If you want a concise and fairly accurate report on why Russia decided to invade Ukraine, then read ” How the West Brought War to Ukraine: Understanding How US and NATO Policies Led to Crisis, War, and the Risk of Nuclear Catastrophe by Benjamin Abelow.
Abelow is a historian and physician, and his sources are very accessible to scholars and journalists. We will discuss the contents of the book from time to time later, but here we want to highlight some of the points he raises in the first pages of the book.
In his book On Bullshit Princeton philosopher Harry G. Frankfurt asserts that “ One of the most salient features of our culture is that there is so much bullshit. Everybody knows it. Each of us contributes our part. »
Frankfurt defines “bullshit” as speech that seeks to persuade without any regard for truth and honesty. You may object to Frankfurt’s use of the word, but take a look at what’s really going on in the media, especially regarding the Russian-Ukrainian war.
For example, Yahoo News has recently perpetuated . ” Putin has given up on ambitions to conquer Ukraine after military losses that could take a decade to repair, according to US intelligence “. In the same vein, the Daily Beast a declared . ” Intelligence reports that Putin’s dream of a full takeover is now dashed. »
Seriously ? Where have these people been in recent months? THE New York Times, The Washington Post and all controlled media have perpetuated the claim that Russia is on a suicidal, genocidal, evil path2. Yet none of these outlets were able to tell their readers why Russia was fed up with NATO and even the United States.
We’ve said in the past that Russia is right in line with rational thinking when it comes to Ukraine, and Abelow does that indirectly. For example, Abelow states of the Monroe Doctrine:
« Any foreign power that places military forces near US territory knows that it is crossing a red line. American policy therefore embodies the belief that where a potential adversary places his forces is of crucial importance. In fact, this belief is the cornerstone of US foreign and military policy, and its violation is considered grounds for war. Yet when it comes to Russia, the United States and its NATO allies have acted for decades in defiance of this same principle..
Abelow argues that Russia is following the same line of thinking. Abelow gives below gives one example after another proving or showing that: ” The underlying cause of the war lies not in the unbridled expansionism of Mr. Putin, or in the paranoid delusions of the Kremlin military planners, but in a 30-year history of Western provocations, directed against Russia, which began upon the dissolution of the Soviet Union and continued until the outbreak of war. These provocations placed Russia in an untenable situation, for which war seemed, to Mr. Putin and his staff, the only viable solution. NATO has been moved closer to more than a thousand kilometers to the east, bringing it towards the borders of Russia, in defiance of the assurances previously given to Moscow.
We will discuss some of these questions again later this month. Let’s end with a quote from Gilbert Doctorow:
« Be careful what you wish for. Russia has more nuclear weapons than the United States. Russia has more modern weapons than the United States. Russia can raze the United States in 30 minutes. Is Russia a country in which you want to create unrest?
Moreover, if Mr. Putin were to be overthrown, who would take his place? A little jerk? A new drunk like [Russia’s first president Boris] Yeltsin? Or someone who is a Rambo and ready to push the button?…I think it is extremely unwise for a country like the United States to invoke regime change in a country like Russia. It’s almost suicidal.
source: Veterans Today via The People’s Cause