Listen to a reading of this article:
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Vladimir Putin has approved the annexation of four territories in eastern Ukraine, whose addition to the Russian Federation now await authorization from Russia’s other branches of government.
The Zelensky government responded to the move by applying to join NATO, only to be immediately shut down by US and NATO officials. Can’t have sacrificial pawns trying to rise above their station on the grand chessboard, after all.
But the empire’s proxy war against Russia continues, and the Ukrainian government has announced its intentions to drive out Russia from all of the Ukrainian territories it has claimed as its own.
“For our plans, [Russia’s annexation] doesn’t matter,” Zelensky advisor Mykhailo Podolyak told Politico, adding that Ukraine will “protect our land using all our forces” and “should liberate all its territories.”
Ukraine Vows To ‘Liberate’ Territory Annexed by Moscow
A top aide to President Zelensky said Russian forces will be "exterminated"
by Kyle Anzalone@KyleAnzalone_ #Ukraine #Russia https://t.co/tqUd3ALRhp pic.twitter.com/Gw1XQSJRcg— Antiwar.com (@Antiwarcom) October 1, 2022
The plan to reclaim territories annexed by Russia will according to Zelensky also include Crimea, which was annexed in 2014.
All this talk about preparing a massive western-backed counter-offensive to recapture annexed territories from Russia — whose ranks are being reinforced with an additional 300,000 reservists — comes as Putin suggests that nuclear weapons may be used to protect what Moscow considers parts of Russia. Russia, like the United States, is one of the nuclear-armed nations without a No First Use policy.
So we appear to be on a collision course toward a massive escalation between two nuclear-armed powers. The more things escalate the more likely it is that a nuclear weapon may be used, either deliberately or as a result of miscommunication or malfunction as nearly happened many times during the last cold war. Once one nuke is used the odds go up astronomically that a great many more will immediately follow, with variables on this outcome including the location where it detonates and how cool all the relevant heads happen to be at that particular historic moment.
It is therefore no exaggeration to say that the human species has a vested interest in de-escalation and detente right away. Avoiding nuclear war is the single most important agenda in the entire world, without exception. It is the single most important agenda that has ever existed in all of history.
But whenever you advocate for this supremely important agenda in any kind of public forum, you get a bunch of brainwashed empire automatons bleating about “appeasement” and accusing you of supporting a monstrous madman. And they do this because that’s what they were trained to do.
https://twitter.com/zei_squirrel/status/1575968214324215808
As Noam Chomsky has been pointing out repeatedly, the political/media class have been continually indoctrinating the public with the completely false narrative that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine was “unprovoked”. Every time the war comes up the imperial spinmeisters utter that slogan, in much the same way Michael Jackson had a quota for how often MTV hosts were obligated to refer to him as “The King of Pop Michael Jackson” when his name was mentioned.
But what does it mean if the war is “unprovoked”? It means Putin didn’t invade Ukraine because of anything the western empire was doing, so it couldn’t have been prevented by the western empire behaving less aggressively on Russia’s borders. It means Putin necessarily invaded because he is some kind of evil lunatic who loves to commit war crimes, or a megalomaniacal tyrant who wants to conquer the world because he hates freedom and democracy. Which means he will keep attacking and invading other countries unless he can be stopped. Which means the only answer to the Putin problem is more war.
This is why empire apologists get angry at those who advocate the only sane and rational position toward nuclear brinkmanship by calling for de-escalation and detente. It’s because they’ve been aggressively indoctrinated into the belief that war is the only answer.
The moronic narrative that the invasion of Ukraine was “unprovoked” poses a massive obstacle to peace, because if Putin is just attacking and invading countries solely because he’s crazy and evil it means detente is impossible and he won’t stop until he’s decisively crushed. If it’s accepted that the US empire has played no role in provoking Putin’s actions, that means there’s nothing the empire could do to make continued Russian aggression less likely apart from regime change, or at least severely crippling and punishing Russia militarily.
It's Not Okay For Grown Adults To Say The Ukraine Invasion Was "Unprovoked"
"So as you can see, the notion that this war is 'unprovoked' is a fart-brained fairy tale for idiots and children"https://t.co/EmznLiO2Xq
— Caitlin Johnstone (@caitoz) September 7, 2022
As long as the fact that this war was provoked remains unacknowledged by the side that provoked it, the sane path of de-escalation and detente will look like reckless appeasement of an irrational madman, and aggressive escalations of nuclear brinkmanship will look like sanity. The absurd position that Putin is an irrational actor with some kind of weird sexual fetish for war crimes is a one-way ticket to endlessly escalating war and eventual nuclear annihilation, because it leaves you with no options but continually intensifying military confrontation.
