Ukraine in the Cross Hairs? (FREE)
With Steve Bannon now out of the White House, will the generals surrounding Donald Trump push the president into a confrontation with Russia over Ukraine? According to Military.com, “Defense Secretary Jim Mattis is set to travel to Ukraine, becoming the first U.S. defense secretary to visit the country since Robert Gates, the Pentagon announced Friday.
“Mattis will meet with Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and Defense Minister Stepan Poltorak on Aug. 24, Ukraine's independence day.
“ ‘During these engagements, the secretary will reassure our Ukrainian partners that the U.S. remains firmly committed to the goal of restoring Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, as well as strengthening the strategic defense partnership between our two countries,’ the Defense Department said.”
The article did not report that Poroshenko is a dictator who, at the behest of President Obama, in 2014 overthrew the democratically elected government of President Viktor Yanukovych in what Statfor called “the most blatant coup in history.”
According to a report by Global Research, “The Cabinet is not only integrated by the Svoboda and Right Sector (not to mention former members of defunct fascist UNA-UNSO), the two main Neo-Nazi entities have been entrusted with key positions which grant them de facto control over the Armed Forces, Police, Justice and National Security.”
So, while America is in a tizzy over neo-Nazis marching in Charlottesville, our government, beginning with Obama and his impeccable liberal, anti-racist credentials, has supported an actual neo-Nazi-influenced government in Kiev.
Bannon was the main voice, perhaps the only remaining one in the inner circle until his firing, for President Trump’s America First campaign promise. Perhaps Trump will continue on that path on his own, but the Mattis trip to Ukraine comes across like a spoiled bowl of borsht.
Trump pledged in his Inaugural Address, just seven months ago, “From this moment on, it’s going to be America First. Every decision on trade, on taxes, on immigration, on foreign affairs, will be made to benefit American workers and American families.”
How does propping up a Right Sector-influenced neo-Nazi regime in Kiev advance America First?
Notice also what the DoD announcement said, “[T]hat the U.S. remains firmly committed to the goal of restoring Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.” That includes two areas: Crimea and the Donbass region of Eastern Ukraine.
The Russians never will give up Crimea, which is 70% Russian. Crimean was part of Russia from the time of Catharine the Great until Soviet Dictator Nikita Khrushchev “gave” the Crimean Oblast to Ukraine in 1954 during a drunken spree. It didn’t seem to matter then because Ukraine and Russia were enslaved together in the USSR. And the “gift” ironically was part of a celebration of Russia taking over Ukraine 300 years earlier.
The Russians took Crimea back during the 2014 coup to make sure their Crimean naval bases didn’t fall under the control of NATO after a possible inclusion of Ukraine in the treaty organization. Speaking of which, wasn’t NATO supposed to dissolve once there was no more Soviet Union? (Answer: Yes, and when General of the Armies Dwight D. Eisenhower took command of NATO in 1951, he said, “If in 10 years, all American troops stationed in Europe for national defense purposes have not been returned to the United States, then this whole project will have failed.”)
Trump, Mattis and the others should realize Russia would undertake a nuclear war, with hundreds of American and Russian cities burned into radioactive glass, before it gives up Crimea ever again. That also doesn’t seem to fit into America First.
As to the Donbass, it’s culturally and linguistically part of Russia. Alexander D. Motyl wrote in February in Foreign Policy that the situation there is a mess, with Russia’s partial takeover of the region allowing Ukraine to avoid cleaning up the Donbass’ massive industrial, ecological and other economic problems. Back then in February, Motyl wrote, “What seems more likely is that the escalation is a prelude to discussions of a grand bargain between Trump and Putin that involves eastern Ukraine in some way.”
Apparently that isn’t happening. Although you never know. Ideally, the pre-2014 coup discussions for new national elections, with a large amount of sovereignty for Ukraine’s separate regions, should begin anew. Maybe Trump, as he has done with North Korea, is just trying to negotiate from a strong position, and will get together with Russian President Putin and work out something sensible on Ukraine.
Meanwhile, it turns out Ukraine’s government – our noble ally! – reportedly sold modern rocket engines to North Korea. According to the New York Times, citing American intelligence officials, “The studies may solve the mystery of how North Korea began succeeding so suddenly after a string of fiery missile failures, some of which may have been caused by American sabotage of its supply chains and cyberattacks on its launches. After those failures, the North changed designs and suppliers in the past two years, according to a new study by Michael Elleman, a missile expert at the International Institute for Strategic Studies.”
Of course, the “studies” could be just disinformation from one of the many factions in the intelligence community, this particular faction being against intervention in Ukraine but for it in North Korea, or something.
The upshot is that Trump was right in his campaign and his Inaugural Address: These are not our problems. Our own country is broke and broken. Let the Europeans and the Asians solve their own problems.
There is «Donbass» (better to say – organized) in each former part of Soviet Union: “Osetia”, “Pridnestrovie”. If it’s necessary for Kremlin, “Donbass” can be initiated in Baltic States or Kazakhstan tomorrow.
The roots of all public organizations are at the end of 80s and beginning of 90s. If everything was under control of KGB, could be that the nationalistic organizations are special and free?
