In war, truth is the first casualty
This quote was coined by Aeschylus, the Greek poet and dramatist nearly 2,500 years ago. How quickly we forget.
What is wrong with the peanut brains in the US, Ukraine and the Russian Federation that they wouldn’t consider all the other casualties that ensue from violent acts of war. They are acting like boys on a school playground who are trying to settle some perceived score by beating the hell out of their opponents.
Twenty-five hundred years after Aeschylus we still don’t have a mechanism requiring the settling of disputes by diplomacy. Biden’s refusal to meet with Putin almost guaranteed that the Russians would see no other way to settle their grievances than direct intervention.
Chronology of a War Foretold
Some elements of the current dispute date back to World War II. In that war, the Soviet Union (Russia, et.al.) was the main protagonist of the German Nazi regime. As a result, 20 to 27 million Russians died defending their country, and the world, against this rampant evil. The United States lost 419,000.
The Nazi regime was utterly destroyed, we thought. No other country has suffered blatant control by the fascists, until the Maidan coup in The Ukraine in 2013. The coup violently overthrew the legally elected president, Victor Yanukovich, and installed a new fascist regime.
The Maidan uprising was not spontaneous, but was engineered by the U.S. government in the person of Victoria Nuland. She is currently Under Secretary for Political Affairs in the Biden regime. At the time of the coup, she was Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs (Sept. 2013-January 2017) under President Obama. Her contribution to the coup was overseeing the distribution of $5 billion to dissidents and business leaders to get them to buy into the coup.
The Neo-Nazi entourage, which still calls the tune for elected officials, including the president, proceeded to reduce the sizable Russian, and Russian-speaking population to second-class citizens. When the predominately working class population of the industrial east Dombas area objected, they faced an assault by the Nazi legions. They took up arms and defended their homes. A short time later, they formed the twin Peoples Republics of Donetsk and Luhansk.
That was eight years ago, and there has been a trench war between the two sides ever since. According to CNN, more than 14,000 soldiers and civilians have died in that war. Lately, the Ukrainian side has stepped up their assault with hot new weapons they have been gifted with by the US and NATO. Yet, the US media has paid little attention because Russia wasn’t involved.
Now that Russia has recognized the two new republics, and sworn to denazify Ukraine, truth has taken a holiday. Why didn’t the US or NATO denazify Ukraine as a price for their support? Could it be that there is support among the elite in our country for certain Nazi tactics, such as smashing the working class and their unions?
When a peaceful protest broke out in Ottawa by truck drivers, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, following the strenuous urging of Biden, instituted draconian measures against the truckers that were worthy of a Nazi regime including freezing the bank accounts of protesters and contributors, alike.
Putin, and his government, saw the military intervention on the side of the Russian residents of eastern Ukraine as his best move. But for supporters of free speech and free assembly in this country, it may be the worst thing that could have happened. Will free speech and freedom of assembly survive these trying times? We may find out when convoys of trucks, already on their way, arrive in DC.
Isn’t Truth Gained by Listening to Many Viewpoints?
With alternative sites like Breaking Points and Democracy Now falling in line behind the US neocons, it doesn’t look good for free speech. Today, I’ve been unable to establish a link with rt.com (Russia Today). Coincidence? I think not. In addition, Iran’s English language news site, PressTV, was seized by the FBI months ago, with nary a peep from our democratic leaders.
So far, Jimmy Dore, the Greyzone, and Kim Iversen, a regular on The Hill’s Rising, seem supportive of sharing alternative ideas and news. It is amazing how many progressive commentators on You Tube have absolved their country of any mischief in fomenting the current situation.
NATO’s encroachment to the border of Russia can be laid at the US’ doorstep, as can the eight year war of attrition in east Ukraine. However, the powers that be, the Main Stream Media, and assorted youtubers seem intent on restricting us from accessing any conflicting international news that is not approved for mass media distribution.
Many social media “journalists” are remaining silent on the pervasive Neo-nazi influence in The Ukraine, or else, claiming it’s a hoax. Not so. The Ukraine’s military establishment where Dmytro Yarosh was appointed in 2015 as Advisor to the Chief of the Ukraine General staff, Colonel-General Victor Muzhenko. Yarosh is none other that the Leader (Fuhrer) of the Right Sector, one of the most powerful Neo-nazi group in The Ukraine. This is one of many examples of the power of the new Hitlerites.
Meanwhile, not all countries are buying into the US condemnation and sanctions against Russia. Many world leaders still remember Viet Nam, Panama, Grenada, Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, and Syria, all invaded by our country. So far, China, India, Iran, Brazil and others seem as if they will take Russia’s side, while many other countries will flock to the Empire. A divided world, could it be grounds for World War III? Just what we need when we are so close to forming a peaceful world community.
