Elon Musk’s treachery rivals Donald Trump’s. Musk is barring Ukraine from using his Starlink satellites. But this is no more surprising than Trump inciting an insurrection to remain in power.
Elon Musk bars Ukraine from using his Starlink satellites
This comparison extends to the way Musk kowtows to China, as it rivals the way Trump Kowtows to Russia. It’s no stretch to think that Musk is barring Ukraine to appease China.
And China made a big show of establishing its “friendship without limits” with Russia. So it’s no stretch to think that China is pressuring Musk to help Russia.
SpaceX has taken steps to prevent Ukraine’s military from using the company’s Starlink satellite internet service for controlling drones in the region during the country’s war with Russia, SpaceX’s president said Wednesday.
SpaceX’s Starlink satellite internet service, which has provided Ukraine’s military with broadband communications in its defense against Russia’s military, was “never never meant to be weaponized,” Gwynne Shotwell, SpaceX’s president and chief operating officer, said during a conference in Washington, D.C.
(Reuters, February 8, 2023)
Musk would sell his soul to maintain access to China’s market. Granted, most Western CEOs would do the same. Russia’s genocidal onslaught in Ukraine be damned.
But Musk is taking his Faustian bargain with China to a new level. Trump undermined US intelligence agencies by saying he trusts Russian President Vladimir Putin more. Musk is emulating that treachery by undermining US efforts to help Ukraine.
Musk now insists his satellites were “never never meant to be weaponized.” But this smacks of gaslighting. You know, like China insisting its balloon was never never meant to spy on the United States.
After all, Ukrainian Vice Prime Minister Mykhailo Fedorov pleaded for those satellites. He knew they could help Ukraine fend off Russia’s genocidal invasion. And Musk made a public show of answering his plea because the publicity boosted his ego. Trump would’ve done the same for the same vain reason.
As it happens, there’s a direct Russian angle afoot too. Here is how Musk tweeted Russian Vice President Dmitry Medvedev last October:
BTW, how’s it going [with your war crimes] in Bakhmut?
[Medvedev duly replied] See you in Moscow on the Victory Day!
That shows that Musk is not only a chief Twit but a traitor too!
China is using Musk to undermine US support for Ukraine
Meanwhile, China is smarting from international humiliation. Because the United States discovered and shot down its spy balloon last week.
Now China has cause to commiserate with Russia’s international humiliation. It stems from Ukrainian forces defeating Russian forces on battlefields all over Ukraine.
China keeps showing Western countries why it behooves them to “decouple.” They should treat China like they treated the Soviet Union during the Cold War.
They shouldn’t wait for China to invade Taiwan. Because sanctioning China then would prove even more feckless than sanctioning Russia now.