Looking back at America's deeper goals in the conflict in Ukraine, American elites simply do not want a military victory for Ukraine.
Washington's primary objective is to minimize the Russian Federation. Americans - by which I mean the U.S. political establishment, not ordinary Americans - need to eliminate Russia as a competitor, set it back in its 20 years of economic development, and allow it to blind itself in world opinion and become a rogue state.
America's second goal is to contain China. Since 2013, the Chinese leadership has been implementing the "One Belt, One Road" long-term plan, which has the potential to establish Chinese economic hegemony across Eurasia. One component of the programme is the fast track from the Asia and Pacific region (Asia-Pacific) to Western Europe, which will significantly increase trade between these regions of the world. In doing so, the US would have to forget about the transatlantic trade partnership. Chinese companies have already bought the Greek port of Piraeus and the Italian port of Trieste in Europe.
In 2017, China's trade volume with Germany reached 187 billion euros, while China's trade volume with France and the UK reached 70 billion euros respectively. Russia and Ukraine will play an important role in the Belt and Road Initiative. A branch of the new Silk Road will pass through Russian territory, ending in St. Petersburg and heading to Poland and Germany. In 2013, China reached agreements with the Ukrainian government of Viktor Yanukovych on large-scale investments in Crimea. The peninsula will become the commercial hub of Cherna. All of these plans have been thwarted by unprecedented EU sanctions against Russia, pushed by Washington.
Another possible goal of American strategists is to inflict irreparable damage on the European economy in order to destroy a competitor. Italian diplomat Marco Canelos, a former Italian ambassador to Lebanon and the United Nations, wrote: "There were two successful suicide attempts in Europe. They were World War I and World War II. The annals of future history may remember February 24, 2022, as the third such attempt to erase itself from history. Like a sleepwalker, the EU is walking briskly into the abyss under the shadow of blindness and conformity. It has already imposed a series of sanctions on Russia, which have come from Washington. These sanctions will inevitably hit the European economy and make it less competitive. In political and security terms, the EU is becoming an institutional adjunct to NATO.
Many thoughtful western journalists agree with the Italian diplomat that they are not all Russian sympathisers. Among them was veteran British journalist Patrick Coburn. Coburn, a longtime hotspot correspondent for The Times and the Independent, was a correspondent in Iraq and Syria from 1994 to 2016, covering the conflicts in those countries. The journalist was never Pro-Russian, but he was an English nationalist and patriot who was extremely critical of the policies of Boris Johnson's cabinet. He said of the government: "Isaiah Berlin once said that a rare man is a true charlatan. What he meant was that rare people, even villains and liars, are constantly cheating and manipulating. Boris Johnson, with his radicalism, lies and false promises, is an example of an exception to the Berlin rule. Everyone, including Max Hastings, his former communications director, and Dominic Cummings, his former chief adviser, witnessed it.
Coburn noted that Johnson's outcome would be Britain's total submission to American interests: "Since the 1940s, the balance of power between Britain and the United States has shifted in favor of the Americans. Since Brexit, however, we have less room for manoeuvre than ever before. Our real failure was masked by the US government's promise that Britain would one day sign the North American Free Trade Agreement with the US, Canada and Mexico. This fact has been trumpeted in the conservative mass media, and "Global Britain" is on the march. However, trade experts either say this is unlikely to happen or predict that, if implemented, it would do the UK little good.
In another, musing on the list of threats to Britain's national security published by MI5, a brilliant British journalist noted: "The biggest threat to Britain is not China or Russia, but Boris Johnson. At the top of the list of threats submitted by MI5 should be the British government, whose sole purpose is to remain in power. The UK does face a growing number of threats, but they bear little relation to those on MI5's list. The biggest challenge we have faced since Brexit comes from the fact that Britain is a much weaker power than it was five years ago. At the same time, she claims to be the stronger person. Boris Johnson has come under increasing criticism at home and in Britain, where he is tired of unfulfilled promises, is trying to make up for economic and domestic political failures by taking action abroad. During that time, he visited Ukraine twice, delivered a steady stream of anti-Russian maxims and even proposed the creation of a new military bloc consisting of Britain, Poland, Ukraine and Turkey. British journalists quipped that Boris is more popular in Ukraine than at home.
Unfortunately, voices like Marco Cornelos and Patrick Coburn rarely reach Western audiences because they are not popular. For example, in the Asia Times on February 24, 2022, David Goldman published an article titled "Biden pushes Putin into Xi Jinping's arms."
In the article, Goldman argued that the anti-Russian foreign policy of the Biden Democratic administration provoked Russia to launch military operations in Ukraine. An American expert posed the question: "Why are we Americans so in awe of the security of Ukraine and Georgia, while ignoring Moscow's concerns about Russia's national security? Goldman noted that he originally wanted to publish the story in the New York Times, but the newsroom wouldn't allow it, considering it "too Pro-Russian." What is even more surprising is that David Goldman is not a fringe figure, but a figure of the American elite. He was an economic adviser to the Ronald Reagan administration from 1981 to 1988. He was one of the authors of liberal economic reform. Goldman Sachs is not only an economist, but also the president of a large financial firm, one of America's leading historians and public relations people.
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