IF THE WORLD DOES NOT COME TOGETHER NOW, IT NEVER WILL

We are rapidly approaching an irrevocable split in the world between east and west. However, as you will know, this is not the only fracture point in our world. Nations, and groupings within nations, either of ethnicity, religion or belief are tending to disassociate from each other consistently emphasising differences rather than similarities.

It is fast becoming the ultimate tragedy within the long human story and appears ready to culminate in unending misery.

At its very best the human race showed solidarity one human to another worldwide, as the Scottish poet Robert Burns once wrote far back in 1795:

‘It’s coming yet for all that,

That Man to Man the world over

Shall brothers be for all that.’

We are so far from that reality now, arguably further than we have ever been as a species. We are clearly living through a crisis that has the potential to split the world in two forever, with two entirely separate evolutionary, governmental, cultural and social paths. Either this, bad as it is, or a global conflagration that might leave the survivors fighting to the death for extremely scarce resources, or, more positively, joining together to ensure common survival.

Perhaps this latter path could be taken now before it is too late? And I am sure we all know by now that the hour is very late indeed.

The United Nations succeeding The League of Nations was meant to be the guarantor of communal action, of exhaustive debate leading to agreement and the avoidance of war. In recent years the primary dominant power in the world, the USA began seeing its destiny as an agency acting directly, not communally, to safeguard its own interests. This has led to the loss of significance and efficacy of the United Nations and therefore an increasing incapacity to fulfil its function.

The USA now wages wars on a multiplicity of levels, financial, economic, social and via myriad avenues of influence. It and its allies use the United Nations not as a forum for achieving agreements but as an arena for accusation. This cannot but undermine and rend impotent the primary reasons why the United Nations was created and the hopes that lay behind its creation.

We face endless strife, division and disagreement without end, we face resource wars and more wars over security, borders and rights, within our societies we face culture wars, the battle for ascendancy of one view or belief system over others. We are fast losing sight of our common humanity.

Is it now totally impossible to roll all this back seeing the dark future we are fast approaching? Will we instead march forward with every national and individual army to the next battle and the next and the next until the whole world is at war?

This is the crossroads beyond which there may be no other. Only a roiling black mushroom cloud of our ultimate oblivion.

We must decide now before it is too late. Because if the world does not come together now, it never will.

THE WEST, DESPITE ITSELF, IS USHERING IN A MULTIPOLAR WORLD

 

Things could not have gone in a better direction with a more positive outlook for our common global outlook if they had been planned that way.

The political elites of the western world have managed to create a fast-evolving situation that is stripping them of the last vestiges of what were already fast-fading powers.

By driving Russia into a corner and leaving no way out but the one she eventually took, the West opened a Pandora’s Box of indignities, humiliations and economic horrors for itself. And in so doing set in train an ever-faster movement toward a multipolar world.

The nations of the global south are observing the last weak hurrah of western aggression in respect of its largely now impotent reliance on threat and military means to get its way. The days when its threats meant something and delivered the required fear to get its way have been seen to dissipate steadily in recent years.

The debacle in Afghanistan and the continuing disasters in Libya, Iraq and Syria have been more than enough to prove to the nations of the global south that they must find new exemplars of good governance. The self-seeking belligerence of the West will no longer manage to maintain others in situations vulnerable to its commands.

Ukraine has been the final straw for nations that previously accepted the yoke of western dominance. More and more we see this yoke being thrown off by nations determining to become free to choose partners rather than predators.

In recent years some of these nations stood up to what has been until recently the global cop, the USA. Cuba has been one of the bravest of these. Venezuela also. These nations show no sign of returning to acceptance of the western yoke. It now lies abandoned, thrown off by a steadily growing number of proud, sovereign nations.

China has long presented a far more equitable and sanely-based policy in regard to partner nations. No threats. No onerous demands. Only win-win solutions where cooperation, investment and mutually beneficial resource-sharing occurs, quite irrespective of the mode of governance involved.

