Cold War II_(US-West vs Russia/China tensions)

LMFS wrote:
They need waters as murky as possible, international economy disrupted and the multipolar world criminalized to pull off their plans. But in general they just look increasingly desperate and by now they are betting the farm in increasingly risky adventures:

The whole saga of raping Yugoslavia is a sad example of what is a real goal of NATO.
As long as the confederation of Serbia and Montenegro existed, what remained of Yugo was able to be supported and supplied by any given ally, let it be Russia or China.
I suppose that a lot of assets were put into disturbing Serbia/Montenegro relations for the last 30 years.
Montenegro represents a perfectly zero military value to the Alliance, but being it a part of it blocked&crushed any potential attempt to relieve Serbia. Made it landlocked, and put it on a silver plate to any pressure. That is why Serbia is much determined for EU integration, hoping that it will make some sort of shield. Well, it won't.

ALAMO wrote:
The whole saga of raping Yugoslavia is a sad example of what is a real goal of NATO.
As long as the confederation of Serbia and Montenegro existed, what remained of Yugo was able to be supported and supplied by any given ally, let it be Russia or China.
I suppose that a lot of assets were put into disturbing Serbia/Montenegro relations for the last 30 years.
Montenegro represents a perfectly zero military value to the Alliance, but being it a part of it blocked&crushed any potential attempt to relieve Serbia. Made it landlocked, and put it on a silver plate to any pressure. That is why Serbia is much determined for EU integration, hoping that it will make some sort of shield. Well, it won't.

It would be a big error for Serbia now to insist on appeasing the West, that strategy belongs in the past and now it must reassert itself inside its historical borders and with their historical alliances. The West has no need for a Serbia and any politician pretending otherwise is risking the destruction of the country.

Have you guys heard of what David Petraeus has said recently about the United States would destroy Russia's military in the Ukraine and sink its naval fleet? I personally don't think Petraeus is serious but Russia should respond in kind violently; the US needs to be taught a lesson in that they are not fighting Iraq, Syria or some other weak country.



https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/retired-general-david-petraeus-predicts-the-us-would-destroy-russia-s-military-in-ukraine-and-sink-its-naval-fleet-if-it-used-nuclear-weapons/ar-AA12wU49?ocid=msedgdhp&pc=U531&cvid=353990424b244f4ab7a026c7928a15c5

Do we have any reliable forecast how bad the next winter is going to be in Germany? In case of a big energy crisis I am not sure whether the political elites would get stronger or whether the German population could turn the tables to end the vasal status of Germany, once they realize that America is going to sacrifice them for their insane plans against Russia.

Scientists warn of cold winter in Europe
There will also be less wind and rainfall – a setback for alternative power sources – a weather tracker says

https://www.rt.com/news/563910-cold-winter-europe-warning/

Have you guys heard of what David Petraeus has said recently about the United States would destroy Russia's military in the Ukraine and sink its naval fleet? I personally don't think Petraeus is serious but Russia should respond in kind violently; the US needs to be taught a lesson in that they are not fighting Iraq, Syria or some other weak country.

Based on what logic.... they claim they are not party to this conflict... if they tried to sink the ships of the Black Sea fleet that would be an act of war, does he ignore the fact that US ships are all over the place and would be easy to target and the weapons the Russians have for sinking ships from Onyx to Kinzhal and Kh-32 are all incredibly potent systems... not to mention the brand new Zircon.

Russia does lack ships, but they don't need ships to sink every US ship within 2,000km of their coastline... including the US ships based in Japan and South Korea and lurking around the South China seas... maybe Russia should send MiG-31Ks through Chinese airspace to sink the next group of US ships wanting to sail that way...

General "Betray-us" is just spouting the brain rot drivel that is common to the US "elites". Every discussion about a preemptive nuclear
strike on Russia demonstrates a severe level of mental dysfunction. For example, launch on warning is completely forgotten and
Russia is just going to sit there for 30 minutes waiting for US nukes to hit targets on its soil before retaliating. The only way this
would happen if the US somehow manages to compromise Russian command and control at the right moment. I just do not see
how this would be possible since technologically it is impossible to disrupt command communications in Russia even with EMP nukes
and having the sort of meat puppet infiltration is only possible in wet dreams. Even if Putin himself was a secret NATzO stooge,
then it would be impossible to prevent a retaliation response from Russia.

