Sleep of reason gives birth to monsters

Sleep of reason gives birth to monsters

The latest exchange of missiles with Russia must be frightening. A major world war is no longer a theoretical debate, but within reach. What is particularly frightening is how this danger is completely ignored or played down in the West. The media now have a responsibility to end the sleepwalking of local political elites. A commentary.

by PAUL SCHREYER

[This article posted on 11/22/2024 is translated from the German on the Internet, https://multipolar-magazin.de/artikel/der-schlaf-der-vernunft.]

First of all, Moscow's current dilemma is not a military one. In Ukraine, Russia has been on the rise for months, the defeat of Kiev inevitable, as even leading Western media outlets have since granted. The Russian dilemma is much more a problem of communication. How can contact be established with Western politicians when they turn a deaf ear or are simply “asleep” in a media bubble, where nothing disturbing gets through, where the reality of the battlefield and the multipolar alliances worldwide is “disinformation” is, at least hardly needs to be noticed, in which only ‘unity’ counts and the invocation of political formulas, in which above all, further and further, at all costs, it is escalated until it - really - pops? What can Russia do to wake up the dawning, dormant reason in the West?

In response to Western attacks with long-range missiles on Russian territory, the Russian army fired several new hypersonic missiles at the Ukrainian city of Dnipro on November 21, hitting an arms complex where, among other things, missile components were produced. The missiles, known as Oreschnik (English: Hazelnut), reach a speed of about 10,000 km/h and thus cover a distance of 1,000 kilometers in about five minutes. In a hastily scheduled televised address (English translation here) on Thursday evening, President Putin explained that Western air defense systems “cannot intercept these missiles”.

With the previous attacks by Western long-range missiles on Russian territory on November 19 and 21, something significant has changed, according to the Russian president: “From this moment on,” the war in Ukraine “has taken on elements of a global nature.” From now on, there is a threat of retaliation strikes directly in the countries that allow the use of weapons against Russian territory, Putin said:

“We will determine the targets for destruction during further tests of our latest missile systems on the basis of the threats to the security of the Russian Federation. We consider ourselves justified in using our weapons against military targets of those countries that allow the use of their weapons against our targets, and will respond just as decisively and in the same way in the event of an escalation of aggressive actions. I recommend that the ruling elites of those countries that are planning to use their military contingents against Russia think seriously about it.”

Meanwhile, the Russian ambassador to Great Britain stated on British television that after the missile attack with British missiles on Russian territory, Great Britain is now “directly involved in the war” because the missiles can only be operated and deployed with the help of the British military.

As far as Germany is concerned, this means that if German politicians continue to consider supplying Taurus missiles to Ukraine and these missiles hit Russian territory, the Russian government will see itself legitimized to destroy military targets in Germany – and will probably do so. Russian hypersonic missiles will then hit German soil in five minutes. The war would come to the German countryside, for example to Schrobenhausen in Bavaria, the location of the MBDA arms company, which produces the Taurus missiles. Other potential targets would include other German arms manufacturers such as Rheinmetall (Düsseldorf), Airbus (Ottobrunn, Manching), Krauss-Maffei Wegmann (Munich), Diehl (Nuremberg) and military headquarters of the Bundeswehr and NATO throughout the country. Brigadier General (retired) Erich Vad, who was the chief military adviser to Chancellor Angela Merkel for many years, has just outlined a warning scenario of what would happen in Germany.

It is frightening that leading German politicians, from Merz to Habeck to Lindner, seem to be completely blind to such a danger and apparently trust that the Russian government is just bluffing and that Germany – why, actually? – could never be in direct danger. This blindness is largely due to a media landscape that does not counter the warlike ambitions of a cross-party political class – although for months now, for example, a clear majority of the population has been opposed to the delivery of long-range missiles to Ukraine. According to the latest poll, 61 percent, and in the east as many as 76 percent, are clearly opposed to this. Only among the supporters of the Green Party is there a majority in favor of delivering these missiles.

