Listen to a reading of this article:
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Just your regular reminder that the US empire (A) had solid intelligence that this war was coming, (B) knew they could prevent it by making very reasonable, low-cost concessions like promising not to add a nation to NATO that they didn’t want to add anyway, and (C) chose not to.
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It’s 2022 and people still believe the US is pouring weapons into a foreign country to protect freedom and democracy. That’s like being 57 and still believing in the Tooth Fairy.
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The US empire has had a standing policy of preventing the rise of any rival superpowers since the USSR collapsed, by which I mean that policy was explicitly laid out in writing within months of the Soviet Union’s dissolution. Both Moscow and Beijing have refused to kiss the imperial ring, and crippling Russia is an essential part of hamstringing China’s rise. This was all planned years ago.
Gilbert Doctorow described back in 2017 how Moscow and Beijing have formed a mutually beneficial “tandem” based on their respective strengths; Russia as a major military force who is willing to confront the US empire, and China as a rising economic superpower. Empire managers had previously expected that Moscow would be forced to pivot to Washington and become a member state of the empire. The fact that it chose Beijing instead to retain its sovereignty is what set all this in motion.
This was all planned years in advance. It’s no coincidence that we were hammered with narratives originating from US intelligence agencies which inflamed hysteria about Russia in the years leading up to this, most of which had nothing to do with Ukraine. I mean for Christ’s sake, even the one narrative that did involve Ukraine occurred because a CIA officer (ridiculously labeled a “whistleblower” by the mass media) just so happened to be in the right place at the right time to get it rolling.
So we’re all going to suffer financially and live under the risk of total obliteration via nuclear war in a long-planned confrontation geared toward obtaining total planetary domination, just because a few manipulators in the US government decided that would be a good thing.
It doesn’t need to be this way. Never did. There’s no good reason why nations can’t just get along and work together for the common good of all. The only reason that’s not happening is because of this insane desire to dominate and control instead of collaborate and thrive.
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Again: pouring weapons into Ukraine is not how you save lives. You save lives by accepting Russia’s conditions. Pouring weapons into Ukraine is how you try to draw Moscow into a long, bloody insurgency like the US did in Afghanistan and Syria which will cost thousands more lives.
These demands will be met whether Kyiv agrees to them or not:
The Kremlin has announced its demands for ending the war in Ukraine:
-Ukraine must change its constitution to guarantee it won't join any "blocs", i.e. NATO + EU.
-Must recognise Crimea as part of Russia.
-Must recognise the eastern separatist regions as independent.— Patrick Reevell (@Reevellp) March 7, 2022
The only difference is agreeing to them now saves thousands of lives. Kyiv cannot stop Russia. Whether Russia is dumb enough to be drawn into waging a gruelling counter-insurgency against empire-backed proxy forces is another matter.
Western governments are making no real secret that they know this is an unwinnable war for Kyiv. They had more faith in the Afghan regime’s ability to hold up against the Taliban than they do in Ukraine. And rightly so. This is just wasting human lives.
This is a proxy war to advance US unipolarist objectives. Nothing more, nothing less. If you still support it because you like the US empire then just say that; don’t pretend it’s about saving lives, and don’t pretend you give a shit about Ukrainians.
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It was correct to oppose the dangerous agendas that were rolled out by the US empire in the jingoistic hysteria after 9/11. Doing so didn’t make you an Osama lover, and it didn’t mean you supported the killing of Americans. And anyone who claimed otherwise was being an asshole.
It is correct to oppose the dangerous agendas being rolled out by the US empire in the jingoistic hysteria of the Ukraine war. Doing so doesn’t make you a Putin lover, and it doesn’t mean you support the killing of Ukrainians. And anyone who claims otherwise is being an asshole.
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I’m old enough to remember when disagreeing with someone’s opinion didn’t mean they’re a secret agent conducting psyops for a foreign government.
It says so much about where we’re at as a civilization that one of the most outrageous, controversial and incendiary things you can do on social media today is criticize the most powerful government in the world for its role in starting a war.
It’s laughably absurd to demand that only Putin be criticized for this when already so few are criticizing the western actions that led us here. It’s infantile and insulting to the intellect. It deserves not the slightest shred of respect. It deserves only disdain and rejection.
You don’t get to saturate the western world with a single homogeneous and plot hole-riddled pro-NATO narrative, ban media outlets who dispute that narrative, and then still scream at people for criticizing NATO actions that led to a war. That’s not a thing. Shut your dopey mouth.
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Nuclear war is the single greatest and most immediate threat to our species today and avoiding it should be our absolute foremost priority. Whatever your other concerns, agendas, desires or ideological preferences, none of them will matter if nobody is left on earth. For anything else you fear or desire to be at all relevant in the future, war between nuclear superpowers must first be averted. This is self-evident.
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Western powers initiating de-escalation and detente is the only sane option on the table, and those who are calling for it are being shouted down, censored and marginalized while hawkish escalations and brinkmanship are being advocated by the entire political/media class.
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Putin is responsible for Putin’s decisions, the western empire is responsible for the western empire’s decisions. Putin is responsible for choosing to invade, the western empire is responsible for choosing the actions which led to that decision. Not complicated.
It’s the Russian people’s job to hold their leaders to account, and it’s our job to hold our leaders to account. The western empire could end this anytime and pursue de-escalation and detente. It’s choosing not to. That choice is costing lives and leading us toward nuclear war.
You have power. If you choose to impotently masturbate your emotions about Putin rather than choosing to exercise that power by calling on your own leaders to turn away from this destructive path, then the consequences of that decision are, to some extent, on you.
