INTO THE DARK

 It looks like there may be no end to the pussyfooted wars of the 21st century which leaves only room for the large steps involved in creating darkness and oceans of blood. I think we'll skip the bloodletting the maximum extent possible but I suspect pretty soon the lights are going to go off and stay off in Iran and once that happens it is a certainty that the same will happen in Ukraine. If we're sick and tired of Ukraine, think how Russia feels and if we are fed up with the 'resistance' of multiple cells of viciousness, well, we cornered the market on viciousness a very long time ago and there's no reason we can't haul it back out of the closet and go forth again with the intent to destroy everything in our path.

I get a kick out of how we are not fighting a fighting war while looking around for others to jump in and take part and do their 'fair share.' I think President Trump has made his point about the utter uselessness of NATO and it is now readily apparent to everyone that there simply is no NATO force at all if one excludes the United States. There is NOTHING AT ALL THERE.

If it is obvious to all of us now, imagine how blindingly obvious it has been to Russia since the long slide to powerlessness began in 1988. All of those armored divisions are long gone and so too are all of the artillery tubes, mechanized infantry, armed helicopters and thousands of fighter bombers poised on their frontier. There is a great void into which Poland has been tentatively sticking its generative member very very quietly and instantly putting it down again. 

They have learned overnight what it is to be a 'frontline' State on the NATO Front and find that absolutely nobody at all has your back. Even if Britain and France were barking mad they would never go to war to support a central European power again. They lost EVERYTHING the last time they did that and they won't do it again. I think the Germans figured that out right about the time Ronald Reagan started talking about rearming and rebuilding a credible NATO force. They knew deep down that France and the Low Countries would simply abandon them and stymie US efforts to return forces to Europe. That's when the Greens won it all.

It was a very nice long weekend jaunt for me as I traveled into the heart of darkness to visit with family in the National Capital Region. We didn't cross back over the Potomac after making the crossing southbound in Hancock but we did stop for gas at Fort Myer....