OMNI US, RUSSIA, UKRAINE, COLD WAR II, ANTHOLOGY #16

 

 

OMNI

US, RUSSIA, UKRAINE, cold war ii,  ANTHOLOGY #16

April 2, 2022

Compiled by Dick Bennett for a Culture of Peace, Justice, and Ecology

Omnicenter.org/donate/

 

 

 

contents of russia, ukraine, new cold hot war #16
TomDispatch.  New Cold and Hot Wars and Swelling Military.
Four Articles via Historians for Peace 3-23-22

Stephen Krotkin, Putin in Russian History.

Alfred McCoy, Putin and Xi Jinping in Eurasia.

Juan Cole,  We Shouldn’t Want a NATO No Fly Zone.

Andrew Bacevich,  US v. International Order.

US Mainstream Reporting

Disinformation in Dongass

Christelle Néant, “Mariupol—Civilians Denounce the Crimes
    of the Fighters of the Neo-Nazi Azov Regiment.”  
Max Blumenthal, Dubious BBC Correspondent.
Andi Olluri, Another War Not Reported.

Provocations and Sanctions:  “The Irony of Sanctions Against Russia”

Remembering 2014:  Dongass

And the Cold War and NATO: Albright
Daniel Kovalik, “Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine Signifies the End
      of …Unipolar American Power”
Contents #15

 

TEXTS #16

tOMdISPATCH: An Antidote to the Mainstream Media.  Tomgram:  Hartung, Cleveland-Stout, and Giorno, Cold Wars, Then and Now.

New Cold War, New Hot War Like Afghanistan, Military Industrial Complex Swelling.

Hartung, Cleveland-Stout, and Giorno, Cold Wars, Then and Now.  March 22, 2022. It's strange, don't you think, this feeling of having been here before? Well, not quite here. It wasn't Ukraine and Europe then, but Afghanistan and the Greater Middle East. And if this is indeed Cold War II, Russia isn't the Soviet Union, but an ever-shakier petro-state with an all-too-bizarre new czar at the helm. In other words, in certain ways it's already scarier than the original Cold War because we don't quite know where we are, as Nick Cleveland-Stout, Taylor Giorno, and Pentagon expert and TomDispatch regular William Hartung make all too clear today in discussing the ever more astronomical Pentagon "budget" -- or do I mean gold mine or garbage dump? Still, you'd think that Vladimir Putin, at least, would have remembered the last time around when a far more powerful Soviet Union went into Afghanistan and found itself fighting a determined local resistance movement backed by American money and arms galore. Yes, that was Afghanistan in the 1980s. The Soviet Union was still a great power and its military an impressive force. Yet its Afghan War proved a disaster of the first order. When the Soviets finally did limp out of that country in 1989, and not so long after the USSR imploded, Washington effectively stayed -- at least until, 30-odd years later, its troops departed in dismal defeat like their Russian counterparts, heading for a country that looked as if it might be on the verge of coming apart at the seams. Now, here we are in what might indeed be Cold War II, playing out the Ukrainian version of Afghanistan with a weaker Russian military, a visibly more disturbed leader, Washington again shoveling arms, money, and training to the other side, and the possibility that the war could spread elsewhere in Europe. What happens when history repeats itself, however weirdly? That's a question to consider as you read today's account of our potential new Cold War and the one that preceded it. Tom

 

 

Washington Should Think Twice Before Launching a New Cold War:  A History Lesson for Our Desperate Moment By William D. Hartung, Nick Cleveland-Stout, and Taylor Giorno. A growing chorus of pundits and policymakers has suggested that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine marks the beginning of a new Cold War. If so, that means trillions of additional dollars for the Pentagon in the years to come coupled with a more aggressive military posture in every corner of the world. Before this country succumbs to calls for a return to Cold War-style Pentagon spending, it’s important to note that the United States is already spending substantially more than it did at the height of the Korean and Vietnam Wars or, in fact, any other moment in that first Cold War. Even before the invasion of Ukraine began, the Biden administration’s proposed Pentagon budget (as well as related work like nuclear-warhead development at the Department of Energy) was already guaranteed to soar even higher than that, perhaps to $800 billion or more for 2023.   Click here to read more of this dispatch.

