OMNI WAR WATCH WEDNESDAY, #110,
JANUARY 25, 2023
Hobson.
“A failure of U.S. policy. It didn't have to be this way.”
Reading Abelow’s How the West Brought War to Ukraine.
“B61-12: new U.S. nuclear warheads
coming to Europe.”
World Beyond War Four Actions for
Peace.
Art Hobson, “A failure of U.S. policy. It didn't have to be this way.” NWADG, 3 January 2023.
The war in
Ukraine drags on. Russia and Ukraine
have each suffered more than 100,000 soldiers wounded and dead well before
their time. 40,000 civilians are dead
and 15 to 30 million displaced, in a nation of 44 million. [1] People are
freezing and 18 million will need humanitarian assistance in the near
future--an inevitable consequence of the horror of war. [2]
Ukraine has suffered over $100 billion infrastructure damage, [3] and
global economic losses are now about $550 billion. [4] The human suffering behind these numbers
is enormous.
It didn't
have to be this way. Ukrainians could
have kept their freedom while remaining at peace.
Consider: What if the tables were turned? Suppose Russia had formed a hostile military
alliance with Mexico, Cuba, and 28 other nations and placed threatening
missiles near our borders. Would the
U.S. have agreed this was within the sovereign rights of these nations? Clearly not.
As we saw during the Cuban Missile Crisis, any violation of our security
claim (the Monroe Doctrine) over the entire Western Hemisphere is considered
reason for war, including even nuclear war.
Yet since
the fall of the USSR, the U.S. has acted as though Russia has no such security
concerns about hostile forces stationed near their borders. Given Western invasions of Russia by Napoleon
in the 19th century and by Hitler in the 20th century, and given NATO's spread
into Eastern Europe, it's foolish to ignore these concerns.
What will
happen if, as America hopes, Russia begins to lose this war? The U.S. Director of National Intelligence,
testifying to the Senate in May, said Putin might use nuclear weapons in case
of "an existential threat to his regime and to Russia, from his
perspective." This could occur if
"he perceives he is losing."
Yet this is precisely the aim of U.S. policy. [5].
Thus U.S. ignorance of Russian concerns drives us directly toward
nuclear war between superpowers.
The U.S. and
NATO have made many moves that threaten Russian security, including withdrawing
unilaterally from the Antiballistic Missile Treaty, placing ABM systems in
newly joined NATO nations, and withdrawing unilaterally from the
Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty.
The INF Treaty withdrawal increases Russian vulnerability to a U.S.
first strike launched from near their borders.
NATO has
conducted countless military exercises near Russia's border, and has armed and
trained the Ukrainian military and held joint training exercises inside
Ukraine. Would we permit analogous
military cooperation between Russia and Mexico?
The most
severe Western threat to Russia has been NATO expansion pressing toward
Russia's border, while disregarding assurances previously given to Russia. US foreign policy experts have warned for
decades it was a major error to expand NATO eastward. For just one example, George Kennan was arguably
the most important diplomat and USSR/Russia policy expert from 1950 until his
death in 2005. He is best known as the
father of the containment policy toward USSR expansion during the Cold War.
In 1997,
following the fall of the USSR, the U.S. Senate ratified NATO's eastward
expansion. Kennan responded: "I think it is the beginning of a new
cold war. ...The Russians will gradually
react quite adversely and it will affect their policies. ...It is a tragic mistake. ...No one was threatening anybody else. This expansion would make the Founding
Fathers turn over in their graves. Don't
people understand? Our differences in
the cold war were with the Soviet Communist regime. And now we're turning our backs on the very
people who mounted the greatest bloodless revolution in history to remove that
Regime." [6]
America
tries too hard to run the world. We
regard the present situation as an existential battle to save democracy from
autocratic regimes in China and Russia.
