As I noted the other day, most Americans remain unaware that President Barack Obama initiated the war in Ukraine in February, 2014 with the Euromaiden Coup in Kiev. Those with an ounce of integrity who followed subsequent events, understand that every Russian entreaty for peace was ignored and that Russia’s red line was crossed when the US opened the door for Ukraine to join NATO. Politically, Putin has no choice but to intervene.
This is the critical missing context every time the official mantra “Russia invaded Ukraine” is incessantly repeated in the mainstream media. And the Deep State and its minions will go on resisting peace and undermining improved US-Russia relations. Patrice Greanville (Greanville Post) called my attention to a good example on the CBS Sunday Morning show of February 16, 2025. Marvin Kalb (age 92) was trotted out to warn that a peace agreement with Russia “might betray Ukraine and send a chilling message to the rest of the world about America as a trusted world leader.” On the front page of today’s New York Times, we read that Trump is abandoning efforts to “punish Russia for starting Europe’s most destructive war in generations.” (NYT, 2/19/2025) Sadly, the “intervention lie” has also been reiterated by Democrats, Bernie Sanders and even some of those on the putative left. Sanders has consistently contributed to the disinformation campaign and called Russia’s invasion of Ukraine “a horror that almost embarrasses all of us for being a part of the human race.” (C-Span, March 18, 2022). Again, no context. It seems that, for some, “fighting to the last Ukrainian” was not hyperbole.
Most readers on this Substack are aware that for at least 30 years, academics and policy makers warned against forward movement by NATO because it would provoke a serious response from Russia. Just a few of these voices include Henry Kissinger, George Kennan, Steven Cohen, Bill Burns (CIA director), Jeffrey Sachs, Col. Douglas MacGregor, and John Mearsheimer. To wit, Russia’s legitimate security concerns were alarmingly ignored by the West as US neocons were intent on inciting a war in order to bleed and weaken Russia, hopefully to the point of a fomenting a coup against Putin. This was all undertaken as prelude to confronting China. BTW, there is no evidence that Russia was planning to invade without US provocations. In countless articles and interviews, Prof. John Mearsheimer (Political Science Department at the University of Chicago) has continued to lay out, chapter and verse — with irrefutable evidence — how NATO expansion to Russia’s eastern border led to the war. For starters, Google: John Mearsheimer, “Why Is Ukraine the West’s Fault?”)
I mention all this because Americans are the most propagandized people on the globe and it will required seeking out alternative sources of information to unlearn the official narrative, not just about Ukraine but also the “Russian threat.” (Think of the Russia-gate hoax, the effects of which still cloud the minds of ordinary citizens). In order, I expect Ukrainians will be the first to grasp that they’ve been used, conned and in Malcolm’s words, “bamboozed.” One can only imagine the angry reaction that will follow. Citizens in European NATO countries will be next and finally, hopefully, the Americans.
I despise what Trump is doing domestically and in Gaza and it should be resisted by any means necessary. However, to simply yell “Trump, Trump, Trump” at every turn is to fail taking a more nuanced perspective at what is happening in the larger world. I agree with those analysts who believe that the 80 year old Cold War between Russia and the U.S. empire (850 U.S. bases around the globe) is coming to a close and a possible nuclear war has been avoided. We’re slowly transitioning from a world dominated by the neocons who believed their empire would last as long as one could imagine and that’s no small thing.