 

Four Articles via Historians for Peace, 3-23-22

"The Weakness of the Despot: A Scholar of Stalin Discusses Putin, Russia, Ukraine, and the West"

Interview with Stephen Krotkin by David Remnick, New Yorker, posted March 11

Stephen Krotkin teaches history at Princeton University and has published two volumes of a projected three-volume biography of Joseph Stalin. This interview is a wide-ranging discussion with much emphasis on continuity in Russian history and speculation on present-day dynamics around Putin. He warns against a "maximalist spiral" that would lead to "cornering" Putin, who "has many tools that he hasn’t used that can hurt us."

 

"The Geopolitics of the Ukraine War: Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping in the Struggle over Eurasia"

By Alfred McCoy, TomDispatch.com, posted March 10

On the relations of world powers in the Eurasian continent in the decades since World War II, as background for the Ukraine war. The author teaches history at the University of Wisconsin. The most recent of his many books is To Govern the Globe: World Orders and Catastrophic Change (Haymarket Books, 2021).

 

"What the Libya War Tells Us about Why We Really Don't Want a NATO No-Fly Zone"

By Juan Cole, Informed Comment blog, posted March 9

"... In other words, the prerequisite for a no-fly zone over Ukraine right now would be a massive American attack on the Russian military." The author teaches Middle East history at the University of Michigan.

 

"The 'End of History' ... Again?"

By Andrew J. Bacevich, Responsible Statecraft, posted March 7

"However distressing to admit, crimes committed by the United States in recent years, usually justified under the guise of liberating the oppressed and spreading democracy, have inflicted more damage on the international order than anything done by Russia." The author is a retired Army colonel and a professor emeritus of history and international relations at Boston University.

 

Suggestions for articles to be linked in these occasional listings can be sent to jimobrien48@gmail.com.   http://lists.historiansforpeace.org/listinfo.cgi/h-pad-historiansforpeace.org

 

disinformation war

REPORTING Nazis AND RUSSIANS in DONBASS, Disinformation, hacking
“Mariupol—Civilians Denounce the Crimes of the Fighters of the Neo-Nazi Azov Regiment.”   Eds.  mronline.org (3-29-22).  The information war around the Russian military operation in Ukraine is becoming increasingly insane, with the continued publication of false information (including via the hacking of Russian media sites) that must be debunked.   

Originally published: Donbass-Insider by Christelle Néant (March 22, 2022 ).  Posted Mar 28, 2022.   Media, WarEurope, Russia, UkraineNewswire    https://mronline.org/2022/03/28/mariupol-civilians-denounce-the-crimes-of-the-fighters-of-the-neo-nazi-azov-regiment/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=mariupol-civilians-denounce-the-crimes-of-the-fighters-of-the-neo-nazi-azov-regiment&mc_cid=68e0af30d5&mc_eid=ab2f7bf95e

 

 “BBC correspondent-fixer shaping Ukraine war coverage is PR operative involved in “war-messaging tool’” by Max Blumenthal.  Mronline.org (3-29-22).  BBC reports on the suspicious destruction of a theater in the Ukrainian city of Mariupol were co-authored by a Ukrainian PR agent tied to a firm at the forefront of her country’s information warfare efforts.      Posted Mar 28, 2022 by Max Blumenthal.
Originally published: The Grayzone (March 25, 2022 )  |  Inequality, Media, Strategy, WarUkraineNewswireBBC, Orysia Khimiak.       https://mronline.org/2022/03/28/bbc-correspondent-fixer-shaping-ukraine-war-coverage-is-pr-operative-involved-in-war-messaging-tool/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=bbc-correspondent-fixer-shaping-ukraine-war-coverage-is-pr-operative-involved-in-war-messaging-tool&mc_cid=68e0af30d5&mc_eid=ab2f7bf95e                     

aND US MM WILL NOT REPORT SOME US WARS

“As Outrage Grows Over Civilian Casualties in Ukraine, Media Ignores Suffering of Yemeni People.”   By Andi Olluri on Mar 23, 2022.

Some Victims Are More Worthy Than Others in Our Orwellian Media Landscape
The U.S. media have been dominated by images of Ukrainians suffering under the Russian invasion.