But here we have some never-won-any-battle bureaucrat with military badges yapping about a nuke attack on Russia as if Russia
was Iraq. Sorry, but this sort of inanity cannot be explained away by cunning 6D chess. It is just f*cktarded.

The same sort of brain rot manifests in the calm discussion of US B-2 bombers flying over Russian territory undetected and dropping
their loads of non-standoff munitions. I don't think even getting high on acid can produce such nonsense.

It raises another interesting issue... we have seen how effective Russian air defence systems are in Syria and now in Ukraine... not perfect but abundant and widely deployed and seems to be very effective... how does that bode for their strategic air defence systems like the S-500 and new S-550, as well as their upgraded ABM systems around Moscow.

They have four or five military districts? Would that mean four main city centres that will also be defended by such systems?

The S-500 and S-550 are a reaction to the american cancelling of the ABM treaty. They will be deployed everywhere in the country, at least near "strategic" places like St. Petersburg, Murmansk, Wladiwostok, Petropavlovsk, Sewastopol...

I agree, but S-500 and S-550 are mobile systems like S-300 and S-400 and are meant to support ground and air units (S-300V4 and S-400 units respectively), but I wonder if major centres in each military district might get their own ABM system like Moscow.

Or they might set up ABM systems for major military centres like Murmansk for the Northern Fleet and Vladivostok for the Pacific fleet....

You mean a fixed ABM system with large radars and silos for huge missiles?

I would put 50 silos and some battle management radars around every major city in Russia (1 Million+ inhabitants). Would cost a few billions but who cares? This would show the west how to create a country-wide ABM system.

I agree...

After a few years production of S-500 and S-550 will meet the needs of the Aerospace Defence Forces, and I guess the Army will also want the S-500 system and S-550 to deal with heavy ballistic missile attacks and also engage enemy satellites, and of course the Russian Navy will want the ABM S-500 for stopping anti ship ballistic missiles... they said the S-550 is more of an anti satellite weapon which the Navy probably would not need to take to sea... the S-500 would probably solve all their problems.

I suspect the S-500 and S-550 will be the anti manouvering hypersonic weapons too along with more and more powerful lasers on land and at sea... so the navy and air force and army will be using them to protect their ports airfields and bases respectively... once they have enough of those they could start building shelterised less mobile versions that could be placed at major airports and major air bases and ports and cities and even important production areas...

The ABM treaty is gone so limitations from that treaty are also gone so mini versions of the Moscow ABM system could be replicated around the country in major cities.

I think it is something the west has forgotten... in the ABM treaty gave you two options, you were allowed an ABM system either around your capital city or around an ICBM field.

The Soviets build the ABM system around Moscow, and maintained it to date, the Americans built an ABM system around their ICBM fields... I seem to recall they closed it the day they opened it.... but it is telling... they wanted to defend their ability to attack rather than protect their own people.

The Soviets wanted to protect the government long enough to ensure a nuclear response was ordered... the ABM system was expected to delay the destruction of Moscow... not outright protect it... at a time when each side had over 6,000 strategic nuclear weapons having 100 interceptors around Moscow simply wasn't enough to do anything but delay its destruction long enough to get orders out to launch a counter strike in the case of a surprise attack.

Couple of days ago the Biden Administration signed an Act which impairs US companies ability to sell chips/ US social capital from leaking away to China, attempting to cut off China's tech industry from advanced chips hence setting the stage for implosion.

Decoupling is accelerating.

sundoesntrise wrote:

I am honestly shocked that people still believe that China relies on U.S engineers, like how?

There are more than enough photo evidence of China sending their students to study in the U.S and come back to become Chinese engineers.

And what's with this obsession with chips anyway??
Looks more like a distraction to make people think that America is being hard on China.

They are loosing their technological advance. Semi-conductors reach their physical limit with the 5 nanometer cheaps being produced right now. Bellow that is the atome so you can keep better and smaller than that.

China will produce it alone soon with its own tech.

Then the work will switch on quantum computing. China already made better work in that field than the US.

