W.J. Astore
Burnishing My Kremlin Talking Points?
I don’t get bogged down in the operational and tactical details of the Russia-Ukraine War. I don’t know which side is winning or allegedly winning, or which side is best prepared to launch a spring offensive, or which weapons will allegedly turn the tide (likely answer: none). In my view, both sides are losing, especially Ukraine since the war is being fought on their turf. Each side has suffered well over 100,000 killed. Russia has captured territory; whether they can keep it remains to be seen.
My focus is on larger questions and points. Here they are, in no special order:
1. Does Ukraine truly seek to retake Crimea from Russia? If so, how much are the U.S. and NATO prepared to assist in this? Assuming Ukraine can launch such an offensive, how might Russia respond? Is the nuclear option on the table for Putin if Crimea is invaded? Could war in Crimea escalate to World War III?
2. If the U.S. doesn’t like China’s peace plan to end the war, where is the U.S. peace plan? Does the U.S. even have one?
3. If peace talks can’t proceed until Russia withdraws all its forces from Ukraine, doesn’t that mean they’ll be no peace talks without a total military victory by Ukraine? Aren’t we talking about a prolonged and even more murderous war for both sides?
4. Why is it that the West sees peace talks as weakness? Ukraine has done better than expected in battle; can’t Ukrainians negotiate from a position of strength?
5. Diplomats like to say that no one wants war, but that simply isn’t true. Plenty of people make lots of money from war. The longer the war lasts, the more money they’ll make.
6. The U.S. has benefited geopolitically from the weakening of Russia. Economically too with the destruction of the Nord Stream pipelines. That doesn’t delegitimize efforts to aid Ukraine in this war, but it does make you seriously question U.S. motives and intent.
7. Observers have noted inept tactics by Russian forces; at the same time, they call for higher U.S. and NATO spending due to Russia’s dangerous military. Doesn’t Russia’s mediocre performance suggest deliberate threat inflation here? Couldn’t U.S. and NATO military spending be sinking instead of surging?
8. Observers suggest Ukraine is an “aspiring” democracy. Restrictions to free press, high rates of corruption, and similar issues suggest Ukraine’s democratic aspirations are already victims of this war. Since war is the enemy of democracy, it’s unlikely Ukraine’s “aspirations” will survive if this war continues without end.
9. Putin’s invasion of Ukraine was illegal, immoral, and wrong. But that doesn’t mean it was “unprovoked.”
10. Are wars best ended by sending expensive and advanced weaponry to the battlefront?
11. To the claim that reducing U.S. and NATO weapons shipments while promoting negotiation would “embolden” Putin and Russia: If it did and does, just resume the shipments while denouncing Putin for reneging on peace talks.
12. Putin doesn’t want peace; he’s “worse than Hitler.” That claim is more than misleading. If the war is going poorly for Russia, Putin may calculate that a negotiated peace would be better for him in the long run than more killing, especially if the Ukraine boosters are correct about the formidable nature of Ukraine’s planned spring offensive.
13. A U.S. policy decision to work for a negotiated truce and peace could conceivably lead to an end to fighting. That truce/peace could be couched in terms of avoiding a wider war that could escalate to nuclear weapons, while still upholding Ukraine’s right to exist and to pursue its own form of government. Of course, the devil would be in the details with respect to the terms of the truce/treaty. Why isn’t the U.S. working to advance this?
14. Strictly for Americans: What vital national interest does the U.S. have in providing more than $110 billion in aid, and counting, to Ukraine? How are we supporting and defending the U.S. Constitution in Ukraine? Ukraine is not a NATO member. The U.S. has no formal alliance with Ukraine. Ukrainian democracy is (at best) imperfect. Continued support of Ukraine runs the risk of a wider, more calamitous, war. Certainly, Americans can legitimately ask why Ukraine has received $110 billion in one year while U.S. states continue to be starved of funds for the homeless, the mentally ill, education, and other worthy social causes within the U.S. itself.
15. Strictly for Americans: In 2023, is the U.S. to send another $110 billion to Ukraine? How about in 2024? Until Ukraine “wins”? What if the war lasts for five years? Ten years?
In raising these questions and making these points, I seek to promote an approach that lessens the danger of a wider war while saving lives on both sides. Sadly, challenging official U.S. policy often leads to accusations of spouting Kremlin talking points. Which makes me wonder: Is democracy even more tenuous and illusory in the U.S. than it is in Ukraine and Russia? We know Russia is a corrupt dictatorship controlled by Putin. Are we willing to see clearly how corrupt the U.S. government is and how little say the American people have in matters of state?
Humanity wins when wars end. I’m for humanity. I sincerely hope Russians and Ukrainians stop killing each other, and I believe my country should be doing everything in its power to put a stop to this war. That doesn’t mean freezing it so that Putin can allegedly “win.” It means helping to broker a settlement amenable to both sides.
Or should I prefer yet more killing with yet greater chances of dangerous escalation?
Bracing Views 
Before commenting on aspects of the long-running NATO-Russian War — with “NATO” an acronym for “Nazi-American Terrorist Operations” — I recommend first reading On the Illegality of Ukraine’s Government, by Eric Zuesse, The Duran (March 19, 2023).
Furthermore, I recommend replacing the misnomer “Ukraine” (wherever encountered) with “Interim Nazi Regime in Kiev,” or INRK, for short . Then discussions can proceed more on the basis of recognizable reality.
LikeLike
or, stated somewhat differently:
Accurate Acerbic Acronyms
The Interim Nazi Regime in Kiev
(what once the world knew as “Ukraine”)
has done what its master in Washington wished,
at the cost of much blood-loss and pain.
The Nazi-American Terrorist Op
which thought to bash Russia by proxy
has only made Russia much stronger by far:
a rather insane orthodoxy.
“Do not invade Russia,” Montgomery said:
the First and Third rules of all war;
with Rule Number Two stating “Stay out of Asia,”
which wisdom we choose to ignore.
So blowback has come to the US of A;
the UK and Europe, as well:
“exceptional” morons who paved their own road
not to Heaven but, rather, to Hell.
Michael Murry, “The Misfortune Teller,” Copyright © 2023
LikeLike
‘When Moloch sneers: The West’s child traffickers lash out at Russia’
Western liberal elites suffer from collective psychopathy and inverted reality syndrome: They project onto others the crimes they themselves are guilty of.
Did you know that many liberal NATO countries are world leaders in state-sponsored abductions of children from their caring and loving families, especially targeting the poor, immigrants and refugees. Norway, Denmark, Germany and the UK are the worst violators of children and parental rights.
Refugee Ukrainian families, for example, have been getting a rude awakening about state-sponsored child abductions in ‘liberal democracies’. In desperation, Ukrainian parents turn to social media to tell about their children’s abductions in the EU. The situation in the U.S. is just as horrifying. On both continents the State is all-powerful. Parents and children have no rights.
CPS often fabricates cases against parents, or they find a minor issue and distort and twist the facts to justify an abduction. An anonymous phone call from a vindictive neighbor is also sufficient to have your family investigated and children taken. Very rare is a genuine threat to a child’s life that could justify removal. (I spent three years as a child-rights activist in the 1990s working with the most difficult cases.) The bond between a biological mother/father and child must be preserved and protected.
In 2019, I began to research the situation in Norway, which in terms of brutality and abductions per capita is among the world’s most dangerous countries for families. I even flew to Norway and interviewed victims. I’m proud to be friends with a great activist who has dedicated and risked his life investigating state crimes against children in Norway and the entire EU: Steven Bennett, the author of Stolen Childhood…………
https://john365.substack.com/p/when-moloch-sneers-the-wests-child
LikeLike
I’ll respond to just the 1st nine questions, as that will make for an already-too-long comment. 1. re. Crimea: good questions. A Ukraine / perceived NATO attack on Crimea would almost certainly pose yet another existential threat to Russia. It has held the to-it-essential naval base at Sevastopol since 1783, and is of vital importance to it both commercially and security-wise.
In fact, it’s important to remember that a significant ‘causus belli’ for Russia’s SMO was due to the increaing Ukraine pressure to de-Russify (i.e. ethnically cleanse and bring under Ukraine’s submission, the entirety of the Donbass region which chose independence following the anti-Russian coup that Washington engineered / enabled in 2014. One will recall that the coup itself was a reaction to then-Pres. Yanukovych’s agreement to an economic deal with Russia- one which would ensure for decades that Russia could continue to operate with long-term security, its vital naval base in Sevastopol.\
That, plus Ukraine’s (and the U.S.’s) stated intention to join NATO (putting NATO weapons including destabilizing ABMs then right on Russia’s W. border) meant that Russia’s Sevastopol base and sea access would inevitably / soon be lost.
Does the U.S. even have a peace plan? Of course not. There has been only from the beginning of this crisis- which actually began in earnest in 2008 with restated intentions to add Ukraine to NATO, followed by the stage-setting of this war that the coup produced, the desire to bait Russia into a proxy war in Ukraine. The 2019 Rand Corp. memo stating most clearly the wisdom of draining Russia by bleeding it in a war in Ukraine was no mere hypothesis – it was a script that was followed to the hilt.
In any case, the U.S. directly impeded any chance of preventing the war via dismissing out of hand any negotiations that Russia had called for; and the Biden Administration made it clear that it didn’t want the war to end a year ago, when it was first announced that Ukraine & Russia had reached an outline agreement for a cease fire and possible solution. “BoJo” was dispatched to Kyiv to make that crystal clear to Zelensky.
Yes: No nation, having sacrificed the men, materiel and capital, presumably to defend its national security, would give up all that it had gained without a complete, trustworthy guarantee that it would NOT have to refight the same fight some months down the line. After all, Russia had (possibly naively?) trusted that the Minsk Accords to which Ukraine signed and that French & German leadership had brokered, would address those security concerns and the rights of ethnic Russians in E. Ukraine; only to later learn that Ukraine had no intention of implementing the Accords, and neither France nor Germany cared to see that they were. Indeed, as some have since admitted, the Accords were only a tool for buying Ukraine more time to beef up its arms and preparations for war. No one should think that Russia will make that same mistake again.
Why? Because, again, Peace was NEVER the objective. If it had been, the war was easily preventable. The objective is still to tighten the noose around Russia, and probably to ‘regime change’ Russia- to get a more compliant leadership that won’t challenge the US petro-dollar.
True.
I’d disagree: Efforts to ‘aid’ Ukraine are not about aiding it in any way OTHER than to keep its ability to fight Russia to the last Ukrainian. How will Ukraine have been aided when it has been so devastated already – and when so much more is likely to occur if it keeps pressing on with its threats to retake Crimea and subjugate the separatist Donbass autonomous regions?
