William de Berg
Swiss psychiatrist Elisabeth Kubler-Ross did extensive research on the psychological acceptance of mortality in her famous book on “Death and Dying” [1]. She concluded that, when facing death, there are five main stages: 1) denial, when we refuse to accept that our death is imminent; 2) anger, when we begin to realize the truth of our demise and need someone or something to blame; 3) bargaining, when we realize we’re out of time and offer to do anything (often agreeing to healthy choices that were dismissed previously); 4) depression, when we realize our death is inevitable and that we are out of time and without control; and 5) acceptance, when we finally come to terms in a more positive manner with impending death.
Due to failures in the Middle East, North Africa, and now Ukraine, NATO is facing its own demise, but its passage through the five stages of dying is complicated. Despite the predictions of many analysts, including this one, NATO officials at first thought it was Russia, not Ukraine, that was headed for a modern-day Waterloo. Ukraine supposedly had too many trained and committed soldiers, too strong defenses, and the backing of NATO countries and arsenals, while Russia and its president Vladimir Putin were perceived as vulnerable, with his army indisposed to a long war, his popularity at home shaky, and his economy incapable of fighting off sanctions.
The denial continued: even after the first night of the Special Military Operation (SMO), when a massive cyberattack disabled Ukrainian command and control centers; even after the first weeks of the war in which Russian forces broke through the first-line of Ukrainian defenses and went to the gates of Kiev; and even after the first few months of the SMO when Russia blunted the effects of sanctions by creating new export systems and received the financial backing of China and the tacit backing of much of the global south. The denial eventually reached comical proportions, with NATO officials ludicrously trumpeting the “fact” that Russia was out of missiles and tanks, using computer chips borrowed from washing machines, fighting with shovels, and transporting infantry in electric golf carts [2]. (Who knew that Russians even played golf?)
Eventually, anger set in—at Russia and everyone who supported her. NATO began to threaten everything from mass destruction of Russia’s interior [3] to harsh sanctions on China, and U.S. government officials increasingly lashed out at Putin in savage terms, such as “psychotic, murderous, thug” [4]. But it could no longer be hidden that Russia was winning the war of attrition—all as laid out in Russian military doctrine, written by the chief of its armed forces, Valery Gerasimov—and its military-industrial sector was not only thriving but carrying along the entire Russian economy.
The mass production of hypersonic Khinzal tactical missiles and autonomous drones and S-400 air defense systems gave the Russians an increasing advantage over the NATO arsenal. As one town after another in the Donbass and Zaporizhzhia began to fall to the Russian forces during the latter months of 2024, NATO’s anger entered into the bargaining stage, when for the first time leading Western officials started talking about trading eastern Ukrainian lands and Crimea for a truce and eventual peace deal [5]. Some of the bargaining, however, is still in the denial stage, such as the dead-on-arrival proposal that NATO “peacekeeping” troops be stationed in Ukraine on Russia’s doorsteps as part of any truce [6].
More recently, NATO officials have become increasingly depressed at the impending Ukrainian defeat. The recognition that NATO cannot match the military-industrial production capabilities of Russia nor stop the Russian juggernaut has set in [7], even as the anger and bargaining remain. Publicly, NATO leaders are still full of bluster about supporting Ukraine and defending Europe against Russia, but privately the discussions are much more pessimistic [8]. When they reach a full depression stage may depend on how well their energy-starved economies survive in the coming years, as China, India, Russia, and other BRICS nations invade global markets with trading outside the dollar and Euro systems.
The question is when will NATO leaders finally accept that it has been discredited in the eyes of the world? And when will leaders of NATO countries recognize that NATO is not in their best interests, given the disastrous NATO forays into Afghanistan, Libya, and elsewhere and NATO’s dependence on the whims of decisions made in Washington, D.C., including the use of its most technologically sophisticated weaponry?[9] The withdrawal of the U.S. from the Intermediate Range Nuclear Treaty has placed European nations at greater risk of nuclear annihilation against a nuclear-armed Russia—for what?[10] Concerned that NATO reduces European nations to mere vassals of the Anglo-American foreign policy hegemony, some leaders of NATO countries such as Macron of France have recently expressed rumblings about replacing NATO with an all-European defense force, but these have gone nowhere [11]. When the end comes to Ukraine, however, perhaps a new generation of European leaders will realize they have sacrificed their economies and military prestige following the Anglo-American leadership down one losing rabbit hole after another and that it is finally time to ditch the aging, sick body called NATO. But by the time such acceptance occurs, will NATO even be alive?
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William de Berg is the pen name of an American scientist and author of four conspiracy/truther fiction novels: Serpent and Savior, White Spiritual Boy, Divided We Stand, and Shield Down.
References
[3] https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2024/11/military-chairman-nato-preemptive-attack-russia-should-be
[4] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0KxM2djEpiA
[7] https://responsiblestatecraft.org/russia-ammunition-ukraine
[8] https://www.pravda.com.ua/eng/news/2024/02/18/7442458/
[9] https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202204/1257494.shtml
[10] https://www.icanw.org/us_withdrawal_from_inf_treaty_puts_europe_and_the_world_at_risk
[11] https://www.economist.com/europe/2019/11/07/emmanuel-macron-warns-europe-nato-is-becoming-brain-dead
Superb article, William. But as an added attraction, I would love to know what we really want from Ukraine. I seriously doubt it has anything to do with Russia’s infringement……more likely they have something we need and wish to control.
Sooner or later we all have to face this truth
This is how it works…… and if you go back to that Network boardroom scene, you’ll understand that governments exist ONLY to serve the corporations and We the People are invisible UNTIL we use the POWER OF OUR NUMBERS
.https://twitter.com/i/status/1864073303813427236
That boardroom scene
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mggkGeDX6lg
This is a great article, although it doesn’t adequately point up the mass delusion created from policy that is completely fabricated from lunatictic propaganda. I encounter so many ” Normies” who are so completely brainwashed by they mainstream media that it is impossible to carry on any intelligent conversation with them. They don’t know anything, and what that do know is false as a result of the incessant falsehoods and propaganda spewed by accepted news sources such as NPR. There is no longer any possible agreement on what is fact and what is fiction. Unfortunately President Putin may be forced to destroy more infrastructure with his hypersonic missiles for realty to set in. Unfortunately it will just be reported as more proof that Putin and Russia are completely evil. I’m really at a loss for words at how dire the situation has become. Stating any truth that is in opposition to the official narrative has become a seriously and often severely punished crime.