My thoughts on Conflict in Ukraine, for the CICD AGM,
March 15, 2022.
Thank you, and greetings to CICD members and friends. Thank you for
asking me to offer some thoughts on the tragic events in Ukraine.
We have all
been following events in Ukraine for decades, so I don’t need to tell you that
history. But when the hysteria broke out with the “Russian invasion” [which Russia calls a "special military operation" instead], I
posted a lot of articles and videos on my Facebook, of course, to inform people
of the background and context, which was not being explained in the mainstream
corporate-state ‘news’ media. This stimulated a lot of interest and comments,
not always supportive, and occasionally even involving personal abuse,
experiences you may also have had, such are the emotions stirred up in times of
war.
The peace movement is facing a particularly crazy and challenging time
of global turmoil now, on top of two years of the COVID pandemic. Now, a major
war in Europe, that could spin out of control. While people should be coming
together to intelligently solve our common problems, instead, we are gripped in
a frenzied herd mentality, of personal and political turmoil, of friends and family
divided over issues, and of increasing censorship of both social and mainstream
media. It seems critical thinking & informed debate is out of vogue. These
are dangerous times indeed.
This all coincides with the inevitable decline of Western superpower
hegemony, led by the USA, and the rising of a multipolar world... of the Russian
Bear standing up, being more assertive, for example with Syria and Ukraine, and
the resurgence of China. The unwillingness of the USA to accept this changing
global balance of power is a potential existential threat to the planet.
In the past with previous wars, it was usually very clear that the
imperialist powers were the instigators of war. Of course, we still had to
counter media misinformation, but the battle lines were clearer. Now, with
Ukraine, we face a quite different situation.
Decades of Anti-Russia propaganda is now bearing its poisoned fruit in
the global response to the conflict in Ukraine, especially in the West. This long
history of anti-Russia propaganda, from 1917 and before, to the more recent
“Russiagate” scam, and Russia’s effective role in thwarting imperialist regime
change in Syria…. All this fuelled the current “anti-Russia” frenzy, which now
makes many people automatically, and uncritically, blame Russia for Ukraine.
What should be the peace movement’s response? Obviously, we must oppose
all military action, and call for diplomatic solution. But, equally, it is essential
to explain the decades-long context of the conflict in Ukraine, because Western
media never will.
We must also condemn and oppose the irrational and absurd demonizing of ordinary
Russian people everywhere, such as sanctions on private bank accounts, Russian athletes,
taking Russian foods off menus, even ridiculously banning Russian cats! The demonization
of “Putin as Hitler” is also unhelpful in reaching a negotiated settlement of
the conflict.
Mass media – has a toxic influence. Western media never encouraged
public sympathy for the victims of other wars.
Never encouraged people to wave flags for Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria,
Yemen, Libya, Somalia or Palestine. Those now “Standing with Ukraine” were silent
during the last 8 years, when Ukrainians were killing Ukrainians -- they didn’t
care then, because they didn’t know. Such is the power of media, lying by
omission.
WE know the crisis in Ukraine has been engineered by the USA and its allies
for decades, but those who faithfully follow only Western media believe it only
started two weeks ago, and then by Russia alone. We must actively counter this false and
simplistic distortion of history, with effective peace education.
The tragic crisis in Ukraine could, and should, have been resolved by
common sense and diplomacy, instead of being allowed to fester, in the dark,
for more than three decades, to the point of now exploding. Every day this
drags on, the situation gets more dangerous.
Talk of a “No-fly zone” is not the harmless thing most people probably
think it is. It would be a total disaster! Effectively, a declaration of world
war between Russia and the USA/NATO, which could become nuclear! A reckless and
suicidal course of action.
The only viable solution is political, the active de-escalation of the
conflict, through dialogue, diplomacy, empathy, common sense, and balancing the
legitimate interests of all parties. This was Russia’s preferred course, but it
takes Two to Tango….
Unfortunately, now the world is doing the exact opposite of
de-escalation. Instead, it’s hyping up the war propaganda, pouring more weapons
and foreign fighters into Ukraine, only prolonging the war and the inevitable
killing. Australia has delivered “lethal
aid” to Ukraine, “anti-tank” weapons. Surprise! Surprise! Who will they be used
against?
Ukraine is on fire…. We don’t put out a fire by pouring on petrol!
Russia says it would stop its operation if Ukraine declares neutrality,
rejects joining NATO, recognizes Crimea as Russian territory, allows independence
of the Donbass republics, and reduces its military. All a perfectly reasonable basis
for negotiating a settlement.