The claim that peace is impossible and Putin must be crushed imperils the whole world. Even to deliver total victory in Ukraine (pushing Russia back to pre-2014 borders) could easily end up costing millions of lives and trillions of dollars and exponentially increase the risk of nuclear war, with no guarantee of success at all. But even if you did push Putin all the way out of Ukraine, what then? He’ll still be a crazy madman who wants to invade countries because he’s evil and hates freedom. The internal logic of your narrative says the attacks on Russia must continue until you get regime change. There’s no stopping point on your line of thinking until there’s a direct hot confrontation between nuclear superpowers.
Be an adult and engage your critical thinking. Does a madman who goes around invading countries solely because he’s evil and hates freedom sound like a real-life human being to you? Or does it sound made up? Like something you’d see in a Hollywood movie? Like something that was concocted by people responsible for controlling the dominant narratives of our society and funneled into your mind using media?
Marvel supervillains have more depth and complexity than the one-dimensional characters the imperial spin machine concocts to represent its official enemies. Thanos was a more believable character with more understandable and nuanced motivations than the propaganda machine’s fictional representation of Putin. That representation has been overlaid on top of the actual government official who you might not necessarily agree with, but can definitely understand and engage in diplomacy and negotiation.
People who believe the empire’s narratives about its official enemies have fewer critical thinking skills than your average Marvel movie viewer. Think. Be a grown up and think. Someone’s benefitting from the aggressively promulgated narrative that peace is impossible and war is the only solution. And that someone isn’t you.
_________________
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91 responses to “The Narrative That This War Was “Unprovoked” Prevents Peace”
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“Avoiding nuclear war is the single most important agenda in the entire world, without exception.”
History is clear: every empire eventually gets the war it is trying to avoid. The closer it gets to it the more convinced it becomes that it can win.
https://patternofhistory.wordpress.com/
“It’s not OK for grown adults to say the Ukraine invasion was “unprovoked” ‘
Ahh, you’re on Veterans Today;
A good place to be.
“I found out that thousands of interpreters were unjustly denied visas promised to those who worked with the U.S. in Afghanistan, despite having the support of their military supervisors.”
That’s what happens to any US ally when they are not useful anymore. To be fair and square with traitors a death sentence is too soft for the damage they have caused to their own people.
I cannot even imagine what will happen to Neo nazis heroically praised by the US congress and President.
There’s a joke about how 90% of the people in prison will say that they’re innocent, the punch line is, that it’s probably true, and for the same reasons
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As usual before any forensic analysis made by experts, western MSM already has Russia as the perpetrator of the Nord Stream explosions. Typical CIA and FBI strategy to deflect any blame to the real culprit responsible for the explosions..
“Massive obstacle to peace”= Usury Spiteful of Antagonism
The guy that singlehandedly destroyed the notion of the U.S. media having been (previously) regarded as the Fourth Estate was: Rupert Murdoch. As soon as he set-up shop in the U.S. (around 1986), he made the consumer “Info-Tainment” business model the premise of turning all these then-nothing/ma-and-pa UHF TV stations into big-money appendages of (what would become) the Fox monopoly (undoubtedly: with the help of a lot of lobbying grift funneled into, at the time, the cult of the Reagan-era RNC). The combination of: other networks realizing the AD MONEY to be generated from following suit by adopting such a model themselves, as well as the subsequent outright special interest rape of the public trust via the 1996 Telecommunications Reform Act (initiated by the slumlord Newt Gingrich-led huckster Congress)…TOTALLY DECIMATED ANY (PRIOR) INTEGRITY THE U.S. MEDIA HAD TO ACT AS A “WATCHDOG” FOR THE PEOPLE.
Of course, the Internet carried the abuse of that Murdoch-type model to a whole new level. 9/11 consolidated the U.S.-based Web into being nothing but a “pay-to-play” mouthpiece for Imperial edicts to be broadcast without opposition (in exchange for: some formerly fifth-rate-venture-capitalist/dabbling-in-tenth-rate-porn, being given the CEO job of a biotech shellfront). Hell(!), EVERYTHING transmitted over an American search engine — IS ROUTED THROUGH AMAZON SERVERS LOCATED AT THE “DULLES TECHNOLOGY CENTER” IN ASHBURN, VIRGINIA! THAT tells you U.S. opinion isn’t interested in operating in good faith right-off the top.
