Who wants to die for Ukraine?
I certainly don't. The people of the U.S. and Europe have no vital interests in Ukraine, which is the continent's poorest and least developed country. Ukraine is not worth a nuclear confrontation.
How did we get here? …On the brink of Armageddon.
Kiev practically dictates U.S. foreign policy and demands that we threaten Russia with nuclear strikes.
That conflict is a fight between Kiev and Moscow. This is not our problem. Not our fight. Let them settle the matter themselves.
Well, it’s not that simple.
First, the West has a long history of attacking and invading the Russian lands. The Swedish Empire, the Polish Empire, the French Empire, the British-led coalition during the Crimean War, and, of course, the Third Reich.
New war, same lies
In 2019, I visited the Museum of the Second World War in Gdansk. I was dismayed to learn that many other European nations — not just Germany and Italy — contributed soldiers to the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union. (They never told us that in school).
I was also anguished because I remembered how my Italian cousins were on the Eastern Front. When I finally met them in 1990, they told me how they had been lied to by the Italian regime. They were told that they were going to the Eastern Front to protect Europe from “barbarian Russians” and “Asian hordes”.
Fast forward to 2022 — With its centuries-old hatred of Russia, the West now finds common cause with far-right Ukrainian nationalists who are leading their people to destruction and oblivion. What should have remained a local conflict in the separatist region of Donbass is now a global crisis that could go nuclear.
According to the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, it’s now “100 seconds to midnight” on the Doomsday Clock.
False narratives fuel war fever
Our ruling Democratic Party wants victory against Russia at any cost and it’s now prepping Americans for the unthinkable, telling them that we can survive a nuclear war. Yes, Biden and his Party are certified lunatics. Yes, it’s time to be worried. Yes, it’s time to get angry.
Washington won’t compromise with Russia and for 8 years has sabotaged peace talks between Kiev and Moscow. Why is our ruling elite so worried about the fate of an East European country that few even knew existed before February.
As the war-torn, separatist regions of eastern Ukraine vote this weekend to rejoin Russia, the citizens of NATO countries are fed narratives about a “collapsing Putin regime” and a “weak and exhausted Russian military” that’s “running out of weapons”, and also that “Russians don’t want to fight for Putin”.
What’s the purpose of this propaganda? It’s deliberately released and promoted by our media in order to mislead us into thinking that we can easily defeat Russia, which will then be broken up into a half dozen or so new republics like after the fall of the USSR and then forever subjugated. Moscow is certainly well aware of such plans.
Our collective guilt
We Americans carry an onerous burden of guilt. Two decades of failed U.S. foreign policy, militarism and mass murder across the globe — tens of millions of lives in the Muslim world ruined because our elites wanted that region for their empire.
Now, instead of repenting for their crimes, our elites pick a fight with Russia. Dear god, why can’t the U.S. be a peaceful nation?! Why is war and conquest so deeply rooted in our society’s fabric?
In the 1920s, U.S. General Smedley Butler said something similar and condemned American militarism. In the 1950s, U.S. General Dwight D. Eisenhower also condemned American militarism. Will we ever get off the drug of war and its staggering profits?
For me, this is also a personal tragedy. I grew up in the U.S. Government system and always believed that it would do the right thing in a complex situation. Today, however, everywhere we look we can see total corruption. The elites betray our nation and the noble ideals that our country was founded on.
Eastern Europe is complicated
Americans often struggle to understand that in Eastern Europe the language, culture, religion and the soil are very important for identity and a sense of nationhood. The Eurasian steppe, unfortunately, has few natural barriers; hence, the lines of ethnic identity have been difficult to draw.
The origins of this war in Ukraine go back nearly 500 years and have their roots in the wars of religion between Orthodoxy and Catholicism. The lands east of the Dniepr River — which is the only natural barrier in the steppe — have mostly been under Moscow’s control. West of the Dniepr, Catholic Poland held sway for centuries and always wanted to expand its power eastward. (Hmmm… sound familiar?)
In the 1990s after the collapse of the USSR, those of us Americans who studied and worked in Russia and Ukraine knew that conflict was inevitable between the two countries, precisely over Crimea and Donbass. But we never thought that Washington and London would be the main forces stoking the flames of war.
Why can’t Washington use its immense power to make peace?
Hey Joe, this is your chance to grab a Nobel Peace Prize. Do the right thing. Bring peace to Ukraine. Just say ‘No’ to empire and militarism.
Do you want to die for Ukraine?