However, a peaceful diplomatic settlement may depend on Ukrainian
President Zelensky actually being willing, and able, to negotiate. This is uncertain
given the malign neo-Nazi forces within the Ukraine government and military. Direct
negotiations between the US and Russia may be the best, possibly only,
solution. The US is obviously the real power over Ukraine.
It may not be easy, but what is the alternative? Continuing and
worsening war.
Russia and others have been explaining all this to deaf ears for years. Eventually,
Russia decided their only option was to act decisively, to remove the
existential threats on its border. One day, we may know more about why this
became so urgent.
Russia must have been fully aware of the inherent dangers of taking
military action, however limited they may have intended them to be. They would have
understood that the West would exploit this opportunity to bog them down in
another quagmire, unleashing more brutal sanctions and mass media vilification.
Yet, they decided there was no other, but military, option.
Why?
I think that’s a most serious question for everyone to answer. For Russia.
For those sympathetic to Russia’s position but opposed to their military
intervention. For those “Standing with Ukraine” and totally blaming Russia. And
for peace activists.
Was there anything else at all Russia could, and should, have done,
instead of military action?
Was Russia expected just to do nothing, and accept an existential threat
on its border?
And finally, let’s ask everyone:
"If the exact same circumstances were reversed, what would the USA
have done?!....
Everyone should be seriously asking these questions, and seeking
answers. Because, Peace should be everyone’s business!
- Bruce McPhie, March 12, 2022
TRANSCRIPT of video recording with Andrew Irving: "My thoughts on Conflict
in Ukraine", presented to the AGM of Campaign for International Co-operation & Disarmament (CICD), on March 15, 2022. Also broadcast on CICD's 'Alternative News' programme on Melbourne's community radio 3CR, on Sunday March 20, 2022: https://www.3cr.org.au/alternativenews
MANY WESTERN STRATEGIC
THINKERS HAD WARNED OF THIS UKRAINIAN CONFLICT LONG AGO:
* George Kennan, America's
foreign policy strategist, the architect of the U.S. cold war strategy. As
early as 1998 he warned that NATO expansion was a "tragic mistake"
that ought to ultimately provoke a "bad reaction from Russia".
* Henry Kissinger, in 2014,
warned that "to Russia, Ukraine can never be just a foreign country",
and that the West therefore needs a policy that is aimed at
"reconciliation". He was also adamant that "Ukraine should not
join NATO".
* John Mearsheimer, arguably the leading geopolitical scholar in the US today,
in 2015: "The West is leading Ukraine down the primrose path and the end
result is that Ukraine is going to get wrecked [...] What we're doing is in
fact encouraging that outcome."
* Jack F. Matlock Jr., US
Ambassador to the Soviet Union from 1987-1991, warning in 1997 that NATO
expansion was "the most profound strategic blunder, [encouraging] a chain
of events that could produce the most serious security threat [...] since the
Soviet Union collapsed".
* William Perry, President
Clinton's Defense Secretary, explained in his memoir that to him NATO
enlargement is the cause of "the rupture in relations with Russia",
and that in 1996 he was so opposed to it that "in the strength of my
conviction, I considered resigning".
* Stephen Cohen, a famed scholar of Russian studies, warning in 2014 that
"if we move NATO forces toward Russia's borders [...] it's obviously gonna
militarize the situation [and] Russia will not back off, this is
existential".
* Bill Burns CIA director in 2008: "Ukrainian entry into NATO is the
brightest of all redlines for [Russia]" and "I have yet to find
anyone who views Ukraine in NATO as anything other than a direct challenge to
Russian interests". (He was then Ambassador to Moscow in 2008 when he
wrote this memo).
* Vladimir Pozner, Russian-American journalist, in 2018 stated that: NATO expansion
in Ukraine is unacceptable to the Russian, that there has to be a compromise
where "Ukraine, guaranteed, will not become a member of NATO."
* Malcolm Fraser, 22nd prime minister of Australia, warned in 2014 that
"the move east [by NATO is] provocative, unwise and a very clear signal to
Russia", and this leads to a "difficult and extraordinarily dangerous
problem".
* Paul Keating, former Australian PM, in 1997: expanding NATO is "an error
which may rank in the end with the strategic miscalculations which prevented
Germany from taking its full place in the international system [in early
20th]".
* Bob Gates, former US Defense
Secretary, in his 2015 memoirs: "Moving so quickly [to expand
NATO] was a mistake. [...] Trying to bring Georgia and Ukraine into NATO was
truly overreaching [and] an especially monumental provocation".
