Editorial
January 21, 2022
© Photo: REUTERS/Ints Kalnins

Washington and its NATO allies are jeopardizing peace in Europe. They are creating the conditions for war between nuclear powers.

American President Joe Biden said this week he thinks Russia will invade Ukraine. Only days ago, Biden and his top aides were not sure, saying they didn’t know if that would happen. If the highest-ranking members of the U.S. executive can’t agree on a coherent thought process, then there is strong reason to conclude that they are clueless and what they are claiming is baseless. In short, lies.

Deplorably, however, this cluelessness is inciting war in Europe. For nearly two months now, the Biden administration, aided and abetted by Western media, has been pummeling the public with the message that Russia is planning to invade Ukraine. This is not innocent cluelessness. It is criminal incitement of war and crimes against peace.

All of this propaganda – for that’s what it is – relies on a toxic Cold War mentality, as well as Russophobia, arrogant assertions bereft of any substance, and dodgy data. Satellite imagery purportedly of a Russian military buildup on Ukraine’s border actually shows established bases hundreds of kilometers inside Russia’s territory.

As with the lead-up to the Anglo-American war of aggression on Iraq in 2003, there is an orchestration of Western public perception in order to “manufacture consent” for confrontation, this time with Russia. The Big Lie technique innovated by Nazi propagandist Josep Goebbels and perfected by Western imperial powers is being deployed once again.

Moscow has repeatedly and categorically rejected claims of an invasion plan and says it has no intention of attacking any nation. Russia has appealed to Western states to refrain from uttering this monotonous insanity. The mere suggestion of those accusations reveals a provocative anti-Russian prejudice and a reckless stoking of instability. It is mind-boggling that Moscow is obliged to say that troops within its territorial borders are a sovereign matter that does not require any explanation or accountability to any foreign government.

Now we are told this week that the “specter of war” is growing and the talks on Friday between U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Geneva are supposedly “last-ditch efforts” for diplomacy to avert conflict.

There is indeed a ludicrous and reckless double buildup: of military forces as well as of propaganda for war. This buildup is all undertaken on the side of the United States and its NATO partners including the Western-backed regime in Ukraine.

The U.S. and the NATO bloc are flooding Ukraine with weapons. The Biden administration just announced an additional $200 million in military aid to Kiev, on top of nearly $3 billion that has been supplied since 2014 when the CIA-sponsored coup d’état in Ukraine ushered in a rabidly anti-Russian regime.

Britain and other NATO members including the Baltic states are sending anti-tank and anti-aircraft missiles to Ukraine along with military advisors. All this weaponry is emboldening the Kiev regime to escalate its offensive against the ethnic Russian population of Southeast Ukraine. Kiev forces have repudiated a political settlement to the nearly eight-year civil war which began shortly after the CIA-backed coup. This week there were reports of the Ukrainian armed forces installing multiple rocket launchers on the contact line in the Donbas conflict zone, a move which is being read as preparation for a major offensive.

The glaring reality is one of a ramping up of militarism in Ukraine by the US and its NATO partners that is directly threatening Russia. Yet, astoundingly, the reality is turned on its head by American and European politicians accusing Russia of planning an invasion and stoking aggression. The 2014 coup is retrospectively distorted, as Russia having invaded Ukraine and annexing Crimea. Now we are told Russia is going to invade “again”.

In addition, we see the contemptible pretense of America’s top foreign envoy Antony Blinken reportedly “engaging in shuttle diplomacy to prevent war”.

Last week, Russia put forward clear proposals to U.S. and NATO officials for implementing security guarantees in Europe. Those proposals included a halt to eastwards expansion by the NATO bloc and the removal of strategic American weapons from Eastern Europe. Moscow’s eminently reasonable initiative to improve security has been rebuffed. Ahead of his meeting with Lavrov in Geneva, Blinken said he would not be presenting a written response to Russia’s proposals. And yet the American side talks about “offering Russia a diplomatic alternative to conflict”. That’s tantamount to offering peace down the barrel of a cocked gun.

The truth is, Washington and its NATO allies are jeopardizing peace in Europe. They are creating the conditions for war between nuclear powers.

There are ominous echoes of past war in Europe when Nazi Germany assembled a war machine under the cynical guise of “defense”. Today, the U.S.-led NATO bloc is an aggressor in Europe under the banner of “defense” against alleged Russian invasion.