New York Times columnist David Brooks wrote characteristically that Joe Biden had “masterly and humbly helped organize a global coalition” of Good and Democracy—and “restored faith in true patriotism.”^[1]

In order for the chosen ones to succeed in their democratic mission, Thomas L. Friedman further intoned, the official Obstructor has to be contained, put in an “isolation cell. The same for the larger Russian public.”^[2]

Russia, together with “China [...] as well as Iran, Venezuela, Cuba”, is conducting “a rollback” of our arduous attempts at peace and democracy, says Francis Fukuyama.^[3]

And so the free press goes on, virtually without exception.

The method is to denounce the crimes of official government enemies, while staying silent about the crimes of the U.S. government or its allies.

As an example, the media have failed to report on large-scale war crimes committed by the Ukrainian Army in Eastern Ukraine. The plight of Yemenis subjected to years of international terror by some of the most powerful nations on Earth has also been ignored. […]

The post As Outrage Grows Over Civilian Casualties in Ukraine, Media Ignores Suffering of Yemeni People appeared first on CovertAction Magazine.

 

PROVOCATIONS AND SANCTIONS

“The Irony of Sanctions against Russia.”
Prabhat Patnaik.  Mronline.org (3-29-22).

The juggling which U.S. imperialism has to do to maintain its hegemony becomes more bizarre by the day. First, it kept needling Russia (“provoking the bear”) “on behalf of the western alliance” by expanding NATO to its very borders, knowing full well that Ukraine’s joining NATO would be totally unacceptable to Russia.

 

 

Remembering 2014 (and see OMNI’s 2024-15 Russia/Ukraine anthologies). 
“Mariupol and Donetsk: a Tale of Two Cities.”

Originally published: Struggle La Lucha by Greg Butterfield (March 25, 2022 ).   Posted Mar 28, 2022.     Ideology, State Repression, Strategy, WarUkraineNewswire

[Butterfield’s circumstantial report differs so drastically from US mainstream media, summary seems impossible.   He concludes:  “In 2014, the people of the Donetsk and Lugansk regions voted for independence and their right to live free of a Ukraine dominated by fascists and U.S.-NATO imperialism. They have resisted untold horrors for eight years – horrors which continue today. Their struggle is a righteous one, and they will win.”  https://mronline.org/2022/03/28/mariupol-and-donetsk-a-tale-of-two-cities/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=mariupol-and-donetsk-a-tale-of-two-cities&mc_cid=68e0af30d5&mc_eid=ab2f7bf95e  --D]

 

And remember Cold War and NATO

“Albright Was a Key Figure Sparking New Cold War by Championing NATO Expansion as Secretary of State in 1990s” By Jeremy Kuzmarov on Mar 29, 2022. An acolyte of grand chess-master Zbigniew Brzezinski, Albright also championed lethal NATO bombings in Kosovo and devastating sanctions in Iraq that killed 500,000 children—a price she famously said was “worth it” to contain Saddam Hussein Last Wednesday, Madeleine Albright died at the age of 84 after a bout with cancer. From 1993 to 1997 she served as the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations (UN) and subsequently became the first female Secretary of State, a position that she held from 1997 to 2001. The mainstream media heaped accolades on Albright after her death, calling her a “brilliant analyst of world affairs” with a “star quality” (The New York Times), “an ardent and effective advocate against mass atrocities” (The Washington Post), and a “champion of human rights and democracy” (CNN). But Albright supported atrocities in the Balkans and Iraq as Secretary of State that trampled on human rights. Peter Krogh, the Dean of Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service when Albright taught there, said in 1999 that she promoted a “foreign policy of sermons and sanctimony accompanied by the brandishing of tomahawks.”[1] Instead of trying to advance U.S.-Russian relations with the end of the Cold War, Albright championed North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) expansion into Eastern Europe, which antagonized the Russians and sowed the seeds of a new Cold War. Before her death, Albright supported expanding military aid to Ukraine in its fight to “preserve freedom and democracy,” though Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky had banned almost all opposition parties. […] The post Albright Was a Key Figure Sparking New Cold War by Championing NATO Expansion as Secretary of State in 1990sappeared first on CovertAction Magazine.