* Pat Buchanan in his 1999 book ‘A Republic, Not an Empire’: "By moving
NATO onto Russia's front porch, we have scheduled a twenty-first-century
confrontation”.
* Robert McNamara, Bill Bradley & Gary Hart, among a group of
individuals, wrote a
letter in 1997 to Bill Clinton warning the "US-led effort to expand NATO is a
policy error of historic proportions", and would "foster
instability" in Europe.
* Dmitriy Trenin expressed
concern that Ukraine was the most potentially destabilizing factor in
US-Russian relations, given the level of emotion & neuralgia triggered by
its quest for NATO membership.
* Sir Roderic Lyne, former
British ambassador to Russia, warned a year ago that "[pushing] Ukraine
into NATO [...] is stupid on every level… if you want to start a war with
Russia, that's the best way of doing it."
* Jeffrey Sachs, famous US
economist, writing a column in the FT last year, warned that "NATO
enlargement is utterly misguided and risky. True friends of Ukraine, and of
global peace, should be calling for a US and NATO compromise with Russia."
* Fiona Hill: "We
warned [George Bush] that Mr. Putin would view steps to bring Ukraine and
Georgia closer to NATO as a provocative move that would likely provoke
pre-emptive Russian military action. But ultimately, our warnings weren’t
heeded."
Written by John Pilger,
just days before Russia began its military intervention in Ukraine on February
24, 2022, this provides essential context, conveniently left out of the Western
mainstream narrative now. . .
John Pilger: War in Europe and the Rise of Raw Propaganda
By John Pilger
“…The war hysteria that has rolled in like a tidal wave in recent weeks and months is the most striking example. Known by its jargon, “shaping the narrative,” much if not most of it is pure propaganda…”
Feature photo | Ukrainian
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy meets with service members of the country’s armed
forces at combat positions in the Donetsk region, Feb. 17, 2022. Photo |
Ukrainian Presidential Press Office via AP
READ THE COMPLETE ARTICLE:
https://www.mintpressnews.com/john-pilger-war-in-europe-and-the-rise-of-raw-propaganda/279713/
VIETNAM-CAMBODIA 1978
RUSSIA-UKRAINE 2022
Extract from 'In Vietnam: An Epic Tragedy, 1945-1975' by Max Hastings:
Nguyen Co Thach - an urbane
and leading Vietnamese diplomat showed the world a more liberal side to
Vietnam. He failed to normalize with the United States in his time in office
(1980-1991), but remained as an architect for the warmer relations later on.
It has been said that
"history doesn't repeat, but it rhymes." I see "rhymes" in
the story of Vietnam's military intervention in Cambodia in 1978, and Russia's
military intervention in Ukraine in 2022.
In both cases, years of
dialogue and diplomacy to try to resolve a serious border security threat
failed, and eventually it was decided that military action was the only and necessary
option.
In both cases, the military intervention involved acceding to requests for help
from people in the neighbouring country who were being murdered in alarming
numbers.
In both cases, most of the world then simplistically and incorrectly put all
the blame of "invasion" and "aggression" onto one side
only, avoiding the historical context that actually led to the conflict.
However, in time, people
understood the complexities of the situation. Will that also be the case with
Russia's military intervention in Ukraine? We will have to wait and see.
In the meantime, the
conflict in Ukraine must be resolved through genuine dialogue and diplomacy
that respects the legitimate security concerns and interests of all sides.
Unfortunately, much of the world is actively taking only a one-sided approach,
recklessly escalating the war through media propaganda designed to manipulate
the emotions of well-meaning people, and massively weaponizing the battle
field.
All this will only prolong the killing, complicate the efforts for diplomacy,
increase the enmity between neighbours, and increase the risk of a disastrous
world war between nuclear-armed powers.
Put out a fire with water,
not pouring on petrol!
[Bruce McPhie on Facebook,
March 17, 2022]
Vietnamese, Russian foreign
ministers hold phone talks on Ukraine situation
"Minister of Foreign
Affairs Bùi Thanh Sơn and his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov discussed the
conflict in Ukraine in a candid and constructive manner during a phone conversation
late Tuesday in an atmosphere of “trust and friendship.”
Foreign minister Sơn
affirmed Việt Nam’s consistent stance that international disputes and
disagreements should be resolved by peaceful means in compliance with basic
principles of the United Nations Charter and international law, particularly
the principle of respecting countries’ independence, sovereignty and
territorial integrity.
He urged the parties involved to exercise restraint,
reduce tensions, and continue to make efforts for dialogue to find a long-term
solution that is in line with international law and takes into account the
sides’ legitimate interests...
