Russia was condemned at the U.N. Security Council Monday for recognizing the independence of Lugansk and Donetsk and sending in troops for what it called a peacekeeping role. Germany put a stop to the Nord Stream 2 pipeline.
U.N. Security Council meeting on Ukraine Monday night. (UN TV)
By Joe Lauria
Special to Consortium News
Members of the U.N. Security Council, the European Union and the U.N. secretary-general on Monday condemned Russia’s decision to recognize the Donbass areas of Lugansk and Donetsk as republics independent of Ukraine and to send Russian troops into the enclave in what Moscow said was a peacekeeping role.
Russia responded to a surge in violence in the Donbass over the past few days in what Moscow said was a Ukrainian government offensive. At the U.N., Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said that he considered “the decision of the Russian Federation to be a violation of the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Ukraine and inconsistent with the principles of the Charter of the United Nations.”
At an emergency Security Council meeting called by Ukraine Monday night, U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield called Russia’s moves an “attack” on Ukraine that is “clearly the basis for Russia’s attempt to create a pretext for a further invasion of Ukraine.”
She said the sanctions against Donbass enclaves had begun:
“President Biden issued an Executive Order today that will prohibit new investment, trade, and financing in the so-called DPR and LPR regions. Tomorrow [Tuesday], the United States will take further measures to hold Russia accountable for this clear violation of international law and Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity. But we and our partners have been clear that there will be a swift and severe response were Russia to further invade Ukraine.”
Politico reported that the “White House avoids the ‘I’ word.” It quoted a White House official who “wouldn’t call the move an invasion, however, saying ‘Russian troops moving into Donbas would not itself be a new step. Russia has had forces in the Donbas for the past eight years’” — which is itself a questionable assertion.
The White House reaction brought howls of protest from Republican members of Congress who see the Russian move as an invasion and want the full complement of sanctions to be imposed, Politico reported.
British ambassador Barbara Woodward did utter the I word at the Security Council:
“The actions Russia has chosen today will have severe and far-reaching consequences. First, to human life: an invasion of Ukraine unleashes the forces of war, death and destruction on the people of Ukraine. The humanitarian impact will be terrible on civilians fleeing the fighting.”
Watch the full Security Council meeting:
It is too early to tell what impact the introduction of Russian troops into Donbass will have on the upswing of violence there. Will Ukrainian government forces shell Russian units and risk a severe retaliation? Or will the Russian presence bring calm?
Germany and France Alienated
Russian President Vladimir Putin’s moves on Donbass have alienated France and Germany, European powers that had at least understood Russia’s security concerns in relation to NATO’s eastward expansion. Perhaps Putin had concluded that Paris and Berlin were hopelessly in the American camp and certainly that the Minsk process was already dead after Kiev’s failure to implement it.
On Tuesday, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz put a stop to certification of the new Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline with Russia, “The situation today is fundamentally different,” Scholz said in Berlin. “We must re-evaluate this situation, in view of the latest developments. By the way, that includes Nord Stream 2.”
Macron had brokered a summit between Putin and U.S. President Joe Biden, a summit that will unlikely go ahead. “By recognizing the separatist regions of eastern Ukraine, Russia is violating its commitments and undermining Ukraine’s sovereignty. I condemn this decision,” Macron said on Twitter.
Macron :
By recognizing the separatist regions of eastern Ukraine, Russia is violating its commitments and undermining Ukraine's sovereignty. I condemn this decision. I called for an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council and European sanctions. https://t.co/byPBhpZGCV
— Cape Cod Tweetaah ©1963 (@CapeCodTweetaah) February 21, 2022
Russia was effectively isolated on the Security Council. For instance, Kenya’s representative drew on colonial history, including the drawing of African borders by European colonial powers, to condemn Russia’s actions.
Even China did not endorse Moscow’s move. In a 134-word statement, its ambassador only called for restraint of all the parties.
