Major-General (retired) Jonathan David Shaw
Comment: The West isn't 'standing up to Putin', it's trying to destroy Russia, it also has its sights on China, despite both of these countries having helped prop up the ailing hegemon for the past two decades and more.
General Jonathan Shaw joined Andrew Castle amid rumours that Vladimir Putin is contemplating a scaling back of his invasion of Ukraine.
Comment: Giving too much heed to such rumours during a time of conflict is surely something the general knows would be rather foolish. Because Russia neutralised Ukraine's military facilities within the first few days and it now has the cities surrounded whilst it evacuates civilians through the humanitarian corridors that it suggested and maintains.
Britain's former Assistant Chief to the Defence Staff stated that the attitude of the West in the conflict has failed to look at the bigger picture for far too long.
"We in the West have the wrong mentality about this.
"We are obsessed with humanitarian concerns and individual suffering and that makes good TV, but the reality is this is far more serious than that."
Comment: The West uses humanitarian concerns for propaganda purposes, otherwise it deems the loss of human life as 'collateral damage'.
He argued that the "real clash of values" on display in the conflict will lead to far more serious impacts on the every day life of people in the West.
"We need to be psychologically preparing our people for a long-term degradation of standard of living and a long term confrontation with Russia," General Shaw warned.
"Our quality of life back home absolutely depends on them - cheap fuel, cheap access, doing deals with Saudi Arabia and things like that.
Comment: Well, UK PM Boris Johnson came back empty handed after begging Saudi Arabia to increase oil production, and Biden's calls to the UAE were ignored, which is what happens when to be expected when dealing with actual duplicitous and repressive regimes. However, maybe the Saudi's will have a change of heart, after all, they had been busy that weekend executing 81 people.
We've now decided that as far as Russia's concerned we're going to play geopolitics ahead of economics and we've to pay a price for that."
The former Assistant Chief of the Defence Staff warned "for the next few years we need to really buckle down and I don't think we're preparing our populations for that sort of hardship and that attitude."
Comment: Whilst it is true that the West's sanctions are predictably backfiring and it's sanctioning itself out of global trade, living standards have been collapsing for well over decade, so the General's claim that Russia is to blame is patently false. Although his warning is real; soaring energy and food prices, as well as food shortages, along with increasingly totalitarian governance, means that life is becoming increasingly insufferable for many in the West:
- Protests and blockades in France, Spain, Albania, over soaring price of fuel & cost of living
- Greek supermarkets restricting flour, sunflower oil purchases as customers start hoarding, similar limits enforced across Europe amidst shortages
- US bird flu outbreak spreads leading to cull of 12 MILLION birds, infections surge in France, Romania records first case
- Russia halts the export of ammonium nitrate fertilizer, accounts for 62% of world supply
Also check out SOTT radio's: NewsReal: Is The Government Hyping Shortages? And is 'Vaccination Shedding' Really a Thing?