The ukraine war benefits

 

JEFFREY ST. CLAIR

 So Putin’s war to keep NATO from expanding to its border has resulted in a nation (Finland) on Russia’s border, a stone’s throw from Putin’s hometown, applying to join NATO. NATO, which had pretty much been left for dead in Europe after the Yugoslavian wars, suddenly has been resurrected, flush with weapons, money and a re-branded raison d’être. Putin now has the permanent threat on Russia’s border that he can use to justify a tightened grip on power and a build-up of weapons Russia can’t afford. The Ukraine war benefits all the players, except of course average Ukrainians and the ethnic national conscripts in the Russian Army who have been pushed forward as Javelin missile fodder on the frontlines of the fighting.

+ This is the charitable interpretation, along the lines of Walter Karp’s Indispensable Enemies. That is: Superpowers need Super Enemies to justify their “super” existence and super-sized military spending. An uncharitable one is that Putin is not nearly as smart as many of fans on the Left believe him to be and that his snap-invasion of Ukraine played right into NATO’s hand, ranking as the biggest strategic blunder since April Glaspie enticed Saddam into claiming Kuwait as the 19th province of Iraq…