Sơn suggested that the
Russian side continue to organise humanitarian corridors and take measures to
ensure the safety of civilians, including Vietnamese in Ukraine, in their
evacuation from war zones..."
https://vietnamnews.vn/politics-laws/1165275/vietnamese-russian-foreign-ministers-hold-phone-talks-on-ukraine-situation.html
Ukrainian leftist
criticizes Western war drive with Russia: US is
using Ukraine as ‘cannon fodder’
A left-wing
peace activist raised in Ukraine explains how the US government created the
crisis, backing two coups in a decade, fueling a devastating civil war, and
exploiting his nation as a proxy against Russia.
Yuliy
Dubovyk: "I am a Ukrainian-American... The overwhelming support that
Western governments and media outlets have poured out for Ukraine since Russia
invaded on February 24 is not actually motivated by concern for the Ukrainian
people. They are using us to advance their political and economic interests…
Washington is willing to fight until the last Ukrainian to weaken Russia..."
READ THE COMPLETE ARTICLE:
https://multipolarista.com/2022/03/14/ukrainian-leftist-war-russia-us/?fbclid=IwAR3p0jSaW-Zfv4cLPsHuZZ9Ca9mPmCLdZw206cx_9WbLht6VA8l241xtows
HERE’S WHY THE UKRAINE
NARRATIVE IS WRONG
BY JOHN MEARSHIEMER,
MARCH
11, 2022
Extracts from article in
The Economist:
THE WAR IN UKRAINE IS the most
dangerous international conflict since the 1962 Cuban missile crisis.
Understanding its root causes is essential if we are to prevent it from getting
worse and, instead, to find a way to bring it to a close.
There is no question that
Vladimir Putin started the war and is responsible for how it is being waged.
But why he did so is another matter. The mainstream view in the West is that he
is an irrational, out-of-touch aggressor bent on creating a greater Russia in
the mould of the former Soviet Union. Thus, he alone bears full responsibility
for the Ukraine crisis.
But that story is wrong.
The West, and especially America, is principally responsible for the crisis
which began in February 2014. It has now turned into a war that not only
threatens to destroy Ukraine, but also has the potential to escalate into a
nuclear war between Russia and NATO.
START OF THE TROUBLE
The trouble over Ukraine
actually started at NATO’s Bucharest summit in April 2008, when George W.
Bush’s administration pushed the alliance to announce that Ukraine and Georgia
“will become members”.
Russian leaders responded immediately with outrage, characterising this
decision as an existential threat to Russia and vowing to thwart it. According
to a respected Russian journalist, Mr Putin “flew into a rage” and warned that
“if Ukraine joins NATO, it will do so without Crimea and the eastern regions.
It will simply fall apart.”
America ignored Moscow’s
red line, however, and pushed forward to make Ukraine a Western bulwark on
Russia’s border. That strategy included two other elements: bringing Ukraine
closer to the EU and making it a pro-American democracy.
These efforts eventually
sparked hostilities in February 2014, after an uprising (which was supported by
America) caused Ukraine’s pro-Russian president, Viktor Yanukovych, to flee the
country. In response, Russia took Crimea from Ukraine and helped fuel a civil
war that broke out in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine.
DE FACTO MEMBERSHIP
The next major
confrontation came in December 2021 and led directly to the current war. The
main cause was that Ukraine was becoming a de facto member of NATO. The process
started in December 2017, when the Trump administration decided to sell Kyiv
“defensive weapons”. What counts as “defensive” is hardly clear-cut, however,
and these weapons certainly looked offensive to Moscow and its allies in the
Donbas region.
Other NATO countries got in on the act, shipping weapons to Ukraine, training
its armed forces and allowing it to participate in joint air and naval
exercises. In July 2021, Ukraine and America co-hosted a major naval exercise
in the Black Sea region involving navies from 32 countries. Operation Sea
Breeze almost provoked Russia to fire at a British naval destroyer that deliberately
entered what Russia considers its territorial waters.
BLINKEN: “FULL INTEGRATION”
The links between Ukraine and America continued growing under the Biden administration.
This commitment is reflected throughout an important document—the “US-Ukraine
Charter on Strategic Partnership”—that was signed in November by Antony
Blinken, America’s secretary of state, and Dmytro Kuleba, his Ukrainian
counterpart.
The aim was to “underscore … a commitment to Ukraine’s implementation of the
deep and comprehensive reforms necessary for full integration into European and
Euro-Atlantic institutions.” The document explicitly builds on “the commitments
made to strengthen the Ukraine-U.S. Strategic partnership by Presidents
Zelensky and Biden,” and also emphasises that the two countries will be guided
by the “2008 Bucharest Summit Declaration.
