Towards the end of World War Two Field Marshal Gerd von Rundstedt realised the Nazis had no path to victory. He knew the war was lost. Asked by his superior what they should do, his reply was as exasperated as it was pithy: Make peace, you fools.
They didn’t listen.
And who are the fools standing in the way of peace today? It’s the Bleeding-Heart Warmongers. Bleeding-Heart Warmongers are burning with righteous hatred of Vladimir Putin and all that he stands for. Bleeding-Heart Warmongers are filled with gushing admiration for brave Zelensky and his photogenic defiance of the Russian invaders. That’s how all good people think and feel, isn’t it?
But doesn’t it ever seem to you that we’ve been corralled into some kind of Orwellian two-minute hate? Could the western world be in the grip of Russophobic hysteria?
I’ve spent enough time studying and writing about hysterical mass delusions to know one when I see one.
Bleeding-Heart Warmongers
I think that’s what happened to today’s Bleeding-Heart Warmongers, the Ukrainiacs who are willing to risk World War III over whether a village whose name they can’t even pronounce is in Russia or Ukraine.
Bleeding-Heart Warmongers never learn. The war in Vietnam was a terrible mistake, they said, but we have to get Afghanistan because 9-11. Then they said, of course the war in Afghanistan was a terrible mistake, but we have to get Iraq because weapons of mass destruction. Then they said of course the war in Iraq was a terrible mistake, but we have to get Libya, because won’t someone think of the women and children…
And now the Bleeding-Heart Warmongers are saying of course all those previous wars were terrible mistakes, but we have to get Russia because Putin bad man.
Bleeding-Heart Warmongers never learn. They’re always against the last war. Always in favour of the present one.
The same media and political class that sold us the wars against Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya are also selling us our proxy war against Russia. If you didn’t question those wars, you owe it to yourself to question this one. Heroic Zelensky (always winning but never victorious), Evil Putin (always losing but never defeated), blue and yellow flags, the Ghost of Kiev, David and Goliath, Good versus Evil, democracy versus tyranny… it was easy to see how people got emotionally swept up in the fairy story, especially so soon after the delirium of the covid era.
But that’s what it is. A fairy tale, but one that has no happy ending.
Putin’s Behind You – Boo, Hiss!
The story the media has told us in the West is that the Ukraine war was an act of unprovoked aggression by Putin’s Russia. The word ‘unprovoked’ was repeated as a mantra by politicians and pundits to drive this point home. Poor little Ukraine. Big bad Russia. Putin invaded because he’s evil. Or he’s the new Hitler. Or he wanted to revive the Soviet Union. Or he wanted to reprise the Tsarist empire. Or he’s mad. Or he’s dying….
These are the shamefully shallow analyses we’ve been given. The complex geopolitical conflict is treated as a Manichean pantomime. Putin’s behind you. Boo, hiss.
However, the war was knowingly and deliberately provoked by the West. The first provocation was the reckless expansion of NATO to encircle Russia, despite agreements not to do so as the Soviet Union was dissolved. For some unfathomable reason, Russia sees being surrounded by an anti-Russian military alliance as an existential threat – just as the US saw Soviet missiles in Cuba in the early 60s as an existential threat which nearly led to nuclear Armageddon.
The Ukraine war is surely one of the dumbest western military blunders in history and one of the easiest wars to have avoided. When William Burns, the former director of the CIA, was ambassador to Moscow, he told the US government that expanding NATO to Ukraine was a red line for Russia – Nyet means Nyet, he said. The words of his famous cable sent to the US government after being called in to see Sergei Lavrov in early 2008 are particularly prescient:
Not only does Russia perceive encirclement, and efforts to undermine Russia’s influence in the region, but it also fears unpredictable and uncontrolled consequences which would seriously affect Russian security interests. Experts tell us that Russia is particularly worried that the strong divisions in Ukraine over NATO membership, with much of the ethnic-Russian community against membership, could lead to a major split, involving violence or at worst, civil war. In that eventuality, Russia would have to decide whether to intervene; a decision Russia does not want to have to face.[i]
We knew Russia would see NATO expansion to Ukraine as a declaration of war, because that’s what it was. All we had to do was say ‘Sorry, Ukraine. You can’t join NATO. Ever.’ Done. The war would have been avoided. Hundreds of thousands of lives would have been saved and it would have cost us nothing.