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You asked for a robust anti-war movement in America, you got demonstrations calling for World War 3. https://t.co/Gjk3TuUcen
— Caitlin Johnstone (@caitoz) March 7, 2022
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74 percent of Americans say they support a US/NATO no-fly zone in Ukraine because the press and the pollsters aren’t doing their fucking job and telling people what those words mean.
I repeat that it would really help if we switched from calling it a “no-fly zone” to calling it a “directly attack the Russian military zone”.
When people tell me a no-fly zone or other military attack on Russia wouldn’t lead to nuclear war I like to ask them “Are you willing to bet every life on earth that you’re right about that?” Really press them on this one. Make them answer, and make them justify their answer.
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It’s very revealing how in the minds of empire apologists the conflict under debate is always comparable to World War 2, the one war that the US can justify having entered into eighty years ago, instead of all its many other wars since that it can’t justify at all.
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All the talk about World War 2 lately reminds me of how the Soviets beat Hitler while the US needlessly nuked Hiroshima and Nagasaki and burned 100,000 civilians alive in Tokyo and then used its global narrative control to take credit for winning the entire war.
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When you refuse to fully examine your western privilege, defense will look like an attack.
When you refuse to examine your western privilege, you can talk about your trauma all the damn day long while inflicting vast amounts of trauma on families in the name of “not giving in” to Putin.
When you refuse to examine your western privilege, you can claim a country on the other side of the world that you didn’t know the name of last week is something you’re willing to blow the world up for in order not to “give up”, like it was ever “yours” in the first place.
When you refuse to examine your western privilege, you can comfortably buy the lie that you’re perpetually up-punching in every conflict, always the little Marvel hero coming to save the world from the big bad evil villain.
When you refuse to examine your western privilege, you refuse to examine why everything in the world is “ours” to “defend” and why no things are ever “none of our damn business.”
When you refuse to examine your western privilege, you perceive someone taking a privilege away as someone taking something that was “yours” that was never yours in the first place.
When you refuse to examine your western privilege, you indulge in a kind of political Munchausen syndrome where you are a perpetual victim that is always being bullied.
When you refuse to examine your western privilege, you can read one (1) New York Times think piece about a situation you knew literally nothing about five minutes ago and assume that your new-found opinion is the only opinion that exists and every other opinion needs censoring.
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We don’t make a big enough deal about how MSNBC fired Phil Donahue for not supporting the Iraq war. Couldn’t ask for more damning evidence that mass media institutions care about conducting propaganda and not truth or facts or holding the powerful to account.
Corporate media have every incentive to beat the drums of war as loud as possible 24/7, from ratings, to maintaining access to government officials, to defending the status quo their plutocratic owners have built their kingdoms upon. Anyone who wants to make money in news media now knows that in order to do that you’ve got to consistently demonstrate that you will always promote the interests of the oligarchic empire at every opportunity. Donahue didn’t play the game.
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68 responses to “The US Chose This Conflict: Notes From The Edge Of The Narrative Matrix”
Oh, dear Ms. Johnstone, if only!
I wish!
Our elected officials have amply demonstrated that they don’t give a shit about public opinion.
I met my US congressman, Dennis Moore (RIP) and he was a nice man, intelligent, a Democrat. I begged him to not vote for war in Iraq. He replied personally to me, thanking me for my thoughts, and saying he would weigh the evidence…
And he voted for the war.
If a nobody like me could tell that the ‘evidence’ was all lies, then I can only conclude that he only believed those lies because he wanted to.
And now, even my lovely wife, who I care for more than anyone in the world, and who stood beside me protesting the US invasion of Iraq, will just give me a pitiful pat on the head when I say something about US aggression in Ukraine: “There, there, don’t get all excited.”
And my friends, the nicest people I know, are incapable of believing that this war isn’t just Putin trying to take away our freedom.
This whole country has gone insane, and I’m beside myself in despair.
No, there was nothing good about the guys who killed Jews (and a lot of Russians) for their ancestry, you are 100% wrong. The good guys destroyed their project before they could finish.
U.S. overseas bio-labs concerns
The U.S. Department of Defense has operated 336 biological laboratories in 30 countries across the world. According to the public data released by the U.S., it has 26 biological laboratories in Ukraine so far, over which the Pentagon has absolute control.
Some of the places where the labs are based have seen large-scale outbreaks of measles and other dangerous infectious diseases, triggering international concerns about the safety of U.S. overseas laboratories.
336 worldwide !
This will be bigger than Ben Hur !
This link even shows ALL the documents !
https://news.cgtn.com/news/2022-03-07/Russia-reveals-evidence-of-U-S-funded-bio-program-in-Ukraine-18cUbBlPXhu/index.html
I don’t get it. What is the point of having weaponized biological research in rickety little countries all across the planet?
it’s alright to use your imagination and speculate.
How many times do I have to say it – there won’t be a WAR because NATO are simply not capable and neither are the ZIO/US !
If you go to the Iraqi news agency – well – Iraq has joined the BRI and is making massive progress – WITHOUT the ZIO/US !
Russia and China protect Iraq – China is building 1000 new schools there !
https://ina.iq/eng/17904-baghdad-is-ready-to-host-any-sport-event-moi-affirms.html
This is happening almost daily in Iraq !
https://en.mehrnews.com/news/184633/US-logistics-convoy-targeted-in-Iraq-s-Al-Nasiriyah
The blowing up of US convoys !
Does the ZIO/US/NATO respond ???
NO – because they CAN’T !