I know that’s a rhetorical q., but yes, there is serious threat inflation there, if by that one includes the (false) narrative that Russia seeks to rebuild a great empire beginning with Ukraine and ending at the W. edge of Europe. All evidence is to the contrary of that. In any case, many other observers don’t see Russia’s tactics as ‘inept’; except that in the earliest stages of its SMO, it severely limited its forces and attacks to the strategic elimination of Ukraine’s ability to continue fighting- in contrast to what more hard-core military strategists think it should have done… more along the lines of the U.S. “shock and awe” attack on Iraq.
If “democracy” was ever an aim of the U.S. / West w/r/t Ukraine, they never would have supported a destabilizing coup against the democratically-elected Yanukovych. Just as in 1953, Iran (CIA coup against Mossadegh- perhaps the most democratic leadership Iran had), or in efforts to take down the Sandinistas in Nicaragua, Panama’s Torrijos, (and later, Somoza), Chile’s Allende, and others in Latin America; just like in S.E. Asia; or in the Mid-East in Iran (Mossadegh), Libya (Qaddafi), Iraq (Saddam Hussein, Syria, et al … none of these ‘interventions’ has ever been about actual democracy; for most of the time, we unilaterally overrode democratic results to install a puppet who would follow OUR “Rules Based Order”.
“Illegal” is an argument for lawyers to wrestle over. How can anything be illegal if: a) the Institutions that declare it illegal are not themselves vested with any authority (such as ICC, whose conventions and authority the U.S. refuses to acknowledge); or when the ‘laws’ (or conventions) are simply ignored with the blessing of a state’s (say the U.S.) lawyers (e.g. use of torture, extrajudicial renditions, unjustified invasions of other countries (some already noted); or when the “law” is established virtually unilaterally, say, by the U.S. Imperium. ?
“Immoral” : this too is arguable. Which would be the more moral decision by a state’s leadership, in a case in which existential threat to its people is perceived;
a) to capitulate to the wielder of the threat, and subject one’s state to effective dismantling (as some espouse), starvation and effective annihilation; or
b) to attempt to pre-empt the threat in the ways that Russia did – at first, mostly nonviolently (i.e. accepting Crimea’s annexation request, and then, after initially refusing to do so for 7 years, recognizing the Donbass regions’ independence.
(It must be acknowledged that Ukraine had greatly escalated its war against the Donbass in the weeks & months leading up to the SMO – and had announced plans to retake Crimea; refusing to negotiate on any of this.)
“wrong”. Related to the above, as a pacifist I reject all war. I would say that the U.S. and NATO helped create the war- and their, and Ukraine’s use of war to de-Russify the Donbass and retake Crimea so as to hem Russia in, were direct causes. So I must beg this question: Is all war, including self-defense of a state’s people and national security, always wrong?
LikeLiked by 1 person
thank you, roger hoffmann, for your informative elucubrations. am perpetually perplexed about the over-riding behemoth in the room of: what the fluckers can we pacifists or quaesi-pacifists do about the US’s mindless, esurient hegemony? my proactive stratagems since arriving in japan to teach in 1962 and subsequent visceral concatenations w/ the victims of the US’s atomic bombing of hiroshima and nagasaki, never mind the victims of the US’s fire-bombing of 67 japanese urban areas during WWII, have resulted in naught but a debilitating, pyrrhic plunge into the dysphoria of defeasance…. and it’s becoming worse by the minute. i’m glad the grim reaper will soon be appearing on my front stoop, scythe at the ready.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks, Roger. Defensive war, in my mind, is justifiable. Sadly, too many people play with words, claiming that just about any war, even the most aggressive ones, are somehow “defensive.”
To my mind, the last defensive war the U.S. fought was World War II.
LikeLiked by 1 person
And thank you, both for the thoughtful, questioning article and your welcoming of commentary.
I agree, very many wars are fought / launched with claims of defending one’s nation. Certainly, Hitler might have considered his wars ‘defensive’, mindful of the humiliation and deprivations endured after WW I; though he was certainly more blunt in declaring his intentions for Lebensraum… i.e. more space & resources.
So you’re right that the word ‘defense’ is often misused; often dishonestly applied to cover darker, less acceptable motives. (This is one reason I almost always put the word ‘defense’ in quotes when referring to the U.S. annual ‘defense appropriations’, Department of ‘Defense’, etc.) .
Each case is different; and maybe my question about ‘is war in self-defense justified’ to one that asks when , if ever, are preemptive attacks (to head off what appears to the initiator to be a certain existential danger). Here I think of two cases: the one that the U.S. claimed existed in its justification of the Iraq invasion (e.g. possession of WMD that somehow represented a national security threat ); and the one faced by Russia. The latter included an 8-year-long campaign against ethnic Russians in the Donbass, on Russia’s border that was greatly ramping up; refusals to implement prior peace accords or negotiate; announced plans to both retake Crimea (and Russia’s naval port), join NATO and place its weapons (including ABMs, and possibly nuclear weapons) on Russia’s border.
Perhaps Russia had been able to try a different path to remove those threats and prevent them from becoming ever more dangerous. Yet I still have not found any myself nor yet heard / read one possible feasible alternative for her leaders.
I confess: I’m not optimistic. Russia ‘won’t be fooled again’, after the failure of parties to honor Minsk, and deliberate violations of it; and after such extreme costs and life-sacrifices given towards meeting its security demands that were repeatedly dismissed. And the U.S. in particular (among NATO nations) will likely maintain the same course of desperate clinging to its hegemony (as most obviously reflected in the petro-dollar’s role in the global monetary system)- until there is a sudden deepening of consciousness among its leaders (not a good bet) or major (not just symbolic) regime-change in the U.S. – something far different than just a change of names or team flags of the occupiers of the White House.
LikeLike
As Ray McGovern has said elsewhere, Russia will now respond on the battlefield, since she can provably no longer negotiate with the collective West in good faith. The Russians will turn their backs on Europe soon enough, and look south for allies. What’s left of Europe will come crawling back eventually, after its industry has fled to both China and the United States.
So what does that mean for the US? Maybe some manufacturing jobs will come back, maybe people will finally get it though their heads that the world doesn’t fear or love or even care about us, and that we would be better off tending our own garden for once.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Excellent comment Roger! We’re on the same page concerning this US provoked WAR with Russia over Ukraine in NATO!
LikeLiked by 1 person
“We know Russia is a corrupt dictatorship controlled by Putin.”
Not at all. I, for one, do not “know” any such thing about the Russian Federation and its elected government. Those who “choose to believe” such nonsense would do better to follow former expatriate Dmitry Orlov and his assessment of President Putin’s domestic and international status as statesman par excellence. See: “How blaming Putin is helping Putin”, by Dmitry Orlov, The Vineyard of the Saker June 6, 2022)
. . .
“The strategy of blaming it all on Putin has backfired grandly in both the Ukraine and in the West and will continue backfiring, eating away at the social fabric and demoralizing the population. But that’s not all! This strategy is also immensely helpful to Russia. Ignoring the obvious thought that anything that is detrimental to the West is automatically beneficial for Russia, there is another, much more significant benefit that this strategy provides to Russia directly: it works to raise Russia’s, and Putin’s, prestige in the rest of the world, which is already much more important to Russia than the West will ever be again.”
. . .
LikeLiked by 1 person
“We know America is a corrupt oligarchy controlled by moneyed interests.”
Not at all. I, for one, do not “know” any such thing about the American Republic and its elected government.
LikeLike
If You don’t know that about America, then what do You claim America is, Bill?
If it is NOT “a corrupt oligarchy controlled by moneyed interests,”‘ then what do You call it?
LikeLike
That’s exactly what I call it, Jeff.
My comment is meant as a critique of Murry’s statement on Russia and Putin. I don’t see Putin as a great statesman selected by Russia in free elections, nor do I see Biden in those terms. I’m tired of Putin-good, Biden-bad, or America-good, Russia-bad. Let’s criticize both the Russian Federation and the American Republic, recognizing the corruption of both.
LikeLike
Thank you. Agree completely. Corruption runs rampant through both the US and Russian governments and their leadership.
LikeLike
“My comment is meant as a critique of Murry’s statement on Russia and Putin. I don’t see Putin as a great statesman selected by Russia in free elections, nor do I see Biden in those terms.” — William J. Astore
(1) Well, at least you got the point about using the first-person pronoun “I” (when expressing one’s own personal beliefs) instead of the inclusive plural “we” (which implies that everyone else shares those opinions). I’ll give you credit for that much, Bill.
(2) And you have now begun using “see” instead of “know.” Also an improvement, although in matters concerning the Russian Federation and its elected President Vladimir Putin, you don’t seem to see very well or very far. For my part, what I have learned about the Russian Federation and its government, I have gleaned from experienced, informed sources such as Gilbert Doctorow, Andrei Martyanov, Dmitry Orlov, Douglas Macgregor, Scott Ritter, Alexander Mercouris, Pepe Escobar, and Brian Berletic, et al, to name only the most relevant of today’s international observers. You will perhaps pardon me if I accept their opinions regarding Russia and Vladimir Putin rather than less informed American opinions which I find unfortunately parochial in matters concerning Russia.
(3) In my comment (and for your edification), I quoted Dmitry Orlov and provided a link to one of his published articles. You chose not to acknowledge either. Instead you resorted to boilerplate “both sides do it” whataboutism as if other countries must also have an incompetent and corrupt government — bought by billionaire money, run by squabbling minions, and fronted by a lifelong political hack — just because the United States does. Other countries, whatever their shortcomings (and Russia has its share) must do no such thing. Some governments — Russia prominent among them — have governments which have done a better job of serving the interests of their people. I see no problem whatsoever in honestly acknowledging this reality.
(4) In my comment, I said nothing about Joe Biden, primarily because I don’t see anything concerning him that merits much of my attention. Certainly he does not belong in the same league as Vladimir Putin and Xi Jin-ping, the generally acknowledged leaders of today’s international scene. A incompetent coterie of Russophobic minions — Victoria Nuland, Antony Blinken, Jake Sullivan — runs not only the Biden/Harris White House, but hapless flacks in the “Defense” establishment like Raytheon’s Lloyd Austin (Secretary of Deference) and General Mark Milley, Chairman of the Joined Chefs of Stuff. What a sorry lot of lame losers.
