GeoCombat2050

  Myths kill.  Nowhere is this truth more evident than in Ukraine, where tens of thousands of Ukrainians and Russians have been maimed or killed on the battlefield in a war now in its third year and still ongoing.  The Ukraine war could have been averted had politicians in the West not clung to four myths with devastating consequences. Myth 1: Ukraine will defeat Russia. One year into Russia's war in Ukraine, US President Biden proclaimed in Warsaw, Poland that "Ukraine will never be a victory for Russia. Never." Exuding even more confidence, Europe Commission President von der Leyen declared that "I'm deeply convinced that Ukraine will win this war."  Of all the lies about the war in its third year, this one is the hoax of the 21st century. To put it bluntly, Ukraine has no plausible pathway to victory against Russia. Slightly smaller than Texas, utterly dependent on Western aid, it is simply no match for its Russian neighbor with 1,226 miles of shared bord...

  Let’s call it what it is: The Russia-Ukraine conflict is a war between two imperialist powers, the US and Russia. The longer the war lasts, the better for the world, as the protracted war undermines their respective power. Is the conflict a clash between democracy and autocracy, as the US claims? Or is it self-defense against Western encroachment, as Russia contends? There is nothing righteous about the geopolitical tussle over which side will control Ukraine. Under the veneer of democratic freedom or pan-slavic nationalism lies the primacy of might by any means necessary. Any rational person with some knowledge of history and geopolitics should be able to cut through the smoke screens that each belligerent uses to justify its aggresion. When America brandishes its Democracy stick, it means that its empire itches for new boundaries. When the Russian Bear plays the victim, it merely pursues its centuries-old insatiable hunger for more land. Ten years on, the clash of titans has re...

What is more important for a developing country? Is it to assure that citizens can freely cast a ballot and quietly return to their shanties? Or is it to lift millions of citizens out of poverty, create a modern industrial economy, and become competitive in the world economy?  Democracy and Economic Development The US and its allies would have us believe that political freedom trumps all other considerations. Give people the right to vote and establish a democratic system, and they will be well on their way to "modernity."  That ideology has been applied worldwide, with mixed results, however. At one extreme, Iraq's democratic system, imposed by the US after the 2003 invasion and toppling of the dictator Saddam Hussein, is synonymous with failed state and instability. One saying reflects the rampant corruption in in the federal parliamentary republic: "We used to have one Saddam Hussein, now we have a thousand." Similarly, twenty years of airborne democracy and ...

Athenian democracy f rom the 5th to the 4th century BCE h as been regarded as the model of modern democratic systems. Equal political rights, freedom of speech, participation in politics and governance all came from ancient Greece. Rather than doomed to oblivion, its three branches of government - the Citizens' Assembly, the Senate, the  Executive Committee, and the courts  have become the norms all over the world. When visiting Greece in 2016, President Obama lauded Greece "for the most precious of gifts: the truth, the understanding that as individuals of free will, we have the right and the capacity to govern ourselves."  Even non-democratic regimes have a semblance of separation of power and citizens' representation and "guarantees" political rights and freedom of speech.   But  Athenian democracy is far from perfect. Although its flaws are well-known, modern democratic leaders tend to deemphasize them while glorifying its political achievements. The tru...