Neocons and Weapons Makers Are Happy
Roughly three and a half years have passed since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 and the war shows little sign of ending. President Trump has gone from boasting he could end the war in a day to following the policy of the Biden administration in providing weapons and aid to Ukraine. To most Americans, the war has become background noise, barely perceptible. Most Ukrainian flags have been put away or deleted from Facebook and similar social media sites.
If you’re looking for a primer on the war that’s both critical and balanced, check out Medea Benjamin and Nicolas J.S. Davies’ book, “War in Ukraine: Making Sense of a Senseless Conflict,” now available in a revised and expanded second edition. ($20 paperback; $10 ebook, from OR Books.)
Benjamin and Davies recognize the war didn’t erupt out of nowhere in February 2022 nor was it completely “unprovoked.” As much as they deplore and denounce Vladimir Putin’s decision to invade, they recognize Putin had his reasons. Putin is more rational actor than a power-hungry dictator, and he’s arguably driven more by securing Russia’s position (and regional dominance) than recreating a Tsarist Russian or Soviet empire. Unlike most American commentators, Benjamin and Davies favor a diplomatic solution that would end mass killing on both sides. Not surprisingly, their views have gained little traction in the pro-war, anti-Putin mainstream media.
Speaking of the U.S. mainstream media, NBC News posted an article yesterday citing Condoleezza Rice, former Secretary of State under President George W. Bush. An unrepentant neocon, Rice is happy that Trump is sending more weapons to Ukraine while threatening more sanctions as well. In short, Trump is following a traditional neocon script while also keeping weapons factories in the U.S. going full blast. Rice approves!
What I found most staggering from Rice was this claim cited by NBC:
Rice also criticized the Biden administration for, in her view, having taken its time to get desperately needed weapons to Ukraine from the outset. “If you had given them everything at the beginning of the war,” she said, when “the Russians were on their back foot, [Ukraine] could’ve won this war outright.”
Excuse me, but WTF? What does giving Ukraine “everything” at the beginning of the war in 2022 mean? Fighter jets, main battle tanks, long-range missiles, nuclear weapons? Ukraine wasn’t even an ally of the U.S., nor was it ever a part of NATO. And would Ukraine really have won the war against Russia with “everything”? What about the risk that Russia would have escalated as well, perhaps calling on its arsenal of 6000 or so nuclear weapons?
Rice’s call for more smoking guns to have been sent to Ukraine early in 2022 almost certainly would have ended in a mushroom cloud or two. But I suppose that’s OK with her as long as the mushroom clouds were limited to Ukraine.
Remember 2023 and the failure of the much-hyped Ukrainian counteroffensive? I do. Remember all the hype about U.S., German, and British wonder weapons like Abrams, Leopard, and Challenger tanks? I do.
Let’s hope that Trump’s gambit to push Putin to some kind of compromise settlement bears fruit. No war should go on forever. Haven’t enough people died on both sides?
Bracing Views 
I think that the timeline of the Ukraine war is best expressed by “Years since U.S. pushed NATO expansion to the Russian Border” Anything else leaves the erroneous impression that Russia actually caused the war. It’s confusing to this old brain, because there are so many U.S. caused wars now going on at the same time.
On another issue, I say if you have any questions at all about U.S. foreign policy, you had better ask Benjamin Netanyahu directly, as he appears to be completely running the show.
It now appears that we have lost ALL control, resulting in “Government by the Benjamins” (either Benjamin N. and / or the $100 bill). BTW, is there any truth to the rumor we will again be printing $1,000 bills? The logistics of transferring all those BRIBES is creating a log jam in congress and they cannot seem to get anything done with the exception of gutting our Constitution and Bill of Rights.
AIPAC and our “Death Industry” must be in a tizzy by now, as they can’t pay off senators fast enough.
Jerry King
LikeLike
I’ve been reading Robert Fisk’s book, The Great War for Civilization, and he has arrived at 9/11.
Just as Israelis make out Oct 7 to be the beginning of history, one in which completely innocent Israelis were attacked for no reason by those beasts, the Palestinians, so was it with Americans and 9/11 where GWB pronounced that “they hate us for our freedoms” when in fact they hated us for the tens of thousands of Muslims killed by the US either directly or indirectly in several wars and in Palestine over decades.
We have the same thing with Ukraine where innocent NATO had nothing to do with that monster Putin starting a drive to regain eastern Europe.
Thank goodness we now have all of the independent sources for news on the Internet as mainstream media continues to give out the official line.
LikeLike