Happy New Year 2025

5 Responses to Happy New Year 2025

1. Keith Harbaugh says:

   January 1, 2025 at 4:30 pm

   I know that a number of you have differing views on Larry Johnson.
   Whatever your agreement with him is,
   he wrote a nice personal message here:
   https://sonar21.com/a-note-of-gratitude/

   Mainly it is personal thanks, but I will quote a substantive part of it:

   “Finally, I want to thank Russia’s UN delegation for giving me the opportunity to address the UN Security Council on the issue of the terrorist attack on the Nordstream pipeline.
   No one from the Russian delegation asked what I would say before they extended the invitation.
   At no point did they try to direct or control the substance of my presentation.
   I had complete freedom to express my views and opinions.
   I can tell you with certainty that if I had been invited by the US delegation to make a similar presentation that the Department of State would have insisted on reviewing and approving my remarks in advance.
   All I can say is that Ambassador Nebenzya and Ambassador Polyanski are class acts and genuine professionals.”

   LJ gives the text of his talk here:

   https://sonar21.com/my-speech-to-the-unsc-regarding-nord-steam/

   YouTube has deleted the video of him giving his talk to the UNSC.
   • English Outsider says:

     January 2, 2025 at 2:23 pm

     TTG – with reference to Mr Harbaugh’s comment, might I append here a short clip from the end of this video? It’s Larry Johnson and Scott Horton. They’ve done a long examination of the actions that led to the war. That’s fascinating for me because Larry Johnson was professionally involved for much of the period discussed so he knows where the bodies are buried that Scott Horton’s written about. But it’s at the very end (set to around 1hr 22) that they open up with what they hope will result from the Trump Presidency.

     Maybe a lot. Maybe the mixture as before. Me, I don’t know whether to be hopeful or not.

     Biden and the Europeans have done their best recently to box Trump in when it comes to stopping the carnage in Ukraine. Putin himself, as said to you recently TTG, is boxed in as well. He’s severely constrained by the peace conditions he set out in that speech to the Foreign Office officials. He’s further constrained by the expectations of his electorate. There’s not a lot of room there for him to give Trump any concessions. Demilitarisation and denazification were his terms at the start of the SMO and far from retreating from that, he’s added more.

     So unless Trump can work PR miracles it’s difficult to see him settling on the terms the Russians insist on. Maybe, therefore, there’s not going to be a settlement. Certainly not one on the lines Kellog suggested. Maybe this thing will grind on until the Russians reach the Polish border. Not what the Russians want and not what the Americans want.

     Is it unrealistic to see the solution lying in political change in Ukraine itself? Most Ukrainians bar the Black Sun types never wanted this war, are now heartily sick of it, and are only kept in line by increasingly repressive measures. I’ve been wondering for some time whether they might get rid of the puppet government we’ve installed in Ukraine and themselves strike out a deal with the Russians. The current Ukrainian administration is looking increasingly fragile and dissatisfaction with it becoming increasingly vociferous – sometimes from within the regime itself.

     There is increasing recognition within Ukraine that our direction of this war has been amateurish and destructive. From Zelensky down they now know that we pushed them into this war, insisted on the war continuing when it could have been settled on good terms early on, and then sold them out. That’s been clear to them at least since Vilnius. The “As long as it takes” promises of the early months have long since been reneged on but for all that we are, in real earnest, making them fight “to the last Ukrainian”.

     This is a war between Russian and the West. We’re not going to win it by Radakin type trickery. We’re not going to win it by assassination and sabotage missions into Russia. We’re not going to win it by getting the Americans to surge more weapons in because 1, the Americans are low on weapons stocks and 2, if they weren’t, there are no longer enough Ukrainian regulars left to make full use of them. And we Europeans are not going to get the Americans to send troops in because they haven’t got enough – and if they had it would go nuclear. That is the reality and all the talk won’t alter it.

     So Biden has left it to Trump to accept defeat and to try and dress up that defeat as a “settlement”. Time, maybe, for all to stop regarding our proxies as pawns without agency and let the Ukrainians themselves settle how they wish to end this war we’ve plunged them into. That’s a deal Trump could broker; and come out of it with an enhanced reputation as the man who dealt with the mess Biden left him.

     https://youtu.be/v7Y_POosGjs?t=4716
     • Jim. says:

       January 2, 2025 at 4:45 pm

       English Outsider..
       Good Write Up…I Agree with your Lay Out..Basically…Its All a Created Mess…Bloody Hell…and Un- necessary.;..
       ..
       Reality Is…Every One Needs a Negotiator..They all Do..They All Sent a SOS Signal for Peace..And We All Know..Right Now that
       POTUS ELECT..Will Be At the Head..of That Table…

       I Wish Them All Well..I Pray For Peace..Through Good Council..
       Jim
2. leith says:

   January 1, 2025 at 10:13 pm

   Hope y’all have a happy, blessed, and prosperous New Year.

   Nice pic.
3. LeaNder says:

   January 4, 2025 at 10:53 am

   I would like to join Leith, late but hopefully not too late, in wishing a Happy New Year to everyone around.

   Unfortunately for us non-US-patriots we will keep on living in very interesting times, since 9/11 really. But then Trump will be the last baby booming master of the universe & Commander in Chief of the US of A. 😇

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