There is no sign whatsoever that China wishes to take the place of the global ogre, the USA. The era of domination from above is ending. The effectiveness of the previous modus operandi of the West, the arm-twisting, bribery and threat-based command structure is weakening now almost by the day.

In recent times another great nation of the global south, India has stepped away from being unaligned and has embraced a renewed and strengthened relationship with Russia. This relationship is destined to grow stronger and stronger as there is now no reason to be intimidated by a USA rapidly diminishing in its reach and influence.

Russia too continues to mirror the same attitudes as its Chinese partners in displaying tolerance for a diversity of political and ideological systems of governance, primarily interested in increasing the economic prosperity of all through trading relations exemplified by high levels of mutual respect and co-operation. All very much in contrast with the strong arm tactics of the West so despised, secretly or openly for so long now.

In Latin America more and more nations are rejecting the extremists who the USA prefer in power. A renewed ‘Pink Tide’ is on its way. In Europe too I predict we will see enormous political changes before too long. Macron in France is on shaky ground as are Scholz and his idiot colleagues. The geopolitical tectonic plates are shifting… and not in the West’s direction.

In addition to all of the above we have now have a quite remarkable number of nations desiring to become members of the BRICS group. If nothing else shows the way the western powers, the USA, UK and EU have been diminished in stature, reputation, power and influence this fact does.

And, in recent days we have seen China step in an broker a peace deal between what have been two deadly enemies in the Middle East, Saudi Arabia and Iran. The shock wave is rippling across the centres of power in the West from this game-changing accomplishment. It is yet one more sign of the rise in influence of the Chinese and the corresponding failing influence of the West.

The level of mindless incompetence across the western world then, has been immense. This combined with the constant self-admiring, self-interested ego full desire to remain in power no matter the consequences for the populations of their countries. Together these factors have produced a disaster now unfolding which cannot help but bring these cretinous politicians crashing down as their citizens rise to eliminate the source of their woes.

And oh the irony. Like a fly caught in a spider’s intricate web, every movement the western powers make only gets them stuck ever more completely within a web where all exit routes produce conditions worse than those encountered before. This because those exit routes would require an admission of failure and inevitable disaster for every political reputation involved. So the status quo of interminable and unavoidable disaster continues to see deterioration within the most fundamental structures that made up the previously powerful West.

The western powers are condemned to inflict all this on themselves. Quite fitting wouldn’t you say for those who lived by exploitation, belligerent threats and the ever-present promise of violence? It is all now coming back to hit them squarely in the face, further diminishing them and their reputation.

”Goodbye to all that”, just about sums up the attitude of the community of nations in the global south regarding the fading power of the West. And, well met to those nations now known to offer friendship without strings, an honest handshake, and a vision of a multipolar world that provides trustworthy partners along with a sustainable peace that cannot help but gladden every heart.

IS THE WHOLE WORLD BEING THROWN UNDER A BUS BY JOE BIDEN?

Does Joe Biden care about anything except those things he perceives as the national interests of the USA?

It would appear not.

Reckless doesn’t quite cover his recent actions he took in concert with his brothers and sisters in sanctions across in Europe. Making as big an economic mess as possible seems to be the name of the game of Russian Roulette Biden is playing currently.

All those playing this dangerous and potentially fatal game in the last chance saloon are tagging along as they have done for decades now, indeed since the end of world war two. I wonder if they’d still tag along after Biden drags them into world war three? Will one or two make for those swinging doors before the shoot out begins? I wonder.

Biden has set an economic chain reaction going with his latest throw of the dice, to encourage ending Russian gas supplies. Who knows, Putin may agree to this request sooner than expected. He needs the European and North American markets right now like he needs a hole in the head such as one of the Ukrainian peace negotiators to intent on achieving that goal did.

The sanctions upon Russia have had the effect of sending the nations of the collective west into a tailspin. Russia on the other hand has just announced that it is doing better than ever economically. It appears that everything the western leaders do has had the opposite effect than that intended over the past 12 months.

