Wrong turn into the Halloween pumpkin
Almost exactly two years ago Mark Alexander Milley, the then-Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, wisely proposed immediate peace negotiations between Ukraine and Russia. Russian forces had just surrendered the great chunk of occupied Ukrainian lands in Kharkov and Kherson regions; despite the claim of annexation of four Ukrainian regions into Russia proper, it was crystal clear that Russian army got into significant disarray.
Again, like in April 2022, when Russian forces had surrendered Kiev region only for Boris Johnson and Harris-Biden administration to sabotage the Istanbul agreements, the possible reenactment of the “Korean scenario” in Ukraine had been met with universal scorn by warmongers in the West and Ukrainian thespians-turned-military commanders alike.
However, if only Kiev regime had compared historical levels of guns vs butter expenditures by NATO countries (you are free to laugh out loud trying to imagine these titans of thought — Zelensky, Yermak, or Podolyak — delving into cliodynamics),
they would have surmised that Korean-style division of Ukraine could be, in fact, the most graceful exit strategy for them, in the absence of any good ones. With the proviso that the end goal of Zelensky’s clique would be, as repeatedly has been stated, the deliverance of Ukraine from ghastly economic and demographic mess. (Narrator’s voice: It definitely wasn’t.)
Precisely after the Korean war G7 (i.e., NATO)’s military expenditures begin to drop once and for all, soon undershooting social ones, to never recover the gap that would create our current (friable as it is) global civilization.
Also precisely then, after the division of Korea and Germany, sharply dwindle the examples of successful USA/NATO-backed restructuring of countries devastated by fierce wars. Vietnam became the first bloody proof of the new concept. But even after the collapse of the USSR, in Yugoslavia, Iraq, Libya, Syria, or Afghanistan we saw nothing comparable to the awe-inducing reconstructions of Germany, South Korea, or Japan caliber.
Spoiler alert: highly likely we won’t see anything comparable in Ukraine.
The god(s) inhabiting the gap possibly saved us a couple of times from descending into MADness. The aforementioned god(s) still have a pretty good chance to prevent civilizational collapse across the globe for another time yet. After all, Kherson in 2022 avoided nuclear fallout, just like Khe Sanh in 1968. (Again, these ominous concords and sonorities. Butchers of Bucha anyone?)
However, after recent DPRK-sponsored beta-test of the Korean scenario in Kursk region of Russia, but, unlike Kherson operation of October 2022, with upper hand of the Gremlin in the Kremlin, it looks like madness (without nuclear components in it) is all but set to descend upon Kvartal 95 Studio. In the closing days of October 2024, Zelensky’s carriage arrives to the point of irreparable devastation and takes the final wrong turn. Turn into the Halloween pumpkin.
Indeed, nothing spectacular has been gained for two subsequent years, except, of course, atrocious levels of destruction and corruption inside Ukraine.
Cue the Halloween gift basket of deplorables.
Maybe the next head that would wear the crown in Kiev will be weighed in the better balances and found less heavy.
Or the head that would bang itself down inside the Beltway, for that matter.
