The Duran Podcast - Fanatics and fools. Crimea bridge obsession

Episode Date: March 5, 2024

Fanatics and fools. Crimea bridge obsession

All right, Alexander. Let's talk about the Crimea Bridge audio slash tourist missiles because this is all bundled together, this entire story about the audio leak and the push going against Germany and Schultz to deliver the tourist missiles to. to Ukraine. So let's, I guess we start with the audio leak maybe and move towards the tourist missiles, or what would you like to comment on first? Many statements from Pistorius, the defense minister. I'll just say something very quickly. The Germany's been freaking out about this audio leak a whole lot more than Russia has. And this whole audio leak was directed towards destroying a Russian bridge.

but Germany's really freaked out about this entire thing. So what are your thoughts? Well, I think they should freak out about it, actually, because what we got on this program, on this recording, is actually pretty astonishing and pretty scary. Now, I think the first thing to say about it, and I'm going to just take a few steps back, right to the beginning, start with perhaps what's the least important

and then move on towards the most important. The first is that we have clear confirmation. The German generals are absolutely incompetent and have no understanding at all of basic security issues. So apparently one of them goes off and attends a air show in Singapore. Anybody who's been to an air show, and as I have, by the way, I've attended the Farnbre air show twice, knows that they're crawling with intelligence officers

of every conceivable country on planet Earth, there will be every hotel that these are, the people who participate in these air shows, every hotel room will almost certainly be monitored and surveyed by someone. You do not conduct sensitive conversations from a place where an air show is taking place. I mean, this is absolutely nuts.

And, well, it could have been the Russian. who were listening in, which is quite likely. Somebody I know has suggested it might have been the Chinese, and which pretty well established that the Chinese have a pretty enlarged intelligence operation underway in Singapore, and it's widely believed that the Chinese and the Russians have sort of divided the world between them in intelligence terms, so the Chinese look after Asia for the Russians,

and the Russians look after Europe for the Chinese. And that's entirely plausible. but it could have been anyone, of anyone, all kinds of other people. Any officer of any military should understand this. And I mean, that they conducted a conversation like this in that kind of way is astounding. So that's the first thing to say. The second thing to say is that it's quite clear that all our shots is on his way out

and that his defence minister, Boris Pistorius, who we've been hearing an awful lot of from over the last couple of hours, is intriguing to take his job place and is making decisions behind his back, because Schultz has repeatedly gone out of his way to rule out delivery of tourist missiles to Ukraine. And we'll come to why that is shortly. But it's clear that Pistorius, despite his protestations that he's just been giving over the last few hours, is extremely keen on doing this thing. And he's also clearly been talking to the Americans, who are clearly, at least some of them, very keen on Germany doing this thing. Newland will come to her, will come to an American general, that the German generals have apparently

all been talking to. Anyway, Pistorius is clearly working with the Germans. military to get tourist missiles to Ukraine, and he's doing all of this behind all of Schultz's back. So that's another thing that we've learned. And the third thing is that Schultz is saying, you know, these are just officers, you know, thinking aloud. They weren't thinking aloud. It is absolutely clear that they were working together in advance of a military planning session and a briefing which had been requested by Vistorius himself. So, I mean, he is

straightforwardly lying when he's saying the opposite. I mean, you know, it's not just, you know, people thinking and talking aloud. It's something that he initiated that the German generals, some of these German generals seem incredibly complacent about all of these things. And anyway, they're all planning and they're all preparing to do it, despite the fact that Schultz, who they don't seem to have any respect for, you get this in the recording as well, even though Schultz, who's the Chancellor, has ruled it out. And the third thing is that it's straightforwardly acknowledged that this is an extremely complicated missile to operate and that the Germans would have to put a great deal of input into it and, you know, work out.

the guidance and do all of these things in order for the missiles to work. And we now have whole set of admissions that the British have been doing precisely that with the Storm Shadow missiles that they've delivered to Ukraine. In other words, the British are directly involved. They are working out guidance and picking targets for Storm Shadow missiles. to be used against Russia. And they want the Germans to do the same. And the Americans want the Germans to do the same. And the Germans, some Germans, want the Germans to do the same.