I could go on, but I think I have adequately addressed the “I/We” and “belief/know” rhetorical dichotomies. At any rate, the present government of the Russian Federation has clearly stated its legitimate security concerns and will act to see that the so-called “Collective West” (or Consolidated Waste) comes to respect them. The former country of “Ukraine” (prior to 2014) had a democratically elected government that wished to pursue a policy of neutrality vis-a-vis Russia and the Consolidated Waste. But the United States did not like that democracy or its economic and security policies so the United States staged a bloody coup that overthrew that democracy and installed a puppet thug regime generally acknowledged as among the most corrupt and dictatorial in Europe. The United States, therefore, has lost all credibility (such as it ever had) when it comes to lecturing other countries about “democracy,” “corruption,” et cetera. For this reason I do not take seriously uninformed American opinions about the government of the Russian Federation since such opinions originate from Americans who cannot even manage their own government. As I understand it, 80% of Russian population support their elected government, its ministers, and its policies (both domestic and foreign), so what Americans think, one way or another, does not matter in the least to them.
What the American government wants — to the extent that it can even enunciate a coherent policy — matters less and less every day. Certainly Russia and China have come to that conclusion and an increasing number of other countries around the world seem inclined to agree. Americans really ought to shut up about countries like Russia and China: significant nations with long histories and promising futures about which Americans know little and could care less.
LikeLiked by 1 person
On what basis, Michael, do You declare the following?
“Some governments — RUSSIA PROMINENT AMONG THEM — have governments which have done a better job of serving the interests of their people. I see no problem whatsoever in honestly acknowledging this reality.” [EMPHASIS added.]
And does that cover Russia since Putin assumed the throne? Or was it like that back in the old USSR, as well?
LikeLike
JG, with the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, and the Warsaw Pact opposite NATO in Europe, the US was thrilled to see Russia weakened and down and out. At that Time, China was only in the ascendancy and did not yet appear to be a threat to US Imperialism and Economic supremacy as it appears Today.
It was a terrible Time for the Russian People.
US anti-Russia/Putin Propaganda will never detail that period of Time as detailed when the US had real influence in Russia through Yeltsin for the 1st time, leading it in a crash course in the transformation from Communism to US style Capitalism, screwing the Russian People in the process.
The rise of Putin saved the Russian People, lifting their Spirit as Leaders are supposed to do, frustrating the US plans to dismember the Soviet Union.
I strongly urge you to read this to give you some insight into ‘The Rape of Russia,’ an Interview with F. William Engdahl
https://russia-insider.com/en/rape-russia-interview-f-william-engdahl-audio/ri23182
LikeLike
Ray: My question to Michael was not about whether the interests of the Russian People have been better served by Putin and his coterie of Russian oligarchs than they were under Yeltsin.
It was challenging his assertion that Putin’s government has ~ in his words ~ “done a better job of serving the interests of [the Russian] people” than the American government has done serving the interests of the American people.
And then asking him to provide confirmable facts, figures, and data as far as the Quality of Life of the Russian people as compared to the QOL of Americans.
So let me ask You: Do You think that Putin’s invading Ukraine and waging the kind of war it has devolved into is “serving the interests of the Russian People”? i’d put that in the same category as calling the US’s arming and equipping the Ukrainian Army as serving the interests of the Ukrainian People.
Given their virtually total dependence on the government for virtually everything economic in their lives, of course the Russian People suffered after the collapse of the USSR; and would have regardless of who seized power in the Kremlin after that collapse.
And i have a very difficult time believing that Russia was transformed “from Communism to US style Capitalism.” And that is because i’m not sure exactly what You mean by “US Capitalism.” Is that as opposed to other forms of “Capitalism”?
In any event, i look forward to hearing Mr Engdahl’s take on all this. Having read several of his books, i feel very comfortable calling him a “reliable source.” Have a Great day. ~ jeff
LikeLiked by 1 person
Jeff, I’d like to know what you think on Engdhal’s report on THE RAPE OF RUSSIA?
In my view, all WARS are CRIMES against Humanity no matter who starts them. Since WWII the US has waged more WARS against ONLY poor, 3rd World Countries than Russia and China combined.
The only winner of all those WARS was the US ARMS Industry, now making a killing off the Ukraine WAR.
ALL WARS and all sides involved in them, are engaged in industrial scale killing of People and massive destruction of property, both of which are serious CRIMES for anyone to do in PEACETIME no matter what the government regime in this World Today. WAR benefits only the rich oligarchs making those CRIMES Legal.
Despite the US WAR narrative blaming Putin for everything, I have no doubt the US PROVOKED the Russians to invade Ukraine.
I am also convinced the US/CIA orchestrated the 2014 Coup/regime change of the elected Russian friendly government, installing a US PROXY anti-Russian government that started the 8 year uncivil WAR against the CIVILIAN Russian speaking UKRAINIANS in the East bordering Russia rejecting the US Coup.
Putin was smart enough TO KNOW what the US was doing and prepared for the inevitability of the WAR that US action was designed to bring about.
If it was you, Bill, Michael, Roger, or any other regular here The Kansas City Times was quoting September 13, 1976, “He came to town for the Republican National Convention and will stay until the election in November TO DO GOD’S BIDDING: To tell the World, from Kansas City, this country has been found wanting and its days are numbered […] He gestured toward a gleaming church dome. “The gold dome is the symbol of BABYLON,” he said.” […] He wanted to bring to the Public’s attention an “idea being put out subtly and deceptively” by the government that we have to get prepared for a War with Russia” most probably all of you would have paid much closer attention as the prospect of WAR was intensifying with Russia and US supported Ukraine since 2014 into late 2021 and early 2022.
Because of that personal History, in the weeks before February 14, I started going to the OSCE website daily, to know what Truce violations were taking place between the Ukraine government and the Russian speaking UKRAINIANS in the Donbas. Western Media were not reporting it, but the Truce violations reached peaks of 2000 violations a DAY.
The WAR had already started between the Ukraine government and the Russian speaking UKRAINIANS BEFORE the Russian invasion.
I do believe Putin tried to prevent this WAR with Diplomacy before it started, but the US would not even consider Russia’s proposals for European Security, as NATO trained and armed Ukraine for the WAR the US wanted to bleed Russia. The US doesn’t care about Ukrainian lives and the destruction of the Country.
The Kansas City Times, September 13, 1976 quoting me, ¨”There are 30 months before the fate of the world will be sealed with EITHER Destruction OR the Universal Brotherhood of Man,¨ he said. ¨The 30 month figure concerned a Treaty between Israel and Egypt.¨
NOTE: This does not say Armageddon happens in 30 months from the article.
Not 29 or 31, but exactly 30 months later, in March 1979, history shows a Treaty between Israel and Egypt was signed, The Camp David Accord.
History shows talks broke down on the 12th day and no Treaty was to be signed. Begin and Sadat were leaving. It was on the 13th Day, as in the date of the Article and the picture accompanying it, an unexpected window of opportunity appeared and opened the way for the Treaty to be signed.
This signified the Universal Brotherhood part of the quote.
The 1979 Iranian Revolution happened the month earlier, and if you believe what’s being reported in the MSM these days, over 2 generations later, that Destruction part of the 1976 Message is getting much closer.
I don’t KNOW what’s in store, but it appears to me, considering everything everywhere all at once, this Material World is making choices leading to Destruction, not on the Path to Universal Brotherhood?
My best friend’s son, Eric O’Dell, plays professional hockey for Dynamo Moscow of the KHL He’s played for different Hockey Clubs in different cities in Russia for many years starting in Sochi in 2016.
He, his wife and their 2 children love living in Moscow. They tell me there is so much free family oriented things to do and see, his wife would like to live there permanently.
Their children are getting a much better Education than they could ever get in CanaDa and even more-so than in the US.
Eric was chosen to play Hockey for Team CanaDa for the last 2 Winter Olympic Games in China and South Korea.
LikeLike
Ray: Other than Your best friend’s son playing professional hockey in Russia, and him, his wife, and kids loving living in Moscow and wanting to live there permanently, what does any of this post have to do with the issue at hand? Ie: My and Bill’s challenge to You and Michael to provide evidence ~ as in data and facts ~ that the Russian government “serves the interest of the Russian people better than the American government serves the interest of the American people.”
Is Your friend’s son subject to being drafted and sent to go fight in Ukraine? Are any of the Russians they hang out with subject to it? And do they know any Russians who have been negatively impacted by the war, as in killed, maimed, widowed, etc? Or, with him being a professional hockey player, are the only folks they hang with similarly exempt?
And on what basis are they claiming that their kids are getting “a much better Education than they could ever get in CanaDa and even more-so than in the US”?
LikeLike
Jeff, I did stray from the narrow abstract parameters you are asking from Michael and I.
What can be seen in the US is an increase in mass murders, increased homelessness and poverty, a pervasive ignorance of this World the US seeks having full spectrum dominance, an increase in Weapons of WAR production and National Security now taking well over 50% of disposable income and lack of adequate Health care and failing infrastructure.
Can I get stats on all that? No, but it’s general knowledge put out by the MSM for those paying attention.
If you want actual statistics on how the US manages MONEY, the god in the US, these comparative facts may answer your question.
Economy > Debt Stats: compare key data on Russia & United States
https://www.nationmaster.com/country-info/compare/Russia/United-States/Economy/Debt
LikeLike
Thanks for that link to NationMaster.com, Ray. Just a quick scan shows it to be well worth digging into.
LikeLike
I agree with Jeff. It’s a bold claim to make that the Russian government has served the interests of the people better than most governments. I’d like to see evidence to support that claim.
LikeLike
Typo correction: Because of that personal History, in the weeks before February 24
LikeLike
Heh. Don’t volunteer to hold Your breath until that evidence is forthcoming, Bill.
LikeLike
Thank You for the clarification, Bill.
If You agree that America is an autocratic, plutocratic, oligarchic Deep State, do You also agree that it is also the following?
~ a Bankrupt Debtor State;
~ an Imperialist Warfare State;
~ a Redistributionist Welfare State;
~ a Secrecy/Surveillance/Security/proto-Police State;
~ a Failing Empire and State;
~ an Overshoot State;
And, perhaps most importantly,
~ a People and Nation no longer merely “divided,” but fractured ~ even to the point of disintegration ~ in ways not seen in more than 160 years, since the eve of what may end up being merely the First American Civil War.
LikeLike
Good morning, Jeff. To answer your questions:
Yes, America is divided, but the polls show us that, overall, Americans agree on a lot. The divisions are being intentionally aggravated under the old “divide and conquer” ideal. Why the divisions? Look to all the wealth and power flowing upwards.
LikeLike
Thank You, Bill, for Your response. Permit me some follow-up.
