Here's your 'reserve currency' thought for the day: Every US dollar is a check written on an account that is overdrawn by 30 trillion dollars. It's true. The "full faith and credit" of the US Treasury is largely a myth held together by an institutional framework that rests on a foundation of pure sand. In... Read More

Look at this map of Ukraine. Can you see what's going on? The Russians are creating a buffer zone along their western perimeter. Why are they doing that? What benefit do they derive from a buffer zone? Well, a buffer zone creates a distance between Russia and Ukraine which Putin thinks is necessary since Ukraine... Read More

Do you know why Henry Kissinger's speech at the World Economic Forum touched-off such a furor? Kissinger didn't criticize the way the war in Ukraine is being conducted or the lack of progress on the ground. No. What Kissinger criticized was the policy itself, that's what triggered the firestorm. He was throwing a bucket of... Read More

Why is Germany sending weapons to Ukraine? Don't they realize these weapons will be used to kill Russian soldiers? Don't they realize these weapons will be given to Nazi combatants who tattoo swastikas on their arms and march in torchlight parades? Don't the German people care about that? In World War 2, the German Wehrmacht... Read More

On Sunday, the foreign policy blogs were abuzz with the news that Scott Ritter had done "an about-face in his assessment of the war". It appears that the ex-Marine had examined recent developments in Ukraine and concluded that it's going to be much harder for Russia to win than he had originally thought.. Naturally, the... Read More

On Monday, Putin delivered the annual "Victory Day" speech celebrating Russia's victory over Nazi Germany in 1945. The Russian president made none of the hyperbolic pronouncements the media had predicted but, instead, gave a brief recap of the events leading up to the war in Ukraine. There was none of the bravado you'd expect from... Read More

Question-- Is the US making bio-weapons in Ukraine? Answer-- That's the million-dollar question, isn't it? Unfortunately, there's no simple "yes or no" answer. It's more complicated than that. Question-- Can you explain what you mean? Answer-- Sure, but some people might find it a bit confusing. First, most of what we know comes from the... Read More

Question 1-- The war in Ukraine appears to be shifting eastward to an area in the Donbass around the city of Krematorsk. This is where upwards of 60,000 Ukrainian combat troops are "dug-in" and prepared to take on the advancing Russian army. In one of your posts, you suggested that the "real war" is about... Read More

Why did Putin appoint a financial terrorist to run Russia's Central Bank? Did he know he was putting Russia's future in the hands of someone whose interests align more closely with power-mad globalists than with the Russian people? Does he understand the role the Central Bank chief played in facilitating Washington's theft of Russia's foreign... Read More

Question 1-- You think that the Russian Army was spread-too-thin to achieve its strategic objectives in Ukraine, and you point to the (Russian) army's withdrawal around Kiev to make your point. ("Russia's effort was very clearly too diluted over too many axes and sectors.") But, now, you think that things have changed and Russia has... Read More

The New York Times thinks that Putin might use a nuclear weapon in Ukraine, but there is a flaw in the Times' reasoning. Putin has nothing to gain from a nuclear blast and everything to lose. A nuclear weapon will not help Putin win the war in Ukraine, in fact, it would further deepen Russia's... Read More

Why is NATO sending more lethal weaponry to Ukraine? Didn't Putin say that poring arms into Ukraine would increase the likelihood of war? Yes, he did, but the US and NATO continue send more shipments anyway. Why? And why does Ukraine need more weapons? Could it be that Ukraine's 600,000-strong military is collapsing like a... Read More

Question 1-- Can you explain to me why you think Russia is winning the war in Ukraine? Larry C. Johnson-- Within the first 24 hours of the Russian military operation in Ukraine, all Ukrainian Ground Radar Intercept capabilities were wiped out. Without those radars, the Ukrainian Air Force lost its ability to do air to... Read More

Question 1-- Do you agree that the motive behind Washington's sanctions on Russia is to bring the country to its knees, remove it as a competitive rival to the US in Central Asia, and force Putin from office? Paul Craig Roberts-- Possibly. Washington is sufficiently stupid to think this. For the sanctions to have deleterious... Read More

Question-- Is there a justification for Russia's invasion of Ukraine? Answer-- Yes, there is. Russia was being threatened by developments in Ukraine, so it told Ukraine to either stop what it was doing or suffer the consequences. Ukraine chose to ignore those warnings, so Russia invaded. That is basically what happened. Question-- But how does... Read More

The United States has been arming and training far-right militants that are the ideological descendants of Nazi war criminals that were directly involved in the mass-extermination of Jews, Slavs and Gypsies during the Second World War. These Ukrainian storm troopers are among the most vicious and malignant combatants Washington has ever employed to implement its... Read More

Volodymyr Zelensky is the current President of Ukraine. He was elected in a landslide victory in 2019 on the promise of easing tensions with Russia and resolving the crisis in the breakaway republics in east Ukraine. He has made no attempt to keep his word on either issue. Instead, he has greatly exacerbated Ukraine's internal... Read More

In a move that can only be regarded as a major escalation, NATO officials announced on Friday that they would deploy troops from its Combat-Ready Response Force to support the Ukrainian regime in its war with Russia. The Alliance will also send additional weapons which will be used to blunt the Russian offensive that has... Read More

On Tuesday, Germany announced that it would halt the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline that connects Germany to Russia. The United States has opposed the project since its inception in 2015 and has initiated multiple rounds of economic sanctions to prevent its completion. Blocking the pipe

Here's your US Foreign Policy quiz for the day: Which of these militant organizations has the United States supported over the years? Marxist guerillas in East Syria (The YPG, The People's Protection Units, The Syrian Democratic Forces) Far-right Neo-Nazis in Ukraine (Ukrainian Security Services, Azov Special Operations Detachment) Islamic extremists in Syria, Libya, Kosovo, Chechnya... Read More

February 16 has come and gone without incident. The information spread by US officials and the media proved to be wrong. Russia did not invade Ukraine nor did any of the unverified warnings turn out to be true. So far, neither the media nor the administration has produced a scintilla of evidence that Russia actually... Read More

The Ukrainian crisis has nothing to do with Ukraine. It's about Germany and, in particular, a pipeline that connects Germany to Russia called Nord Stream 2. Washington sees the pipeline as a threat to its primacy in Europe and has tried to sabotage the project at every turn. Even so, Nord Stream has pushed ahead... Read More

How much do you know about the crisis in Ukraine? See if you can answer these 7 questions. Question 1-- Does the Biden administration's push to bring Ukraine into NATO violate agreements the US has signed previously? 1--Yes 2--No The answer is "Yes". In Istanbul (1999) and in Astana (2010), the US and the other... Read More

Washington delivered a slap in the face to Moscow on Wednesday when U.S. ambassador John Sullivan provided a written response to Russia's proposals for security guarantees. The missive was given to Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko who did not reveal the contents but passed them on to Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov for analysis. Lavrov,... Read More

Here's a simple way to test your understanding of the current US-Russia standoff. All you need to do is answer one very-basic question about the nature of the conflict, and that answer will determine whether you understand what is actually going on or not. Here's the question: What is the source of the confrontation between... Read More