Taiwan is a big producer for the west. If China invade and take Taiwan, the west looses its cheap supplier. Producing everything in the west will sky rockets prices of their products. At the end they will have to buy from China and be dependant on them.

That's why there will be a war for Taiwan. Who has Taiwan leads the technology and the world since the semi conductors are everywhere and its very hard to obtain this know-how.

On the Ukraine conflict thread several members were suggesting that China and India are not helping Russia and could back out and turn to the west... it is this sort of BS that makes them realise the west only cares about the US because that is who is in charge of the west.

Europe can pretend to be the garden of eden amongst a jungle of monsters and dangerous plants and animals, but it is actually more of a doorstep for the US, and a source of bodies to fight their conflicts around the world.

The irony is they already know cutting off a tiny country can cripple that country and do awful damage... they have done that to North Korea and Cuba and Iran and lots of other countries over the years... but they also did it to Russia which has only made Russia more independent and stronger and I suspect it will have the same result with China.

China will be more open to cooperation with Russia which will benefit both countries and create high quality competition for western monopolies...

The west suffers from the US first model, where it has to benefit the US for it to be a priority.

The BRICS model is about cooperation to help each other up and not sabotage friends and allies.

China is not damaged if Russia grows and develops, and Russia is not damaged if China grows and develops too... together they can grow faster and stronger and help other countries... and other countries can help them too.

Ironically the foreign policies of Russia and China actually appear to be what the west has been pretending their foreign policies have been the last few hundred years... but the blacks are too dumb and too corrupt to get out of their third world status.

Reality is that your skin colour does not determine your potential and not being pushed down and being paid crumbs for the work that makes the company owner rich is how people remain poor... and we are finding that in the west more and more where white people on minimum wage can't make ends meet and are slipping from the comfortable middle class to poverty and debt.

Coffee growers, diamond miners... of course they are poor because the west has been screwing them for centuries.

Even with ethical coffee you can bet the leaf pickers get a raw deal and the plantation owners who are likely rich white people get more for the beans and leaves their slaves pick now...

This is actually good because Chinese and Russian and even Indian alternatives to western chip making technology and processes might lead to breakthroughs and improvements western technology is simply incapable of achieving.

A lot of innovation happens in factories, but the US sent all their factories to China... go figure.

Very interesting discussion involving The Duran crew and Dr. Steve Turley

https://theaviationgeekclub.com/carmine-vito-was-the-only-u-2-pilot-to-fly-over-moscow-five-soviet-migs-launched-to-intercept-his-flight-got-lost-or-collided/

Pope Bergoglio is being run and controlled by the infamous Roman Curia. Following his quote from past Sunday's allocution over Dostoevsky's Brothers Karamazov he was most plausibly pressed by this Curia to amend his words.
He knows nothing about the Eastern World except for what his chamberlains tell him.
He has had in the past enormous trouble with this Curia!

https://theaviationgeekclub.com/carmine-vito-was-the-only-u-2-pilot-to-fly-over-moscow-five-soviet-migs-launched-to-intercept-his-flight-got-lost-or-collided/

If the US obeyed international law and respected Soviet airspace during the cold war they would never have developed the worlds best air defence network.

Much the same as if the Russians didn't develop world record long distance flight aircraft in the 1930s including the ANT-25, the US would have cancelled their plans to build strategic bombers and the western allies would have been even more useless during WWII.

Its amazing how the war in Ukraine has changed the beliefs of most analyst on the WW3 scenario.
Oddly enough, this change is for the Wests having a more favorable position during such a war.

This guy for example, is clearly grasping at straws, but this looks to be the norm for most analyst.



Update: His views on China are also shockingly foolish.
How the F will China run out of food and fuel with Russia at its back, how?....this don't add up.
And you gonna count on Vietnam?????.... what??  
Once again, India.......,why, why the F do westerners believe being anti-china is the same as being pro-Merica???

Revolutions in China????????.........this guy is a laugh.
Some frigging protest don't remotely mean revolution, Hong Kong would already be in flames if that were the case.

And then there is this stupid delusion of ma traditional family, leading to political upheaval, like WTF???.... grasping at straws indeed.
This delusion is really prevalent when westerners discus China.
So many idiots keep bringing up this same talking point.

