Common Grounds

Our Friday News Analysis | In Search of a Nation's Soul (Part 4)

September 30, 2022

Gas leak Tuesday above the Nord Stream 2 pipeline near Bornholm, photographed from a Danish F-16.
Photo Defense Denmark/Reuters

Instead Damage Control. Talk Peace!

@ABC

President Biden: “If Russia invades … then there will no longer be a Nord Stream 2. We will bring an end to it.”

ABC News, New York: “But how will you do that, exactly, since … the project is in Germany’s control?”

President Biden: “I promise you we will be able to do that.”

History is the judge if this video is the Smoking Gun.

Right now, I’m less concerned about any ‘who done it’ speculations. Let’s see who will fix the problem.

Will Russia turn the tap back on after repairing and securing the pipelines?

What is the Side of the Story that is Not Yet Decisive?

By Abraham A. van Kempen

The Hague, 30 September 2022 | If you know of any story that is decisive, tell the world. We're still searching.

Breaking News | The explosions that punctured the Nord Stream gas pipeline Monday night were almost certainly sabotaged. But by whom? The EU-US /NATO Axis has the resources. So does the Russian Federation. Who is more motivated to add fuel to the fire? NATO? The President of the United States, the Leader of the Free World, Mr. Joseph R. Biden, said on world television news:

“I promise you we will be able to do that … there will no longer be a Nord Stream 2.”

__ 7 February 2022 at 22.59 hours (Please click on date to view interview)

Is Might Right?

The Constitution of the United States restrains the powers of the US Presidency. In global leadership, there is no transnational constitution. The President of the United States, the leader of the Free World, also known as George Bush’s Your-Either-For-Us-or-You’re-Against-Us Coalition of the Willing, comprising roughly 40 countries, dictates to the world its beliefs, based on the “It’s either my way or the highway.” As the only Sheriff on the world stage, the President of the United States serves as the world's dictator, limited to the prowess of the US military. International law is thrown out of the window. It becomes superfluous.

If I were to poll all of humanity, I anticipate the following results:

Ninety-three percent of humanity does not want nuclear war.

Fifty-five percent of humanity supports the Russian Federation.

Twenty-five percent of humanity supports the EU-US / NATO Axis.

The remaining 20 percent are either apathetic or undecided about what is happening in Europe.

But do the mighty care what the rest of humankind thinks?

If I poll the people of Ukraine, I anticipate that 71 percent want peace. I believe the same holds in Russia, the EU, and the US. Do the mighty even consider the needs, wants, and interests of the average Joe and Joan on the street? In the United States, it is even more bizarre. Though most prefer peace, 40 percent of the Republicans support Russia against the 40 percent of Democrats who support the EU-US / NATO war effort. Twenty percent are apathetic or undecided.

Might is not always right

Why would Russia go through the trouble of sabotaging its pipelines if they could have simply turned off the tap and shut them off at the source? My friends in Eastern Europe suggest that Russia can easily obstruct gas flow. Just turn off the tap. Why bother with sabotage? No lengthy and expensive repairs needed afterward.”

But why would Russia want to stop selling gas to the EU in the first place?

Russia needs the money.

Russia wants to rebuild a better relationship with Europe, which might conflict with the US national security interest.

Imagine an EU-Russian Coalition.

The EU is the biggest economy, more extensive than the US and China combined.

The US doesn’t want to be second fiddle.

On the other hand, why would the US want to hurt and harm the EU unilaterally? Sabotaging the pipelines and stopping the gas flow will cause a temporary Russian cash crunch. It’s only money. Russians can live with less cash. They’ve done it for centuries. I know. I’ve seen it. In Russia, a newly graduated cardiologist starts at $750 per month. The annual starting salary for a cardiologist in the United States is $500,000.

But blocking the gas flow abuses millions of Europeans. It impairs their means to heat their homes in mid-winter. Northern Europe, particularly Scandinavia, gets cold. If the US unilaterally sabotages the pipelines, the EU will drop the US like a hot potato. The EU-US / NATO should disintegrate and collapse.