Please ask yourself: If those four separatist regions of eastern Ukraine (populated in large part by ethnic Russians) want to rejoin Russia, then how is your life — in Berlin, New York, London, Paris — going to be any worse? Why should you care?
If Westerners knew the truth, perhaps they’d rebel against their rulers. But they only hear one side of the conflict. The Western media narrative faithfully follows press releases from the Ukrainian government, the Pentagon, and “anonymous” U.S. government sources. Then, Big Tech and social media companies amplify these false and deceptive messages to make them seem truthful.
Dubious experts and former Pentagon/CIA officers are hired by TV channels and think tanks to promote NATO’s war narrative. Russia is demonized in a way that would bring a smile to the faces of the diabolical propagandists of World War I. Sadly, many of my fellow journalists are today nothing but stenographers who are force-fed NATO’s war narrative under pain of dismissal and demotion.
Much like the debate in 2020 regarding Covid-19’s origins — (scientists, doctors and journalists who said it was a lab creation faced intense bullying and censorship) — any independent and thoughtful expert on Russia and Ukraine who diverges from the NATO narrative is harassed and bullied.
Imagine China in Mexico
Over the past 25 years, leading U.S. foreign policy experts have made it very clear that NATO’s eastward expansion, especially into Ukraine, would eventually lead to war with Russia. But now those top experts — such as Kissinger, Sachs, and Mearsheimer — are sidelined and censored.
Why the censorship? Because our ruling elite is afraid of the truth. Censorship is the last refuge of rogues who can’t win a debate in free and open discussion.
Here’s one argument that the villains can’t handle. Imagine if Mexico wanted to join a military alliance with China and was being armed to the teeth by Beijing. How long before the U.S. reduced Mexico City to rubble? Probably a month or two.
By the way, the U.S still illegally occupies 50% of ancestral Mexican lands, not to mention the Kingdom of Hawaii. You didn’t know that, did you?
How does this end?
By Oct 1, the end of this week, those four separatist Ukrainian regions will rejoin Russia. More NATO/Ukrainian attacks will mean outright war with Russia. I don’t see either side backing down. Russia will defend its new regions and advance. Ukraine will fight and bleed to death. The U.S. will grow richer.
Europeans might survive the winter thanks to extra blankets and homemade ceramic heaters. But deprived of cheap Russian gas, the EU’s energy-intensive industries and businesses won’t survive soaring energy prices. Many will go bankrupt.
Unemployment will soar. Poverty and hunger will again stalk the continent. By spring, Europe’s glory will have faded, followed by economic depression and violent social upheaval not seen since the 1920s.
Yesterday, National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan (who once praised Al-Qaeda activity in Syria in an email to Hillary Clinton) promised “catastrophic consequences” if Russia used nuclear weapons in Ukraine. Well, the idea of Moscow doing so is ludicrous because Russia and its ally Belarus would also be highly contaminated.
Still, despite the clear idiocy of his remarks, I’m rather concerned with Sullivan’s threats because I noticed that Biden’s White House often works in accordance with the psychological principle of “projection” — accusing others of what they themselves are thinking of and planning to do.
So, when Russian armies advance victorious, what will Washington do? Will Jake Sullivan blow up the Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant, which Ukrainian proxies have been shelling for over a month? Or will NATO launch a limited nuclear strike against Russian troops to stop their advance? (The Kremlin claims this plan is being discussed in Brussels; hence, Putin’s own severe warning last week).
Given that Jake Sullivan and the White House are desperate to stop Russia at any cost, either option is highly plausible. Then, of course, the White House would blame Russia. The media would reprint the press release, and ‘We The People’ would be faced with a fait accompli.
Biden and the Democrats have promised to solve the ‘climate crisis’. Ironically, however, they have us on course for nuclear war. In its crusade to make the world ‘safe’ for radical-liberal governments and to subdue ‘autocratic regimes’ such as China and Russia, Washington might just unleash the ultimate form of climate change.
Great discernment and clear understanding of events, John!
Great article, John! I agree that lie is weapons, maybe even worse than nuclear weapons. An entire nation can perish if it accepts a lie for the truth. Ukrainian people believed the lie that Russia is enemy, weak and poor and that Russia is easy to defeat .Someone deceived and used them as battering ram against Russia. But it was a big mistake, because Russia becomes much stronger when it defends against enemies or when it defends the weak. Most Ukrainians have Russian roots. They subconsciously love Russia. When they feel bad, they call Russia. Bandera Kyiv regime will soon fail. Ukraine will be cleansed of the haters of Russia. Love between Ukraine and Russia save the world.