There's an old saying, "If you don't respect yourself, no one will respect you". The beginning of Putin's entry into Ukraine was not a surprise; it was predictable.
This was predictable because you have a feckless American President who has to go and have his cookies and ice cream after he gets through mumbling some foolish statement that he reads off a teleprompter.
Think back to October 2020, a month before Joe Biden was elected. World oil prices were Think back to October 2020, a month before Joe Biden was elected. World oil prices were $35 a barrel. As you can see on the chart, today's prices are nudging $100 a barrel and set to go higher. Now, why has this happened?.
Whatever you want to say about Donald Trump, he had a plan; to make America number one, including energy independence. By the time he left office, the U.S. was an energy exporter with the most significant oil production globally. He also talked to adversaries including Kim Jong- Un, Vladimir Putin, China's Xi, and he brokered peace between Israel and some of its perpetual enemies. He also vastly reduced illegal immigration.
So were there any majors wars during Trump's Presidency? There were some minor skirmishes, along with the U.S. and Russia cooperating in the decimation of ISIS. While American politicians were obsessed with anti-Russia rhetoric, Trump had a different approach. He spoke with Putin. They appeared—by all accounts—to respect one another. Has that happened before?
President John Kennedy spoke with Kruschev. President Ford engaged with Breshnev, while Reagan and Gorbachev became good friends. Contrast that to the current situation. Rather than speaking with the Russian leadership, the Biden administration kept deriding Russia and exacerbated some of Russia's insecurity pushing for Ukraine's entry into NATO.
America has to co-exist with its adversaries. It's better to talk than to engage in inflammatory rhetoric. It merely fans the flames of war, and now indeed, we see that Russia has commenced an attack on Ukraine. Could this have been avoided? Absolutely.
Putin is no fool. He may be a tyrannical and brutal dictator, but he is also a wily chess player who can accurately assess a situation and act opportunistically.
Meanwhile, Biden is a dithering old fool. Do you think Putin—or President Xi—don't see this?
Let's look at what the Biden administration has done in the past 13 months.
Biden signed Executive orders stopping the critical Keystone pipeline from Canada.
Banning oil and gas leases on public lands.
Increasing regulations on fracking.
Giving the green light for a Russian-German pipeline called Nordstrom 2 making Europe more dependent on Russian energy.
America starts importing oil from Russia as it becomes dependent on foreign oil.
Biden halted the construction of Trump's border wall resulting in 1.9 million illegals coming across the Mexican border in 2021, a literal invasion.
In January 2021, at a Summit in Alaska, Chinese officials publicly mocked America for its racism and infringement of human rights.
After 20 years in Afghanistan and $2 trillion, the U.S. hightailed it out of that country so fast that it didn't even secure its people and left some $70 billion of militarily hardware behind. Do you think China and Russia didn't notice?
In November 2021, Russia and China signed a military pact while Biden slowed down America's military spending.
America keeps complaining about China's abuses of the Uighurs yet placated China by not boycotting the Winter Olympics.
By February 2022, official inflation hit 7.5% in America—the highest in 40 years. Unofficially, it is in double digits.
So Putin watched these events and waited. In such a short period, Biden reversed the good Trump policies. The result is a much weakened America. It's pretty foolish to switch all your predecessor's good policies just because you didn't like him. In fact, it almost appears as if this administration is intentionally weakening the U.S. for some purported Green New Deal-Socialist Agenda.
Putin has always felt humiliated by the downfall of the Soviet Union. His goal is to reconstitute the Soviet Empire. Now he has seized the opportunity by invading Ukraine, with China having his back. According to World Net Daily, "A Chinese official said his nation was monitoring the situation and called for restraint." Yes, we know what is going on.
Putin sees a bumbling, mentally challenged President, amateurs in his administration, and a weakened military focusing on political correctness. Why wouldn't he make a move?
Anyone objectively looking at the situation can see what a dangerous state of affairs we are all in. Globally, the economic impact may be quite .severe. Our modern civilization relies on energy, not just to fill up our cars or heat our homes, but for transporting supplies that keep society functioning.
Right now, Putin is in a strong financial position. Russia is exporting oil and gas at very inflated prices. This means that the Russian trade balance is very favourable. Currently, Russia's debt to GDP is 13%: America's is $130%. Since fighting wars is costly, America cannot afford to engage in another protracted war and Putin knows it.
The Biden administration played right into Putin's hands by going on the green energy craze. Biden, Obama and Bush were Russian appeasers, and all those presidencies saw Putin invade neighbouring territories. Trump, on the other hand, played chess toe-to-toe with Putin. The result was that Putin respected Trump and didn't attempt any expansionist excursions. Oh, the irony; Democrats kept an ongoing narrative that Trump was colluding with Russia. Quite the contrary. Negotiating is not colluding.
The real scary thought is, if Biden and his cronies could do so much damage in 13 months, what will America be like after another three years?
You can read Putin's translated February 24 address for those curious. Is it the ranting of a paranoid maniac, or does he make some good points? You be the judge.
Putin has a point. Several points. NATO was formed as an alliance against the Soviet Union - but when the USSR collapsed, it would have made sense to bring Russia on board as an ally, not keep treating her like an enemy. NATO has been building up troops & military installations that threaten Russia's borders - any country would object to that. While it is of course possible that Russia is at the start of an empire building spree, it seems more likely that Putin is simply doing what he says he is doing: supporting the breakaway regions of the Donbas (as they requested of him) and trying to keep NATO off the Russian borders, while maintaining access to the ports on the Black Sea.
It is very problematic for my brain to love the US (because of beautiful land, lack of homogeneity in all facets, religious freedoms) and also see how much destruction and damage has been wrought by the paving and poisoning. Too much bad chemistry and fossil fuels...I am cheering the end of them and all the products they enable, which are many....my answer certainly would not be fracking for the last tiny bits anymore, now we know what to do to transition in many ways. It will mean an ancient sense of reliance. 4 centuries ago? Part of me sort of feels like we are losing our lease on earth for breach of contract....but I digress. Trying to hold in my head how bad we are for all this poisoning, only Seneff and scientists of her ilk can even explain what its doing to our bodies...(Geoffry Smith GMO Microbiome)....I think its what they call the cognitive dissonance....oh, and thinking my family and friends are time bombs, that is quite dissonant.