OMNI
US, NATO, RUSSIA, UKRAINE war ANTHOLOGY, #21:
HISTORY, ORIGINS, CAUSES, MEANINGS OF THE WAR; MAY 29, 2022
Compiled by Dick Bennett for a Culture of Peace, Justice, and Ecology
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Contents of #21 ANTHOLOGY
WAR
Marius Trotter. The Russian Perspective, The Crucial History:
FROM WWII TO 2022
The US-NATO-UKRAINE-RUSSIA WAR BEGINS IN 2014
The Maidan Coup
J. Kuzmarov. 2014 Odessa Massacre.
John Walsh. Coup Against Elected Pro-Russian President and Attacks on
Donetsk and Lugansk (Donbass) Pro-Russians.
Fergie Chambers. Neo-Nazi Aidar Battalion Torture vs. Donbass Pro-
Russian Rebels.
Statement from Black Liberation Movement.
MR Editors, From 2014 to Present.
Samir Amin. Large Geo-Political Context. Triad of Western Control,
Anatol Lieven. Dangers of US Proxy War.
NATO Expansion
Global Times. Now Finland and Sweden and Risk of European War.
Glenn Greenwald. US Bipartisan (the War Party) Support for War $$.
Richard Ochs. US Biggest Lies for War.
PEACE
Jeremy Kuzmarov. US and Russian Tradition of Friendship.
TEXTS
ORIGINS, CAUSES, PURPOSES OF THE WAR
The Crucial History: FROM WWII TO 2022
“Everyone is forgotten and nothing is remembered: The war in Ukraine and Russia’s reawakening.” Editor. Mronline.org (5-12-22).
After the most titanic, nightmarish war in modern history, after rivers of blood shed from Kiev to Moscow, from Stalingrad to Kursk, the workers and farmers of the Soviet Union had vanquished the most vile killing machine the world had yet seen. But for the Donbass WWII was not over: “For eight years- 2014 to 2022- the people of the Donbass were besieged by the Ukrainian military and neo Nazi paramilitaries.”
https://mronline.org/2022/05/11/everyone-is-forgotten-and-nothing-is-remembered/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=everyone-is-forgotten-and-nothing-is-remembered&mc_cid=698ecb0740&mc_eid=ab2f7bf95e
WE MUST LEARN MORE ABOUT RUSSIA AND UKRAINE 2014
Maidan Coup
The West staged a coup to overthrow the Ukrainian government
https://static.poder360.com.br › 2014-Coup-1 The 2014 Maidan revolution in Ukraine that led to the ouster of then-president Viktor. Yanukovych was in fact a coup orchestrated by the United States and ...
7 pages
How and why the US Government Perpetrated the 2014 Coup ...
https://moderndiplomacy.eu › Sample Page Jun 4, 2018 — Ukraine's replacing its democratically elected neutralist Government in February 2014, by a rabidly anti-Russian Government, was a violent event ...
The WAR Beginning IN 2014
“The Once Bright City Became Gloomy and Sad:” Survivor of 2014 Odessa Massacre Reflects Back on Tragedy
By Jeremy Kuzmarov on May 10, 2022 07:06 am
Massacre part of planned act of intimidation by U.S.-installed government and precipitated civil war in Ukraine
On May 2, 2014, at least 48 people were killed when right-wing Ukrainian forces burned down the Trade Unions Building in Odessa. The victims had taken refuge in the building after opposing the February 2014 coup d’etat in Ukraine that was backed by the U.S. State Department.
Eight years after the massacre, the International Action Center, a New York-based anti-war group founded by former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark, hosted a public commemoration that included testimony from a survivor named Alexey who currently lives in Luhansk in eastern Ukraine.
Alexey spoke movingly about his friend and comrade, Andrey Brezevsky, who was beaten to death by neo-Nazi thugs with a metal bar after he jumped out of the Trade Unions Building to escape the fire.
Brezevsky’s mother, after her son’s death, lost her teaching position at a local university after being denounced by right-wing groups.
Alexey emphasized that none of the perpetrators of the Odessa massacre was ever punished. In the aftermath of the atrocity, neo-Nazi groups mocked and persecuted the relatives of the victims, like Alexey’s mother.
The once bright city became “gloomy and sad,” Alexey said. The massacre had not happened by accident, but was a “planned act of intimidation” by Ukraine’s post-coup government. It was “designed to intimidate the opposition [and] was an act of political terrorism perpetrated by the Ukrainian state targeting unarmed civilians [the victims in the fire were all unarmed].” […]
The post “The Once Bright City Became Gloomy and Sad:” Survivor of 2014 Odessa Massacre Reflects Back on Tragedy appeared first on CovertAction Magazine.