Very few people in America have the awareness and/or actual guts to point to the DEFENSE (WAR) SECTOR as the culprit behind all that is upside down. They just accept all the fundamentally stupid crap here at face value: either believing Trump is God (or the Devil in their head)…or, that, Biden is somehow a “leftist”. No. Trump, in all honesty, is an *absolute* awful judge of character (emblematic of a late-1970s/1980s Manhattan sleaze fraternity) and — Biden is a lifelong security-state hack whom, now, looks like a literal rotting corpse fronting a rotting Empire (hoping to enjoy the Clinton Foundation payout during whatever remaining time he’s of this world).
Only a full-scale revolution against those things are going to re-write the future remotely for the better.
What sort of full scale revolution do you have in mind? Mine would be UBI where every civilized person gets food, shelter, education, and health care to change the game from the wealth inequality that gets worse and worse and has the oligarchy running the world to its advantage. Get us out of the implosion we’re in with so much challenge to people’s survival and fuel for their outrage so that we run things in real democratic fashion.
I absolutely support UBI; however, I want an upgrade. Did you happen to notice the capitalist’ minimal-enticement verbiage of “Basic Income?” Always maximizing profit, and cutting corners, aren’t they (those clever little egotists)? Why not upgrade to “Premium Income?” Now that’s the ticket! It makes sense, doesn’t it? Why don’t we immediately begin a campaign of indoctrination through inculcation? Just start spewing: UPI, UPI, UPI, Yee Haw…
The problem with all these plans is someone has to work and produce. We did not get much work out of welfare. Basic income will be worse. You cannot just crap a cheeseburger out of thin air.
I can…
A difference between UBI and welfare is that welfare pays money only if you don’t work, thereby discouraging work, while a UBI pays you whether you work or not, so it helps you work. No magic is required. Now if the UBI was too high it might discourage work by making people not want additional money, but I suspect that would take a UBI much higher than usually suggested.
people can’t honestly be this unaware, it’s shocking the dearth of cognition in the modern man/woman
maybe a re-visit to bowie’s lyrics is in order
there’s no sign of life
it’s just the power to charm
“Political leader X is a madman” is about the oldest trope in the book, good look arguing against it.
Salient points:
1) Nothing short of nuclear weapons will remove Russia from the former eastern Ukraine.
2) #1 would presumably result in nuclear exchange.
3) Ukraine is about to get its hat handed to it by the Russian military.
4) Russia has no need to use nuclear weapons in Ukraine.
5) I think the most probable path to nuclear use is a false flag by the US that makes the Russians think nuclear use against Moscow is imminent. The Russians would go nuclear to prevent that possibility, and I can see the neocons staging it to force the Russians across the nuclear threshold to free up the Israeli nuclear arsenal for use, principally against Iran. Winning the war in Ukraine was never the point, it’s always been lost.
” Someone’s benefiting from the aggressively promulgated narrative that peace is impossible and war is the only solution. And that someone isn’t you.
–
It’s a big club and you ain’t in it. — George Carlin.
And the same one they beat us over the head with.
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A-from her head to the ground
You know she comes around here
At just about midnight
She make me feel so good, Lord
She make me feel all right
And her name is G-L-O-R-I
G-L-O-R-I-A
Gloria!
G-L-O-R-I-A
Gloria!
I’m gonna shout it all night
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And what if the Ukraine war had always been about Germany? After all, what the US does in Ukraine is pretty standard commercial practice: create a captive market and produce the stuff it needs – in this case weepons, as Jacindita appropriately calls them. Drawbacks none. Everybody knows Kiev can’t win, when Zelensky knocks on Heaven’s door (Nato), Stolt just tells him “Sorry, clowns are to use the back door”, only Ukrainians are dying, and the money goes straight from the Fed to the MIC. Business as usual. The American taxpayer mostly pays for it through inflation promptly attributed by the corporate media to Putin’s evil genius for remote controlling the most sophisticated country on Earth in his spare time.
Plus it will hopefully exhaust Russia. Couldn’t get a better deal!
Now blowing up the pipeline is another animal altogether. The US, which in all logic did it in the fog of war, kept Germany out of the loop. Why?
The Germans wouldn’t have been happy that their means of getting energy back through negotiations with Bad Vlad were cut off indefinitely? You don’t say…
Putin won’t lack other clients for his gas though but the US made clear a few months ago that it couldn’t replace it for Germany – about the time Biden threatened to put an end to the pipeline if Bad Vlad invaded. Nobody could. If the German authorities don’t want to have a civil war on their hands because people are freezing while a new flow of refugees is coming from Ukraine to eat from their lunchbox, they’ll have to give priority to citizens and what will be stranded? The industry. What will the German industrialists do? Sit cross-legged on the floor and sing Hare Krishna while smoking joints, try to produce electricity by fitting dynamos on their indoor bike trainers? None of the crystal ball modelling Neil Ferguson carried out at the Imperial College showed such scenes.