First of all, America as an “Overshoot State” has been described as follows: That ~ with 4.2% of the world’s population ~ while America produces 15%+/- of the world’s measured goods, products, and services, it consumes 25%+/- of those services, products, and goods, and creates 30%+/- of the Planet’s waste, garbage, and pollution. If the entire planet lived like America, it would take more than five Earths to provide the natural resources, goods, products, and services provided by this one Earth that we have. [ https://www.overshootday.org/how-many-earths-or-countries-do-we-need/ ]
As regards America as a “Redistributionist Welfare State”: “Welfare” is used here in its broadest terms to include what the individuals, groups, organizations, and institutions within particular political, economic, cultural, social, or other Special Interest sectors ~ and subsidiary governments [domestic and foreign] ~ receive in redistributed wealth in the form of subsidies, aid, relief, bailouts, loans, rescues, grants, gifts, grifts, grafts, pork, log rolls, bribes, and other financial, regulatory, and legal “entitlements, aid, and assistance” from the federal government.
Defined thus, the MICC and the Banking/Finance cartel are America’s two biggest and most successful “welfare” recipients. Along with the Fossil Fuel, Agriculture, and Pharmo-Medical cabals. All that “upward flowing” that You mentioned.
Given the increasing “militarization” of this nation’s local, state, and federal law enforcement sector ~ and the attendant increase in police criminal violence ~ i’m surprised You didn’t affirm that America is also a Security, proto-Police State, along with being a Surveillance and Secrecy State.
You agree that America is a Debtor State, but “not yet bankrupt.” At this stage of the unravelling, i would say that the operative term is “yet.”
What will happen when the US dollar is no longer accepted as the world’s Reserve Currency like it has since Bretton Woods in 1944? For starters, what happens when the “Petro Yuan” replaces the Petro Dollar? Given the peace deal China arranged between Saudi Arabia and Iran, that may happen a lot sooner than anybody dare imagine. [See https://attackthesystem.com/2023/03/31/new-worries-america-on-verge-of-losing-petrodollar-privilege/ for details.]
And at what point does that National, Sovereign Debt [and the Interest payments on that Debt] become UN”manageable”? It currently stands at $31.7 Trillion, 120.4 percent higher than this nation’s GDP. And the Total US Debt [including that owed by Individuals and Households, Businesses and Corporations, and Local. State, and Federal Governments] is currently $94.9 TRILLION.
And how much longer can Congress keep raising the Debt Ceiling Limit before America’s creditors, foreign and domestic, say “Enough”?
And what’s the plan for paying off America’s $182.6 TRILLION in Unfunded Liabilities [Social Security, Medicare A, B, and D, Federal Debt ~ including Interest on that Debt ~ held by the Public, and Federal Employee and Veterans Benefits]. See https://usdebtclock.org/# for all the gory details.
And finally: Can You direct me to polls that show what “Americans agree a lot” about? And how do You define “agree a lot”? 51%?
In conclusion, while America isn’t technically, and officially financially bankrupt [at least not just yet], a very strong case can be made that it is morally and ethically bankrupt when it comes to its dealings with the Planet and the other Nations and Peoples of that Planet. And a significant number of Americans, as well. And it has been for a very long time.
LikeLike
One example is national health care, Jeff. Even a majority of Republicans support it, and something like 80% of Democrats, but it doesn’t matter. The owners don’t want us to have single-payer national health care.
Most Americans also support a $15 federal minimum wage. Again, doesn’t matter.
There are other examples that I think you can easily find. If not, let me know.
LikeLike
According to a 23jan23 report by Gallup, Bill:
72% of Democrats and 13% of Republicans support a government-run health care system;
57% say the government should ensure health coverage for everybody in the U.S; and
53% favor a health system based on private insurance; while 43% want a government-run one
https://news.gallup.com/poll/468401/majority-say-gov-ensure-healthcare.aspx
On 12jan23, Gallup reported the following breakdown of political affiliation by Americans:
28% identified as Republican;
28% identified as Democratic; and
41% identified as Independent
https://news.gallup.com/poll/467897/party-preferences-evenly-split-2022-shift-gop.aspx
Correct me if i’m wrong, but:
13% of 28% does not constitute a “majority” of Republicans who support a national health care system. And 72% of those 28% who identify themselves as Democrats means that only 20% of Democrats are in favor of it.
Evidently, there must be quite a few Independents who favor it as well.
And it’s interesting that while 57% think the government should ensure health coverage for everybody, only 43% want a system run by the government. i wonder how that 14% propose to have the government ensure health care for all, but not have it be run by that same government.
But more to the point and at this point, the question becomes: How do those 43% who want a government-run health care system propose paying for it? By raising taxes? Particularly of those who favor a health care system based on private insurance?
In any event, it Would be interesting to see how Independents feel about all this, eh?
LikeLike
Results of these polls are driven by how the questions are asked. So if you ask whether people support Medicare for all, a majority are in favor.
But I suppose if you ask whether one wants “a government-run health care system,” the results are different. even though we know Medicare is government-run.
Recall the infamous comment “keep your government hands off my Medicare.”
My point is that it’s easy to exaggerate the divisions in America; it’s easy to exploit them as well. But when you ask people whether they support health care for all, a higher minimum wage, more competition wrt prescription drug prices, clean air and water, etc., Americans express broad agreement on these issues.
LikeLike
Heh. No, i’d never heard that comment before. It sounds like a very accurate indicator and descriptor of American ignorance about how their country [and by extension, the whole world] actually, really works.
The ultimate issue [and question] here is very simple: “Is Health Care a Human Right, or is it a Human Need?” And if it is a Right, how much of what kind of Health Care for how long does everybody have that Right to?
It’s along the same lines as the question “Is abortion a Female Human Right?” And if it is, does that include the Right to have an abortion that is paid for by someone else, ie, taxpayers? Especially taxpayers who are against abortion.
So does the Right to Health Care include the Right to have it paid for by someone else? Because ultimately, somebody IS going to have to pay for it; even if the tab today is covered by deficit spending by the federal government.
LikeLike
There is no genuine Democracy in this World run by MONEY no matter what this picture on the paper is.
All economic systems in this World are Oligarchic Plutocracies.
Only Russia and China since they became Capitalist are attempting to put limits on the rich getting richer and controlling the State of Affairs.
But Jesus answered again, and said to them, Children, how hard is it for them that trust in riches to enter into the kingdom of God! It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.
Matthew 19; Mark 10
No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. You cannot serve God and MONEY.
Matthew 6; Luke 16
These things say the Amen, the Faithful and True Witness, the Beginning of the Creation of God;
I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot: I would you were cold or hot.
So then because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue you out of my mouth.
Because you say, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and know not that you are wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked:
Revelation 3
BABYLON the great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird.
For all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies.
Revelation 18
He came to town for the Republican National Convention and will stay until the election in November TO DO GOD’S BIDDING: To tell the World, from Kansas City, this country has been found wanting and its days are numbered […] He gestured toward a gleaming church dome. “The gold dome is the symbol of BABYLON,” he said.” […] He wanted to bring to the Public’s attention an “idea being put out subtly and deceptively” by the government that we have to get prepared for a War with Russia.
The Kansas City Times, September 13, 1976
LikeLike
Ray: On what possible basis do You claim that “Only Russia and China since they became Capitalist are attempting to put limits on the rich getting richer and controlling the State of Affairs”?
Can You specify any of those so-called “limits”?
LikeLike
And exactly when did Russia and China become “Capitalist”? Maybe the term You are looking for is “Fascist.”
LikeLike
Well JG, maybe the US is become the term you use upstream, “Fascist!”
LikeLike
This was supposed to be in reply to your last comment downstream.
LikeLike
A quick comment:
I shouldn’t be surprised, but one person replied to tell me I was spouting Kremlin talking points and that Russians are “animals,” while another person told me that Ukraine is basically led by Nazis.
“Animals” against “Nazis”: that’s why I’m not hopeful about the war ending anytime soon.
LikeLiked by 1 person
No and Yes.
No. Your remarks concerning the Russian Federation could hardly have come from the Kremlin. From Victoria Nuland or Jake Sullivan or Antony Blinken or the Wall Street Journal, perhaps. But not from the Kremlin. (See my extended remarks on this subject above)
Yes. The Interim Nazi Regime in Kiev (installed, funded, armed and directed by the United States since 2014) does indeed merit its Nazi pedigree. Those knowledgeable about the history of Nazism in Eastern Europe call the doomed Kiev dictatorship “Banderastan,” after the celebrated Ukrainian Nazi, Stepan Bandera. Informed persons at this stage of the NATO-Russian conflict would not require others to tell them of this.
Again, the Russian government has forthrightly announced its goals of (1) de-militarization and (2) de-nazification of the former “Ukraine.” When the Russian Federation has accomplished these objectives, a hostile military alliance sponsored and directed by the United States will no longer sit on its borders threatening Crimea, Moscow or St. Petersburg. Given the present political, economic, and military disorganization of the United States and its UK/NATO vassals, it appears to me — a former enlisted veteran of the Nixon-Kissinger Fig Leaf Contingent (Vietnam 1970-72) — that the Russians will accomplish their two goals in whatever time frame suits them.
What the United States wants has become, frankly, irrelevant. As Barbara Tuchman wrote of the failed US attempt to intervene militarily in the Chinese Civil War (1945-1949): “In the end, China went her own way, as if the Americans had never come.” Ditto for Vietnam and Afghanistan. I think a similar judgement will apply to the US attempt to intervene militarily and economically in Russian affairs.
So, it does matter to what one answers “no” and to what one answers “yes,” taking care to distinguish and not conflate disparate questions and opinions.
LikeLiked by 1 person
50 Years ago tomorrow ~ on March 29, 1973 ~ the last American combat troops left Vietnam, leaving that whole Goat Fuck entirely in the hands of the Vietnamese People. Exactly where it should have been after America’s doomed attempt to help the French re-establish their colonial empire in Southeast Asia ended in total and complete failure in 1954.
It would be another two years, on April 30, 1975, when the last Americans in Vietnam were lifted by helicopter off their Embassy roof top, starting a losing streak by the American military that has lasted to this day. We saw America in chaotic retreat and defeat again on August 30, 2021 from the rooftop of another Embassy, this one in Kabul, Afghanistan.
By the time it was all over, what the Vietnamese People termed “The American War” had killed between 1,450,000 and 3,595,000 Vietnamese, Cambodians, and Laotians. And America likes to make a big deal out of the mere 58,220 Americans killed in Vietnam.
[ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vietnam_War_casualties ]
Caitlin Johnstone’s latest rant ~ “It’s Immoral To Serve In An Immoral Military” ~ lays the bottom line, bullet-hits-the bone TRUTH out for all to read who dare:
“Deciding to enter the military is only morally justifiable if your country’s military is used in a moral and just way. There’s a weird, power-serving taboo against saying this which is born of the idea that it’s more important to protect the feelings of “our troops” than to discourage people from enlisting in the most murderous war machine on earth, but it’s true.