The WAR Beginning IN 2014
By John V. Walsh, Popular Resistance (4-29-22.). 2014 saw two pivotal events that led to the current conflict in Ukraine. The first, familiar to all, was the coup in Ukraine in which a democratically elected government was overthrown at the direction of the United States and with the assistance of neo-Nazi elements which Ukraine has long harbored. Shortly thereafter the first shots in the present war were fired on the Russian-sympathetic Donbass region by the newly installed Ukrainian government. The shelling of the Donbass which claimed 14,000 lives has continued for 8 years, despite attempts at a cease-fire under the Minsk accords which Russia... -more-
Touring an Aidar Dungeon
Editor. Mronline.org (5-8-22)
Shortly after the U.S.-backed Maidan coup in the winter of 2014, in conjunction with Crimea’s secession from Ukraine and union with Russia in March of that year, protests began to break out in the Donetsk and Lugansk regions in the east of the country, known together as Donbas.
Inside the walls of the small-town sausage plant which became a Neo-nazi prison.
“Ukraine: Touring an Aidar Dungeon.” Originally published: Internationalist 360° on May 5, 2022 by Fergie Chambers(more by Internationalist 360°) (Posted May 07, 2022)
WarEurope, UkraineNewswireDonbas, Donetsk, Lugansk, Lugansk People’s Republic (LPR), U.S.-backed Maidan coup
The horrors of a meat plant-turned Ukrainian Neo-Nazi base and prison
Inside the walls of the small-town sausage plant which became a Neo-nazi prison.
POLOVYNKYNO, LUGANSK PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC, 4.5.2022-Shortly after the U.S.-backed Maidan coup in the winter of 2014, in conjunction with Crimea’s secession from Ukraine and union with Russia in March of that year, protests began to break out in the Donetsk and Lugansk regions in the east of the country, known together as Donbas. In Donetsk, to the south, the now-notorious Neo-Nazi “Azov” Battalion emerged as the principal combatant force on the Ukrainian side; in the north, along the front lines in Lugansk, known since May of 2014 by anti-Maidan, Russian separatists as the Lugansk People’s Republic (LPR), the lesser-known, but possibly more ruthless “Aidar” Battalion was more prevalent. Even Amnesty International, an organization which is reliably in the corner of western informational hegemony, reported back in 2014 on the abuses of Aydar.
The article concludes: After a week of visiting shelling sites in civilian areas on an almost daily basis, it was difficult to imagine seeing something more disturbing. Wednesday’s visit to the Aidar dungeon proved this assumption wrong, and reinforced the blatant reality of a Ukrainian regime that is overrun with nationalism, barbarism, and criminality, particularly in its armed forces, and most especially aimed at the people of Donbas.
The Aidar battalion was made an official part of the Ukrainian military in 2016, and has participated in a number of Kiev state-sanctioned events, including last year’s independence parade.
A Statement On Ukraine From The Black Liberation Movement
By Black Liberation Movement Organizations, Black Agenda Report. Popular Resistance. Org (5-6-22). The ongoing crisis and war in Ukraine threatens to pull the world into a disastrous nuclear confrontation. Disinformation, lies, and propaganda from the US and other western media are aimed at confusing millions of people inside the US and around the world to view Russia as the aggressor, while hiding the US role in the evolution of this conflict. One major example of this manipulation is that western media have not been honest about the massive role that the US played in facilitating a 2014 coup in Ukraine that overthrew the country’s democratically elected president... -more-
FROM THE 2014 COUP TO PRESENT
Introduction.
The Editors. Monthly Review. May 2022 (Volume 74, Number 1)
(May 7, 2022). To get a firm grasp on the current situation in Ukraine, we must understand the central role that the United States and NATO have played in the conflict from the start, beginning in 2014 with the U.S.-engineered Maidan coup. | more…
The Large Geo-Political Context
Russia and the Ukraine crisis: The Eurasian Project in conflict with the triad imperialist policies. Samir Amin. Mronline.org (5-8-22)
We wanted to draw readers’ attention to this piece by Samir Amin, which was written at the time of the Maidan Coup in 2014.—Eds. 1. The current global stage is dominated by the attempt of historical centers of imperialism (the U.S., Western and Central Europe, Japan—hereafter called “the Triad”) to maintain their exclusive control […]
Learning nothing from history [A Comprehensive Survey] |
A warning to all people intelligent enough to think about the prospect of global annihilation--all to save Ukraine and profitable corporate weapons merchants???
