Astonishment ensues.

Astonishment among the clueless, vicious, arrogant bastards at the U.S. Department of State, that is. If only we had had some warning. Some inkling of trouble. Some premonition. [Shrug emoji.]

I could point out that in all of Putin’s public statements during the months preceding the special operation, there is not the slightest evidence that he was going to seize Ukraine and make it part of Russia, not to mention attacking other countries in Eastern Europe. Other Russian leaders, including the Minister of Defense, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs and the Russian Ambassador to Washington, also stressed the key role of NATO expansion in the emergence of the Ukrainian crisis. Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov put it succinctly at a press conference on January 14, 2022, when he said: “The key to everything is to guarantee that NATO will not expand to the east.”

Nevertheless, attempts by Lavrov and Putin to force the United States and its allies to abandon attempts to turn Ukraine into a stronghold of the West on the border with Russia have completely failed. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken responded to Russia’s demands in mid-December by simply saying, “No change. There will be no changes.” Then Putin launched a special operation in Ukraine to eliminate the threat he saw from NATO.[1]

U.S. theft of Syrian oil and pointless, aggressive war on Syrian nation temporarily on hold.

US troops absent on southern border as of the official lunar noon hour we note. Mention of the magic word “asylum” has turned official bowels to water and vaporized quaint notions of national preservation. But Ukraine now . . . there’s a righteous national endeavor.

Notes
[1] “History Will Judge the United States and Its Allies.” By John J. Mearsheimer, South Front, 7/2/22 (emphasis added).