ZIO/US/NATO are just all piss and wind now !
There is NOTHING they can do to stop Russia and the BRI !
Russia protects Iraq with electronic weaponry !
Russia used the same SH!T in Afghanistan and the Taliban retook Kabul in ONE week after 20 years of occupation – bloodlessly and unopposed !
Do you really think Putin would have attempted this if he thought they could respond ???
Of course NOT !
“For me, it’s not whether we are moving into a global food crisis – it’s how large the crisis will be,” said Holsether, noting that increasing gas prices were causing a steep rise in the cost of fertilizer.”
People should not be worried about a nuclear catastrophe but a global food catastrophe in the coming crops not planted nor harvested. One missed season it’s what it takes. Once it’s started over again it will take years to come back to produce whatever normal we used to have before the pandemic which already broke our food supply chain in some levels. The first harvest season will not be enough because the farmers have to hold a portion to be used in the next season. It will take years of high inflation and people struggling for food. Nations in poverty will suffer the most and the richest ones will have to learn how to live in scarcity.
Joe Biden gave the order to let the CIA propaganda to run in order to protect NATO and all mess created by US-UK-EU. These motherfathers assholes in power will not suffer for any of it. I wanna see the morale of everyone being lied right in their faces about Ukraine after some years living in scarcity.
We have the most incompetent class of political animals sit in power in the west to deal with innocent lives and the interests of the top elite. No good thing will come out of it. Whatever is the scenario – nuclear war or food catastrophe, we will have to go through it.
Looking through the comments, there appears to be a number of posters who either don’t understand what led to Russia invading Ukraine, or, are deliberately trying to mislead readers of this site. The following is from an article John Pilger posted on Feb 17th:
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Setting aside the manoeuvres and cynicism of geopolitics, whomever the players, this historical memory is the driving force behind Russia’s respect-seeking, self-protective security proposals, which were published in Moscow in the week the UN voted 130-2 to outlaw Nazism [Ukraine and the US were the two that voted against]. They are:
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– NATO guarantees that it will not deploy missiles in nations bordering Russia. (They are already in place
from Slovenia to Romania, with Poland to follow)
– NATO to stop military and naval exercises in nations and seas bordering Russia.
– Ukraine will not become a member of NATO.
– the West and Russia to sign a binding East-West security pact.
– the landmark treaty between the US and Russia covering intermediate-range nuclear weapons to be restored. (The US abandoned it in 2019)
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These amount to a comprehensive draft of a peace plan for all of post-war Europe and ought to be welcomed in the West.
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Yes, it’s true that the US – the Western elites – chose this conflict, but they did so by rejecting Putin’s proposals and, as such, forced his hand.
Spot on.
Notice how fast congress said covid emergency over. Next up ukraine emergency.
Check out this appraisal of Friendly Fascism by Bertram Gross (published in 1980):
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https://www.austlii.edu.au/au/journals/AUJlLawSoc/1982/11.pdf
Martha Gellhorn, Wilfred Burchett, Robert Fisk, Oriana Fallaci, Sean Flynn… I know they’re dead, but where are their replacements? Where are the ‘war’ correspondents that are actually there in the Ukraine? I know there are probably many of them but they are speaking a foreign language. Are there no English speaking war correspondents left?
Since the Gulf War, American war correspondents are embedded with the US Army that carries them around to take pictures and provides them with press releases, so that they can tell what’s really going on according to sources who speak on condition of anonymity because they’re not allowed to talk to the media. Since the US Army is not in Ukraine, no American war correspondents. Simple… Err… To be totally honest, before they were embedded, they spent most of their time drinking bourbon in their hotels while waiting for sources who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not allowed to talk to the press and provided some pictures :o)
The correspondents for all major networks in Ukraine have to parrot the official line and are not allowed commentary of their own. Even Walter Cronkite had to do that to keep his job as anchor.
Freedom of thought is a dwindling commodity in the US and never was its forte. Alexis Tocqueville observed in the 1830’s that there was no freedom of thought in the US. Nothing has changed.
Corporate media is owned by the same people that own and populate our government. What else do you need to know?
” You woke up this morning, all the love has gone
Your papa never told you about right and wrong
But you’re looking good, baby, I believe you’re feeling fine ”
–
I woke up this morning, no love in the news
CNBC tells me Putin marches Like Hitler
But I hope life can be good, if only for a day
Remember Mahatma Gandhi, King, & Mandela… did not respond to globalist warmongers with violence.
I’m sure you’re a lovely person, but please cite these powerful people in the west who want a limited nuclear war to eliminate useless eaters. The useless eaters meme has been surfacing lately.
There is likely just as much ‘propaganda’ suggesting that the U.S. public supports this war in Ukraine as there are any other narrative… They can produce polls and videos to support their b.s. plus the only news most Americans get are from the very warmongers that wanted this war.
I stopped watching corporate owned/sponsored media in 2015 as soon as the lies became revealed to me.
I have to source out information from highly censored independent sources from within the U.S. Censorship is at an all time high. The president and DHS have published documents or stated publicly that any dissent against the government can be considered ‘domestic terrorism’. The Oligarchs in control of our country, control our media and social media platforms.
I personally was kicked off twitter (over a year ago) for expression my opinions. I refuse to participate on Meta Fascist Book’s site. So I am excluded from much of social media… and i am nobody with few followers on social media.
