The problem named Ursula

Written October 2022

Note form the author: this was written right after the WEF meeting in Davos on May 26 2022.

While the war in Ukraine drags on with a horrendous cost of human life on both sides, in Davos the rich and powerful of the earth are nestling into comfortable plush and patting each other on the shoulder at receptions complimenting each other for their allegedly peaceful globalist agenda. Behind the rhetoric of the private little club called the World Economic Forum is a cynical reality that does not aim for peace at all, but apparently aims to bring the Russians to their knees once and for all. The end goal is not Kiev but definitely Moscow, it is gradually becoming clear from the politics of both the US and the EU. In the months this war has dragged on, there has been no overt attempt from either the U.S. or the EU for peace talks or mediation with the Russians. The only one who sat down over Putin at a conference table that proved far too big for both of them was French President Macron, who did so more to put himself somewhat in the public eye with the presidential election in sight, rather than actually thinking in his fabled splendor that he could change anything about the situation. It was like the mouse squealing to an elephant.

With those other elephants beyond and this side of the Atlantic, Biden and Aunt Ursula, since Putin thundered into Ukraine with his tanks, it has remained deafeningly quiet on the diplomatic front. Did Putin have the right to invade Ukraine? No, of course he didn't. Neither had the Russians in Afghanistan and neither did the Americans after that. The Chinese didn't have that in Tibet, the Russians didn't have that in South Ossetia and the Americans didn't have that in Iraq. And we can go on like that for a while. It is what is called "whataboutism"; an error of reasoning whereby to cover up one's own failure one points to another's failure. Two wrongs don't make a right.

Is Putin a disturbed human being? I believe so. Is there a Russian-speaking majority in the Donbas that prefers to stick with the Russians because they were discriminated against by Kiev? There are certainly indications of that. So was a diplomatic solution possible to defuse this conflict? I suspect that was certainly among the possibilities and still is. However, since the beginning of the war, both the US and the EU did not throw oil on the waves to calm them, but rather oil on the fire to fan the flames.

Ursula von der Leyen's speech to the World Economic Forum in Davos this week further locks down that diplomatic way out. The naturalness with which this private club is involved in European affairs by the President of the European Commission is shocking. Aunt Ursula's self-serving statements in the name of the EU in Davos exemplify the EU's total disconnection from the elected parliaments of its member states. That Ms. von der Leyen chose the private club in Davos, of all places, for her statements about Russia and not -just imagine!- the European Parliament speaks volumes. It is already a foreshadowing of what we can also expect from the World Health Organization, that health vehicle of the UN where also unelected NGOs of private individuals and representatives of totalitarian states are soon going to decide when you -yes you there- should go into another lockdown. The invisible powers once called the military-industrial complex by American sociologist Charles Wright Mills in his book "The power elite," and which President (and former general) Dwight Eisenhower warned about in his farewell speech to Congress, are now so powerful that they no longer need to hide, but openly practice their lobbying and hobby through the WEF, supplemented by Big Media and Big Tech.

In her speech to the WEF, Aunt Ursula literally said, "We are doing everything we can to help Ukraine to a victory. For the first time, the EU is giving military aid to a country under attack that does not belong to the EU." Followed by more attacks against Putin. This is all wonderfully tough, but it is very easy to say from the safe headquarters in Brussels or Washington and even easier from a podium in Davos, Switzerland, in front of an audience of mainly unelected global VIPs, while 2,000 kilometers away on both sides of war tens of thousands of innocents are dying. Cannon meat along both sides to get one's own vindication. The problem is that the Russians are more numerous and will not turn their hand to sacrificing their own people en masse to protect their borders (and Moscow).

It was so when Napoleon was on their doorstep, it was certainly so during WW2, and it will be no different now. Just count the casualties for WW2 and look especially at the proportions: Russia 23.6 million dead. The US: 418 500, the UK 450 400, France 562 000. The idea-fix of the EU and the US to bring Russia to its knees is a mirage that cost and will cost the lives of countless people. This is not an apology for Russia's horrible policies but a sober observation.

"Build for your opponent's retreat a golden bridge" wrote the legendary Chinese military strategist, general and philosopher Sun Tzu 2,500 years ago. It is a diplomatic wisdom that not only avoids loss of face, but, more importantly, can save many lives as a result.