Berlin, Germany (Weltexpress). Despite unprecedented US/EU/NATO investment in the proxy war against Russia, the collective West has already suffered a humiliating strategic defeat that is recognisable to all. The helpless and haphazard actions of the US and some of its NATO vassals in the Middle East, especially in Israel, are also strategically doomed to failure.
The USA/EU/NATO have been waging a war against Russia for 23 months with the help of Ukraine, their well-armed and well-trained proxy. As of July 2023, Western military aid to Ukraine totalled almost 100 billion US dollars, half of which came from the United States. This military aid significantly exceeded the entire annual military budget of the Russian Federation (USD 82 billion in 2022).
However, the full scale of the Western arms build-up in Ukraine only becomes apparent when one considers that only a third of Russian military spending is spent on the procurement of defence equipment. The large remainder is spent on the army’s daily consumption of food, accommodation, pay, manoeuvres, fuel and lubricants, military technology research, development, test series and evaluations.
Seen in this light, the military aid from the collective West exceeds the Russians’ annual expenditure on new weapons many times over. Other “services” provided by the USA/NATO that are valuable to the Ukrainian armed forces should also be added to this, for example the real-time information on the situation on the battlefield obtained by US spy satellites. Because these “services” are not included in the 100 billion in Western military aid.
In addition, the West has trained over 60,000 Ukrainian soldiers to NATO standards and provided thousands more NATO-trained mercenaries. However, the Western “miracle weapons”, which were initially highly acclaimed due to their alleged technological superiority, have proved to be a complete failure. At the same time, NATO’s operational tactics, with which the Ukrainian ground troops were trained, failed completely in the fight against the Russians, while the Russians became increasingly proficient in their operational-tactical concept of combined arms warfare from month to month. The incorrect training of Ukrainian soldiers by NATO ultimately led to tens of thousands of avoidable losses for Kiev.
And despite this massive and unprecedented investment in this proxy war against Russia, the United States and its NATO allies have already suffered a humiliating strategic defeat for all to see, the effects of which can already be observed around the world. The helpless and haphazard actions of the US and some of its NATO vassals in the Middle East are strategically doomed to failure, just like their already lost war adventure in Ukraine.
The intervention of the USA and other NATO countries on the side of Israel, the insane climax of which has been reached with the massive military aid deliveries for use in Gaza, is already seen by the countries of the Global South as aiding and abetting the Israeli genocide against the Palestinians. At the latest when the International Court of Justice (ICJ) accepts South Africa’s complaint against Israel and issues immediate measures against Israel, the Federal Republic of Germany is also likely to be targeted by the ICJ for aiding and abetting genocide. It will be interesting to see what arguments the do-gooders in the traffic light coalition will then use to talk themselves out of it. Scholz has already used the excuse of not being able to remember anything too often.
Almost one hundred per cent of the population in Gaza now consists solely of refugees, who are crammed into a very small space in the southern part of the Gaza Strip without water, food, hygiene products or medicine, vegetate without a tent or roof and have to expect to die every day. The unbelievable brutality of Israel’s actions against the Palestinian civilian population also includes the Zionists themselves dropping bombs or firing artillery at these refugees who are crammed into a very small space.
Nevertheless, with each new day, the strategic victory hoped for by the Zionists recedes further into the distance, not only because of the South African indictment before the ICJ or the fact that the right-wing extremist Zionists in the USA and Europe have lost all support and understanding, especially among non-Zionist Jews and their circles of friends and influence. When people think of the Jews in the “Holy Land” in the future, they no longer think of the home town of the Holocaust survivors, but of the burning ruins of Gaza and mountains of dead children.
At the same time, the hope of defeating or even wiping out Hamas is fading. On 22 January, the US Libertarian Institute published an analysis on its website stating: “It is becoming increasingly clear that the Israeli government will not be able to achieve either of its two goals of eradicating Hamas and freeing the Israeli hostages trapped in Gaza.”
Citing various high-ranking sources in the Israeli military (IDF) at different levels, including the rank of generals, the Institute reports “that the destruction of the tunnel network is impossible”. This is also confirmed by the left-liberal Israeli daily Haaretz, which wrote on 21 January: “The Israel Defence Forces will not destroy all the Hamas and Islamic Jihad tunnels under Gaza. Probably not even most of them. … The IDF is reducing its forces in Gaza City in the full knowledge that many tunnels have been overlooked. This should come as no surprise. The tunnels under the Gaza Strip existed before Hamas was founded in 1987 and it seems they will continue to exist after this war.”
The Israeli newspaper further explains that the Israeli military command was surprised by the expansion of the network of tunnels under Gaza. “Only gradually did the IDF leadership realise that the tunnel network was much more extensive than it had previously believed”. Also, the main purpose of the underground network by Hamas was not, as assumed, “to launch rockets, but to bring their forces to safety”. In addition, another assumption made by the IDF leadership proved to be false, according to which “it would be enough to control the ground above the tunnels for a few weeks to force Hamas fighters to come to the surface in search of food, water and oxygen”.
The Libertarian Institute’s website goes on to say that the New York Times reported that Tel Aviv had initially believed Hamas controlled a network of tunnels covering 250 miles (around 402 kilometres). However, this figure is now estimated at almost 450 miles (around 724 kilometres). Haaretz also reported that an IDF commander brushed aside the maps of the tunnels given to him and dismissed the intelligence information in this regard as “useless”.
It is now clear beyond doubt that the tunnels were not only stocked with provisions for a prolonged siege, they also provided a safe passage between different sections of the entire Gaza Strip. When the IDF claimed to have destroyed this or that Hamas group, fighters from these groups reappeared in other parts of Gaza. And by the time signs of the presence of hostages were discovered in the tunnels, they had long since been moved to other tunnels.
It concludes: “There will come a day when the Israeli security establishment will have to admit that the destruction of the tunnel networks was never a realistic goal.” Implicitly, this also means that the liberation of the hostages hidden in the tunnels is not realistic either. But with these two objectives, the radical right-wing Zionists in the Israeli government have so far justified the widespread bombing of Gaza, regardless of hospitals, UN aid centres for the homeless and starving, schools, kindergartens and universities. In general, the Palestinian civilian population has been declared fair game for the Zionist soldiery, because what is really at stake is the expulsion of the 2.3 million people: from Gaza into the desert and or to Egypt.
However, the IDF soldiers are able to operate with less impunity in Gaza from day to day. Their own losses now amount to eight to ten deaths per day. And on some days they are significantly higher than this average. According to reports, the Israelis’ notorious “Golani” elite force, which was deployed in Gaza from day one, had already suffered heavy losses after just one week. By mid-December, the Golani unit had lost over half of its soldiers. Because it had become inoperable, it had to be withdrawn. It is now to be replenished and rebuilt, which is likely to take many months.
On Monday 22 January alone, 24 Israeli soldiers died “heroic deaths” in Gaza. This is by far the highest number of Israeli fatalities per day in the three-month war against Hamas. The deaths occurred amid fierce fighting around the southern town of Chan Yunis, in which dozens of Palestinians were killed and wounded. One can only hope that the large number of Israeli casualties will increase domestic political pressure on Benjamin Netanyahu’s radical right-wing government to stop rejecting a ceasefire.
