Posted on 05/23/2023 9:18:07 AM PDT by Kazan
The only one acting like a colonial power, expansionist, an empire, is “us.”
We are the ones pressing into Syria, a formal Soviet and today Russian ally (formally since 1970), with a Russian naval and air base there. We weren’t asked for help, not even by some puppet government we installed as in Ukraine. No, we imposed ourselves against the will of the government of Syria, its ally Russia, and most the Arab states: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American-led_intervention_in_the_Syrian_civil_war
We are the ones trying to topple the government in Venezuela, a Russia aligned state, and recently got caught trying to over throw the government, again (this wasn’t our first try): https://www.vox.com/2020/5/11/21249203/venezuela-coup-jordan-goudreau-maduro-guaido-explain https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-53686509 (2 SF guys are now being held by the Venezuelans).
We are the ones with our CIA and Spec Ops in Libya, after we over threw the government in this Soviet and Russian aligned nation (but no one is asking how this was defensive or why N-”Atlantic”-TO is conducting offensive operations in Africa): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_military_intervention_in_Libya
In case you haven’t noticed a trend here, all of these nations are major oil producing states.
Also, in case you missed it, NATO stands for North Atlantic, African, and Asian Treaty Organization. But no scope creep there. (sarc)
We the ones expanding East in Europe, Not Russia West. Our war in Ukraine has ZERO national security argument, not one. Neither you, nor anyone else can formulate such realistically. All the arguments which attempt to create a national security argument are boogieman arguments that are not even remotely realistic today.
How does Russia, which compared to the US alone has merely 55% our ground forces, 47% our air forces, 43% our naval forces, 44% our population, 40% the number of men reaching military age, with a GDP about 20% ours, less industry, less high tech, few allies, weak allies, a conscripted force, pose this huge and vast threat to us? The (((ONLY))) area where Russia has parity with the US is in terms of it’s nuclear forces, that’s it.
When you add our NATO allies, and Russia’s security partners, you realize that we have a damn near 3:1 superiority in manpower, we have about 10:1 in military spending, we have more tanks, personnel carriers, more arty, more jets, aircraft carriers (we have 16, 11 of them super carriers, they have 1)... We have more people, that are better trained, with more and better equipment... and our news makes it sound like Russia is going to invade Europe, that they are this conquest... This is laughable.
***We are the big boy, not them. We are the ones invading their sphere of influence, not them ours.*** That is an undeniable reality.
Ukraine is a war initiated by us when we threatened to base NATO forces in Ukraine which is a direct threat to Russia but which our economic interests want. EU and NATO provide for the stability, security and harmonization of policies, access to markets, which both EU and North American big corporations and financial institutions want. If you have billions tied up in Ukraine, or want to invest there, EU membership provides the policy/legal assurances, while NATO the physical security. For example, right now in Mexico you have a president who is nationalizing production and services in a wide array, and foreign investors are pissed off about that (this could not happen if Mexico had to abide by EU rules):
The average American or German does not care nor even knows what this war in Ukraine is about. The average Russian didn’t want this war either. The powers that pushed for this were economic, in the West (i.e. Europe and the US) and we simply chose to (((IGNORE))) the Russians who are impacted by our decision to bring Ukraine into a military alliance.
While we let the masses talk about this huge Russian threat which is about to invade Western Europe,reality has us no longer seeing Russia as a near peer and we are willing to just step all over them, which we factually are (Venezuela, Syria, Libya, Ukraine, Republic of Georgia, Lithuania, Estonia, Latvia). We are beating them with a club and screaming how we are threatened and the victim.
Of course the Russians have a say when we do things which impact them also. Our counter to this is to hide behind silly conceptual arguments like “sovereignty” but only when it’s convenient, because we sure don’t care about the sovereignty of others when it fits into our agenda: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1973_Chilean_coup_d%27%C3%A9tat This is where we over threw the government in Chile, which actually was sovereign and democratically elected, unlike Ukraine where we hand picked who is in power.