 

 

 

Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine Signifies the End of an Era of Unipolar American Power By Daniel Kovalik on Mar 24, 2022. Russia had drawn a line in the sand and, once violated, defied Washington by acting to defend its interests. A lot of countries support Russia, and Washington is powerless to stop it. If you are like me, you have been glued to the news about the Russian military operation in Ukraine and its implications for the world. Obviously, we cannot know about all of these implications at this point, and we may not for some time to come. Indeed, this recalls to mind Nixon’s query to Zhou Enlai in 1972 about his thoughts on the French Revolution. Zhou, with his long-term view of the world, responded simply, “too soon to say.” However, we are seeing some developments emerge very quickly which may tell us where all of this is heading. First, in response to the U.S.’s extreme sanctions on Russia, including its removal of the Russian Central Bank from the SWIFT banking system, Russia and China have quickly pivoted to transferring money through other means and to trading on the Chinese Yuan. And now, the U.S.’s long-time ally Saudi Arabia is also considering doing the same. Meanwhile, leaders of both Saudi Arabia and the UAE are reportedly refusing to take calls from President Joe Biden during the Ukraine crisis. In another big move, the UAE—which was one of the nations which waged a surrogate war against Syria and its President, Bashar al-Assad, for ten years—has now received Assad in Dubai, stating that Syria is an essential part of Arab security. This must be maddening to the U.S. which still occupies one-third of Syria and still considers Assad persona non grata. Then, we see U.S. delegations going hat in hand to both Venezuela and Iran—long-time targets of U.S. regime-change attempts and sanctions—seeking oil from these countries to try to offset the net reduction of oil and natural gas supplies caused by the war in Ukraine and the sanctions leveled in response to it. The President of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, whom the U.S. does not even recognize as the elected leader of Venezuela, must have been delighted to have the U.S. come groveling for help only to turn it away empty-handed.  And while the U.S. is attempting to claim that the world is on its side in wanting to isolate Russia, the opposite is actually true. Thus, if one looks at the countries that either voted against, abstained from or simply did not vote at all on the UN General Assembly resolution condemning Russia’s actions—(against) Russia, North Korea, Eritrea, Belarus and Syria; (abstaining) China, India, Iran, Iraq, Algeria, Angola, Armenia, Bangladesh, Bolivia, Burundi, Central African Republic, Congo, Cuba, El Salvador, Equatorial Guinea, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Madagascar, Mali, Mongolia, Mozambique, Namibia, Nicaragua, Pakistan, Senegal, South Africa, South Sudan, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Tajikistan, Tanzania, Uganda and Vietnam; (not voting) Azerbaijan, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Eswatini, Ethiopia, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Morocco, Togo, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Venezuela—one sees that countries representing the majority of the world’s population and a huge portion of its land mass are not with the U.S. on this. […] The post Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine Signifies the End of an Era of Unipolar American Power appeared first on CovertAction Magazine.

Kovalik is the author of The Plot to Scapegoat Russia.

 

 

CONTENTS  #15

NATO AND wHY DOES uKRAINE mATTER?

Jordan Smith, “They Saw It Coming.”  The New Republic (April 2022).
      Quick Summary of NATO Formation and Expansion (Dick)

Diana Johnstone. “For Washington, War Never Ends.”    Consortium News (March 16, 2022 ).

Mary Elise Sarotte.  Not One Inch.  Apparently the definitive book on US, NATO,
       Ukraine, and Russia.

WWIII

Caitlin Johnstone.  Report on Steven Starr.  Call to World to Pay Attention to Nuclear
         WWIII.

Bryan Dyne Interviews Steven Starr on WWIII and Nuclear Winter.

Art Hobson.  Pondering Ukraine in Context of Nuclear War.

No Fly Zone: 2 Articles

    Zelensky Calls for No Fly Zone

    Ben Burgis.  No Fly Zone Will Start WWIII

Ukraine’s Wealth Part of the Conflict but little discussed.

IMF Connection

SANCTIONS Add to the Conflict.

War and Propaganda:  3 Essays

    Wars are Misinformation and Delusion Machines

    Free Ourselves of Propaganda Tunnels.

    Ukrainian Nazis and Propaganda by Omission.

Russia or CIA Lied in the Election.

Biden’s Laptop.

Russia and China

Russia, Ukraine Anthology #14

 

END OMNI RUSSIA-UKRAINE ANTHOLOGIES #16