As tensions continue to escalate between Russia and
Ukraine the United States and NATO have sprung into action.
And I would argue not in such a great way indicating that conflict with
Russia might be imminent.
Now, let's start off with NATO forces and what they're doing and
then we'll get to the United States.
NATO said Monday, meaning today that it would send additional ships and
fighter jets to Eastern Europe as Britain ordered some diplomats and their families.
To leave Ukraine amid growing alarm that Russia may invade as it masses
tens of thousands of troops near its border.
Okay, so I just want you guys to ask yourselves why they are doing that,
because the narrative in the United States is that they're
doing it as a way to prepare for an invasion into Ukraine.
But I would also ask you to look into the provocations by NATO for
quite some time now, that might have also persuaded them to protect its borders.
I'm not a huge fan of Vladimir Putin, I think that's pretty clear, but
I think that we're getting one side of the story here.
And one thing that's really important to also look at is the comments
coming from Ukraine.
Remember, Ukraine is the alleged victim here, right,
Ukraine is apparently dealing with a serious threat here.
But the comments and some of these stories which of course are buried and
like paragraph 28, tell you something a little different and
I just asked to be detailed in your analysis here.
So let me give you more, members,
meaning NATO members are putting forces on standby and
sending additional ships and fighter jets to NATO deployments in eastern Europe.
Reinforcing allied deterrence and
defense as Russia continues its military build up in and around Ukraine.
All right, so what about the United States?
Well, the latest news as we speak about this is that as many as
8500 US troops have been put on heightened notice for
possible deployment to eastern Europe.
Also, US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin has issued a warning to
essentially prepare for deployment at the direction of President Joe Biden and
this is the latest step that the US has taken to prepare for potential war,
a potential Russian invasion.
The US is also considering cutting off Russia from this is considered the nuclear
option.
No pun intended, cutting off Russia from the global financial system,
essentially the Treasury Department would do that.
And if they do that, it's very similar to what happened to Iran.
It would be catastrophic for Russia's economy.
More importantly for the people of Russia,
let me give you more Germany is also considering ending its partnership
with Russia by cutting off the Nord Stream two gas pipeline.
So there's a lot at stake for Russia.
Again, it could be cut off from the global economy, it could be cut off from this
lucrative pipeline deal with Germany and the way that this is being reported on,
would have you believe that Russia invading Ukraine is imminent.
Like they're preparing they're gonna do it any day now.
But Ukraine has a different take.
Now, the United States on Sunday ordered families of diplomats to leave Kiev and
ordered non essential diplomatic staff to also leave.
The State Department also cautioned American citizens to consider leaving
Ukraine with US officials warning that an attack could happen at any time.
But what's really going on?
Well, Ukrainian officials including the leader of Ukraine is telling
the people of Ukraine like this seems pretty scary but calm down because
the threat is not as serious as the United States would have you believe.
In fact one official from Ukraine says while we respect the right of
foreign states to ensure the security of their diplomatic missions,
we consider such steps by the American side to be premature and
sign of excess caution.
Ukraine Foreign Ministry spokesperson Oleg Nikolaenko said in a statement, in
fact there have been no cardinal changes in the security situation recently.
He added, noting that the concentration of Russian forces on
Ukraine's borders began last April.
So he's like yeah I mean yeah I guess the the US can do what it wants to do but
like we don't really see a change in our security.
Like why are things escalating all of a sudden, let me give you more,
now, my take is that the United States has been intentionally
crossing what's been referred to as Russia's red line.
Putin's red line and it really has to do with NATO the heart of this conflict,
I mean, the media in the United States would have you believe that
it's all about Russia wanting to invade Ukraine.
But Russia has been increasingly frustrated with the United States and
with NATO and its red line is the possibility of Ukraine joining NATO.
They don't want that.
They see that as a provocation that gets left out of the conversation.
And if you look at the history of the United States and
its relationship to Russia, this has been a a point of conflict for a long time.
In fact, the United States has reneged on its promises to avoid expanding NATO.
NATO is a relic of the soviet era, right?
It was a response to the soviet union during the Cold War.
And there was this promise by both the George H, W,
Bush administration and the Bill Clinton administration to stop
expanding NATO after the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Well, the soviet union collapsed and guess what?