It is not, at this point, a question of one's political position vis-à-vis the Russian government, or how sympathetic or unsympathetic one finds Vladimir Putin, or how one views the morality or immorality, the justification or unjustification of the Russian conduct of the war. It is not about solidarity with Ukraine, Western values or any of the other frequently used phrases. Right now, something more fundamental is on the agenda: an imminent threat of war in Western Europe and the creation of an opportunity to prevent it by actively using all public and diplomatic channels. Moscow's dilemma must be resolved – and that can only be done here in the West, especially in the media, where the truth must finally be on the front pages: the war in Ukraine is lost, negotiations with Russia are inevitable, and further escalation just to save face is irresponsible and pure suicide.

At the end of the 18th century, the Spanish painter Francisco Goya titled an etching from his famous series “Caprichos” with the sentence: “The sleep of reason produces monsters”. Those who do not want to be overwhelmed by these monsters must be awake – and also wake others. The final print in the series, which depicts fleeing spectres symbolizing the dignitaries of the Holy Inquisition – the ruling elite at the time – is titled “Ya Es Hora” – “It's Time”.

Discussion

RALLE, November 23, 2024, 10:00 AM

The German government is a bunch of transatlantic US lackeys. They make policy against Germany and for US hegemony. A CDU MEP explains that the attack on Nordstream was a “legitimate goal” (). Not only Habeck can't do anything with Germany, it's the entire federal government. This lying ramblings of the “territorial integrity of Ukraine”. That doesn't concern us in the least. Ukraine destroyed itself when it began shooting at civilians in Dombass with artillery in 2014. We have never helped any of the countries invaded by the US. We didn't even supply Iraq with steel helmets so that it could defend itself against US war of aggression, and are we starting WW3 because of Ukraine? The long-range missiles cannot be controlled by Ukrainians; the targets are entered by Western troops.

This is participation in the war. Russia is the legal successor of the Soviet Union, not Ukraine. We have a special responsibility towards Russia and also many treaties (including the 2+4 Treaty), which we have all broken. We have no obligations to Ukraine. When the US president, who has been voted out of office, escalates the situation to the point of no return before leaving office. The man is demented, he doesn't realize what he is doing, others are pulling the strings. Does this also apply to the EU leadership and the German government? The only two parties in Germany that oppose this warmongering are AfD and BSW. But they are tearing each other apart and hiding behind the undemocratic firewall, as can be seen in Thuringia. There, the will of the voters is being trampled underfoot. Thus, BSW is the stirrup holder of the actually voted-out old parties. No critical words about the stationing of US nuclear missiles in Germany change that either. One can only hope that Russia will beat Ukraine before some German gambler starts the hot war. Friedrich Merz is no Frederick the Great, even if he likes to think so.

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RALF SCHREINER, November 23, 2024, 3:40 PM

Thank you, Mr. Schreyer, for this comment. The new media are the only ones – with a few exceptions – that speak out against war on principle. The “state” media fuel the risk of war with their propaganda and thus make it more likely. Through its actions, the ruling class in Germany is making itself the lackey of US strategic interests. The German government is violating the 2+4 Treaty. Who here is protesting from the political side, the civil servants, the soldiers, who has the courage and the sense to stand up? Because if our republic is to endure, a larger number of citizens must take to the streets in resistance to the arrogance of all warmongers in Germany and the financial interests behind them. German soldiers must be withdrawn from all over the world because out-of-area missions are not in the interest of Germany.

All senior officials must fulfill their civic duty and recognize that they must not be the lackeys of a warmongering government! Since Germany has never been truly sovereign since 1945, the fundamental question arises as to how our state and polity can be reorganized in view of a US intelligence-driven political agenda that leaves the German political “elite” in no doubt.

Conclusion:

(-) All those who collaborate with it are committing treason!

(-) Germany is currently being sacrificed as bait to provoke Russia into military action!

