Rob’s comments below are in italics.Derek’s comments below are in normal font.
We thought we’d do a bit of a roundup of current affairs and goings-on today. What’s going on that people should be aware of?
Well, the short answer is, of course, more of the same! I was leafing through my journal over the past three or four months. I’ve been saying more or less the same things every time.
We’re like a broken record…
Yes. We have yet another peace plan in Gaza. It’s quite interesting, there’s considerable criticism and disappointment in some quarters about the fact that the United Nations Security Council, Russia and China abstained from voting on this plan. The United Nations officially adopted the plan, whereas either or both could have used their no votes to veto it. The Security Council has to make unanimous decisions.
This is of course, one of the design flaws of the United Nations. Because of the five permanent members of the Security Council, who effectively have a veto, this now allows one or more of them to paralyse any decision that’s made. Both China and Russia gave very concise, clear speeches about why they thought the plan was not going to work.
Had they vetoed it, and then it not been implemented, they would have been held responsible in the public opinion of the world for having prevented it from being enacted. Abstaining was the only thing that they could reasonably do.
You can see the headlines already, can’t you, in the Guardian, etc.
They had already put forward proposals to modify this plan, which might have made it more realistic. But these were not agreed to by the rest of the council. Abstaining and giving a concise summary of what they’re thinking was probably the best they could do.
As we know, it’s going to be yet another thing that makes no difference. The Israelis certainly aren’t taking any notice of their obligations under this. They’re continuing the slaughter, they’re continuing the starvation. There’s no end in sight.
What the Israelis say appears to all be white noise to me.
Yeah.
We now also have a 28-point plan for peace in Ukraine that Trump has put forward. Whether this is acceptable to either side or not, we just don’t know. So far, the signals from Zelensky are that he’s not prepared to make any concessions.
In the world of reality rather than fantasy, he’s not really in a position to make any concessions or to withhold any.
He’s a bit short on bargaining chips!
Exactly. The lack of realism among Western leaders is, to my mind, staggering. They’ve nailed their colours firmly to the mast of supporting Ukraine and trying to turn the situation around. Whereas every single day for the last year and a half, Russia has made larger and larger gains.
Not only that, it’s outproducing the entire Western world combined in manufacturing new weapons, more ammunition, and more missiles. It’s got a large, growing army, which is rotated to keep its troops fresh. Okay, it’s taking casualties, but it’s inflicting casualties at about 10 times the rate it’s taking them.
Ukraine doesn’t have the population that Russia has, for starters. Seven million people have left the country in the course of this conflict, at least. They have very few fighting-age men left to recruit. The ones that they are recruiting are deserting in large numbers.
Some of them are being murdered by their own side when they attempt to desert. Some of them are being taken prisoner. A great many of them are being slaughtered.
It’s a tragedy, isn’t it? It’s all completely pointless.
I’m not a military expert, but it was obvious to me that it could not go any other way. Yet somehow the Western leaders have convinced themselves that they have.
Unless the Western leadership are just puppets. They’re not really the leaders; they’re not really making the decisions.
Well, it’s quite obvious that somebody or some entity has a hold over them, that goes without saying. But they haven’t been able to find any way to negotiate their position away from the one they’ve rigidly adopted.
In the meantime, in this country, our own public services are being cut more and more deeply. I don’t know what we’ve sent to Ukraine in terms of equipment or money. The equipment sent there is usually promptly destroyed.
As we covered last time out, the money we sent there has been magicked up out of nowhere.
Yeah. For the reasons we discussed with them about the issues, it’s getting harder and harder to perpetuate that. Of course, the latest news over the past few days is the accusations of staggering levels of corruption by Zelensky’s closest accomplices. Theft of funds in the hundreds of millions of euros or dollars.
I would like to gasp in shock.
Well, the thing that amazes me is that if you were into that, you could embezzle £10 million. It wouldn’t bend your entire country’s economy out of shape.
Yeah, why go for £100 million? How many houses do you need to buy?
Exactly. £10 million would enable you to do whatever you wanted for the rest of your life. It’s demented, isn’t it?
We’ve always known, throughout the entire time, that Ukraine isn’t the democratic nation portrayed by the press. It is quite a corrupt place. They have a neo-Nazi battalion as part of the army.
Yeah. The prevailing living standard in Ukraine was very low, which led to widespread discontent among the population. It was possible for the various manipulators of the situation to direct against the government of the time. To overturn it in 2014, bringing in a government that was even more corrupt.
Revolution doesn’t always end very well, does it? It just brings in someone else to fill the power void.
Exactly so. It remains to be seen what’s happening. Apparently, two American generals are going to meet with Zelensky and presumably give him an ultimatum. What will come of that, or how they can spin this not to be an abject defeat by all of Europe, we’ll have to wait and see. Again, watch this space.
Again, watch this space.
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