I consider these Oligarchs ruling my country to be ADDICTS for MORE money, power & control, emphasis on ADDICTS. That is what their actions reflect… they can’t seem to stop themselves from waging massive destruction to get their next fix.
we need another ghandi
I agree with you. I got rid of my television in 2012. TV is like having a brainwashing machine in your home. You might want to read this NATO document if you haven’t already. It’s all about Cognitive Warfare.
https://www.innovationhub-act.org/sites/default/files/2021-01/20210122_CW%20Final.pdf
Yeah, I echo ‘REALIST.’ Have you seen this? The subtitles are adequate.
‘REALITY SHOW?’
What it really looks like (in the Donbass) umm 2014 -Today
I haven’t seen subtitles, so for those who don’t understand French, this girl is a reporter who’s been in the Donbass on and off since 2014 and says that 13,000 people have been killed there by the Ukrainian government that is still shelling them in the north as she speaks while the Russians are more in the center and Mariupol (south) regions and she shows photographs of civilians being cut to pieces every day, including a school teacher cut in halves the day before. She gets a bit emotional about it because she says the media don’t report that. You don’t say!
The clip stops as the anchor introduces Bernard-Henri Lévy, the French pseudo-philosopher who’s been peddling the Washington/Tel Aviv lies about every war the US has waged for the last thirty years – since Bosnia. He was instrumental in getting Sarkozy to bomb Libya in 2011 – against the advice of Defense minister Alain Juppé – and in an interview on French TV by famous militant Jewish/Zionist journalist Ruth Elkrief, literally said that he did it because this was good for Israel. Can’t make that stuff up! Wherever there’s a war, billionaire BHL is present, helping the Western military-industrial complexes to make a buck by bombing the local populations to “help them get freedom and democracy”. Everybody in France thinks he’s a cynical joke (a warmonger in sheep’s clothing) but he’s a “passage obligé” on French media because anybody who doesn’t believe he does all that for peace, love and human rights he calls an anti-Semite and anti-Semitism has been for a while – ever since BHL decided it to be precise – the worst danger threatening French democracy. Can’t make that stuff up either! :o)
The good news is that the empire is committing suicide on all fronts.
The bad news is that we cannot tell who is orchestrating that, or from where, or what they have planned for the next act. Maybe it will be a new empire, suddenly rising from the ashes of the old empire, but different, good, a savior… or something like that.
We have to bottom-out in desperation , first, grasp at straws, as I understand things.
Soon(ish)…
https://drjohnsblog.substack.com/p/financial-biological-and-nuclear?s=w
Non-trivial comments about linguistics:
In the past, we referred to ‘the Ukraine’ which indicates a collection or amalgamation rather than a unitary. Examples: “the United States” versus “America”, the European Union” versus “Europe”, “the Seychelles” versus “Bermuda”. In the past few years, writers began using “Ukraine”, indicating it had achieved union of all its disparate elements. Now, it is clear that “the Ukraine” has again become the correct language usage.
The Ukrainian language and the Russian language are very similar. In Ukrainian, the capital is called “Kyiv” and pronounced as one syllable with a palletized initial consonant not present in English (similar to the ‘ny’ in ‘canyon’ but with ‘k’). Unfortunately, Western commentators cannot hear the sound and say something like ‘keev’. In Russian, the capital of Ukraine is called “Kiev”, essentially two syllables, but joined. These are slight but significant phonetic differences.
All this hoping my two years studying Linguistics was not for nothing.
Caitlin, did you know that at the end of WW2, japan, approximately a few weeks before it’s two cities were wiped out by the 2 nuclear weapons , had surrendered to the USA, the USA refused it’s surrender because it had not finished it’s 2 atom bombs, this was an excuse to test the A bombs on 2 cities that had no military bases and only consisted of innocent men, women and children, the USA is never aquitted of war crimes, those 7 countries that they bombed back to the stone age and using depleated uranium weapons which caused a lot of people to die of cancers and children born with horrible deformities later on in Irack and Afganistan, nothing is ever mentioned about this.
This would make a good story to write about.
It would take too long. She’d also have to mention Agent Orange in Vietnam, which also caused cancers and deformed babies and the daily bombing of Laos between 1964 and 1973 (the most heavily bombed country in human history), where farmers are still killed by unexploded bombs while ploughing their fields as we speak. And also the US bombs that have been falling on the planet every twenty minutes for the past decade. Three bombs an hour every day for Christ’s sake! And people wonder why a human, most of them kids, dies of starvation every three seconds! Repeat: EVERY THREE FUCKING SECONDS! Actually, this is not true. People don’t wonder about that because they don’t know basically. They only hear there’s a kinda hunger problem when the Red Cross is collecting. And it’s probably due to climate change anyway… Mammon’s got nothing to do with it. He’s at Disneyland all day, everybody knows that!
After WW2, after Japan surrendered the US and Britain supplied the Japanese Army, in the field with weapons, supplies and everything required for continuing to wage war.
Against? Against the people that fought them during the war. The people of Dutch Indonesia and the people of French Indo-China. For over a year the Japanese fought under US direction until the rightful owners, the Dutch and the French, could retake their colonies.
@Joseph Musmarra – Can you cite any sources about your assertion that Japan had surrendered to the USA but the USA refused to accept it?
I have never heard that before. I have read, numerous times, that US intelligence indicated that prior to the nuclear bombings, Japan would be willing to consider surrender *if* the Emperor remained. There was not, as far as I am aware, any actual approach by Japan – the US intelligence assessment was as a result of its intelligence-gathering. The Truman administration, however, wanted an unconditional surrender and so pushed ahead.
