Monday, April 25, 2022

American / NATO Foreign Policy: We Make The Rules But They Don't Appy To Us

 

In a 2014 article titled ‘Why the Ukraine Crisis Is the West’s Fault’, written after the US /NATO / EU coup which ousted Ukraine's admittedly corrupt but democratically elected government and Russia's subsequent annexation of Crimea, Professor John Mearsheimer argued that the U.S. should “publicly rule out” NATO membership for Ukraine, and work towards making the country an economically prosperous, “neutral buffer” between Russia and NATO. Now he claims that had the US State Department and the leaders of iother NATO powers heeded his warning the conflict now engulfing Ukrain and threatening to escalate into a US versus Russia bust up could have been avoided.

Instead of heeding Mearsheimer’s warning however, the U.S. State Department and The Pentagon stepped up its its policy of ignoring Russia’s concerns and provoking confrontation with Moscow. NATO troops began military exercises in Ukraine in September of 2014. By June 2020, NATO had accepted Ukraine as an “Enhanced Opportunities Partner”.

And as late as November of 2021, with Russia already warning that there would be retaliation if the USA and its allies continued to encourage Ukrainian persecution of Russian - speaking minorities in their country by ratifying a “Charter on Strategic Partnership” with the far - right government in Kiev that had been put into power by the 2014 coup. That charter declared that the U.S. “supports Ukraine’s right to decide its own future foreign policy course free from outside interference, including with respect to Ukraine’s aspirations to join NATO”.

What we take away from the quoted passage is that the USA and its NATO allies care about the principle of national sovereignty. Ukraine’s post-Maidan government aspired to join NATO, and Russia shouldn’t get a veto over this, the charter implies. Whether Ukraine eventually joins NATO is a matter for Ukraine and NATO, not for Moscow.

It's a pity the USA and its allies did not show so much concern for Ukraine's right to determine its own furture when the democratically elected goverenment per 2014 decided Ukraine's interests were best served by establishing closer ties with Moscow and turning away from NATO, the EU and the west.

The US government reiterated its claimed concern for the right of nations to determine their own course: America’s supposed concerns about the principle of national sovereignty were outlined even more clearly in a speech Biden gave on 15th February, shortly before Russia’s invasion. He declared:

Nations have a right to sovereignty and territorial integrity. They have the freedom to set their own course and choose with whom they will associate.


Sounds pretty reasonable, doesn’t it? But there’s a more cynical reason why the U.S. chose to antagonize Russia, with the aim of “overextending and unbalancing” the Russian economy and armed forces.

The only problem with this overarching regard for preserving the sovereignty of smaller nations is the way in which the U.S.A. flagrantly ignores this principle when the sovereign rights of a smaller nation such as Syria, Libya, Afghanistan, Iraq or going back even further Vietnam, become an obstruction to the USA's geopolitical ambitions. The most recent example the the reaction of Washington to the new security agreement between China and the Solomon Islands. Here’s what the White House had to say:

If steps are taken to establish a de facto permanent military presence or a military installation, the delegation noted that the United States would then have significant concerns and respond accordingly.

In other words, the U.S. objects to China building military bases close to its ally, Australia, and if China does so, the U.S. will “respond accordingly” ragarless of the Solomon Islands' sovereign right to associate with whatever allies it wishes to.. Now, the US probably wouldn’t invade the Solomon Islands to prevent China building a military base there because they are aware of China's milirary capability (just as they have not directly intervened in Ukrain because that would invite retribution from Russia,), but it might decide to impose crushing sanctions or freeze Solomon Islands' assets held in western banks, with the aim of destroying the Solomon Islands’ economy.

Such sanctions would constitute a blatant violation of the Solomon Islands’ sovereign right to “set their own course and choose with whom they will associate”.

There are a few reasonable, and reasonably honest and consistent positions individuals, be they national leaders or ordinary punters like you, dear reader, and me can take in response to this situation.

1 One can be a pacifist and oppose all uses of force. But as Orwell noted: “Those who ‘abjure’ violence can only do so because others are committing violence on their behalf .” It would also require us to beble to resist the emotional blackmail of the propaganda campaign mounted by mainstream media to cast Russia as the evil bully unfairly oppressing helpless little Ukraine.

2 One can take the view that the use of force by states is merely a routine tool of foreign policy that is to be judged in each case on its merits. This would mean that after showing restraint in the face of almost daily provocations by Ukraine since 2014, Russia's response was to some extent justified even if we think it was excessive.

3 One can view the use of force as a last resort that should be regarded as unacceptable except in the case of extreme need, to be collectively approved in every case, or treated as illegal.

