By Wayne Allensworth
After observing with some amusement—and a great deal of frustration—the Internet blathering about Tucker Carlson’s interview with Vladimir Putin, I decided to do a brief question/answer piece on the Russia-Ukraine imbroglio and what it means for us, the American Remnant. I couldn’t come close to covering every point, but I have posted a number of articles on this website on the war that can help with the background to this piece. Use the search bar to find them.
Before I proceed, a couple of points need to be made with the utmost urgency. First, our people are not required to have an opinion about every conflict, every world leader, every ethnic clash, or every country in the world. Most people do not have a right to have an opinion about such questions anyway, as they know next to nothing about them. The Mainstream Media manufactures crises and creates enemies for hate campaigns, while tossing nuance and common sense to the winds in anointing its heroes. That in itself is a pretty good argument for minding our own business. How the hell am I supposed to keep up with what is happening in, say, Yemen, and why should I care? I can assure readers, after well over 30 years working as an analyst and area expert on Russia in the “Intelligence Community,” that few, if any, of the blowhards in our ruling class knows or understands much about, say, Yemen.
Pressure groups and globalist ideology drive US interventions abroad. The globalist Blob sees anything outside its control as a threat, the Israeli lobby will usually get what it wants, and the Deep State and war industry need enemies. Second, our struggle is here. The fate of the American Remnant is being decided at the Southern border. We should not allow ourselves to be distracted by the crisis of the moment. Ukraine had practically slipped out of view, replaced by another crisis, this time in the Middle East, until Carlson’s interview with Putin. That doesn’t mean we — the American Remnant — don’t have an interest in what happens, but only as a matter of putting the conflict in perspective and focusing on the internal battle here.
Questions and answers…
Was Putin’s lengthy historical discourse (on Russian/Ukrainian history and related issues) in the Carlson interview accurate?
Let the Eastern Slavs fighting among themselves figure that out. It is immaterial as far as our interests are concerned. Putin’s remarks about the events of 2014/2015 — and I think, as he said, that the war started then, not in 2022 — were not off the mark in my view. The “Maidan” street revolution was a coup aided and encouraged by the United States against a government it had recognized as legitimate. It was a provocative act in a zone of vital Russian security interests. The Russian reaction to what followed, including protecting its Black Sea naval base in Crimea, which is as Russian as Yekaterinburg, was entirely predictable. Any great power would have reacted in a similar situation. The United States has intervened with far less provocation in lands far more distant from its shores. Whether one loves or hates Russia and Putin has no bearing on the issue.
Can Ukraine win this war?
No. But there would likely have not been any war if the Western powers had negotiated with Moscow regarding its security concerns, including talk of Ukraine joining NATO, prior to the Russian invasion. In 1990, James Baker, George H.W. Bush’s Secretary of State, promised Mikhail Gorbachev NATO would not expand eastward, and similar assurances were relayed by other Western officials. NATO expansion was and is viewed as an ominous and provocative step in Moscow. The current war could have ended in 2022, when a settlement was apparently within reach during talks in Istanbul. The West, in the guise of then British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, bluntly told the Ukrainians there would be no settlement. The globalist Blob wanted war, encouraged by its fantasies about the alleged instability of the Russian political and economic system. The US reportedly rejected a Russian ceasefire proposal in January, saying it would not negotiate without Ukrainian participation. Putin understandably believes that it is the West, especially the US, not Ukraine, who ultimately controls the outcome of any peace talks.
How will it end?
I don’t know, of course, but the Russians have the upper hand and will likely achieve the goal of defending the Russian-speaking Donbas by territorial expansion, creating a defensive buffer zone of some sort. Will they try to take Kharkov? Odessa? Maybe. We have no vital interests in Ukraine, but the American Remnant does have a vital interest in preventing the expansion of the conflict to include NATO and a potential nuclear exchange.
Doesn’t Ukraine have a right to self-determination?
Of course, but what does one mean by “Ukraine?” Does the Donbas have a right to self-determination? Both Moscow and the people of that region were prepared for the Donbas to remain within the Ukrainian state, but with protections and guarantees for the Russian speakers there. Since then, Kiev has moved to ban the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (affiliated with the Moscow Patriarchate) and restrict the use of the Russian language. There’s more, but you get the idea. The Ukrainian state does not see the people of the Donbas as fully Ukrainian. I’d say that prior to the war, most people there held an Eastern Slav identity, viewing Ukrainians and Russians as fraternal peoples. Many of them had relatives in Russia.