“Let the Europeans and the Asians solve their own problems.”
Moscow’s dream. Good luck!
“Let the Europeans and the Asians solve their own problems.”
Moscow’s dream. Good luck!
No worries for you Mr. Solodov, our DEAR LEADERS, are determined to send American sailors, soldiers and marines to patrol every potential hell hole in the world from Libya, Somalia, Afghanistan and Pakistan if necessary, to prevent “Moscow’s dream” from ever being realized.
As JFK said back in the 60’s :
“Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and the success of liberty.
This much we pledge–and more. “
No choice, Mr. Reavis. „Carthago delenda est, Ceterum censeo Carthaginem delendam esse“, otherwise Hannibal will be in Rome
Mr. Solodov,
Well as Oliver Twist asked in the musical,”Is it worth the waiting for if we live to eighty four , all we ever get is porridge!” Eventually we will need some help from mercenary soldiers and some cash fundraisers from our cheerleaders. Any ideas about where that type of help could come from ?
mercenary soldiers -> NATO
some cash fundraisers from our cheerleaders -> TTIP and TPP
Mr. Solodov,
I have no doubt you are a serious person. But it seems to me that Germany is more interested in providing succor and care for the needy Jihadists by simply inviting them into their own country while allowing Americans to carry out the military expeditions of NATO abroad. In other words, it is up to U.S. to “put them on the run” as Bush the Younger once said, and for Europeans to provide them new homes. Most Americans still believe we were right about opposing Franco in Spain, about removing any trace of Southern history and culture though they still provide most of our troops to this day, about blowing Iraq up for Iran, Libya up for Mrs. Clinton, and Syria for Mr. McCain and Lindsey Graham. It is strange that President Trump who preferred soldiers who did not become prisoners of war to those who did, is about to become one himself.
Mr. Solodov’s invocation of the Punic Wars does not much help his argument. When the elder Cato took to ending his speeches with a demand for Carthage’s destruction, Rome had already beaten Carthage in two great wars, stripped her of wealth and colonies, and reduced an imperial state to the level of a satellite. Cato’s fears might have been justified in the long run, but there was certainly a party at Rome that would have preferred another course. The Scipio who would have to destroy Carthage had no enthusiasm, and, as his soldiers were destroying Carthage, he is said to have quoted Hector’s lines on the inevitable destruction of Troy–a prophetic reference to the inevitable destruction of the city founded by exiled Trojans. Scipio seems to have understood that in the end nothing fails like success, especially a successful empire.
In any event, Cato and the younger Africanus, both patriotic and valorous soldiers, had the right to debate the question. Mr. Reavis as an American veteran has the right to an opinion on war and peace for the American Empire, and, though perhaps to a lesser extent, so do even unmilitary Americans (like me) whose children and grandchildren would be asked to fight that war. Mauretanians or Numidians, however, would be well advised to be a bit more discrete than Cato.
Mr. Reavis
You are speaking about Germany as it’s the independent country.
The ideologists of Pan-Europe in 20s defined the dangers for the fragmented Europe: the military conquest by Russia or economically by USA. Europeans, themselves, tried to realize Pan-Europe in the form of Third Reich and lost. In result, the European Union in west part under control of USA and Russian province in the east part. Russia could not occupy whole Europe and changed the strategy – started to participate in the game “Europe from Vladivostok to Lissabon”.
West Culture builds the World Empire, all are involved and the question is who will be last, who will be Rome.
Mr. Fleming
Should I remind about Third Punic War. Cato died in 149.
Scipio could not change the logic of history, the movement from Kingdoms of the Diadochi after the Battle of Ipsus to Caesar and the Roman Empire.
“West Culture builds the World Empire, all are involved and the question is who will be last, who will be Rome.”
There is an answer to that but I simply won’t cast pearls before swine to answer it., having traveled down this road before. We simply disagree about the importance of what some historians have referred to as The Saving Grace in the history of the world.
This fanatical, relentless push to pressure or intimidate Russia by our establishment warmongerers is beyond comprehension. As Mr. Seiler notes in his piece, while our pols and presstitutes ( happily borrowing this term from Mr. Roberts) continue to babble about ripping down statues and lumping Robert E. Lee with Nazis, the present-day Nazis will get American military hardware.
Since Trump has apparently surrendered his foreign policy to the globalists, the common American is left to contemplate not only staying in the Afghanistan debacle, but also a commander who is willing to confront North Korea, Venezuela and to antagonize the Russians by meddling in Ukraine. Our force structure is overwhelmed already from nearly two decades in the Middle East not to mention six decades in Europe and the Korean Peninsula.
If Putin was the expansionist threat our government pretends he is, he would have long ago waltzed into the Baltics and re-attached them to the empire. Throwing another brigade into our eastern NATO flank would not have deterred him a bit. Ultimately, we can learn the hard truths about both our limits and our priorities either the easy way or the hard way, but we will be taught them.
I don’t know what Mr. Solodov’s point can possibly be. Yes, Cato died in the year the Third Punic War, which he had done so much to bring about, broke out.