Ukraine: When we have non entities making idiotic statements, it is practically impossible to reach peace

Germany breathed with relief when Ursula von der Leyen became President of the European Union Commission. She would no longer be able to ruin the German Armed Forces as Defense Secretary. Then we have got fifth or seventh rank politicians of Finland and the Baltic Republics - non entities - make warmongering statements and talking about going to war. Look at history. When were Finland or the Baltic Republics big decision makers in European Affairs? Never. They were colonies or about to be colonies of other European countries. Why? They do not have the size or the military might of other European countries. When it comes to European Wars, which countries write the headlines?

The media give a lot of space of statements made by leaders of Eastern European countries that are empty spaces when it comes to decision making. They want to fight wars. With what? Toothpicks? They do not have the numbers, do not have the money, do not have the infrastructure and do not have the mental strength to fight any wars. When it comes to wars on the continent, which countries have been at the top? Germany, France and Russia. The rest do not count. Borders have come and gone because of these three countries.

Since World War Two, Europe became an appendix of the USA. They could decide nothing and they could do nothing without the USA. Not much has changed. One European country has more American bases on its territory that any other country in the entire World and this country is Germany. Why? Because it was the way to ensure that Germany did not become Germany again. NATO was not created to protect Europe. NATO was created to control Germany. Because of present events, Germany has decided to put itself on the way back to being a European Master, but it might come at a cost even when 600 Billion Euros is not much money when it comes to real military might. Poland is the only country that is reportedly standing up to Germany in military terms. But will Poland have the stomach to stand up to Germany? People talking about Blitzkrieg and the rapid fall of Poland. What they do not talk about is that Poland, given that Poland was a militaristic state during World War Two, was not in such state of weakness to justify the speed with which Poland collapsed.

When it comes to France, France was better equipped, had better quality military equipment, had greater numbers, but even so it fell in a matter of weeks. What did Germany have? Superior soldiers that although fewer in numbers had what it takes to conquer. People talk about the brilliancy of the panzers in a mechanised war. Reality was much different. Much of the German Armies during World War Two still moved around with horses and this includes the French Campaign in 1940. France and Poland were defeated by the German Spirit. It was a fact since Roman Times, a smaller number of troops, better organised, could defeated greater armies. A country is the people. People occupy a territory, but the country is the people who live in it. I do not support Jus Soli. I support Jus Sanguini. A Fox is a Fox and a Rabbit is a Rabbit. A Rabbit does not become a Fox simply because it is born in a different country.

 

Britain: Gun Ho mentality is making a bad situation worse

The crise in Eastern Europe is set to carry on and on and on, increasing the chances of an even worse conflict to occur. Those in charge of dealing with the situation are visibly acting out of their depth and without any real understanding of the consequences of what they are doing.

Mass media are blissfully ignorant in terms of what is involved and keep the propaganda machine alive with a series of headlines that apart from being absolutely pathetic and often misguiding tend to create hatred and animosity.

In the meantime, the range of issues that continue to erode the foundations of the European Union keeps growing. It is just a matter of time when issues related to refugees generate political upheaval in the host countries. Just days ago, Lech Walesa stated that Poland and Hungary should leave the European Union since both countries are losing out because of their membership of the European Union. There are obvious disparities and differences in terms of aims within the European Union. France and Germany have their own approach to the crisis in Eastern Europe with regards to the stances of other EU countries. Unity is in very short supply and the cracks are becoming ever more visible.

While USA and others use Ukraine in a proxy war against the Russian Federation, they know full well that given the cost of a direct confrontation they would not want such direct confrontation. In the meantime, they all agree that China is a much greater threat and China is closely following events in Europe while it prepares itself to recover Chinese territories in Asia. China is no longer the retiscent China of the past. China is more than willing to engage in military conflict and incursions close to Japan and to Australia are much more than posturing. After the shambolic end of military operations in Afghanistan, there is little appetite for what would be a massive military conflict that will involve both Europe and Asia.

In Britain, what is the state of British military capabilities? Britain struggled in Iraq and struggled in Afghanistan being limited now to skirmishes across the Middle East. Britain does not have the manpower it would need for an all-out war that would very likely include the British mainland. It would take 15 minutes for a nuclear missile launched from Kaliningrad to reach London. There has been some research about the impact of a nuclear strike in London, but we must assume that should there be an all-out war all the main British cities will be targetted as a well as military installations, communications, energy production and distribution and we could not discount that there will be acts of sabotage within the United Kingdom.

2021: Is war in Europe possible? History chemistry indicates that it is

Adolf Hitler was an ideologue. He described in Mein Kampf about the policies that he would implement during World War Two. Expansion towards the East was a pretty clear intention. Jo Biden is a demagogue, but equally capable of sending Europe into an abyss via pure miscalculation.Just a few days ago, Britain continued playing with fire - the intentions were confirmed in a leaked Ministry of Defense Report. Britain wanted to provoke a Russian military reaction by sending HMS Defender to Crimea.

Wars are possible in any century. All it takes is the right conditions. I believe in what I call history chemistry. If you get the right elements in the right amounts you get war. Winston Churchill was laughed at when he predicted war in Europe.