Date: Thu, Apr 28, 2022 at 9:31 PM
Subject: Learning nothing from history
The horrible dangers of pushing a US proxy war in Ukraine
If there is indeed a shift in strategy to another level of confrontation with Russia, we need to know what we’re getting into. APRIL 27, 2022, Anatol Lieven , RESPONSIBLE STATECRAFT HTTPS://RESPONSIBLESTATECRAFT.ORG/2022/04/27/THE-HORRIBLE-DANGERS-IN-PUSHING-A-US-PROXY-WAR-IN-UKRAINE/ To judge by its latest statements, the Biden administration is increasingly committed to using the conflict in Ukraine to wage a proxy war against Russia, with as its goal the weakening or even destruction of the Russian state. This would mean America adopting a strategy that every U.S. president during the Cold War took great pains to avoid: the sponsorship of war in Europe, bringing with it the acute risk of escalation towards direct military confrontation between Russia and NATO, possibly ending in nuclear catastrophe. The U.S. and NATO refusal to support armed rebellions against Soviet rule in eastern Europe was obviously not based on any kind of recognition of the legitimacy of Communist rule and Soviet domination, but simply on a hard-headed calculation of the appalling risks involved to America, Europe and humanity in general. A note of caution, however, while there is considerable unease in sections of Russian society about an aggressive war against Ukrainians —whom Moscow after all claims to be a “brotherly people” — a war against American attempts to harm and subjugate Russia has much stronger public appeal. During his visit to Kiev this week, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin stated that the U.S. wants to see “Russia weakened to the degree that it can’t do the kinds of things that it has done in invading Ukraine.” On the same day, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov declared on Russian television that by supplying Ukraine with heavy weaponry, NATO is now “in essence” involved in a proxy war with Russia. Lavrov compared the situation in terms of nuclear danger to the Cuban missile crisis. We might do well to remember in this context how very close humanity came to nuclear annihilation in the fall of 1962. Two of Lloyd Austin’s remarks are especially worth examining in some detail. The first is that weakening Russia is necessary in order to prevent it repeating its invasion of Ukraine elsewhere. This statement is either meaningless, hypocritical, or both. There is no sign that Russia wants to or indeed could invade any other countries. As far as an attack on NATO is concerned, the miserable performance of the Russian military in Ukraine should have made absolutely clear that this is a fatuous chimera. Russia’s military presence in Armenia and Nagorno Karabakh is at the request of the Armenians themselves, and is indeed essential to protect them against Turkey and Azerbaijan. When it comes to combating Islamist extremism in Central Asia and elsewhere, Russia’s interests and those of the West are in fact aligned. Moscow’s original goal of overthrowing the Ukrainian government and subjugating the whole of Ukraine failed utterly. Given the losses that the Russian military has suffered, it seems highly unlikely that Russia can capture any more large Ukrainian cities, let alone conquer the whole of Ukraine. If however what is meant by victory is Ukrainian reconquest — with Western help — of all the areas lost to Russia and Russian-backed separatists since 2014, then this is a recipe for perpetual war, and monstrous losses and suffering for Ukrainians. The Ukrainian army has fought magnificently in defense of its urban areas, but attacking entrenched Russian defensive positions across open country would be a very different matter. Moreover, since Russia has annexed Crimea and the vast majority of the Russian people believe that this is Russian national territory, no future Russian government could possibly agree to give it up. A goal of complete Ukrainian victory therefore does indeed imply the destruction of the Russian state — something that Russia’s nuclear arsenal exists to prevent. There is however a fatal ambiguity involved in such statements. For if what they suggest is a U.S. commitment to help Ukraine to go on fighting until Ukraine has reconquered all of the territory taken by Russia since 2014, including Crimea, then this implies a permanent war with the destruction of the Russian state as its goal; for short of the collapse of the Russian state, no Russian government will surrender Crimea, and for geographical reasons, no Ukrainian victory on the ground can bring this about. Furthermore, while China has so far been very restrained in its support for Russia over Ukraine, Beijing could not possibly tolerate a U.S. strategy aimed at the destruction of the Russian state and the consequent complete isolation of China. A U.S. strategy of using the war in Ukraine to weaken Russia is