Likely they’ll pack their gear and start afresh in countries that do have energy. Of course, they will be more than welcome in the US where their high-quality stuff, like cars and machinery, will find an easy to train workforce, presently out of a job because it went to Asia or Latin America and banks will be happy to invest in their savoir-faire.
Some of course, out of resentment, will prefer migrating elsewhere but Germany will be basically in the state Morgenthau and Eisenhower most officially wanted to leave it after WWII: an agricultural nation.
The Greens, who have become over the years WEF darlings (with Annalena Baerbock a trained Schwab “young global leader”) and have gained record popularity by warning the German public against climate change for decades will be delighted und Bob ist dein Onkel.
Amish immigration welcome!
And in a world with limited resources, that’s one high value US competitor out of the way by incorporation. Just like with Operation Paperclip in the wake of WW2. Why give up good habits when they save the planet into the bargain?
Thank you, Uncle Sam!
Well since US’s goal is to prevent any other nation to overtake it economically, I do believe they wanted to destroy German economy.
It could also be against the whole EU, because if EU is stronger than the US, then EURO can become dominant reserve currency, and bye-bye US dollar.
All US government knows is how to take on more debt and print more dollars, so they have to sink all other economies. (as if their own economy is not interlinked with others).
Basically it seems to be currency wars, because as many observed, EU and UK and Japan etc are all printing money to stimulate their aging economies.
It was always about Germany. The Brits, Poles and US were beside themselves with Germany getting cozy with Russia through N1 and N2 pipelines. Infer for yourself who dunnit.
You have enlightened the lions. But how do you awaken the Bernaysian sheep; is starvation the only answer?
If I was running things, especially a media outlet, I would want to broadcast speeches from foreign leaders, so our educated citizenry could be better informed about policy. But then, we would see that Putin sounds reasonable enough and our leaders would have to respond in kind, create dialogue. Instead we are conditioned, the conditioned mind thing again, to think the incoherent ramblings of Biden, Pelosi or The Donald, or the cackling of Hillary or Kamala, are the zenith of thought leadership in the world. Caitlin shouts ‘think!’ like a prophet from the wilderness. The madman gambit bypasses thought and gets deep into the nervous system. After all, we all know the fear of madness in our bones. We are told to fear madmen, while ignoring the madness of homeless people begging on every corner. Can’t be helped, that’s a good fear, keeps the wheels of capitalism generating profit. As does war, don’t you know, peace is not good for business. Peace generates hippies and we need strong, God fearing capitalist families to fend off a world nipping at our heels. Satire aside, I say peace wherever you are.
Thank you for this Caitlin. In his recent speech Putin paints a very realistic picture of US imperialism and warmongering. If only the US leadership were less ideological and more capable of working toward peace. But this is not who they are. We are hurtling toward nuclear catastrophe.
The US empire policies to the world are a deadly cancer which requires more than a revolution to get rid of it.
I have a revolutionary project with very effective Hydrogen cells to be produced at a very low cost. The doors were closed right on my face in the USA because it is a threat to the expensive US hydrogen cells produced there and exported to allies. You see, it is not just my hydrogen cells but any new technology who poses a threat to their industrial corporations will suffer political retaliations.
Perhaps Russia, China, North Korea, India, Pakistan, South Africa will be interested in my hydrogen cells to make a revolution in cheap energy to be used in everything. From your house to spaceships.
I need hydrogen cells for my house AND my spaceship. Do you sell them on Amazon?
I read Putin’s speech and both read and listened to commentary about his stance towards nuclear weapons. Putin in no way threatened nuclear war, he simply reiterated longstanding Russian nuclear policy, to wit: Russia will use nuclear weapons in defense of the Mother Land. The Washington Post interpretation is not to be trusted as it only reinforces the notion that Putin is someone “who loves to commit war crimes, or a megalomaniacal tyrant who wants to conquer the world because he hates freedom and democracy…”
Where can details of the provocation of Russia to act against Ukraine be found?
Everywhere if you take off your sleep mask and your earplugs.
I have found that ConsortiumNews, Scheerpost, and Antiwar.com all publish good information about the background of the Ukraine war. Other good sources for ongoing updates include MoonofAlabam.org, TheSaker.is, GilbertDoctorow.com, and IndiaPunchline.com. I’m sure there are others.
Oops, it should read MoonofAlabama.org.
