RSS
“I want to appeal to the Ukrainian people, to the mothers, the fathers, the sisters and the grandparents. Stop sending your sons and brothers to this pointless, merciless slaughter. The interests of the Ukrainian government are not your interests. I beg of you: Come to your senses. You do not have to water Donbass fields with Ukrainian blood. It’s not worth it.”
— Alexander Zakharchenko, Prime Minister of the Donetsk People’s Republic
Washington needs a war in Ukraine to achieve its strategic objectives. This point cannot be overstated.
The US wants to push NATO to Russia’s western border. It wants a land-bridge to Asia to spread US military bases across the continent. It wants to control the pipeline corridors from Russia to Europe to monitor Moscow’s revenues and to ensure that gas continues to be denominated in dollars. And it wants a weaker, unstable Russia that is more prone to regime change, fragmentation and, ultimately, foreign control. These objectives cannot be achieved peacefully, indeed, if the fighting stopped tomorrow, the sanctions would be lifted shortly after, and the Russian economy would begin to recover. How would that benefit Washington?
It wouldn’t. It would undermine Washington’s broader plan to integrate China and Russia into the prevailing economic system, the dollar system. Powerbrokers in the US realize that the present system must either expand or collapse. Either China and Russia are brought to heel and persuaded to accept a subordinate role in the US-led global order or Washington’s tenure as global hegemon will come to an end.
This is why hostilities in East Ukraine have escalated and will continue to escalate. This is why the U.S. Congress approved a bill for tougher sanctions on Russia’s energy sector and lethal aid for Ukraine’s military. This is why Washington has sent military trainers to Ukraine and is preparing to provide $3 billion in “anti-armor missiles, reconnaissance drones, armored Humvees, and radars that can determine the location of enemy rocket and artillery fire.” All of Washington’s actions are designed with one purpose in mind, to intensify the fighting and escalate the conflict. The heavy losses sustained by Ukraine’s inexperienced army and the terrible suffering of the civilians in Lugansk and Donetsk are of no interest to US war-planners. Their job is to make sure that peace is avoided at all cost because peace would derail US plans to pivot to Asia and remain the world’s only superpower. Here’s an except from an article in the WSWS:
“The ultimate aim of the US and its allies is to reduce Russia to an impoverished and semi-colonial status. Such a strategy, historically associated with Carter administration National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski, is again being openly promoted.
In a speech last year at the Wilson Center, Brzezinski called on Washington to provide Kiev with “weapons designed particularly to permit the Ukrainians to engage in effective urban warfare of resistance.” In line with the policies now recommended in the report by the Brookings Institution and other think tanks calling for US arms to the Kiev regime, Brzezinski called for providing “anti-tank weapons…weapons capable for use in urban short-range fighting.”
While the strategy outlined by Brzezinski is politically criminal—trapping Russia in an ethnic urban war in Ukraine that would threaten the deaths of millions, if not billions of people—it is fully aligned with the policies he has promoted against Russia for decades.” (“The US arming of Ukraine and the danger of World War III“, World Socialist Web Site)
Non-lethal military aid will inevitably lead to lethal military aid, sophisticated weaponry, no-fly zones, covert assistance, foreign contractors, Special ops, and boots on the ground. We’ve seen it all before. There is no popular opposition to the war in the US, no thriving antiwar movement that can shut down cities, order a general strike or disrupt the status quo. So there’s no way to stop the persistent drive to war. The media and the political class have given Obama carte blanche, the authority to prosecute the conflict as he sees fit. That increases the probability of a broader war by this summer following the spring thaw.
While the possibility of a nuclear conflagration cannot be excluded, it won’t effect US plans for the near future. No one thinks that Putin will launch a nuclear war to protect the Donbass, so the deterrent value of the weapons is lost.
And Washington isn’t worried about the costs either. Despite botched military interventions in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya and half a dozen other countries around the world; US stocks are still soaring, foreign investment in US Treasuries is at record levels,, the US economy is growing at a faster pace than any of its global competitors, and the dollar has risen an eye-watering 13 percent against a basket of foreign currencies since last June. America has paid nothing for decimating vast swathes of the planet and killing more than a million people. Why would they stop now?
