View of the world – war, hatred, genocide, excess
The world is teetering uncontrollably on the edge of the abyss and nobody seems to care. Skepticism, morality, rationality and the courage to think about consequences are a thing of the past – a diary post of horror.
Peter Hanseler
Introduction
My weeks look very even: I read for eight hours every day and try to get as reliable a picture of the world as possible. During the week, I try to record what I’ve read on paper and publish it on this blog. I usually concentrate on one topic, which I discuss in depth. As events are not only accelerating, but more and more aspects are being added, it is becoming increasingly difficult to maintain an overview, even if you spend the whole day addressing these topics. Yesterday a friend asked me what a diary entry of mine would look like if I looked at everything at the same time. What follows is a series of thoughts and segments, a conglomeration of fragments and topics that are diverse, incomplete and also subjective. A text that also reveals my own overwhelming experience.
Events of violence
Apart from the military conflicts in Africa, Myanmar, Haiti and Armenia-Azerbaijan, there are two conflicts in the headlines that have the potential to drag humanity into a world war.
Gaza
The war in the Middle East is downplayed by many Western media as the Gaza conflict. This term in itself is a sign of cynicism. Since October 7, 2023, the Israelis have been slaughtering civilians in Gaza with US weapons. I use the word slaughter to differentiate this action from what is happening in Ukraine: In Ukraine, battles are being fought between military opponents – soldier against soldier. In Gaza, the soldier faces the helpless civilian who is “slaughtered” like cattle. To call this action warfare is inaccurate. It is murder or genocide, as there are not just a few victims, but thousands.
On February 5, the UN put the number of dead, wounded and missing at 100,000. 1.7 million of the 2.3 million people in Gaza have already been displaced. Israel is therefore making progress. In its “Analysis of the military action”, the NZZ wrote on November 18:
“The more ground troops gain, the better the civilian population is protected”
NZZ, NOVEMBER 18, 2023
It is so difficult for me to put into words a response to this statement of complete cynicism that I will refrain from doing so at this point.
The right to describe these events as genocide has been recognized by the courts: In our article “International Court of Justice launches nuclear strike against Israel“, we discussed the proceedings and the deliberations of the International Court of Justice in detail. The Court’s decision of January 26, which clearly instructed the Israelis to stop the killing, cannot be surpassed in clarity.
In a few days – on February 26 – Israel must submit a report on what was done to prevent the genocide: Israel has not changed its tactics, the killing continues.
The Western media seem to be fine with this.
Lebanon
In our article “World war as the result of genocide?” we feared that the Israeli arms campaign would spread to Lebanon. Israel’s armed campaign against Lebanon has begun.
The Israelis seem to have learned nothing from their defeat against Hezbollah in 2006. Back then, Israel suffered the first major defeat in its history.
My fears are becoming reality – the regional war is here, the escalation has reached its next stage.
Ukraine conflict
President Putin was and is willing to talk, as he explicitly stated last time in his interview with Tucker Carlson. However, the West does not want to negotiate.
Avdiivka fell on February 18. The Russian offensive accelerates along the entire 1,000 km front. After the fall of Avdiivka, the Ukrainian artillery shells no longer reach Donetsk. Its civilian population has been shelled from Avdiivka since 2014. Now American HIMARS are being used against the civilian population.
The Ukrainian government claims that Donetsk is Ukrainian. The fact that Kiev is therefore firing artillery and rockets at its own population in Donbass does not seem to worry or question anyone in the West.
Death of Alexei Navalny
Cause of death unclear
The death of Alexei Navalny is being used by the West as an opportunity to further demonize President Putin and Russia, even though Russia had not the slightest interest in Navalny’s death. Rather, Navalny’s death was a godsend for President Biden (“A dead Navalny is a gift for Biden – cui bono?“). There is clear evidence that Navalny was killed by MI6 (“Who benefits from Navalny’s death, Putin or his enemies?“), the first to speak about this possibility was Gilbert Doctorow, “Death of Aleksei Navalny: the Brits did it!“, followed by Ray McGovern, a well-known ex-CIA operative. The Russian authorities assume that Navalny died of natural causes, which is entirely possible due to his poor health.
