WILLIAM SCHRYVER—Most of the gods of American high-tech and finance, and those who worship them, simply cannot discern the degree to which American power in all its forms has steadily eroded over the course of the 21st century, and that this erosion has accelerated dramatically in recent years. For most of the western elite and their acolytes, it is still early 1991, and Norman Schwarzkopf is leading a million-man army against the hapless Iraqis in a demonstration of military might that would finally expunge the bitter humiliation of Vietnam from the American psyche. Such people have religiously embraced the Hollywood fantasies of unassailable American superpower dominance. And given the reality that Ukraine and Israel are considered merely appendages of this assumed American military supremacy, the eastern European and Levantine theaters of World War Three have given rise to extreme examples of an unprecedented tsunami of propaganda I have been wont to call “The Imaginary War”.
William Schryver
William Schryver
A polymathic person, the author is focused on geopolitics - history, empires, war - macroeconomics and markets - music - and photography.
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W. SCHRYVER—I shall return yet again to the prospect of “Made in the USA” F-16s sallying forth boldly into eastern Ukraine to “teach the cabbage heads what Airpower (capitalized) really means.”
From what information I’ve been able to glean in recent weeks, it does in fact look as though the US is aggressively setting up air ops housekeeping in Romania, very near the Black Sea coast — ostensibly to serve as the base of F-16 operations against Russia.
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WILLIAM SCHRYVER—Naturally, the rapidly waning global hegemon is not inclined to relinquish its throne without a fight. What form that fight takes remains to be seen. But if the empire attempts to preserve its so-called “rules-based international order” via force of arms, it is essential to understand this incontrovertible reality: In order for the United States to make war against any ONE of Russia, China, or Iran, it would be necessary to effectively vacate every major US base on the planet in order to concentrate enough military power to undertake the mission. In a putative war between the United States and Iran, both Russia and China would actively support Iran.
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WILLIAM SCHRYVER—The heretofore reigning global hegemon designed to inflict upon Russia — its long-time nemesis — a decisive strategic defeat that would deliver the greatest spoil ever taken, and thereby consolidate its power base into the foreseeable future and beyond. The empire imagined Russia to be at its civilizational nadir: weak, vulnerable, and finally ripe for the picking.
Notwithstanding the now proverbial failures of the empires that preceded it, the current masters of the Anglo-American empire, in tandem with its European vassal states and a willing proxy force in Ukraine, believed “things are different this time”. They convinced themselves that the power differential between the latest iteration of western empire and its putative Russian adversary was so pronounced as to assure victory over “the gas station masquerading as a country”.