They won’t, which is why the fighting in Ukraine is going to escalate. Check this out from the WSWS:
“On Monday, the New York Times announced that the Obama administration is moving to directly arm the Ukrainian army and the fascistic militias supporting the NATO-backed regime in Kiev, after its recent setbacks in the offensive against pro-Russian separatist forces in east Ukraine.
The article cites a joint report issued Monday by the Brookings Institution, the Atlantic Council, and the Chicago Council on Global Affairs and delivered to President Obama, advising the White House and NATO on the best way to escalate the war in Ukraine….
According to the Times, US officials are rapidly shifting to support the report’s proposals. NATO military commander in Europe General Philip M. Breedlove, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, US Secretary of State John Kerry, and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Martin Dempsey all supported discussions on directly arming Kiev. National Security Advisor Susan Rice is reconsidering her opposition to arming Kiev, paving the way for Obama’s approval.” (“Washington moves toward arming Ukrainian regime“, World Socialist Web Site)
See what’s going on? The die is already cast. There will be a war with Russia because that’s what the political establishment wants. It’s that simple. And while previous provocations failed to lure Putin into the Ukrainian cauldron, this new surge of violence–a spring offensive– is bound to do the trick. Putin is not going to sit on his hands while proxies armed with US weapons and US logistical support pound the Donbass to Fallujah-type rubble. He’ll do what any responsible leader would do. He’ll protect his people. That means war. (See the vast damage that Obama’s proxy war has done to E. Ukraine here: “An overview of the socio – humanitarian situation on the territory of Donetsk People’s Republic as a consequence of military action from 17 to 23 January 2015“)
Asymmetrical Warfare: Falling Oil Prices
Keep in mind, that the Russian economy has already been battered by economic sanctions, oil price manipulation, and a vicious attack of the ruble. Until this week, the mainstream media dismissed the idea that the Saudis were deliberately pushing down oil prices to hurt Russia. They said the Saudis were merely trying to retain “market share” by maintaining current production levels and letting prices fall naturally. But it was all bunkum as the New York Times finally admitted on Tuesday in an article titled: “Saudi Oil Is Seen as Lever to Pry Russian Support From Syria’s Assad”. Here’s a clip from the article:
“Saudi Arabia has been trying to pressure President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia to abandon his support for President Bashar al-Assad of Syria, using its dominance of the global oil markets at a time when the Russian government is reeling from the effects of plummeting oil prices…
Saudi officials say — and they have told the United States — that they think they have some leverage over Mr. Putin because of their ability to reduce the supply of oil and possibly drive up prices….Any weakening of Russian support for Mr. Assad could be one of the first signs that the recent tumult in the oil market is having an impact on global statecraft…..
Saudi Arabia’s leverage depends on how seriously Moscow views its declining oil revenue. “If they are hurting so bad that they need the oil deal right away, the Saudis are in a good position to make them pay a geopolitical price as well,” said F. Gregory Gause III, a Middle East specialist at Texas A&M’s Bush School of Government and Public Service (“Saudi Oil Is Seen as Lever to Pry Russian Support From Syria’s Assad“, New York Times)
The Saudis “think they have some leverage over Mr. Putin because of their ability” to manipulate prices?
That says it all, doesn’t it?
What’s interesting about this article is the way it conflicts with previous pieces in the Times. For example, just two weeks ago, in an article titled “Who Will Rule the Oil Market?” the author failed to see any political motive behind the Saudi’s action. According to the narrative, the Saudis were just afraid that “they would lose market share permanently” if they cut production and kept prices high. Now the Times has done a 180 and joined the so called conspiracy nuts who said that prices were manipulated for political reasons. In fact, the sudden price plunge had nothing to do with deflationary pressures, supply-demand dynamics, or any other mumbo-jumbo market forces. It was 100 percent politics.
The attack on the ruble was also politically motivated, although the details are much more sketchy. There’s an interesting interview with Alistair Crooke that’s worth a read for those who are curious about how the Pentagon’s “full spectrum dominance” applies to financial warfare. According to Crooke:
“…with Ukraine, we have entered a new era: We have a substantial, geostrategic conflict taking place, but it’s effectively a geo-financial war between the US and Russia. We have the collapse in the oil prices; we have the currency wars; we have the contrived “shorting” — selling short — of the ruble. We have a geo-financial war, and what we are seeing as a consequence of this geo-financial war is that first of all, it has brought about a close alliance between Russia and China.
