Get Ready for an Actual War. By Dan Gelernter.
Does it make you suspicious when our government and all of our media, including Fox News, unanimously tell you the same thing? Does it bother you at all when the two least-trusted institutions in the entire nation are reading from the same page, singing from the same hymnal, running the same playbook? No? …
Albert Jay Nock …, who died in 1945, was … one of the first men to call himself a libertarian. But if you check his Wikipedia page, you’ll find out that he was an anti-Semite. This fact alone intrigued me, because an accusation of anti-Semitism, like an accusation of racism or of sexism (but somehow even more insidious), is the best trick our culture has for making it impossible to quote someone’s work or discuss his ideas. Cancel culture — which many of those on the Right mock without actually opposing — is the concept that a single wrong should delete an entire life. One false move, and we must airbrush the culprit out of all our photos. (Bye bye, Will Smith!) For the record, Nock was not, in fact, an anti-Semite. But the claim has proved a convenient way to marginalize him.
In 1943, he also wrote the following:
At any time after 1936 it was evident that a European war would not be unwelcome to the Administration at Washington; largely as a means of diverting public attention from its flock of uncouth economic chickens on their way home to roost, but chiefly as a means of strengthening its malign grasp upon the country’s political and economic machine …
Nock predicted in 1935 that a new world war would start in the summer of 1939, not because Hitler was unstoppable in his evil schemes, but because the powers controlling public opinion and public expenditure in the West would also benefit from a war.
Nock may be wrong, but this thesis is so awful in its implications that I suspect most of us would simply refuse to give it serious consideration.
And if Nock was right, we are going to have another world war soon.
Ask yourself: Would a diversion from poor economic conditions at home be of any help to professional politicians in Washington? How about an excuse for increasing government power? Just consider that the result of every war in modern history — in the winning nation — has been a transfer of social and economic power away from the people and toward the State: Higher taxes, more laws, more control over the daily lives of citizens. More government. That is what war does — when you win. And if you’re going to lose, who cares?
Do I think that our government is really so evil and incompetent that they’d get us into a war just so they remain in power (and increase their power)? Of course I do. They won’t realize the magnitude of the war until it’s too late. As is traditional. …
If you don’t want a world war—well, I frankly don’t know if we can still prevent it. But if you’d like to be helpful, I can only suggest the following: Stop waving another nation’s flag on Facebook like a thoughtless idiot.
Tucker Carlson adds another motive:
They never stopped repeating the talking point. The Russian government, “hacked our election.” That was Jen Psaki not long ago, saying it out loud like it were true. Now, here’s the context. As she said that, Psaki was trying to explain why the Biden administration is, in effect, working to overthrow the Russian government right now and for once, Jen Psaki was telling the truth. That is why. Democrats have convinced themselves that Russia stole the presidency, which rightfully belonged to Hillary Clinton, and they mean it when they say it. And that’s why they are taking us to war with Russia. …
We know the war in Ukraine is not about saving democracy. Please. We know it’s not about protecting the sacred borders of a sovereign country. We know the Biden administration doesn’t care about those principles because they run our country, and we see how they act. …
If you wanted to save Ukraine, its people, its infrastructure, its nation, you would push for a settlement now. You would have done it two months ago, but they’re not doing that. They’ve rejected it out of hand. So that’s not their goal, saving Ukraine, saving human lives. No, that’s not their goal.
Instead, the war in Ukraine is designed to cause regime change in Moscow. They want to topple the Russian government. That would be payback for the 2016 election. So, this is the logical, maybe the inevitable end stage of Russiagate.
Now, we should have seen this coming because they said it out loud years ago. Here’s Adam Schiff from two years ago, predicting it, saying it. Watch this.
SCHIFF: As one witness put it during our impeachment inquiry, the United States aids Ukraine and her people so that we can fight Russia over there and we don’t have to fight Russia here.
So, we arm Ukraine so we can fight Russia. Now, how many Americans (whatever you think of Putin, probably not much, justifiably. Probably don’t have a lot of interest in moving to Russia), but how many Americans then or now want to “fight Russia?” A very small group, but Adam Schiff said it out loud at the time in the House of Representatives. We don’t arm Ukraine so we can help the Ukrainians. They’re merely unfortunate pawns in all of this. We arm Ukraine so that we can punish Russia. Why? For stealing Hillary Clinton’s coronation.
If only we had taken Adam Schiff seriously, as he said it again, and again, and again. But now we can’t help but take Adam Schiff seriously because he’s one of the prime movers of this war. …
How do you feel?
How did we get here exactly? Do you feel betrayed? If you’re one of the millions of good-hearted Americans who put a Ukrainian flag pin on your lapel or put one in front of your house expressing solidarity with the poor, oppressed people of Ukraine, you probably didn’t think you were signing up for this. Nancy Pelosi telling us we’re in a war with a nuclear-armed power with no clear end date. Seen that movie before? Oh, we just finished one after 20 years in Afghanistan. …
These people are playing dress-up. They have no idea what they’re talking about, and they don’t care. They get to pretend to be statesmen for a day. But when Adam Schiff and Nancy Pelosi — again people with a demonstrated years long record of being willing to say anything for personal power, anything to improve the fortunes of their political party — when they’re standing up with a foreign head of state saying, “Here’s an open check, you fill in the number,” you’ve got to wonder where this is going. …
This is the most reckless foreign policy in our lifetimes, in American history. You are watching a group of decadent, in some cases senile leaders, casually dismiss the consequences of going to war with the nuclear-armed nation, dismiss the consequences of nuclear war, like it’s not even worth thinking about, but it is worth thinking about.
They tell us daily, Vladimir Putin is evil and insane and that may well be true. But this same man has threatened to use nuclear weapons against the United States and western Europe if this continues and why don’t we believe him? You may have missed this. The New York Times didn’t seem to have time to cover it …
The escalation continues at a remarkable pace, and you know that if you watch the money. We’re continuing to shovel cash to the government of Ukraine, which just last year Democrats described as one of the most corrupt in the world, but whatever and we’re sending money to Ukraine at levels that are astounding.
Joe Biden signed off on a funding package in March for $13.6 billion in aid for Ukraine. Then he sent an additional $1.3 billion in late April. Then he sent $350 million in February. He also said $800 million in March. In addition to all of that, Joe Biden has requested another $33 billion for Ukraine … $33 billion is more than double what the Biden administration spends protecting our national borders. …
If you want to know why our leaders are determined to escalate this conflict, there’s your answer. It means more power for them. It means revenge for the 2016 election, and if that means triggering a nuclear conflict between our nation and theirs, so be it.
Rumors are that Putin has cancer and is having an operation about now that puts him in hospital for a couple of days. A bunch of oldies with little to live for, an imperfect grasp on reality, and the basest of motives, are playing nuclear poker with our planet.
hat-tip Stephen Neil
