Gilbert Doctorow: NATO's Summit - Dead Man Walking?
Dr. Gilbert Doctorow addresses the disaster NATO Summit and what is tells us about the future of the military bloc. Gilbert Doctorow's new book "War Diaries. Volume 1: The Russia-Ukraine War, 2022-2023" is now available on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/War-Diaries-Russia-Ukraine-2022-2023/dp/B0F9VK1WM2
Excellent discussion again. Thoroughly recommend listening/watching.
I hope more people are engaging with these conversations with Gilbert Doctorow than the lack of Substack comments suggest. Hopefully there’s a lot more traffic on Youtube.
Doctorow makes the critical point around 28:00 being that the European Commission (and other NATO members: the US, the UK) decide what the answer to a question is without even debating whether it is the optimal solution. Therefore, in the long run, by using slogans instead of their brains, how do you expect them to make good decisions? The answer is: you don’t.
I’m paraphrasing Doctorow somewhat but that was the crux of it.
Doctorow is also excellent on Trump, like he has a special pair of spectacles that enable him to see around the circus that Trump creates, thus to see the objective (the outcomes), not the subjective (the circus).
re: Criticism of Peter Brandt and the German peace movement and NATO:
As Mr. Doctorow points out and I would emphasize this even more – in Germany we have almost zero competence in military affairs.
1) This causes unintentional disregard for Russian capabilites, which feeds into the same fatal belittleing of Russia that the peace movement alleges to oppose.
2) The German peace movement traditionally is an anti-NATO movement. Paradoxically however that same movement now is using NATO-analyses of Russia and of NATO to criticize NATO!
For this to read yourself please turn to a now popular study of NATO published by GREENPEACE Germany past November.
pdf download would be here:
"When is enough enough? - A comparison of the military potential of NATO and Russia"
https://www.greenpeace.de/publikationen/wann-ist-genug-genug
(WIth google you can translate the pdf.)
Or here the summary:
https://www.greenpeace.de/frieden/kraeftevergleich-nato-russland
"Who has the upper hand: NATO or Russia? A new Greenpeace study shows that NATO is superior to Russia in almost every dimension – and yet still intends to continue its military buildup.
NATO is far superior to Russia in almost all key military parameters. Even without the USA. The European NATO states (including Canada) are ahead of Russia in military budgets, troop strength, and major weapons systems. This is the conclusion of the study "When is Enough Enough - A Comparison of the Military Potential of NATO and Russia" by peace researchers Herbert Wulf and Christopher Steinmetz, commissioned by Greenpeace. The study examines the military balance of power between NATO and Russia and concludes that a fundamental shift in perspective is necessary in Europe's security debate."
This - sorry: partially idiotic - 64-page study has become the basis of German NATO criticism and is part and parcel of the peace movement´s verdict and POV.
Take a look into the footnotes and those sources quoted and you will find our friends such as Brookings Foundation, Heritage Foundation, Atlantic Council, RUSI, CSIS, ISW etc.
I also saw not a single Russian document cited. And almost all of them had anti-Russian or mocking titles. Also most of them are post-2020 and fall into the peak period of Russia-hatred. What does that have to do with critical scholarship?
Via these NATO institutions the entire paper is built on quoting faulty figures from corrupted Ukrainian sources. Because where do they get their data from eventually? Ukrainian SBU and the Ukrainian government. It´s PR. Nothing else.
But this is with all sincerity now used by our peace movement and is regarded as the truth.
ergo: NATO strong. Russia weak.
Audiences/readership of Andrei Martyanov, Jacques Baud, Lee Slusher´s Substack, William Shryver´s Substack, Larry Johnson, Moon of Albama or even Responsible Statecraft at times, will know that almost nothing could be further from the truth.
But try explain this. It´s impossible.
Yet, how is the peace movement supposed to talk to Russians if Russians see this kind of incompetence. After all, you can only negotiate with the other side if you have a serious and competent assessment of that side´s military capabilities.
p.s. Maybe someone can point this out to members of that movement some of whom have appeared on Mr. Diesen´s show. It is of significance. Sticking our heads into the ground and believe in NATO´s lies because they offer a (dishonest) shortcut we´re not going to achieve anything of substance.