China understands that Russia constitutes the first domino; if Russia is to fall, China will be next. These two states are together moving to create a parallel financial system, disentangled from the Western financial system. ……
For some time, the international order was structured around the United Nations and the corpus of international law, but more and more the West has tended to bypass the UN as an institution designed to maintain the international order, and instead relies on economic sanctions to pressure some countries. We have a dollar-based financial system, and through instrumentalizing America’s position as controller of all dollar transactions, the US has been able to bypass the old tools of diplomacy and the UN — in order to further its aims.
But increasingly, this monopoly over the reserve currency has become the unilateral tool of the United States — displacing multilateral action at the UN. The US claims jurisdiction over any dollar-denominated transaction that takes place anywhere in the world. And most business and trading transactions in the world are denominated in dollars. This essentially constitutes the financialization of the global order: The International Order depends more on control by the US Treasury and Federal Reserve than on the UN as before.” (“Turkey might become hostage to ISIL just like Pakistan did“, Today’s Zaman)
Financial warfare, asymmetrical warfare, Fourth Generation warfare, space warfare, information warfare, nuclear warfare, laser, chemical, and biological warfare. The US has expanded its arsenal well beyond the traditional range of conventional weaponry. The goal, of course, is to preserve the post-1991 world order (The dissolution up of the Soviet Union) and maintain full spectrum dominance. The emergence of a multi-polar world order spearheaded by Moscow poses the greatest single threat to Washington’s plans for continued domination. The first significant clash between these two competing world views will likely take place sometime this summer in East Ukraine. God help us.
NOTE: The Novorussia Armed Forces (NAF) currently have 8,000 Ukrainian regulars surrounded in Debaltsevo, East Ukraine. This is a very big deal although the media has been (predictably) keeping the story out of the headlines.
Evacuation corridors have been opened to allow civilians to leave the area. Fighting could break out at anytime. At present, it looks like a good part of the Kiev’s Nazi army could be destroyed in one fell swoop. This is why Merkel and Hollande have taken an emergency flight to Moscow to talk with Putin. They are not interested in peace. They merely want to save their proxy army from annihilation.
I expect Putin may intervene on behalf of the Ukrainian soldiers, but I think commander Zakharchenko will resist. If he lets these troops go now, what assurance does he have that they won’t be back in a month or so with high-powered weaponry provided by our war-mongering congress and White House?
Tell me; what choice does Zakharchenko really have? If his comrades are killed in future combat because he let Kiev’s army escape, who can he blame but himself?
There are no good choices.
Check here for updates: Ukraine SITREP: *Extremely* dangerous situation in Debaltsevo
MIKE WHITNEY lives in Washington state. He is a contributor to Hopeless: Barack Obama and the Politics of Illusion (AK Press). Hopeless is also available in a Kindle edition. He can be reached at [email�protected].
English
Arabic
Chinese (Simplified)
Dutch
French
German
Hebrew
Hindi
Italian
Japanese
Korean
Persian
Polish
Portuguese
Russian
Spanish
Swedish
Turkish
Vietnamese
Ты паршивый говнюк и просто негодяй прячущийся от реальности в уютном Вашингтоне. Мразь.
//The Novorussia Armed Forces (NAF) currently have 8,000 Ukrainian regulars surrounded in Debaltsevo, East Ukraine. //
That’s a lie. Nobody is surrounded. Russian terrorists tried to surround us, but they failed and with heavy losses.
And I still can’t believe that people like you exist, with all access to information yet choosing to believe to lie and to spread the lie even more. But that is life, that is reality…
Sergy, there is quite reliable information about this – it is true, sorry to disappoint. The problem for Eastern Ukrainians is that they have surrounded about 8,000 Western Ukrainian troops and Nazis with less than 4,000 troops of their own. Thus, it is a weak encirclement and a complete annihilation is unlikely. Also, Mike is right that Merkel/Oland trip to Moscow is suspiciously similar to Kerry’s promotion of the Minsk deal just when the rebels were winning and were close to taking Mariupol. The first time you fool me – shame on you, the second time you fool me – shame on me. This is why the West has sent its Team B (EU) for the second fooling of Russia.