And last but not least, look at what they're talking about, attacking. First, the Kerch Bridge and a major missile strike against the Kerch Bridge. 20 missiles apparently would be needed to destroy this thing. If you launch 20 missiles, only some of them will get through. They will probably have to launch many more than that, perhaps 50 altogether, because they admit they don't know very much about the Russian air defenses, and they understand that the Russian air defenses are very strong. And besides, you get malfunctions with missiles,

and that sort of thing happens. Anyway, so large numbers of missiles, they can only supply 50 and a go to Ukraine and perhaps no more than 100 in total. So you're going to expend half the numbers of terrorist missiles on launching an attack on the Kerch Bridge. Unbelievable act, an attack on an important, massively important,

civilian infrastructure, Russian civilian infrastructure, German generals talking blithely about Germany involved in doing something like that, they then go on and admit to each other that the Kerch Bridge actually has little military significance anymore because the Russians have built up the land bridge, they've established road and rail links through it, they're building more railways,

So this is a PR stunt. A astonishing PR stunt against us, as I said, a symbolic piece of Russian infrastructure, civil infrastructure. And then they go on to say to each other, well, look, you know, if we can't really hit the Kerch Bridge because it's such a difficult target and likely so well defended, why don't we strike targets within Russia in Krasnodar region, in Rostov, presumed. instead. That was so much easier. You know, this demand that we go for the bridge is really, you know, it requires an awful lot of complicated planning and it might not even work. So let's do something easier. Let's go on and attack the Russians elsewhere. The whole thing has a lunatic quality. There is a kind of recklessness and an inability to even consider

the fantastic risks that are being taken here. And they blurt it all out from apparently a hotel room, one of them talking from a hotel room in Singapore, right in the middle of an air show. And of course, the Russians now know about it, the world now knows about it. It's all over Germany, and the government is lying. The German government is lying.

It's pretending that what clearly, happened. As we could see, if you listen to this, the recording, what was clearly said, wasn't really said. It was just a bunch of officers speculating and talking to each other and nobody really plans to do anything. I mean, it shows to my mind also how far off pieced the German political class, not just the SPD, but the CDU, the Greens, all of them have gone, and the German military have gone. They're talking about doing this thing, even though it's becoming increasingly clear that the German public doesn't want to go there. Yeah, my takeaway from this is that even the German military, even Pistorius, they've understood

that they're not going to win the conventional war with Russia. And it seems that they're going along with Victoria Newlands' nasty surprises type of strategy. Her words, not mine, which is, once again, an asymmetric type of warfare against Russia, which is meant to once again damage the Putin administration. I mean, at the end of the day, destroying the Kerch Bridge is all about damaging Russian president Putin. And in their minds, in their minds, it's about embarrassing him and humiliating him. That's the way they see it. And they're hyper-focused on this structure.

They've somehow in their minds, they've connected this structure to Putin, and they must destroy the structure. Hence, if we destroy the structure, we destroy Putin. Does that make sense? And is it correct to say that this is the thinking of the State Department. This is their strategy now. And it looks like the German government has bought into this. It's not not the entirety of the German government, but definitely Pistorius and much of the military command, have bought into this narrative of let's destroy the Kerch Bridge. Let's destroy things that are near and dear to Putin because that's all we've got at this moment of time.

you are absolutely completely correct if you're looking at the kind of discussions we've seen across europe over the last couple of weeks the last two weeks it's absolutely clear that they're coming up with hebrain schemes and far-fetched plans because they know that ukraine has lost the war it's only a matter of time now before ukraine collapses and they also know that all that money they've invested, all those weapons they've given Ukraine, all of that has achieved nothing, except prolong the war, kill many people, do enormous amounts of devastation. So they could see that the writing is on the wall. So you get absurd plans, you get Macron's plan, which it turns out some people in the

French military have also been thinking about sending French troops to Ukraine, EU troops to Ukraine to do what exactly nobody is really able to say. And you get these crazy ideas also about attacking the Kerch Bridge and doing all of those things. Now, I have no doubt at all, who is the person who is principally behind this whole idea, which is Victoria Leland. I mean, she has been obsessed with this war. It's widely believed that she was the most, um, Fervid advocate of last year's summer offensive, and we all remember how that turned out. She is obsessed with somehow making the regime change operation in Moscow happen. She too, I think, is sufficiently connected to reality to see that Ukraine is losing the war.

