Why is there still fighting in Ukraine?
Russians have been successful on the Bahkmut battlefield and elsewhere, but our rulers in the US and NATO are laughing as they manipulate this war.
While the Russians learn more about urban warfare, the West is fine-tuning its abilities to turn people against each other. If the Western powers were not throwing kindling (arms) on the fire, the war would not continue.
The Russians and Ukrainians are like cousins. They speak similar languages and are both adherents of the Orthodox religion that originated in the Eastern Roman Empire centuries ago. They were united in the Russian Empire of the Czars for hundreds of years and then were the leading components of the Soviet Union.
What has the United States done to enhance this remarkable coexistence of these two peoples? Unfortunately, our country has focused on tearing this unity apart.
Tons of dollars and embargoes brought the USSR to an end in 1991. Ever since then, the neo-conservatives (warmongers) in Washington think tanks and the Pentagon have worked tirelessly to reduce both countries to vassals states of the great Western Imperium.
From 1991 until today, billions of US dollars have been pumped into Ukraine to force a break with Russia. The US groomed various Ukrainians to take power and initiated one of its favorite tactics, a “color” revolution. The 2004 presidential election was won in a close race by a pro-Russian leader, Viktor Yanukovych. The Orange Revolution followed, with US support, it brought thousands to Kyiv to demand a rerun. In the second election, a pro-West politician, Viktor Yushchenko, won.
Victor Yanukovych won the presidency in 2010, in what was acknowledged as a fair election by international observers. His victory caused the US to redouble its efforts to steer Ukraine into NATO and the European Union. Under Secretary of State, Victoria Nuland, was given the assignment.
With the assistance of growing numbers of far-right and neo-nazis, the Euromaidan demonstrations of 2013-2014 quickly grew violent. As death threats mounted, Yanukovych sought asylum in Russia. Putin and other Russian leaders were alarmed by this development but declined to initiate military action.
However, the Russians of the Donbas (eastern Ukraine) weren’t so passive after the new coup government passed anti-Russian laws, including making it illegal to speak Russian in public. Elections held in both Peoples Republics (Donetsk and Luhansk) in the Donbas region resulted in large victories for the candidates for Chief Executive and legislature who advocated the establishment of the Peoples Republics.
Hostilities broke out in April 2014 between the central government in Kiev and the new Peoples Republics. They lasted from 2014 until Russia sent in troops in February 2022. Russia called its intervention a “special military operation.” There is evidence that Russia misjudged the tenacity of Ukraine’s leadership and the support it was promised by NATO.
The immediate cause of the fighting, in 2022, was the plan of the Ukrainians to launch a new offensive against the Peoples Republics, which would have led to many more soldiers and civilians being killed, and with neo-nazis in the forefront could have resulted in genocide.
In addition, Russia had said that they would not accept Ukraine becoming a member of NATO. That was a “line in the sand,” or an intrusion in Russia’s sphere of influence. Either way, it was clear that Russia would resort to military means to prevent it. With Ukraine in NATO, that would have meant that US troops would be on Russia’s border. Russians had memories of 1941 when German Nazi troops were on its border until they launched a full-scale invasion of the Soviet Union.
Yet, in the days leading up to Russia’s “special military operation,” no one in US leadership, not Biden, nor Secretary of State Antony Blinken would pick up their phone. It was clear then, that there would be no commitment about NATO from the US. It is still the apparent policy of the US that Ukraine should be part of NATO. As long as that continues, there will be war, and likely expanding war.
In fact, Russia had fallen into the Western trap which wanted to lure Russia into a costly war that could bankrupt it and overturn Putin’s leadership. None of that happened, thanks to active and passive support from China, India, Iran, and many countries in Asia, Africa, and South America.
The US and its allies, Germany and France, had fooled Russia into thinking they were sincere in wanting a settlement when they signed the 2015 Minsk Accords for peace in Ukraine.
As both Germany and France later admitted, it was a ruse to gain time to build up Ukraine’s military. Ever since then, the West has sidestepped proposals to stop the fighting. Just this week, Biden agreed to supply F-16 fighter jets and to provide training for Ukraine’s pilots. It seems that the US and NATO’s intent is to lengthen the fighting, not stop it.
The longer the fighting continues, the more soldiers and civilians will die. In what has been called the Bakhmut Meat Grinder, thousands of Ukrainian soldiers died in a hopeless cause, and the battle ended with a complete victory for Russia.
It appears that the West does not care who wins the battles as long as Russia is losing soldiers and military equipment. Ironically, Russia’s regular military in Bakhmut went mostly unscathed as the heavy fighting was conducted by the mercenary Wagner Group, made up of prisoners and others, who are not Russian soldiers.
How can the fighting be stopped? There is a way for ordinary people to make it happen. That is, to remove Biden from office. Make Ukraine his Waterloo. It has to be done because he has aligned himself with the warmongers in Washinton who want war more than anything.
There is one candidate, Robert Kennedy, who has announced he’s running for the 2024 Presidential election, and that he is adamantly advocating for an end to the fighting. Hopefully, more candidates will announce who have an anti-war platform, and Biden will be forced to debate them. All the action shouldn’t be just in the Democratic Party. Strong third-party candidates can have a profound impact on the election and put an end to the fighting.
Americans are tired of both Biden and Trump. Strong anti-war candidates can sweep them both away.
WAR
by Bob Marley
Until the philosophy which hold one race
Superior and another Inferior
Is finally
And permanently
Discredited
And abandoned
Everywhere is war
Me say war
That until there are no longer
First-class and second-class citizens of any nation
Until the colour of a man’s skin
Is of no more significance than the colour of his eyes
Me say war
That until the basic human rights
Are equally guaranteed to all
Without regard to race
Dis a war
That until that day
The dream of lasting peace
World citizenship
Rule of international morality
Will remain in but a fleeting illusion to be pursued
But never attained
Now everywhere is war
War. . .