Not one American or European politician can credibly enumerate the basis for the inordinate military buildup and aggression towards Russia. There is a crazed group-think and gaslighting that has taken hold of the political class in the United States and other NATO nations. The incoherence and, frankly, the insanity of their pronouncements are a danger to world peace. There is no doubt that the intensifying current internal political and economic crises of the Western capitalist powers are driving the reckless warmongering as a way to find a desperate distraction from systematic failure. The coronavirus pandemic and social malaise from historic economic failure are multiplying the militarism of Western states in their policy towards Russia. There is an inability by the ruling establishments to deal with political problems rationally and democratically.

For those willing to see and think with an open mind it is obvious what is going on. Historically, the U.S. and its NATO accomplices are the political inheritors of the Western-backed Nazi regime that tried to destroy Russia for the sake of imperial hegemony of Western capital. Washington and its Western lackeys need to prevent the normalization of relations within Europe whereby the continent’s largest country, Russia, is able to develop peacefully along with European neighbors. The U.S. – the lead Western hegemonic power – must prevent this geopolitical outcome at all costs. In the past, Nazi Germany and fascism were used as bludgeon. Today, it is NATO expansionism in the “defense of democracy and peace”.

War, it seems, is looming and the warmongers are stumbling towards the abyss. As in times past, the ordinary people of Europe and the United States have no interest in conflict. Abominably, disaster and suffering are being contemplated by cosseted elites who are willing to wage war to the last man, woman and child.

The mass of people must resist the warmongers and indeed defeat them to find a better, more peaceful way of governing societies and international relations.

Insane Signals, One Conclusion… U.S. and NATO Partners Are Inciting War Against Russia

Washington and its NATO allies are jeopardizing peace in Europe. They are creating the conditions for war between nuclear powers.

American President Joe Biden said this week he thinks Russia will invade Ukraine. Only days ago, Biden and his top aides were not sure, saying they didn’t know if that would happen. If the highest-ranking members of the U.S. executive can’t agree on a coherent thought process, then there is strong reason to conclude that they are clueless and what they are claiming is baseless. In short, lies.

Deplorably, however, this cluelessness is inciting war in Europe. For nearly two months now, the Biden administration, aided and abetted by Western media, has been pummeling the public with the message that Russia is planning to invade Ukraine. This is not innocent cluelessness. It is criminal incitement of war and crimes against peace.

All of this propaganda – for that’s what it is – relies on a toxic Cold War mentality, as well as Russophobia, arrogant assertions bereft of any substance, and dodgy data. Satellite imagery purportedly of a Russian military buildup on Ukraine’s border actually shows established bases hundreds of kilometers inside Russia’s territory.

As with the lead-up to the Anglo-American war of aggression on Iraq in 2003, there is an orchestration of Western public perception in order to “manufacture consent” for confrontation, this time with Russia. The Big Lie technique innovated by Nazi propagandist Josep Goebbels and perfected by Western imperial powers is being deployed once again.

Moscow has repeatedly and categorically rejected claims of an invasion plan and says it has no intention of attacking any nation. Russia has appealed to Western states to refrain from uttering this monotonous insanity. The mere suggestion of those accusations reveals a provocative anti-Russian prejudice and a reckless stoking of instability. It is mind-boggling that Moscow is obliged to say that troops within its territorial borders are a sovereign matter that does not require any explanation or accountability to any foreign government.

Now we are told this week that the “specter of war” is growing and the talks on Friday between U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Geneva are supposedly “last-ditch efforts” for diplomacy to avert conflict.

There is indeed a ludicrous and reckless double buildup: of military forces as well as of propaganda for war. This buildup is all undertaken on the side of the United States and its NATO partners including the Western-backed regime in Ukraine.

The U.S. and the NATO bloc are flooding Ukraine with weapons. The Biden administration just announced an additional $200 million in military aid to Kiev, on top of nearly $3 billion that has been supplied since 2014 when the CIA-sponsored coup d’état in Ukraine ushered in a rabidly anti-Russian regime.

Britain and other NATO members including the Baltic states are sending anti-tank and anti-aircraft missiles to Ukraine along with military advisors. All this weaponry is emboldening the Kiev regime to escalate its offensive against the ethnic Russian population of Southeast Ukraine. Kiev forces have repudiated a political settlement to the nearly eight-year civil war which began shortly after the CIA-backed coup. This week there were reports of the Ukrainian armed forces installing multiple rocket launchers on the contact line in the Donbas conflict zone, a move which is being read as preparation for a major offensive.