So she understands that time is not on her side, is not on the side of the neocons in this matter. She understands that the mood in the US itself is shifting against further commitments, that the Pentagon isn't keen on this thing. So she's going around talking to her friends in Europe and getting her friends in the military, the American military, to lean on their friends in Europe. you know, Ben Hodges, all that crowd. And they're coming up with these ludicrous plans. And the idea is not to change the situation in the wall

because these German generals admit that blowing up the Gertz Bridge is going to achieve nothing. There are still land corridors available. There are, in fact, I mean, there's secure land corridors available with greater capacity now to carry, freight and logistics and all of that across the land bridge to Crimea from Russia than the Kerch Bridge itself can do. So the Kerch Bridge is rapidly becoming just a civilian, you know, bridge which, you know, cars can cross and railway links fly across it, but the military logistics

don't go that way. So you've got this idifix, this obsession with the Kerch Bridge, You've worked yourself up into thinking that for Putin and for the Russian government, the Kerch Bridge is somehow emblematic of something important. They still believe that if they push and kick hard enough, some kind of crisis in Russia will happen. And that's why they're throwing everything they can into this attack on the Kerch Bridge. It is an obsession. It is, we're into Captain Ahab territory, you know, from Moby Dick.

Putin is Moby Dick, and to some extent, so is the Kirt Bridge. Yep, they've connected the two in their minds. Let me ask you a very simple question. Why doesn't Germany just deliver the tourist missiles? I mean, we all know you're going to deliver. it's it's a rerun of the leopards in a way that's what it reminds me of yeah we don't know that at the end of the day germany's going to eventually deliver some tourist missiles there may already be tourist missiles in ukraine right now they just haven't figured out a way to to spin it yet but um

what what what are they what are they waiting for what are they debating what is the what is the hold up in schultz or pistorius or someone saying we've given 20 50 tourist missiles to Ukraine, very much like the UK gave storm shadows or the French gave scalp, or the US is going to give it to us? Yeah, well, on that point, I should say that I have been contacted by someone, someone who I both trust and who I think, well, who has extremely strong information. And he tells me that there are in fact already Torres missiles in. Ukraine. It's just that Olau Shultz probably doesn't know that they're there. That's one of, that's the fundamental thing to say about this. I mean, you know, that this is, they've already been quietly

delivered. I mean, I've even, I've even been, I've even been told about how it was done, by the way. So, I mean, you know, so I understand that there are actually already tourist missiles in Ukraine. But, you know, I don't want to say more than that because I don't want to, you know, reveal anything, which might be awkward for someone. So, But why don't they just announce it? Because you're absolutely right. Soon or later, one way or the other, we will get to the point where it happens. I mean, remember, everything that Schultz has said that wouldn't happen, happens.

They repeatedly cross their own red lines. And they're going to cross this one. The reason they're not doing it, the reason they are nervous about doing it this time, is obviously Putin is reminding them, if you start launching missile strikes deep into Russia itself. Well, we also have missiles. That's what he said in his State of the Union address on Thursday. That was clearly, by the way, a comment made in light of this recording.

So, you know, he's just warning the, reminding the Germans, look, you're going on very, very dangerous ground now. I mean, if you want to sort of launch strikes against us, we have the means to launch strikes against you. And please don't insult our intelligence by pretending that it's the Ukrainians who are doing this thing. Because we know for a fact, and here's the recording to prove it, that you're actually directly implicated and involved. So that might be a constraint, but I think the major one, the thing that's really causing, The Germans to hold back on this is the sea change in feelings about this war in Germany. Germans are becoming increasingly unhappy about the whole direction this thing is taking. I don't mean that they've suddenly been converted to thinking that Putin is, you know, in the right on this war.

But there are increasingly starting to ask themselves are all these sacrifices that Germany has made. you know, Mela, the famous company that makes kitchen, kitchen equipment, you know, kitchen things, you know, the absolute top end kitchen equipment that Germany makes, one of the core Mitalstan companies, they're closing down production in Germany. They're transferring production elsewhere, I believe, to the United States. So the German public is beginning to become concerned.

