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Ukraine Flashpoint
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Whoever is looking for the flashpoint, that lethal moment when the war of words and diplomatic lies turns into full-blown physical conflict between the East and the West, they will find it relatively soon if we are to believe the markets and how they are reacting this morning.
Military inspectors were taken hostage Sunday 27th April by pro-Russian supporters. They also seized regional-television headquarters in Donestsk. Last week five pro-Russian supporters were killed and Russia stated that Kiev would be called to justice (the Russian definition of justice being rather different perhaps). A Ukrainian military helicopter was also hit last Friday in gunfire. That’s called escalation; little by little until the flashpoint appears. Sanctions are expected from the USA and from the EU today.
But, war never let anybody come out of it a financial winner, even if you are the one that stands towering over the prostrate soldier on the floor at your feet. Whoever wins the Ukraine-Crimea tug-of-war between Russia and the West will still come out of it suffering.
Nobody ever wins a war and we only have to look back in history at that. But, since when did we ever learn from our mistakes?
Let’s take the United Kingdom for example in World War I:
• The country spent 20% on average of its accumulated wealth.
• Russia owed the UK money but when the Russian Revolution occurred that stated that it as a Tsarist debt rather than a Soviet one and so they refused to pay it back. The UK was owed more money by other nations than it owed the USA itself for loans.
• Many countries that Britain sold its goods to before the war seized the opportunity to set up their own industries to manufacture while the UK was busy fighting their war. When the war ended, it was too late for Britain to get back its markets.
• The US had advanced European countries a loan of $10 billion in both goods and credit.
• Paying back the debt was a hindrance to economic growth, since the indebted countries spent money on the repayments rather than actually buying goods from the USA.
• It was the UK and France that owed the most to the US, but they in turn found it impossible to get the money back from those that were in debt to them. It was a vicious circle of money spent and never paid back.
• Britain ‘made’ a payment of $95.5 million in 1932, but it was based on gold in the vaults of the Bank of England that they never shipped to the USA. The USA never asked for it since it would have caused the collapse of the UK and the UK made veiled threats that they would liquidate the dollar. Virtual money transfers had just been invented. The money never got paid, the gold stayed in the UK.
• There was a moratorium on all war debts in 1931 and no repayments have been made since 1934 to any nation.
World War II was hardly any better.
• The UK paid of its final instalment of a loan to the USA and to Canada in 2006! The loan had been taken out in 1945 and totaled $4.34 billion since the UK was on the verge of bankruptcy.
• After 61 years the UK made the final repayment of that loan to the US (£43 million) and to Canada (£12million).
• The UK had to defer repayment (it should have been paid off in 50 annual instalments) in 1956, 1957, 1964, 1965, 1968 and 1976.
That all being said, we know that nobody will come out of the Ukraine conflict with the champagne corks popping and war doesn’t relaunch an economy; it just makes it worse. Adam Smith was wrong about needing a good famine or a war to decimate the population. It may get better a generation down the line (just, maybe) but in the meantime for those of us around at the time, it will be a hard blow to the economy and yet more struggle at a time when we don’t need it. But, can we complacently sit back and let a dictatorial leader do exactly what he wants just because he feels like taking over another country. That smacks of history too. Putin used to try to pull the wool over the eyes of his electorate and the rest of the world. His thuggish attitude and his recreation of Tsarist Russia is not befitting of the times.
If the West doesn’t act, he will continue. Then, when we look back in time we shall see President Obama and the European Union just as we remember Neville Chamberlain, Prime Minister of Britain: fooled into thinking that there would be no war in Europe, stupidly waving his paper in the air with his ‘peace for our time’ speech that nobody else believed. Chamberlain’s final words that day in 1938, just before World War II erupted were ‘go home and get a nice quiet sleep’.
Originally posted: Ukraine Flashpoint
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What proof do you have?
Link?
WoW! I never thought I'd see this kind of NeoCon Lie of Omission Bullshit on zerohedge.com. And Tyler has even blocked me from sending in my 2 cents from www.electanewcongress.com. It seems not a day goes by that the world fails to surprise me, and then some MSM wannabe con's their way on to the freedom trail. Nothing is sacred anymore.
Didn't you read the article, "the West has to act". The Rothschilds want their war. It is their go to move in time of crisis.
Many gain from this. Crisis can be manufactured. Hard to believe documents Coleman published that showed official reports to HRH about how the test of the Ruble crash in the 90's worked so well and pivots further exercises towards a global currency; hard to believe its not part of the mainstream leaks/discourse today... oh wait, its perfectly believable if you read smedly.
check your library for Hope and Tragey, Committee of 300 and random acts of information.
One I found recently was:
http://personalliberty.com/russia-dominated-global-banks/
In Zbigniew K. Brzezinski’s book Between Two Ages: America’s Role In The Technetronic Era, he elaborates on the ideology behind what brand of government the New World Order would be:
Brzezinski seems to be in total agreement with Gorbachev,....Russia is more beholden to international bankers than perhaps any nation on the planet.........
http://personalliberty.com/ukraine-crisis-just-another-globalist-enginee...
My point - being awake is a 24/7 lifestyle. Knowing the Fed is a fake does not illuminate you to its Committee of 300 or other agendas that have included the BRICS....conflict can be contrived to lead us people in a direction .... hating or objecting to the American aspect of the Anglo-American alliance mixed with the G20/Committee of 300 history should raise pause - so rejecting the fry pan does not invite the fire.
@ this pile of dung for an article: "No body ever came out of a war a winner"
Bullshit, we did, after WW2.
Ever hear of the 50's???
Superpower status???
So what kind of shape have the children of the 1950's left the country in? How bright and shiny is that "superpower status" holding up nowadays? 48M on food stamps for starters, let them eat cake and F-22's.
What has "nowadays" got to do with being the victor after WWII? The US became the richest country in the history of the world, the only nuclear power, and became the world empire police replacing bankrupt Great Britain. That the riches were squandered 50 years later is of no bearing to the spoils of winning WWII.
Nobody ever wins a war and we only have to look back in history at that.
Another nonsensical comment.
The International Usurers have won every single war since 1691 when the debt-based Bank of England was established.
They will "win" this one as well.
I'm for replacing the Wall Street bronze bull with an 80" statue of King Phillip IV (The FaiR). Banking should never be delegated. It's sovereign nations' first responsibility.
The one who doesn't lose, wins. Breath is better than death.