“This doesn’t mean that those military personnel are more responsible for the depravities they help enact than the government officials who sent them there, and it doesn’t mean they’re irredeemably evil — it just means they’re doing something immoral. We all do immoral things and make bad decisions from time to time. All it means is they need to course correct.
“Yes, many of those who enlist in the military are just doing what they feel they have to do to make some money in an unjust system, but it’s very revealing that people don’t tend to extend this same charitable sympathy to those who turn to crime out of the desperation of poverty. Most people in prison are guilty of far less egregious offenses than the things US and allied military personnel are routinely ordered to do, because they didn’t commit their crimes at the behest of a powerful government.
“And yes, to be sure those who join the military are pummeled with lies and propaganda by the culture they grew up in about what their military is and what it does, but many people who commit crimes are pummeled with false narratives and false promises by the people around them as well. That’s exactly how joining a gang tends to work, for example. Those who Charles Manson manipulated into committing murder weren’t exonerated just because they were manipulated. Manipulation is a mitigating factor in assessing morality, but it doesn’t prevent military service from being immoral any more than it prevents Mafia murders from being immoral.
“UNLESS YOU LIVE IN A NATION WHICH USES ITS MILITARY SOLELY TO PROTECT ITS OWN BORDERS AND NEVER TO ABUSE ITS OWN CITIZENRY, THEN IF YOU CHOOSE TO ENLIST YOU ARE DOING SOMETHING IMMORAL. THE US ALLIANCE IS LITERALLY ALWAYS AT WAR OVERSEAS, AND ENLISTMENT IS THEREFORE NEVER MORAL. I guess it could even be theoretically possible for a military to always be at war overseas and still be moral, if it were fighting for moral reasons. There is no moral argument to be made that the US alliance does this, though; it wages wars of aggression for power and profit.
“REFUSING TO ACKNOWLEDGE THAT IT’S IMMORAL TO SERVE IN AN IMMORAL MILITARY SERVES NO ONE BUT MILITARY RECRUITERS, WAR PROFITEERS, AND THE IMPERIALISTS IN WASHINGTON DC AND VIRGINIA. MAKE THIS CLEAR AS A SOCIETY SO THAT PEOPLE CAN BEGIN COURSE-CORRECTING AWAY FROM THAT ABUSIVE PATH.”
Continued at https://caitlinjohnstone.substack.com/p/its-immoral-to-serve-in-an-immoral ; EMPHASES added.
LikeLiked by 1 person
The plain, simple, unadorned, incontestable, and irrefutable Truth is that the Mission, Function, and Purpose of the American military is NOT to protect the rights of its citizens to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, or the core values and principles of freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, and freedom of dissent.
The Mission, Function, and Purpose of America’s military is to protect returns on corporate investment, and access to markets and resources for the accumulation of economic and political power, control, and domination.
LikeLike
I have quoted this observation before, but it seems timeless and certainly applicable to today’s American military policy. From Michael Parenti’s Against Empire (1995):
So, can we please hear no more about the U S Military and its “self-less” goal of spreading “democracy” and “freedom” around the world, no matter if the world wants none of what looks like looting and pillaging to them?
LikeLiked by 1 person
In my list of sources that I consider worth following, I neglected Larry Johnson’s blog at sonar21.com, as for example: Can America’s Leaders Find an Accommodation With Russia? Some relevant quotes:
I am afraid the answer is a resounding, “No!” I hope and pray that I am wrong on this point, but I see no evidence that such a shift in opinion towards Putin and all things Russian is in the offing. The United States and Soviet troops shook hands over the waters of the Elbe River on April 25, 1945. That water is now poisoned.
. . .
At the very time that lines of diplomatic communication need to be open and active between Washington and Moscow, the sustained propaganda campaign portraying Russia as a communist, authoritarian state keen on re-creating the Soviet Empire makes it politically impossible for any U.S. political leader to say or do anything conciliatory towards Russia. This is both incredibly dangerous and stupid.
. . .
American attitudes are hardening and a Russian victory in Ukraine is likely to widen the gulf between America and Russia. Today’s news is ominous. President Vladimir Putin announced that Russia was going to place tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus in response to British promises to supply Depleted Uranium shells to Ukraine. It does not matter whether those shells actually pose a radioactive threat to Russia. Russia perceives it as such and is reacting accordingly.
For its part, the United States decided to poke the Russians in the eye by announcing its intent to meddle in the internal affairs of Belarus, a Russian ally:
. . .
The U.S. hypocrisy is staggering. U.S. politicians and media analysts continue to scream bloody murder about Russian interference in U.S. elections and their feeble efforts to use social media to sway political opinion. Yet, without a sense of irony or shame, the U.S. openly talks about getting rid of the President of Belarus. It is this kind of duplicity that has brought Russia and China together in a historic union.
As long as the United States continues to pursue policies and make public statements that Russia perceives as an existential threat to its nation and people, a war between the United States and Russia appears more likely. I really hope that I am wrong.
Extremely accurate and informative observations, indeed. It would help matters greatly if the United States had a government capable of learning from such real expertise.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Another relevant quote concerning insular American opinions about the real situation in a world the United States wishes to control but hardly recognizes. From Andrei Martyanov’s blog. Reminiscence of the Future (March 27, 2023):
Kishore Mahbubani, diplomat, professor, former Singapore’s permanent representative to the UN and head of the UN Security Council:
“As someone who visits at least 30-40 countries a year, when I come to the United States, I go to the hotel room and turn on the television. I feel that I am cut off from the world. Literally. The degree of insularity of the American discourse is frightening. This is true about the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal. There is an incestuous, self-referential discourse among these newspapers, journalists, et cetera. And they reinforce each other’s perspective and end up misunderstanding the world. The one key point I want to emphasize is that the era of Western domination in world history is a 200-year aberration. It is coming to an end. As a result of which you’ve got to understand non-Western perspectives.”
LikeLiked by 1 person
U.S. domination will continue. We have 400 million guns, including 20 million assault rifles. And Jesus is on our side. Plus we lead the world in drug overdose deaths (more than 100,000 per year). Also, can any country beat our number of COVID deaths, more than one million? I don’t think so.
No one dominates America. No one.
LikeLike
Good to see Ray McGovern’s talking points Today, reiterate comments I’ve made in this Blog and The Washington Post for quite a while now.
LikeLike
‘No Country for Nuclear Madmen’
Everything that can be done must done to avert global nuclear annihilation.
The announcement by President Vladimir Putin over the weekend that Russia will deploy tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus marked a further escalation of potentially cataclysmic tensions over the war in neighboring Ukraine. As the Associated Press reported, “Putin said the move was triggered by Britain’s decision this past week to provide Ukraine with armor-piercing rounds containing depleted uranium.”
There’s always an excuse for nuclear madness, and the United States has certainly provided ample rationales for the Russian leader’s display of it. American nuclear warheads have been deployed in Europe since the mid-1950s, and current best estimates say 100 are there now—in Belgium, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, and Turkey.
Count on U.S. corporate media to (appropriately) condemn Putin’s announcement while dodging key realities of how the USA, for decades, has been pushing the nuclear envelope toward conflagration. The U.S. government’s breaking of its pledge not to expand NATO eastward after the fall of the Berlin Wall—instead expanding into 10 Eastern European countries—was only one aspect of official Washington’s reckless approach…………………………………………………………
https://portside.org/2023-03-28/no-country-nuclear-madmen
Russia adopted a “no 1st use” policy with the exception of the direct entry of the US and it’s 30 junior partner NATO Vassal States into Ukraine that would be a real EXISTENTIAL THREAT to Russia. It’s called DETERRENCE!
If Putin was the madman the US portrays him to be, he would have bombed Poland by now being the portal for all the US/NATO Weapons into Ukraine to “bleed Russia” and prolong the WAR.
Ray McGovern discusses some of that in the video above.
LikeLike
It’s just a sad state of affairs the world finds itself in. We have powerful people once again throwing poor souls into the meat grinder that is war as the world burns around us. In a time when we should be united fighting for our very survival we are as divided as ever. Everyone choosing which side is right or wrong, what about the side of human kind making it through the collapse of our biosphere? Instead we squabble over our constructs: money, ideology, borders, and power. We are poisoned against each other even as our bodies are filled with poisons from our mass consumption. Our air, land, and water filled with toxins, our brothers and sisters of the fields and seas going extinct, even near space around our planet has been cluttered with our trash.
But yes, let us continue to fight over the last scraps, the final vestiges of our dying world. Let us continue to stand against one another for the glory and prestige of the privileged few. We are our own enemy, we are our own destruction when we take up arms against our brothers and sisters instead of locking arms in solidarity. It is fascinating and quite sad to look through history and see the endless stream of wars, genocides, and wanton destruction we have brought about. Rallied for the king, for some god or gods, for the nation state, for what ever construct that is used to persuade us to kill one another, we march into battle, again and again. We fight, we die, or return home, if there is anything left to return to, broken. And we never learn. Because we do it again, and again, always convinced that the cause is just, no matter which side we fight on, us versus them. As the stakes grow higher we still refuse to learn.
Maybe this is just our lot, to burn down our homes, poison the wells, salt the fields, and blacken the sky, until there is nothing left. The evolutionary endpoint, when the smart ape can no longer outwit mother nature. And maybe that’s ok. It would be quite unfortunate if we ruin it for all the other life around us of course, being as how I’ve never met a fascist tree or an imperialist fish. But the selfish ape will do what it wants, consequences be damned.
Anyhow, back to the regularly scheduled program, Nazis something, western hegemony something else. X is good, Y is bad. Or is it Z?
Sigh…
LikeLiked by 2 people
JAV, I relate to your basic emotions in this excellent comment describing the sorry state of this material World and it’s reality.
From a Spiritual perspective, to me you essentially describe this from the Book of Books;
Who has believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the LORD revealed?
For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he has no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him.
He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
Surely he has borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.
All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he opened not his mouth.
He was taken from prison and from judgment: and who shall declare his generation? for he was cut off out of the land of the living: for the transgression of my people was he stricken.
And he made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death; because he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth.
Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him; he has put him to grief: when you shall make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in his hand.
He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities.
Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he has poured out his soul unto death: and he was numbered with the transgressors; and he bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.
Isaiah 53
LikeLike
I respect the views of Jeffery Sachs mostly because I agree with them. I also consider the views of those I don’t immediately agree with.