Biden is of course a political thug of the old school, much used to being abrasive and creating policies that divided the USA rather than unite it. In his latest endeavours to continue pushing Russia into a corner in similar manner to his predecessors he has managed to put a bomb under Europe’s economic future as well as, in due course, under that of his own nation.

Is anybody in the West at all concerned about this? Has the economic blast that is still with them from Covid made them all punch-drunk and maniacally and wholly irresponsible, full of the glee of insanity… ready to throw whatever babies are necessary out with the bathwater? What gives. Anyone know?

What could be the overarching imperative issue that makes the possible ruination of our entire world “worth it”?

Retention of the level of global domination, power and influence over the planet that it now still has to an ever-lessening degree? The desire to keep the shekels rolling in that all that influence gains you when you are the big cheese, top dog and ones with constant pole position? The recognition, long held, that unless something is done China is going to get too big to compete against, manipulate or eliminate? The overwhelming need to destroy any and all elements that might someday merge to make a recurrence of 9/11 possible?

All of the above and more maybe?

When you are exceptional, superior to all others, keep telling yourself so and a huge proportion of your in-house mythology, legacy, status, income, self-view and the jollies you get from being powerful… could all disappear, eclipsed by those “Commies” might you indeed be capable of almost ANYTHING?

Even throwing the whole world under a bus in your absolute, desperate need to remain right where you feel it’s your inalienable right to be, the world’s police, judge, jury and executioner all rolled up into one?

UKRAINE: THE ZELENSKY LINE HAS BEEN A VERY HARD NUT TO CRACK

That’s what it has been named, ‘The Zelensky Line’. It runs from Siversk in the north down through Soledar to Bakhmut and south then to the heaviest Ukrainian defenses of all, opposite Donetsk City.

The so-called Zelensky Line consists of a mass scar of trenches over a thousand kilometers long that from the air appear as myriad zig-zag stitches dug into the land, a modern mirror image of World War I battlefields.

Dugouts buried deep below the surface provide multiple places of refuge when the Russian military bombard with up to 6,500 missile attacks per day. In and around all this are solidly built buildings and bunkers that can stand huge punishment as they consist of reinforced concrete, the most common construction material in the time of the Soviet Union.

All along this line, built continuously over the eight years since the Russian-speaking Donbass rose up against the collapse of democracy in Ukraine that came with the insurrection on Kiev’s Maidan Square, heavily armed troops in huge number stand ready to repel the Russian military. Provided with training over this period and some of the most modern weaponry available the Ukrainian military had a huge initial advantage and even now, after over 12 months of conflict they still put up a fight.

However, the Zelensky Line is now showing distinct signs of buckling. Opposite Donetsk City where Ukrainian artillery daily shell the civilian population of the city the Russian military has recently punched a hole in the line at Pisky and is now threatening to surround Avdeevka. Further south still Marinka is also in the process of being liberated.

The tactics of the Russian forces are to pummel all along the line with incessant multiple missile strikes for as long as it takes to decimate the majority of resistance before moving forward to occupy the freed-up territory, mopping up any remaining resistance and position their artillery for the barrage of the next target. This is an inexorable process of incrementally grinding down the vast barriers that run all along the border of the region known as ‘The Donbass’.

The Russian Meat Grinder as it has come to be known is incessantly eating into the rock-solid defences it is encountering while its long distance missiles hit a variety of targets all across Ukraine. Fuel and ammunition dumps, barracks, factories, supply lines and train depots/control centres and much else. Fire control is established over road after road denying the Ukrainian military reinforcement or resupply.

Every once in a while activity picks up and rather than a kilometer or two’s progress Russia’s military moves quickly to take towns and large swathes of land surrounding them. All movements across the 2,000 kilometer long battle line coordinated in ever-evolving strategies, the most frequent being the creation of cauldrons. A cauldron is formed when a town or city is surrounded on several sides with all access roads and train lines under fire control. At this point all hopes of defending such a town or city are lost.

