Poland’s Position as the “Next Ukraine”

July 30, 2022 (Brian Berletic - New Eastern Outlook) - While Western governments and the Western media continue clinging to the hope of an eventual “victory” for Kiev’s forces in Ukraine, the “frontline” is quietly being moved back to western Ukraine and even Poland just across the border. Recent pledges by NATO as well as arms deliveries this year and next appear to be headed in the direction of using Poland as the next battering ram with which US-led NATO will use against Russia.

More immediately, Poland could serve as a springboard for launching a NATO incursion into Ukraine, not necessarily to confront Russian forces directly, but to establish a “buffer zone” in western Ukraine just as the US and NATO-ally Turkey did in Syria.

The Build Up Continues

Poland has hosted a build-up of US troops since as early as the beginning of February 2022. US state media Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty in their February 5, 2022 article, “US Soldiers Arriving In Europe To Reinforce NATO Amid Russian Buildup,” noted the movement of US troops to Europe and specifically Poland as well as the transfer of US troops in Germany to Romania which also shares a border with Ukraine.

More recently, a Retuers article, “US to boost military presence in Europe as NATO bolsters its eastern flank,” would note:

US President Joe Biden pledged more American troops, warplanes and warships for Europe on Wednesday as NATO agreed the biggest strengthening of its deterrents since the Cold War in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The article also mentioned Poland specifically, stating:

The United States will also create a new permanent army headquarters in Poland, which was immediately welcomed by Polish president Andrzej Duda, as Warsaw long sought a permanent US military base on its soil. “It is a fact that strengthens our safety a lot … in the difficult situation which we are in,” Duda said.

It should be kept in mind that similar sentiments had helped reinforce US-NATO involvement in Ukraine since 2014, ultimately precipitating the current crisis rather than strengthening any sense of “safety.”

US “Iran Nuclear Deal” Ploy Coming Full Circle

July 23, 2022 (Brian Berletic - New Eastern Outlook) - Hopes for the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) simply known as the Iran Nuclear Deal seemed to fade further during US President Joe Biden’s recent trip to Israel where the US and Israeli governments signed a pledge to use force against Iran should it pursue nuclear weapons (weapons both the US and Israel possess).

US-based ABC News in its article, “Biden left with few options on Iran as nuclear talks stall,” would claim:

President Joe Biden made a clear promise on Iran, declaring that the country would never become a nuclear power under his watch. But during his time in the White House, the path towards upholding that promise has only become murkier.

During his trip to the Middle East, the president said he would consider using force against Iran only as a “last resort,” although Israel, the US.’s most ardent ally in the region, has pushed for the administration to issue a “credible military threat” against Tehran.

The article would mention the Iran Nuclear Deal specifically, claiming:

…while the administration initially hope to cut a “longer and stronger” deal with Iran, over a year and half of indirect negotiations has produced little movement towards restoring even the original terms of the agreement.

After a monthslong stalemate, a 9th round of talks took place in Doha, Qatar, at the end of June. A State Department spokesperson did not sugarcoat the outcome, saying “no progress was made.”

The 2018 unilateral withdrawal of America from the deal by the administration of US President Donald Trump is blamed for the deal’s failure. Yet the Trump administration’s withdrawal was predicted long before President Trump took office, and in fact, long before US President Barack Obama even signed the deal in the first place. President Biden’s recent activities are only wrapping up what was always a diplomatic ploy meant to trap Iran.

The Nuclear Deal Was Always a Trap

When President Obama signed the Iran Nuclear Deal, it was celebrated as a breakthrough in US diplomacy and a departure from the previous Bush administration’s expanding wars of aggression spanning Iraq and Afghanistan while threatening Iran next.

Russian Ops in Ukraine (July 21, 2022) - Pentagon Prefers Fiction Over Facts

 July 21, 2022 (The New Atlas) - Update on Russia Operations in Ukraine for July 21, 2022. 

• Pentagon admits Ukrainian troops are not stopping Russia’s advance; 
• Pentagon admits HIMARS cannot “win” a war on their own; 
• US allies are repairing Ukrainian equipment Ukraine is not capable of repairing itself;
• Media and US officials float idea of training Ukrainian pilots to fly Western warplanes;US claims Russia’s advances are slow and incremental, omitting that Donbass is the most heavily fortified region of Ukraine and yet Russia continues to advance;

US Fingerprints Found Behind Sri Lanka Unrest

July 17, 2022 (The New Atlas) - Evidence is emerging that at least some segments of the ongoing protests in Sri Lanka are funded and backed by the US, serving US interests. A “digital strategist” given credit by the Western media for the successful toppling of the Sri Lankan government was a “volunteer” at a US National Endowment for Democracy-funded “election” organization.

His group’s involvement in the current protests are a carbon copy of events that unfolded during the 2011 US-engineered “Arab Spring.”

Debt Traps & Terrorism: The Roots of Sri Lanka’s Crisis

July 17, 2022 (Brian Berletic - New Eastern Outlook) - The island nation of Sri Lanka, located south-southeast of India in the Indian Ocean has suffered economic and now political chaos that has grabbed international headlines.

The Western media has floated narratives ranging from “debt trap diplomacy” perpetrated by China and its Belt and Road Initiative to food shortages spurred by Russia’s “blockade” of the Black Sea. None of this is true, and even within the pages of Western newspapers, this truth is eventually admitted.

Sri Lanka’s History of Crisis

Sri Lanka is a nation that has suffered political and economic turmoil since gaining independence from the British Empire in 1948. Like many former British colonies, Sri Lanka inherited deep ethnic and religious divides purposefully perpetuated by the UK and then the US in a bid to maintain Western influence over the ostensibly independent South Asian country. The worst manifestation of this was the Sri Lankan Civil War stretching from 1983 to 2009.

For 26 years the nation faced a taxing armed conflict against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) composed of Indian Tamils. While there existed genuine ethnic tensions in Sri Lanka, the 26 year long conflict resulted from clandestine support from the US and likely India, both in terms of funding and arms, as well as oblique political support.

US diplomatic cables now publicly available thanks to Wikileaks show how the US embassy in Colombo and representatives of the United Nations’ Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) sought to tie the hands of the Sri Lankan government in eliminating the LTTE and how OHCHR staff met with LTTE members and with Washington’s backing, worked with them to form parallel institutions helping expand the LTTE’s political power and thus prolong the conflict.

Other cables reveal how Washington was aware of LTTE fundraising within the United States but took no measures whatsoever to address it.