Street Fighters Zangief vs Guile

The week ended on June 8, 2024. Interesting news items to look at this week are:

 Street Fighters Zangief  vs Guile: I took the theme of a classic video game Street Fighter as an anchor for this week’s Blog (Fig. 1).

In the video game Zangief (the Russian Red Cyclone) moveset is centered on grappling whilst Guile (the American GI) has the Sonic Boom and the Flash Kick. The real life battle in Ukraine is strikingly similar.

(i) Last week Biden gave Ukraine permission to strike Russia territory with American weapons: (Fig. 2).

This is a major escalation and US has just crossed its own red line. The restrain by Putin has been criticized within Russia as the West misread Putin’s patience as weakness because the West only respond to actual force but not warnings. The veil between a hot war and a proxy war between two nuclear superpowers is wearing awfully thin.  Russia in response will supply long range missiles to adversaries of US, a move said reluctantly by Putin will have a destabilizing effect on global security. (Fig. 3).

On the battlefield, Ukraine is loosing one battalion a day in casualties which is unsustainable.  Fresh Ukrainian conscripts (bakers and carpenters) are fed to the front line with just 3 days of training. (Fig. 4).

It was reported that land mines were laid by AFU border guards at the Romanian border to deter men from fleeing the country to avoid conscription. (Fig. 5).  

The bear had indeed hug Ukraine and NATO tightly and progressively squeezing out the life force of the AFU and her Neo Nazi backers. What then is that hope by hitting targets within Russia that Russia would be threatened to seek peace at NATO’s advantage.  Summer is upon the Northern Hemisphere and whatever needs to be done will be

In the meantime, different factions within the US - Anti-Russian Hawks, Anti-Chinese Hawks, Pro-Israel Hawks, Anti-Shiite Hawks are each demanding their agenda stays at the top of the pile and the octogenarian at the White House have failed so far to maintain a proper balance and prioritize resources. Biden’s maneuvers for a re-election will result in dismemberment of the US. (Fig. 6)

 

I am still maintaining my thesis that the Ukrainian war would end in August 2024.

 

(ii) Biden says not ruling out use of U.S. forces to defend Taiwan (Fig. 7):

The problem is US lacks the logistics to sustain another war of attrition when China has such overwhelming geographical advantage. After decades of war, wars against insurgents in Afghanistan and the Middle East, Pentagon simply does not have the budget nor indeed a historical need to maintain logistical support for a peers war in neither Europe nor Asia. In a piece by the Daily Mail, military exercises in the Philippines with a view to fight China in Taiwan would fail because US does not have fast and stealthy boats to ferry US troops from the South China Seas to Taiwan. (Fig. 8).

Worst still the US Navy has shelved most of its Tender Ships (Supply and repair ships for bigger vassals) and a long war of attrition with China is doomed for failure. Two weeks ago, China flexed her muscle by completely encircled Taiwan in a single day when the newly elected President of Taiwan made yet another provocative secession rhetoric. (Fig. 9)

Proverbs 25:6  Do not exalt yourself in the presence of the king, And do not stand in the place of the great; 7  For it is better that he say to you, "Come up here," Than that you should be put lower in the presence of the prince, Whom your eyes have seen.