What I have also read, numerous times, is that it wasn’t the nuclear bombs that pushed Japan to surrender but, rather, the USSR’s decision to trash the USSR-Japan non-aggression pact and to invade Manchuko, Japanese-occupied China. The USSR’s forces cut through northern China like a combine harvester through a field of wheat and Japan (according to this theory) didn’t want to surrender to the USSR but, instead, preferred to surrender to the US.
I’ve never read, though, that Japan tried to surrender and that the US refused its surrender so I’m interested in seeing some sources. A bit of internet research doesn’t seem to turn up anything, either.
Hi,
Japan did approach the US through neutral intermediaries before the US dropped their A-bombs. However, Japan wanted a ‘termed’ surrender while the US insisted on ‘unconditional’. The intention by Japan to surrender wasn’t an actual fact.
I have read enough to conclude, like you, that it was the USSR attack that decided Japan’s surrender to the US.
We should also remember William S Burns in this (ambassador to Russia when he wrote the memo “Nyet means Nyet” , which chronicled Putin’s position on Ukraine and Georgia. So, the US has known about Putin’s redline since 2008 – the Maidan massacre in 2014 was the beginning of this operation and included the Donbas incursions.
Put this together with how we have historically treated Russia (blowing up its economy 1991-1999, admitting 14 new countries east of Germany into NATO, breaking nuclear treaties, and our intelligence operations which extensively use McCarthyite red scare tactics – from Cold War policies all over the globe that include funding murderous regimes to kill leftists in ‘dirty wars’ to Russia-gate fabrications. US is pissed China and Russia are dating like Doctorow and Johnstone suggest.
It reminds me of a quote by Michael Parenti – “US foreign policy uses fascism to preserve capitalism while claiming to be saving democracy from communism.”
Here we have US Foreign policy hawks (Nuland, Blinken, Kagan) using fascists (Nazi cladded Ukrainians like in the Azov Battalion) to preserve (US trade alliances, weapons/NATO relevance, and the war machine) while claiming to be supporting (Ukrainian democracy – hello Maidan Coup) from the big bad Ruskies (who are no longer communists and have embraced the world’s capitalist economic system since the breakup of 1989).
The US has lied repeatedly to achieve its aims in other countries too (Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Kazakhstan, Haiti, Venezuela, Cuba, Congo, Vietnam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Palestine, etc.). As David Emory asks – “how many lies does it take until YOU become a part of the lie?”
With nuclear weapons as Caitlin so aptly says firmly on the table at the present, we need to quit telling lies in public and passing it off as knowledge – it does very little to save our interests as people now know the game is up. Instead, we should be talking about the legitimacy of a Unipolar or Multipolar world order or if there is something better than either.
It is about mysterious Universal Plan executed by mysterious Universal Mind… all major events in our world are the very elements of Universal Plan …. including the present conflict in Ukraine… Yes, president Putin released that element of Universal Plan as a war against the Western corruptions and hypocrisies …
The Ukrainians got scammed, tricked like the Georgians into believing that Americans would do the fighting. It reminds me of Denman and Berry, the guys who tried to invade Venezuela. Sad, stupid and tragic.
They were warned ahead of time by Responsible Statecraft publication.
Waiting for the West to provide a Gorbachev…. Russia gave the world the most incredible opportunity for peace and de-militarization in the 1990’s and in return look what everyone has done….. We should be ashamed that we allowed greed and power to win out over peace and wealth sharing.
What the Russians quickly learnt from the West was how they were despised and still are. They are blamed for every problem anyone is having.
Putin is not a pretty solution but he pulls no punches when it comes protecting his borders and people. He and the Russian people are in a position to do that today but were not able to in the 1990’s….they were too busy trying to change and open up.
Interestingly a Russian joke at the time was that with communism the fridges were full and shops empty, with capitalism the shops were full and fridges empty. The opening up to western capitalism resulted in millions dying from starvation.
Never know Putin may turn inward and re-create better wealth sharing and legal systems before he dies as his final legacy. First he has to close Russia off again because opening up only resulted in economic rape by the West and its oligarchs. I like Michael Hudson’s views that we are now all at the end of globalisation and the beginning of the great separation.
The west has more problems to deal with. Its unfair systems that are economically destroying our own cultures and people. Cant blame Russia for everything forever.
Its everyone’s job to create a fair country for their own people. As an Australian watching our economy and wealth sharing structures, particularly the economic choices of our current government, I’m appalled….cant blame the Russians or can we. I suppose sending weapons to be put into the hands of women and children to fight a professional army is better than dealing with the thousands of homeless and devastated families surviving the climate change floods back home. Its taken 9 days to declare a state of emergency here. Not to worry we have plenty of money…at least for nuclear subs
You remind me of the Iraq War when proconsul Bremer imposed neoliberal reforms on the Iraqi people, reforms which impoverished the Iraqi people but enriched a few elites, including Westerners. The same happened in Russia in the 1990s when similar neoliberal reforms were essentially imposed by mostly American economists and diplomats. In both cases, ideology created massive social breakdowns.
Pola, I confirm. In 1993, we asked a babushka in Saint-Petersburg, how she felt about the end of communism. She said, “Before, we were not allowed to read Solzhenitsyn but there was always some cabbage and sausages on the table. Now we’re allowed to read Solzhenitsyn but there’s nothing to put on the table anymore”. Beggars in the streets everywhere and open season for the oligarchs’ mafias in Moscow (1,300 dead that year IIRC). I know a Muscovite who (astonishingly for us, given what we were always told) was quite happy with Soviet life but left Russia that year because of the street shootings. Apparently, the same fever has now started in Kiev with the 50,000 guns and one million rounds of ammo Zelensky has given “civilians”. Even one of the guys who were negotiating for Ukraine with the Russians last week was plugged by Ukrainians. Can’t stop progress!
