OMNI
US-NATO-UKRAINE-RUSSIA WAR ANTHOLOGY #27
November 26, 2022
Compiled by Dick Bennett for a Culture of Peace, Justice, and Ecology
https://Omnicenter.org/donate/
CONTENTS OF US-NATO-UKRAINE-RUSSIA WAR ANTHOLOGY #27 (9 articles, one book)
Medea Benjamin and Nicolas J.S. Davies. War In Ukraine: Making Sense of a Senseless Conflict.
CONSEQUENCES OF WAR
CENSORSHIP
Caitlin A. Johnstone. “PayPal blocks multiple alternative media figures critical of U.S. empire narratives.”
“100 million Russian books in line for ban.”
ATROCITIES
Art Hobson on Atrocities, Killing Civilians.
“UN slams Ukrainian attack on Donetsk maternity hospital.”
Eva Bartlett. “Western media and politicians prefer to ignore the truth….”
Jeremy Kuzmarov. Ukrainian Shelling of Donetsk.
Patrick Buchanan. “The Real Purpose of the Ukraine War for the US and Ukraine Is to Weaken Russia.”
Global Consequences of the War, several essays
Peoples Dispatch. “The Real Path to Peace.”
Contents Ukraine War #26
TEXTSUKRAINE WAR #27
War In Ukraine: Making Sense of a Senseless Conflict. by Medea Benjamin and Nicolas J.S. Davies (2022).
My copy of this book bristles with underlines, asterisks, arrows, cross-references, and exclamation points. What to cite in a few words to illustrate the book’s density and importance? For example, p. 80 offers a concise summary and evaluation of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Russia illegally invaded Ukraine on several fronts. But the preceding 80 pp. have unfolded how complex is this succinct, factual conclusion.
To understand fully one needs to be aware of US rejection of Putin’s peace proposals, nuclear NATO’s eastward expansion, US and NATO’s nuclear “modernization,” US scrapping arms control treaties, US dismissal of Russia’s concerns, US failure to support the Minsk II agreement, Zelensky’s refusal to negotiate with the “terrorists” in Donbas, the huge escalation of artillery violations by Ukraine in the days preceding the invasion, and more. And those complications are presented, for a short book, in detail from public documents. Among them, Putin on p. 80 cites official US policy regarding the possibility of preemptive nuclear strikes against Russia, and Ukraine the “bridgehead for such a strike.”
Yes, despite repeated US official and US mainstream media denial, the invasion was provoked, Russia was threatened, as the remainder of the book further confirms.
The first half of the book, Intro. and chapters 1-3, are narrative, the second half topical. The Introduction’s title is “Collision Course.” Chapter 1: “How 2014 Set the Stage for War.” Chapter 2: “The Success and Failure of the Minsk II Peace Plan.” Chapter 3: “The Russian Invasion of Ukraine” (including p. 80). And the remainder of the book elaborates: Chapter 4: “NATO Myth and Reality.” Chapter 5: “Informaton Warfare.” Chapter 6: ‘The Consequences of Western Sanctions on Russia.” Chapter 7: “Flirting with Nuclear War.” Conclusion: “How on Earth Will this End?”
We can’t predict that, but we can and must join others in demanding a ceasefire and armistice. --Dick
CONSEQUENCES OF THE WAR: UKRAINIAN CURTAILMENT OF CIVIL LIBERTIES AND ATROCITIES
UKRAINIAN CENSORSHIP
Caitlin A. Johnstone. “PayPal blocks multiple alternative media figures critical of U.S. empire narratives.” Mronline.org (5-6-22).
In what appears to be yet another escalation in Silicon Valley’s redoubled efforts to quash dissident voices since the beginning of the Ukraine war, PayPal has just blocked the accounts of multiple alternative media voices who’ve been speaking critically against official U.S. empire narratives.
Ukrainian Censorship of Russian Books
“100 million Russian books in line for ban.”