***The Russians are the ones with a national security argument. They are the ones able to formulate a “just war” argument, we cannot: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Just_war_theory
When we want to put our military on their border, that is a threat to them, and we would NOT allow the same if it were any major world power wanting to have Mexico host their forces (say China). We did not accept Soviet missiles in Cuba with the missile crisis: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuban_Missile_Crisis We did not allow Grenada to built a runway large enough to accommodate Soviet bombers and invaded them in 1983: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_invasion_of_Grenada We overthrew the government in Nicaragua which was to closely aligned with the Soviets for our liking, twice, because according to us, all of central and South America is ours, not just our border states. Ever hear of the Monroe doctrine?: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monroe_Doctrine And then here we are today talking about Russia not having a say on its border states and us wanting to base personnel there.
Our hypocrisy aside, here is why Ukraine entering NATO is an existential threat for Russia. 1) Since we left the Ballistic Missile Treaty, and are building a robust missile defense system, and Russia having most of their nuclear forces in the Southwest of Russia, Ukraine being with NATO poses a huge problem for the Russian nuclear forces. 2) Aggravating that issue is the fact that Ukraine is 6 minutes Time OF Flight (TOF) to Moscow, and even less for their ground ICBMS for a modern hyper-sonic weapon, meaning Russia has basically no more reaction/vetting time if they are attacked, giving us a huge advantage in a first strike. 3) Ukraine shares 1,500 miles (2,400 Km) of border with Russia, some of that being flat open terrain where a mechanized force could easily come through. 4) Russia would essentially lose control of the Black Sea with the majority of it being under NATO countries. 5) Russia and Ukraine share the same rail gauge and there are many major hardball roads connecting the two making logistics easy for any force entering Russia. 6) Ukraine has forested areas and is large, making it easy to hide things. 7) Ukraine has runways which can support strategic lift (logistics and bombers), they have sea ports. 8) Ukraine is large enough in size, has enough infrastructure and a big enough economy to where it can support a permanent military basing of NATO forces in large numbers. 9) Ukraine has rail and road connections to Poland, Romania and Slovakia, meaning it’s easy to move a lot of people and material really fast.
For the Russians, Ukraine entering NATO is unacceptable.
Now, as to the real “propaganda” out there. Propaganda is when governments meddle with public perceptions in order to influence behaviors. We (((CENSOR))) the Russian media so their influence on us is minimal while our media all sings the same tune and is heavily influenced by outright government actors from the Ukraine or our own respective governments. Our government, very concerned about mis and dis-information elsewhere seems to have no issue with leaving made up stories floating in the media when it serves their purpose: Ghost of Kiev, fighting to the last man on Snake Island, bloated casualty reports... And they know the truth: https://www.newsweek.com/2023/05/05/read-leaked-secret-intelligence-documents-ukraine-vladimir-putin-1794656.html#slideshow/2222794 If you want to write about firsts or breaking records, since WWII, you should write a story about how the West which condemned mercenaries in the past, is paying for the biggest mercenary army ever assembled in one place. You should write about blatant recruitment for these mercenaries out of the Ukrainian consulates and Embassies in most Western nations, a first: https://www.militarytimes.com/flashpoints/ukraine/2022/02/27/want-to-go-fight-for-ukraine-heres-what-to-do/ If you want to talk about firsts or extremes since WWII, write about how MAIN STREAM MEDIA in the West were essentially downplaying or even letting Nazi ideologically inspired groups to post their material: https://theintercept.com/2022/02/24/ukraine-facebook-azov-battalion-russia/ If you really want to see something that’s a first, look at how Western media basically rationalizes and justifies outright/blatant terrorist attacks today. Want more firsts? When push comes to shove, we are no different than some Palestinian. We too will rationalize and the end justifies the means.
Your very first sentence - your "lede" - your thesis statement - is absurd on the face of it!
The U.S. has annex ZERO territory in Eastern Europe, has openly denied the existence of ZERO sovereign nations in Eastern Europe, has deported and attempted to "americanize" ZERO orphaned children.
The U.S. is attempting to erase ZERO ethnicities in Eastern Europe.
Putin's Russia is doing all of those things.
You and I obviously have diametrically opposed definitions of "imperialism."
Regards,
Boo-hoo!
Regards,
Not going to waste my time with you.
Sure, for democracy, freedom, human rights, sovereignty.
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