Fall of Ukraine Part Nine

Russia’s victory over Turkey gained the usual cries of outrage from numerous Western powers. Putin the Magnificent brushed aside such criticism for the contempt it was worth and pointed towards the actions of Turkey as condemnation warranting the rightful response by Russia. Furthermore the actions of Greece did not go unnoticed and again Putin highlighted the fact that Turkey had brought its downfall upon itself.

Turkey was now divided up by the conquerors with Armenia gaining several territories, Russia taking European and northern Turkey for itself, with a rump Turkey remaining which was soon nicknamed Vichy Turkey by Putin’s critics. Greece, though, was given a surprising reward in the form of a religious gift. The famous Museum Mosque Ayasofya Müzesi would revert to the Eastern Orthodox    Hagia Sophia Cathedral with the intention of it once again becoming the headquarters of the Eastern Orthodox Church. Whilst this outraged the Islamic World, although Iran was very quiet on the issue hoping to keep Russian favour for its nuclear program, it was nonetheless extremely popular in Greece and Russia.

Irrespective of the fact that the Europeans could not have cared less, about the change in religious ownership of an historic Turkish building, they came to realise that NATO was dead. France, Germany, and Poland, in the aftermath of the fall of Turkey, quickly put together a new defence organisation called the European Defence Organisation (EDO). Soon Italy, Spain, Denmark, Holland, and Belgium had signed up although Britain initially deferred awaiting the American reaction. With America still politically paralysed, and nothing but hollow cries of condemnation coming from President Obama, British Prime Minister David Cameron signed up to the EDO ensuring all the major Western European powers now constituted this new defence alliance whilst ensuring the demise of NATO.

Yet the first clash involving the EDO would not be with Russia. Britain had bases on Cyprus and was far from impressed by the actions of Greece in invading the Turkish sector. Soon a war of words erupted between Greece and Britain which ensured that relations between the two countries reached an all time low. The British bases were thus surrounded by the Greek army and placed under siege. Given Britain had no alternative, other than suffer annihilation of its base personnel if she decided to keep them, these bases were evacuated by air transport. The Greeks permitted this for various reasons, not to mention the Italian Air Force (under EDO command) conducted constant air patrols deliberately threatening the Greeks. Nonetheless the Greeks, in the end, could celebrate a bloodless victory albeit the British ensured that nothing of use was left behind including the demolition of buildings and runways.          

Fall of Ukraine Part Ten
 
Once the British abandoned their bases in Cyprus, Putin the Magnificent realised that there were no more opportunities in Europe to further his plans for Russian glory. The EDO had quickly become very effective in power projection. Although the Russian Black Fleet had set up base in Istanbul, which had reverted back to its historical name of Constantinople, and thus could project power into the Eastern Mediterranean, Italy, Spain, and France had combined their navies into a far more powerful force which the Russians could not hope to compete with. Similarly The Royal Navy had combined forces with the Dutch, Belgium, Danish, and German navies to ensure that their combined strength was far greater than anything which the Russians could mount in the Atlantic.

On land the EDO announced their “Fortress Europe” policy which essentially turned Poland and the remaining Central European allies such as the Czech Republic and Slovenia into an impregnable armed camp. And even though a large number of ex-NATO nations had become neutral, thanks to cheap Russian oil and gas, Putin wisely knew such nations would not fight for him should Russia find itself at war with the EDO. Furthermore Putin also knew that Russia by itself could not be guaranteed victory, over the EDO, whilst other soft targets presented themselves elsewhere.

Thus Putin’s eyes looked towards the Middle East for opportunity, especially since NATO’s efforts there had now fallen apart, given the collapse of that organisation, and the EDO member countries had withdrawn their forces in order to protect their own regions from Russian aggression. Only the United States remained, in their efforts to support the Iraqis, along with their Australian allies.

As a consequence of the collapse of NATO, the American lead resistance to ISIS begun to falter. Determined not to have troops on the ground, along with the political stalemate back home, the American and Australian air campaign could no longer halt the advance of ISIS especially given that the Iraqi army had proved useless. But now that the Russian army occupied Turkey, and had right of passage through “Vichy” Turkey territory, Putin saw the opportunity to get involved with the campaign against the ISIS terrorists and take as much Iraqi territory as possible. Not only more oil reserves would fall under Russia’s control, but along with Russian ally Iran, a large region of the Middle East would fall under Putin’s control shifting the global balance of power well into Russia’s favour.       