Editor. Mr.online.org (6-10-22)
Oleksandra Koval, director of the Ukrainian Book Institute (part of the Ukrainian Ministry of Culture), has claimed that they will begin working towards withdrawing over 100 million so-called ‘propaganda’ books from public libraries in Ukraine.
RUSSIAN ATROCITIES? YES.
US-NATO-UKRAINIAN FORCES KILLING CIVILIANS?
War is always an atrocity: Let's consider U.S. bombing.”
Art Hobson, ahobson@uark.edu. NWADG, 1 November 2022.
When existential threats cause nations to take up arms, all available means are employed to achieve victory. Propaganda and hypocrisy are part of the arsenal. Thus, U.S. reporting on the Ukraine War inevitably reeks of hypocrisy.
The "available means" have always included burning the enemy's towns, raping its women, and pillaging its homes. Such atrocities against civilians can devastate the enemy's morale, destroy its ability to fight, and satisfy the victor's righteous anger.
As humankind "advanced" from arrows and swords to rifles and cannons, civilian suffering became more widespread. For example, America's Civil War killed an estimated 750,000, of whom 50,000 were civilians.
The invention of dynamite and airplanes around 1900 made warfare far more deadly. WW1 killed about 20 million, including 10 million civilians. WW2 killed 70-85 million, 3 percent of all humans on the planet, including 50-55 million civilians.
It's a plus that civilian wartime deaths are today largely viewed as atrocities. But paradoxically, this very concern results in the use of civilian deaths as evidence of the cruelty of one's adversary, heightening the bitterness and anger on all sides. In fact, it is war itself--the purposeful and organized slaughter of large numbers of our own species--that is the ultimate atrocity. Rather than banishing any particular nation, war must be banished if we are to survive.
America, whose military budget equals that of the next 9 countries combined, is by far the most militarily powerful nation the world has ever seen. If humankind is ever to understand the atrocious nature of all wars, it is imperative that we Americans understand the consequences of our own actions. Here is part of the record.
During WW2 in the Pacific Theater, American air raids attacked 67 Japanese cities, burning down 25 to 75 percent of each. Tokyo was 51 percent destroyed, including 16 square miles in the city's center where many died in the ensuing firestorm. Japanese cities, where civilian houses were made of wood and paper, were especially vulnerable to U.S. incendiary bombs. Repeated attacks focused on the large cities of Tokyo, Nagoya, Osaka, and Kobe. And of course U.S. nuclear bombs destroyed the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, raising firestorms and killing about 200,000, largely civilians. All of these bombings were clearly designed to terrorize civilians and force Japan's surrender. They were quite successful in this task.
There was a similar story in the European Theater. Allied (mostly U.S. and U.K.) bombing killed between 400,000 and 600,000 German civilians, while 7.5 million German civilians were rendered homeless. Air raids against Hamburg and Dresden raised firestorms., and Berlin was bombed into rubble.
During the Korean War, U.S. bombing destroyed nearly all North Korea's cities, including 85 percent of its buildings. Total North Korean civilian casualties (dead, injured, missing) were 1.5 million. U.S. bombs destroyed five hydroelectric and irrigation dams, resulting in flooding and starvation.
The bombing campaigns during the U.S. invasion of Vietnam constituted the longest and heaviest aerial bombardment in history. We dropped more than three times as much explosive energy on that small nation as we dropped in all theaters of WW2. A careful study calculated between 0.8 million and 1.1 million deaths on all sides during the war, of which 30,000 to 182,000 were estimated to be North Vietnamese civilians killed in U.S. bombings.
Finally, an estimated 387,000 civilians have died violent deaths as a direct result of the U.S. post-9/11 wars on Iraq and Afghanistan.