Russia Responds
Russian Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia offered an explanation to the Security Council about Moscow’s decisions. He said Minsk could be revived if the U.S. got Kiev to implement it. “We remain open for a diplomatic solution, but we will not allow for another bloodbath in Donbas,” he said.
“While propagating this baseless panic in the recent weeks around Russia’s alleged plans for an imminent invasion of Ukraine, our Western colleagues shamelessly pumped Ukraine with arms and instructors. In fact, they have been encouraging Ukraine that pulled 120,000 troops to the contact line, to embark on armed provocations against Donbas.
This past weekend, Ukraine drastically intensified fire against residential areas of the LPR and DPR. Reportedly, up to 1,600 projectiles were launched, killing civilians. Several sabotage groups set foot in the republics and blew up or attempted to blow up critical infrastructure facilities.So it became obvious that Donbas was about to face another Ukraine’s military venture, as was the case in 2014 and 2015. We cannot let this happen.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin had resisted for eight years recognizing the independence of the self-declared republics of Lugansk and Donetsk in the Donbass, insisting instead that Kiev implement the 2014-15 Minsk agreements that would have given autonomy to the provinces, while they remained within Ukrainian territory.
The decision by Putin effectively declares that the Minsk process is over.
It does not mean at this point, however, that the people of Lugansk and Donetsk are ready to hold a referendum to join Russia or that Moscow is interested in making them part of Russia, as happened in Crimea in 2014.
The two provinces declared independence after the 2014 U.S.-backed coup in Kiev that overthrew democratically-elected President Viktor Yanukovych, who fled the violent capital to the Donbass, his base of support, exactly eight years ago Monday, on Feb. 21, 2014. On the next day Parliament, with only opposition leaders present, impeached him.
After anti-Russian language laws were passed by the coup government, hand-picked before the coup by the United States, and after neo-Nazis burned dozens of people alive in a building in Odessa on May 3, 2014, both Lugansk and Donetsk declared independence nine days later on May 12.
The coup government launched a civil war against the separatists, whom they called “terrorists.” In essence the Donbass was defending their democratic rights to vote, as a majority of the region voted for Yanukovych, in an election certified by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). In the eight years since, as many as 14,000 people have been killed in the fighting.
With increased shell fire from the government side, according to the OSCE, into the enclaves in recent days, Putin was faced with the decision of whether to abandon the people or risk world condemnation and U.S. and European sanctions and send in Russian forces to protect them.
Joe Lauria is editor-in-chief of Consortium News and a former U.N. correspondent for The Wall Street Journal, Boston Globe, and numerous other newspapers. He was an investigative reporter for the Sunday Times of London and began his professional work as a 19-year old stringer for The New York Times. He can be reached at [email protected] and followed on Twitter @unjoe
The most important response from the German government was brave: to punish German people by ensuring their energy price rises soon because their government won’t allow them access to gas from the Nord Stream 2 pipe. Russia will, no doubt, happily sell its gas to Chinese people. Germans can pay lots more for US LNG via tankers, but they can bask in the warm glow of moral superiority over poor Russians in their cheaper gas-fuelled homes.
As Doug Hillman has already pointed out, this “response” was actually a nothing-burger to placate the USA, Britain, and NATO (and the Green members of the government coalition): for several months now, the permit to deliver gas through NordStream II has already been on indefinite hold.
Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia commented (I paraphrase) during his explanation of Russia’s decision concerning Donbas at the UN Security Council meeting–that it is more important to Russia to protect human lives than to bow to all the threats of the U.S. / West. This speaks volumes of Russia’s moral values. The constant threats of sanctions–before an invasion, after an invasion, etc.–have become tiresome to Russia. And perhaps the rest of us as well.
