overlords stoke the inflation inferno already raging.
The Kremlin is no stranger to famine as a weapon. The Stalin-engineered famine in Ukraine from 1932-1933 killed 3.9 million.
Joseph Stalin’s intent was to prevent Ukrainian culture from evolving to one that sought independence. Brutality best describes the Stalin playbook.
Brutally bringing Ukraine to heel was also an effective message to the rest of the enslaved states of the USSR.
A different spin on this playbook is playing out right now, yet eerily silent is the so-called free press of the west.
On Sunday, Agent Frans Press (AFP) pushed an obtuse piece describing European and American efforts in Brussels to bring Armenian and Azeri leaders to a peace settlement in a decades old war.
The postage stamp of an article missed or bypassed the story that should be highlighted for global attention.
The sham peacekeeping force charged with upholding the ceasefire in the Republic of Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) enclave is Russia.
Azerbaijan claims the Armenians are smuggling in weapons while they have blockaded the enclave for seven months; that blockade purportedly is inclusive of food and medical supplies.
120,000 to include 30,000 children are dying of starvation while the Russian peacekeepers look on. Ceasefire-enforced as the goons from Moscow eat, drink, and preside over genocide.
Would the Kremlin now argue that famine brings peace?
Or, is it possible that Moscow has another motive in serving as an accomplice in Azerbaijan’s mass murders?
While the Russian Army watches the collective pulses and heartbeats in Artsakh start to slow; while the innocents bury the first to succumb; as the darkness expands in this modern concentration camp; the Azeris are selling Russian gas to European countries enabling both Europe and Russia to dodge the sanctions.
See how this works?
No international outrage. No pressure on Moscow. No Berlin Airlift for these victims.
Just look the other way.
Are people from Artsakh of no value?
This Russian murder-by-famine is being ignored.
Perhaps pulling out of the grain deal will serve as a catalyst for cascading consequences that the Kremlin had not considered.
Russia has many friends it continues to court from Beijing to Capetown that will be negatively impacted.
Kenyan leaders reacted immediately calling the Russian action a "stab in the back."
Surely the Kremlin is filled with strategists smart enough to know the negative diplomatic impacts, especially this close to the upcoming BRICS+ conference where solidarity against the west is the goal.
Is this release of a food security weapon part of a larger military campaign that is yet to play out. When things don’t make sense, you have to evaluate what other scenarios may be in play.
Is this the opening act in a massive Russian offensive to take more or all of Ukraine?
Is the intent to bring Europe to the breaking point economically before expanding the war?
Whether or not the vaunted democracies and much touted global institutions break from their common hypocrisies and shine a light on the Russian-Azerbaijan genocide by famine now underway, we had all better realize that the Kremlin operates by its own set of rules and justifications.
A code starkly different from our own.
All those diplomats. What exactly are we paying them to do? Talk? Negotiate? Reason?
In 1839, English author Edward Bulwer-Lytton declared, "the pen is mightier than the sword."
It stands to this day as one of the most powerful quotes known to humankind.
However, forceful words must also be accompanied by prudent, but concerted, direct meaningful actions.
That is, actions which will prevent any global actor from even thinking about deploying food as armaments.
Calling all diplomats with such mental fortitude!
We can only hope and pray our hearts and minds out on this one.
Food an Imprecise but Deadly Weapon | Newsmax.com