They continued expanding and that has been a provocative move by NATO and
the United States of course and for
a long time, Russia is kind of like kind of given a side eye to that.
But the possibility of Ukraine joining NATO is seen as more provocative because
NATO shares a border with, I'm sorry, Ukraine shares a border with Russia.
So that's one of the reasons why Russia sees it as incredibly provocative since
they see it as provocative.
They've been gathering their troops and their military capability at the border.
They see it as defensive.
Whereas, the United States and NATO sees it as offensive.
Let me give you more, in my opinion,
has written the best comprehensive pieces on this conflict.
It's very real.
It gives you the historical context necessary to understand the conflict and
it's certainly more fair than anything you're gonna read in the Washington post
or the New York times.
In a piece that he wrote in Jacobin back in December of last year,
he said when the Cold War ended and the soviet union dissolved,
there was ostensibly no more use for NATO.
And both the George H W Bush and Bill Clinton administrations told Russian
leadership that the alliance wouldn't expand eastward.
But guess what?
It continued to expand.
In fact, privately, Bush's pentagon urged Washington to leave
the door ajar for eastern European membership down the line,
which is exactly what they did under criticism from no less than Robert Gates.
Defense Secretary for both Bush's son and Barack Obama and
George Kennan, the father of US anti communist policy of containment.
So they got criticism from people who are who have not been pro Russia,
like yo, you promised not to expand.
You know eastward with the NATO alliance is you continue to do It and
this is gonna be counterproductive.
Sure enough, it ended up being pretty counterproductive between 1999 and 2020,
14 countries joined the alliance, all of them from eastern Europe.
And two of them scraping right up against rush the Russian border,
Kennan had worried this would inflame the nationalistic,
anti western and militaristic tendencies in Russian opinion and
impel Russian foreign policy in a direction decidedly not to our liking.
As Marcia teach rights, which looking back in hindsight is pretty spot on.
Now, while Russia hated the expansion of NATO, the inclusion again of Ukraine has
been a red line because of the fact that they share a border.
Okay, that gets left out of the conversation.
Just take a look at this map, this is from the Washington post
that shows you the border that they share.
Yes, Russia did annex Crimea in 2014 and
I would venture to say that the situation now is a little different.
Okay, there were certainly separatists in Crimea who wanted to be
part of Russia rather than Ukraine.
People disagree with what Russia did.
I think that there's valid, that's a valid thought, but right now we need to also
consider what Russia stands to lose if it invaded Ukraine, it stands to lose a lot.
Its economy is in shambles already.
You have the United States already implementing all sorts of sanctions
against Russia.
They wanna take it a step further with the possible nuclear option of
cutting Russia off from the global economy.
Which would mean that it would be in the same state that Iran is in which is
a complete and utter disaster.
Again the people of Iran are really suffering.
They're bearing the brunt of US aggression toward the country.
And the same will be true of Russia if Russia does really show any real
evidence of wanting to invade Ukraine.
Again, you can argue and I would say that this is actually the case that Russia
is responding to NATO aggression by getting its troops ready at the border.
Because they're concerned about Ukraine getting military weaponry from
the United States joining NATO which they've see as a provocation.
Everything the US has done, everything that NATO has done has not really helped.
It's only escalated the situation rather than approach this impossible
diplomatic ways.
Everything the US has done has actually been pretty aggressive.
Some might argue that sanctions aren't a form of war,
but it is, it is a form of war especially sanctions that harm the Russian people.
So, we're also by the way this is important meddling in Russian elections
which is an important point that gets left out of all the reporting you see on this
situation.
And it should be an important point to bring up considering we spent so
much time reporting on and showing concern for Russian meddling in the US election.
In May of 2021 US officials were tricked into admitting on camera that they have
a very very active program throughout Russia and we're targeting the country's
legislative elections, meaning this political meddling is still going on.
So the way again,
that this is being reported makes it seem like Russia bad us and NATO good.
But that's not the case, It's way more nuanced than that.
And the aggression by the United States and NATO is worth noting because that's
how you understand some of the decisions that are being made by the Kremlin.
We should also be concerned about war with two nuclear countries here,
right Washington and
Moscow alone own around 90% of the world's nuclear warheads.
Or a little more than 8000 stockpiled between them with around
2000 of them on high operational alert.