I think Russia was going to get punished no matter what it did. The hypocrisy of the US and NATO countries is glaring after Iraq, Syria, Libya meanwhile supporting Saudi Arabia in Yemen etc. (talking about invasions and territorial integrity). It makes me sad to see that the Minsk Agreements are seemingly dead OR maybe, as it is speculated, this might actually bring the Minsk Accord into compliance otherwise Ukraine loses these regions and ends up in a war with Russia. In my perfect world we would see NO MORE NATO expansion, offensive missile systems would be removed from NATO countries that border Russia, Ukraine and Georgia would NOT be offered NATO membership, the Minsk agreement would be upheld with all of this being put into signed, binding, agreements. Of course, this is probably just my fantasy, it makes the most sense to me and should be the only SANE way forward, but likely will not see fruition because we have to keep the insanity of an arms race meanwhile providing large profits for Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Raytheon etc. Well one can hope.
The Russians could throw R2P, “Reponsibility to Protect”, back in the faces of the West. Or, they could refer to Yanukovych as “our Guaido”, and get him to approve the operation. It would be payback in kind. But I don’t think they will.
I have been following these events in Ukraine since 2014 (and somewhat earlier). The entire fiasco is a carefully documented U.S. / NATO regime-change operation, but this time aimed at Russia. Russia as one of the guarantors of the Minsk agreements (along with France and Germany) repeatedly pressed Ukraine to fulfill its obligations–this agreement was the serious result of careful negotiations. Germany and France gave only occasional lukewarm entreaties to Ukraine to fulfill Minsk. After eight years of terrorizing the Russian-speaking population in Donetsk and Lugansk, undertaking a language purge (which affected Hungarians as well as Russians), arresting opposition media, and crafting a Neo-Nazi identity, the Ukrainian government has shown its unwillingness or inability to meet with the representatives of the self-declared autonomous republics–a key condition of Minsk. With tens of thousands of refugees pouring into Russia during the past few days, and hundreds of thousands more expected, what should Russia do? Instead of providing humanitarian aid, the U.S. and NATO pour offensive weapons into the unfortunate country. Let’s get our heads on straight: Pres. Putin’s recognition of the independence of the persecuted republics represents the heroic act of saving these people. With Russian peacekeeping forces, they can return to their homes and feel safe once again. Rather than aggression, the Russian government has shown restraint, patience, and in the end, courage to protect these people, their neighbors.
So what are these Imperialists going to do about it? Go to War with the Russian Federation? They are a joke and don’t have a clue.
Where are these cowards and well-dressed flunkies when it comes to Palestine and the land of its people? Constant, unrelenting violence by Israel with total impunity, always claiming their right to “self-defense” as strategic cover for their covert and underhanded undermining of the Palestinian people…the same game the US has been playing in Ukraine. The UN is a beauty pageant.
“German Chancellor Olaf Scholz put a stop to certification of the new Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline with Russia.” Not really. If you look at his statement it’s only been “paused”.
This is amusing because NS2 is already paused pending long delayed certification. No gas is flowing now, and he didn’t specify the length of pause, so he really did nothing. This has zero leverage on Russia.
Even more amusing is the image of a miniature Doberman yapping at a bear from the safety of his master’s lap. Chancellor Scholz is somehow reminiscent of Hogan’s Heroes’ Sergeant Schultz.
On the condition of Donbass, do the people of Donbass have the right to decide?
Only if they vote against Russia. Remember that vote by Ireland for further EU expansion that had to be re-run because the tiresome Irish voted against the EU.
The people of Lughansk and Donetsk held referendums in 2014 on independence from Ukraine and both passed with overwhelming majorities.
Why will the EU cancel Nord Stream 2 and not cancel Nord Stream 1? They seem to be coming from the same country. I’m sure that Europeans will gladly follow their leaders and tighten their belts and put on a few extra coats in order to teach Russia a lesson.
What absolute rubbish Germany and France dispense about violations of national sovereignty. Washington was the first to do so within Ukraine when it fomented the coup d’etat in the Maidan precisely eight years ago. Everything ever since has been an attempt by Russia to re-establish order, justice and peace while Washington’s every move has been to keep the pot boiling with ethnic violence.
