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
TEXTS UKRAINE
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 Bulletin
editorial 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
