Before the War

by Karl Richter

Karl Richter draws parallels between the current conflict in Ukraine and the two world wars, explaining why we are now entering the Third World War with eyes wide open.

There remains a popular belief about the First World War that the nations of Europe stumbled into it out of sheer delusion and political stupidity. This perspective is exemplified in the bestseller The Sleepwalkers (2012) by the Australian historian Christopher Clark. However, this view is inaccurate. International Masonic and financial circles had been working towards the Great War, the fall of monarchies, and the implementation of Western democracy for decades. The First World War was the product of long-term interest and intrigue in politics by Western background circles.

The same applies to the Second World War. Although Hitler was the most vocal participant, it is no longer a secret that he was merely driven by circumstances, as the Second World War was predetermined by the end of the First. Poland alone attempted several times in the 1920s and 1930s, with the help of Western powers, to provoke war against Germany. The trigger in 1939 was the ongoing terrorisation of the German ethnic group in Poland — encouraged by British-American masterminds. Incidentally, it is precisely the same constellation, including the main participants, that Putin faces today. Unlike Hitler, he waited eight years, from 2014 to 2022, before coming to the aid of the persecuted Russian population in the neighbouring country. In the extensive interview conducted by Tucker Carlson in February, Putin indicated that he is aware of the historical parallels.

We are currently witnessing the outbreak of the Third World War in real time. Deliberately, with eyes wide open. Incidentally, it would not be the first major war to begin in the summer. One cannot interpret the Western provocations directed at Russia as anything other than a determined effort to bring about war. NATO staff are aware of the Russian nuclear doctrine and appear to be attacking Russian radar stations, which are part of the early warning system for detecting intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) attacks and thus a pillar of Russia’s strategic security, precisely for that reason. Simultaneously, they are paving the way for the deployment of Western ground troops to Ukraine. Parallel to this, the war is being purposefully extended to Russian territory by lifting the previous restrictions on the use of Western-supplied weapon systems. Putin rightly warned that the ‘constant escalation’ could lead to ‘serious consequences.’ Even if Kiev carries out the attacks on Russian facilities and territory, the responsibility lies with the Western supporters. ‘They want a global conflict.’

Even the last remaining observers who have retained a sober mind have no illusions about this. Hungarian President Orbán stated bluntly on 24 May: ‘What is happening today in Brussels and Washington, perhaps more in Brussels than in Washington, is a kind of preparation for a possible direct military conflict, one can safely call it: preparations for Europe’s entry into the war have begun.’

Given the circumstances, the war will come because the West wants it. The reasons for this are varied and only marginally concern us here: cancerous Western capitalism is fundamentally dependent on the incorporation of ever-new real assets and was already preparing in the 1990s, after the end of the USSR, to absorb Russia and its resources. Putin prevented this. Today, the approaching end of dollar dominance and thus the end of American world hegemony are additional factors. To prevent this, Western elites are prepared even for nuclear war and are unscrupulously preparing to decimate the European population. The Ukrainians were just the first. Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó recently stated that the EU will attempt to introduce conscription in more member states to send young people into the increasingly hopeless war in Ukraine: ‘Conscription is being introduced to send young people to the slaughter in Ukraine!’

The ignorance with which European societies are being manoeuvred into war is eerie. Apparently, three-quarters of a century after the last war, all collective knowledge, every collective experience of the horrors of war, has disappeared. The carelessness — or should we speak of collective amnesia? — with which Western societies accept the approach of a war that is very likely to be conducted with nuclear weapons is breathtaking. How particularly clueless the Germans, who have already experienced two world wars with terrible casualties, are stumbling into the crisis is like something out of a zombie film. Germany is in no way prepared, neither mentally, economically, nor logistically, and certainly not militarily. The Bundeswehr’s ammunition reserves are known to be sufficient for not even two days. The good thing about this is that Germany does not even appear as a serious opponent in Russian strategic planning.

It is futile to agonise over the upcoming scenario. The war will not start with a nuclear exchange nor with a conventional large-scale attack. The latter would also currently overwhelm the Russian side. Russia still has many non-military, ‘asymmetric’ arrows in its quiver that can bring the West to its knees before it can wreak further havoc in Ukraine. To date, Russia has not yet implemented serious counter-sanctions, such as the complete cessation of gas and oil supplies, which still reach the West through detours. Russia has not even begun to harm Western infrastructure with clandestine but effective strikes, such as against communication, energy, and transportation infrastructure. Just recently, on 16 May, Moscow apparently sent an anti-satellite weapon into space, causing concern among US strategists. The mere failure of the GPS navigation system would lead to chaos in the West. But Russia is still a sleeping bear.

Germany survived two world wars through an unprecedented organisation of its social and economic resources, even if it did not win. In the Second World War, the peak of armaments production was only reached in the last quarter of 1944. The German society of today is light-years away from such achievements. It is unwilling to mount a defence or perform, has no resources, and is additionally burdened by millions of migrants it must support. It is simply unable to protect itself.

Much suggests that Western European societies, whose foundations are hedonism, the decline of values, and constant consumption, will implode in an emergency. Should the first tactical nuclear warhead of the Russians detonate over western Ukraine or one of the NATO transhipment points in Poland, many Western plans will become obsolete. The millions of immigrants alone, who will take what they need when the supermarkets are empty, will cause chaos and significant civilian casualties. But if Germany is in a state of war, there is a chance that most of them will leave the country in a hurry; such predictions exist.

Ultimately, this development must be welcomed. Because then, at least theoretically, there is a chance that the cards will be reshuffled, and the Western criminal regimes will fall. What possibilities arise from the combination of internal chaos and external threat and which new actors might then emerge cannot yet be predicted. One thing is certain: the Western puppet regimes blindly following Washington into the war must go if we want to survive. They, not Russia, are our existential enemy. They, not Russia, want our downfall. We must get rid of them if we want to have any future at all. We have no other choice now.

(Translated from the German)