And of course, beyond that, they're worried about, you know, that there are still the ancestral memories of, you know, do we really want to be involved with the Russians at the end of the day? We may not like them much. We may be scared of them, but do we really want to start striking, launching our own missiles deep into Russia itself? And we see that the IFDA,

It had a sort of bounce. It had a sort of wobble because of the criticisms of it and the attempts to ban it, but it seems to have stabilized and rising against Sarajevoagenet has formed a new party. And apparently that's also surging. So the German political class is very nervous. And to get a sense of how nervous they are, look again at the comments made by Boris Pistorius telling us, absurd that Germany would go to war with Russia. Nobody's suggesting such a thing. This isn't a

planning discussion. This is simply generals talking, you know, off their heads, you know, thinking out loud about what might happen. There's been no real decisions. You could see the spinning that's going on. And when people spin in this way, it's because they're very nervous about doing this thing. Most Germans apparently were unhappy about the supply of the leopard twos. They've seen the leopard twos go up and smoke. They know how angry the Russians are about that. Most Germans, if they were asked today, do you want Doris missiles to go to Russia? Would say no. We actually have opinion polling about this. And the German political class, which will eventually do this thing.

You're absolutely right in saying that they will do it. The German political class, which will eventually do this thing, is very nervous about doing it and is trying to come up with some ideas about how they can sell it to the German public when they eventually did. Brainstorming how to blow up a bridge.

We're just brainstorming how to blow up a bridge, you know. It happens every day. absolutely that's all that's that's the sort of thing the German generals do of course they actually

they actually you know they go and telephone someone in Singapore you know we're all talking about and go to bridge so you know let's let's call someone in Singapore to do it I mean

you know it's ridiculous what are your thoughts you know what are your thoughts? What are your thoughts about how to do this? I mean as I said Pistorius is

as I said it was one of the most mendacious state I have ever seen come from a political leader, and I've seen a lot in my time. And given how what a reckless thing this is, a point I made on one of my recent programs on my channel is that, you know, throughout the Cold War, there were lots of proxy wars, Soviet Union versus the United States, United States versus the Soviet Union, they were doing all kinds of things to each other in third countries in Korea, in Vietnam, in Afghanistan, in the Middle East, in all kinds of places around the world.

But they always understood that the one thing you never do is launch direct strikes on each other's territories. That never happened during the Cold War because to say it again, the point I've made many times, even sending an armed man across a border is legally speaking an act of war. You know, involving yourself in sending missiles right into another country. Well, I mean, that is absolute, you know, that's a kind of thing which absolutely would entitle Russia to declare war. So that they can be talking in this way tells you how reckless, irresponsible, desperate and stupid these people are. Can I play devil's advocate or push back against what you just said? Why, if you're Pistorius, if you're Newland, State Department, whatever,

why would you believe that Russia would retaliate when stormshadows, scalps, etc., have hit Russian territory? I mean, Belgarod, they've been hit by missiles, correct from? Or Crimea, Crimea. Crimea has been attacked with storm shadows. There's no doubt about that. And we even have reports that the UK may have been very much involved. But okay, whatever. Let's just say that didn't happen.

But the storm shadow missile was used to attack Russia. Why, if you're Pistorius or your Newland or any of these neocons, you know, sure, send the tourists and attack Krasnodar or the Kerch Bridge because in your mind, Russia's not going to retaliate. Even if Putin says we have missiles too, you're probably thinking they're not going to do anything. I mean, is that probably how they're looking at it? Oh, I am sure that is exactly what they're thinking. And if you go to the media, the neocon, the neocon writers, they're always saying this. They're saying it's a bluff. Whatever Putin says,

it's just a bluff. I mean, the danger with doing that is that you think that this is so, but you can never fully know. And the, the most of the moment. may be a point where, you know, Putin and the Russians feel this has gone far enough and we have no option but to respond. And if you get into that situation, what do you do then? Bear in mind, and I can remember this. Lots of people were saying this about Ukraine at one time that, you know, that, you know, Russian moves against Ukraine are a bluff because, you know, they can't risk the sanctions. The oligarchs would rebel. against Putin, there'd be a regime change operation there. I've actually spoken to people in London

who thought that like this. So, you know, you could just go on hammering away, attack Donbass, and ultimately the Russians will back down and go away. And of course, it didn't turn out like that. So you, the point is you need to be careful. Being utterly reckless is dangerous because you do not know for sure the point at which the other side comes forward and says, look, you've crossed our red lines repeatedly. You've done this again and again and again. You're being more and more reckless in doing so. The point has come, well, we have to respond.

