The Incredible Shrinking NATO

Thanks for your excellent commentary. i am signing up to support you.

During the cold war I saw NATO as a necessary countervailing force to the Warsaw Pact, however, I felt betrayed of the promised 'Peace Dividend' when NATO continued as a tax-payer fleece when the Warsaw Pact dissolved.

I have been against NATO ever since but it has total control over media via the security services so I have never been able to vote to be rid of it. I have no reason to expect Russia to demolish it on my behalf but I can hope!

Mr. Orlov: I always enjoy your thoughts, books, articles, posts. I would love to follow you. However, living in the West, I can't find a way to subscribe and pay. I tried everything, I contacted Boosty, they said to use PayPal but it doesn't work. I speak Russian fluently and all I can do is read your posts in Russian, but they are not in sync with your English posts. Is there any way to subscribe to your blog from the West by the payment methods offered by Boosty?

Fabulous Article. 

Thank you for making this available to everyone. The Salty Army will love this piece and the bon mot that "NATO is a captive buyers' club for US-made weapons". Here's hoping you get lots of new subscribers.

Thanks for you perceptive insights into the MIC and NATO; I find reading the official documents a form of self torture, I'm glad you were able to wade through it.  It seems that every vested interest is getting into the trough, only a couple of years ago it was big pharma, so I guess the MIC was looking for its opportunity, too.  However I don't think Blackrock will be collecting.

Interesting take.. They are already blaming Ukrainians lack of proficiency and training in MSM not the weapons. Could work.

Sadly "Rules based international order" has not ended yet. In brief -   While the destruction of WW2 raged across Europe & Asia, as last man standing the USA set all the rules, institutions, and demanded USD be world reserve currency. All these "rules" are still in place and 
America has waged endless wars to maintain the USD as global reserve currency and to ensure that nations keep their economy open for exploitation. American elites/corps can still buy any almost asset or person off in the world with it's unlimited printed funny money.  That explains Europes vassalage BTW. Anyway BRICS and whatnot is trying to make a dent in this system but war is far from over.

When all the treachery is exposed to the whole world, NATO is just ... Necrotic Abscess in Terminal Obsolescence!

I've been reading you on and off since your "peak oil "and "oil drum" days! This piece is one of your best. Keep writing..

"It may be slowly dawning on some of the more lucid European leaders that a way of backing out of the Russophobic cul-de-sac, of their own creation, in which they now find themselves, must somehow be found..."
Apart from Hungary's Orban, I see no European leaders with even a modicum of lucidity in their outlook. Decades of totalitarian liberalism have seeped so deeply into the marrow of the European body-politic that I can't even imagine popular uprisings throwing up any lucid political leaders. I think the Western peninsula of the Eurasian continent will just sink into impotence and irrelevance, while Russia continues to rise with of the rise of the Global South and East (unhindered by its own liberals, who have now thankfully fled West or fallen silent).

It's always the way.  The rich sacrifice the rest for their own selfish well being.  Bring on the tumbrils!

Suicide by reality denial.  I picked up that phrase from a Club Orlov article some time back and every time I see NATO or any part of the collective West digging their hole a little deeper I think to myself: “Hmm, more suicide by reality denial.”  To me those four words sum up the Biden “presidency”, Ukraine’s “offensive”, the NATO “summit” (more like it never left Base Camp), and practically everything else that is obsessing the West.

Unfortunately for them, if anyone among them ever really examines the reality they are so desperate to deny they will come face to face with the delusional assumptions on which they’ve built their house of cards, and the whole edifice will come tumbling down.  It’s going to happen anyway; reality always wins in the end.  Just ask the ghosts of La Grande Armée and the Wehrmacht.

Great job of analysis

The US penchant for exotic hardware is an old story--anything to run up the tab, with little concern for its performance in field conditions.  Russian arms were built according to the adage "make it simple, make it cheap, make it work."  Compare the M-16 to the AK-47.  They finally fixed the jamming problem on the 16, but it took time & money & not a few lives.  The AK's  reliability is legendary.  My M-16 didn't come with a cleaning kit, either.

They will just stop talking about it completely and move on to the next thing. It would appear that that is precisely what they have been trying to do for the past year or so. Bait China, bait North Korea, bait Iran, peddle climate change, peddle Covid, pebble chimp pox, and on and on.

Perhaps the exercise is in demoralizing a population base so much there is no consequence for losing face anymore.

Just to add to the list of wander weapons use, during the aggression on Serbia in 1999, the Serbian air defences managed to shoot down F117 and B2 ‘Spirit of Missouri’ using 2nd generation Soviets NEVA air defence system putting the stake through the heart of ‘invisibility’ of the vampire.

I am so disappointed with Orlov  !!! According to Le Monde ... NATO is winning , Russia is in deep economic recession , inflation is sky high there  , Russian cities are overwhelmed by Algerian   kids , Russian political  elite is group of degenerate   idiots , Zelenski is in Vladivostok and Russia lost 35% of its population ! If it weren't these bloody mines , Ukies would be already in Moscow !

The root of all evil is the love of money...and as it turns out the root of all useless weaponry.

FYI to those who wish to join - and I recommend it - I use Chase Visa (though I wish there were a competitor) and all I must do is answer one extra text to confirm the transaction as valid. As I recall, the charge comes from a name of something other than Boosty or Dmitry Orlov. It might be helpful if the name of the charge transaction was posted here, so people know it is valid.

Tamy Mikh, I use Visa from New Zealand. It works.