It is therefore unclear how Alexei Navalny died. A conclusive assessment is simply not possible. The West and the Western media do not seem to care.
Julian Assange
Julian Assange is a journalist who spent seven years in the Ecuadorian embassy and has been in solitary confinement in the maximum security Belmarsh prison for five years. If the British extradite him to the USA, he faces 175 years in prison.
His crime: He uncovered US war crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan. Few leading Western media outlets are standing up for him. In Switzerland, the big exception is once again Weltwoche, whose online editor Roman Zeller was not too shy to spend two days conducting numerous interviews outside the courthouse in London, including with Julian Assange’s father – a great and credible journalistic achievement.
Weltwoche knows what is at stake: If Assange is extradited, it will be a crime in the future to expose misdeeds by states – reporting will become a crime. The NZZ, for example, seems to care less about this, probably due to the fact that it “reports” fully in line with the Pentagon and is therefore on the safe side.
The real hero goes down – Navalny, the heroic figure of the Western secret services, wins – the truth loses – a sign of decomposition.
Biden’s level – it doesn’t get any lower
Biden insults Putin
After Biden had already attacked Putin for Navalny’s death on February 16 with the words – “Putin is responsible for Navalny’s death.”, the senile Biden – see below – called President Putin a “son of a bitch”, which also has an equivalent in Russian – “сукин сын” – an expression that hardly makes it past the lips in Russia, except on construction sites or at the front, but never in diplomacy.
Putin confident and ironic
When President Putin was asked about this, he responded with Putin-like aplomb: this was an “absolutely appropriate reaction”, only to emphasize later in the conversation that Mr Biden was his preferred candidate as the next president due to his predictability. It is unclear whether the Western media recognized the Russian president’s malicious irony.
The leader of the free world is completely senile
There is a lot of talk about President Biden’s state of mind. The discussion picked up speed when Special Counsel Robert K. Hur issued a report in early February that commented on President Biden’s state of mind: Hur described it as follows:
«ein sympathischer, wohlmeinender, älterer Mann mit einem schlechten Gedächtnis.»
Bericht, Seite 219
That did not go down well with Biden. Since I am not a doctor, I raise the – rhetorical – question of whether anyone in the world would want this gentleman as head of state. The following clip says more than any analysis. President Biden speaks English. We have come to the conclusion that German subtitles are not helpful for better understanding, as you cannot understand what he is talking about in English either.
It is therefore crystal clear that President Biden is not in charge of US business – so who is?
Germany – do you want total war?
We already discussed the fact that Germany has steered itself to the edge of the abyss with its foreign and economic policy weeks ago in our article “Ukraine – review, sanctions, Germany’s downfall“.
A friend of mine drew my attention to the year 1943, when Joseph Goebbels called for total war in the Berlin Sports Palace on February 18, 1943, a few days after the surrender of the 6th Army in Stalingrad.
That’s a harsh comparison, but I make it from a philosophical point of view: after making big mistakes, you should stop and reflect on whether a change of course – which doesn’t have to be 360 degrees – could lead to a better result.
The German government has made mistakes. This is obvious, because strategies are judged by their results. The strategy of hitting Russia instead of negotiating did not work. It is true that Boris Johnson1 was the one who thwarted the peace negotiations in Istanbul almost two years ago. However, if the German government had clearly advocated a diplomatic solution, there would be no war today.
In addition to the arms deliveries, which were practically ineffective – see our article ” Wonder weapons, weapons systems and gibberish” – the economic sanctions against Russia had catastrophic consequences for the German economy, which should have been foreseeable. Germany is a country of engineers and mechanical designers – arguably the leader in the world; know-how was therefore paramount. Turning these skills into production despite high labor and social costs required cheap energy. This came from Russia. We have Helmut Schmidt to thank for successfully defending the first pipelines from the former USSR against diplomatic pressure from the Americans (Carter and Reagan). Germany’s current leadership no longer has the necessary backbone to defend its own interests.