also of course completely incompatible with the search for a ceasefire and even a provisional peace settlement. It would require Washington to oppose any such settlement and to keep the war going. And indeed, when in late March the Ukrainian government put forward a very reasonable set of peace proposals, the lack of public U.S. support for them was extremely striking. Apart from anything else, a Ukrainian treaty of neutrality (as proposed by President Zelensky) is an absolutely inescapable part of any settlement — but weakening Russia involves maintaining Ukraine as a de facto U.S. ally. U.S. strategy as indicated by Lloyd Austin would risk Washington becoming involved in backing Ukrainian nationalist hardliners against President Zelensky himself. How long would Russia accept such a Western strategy before it decided to escalate, in an effort to terrify the Europeans in particular into splitting from America and seeking a peace settlement? Even if direct war between Russia and the West could be avoided, how long would Western unity survive in these circumstances? So far, Russian attacks aimed at interdicting Western weapons supplies have been confined to Ukrainian territory. What would be the consequences if they are extended to Polish territory? What if Ukraine uses Western weaponry to launch attacks on Russia itself — as the British deputy defense minister has (with almost insane irresponsibility) suggested? During the Cold War, no U.S. president ever forgot that Washington and Moscow between them have the ability to destroy human civilization and even put an end to the human race. For this reason, first the Truman and then the Eisenhower administration adopted the strategy of “containing” the Soviet Union in Europe, and not trying to “roll back” Soviet power through armed support for anti-Soviet insurgencies in eastern Europe. Our leaders of today should remember this. They should also remember that where both sides engaged in proxy warfare outside Europe, the consequences were disastrous for themselves and still more disastrous for the wretched people on the ground who became the pawns of these great power agendas. Have we really learned nothing from history? |
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NATO’S EXPANSION (see earlier anthologies and NATO anthology #1)
https://jamesrichardbennett.blogspot.com/2022/05/omni-nato-anthology-1-may-20-2022.html)
EXPANSION CONTINUES TODAY
“NATO’s northward expansion risks turning Europe into a new powder keg.” Editor. Mronline.org (5-15-22).
"Finland must apply for NATO membership without delay," Finland's President Sauli Niinisto and Prime Minister Sanna Marin jointly announced on Thursday. A similar announcement will come from Sweden on Sunday.
Originally published: Global Times on May 13, 2022 by Global Times (more by Global Times) | (Posted May 14, 2022)
Movements, Strategy, WarAmericas, Europe, Finland, Russia, Sweden, Ukraine, United StatesNewswireNATO
“Finland must apply for NATO membership without delay,” Finland’s President Sauli Niinisto and Prime Minister Sanna Marin jointly announced on Thursday. A similar announcement will come from Sweden on Sunday.
US SUPPORT FOR THE UKRAINIAN GOVERNMENT
US BIPARTISANSHIP=US WAR PARTY=US MILITARISM
The Bizarre, Unanimous Democratic Support For The $40b War PackageBy Glenn Greenwald. PopularResistance.org (5-15-22). After Joe Biden announced his extraordinary request for $33 billion more for the war in Ukraine — on top of the $14 billion the U.S. has already spent just ten weeks into this war — congressional leaders of both parties immediately decided the amount was insufficient. They arbitrarily increased the amount by $7 billion to a total of $40 billion, then fast-tracked the bill for immediate approval. As we reported on Tuesday night, the House overwhelmingly voted to approve the bill by a vote of 388-57. All fifty-seven NO votes came from Republican House members. -more-
“The 16 Biggest Lies the U.S. Government Tells America About the Ukraine War.” By Richard Ochs. CovertAction Magazine. May 18, 2022.
In any war, the first casualty is truth. Here are the biggest lies to deconstruct when evaluating the considerations documented in the article:
1. “Ukraine is a democracy”
2. “National sovereignty is sacred”
3. “Putin is a war criminal”
4. “The world condemns Russia’s invasion”
5. “Putin has threatened to use nuclear weapons”
6. “With his back against the wall, Putin will resort to chemical warfare, just like in Syria”
7. “Putin may resort to biological warfare”
8. “Russia is targeting civilians in Ukraine”
9. “Russia will make false-flag attacks”
10. “If Putin prevails in Ukraine, he will attack NATO countries next”
11. “Russia is threatening nuclear power plants”
12. “Russia’s invasion threatens the whole world”
13. “The U.S. has a ‘free press’ while Russia’s news is controlled”
14. “Russia is planning cyber attacks on the U.S.”
