Phillips P. O’Brien’s weekly update scathingly addresses the seriousness of Saudi Arabia and Ukraine’s betrayal of their dependence on the United States.
Two states in particular are paying a heavy price this week for trusting the United States: Saudi Arabia and Ukraine (and, throughout Ukraine, Europe as well). Both states are bombed by their enemies and either abandoned by the United States or, in the case of Ukraine, see these attacks supported by the United States. This is a lesson that should have been learned long before this, but unfortunately was not. The depressing thing is that things will only get worse and that will be the first story in this update.
The second part of this midweek update will cover the rapidly evolving story of how the US government is now dealing a major blow to the Ukrainian war effort by limiting Ukraine’s access to Starlink/Spaceshield, on the territory of Ukraine. This began reporting yesterday morning and represents the largest overt act by the United States as it attempts to crush Ukrainian democracy in the name of Russia’s Putinist dictatorship. The introduction will go over what happened, why it’s so important, and how it happened (probably). It will also mention some important early signs of blowback. This is truly one of those decisions that will live in infamy.
At the end there will be a brief warning about what all this means for Europe and the rest of the world. The United States is showing everyone what vulnerability really means. I hope you are paying attention.
A quick summary. For decades, Saudi Arabia has outsourced its defense to the United States. The problem is that the current leadership of Trump America Inc. has no interest in honoring these defense agreements, the Saudis never really learned to do it on their own, and the Houthis are escalating their attacks, which, among other things, could reduce the world’s oil supply even further.
Ukraine’s dependence is more excusable as it had few other choices, but Trump’s open hostility toward Zelensky has intensified. Today, Trump and Musk are actively sabotaging the Starlink service they need to operate their critical weapons systems. (Though a pushback could force the Trump regime to back down.) The Ukrainians are dying because of it — and Russia is pushing the war now that Trump openly supports them.
As O’Brien notes, this should make Europe and other countries around the world aware that America is no longer a reliable partner – and should be seen more as a potential adversary. NATO is talking about plans to counter Russia – but given that US support is no longer assured, this is problematic to say the least.
Closer to the United States, Canada has contingency plans to deal with American military action across the border and is studying alternatives to Starlink. Canada also pledged to stop automatically relying on U.S.-made weapons systems. (An order for Blackhawk helicopters has just been terminated.)
It is not possible to return to the old world order. As O’Brien says:
Which is why, by the way, I get a little mirthless laugh when I hear people talk about things going back to where they were before Trump. Indeed, the United States is openly and more insistently demonstrating by the minute that it cannot be trusted and that building your security on a reliable United States is a fool’s game.
READ EVERYTHING. O’Brien goes into much more detail about how bad the situation is for Saudi Arabia, Ukraine, and the rest of what we used to call the free world.
Fake accounts. Fake news. You can help stop it.
A foreign influence operation attempted to use Daily Kos to spread propaganda, but we detected it. Catching them requires constant work. Bots, fake accounts, and misinformation campaigns regularly hit our site and our team finds and shuts them down. We don’t have a billionaire backer or a paywall to pay for this work, we rely on readers like you.
Your contribution keeps independent, progressive media running and gives the truth a fighting chance. Donate $5 today.
Was this story worth reading?
Recommending and sharing stories helps us decide which stories are most important to show to our readers.
Gn world