Fall of Ukraine Part Eleven

The Fall of Baghdad to ISIS ensured a great opportunity for Russian success and Putin the Magnificent took full advantage of the success of ISIS. The remains of the defeated Iraqi army fell back to Basrah in a desperate attempt at survival. In the north-east, meanwhile, the Kurds held on desperately but defiantly and kept ISIS forces at bay. Nonetheless they were desperate and called for international help.
Putin’s plans were already in motion, by this stage, and within 24 hours of the fall of Baghdad, Russian forces crossed the border into northern Iraq. ISIS was taken completely by surprise and the limited numbers they had stationed along the border were completely overwhelmed. And even though they soon rushed forces north, to face the Russians, the Russian Air Force completely controlled the skies and hit the advancing ISIS reinforcements relentlessly.

Whilst the Iraqi government and the Kurds welcomed the Russian intervention, President Obama was given little chance but to object to Putin’s actions albeit he highlighted the need to coordinate their efforts in defeating ISIS. The Republican Tea Party faction jumped upon this and denounced Obama as a traitor demanding that Congress indite Obama accordingly. This split the Republicans where the moderates had had enough of the Tea Party’s antics and refused to support any such Congressional action. The Tea Party leadership, however, refused to back down, whereupon the moderates of the Republican Party walked out to form a new party. Consequentially about a quarter of Congress was made up of this new Middle America Party and, although no coalition was formed with the Democrats, the political stalemate in Washington had finally been broken as several attempts of bipartisanship between Middle America and the Democrats were successful.

Nonetheless, by the time the President of the United States was freed of the stalemate of the Tea Party antics, the Russians had overrun most of the ISIS defences and had liberated both Mosul and Baghdad not to mention a dozen other regions. Iraqis by the millions cheered the Russians, as their champions, whilst Putin was declared the Magnificent for the first time by the Mullah of Baghdad. Putin quickly accepted the honorific title thus ensuring great propaganda status in the Middle East as well as home in Russia. It was in marked contrast to how Iraqis and Kurds viewed the United States, and although the surviving Iraqi army around Basrah had its suspicions of Russian intentions, they nonetheless accepted Russian authority and the Russian occupation of Iraq along with the general population.   

Fall of Ukraine Part Twelve
          
As Mother Russia celebrated another victory by Putin the Magnificent, America was sobering up to the new world order. The America political stalemate was over and it was clear that America’s global powerbase had been severely eroded thanks to the domestic political games. The Middle East, albeit not completely in Russian control, was nonetheless divided. Russia controlled Iraq whilst its allies, such as Iran, likewise thumbed its nose at America without concern. And any thought about a nuclear deal fell through as Russia would give the Iranians what they wanted.  

Similarly the Western Europeans hardly trusted the Americans any more since the fall of NATO. Believing that they would have to look after their own interests in future, given the perceived threat from Russia, the Europeans saw the EDO as vital and American input was not required. And regardless of the reassurances of President Obama, that America would be there for them, the Europeans believed that America had betrayed them citing Ukraine, Turkey, and the Baltic States as clear examples of this betrayal.

Given the new situation America found itself in, with no friends in Europe and Russian power clearly a major and significant threat to the United States, few were surprised when Congress passed legislation dramatically increasing its defence bill. Similarly few were surprised when Obama accepted the needs for this drastic change in defence policy. In a similar fashion the American People realised that America may no longer be the most powerful nation on Earth and drastic steps were required in order for America to regain this important position. In doing so, and somewhat ironically, the Tea Party was stripped of much of its platform making it appear both irrelevant and disruptive to the needs of America not to mention gaining much blame for America’s predicament.

Finally British Prime Minister David Cameron, at the second major EDO conference, perfectly summed up the global situation. He declared that a New Cold War was in effect ensuring that three global blocks now divided the planet. And although Cameron argued that Europe and America may never go to war, the future actions of Russia may foresee a three way world war between these new blocks. It was noted at the time that Cameron did not mention China, as being a member of one of these blocks. In response Chinese President Xi Jinping stated that China was neutral and only wanted to conduct business in a peaceful manner. A month later the WTO announced that China was now the world’s largest nation by way of economic activity.    

To Be Continued in Parts Nine to Twelve