Two major competing centres of industrial development: Britain and Germany. He concluded that war was inevitable. They were not working together, but trying to outdo each other. At one point in time war was inevitable.

During World War Two, the German Ambassador met the British Ambassador in Switzerland. He told the British Ambassador that if Britain gave Germany a freehand in Europe then Germany would respect Britain's Empire and Germany and Britain could peacefully coextist. Britain foresaw that as soon as German power was consolidated in Europe, expansion would continue. This despite the fact that Adolf Hitler wrote in Mein Kampf that he was not interested in conquest that would involve the sea. He believed that Germany's future was expansion towards the East.

In 1941, when the Luftwaffe had failed to open the way for an invasion of Britain (Goering had promised that the Luftwaffe could control the RAF) he turned and look towards Russia. Soviet Russia had failed to defeat Finland in the first attempt and could only manage to do so in the second attempt. This led to the belief that the Soviet Armies were not fit for purpose after Stalin's purge of the high ranks of Aristrocratic descent. Moreover, Soviet Russia feared a Japanese attack from the East and could not mobilize its armies from Siberia.

Unternehmen Barbarossa started on June 22, 1941, but having to divert forces towards Greece to help Mussolini meant that the push could not happen as planned. As if this was not enough, Japan attacks Pearl Harbour bringing in the USA into the war and freeing Soviet troops from Siberia to come to the West. The German attack against the Soviet Union opened a war in two fronts - something that Adolf Hitler had written against in Mein Hampf - and made the alliance Britain/USA/Soviet Union possible.

Any conflict between the USA and Russia will lead Russia to close ranks with China and China will feel free to launch a military campaign in Asia. Burma is already inside the Chinese area of influence. Japan would be cut off. The smaller countries will fall like a house of cards. There are already regular skirmishes along the border between China and India because of competing interests for oil in the Sea of China. There is a delicate balance and any action that could alter than balance can start a war.

USA and Britain's provocation attempts can only reinforce the will to go to war. China is increasingly bothered by foreign interference in Chinese internal affairs. Russia will not react to provocation, but the ground rules have already been set up by saying that 'any repeats of the incident involved HMS Defender will lead to miitary measures'. Britain wants war in Europe, but any miscalculation could have dramatic consequences. China's economic influence in Africa could turn into something else. 

Alison Chabloz: On Inquisition, learning and Social Change

Alison Chabloz: On Inquisition, learning and Social Change

If we to continue talking about what is offensive, grossly offensive and extremely offensive, Humanity would be stuck in the Stone Age for every time there has been a leap into the future we have to deal with those who feel offended by evolution.

As a Catholic, I reject the Catholic Church as a political, often repressive and hierarchical institution that in many respects has been guilty of the worst atrocities in human history. The Earth is not the centre of the Universe despite the fact that Galileo Galilei was arrested and forced to explain himself in front of an Inquisition. 

We would be living with the unnecessary threat of deadly illnesses and still believing that bleeding a human being is the way to get rid of the said illnesses if people had not gone out of the way and risked their lives to dissect human corpses to get to know about the human body and the bodily functions of the human body. 

We cannot know the full truth about conflicts happening in our time but there are those who issue laws and promote fear to prevent people from inquiring and researching to get a better picture of what really happened and what is really happening. For many years, the German Wehrmacht was blamed for the execution of Polish officers. It was easy to blame Germany for it because after all Germany had been defeated in war and the Soviet Union was the winning partner although the partnership soon came to an end with the beginning of the Cold War. The Polish soldiers had actually being executed by Soviet Soldiers following Stalin's orders, the same Stalin that decimated by the Soviet Army by executing practically all high ranking officers of the Soviet Army to the point that the Soviets faced catastrophic defeats both when fighting Finland and Japan.

There isn't one version of history. In fact, there is one version of every conflict for every individual involved or affected by it and not even the most capable historian would be physically capable of understanding and knowing the full extent of a single conflict, let alone the complexity of  what we know as World War Two. The number of those who perished is absolutely irrelevant and in any case nobody can honestly say that he or she knows exactly how many died, how the died and in some cases not even where they died because they just vanished in the widespread mess of war.

To accuse Alison Chabloz of being a Holocaust Denier is an insult. She doesn't deny that Jews and others were persecuted. She expressly stated in court and outside the courtroom that she never denied that persecution and killings happened. She questions the means and the numbers and there is a living human being who could state without a shadow of a doubt that he or she knows how, where and how many people lost their lives but, once again, Intolerance and Stupidity get on the way - sometimes in a very threatening and forceful manner on the way of those who want to get a better picture of what really happened.

If as Humanity we are stuck with myths and half-truths, we are going to be deprived of a fundamental freedom that it is the freedom to find the truth and the freedom to evolve. Socrates didn't go to his death for nothing. He chose to drank poison and die because he was dying for a fundamental principle. Socrates stated: Say something and I will prove that you are wrong. Say the opposite and I will prove that you are wrong. But some of those who say that they admire Socrates are the first ones to pass laws to prevent individuals from questioning official versions of events. Another great philosopher - Descartes - said "I think, therefore I exist". We exist because of the capacity to think and our thinking must not be dictated by intolerant idiots that want to force us to accept myths and mythology.