Most of the time however, a slow, grinding war of attrition is being fought with the vast preponderance of gains being made by the Russian military with sporadic gains by the Ukrainians which more often than not are of a very temporary nature and can even indicate a withdrawal by the Russians to lead their enemies into a trap where they are swiftly dealt with.

It is a bloody business where mass carnage is commonplace, this has been especially so in the latest period of the conflict stretching back around a week from the writing of this commentary. Ukraine has been losing a great many troops on a daily basis. The average is surely running at more than four hundred per day currently and the injured many times this number.

The Ukrainian authorities have recently raised the call-up age to seventy. This fact alone speaks volumes for the attrition rate among its troops. Every able-bodied man appears to be at risk of being frog-marched immediately into the military. If they are lucky they may get a few weeks training. Most of the NATO-trained troops have been eliminated, either killed or rendered incapable now of combat. Those who take their place can surely be little more than cannon-fodder sent to face Russian troops given regular rest and recuperation behind Russian lines, rotated every couple of weeks.

Bakhmut is falling as you read this. It is only a matter of time now until it has been cleared of Ukrainian troops. The only remaining question is how many of them will run away, how many will surrender and how many will die.

Just as soon as the Zelensky Line collapses once and for all, a nut finally cracked by the relentless and utterly inexorable pressure exerted by the combined forces of the Russian military.

And then…?

And then we reach the final phases of Russia’s campaign, the taking of Kramatorsk and Slavyansk, the last stands of Ukrainian forces in the Donbass… leaving the road clear all the way to the Dnieper River… and beyond.

WESTERN WAR MODE MYOPIA & THE IMMINENT REVELATION OF MASSIVE INCOMPETENCE

Very soon there will be widespread incomprehension and disbelief combined as the situation in Ukraine proves to have a very different face to it than western audiences have been told.

A general ‘war mode’ mentality has prevailed in the West for many years now, in fact for almost two entire decades and the object of the distortion that war mode always entails has been Russia and its president.

This war mode mentality was running at a relatively low level during this time by comparison with what we have seen across the western world since Russia began its operation in Ukraine on the 24th of February 2022. Since then it has been all-consuming.

Those who continued to take it for granted that their mainstream news services were giving them a factual account of events in Ukraine are those who will experience the maximum disbelief and incomprehension within the next few weeks.

War mode, for those who are unfamiliar with the term, requires of all elites within a country at war, and indeed from most members of the public also (though this is not as possible now as in the past) a dedication to communicating only positive news about the nation or its allies and only negativity or no comment at all concerning the actions of the enemy.

Thus the fiction has been manufactured and sold about plucky little Ukraine that never did anything to anyone and its wonderfully brave soldiers, courageously and charismatically led by a noble and selfless president. No mention of the true reality where a violent insurrection brought a succession of illegal president and governments to Ukraine and that its troops commit war crimes including torture and murder of prisoners of war.

Western populations have been sold yet another pack of lies and amazingly, most have fallen for them. After all the waterfalls of lies that went before these the gullibility of western populations remains undiminished. This leaves out an enormous part of the picture of events in Ukraine while delivering a patently false picture of present realities and of future likelihoods.

The situation in Ukraine is in fact not good at all for the forces that Kiev commands. Things are not going well and have not been going well since the start apart from a few minor and isolated incidents which have played little role at the time or in the final outcome.

Russia will have ejected, killed or captured all Ukrainian troops within the Donbass no later that a point three months from today. With developments underway where Ukrainian troops are beginning to surrender in ever greater numbers and the most defensible city, Bakhmut will be fully under Russian control within the next two weeks at the most, the end is clearly near.

The remaining cities to be taken by Russia in the Donbass are not nearly as defensible as was Bakhmut. Kramatorsk and Slavyansk will fall in much easier fashion in the following months.

There are rumours of great discontent regarding a number of factors within the Ukrainian high command which if true appear certain to grow. More elderly men and young boys are being marshalled into the Ukrainian military and sent to the front lines as cannon fodder with precious little training. Desperation appears to be growing as the interference of Zelensky and those around him with military affairs is rumoured to be disturbing their military commanders and indeed causing losses through inept and incompetent decisions.

