Originally posted on sonar21.com (by Larry Johnson). Reposted on Substack and Telegram platforms and sites like Gatewaypundit (which drew over 700 comments, mostly irrelevant or inane).
Selected comments from two portals:
James T. says 1 October 2023 at 22:18
Excellent piece. Yeah the sad truth is so many Western leaders, media, and other talking heads cannot see the real truth any longer. Unfortunately they are not going going to back down until they are defeated on the battlefield. This will be a very dangerous process and at the very least see millions die unnecessarily and at worst see us all cooked. I have no hope any longer in sane decisions from this group so can only hope it ends quickly and with the least amount of loss of life.
ZimInSeattle says 1 October 2023 at 23:38
Excellent essay. I fear there are far too many myth believers such as Joshi out there to forestall a visit by Mr. Kinzal to some important western offices in the not to distant future. The level of cognitive dissonance riddled Russophobia infesting western power structures boggles the mind. Scary times indeed.
OldFart says 2 October 2023 at 04:21
Great piece! The only people us Americans are good at lying to is ourselves.
Yeah, Right says 2 October 2023 at 06:34
The west doesn’t know much about a “real Russian Army”, except that they’ll know it when they see it. I suspect they’ll encounter the “real Russian Army” in much the same way that a blowfly encounters a “real car windscreen”
Q: What’s the last thing that goes through a fly’s mind when it hits a car windscreen?
A: Its ass.
Victor says 2 October 2023 at 06:48
Fine article. Would like to see more of this by the author.
So it seems that the USA and UK are thinking about sending ships to the Black Sea, putting pressure on Turkiye to let them in in order to stand up to Russian “aggression” against innocent Ukraine shipping. At the same time they also want to enter Western Ukraine as peacekeepers before Russia takes Ukraine’s Black Sea coastal area. They seem to honestly believe that Russia will give in if they do this, rather than face a direct confrontation with NATO powers. They always believe that the “enemy” will back down when actually confronted by American troops and weaponry. What they do not seem to understand is that Russia will consider them fair game in Western Ukraine and WILL destroy them. It will then be on NATO’s shoulders to decide to back down or go to outright war with Russia in its own back yard. Unfortunately, NATO never encorporated a reverse gear in its setup, so expect another European war – only this time American soil will not be unreachable.
Reply: Kaz Dziamka says 2 October 2023 at 00:35
True, of course. Except that had I not stumbled upon that Joshi op-ed, I probably would never have been motivated to write my piece. By the time I got the current issue of FI, I had resigned myself to quiet desperation, having no hope that anything can be done to stop the russophobic madmen (and mad women) in the US and Europe from dragging us into another world war. When I read his “Potemkin” remark, I couldn’t take the toxic stupidity any more. I had to do something to protect myself. Writing my article was the best remedy I could think of. I couldn’t think of anything else. Sorry.
- wendy forward says 2 October 2023 at 02:04
Your article is great–thanks for sharing it with us.
- Travis says 2 October 2023 at 08:33
No need for apology. I understand the frustration and share it. A tabletop game designer I follow suffers from the same delusions that Joshi has and is very vocal about it.
I wonder more about the editor who published it. Why accept an article from a person who has no real understanding of the topic. He’s just regurgitating the stance he’s getting from the MSM and the government propaganda machine.
Richard Ong says 2 October 2023 at 22:55
An excellent article, Mr. Dziamka. I disagree only with your statement that Americans were “kicked out of” Vietnam and that we were “defeated” in Afghanistan.
Frank Snepp’s book, “Decent Interval,” makes clear that the North Vietnamese were terrified of any resumption of bombing and that Giap only managed to persuade the Politburo to allow him to make a foray into South Vietnam on the condition that if the Americans responded he would pull back. We didn’t and the rest is history.
During America’s active participation in the war, our forces had to deal with a bizarre policy that allowed for sanctuaries in Cambodia and Laos, LBJ’s micromanagement of the war, and his asinine policies of “escalation” and no mining of the Haiphong harbor. Nixon had the right idea and God bless him for his Cambodian incursion which scared the daylights out of the NVA. The Mekong Delta was building up to something just prior to that and, trust me, it went silent as the grave after that. I know. I was there.
I don’t remember if Mr. Snepp touched on the Chinese role in supplying the NVA. If bombing bridges from China was off the table then that’s further evidence of the failure of America’s de facto strategic vision. Ditto for bombing the Red River dikes. In effect, we played at war and willingly suffered the casualties as a result of being an unserious nation.
The coup de grace was not, of course, any military failing. The South was for all intents and purposes secure. The ARVN Rangers, in particular, had the Delta well in hand and the policy of “Vietnamization” was bearing fruit. No. The coup de grace was the betrayal by the Democrat Congress that cut off further aid to the South. Even though there was a lot of military aid in the pipeline — enough for another year of fighting — the ARVNs saw the handwriting on the wall and it all collapsed.
Afghanistan was no defeat. ANY result of our being there would have been a reflection of our strategic confusion, which is a very generous way of characterizing our thinking. Instead of a punitive raid in and out in the blink of an eye, the moron Bush had us embark on a policy of “nation building,” so help me God, presumably to convince the Afghans to embrace parliamentary democracy, women’s liberation, and Little League Baseball.
The implementation of that genius policy involved having our troops take nature walks here and there through various mujahadeen minefields and ambushes on a schedule announced in the weekly local paper. This was the drill for the foreseeable future until Brandon/Jarrett, to his/her eternal credit, said no mas to the prospect of yet more time in the hamster wheel. The muj drove no one out and that’s a fact. Cutting your losses or abandoning a lunatic strategy were a stroke of genius.
I’m amazed that you seemingly cannot distinguish between the retreat of a defeated army under fire and the correct policy disgracefully executed at the very last hour of the very last day. Who is responsible for that fiasco has not been identified but he must be. Personally, I think it was AOC.
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From the gatewaypundit portal:
Excellent article. However, America is not a Russophobic country. The few psychopathic elites in DC don’t represent America.
“Russophobia simpletons, who did not hesitate to obey the orders of their Criminal-in-Chief”
Love that quote.