Regarding the financial attack on Russia that Mike writes about, it was only a part of a broad-spectrum attack. I happened to be reading RT on the morning of the start of this attack. Simultaneously with the developments on the FX and Stock Markets, the US unleashed a barrage of professional trolling on RT, 24 hours by teams in shifts, who were given clear “talking points” to emphasize and turn RT comments boards against Russia (full spectrum dominance). If you challenged them, they would not engage you because this would be digressing from their task to repeat FUD (Fear Uncertainty Doubt). Therefore, the US takes the attack on Russia highly seriously, there is nothing amateurish about it. This attack lasted for about three days, then it went back to normal level. I was most impressed. I was also surprised that RT did not pull the plug on the comments when they were clearly invaded.
Zakharchenko is a marionette. When Putin wants his opinion, he will give him one.
Another retarded article by Whitney, based on conspiracy fantasy and a whole lot of watching “Russia Today”.
Debaltsevo is the usual translit of the Russian spelling Дебальцево, and not of the Ukrainian Дебальцеве (Debal’tseve or Debaltseve) one might get from like wikipedia.
That second quote from the “World Socialist Web Site”. Why quote a secondary source instead of the original open news source? Not checking sources, just knee jerk regurgitating.
Oh yeah, and “Kiev’s Nazi army”. I wasted 3 minutes of my life reading this article.
Still, I presume the purpose of posting this was to expose showing the stupidity that festers in some fever swamps, so congrats to Mr Unz.
Just a reminder:all you White Male jock sniffers who went to your Superbowl Parties last Sunday were participating in a Cultural and Social event that promotes Death…Destruction….and Chickenhawkery. We all know who the canon fodder is…and it ain’t Tom Brady…Peyton and Eli Manning. War is GOOD!!!!…And, you can support the troops…Native Born White American Teenagers from the economically distressed American Heartand with 0 options except proteting Tom Brady’s…Peyton’s and Eli Manning’s FREEDOM!!!!!!!!!!….by having a bud at your Superbowl Party!!!!..I didn’t realize that going to war was that easy and painless…F…….g cowards!!!! You F…..krs should be forced to sit in a hospital room at Walter Reed Army hospital for a Month changing the bedpan of a Iraq-Afghan War basket-case twitching in his hospital bed attached to a bedpan.
JEWISH LOBBY MAKING THE MID-EAST SAFE FOR ISRAEL.
CUT YOUR NOSE TO SPITE YOUR FACE.
Thanks for the great article. The article does not mention the real power behind this push for war–the Israel lobby.
The Judaists own and operate all 3 branches of our govt. and the media. They own and operate Obama whom they installed as a Manchurian President.
Judaists see Iran and Syria as a threat to Israel that must be eliminated, and Russia supports both of them, so they are going after Russia and Putin directly. By eliminating Putin and Russia, they believe they can then eliminate Syria and Iran, and make the Middle East totally safe for Israel, where Israel can kill and terrorize the Middle East and maybe the whole world with impunity. So the US and Saudis made a deal to push oil prices lower. The Saudis are Sunni and hate the Shia Iran and Syria. Plus the US promised them some weapons and other benefits under the table, such as free visas to the Saudis, etc. America for sale–to help the Judaists!
Putin does have several options. He can cut off gas to Europe. He can warn Washington not to arm Ukraine and if they refuse, bomb the govt. buildings in Kiev and attack it with cruise missiles and invade it and destroy the Jewish puppet Petro Poroshenko, have him tried for his crimes and hung and take over Ukraine. He can print billions in US dollars, by buying the printing press, which are sold by the manufacturer, as most dollars in circulation are fake anyway. But he better do that before the Jewish puppet McCain, owned and operated by his Jewish masters, carries out his threat of arming Ukraine.
Putin can simply arm and give nuclear weapons to Iran and Syria and Venezuela. He can bomb Saudi Arabia. He can bomb the Straits of Hormuz and cut off the oil supply and raise oil price to $200 a barrel. He can encircle Ukraine. The Judaists, being rabid haters, are often too deranged to see their own insanity.