The Boomer Generation left the world quite a bit worse off than it was.
My parents were part of the Greatest Generation. The generation that defeated the Nazis.
And now we see our generation supporting Nazis.
:
And it was so easy to get that support. A snap of the finger, practically.
:
You always wondered how Germany fell for Hitler.
Now we know that people are easily mislead.
:
Who thought it would be as easy as a snap of the finger.
They support nazis abroad because they’re told they’re not nazis but at home in the West, it’s open season on white supremacists at large – not even specifically nazis. That’s the beauty of Western propaganda of which Hitler himself was a great admirer. And Joseph Goebbels had all of Edward Bernay’s books. Can’t make that stuff up!
Beau of the 5th reminded me today that US Military Doctrine requires that it must be able to defeat its two nearest peer rivals at the same time. He backed it up with numbers, the largest airforce in the world is the US Air Force, the US Army Air Force is second, Russia is third, the US Navy is fourth, China fifth, and the US Marines sixth.
So, like I said on Day 5-7, we got a shot over there in Ukraine, to win a conventional airbattle/war if we can meet the logistical requirements and get our shit over there and get within acceptable ranges, in time to stop the Russians before they can pull a fast one, like set up a government in Ukraine and slip away in the night, back within the confines of their sanctioned autarky, powered by their shiny new MMT central bank.
So, the race is on. Army and Marine boots on the ground, you can stay home, we just need your planes, pilots, and ground crews, and from the Navy, well we’re gonna need you to sail into the danger zone with those big, beautiful carries, inside of continental conventional ballistic missile ranges, inside air to surface ranges, surface to surface ranges, below surface to surface ranges, aaaaand torpedo ranges, in order to get your shit up and into the fight.
But hey, I know you can do it because you’ve been telling me you can … my entire life.
Also, as a person who has spent an entire life listening to the warnerds, maybe the only war fighting system, from killer satellite satellite killers to modern sharp edge throat slicers, to reach a consensus that it is both excellent, and absolutely necessary if you want to win a modern conventional airbattle/war is the Russian S-400, the most prevalent surface to air system on the planet, one, because everyone else wants em, and what you want these days regarding war equipment you will get, and two, because Russia has also kept a shit ton of em in-house, for the just in case.
In other words, they didn’t sell off all of their S-400s during the neo-liberal period.
So our brave men and women that are going into the coming Ukraine Airbattle might get an oportunity to do some of that exciting DOGFIGHTING!!!, but probably not, everything is fire and forget up there at the ceiling nowadays, but they will most certainly be dodging, or just plain trying to survive, the shitstorm of surface to air coming at em from the deck.
This will not be like flying over Hanoi in the 60s facing those early Soviet era SAMS. No siree Bob. Not even close.
So good luck, and God bless, I’ll be watching and rooting for you, from my couch in the land of the free.
Besides, Beau believes you will win this coming conventional airbattle/war easy, after all, its just one our two peers you’ll be fighting.
And so the Ukraine Airbattle will rage, until there is a winner, or, until the missiles run out. Nobody talks about this much, but missile stocks go fast, and all the various missiles needed for airbattles, every single one them, are not the kind of munitions that can be mass produced.
So this is either good news, or bad, this lack of missile stockpiles we all aware of. Missiles needed for victory could run out within a week, and certainly will within a month, if shit gets hot and heavy over there for any extended period. So when they do run out, what’s the next step after a conventional airbattle/war?
You can’t DOGFIGHT!!! these days without missiles, not really, so what then?
Note: The Russians have a S-500 on the playing field as well, an upgrade to the venerable S-400, they call it, the Prometheus. The Russians claim it’s better than the S-400, but nobody knows for sure. Even the S-400 toutin’ warnerds conceed it could be pile a junk. Unless it sees action, it’s unknown known.
I hope I didn’t paint this S-400 as some kind of super weapon. It can be defeated. Killed as they say. It too has a finite supply of missiles. In fact one of the tecniques to render them helpless, is too bait them into emptying their tubes trying to intercept decoys. The best of the Tube warnerds, imo, Covert Cabal, on “Can an S-400 Be Beat?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tVMxKULSvjw&t=638s
The vaunted S-400 is a virgin, it too has never seen combat, so it too might be a pile of junk, just likes its virgin brother, the one the Russian’s claim, can shoot down pretty much anything, possibly even shoot down the moon. Covert again. “Finally The S-500!”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SEWseRJ0AL8
Pure speculation: As I watched some of various satellite glimpses we were allowed of the The Column that Continues to Grow, I thought I saw a miles long section of vehicles, that could have been carrying something long and tubular under their tarps.
It would makes sense. The Column of Unknown Destination is west of the Dneiper, and if can ever get its incompetant shit together, it could unfold like an accordian and set up line of missile defense across the middle of the Ukraine, to protect The Operation taking place on the other side, from aerial attacks coming from the west.
And what’s really fucking ironic, if you ask me, is all those weapons systems down there on the ground, could hide amongst the buildings, and say to their self-righteous opponents, it ain’t that easy now is it?
Wouldn’t that be twist of historic proportions. The US might find itself in a postion, where it might have to once again, destroy a country in order to save it, in the name of freedom, democracy, and the neo-liberal way.
Only this on this go around, it be a would be a beloved ally that must be saved in such a way.