15. “Russia is killing children.”
16. “Russia may use tactical nuclear weapons.”
[…]
The post The 16 Biggest Lies the U.S. Government Tells America About the Ukraine War appeared first on CovertAction Magazine.
PEACE #21 One of the most dispiriting aspects of hot war is its severing of so many of the peacemaking connections that gave hope for the future. Attempts to understand what had been thought so hateful are halted, and the nations are frozen by war. Walls that had been torn down are rebuilt. Bridges that had been built, or were under construction, are abandoned or even destroyed. During the First Cold War some people on both sides valued empathic pathways to peace. Two whom I admired most in my home state of Arkansas were Betty Bumpers, founder of Peace Links between US and USSR women, and J. William Fulbright, founder of the Fulbright Exchange Program. When the Soviet Union collapsed the faith of Bumpers and Fulbright in the power of direct people-to-people interaction to create peace continued in multifarious ways. In 2020 The Nation.Travels, for example, organized “The Changing Faces of Russia” tour to St. Petersburg and Moscow specifically to explore the inner workings we were not long before threatening with thousands of nuclear weapons. Many of these advances toward international peace are presently ditched for violence. But notall. Jeremy Kuzmarov. “Why Should Russia and the United States Be Enemies When They Have a 240-Year History of International Friendship and Support? By CovertAction Magazine. May 07, 2022 .
April 25 marked the 77th anniversary of the “Oath of the Elbe,” when U.S. and Russian soldiers embraced in a historic meeting on the Elbe River in Torgau, Germany, to mark the final end of the Third Reich and pledge mutual understanding, empathy and peaceful relations between the U.S. and Soviet Union
Despite today’s hysterical hostility towards Russia—fomented by U.S. corporate interests, implemented by opportunistic politicians, and enflamed by a complicit mass media—the Russian and American people have a long tradition of friendship and mutual support. Long forgotten is a history of U.S.-Russian cooperation that goes back to the era of Catherine the Great who supported the American revolution. Believing that the American colonists were right, Catherine refused a request by King George for 20,000 Russian troops to help crush the revolution. King George subsequently tried to bribe Catherine by offering an island of Menorca in the Mediterranean Sea in exchange for convincing France to exit the war and thus forcing the American rebels to fight alone. Again, however, the offer was turned down. During the Crimean War in the 1850s, when Russia was invaded by Britain, France and Turkey, President Franklin Pierce sent arms and munitions, as well as engineers and doctors, to assist the Russians. Russia returned the favor during the American Civil War (1861-1865), when Abraham Lincoln called for Russian help because Great Britain and France began supporting the Southern Confederacy in an attempt to destabilize and weaken the United States. The Russians sent the Imperial Navy’s flagship, Alexander Nevsky, along with four other vessels into New York harbor four days after the Union defeat at the Battle of Chickamauga as a warning for the British and French to back off—which they did.[1] Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles wrote in his diary afterwards: “God Bless the Russians,” while future Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., a Union army lieutenant, wrote a song about “the nation who was our friend when the world was our foe.”[2] […] The post Why Should Russia and the United States Be Enemies When They Have a 240-Year History of International Friendship and Support? appeared first on CovertAction Magazine. |
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CONTENTS #20, CONSEQUENCES OF WAR (10): CONTROL OF INFORMATION/CENSORSHIP. RESISTANCE: PEACEMAKING.
Patrick Lawrence. “The US Bubble of Pretend.”
George Paulson. Scott Ritter and President Poroshenko.
Glenn Greenwald. “The Censorship Campaign against Western Criticism of NATO….”
Evan Reif. War of Repression against “anyone who dares to speak against the Kyiv regime.”
Jeremy Kuzmarov. “Ukraine Hunts Down Traitors Helping Russia.”
Chris Hedges. “American Commissars.”
Caitlin Johnstone. “Pay Pal Blocks [Criticism] of U.S.”
Margaret Kimerley. “Obama Wants Censorship.”
Johnstone. “Being Anti-War Isn’t Easy.”
CPNN. Russian Nobel Laureate Attacked in Russia. Silencing Occurring Also in Russia.
PEACE (3)
Art Hobson. “Why must we make war? The frailties of Homo sapiens.”
UN’s Guterres
Ukraine Pacifist Movement
Medea Benjamin and Nicolas Davies. “This Is How the US Could Help Bring Peace to Ukraine”
ENDUS, NATO, RUSSIA, UKRAINE war,
Anthology #21, 5-29-22