U.S. foreign policy in Ukraine is both immoral, and insane. Speaking as someone well to the right of Patrick Buchanan, I plan to re-register as a Democrat, in order to vote for Jim Webb in my state’s primary. Barack Obama is bad enough, but if we elect a more proactive imperialist like Hillary Clinton or, well, pretty much any of the gaggle of ignominious poltroons who make up the Republican field (with the POSSIBLE exception of Rand Paul, but I’m not very optimistic where than man is concerned), we may well be looking at the prospect of a Third World War.
While I support Russia in this fight, Whitney’s use of the World Socialist Web Site in his argument does not help.
You can still watch football on your phone while sitting in a hospital room at Walter Reed:
Video Link
“Saudi Oil Is Seen as Lever to Pry Russian Support From Syria’s Assad.”
Surpring that the author would cite this headline and not elaborate on who is keen on prying Russian support from Syria!
The neocons regard Russia as an adversary because they are allies with Iran and Syria, both of which sponsor Hezbollah, an arch enemy of Israel. Russia also is a permanent member of the UN Security Council that has repeatedly vetoed UN Resolutions meant to act as a fig leaf that provides cover for their illegal interventions.
The American people need to demand their representatives force AIPAC to register under the Foreign Agents Registration Act – I.e., as a lobby of a foreign country.
They also need to understand that their government has been infiltrated by a fifth column of Israel Firsters who place the security of Israel above the interests of their own country.
I’ll leave you with this quote by a famous Roman statesman:
A nation can survive its fools, and even the ambitious. But it cannot survive treason from within. An enemy at the gates is less formidable, for he is known and carries his banner openly. But the traitor moves amongst those within the gate freely, his sly whispers rustling through all the alleys, heard in the very halls of government itself. For the traitor appears not a traitor; he speaks in accents familiar to his victims, and he wears their face and their arguments, he appeals to the baseless that lies deep in the hearts of all men. He rots the soul of a nation, he works secretly and unknown in the night to undermine the pillars of the city, he infects the body politic so that it can no longer resist. A muderer is less to fear.
” A lobby is like a night flower: it thrives in the dark” – STEVEN ROSEN
That image looks like it was taken from a Grindr advert.
I guess you’d know.
what is holding Webb back from announcing??
“The Jerusalem Post article mentioned above is revealing. It describes Berezovsky as “the Godfather of the Oligarchs’ and Kingmaker of Russia’s Politics’” and reports Berezovsky’s statement that “Putin’s Russia is dangerous for Israel.” Berezovsky goes on to assert that Putin “supports terror” in the Middle East through Russia’s previous relations with Iraq and current relations with Iran. [7]
[7] “Boris Berezovsky: Putin’s Russia dangerous for Israel.’, Bret Stephens, The Jerusalem Post, July 5, 2005
http://www.counterpunch.org/2005/02/17/russia-israel-and-media-omissions/
As Pro-European Protests Seize Ukraine, Jewish Oligarch Victor Pinchuk Is a Bridge to the West
The steel magnate—son-in-law of the former president and once a symbol of post-Soviet nepotism—now advocates for the rule of law
“One breezy evening last September, Viktor Pinchuk, Ukraine’s second-richest man, stepped onstage at the Livadia Palace in the Black Sea resort of Yalta to introduce the star speaker of the annual international conference he hosts to promote his country’s ties with the West: former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Nearby, at a table set for an exquisite five-course meal, sat her husband; they were joined in the hall by Shimon Peres and Tony Blair, as well as a number of former European heads of state, top diplomats, and business tycoons
It’s been a remarkable transformation. Just nine years ago, Pinchuk—the son-in-law of Ukraine’s then-President Leonid Kuchma—was denounced by many of his compatriots as a robber baron who used his personal connections to snap up some of the most valuable assets in Ukraine for a song during the post-Soviet privatization wave while millions of his countrymen struggled to make ends meet.
http://tabletmag.com/jewish-news-and-politics/155976/ukraines-western-face
What a cesspool :
“Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Nearby, at a table set for an exquisite five-course meal, sat her husband; they were joined in the hall by Shimon Peres and Tony Blair”
I’m surprised there’s not a disturbance in the force with this many odious creatures in one small location.
