As for the latest Ukrainian coup, there was no "invasion of", or "aggression towards", the Ukraine by Vladimir Putin and Co., and therefore no justification for imposing economic sanctions on Russia, wà ¬th new ones being applied as I write this. Moreover, it has been suggested often Putin thus far has demonstrated considerable restraint in refusing to be drawn into anything resembling a substantive -- some say even justifiable -- retaliatory response to the U.S.'s involvement in the removal of the democratically elected, Moscow aligned Yanukovyich government.
Although the catalysts and precursors might be different in each case, presumably Putin still recalls that what happened in Afghanistan when the Soviet Union was effectively goaded by the U.S. under the Brzezinski Doctrine (more on this later) into invading the so-called 'graveyard of empires' in 1979, didn't stay in the "graveyard" as it were! The death of over 15,000 Soviet troops alone -- more or less proportionately equivalent to the number of Americans killed in Vietnam -- is sufficient testament to that.
It should further be noted that many folks -- mostly after the fact of course -- justified the removal of the then Ukrainian government under President Yanukovych because it was authoritarian and criminally corrupt. This of course is a specious and convenient argument less so because it was untrue, but mainly because there is little evidence the replacement regime is any less corrupt. This is Washington engaging in what it does best -- in this case righteous umbrage, albeit of the discretionary kind!
But there is an altogether different consideration: If Uncle Sam had diligently removed every last one of the countless client tyrants he has had on his imperial dance card over the decades on the sole basis of their ethical, moral and/or legal standards of governance, adherence to democratic principles, and/or general political propriety, it's fair to surmise the geopolitical terrain might look as different today as the lunar landscape does to an as yet still pristine portion of the Amazonian rainforest. And the U.S. might still retain some of the moral capital it had accrued by war's end in 1945.
Of course if we really want to push the envelope herein invoking moral relativism, we only need consider that -- notwithstanding what it 'says on the box' - America itself is hardly a bastion of "ethical, moral and/or legal standards of governance, [adherence to] democratic principles, and/or general political propriety". Its track record of manipulation, malfeasance, and general thuggery and skull-duggery implementing regime change on every continent except the big white patch on the bottom of the Big Blue Ball is ample evidence of that, without even touching on its performance closer to home drawing on such benchmarks!
Further, there was and remains no definitive smoking gun evidence linking Russia or the Eastern Ukrainian separatists to the MH-17 shoot-down, and therefore no sound rationale for Washington accusing either of complicity in this crime without ponying up with said evidence. If anything, the longer the dog-not-barking question of why the U.S. refuses to release all of the forensic evidence and 'intel' related to the shoot-down remains unanswered, the more we should rightfully suspect any findings by the MH-17 investigation team -- one it has to be emphasized, suspiciously includes representatives from the at least equally suspect Kiev regime -- that many expect will 'identify' by hook or crook the separatists and/or the Russians as being responsible for the tragedy. Moreover, to then impose a further regime of sanctions as a consequence without at least awaiting the outcome of the official investigation speaks further volumes about Washington's deeper game-plan vis-a-vis the Ukraine and Russia.
All Pain, No Gain (Insane in the Ukraine)
And for this writer, one whose 'blowback antennae' are attuned in these matters, we cannot escape one simple, abiding reality regarding the MH-17 disaster: If the putsch meisters had minded their own business from the off and left well enough alone in the Ukraine, irrespective of the cause of the shoot-down and who was responsible, around three hundred innocent people we do know of -- including almost 40 of my fellow Aussies -- would still be going about their business, and we wouldn't be having this 'conversation'. This is to be sure, a sentiment that I have yet to hear uttered by anyone either in the MSM or in the upper political echelons of Western governments.
And last but not least, consider the following. For this writer, it remains sufficiently incomprehensible that a State Department official -- in this case Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland (The Cookie Monster of the Maidan Coup anyone?) -- would in effect act in such a unilateral, arbitrary manner in bringing about this coup, a reality that alternative and independent media folks like Robert Parry amongst many others have been at pains to bring to wider attention. It is in this instance particularly that the "he who lies first, lies best" maxim really comes to the fore.
But of even greater concern herein is this. I'm sure I'm not the only one who has noted with considerable bewilderment and dismay, the Kiev regime's deployment -- with the full knowledge, approval and indeed encouragement of the putsch-meisters in Washington -- of extreme neo-Nazi forces in facilitating its rise in the first instance, and enforcing since the coup its brutal, illegitimate rule.
Given the neoconservatives well-documented vise-grip on U.S. foreign policy in general and their role in engineering said coup in particular -- especially that of the Nuland/Kagan/PNAC factions and their fellow travellers in the U.S. Congress such as John Boehner and Sen. John McCain, who number amongst them some of the most prominent, so-called "American friends of Israel" -- I'm at something of a loss as to how best to explain the glaring disconnect herein. And of course who can forget the estimable Samantha Powers, Obama's Ambassador to the United Nations, and the administration's resident bear-baiting attack dog, who one suspects has a Putin voodoo doll stashed inside her diplomatic attache case in case of a Russian provoked emergency, of which there have been plenty it seems of late.
Of course America's foreign policy 'initiatives' over the decades have always embraced an "end justifies the means" precept, and only the most naà ¯ve or ill-informed would deny this. But for most objective observers then -- even those of us all too familiar with the CIA's notorious Operation Paperclip, wherein the U.S. actively recruited under-the-radar, former Nazis to fight on any number of fronts the Cold War against the Soviets -- this is breaking new ground in its embrace of the precept, and prima facie has to represent at least another glaring WTF 'mo' in the enactment of U.S. foreign policy. Geopolitics makes strange bedfellows, one might reasonably conclude!
Or is it possible I'm just missing something obvious here? How are all these "American friends of Israel", either inside or outside of the Capitol 'tent', able to reconcile their on-going support of a regime utilising such forces -- whose pernicious ideology being synonymous with rabid anti-Semitism would one imagines, be abhorrent to Jews and non-Jews alike -- under any circumstances?
As it turns out, the aforementioned have been bending 'butt over backwards' since the coup either denying, playing down or completely ignoring this "disconnect", and it is only recently they -- along with their hacks, flacks and lackeys in the MSM -- have been able to bring themselves to even begrudgingly concede there has been and remains any such neo-Nazi involvement in the Ukraine "mess that Nuland made" much less any "disconnect".
An equally pertinent question here is this. How does the all powerful AIPAC and numerous other Jewish/Israel lobby groups and affiliated organisations -- to say nothing of Israel's own official stance on the Ukraine situation itself -- feel about all their "American friends" precipitating and engaging in regime change missions that involve the use and on-going deployment of neo-Nazi forces? Is this just some fuzzy 'post-modern' perversion of realpolitik at work here, and I'm simply too naive to understand what the hell is going on? And now with the neo-Nazi 'natives' becoming increasingly restless, their frustration with their nominal patrons and supporters within the regime's hierarchy reaching boiling points, it will doubtless make for interesting times ahead.
All this of course without considering the added reality of these neo-Nazi organisations combining forces and cozying up in a terrorist/fascist group hug with radical jihadist/Islamic militant groups in what is now shaping up to be a likely -- and doubtless exceedingly bloody -- counter-coup, along with the equally likely prospects of the Ukrainian economy imploding in the wake of the turmoil induced by the coup! On these matters alone, I'm prepped nonetheless to be enlightened as to how/when anything good is likely to come out of America's latest color revolution.
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