But neither China nor Russia is out to run the world, although both want
military security near their own borders, just as we do. Furthermore, there is an element of U.S.
hypocrisy in all this: Before criticizing
autocracy abroad, we should look at who wields power in America and to what
end. Arguably, America is an oligarchy
run by the rich.
In addition
to being pushy, America is over-armed and militaristic. Grotesquely, our military budget exceeds that
of the next nine nations combined, and comprises 39% of the world's military
spending. [7]
Although
Russia should not have invaded Ukraine, the issues involved in this conflict go
far beyond the invasion. For readers who
might want to learn about these realities, a good place to start is the short
book by Benjamin Abelow titled "How the West Brought War to
Ukraine."
References:
[1]
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/10/world/europe/ukraine-russia-war-casualties-deaths.html.
2]. https://www.voanews.com/a/un-half-of-ukraine-energy-infrastructure-destroyed-by-russian-attacks/6874897.html
[3] https://www.forbes.com/sites/madelinehalpert/2022/08/02/war-has-caused-108-billion-in-damage-to-ukraines-infrastructure-study-finds/?sh=7ac8b00823e5
[4] https://kse.ua/about-the-school/news/zbitki-naneseni-infrastrukturi-ukrayini-v-hodi-viyni-skladayut-mayzhe-63-mlrd/
[5[ Avril Haines, testimony, 10 May 2022, <https://www.c-span.org/video/?c5014371/us-believes-russian-president-putin-preparing-prolonged-conflict ahobson@uark.edu
DICK’S NOTES ON READING HOW THE WEST BROUGHT WAR TO UKRAINE 1-17-23
The book could be a college textbook example of concise, lucid, logical
writing. Introduction. US motive for the war: to cripple the Russian
military; US/Western narrative justifying the motive: Putin “an insatiable
expansionist.” Russian response: high
alert and nuclear warning. Abelow: US
narrative incorrect, invalidating the motive and the “30-year history of provocations directed at Russia.” He then lists the 8 “key Western
provocations” discussed in the book. And
finally he epitomizes the subject of each of the eight chapters. All is transparent: he tells us what his
subject is and how he is going to present it.
Chaps. 1 and 2 give the provocations.
“Chapter 1 chronologically surveys Western provocations of Russia during
the period 1990-2014. Chapter 2 extends
this survey to the beginning of Russia’s February 2022 invasion.” But because he knows that fact-based reason
is not necessarily irresistible to all, he adds six chapters to confirm his
thesis chapters. “ Chapter 3 asks how
the United States would react if ‘the shoe were on the other foot’—that is, if
Russia acted toward the United States as the West has acted toward
Russia.” Chapter 4, “Russian Concerns
About a U.S. First Strike,” explains why the US withdrawal from the 1987
intermediate-range nuclear missile treaty disturbs Russians so much. :Etc. (see last p. of Intro.).
The largest, best financed propaganda machine in the world (Pentagon,
White House, Congress, think tanks, corporate media, corporations) has made its
case, but I believe it is flawed based upon some 500 articles and 2 books that
refute it. To all who claim to be
peacemakers (prevent wars, stop them, lift up the victims), our case is
abundantly clear and confirmed, so let’s
get going, choose our peace action from the dozens advocated in the
anthologies, to stop this awful carnage and destruction. –Dick
“B61-12: new U.S. nuclear warheads coming to Europe.”
Editor. Mronline.org (1-29-23).
In December, the United States is bringing
new nuclear warheads to Europe. The B61-12 warhead is a more advanced warhead
from the ones currently deployed in Belgium, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands
and Turkey.
[The
US War Party assured the Russians it was purely defensive. –D]
WBW: Four
strengthening things you can do for peace in the United States: (Put these on your
refrig. door. Tell your friends to
tell.)
1. Email Congress: Move the Money from the Military to
Social and Environmental Programs!
2. Ask President Biden to Sign the
Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons
3. Celebrate the Banning of Nukes on
January 22!
4. Rally Against War in Washington
D.C. on February 19!
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