Amazing. Despite the fact that Russia and Ukraine combined have less than 200 million people, the United States plans to trap Russia into a war in Eastern Ukraine that might kill “billions.”
Don’t really like American foreign policy, but this socialist hyperventilating doesn’t real contribute much to the conversation.
” the leading group which pleads the Chechen cause is the American Committee for Peace in Chechnya (ACPC). The list of the self-styled “distinguished Americans” who are its members is a rollcall of the most prominent neoconservatives who so enthusastically support the “war on terror”.
They include Richard Perle, the notorious Pentagon adviser; Elliott Abrams of Iran-Contra fame; Kenneth Adelman, the former US ambassador to the UN who egged on the invasion of Iraq by predicting it would be “a cakewalk”; Midge Decter, biographer of Donald Rumsfeld and a director of the rightwing Heritage Foundation; Frank Gaffney of the militarist Centre for Security Policy; Bruce Jackson, former US military intelligence officer and one-time vice-president of Lockheed Martin, now president of the US Committee on Nato; Michael Ledeen of the American Enterprise Institute, a former admirer of Italian fascism and now a leading proponent of regime change in Iran; and R James Woolsey, the former CIA director who is one of the leading cheerleaders behind George Bush’s plans to re-model the Muslim world along pro-US lines.
The ACPC heavily promotes the idea that the Chechen rebellion shows the undemocratic nature of Putin’s Russia, and cultivates support for the Chechen cause by emphasising the seriousness of human rights violations in the tiny Caucasian republic. It compares the Chechen crisis to those other fashionable “Muslim” causes, Bosnia and Kosovo – implying that only international intervention in the Caucasus can stabilise the situation there. In August, the ACPC welcomed the award of political asylum in the US, and a US-government funded grant, to Ilyas Akhmadov, foreign minister in the opposition Chechen government, and a man Moscow describes as a terrorist. Coming from both political parties, the ACPC members represent the backbone of the US foreign policy establishment, and their views are indeed those of the US administration.
Although the White House issued a condemnation of the Beslan hostage-takers, its official view remains that the Chechen conflict must be solved politically. According to ACPC member Charles Fairbanks of Johns Hopkins University, US pressure will now increase on Moscow to achieve a political, rather than military, solution – in other words to negotiate with terrorists, a policy the US resolutely rejects elsewhere.
Allegations are even being made in Russia that the west itself is somehow behind the Chechen rebellion, and that the purpose of such support is to weaken Russia, and to drive her out of the Caucasus. The fact that the Chechens are believed to use as a base the Pankisi gorge in neighbouring Georgia – a country which aspires to join Nato, has an extremely pro-American government, and where the US already has a significant military presence – only encourages such speculation. Putin himself even seemed to lend credence to the idea in his interview with foreign journalists on Monday. ”
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2004/sep/08/usa.russia
Those good old days are very much missed by the regime change mafia
“According to a Washington Post story by David Hoffman, the group bought and controlled Russian governmental officials at the highest levels. After financing Yeltsin’s election in 1996, Hoffman writes: “The tycoons met and decided to insert one of their own into government. They debated who and chose [Vladimir] Potanin, who became deputy prime minister. One reason they chose Potanin was that he is not Jewish, and most of the rest of them are, and feared a backlash against the Jewish bankers.”
“Tycoons Take the Reins in Russia,” By David Hoffman, Washington Post Foreign Service, Friday, August 28, 1998; Page A01,
Quoted by Alison Weir in
http://www.counterpunch.org/2005/02/17/russia-israel-and-media-omissions/
“what is holding Webb back from announcing??”
I’m not sure. He’s the only Democrat who has a formal Exporatory Committee (thus allowing him to raise funds for a future campaign), but has yet to make the formal announcement. In fairness, its uncommon for people to announce by the first week of February. The announcements generally begin in the early spring, or very late winter. Dukakis announced back in February of ’87, but the 1988 primary race was something of an outlier, and the race has tended to begin a bit later since then. But I do share your desire for him to jump in and make it official, ASAP.
The real reason Washington feels threatened by Moscow is understanding that US Armed Forces can not win a conventional war in Ukraine. Period. Nothing more-nothing less. Most of American “military ANALysts” re: Russia can be fired right now and US will lose nothing.