Like an Earthquake with a Magnitude of 2.3 on the Richter Scale

Monitoring stations in Sweden registered explosions at the bottom of the Baltic Sea on the Danish Island of Bornholm on Monday evening, 26 September 2022. There is no doubt that they were explosions. They punched holes in the two Nord Stream gas pipelines that play a crucial role in the energy chess game between Russia and Europe surrounding the war in Ukraine.

Dutch Tanker Plane

Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine, surveillance has sharpened enormously. On Tuesday, 27 September 2022, ADS-B Exchange, an open-source aircraft movement tracker, showed Western military aircraft patrolling the Baltic Sea. Even what you did not see was significant: above the area of the explosions, a military tank plane registered in the Netherlands circled for hours. But the Dutch tank plane that refueled the A330 in the air — almost certainly a US-NATO spy-aircraft capable of detecting underwater activity — was not visible [on the ADS-B Exchange System] because its electronic beacon was turned off.

US military forces and NATO regularly conduct underwater military exercises, "training removal of underwater mines" located precisely where the explosions occurred.

Breaking News | The Kremlin intends to muster an additional 300,000 reservists. Many Russian fighting-age men have left the country to avoid enlisting. Many more, reportedly 870,000 Russians, want to volunteer. Nonetheless, Western media focus solely on those who have crammed flights to Turkey, swum over rivers, and sat for days at traffic-snarled border crossings. The exiled Russian dissident oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky tweeted: "Russia is most likely the first and only country in the world where people flee not because someone invaded their country, but because they invaded another country." Nonsense! Some 40,000 American dissenters trying to evade being drafted into the Vietnam War crossed the border to Canada half a century ago when as many as 400,000 served in Vietnam.

Breaking News | The Donetsk, Kherson, Lugansk, and Zaporizhzhia regions that historically comprise most of the traditionally Russian area of Novorossiya are expected to formally reunify with their Motherland by the end of next week. That development will represent a game-changer in the Ukrainian Conflict since Moscow's nuclear umbrella will extend over its newly incorporated regions.

Please don’t feel offended.

It’s an everyday American idiom, albeit guttural. Shit happens! It's an anomaly of life. In war, the shit hits the fan. ALWAYS! Forgive me! How else can I describe from my heart the most defining Puppet Show in our times? We’re talking about an ‘un-war’ – a Special Military Operation (SMO) – a de-facto World War III (de-facto meaning: it’s really for real but not really for real), an undeclared ‘whatever’ that has killed more than 100,000 Ukrainian soldiers and 15,000 Russians and wounded even more, notwithstanding infrastructure collapse, in Ukraine and also in the European Union. And in the United States, even the rich complain about the staggering food prices.

For what?

Worse, people are displaced and dispersed from their lands. Innocent bystanders – i.e., Ukrainians of Russian descent viewed as Collaborators, Saboteurs, or Separatists – are slaughtered in cold blood for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Especially Ukrainians and Russians resent having to prove their allegiance by serving their masters as cannon fodder and human shields.

Why?

Would you believe that the EU-US / NATO Pact wants Ukraine to become the 31st NATO country in Europe to help shield Western Europe from a Russian invasion, real or imagined and concurrently control Ukraine?

Would you believe that the Ukrainian Nationalists in the Western Part of Ukraine want to drive the Ukrainian Separatists (Ukrainians of Russian descent) into Russia and concurrently control East Ukraine?

Would you believe that the Russian Federation wants to annex the Eastern part of Ukraine to offer safety to the inhabitants of Eastern Ukraine, 70 – 80 percent of which are of Russian descent, and concurrently control access to the Black Sea?

Results!

Ukraine can never become a NATO country. Why? At least one EU Member State will inevitably cast the ‘NO vote.’ The majority rule does not apply. It is either all or none. Ukraine has proven to be risky. The EU will never again risk another nuclear confrontation with the Russian Federation.
The Ukrainian Nationalists cannot drive out the Russian Separatists into Russia. Instead, on this day, the Russian Ukrainians celebrate their freedom from Ukrainian tyranny.
This week much of the East of Ukraine will officially reunify with Russia by plebiscite.
The EU-US / NATO Pact has cut its fingers by imposing sanctions now plaguing the Pact with a boomerang effect.
Economically, the EU-US is bleeding. Of course, Russia feels the pain, too but not as much as Europe and the United States.