You've pushed us this far and then we have to take action. And then what do you do? If you find it in yourself with that kind of situation, if the Russians retaliate, and I don't want to discuss what forms that retaliation might take, what do you do then? Wise leaders would never get themselves into that kind of situation. That's why both the Soviets and the Americans never did this to each other during the Cold War. But the leaders we have today are not wise.

They're reckless. They're unbelievably aggressive. they're fantastically complacent. And in terms of what's going on in Ukraine, they're becoming dangerous. They're becoming desperate. And if you put all that together, it makes them very, very dangerous.

A final question. Is that what the State Department and the neocons want to have happened? Do you think that there may be a desire or a plan to get Europe, especially Germany, possibly France, to provoke Russia into a response against Germany and France to destroy themselves. I mean, it seems like Germany and France and much of Europe, but especially Germany,

is being destroyed, not by Russia, but by their number one ally, right? I mean, that's what it seems like. And the German political class can't wake up to understand this. I mean, for them, maybe they see it as part of the plan. We provoke Russia. We get Russia to attack Germany or to retaliate against Germany, whatever that may mean. Could be an economic retaliation. I don't know.

Could be whatever. But we get them to fight. And then we can just sit back and watch and benefit from this fight. Do you think that there may be something like that at play? You know, once upon a time, I would have said, no, impossible. unfortunately today, as I've gradually come to understand how fanatical and detached from reality some of these people in Washington actually are, I'm afraid I can fully believe that there are some people in Washington who really do think like that. Can I just say that is a crazy idea?

I mean, going out of your way to provoke a war in Europe is an absolutely crazy idea. But, you know, we're dealing with some very strange, very dangerous, very fanatical people. And I say this again, if you read the kind of things these people write, you do get a sense of how detached from reality and how fanatical they are. sometimes I actually wonder whether it's not just that they want to provoke a war in Europe, it's that they want to provoke a war, period, that they work themselves up into the conviction that if there is a full-scale war, the West will win, and if you can't get regime change in Moscow by some other way, that's the way to do it. you know, it's, but, you know, in other words, we're well into Dr. Strange Love territory.

But, you know, just read, if you go out and read what these people say, you know, General Turgensen, you remember from Dr. Strange Love, you know, if we go all in, you know, we'll obliterate them, and we will suffer, you know, 20 million max. I mean, that kind of thinking. If you read book, how some of these people write, well, of course, they don't say that exactly, but you almost sense that they're prepared to go there. Look, it's good for business for NATO. It's good for business for the military industrial complex.

And, you know, if you are in the United States and you're one of these neocons, you're probably thinking we're so far away, we're protected, let you let you. Europe, go at it. And then we can, we can benefit when, when it's all over and we can come in and save the day or, or pick up the pieces and prosper. I mean, it's, it's crazy stuff. But if you look at the actions, the destruction of Nord Stream, this audio recording, the hysteria over, over a Russian regime change, just the fact that they're so. involved in in in ukraine when why is the why why is the u.s so so invested in ukraine what is the connection between the united states and ukraine zero nothing nada zilch there's no treaty there's no

alliance there's no common language common nothing they're not neighbors i mean you start to think maybe they have other crazy strange ideas at play what it is well indeed and of the under deep down there's also a fundamental visceral loathing of russia you know the the captain hay hand thing which uh i mean it's difficult to get away from you absolutely right we did a program about all the intelligence bases in ukraine and the fact that they were sending all kinds of people from these bases you know ukrain's but you know we had nothing to do with it america had it kept its hands completely free clean and they were going across you know, as an armed men going across the border, doing all kinds of terrible things.

And, you know, America, shocked, shock, shock that all of this is going on and then giving them another billion dollars so that they can do even more. I mean, you know, all of that going on. And I have to say this. And this comes across from this recording, the political, and indeed, I'm afraid, sorry to say this, some of the military leaders that the West has now are are basically stupid because, you know, if you're a German officer or a German minister, you should be worried about Germany in its situation.

And we see here we have these officers, you know, they're quietly, cheerfully planning on compromised telephone lines to attack. the Kirchbridge, and we have the German defence minister scheming to replace his boss by going behind his back and building around with all kinds of things which might end up in Germany finding itself again in another war with Russia. I mean, it tells you so much about the political bankruptcy

in Europe today. So, you know, you have fanatics in Washington. Some of them are quite clever, but they're still fanatics. And you have bunglers and fools in Europe. And the combination is terrifying. Fanatics and fools. We will end it there. The durand.com.

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