Thus, bombing civilians has been standard intentional practice for America since at least 1941. Set against this backdrop, Russian-caused civilian wartime deaths in Ukraine are deplorable but hundreds of times less numerous. The United Nations, which carefully studies civilian casualties, provides an estimate of about 6,000 civilian deaths through October. For comparison, the number of military deaths in Ukraine appears to be around 20,000 on each side. The numbers of Russian-killed civilians in the present Ukraine War is at least hundreds of times smaller than the number of U.S.-killed civilians killed during our wars.
Has Russia killed many civilians in Ukraine? Yes. Was some of this intentionally directed at civilians? Yes. Is this an atrocity? Yes. But it pales beside past U.S. atrocities.
Be careful before you point your finger, and be sure to first look into the mirror. If you wish to help the human race rather than just thoughtlessly letting off steam, remember that the real enemy is neither President Putin nor Russia, nor is it America. The real enemy is war itself. The real solution is war prevention.
Art Hobson is professor emeritus of physics at the University of Arkansas. He worked at the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute and co-authored "The Future of Land-Based Strategic Missiles" (Am. Inst. of Physics, 1989). For references to this column email him at ahobson@uark.edu.
“UN slams Ukrainian attack on Donetsk maternity hospital.”
Editor. Mronline.org (6-19-22).
The United Nations called the shelling of the maternity hospital in Donetsk a breach of humanitarian law.
“Western media and politicians prefer to ignore the truth about civilians killed in Donetsk shelling.” Eva Bartlett. Mronline.org (6-19-22).
Following intense Ukrainian shelling of Donetsk on June 13, some Western media sources, in tandem with outlets in Kiev, unsurprisingly claimed that the attack–which killed at least five civilians and struck a busy maternity hospital–was perpetrated by Russian forces.
“Ukrainian strike on Donetsk Market was a terrorist act.”
Eva Bartlett. When artillery hit a busy public space in Donetsk, it brought flashbacks of attacks in Gaza and Syria.
The Ukrainian Army is murdering the Donbass children with the help and approval of the West. Editor. Mronline.org (7-13-22).
In two days, the Ukrainian army’s terror shelling of residential areas in the DPR (Donetsk People’s Republic), some of which was carried out with weapons supplied by the West, has killed four children in the Donbass.
Sonja Van den Ende. Ten-Year-Old Girl Among Those Killed with Western Weapons in Ukrainian Shelling of Donetsk. By Jeremy Kuzmarov on Jul 11, 2022 02:05 am.
Among “unworthy victims” ignored by western media.
In the first week of July, Ukrainian army bombing of the Donetsk People’s Republic—carried out with western supplied weapons—resulted in the death of four children.
One of those kids was a 10-year-old girl, Veronica Sergeevna Badina, who was killed by a standard NATO 155 millimeter shell fired by the Ukrainian army against central Donetsk.
According to Veronica’s grandfather and mother, Veronica went outside of her grandmother’s house which she was visiting to get some fresh air and talk with a boy her age.
She then decided to run home to brush her hair, but was torn into three pieces by the 155 millimeter shell, which was fired by a French Caesar self-propelled gun.
Veronica was a vivacious ten-year-old who loved animals and was a sports dancer. She was only two when the war in Eastern Ukraine broke out, so was among the generations of kids who grew up with its horrors.
For several years Veronica suffered from anemia, from which she recovered last year thanks to the help of Dr Lisa’s foundation—only to be cut down by the Ukrainian army.
The 155 millimeter shell is manufactured by the British based BAE systems, whose shares have reached an all-time high since the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February.
During the 2020 U.S. election campaign, the U.S. division of BAE Systems donated $569,202 to Democratic Party candidates, and $452,594 to Republicans, according to opensecrets.org Joe Biden received $102,591 compared to $94,966 for Donald Trump.