BLINKEN’S INTRANSIGENCE
Unsurprisingly, Moscow
found this evolving situation intolerable and began mobilising its army on
Ukraine’s border last spring to signal its resolve to Washington. But it had no
effect, as the Biden administration continued to move closer to Ukraine. This
led Russia to precipitate a full-blown diplomatic stand-off in December. As
Sergey Lavrov, Russia’s foreign minister, put it: “We reached our boiling
point.”
Russia demanded a written
guarantee that Ukraine would never become a part of NATO and that the alliance
remove the military assets it had deployed in eastern Europe since 1997. The
subsequent negotiations failed, as Mr Blinken made clear: “There is no change.
There will be no change.” A month later Mr Putin launched an invasion of
Ukraine to eliminate the threat he saw from NATO.
EVIDENCE CONTRADICTS NATO
CLAIMS
This interpretation of
events is at odds with the prevailing mantra in the West, which portrays NATO
expansion as irrelevant to the Ukraine crisis, blaming instead Mr Putin’s
expansionist goals. According to a recent NATO document sent to Russian
leaders, “NATO is a defensive Alliance and poses no threat to Russia.”
The available evidence
contradicts these claims. For starters, the issue at hand is not what Western
leaders say NATO’s purpose or intentions are; it is how Moscow sees NATO’s
actions.
Mr Putin surely knows that
the costs of conquering and occupying large amounts of territory in eastern
Europe would be prohibitive for Russia. As he once put it, “Whoever does not
miss the Soviet Union has no heart. Whoever wants it back has no brain.” His
beliefs about the tight bonds between Russia and Ukraine notwithstanding,
trying to take back all of Ukraine would be like trying to swallow a porcupine.
Furthermore, Russian
policymakers—including Mr Putin—have said hardly anything about conquering new
territory to recreate the Soviet Union or build a greater Russia. Rather, since
the 2008 Bucharest summit Russian leaders have repeatedly said that they view
Ukraine joining NATO as an existential threat that must be prevented. As Mr
Lavrov noted in January, “the key to everything is the guarantee that NATO will
not expand eastward.”
COULD NOT ADMIT THEY HAD
PROVOKED IT
Tellingly, Western leaders rarely described Russia as a military threat to
Europe before 2014. As America’s former ambassador to Moscow Michael McFaul
notes, Mr Putin’s seizure of Crimea was not planned for long; it was an
impulsive move in response to the coup that overthrew Ukraine’s pro-Russian
leader. In fact, until then, NATO expansion was aimed at turning all of Europe
into a giant zone of peace, not containing a dangerous Russia.
Once the crisis started, however, American and European policymakers could not
admit they had provoked it by trying to integrate Ukraine into the West. They
declared the real source of the problem was Russia’s revanchism and its desire
to dominate if not conquer Ukraine.
NOT CONTROVERSIAL
My story about the conflict’s causes should not be controversial, given that
many prominent American foreign-policy experts have warned against NATO
expansion since the late 1990s.
America’s secretary of
defence at the time of the Bucharest summit, Robert Gates, recognised that
“trying to bring Georgia and Ukraine into NATO was truly overreaching”.
Indeed, at that summit, both
the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, and the French president, Nicolas
Sarkozy, were opposed to moving forward on NATO membership for Ukraine because
they feared it would infuriate Russia.
EXACERBATING THE RISKS
The upshot of my
interpretation is that we are in an extremely dangerous situation, and Western
policy is exacerbating these risks. For Russia’s leaders, what happens in
Ukraine has little to do with their imperial ambitions being thwarted; it is
about dealing with what they regard as a direct threat to Russia’s future.
Mr Putin may have misjudged
Russia’s military capabilities, the effectiveness of the Ukrainian resistance
and the scope and speed of the Western response, but one should never
underestimate how ruthless great powers can be when they believe they are in
dire straits. America and its allies, however, are doubling down, hoping to
inflict a humiliating defeat on Mr Putin and to maybe even trigger his removal.
They are increasing aid to Ukraine while using economic sanctions to inflict
massive punishment on Russia, a step that Putin now sees as “akin to a
declaration of war”.
THE NUCLEAR THREAT
America and its allies may be able to prevent a Russian victory in Ukraine, but
the country will be gravely damaged, if not dismembered. Moreover, there is a
serious threat of escalation beyond Ukraine, not to mention the danger of
nuclear war. If the West not only thwarts Moscow on Ukraine’s battlefields, but
also does serious, lasting damage to Russia’s economy, it is in effect pushing
a great power to the brink. Mr Putin might then turn to nuclear weapons.