There is international tiptoeing around the issue. The US wants a war against Russia and China which would leave them underlings in international affairs, military capabilities, finance and economics. The US hasn’t woken up to the fact that others can be equals, competitors and formidable opponents around the globe. As soon as the truth dawns upon the American psyche that the whole world is not the United States of America, the better it will be for mankind. The fact that western hegemony is fast on the way out, it is driving the US globalists mad and as a result, they are seeing others as mad also.
The problem is that there is a contigent in the US, which would rather stomp the cake inro the ground if they cannot have it. A pyrrhic victory is still better than a loss to them.
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Does this confirm there is extra-terrestrial life in the universe and these aliens are trying to communicate with us through English AI programs written in Transylvania by Igor’s descendants?
We are being controlled by the billions of microbes in our gut biome.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31530002/
See also:
„The US Power Elite: they are doing it again!“: https://wipokuli.wordpress.com/2022/04/09/the-us-power-elite-they-are-doing-it-again-die-us-machtelite-sie-tun-es-wieder/
Have a good Sunday!
Zelensky this…Zelensky that…Zelensky the other…The wishwife…Like a PrimaDonna and the ‘cultured’ West allowing him to dictate has he wishes. From a report I understand that, via Bitcoin et all, Ukraine has raised about 100 million but where is the money? Where has it gone? To buy more luxurious villas somewhere?
Words are important !
Please cease using the words “Annex” and “Annexation”.
Russia did not annex Crimea. Russia has not annexed the Donbas republics. Russia has allowed the “Incorporation” of the regions into the Federation.
By allowing the Use of “Unprovoked”, “Dictator” and “Annex” you perpetuate the lie.
–
“You can resolve to live your life with integrity. Let your credo be this: Let the lie come into the world, let it even triumph. But not through me.”
― Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
–
On a further note, stop calling for a ceasefire. a settlement or even a cessation of conflict.
This “War” can only end with either the total defeat of Russia (and it’s allies) or the acceptance by US/UK/NATO that their hegemony is over and they have to deal with the other 140 nations on an equal footing. They have to withdraw their troops from the 800 foreign bases and forget that they ever had the right to use physical force to steal resources.
–
On a personal note, I hope that the Russian people and forces annihilate the Ukrainian forces and political class. By that I mean kill, hang, shoot every single one of them.
What they did to the civilians of Mariupol, of Odessa, of the Donbas forever in my mind removes them from the consideration of the Human race. Such people cannot be rehabilitated, there is no point in torturing them and no point in maintaining their lives in incarceration. Putin and the Russians are far too “Humane”, returning British and other fighters once captured. They will not thank you but continue to fight via media and lies. A captured mercenary (ie any one who is not of the direct warring parties) should be put in front of a firing squad within 24 hours, and the record of that execution released as proof that mercenaries are not permitted in moral wars.
I hear you clearly and up to a point I agree with you. The Western media, under direction of you-know-who, has been more than dishonest with readers. No mention of all the years Ukraine attacked the Donbass region causing over 14,000 casualties. And yet…two wrongs don’t make one right. Overall, Europe is going blind, deaf and dumb…
“two wrongs don’t make one right.” no, but the second “wrong” makes damn sure that the first one is not repeated.
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Harry, wanking is not a ‘sport’ no matter how many spectators are paying to watch you do it.
great art
Sooner or later there will be only one way of saving humanity…Assassination ! The killing of those who would destroy us.
One cannot assassinate a system. You are falling prey to Great Man manipulation. Empires are always full of willing accomplices.
“Whenever the government of the United States shall break up, it will probably be in consequence of a false direction having been given to public opinion.
This is the weak point of our defenses, and the part to which the enemies of the system will direct all their attacks.
Opinion can be so perverted as to cause the false to seem true; the enemy a friend, and the friend an enemy; the best interests of the nation to appear insignificant, and the trifles of moment; in a word, the right the wrong, the wrong the right.
In a country where opinion has sway, to seize upon it, is to seize upon power.
As it is a rule of humanity that the upright and well-intentioned are comparatively passive, while the designing, dishonest, and selfish are the most untiring in their efforts, the danger of public opinion’s getting a false direction is four-fold, since few men think for themselves.”
~ James Fenimore Cooper 1834
This whole situation is much more complex than it seems. There is no empire per se. Rather there are multination factions working together and using each other for their personal gains and objectives. Many of these competing factions are within the same group of countries.This increases the likelihood that this whole situation will get out of hand sooner or later.
When you consider the fact that the US has been at war for 93% of its existence, and then integrate Thucydides’ Trap into the calculation, there is an increasing likelihood that the whole situation will get out of hand. You are so right.
An empire without factions? That would contradict history. However, “personal gains and objectives” should not be exaggerated, whether it is Republicans and Democrats, or Tory factions and Labour, the imperial credo (narrative with details that are constantly updated) has rather uniform sway, and outliers are sidelined and digested.
