Posted on 03/16/2022 8:06:01 AM PDT by Rennes Templar
Watch the video (at link), the host gets more disturbed with each comment coming from colonel.
MacGregor reminds me of officers I served under while in the USMC. They are mission-driven and could care less about opinions outside the theater of war.
Long before this Russia/Ukraine conflict started he predicted the onset of it. His prediction came at the beginning of this year.
He argues that the United States teaming up with NATO to push Putin into a corner and that’s one of the major things that has started this conflict.
Back in January of 2022, The Gray Zone reported that Col. Doug MacGregor, an ex-Pentagon advisor, on how the US war lobby fuels conflict from Ukraine to Syria. Washington, DC, he says, is “occupied territory. It’s occupied by corporations, by lobbies.”
“The Military Industrial Congressional Complex,” Macgregor says, “seems to be more powerful than anyone who occupies the office of the presidency.”
Here is what he predicted would take place:
First of all, the problems in Ukraine are not new. We’ve been dealing with them for the last, I would argue, 10 to 15 years. These problems were evident in the 1990s when the former Soviet Union fragmented into various states. The current borders of Ukraine never made a great deal of sense because Ukraine is essentially a multi-national state.
You have in the east, that is beyond the Dnieper River, to the south down to Odessa on the coast, what is really a Russian population. The rest of Ukraine is actually historic Ukraine. It goes back to the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, and that part of Ukraine is inhabited by true Ukrainians in terms of ethnicity as well as culture and language. Putting this together has always been problematic, particularly because Ukrainians have wanted to turn the Russians into Ukrainians.
The Russians aren’t terribly excited about that prospect and have complained bitterly about it. And Putin, from the very beginning of his presidency, tried to make it clear to anyone who would listen that there were certain things that he would not tolerate as the Russian head of state, and one of those was that Ukraine become a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.
He also had concerns about the EU because that was seen as another mechanism with which to integrate Ukraine into the West.
Then finally he became very concerned about the plight of the Russians. Crimea has historically never [been] part of Ukraine and has been part of Russia since 1776, and so he was anxious to relieve that burden on the Russians in Crimea by driving the Ukrainians out, and he did that in 2014. But he also wanted to ensure that we understood that we were never going to be able to use Crimea—the Crimean Peninsula—and the ports on the Crimean Peninsula for NATO naval forces or any other forces.
We didn’t pay any attention. We attacked him viciously. We essentially ignored any of his expression of concern or interest in Ukraine from the standpoint of Moscow’s national security. And we have always refused to acknowledge the Russian concern that NATO is threatening to Russia. We’ve insisted, ‘Absolutely not.’ But we don’t have far to look over the last 20 years at the various regime change operations that Washington has staged to appreciate Putin’s concerns. But instead of addressing those concerns in a substantive way, considering what Russia’s interests are, we’ve essentially said that they’re illegitimate, and the only interests that are legitimate are our own and those of our quote-unquote NATO allies.
So, here we sit. We’re looking at a force of 130, 150, 180 thousand, I don’t know what it will be when the day approaches, but a force that is substantial enough to seize the Russian-speaking areas that are east of the Dnieper River and, frankly, all the way out to Odessa if he decides to do it. There’s not a great deal we can do about it.
True. Or, assisting with, for sure.
Just like what happened when the NAZI socialist regime invaded Russia has nothing to do with the Russians invading Ukraine today.
No he is not like any of those others - this guy is a surrender monkey, who had a heroic start, then became the planner of the Belgrade butchery.
“Ukraine has never been a threat to Russia.”
Cuba was never a threat to the US. Should we have let Russia put missiles there?
Speaking truth to power is, unfortunately, not a career advancement asset.
—
Only if it is actually a truth. No guarantee he does
We were allied with Stalin during WWII. That’s a dumb ad hominem argument, and you’re confusing Zelenskyy with his opponent Poroshenko who came to power after the Maidan protests. I any case, if I were the Ukrainian President, I would take any allies I could get.
So history has no bearing on the present?
Who knew?
So history has no bearing on the present?
Who knew?
Someone should tell the Jews!
As I’ve posted before, any of us who served in Europe before the fall of the USSR see the Soviets never left, but merely changed their name.
It amazes me how many have bought into calling them Russians rather than Soviets - their soldiers are still operating as the Red Army did in WWII.
I don’t wish war with the Soviets over Ukraine - Europe should defend Europe if it actually matters to them. But we should not allow the Soviets to reassemble the USSR, and certainly stop the formation of the new Axis of Russia and China being integrated militarily.
If China’s PLA steps into Ukraine, then we are definitely back in 1939.
To the contrary. Castro actively lobbied the Russians to nuke New York City.
“I will never have any respect for a nation when its power brokers put a court jester on the throne.”
Like us?
And primary language is not always an indicator of political affiliation: otherwise the US would still belong to Great Britain.
To some extent, yes. But what a Russian leader did 90 years ago shouldn’t be dictating what we do today. And it certainly isn’t justification for sending US personnel there to fight for Ukraine.
Did Putin cause them to starve?
What are your thoughts on Germany and it’s leadership? Should they be shunned because of what Hitler did?
Given, you’re statement I guess you’re ok with reparations from slavery?
I’ve mentioned similar....about (coincidentally) these folks being the same group, pushing this *new* narrative. Quite the (grift ?) shift.
The vaccine nonsense has gone out the window and their Lord God Fauci seems to have completely disappeared. But they shouldn’t worry because he is still the highest paid federal employee. Thank goodness Joe Biden and the media gave them something else to point fingers and lecture us about. Somehow Biden saying we wouldn’t do anything if there was a “minor incursion” and then goading Putin for the next two months by insisting “the Russians are going to invade” which resulted in a very predictable outcome is seen as brilliant foreign policy.
This was Biden’s wag the dog.....forceed error. Clearly he screws up everything he touches.
The media needs to blame Joe Biden for this mess.....
Most of the Putinistas here are simply accepting a bad ad hominem argument that because Ukraine is supported by our own detested regime, the Ukrainians must be in the wrong.
It's quite possible for the US to have Garland running the Dem Staatssicherheitsdienst at home while the bear (and China) bite us in the behind. In fact, it's even more likely given the Dem's corrupt incompetence.
Neither Russia nor Ukraine are the "good guys," but Ukraine didn't invade Russian territory.
I don’t think you’ve been listening. The Russian military operation is in its final phases. Zelensky needs to get his zzz to the negotiating table.
Russian oppression in Ukraine goes back a long way, as it does in most of Eastern Europe.
Yes primary language is not always an indication of political affiliation. Plenty of those Russian speakers likely voted for independence from Russia back in 1991. I base that opinion looking at the percentages of people in the Donbas who voted for independence back in 1991.
Although some of those pro independence people have probably moved west since 2014.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.