What if the Russians fight? What if they get behind their Czar?
Re: “Amazing. Despite the fact that Russia and Ukraine combined have less than 200 million people, the United States plans to trap Russia into a war in Eastern Ukraine that might kill “billions.””
Only a fool or a liar could ignore the possibility of a superpower confrontation turning nuclear.
Nope, he said “trapping Russia in an ethnic urban war in Ukraine that would threaten the deaths of millions, if not billions of people.” But even if he meant there could be a superpower confrontation, even if war killed every single person in the US, Russia, Ukraine, and all of Europe, you would barely reach one billion, much less “billions.” The fact that the author can quote such a statement destroys any other credibility that the article may have.
first , let me confess my relative ignorance of facts on the ground. Also, let me flat-out state that any lefty like Whitney who casually throws around terms like nazi or fascist, is to be dismissed out of hand.
Then I will note that not once in the article or all the comments does the word “Nationalist” appear.
The Russians and the Ukrainians fighting on the ground are assumed to be without brains, thoughts, and feelings, merely pawns in the Global Struggle.
This is possible, but I don’t believe it.
This is fundamentally a nationalist conflict, with historical and national factors at work.
All of which is not to say that the US is not heavily meddling with the likes of Jcwish chauvinists and neo-cons pitching in to punish Russia for not coddling Jewish oligarchs, etc.
Disraeli said Race is Everything, but I would add that Nationalism is also Everything, which is to say, that both are obviously not everything. So, same race people fight over land, resources, history, and so on. Look at Belgium, the Balkans, Canada, England/Ireland, or the coming civil wars in the US and Europe which will only be accurately termed Nationalist, when the race wars commence
O and then there was the Second World War in which White people indulged their profound tendency to Fight over Philosophy.
No other race fights over Philosophy. If you include Religion within the meaning of Philosophy, then of course lots of people fight over it too.
However, Religion is not subject to a large measure of evidence, proof, and objectivity, as philosophy is , despite the hysterical tone of recent left-wing “philosophy” about race equality, gender and all the other hysterias flapping about today.
So, the philosophy of nationalism is left out in this discussion. Strange, when you consider that if you asked these fighters in Ukraine what they are fighting about, they will not go into sophisticated analyses about Nato, Oil, The West, EU, or Russia, or probably, the Jews.
Joe Webb
The separatists are fighting in large part because they sit atop an arms dump in a local salt mine that contains around 3 million Ak47s 100,000s of RPGs and thousands of heavy weapons AA, AT etc. probably tanks and APC stored down there. It’s a strategic dump left over from the USSR intended to supply Red Army forces opposing a NATO invasion.
Why are they fighting? Because they can. Russian help isn’t really needed given the estimated stocks of weapons in the salt mine in Artemovsk.
What I don’t understand is why Russia can’t take those Youtube videos showing foreign (English accented) private military contractors in Ukraine and advertise them to the UN.
I mean if Netanyahu can walk into the UN with a cartoon picture of a bomb why can’t Russia walk in with an iPad playing a Youtube video?
Here is one quick search: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tPlcqmQHwsI&feature=player_detailpage#t=33
Video Link Sure he’s not American (because no American would ever say ‘please’) but still…
There is a former Ukrainian arrested in Milan who was partying with hookers and coke. The Carbonari found out that he was shipping guns from Ukraine to West Africa, Central Africa via Israel and Turkey…Charles Taylor, Kony and others were his customers. The dealer is called Leon Minin He’s a naturalized Israeli Citizen.
Dual citizens eh? He’s a real scumbag.
That’s a good point. The Artimovsk arms dump has an entrance in a town called Soledar. This is roughly where MH17 was knocked down. The investigative site for the shootdown was HQed in Soledar. More or less at the mouth of the labaryth of caves where the Artimovsk arms dump is located.
My guess is that the investigators were also assessing how much gear the separatists had captured during their stay in the area. MH17 may have been beside the real point.
The racist republican rabble rousers are looking very stupid now. Obama inherited an economy in acute crisis and he has successfully rescued and restored it. History will judge him one of the great american presidents.
“Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko is identified in State Department documents as an informant for the US since 2006. The documents describe him as “[o]ur Ukraine (OU) insider Petro Poroshenko.” The State Department documents also report that Poroshenko is “tainted by credible corruption allegations.”
http://original.antiwar.com/kevin-b-zeese/2015/02/06/chomsky-and-kissinger-agree-avoid-the-historic-tragedy-of-ukraine/
The most recent top official to join the Ukrainian government is Natalia A. Jaresko, a longtime State Department official, who went to Ukraine after the U.S.-sponsored Orange Revolution. Jaresko was made a Ukrainian citizen by the president on the same day he appointed her finance minister. William Boardman reports further on Jaresko:
“Natalie Jaresko, is an American citizen who managed a Ukrainian-based, U.S.-created hedge fund that was charged with illegal insider trading. She also managed a CIA fund that supported ‘pro-democracy’ movements and laundered much of the $5 billion the US spent supporting the Maidan protests that led to the Kiev coup in February 2014. Jaresko is a big fan of austerity for people in troubled economies.”
http://original.antiwar.com/kevin-b-zeese/2015/02/06/chomsky-and-kissinger-agree-avoid-the-historic-tragedy-of-ukraine/
Aparently this country is proud of it’s sovereignty.
Direct insults do not make your arguments more persuasive but they do suggest a dubious moral character. And using foreign language for that as well is just low.
Three reasons why the US needs to stay out:
1. Russia remembers WW2 very well. They lost 20 million people. They’re tough They are not going to stand by and watch Victoria Nuland run over ethnic Russians. NATO? The biggest group of soldiers in NATO are Germans. I really doubt if Merkel would let Germans engage Russian troops. It wouldn’t be pretty.
2. Militarily Russia has short internal supply lines. They have pretty good equipment, too. The US has long, long supply lines and good equipment. Nevertheless, a shooting war would use up troops and equipment very quickly so that in a short & sharp engagement we would be toast.
3. Tactical nukes quickly lead to strategic nukes. Let’s not press our luck.
Its getting unsightlingly ugly
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/02/07/europe-us-putin-ukraine_n_6635816.html?cps=gravity_2377_2587695621156075429
McCain and Lindsey Graham are lashing out at Merkel.
Be careful what you wish for. As a one-time voter for Webb, I watched in dismay as he and then-campaigning Barack Obama both voted for retroactive immunity for the telecoms in the Fall of 2008. Webb strikes me as a chameleon, who like Obama talks a good game, but votes his principles — which are not the same ones he talks about!
Stop it. My ribs are hurting. Don’t make a funny face.
Try this Liberals!
Video Link
I think the ‘billions’ figure refers to all the people who would die if this were to escalate into a nuclear exchange.
Ha, ha! I had the exact same reaction as you, Max. That guy couldn’t possibly be American because he says ‘please’ under combat conditions. He sure doesn’t sound English, so my guess is that he’s Canadian.
Don’t believe the hype, Bliss. The labor force participation has never been lower, median incomes are still slipping, new housing starts are virtually non-existent, one retail chain after the next shuttering stores, going bankrupt–whatever the GDP figure may indicate, this is still an economy in terminal decline. I’m not saying that’s all Obama’s personal fault, but that’s how it is.
You forgot two more, KA: the Health Minister is from Georgia, and the Economy Minister is from Lithuania. Ukraine has indeed made a ‘civilizational choice’–they’re now being run by NATO!
This is probably one of the British serving in the Azov Regiment (which asks for foreign volunteers and has perhaps hundreds from across Europe, the largest group apparently from Croatia. One very active foreign volunteer is Michael Skillt, sniper from Sweden — he is active on Twitter here). His self-given publicity led the BBC to hound him last year as “White Power Warrior Fights in Ukraine” or whatever their silly headline was. See a short interview clip of Mike Skillt here (1:55).
AFAIK, there are no Americans in the Azov Regiment.
Robert you are absolutely 100% correct. The only way to stop the incessant wars is to deport the Jews and stop them when they start another.
The Jews are a tribe of psychopaths. Not all but large amounts. If you keep this one fact in mind you will never be surprised by what the Jews do. Being psychopaths they will keep pushing until you psychically stop them. They have no inner stop button (empathy) so they can only be stopped by force.
money
http://www.c-span.org/video/?324298-5/washington-journal-former-senator-james-webb-dva