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Mar 23 • 12 tweets • 6 min read
With the UK Defence Select Cmtte Chair Tobias Elwood rejecting Chinese efforts to broker an end to the War in Ukraine the #NordStream2 destruction by the US has come back into the spotlight with a follow up post from Seymour Hersh.
seymourhersh.substack.com/p/the-cover-up…
Hersh cites this blog from @sarahmiller_227 [medium.com/@sarahmiller_2…] as the source for an eyewatering estimated cost to Europe for subsidising household energy over the winter period of an eye watering $800 Billion EUROS.
And he concludes with a paragraph on the German Chancellor @OlafScholz's visit to Washington (with no media accompanying him) which included an 80 minute private @JoeBiden-Scholz meeting "with no aides present for most of the time."
Immediately after his visit to Biden (March 4 Report: apnews.com/article/biden-…) Scholz Visited Xi in China (March 5 Report politico.eu/article/china-…)
And in late February Scholz also went to India with a large commercial delegation. hindustantimes.com/india-news/ukr…
And now @EmmanuelMacron is heading to China (Early April - exact date is not clear it seems). france24.com/en/europe/2023…
As the sole European nuclear power & a member of the UNSC P5 Macron's visit to China carries a different weight the context of the Chinese efforts to broker an end to the War in Ukraine.

The subject matter of the Xi-Macron fmprc.gov.cn/mfa_eng/zxxx_6…… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…
Perhaps unsurprisingly (given increasingly divergent European/US perspectives on the war) very little of the English language media discussion on this Chinese initiatiive has actually dealt with the substance of what China is proposing.
Shorter version - highlighting key points in the Chinese Text which was released 24th Feb.

As its hard to disagree with any of this (except perhaps for the US in relation to the text in red) one can only presume Western skepticism originates in disbelief.
In light of the increasing level of US sabre rattling, weapons system investment and militarisation of the Pacific (potentially risking a second military engagement in the much vaunted battle between democracy and autocracy) it seems unwise to not to take this at face value.
Whilst skepticism is doubtless warranted and wise, the goal of ending this war ASAP is of paramount importance to the existence of any global order at all - and there is a risk here of "throwing out the baby with the bathwater".
/ends

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More from @althecat

Alastair Thompson Profile picture
Mar 23
The Nord Stream Bombing: @jeremyscahill on "Why U.S. Remains Most Likely Culprit in Nord Stream Pipeline Sabotage."

& @theintercept's new article by Scahill >> theintercept.com/2023/03/10/nor…
In the interview @jeremyscahill unpacks the recent @nytimes anonymously sourced claims that the culprits in the attack were a "Ukrainian" alligned group using a small group, saying that technically nobody things this is credible.

SEARCH >> nytimes.com/search?query=n… Image
A preponderance of evidence increasingly points towards the US being not only responsible for this bombing, but also to it being actively engaged in efforts to prolong the war in Ukraine through escalation and disinformation operations.

Read 8 tweets
Alastair Thompson Profile picture
Mar 23
Breathtaking lack of self awareness here from Tobias Elwood - chair of the UK Defence Committee. He seems to be upset that Russia and China are pushing to reform a "rules based order" which was created by the US and UK in the immediate aftermath of the … twitter.com/i/web/status/1…
He seems anxious for their not to be a Chinese brokered ceasefire in Ukraine to end to the war - even though European politicians (who are on the front line) have pretty clearly stated this is what they want.
He names Iraq, Libya, Syria..... saying that the UK and US has been soft by not staying the course with the US on these complete debacles.

History records that GHWB started a war in 1991 based on a lie in Iraq - his son GWB started another war in 2003 based on more lies.
Read 4 tweets
Alastair Thompson Profile picture
Mar 22
So an attack on Crimea (that Ukraine is not claiming responsibility for) coincided with the Xi presentation of a peace plan for Ukraine.

The details of both from the extraordinarily talented Palki Sharma (ex Gravitas/WION)

Here >> << have a video presentation of the @aljzeera sourced report on the Crimean incident below. aljazeera.com/news/2023/3/21…
German @dwnews report on the Xi-Putin Summit.
Read 5 tweets
Alastair Thompson Profile picture
Mar 22
C’est vrai…. And it’s about time the UK Govt. Acknowledged this fairly simple and clear reality and stops holding up Rwanda as an exemplar of African Development - it is nothing of the sort.
The US and UK had three principle military proxy enforcers in the DRC & East Africa until the fall of the TPLF in 2018.

The roles played by Paul Kagame (Rwanda), Yoweri Museveni (Uganda) and Mêles Zenawi (Ethiopia) - until he died - are/were broadly the same.
All three regimes committed continuous human rights violations domestically and cross border + conducted illegal overt and covert military missions for their own purposes and on behalf of their Western sponsors for decades with impunity.
Read 6 tweets
Alastair Thompson Profile picture
Mar 21
Thé vicious and often fatal use of extreme physical violence by Israeli Security/Police against unarmed young Palestinian boys/men has been a constant theme of this conflict in recent months.

This is clearly a deliberate policy of the Israeli security apparatus.
I have been wondering what the reason for this could be. I keep coming back to one answer.
That the purpose is to intimidate and frighten young Palestinian men - with the objective of preemptively undermining Palestines struggle by making an example of any young Palestinian boy/man who dares to stand against Israel.
Read 4 tweets
Alastair Thompson Profile picture
Mar 20
A Russian analysis on the upcoming XI-Putin summit in Moscow contains several interesting features two of which I highlight here. THREAD

1. The possible impact of the summit on prospects of ending the war in Ukraine.
2. The joint efforts to build a new trading system which is… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…
1. Could a resurgent China, intent on reshaping aspects of the global order, with a recent diplomatic coup in the ME be in a position to mediate peace talks and an end to the conflict in Ukraine?
2. The sharp end of the second leg of this - reorganisation of global finance to lessen “US Dollar Hegemony” is the BRICS initiative which - if as some expect - may now see the development of a Saudi and Iranian oil trade settled in Chinese Yuan is the more consequential aspect… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…
Read 8 tweets

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