BAE Systems also has spent over $5 million on lobbying in the U.S. over the last two years. Recipients of BAE’s largesse include such anti-Russia hawks as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA—$7,373); Steny Hoyer (D-MD—$10,000), Chuck Schumer (D-NY—$5,605); Liz Cheney (R-WY—$3,259 and another $5,500 in 2022); Jamie Raskin (D-MD—$4,089); Adam Schiff (D-CA—$8,036); Mitch McConnell (R-KY—$9, 289), James Inhofe (R-OK-$13,300) and Lindsey Graham (R-SC-$11,383), who all voted in favor of more than $6.92 blilion in U.S. military assistance to Ukraine since the war started. […]
The post Ten-Year-Old Girl Among Those Killed with Western Weapons in Ukrainian Shelling of Donetsk appeared first on CovertAction Magazine.
PURPOSE OF WAR FOR US AND NATO?
WEAKEN RUSSIA
THE REAL PURPOSE OF THE UKRAINE WAR FOR THE US AND NATO IS TO WEAKEN RUSSIA
“Will Putin Submit to US-Imposed 'Weakening'?” By Patrick J. Buchanan. April 29, 2022.
"Once war is forced upon us, there is no alternative than to apply every available means to bring it to a swift end. War's very object is victory — not prolonged indecision." So said Gen. Douglas MacArthur in his April 1951 address to Congress after being fired by President Harry Truman as commander in chief in the Korean War.
And what is now America's goal with our massive infusion into the Ukraine war of new and heavier NATO weapons? Said Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin on his return from a Sunday meeting in Kyiv with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy: The United States wants "to see Russia weakened to the point where it can't do things like invade Ukraine." "Russia," said Austin, has "already lost a lot of military capability and a lot of its troops ... and we want to see them not have the capability to very quickly reproduce that capability."
Thus, the new, or newly revealed, goal of U.S. policy in Ukraine is not just the defeat and retreat of the invading Russian army but the crippling of Russia as a world power. The sanctions imposed on Russia and the advanced weapons we are shipping into Ukraine are not only to enable the country to preserve its independence and territorial integrity but also to inflict irreversible damage on Mother Russia. MORE
Will Putin Submit to US-Imposed "Weakening'?, by Pat ...
Pat Buchanan Columns | TribLIVE.com
Pat Buchanan: Putin to Biden — Finlandize Ukraine, or we will. Either the U.S. and NATO provide us with “legal guarantees” that Ukraine will never join NATO ...
“Russians Welcomed as Liberators in Many Eastern Ukrainian Cities Contrary to Western Media Depictions.” By Sonja Van den Ende. CovertAction Magazine. Aug 10, 2022 05:57 pm. People of liberated territories likely to vote in favor of joining Russia in forthcoming referenda—just like Crimeans did in 2014. [Her prophecy happened.]
Activists reject escalation in Ukraine, even when it’s unpopular
Peoples Dispatch. Mronline.org (11-24-22).
An event hosted at New York City’s People’s Forum featured seven activists who spoke out against U.S. and NATO involvement in the war in Ukraine and called for negotiations and peace.
By Peoples Dispatch (Posted Nov 23, 2022)
Originally published: Peoples Dispatch on November 21, 2022 (more by Peoples Dispatch) |
Protest, WarAmericas, Europe, Russia, Ukraine, United StatesNewswire
On November 19, 300 activists, organizers, and working people gathered in New York City to listen to seven anti-war leaders speak out against U.S. and NATO involvement in the war in Ukraine. The event hosted at the Peoples Forum was titled “The Real Path to Peace in Ukraine,”and featured philosopher Noam Chomsky, historian Vijay Prashad, People’s Forum executive directors Manolo De Los Santos and Claudia De La Cruz, Brian Becker of the Act Now to Stop War and End Racism (ANSWER) Coalition, Eugene Puryear of Breakthrough News, former U.S. presidential candidate for the Green Party, Jill Stein, and CODEPINK .
In Saturday’s event, speakers specifically underlined the need for negotiations to end the war in Ukraine and not escalation of violent conflict. Many pointed out that this war, like many before it, works directly against the interests of working people across the globe. Since the start of the war in Ukraine, the administration of U.S. President Joe Biden has sent over $80 billion to Ukraine in military and non-military aid.