If all else fails, Putin can always bring on the Taliban :o)
Caitin Johnstone: “People who support a no-fly zone or any other direct attack on Russian forces are enemies of our species. They have the most dangerous worldview in existence, without exception. They are more dangerous than Nazis. They are worse than Klansmen. They should be reviled as such.”
If I could be so bold as to make a suggestion, Ms. Johnstone, and I do believe I am honored bound to do so; it would be that the euphemism No Fly Zone, if you continue to use it, will greatly hamper your efforts to prevent WWIII.
I give you full authority to use airbattle/war instead, if you should so choose, a phrase I think I thought up on Day 10?
Now, could I actually trademark this phrase, and then give it away willy nilly out of the goodness of my heart? Not sure. Sounds like a euphamism the USAF might’ve applied to the early situation in Gulf War I.
I need to do some research, and if I feel I might have a case, then I will call Steve Donzinger, once he is available.
Or use some other phrase, of your own creation perhaps (?), that more aptly describes what a No Fly Zone actually is, because to even a casual warnerd like me, it means one thing and one thing only , you have ALREADY achieved complete full spectrum dominace in a theater of war, and so you throw up a No Fly Zone to let everybody in vicinity know, that this particular sector of global airspace is now yours and your alone, and is therefore, a Free Fire Zone.
Note: A Free Fire Zone is usually applied to deck activities, a basic subsection of things like cauldron battles, degrading pockets, establishing kill boxes, slaughtering whatever shows up in your gunsight be it man, women or water buffalo … and so on … but it applies to skies above as well.
The KNOW they would be humiliated after Syria and Afghanistan – there is NO way they will go up against RUSSIA !
Because humiliation is the DEATH of a SUPERPOWER !
Before NATO attempts anything it would be wise to consider Putin’s words !
‘To anyone who would consider interfering from the outside – if you do, you will face consequences greater than any you have faced in history.’
Vlad doesn’t BLUFF !
NATO couldn’t stop the Crimean Bridge being built and they certainly won’t stop this !
There WON’T be a WAR but there will be total economic collapse in the WEST – It is Inevitable !
Jus to be clear:
We the People did not choose this conflict.
We the People weren’t consulted
The people the oligarchy chose to represent the US chose this conflict. They are psychopaths.
It doesn’t take many brain cells to understand that the Empire of Lies is lying.
It doesn’t take many brain cells to understand that the Empire of Stupid is stupid and its oligarchy are idiot savants, geniuses when it comes to ripping the People off and squeezing money out of those who have little or none, and total fucking braindead morons when it comes to anything else.
Yes!
Exactly, I mean you can see how it all is tied to the Dollar based Financial System, like you are nobody if you are not connected to it electronically. I think US Congress even wanted to outlaw cash transactions in the US, very recently.
Last year US Congress wanted local banks to report our bank transactions to the Treasury or IRS, not sure since the bill did not go thru, not yet.
It was not because they wanted to catch tax cheats, but because they wanted to know how much more they can take from people and not crash their whole banking system.
looking for another ghandi
Help! Considering that everything we’ve been told for over a century by the mainstream media about politics in general and geopolitics in particular is a pack of lies, I’m trying to figure out why I should believe the polls they publish in general and the 74% of Americans supporting a no-fly zone in Ukraine in particular when the intuitive part of my brain tells me via registered mail that 74% of Americans couldn’t give a fuck about Ukraine, starting with the 90% who don’t even know where it is because they could not care less through the 75% who don’t trust anything they’re told by the media all the way down to the 50%+ who don’t even bother, like in a lot of other Western countries if not most, to go and vote for their president and political representatives because they know the system is rigged and run by a mafia known as the deep state. These people’s opinion about foreign policy is that the taxpayers’ money used to maintain the troops and military bases that enforce this racket (copyright General Smedley Butler) would be better employed at home. And the ten little millions, at most, who watch the cable news don’t change much to those percentages even though they’re presented by the pollsters as the “American opinion” like Wall Street is presented as “the international community” or “the scientific community”, depending on what it has to sell, by sources speaking on condition of anonymity because they’re not allowed to talk to the media. The question for which I need help is this: do you think I would stand a better chance to be correct if I believed in a/ the veracity of the polls published by the corporate media or b/ Father Christmas?
PS: a Canadian humorist came up with that marvellous aphorism some thirty years ago: “99% of people will believe a sentence containing a percentage” :o)
Since when does US government care about the public opinion, anyways?
Shows how chicken SH!T NATO are !
The KNOW they would be humiliated after Syria and Afghanistan – there is NO way they will go up against RUSSIA !
Because humiliation is the DEATH of a SUPERPOWER !
Nuclear weapons are already illegal.
“On 7 July 2017, an overwhelming majority of States (122) adopted the TPNW. By 24 October 2020, 50 countries signed and ratified it which ensured the Treaty enters into force 90 days later. So today, 22 January 2021, nuclear weapons become illegal!
“And this is your reminder that Russia could have readily prevented this war by NOT INVADING UKRAINE”
..followed by being broken up and destroyed by America in the future. Sure, let the Donbass be turned into a concentration camp for the Russian-speaking Eastern Ukrainians and be used as targets for the Azoz to have some fun on. Leave the biolabs there as they experiment on completely disposable Ukrainian lives while perfecting a bioweapon that only kills Slavs. Ignore the Russian-hating Ukrainians processing the Chernobyl fuel rods to get plutonium for their own use.
That what America is aiming for, and Russia is going to stop them.