At this point it is
impossible to know the terms on which this conflict will be settled. But, if we
do not understand its deep cause, we will be unable to end it before Ukraine is
wrecked and NATO ends up in a war with Russia.
John J. Mearsheimer is the
R. Wendell Harrison Distinguished Service Professor of Political Science at the
University of Chicago.
Calling Russia’s Attack
‘Unprovoked’ Lets US Off the Hook
By Bryce Greene FOR FAIR
MARCH 4, 2022
"...FAIR resolutely
condemns the invasion as illegal and ruinous—but calling it “unprovoked”
distracts attention from the US’s own contribution to this disastrous outcome.
The US ignored warnings from both Russian and US officials that a major
conflagration could erupt if the US continued its path, and it shouldn’t be
surprising that one eventually did. Now, as the world once again inches toward
the brink of nuclear omnicide, it is more important than ever for Western
audiences to understand and challenge their own government’s role in dragging
us all to this point."
READ THE COMPLETE ARTICLE:
https://fair.org/home/calling-russias-attack-unprovoked-lets-us-off-the-hook/?fbclid=IwAR0iWvqKXxVH0LNmDHDIaqUCTsP1wh8KTEQ7NWGARIOSuKG7TTEoZ28Jp2w
There Is No Wisdom in Pretending
That Ukraine's Neo-Nazis Don't Exist
The troubling history and
dangerous U.S. relationship with the Azov Battalion and other extreme
right-wing groups in Ukraine cannot be forgotten.
By Medea Benjamin & Nicolas J.S. Davies
March 9, 2022
“…In the context of the Russian invasion, the post-2014 Ukrainian government's
problematic relations with extreme right-wing groups and neo-Nazi parties has
become an incendiary element on both sides of the propaganda war, with Russia
exaggerating it as a pretext for war and the West trying to sweep it under the
carpet… but we should not be surprised when the U.S. alliance with neo-Nazi
proxy forces in Ukraine, including the infusion of billions of dollars in
sophisticated weapons, results in similarly violent and destructive blowback.”
READ THE COMPLETE ARTICLE:
https://www.commondreams.org/views/2022/03/09/there-no-wisdom-pretending-ukraines-neo-nazis-dont-exist?fbclid=IwAR2XfJAVhxkRGFGjmobj3uDlkvuzxmkYm0P4wiHBNbwVuXCsdLLdOgFpElk
A Decade of War Lies
Crescendo Amid the New ‘Red Scare’
By Josh Everson
March 11, 2022
"...the current
pro-war, anti-Russia discourse surrounding the 2022 Ukraine-Russia war could be
viewed as a major win for US hawks who prefer rising tensions with Russia. But
how did we get here?... After being force-fed a decade of lies about Russia
(from Syria to Crimea to Russiagate), [many people] are expertly poised to fear
and hate Russia, the new Red Menace.
The overwhelming weight of
evidence of Russia’s legitimate grievances with the US mean nothing, because
most...have never heard of it. Somehow such alternative viewpoints never make
it into the carefully crafted news narratives of the mainstream...
...if one did not know
about the February 2014 U.S.-backed coup in Kiev, then claims that Russia had
aggressed into Ukraine and stolen Crimea in March 2014 would be much more
shocking and seemingly unprovoked…
This is the Washington
playbook. Make up lies to support ongoing crimes, and new lies to justify future
crimes. History always starts the day after the opposition reacts, as we saw
with Crimea, and there’s no need to consider the enemy’s motivations.
It’s much simpler to pretend the US is the indispensable nation, the shining
beacon on a hill, and defender of the weak and helpless against the forces of
tyranny... As is often the case, the truth is more complicated."
READ THE COMPLETE ARTICLE:
https://original.antiwar.com/josh_everson/2022/03/11/a-decade-of-war-lies-crescendo-amid-the-new-red-scare/?fbclid=IwAR3cvTpNtlA8P5uzX0iAyj1CmkF2eu3ml7PijUumWgLb1Sr7LpHNJOq3g60
MintPress News: Dan Cohen
and former UN weapons inspector Scott Ritter engage in an online discussion on
the Ukraine/Russia war, Pentagon-funded Bio-Labs in Ukraine and European Union
censorship.
“If I were a Russian worried about the potential of Nazi extremists
coming up with a dirty bomb, I’d need to take control of this very facility” -
former US Marine, and former UN weapons inspector Scott Ritter.
WATCH THE COMPLETE INTERVIEW:
https://youtu.be/lE2XYcHnJqE
Why is Ukraine the West's Fault?