Medea Benjamin of CODEPINK, highlighted:
People who are working for things like healthcare for all in the United States, a free college education, all of those people have to recognize that as we are going to spend over $100 billion in less than a year on this war, we must make people understand that that money could be going for needs at home.
Despite this, voters in both the Democratic and Republican parties overwhelmingly support sending weapons to Ukraine. However, a majority in the U.S. is becoming concerned with the growing possibility of direct confrontation between two nuclear powers.
Who benefits from this war?
In the very outset of the war, the stocks of the top war manufacturers such as Lockheed Martin skyrocketed. An October 2 headline in Barron’s read,
Russia’s War on Ukraine Is Escalating. It’s Time to Buy Defense Stocks.
“We see very clearly that the only group of people who benefit from this war—the only people who benefit from there not being peace negotiations—are the elites in Washington,” said De Los Santos.
We will not allow them to sacrifice the planet for their new war of greed!De La Cruz highlighted that the people of the U.S. have a responsibility to stand against the war as it is their tax money that is funding the war. “We have a responsibility to say, shut down NATO, shut down AFRICOM, and shut down every instrument of war that [the U.S. has] across the globe,” said De La Cruz.
Not in our name!
The struggle for peace
While De La Cruz focused on collective responsibility in winning peace, others highlighted the enormous power that average working people have in ending the war. Stein quoted author Alice Walker when she said, “the most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don’t have any.” Eugene Puryear, who brought up the rich history of fightback against slavery, said “People power has defeated every terrible institution that you can imagine.”
ANSWER Coalition director Brian Becker touched upon the historic role of the U.S. anti-war movement during struggles in the cases of past wars, such as Vietnam. “Whenever people have organized and fought for and mobilized for peace, they draw the wrath of the warmakers,” Becker said. It doesn’t matter if their slogans are soft or mild, whether they talk about negotiations or overturning capitalism, just mobilizing the people against war is a great danger to the warmakers, because if the people finally say no to war, the wars end. The ruling class can’t do the wars without the people.
Between escalation and negotiation
The specter of nuclear war also hangs in the horizon as two nuclear superpowers inch closer and closer to direct conflict. This is especially true considering that when a missile hit Poland on November 15, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky immediately jumped to blame Russia. “Hitting NATO territory with missiles…This is a Russian missile attack on collective security! This is a really significant escalation. Action is needed,” Zelensky urged on the same day. This was a potentially catastrophic language, as Article 5 of NATO states that “an armed attack against one or more of [the members] in Europe or North America shall be considered an attack against them all.” Zelensky was advocating for a war between nuclear powers. The next day the truth came out: the missile was launched by accident by Ukrainian forces.
Despite the possibility of a world-ending nuclear war, NATO and the U.S. steadfastly refuse to move towards peace. “The central matter is the ghastly gamble,” said Chomsky. The willingness to gamble that Russia will accept defeat and not react in the manner of the Western warrior states. “The international committee of the Red Cross said that there would be a catastrophic humanitarian crisis from even a limited nuclear war, whatever that is,” said Eugene Puryear. Nuclear winter. Crops destroyed. Water poisoned…talk about sowing salt in the soil, this is a million times worse than that. MORE click on title
Peoples Dispatch, formerly The Dawn News, is an international media organization with the mission of bringing to you voices from people’s movements and organizations across the globe. Since its establishment three years ago, it has sought to ensure that the coverage of news from around the world is not restricted to the rhetoric of politicians and the fortunes of big companies but encompasses the richness and diversity of mobilizations from around the world. Peoples Dispatch also seeks to bring to you breaking news from a perspective widely different from that of the mainstream media. We invite people’s movements and political organizations everywhere to send us information and news from their countries. The information can be in Spanish, Portuguese, English or Hindi.