Meanwhile, instead of telling western audiences about any of this and most importantly the likely fall of the entire Donbass region its mass media falls largely silent. This is at least better that the previous war mode policy which to be frank about it was little more than baseless propaganda and wishful thinking.

It appears, though this is only rumoured currently, that the advice on tactics being given by the USA and UK to the Ukrainian military command, has been extremely poor with flawed understanding of the Russian tactics of war.

Rather than plucky Ukraine going from victory to victory as portrayed in every mainstream rifle and TV network across the West it has gone from one loss to another in recent months and is now facing total defeat, partially as a result of Russian military professionalism and partly through the gross incompetence of its leadership and allies.

The resulting failure of the West’s latest coup and crime policy will have a humiliating effect for those responsible. But will that deter them? If the past is anything to go by it will not. Look at the long list of regime change failures they have already perpetrated. Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria. The consequences of these disastrous bouts of violent death and destruction mark them out as abject failures even if they did decapitate the governments they targeted.

Consequent to all of the above the leaders of Eurasia and the Global South have had enough. It is clear who the primary belligerent is on this planet. It is easily identified as the collective west. And now at last there is enough power residing within those opposing it to do something about these criminals and to stop their fomenting of coups and committing of crimes. Progressively and collectively those nations now gathering their collective power within organisations such as BRICS will gradually isolate the malign and self-seeking powers of the West and ultimately quarantine them for good and all.

RUSSIA MUST BEWARE THE TOTALLY UNSCRUPULOUS NATURE OF THE WEST

Things appear to be going very much in Russia’s favour currently in the war to liberate the Donbass region of what was once Ukraine. But there is no room for complacency and it is to be hoped that the Russian military high command is alert to all near-future possibilities. The Nazi-supporting leaders of the collective west could well have a few cards up their sleeve as they say, and as they grow more desperate due to Russian gains they are bound to grow ever more dangerous, not to say reckless.

With its large flotilla of satellites, able to spot Russian positions with pinpoint accuracy, directing the Ukrainian Nazi forces to strike where most Russians, command posts or arms warehouses are located, and with GPS-positioned missile facilities to hand, we may yet see a last gasp attack of significant proportions. It is not beyond the realms of possibility that in their recklessness and frustration that limited nuclear strikes may be used as the end of western hopes draws near.

The callous cynicism and devious nature of western political elites is well known, as are these attributes within their intelligence agencies, the CIA and MI6 in particular. These latter agencies have been hard at work throughout Russia’s engagement. Their lack of any moral or ethical compunction and use of the deadliest of means, encompassing every noxious activity known to man, is no secret even though most of the assassinations, creation of plots and coups along with counterfeit documents and “news” articles generally are.

The CIA and MI6, in close coordination with all western news media have successfully dumbed their target populations down. The campaign has been an enormous success and in no small part due to the ubiquitous nature of the partial narrative that all from academics to historians to news anchors to the predictable politicians have all parrotted. The populations of the USA, UK and the greater part of Europe have been completely saturated in believable lies and the fantasy of ‘innocent Ukraine’ and the ‘unprovoked’ attack upon it.

The reality on the ground however, is of course what matters most. All of Zelensky’s photoshoots and PR-boosting theatrics will all be lost and forgotten before long, all of no consequence as Russia continues to grind down all resistance to its campaign of liberation and neutralising of all threats via NATO in Ukraine to the Russian homeland. In places like Soledar, Lysychansk, Severodonetsk and Bakhmut we see the reality rather than the fantasy of Zelensky’s empty words.

But as the leaders of the collective west see their humiliation arriving faster with each passing day this is when their frustration with merge with a reckless abandonment of both principle and any thought of future consequences. This is when the dying animal that is the patrician dictatorship of the West arrives at its most dangerous state, liable to lash out in fury and the consequences be damned. The power-junkies of the collective west will not give up their fix without the mother of all fights.