The scary thing is that now that the economic system of the west which was based on the US controlling international trade, or making a cut with every sale, is starting to go tits up and as the west becomes less comfortable and the gap between rich and poor keeps getting bigger, the idea of a nuclear war might actually appeal to some of these morons.

Their sci fi fantasies of super heroes and zombie apocalypses might make them think the results of WWIII might be fun, but without modern medicine and supermarkets to provide food and working fridges to store their food things will not be nice... especially if law and order breaks down and it becomes everyone for themselves.

It wont even be good for the ones that like guns because nothing will protect you from being shot in the back or stabbed... remember even a bullet wound to the arm or leg will effect your mobility and ability to find food and shelter and protect your family.

Most families in the west are often spread out geographically, which would have to change... everyone coming together to work together to survive, but there is probably not enough wilderness in most western countries for the people to live off the land... it will be worse than medieval. (idiots with guns).

Once again, India.......,why, why the F do westerners believe being anti-china is the same as being pro-Merica???

Yeah, the enemy of your enemy is your friend... even if you have even less in common with them than you have with your actual enemy.

Led them to be friendly with the nazis after WWII. So clearly wrong.

You can use your enemies against your enemies but don't consider them friends... and that is how they justify it... India is a friend against China until China is dealt with and if India starts to grow and develop then we find some rival to fight against them.

It appears that entertainment has shaped the thinking of people including those who should know better. We have absurd fiction where someone is shot
in the thorax and keeps running around engaged in the action. Total nonsense and in reality such wounds would immobilize you even if they are not lethal.
There are many other plot contrivances that have ingrained themselves into the minds of people raised on this crap and shapes their expectations. In the real
world, the action grinds down super quick which reflects the fragility of humans and their technology. Thinking that a nuclear war is a manageable thing is
truly moronic. The survivors are not going to be zipping around on highways is large SUVs a couple of years later. They will be lucky to feed themselves
for decades afterwards.

Most of this delusion originates from the USA. WWII for this country was a foreign venture from which it gained. Many key people in the US think
that they can stage this racket today in a war on Russia and China. If it goes nuclear, then they will be much worse off than people in Europe in the wake
of WWII.

Pepe Escobar: US Outmatched by Russia, China, by Ekaterina Blinova for Sputnikglobe.com. 05.04.2023.

The Biden administration’s policy of simultaneously confronting both Russia and China is doomed to fail, Pepe Escobar, geopolitical analyst and veteran journalist, told Radio Sputnik’s New Rules podcast.

"It's so absurd, that obviously these neocons, they haven't even read [Zbigniew] Brzezinski," Escobar said, referring to the ex-US National Security Advisor and influential strategist.

"Ok, let's say he was a Democrat-linked neocon, but he was talking about this in the nineties already when he wrote The Grand Chessboard published in 1997. He was already saying, 'We have to prevent the emergence of a peer competitor in Eurasia by any means necessary'. So what do we have now? We have the emergence of a strategic partnership of peer competitors across Eurasia and the response of the neocons is, 'Okay, let's go to war against both of them at the same time'. Even a kid knows this is completely absurd."

How Brzezinski's Nightmare Turned Into Reality

Under the Biden administration Washington's relations with Moscow and Beijing hit a new low. Having snubbed Russia's security draft proposals concerning NATO enlargement and Ukraine's neutrality, the US ramped up military aid to the Kiev regime after the beginning of Moscow's special military operation (SMO) to demilitarize and de-Nazify Ukraine. The Biden administration not only slapped Russia with sanctions and derailed the March 2022 Istanbul preliminary peace accords between Moscow and Kiev but openly called for bleeding Russia white and imposing strategic defeat on the nation.

Simultaneously, Washington resorted to a series of provocations against China over Taiwan, the island located at the junction of the East and South China Seas, which Beijing regards as an inalienable part of the People's Republic. House Speakers Nancy Pelosi and Kevin McCarthy met with Taiwanese leader Tsai Ing-wen in what was seen by Beijing as a clear defiance of One China principle, while President Joe Biden issued repeated "gaffes" that the US is ready to "protect" the island militarily from the People's Republic. Recently, the Pentagon has speeded up the provision of weapons to Taipei as the latter is bracing for the January 2024 presidential elections.

