The Anatomy of a Prig(ozhin). By Gene W. Edwards. Posted 8/25/2023.
Yevgeny Prigozhin, head of the Wagner Group, just died in a plane crash in which one of his airplane’s wings was shot off or bombed off. He should have caught on. When he was boarding, they told him, “Just wing it.” No mention of the second wing.
He allegedly has a double, so is Prigozhin really dead? His body double has false eyelashes, false teeth, false hair (a giveaway), false breath, and even a false identity. Putin also has a body double, a nice man — in contrast to Putin himself, who only pretends any human concern. It is hard, sometimes, on the surface, to tell the difference. Putin is handsome, athletic, smart, and often even convincing.
When you deal with Russia, you have to take what you get. Yes, the USSR was much more expansive in area than the Russian Federation, but the Russia of today still crosses 11 out of the world’s 24 (latitude) time zones, stretching from Western Europe and through Asia all the way to the America’s Alaskan shores. How’d Russia get so big? World adventurer and writer Robert Young Pelton is of Russian ancestry and asked a Russian in Ukraine why the Russians bomb hospitals and schools. The answer was matter of fact, “That’s where the people are,” (unspoken, “. . . you dummy!”). Get it? The attitude was, “Why not? What harm?” or “Who cares?” Russia’s whole object is to win.
When you watch the movie Oppenheimer, realize there will always be a Russia, or an America, willing to use the bomb to cut losses, expediently take advantage, or change the power balance in war or conquest in a dramatic way no one could miss, that leading to a quick(er) victory, end something! We get over-optimistic (hyped!) war reports from Ukrainian spokesmen. Ukraine is actually floundering under Russia’s withering, merciless attack. Now, next, or soon, watch A.I. attacks by hundreds — swarms — of drones, or planes, or mechanical soldiers, all capable of autonomous battleground decisions. Their object? Just — “win.” We’ve already seen some of that in Ukraine, not to mention cluster bombs, depleted uranium, etc.
In the same way Putin “eliminated” Prigozhin, in only two months after Prigozhin acted up, Putin could raise the ante in Ukraine by using nuclear bombs, tactical nukes, or bombing its giant nuclear power plant, Europe’s largest. Such a decision or action could be just as quick, and just as telling, as Prigozhin’s been shot out of the sky! The message sent is, “Don’t mess with me. My Russia takes whatever it wants.” I find it regrettable that the USA’s proxy war against Russia, with Europe only tacitly helping out, may have been all that kept Putin out of Poland and the Europe’s Baltic countries, marching across numerous lands and occupying them. It’s bully power, concealed behind a nuclear threat. Putin’s attitude: “Don’t make me too impatient because I always get what I want!” Here are the names of some other countries ostensibly willing to use the bomb, if the going gets tough: North Korea; Iran; Israel; China; India; and Pakistan. Many other countries, great and small, have nuclear arms and dangerous nuclear power aspirations!
A little sidenote on Putin. Our Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, says the USA has an open-door policy but that Russia/Putin has an open window policy (and that’s not an insurance policy). Putin has had scores of people murdered over the years and many of the killings are totally blatant, to send a message, such as a man in a wheelchair pushed out a far upper-story window.
Love,
Gene.
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