The University of Chicago.
UnCommon Core: The Causes
and Consequences of the Ukraine Crisis, June 4-7, 2015.
John J. Mearsheimer, the R.
Wendell Harrison Distinguished Service Professor in Political Science and
Co-director of the Program on International Security Policy at the University
of Chicago, assesses the causes of the present Ukraine crisis, the best way to
end it, and its consequences for all of the main actors.
A key assumption is
that in order to come up with the optimum plan for ending the crisis, it is
essential to know what caused the crisis. Regarding the all-important question
of causes, the key issue is whether Russia or the West bears primary
responsibility.
WATCH THE COMPLETE INTERVIEW:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JrMiSQAGOS4
How and why the U.S.
Government Perpetrated the 2014 Coup in Ukraine
Eric Zuesse, investigative historian:
“…All of this goes back to the key U.S. decision, which was made on 24 February
1990… this is historically very important…
...what continues to be effectively
prohibited throughout the U.S. and its vassal nations, is public acknowledgment
that the U.S. Government perpetrated a coup in Ukraine that overthrew Ukraine’s
Government in February 2014 and that replaced it with a Nazi anti-Russian
regime and thereby started the current ‘Cold War’, which is much hotter than
the U.S. side acknowledges, or allows the public to know...”
READ THE COMPLETE ARTICLE:
https://moderndiplomacy-eu.cdn.ampproject.org/v/s/moderndiplomacy.eu/2018/06/04/how-and-why-the-u-s-government-perpetrated-the-2014-coup-in-ukraine/
How are we organizing to end the war between Ukraine and Russia?
Video of Webinar: The Russia-Ukraine War and the Imperative of
Organizing for Peace
By RootsAction, March 7, 2022
With speakers:
* Sevim
Dağdelen: Member of the German Parliament, Committee on Foreign Affairs.
* Bill
Fletcher Jr.: Senior Scholar with the Institute for Policy Studies.
* Katrina
Vanden Heuvel: Editorial director of The Nation magazine and president of
the American Committee for US-Russia Accord.
* Ann
Wright: Peace activist and retired U.S. Army Colonel.
WATCH THE VIDEO:
https://worldbeyondwar.org/video-of-webinar-the-russia-ukraine-war-and-the-imperative-of-organizing-for-peace/?fbclid=IwAR37a6TF-bHpFFLFNv8NX9-YiBkhFTYiNkYDKDpqOkx0Dny31nDWGKOMWI8
Putin's
Invasion of Ukraine:
Consortium News:
Convened March 2nd 2022 by
the Committee for the Republic.
Q&A host: Bruce Fein,
constitutional lawyer.
* Prof. John Mearsheimer,
political scientist, University of Chicago
* Ray McGovern, former
C.I.A. head of Russia desk
* Jack Matlock, last US
ambassador to the Soviet Union
* Ted Postol, MIT professor
of technology and international security
* Susan Eisenhower,
grand-daughter of General Dwight D. Eisenhower
— Also, worth reading the Comments.
WATCH THE ENLIGHTENING DISCUSSION:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OeeqooNWO48&t=8s
HOW THE WAR
IN UKRAINE STARTED
Eric Zuesse, November 2019:
“…The accounts
that have been given about the Ukrainian war by U.S.-and-allied ‘news’-media
have been boldly blatant lies…
The war in Ukraine didn’t start at the time when
a lot of people think that it did… and, so, the facts that are told there might
be surprising (or even shocking) to readers under the U.S. regime; but they are
true, and the propaganda isn’t...”
READ THE COMPLETE ARTICLE:
https://robscholtemuseum.nl/eric-zuesse-how-the-war-in-ukraine-started/?fbclid=IwAR0dXzMO9ck7-ob3kUjjnlPkIb-sbvau8XKBWhNZPSKeECSZJSG5-WS4Tbg
St. Pete for Peace:
"CENSORSHIP: Many people have noted the one-sided news coverage of the
situation in Ukraine and how it’s becoming increasingly difficult to find
everyday news that provides objectivity and context...
‘KILLING ITS OWN PEOPLE’:
For the past 8 years, the government of Ukraine, with US support, has been
waging war against its own citizens in eastern Ukraine’s Donbass region –
‘killing its own people’ in Western jargon. That's the same pretext the US has
used multiple times in pushing for war in Iraq, Libya and Syria..."
