The longer Putin is "bogged down," the more NATO and EU solidarity will crumble

Think that one through.

They've been telling us for two weeks Russia is bogged down, looking for an off-ramp, etc.

Maybe.

On the other hand, the longer the bog-down, the greater the refugee crisis. Poland is already crying enough. Three million in three weeks. What if Putin is bogged down for months?

Perhaps this thought has crossed the minds of Russia's military planners. Perhaps they see no great reason to un-bog until such time as their stated objectives have been achieved, those being demilitarization and denazification.

The demilitarization seems more or less complete. I don't know how they'll measure "denazification." That's one of those stretchy concepts that let's you declare victory whenever you decide.

The fact that escape corridors out of Mariupol are now functioning tells me the Russians are making progress in that department. That's the home base of the fascist Azov Battalion, the most highly motivated fighters in Ukraine. They literally will fight to the death. They will also execute civilians seeking to escape.

After three weeks of the fiercest fighting of the war, are we to assume the Azovs have pushed the Russians back? Maybe.

But I think a reasonable person should also consider the possibility the reverse has happened.

It was interesting which NATO leaders met with Zelensky today. It obviously wasn't a delegation from the serious end of the spectrum. The longer NATO showcases its impotence, the more its credibility wafts away.

They were there as part of a lobbying mission for more NATO support for the war, particularly "closing the skies." The F-35 is the most expensive weapons program in US history, and is foisted on NATO partners across the board. While armchair war fanboys are eagerly awaiting its combat debut, maybe people who know something have good reason to avoid such a confrontation.

As more and more of America's "partners" realize this war could soon move from their back yard to their living-rooms, and the American Empire is powerless to help them, perhaps they will reconsider their allegiance to their naked emperor. 

CBC a conduit for US propaganda

Check out this CBC story on Cuba. A handful of anti-revolutionary agitators are interviewed, and to no-one's surprise, they are miffed that Canada isn't doing more to stand up to authoritarians in Havana.

For over 60 years the US has used all available means to strangle the Cuban revolution, so that the benighted Cuban people can partake of the fruits of democracy and American friendship.

While the US has been busy putting the screws to Cuba, there is another country, only fifty miles to the east, that has enjoyed the warm embrace of American friendship throughout that time; Haiti. The people of Cuba enjoy a better standard of living, by any conceivable metric, in spite of sixty years of American sanctions, sabotage, and subversion, than the people of Haiti.

Insofar as Canada is an independent nation with its own foreign policy, and insofar as we put actual human rights ahead of currying favour in Washington, we should be denouncing the American campaign against Cuba, not cheering it on.

The ecumenical xenophobia of the Turks

There's quite an interesting survey on view at the Hurriyet site today. Done by Pew Research, the survey reveals that the foreign country Turks dislike the most is Israel. I suppose in a 98% Muslim country that remembers the Mavi Marmara, that should not come as a surprise.

So can we therefore conclude that the Turks see themselves aligned with Israel's enemies? Not at all; the foreign country they dislike most after Israel, is Iran, the arch-nemesis of all right-thinking Israelis!

Hmm... but surely they are more closely aligned with their NATO betters in Washington than with the grasping pretenders in the Kremlin.

Nope, wrong again! On the list of people the Turks don't like, Russia and the US are tied for third after Israel and Iran!

You gotta like that about them!