Biden’s War (Part 1)
ANGLO AMERICA, 9 Jan 2023
Stephanie Hiller – TRANSCEND Media Service
6 Jan 2023 – Putin has offered a 36-hour ceasefire in honor of the Russian Orthodox Christmas and Biden and the Ukrainians have rejected it. Russia says it is going to do it anyway.
Ukrainians meanwhile heard on KPFA news can only say he doesn’t mean it, whenever Russia makes a promise, it fails to keep it.
That’s what Putin says about the West.
Zelenski almost sneered when he said Russia would use the ceasefire to better position his troops. With the extraordinary arrogance that Ukraine has displayed in recent weeks he added that Russia would have to remove all its troops before Ukraine would join a ceasefire.
Biden was equally superior in his comments. He told reporters at the White House, “I’m reluctant to respond to anything that Putin says. I found it interesting that he was willing to bomb hospitals and nurseries and churches … on the 25th and New Year’s. I mean, I think he’s trying to find some oxygen.”
The level of distrust, and particularly the he-started-it-first reaction from the West is distressing to say the least.
Biden’s response, always grounded in presumed moral superiority, is based on the belief broadcast by all the major media that Ukraine is winning the war.
Numerous analysts, including former military like Scott Ritter and Colonel Macgregor, have argued persuasively that there is no chance Ukraine will win. They point to the rapid exhaustion of supplies that even the U.S. cannot replenish fast enough, and the tragic loss of Ukrainian lives. They have called this war the most propagandized in history.
We should be in the streets shouting our objections to our government’s insane behavior but we seem to be paralyzed by confusion over what is really going on. We have heard the government’s story and we believe it. It appeals to our need for a simple heroic story in this time of multiple threats. Russia’s attack was unprovoked, Putin is a maniac “like Hitler” out to devour Ukraine and then move on to Europe, the brave Ukrainians are brave heroes fighting for their country and we, the West, are helping them win. Like the members of the US Congress when Zelenski gave his speech, we want to stand up and clap. We need this story; we need to make America great again.
Unfortunately, the truth is a lot more complicated. As Ritter explained in his talk at the Community Church of Boston, the US made this war possible. It all began in 1991 with the reunification of Germany, when multiple officials assured Gorbachev that NATO would not proceed one inch further to the east. John Mearsheimer, Ray McGovern, Bruce Gagnon, among others, have documented the American plan to defeat and balkanize Russia that has directed our foreign policy ever since.
As US citizen, I am disgusted. As a human being, I am terrified. Is there no whisper of possibility somewhere in this mess?
I must say I can barely hear this small voice of hope.
In all the dissention, the sheer stupidity and widespread disappointment, will this swelling outcry against the hypocrisy of our so-called leaders, somehow lead to the change we so urgently need?
Will a grassroots democratic uprising emerge from the chaos and demand a ceasefire so that the leaders of the world can get down to the real business of addressing the climate crisis and feeding the world?
What is stopping us?
Former Marine Ritter says the answers are in his new book, Disarmament in the Time of Perestroika. Ritter was one of the first inspectors on the 1987 Intermediate Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF), from which Trump withdrew in 2018. He says it was a life-changing experience.
Maybe what we lack is a message, and somehow the call for a ceasefire and negotiations is not quite enough to stir us out of our comfortable homes in the middle of winter.
What would we like to say to Putin, Biden and Zelenski?
Stop sending weapons to Ukraine?
That would end the war immediately.
But Biden doesn’t want to end the war, and we are supporting him. When Zelenski came to speak before the Congress in his green sweatshirt, our representatives gave him a standing ovation three times. We are risking nuclear war while thousands of Ukrainians and Russians are dying! For what?
How long is this infamy going to go on?
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Stephanie Hiller is a freelance writer who blogs at Particle Beams, Sonoma Sun and Medium. She is an adjunct instructor at Santa Rosa Junior College, where she teaches autobiographical writing to older adults. She lives in Sonoma, USA.
Tags: Anglo America, Biden, European Union, Pentagon, USA, Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, War Economy
This article originally appeared on Transcend Media Service (TMS) on 9 Jan 2023.
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