What comes next?
This is a concept that the Russians seem to understand very well insofar as they cater to the mistakes of NATO and the Zelinski neo-Nazi regime—encouraging them to carry out "useless actions" such as last year's failed counteroffensive, the defense of Bakhmut, and now Chasov Yar. Maybe it is Putin’s understanding of the martial arts.
The West in general – and especially NATO-- are obsessed with territoriality. Property?
As I've said many times—their strategy in this war focuses on trying to take territory-- not that they have any right to Russian Ukraine—the four Oblasts and Odessa-- or Crimea. It is simply because they want property that doesn’t belong to them— like the Zionists in Palestine.
In their minds, acquisition of territory is power. Surrendering territory, even when indefensible, even when strategically useful, as the Russians did when they withdrew from Kharkov and in Kiev in 2022 is weakness. Military morons.
The Russians know that winning a war is not about taking territory— but about movement, position, and destroying the enemy-- persuading them to attack when there is no hope of winning. "Demilitarization" they call it.
That is what is happening now in Kharkov.
The Russians have fielded a relatively small force.
They may say it is to create a "buffer zone" – really, however, it is a trap.
Ukrainians cannot resist trying to retake the areas that the Russians have won – even though the Russians have all the tactical and strategic advantages and UAF forces will be slaughtered—at the same time their reserves exhausted and their combat ability in other areas weakened . Useless action indeed.
This kind of thing is what Musashi was talking about.
Right now, Ukrainians are losing 20 to 30,000 men a month. Conscription is regarded as a death sentence. There are rumors that even Ukrainian police and SBU people are trying to escape across the border to Poland. The writing is on the wall.
This week. Russians again carried out major airstrikes, hitting airfields, arms depots, mercenary centers, air defense systems-- and of course energy systems.
Ukrainian energy capacity has been reduced to by between 70 and 80% depending on who you talk to. It's going to be a very dark winter for the Ukraine-- that is, Western Ukraine. It will be warm in Donbas.
How much longer before Western Ukrainians see the light— in all senses of the phrase.
This is a senseless war-- a war of aggression by Western Ukraine against their Russian-speaking cousins in the South and East. Senseless and useless.
Upcoming special article
The concept of territoriality is explored in the special article that I am writing now which tries to explain the collapse of the Western world order and the rise of the multipolar world— with all that that these things imply— including a new period / age for the world.
Humanity was born in the Paleolithic Age.; It developed civilizations in the Neolithic Age. Next? This century is something else. What is it? What is coming?
Whatever it is— it will be a different age and a different world.
If you're interested in the special article, buy me a coffee. And I will add you to the mailing list.
A propos the compulsive acquisition of property, I am reminded of the old story about how some people used to catch monkeys. They put out special jars containing food the monkeys loved. Solid food, such as nuts or hard fruit. The monkey reaches into the jar, grabs a piece of fruit - but can't withdraw his hand as long as he is holding the food. A human (well, most humans outside Washington DC) would simply let go of the food, withdraw his hand, and think again. But the monkeys don't do that. They stay there until they are collected.
Lindsey Graham, a fine specimen of the kind of monkey that cannot let go, told the world what the Ukraine conflict is really about:
https://www.lewrockwell.com/2024/06/no_author/ukraine-is-a-gold-mine-us-senator/
First Ukraine's trillions, then Russia's! Because it all really belongs to Graham and his fellow plutocrats.
Rather than "multi-polar," I really like the apt description by Chas Freeman as a "multi-nodal" world--many interconnecting countries.