Effort thread: I’m going to dissect the “Three Lighthouses”…

Right off the bat, Pompeo calls the Ukraine war an inflection point, and calls for a international “alliance for freedom” to fight a combined China and Russia.

This is a significant departure from US foreign policy ideas up to now.

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Up until this speech, there was still the hope/expectation that Russia and China could be diplomatically cleaved.

This hope is now gone and American foreign policy views the two countries as indissoluble allies in all but name.

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A key admission in this speech is that the United States does not intend to put boots on the ground in Ukraine under any circumstances.

Instead, the US will rely on an endless supply of weapons to Ukraine To undermine the Russia/China “axis”.

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Pompeo is underlining the strategy of “fight the Russians to the last Ukrainian”.

He is conflating current Russia with the Soviet Union, and turning the ideological Cold War into a resources Cold War.

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Here’s a key bit: “Empowering (arming) Ukraine scares China as to the cost of invading Taiwan.”

Pompeo is trying to identify defense of Ukraine as defense of the American standard of living — and blame the falling standard of living on Putin‘s invasion of Ukraine.

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Pompeo is calling the war in Ukraine as a “planned genocide”—which I can say with some authority is utter bullshit. He’s also misrepresenting Putin‘s 2005 statement, and ascribing to him motives that he has never had.

Pompeo is lying to garner the moral support of Americans.

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Here comes the dangerous part: Pompeo is ascribing to Putin suicidal, megalomaniacal ambitions, similar to Hitler’s, as a matter fact.

Pompeo is completely denying that Putin and the Kremlin have very strong justifications for their actions.

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According to Pompeo, Putin’s only potential motivation is purely material — he completely ignores the abuses inflicted on the ethnic Russians in the Donbas region by the Kiev regime.

In other words, “Putin invaded because he’s crazy and evil!”

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Pompeo’s real fear is that Russia will have control of fossil fuel prices.

He also very quietly signals to Zelensky that the US will support him so long as Ukrainians continue to fight.

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Pompeo then compares Zelensky to George Washington! Fucking lol!

But then he again signals to Z. that under no circumstances can there be a negotiated peace with the Russians.

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Pompeo then also opens the door to NATO involvement by way of the “blockaded grain supplies”.

But I don’t think this is serious, I think it’s just him leaving a door open for possible NATO involvement.

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Here Pompeo emphasizes how the Ukraines can win with all the weapons the US will send — but he is careful to not say that US troops would be involved.

However, nowhere in his speech does he say outright that US troops will not be involved.

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Pompeo also signals to France and Germany that they cannot under any circumstances bow to Putin and the Kremlin.

However, ominously, he doesn’t mention Poland.

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Pompeo goes on to insist that it’s weapons weapons weapons — but no troops.

He doesn’t seem to realize that you need soldiers to use those weapons. Without soldiers, the weapons are tchotchkes.

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Then Pompeo turns to China

He blames it exclusively for Covid, then insists the Belt & Road Initiative is all about “dominating global infrastructure”.

He doesn’t acknowledge that China developed BRI to counteract the American navy’s ability to blockade China.

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Pompeo conflates American economic self interest with moral virtue signaling to call for the absolute protection of Taiwan from China’s “stated intent to conquer Taiwan”.

The loss of American status in the Indo Pacific is also a big bugaboo for Pompeo.

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Interestingly, not once does Pompeo mention India, soon to be the most populous country on earth, and an enormous potential market. But Pompeo’s framing leads to the inference that India is what the US and China are fighting over.

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Here we come to the really dangerous bit of Pompeo’s speech.

He calls for the diplomatic recognition of Taiwan — which as everyone knows is China’s absolute red line.

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Here we have a paragraph that I notated with a question mark: Pompeo seems absolutely delusional here, though he seems to understand that the last 20 years have been a disaster for the US militarily and in terms of global hegemony.

The next part is equally revealing.

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Pompeo openly acknowledges that this emerging conflict is all about resources—nothing more.

All the moralizing and bullshit is to mask this basic truth: Russia and China will control the energy, food and minerals necessary for American prosperity.

And that can’t happen.

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“We must prevent the formation of a pan-Eurasian Colossus” — and the way to do that? NATO, of course.

This is it — this is where Pompeo lays down the gauntlet: The US foreign-policy establishment is declaring war on Russia China.

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Pompeo then uses the striking phrase “the Three Lighthouses for Liberty” to carefully delineate American overseas priorities: Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan.

The foreign-policy establishment has decided collectively that these three countries must be defended at all costs.

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The foreign policy establishment is calling for a global alliance against Russia/China — and for open hostilities to dip be declared now, with the recognition of Taiwan as a sovereign nation.

This is serious shit.

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In case anyone says that Pompeo was Trump’s Secretary of State, and therefore not representative of the foreign-policy establishment — remember that Pompeo was brought in to be the “adult in the room”.

The Three Lighthouses speech is not a casual, tossed off affair.

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I have no doubt that this entire speech was run through secretary Blinken’s office.

The Three Lighthouses speech is basically a mission statement from the American foreign-policy establishment.

Read it carefully — because it’s spelling out what’s coming next.

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