There is always a conflict between high principle and pragmatism. Embracing both is probably a wise strategy. But whether you can actually have anything both ways, or whether the outcome would mean anything if you did, remains to be seen.
American policymakers, during their many attempts to isolate and antagonise Russia, should have been asking, “How many more ‘redlines’ must be crossed in order for Putin to fully act?” But were any of them actually so naïve as to have thought Putin thought that Ukraine was fully capable of waging war against its own predominately ethnic Russian regions without dire consequences?
The answer to these questions should be a no-brainer in the BIGGER scheme of things, which now includes the potential blowback over China and punitive action against anyone who refuses to toe-the-line and march to the same music proffered by the collective West.
The results speak for themselves – to speak in layman’s terms, Ukraine has evolved into a hot mess of hate. But no one wants to talk about this, because the masses drank the Kool-Aid labelled “Russia bad”.
Americans and NATO/EU supporters of America, please take 5 minutes out of your busy day to watch this leaked video, e.g. the Nuland-Pyatt leaked phone conversation. In the light of this, all that has transpired in Ukraine should come as no surprise. It is clear that all was planned, even before the events in Kiev of 2014.
This is the way that America works – it overthrows democratic governments it does not like, and installs puppet/proxy governments like Yelstin from 1991-1999, Ukrainian President Zelensky and Chilean President Pinochet, who overthrew the democratically elected government of that country on September 11th, 1973. Watch the video and then tell me this is not what happened in Ukraine.
US Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs Victoria Nuland choreographed the 2014 coup that overthrew Ukraine’s democratically-elected government in exactly the same way. These people get their training from somewhere. Seasoned observers of the international scene can probably recite the training manuals without having read any of them, as the same events happen the same way, again and again, and the same language is used to justify them.
Our friends in the East
It has become evident, in spite of claims otherwise, that Ukraine – the second largest country in Europe – is home to the worlds’ only openly Nazi military units, [at least] judged on the basis of their symbols and rhetoric, and Ukraine has the largest and most active ultra-nationalist population on the continent.
The people of Ukraine are good; however the country itself, like so many others, has a very dark and evil past. Ukraine is responsible for ethically cleansing 200,000 Poles from western Ukraine. In one day, Ukrainian Nazi units killed 60,000 Jews outside Lviv. Few now want to admit to or remember the killing fields of the Vohynia region, not even the Poles.
You only need to watch the documentary Ukraine on Fire to see what Ukraine really is. I have watched it several times, as my roots go back to a Jewish village in that part of the world. It makes more sense now than when it first came out after the mayhem of 2014.
I once broke the nose of a Ukrainian in Moscow, when he said casually that Hitler had not killed enough Jews, and it was too bad he hadn’t finished the job. His parents and/or grandparents had emigrated to Canada to escape what the Poles and Soviets would have done to them in payback.
He was raised to hate, despite being born in the West. I know that history only too well. Now Germany is rearming in support of democracy in Ukraine. It reminds me of the WW2 training film, for those assigned guard duty, Your Job in Germany.
Your Job In Germany is a short film made for the United States War Department in 1945. It was intended to be shown to U.S. soldiers about to occupy Germany. The film was made by the military films unit commanded by Frank Capra, and was written by Theodor Geisel,[1] who is better known by his pen name Dr. Seuss. The film urged against fraternization with the German people, who are portrayed as thoroughly untrustworthy. It reminds its viewers of Germany’s history of aggression, under “Führer Number 1” Otto von Bismarck, “Führer Number 2” Kaiser Wilhelm II and “Führer Number 3” Adolf Hitler. It argues that German youth were especially dangerous because they had spent their entire lives under the Nazi regime.
I would not recommend Jews travelling to Ukraine; especially the West of the country—and soon Germany may be the greatest threat to European peace and security, if it rearms. German history has the habit of repeating itself. Germany’s lust for conquests is not dead!