(-) Germans have the right and the duty to act in accordance with Article 20 of the German Basic Law!

(-) One more thing: establishing a NATO tactical headquarters in Rostock cements the intention of the Americans to force us geopolitically into a war with Russia in which the Germans are supposed to foot the bill. Conclusion:

(-) No deployment of nuclear weapons in Germany!

(-) Withdraw all American troops from Germany!

(-) Take all nuclear and chemical weapons with you!

(-) Return of German defense policy to disarmament and exclusive security of German borders

(-) Withdrawal from NATO

(-) Constitution, state reform (Article 146)

It is completely open in what form the aforementioned will ever be possible, or our country will be destroyed.

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DIETER R., November 23, 2024, 4:40 PM

“The war in Ukraine is lost, negotiations with Russia inevitable, a further escalation just to supposedly save face, irresponsible and pure suicide. ”

That's right. The question is when the wrong-headed politicians and string-pullers will finally realize this. Possibly only when it is too late and the missiles have hit... Unfortunately, this has become very, very real.

ALEXANDER FEIN, November 23, 2024, 10:10 PM

Excellent comment from Mr. Schreyer, fully in line with the seriousness of the situation. It seems to me that a collective death wish is taking hold, which has already been clearly demonstrated by the so-called Corona crisis. From the outset, I have interpreted the emergency measures, which were celebrated by the population, as a substitute for war. So it is not only the journalists who are to blame, but all areas of society. However, the masses can no longer be reached due to narcissistic sensory dulling, to which journalism, in particular, seems to be particularly susceptible, so that from now on, a course of events governed by its own laws is unfortunately all too probable.

ELISABETH H., November 24, 2024, 10:40 AM

When Joe Biden released the ATACMS missiles for use in Russia, everyone here in Europe, starting with the foreign minister Josep Borrell and going all the way to Merz, cheered and increased the pressure on Olaf Scholz to finally release the Taurus cruise missiles. The release of the ATACMS missiles is also not seen as an escalation, but is justified by the right to defend Ukraine, after all, Ukraine got into a war “like the Virgin Mary into child birth”. That's roughly how it seems to me, because officially I'm missing any analysis.

This attitude was also evident this week on Maybritt Illner, when Karl Lauterbach defended the Chancellor's decision not to purchase Taurus missiles on the grounds that he did not want to escalate the situation. These cruise missiles have to be operated by Germans, and that would then already be an entry into the war. You read Putin's lips. In any case, Alexander Dobrindt, who was also present, was outraged that the release of Taurus would not be an escalation at all, with the above justification, the right of Ukraine... So that is the view of the CDU / CSU, the transatlantic one. Between the US and Europe lies the ocean, and if a war starts here, the Americans don't care, but we do, and it's not just about Germany. Because all of Europe would be drawn into it. And so I ask, overall, for a little less German navel-gazing.

In this respect, if early elections are held, I would strongly advise against voting for the CDU, if it comes to a vote of no confidence in the Chancellor at all. There are already voices from the AfD not to do so.

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Meanwhile, France has also deployed long-range weapons in Russia. These insane rulers simply no longer know what war means.

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... and of course it's always the Russians who are escalating...

By Christian Müller

[This article posted on 11/23/2024 is translated from the German on the Internet, https://globalbridge.ch/und-natuerlich-sind-es-immer-die-russen-die-die-eskalation-betreiben/.]



In response to outgoing US President Joe Biden's approval for Ukraine to use its US-made ATACMS long-range missiles to fire at targets inside Russia, Russia bombed a militarily important industrial facility in Dnipro in Ukraine with a completely new hypersonic missile that is virtually impossible to intercept. And what do the major media outlets write? Russia is responsible for a further escalation of the war in Ukraine. The journalists of the German-language corporate media are masters of distortion: in their intention to make the Russians responsible for all escalation steps in the Ukraine conflict, they sweep historical facts simply under the table.