Labels

Monday, February 21, 2022

History points to the US as perpetrator of Crisis in Ukraine, by Mike Whitney - The Unz Review

 

“We want to remind you that Russia has never attacked anyone throughout its history.” Dmitri Peskov, Kremlin spokesman

“NATO leaders are now engaged in the most blatant and irresponsible destabilisation and hybrid war operation since they used Islamic terrorists to destroy Libya and attempted to use them to break up Syria.” Nick Griffin, political analyst and former Member of the European Parliament, Unz Review

Here’s your US Foreign Policy quiz for the day: Which of these militant organizations has the United States supported over the years?

  1. Marxist guerillas in East Syria (The YPG, The People’s Protection Units, The Syrian Democratic Forces)
  2. Far-right Neo-Nazis in Ukraine (Ukrainian Security Services, Azov Special Operations Detachment)
  3. Islamic extremists in Syria, Libya, Kosovo, Chechnya and Afghanistan. (aka– Al Qaida, Al Nusra etc)
  4. Anti-leftist Death Squads in El Salvador and Nicaragua
  5. All of the above

If you picked “Number 5”, then pat yourself on the back. That is the right answer. The US has “armed and trained” all of these disparate groups and still supports many of them today. And the reason Washington supports them, is because they help to advance America’s geopolitical agenda. It doesn’t matter if the group is on the “right” or the “left”. It doesn’t matter if they are religious extremists or Godless atheists. What matters is whether they can be turned into an effective fighting force capable of achieving America’s strategic objectives. That is the overriding goal.

Bottom line: Ideology is irrelevant. What matters to Washington is power; pure, iron-fisted power.

The point we are trying to make, is that other countries do not conduct their business like the United States. Russia, for example, does not see coup d’états, color revolutions and military aggression as an acceptable way to conduct their foreign policy. They prefer diplomacy, negotiation and compromise. Moscow is committed to international law, universal security, and the peaceful resolution of conflicts. They do not see aggression or interventionist violence as legitimate ways to achieve their national interests which is why– as Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov said on Saturday– “Russia has never attacked anyone in its history.”

Let that sink in for a minute: “Russia has never attacked anyone in its history.”

If that is true– and it is true– then what are we to make of the media’s endless claims that Russia is planning to invade Ukraine?

Either Russia is planning to break with an approach that dates back centuries or the media is whipping the public into a frenzy to create the perception that Russia poses an external threat to its neighbors? Which is it?

Most people already know the answer to that question because they have seen this same performance many times before. Unfortunately, these same people may be overwhelmed by the deluge of fear-mongering pronouncements and dire warnings of an impending conflict. Against their better judgement, they may actually believe the media is telling the truth this time. But the media is not telling the truth. There is no Russian Boogieman and the Russian army is certainly not going to go on a rampage killing and maiming innocent people across Ukraine. That is pure fiction.

What is actually taking place is not hard to grasp, but, first, we need to understand is that the target audience is not the American people. No. The current psyops is actually directed at Europe. The goal is to convince the Europeans that they need to strengthen and perpetuate Washington’s security umbrella (aka- NATO) to protect them from foreign enemies. The plan is also intended to drive Europe’s lapdog leaders back into Uncle Sam’s suffocating embrace. These are the objectives of the current operation. The US is taking emergency action to ensure that its European colonies don’t slip out of its economic and political orbit.

Second, Washington is trying to put a wedge between the EU and Russia in order to prevent greater economic integration that would inevitably lead to a massive free trade zone spanning Europe and Asia. Washington must sabotage that plan in order to maintain its dominant role in the global order. Here’s more on the topic by political analyst, Nick Griffin:

“The fundamental targets of the NATO warmongers in this crisis are not Donbass, nor even Russia, but Germany, and China’s One Belt, One Road initiative. They are trying to keep Germany down, and China out; failure to do both means that the US will become an isolated rust-belt island thousands of miles away from the core economic block of the world.