READ MORE:
https://myemail.constantcontact.com/Censorship--De-Nazification--NATO--and-Ukraine-is-killing-its-own-people.html?soid=1126215295361&aid=Iqhaqxn-xh4&fbclid=IwAR2HnJNje-aKOIEtnjRAcl02PMsN1VMVcRwFI1LumMVtt98F3b1HwzYpGpg
https://myemail.constantcontact.com/tmp-Russia-s-military...
Russian demands fall on
deaf ears and the war begins in Ukraine
Mideast Discourse, February 24, 2022
Steven Sahiounie:
“…The war
began today, but has been brewing since January 10, when Russian and American
officials met in Geneva to discuss the Russian national security demands, but
the legitimate demands laid out by Russia were not even considered.
Negotiations for a peaceful solution were never considered by the US-NATO side.
Negotiations are a game of give and take, the US-NATO side was all take, and no
give...
NATO has been establishing
troops and weapons along the border of Russia, and this is what Russia has
objected to. There is no country on earth which would allow a military group,
with a long history of attacking and invading other countries, to establish
missiles all along its border with the missiles pointed at its capital.
On February 21, President Putin recognized Donesk and Luhansk as independent
entities, and ordered the Russian military to maintain the peace there. The
Ukrainian Army has been attacking the people living in those areas for years,
and has used Neo-Nazi paramilitary groups to do so.
On February 15, President Putin said the West needed to consider the security
demands of Russia, and he was willing to de-escalate tensions over Ukraine...
On January 10, US and
Russian officials met in Geneva for diplomatic talks but Washington said it
will not accept Moscow’s security demands. It is in that meeting that the war
began.
When one side refuses to
consider the national security needs of another country, and decides only their
own wishes and demands take precedence over all others, the line of
negotiations and communications is dead. One side is talking, and the other
side has hung up the phone...
President Putin gave a
televised speech in which he said the two self-proclaimed “people’s republics”
of Donetsk and Luhansk in the breakaway Ukrainian region of Donbas, which he
had officially recognized as independent less than two days before, had “turned
to Russia with a request for help,” he said…”
READ THE COMPLETE ARTICLE:
https://www.mideastdiscourse.com/2022/02/24/russian-demands-fall-on-deaf-ears-and-the-war-begins-in-ukraine/?fbclid=IwAR2G2pXqpaKxhM2p4jQNxkXAP_H_vOPvmusa58wLdFx1dBr1Dye5kgF2P74
The New Atlas:
“The US
finds itself in the middle of a crisis with Russia over Ukraine, thousands of
miles from its own shores, and amidst a decades-long campaign to overthrow
governments across Europe, up to Russia’s borders and eventually aspiring to
overthrow Russia itself.
But this campaign in Europe is just part of a wider
global campaign by the US to eliminate its competitors and exercise uncontested
control over the world’s population, resources, and nations.
This video explains
the background of the US-Ukraine-Russia conflict, how it ties in to US
provocations against China, and where in the Western media itself it admits to
many of the points made by both Moscow and Beijing in protest to US foreign
policy…”
WATCH THE VIDEO (15:22):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d7-TV7E4ztg
Putin Recognizes Donbass
Independence as Violence Soars
Joe Lauria, February 21, 2022:
“Russian
President Vladimir Putin has recognized the independence from Ukraine of two
breakaway provinces in Donbass as violence in the region continues to escalate…
The two provinces declared independence after the 2014 U.S.-backed coup in Kiev
that overthrew democratically-elected President Viktor Yanukovych…
After anti-Russian language
laws were passed by the coup government, hand-picked before the coup by the
United States, and after neo-Nazis burned dozens of people alive in a building
in Odessa on May 3, 2014, both Lugansk and Donetsk declared independence nine
days later on May 12…
The coup government
launched a civil war against the separatists, whom they called “terrorists.” In
essence the Donbass was defending their democratic rights to vote, as a
majority of the region voted for Yanukovych, in an election certified by the
Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).
In the eight years
since, as many as 14,000 people have been killed in the fighting...”
READ THE COMPLETE ARTICLE:
https://consortiumnews.com/2022/02/21/putin-recognizes-donbass-independence-as-violence-soars/?fbclid=IwAR1oCJH7zjquGuF4JyP8mz2DGZksX61twhZ-HMUKf3lmZ1sMu4TeHfn3lkM
Executive producer Oliver Stone gains unprecedented access to the inside story through his on-camera interviews with former President Viktor Yanukovych and Minister of Internal Affairs, Vitaliy Zakharchenko, who explain how the U.S. Ambassador and factions in Washington actively plotted for regime change.
And, in his first meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Stone solicits Putin's take on the significance of Crimea, NATO and the U. S's history of interference in elections and regime change in the region.
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