The UN order was largely  during the placed on hold during the Cold War, because the threat of Mutually Assured Destruction took precedence in all major decisions. But with the collapse of the Soviet Union, and the emergence of the unipolar US dominance in the 1990s, there was a chance for it to be established. All that was required was for the sole hyperpower to show that it would agree to be bound by it.

Sadly, the U N was revealed to be the tool of a shadowy cabal of corporate and political players led by the neocons and liberal interventionists, and inent on establishing global government. US foreign policy was driven by those who declared “we don’t need your stinking rules based order, we make the rules”, and who took the view that such restrictions should only apply to others. Hence we had Serbia, Iraq, Libya, Syria.

What we are left with after all the virtue signalling and wishful thinking are filtered out is that Russia’s war is reasonably justifiable (although high risk), based on Russia’s need to secure its southern border against the long term encroachment of a demonstrably militarily aggressive and ideologically universalist military alliance.

Russia is justified in claiming it has tried every alternative, and been contemptuously rebuffed by a US sphere that thought Russia had no choice but to lie back and accept the NATO military boot stamping down on its face forever (to borrow a phrase from Orwell. Realists (and I admit to being one of them, thought Russia would not invade because it would lose in the long run, as a result of the costs of war, resistance and sanctions. Russophobes and Globalist hoped Russia would invade, because they thought that the U.S.A. and NATO would pile in on the side of Ukraine, defeat Russia and the global corporations that make up the Military Industrial Complex would get their hands on Russia's vast reserves of natural resources.

But Russia clearly made different calculations. Mostly in the economic sphere, where they obviously knew that the consequences would be economic warfare by the US sphere, which they have been forewarned of and had plenty of time to prepare for.

So far, on balance things look favourable for the Russians. In the pure military sphere, they can’t really lose, it’s just a matter of how long it takes to grind down the Ukrainian resistance which would have collapsed already were it not propped up by the supply of western high tech weaponry. In the far more important political and economic areas, it appears Russian support for the war is reasonably solid, there’s no chance of real dissent (helped by the rabid Russophobia displayed in the US sphere, and the destruction by sanctions of the major political centres of resistance to the regime’s power), and economically, with the help of allies like Iran, North Korea, Syria, Serbia and Turkey and two of the handful of nations too big to be bullied by Washington, China and India, they seem better equipped to weather the consequences of economic war than Europe.

Blame for the war rests on those who needlessly provoked it. The US sphere for pushing NATO membership gratuitously eastwards, imposing a rational limitation on NATO (the North ATLANTIC Treaty Organisation to those nations that actually have a coastline on the Atlantic ocean. The neo - Nazi fanatics in the Ukraine who are simply not prepared to live in peace with the Russians within their borders were empowered by the belief that they had NATO and EU backing and once Ukraine was accepted as a NATO member would be able to proke an attack by Russia that would trigger a military response from the full NATO membership and wipe out the hated enemy.

As so often, the pursuit of maximalist goals ends in disaster.

It has been pointed out that if a federal structure had been adopted for the post-Soviet construct that was the modern Ukrainian state, it might have survived. Too late now it seems, Ukraine is heading for partition. 

 

 RELATED:


Russian Long Range Missile Test Fuels Nuclear War Fears As NATO Pushed Ukraine To Escalate Conflict
Russia tested its latest intercontinental ballistic missile yeserday, the Satan II has a range of 10,000 miles and can devastate an area of 250,000 square kilometers according to military experts. Bizarrely commentators in mainsteam and online news services portrayed this as a sign of weakness by Russia, though the same people cheered when Joe (Dementiaman) Biden threratened a nuclear response if Russia crossed his 'red lines' in Ukraine ...

We The Good Guys Versus They The Bad Guys Reporting Does Not Make Sense For The Ukraine Crisis
Mainstream media reporting of the conflict in Ukraine has disappointed. Perhaps I was naive to suppose that lessons might have been learned from the hits their print sales and online traffic rates took as a result of their handling the COVID pandemic But instead of focusing on the most obviously newsworthy aspect of the build up to and escalation of the war, Russia’s view of NATO expansion into Ukraine and even further to Georgia and Kazakhstan, news reports have simply demonised Russia and portrayed Ukraine as the good guys.

Even If The War In Ukraine Ends, Sanctions Will Stay - So How Bad Will The Food Crisis Get?
Western leaders, desperate to show their own countries they were taking a firm stance on Russia's invasion of Ukraine, were quick to impose economic sanctions ... so quick in fact that they acted before they had though things through. While freezing Russia out of the global finance system they have exacerbated the wests energy crisis, while Russia's retaliatory ban on raw materials (fertiliser) exports will create extra problems on top of those we already had ...