But war has a way of forging and clarifying identities. Kiev has foolishly acted with hostility against their—and its own, in my view—interests. One of Ukraine President Voldomyr Zelensky’s own advisors warned that alienating the people of the region was a terrible mistake. This would not be any of our concern if the question of self-determination had not been used as a justification for sending billions down the Ukrainian rathole in a futile effort to “bleed” Russia and overthrow Putin.
This is another example of Washington’s arrogance and hubris getting ahead of its capabilities and ignoring American national interests. Who rules Crimea or who sits in the Kremlin is really none of our affair, and we have no reason to make Russia a mortal enemy. As far as Ukraine joining NATO, it is entirely understandable that many Ukrainians want the protection of the NATO umbrella, but that issue is what set this crisis in motion in the first place. Sometimes, the patriotic thing to do is to face some stark realities and accommodate them. Ukraine as a neutral state with economic ties to both Russia and the European Union would have been a prudent approach. Again, normally what any one state chooses to do to enhance its security would not be our concern, but in this case NATO expansion threatens the conflagration I mentioned above.
Will Washington negotiate a settlement to end the war? I doubt that will happen, at least in the near future. Victoria Nuland, undersecretary of state for political affairs, was in Kiev recently. What she and other anti-Russian fanatics want is to buy time and continue the war.
Where are the vital interests of the American Remnant, geopolitically speaking?
Right here at home. What China does regarding Taiwan or the situation in Ukraine or the Israeli-Palestinian conflict have no bearing on our interest in saving ourselves and preserving a space for ourselves and our posterity to live as we see fit.
As stated earlier, we have a vital interest in avoiding more wars and a nuclear exchange. The Blob and its minions have wasted the lives of too many of our young people on their ideological campaigns to manage the entire world.
Chronicles contributor Wayne Allensworth is the author of The Russian Question: Nationalism, Modernization, and Post-Communist Russia, and a novel, Field of Blood.
Excellent, Wayne!
Would you also have any insight into what is the driving force behind nearly all Democrats and most Republicans in Congress fully supporting billions of dollars and now billions more in aid for Ukraine. Is this something beyond the putative geopolitical strategy of containing Russia? More to do with defense contractors and lobbyists and big donors all profiting from the war and a good chunk of that money finding its way through various means into the pockets of Congressmen? More to do with gas and oil leases in Ukraine? “War’s a racket” said Marine general and MOH recipient Smedley Butler. Worst of all, though, only a minority in Congress seem more concerned about defending our own borders than those of Ukraine. I suppose I’m not cynical enough because allowing millions of foreign migrants to cross our southern border every year boggles my mind. Contrast that with our reaction to Pancho Villa’s raid on Columbus, New Mexico. Is this all a matter of–in the words of Ross Perot–follow the money? God help us.
That’s part of it, Roger, but not all of it. Don’t underestimate the hold of globalist ideology on the creatures in our “elite.” It’s important. As I wrote in the piece: “Pressure groups and globalist ideology drive US interventions abroad. The globalist Blob sees anything outside its control as a threat, the Israeli lobby will usually get what it wants, and the Deep State and war industry need enemies.”
And in an earlier article: https://www.american-remnant.com/the-dogs-of-war/
“Nevertheless, we should not mistake their motives for mere cynicism. They love power, of course, and wealth, and influence, but there is more at play here. Modernity and its evil spawn, postmodernism, strip life of meaning and purpose. Everyone needs some kind of faith, something bigger than oneself, if one is to avoid succumbing to nihilism. Globalism is a religion, a faith. People who have built their lives and careers within the machine find it very difficult to give it up, for that would leave them in an existential vacuum. Some convince themselves by conflating the globalist mission with patriotism, with a sense of mission. It becomes very difficult to unwind all the strands. Where does ideology end and self-interest begin? How does passion for the Game interact with the faith? It’s an onion with many layers, each a translucent skin.”