THE GLOBAL CONSEQUENCES OF THE WAR
Economic Repercussions Around the World
“Cost of the Ukraine War felt in Africa, Global South.
Editor. Mronline.org (5-6-22).
While international news headlines remain largely focused on the war in Ukraine, little attention is given to the horrific consequences of the war which are felt in many regions around the world. Even when these repercussions are discussed, disproportionate coverage is allocated to European countries, like Germany and Austria, due to their heavy reliance on Russian energy sources.
UNEXPLODED BOMBS AND OTHER ABANDONED ORDNANCE
Bomb experts from the Mines Advisory Group (MAG) explode a cluster bomb after finding it in the southern Lebanese village of Sultaniyeh, 30 August 2006. MAG is a non-governmental organization that specializes in clearing unexploded bombs, cluster munitions, landmines and other abandoned ordnance, currently on mission in southern Lebanon. https://www.commondreams.org/views/2022/03/05/us-wont-ban-same-lethal-weapons-its-criticizing-russia-using Check this out for a better annotation
NUCLEAR RISK
“Why security assurances are losing their clout as a nonproliferation tool” BAS (7-6-22). The invasion of Ukraine illustrates why security guarantees may be less helpful in restraining nuclear proliferation now than ever before, says national security expert Ariel E. Levite. Read more. Check this out re pro or con Uk or Russia
NUCLEAR RISK
“Has the Russia-Ukraine war blown up the global nuclear order?” BAS (7-6-22).
The war in Ukraine has reignited fear of the possibility of nuclear war and decimated cooperation efforts on arms control. Restoring the global nuclear order will require bringing Russia once again to the negotiating table, says Bulletineditorial fellow Lauren Sukin. Read more.
WORLD HUNGER
Sean Howard, "War's Far-Reaching Effects," Cape Breton Spectator.
"The NATO-Ukraine-Russia war is being waged far from the Global South. But in its direst global humanitarian consequences it is a European earthquake poised to trigger cascades of hunger and deprivation, certain to kill many more people in the South than the North."
Sisi says “let them eat leaves” as food crisis sharpens class lines in Egypt. Editor. Mronline.org (7-16-22).
The war in Ukraine, rising oil prices and spiralling global inflation have fuelled food scarcity and surges in the price of basic goods in Egypt. Most worrying among the goods affected is bread, which makes up almost 40 percent of the average Egyptian’s diet.
Published Russia Ukraine Articles and Books Count : Anthologies #1-24, 2014-2022:
Total number of entries: 424 as of 8-1-22 .
CONTENTS OF US/NATO/UKRAINE/RUSSIA WAR #26 October 18, 2022 (1 book and 15 essays). https://jamesrichardbennett.blogspot.com/2022/10/omni-us-nato-ukraine-russia-war.html
Causes
Dan Kovalik. The Plot to Scapegoat Russia: How the CIA and the Deep State Have Conspired to Vilify Putin.
Laurence H. Shoup. “Giving War a Chance. Council on
Foreign Relations and Preparing for World War.”
Cook. Hollywood.
Provocations.
Keeping the War Going
Weiss. Ukraine v. International Law
Kuzmarov. US Involvement.
Knight. “Credibility Gulch.”
Global War: Two Reports on Pelosi’s Vist to Taiwan
Consequences
de Sousa Santos. An Overview
Stopping the War, Making Peace
Tulsi Gabbard leaves the Democratic War Party.
Marcy Winograd and Media Benjamin report US history of nuclear extortion and call for
stopping the Ukraine War as JFK did the Cuban Missile Crisis.
Brad Wolf on the corrupting influence war and profits have on everything, including the press.
Chay Bowes. “War Propaganda About Ukraine. . . . .”
Sonja van den Ende. “Russians welcomed as liberators in many Eastern Ukrainian cities….”
John Parker. Western War, Western Media.
Anthology #25 Table of Contents