What we see is an empire controlled by a mob with mob mentality.
No business without enemies: War and the arms trade (longreads.tni.org-5/2021-Jordi Calvo Rufanges):
Excerpt: The arms trade is one of the world’s most successful corporate enterprises. Not only has it created an economic system that grows regardless, it has normalized war and security responses to every social crisis.
In a society where fear is inculcated in citizens’ minds, few question the existence of a nefarious business like the arms trade. Moreover, the production and sale of arms is perfect from an economic perspective, as the supply of arms to one party invariably provokes arms races and so increases demand, while the widespread fear and insecurity thus created legitimizes the permanent need for them.
The UNESCO Constitution states that ‘since wars begin in the minds of men, it is in the minds of men that the defenses of peace must be constructed’. Seventy years after that certitude that war must be eliminated from people’s minds, military responses continue to be promulgated as the principal response to security threats, even though reality has demonstrated that they are counterproductive. Military budgets, the profits of the arms manufacturers, arms exports, and armed conflicts continue to expand, even while their contribution to security is increasingly in doubt. We need to dismantle the beliefs that serve to normalize war, the arms used to fight it and the business it creates. The militarization of societies and international relations perpetuates the wars of today and is the breeding ground for those of the future.
There is one other aspect critical to the arms trade cycle: the financing of the corporate military sector. Arms-producing companies are financed by banks, insurance companies and all kinds of financial institutions, in the form of loans, credit, bond issues, shares, and the whole range of banking products that make their business possible.
I don’t know, the behaviour of the US Government and Corporate Elite has shown pretty conclusively that we (unfortunately) have to accept that grotesque, over the top, senseless, cartoonish villainy most of us probably once thought possible in (primarily low quality) fiction is very much a thing in real life.
Exactly.
The Empire worked for decades to turn Ukraine into a vicious, rabid attack dog to maul Russia, just as it tried to do with various other countries.
They worked tirelessly since WWII to keep the flame of Nazism alive.
But Russia, after trying for peaceful solutions equally tirelessly for so long, in the end decided to not wait for Azov and co to start pillaging on their own territory first.
There are some who say, seeing as Ukraine’s planned attack on the Donbass was only days away, they should have waited until the Ukie offensive got rolling.
Perhaps they should have.
But those outside the NATO bubble know the truth anyway, while inside the NATO bubble the result would have been exactly the same.
The funniest thing is how utterly oblivious western europeans are to what consequences the rise of a new, openly fascist block in eastern Europe, sponsored by themselves, will ultimately mean for their own futures.
Good point, I doubt the fascists plan to stop at Ukraine.
Let’s save “unprovoked” till the next Monday when all Chinese banks will dump the dollar. I wonder how many trillions of dollars will be flushed out and how Wall Street will coin the Black Monday.
There is ~ nothing in the US mainstream media about peace and how to achieve it. They seem committed to some kind of major conflagration. I agree they’re after the resources.
For a few months, about 2 years ago, every morning I used to google news for word “peace”, and you are right, there are no news reports about peace. A few essays about religion will come up.
Often, instead of peace, there are reports about peace talks breaking down, or hostilities resuming.
Finally I found a publication by a well known European professor who studied and documented how in Western Media the idea of peace is gaslighted by insinuations how it is impossible. (what are you crazy, why are you asking for peace, what is wrong with you?)
Ever. Not in Ukraine, not any other place on earth.
Of course we have also been informed now that news are nothing but corporate propaganda, so why bother to look for any reason in it at all. It is meant to confuse so they can plant some idiotic idea into confused minds.
That’s due to the contrasting ideologies of Capitalism (Egotism) and Socialism (Altruism). We must unlearn war mentality.
As Caitlin asserted/illustrated (paraphrased): most of us want change, but most of us don’t want to change.
Your choice is Socialism or Barbarism.
The narrative that Putin is crazy and regime change in Russia is needed etc reminds me of what the US has done to Saddam Hussein and Iraq and why – at the time it was thought that Iraq has the biggest oil reserves, and Saddam did not want to sell oil for US dollars. They also imposed cap on Iraq oil prices like they want to do now to Russia, before US went with the war on Iraq. The US is repeating itself and is bluffing that nobody will remember recent history.
(I am not going to compare Putin to Hitler because that would be inversion of history).
Therefore I tend to think that the USA and the international bankers that stand behind the empire) want to invade Russia (in their speak this is called turn it into a demoncracy), install their own government (paid by US dollars), and get hold of Russia’s natural resources (vast) to prop up the toxic currencies that are issued by the international rule based order (big bankers).
