Most Popular Choices
Share on Facebook 27 Printer Friendly Page More Sharing
General News    H2'ed 12/15/14

War Drums Beat Louder & Faster Between U.S. & Russia

By       (Page 1 of 2 pages)   10 comments

On Saturday, December 13th, Russian media reported that U.S. President Obama evidently can't wait to sign the congressional authorization for war against Russia (which has already been passed in draft form by 98% of U.S. House members and 100% of U.S. Senate members), and that he is already shipping military supplies into Ukraine for use against Ukraine's ethnic Russians that the Ukrainian Government is trying to eliminate.

Mikhail Emelyanov, a leading Russian parliamentarian, was quoted as saying on Saturday, Russia "cannot calmly watch as the US arms Ukraine with the most modern lethal weapons. In this regard, we should not appear weak. The situation is very alarming. Judging by US intentions, they want to turn Ukraine into a fighting platform against Russia."

The popular Russian website "Colonel Cassad" reports that the reason why Ukraine's airports in Zaporozyhe, Kharkov and Dnepropetrovsk mysteriously shut down for other traffic on Saturday was to unload weapons-shipments from the U.S. Specifically, it said that, at Zaporozyhe, "one of the airport workers replied that the airport has to be prepared to accept military aircraft with equipment, including Kharkov and Dnepropetrovsk. The equipment is expected from the United States." For the time being, civilian traffic at all three of those airports is being reduced during the next few days, in order to unload that U.S. freight.

Also reported Saturday at fortruss.blogspot was that, "Right now at Zaporozhye airport they are unloading two transport planes from USA. Cargo is in boxes. According to additional information two more planes are expected to arrive."

Just one day prior, Foreign Policy had bannered on Friday, "Who Will Foot the Bill in Ukraine?" and their reporter naively claimed that, "little aid is forthcoming for Ukraine as its government faces a shortfall."

The "aid" is actually already coming, in the form of U.S. military cargo shipments, gratis from U.S. taxpayers (though hardly gratis from the U.S. armaments-makers, whose business is booming from this). And the Ukraine "government faces a shortfall" thing is actually far worse than that: as Forbes's Mark Adomanis headlined on April 15th, "Ukraine's Economy Is Nearing Collapse." He reported, "The central bank was forced to take such desperate measures because the currency has been in free fall, losing more than 35% of its value against the dollar this year. The Hryvnia has been the world's worst performing currency in 2014." And: "The only reason that things haven't totally imploded is because of the $18 billion package of assistance from the IMF and the $9 billion in additional assistance pledged by the United States and the European Union. This financial assistance is desperately needed and will obviously help the Ukrainian government keep the lights on. The problem is that Ukraine's funding needs aren't a static target but are directly influenced by changes in its economic outlook. Since that economic outlook is darkening, Ukraine's already large funding needs have grown commensurately."

Forbes's Kenneth Rapoza then noted on November 12th, "The nation's currency, the hryvnia, has lost 91.5% of its value so far this year."

On December 11th, Ukraine's new Minister of Economic Development admitted, "By and large, the state is bankrupt."

So: U.S. and European taxpayers will be funding all of those 'loans,' which will never be paid back, they're actually donations instead of loans, because Ukraine was already tens of billions of dollars in debt even before the West took over; and none of these additional 'debts' will be able to be paid back one cent unless and until those earlier debts are, which will never be possible in that spiraling-downward country, which is now designing a military graveyard with a capacity for 250,000 fresh corpses of Ukrainian soldiers, and that's not a very productive "investment" for any country to be making. America's 'investment' in Ukraine is an 'investment' in corpses; and far more of those will be of the millions of residents in the targeted region than of the soldiers on either side of the conflict.

One of Russia's loans to Ukraine has a provision saying that if Ukraine's ratio of debt to GDP exceeds 60%, then Russia can demand and Ukraine must pay in cash the full due amount. The ratio has already exceeded that, but the official figure won't be announced until March 2015, and, as Britain's Economist noted, "That could trigger a default on all Ukraine's other international bonds (which are worth about $16 billion up to 2023)." So: all of the money that is being 'loaned' to Ukraine now is purely a donation, since Russia will certainly pull the plug and flush Ukraine down the toilet this coming Spring. Then, all of a sudden, that $16 billion in cash will need to be put up by the Ukrainian Government, and whatever there is to put up, practically all of it will have to be paid to Ukraine's old chief lender: Russia. The West will get little or nothing of it.

Washington isn't out to help the Ukrainian people; it's solely using Ukraine as a launching-pad for WW III against Russia. That's all it's "good for" now. And that's what Obama is using it for: to slaughter, first, the residents in the parts of Ukraine that refuse to be ruled by the regime that Obama put in place; and, then, everybody else.

If this sounds crazy (and of course it does), then please ask your two Senators and your one Representative in the House: "Why did you vote to approve sending weapons to the Ukrainian Government?" (Mine refuses to answer.)

Please then report back here, in the reader-comments below, what the answer to that question is. Everyone who reads this article here will be interested to know what the answer to that question is.

Here is the list of the only 10 members of Congress who voted no on that bill, and all of them are in the House:

California's George Miller (D)

California's Dana Rohrabacher (R)

Next Page  1  |  2

(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).

Must Read 4   Well Said 4   Supported 2  
Rate It | View Ratings

Eric Zuesse Social Media Pages: Facebook page url on login Profile not filled in       Twitter page url on login Profile not filled in       Linkedin page url on login Profile not filled in       Instagram page url on login Profile not filled in

Investigative historian Eric Zuesse is the author, most recently, of  They're Not Even Close: The Democratic vs. Republican Economic Records, 1910-2010,  and of  CHRIST'S VENTRILOQUISTS: The Event that (more...)
 
Go To Commenting
The views expressed herein are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of this website or its editors.
Writers Guidelines

 
Contact EditorContact Editor
Support OpEdNews

OpEdNews depends upon can't survive without your help.

If you value this article and the work of OpEdNews, please either Donate or Purchase a premium membership.

STAY IN THE KNOW
If you've enjoyed this, sign up for our daily or weekly newsletter to get lots of great progressive content.
Daily Weekly     OpEd News Newsletter
Name
Email
   (Opens new browser window)
 

Most Popular Articles by this Author:     (View All Most Popular Articles by this Author)

First Examination of Malaysian MH-17 Cockpit Photo Shows Ukraine Government Shot that Plane Down

Indications that the U.S. Is Planning a Nuclear Attack Against Russia

Harry Reid Effectively Kills Obama's TPP and TTIP International Trade Deals

UPDATED -- Conclusive: 2 Ukrainian Government Fighter-Jets Shot Down that Malaysian Airliner.

MH-17 'Investigation': Secret August 8th Agreement Seeps Out

The Propaganda War About Ukraine: How Important It Really Is

To View Comments or Join the Conversation:

Tell A Friend