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As late as Tuesday, our government was telling us the war between Russia and Ukraine was imminent and all Americans should leave Ukraine within 24 hours.
Some official reports were suggesting that Russia would begin an attack on Ukraine today, Feb. 16.
As I write this last night and publish it this morning at about 5 AM, we have not seen the war materialize as the Biden administration has been telling the public.
In fact yesterday the Russian government claimed that several military units have completed "scheduled drills" along the border with Ukraine and will now return to their permanent bases, bringing their armor and artillery with them.
Who is telling the truth? And who is not?
Be informed, not misled.
The war of words.
Russian officials taunted the Biden administration yesterday by claiming the redeployment "humiliated" Western war hysterics, while Ukrainian and NATO military officials said they did not see any immediate sign of Russian forces actually pulling back from the border.
By the time you read this, that may have changed in a couple of different ways. Russia may have actually done what they said they were doing and pulled back. Or they may have lied and at the moment be at war with Ukraine.
Russia's state-run Tass news agency quoted Russian Defense Ministry's claim that "Russian troops are packing their gear and preparing to depart on Wednesday." That would be today.
Officials said yesterday, "As combat training measures are coming to a close, the troops, as is always the case, will conduct combined marches to their permanent garrisons."
The Ministry of Defense said some troops and naval units are still training in the neighborhood of Ukraine and would begin a fresh round of drills on Tuesday (yesterday).
Reuters News Service said this yesterday:
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said “the intelligence that we’re seeing today is still not encouraging,” and Ukraine said the reported pullback needed to be seen to be believed.
“If we see a withdrawal, we will believe in a de-escalation,” Interfax Ukraine quoted Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba as saying.
NATO’s chief welcomed signals from Russia in the past two days that it may be looking for a diplomatic solution but urged Moscow to demonstrate its will to act.
However, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Zakharova said Western powers have been "humiliated and destroyed without a single shot fired" because "their warnings of an imminent Russian invasion of Ukraine were ostensibly rendered foolish by the withdrawal announcement."
And she said, "15 February 2022, will go down in history as the day Western war propaganda failed."
NATO is skeptical. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said yesterday "the intelligence that we're seeing today is still not encouraging."
At this moment, the war of words continues. We'll see what happens.
What if the Ukraine invasion is a "hoax?"
Yesterday Derek Hunter wrote an article in which he said, in part :
What if the idea of Russia invading Ukraine is a hoax? What if it’s just Russia doing what Russia loves doing – saber-rattling – and nothing else? What if the western governments scrambling now to “prevent war” know this and are hoping the whole situation serves as a distraction from the various “Freedom Convoys” forming around the world to protest oppressive and ineffective government actions related to COVID?
Joe Biden needs a distraction from a lot of things, inflation being chief among them. It makes sense that he’s spewing things in such a panicked way that even the President of Ukraine is confused by it. You’d think the leader of the country “on the verge” of being invaded would be sounding the loudest alarm, but he’s not. The American President is.
He makes a good point. Most Americans think President Biden is doing a terrible job as president. Clearly, he needs a political victory of some kind. And a distraction. He needs something that would make him look tough, in charge, Commander-in-Chief-ish.
He needs help. So, how could he cause people to forget the debacle withdrawal from Afghanistan, the unnecessary death of 13 American soldiers, the thousands of American citizens and individual American allies who were not helped to leave the country as promised---he needs a distraction from the fact that every time we fill up our car we're paying $20-$40 more than a year ago and while the inflation rate is the highest in 40 years---his personal approval ratings are the lowest of any president in recent memory.
And people have not forgotten. Nor will we.
Derek Hunter concludes, "Nothing makes sense unless you entertain a couple of possibilities: 1. We're led by morons, or 2. We are being lied to. There's ample evidence for both."
He's right. But which way is the scale tilting?
The enemy within.
The biggest threat to "democracy" as the radical left likes to say is not "climate change", formerly known as "global warming"---it isn't Russia or China or Iran or North Korea. It's the internal decay of a nation founded on the idea that God created mankind in His image and likeness, and in doing so gave his Creation inalienable rights---with consequences.
Our Founders understood the moral balance. We apparently do not.
Tulsi Gabbard is a former presidential candidate, former Congresswoman from Hawaii, retired United States Army Reserve officer, and a Democrat.
She is sounding the alarm.
Yesterday she tweeted: "The Durham investigation has shown that the biggest threat to our democracy is not some foreign country, but rather the Power Elite led by the likes of Hillary Clinton and her co-conspirators in the mainstream media & security state who work to undermine our democracy from within."
She continued with a second tweet: "The Durham investigation makes clear that Hillary Clinton and the power elite spied on the Trump campaign and the White House undermining our democracy, launching us into a new Cold War, endangering America and the world. Clinton and her warmongers must be held accountable."
The Durham investigation makes clear that Hillary Clinton and the power elite spied on the Trump campaign and White House, undermining our democracy, launching us into a new Cold War, endangering America and the world. Clinton and her warmongers must be held accountable. pic.twitter.com/uDaeo6ak5a
— Tulsi Gabbard 🌺 (@TulsiGabbard) February 15, 2022
Marcus Tullius Cicero was born January 3, 106 BC, and was murdered December 7, 43 BC. His life coincided with the decline and fall of the Roman Republic and he was an important factor in many of the significant political events of his time.
He was among other things an orator, lawyer, politician, and philosopher. He understood his times. And perhaps our own times better than some today.
He wrote this about the enemy within:
“A nation can survive its fools, and even the ambitious. But it cannot survive treason from within. An enemy at the gates is less formidable, for s/he is known and carries his/her banner openly. But the traitor moves amongst those within the gate freely, his/her sly whispers rustling through all the alleys, heard in the very halls of government itself. For the traitor appears not a traitor; s/he speaks in accents familiar to his/her victims, and s/he wears their face and their arguments, s/he appeals to the baseness that lies deep in the hearts of all men (and women). S/He rots the soul of a nation, s/he works secretly and unknown in the night to undermine the pillars of the city, s/he infects the body politic so that it can no longer resist. A murderer is less to fear.”
The enemy within has led us to claim the God-given rights noted in our Constitution (and some that are not noted in the Constitution) yet disclaim the God who gave them. It doesn't work that way.
Claiming "rights" without "responsibilities" is the virus that infects the body politic and leads to the inability to resist. And we are suffering through an epidemic of lawlessness, unable to resist---claiming rights, but not accepting responsibilities. Pretending there are no consequences.
We can survive the ambitions of our fools, our traitors, and liars, but we will not survive the treasonous abandonment of the God who gave us the rights and privileges. And the freedom and liberty that has followed.
St. Augustine claimed that it was the writings of Cicero, that turned him away from his sinful life and toward philosophy, and ultimately toward a personal relationship with God.
Be Informed. Be Discerning. Be Vigilant. Be Engaged. Be Prayerful.