Do You Really Want to Go to War With Russia? The Crazies Do!

Why do we support protests in one place and use brutal force in our own country to end protests??

kavkazcenter.com

(JAMESTOWN, RI) - At times like this it appears we have crazy people making life and death decisions for the good citizens of the US. It is disconcerting to say the least to come to grips with the reality that there are many in this government who are war mongers and who appear to be provoking Russia. This is suicidal. This is not Libya, or Afghanistan, or Iraq, or Syria, or Grenada, or any of the smaller powers we have chosen to make war on. This is nuclear armed and powerful Russia, and in such a war, there would be no winner, and yet we seem to be provoking and encroaching on Russia by surrounding and threatening them with military force. At some point Russia will have a red line and I fear we are fast approaching that red line.

A few short months ago the US was charging towards war with Syria using the false pretext that Assad used chemical weapons against his own people. Sound familiar? The same pretext was used to make war on Iraq. In any case it was those nasty Russians who stepped in and took Obama off the hook by claiming they could convince Assad to get rid of all his chemical weapons. They are well under way to doing just that with the announcement that 95% of all chemical weapons have been destroyed much to the dissatisfaction of the neocons who just wanted a war. Those Russians ruined any chance for a war against Syria for the time.

Then came the Crimea incident where 98% of the Crimean population voted to be under Russian rule. Lest we forget Crimea was formerly a part of the Soviet Republic until Khrushchev, some say while drunk, gave it away to the Ukraine. Almost all the citizens of Crimea are of Russian decent and longed for the day they could return to mother Russia. US media described the Russian “invasion” and “annexation” as hostile and violent. That is a distortion to say the least. Not one person was killed in the Russian “invasion”, and Crimeans welcomed the Russian soldiers. Better examples of invasions would be using lies and distortion to send 150,000 troops into a Middle Eastern country on the other side of the earth killing over 100,000 civilians, while occupying that country for over 10 years and finally leaving it in absolute anarchy, or sending half a million soldiers into Southeast Asia leaving thousands dead, wounded, and poisoned, Can you say Iraq, Afghanistan, or Vietnam?

Media and the US government, now one in the same, are now claiming Russia has military designs on eastern Ukraine and constantly government officials use threatening language towards the Russians, when in fact we have absolute evidence that we, the US, has been meddling in the Ukraine by trying to orchestrate “regime change”, even though they had an elected government. Loudmouth and foul mouth neocon Victoria Nuland, was caught in an intercepted phone call laying out the plan for who the US government wanted to be the new leader of Ukraine after the overthrow of the elected government. She formerly had bragged how the US had poured 5 billion dollars into the Ukraine, again trying to orchestrate an overthrow of the elected government.

Then we saw the head of the CIA, John Brennan make a mysterious personal appearance in Kiev in the midst of a pending civil war. Anyone care to guess his business there? You are free to speculate because the US government could not, and would not, explain the reason for his visit. After the CIA head left Ukraine, the Vice President paid a visit using bellicose language towards Russia. This provocation and militaristic language was followed by the announcement of the US government that US troops were headed to Poland and surrounding countries. This was followed by the Pentagon announcement that a USS Taylor, a battleship, was headed into the Black Sea. Why the escalation and provocation? Where are the calmer more sane people in government?

I wonder what the reaction of the US would be if the Russians sent a battle ship into New York harbor in support of the Occupy Protest? What would happen if Putin appeared in Zucotti Park passing out cookies a la Nuland? What would be the reaction if the head of the Russian spy agency showed up at Zucotti Park?

The New York Times got in on the propaganda with a major story and photos linking the “armed men in the Ukraine” with Russia, and created near hysteria, only to be forced, reluctantly to admit the photos used to document the story were now “under scrutiny”. Buried deep in the Times was a “kind of, sort of” retraction, but the damage was done. Joe Biden who was also in Kiev said Russia should “stop supporting men behind masks”. Apparently he had not read the New York Times retraction that the photos of the “men behind the masks” were bogus. Biden also said: “No nation has the right to simply grab land from another nation," but apparently he never read in the NYT about our best friend Israel’s illegal seizure of Palestinians lands. Rather than threaten Israel with war as we are doing with Russia, we give Israel anywhere from 3-5 billion per year for their illegal seizure. Such hypocrisy!

The US government enthusiastically supported the protestors who took over government buildings in Kiev, with Victoria Nuland once again like Waldo popping up in the middle of the street protests to urge on the protestors. This scene was repeated when Senator John McCain showed up in the crowd to urge on the protestors. Why was that protest supported so enthusiastically by the US, when one month later in Eastern Ukraine the same kind of protests are broken up because people are demanding a national referendum to determine who they would like to be aligned with, Ukraine or Russia? What is wrong with a democratic election? What is wrong with self-determination? Why have these particular protests been ridiculed, while one month ago we cheered on the street protestors in Kiev? Why is the US supporting a military dictatorship in Egypt that sentenced over 500 people to death in a sham one day trial, by sending Apache helicopters to be used against the street protestors?

Where were Victoria Nuland and the US government during the Occupy Protest in Zucotti Park in Manhattan? Why did those protestors not get money, cookies and even the implied hint of military aid? Why do we support protests in one place and use brutal force in our own country to end protests??

It appears the US Empire which has grown through military expansion around the world, has lost the ability to act diplomatically and now sees every incident as being solved by war. The art of diplomacy has been lost and the only tool now in our tool bag is the hammer, so government leaders always rely on their only tool in their bag, war. This time things might be different, as the neocons have made a habit of picking on second rate powers and bombing them into oblivion killing thousands of innocents in countries like Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Yemen, Pakistan, Grenada, Panama and the like. This is the Russia; a country more than capable of pushing and fighting back with nuclear weapons. Do the good citizens of the US really want a war with Russia? The crazies do. Who are the crazies? You should know; they are leading you towards death.

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Salem-News.com Writer Joe Clifford, lives in historic Jamestown, Rhode Island, and has contributed a number of articles relating to foreign policy to newspapers in the Rhode Island area for years.

He graduated from Providence College where he earned an undergraduate and graduate degree. After a lengthy career as a high school teacher he turned to the study of US foreign policy, and then to writing, as a means of expressing an alternative perspective. His reading and research on foreign policy is broad and extensive, especially as the policy relates to the Middle East. His interest in foreign policy was inspired by the American misadventure in Vietnam. You can write to Joe at this address: jc21131@gmail.com