End of unipolarity w/ Jeffrey Sachs, Alexander Mercouris and Glenn Diesen
https://rumble.com/v2f1phe-end-of-unipolarity-w-jeffrey-sachs-alexander-mercouris-and-glenn-diesen.html?mref=6zof&mrefc=2
LikeLike
This is increasingly hard to see. The US is using Ukrainians as their sacrificial lambs/cannon fodder to bleed Russia.
LikeLike
For those who require evidence of the Russian Federation’s two-decades-long resurgence (under the leadership of President Vladimir Putin) from the Clinton/Yeltsin “Shock Doctrine” 1990s, I recommend starting with The Capital of the Multipolar World, by Pepe Escobar, The Unz Review (March 30, 2023):
“In Moscow you feel no crisis. No effects of sanctions. No unemployment. No homeless people in the streets. Minimal inflation.”
Not exactly the New York City subway or John McCain’s “gas station with nuclear weapons.”
LikeLike
Sounds like paradise! I wonder how many Muscovites are buying Bentleys and designer cashmere coats? All of them?
“In Moscow you feel no crisis. No effects of sanctions. No unemployment. No homeless people in the streets. Minimal inflation. Import substitution in all areas, especially agriculture, has been a resounding success. Supermarkets have everything – and more – compared to the West. There’s an abundance of first-rate restaurants. You can buy a Bentley or a Loro Pianna cashmere coat you can’t even find in Italy.”
LikeLike
Bill, despite the US/Western Propaganda portrayal of Russia being a repressive authoritarian regime, these videos of ordinary Russians on Moscow City Streets show Russians are just as free and prosperous as anything seen in the US.
The streets are much cleaner without the growing numbers of 3rd World like beggars and homelessness increasingly seen on US/Canadian streets.
Whether is Municipal or Federal, the government influence ensures a quality of life in Moscow disappearing in the US and it’s failing infrastructure.
The majority of Americans can’t afford the increasing rents let alone Bentleys and designer clothes, so what’s your point in your comment.
This Youtube video was uploaded in May last year 3 months after the WAR and the draconian economic sanctions put on Russia.
Compare this Moscow subway to the New York subway for aesthetic beauty in creating a quality of life environment for the Citizens.
LikeLike
Ray: Yes, you can be a privileged person in both NYC and Moscow.
Sadly, neither the U.S. nor Russia is a workers’ paradise.
Yes, I write about problems in America constantly, as you know from reading my stuff.
I don’t live in Russia and so I’m not as aware of the plight of the less privileged. One book I have read is “Other Russias,” by Victoria Lomasko, based on her travels and reportage from 2008 to 2016. From her book, I realize Russian workers and U.S. workers have a lot in common.
New York streets aren’t paved in gold. Neither are those of Moscow.
Instead of focusing on Russia versus America, shouldn’t we borrow an insight from Marx? Workers of the world, unite! 🙂
LikeLike
Dear Pepe,
Thank You for that inspiring love letter from the Kremlin.
But let me ask You a question or two: How are things outside of Moscow? Out there where all those conscripts are coming from?
Do You know if the folks out there are feeling “no crisis” and “no effects of sanctions,” with “no unemployment or homelessness,” and “minimal inflation”? Or is that just what You have been assured by Your hosts?
How about if the next time You visit Russia, You ask Your hosts to take You out there so You can answer those questions Yourself. Think they’ll go along with that?
Have a Great day.
Note: If that’s Your definition of “evidence,” Michael, i’m glad You’re not a Judge.
LikeLike
Jeff, the US proxy Ukraine government has press gangs roaming the streets seizing teens and the elderly sending them to the front with little training
LikeLike
And where are the Russians getting their troops? From prisons?
LikeLike
Have you been to Appalachia in the US, Jeff?
As of January 2021, 37.9 million Americans lived in poverty, accounting for 11.6% of the total population, according to the latest report from the United States Census Bureau. That’s despite the fact that America ranks first as the richest nation in the world in terms of GDP.
Is that US government serving the people?
LikeLike
How many Russians are living below Russia’s Poverty Line, Ray? Got any numbers on that?
LikeLike
Ray: No one here is claiming the U.S. or Ukraine is some kind of paradise. But if we’re going to be critical of the governments of U.S. and Ukraine and the corruption therein, as we should, we should also be critical of Russia and its government.
Being critical does not mean painting Russians as “animals” and Putin as “worse than Hitler.” Yes, we have too much of that. But to suggest things are hunky-dory in Russia and that Putin is almost saintly in his devotion to the people: well, that’s going a bit too far, don’t you think?
LikeLike
Bill, like I commented to Michael’s comments downstream, something changed on your site since last week. I liked your comment but it didn’t take.
Nowhere in my comments do I suggest or imply everything in Russia or Putin is perfect, but with US Propaganda constantly demonizing him and Russia, I simply point out ‘let the one without sin cast the 1st stone” I also support the underdog!
Even though I’m kept signed into WordPress to view the stats to my Blog, now I have to enter my email address, name, website and password to post this reply to you. I now have to follow the same routine EVERY TIME I comment or reply notwithstanding I checked the box KEEP ME SIGNED IN.
Did you change your settings in the last week? I never had to do that before.
LikeLike
No. I’ve made no changes.
It could be a browser issue related to your privacy settings. You may need to enable “cookies” or tracking.
These issues can be very annoying. You might try using a different browser. Another option, of course, is to comment at my Substack site. Sorry!
LikeLike
Regarding the currently unfolding NATO (US) proxy war against the Russian Federation (now in its 9th year), Brian Berletic of The New Atlas had a discussion with Garland Nixon of The Critical Hour (March 28, 2023) entitled: Talking US-Russian Tensions in Ukraine & US-Chinese Tensions Over Taiwan”. Some excerpts:
. . .
“We have to remember that this entire conflict began because the United States overthrew Ukraine’s government in 2014 and pumped the country full of weapons and provided military training. This is what triggered it in the first place. Now they’re flying their drones around the conflict, collecting intelligence and passing it on to Ukrainian forces to assist them in carrying out attacks in this armed conflict. So they are a party to the conflict. Those drones are there to threaten Russia. And so Russia is responding. . . .”
. . .
“… when you really think about what U.S. foreign policy is based on, it’s based on Might Makes Right. And that’s fine as long as you are the mightiest, but it seems as if the U.S. military power is in decline. It is being eclipsed in some ways by both Russia and China. And now when Russia and China have the ability to assert their national security interests, now the United States doesn’t like that notion of might making rights.”
. . .
“We continuously hear from Washington that this is about Ukraine’s sovereignty and their agency and they have the final decision. But when this talk about a potential peace plan floated by the Chinese leadership, as soon as it was floated it was the United States that immediately shot it down. And it wasn’t as if they consulted with Kiev to do that. And it’s just further proof that this is not about fighting for Ukraine’s sovereignty. It’s sovereignty ended in 2014. The decisions being made for Ukraine’s future are being made in Washington. That’s what they have proved and this is also proof that this is nothing more than a proxy war being fought by the U.S. against Russia using Ukrainian blood and treasure. And as there’s no cost for Washington, they pay no price for this, and so they have no incentive to seek peace.”
Excellent and timely observations.
LikeLike
More from Brian Berletic, “US Experts Grapple with Ukraine End Game: Admit War of Attrition is Unwinnable”, The New Atlas (March 30, 2023)
19:37 “They [the venal, inept morons who run U.S. foreign policy] should cut their losses and quit while they’re only this far behind.”
. . .
21:18 “This was a challenge U.S. policymakers were not up to, and they failed miserably.”
. . .
28:45 “The whole reason these top U.S. foreign policy experts are in this room panicking over what is going on in Ukraine is because they horrifically miscalculated going into this proxy war. And now they want to double down by not just continuing this proxy war with Russia, but now sanctioning China and beginning a process of confrontation with China as well, in addition to what they’re already doing with China regarding the island province of Taiwan.”
. . .
“The only way the U.S. can get out of this situation it has created is if it readjusts its entire premise: It’s initial premise, that it should hold hegemony over the entire planet; that it cannot allow nations like China to surpass it. This is entirely flawed, why any policy they try to place on top of that premise is inevitably going to fail. The only way the United States can continue functioning as a modern nation-state, prosperous with high living standards for its population is if it accepts this reality that it is not going to stop China from surpassing it; that it is not going to impose itself upon all other nations and instead cooperate with all other nations; create a foreign policy predicated on multi-polarism rather than being obsessed with unipolarism.”
As many of us enlisted nobodies used to say down in the depths of the Mekong Delta (circa 1970-72): “We lost the day we started and we win the day we stop.” The United States and its bloated, inept, careerist military ought to just quit this proxy war on Russia shit. Then we all win.
LikeLike
From Larry Johnson’s excellent blog, A Son of the New American Revolution (February 24, 2023): “America’s Delusional Military Fantasy”
“Seven years ago General David Petraeus and analyst Michael O’Hanlon wrote this paean to the U.S. military:
“One of the lessons that should be learned from the war in Ukraine on the anniversary of the start of Russia’s Special Military Operation is that the United States has the most expensive military in the world but is totally unprepared to fight a first world power. During the last year we have learned that javelins, stingers and HIMARS are not game changers for Ukraine. The war in Ukraine has exposed the weakness of the U.S. and European military industrial base. NATO has lost its ability to produce essential ammunition required to sustain Ukraine’s needs in the battle and lacks stockpiles of tanks and armored vehicles that Ukraine begs for on a daily basis. The U.S. is no longer the industrial behemoth that churned out tanks, planes, aircraft carriers, destroyers and bombs in the Second World War.”
“Russia, for its part, continues to steadily advance along the entire 1000 mile front (not as fast as a bunch of arm chair generals want) and is inflicting massive casualties on the Ukrainian forces. At no point since February 2022 has Ukraine been able to mount a counter attack against a numerically equal Russian force. Ukraine’s much ballyhooed offensive from last August/September was against an outnumbered group of military police and Russia managed to effect a professional tactical retreat.”
“The real game changer is Russia’s industrial base. Russia has the natural resources, the factories and the skilled workers to produce the weapons, vehicles, tanks and planes it needs to sustain its forces in the field. The Biden Administration, the media and the pundits in America fail to grasp this reality. Instead they continue to repeat the lie that Russia’s economy is in tatters and drowning under the weight of U.S. sanctions.”
Larry Johnson’s previous experiences in the CIA and US State Department really show through here in his rigorous analysis.
LikeLike
From retired US Army Colonel Douglas Macgregor: This Time It’s Different, The American Conservative (January 26, 2023)
“Neither we nor our allies are prepared to fight all-out war with Russia, regionally or globally.”
