Orwellian Clichés & War As Peace

Who has an interest in conflict?

• Trump says receives letter from Zelenskiy saying he's ready to negotiate

• A day after warning that U.S. would cut off all aid to Ukraine

• European to supply more military aid - with or without a peace deal

• EU plans €150 billion ($158 billion) bond issue to boost defence spending

• Russia says U.S. must lift sanctions if it wants to normalise relations

• Is Europe planning a repeat of the Minsk Accords - buying time for Ukraine

• Disregard for democracy, lack of transparency, raises flag over Starmer summit

• Western governments have every reason to want to control the crime scene

• Ukraine makes Graham Greene's postwar Vienna of The Third Man look genteel

Related:
Anthem For Doomed Youth - On Remembrance Day voices call to us from a century ago (Nov 11, 2021)
Mercenary Leader Disappears In Plane Explosion - Wagner Group Yevgeniy Prigozhin's phone is found; not yet his body (Aug 24, 2023)
Biden On Payroll Of Ukraine’s Oligarchs - Deep state compromised; escalation of war likely their only option (Jun 13, 2023)
War & Peace - Ukraine Talks; Dresden's Anniversary - Eurasia note #106 - On the normalisation of brutality (Feb 13, 2025)

(2,000 words or about 10 minutes of your company.)

Democrats protest Trump’s address to both houses of Congress

Mar 5, 2025

The address to Congress gives hope that a saner captain is piloting the ship away from the iceberg of war, though it still feels like we're aboard the Titanic.

True to Orwell’s dictum, the ignorance is strength crowd were out in force… Perhaps taking their cue from Danish prime minister Mette Frederiksen who a few days back said peace could be more dangerous than war.

The alarum from the European Commission's foreign affairs chief Kaja Kallas is that Putin won't stop until he reaches the Baltic and/or the Atlantic and a modern-day Paul Revere shouts, "The Russians are coming."

It seems only yesterday they told us Ukraine was winning.

Times Radio, Mar 4, 2025 - Russia on its knees. Putin's capabilities are suffering, Ukraine can still win

Both narratives — Ukraine is a stone's throw from victory; Russia's about to invade the West — support the argument for continuing the war.

President Donald Trump's address to a joint session of Congress was largely a rallying call, interspersed with policy announcements: reciprocal tariffs begin on April 2; subsidies for shipbuilding; the return of the chip sector; a wake for Woke.

He put the spat with Ukraine's leader Volodymyr Zelenskiy behind him: the talk is once more of peace.

There are reports that Britain's prime minister Keir Starmer and French president Emmanuel Macron are heading back to Washington with Zelenskiy in tow.

“This is not a moment for more talk. It's time to act,” said Starmer after hosting counterparts this week.

Britain’s Starmer hosted pro-war leaders in London.

Rarely in the field of human conflict was so little revealed about a matter of such import for so many.

What hints did we glean from the gathering in the belly of the Sphinx? Leaders did not provide details of their plan, reports Reuters.

Nor were these simply European leaders as the media reported. Turkey’s foreign minister attended and Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau was there — whose cabinet Klaus Schwab of the World Economic Forum boasted of having “penetrated.” In other words we are talking not European but global(ist).

They intend to supply more military aid to Ukraine, with or without a peace deal. Starmer went on to say, “The UK are prepared to back this with boots on the ground and planes in the air.”

He suggested the U.S. guarantee the safety of British and French troops in Ukraine, the idea bing that Europe will pay for its own defence if the U.S. stands behind Ukraine in any deal with Russia.

Rearming Europe is one objective, but continued confrontation with Russia seems to be another.

“After a long time of underinvestment, it is now of utmost importance to step up the defence investment for a prolonged period of time,” EC president Ursula von der Leyen told reporters.

She said the EC would bust its budgetary norms and loosen its financial girdle to let countries borrow more for weapons development.

With more debt, less energy and a shrinking industrial base it is not clear how that will work. For all the talk of Europe re-arming, there seems to be little urgency.

Prolonging war

How do we know so little about where war is headed, after three years of NATO confrontation with Russia in Ukraine?

Historical perspective can offer some guidelines and they're not cheerful. One might assume that everyone wants to stop war — why wouldn't they?

In the book Hidden History: The Secret Origins of the First World War (2013) Gerry Docherty and James MacGregor described how bankers secretly prolonged WWI by supplying both sides. [1]

In 1954, Norman Dodd, chief investigator of the Reece Committee, reported that the Carnegie Endowment trustees intended to involve the U.S. in WW1 and to make sure that the conflict did not end too soon. [2]

See Anthem For Doomed Youth - On Remembrance Day voices call to us from a century ago (Nov 11, 2021)

History is like an outdoor latrine. You hold your nose when you enter, and you don't want to get to the bottom.

The Erfurt latrine disaster of 1183 shows even well-meaning peace talks can end up in the toilet.

The floor gave way as nobles gathered in Erfurt, sending dozens to an end most foul.

Who is keeping the Ukraine war going?