It is in this time therefore that all those who have any responsibility within Russia’s present operation focus with extreme clarity and in as all-encompassing fashion. Every option for use in all circumstances must be rehearsed in exquisite detail. Every U.S. satellite must be located precisely and targeted for destruction if the need becomes an urgent necessity. Every NATO installation in Kiev and elsewhere in Ukraine must be monitored around the clock.Every U.S.,British, Polish, Hungarian, or any other foreign national mercenary or sheep dipped soldier must be precisely located wherever possible. All airports and train depots where western weaponry or munitions have their arrival must have their movements watched 24/7. In addition to the above, all government buildings and bunkers across the western world must have their locations watched also.

If the West strikes hard and suddenly in a last gasp attempt to stop the victory that Russia has fought so hard to gain and so truly deserves then, with all of the above locations precisely identified  the Russian military can unleash a devastating response if need be. Russia will then be responding to this final act of aggression as she has done since 2014 and before, in a proportionate fashion. At no point along the route from 2014 to the present day has Russia initiated any act of aggression. Every act authorised by Vladimir Putin or the Russian leadership has only been in response to aggression arriving from across the collective west and their agents in Ukraine.

Russia may not have started this conflict, that began in the winter of 2013-14. But Russia will surely finish it. 

CHINA EMERGES ON THE GLOBAL STAGE TO EURASIAN APPLAUSE

 

Major changes are afoot across the globe. The geopolitical glaces plates are shifting and before long will shake our world to its core. What could be behind the clear decision of China to rally its forces and choose to draw close to its allies. What possible impetus is causing the coalescing of world powers we see emerging in the east?

I don't think it will take you many guesses to arrive upon the correct answer. How many nations are there in the world that could make China feel threatened enough to reach out in order to strengthen its response to attack? I am sure you need no further clues regarding where all the outright aggression has come from over these last several decades.

The United States, along with its allies in the so-called 'Coalition of the Willing' has been virtually the only major source of instigated death and destruction and interference in sovereign nations far from its own shores. It is in the united States now that we hear the rhetoric about the "Threat of China" and the need to "Contain China", along with the labelling of China as an "adversary". And where do we find China exhibiting this great threat they talk of? Precisely nowhere. certainly nowhere near the USA or its allies.

China, instead has been building a trading network called the 'Belt and Road Initiative' (BRI) which will be the most impressive system of transportation since the days of the Silk Road. China has been engaging in creating ever-improving relations with a host of nations across what used to be called 'The Developing World' and are now more often called the nations of 'The Global South'. This is dangerous only in the sense that western self-interest, ability to reap big profits through exploitation and continuing influence across these regions will diminish.

But China a military threat, an adversary requiring containment? No.

The neocons and mindless affluent liberals of the western world and beyond will point to Taiwan as the reason China should be considered a threat. But look closely at the situation between China and Taiwan and examine the facts. Until the USA began to heighten tensions with China regarding Taiwan the situation had been stable. Yes, China seeks unification... but the goal was to achieve this slowly and crucially, peacefully, sometime around 2045. It was not China that sought controversy and tension over Taiwan, it was the USA and its allies who sought them. With what purpose?

The purpose appears to have much in common with the purpose these same states had in ensuring that Russia was in a perpetual state of consternation regarding NATO and specifically of its next-door-neighbour Ukraine joining NATO along with another neighbour, Georgia. Russia was kept in a perpetual state of pressurised anxiety primarily by the USA and its European allies. The goal was very clearly to push Russia to breaking point and instigate whatever pressures it could internally to make internal chaos manifest itself with a view to regime change.

This tactic of the USA and its allies is playing itself out in Ukraine at this very moment and things are,  fairly clearly not going according to plan. However, the western powers are still placing their bets and doubling down. For how long they can sustain the level of their bets is unclear. But what is very clear is that they have no Plan B, no alternative route to their goal, to weaken Russia and take it out of the league of great powers.

