Twelve Thoughts On Ukraine

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Putin has launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the goal of which he claims is not to occupy the country but to “demilitarize” and “de-Nazify” it. We’ve no reason to put blind faith in any of those claims. Only time will tell.

As of this writing dozens have reportedly been killed so far. All war is horrific. We can only hope that this one winds up being the least horrific a war can be.

Some thoughts:

1. This whole thing could very easily have been avoided with a little bit of diplomacy. The only reason that didn’t happen was it would have meant the US empire taking a teensy, weensy step back from its agenda of total planetary domination.

I’ve seen people call it “sad” or “unfortunate” that western powers didn’t make basic low-cost, high-yield concessions like guaranteeing no NATO membership for Ukraine and having Kyiv honor the Minsk agreement, but it’s not sad, and it’s not unfortunate. It’s enraging. That they did this deserves nothing but pure, unadulterated, white hot rage.

2. Narrative managers have been working furiously to quash all discussion of #1, however. Like our good friend Michael McFaul here:

Please don't give Putin propagandists a platform on your media platforms. There is a time and place for hearing two sides of an issue. This tragic moment in European history is not one of them. Do not give false equivalency to voices of evil and voices of good.

— Michael McFaul (@McFaul) February 24, 2022

This is one of the most influential Russia “experts” in the western world decrying propaganda while demanding media outlets enact propaganda. Saying what your government wants said instead of objective reporting the truth is the thing that propaganda is.

Please don’t report facts on your media platforms. Don’t let anyone talk about the known actions by NATO powers and Kyiv which experts have long warned would lead to this situation. You’re not allowed to talk about the known US/NATO/Ukraine actions which demonstrably led us to where we’re at. You’re only allowed to say Putin attacked Ukraine completely unprovoked, in a vacuum, solely because he is evil and hates freedom.

Your loyalty is to the US empire, not to truth. Whoever controls the narrative controls the world.

3. It’s funny how everyone keeps referring to this as a “World War 2-style invasion” instead of a “US-style invasion”. It’s not like examples of military invasions ended in the 1940s.

Speaking of which:

4. Look at this.

Kyiv and Kharkiv are being bombed. The largest invasion on our planet since WW2. Republicans are rooting for the Russians. God be with Ukraine and democracy.

— Rep. Eric Swalwell (@RepSwalwell) February 24, 2022

These people actually believe it’s legitimate to call this “the largest invasion on our planet since WW2.” Just snip out all the pages from the history books between 1950 and 2003 to make western imperialists feel good about themselves. Unbelievable.

5. The primary risk of nuclear war is not that anyone will choose to start one, it’s that one could be triggered by miscommunication, malfunction or misunderstanding amid the chaos and confusion of escalating cold war tensions. This nearly happened, repeatedly, in the last cold war.

Cold war brinkmanship has far too many small, unpredictable moving parts for anyone to feel confident that they can ramp up aggressions without triggering a nuclear exchange. Nobody who feels safe with these games of nuclear chicken understands what they really are.

We survived the last cold war by sheer, dumb luck. We were never once in control. We just got lucky. There’s no reason to trust that we’ll get lucky again. We need to abandon this madness and pursue detente immediately.

Truly terrifying times. If Biden cuts off Russia from the global banking system in retaliation (very possible, if not likely), Russia has states they consider that a declaration of war. People truly don’t understand just how on the brink we are

— Secular Talk🎙 (@KyleKulinski) February 24, 2022

6. After the bombs drop and I’m dying of radiation poisoning, with my final breath I’m going to thank Joe Biden for denying Putin the moral victory of an assurance that Ukraine won’t join NATO.

7. Probably goes without saying but just in case: anyone who supports any kind of western military confrontation with Russia is an enemy of our entire species.

8. It would now seem the US power alliance has a choice between either (A) escalating aggressions against Russia to world-threatening levels or (B) doing what anti-imperialists have been begging them to do for years and pursuing detente. This is exactly where anti-imperialists have been warning we could wind up if the US didn’t work toward detente with Russia, while being called Kremlin agents and Putin lovers the entire time for years on end.

All the people who’ve called us crazy over the years for warning that cold war brinkmanship against Russia could lead to hot war are the same people calling to ramp up the brinkmanship now that our warnings proved true. Perhaps some serious re-evaluation is in order.

The solution to a crisis that was created by cold war brinkmanship is not more cold war brinkmanship. The solution to a crisis that was created by cold war brinkmanship is detente.

9. Assertions made by secretive government agencies based on classified intelligence should always be subjected to aggressively intense scrutiny, 100 percent of the time, without exception and without apology, regardless of the fact that those assertions occasionally happen to prove true.

10. It sure is a lucky coincidence that westerners have spent the last few years being persuaded to hate Russia by their governments and media. Otherwise the west’s dramatic response to this act of aggression might be difficult to get them to consent to.

11. Remain intensely skeptical of all news coming out of Ukraine. Since 2016 the western empire has been running an extremely aggressive narrative management campaign about Russia the likes of which we’ve never seen before. The news media have been fully complicit in this mass-scale psyop. Watch and wait for hard evidence of every claim made. Recall how snipers were used during the 2014 coup in Kyiv to kill protesters and pin the blame on the ousted Yanukovych government.

12. Unpopular opinion but I think those who are crowing that this marks the dawn of a multipolar world may be jumping the gun a bit. If the US empire can succeed in crippling Russia’s economy and fomenting unrest, balkanization and collapse there, it knocks out a key pillar of China’s support system, and China is the ultimate target in all these unipolarist maneuverings.

If it can do this (and that’s a big if, I know), at that point the empire can set to work on China without its guard bear there to protect it. Which of course would have been the plan all along. Which of course would be why the empire and its propaganda engine have been acting so weird these last few years.

https://caitlinjohnstone.substack.com/p/twelve-thoughts-on-ukraine