“Of course nobody wants Nuclear war, but constantly giving in to Nuclear threats by Russia may only prolong it and make it worse when it comes”
Prolonging it will make no difference at all, it will still destroy everyone except those billionaires in their underground silos. If you want to see what is happening, the Russians have already told the West- “Why would we care about the world if Russia is not in it.”
If NATO climbs in on the Ukrainian side and Russia thinks they will lose, there is no downside to using nukes. Might as well die & take the enemy with you as live as Yankee slaves, is how they see it.
Those is charge of the world might see this as a quick way to reduce the ‘useless eaters’ to the levels they talk about while they sit safely underground….
As if!
“Those is charge of the world might see this as a quick way to reduce the ‘useless eaters’ to the levels they talk about while they sit safely underground….”
Don’t joke about this! There are some powerful people in the West who actually think this is a good idea, and that a ‘limited’ nuclear war is survivable.
It is a very very real threat coming from the Evil Empire (US).
War, starvation, plague. Trifecta for thinning the herd.
You’re making me very lazy. With you around, all I have to do is Share.
Caitlin writes, “Just your regular reminder that the US empire (A) had solid intelligence that this war was coming, (B) knew they could prevent it by making very reasonable, low-cost concessions like promising not to add a nation to NATO that they didn’t want to add anyway, and (C) chose not to.”
And this is your reminder that Russia could have readily prevented this war by NOT INVADING UKRAINE when they knew already that NATO didn’t want to add anyway, but Russia decided to go to war anyway.
The Americans might have had a chance to prevent this war, but the Russian Government is the responsible party.
(D) Zelensky wanted peace and reconciliation for Donbas, but when he tried the Nazis threatened to literally kill him. (That’s a fact, Jack, deal with it)
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E) The US didn’t have Zelensky’s back. They instead budgeted more funds for weapons for Ukraine. (Another fact, Jack)
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F) The Nazis said that their goal was to ethnically cleanse the Donbas. (Take your head out of the sand, Jack)
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G) The Nazis said that the UN approved peace plan (Minsk accords) was useful as it bought them time to retool and rebuild their forces.
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H) The Nazis had amassed a large force on the border of Donbas and had begun
softening up the Donbas with artillery. Next step is full scale attack upon the Donbas, just like they had attempted a few years ago.
:
I) Once the Nazis took possession of the Donbas NATO wanted to put offensive weapons in the Donbas right on Russia’s border. A threat to Russia’s existence like when the USSR tried to put missiles in Cuba and directly threaten the US’ existence.
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J) Ukraine has bioweapons. Zelensky very publically threatened to obtain nuclear weapons.
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K) **The Western nations had made it clear that a diplomatic solution was not an option.** (This is not disputable, Jack)
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L) Putin could wait until NATO had placed offensive weapons right on it’s border – a direct threat to Russia’s existence – and *then* invade to take them out. Or he could end the threat now.
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The last item is the big one. This is the choice NATO created. Putin could invade now or he could invade later when it was NATO forces right up against his border.
And Putin could end this war now (or soon) by declaring that de-NAZI-fication had been achieved and pulling out. It’s already a serious crime in Russia to dispute the Russian narrative of the war, so this would be a way to stop the war. According to the author on this site, war is the worst thing in the world. I don’t see why commenters on this site insist on spreading excuses and rationalization for “the worst thing in the world” to continue.
imo, ‘soon’ is the plan. the surrounded cities in the south (mariupol) and north (charkov) should let civilians evacuate after which azov et al get the chance to surrender and face court. kiev will strike ascension into nato from their constitution. maybe there could be new internationally observed elections, maybe even new referenda in crimea and donbass (to affirm to the world). remilitarization of ukraine will result in new precision strikes.
You seem to forget that Ukraine never stopped attacking the Donbas, so they were the aggressors and Putin’s RESPONSE was purely defensive. If the shelling of Donbas had stopped, I agree, there would have been no reason for Putin to cross the border. This is exactly what most observers of Russia expected to happen. They all concurred that Russia did not need or want a war or the responsibility of running Ukraine which is a totally failed state. US kept saying war is imminent (because they planned and wanted one). Everyone else kept saying, hasn’t happened and probably won’t. Washington ensured that it would by arming Ukraine to the hilt and filling their heads full of vainglorious nonsense (and probably promises to save their asses with US troops). Your “solution” is preposterous, tantamount to a Russian surrender in the face of American-instigated Ukrainian aggression. The grievances would only multiply and the stakes get higher leading to an inevitable war. Any casual look at history shows that America is always the cause of any military actions involving its troops. It will not be denied any war that it seems to want. What the world needs is a universal alliance against the USA.
‘… that they didn’t want to add anyway’ – they chose not to make that concession, because that was a lie. the vasal-members might not want to at first, but the boss sure was going to. (like europe and germany claiming they wanted their own energy-policy and that they would not shut down nordstream 2, and other stuff …)
Of course nobody wants Nuclear war, but constantly giving in to Nuclear threats by Russia may only prolong it and make it worse when it comes.
The whole premise of Mutually Assured Destruction is that nobody could be that stupid so living in fear of the Russians initiating it is just a self indulgence of living in fear.
western society is built very hierarchical. those on top believe they will survive a nuclear war (along with a contingent of working ants). they have come into a position where it’s “mutually assured destruction of the plebs”. we need not fear that the west might initiate a nuclear war. imo it has already been decided.
Oh, so let’s “get that nuclear war over with” because it won’t be so bad if you do it earlier, eh?
You can always tell when an American is trying to “think” because the logic resembles the kind of bullshit a 7 year old might come up with in order to have ice cream for breakfast. Shut the fuck up, Bosephus.