A recent piece in The European depicts the EU sanctions against Russia as fundamentally misconceived. “The sanction policy is in no way, shape or form working,” says the article. The sanctions have failed because Putin “controls the perceptions” of the Russian population. Meanwhile, anti-war sentiment is gaining ground in Germany and all over Europe. Russian propaganda is gradually getting the upper hand. What this reveals, of course, is that the West has no strategy while Russia is all about strategy.
Chapter 7 of Marshal Sokolovskii’s classic work, Soviet Military Strategy, is titled, “Preparation of a Country to Repel Aggression.” It is perhaps the most important chapter in the book, which explains those steps which must be taken if victory is to be assured. The objective in this preparation, from the outset, is to seize the strategic initiative. Society itself must be ready to “stand up” under a “massive nuclear assault by the enemy, with minimum losses,” maintaining all the while a “high level of morale and will-to-win among the population.”
There are three “main lines” of preparation for war, according to the Soviet strategists: (1) preparation of the armed forces; (2) preparation of the national economy; and (3) preparation of the population. In terms of preparing the armed forces, it is necessary to build an arsenal of missile weapons with nuclear warheads. These are the principle weapons of war, all others being of secondary importance. To this day, Russia maintains the most advanced nuclear missile forces in the world, and it is now acknowledged that Russia enjoys battlefield nuclear superiority in Europe.
In terms of preparing the national economy for war, Russia continues to observe the principles set down in Sokolovskii’s book. Today, military industries have been moved to underground caves, bunkers and tunnels. This is something the Russians have worked on for many years. Secret underground cities, such as the one located under Yamantau Mountain, are thought to include nuclear missile and warhead factories. Yamantau is one of several super-hardened underground sites which may, indeed, give Russia a virtually unassailable military-industrial base in the event of global war.
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Today this is the rhetoric of the Russian media. America is blamed for the fighting in Ukraine. America is said to be plotting Russia’s destruction. At the same time, Russians are told that their military machine is invincible. NBC News reports, “Vladimir Putin Says Russia’s Military Might has No Match.” The political morale of the Russian people is being strengthened through positive messages of this kind. In Western Europe, however, we find disunity and confusion. There is no authoritative voice boasting of NATO’s armed might. People are filled with uncertainty and fear. The idea of Ukrainian independence is called into question. Even as these words are written, the Russian parliament is considering whether to declare Germany’s 1990 unification illegal.
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The reason for breaking out an old Soviet military textbook is to show that Russia is still following Soviet ideas. At the same time, America does not seriously embark upon war preparations of its own. The American side does not place its key military industries under mountains, and does not teach its population the principles of nuclear civil defense (as the Russians do). Even more critical, the American people have never received any schooling on the Russian threat. With rare exception, American schools do not teach students about the enemies of America. This was not even done at the height of the Cold War. In fact, Marxists were busy infiltrating U.S. schools and universities during the 1970s and 1980s. American students were more likely to receive indoctrination closer to that given in communist countries than to receive any proper orientation about a communist threat to the United States. And so, there was never any similarity between Russian war preparations and American war preparations. This is a fact that ought to make a deep impression, as it dispels the usual propaganda about the all-powerful U.S. military-industrial-complex.
Today, unfortunately, there is no serious U.S. war preparation at all. America is engaged in a supposed war against “terrorism.” Meanwhile the Russians lurk in the background, preparing for a different kind of war – deploying missiles and warships and new ground forces. That we have entered a pre-war phase should be abundantly clear. NATO Gen. Frederick Hodges recently said in a Wall Street Journal Interview: “I believe the Russians are mobilizing right now for a war that they think is going to happen in five or six years.” Former NATO Chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen has warned that Russia is likely to attack one of the Baltic States. “This is not about Ukraine,” said Rasmussen to the Daily Telegraph earlier this month. “Putin wants to restore Russia to its former position as a great power.”
But Rasmussen and Hodges have fallen short in their estimation. It is not about restoring Russia to its former greatness. It is about a sudden switch in the balance of power which completely overturns the existing global order. That is the game being played. That is the strategy at work. Here the intention is revolutionary, and world-transforming. But our generals and statesmen continues to think small, to see what is only before their eyes. One must see with the eyes of a strategist. One must recognize the pattern, the nuance, the relationship between past and present moves. Only then can the observer see what is unfolding.
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What about America?
Even as the Russians mobilize, the American side unilaterally, spontaneously, implodes. Consider the headline, If Sequestration Hits, Russia and China May Beat our Military Technology, Top Pentagon Official Says. Get ready for Russia and China to overtake us militarily. Here is the bottom line when it comes to our war preparations. Deputy Secretary of Defense Robert Work told Congress that sequestration budget cuts are killing the U.S. military’s technological advantage over Russia and China. And why does the president insist on such a formula? Why does he refuse to negotiate a sensible budgetary solution with the Republicans in Congress?
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We have so much to learn and so little time. Yes, time is running out. The remission will be over soon. The Russians still adhere to the precepts of Soviet Military Strategy. The hidden communist structures of Eastern Europe are ready for resurgence. Even now, these forces are working with communist structures in North and South America. The power of Russia stands behind them all, helping to move the Great Antithesis toward revolutionary Synthesis.
Full article: On War Preparations and Secret Structures (JR Nyquist)
Global Geopolitics 