NATO’s Industrial Military Complex Flushed in Cash

On the other hand, the Industrial Military Complex that supplies NATO with limitless firepower is flushed with cash. War is a money-making machine for those who provide the means, methods, and mechanisms for many to be maimed and massacred. The more slaughtered, the higher their profits. Artillery is a perishable commodity, especially missiles, cannons, and howitzers. Unlike onions and other daily consumables, artillery products generate $trillions. For the moment, NATO will continue its onslaught, a vicious cycle. It makes money at the expense of more casualties at a 10:1 ratio. Ten Ukrainians have sacrificed their lives for the EU-US / NATO Axis for every one Russian killed.

NATO has proven itself to be impotent. Despite NATO's nuclear capabilities and supplying Ukraine with the deadliest firepower, my sources in Ukraine, Russia, and Serbia tell me that more than 100,000 Ukrainian soldiers have perished. Many are hastily buried in mass graves. God only knows how many on both sides are injured. According to the Russian Defense Minister, Mr. Sergei Shoigu, more than 40,000 Ukrainians are wounded and ‘cared for by the best doctors in Russia.’ Unlike in the US and the EU, there are too many physicians in Russia. Most are dedicated women and practice from almost every corner. Thousands of them do what they do best on Russia’s Western Front. They save lives.

Nevertheless, the beat to massacre innocent bystanders, whether Ukrainians, Russian-Ukrainians, or Russians, continues. In life, shit happens. In war, the shit hits the fan. And NATO continues to collect its 2 percent fee – 2 percent of each NATO country’s GDP. What a business.

Thank you, EU-US / NATO, for helping (forgive my sarcasm).

I am deeply disappointed and profoundly disturbed that the European Union hindered the peace process. In October 2015, I wrote in ‘A European Agenda to the World Stage:’

“We Europeans now know more than ever before about walking the tightrope, forging consensus among dozens of nations, and balancing the need to regulate and supervise cross-border interactions while recognizing the interests and culture of each country.

For centuries, Europe has always been a union of royal decrees promulgated by the aristocracy, knitted together by marriage. European nations have evolved from centuries of absolute monarchies to advanced representative democracies. European democracies foster inclusiveness, participation, political debate, multiparty representation, and majoritarian policy based on a consensus of viewpoints and broad public support.”

I published this idea seven years ago. Today, I lament. The European Union has lost its soul. We have surrendered our leadership to NATO. It’s become a self-generating, self-sufficient monster controlled by the wealthiest people on earth, the owners of the Industrial Military Complex. The EU leadership is scrambling to find new sources of oil and gas, which previously the Russian Federation generously provided. Why don’t we start the conversation toward reaching unconditional peace?

It's Never Too Late to Talk Peace

Whether we want to or not, the EU has no choice but to accept the realities on the ground. Much of Eastern Ukraine has become Russia by referendum. Russia claims that more than 86 percent of its inhabitants have voted to become part of Mother Russia. They feel threatened by the Ukrainian Nationalists. According to my sources, since 2008, the minority of Neo-Nazis in Ukraine have executed more than 14,000 Ukrainian Russians in cold blood. The West dismisses this high probability as Russian propaganda.
The EU must regain control of NATO and possibly drop the US as an ally (if the US unilaterally impaired the pipelines).
The EU must drop the present regime in Kyiv and help the Ukrainian people vote in an administration that can work simultaneously with the Russian Federation and the EU.
The EU must again break bread with the Russian Federation. Russia is in Europe and integrally part of Europe, a significant European player contributing to the EU economies.
The EU must guarantee Russia’s and Ukraine’s access to the Black Sea.
Russia and the EU must stop the blame game and start fixing the problems, focusing on repairing and securing the oil and gas pipelines.
If the United States sabotaged the pipeline in cahoots with NATO, the EU must break its Pact with the United States and disintegrate NATO.
The EU must help cause peaceful coexistence in the Middle East.

Finally, most Americans fear Russia, China, Iran, and the Arabs, particularly the Palestinians, as their sworn enemies. They are not the EU’s enemies. It is time that the EU recognizes these countries and the Arabs as socio-economic partners to help build a better world.

What a wonderful world it could become. I look forward to this tectonic change.