Buying into the lies
The CIA and MI6 propaganda is so powerful that these agencies can factor their own lies into their “intelligence” reports and then make false decisions based on these. They are chasing their own tails based on their own fairy tales.
In the meantime, it appears an awful lot of money and lives have been wasted, and cannon fodder spent, on a perceived “bluff” by Kiev and Washington – not to mention the copious amounts of rhetoric from NATO, Brussels and other European capitals.
Much of this is met in equal measure by Moscow, and for good reason, especially when one considers the meaning of May the 9th to the Russian people and citizens of the former Soviet Union (Victory over Nazi Germany and its fascist allies). Former Soviet people, including those in the former Soviet republics, know their collective history only too well, albeit with convenient lapses of memory.
Soon the topic of Ukraine will be considered with different eyes, in light of the meltdown in the UK and US due to the failure of domestic political agendas. Heads are beginning to roll.
Ukraine and Russia are being presented as the root cause of people’s problems. However, common people are no longer buying that song and dance.
The way I see it, America is a nation of pushers, and has found a country which will buy what it is selling – drugs, guns and death. It has lost control of its military from World War II on, to the point in the ’80s where it was openly funding both sides of a war because it made money. Ever since then there’s been no bottom, because the more you are selling, the slicker your salespersons have to be.
American identity can be so multi-faceted. I once visited the Woodrow Wilson house-museum in Washington some months ago – probably a year ago, actually, if not more – and was interested to hear about his wife who was proud of her lineage which included Pocahontas herself.
Or maybe it was Powhatan, or some other notable Native American figure. Anyhow, what struck me was that, once upon a time, elites in the United States would use native ancestry as a means of asserting American identity. Never mind discrimination, genocidal policies, or the Trail of Tears – one would be “more American” if one had Indian blood than if one had British or German forebears alone.
Boomerang effect
Now the US on its own is sending more arms and funding to Ukraine than Russia spends on its entire military budget. The US government has basically sanctioned the American people by conducting a proxy war with Russia—going against its core values. Putin warned that sanctioning Russia would do no good because it would only boomerang, and this is what is now happening.
US policy is in flux in words and deeds, and already overextended in its actions and the recriminations are obvous. In short, it lacks consistency, and media spin is the chosen solution.
Take for instance Antony Blinken, the US Secretary of State, who constantly warned Moscow that Washington would “respond” to any acts of aggression or recklessness carried out by the Russian government, as if he wanted this to be his sole claim to fame.
The same is true of the UK, where Foreign Secretary Liz Truss has now joined the race to become the next Prime Minister, outlining her vision of Britain and the Conservatives keeping up the “good war” in Ukraine. As in Blinken’s case, it is difficult to believe this is more than a self-serving soundbite, as it is supposed to provoke in Conservative voters the same warm and fuzzy feeling about sovereignty and importance that Brexit did before people saw what it actually consists of.
Blinken knew very well that murdering local citizens in the East of Ukraine, especially Russian speaking, was a redline for Putin. However the facts on the ground still do not slow the rhetoric, despite the fact the US is extremely unlikely to back its statements with direct support for Kiev in the long-term, having extricated itself from as many long-term support commitments as it can over the past 50 years.
The US Secretary of State has described US actions in Ukraine as a way to demonstrate America’s “unwavering support for the independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine”. He knows better however, and based on his previous visits to Ukraine nothing new can be added to the discussion.
It surprising these visits even came to pass, by proxy for Biden, as it is considered best not to stir the pot of Biden’s and Hunter’s commercial interests in Ukraine. But like always, any US involvement is described or justified as “actively looking to increase security assistance to the country.”
Blinken is always screaming foul over something, China or Russia, as if it is going to make some difference. Nobody wants to admit that the significant numbers of Russian troops and equipment deployed near Ukraine’s border prior to the Russian special operation was in preparation for a planned Ukrainian offensive.
Henry Kamens, columnist, expert on Central Asia and Caucasus, exclusively for the online magazine “New Eastern Outlook”.