Another less complete alternative is to beat Russia back enough so NATO countries can get hold of all the gas and oil reserves in the Artic.
However the essence of this all is that the empire runs its military on fossil fuels to control the trade all around the world, so some can profit, while 30% of world population is sanctioned by the international rule based order to starve. And US dollar also stands for the trade in fossil fuels. This is why US is the only country that denies connection between fossil fuel use and global warming. If the world cuts the use and trade of oil, there will be less demand for US dollars, and money printing press will have to slow down or money gets devalued faster than Biden is doing it.
Every war since Vietnam has been about oil and Pipelines.
The US/UK oil cartel has to have total control to maintain the price nonsense and huge profits.
To extract oil from a well costs (Kuwait) $0.20 per barrel. To transport to the refinery via a 60 year old pipeline $0.05 per barrel. Petrol refining net cost after selling by products and maintaining 60 year old refinery, +/- $2.00 per barrel. Total COST of 220 litres petrol at refinery gate approx $0.10 per litre.
If you think that they are going to allow Saddam, Assad, Putin, Saudi or anyone else to have a share in the trillions of dollars being ripped from your pocket, you are insane.
15,000 Kuwaitis were killed in 1900 (by Iraqi proxies) because the country attempted to escape the British control.
Millions of Iraqis. A million Syrians. The US wanted a pipeline via Afghanistan to Delhi, they were willing to give the Afghani (Taliban) 5% of the pipeline profits. The Taliban wanted 50%. US said “A carpet of Gold or a carpet of Bombs”. Taliban gave Pashtun equivalent of the finger.
80% of Syrian oil and 40% of Iraq oil stolen by US every day.
–
“I spent 33 years and four months in active military service and during that period I spent most of my time as a high class muscle man for Big Business, for Wall Street and the bankers. In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism. I helped make Mexico and especially Tampico safe for American oil interests in 1914. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenues in. I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefit of Wall Street. I helped purify Nicaragua for the International Banking House of Brown Brothers in 1902-1912. I brought light to the Dominican Republic for the American sugar interests in 1916. I helped make Honduras right for the American fruit companies in 1903. In China in 1927 I helped see to it that Standard Oil went on its way unmolested. Looking back on it, I might have given Al Capone a few hints. The best he could do was to operate his racket in three districts. I operated on three continents.”
― : D. Butler, War is a Racket: The Antiwar Classic by America’s Most Decorated Soldier
Caitlin has a superb way of summing up ideas and concepts which gets her point across like a slap to the face ,,, breaking through the stupor.
I often quote her (with links), when arguing against the broad church of Neo-cons in the Natostan rainbow of Anglo-Saxons/Europeans ,,,,, they hate it and dish out the same ol ‘Putinist’ insults.
But I’m sure her way of putting things cuts through to readers who are not warmongers .
Thank-you Caitlin,,, from New Zealand.
So smart. I’m your ally. I’m new here. Some Secret Santa told me I’m like you.
What do you think we let Russia have some land? What great moral principle should we be following if it will get us annihilated? I’m fine being cowardly. We’re dealing with an insane person. Let him get pissed off enough to make us toast? Call it appeasement, but this is circa 2022 when humanity can blast into extinction. Can’t we come out from the idea of even a remotely equal playing field and talk turkey?
How do you relate to being a voice in the wilderness?
Hi Suzanne,
I think you are missing the point – by a long way. Russia does not want, or need more land. Russia wants peace. They want not to be constantly attacked by Capitalism. Capitalism and fascism are one and the same – indeed, Mussolini called his brand of fascism ‘corporatism’. Like Hitler he used his military to impose corporatism on his share of Africa.
Without fascism – capitalism cannot exist. When did you last see a commercial on tv that in reality was anywhere near the truth? That funeral homes care for you in your family’s sad times? That medical insurance is there for you in your illness. That courts of law exist for justice?
Think about it.
Sorry Suzanne… got cut off by arrival of roast lamb, garden peas and beans and mint sauce.
In capitalism good guys finish last and to get feet on the ground, or through the door, business has to lie. Lies are the kingdom of fascism, or, propaganda.
The US are masters of this. They won in Vietnam, Afghanistan and Iraq.
Ukraine is the cradle of civilisation and democracy must be protected… get the drift?
It’s not about land. It is about the true meaning of democracy.
Russia and China have had enough and according to Newsweek magazine – so has 87% of the world.
Russia and China are going to be on the right side of history. If we are going to die in a conflagration, it is because our countries voted for fascism… in a democratic way of course.