The results show that the military and economic strategies were not crowned with success. Added to this is the green strategy of a German leadership completely blinded by ideology.
What do the Germans do now – stop and reflect? Quite the opposite.
The German parliament wants to support Ukraine with long-range weapons, but does not explain which ones. For the time being, long-range weapons (Taurus) are off the table, but the last two years have taught us that hesitant Scholz will buckle again. The signs in Germany point to war against Russia.
It is likely that the CDU/CSU will win the next elections and then there is a good chance that Friedrich Merz will take the helm. The former BlackRock Chairman of the Supervisory Board is an ardent Atlanticist and will fully submit to American interests – so there will be no easing of tensions in Germany even after new elections.
Who would have thought it – Germany in the throes of war against Russia.
Switzerland on the diplomatic sidelines
Switzerland is in no way lagging behind the EU when it comes to sanctions; what’s more, Switzerland has imposed significantly more sanctions against Russia than the EU – hard to believe, but it’s true.
My home country claims to be a neutral country, but is pursuing a more aggressive course against Russia than the EU, with the strong support of Switzerland’s leading media outlet, the NZZ. I have written a number of articles about Switzerland’s neutrality. Neutrality has not only saved Switzerland from world wars, but has also brought many economic benefits and earned the small country respect around the world (“Switzerland is in danger“). My last two articles on this topic dealt with the pitoyable behaviour of our Federal Council, the hypocritical attempts to organize a peace conference (“The Switzerland-Ukraine peace conference“), which manoeuvred Switzerland completely offside diplomatically (“Switzerland completely marginalized – neutrality ruined“).
In my opinion, Switzerland can easily keep up with Germany in terms of arrogance and stupidity.
Excesses on the stock markets
If you look at the share indices, you might think that the Western economies are in an unprecedented boom phase. Last week, the market capitalization of the AI share Nvidia rose by USD 247 billion in one day – in one day. This one-day gain in a single share alone is equivalent to the market capitalization of Nestlé. It would be hard to find a clearer indication of the insanity in the financial markets.
However, beneath the surface of the drunken indices – the DAX is also at an all-time high – lurks a reality that speculators are ignoring. Never before in economic history have government, corporate and private debts been higher. Interest rates have risen and, according to many experts, inflation, which is considered to have been conquered, is by no means on the retreat. According to Bloomberg, the current real estate crisis – especially in commercial real estate – clearly eclipses the 2008 crisis. When this party is over, the faces of speculators and “experts” will probably be too long to fit on a portrait screen.
BRICS – tectonic shift
However, the most important – tectonic – geopolitical shift is taking place far away from all theaters of war. The BRICS+ economic organization is already eclipsing the G7 in terms of all key economic data and is rapidly and steadily developing into an economic bloc that will eclipse the entire collective West. BRICS is a focus topic of this blog and we have published numerous articles about it – a last summary last September “BRICS will change the world – slowly“. An analysis of the status of BRICS in 2024 is already in progress.
The West is looking the other way. The consequences will be more serious than any of the military conflicts described above. The West’s arrogant smile will freeze.
Conclusion
It is difficult to categorize this conglomeration of thoughts, but that is not the task of a diary entry.
If you look at the actions of the West with a little distance, you can see the absence of some elements that would be essential for the progress of societies.
Skepticism, the best remedy for arrogance, has disappeared. It has gone so out of fashion that it has even been removed from the toolbox of most media and replaced by media praise for the respective governments. Western politicians have not only been freed from the corset of a critical press, but are using the latter with increasing success for their own propaganda.
The few media outlets and blogs that take a questioning and critical stance are persecuted, vilified and hunted down by the mass media. Opinions are sold as facts and elevated to an axiom, a religion.
Dissent, the foundation of all learning and progress, is banned in societies that proudly display the term “freedom of expression” on their banners but allow it to degenerate into an empty phrase. Freedom thus becomes a nullity.
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