“Until it decided to confront Moscow with an existential military threat in Ukraine, Washington confined the use of American military power to conflicts that Americans could afford to lose, wars with weak opponents in the developing world from Saigon to Baghdad that did not present an existential threat to U.S. forces or American territory. This time—a proxy war with Russia—is different.”
“Contrary to early Beltway hopes and expectations, Russia neither collapsed internally nor capitulated to the collective West’s demands for regime change in Moscow. Washington underestimated Russia’s societal cohesion, its latent military potential, and its relative immunity to Western economic sanctions.”
“As a result, Washington’s proxy war against Russia is failing. . . .”
. . .
“Predictably, Washington’s frustration with the collective West’s failure to stem the tide of Ukrainian defeat is growing. In fact, the frustration is rapidly giving way to desperation.”
. . .
“The blunt fact is that in its efforts to secure victory in its proxy war with Russia, Washington ignores historical reality. From the 13th century onward, Ukraine was a region dominated by larger, more powerful national powers, whether Lithuanian, Polish, Swedish, Austrian, or Russian.”
. . .
“Today, Russia is not communist, nor does Moscow seek the destruction of the Polish State as Trotsky, Lenin, Stalin, and their followers did in 1920.
So where is Washington headed with its proxy war against Russia? The question deserves an answer.”
. . .
“Washington emotes. Washington does not think, and it is also overtly hostile to empiricism and truth. Neither we nor our allies are prepared to fight all-out war with Russia, regionally or globally. The point is, if war breaks out between Russia and the United States, Americans should not be surprised. The Biden administration and its bipartisan supporters in Washington are doing all they possibly can to make it happen.”
LikeLike
Something has happened to Bill’s WordPress site since last week. While I pressed like for your comments they don’t register.
Additionally, I have to sign in every time with my email address, name, website and password even though I click on the box KEEP ME SIGNED IN. It’s getting annoying!
I can’t imagine WordPress doing that for all it’s sites, so Bill must have changed something in his settings.
LikeLike
I haven’t changed my settings.
LikeLike
May I suggest you contact WordPress Support to know why that’s happening just since last week?
LikeLike
I also get this every time,
Are you Ray Joseph Cormier?
You are being asked to login because ray032@sympatico.ca is used by an account you are not logged into now.
By logging in you’ll post the following comment to Questions to Ask in the Russia-Ukraine War:
I am logged into the ray032 account.
LikeLike
As part of my contributions to this discussion thread, I have tried to supply links to (and excerpts from) commentary by those whose expertise regarding things military, economic, and diplomatic — not to mention Russian — far exceed my own. My personal and academic understanding of international matters relates primarily to China, Japan, and Vietnam, specifically. So I try to learn about the Russian Federation, its people, their history, their culture, their government, et cetera, from those who actually know. Take, for example, Gilbert Doctorow, an independent American businessman and analyst who resides in Brussels but who speaks Russian and owns property in St. Petersburg and the surrounding countryside. Mr Doctorow pays close attention to television programming in Russia, focusing on what the common Russian people and political elites think about economic and political matters. I consider him a valuable resource. One recent example of Mr Doctorow’s relevant expertise:
Descent into Hell: Europe’s top diplomats are nearly at the journey’s end (April 2, 2023)
[begin quote]
“On Friday, 31 March Vladimir Putin signed into law the new Foreign Policy Concept which will guide Russian diplomacy in the years to come. It replaces the existing Concept promulgated eight years ago and sets out on 43 pages in logically organized form what we have been witnessing in Russia’s behavior on the world stage since the launch of the Special Military Operation in Ukraine and subsequent nearly complete rupture of relations with the US-led Collective West. There are few surprises in this document though there are some very important new directions taken over from the USSR which I will tweak out in a separate essay later today or tomorrow.
What I wish to call attention to here is how Russia’s new Foreign Policy Concept was greeted by the European Union’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell and by an unidentified spokesman for the United Kingdom’s Foreign Office.
The UK spokesperson wrote: “April Fool’s Day tomorrow” with specific mention of the document released by the Russians. I have in front of me the respective news item in The Eastern Herald (India).
Borrell, who is not known for originality, picked up this convenient insult and used it to remark on another Russia-related development of the same day. He wrote: “Russia taking over today @UN Security Council presidency is fitting for April Fool’s day.”
Both statements were issued on their Twitter accounts. As they say, the medium (low-brow to be kind about it) is the message.
When diplomacy degenerates into crude insults as the UK and EU showed yesterday, we are well on our way to total war. Our foreign policy is being conducted by intellectually challenged people who have had a bad upbringing, sad to say. [emphasis added]
The path before us is what the French call la déscente aux enfers. Whether we will emerge into a second life through Resurrection after hitting bottom depends on your religious beliefs.
©Gilbert Doctorow, 2023
[end quote]
Now, hopefully, we all know a bit more about the disintegrating international situation than we did before availing ourselves of Mr Doctorow’s expertise, namely: Forthright, published statements of public policy by the Russian Government compared to crude slurs and insults from The Consolidated Waste (US/UK/EU). The late US Senator John McCain may have thankfully shuffled off this mortal coil but his bigoted “gas station masquerading as a country” view of all things Russian endures in the country of my birth where ignorance and ineptitude reign.
LikeLike
Following up on Gilbert Doctorow’s concise summation of the infantile approach to international matters by the “elite” of The Consolidated Waste, we have this from Larry Johnson: <a href="https://sonar21.com/there-is-no-fixing-stupid-when-it-comes-to-western-delusions-about-russia/"There Is No Fixing Stupid When It Comes to Western Delusions About Russia (April 1, 2023)
“If you are looking for proof why the British military is a third rate organization that could not last a week on the battlefields of Ukraine, look no further than Colonel Richard Kemp, a columnist for the Daily Telegraph.
. . .
His latest piece of shoddy punditry is representative of his previous efforts — banality filled with distortions and delusions. He also is a practitioner of psychological projection — i.e., attributing to Russia the shortcomings of his own nation. . . .”
Well worth reading the whole piece and enjoying the comedic video references.
LikeLike
Speaking of comedic video references to “elite” US Government venality, ignorance, and ineptitude, we have the following from Jimmy Dore (April 1, 2023):
Even ChatGPT Knows The U.S. Provoked Russia To Invade Ukraine
Apparently, one can ask an AI “bot” to scan the vast internet and produce a written report such as the following:
For years now, I have tried to get across this simple, factual truth that even a soulless computer program can discern. But I have found the effort pretty much an exercise in “shoveling shit against the tide,” as we used to say back in Uncle Sam’s Canoe Club (1966-72). A debilitating illogic seems to hold sway in much of English-language pundit commentary (addressed to a browbeaten, uninformed public). To wit:
Jimmy Dore does a good job (as usual) in skewering this debilitating illogic, although he does not state it in terms of the standard syllogism as I have. I would, however, respectfully differ with him in that Russia did not “invade” “Ukraine.” The United States did that in 2014, installing a Nazi thug regime in Kiev which then launched an eight-year assault on the ethnic Russian inhabitants of Crimea as well as the independent Donetsk and Lugansk people’s republics who refused to live under the US-installed regime which they had not voted to democratically elect. Russia, despite eight years of fruitless “negotiations” with admittedly cynical, insincere interlocutors (US, France, Germany, and the UK) finally came to the assistance of these ethnic Russian populations who consequently voted to rejoin Russia. The US-installed Kiev Regime, therefore, qualifies as the assaulting, invading belligerent and now requires expulsion from southwestern Russia (historically known as Novorossiya), which the present government of the Russian Federation has publicly announced as its guiding policy.
We citizens of The Collected Waste can fume and fret about this truth if we wish, but what we wish will not prove dispositive in a land that means everything to Russia and nothing, really, to the people of the United States.
LikeLike
There is a lot of projection by the US/NATO describing the Ukraine WAR
LikeLike
Not just projection of one’s own faults upon another, but bigoted ignorance and wishful thinking as well. I can remember back in the late 1950s when representatives of the former Soviet Union accused the United States of flying spy aircraft through Soviet airspace. President Eisenhower categorically denied this, assuming that American U2 spy planes few at an altitude which made them invulnerable to interception by Soviet air defenses.
Then the Soviets produced U2 pilot Francis Gary Powers whom the Soviets had shot down while flying in Soviet airspace. President Eisenhower looked very uninformed and foolish with all that diplomatic and military egg all over his face. Of course, not long afterward, the Soviets put the first artificial satellite “Sputnik” in orbit around the earth and then the first human, Yuri Gagarin. So much for what US military “intelligence” knew about Soviet scientific/military accomplishments. I suspect that these erstwhile “experts” know precious little about Russia or China or Iran today, either. Consequently, they ought to enjoy the taste of all that egg on their faces since they seem intent upon splashing even more upon themselves.
I only make this point to emphasize that running down foreign governments like Russia and China on the unwarranted assumption that the United States and Perfidious Albion (UK) have some “superior” knowledge of them has not proven a wise course of action.
LikeLike
With all due respect to our esteemed blog proprietor, I have not gone to so much effort at researching this topic (of the nine-year US/NATO war on Russia) because I consider him a “spokesman for the Kremlin,” as he claims others have unfairly labeled him. On the contrary, I wish to defend him against such accusations. I consider myself much more worthy of this accolade, simply because I wish to get at the truth of things. Because, as the scientist/philosopher Charles Sanders Peirce wrote back at the end of the nineteenth century:
“The Truth doesn’t depend upon who believes in it. The Truth would remain true, even if nobody believed in it. And Falsehood would still be false even if everybody believed in it.”
So of this I can assure members of the parochial American commentary community: They have nothing to worry about since their knowledge of (or even interest in) the subject of Russia would seem painfully limited in Moscow, St Petersburg, and Beijing, for example, where official spokespersons have a much better claim on international credulity. The Russians (not to mention the Chinese) can and do speak competently for themselves and would consider an American living in the information vacuum of the United States among the last persons on earth whom they would choose for a “spokesman.”
When it comes to the factual Truth and who espouses it, as my mother taught me back in elementary school: “If the shoe fits, just wear it.”
LikeLike
As for US/NATO WAR Propaganda Russia is kidnapping Ukrainian children, they’re Russian speaking UKRAINIANS the Ukrainians have been shelling since the 2014 US/CIA Coup and even more-so since the WAR started.
LikeLike
thank you, ray; most elucubrating, the narratives from your proffered video. why is it that the US propaganda machine seems to have gained so much more agency over the hearts and minds of western folks than in quondam histories of US propagandizing? equiponderent attitudes are at a premium, and knee-jerk responses are accelerating into the welkin. so many are addicted to video games, perhaps their brains have been fried… or perhaps they just don’t care to turn off their devices in order to investigate alternative sources of information, insights, or constructive commentary. the MSM is their go-to channel for shallow, insubstantial commentary.