This is more than enough to annihilate each other and
human civilization as a whole, kind of relevant to the discussion.
No, because everywhere you go right now in corporate media the war drums
are being like they're hitting the war drums, they can't wait for
a possible US invasion of Russia.
Which would be absolutely insane.
Rather than saying, hey why don't we take a step back and
really assess what's at stake here.
We're putting 8500 U.S troops on alert for possible deployment to Eastern Europe.
How is that a smart idea.
It's really incredible stuff.
And just to give you one example of one of the doofus is in corporate media that's
beating the war drums.
We've got Joe Scarborough who tweeted, the Russians see our retreat from
Afghanistan as a green light to invade Ukraine,
China sees American passivity towards Ukraine as a green light to invade Taiwan.
Regardless of the US ultimate position, this is the reality the White House faces.
No that's not the reality of the White House faces and
notice how he included the failed 20 year Afghanistan war
in that critique of the US government.
The problem with the United States is not that it engages in preemptive wars.
Not that it orchestrates coups in Latin American countries,
not that it is assisting in the Saudi led brutality in Yemen,
the famine that's killing millions of Children.
No that's not the problem.
The problem is we're not engaging enough war.
I mean, I would venture to say we're not engaging in enough diplomacy.
We're not listening to what the red line is for Putin and Russia.
Right, why are we continuing to expand NATO when they see that as a provocation?
When they see that as a cause for a possible war.
It's just, I get it it's tough.
It's really tough when you're feuding with someone to take a step back and say,
all right maybe I shouldn't do this next thing that I really wanna do?
That knee jerk reaction because it's gonna further escalate the conflict here.
But the United States like military conflict, yes sign me up.
And by the way the people making the decision here to put those 8500 US troops
on high alert for possible deployment aren't going to send their own kids.
They're just send your kids or
if you're currently an active member of the military they're gonna send you.
But who cares?
Just more american lives to fight nonsense wars that could be
prevented through other means.
And I do wanna end with two more graphics here because
who is an excellent person to follow on Twitter.
If you want to know what's going on with foreign policy.
He's actually a foreign policy adviser for Bernie Sanders.
He had a really great point, he says comparing the intensity of coverage of
Ukraine and Afghanistan to the lack of coverage of the far more serious threat
of global vaccine inequality offers a window into the US is misguided and
militaristic foreign policy debate.
And I couldn't agree more.
And finally for those who think that the United States is best suited
to police the globe and allegedly protect countries like Ukraine.
Let me just remind you of the track record that the United States has.
Washington has launched an illegal invasion of Iraq that destroyed
the country and destabilized the wider region.
Set up a global network of secret torture prisons and
kidnapped people off the streets of even Western off the streets of even
Western countries to fill them carried out regime change war in Libya.
Further destabilizing the region and reducing the country to violent anarchy.
We're not done yet though, as continues to write in the piece, unilaterally imposed
crippling sanctions on Iran and Venezuela in defiance of the United Nations.
Consistently threatened another war against Iran.
By the way, remember all the lies they told about Iran and
all the aggression that the United States was engaging in toward Iran.
Just something to keep in mind pulling out of an international agreement and
assassinating one of its top officials and backed or
fomented coups in several different Latin American countries.
Venezuela, you have Bolivia, these are the more recent ones.
Of course, the Venezuelan coup has failed.
The bolivian coup succeeded.
That's what the United States is engaged in.
And I know I keep repeating it, but we're also engaged in all sorts of human rights
abuses in Yemen because as long as we're dealing with an ally, like the wonderful
Saudi Arabia, all of a sudden human rights abuses, we don't really care.
You can just toss those concerns out the window.
Look, this is not to say that Putin is a good guy.
This is not a segment meant to support Russia.
This is about allowing cooler heads to prevail and not falling for
the same rhetoric, the same narratives that we hear over and
over again when corporate media is beating the war drums and
when the government is trying to make it seem as though there's another boogeyman,
another massive threat that we need to be engaged with.
It's absolute nonsense.
We need to be smarter this time around.
Don't fall for the corporate media narrative on this.
Make sure you get to Paragraph 28 in the Washington Post,
where you actually hear from officials from Ukraine and
get a sense of how overblown the narratives are here in the us.