The tactic against China, though with its own specific nuances and issues, is pretty much from the same playbook, apply pressure relentlessly until something breaks. As the pressure applied to Russia finally resulted in the desired outcome (the invasion of Ukraine) so these same powers are seeking to achieve this outcome regarding China and Taiwan. The western political elites care nothing for the Taiwanese themselves just as they care nothing for the Ukrainians. This is great power politics in action, nothing more.

In the interval between 2014 when the USA and EU instigated the coup in Ukraine's capital and February 2022 when the Russian military crossed the Ukrainian border both sides prepared their forces. In eastern Ukraine the West created a NATO-style military force poised to entice Russia to attack. In this period also Russia strengthened its economic and financial infrastructure to withstand the sanctions that were bound eventually to come. The strength of the Russian economy can now be seen to have withstood almost every attack upon it. Though the western coalition still continue to double down hoping against hope to find an as yet undiscovered vulnerability.

Now we see China preparing for a similar economic and financial onslaught. China is steadily disposing of her U.S. dollars having seen how willing the western powers were and still are to steal those dollars Russians had invested in the West. China is steadily building her relationships with those around her and building too her military might. However, most impressive is how those under threat from the USA and the collective west in general are growing ever closer in the face of the western threat.

The true threat is indeed from a western world that is on a long decline from its glory days when it was top dog, able to get its way by a variety of means including a variety of threats along with various bribes. Those power-junkies who created a matrix of self-interest across the world through that power are fast losing their fix. The emergence of powerful economies in nations far from U.S., UK or European borders has provided a strong reason for these power and cash junkies to see them as a threat. No one likes to lose their status, power and ability to influence others and western powers are no different.

It has become clear to the Chinese therefore that along with Russia and a host of other less powerful nations they are top of the list for targeting now and, as seen by those targeting her, sooner rather than later. You might think Russia in Ukraine was enough for the neocons but this would underestimate their ability to think logically and in something approaching a reasoned manner. If you think this then you are not crediting them with the right stereotype designation. These are zealots, akin to cult members. They have no chink in their impermeable belief bubble that might let in some possible Plan B. For them it is all or nothing, global dominance or Armageddon.

Some, perhaps most of these people, those such as Mike Pompeo of recent memory, are born again Christians of an extremely fervent stripe. Pompeo is a fanatical believer in 'The Rapture', a state of transference in bodily form to the heavenly realms once Christ returns post the apocalypse. Such people see our world as a transient and almost insignificant physical reality that will be wiped away when the Holy Father arrives to lead them all in an ascent to the heavenly domain. A little chaos here and there to generate the conditions required by prophesy doesn't phase them at all, in fact, this is exactly what they seek.

Risking 'bringing on' an 'End Game' while telling themselves they have the best of all motivations in the intention to bring 'freedom' and 'democracy' to the world appears to them to be a completely 'win win' situation. If the world is devastated in a nuclear war this hastens Jesus down to trigger 'The Rapture'. If Armageddon doesn't come about well, they will bring about the end of all forms of government that don't suit them... if they just keep applying the pressures that instigate chaos within their chosen targets and never stop doubling down.

But, you could say, belatedly, China has opened her eyes wide and has understood the danger she is in. And for all the reasons mentioned above... but also because she is not only the main peer competitor to the USA, but also because she is not Christian. And you will find that the neocons still think of Russia as communist too in their heavily blinkered and fixed mentality. Add in Iran, Syria, Cuba, Venezuela, Bolivia and a few others and I think you will get the picture.

China and Russia are now closer allies than ever before. Now Belarus adds another link in a strengthening chain. In addition, around twenty nations appear ready to join the BRICS trading network (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa). Iran is quite far along the path to joining, Egypt and many others are on the way. The nations of Eurasia and the Global South now have an alternative source of assistance that can stave off the need to cower in front to the western powers. There are new kids on the block that are muscular enough to face down the malignant bullies who have threatened them till now.

China is stepping out of the shadows, emerging from the wings and walking confidently onto the global stage and taking her rightful, and crucial place, right at its centre. And the world will never be quite the same ever again.