Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity. - Wm. B. Yeats, 1919
Friends,
I think it fascinating that our Western news media have only quoted or cited a portion of the speech that Vladimir Putin gave yesterday (October 3) on the accession of four historically and heavily ethnic Russian regions back into Russia (which were arbitrarily assigned to Ukraine back in the 1920s and, Crimea, in 1954). Obviously, our media--including notoriously Fox News in its news reporting--is fixated on Russia's apparent "nuclear threat." Somehow they fail to mention that it was the US and NATO who first rattled the nuclear cage and warned Russia of "dire consequences" of operations in Ukraine, while pouring billions of dollars worth of high tech armaments into the cauldron.
Yet, as I have mentioned in several of my published columns, the issues are not only geopolitical and concerning global hegemony, but also deeply religious in nature...whether we wish to admit it or not, and whether we think that Putin's invasion was justified or not. Indeed, the American position officially since February 24 is that we will continue this conflict, stoking it continually, and raising the stakes higher at every moment, essentially until "we" (that is, the US and its satraps in NATO and its minion in Kiev) defeat Russia and depose its president...even if means the cruel death of every Ukrainian on the ground in this proxy war.
Indeed, as several media outlets now admit, back in the spring both Russia and Ukraine--Putin and Zelensky--had agreed on an acceptable formula to end the conflict: Ukraine would not join NATO and Russia would withdraw its troops from the Donbas. Putin and Zelensky had reportedly even agreed to meet personally. Ah, but no, the US State Department stepped in and pulled Zelensky's chain: absolutely unacceptable, said our government; nothing less than the end of Putin and the destruction of Russia would do, even if that meant what Secretary Anthony Blinken called "acceptable casualties and losses" (occasioned by nuclear exchanges?).
This, in itself, should be extremely sobering—and frightening—to every concerned American. Yes, we are talking once again about Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD) on a global scale, which makes John Foster Dulles's comment in the 1950s a minuscule cipher.
Are there no grown-ups in the room?
The evidence of this is multiplying by the day for anyone who searches it out. And since both the Ukrainians and the Russians now understand this, and that the only real world power capable of calling a halt to this is the US--which is doing the exact contrary--we find ourselves in a situation similar to the great powers in the fateful weeks leading up to the outbreak of World War I, what one historian has called "sleepwalking into world war." But the consequences, with nuclear warheads, will be far more devastating this time, perhaps the very end of the world as we know it.
Like then, it could be avoided...but like then, the zealots, most especially the Neoconservatives and globalists in Washington and Brussels who literally detest Russia and its president, are only speeding up, almost giddily, the timetable for Armageddon.
As I wrote at the outset, there was something equally, if not more important in Putin's speech. It was ignored, perhaps on purpose, by the Western media. And it frames the fundamental question and, if you will permit me, adds an eschatological element to what is occurring before our eyes. Towards the end of his remarks Putin spoke of a growing Russian understanding of this conflict: this has become a war not just for Ukrainian but also Russian, survival. For the Russians it has become at base a religious conflict between East and West in which they draw upon their thousand-year history, their brutal war experiences and suffering (which in many respects, ironically, are shared by their brothers in Ukraine), and their resilient faith:
Vladimir PUTIN, excerpt from Speech on the Occasion of the Accession of the Donbas, Kherson, and Zaporozhe Oblasts in Russia, October 3, 2022
(I have used a couple of different translations for this):
…Now I would like…to address also all citizens of the country – not just the colleagues that are in the [St. George’s] hall [in the Kremlin]– but all citizens of Russia: do we want to have here, in our country, in Russia, “parent number one, parent number two and parent number three” (in the West they have completely lost it!) instead of mother and father? Do we want our schools to impose on our children, from their earliest days in school, perversions that lead to degradation and extinction? Do we want to drum into their heads the ideas that certain other genders exist along with women and men and to offer them gender reassignment surgery? Is that what we want for our country and our children? This is all unacceptable to us. We have a different future of our own.
Let me repeat that the dictatorship of the Western elites targets all societies, including the citizens of Western countries themselves. This is a challenge to all. This complete renunciation of what it means to be human, the overthrow of traditional values, and the suppression of freedom are coming to resemble a “religion in reverse” – pure Satanism. Exposing false messiahs, Jesus Christ said in the Sermon on the Mount, “By their fruits ye shall know them.” These poisonous fruits are already obvious to people, and not only in our country but also in all countries, including many people in the West itself.
The world has entered a period of a fundamental, revolutionary transformation. New centres of power are emerging. They represent the majority – the majority! – of the international community. They are ready not only to declare their interests but also to protect them. They see in multipolarity an opportunity to strengthen their sovereignty, which means gaining genuine freedom, historical prospects, and the right to their own independent, creative and distinctive forms of development, in a harmonious process.
As I have already said, there are many like-minded people in Europe and the United States, and we feel and see their support. An essentially emancipatory, anti-colonial movement against unipolar globalist hegemony is taking shape in the most diverse countries and societies. Its power will only grow with time. It is this force that will determine our future geopolitical reality.
Today, we are fighting for a just and free path, first of all for ourselves, for Russia, in order to leave globalist dictatorship and despotism in the past. I am convinced that countries and peoples understand that a policy based on the exceptionalism of whoever it may be and the suppression of other cultures and peoples is inherently criminal, and that we must close this shameful chapter. The ongoing collapse of Western hegemony is irreversible. And I repeat: things will never be the same again.
The battlefield to which destiny and history have called us is a battlefield for our people, for the great historical Russia, for the faith of our ancestors. For the great historical Russia, for future generations, our children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. We must protect them against enslavement and monstrous experiments that are designed to cripple their minds and souls.
Today, we are fighting so that Russia, our people, our language, and our culture cannot be erased from history. Today, we need a consolidated society, and this consolidation can only be based on sovereignty, freedom, creation, justice, and faith. Our values are humanity, mercy and compassion.
And I want to close with the words of a true patriot and valiant Christian, Ivan Ilyin: “If I consider Russia my Motherland, that means that I love as a Russian, contemplate and think, sing and speak as a Russian; that I believe in the spiritual strength of the Russian people. Its spirit is my spirit; its destiny is my destiny; its suffering is my grief; and its prosperity is my joy.”
Behind these words stands a glorious spiritual choice, which, for more than a thousand years of Russian statehood, was followed by many generations of our ancestors. Today, we are making this choice once again….