Despite these provocative moves, the US military is not ready for a full-fledged confrontation with China, according to Escobar.

"They won't fight real wars," the veteran journalist said. "And now they are even more freaked out because they know, for instance, if they try something in the South China Sea, the Chinese have the famous carrier killers all over the coast. So, if you have three or four American complexes navigate over there, they can be sunk in 30 minutes. And the Pentagon knows that, they gamed it."

Likewise, Washington has failed to defeat Moscow either militarily or economically despite a set of unprecedented measures taken by the US, its NATO allies and partners against Russia.

"Russia survived everything that the West threw against it after the start of the special military operation, especially the economic war, the financial war," Escobar said. "And Russia survived and resisted. And now it's even growing again with the 3% inflation, where we have nations in Europe with 10-20-30% inflation and floundering."

What's more, the Biden administration's provocations and bellicose rhetoric against Russia and China has served to push the two great powers closer together. In March, Chinese President Xi Jinping paid a three-day visit to Moscow at the invitation of his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin. Observers have drawn attention to the fact that Russia became the first foreign state visited by Xi after his historic reelection on March 10.

Commenting on the development, Chinese observers told Sputnik that Russia and China "have entered a new stage of comprehensive cooperation and strategic partnership." That is how Team Biden has turned Brzezinski's nightmare scenario of a "grand coalition" between Moscow and Beijing into reality.

What is Behind Russia's Resilience?

According to Escobar, Moscow has spent much of the past decade preparing for the West’s hybrid and financial war. Russian policy makers began game planning for a potential showdown shortly after a US-backed coup in Kiev usurped power in Ukraine.

"If the SMO had been launched in 2014, Russia would not have been ready economically, financially and even militarily for it. Now they are. I'm sure that Elvira Nabiullina, at the Russian central bank, knew exactly what she did. This probably had been discussed for at least two years at the highest level at the Security Council level,” he said.

Escobar’s skepticism about the effectiveness of Western sanctions was confirmed when the veteran journalist arrived to Moscow in February 2023. He told Sputnik that he was stunned by how normal life was in the Russian capital despite unprecedented outside pressure.

"My first day I arrived at Vnukovo [airport], I left my bags at my studio and I went for a seven-hour walk around the city not to have an intellectual experience, but the gut feeling," the veteran journalist recalled. "How does it feel to be in Moscow now? So, I did not see a fragile shattered economy. I did not see a country under sanctions that was like I remember seeing Iran under sanctions, and it was very, very tough. I couldn't feel that here. I saw one of the most beautiful cities in the world with an infrastructure that is absolutely peerless. Anywhere it is extremely clean. That's very important for all of us who live in the West."

"Compared to New York, compared to Paris, compared to London. People are very well dressed, wonderful restaurants, the supermarkets were stocked with everything. The department stores like GUM or TSUM have everything that you can find in any big capital of the world. People were relaxed and they didn't feel that they were at war. So, my first impression was striking," he continued.

The End of Western Technological Dominance

The Biden administration has repeatedly insisted the United States and its European allies will remain the centers of global technological innovation for the indefinite future. Escobar, who has spent extensive time in both the Middle East and Asia, dismisses these claims as delusional bluster.

"In fact, a lot of top researchers and tech wizards in Silicon Valley come from China and India. And [look at] the level of excellence of the Russian military in terms of missile defense systems and hypersonic weapons," Escobar said. “When you talk to a very good military analyst like my friend Andrei Martyanov, for instance, who lives in the US and writes in English, but knows the Soviet and the Russian military system upside down, he says, ‘Look, the gap is at least two generations, if not more, and [the US] won't be able to do it’."

"And the [US] political leadership don't understand simple math or physics, for that matter. And the American system, in terms of the military industrial complex, it's basically for profit, is not to actually make weapons capable of fighting wars, which is exactly what the Russians do. There has been a technical expertise in Russia since Soviet times. The basis of the hypersonic missile system was laid out already during the Brezhnev era," Escobar said.

The collective West's failure to coerce Moscow, Beijing and most Global South powers into submission clearly indicates that the world has irreversibly changed. The world is going through historic times for a shift in our entire existing order. Escobar concurred with Chinese President Xi Jinping, who recently noted that we seem to be witnessing changes we have not seen in 100 years.