_______________________________
Prometheus Amid Hurricane And Earthquake:
(excerpt from Aeschylus)
Earth is rocking in space!
And the thunders crash up with a roar upon roar,
And the eddying lightnings flash fire in my face,
And the whirlwinds are whirling the dust round and round--
And the blasts of the winds universal leap free
And blow each other upon each, with a passion of sound,
And æther goes mingling in storm with the sea!
Such a curse on my head, in a manifest dread,
From the hand of your Zeus has been hurtled along!
O my mother's fair glory! O Æther, enringing
All eyes with the sweet common light of thy bringing,
Dost see how I suffer this wrong?
"Biden’s refusal to meet with Putin almost guaranteed that the Russians would see no other way to settle their grievances than direct intervention."
So, you blame Biden for the carnage Putin is creating in Ukraine? Wake up, and stop carrying Putin's propaganda. This was never about NATO "expansion," It was always about Putin's longing for a new Russian empire.
https://claysbeach.blogspot.com/2022/03/vlad-on-vlad-how-putins-views-on-lenin.html
Vladimir Putin's article ”On the Historical Unity of Russians and Ukrainians“ of 12 July 2021 may be the best place to start to understand what is motivating his current invasion and attempt to conquer Ukraine. Early military plans and preparations for this invasion were probably already underway when he penned it; this war was clearly many months in the making.
It's a massive piece on his problems with Ukraine, and curiously in this 6,979-word tome, NATO doesn't even come up 'til word 6,184. Clearly it wasn't top of mind. It's a long history of mother Russia, and how all this, meaning Ukraine, the Baltic republics, parts of modern Poland, Austria, etc. were once hers, and how it was all taken away by the western imperialists, or given away by the Bolsheviks—Vladimir Lenin's Communist Party. Its main theme, expressed clearly in the first paragraph is “that Russians and Ukrainians were one people – a single whole.”
But Putin doesn't just seek a reunification of Russia and Ukraine, as in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, he longs for what he calls “Ancient Rus.” He tells us:
Russians, Ukrainians, and Belarusians are all descendants of Ancient Rus, which was the largest state in Europe. Slavic and other tribes across the vast territory – from Ladoga, Novgorod, and Pskov to Kiev and Chernigov – were bound together by one language (which we now refer to as Old Russian), economic ties, the rule of the princes of the Rurik dynasty, and – after the baptism of Rus – the Orthodox faith.
He tells us that “both the nobility and the common people perceived Rus as a common territory, as their homeland.” He recalls the “tradition of ancient Russian statehood.” How “Moscow princes...cast off the foreign yoke and began gathering the Russian lands.” He tells us how, in 1654 “dozens of cities, including Kiev...swore allegiance to the Russian tsar,” and after 1686 “The Russian state incorporated the city of Kiev and the lands on the left bank of the Dnieper River, including Poltava region, Chernigov region, and Zaporozhye.” He claims “the word ”Ukrainian“, judging by archival documents, originally referred to frontier guards who protected the external borders.”
I don't know enough Russian history to confirm or dispute Putin's telling of it, but his main point comes through clear enough—that the Russian and Ukrainian people represent one indivisible whole, and that Ukrainian lands have always been a part of Russia.
...
Then he gets back to the problem of NATO expansion, and his often-repeated story that:
In 1990, when German unification was discussed, the United States promised the Soviet leadership that NATO jurisdiction or military presence will not expand one inch to the east and that the unification of Germany will not lead to the spread of NATO's military organisation to the east. This is a quote.
Many others have disputed Putin's recollection of what was said, and Putin cites no treaty or official document. Putin just says “They issued lots of verbal assurances.” Well, Mr. Diplomat, Mr. KGB, you didn't get it in writing?
Timothy Snyder spoke about this on Democracy Now, Monday:
So, when Germany was unified, the Americans and the Soviets did make an arrangement about West Germany and East Germany. That arrangement, however, did not foresee and had nothing to do with the subsequent collapse of the Soviet Union. We’re talking about something that happened in 1990. In 1991, to everyone’s surprise, the Soviet Union no longer existed. And after that point, it’s very important to remember that the world isn’t just about Washington and Moscow. It’s also about other sovereign states and other peoples, who can express their desires and have their own foreign policies.
So, when we speak of NATO enlargement, I mean, that’s a bit of a misnomer. NATO was not there to enlarge. There wasn’t much willingness on the part of Western Europe or the U.S. to enlarge. It was the East Europeans themselves who pushed the process forward. I mean, we can decide that they didn’t understand their own national interests, but that’s how the process unfolded. It came from the East Europeans. And there was never an understanding between the United States and Russia after 1991 that this wasn’t going to happen.
So much for the so-called broken promise about NATO expansion.
Thank you for this education Left Coast.