[Salon] "US trying to draw Russia into war, Putin says" (BBC)

FM: John Whitbeck

In a message circulated on January 22, I wrote:

"If the United States were genuinely hoping to deter Russia from any military intervention in Ukraine, insisting that the only consequences of an intervention would be economic sanctions, hinting that more unassembled "little green men" would not necessarily trigger such sanctions and publicly dismissing Russia's serious mutual security concerns and proposals as "non-starters" would be an odd way to go about it. On the other hand, if the true objective were to entice or incite Russia into some form of military intervention in Ukraine, combining such insistence, hints and dismissals would be a clever way to go about it.

"Notwithstanding all the talk of Western 'fears' of Russian military action in Ukraine, there are surely some people in the political, foreign policy and military establishments and in the relevance-challenged NATO bureaucracy who are hoping for Russian military action."

As reported in the BBC article at the link transmitted below, President Putin has now publicly asserted that this is his interpretation of the bizarre, war-drum-beating behavior of the U.S. government. The same interpretation would apply to the behavior of the U.K. government, whose clownish prime minister was in Kyiv yesterday to try to distract attention from Partygate and to convince Ukraine's prime minister, who knows better (https://news.antiwar.com/2022/01/31/us-and-european-officials-unhappy-with-ukraines-zelensky/), that a Russian invasion of his country is imminent.

Ukraine tensions: US trying to draw Russia into war, Putin says - BBC News

One obvious and fundamental reality which the U.S. and U.K. governments and their subservient media/propaganda outlets persist in refusing to recognize is that, even if no Western sanctions were threatened, there would be no conceivable benefit or advantage to Russia from conquering all or any significant chunk of the vast -- and vastly corrupt -- economic basket case which is today's Ukraine.

It should be dazzlingly clear that the increased Russian military presence near Ukraine had two objectives -- (i) to discourage the Ukraininian government from using the $2.5 Billion of American military assistance received since the U.S.-organized, anti-Russian and anti-democratic Kyiv coup in 2014 and the military forces which it had been ammassing on the borders of the two Russophone separatist republics of the Donetsk and Luhansk to attack and try to reconquer them and (ii) to get the United States to finally pay serious attention to the mutual security concerns which Russia has been publicly evoking for at least the past 15 years. The first objective appears to have been achieved, and the second objective still could be -- for the mutual benefit of all concerned.

If those at the top of the U.S. government are less brain-dead and/or war-seeking than their public statements so far suggest, there is still hope for a happy ending and for a new, more balanced and less dangerous European security structure in which all European countries feel an adequate and realistic degree of security.

A FINAL THOUGHT: Every few days, Secretary of State Antony Blinken makes a jaw-dropping statement of universal principle that suggests that the man has never seen a mirror. Recently, when Russia sent troops to Kazakhstan, he pontificated: "One lesson of recent history is that once Russians are in your house, it's very difficult to get them to leave." Germany? Japan? Korea? Over 800 U.S. military bases abroad? In any event, all the Russian forces have now left Kazakhstan. More recently, in the Ukraine context, he proclaimed that every country has an absolute right to choose whatever security arrangements it wishes. Monday's UN Security Council meeting would have been an excellent occasion for the Russian ambassador to ask the U.S. ambassador to confirm, in light of the Blinken Principle and contrary to the American position 60 years ago, the United States would now have no objection if the Cuban government asked Russia to station nuclear missiles in Cuba to protect it from further American aggression.

A MILLENNIAL DATE: Today is 2/2/2022. It has been over a thousand years since the Western calendar produced such a date, and, in the unlikely event that there are still human beings on this planet to take notice, it will more than a thousand years before the Western calendar produces another such date. ENJOY!