"When we look at what's going on now, this old order is turned upside down completely,” Escobar said. “China is the most important trade, commercial nation on the planet. By PPP, purchasing parity power, it's already the number one economy in the world. Russia, after being devastated during the 1990s, now has emerged as the prime military superpower in the world."

https://sputnikglobe.com/20230504/pepe-escobar-us-outmatched-by-russia-china-1110095098.html

For the US the problem is made worse because they believe their own propaganda and think everything is fine by ignoring everything that is not fine for everyone else... that is kinda their thing though... as long as they are OK then everything is fine.

Pepe Escobar: Divisions Brewing in Europe, by Ekaterina Blinova for Sputnikglobe.com. 05.05.2023.

Dissent is brewing inside the EU and inside NATO as old aristocracy and business circles of France and Germany feel betrayed by Washington, Pepe Escobar, geopolitical analyst and veteran journalist, told Radio Sputnik’s New Rules podcast.

"Basically, what the Americans would like to do is to have Eastern Europe leading NATO and even leading the EU, which is even more far-fetched," said Pepe Escobar.

"And the new superpower would be Poland. This is what they think and this is what they're actually working towards. The French and the Germans, and I'm not generalizing, let’s say, [the] patriotic faction of French business especially, and a few diplomats are saying, 'No, we have to go back to our De Gaulle modern roots. We should be independent. We should have our own 'force de frappe', as they say, our own striking force. And we should leave NATO', in fact," the geopolitical analyst continued.

As the Biden administration is pushing ahead with simultaneously confronting Russia and China, Washington's European allies are facing risks of losing not only cheap energy commodities but a leading trade partner, too.

How US Strategy Backfires on France, UK and Germany

After his talks with Chairman Xi Jinping, French President Emmanuel Macron told Politico on April 9 that Europe must reduce its dependency on the US and avoid getting dragged into a confrontation between China and the US over Taiwan. He warned that Europe could get "caught up in crises that are not ours, which prevents it from building its strategic autonomy."

"When Macron said we should be a third independent superpower, he didn't mean Europe, he meant France, in fact," noted Escobar. "And as you know, the French, they still have this idea of themselves as a perennial Western power (…) They're still dreaming of Napoleon, not even referring to Napoleon's defeats, like in Russia, for instance, but Napoleon at his apex. So it's a very complicated, it's a mixed feeling environment. And the question of sovereignty is essential. In France, they still have an idea of sovereignty in their minds coming from the Enlightenment."

On April 11, Macron delivered his keynote speech in The Hague, Netherlands, emphasizing Europe's need to promote its own economy and security amid the ongoing crisis. Remarkably, as Macron was outlining his vision of Europe's strategic autonomy, Polish Prime Minister, Mateusz Morawiecki, flew to Washington in order to strengthen economic and defense ties with the US – the one that "guarantees our security in Europe," as per Warsaw.

Even though Macron came under criticism from US lawmakers over his apparent dissent, about a week later, UK Foreign Secretary James Cleverly stepped forward warning that Britain should not "pull the shutters down" in an April 19 interview with the Guardian. Speaking at Mansion House in the City of London six days later, the Foreign Secretary Cleverly insisted that no significant global problem can be solved without Beijing, arguing that "a stable, prosperous and peaceful China is good for Britain and good for the world."

In contrast, German government officials remain largely silent which is hardly surprising given that the nation is "still in a neo-colony, period," according to Escobar.

"And this was proved by the whole Nord Stream incident," the veteran journalist said. "But German businessmen are already talking about it. And there is an undercurrent of very, I would say, very secret, in fact, because there's one leak here and there. German businessmen and parts of the old German aristocracy, are basically discussing among themselves saying, ‘we have to get rid of this traffic light government, which is completely crazy with these Greens.

And we should have a sort of Bismarck pact with Russia again, and then we'll be able to fulfill our destiny as the number one trading power in Europe and one of the best in the world’. Trading, especially with Russia, China and the rest of Asia. And enormously get rid of American dominance. But this for the moment is an undercurrent that is kept very secret. But you hear this all the time by very well-connected German businessmen. So France and Germany in some high-level way are already thinking about it, the post EU/NATO environment."

