If the American-inspired era of global stability is ending… shouldn’t we care? A little?
The Ops Desk crew was busily tweeting away as the nascent Russian civil war began over the weekend. We were the beneficiaries of some very good sources, who I wish to thank here — you know who you are.
But now that things have calmed down and the media has caught up with the story… what takeaway?
There will be terabytes of analysis on this over the coming months. But a realistic assessment is that we are witnessing the end of Pax Americana.
The world is a rough place, populated by some rough characters. There have been three major “pax” eras (post-Rome) that, for all their flaws, functioned: The Peace of Westphalia in Europe; Pax Brittanica, when England ruled the waves; and Pax Americana.
Take North Korea off the table; that lunatic kingdom exists outside the international order. But Iran, Russia, China… all are flexing as never before seen in the lives of most Americans. Especially Americans under 40.
Those who’ve grown up post-Cold War seem to have little feeling for how precarious — and hard-won — international order is. Recently, Russia has sent assassins into the country, partnered militarily with Iran, while China is likely sending military personnel across our border — while positioning a base in Cuba.
All this has been met with a collective yawn by most of the country — revealing how far we’ve come from the days of the Cuban Missile Crisis. We’re soft.
This is no time to obsess on pronouns, folks.
Many Americans find the Putin-Prigozhin drama to be simply entertainment. Do they realize that Russia has more nuclear weapons than any nation on earth? And that Prigozhin, were he to have gained government control, may have proven to be an even worse guy than Putin?
The Russian military apparently realized it; solid reporting indicates that Prigozhin simply miscalculated by counting on Putin’s forces to mutiny and come over to his side (hat tip to General Jack Keane, of Fox News).
That didn’t happen — and now comes the great sorting out. Putin and Prigozhin are likely still headed for a showdown. In street terms: Putin has to whack this guy. And Prigozhin won’t go quietly.
And as I said on Twitter: Putin’s epitaph has been written before. I’m not buying it yet. He is still the force calling the shots and holding the place together.
Meanwhile, Hunter Biden may well have received $3.5 million from the Mayor of Moscow for… “consulting.” (He’s never denied it, and the media’s defense of the charge is weak, at best).
The Biden family appears to have received at least $5 million from Burisma, a Ukrainian energy company. Again: “consulting.”
And as China threatens Taiwan, we discover that Hunter had dealings with who he called, “the spy chief of China.” With Dad sitting right next to him.
Is it a coincidence that our adversaries are most active in places from which the Bidens were apparently siphoning funds?
If we are indeed witnessing the end of Pax Americana, the reasons will be far more complex than the machinations of one well-connected crackhead.
But principal among those reasons is America’s elites’ willingness to go along with this.
One Lucky Guy, Indeed
Folks, your narrator certainly felt lucky to join the ladies of Outnumbered this past Friday, to discuss matters both heavy and light. A special thanks to the entire team over there — they couldn’t have been more gracious and it couldn’t have been more fun.
Our first segment that day was on — you guessed it — the Hunter Biden plea deal. It’s worth reiterating:
Congress — and the American public — need to see the actual text of the sweetheart deal Hunter is getting. If the prosecutors loaded into it as many of Hunter’s activities as they could, this could serve as de facto immunity on many acts we don’t currently know about — because the government would essentially face a double-jeopardy quandary if they try to charge it later. Don’t put this past DOJ and the Bidens.
As I said above: Where is our side of the deal? That is, the American taxpayer? Hunter has info on narco and human trafficking, as well as untold counter-intelligence information. Has this been gleaned? Have the leads been cut to DEA or Homeland or local cops? Will we see Hunter testifying in grand jury investigations of narcotics dealers? Human traffickers? (Has nobody else noticed his penchant for Eastern European hookers? That means: trafficking).
A five-year investigation of one guy is, by definition, either corrupt or incompetent. This was not an intel operation, which you run for as long as you can to map the networks. This was an investigation of the criminality of one guy. Utterly ludicrous.
We should not hear another peep out of the Biden administration on the “scourge of guns in our cities.” Mr. President, your son is now a convicted gun perp, who received the lightest slap-on-the-wrist possible. Your administration has abdicated that talking point.
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