The same development also spells the forthcoming end of the dollar as the world’s financial reserve currency, while America’s time as a sole military superpower has already clearly ended. This is a classic example of the Thucydides’ Trap, the moment when an emerging power threatens to displace an existing great power as the hegemon of the age, a transition which all too often is accompanied by a war of desperation…..

the Washington policy-makers… know that Nord Stream 2 is about far more than a mutually beneficial energy trading relationship between Germany and Russia. In the shorter term, it also spells further financial disaster for the already failed client state of Ukraine. Longer term, Nord Stream heralds a steadily closer relationship between Germany and Russia, which would in turn be a huge step towards the creation of a giant Eurasian free-trade block.” (“Ukraine Implementing Minsk Accords & Ending Conflict ‘Very Last’ Thing US, UK Want, Ex-MEP Says”, Nick Griffin, The Unz Review)

Readers may have noticed that Griffin does consider the possibility that Russia might be the instigator of the current crisis. Why is that?

It’s because it is not possible, it’s that simple. As we have pointed out, Washington has everything to gain from a conflict in Ukraine, while Russia has everything to lose. If Washington’s plan succeeds, Russia will be further isolated and demonized, its commercial relations with Germany will be terminated, and it will be universally scorned as a bloodthirsty and tyrannical warmonger. How does any of this benefit Russia?

It doesn’t, and yet, this is the current direction of US policy, a policy that is dramatically shaping the public’s perception of Russia while ignoring Washington’s conspicuous attempts to reinforce its control over Europe and tighten its grip on the levers of global power.

So, how does one break the media’s spell so that people can see what is really going on? How do we raise awareness of the geopolitical gamesmanship that is playing out behind the smokescreen of disinformation? How do we cut through the media’s prodigious mountain of baloney and determine who is responsible for the current crisis and who is not?

It should be easy, after all, we’ve all seen this performance many times before. By now, people should have a good idea of what’s going on. And– if they don’t– then, perhaps, we can refresh their memories by asking a few simple questions that will shed light on the motives and historical behavior of the main actors, the United States and Russia. That ought to do the trick. That ought to help us to see which country is instigating the provocations, and which country is not. Which country is fueling the crisis and which country is trying to put out the flames.

So, what do we know about these two countries from past experience? How do they conduct their respective foreign policies? Do they follow the clearly-written “international” rules prohibiting foreign interference, military intervention and aggression or do they act unilaterally whenever it serves their interests regardless of the destruction, mayhem and death it may cause?

Answering these questions will lift us above the flustering din of the establishment media. It will help us to see that we are not comparing one peaceful, law-abiding nation to another peaceful, law-abiding nation. We are comparing one country that scrupulously follows the rules whether it is convenient or not, to another that invariably shows utter contempt for the basic principles of international law. While Russia has never launched a war of aggression, the US has initiated a series of conflicts that have plunged vast swathes of the Middle East and Central Asia into anarchy and ruin. Thus, the purpose of this questionnaire is to allow readers to mull-over the facts as we all know them, and determine for themselves where the source of the current crisis originates.

Question 1– Which of these two countries has launched– or helped to launch– military interventions in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Serbia and Syria?

  1. Russia
  2. The United States

Question 2– Which of these two countries built detention facilities at Bagram Air Force Base (Afghanistan), Abu Ghraib (Iraq), and Guantanamo Bay (Cuba), where prisoners were routinely subjected to vile and abusive treatment in violation of the Geneva Conventions?

  1. Russia
  2. The United States

Question 3– Which of the two countries fabricated a pretext for invading Iraq killing tens of thousands of Iraqis in the process?

  1. Russia
  2. The United States

Question 4– Which of these two countries has toppled or attempted to topple over 50 regimes since the end of World War 2?

  1. Russia
  2. The United States

Question 5– Which of these two countries has 800 military bases in countries around the world?