The glaring reality is one of a ramping up of militarism in Ukraine by the US and its NATO partners that is directly threatening Russia. Yet, astoundingly, the reality is turned on its head by American and European politicians accusing Russia of planning an invasion and stoking aggression. The 2014 coup is retrospectively distorted, as Russia having invaded Ukraine and annexing Crimea. Now we are told Russia is going to invade “again”.

In addition, we see the contemptible pretense of America’s top foreign envoy Antony Blinken reportedly “engaging in shuttle diplomacy to prevent war”.

Last week, Russia put forward clear proposals to U.S. and NATO officials for implementing security guarantees in Europe. Those proposals included a halt to eastwards expansion by the NATO bloc and the removal of strategic American weapons from Eastern Europe. Moscow’s eminently reasonable initiative to improve security has been rebuffed. Ahead of his meeting with Lavrov in Geneva, Blinken said he would not be presenting a written response to Russia’s proposals. And yet the American side talks about “offering Russia a diplomatic alternative to conflict”. That’s tantamount to offering peace down the barrel of a cocked gun.

The truth is, Washington and its NATO allies are jeopardizing peace in Europe. They are creating the conditions for war between nuclear powers.

There are ominous echoes of past war in Europe when Nazi Germany assembled a war machine under the cynical guise of “defense”. Today, the U.S.-led NATO bloc is an aggressor in Europe under the banner of “defense” against alleged Russian invasion.

Not one American or European politician can credibly enumerate the basis for the inordinate military buildup and aggression towards Russia. There is a crazed group-think and gaslighting that has taken hold of the political class in the United States and other NATO nations. The incoherence and, frankly, the insanity of their pronouncements are a danger to world peace. There is no doubt that the intensifying current internal political and economic crises of the Western capitalist powers are driving the reckless warmongering as a way to find a desperate distraction from systematic failure. The coronavirus pandemic and social malaise from historic economic failure are multiplying the militarism of Western states in their policy towards Russia. There is an inability by the ruling establishments to deal with political problems rationally and democratically.

For those willing to see and think with an open mind it is obvious what is going on. Historically, the U.S. and its NATO accomplices are the political inheritors of the Western-backed Nazi regime that tried to destroy Russia for the sake of imperial hegemony of Western capital. Washington and its Western lackeys need to prevent the normalization of relations within Europe whereby the continent’s largest country, Russia, is able to develop peacefully along with European neighbors. The U.S. – the lead Western hegemonic power – must prevent this geopolitical outcome at all costs. In the past, Nazi Germany and fascism were used as bludgeon. Today, it is NATO expansionism in the “defense of democracy and peace”.

War, it seems, is looming and the warmongers are stumbling towards the abyss. As in times past, the ordinary people of Europe and the United States have no interest in conflict. Abominably, disaster and suffering are being contemplated by cosseted elites who are willing to wage war to the last man, woman and child.

The mass of people must resist the warmongers and indeed defeat them to find a better, more peaceful way of governing societies and international relations.

Washington and its NATO allies are jeopardizing peace in Europe. They are creating the conditions for war between nuclear powers.

American President Joe Biden said this week he thinks Russia will invade Ukraine. Only days ago, Biden and his top aides were not sure, saying they didn’t know if that would happen. If the highest-ranking members of the U.S. executive can’t agree on a coherent thought process, then there is strong reason to conclude that they are clueless and what they are claiming is baseless. In short, lies.

Deplorably, however, this cluelessness is inciting war in Europe. For nearly two months now, the Biden administration, aided and abetted by Western media, has been pummeling the public with the message that Russia is planning to invade Ukraine. This is not innocent cluelessness. It is criminal incitement of war and crimes against peace.

All of this propaganda – for that’s what it is – relies on a toxic Cold War mentality, as well as Russophobia, arrogant assertions bereft of any substance, and dodgy data. Satellite imagery purportedly of a Russian military buildup on Ukraine’s border actually shows established bases hundreds of kilometers inside Russia’s territory.

As with the lead-up to the Anglo-American war of aggression on Iraq in 2003, there is an orchestration of Western public perception in order to “manufacture consent” for confrontation, this time with Russia. The Big Lie technique innovated by Nazi propagandist Josep Goebbels and perfected by Western imperial powers is being deployed once again.

Moscow has repeatedly and categorically rejected claims of an invasion plan and says it has no intention of attacking any nation. Russia has appealed to Western states to refrain from uttering this monotonous insanity. The mere suggestion of those accusations reveals a provocative anti-Russian prejudice and a reckless stoking of instability. It is mind-boggling that Moscow is obliged to say that troops within its territorial borders are a sovereign matter that does not require any explanation or accountability to any foreign government.

