I had made mention of Jacques Baud in a previous post related to Ukraine.

As I stated then, Mr. Baud is a former colonel in the Swiss General staff. He had worked in Swiss strategic intelligence, specializing in Eastern Europe; with training received from US and British intelligence agencies. He had worked at NATO on several programs related to Ukraine. And, he also worked for the UN on issues of rule of law and security institutions, as well as working on small-arms proliferation.

He has an interview in Postil magazine related to his new book, Operation Z (published in French).

In this interview, Mr. Baud discusses the war in Ukraine in terms of aims, expectations, historical miunderstanding, and military doctrine. The result has been a continuing disaster in terms of death and destruction. Whatever one thinks of either side, young men (and now old men) are dying in large numbers.

He does bring up some uncomfortable facts (at least for a Western audience).

Zelensky, while portrayed as Winston Churchill and Joan of Arc in the western media, (per the Pandora Papers) is the corrupt leader of one of the most corrupt countries in Europe.

While the Biden administration continues to have bi-partisan support to pour billions of dollars into Ukraine – little of it goes to support the Ukrainians doing the actual fighting.

Mr. Baud referenced the CBS News report (that I saw before it was pulled), which estimated that only 30-40% of the military aid makes it to the front; the rest, apparently, is sold in the international black market of arms sales – one can assume those arms will turn up in future conflicts.

Perhaps the most significant part of his interview is when he talks about the increasingly dire fallout from the war.

Europe may go dark and freeze this winter.

The US dollar is toast as the international reserve currency – hello hyperinflation here.

Saudi Arabia, always the strong ally of the US, has joined BRICS and is accepting Chinese currency as payment for its oil.

China and Russia have drawn closer together and appear to be building a multipolar world that marginalizes the US empire, the EU, and NATO.

He cites, correctly in my opinion, the failures of Western leaders that led to this situation.

As he said:

“The decisions taken by Western governments reveal a generation of leaders who are young and inexperienced (such as Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin); ignorant, yet thinking they are smart (such as French President Emmanuel Macron); doctrinaire (such as European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen); and fanatical (such as the leaders of the Baltic States). They all share some of the same weaknesses, not least of which is their inability to manage a complex crisis.”

Not in that list, is Joe Biden, who along with Boris Johnson, pushed for and continue to push for more war. Biden has seen crisis after crisis in his decades in the Senate; as Vice President; and now as President. He appears to have learned nothing – and we will all pay for that failure.

You can read the interview here.