LikeLike
Inditing Putin as a WAR Criminal is US/NATO politics.
Ukraine has been shelling the Russian speaking Civilian UKRAINIANS in the Donbas and Luhansk since the 2014 US/CIA Coup/regime change of the elected Russian friendly government, installing the proxy US anti-Russian government.
Being Russian speaking, it was only natural with the increased shelling of the Donetsk since the WAR, those children were removed for their own safety just like the Ukraine speaking Ukrainians went West to protect the children.
LikeLike
I just caught this quote in the comment section of the Russian/American Andrei Martyanov’s blog Reminiscences of the Future</>:
Henry Kissinger (Washington Post): “For the West, the demonization of Vladimir Putin is not a policy; it is an alibi for the absence of one.”
Never thought I’d give the old war criminal credit for anything, but I guess I’ll have to give him kudos for at least that truthful observation.
I still remember those long ago days when Tom Lehrer quit the political/entertainment business and returned to teaching university mathematics saying: “All comedy died the day Henry Kissinger won the Nobel Peace Prize.”
I seriously doubt that war criminal Barack Obama (who overthrew the elected government of the former “Ukraine” and tried to do the same in Syria) even knew of Mr Kissinger’s or Mr Lehrer’s observations, much less the irony of his own Nobel Peace Prize for getting elected President of the United States while having dark skin. But history (I hope) will consign the opprobrium due those American “leaders” of administrations who think they can do a wrong thing (“imperial war”) the right way, no matter how many times they try that and fail.
LikeLike
Again, please allow me to state my admitted biases in this discussion of the US/NATO War on Russia (or sovereign disobedience, generally) using the US-installed Kiev Nazi Regime as a proxy cudgel.
I wish to see the Nazi-American Terrorist Operation (NATO) abolished and dismantled as of no genuine importance for the security of the United States and the world. The former Soviet Union and Warsaw-Treaty alliance voluntarily and peacefully dissolved themselves and the Hegemonic United States and NATO can do the same. I also wish to see the bloated and inept U.S. military reduced to 50 state militias, a Coast Guard, and perhaps two dozen nuclear weapons at the most. If it takes the Russian Federation — supported by China and many other nations — to initiate the process of this necessary dissolution then that process will just have to continue until it accomplishes its twin objectives: de-militarization and de-Nazification: first, of Russia’s southwestern borderlands (or “Ukraine”), then Western Europe. The Middle East, India, Africa, Asia, and South America can come along in their turn. Whether the United States can ever de-militarize and de-Nazify (de-Corporatize) remains a question for future generations The present American generation seems entirely uninterested in the project, no matter how suicidal that looks like to most of suffering humanity.
LikeLike
There is at least one Russian who is not at all impressed with the job ex-KGB thug Putin and his Band of Merry Oligarchs have done and are doing “serving the interests of the Russian People.” i’ve been looking for dissident Russian voices on the War ever since it started 403 days ago today. It turns out that i’ve just been looking in the wrong places.
Mikhail Shishkin was born in Moscow and is one of the most lauded writers in contemporary Russian literature, and the only one to receive all three of Russia’s most prestigious literary awards. An outspoken critic of Vladimir Putin and what he calls his “criminal regime”, he has lived in exile in Switzerland since 1995. In MY RUSSIA: WAR OR PEACE?, his most recent book to be translated into English, he surveys the violent contours of Russia history and examines the troubled relationship between the Russian state and its citizens. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mikhail_Shishkin_(writer)]
On 7 March 2022, twelve days after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Shishkin posted the following to The Guardian: MY DEAR RUSSIANS – THE UKRAINIANS ARE FIGHTING PUTIN’S ARMY FOR THEIR FREEDOM, AND OURS at https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/mar/07/russians-ukrainians-putin-army-freedom-mikhail-shishkin . “The real Russia is a country of literature and music, not the bombardment of children. Putin’s war brings disgrace on us all.”
On 28 March, he posted the following: NEITHER NATO NOR UKRAINE CAN DE-PUTINISE RUSSIA. WE RUSSIANS MUST DO IT OURSELVES at https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/mar/28/nato-ukraine-vladimir-putin-russia-democratic-national-guilt . “A new, democratic Russia is impossible without a change of national mindset – and an acknowledgment of national guilt.”
On 2 April came, ‘MY COUNTRY HAS FALLEN OUT OF TIME’: Russian Author Mikhail Shishkin’s Letter To An Unknown Ukrainian at https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/apr/02/russian-writer-mikhail-shishkin-letter-ukrainian-invasion-anniversary-my-russia-war-peace . “A year after Putin’s invasion, the award-winning novelist reflects on the silence of his compatriots, the betrayal of his mother tongue, and his hopes for the future.”
Also on April 2, The Guardian published this interview as a companion piece to the article just cited: INTERVIEW OF MIKHAIL SHISHKIN by Andrew Anthony at https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/apr/02/mikhail-shishkin-my-russia-war-or-peace-interview-letter . “The revered Russian writer and Putin critic on how the war in Ukraine has divided his nation, and why culture is the only cure.”
Of course, the only reason Shishkin has been able to get away with any of this is because, as noted, he lives in exile in Switzerland. Were he still in Russia, the 28 March and 2 April pieces would have never seen the light of day; let alone be read by anybody outside of Russia.
That’s one thing Putin and his Team haven’t changed at all from the good old days of the USSR: Zero Tolerance For Dissent.
And finally, when reading these pieces, note how easily much of what Shishkin says about Russia can just as accurately be said about the United States.
LikeLike
Jeff, was President H.W. Bush or pompous Pompeo CIA thugs? Bush was a merry Oligarch to boot, presiding over the rise of the Russian Oligarchs in the 90s.
The last sentence in your comment does bring some balance. There are Americans who loath Biden and other Americans who loath Trump. That’s an inevitability when anyone gets into the eye of the camera.
When I moved to the Nation’s Capital from Montreal in 1977, as an unknown, I made a big splash in the local Newspapers reporting how growing crowds stopped to listen to my impromptu speeches on the Sparks Street Mall in Ottawa. The Police always stopped the speech, charging me with “shouting causing a disturbance” with a dozen charges at Trial. The Newspapers reported the crowds demanded the Police leave me alone to speak because they wanted to hear.
The 1st Time standing up to speak Publicly, the next day there was a 3×3 item buried in the Ottawa Citizen with the header, ‘Preacher Arrested on Mall’
The following Saturday newspaper had the header ‘Second Police Warning for God’s Emissary’ taking 3/4 of page 2 with a border around the report and 2 pictures.
I was convicted and put on Probation for a year with only 1 condition typed in at the bottom of the Probation form with these explicit words, “not to attend on the Sparks Street Mall or any other Street for the purpose of SPEAKING or shouting.” Going back to the Mall to speak again, I was sent to jail for the 1st time in my Life for breach of that Probation.
When I got out of jail, I phoned the Ottawa Citizen saying “you published a positive image but now do you want to talk about the substance?” They were bold and direct saying “you’re not news anymore.” The Ottawa Citizen was wrong about that since my personal Journey of Faith was chronicled in Newspapers in all the major Cities Coast to Coast in CanaDa for many years afterwards.
From that experience in my Curriculum Vitae and The Washington Post deleting my dissenting comments from their WAR narrative, suspending me from commenting many times, I know this US WAR with Russia over Ukraine in NATO is BS and not over Democracy and Freedom as is the Official narrative.
Fast forward 20 years to August 31, 1997. A supporter and booster from 1977 came to visit and was asking why I stopped since I was pushing the envelope. I replied that ‘if I got in the camera’s eye there would be people and groups that would want to destroy me and I would be hounded to Death. I’m not Spiritually, Mentally and Emotionally prepared to deal with that at this point!’
Listening to the radio, about an hour after that exchange, the music stopped with the news bulletin Princess Diana was hounded to Death in the Paris tunnel hitting the 13th post. The interesting coincidence for me if not for anyone else, was my friend’s last name was Spencer as in Lady Diana Spencer.
‘History of US-NATO Military Campaigns (1991-2023)’
Before tackling the story of the military campaigns that have haunted our last thirty years up to today, it is necessary to recall three facts about the origin of these wars.
In 1944, seventy-four Nazi leaders were aware of the defeat of Germany but determined to save the Nazi ideal from the catastrophe, they founded the organization O.D.SS.A. Their intent was to emigrate, and to any state where they establish, engage in companies, administrations, and political parties at any level, and filter their Nazi thought. Many of them were absorbed into the US services for their experience of the Soviet Union and placed in the departments of various agencies. Their vision has undoubtedly influenced American politics crosswise.
In 1977 a group of liberal intellectuals, the future neo-conservatives, including characters who would later take part in President Bush jr.’s Administration such as Paul Wolfowitz, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, and Jeb Bush or philosopher Francis Fukuyama, conceived a project that shares many ideological traits with O.D.SS.A:
“The history of the 20th century should have taught us that it is important to shape circumstances before crises emerge and to deal with threats before they become tragic…
The history of this century should have taught us to embrace the cause of American leadership…. establish a strategic military presence worldwide through a military technological revolution, deter the emergence of any competitive superpower, launch pre-emptive strikes against any power that threatens American interests.”
These are the guidelines of the PNAC (Project for a New American Century). The founders of the project will later reveal to be linked to the oil and arms industries, then to the Industrial-Military Complex which, at the end of Gen. Eisenhower’s Presidency, had assumed such power as to influence the policy of any government and President in charge………………………………………………………………………….
https://www.globalresearch.ca/history-of-us-nato-military-campaigns-1991-2023/5813708
LikeLike
Was Bush the Elder a CIA thug? Of course he was. What does that have to do with Putin being a KGB thug?
And trust me, Ray: i know all about the Project for a New American Century; the folks who brought us their very own “New Pearl Harbor” on 9/11. And it worked perfectly.
Let me ask You a question: When the folks who pulled off 9/11 decide that the time has come for a second iteration because they have even more to gain from a 9/11-II than they did from 8/11-I, who and/or what is going to stop them?
And finally, how many more times do You plan to tell us again and again and again about Your glory days back in the 70s?
LikeLike
That’s “9/11-I,” not “8/11-I.”
LikeLike
hear! hear! jg. thank you for your courageous comments and argute perspective. sir cormier, a consociate canadian, means well, but his religious tropes and self-aggrandizements do become a chit-bit tedious after awhile on astore’s site… the apotheosis of egregious repetending
LikeLike