Now we are told this week that the “specter of war” is growing and the talks on Friday between U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Geneva are supposedly “last-ditch efforts” for diplomacy to avert conflict.

There is indeed a ludicrous and reckless double buildup: of military forces as well as of propaganda for war. This buildup is all undertaken on the side of the United States and its NATO partners including the Western-backed regime in Ukraine.

The U.S. and the NATO bloc are flooding Ukraine with weapons. The Biden administration just announced an additional $200 million in military aid to Kiev, on top of nearly $3 billion that has been supplied since 2014 when the CIA-sponsored coup d’état in Ukraine ushered in a rabidly anti-Russian regime.

Britain and other NATO members including the Baltic states are sending anti-tank and anti-aircraft missiles to Ukraine along with military advisors. All this weaponry is emboldening the Kiev regime to escalate its offensive against the ethnic Russian population of Southeast Ukraine. Kiev forces have repudiated a political settlement to the nearly eight-year civil war which began shortly after the CIA-backed coup. This week there were reports of the Ukrainian armed forces installing multiple rocket launchers on the contact line in the Donbas conflict zone, a move which is being read as preparation for a major offensive.

The glaring reality is one of a ramping up of militarism in Ukraine by the US and its NATO partners that is directly threatening Russia. Yet, astoundingly, the reality is turned on its head by American and European politicians accusing Russia of planning an invasion and stoking aggression. The 2014 coup is retrospectively distorted, as Russia having invaded Ukraine and annexing Crimea. Now we are told Russia is going to invade “again”.

In addition, we see the contemptible pretense of America’s top foreign envoy Antony Blinken reportedly “engaging in shuttle diplomacy to prevent war”.

Last week, Russia put forward clear proposals to U.S. and NATO officials for implementing security guarantees in Europe. Those proposals included a halt to eastwards expansion by the NATO bloc and the removal of strategic American weapons from Eastern Europe. Moscow’s eminently reasonable initiative to improve security has been rebuffed. Ahead of his meeting with Lavrov in Geneva, Blinken said he would not be presenting a written response to Russia’s proposals. And yet the American side talks about “offering Russia a diplomatic alternative to conflict”. That’s tantamount to offering peace down the barrel of a cocked gun.

The truth is, Washington and its NATO allies are jeopardizing peace in Europe. They are creating the conditions for war between nuclear powers.

There are ominous echoes of past war in Europe when Nazi Germany assembled a war machine under the cynical guise of “defense”. Today, the U.S.-led NATO bloc is an aggressor in Europe under the banner of “defense” against alleged Russian invasion.

Not one American or European politician can credibly enumerate the basis for the inordinate military buildup and aggression towards Russia. There is a crazed group-think and gaslighting that has taken hold of the political class in the United States and other NATO nations. The incoherence and, frankly, the insanity of their pronouncements are a danger to world peace. There is no doubt that the intensifying current internal political and economic crises of the Western capitalist powers are driving the reckless warmongering as a way to find a desperate distraction from systematic failure. The coronavirus pandemic and social malaise from historic economic failure are multiplying the militarism of Western states in their policy towards Russia. There is an inability by the ruling establishments to deal with political problems rationally and democratically.

For those willing to see and think with an open mind it is obvious what is going on. Historically, the U.S. and its NATO accomplices are the political inheritors of the Western-backed Nazi regime that tried to destroy Russia for the sake of imperial hegemony of Western capital. Washington and its Western lackeys need to prevent the normalization of relations within Europe whereby the continent’s largest country, Russia, is able to develop peacefully along with European neighbors. The U.S. – the lead Western hegemonic power – must prevent this geopolitical outcome at all costs. In the past, Nazi Germany and fascism were used as bludgeon. Today, it is NATO expansionism in the “defense of democracy and peace”.

War, it seems, is looming and the warmongers are stumbling towards the abyss. As in times past, the ordinary people of Europe and the United States have no interest in conflict. Abominably, disaster and suffering are being contemplated by cosseted elites who are willing to wage war to the last man, woman and child.

The mass of people must resist the warmongers and indeed defeat them to find a better, more peaceful way of governing societies and international relations.

The views of individual contributors do not necessarily represent those of the Strategic Culture Foundation.

See also

December 17, 2024

See also

December 17, 2024
The views of individual contributors do not necessarily represent those of the Strategic Culture Foundation.