Quote, “They won in Vietnam”. Unquote. Sorry X FRETENSIS, but you don’t know what youre talking about. I served in Vietnam, and I know, the U.S. got it’s arse kicked big time, by these little guys wearing recycled car tires for flip flops. Whilst the U.S. was supposed to have all this super duper technological marvel stuff that was supposed to give them the edge over the enemy. L.O.L. But when the rains came, all that stuff was not worth it’s weight in mud. I distincly recall the Americans loading up their troops and compromised Vietnamese into helicopters from the roof of the U.S. Embassy. Hardly the actions of a winning nation. L.O.L.
Sorry Eddy,
Look up ‘irony’. I gather you are an American?
Then don’t bother.
Hell yea!! Hail, Joe Biden!! Putin is crazy!!!
It would seem, going by your posts, Suzanne apparently you’ve been living under a rock these past 8-9 years. How else can you be totally ignorant of the broken promises from the U.S. that NATO would not be moving one inch closer to Russia ? Moreover, how come you are totally unawares of the ILLEGAL COUPE, that was instigated and financed by the U.S. of A. via Nuland, and replacing an elected democratic Government in Ukraine ?? How is it, you are unawares of the people murdered that day, deliberately by the setting of fire the building they were within ? How come that after all this time, not ONE person has ever been held to account for these murders by the ILLEGAL imposed Government. How come you are unawares of the FACT, this ILLEGAL COUPE installed Governement passed legislation that forbade Russian speaking peoples in Ukraine of speaking their native langauge, text books were forbidden, businesses forbidden to have signage in Russian, and The locals in Donbass were refused their pensions and medical treatement as well as medications ? Lastly, how come you are unawares of the FACT, since the inception of those punative ILLEGAL laws imposed upon these people, they rebelled and refused to follow that dictate, and sought self Governance, thus attracting the ire of the ILLEGAL COUPE instaled Government in Kiev, who then emabrked upon a war against these defenceless people, to bring them to heel and has been murdering them with impunity for the last EIGHT years ? With not a PEEP, of condemnation from the Western World, in fact the Western World seems hell bent on supporting them in their genocide against Russian speaking indigenous peoples.
Then when Putin states, a red line haS BEEN REACHED, STEP BACK or else he has no other option but to step in and cease this inhuman persecution of Russian speaking people’s, folks like you, and many others,who have turned a blind eye to the actions of the Ukrainian COUPE instaled Govt, try to lay the blame at Putin’s feet ????????????? With a mind set like yours, I’m glad I don’t know you.
You don’t understand Eddy…very inconvenient truths are shoved under the proverbial rug. And so many, including America, are great at sweeping.
What convinced you of my ignorance?
We need solidarity, not another ignorant, insulting conversation. It is easier to criticize than to empathize. Take the high road; it’s more challenging.
Suzanne, if you think “Putin is a madman” then you deny the humanity of the leader of a vastly complex and powerful country who has an enormous political job internally and externally. He is also in charge of the most nuclear weapons of any nation. You had better hope that he is not mad.
Looked at dispassionately, Biden is as mad as the Hatter, and his little buddy Zelensky only slightly less so.
I wouldn’t give any of them the time of day bud get real, there are degrees.
Since the WTC event, MSM does not make investigative journalism towards politicians, it shields them. Those you eventually see suffering a rampant carnage on MSM it is because they lost political protection for declining to agree with the government policies. The American congress is surrounded by fences. They don’t want people there anymore. People just play a role voting. After voting the swat and FBI will make them to shut the fuck up.
If instead of Russia, another starving country was the target then the marines would have already invaded marriage parties and slaughtering goats and cows with tomahawks.
But the target is Russia. A big dog.
America has the most incapable political and military staff in command. Russia has the most prepared political and military staff.
The odds of Joe Biden giving the order to launch nukes is high. Russia will not launch because they will only do it when the nukes coming from America are flying towards the motherland.
I think 2023 is the year where Russia will suffer the first nuclear strike coming from America. The answer from Russia might just obliterate from this world the US empire, Canada, Great Britain, France, Italy, Germany, Australia, New Zealand, Spain, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Poland, Romania, Czech Republic.
“Don’t look to the light, Caroline.”
I think you should organize your thoughts. This is important enough.
That’s likely the kind of Pentagon bots that have just been kicked out of Facebook and Twitter.
LOL even my US patriot husband was assailed by these bots on Facebook. Treasonous bots I am sure violate US Constitution.
Disgusting.
https://futurism.com/the-byte/us-military-social-psyop-bots
Looks like a couple of authentically simulated bootlickers to me: Mr. Facade Book, and Senator Credit Card (Made in the USA).
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