  1. Russia
  2. The United States

Question 6– Which of these two countries is more inclined to use military force to achieve its geopolitical objectives?

  1. Russia
  2. The United States

Question 7– Which of the two countries has repeatedly used false flags as a pretext for launching military interventions? (Note: “Remember the Maine”, Pearl Harbor, Gulf of Tonkin, Saddam’s WMD, Assad’s chemical weapons attacks, Gaddafi’s Viagra-crazed rape squads, etc)

  1. Russia
  2. The United States

Question 8– Which of the two countries is building nuclear missile sites on the other county’s border putting their main urban centers just 10 minutes away from nuclear annihilation?

  1. Russia
  2. The United States

Question 9– Which of these two counties (according to recent surveys) pose “the greatest threat to world peace” and represent “the greatest threat to democracy”?

  1. Russia
  2. The United States

(Note: According to the survey results: “The US was the overwhelming choice for the country that represents the greatest threat to peace in the world today.” Also, “Threat to Democracy?” Guardian)

Question 10– Which is these two countries imposes onerous economic sanctions (which are a violation of WTO rules and regulations) on any country that poses a threat to its global primacy?

  1. Russia
  2. The United States

Question 11– Which of these two countries “has never attacked anyone throughout its history”?

  1. Russia
  2. The United States

Question 12– Which country has provided military advisors and cutting-edge weaponry to the Ukrainian Army so they can invade east Ukraine and kill ethnic Russians?

  1. Russia
  2. The United States

Question 13– Which country’s media fails to report that the Ukrainian army is presently shelling ethnic Russians in the eastern part of the country?

  1. The Russian media
  2. The western media

Question 14– Which country’s media continues to repeat unverified claims of a “Russian invasion” while ignoring the buildup of Ukrainian combat troops (on the “Line of Contact”) that are planning a massive ethnic cleansing operation in east Ukraine?

  1. The Russian media
  2. The western media

Question 15– Which country’s media sustained a 4 year-long disinformation campaign alleging that the other country had hacked their presidential election and changed the outcome?

  1. The Russian media
  2. The western media

Question 16– Which country’s media has proved to be a more reliable source of information and does not function as the propaganda organ of the state disseminating unverified claims gathered from the corrupted Intelligence agencies who unquestioningly parrot the screwball narratives concocted by their globalist paymasters?

  1. The Russian media
  2. The western media

Question 17– (Extra Credit) Which country’s president is more likely to lead his nation into a catastrophic war that will be remembered as “the greatest strategic disaster in his nation’s history”?

  1. Vladimir Putin
  2. Joe Biden

The point of this article is not to bash the United States, but to provide historical evidence showing the stark difference between Washington’s approach to foreign policy and Russia’s. The questions are intended to help the reader review the historical facts– as we all know them– and decide for himself if the perpetrator of the current crisis is more likely to be the United States or Russia. The evidence– we think– clearly suggests that the blame lies with Washington, which is conducting another regionally-destabilizing operation aimed at strengthening its grip on global power.

Swansong for the New American Century?

For what it’s worth, we expect this operation to backfire spectacularly triggering violent ructions in the equities and bond markets that no one in the Biden administration has anticipated. It will also inflict irreparable damage to the threadbare Transatlantic Alliance leading to the ultimate disintegration of NATO. Even America’s most die-hard allies will be forced to revisit their relations with Washington to determine whether the reputational risks exceed the marginal benefits. 30-years of relentless aggression, unilateralism and coercion has pushed the country towards a catastrophe entirely of its own making.

We are now at the point of extreme danger brought on by feckless leaders who fail to acknowledge their own incompetence, their own hubris, and their own failures. The United States has been sowing dragons-teeth for the better part of the last century, and now Joe Biden is marching the country towards an unfortunate moment of reckoning. God help us all.

https://www.unz.com/mwhitney/history-points-to-the-us-as-perpetrator-of-crisis-in-ukraine/