Is the German Government Betraying National Interests?

Germany appears to be the greatest loser of the US-led anti-Russia and anti-China tilt, as it has been deprived of both the EU flagship and European powerhouse status. Following the beginning of Russia's special military operation (SMO) Washington twisted Berlin's arm into joining the West's sweeping energy embargo against Russia.

Germany had relied on Moscow's pipeline gas since the 1970s. German chemical giant BASF once dubbed Russian gas "the basis of our industry’s competitiveness." After the destruction of Nord Stream pipelines – which, according to Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Seymour Hersh, was carried out by US and Norwegian operatives – German medium-size enterprises and industrial giants have been forced to relocate as energy prices stung.

"The problem is what do German businesses want? They want exactly the same thing as the Chinese want. They want to do business all over the world," said Escobar. "They were already [a] first-class trading power on the way to becoming a superpower before the SMO, before the sanctions and before the bombing of the Nord Streams. And now they're going back to 100 years ago, to put it in Xi Jinping’s language. And the only ones who actually see that are German businessmen, obviously not the politicians."

"Any political party in Germany, they simply don't get it. They are all ideological and they all follow the recommendations from DC. When [German Chancellor Olaf] Scholz went to Beijing, there was a hefty German business delegation with him. In effect, they dictated the agenda. ‘Look, you can say anything you want, but we came here to do business with the Chinese. This is what we need.’ You know, the problem is that with the Nord Stream bombing, they didn't have a say because they were faced with a fait accompli and they said, ‘Wow, we just lost our cheap source of energy, what are we having for a replacement?’ Nothing. So can you imagine that you were a German businessman who looked at his government to say, ‘my government has betrayed me, has betrayed my country?’ This is treason. This is extremely serious business," the veteran journalist continued.

Meanwhile, Berlin is demonstrating quiet dissent: Scholz has been pushing through a Chinese investment deal involving the Hamburg Tollerort port terminal, despite Washington's vocal displeasure and objections from the German Greens and liberal Free Democratic Party (FDP). The chancellor reportedly wants to wrap up the deal before a planned German-Chinese summit on June 20 in Berlin. His effort is seen as an attempt to protect German business interests, as per the Western press.

Sovereignty is Key to International Dialogue

"We're still living in the after effects of the end of the Second World War," Escobar noted. "That includes everything, defeatism by the French, the fact that they were smashed in the Second World War. On the German side, there are psychological scars that are very difficult to heal even after decades, a guilt complex, a gigantic guilt complex. And the fact that they know intellectually, they can understand that they are a colony, but they don't find a way to break free."

Still, no one is interested in doing business with "vassals", as per the veteran journalist.

"It was very, very interesting to see when Macron went to talk to Xi Jinping," said Escobar. "Basically, Xi Jinping was telling Macron, I respect you, if you behave as a sovereign, then we can have a partnership of equals and you're going to be probably my favorite partner in Europe. If you behave like a colony, I have no use for you."

Speaking at the Valdai Discussion Club on October 27, 2022, Russian President Vladimir Putin specifically lamented Europe's dependency on "Washington Obkom."

"Well, how could one talk to this or that partner if the latter does not make decisions and on every occasion he has to call the Washington Obkom and ask what can and what cannot be done?" Putin asked rhetorically.

"Obkom" is a Soviet term for a Communist Party regional committee and Putin's use of it is by no means incidental: the Russian president de facto nailed Europe's "vassalage" and lack of strategic sovereignty.

"That's why the Global South respects Russia, because Russia affirms its sovereignty," the geopolitical analyst stressed. "Why do they respect China? The same thing. Why do they respect Iran? Because Iran has been resisting for four decades and they didn't crumble like everybody in the Beltway was thinking. Remember, real men go to Tehran during Rumsfeld and Cheney, they said it would be too easy. Okay, we smash Iraq and the next is going to Iran. It's not like that. When you are dealing with a real sovereign, which is the case of Iran, whatever our opinion or our analysis of their political system, apart from it, the fact that they were able to resist a superpower for four decades, this is immense."

https://sputnikglobe.com/20230505/pepe-escobar-divisions-brewing-in-europe-1110123039.html