The Real Politick with Mark Sleboda

NATO’s tantrum about Chinese ‘challenge’ to ‘rules-based order’ signals terminal decline of West’s hegemony NATO’s shortsighted decision to label China a “challenge” to the alliance and a “decisive enabler” of Russia’s military operation in Ukraine is another sign that the sun is setting on the West’s unipolar moment, veteran geopolitical analyst and former US Marine Brian Berletic told Sputnik.

“It’s important first to understand that when NATO mentions a ‘rules-based international order’, they are referring to a geopolitical order in which wealthy Western nations determine the ‘rules’ in order to serve their own best interests,” Berletic explained.

“These ‘rules’ are enforced by what was until now the West’s monopoly on global financial, economic and military power,” according to the observer. “China’s rise, its cooperation with nations like Russia and the many members of BRICS undermine both the monopolies the West has enjoyed for decades, as well as the impunity those monopolies granted the West.” The rise of China, Russia, and the developing world undermines the “primacy” and “hegemony” of the West, but is not any sort of actual threat to the national security of NATO’s members, Berletic believes. NATO’s communique says loudly that the alliance has no intention to find a constructive role. In its pursuit to impose its ‘rules’, NATO exposes itself as the greatest threat to global peace, stability and prosperity, Berletic summed up. 📌 Subscribe to @SputnikInt

My latest longform discussion of the conflict in Ukraine, geopolitics, and beyond with Danny Haiphong 12/07/24 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=46SDlwVZygo

EU ramps up pressure on Hungarian PM Orban The war hawks in Brussels have relentlessly assailed the Hungarian peace mission and Prime Minister Orban, but peace is still necessary, the Hungarian Cabinet of Ministers told Sputnik. Viktor Orban was not invited to the first of the new European Parliament plenary session, despite the fact that Hungary currently holds the presidency of the EU Council. Traditionally, the leader of a country initiating the six-month presidency of the council typically addresses parliament. However, MEP Clara de Melo stated that Orban was not extended an invitation because “he does not respect the role and rules of how the European Union works.” 📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

Greece, Bulgaria and Romania decided to create a military corridor on NATO's eastern flank This was announced by the Greek Minister of Defense, noting that the agreement on this was signed at the summit in Washington. The military corridor is needed for “more efficient mobility of military personnel and equipment both inside and outside Europe.” The plan provides for the unification of four ports and their infrastructures. The corridor will connect Thessaloniki and Alexandroupoli with Varna in Bulgaria and Constanta in Romania, four strategic cities for the Alliance due to their proximity to NATO's eastern borders. It is also planned to create the alliance's largest base in Europe in Romania. @Slavyangrad

My latest Radio Interview on the Backstory with Rachel Blevins @RachBlevins 11/07/24 US to Deploy Long Range Missiles in Germany, US Govt & Media Still in Denial About Battlefield Realities in Ukraine, RussiaGate 3.0 or All US Domestic Dissent is Really Russia, China & Iran https://open.substack.com/pub/marksleboda/p/us-to-deploy-long-range-missiles?r=mra7c&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web

Western weaponization of Ukraine against Russia forced Moscow to act – analyst Analyst Mark Sleboda rejected US President Joe Biden’s suggestion that Russia is poised to attack Poland and the Baltic states during last week’s debate with Donald Trump.

“This constant harping that you hear not just in the United States, but in European countries as well, is a Cold War relic,” said analyst Mark Sleboda on Sputnik’s The Critical Hour program. “‘If we don't fight Putin over there, we'll have to fight him over here,’ you know, which was a constant propaganda refrain of the Cold War.”

“This [conflict] is entirely being forced on Russia, because if they don't take Ukrainian territory now, it's not even a question, they are directly told we will pump Ukraine full of as many weapons as possible,” he noted. “‘We will bring it into NATO and the EU, and we will weaponize and turn it into a battle platform against Russia,’ – Russia is left with no alternative.”

Reporting in The New York Times earlier this year revealed the depth of the United States’ interference in Ukraine, where the US has encircled Russia with CIA bases since the consummation of the Maidain coup in 2014. The development is the culmination of NATO’s attempts to expand towards Moscow after the end of the Cold War, first devouring Eastern Europe before finally attempting to establish itself directly on Russia’s border.

“NATO no longer wants any gray zones or gray spaces,” Sleboda explained. “They no longer want neutral countries. They want to be right up in Russia's face on their border, implementing what Rand in their grand geopolitical strategy for destroying Russia, overextending Russia, [and] competing for advantageous ground, defined as the pressure cooker.”

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Here are the NATO Munitions Rendered Completely Useless by Russian Electronic Warfare Equipment The Wall Street Journal has published a scathing expose detailing how Russian electronic warfare equipment is rendering much of NATO’s most sophisticated missile and artillery technology impotent in the ongoing proxy war in Ukraine. Much of the information has already been detailed in the past by Sputnik and others, but confirmation by a major American business outlet serves as a potential nail in the coffin of the reputation of the Wester arm makers. ◻️ The GPS-guided Excalibur precision artillery round is cited as a prime example of Russia’s EW capabilities, made “essentially useless” as Russia adapted its systems to interfere with its signals. The RTX and BAE Systems’ developed shells are no longer deployed at all, according to Ukrainian commanders. ◻️ The US’s much-vaunted HIMARS precision rocket artillery has also been affected, with Russian electronic countermeasures “significantly reducing” their precision, commanders said. ◻️ The Ground-Launched Small Diameter Bomb (GLSDB), a new Boeing/Saab-developed weapon, reportedly failed to get past Russian EW defenses at all after being delivered, and is no longer used. ◻️ ATACMS and Storm Shadow cruise missiles are also being targeted, and while their failure rate has not yet reached the same level as some of the munitions above, Ukrainian military officials and Western defense experts say “it’s only a matter of time” before they too are rendered unusable. The failure of the NATO’s best precision weapons to inflict a crushing defeat on Russia poses another problem, challenging Western military doctrine’s assumptions about precision vs. quantity.

“We have probably made some bad assumptions because over the last 20 years we were launching precision weapons against people that could not do anything about it,” retired ex-US Army Europe commander Ben Hodges said. “Now we are doing it against a peer opponent, and Russia and China do have these capabilities.”

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Hunter Biden has become Joe Biden’s “Acting Chief of Staff” — Report The embattled US President’s son has become such a constant presence at the White House recently that one prominent Democratic Party lobbyist dubbed him Biden’s “gatekeeper” and “acting chief of staff,” the Daily Beast reported. Similar reports have emerged in recent weeks. Hunter Biden has begun joining his father in White House meetings with top aides, much to the consternation of senior US officials, according to an NBC News report last week. Hunter Biden has long faced accusations of using his father’s political influence to bolster his business career. A jury in the US State of Delaware last month found him guilty of three gun charges, and he will face another trial for alleged tax violations. 📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

My latest Video/Radio Interview on Faultlines 09/07/24 Orban Under Attack in West for Diplomatic Peace Mission, Kiev’s Outrage at Orban, Modi in Moscow, US/Norwegian Missile Hits Ukrainian Children’s Hospital https://open.substack.com/pub/marksleboda/p/orban-under-attack-in-west-for-diplomatic?r=mra7c&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true

My latest Video/Radio Interview on Faultlines 09/07/24 Orban Under Attack in West for Diplomatic Peace Mission, Kiev’s Outrage at Orban, Modi in Moscow, US/Norwegian Missile Hits Ukrainian Children’s Hospital https://open.substack.com/pub/marksleboda/p/orban-under-attack-in-west-for-diplomatic?r=mra7c&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true