But our Russophobic elites wanted this war. Every opportunity – and there were several – to negotiate a security agreement with Russia was rejected. Way back in April 2022, shortly after the invasion, Boris Johnson scuppered negotiations that almost led to peace breaking out in discussions brokered by Turkey and Israel. Keep fighting, our Prime Minister told Zelensky, because we won’t support a peace agreement.[ii] This makes it OUR war. Our contribution of military intelligence, depleted uranium and long-range weapons make this OUR war.[iii] The bleeding-heart warmongers of our Labour government are using the Ukrainian conflict as a bloody but highly profitable advertisement for our weapons industry.[iv]
In the US, politicians have spent countless billions in taxpayers’ money on military aid for Ukraine. The money goes to the defence industry to produce weapons to send to Ukraine. The defence industry then contributes hearty donations to the politicians’ campaign funds. War’s a racket, and so’s this one.
Revolution of Dignity or Violent Far Right Coup?
Which brings us to the second provocation that led to the current conflict. You may remember the Ukrainian crisis of 2014 which set the scene for recent events. The president of Ukraine, Viktor Yanukovych, was toppled and fled for his life after a violent revolution. Many Ukrainians call this event the Revolution of Dignity. Others called it an American backed far right coup that instigated a wave of Russophobic legislation. It’s undoubtedly true that many of the battalions fighting to topple Yanukovych had neo-Nazi connections.[v]
After the events of 2014, the breakaway pro-Russian republics of Donetsk and Luhansk endured regular bombing as Kiev launched a vicious ‘anti-terrorist’ campaign, causing many thousands of civilian deaths. The images of casualties and bombed out buildings we’ve seen over the course of the conflict in Ukraine are shocking and horrific. But Russians had been seeing similar images of what Ukrainian forces have inflicted on Russians and Russian speakers in the breakaway republics for years. The Minsk II agreement, agreed by Russia and Ukraine, France and Germany and ratified by the United Nations, was designed to end this conflict. The Ukrainian government couldn’t or wouldn’t implement it. France and Germany have since admitted that they too had no intention of honouring this peace plan. It was simply an exercise to buy time to arm Ukraine.[vi]
If this agreement had been honoured, we wouldn’t be where we are now.
Russia’s red line was that Ukraine could not become a NATO member as that would mean that nuclear and conventional weapons could be stationed on its border. You may be old enough to remember that the USA was not too happy when the Soviet Union stationed nukes in Cuba. In fact, it almost led to a nuclear confrontation. Fortunately, wise heads and sanity prevailed, and Kennedy and Khrushchev stepped back from the brink. Wouldn’t this be a good idea now?
Bleeding-heart warmongers always want more war. As long as it’s someone else doing the fighting and dying.
But here is the news. We initiated a proxy war against Russia and we lost. That’s the reality we have to deal with. It’s time to make peace, you fools.
The truth is that western political elites care as little about the population of Ukraine as they do for the people of their own countries. If they cared about Ukrainians, this war would have been avoided. We aren’t saving Ukraine. The neo-con Ukrainiacs are sacrificing Ukraine in their war against Russia. Our rabidly Russophobic elites only care about harming Russia, and Ukraine is a tool for doing this. A proxy. A pawn in geopolitical chess, the aim being that a defeated, weakened Russia would disintegrate as Yugoslavia did.
The rest of the world looks on aghast as our hysterical Russophobia and hypocritical, sanctimonious, profiteering brings chaos wherever it goes.
Make Peace, You Fools
The logic is inescapable. Russia’s victory is all but inevitable. It always has been. It’s bigger than Ukraine, has a bigger population, has a bigger and more sophisticated military. The maths is grim but obvious. We knew this from the start. As Field Marshal Gerd von Rundstedt put it: ‘Russia’s vastness devours us.’
War with Russia – real or proxy – may help preening politicians look tough and keep our dastardly spooks in business blowing up bridges and pipelines, but it’s not in the interests of the populations of Europe.
This is a time for realism, not idealism. The bleeding-heart warmongers of the EU and the UK are gambling with World War III as they strut and preen with ostentatious outrage at the pantomime bogey man they have created.
And now the Ukrainiacs – Starmer, Macron, Johnson, the EU – are terrified that peace might just break out. They will cry appeasement – the word Bleeding-Heart Warmongers use to refer to diplomacy. They will do anything they can to prevent this happening. But, Bleeding-Heart Warmongers, you’ve lost.
It’s time to make peace, you fools.
[i] https://wikileaks.org/plusd/cables/08MOSCOW265_a.html
[ii] https://www.pravda.com.ua/eng/news/2022/05/5/7344206/; Also see this interview with Israeli PM about 2.5 hours in: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qK9tLDeWBzs
[iii] https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/apr/11/up-to-50-uk-special-forces-present-in-ukraine-this-year-us-leak-suggests
[iv] https://www.reuters.com/world/uk/london-arms-fair-global-war-fears-good-business-2023-09-15/?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email
[v] https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-27173857
[vi] https://consortiumnews.com/2025/02/25/ukraine-timeline-tells-the-tale/
Paul Weatherhead 