While Crazy Joe Biden Claims Victory Over Russia, NATO's Expansin Plans Have Been Derailed By PutinJoe Biden (or his handlers because we all know Joe's mind is gone,) have been trying to spin reports of Russian troops withdrawing from positions close to the Ukraine border as a diplomatic victory for the USA over Putin but in the geopolitical game things are seldom what they seem to be ...


Mainstream media's hyping of the threat to Ukrained posed by Russian aggression is the latest in a long line of attempts to lay blame for western foreign policy disasters at the feet of Russia. In fact had Joe Biden not started to babble about Russian aggression, talking up the threat of conflict, there would be no crisis ...

Is The Russian Threat To Invade Ukraine Real Or A Globalist Conspiracy Theory?
Continue reading >>>While Joe Biden's handlers in Washington and Boris Johnson In London talk up the threat of war should Russia invade Ukraine as they claim Moscow is preparing to do,Ukrainian leaders are dismissive, accusing the west of ramping up hysteria in a bid to divert attention from oither problems.

British Government Laundered Fake U.S. 'Intelligence' On Ukraine
The British government on Saturday accused Russia of organizing a plot to install a pro-Moscow government in Ukraine, as the Kremlin masses troops near the Ukrainian border. The U.K. Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office gave relatively little information about the intelligence unveiled Saturday other than to say that the Russian government was considering trying to make a Russia-leaning former member of Ukraine’s parliament, Yevhen Murayev, the country’s new leader. Continue reading >>>

War with Russia? The latest scare story
As the COVID narrative crumbles under the weight of evidence that the vaccines do not work, masks are useless and lockdowns kill more than they save a new scaremongering narrative - or a revamped old one - is emerging as the threat of war with russia is the latest fear and panic vehicle to scare the people into compliance with tyranny. Continue reading >>>

We The Good Guys Versus They The Bad Guys Reporting Does Not Make Sense For The Ukraine Crisis
Mainstream media reporting of the conflict in Ukraine has disappointed. Perhaps I was naive to suppose that lessons might have been learned from the hits their print sales and online traffic rates took as a result of their handling the COVID pandemic But instead of focusing on the most obviously newsworthy aspect of the build up to and escalation of the war, Russia’s view of NATO expansion into Ukraine and even further to Georgia and Kazakhstan, news reports have simply demonised Russia and portrayed Ukraine as the good guys.

Boris and Biden Can't Blame Ukraine War For Energy Crisis
With typical arrogance and condescension towards the people who elected them Boris Johnson, Joe Biden and their respectiive presstitutes are trying to spin the energy crisis Europe and North America are currently facing as somehow being linked to the conflict in Ukraine and therfore blame is being attactched to Russia and Vladimir Putin. Do they really think we are stupid enough to believe such unmitigated bollocks? ...

Even If The War In Ukraine Ends, Sanctions Will Stay - So How Bad Will The Food Crisis Get?
Western leaders, desperate to show their own countries they were taking a firm stance on Russia's invasion of Ukraine, were quick to impose economic sanctions ... so quick in fact that they acted before they had though things through. While freezing Russia out of the global finance system they have exacerbated the wests energy crisis, while Russia's retaliatory ban on raw materials (fertiliser) exports will create extra problems on top of those we already had ...

Europe's Depleted Gas Storage Might Not Get Refilled Ahead Of Next Winter
While mainstream news reporting of the conflict in Ukraine continues to pump out a torrent of anri - Russia, pro - war propaganda the catastropic effects of this war that could so easily have been avoided are not mentioned. Well why would warmongering governments admit they have inflicted an energy crisis, food shortages and soaring living costs on their people for no good reason ...

Putin, Macron To Hold Urgent Talks To Halt Military Escalation In Ukraine
Even though the leaders of Ukraine itself are talking down the threat of war with Russia over the breakaway region of Donbas, America and Britain are still beating the war drums and demonising Russian leader Vladimir Putin. Russia insists they have no plans to invade Ukraine and one western leader at least, France's Emmanuel Macron, seems to be listening to messages coming out of the East European trouble spot...

Germany News Mag. Spiegel Asks "Is Vladimir Putin Right?" About NATO Expansion
As the confrontation along the border between Ukraine and Russia has escalated to actual shooting with ethnic Russian rebel separatists in Donbas reporting intensified shelling and initiating a "general mobilization" of military-age males, with Moscow denying they plan to invade and Ukraine's leaders accusing US, UK and French leaders of hysteria for talking up the threat of war, Germany's leading newspaper Spiegel asks the question fundamental to the entire conflict...

While Crazy Joe Biden Claims Victory Over Russia, NATO's Expansin Plans Have Been Derailed By PutinJoe Biden (or his handlers because we all know Joe's mind is gone,) have been trying to spin reports of Russian troops withdrawing from positions close to the Ukraine border as a diplomatic victory for the USA over Putin but in the geopolitical game things are seldom what they seem to be ...