By Antonius J. Patrick
The tensions between the West and Russia over Ukraine have escalated over the past few months with an almost daily occurrence of provocations and belligerent talk, mostly from members of NATO. In response, Russia has sent a naval contingent to the Caribbean in a show of force. Some of the Western provocations include:
- Polish President Andrzej Duda’s willingness to place U.S. nuclear weapons on Polish soil;
- German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius’s call for reinstitution of a draft;
- A hand-delivered check by Biden to Volodymyr Zelensky as part of the $95 billion U.S. “defense” package for Ukraine;
- A request by Zelensky for Westerners to train troops on Ukrainian soil; and
- U.S. and NATO okaying Ukraine to fire long-range American weapons as much as 12 miles into Russian territory
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It is apparent that, until Russian President Vladimir Putin capitulates to Western demands in regard to Ukraine, NATO will continue to push the envelope. In hindsight, analysts such as Paul Craig Roberts have, from the start, urged Putin to swiftly finish off Ukraine militarily and replace the Zelensky regime with one favorable to Russia. A protracted struggle, Roberts warned in early June 2024 on his website, would give the West more time to supplement Ukraine: “The conflict dragged on because, having declared the intervention limited, the Kremlin left Kiev to continue the war, thus playing into Western hands as the West gradually widened the war.”
Unfortunately for Russia, Roberts’s prognostication is now coming to fruition.
The counter-argument to a more aggressive Russia is that Putin realizes that the West is run by a pack of sociopaths who would have no qualms launching World War III, which would include the use of nuclear weapons, or ignite a major military conflagration in the area. The Russian president sees that the West holds a decisive military advantage over Russia even if it allied with China. The United States alone spends more than the combined expenditures of the top nine militaries in the world.
The United States has thus the ability and means to operate and intervene in almost any sector of the world. It is able to do so because it has had, for the longest time, an economy which was able to produce goods for the domestic market and also for its foreign adventures. It takes wealth to be able to arm, transport, deploy, and maintain men in distant lands.
Because of America’s relatively free economy, it could produce a seemingly endless supply of military hardware for itself, but also to buy off client states and fund proxy wars. In contrast, the Soviet Union could never export communism in any significant way after World War II because it lacked the means to do so. Its economy was a basket case that could barely feed its citizens.
While the United States may have the miliary capability to be the world’s policeman, its actions in Ukraine are ultimately controlled by ideology. And, for the longest time, U.S. foreign policy has been one of interventionism and war with the ultimate goal of the establishment of a one-world state. Its proxy war in Ukraine is designed to cripple Russia, which stands as a roadblock to this long-desired goal.
Since it is apparent that the principles guiding U.S. foreign policy are not going to change anytime soon, the nation will continue on its bellicose course until it no longer has the means to do so. This would mean a financial crisis, most likely in the form of a dollar collapse, which would ground the economy to a halt.
In such a scenario, the United States would be following the course that Great Britain took after World War II, when its empire could no longer be sustained since the country insanely exhausted itself in the conduct of fighting two world wars.
A similar, earlier historical example was the Western Roman empire, which, through currency debasement, heavy taxation and government largesse, ruined its economy and then could no longer maintain its empire.
The ideology of Great Britain and Rome did not change, however, they simply no longer had the means to sustain and expand their empires.
Despite massive deficits, record-setting inflation and a recent bank crisis in March 2023, a financial crisis does not appear to be on the horizon. Although things can change quickly, for the foreseeable future, the U.S. empire is in no danger from internal collapse.
While an economic collapse would mean misery for millions of Americans, it would be, in a sense, retribution for the nation’s murderous and costly foreign policy, which has brought, and still is bringing, untold death and destruction to millions of people around the globe.
Antonius Patrick in the nom de plume of a freelance writer based in the Washington, D.C. metro area who wishes to remain anonymous to avoid possible professional cancellation.
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