If Washington thinks that Kiev had the right to violently remove the legitimately elected government, then the Donbas and Crimea had the very same right to exorcise the fascists who seized power from them and all of Ukraine. Moreover, in other venues Washington seems to love to topple other regimes and dissect their territory for their own purposes of “divide and conquer” geopolitics. To wit: Afghanistan (–> Mujahedeen, Al Qaeda), Yugoslavia (–>Bosnia, Kosovo, etc.), Iraq (–>Kurdistan, ISIS), Syria (–> Kurdistan, ISIS, Idlib, etc.), Libya (–> Tripoli, Benghazi), Israel (–> Nearly all of Palestine).
With all due respect to the Secretary General, nobody commissioned the USA to cut up the entire world like a pie and to dispense all the pieces to itself and the few “friends” it could intimidate. Germany, you absolutely take the cake here: Your industry will be cratered and your citizens will freeze in the dark without Russian gas, yet you bend over and say to your occupiers “thank you, sir, may I have another,” as they whip you like a rented mule. Not only does Donbas and most of the rest of Ukraine need to recover its actual freedom and democracy from tyrannical American occupiers, but so do you! Wirf die amerikanischen Tyrannen aus deinem Land! Finally end WWII before you start WWIII.
RE: Biden “Executive Order today that will prohibit new investment, trade, and financing in the so-called DPR and LPR regions.”
I should think the years of Kiev refusing to come to agreement with its ethnic Russian provinces, without which renewed civil war chaos was always imminent, should have very effectively accomplished “new investment, trade, and financing in the so-called DPR and LPR regions.”
Did Russia fall into the trap and show itself as the aggressor? This mistep will offer Biden what he was looking for.
Whatever Russia did would be called aggression, as we have seen for all these months when the USA?NATO goaded Russia, which remained inside Russia the whole time and made no threats and consistently denied wanting or expecting to “invade” Ukraine. What possible reason would it have? All the US?UK “intelligence” was evidence-free and claimed to know “Putin’s mind” while never listening to the many times Russian officials explained their need for a neutral Ukraine as set out in the Minsk agreements which the Kiev authorities have never attempted to enact. After 8 years the Russian President was finally persuaded to act, by open, public discussion and decisions anyone can observe on youtube. Western media have at all times given only their official version to the public.
Democracy? Free speech? Moral superiority???
No, but Washington will still preach it that way. There is objective reality and there are the self-serving false narratives that Washington dispenses. Anyone can see the difference, but few are allowed to do so with the highly controlled mass media dispensing only government propaganda in the United States.
Russia cannot possibly be the aggressor when it is defending itself against U.S. attempts to encircle Russia with missile bases. The Russians have finally given up on diplomacy and turned to the only language America and its European lackeys understand: military force. No, Russia isn’t falling into a trap or making a misstep when it defends its vital security interests against U.S.-NATO cat’s paws, in this case Ukraine. And no, this is not what Biden wanted. Biden wanted Russia to roll over and play dead but Russia isn’t cooperating.
The USA took down its mask, we can now talk openly and say that Germany is not a sovereign nation, 33 000 American troops are occupational troops. NATO is phony, it is not a defensive alliance, it is the property of the US MIC.
The whole issue is not Ukraine, it is about economics and natural resources, Ukraine is a tool to be used to prevent the EU to work together, that is competition the US can’t handle, then there is China.
As has been said, NATO exists to keep the US in, Russia out, and Germany down in Europe. No change.
This new usage of the Intermarium concept has been revived by Stratfor, a private intelligence think tank whose customers include large corporations as well as government agencies such as the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, the Marines, and the Defense Intelligence Agency.
The earliest Stratfor email mentioning the notion of Intermarium dates from 2009 and advanced the concept in the context of Poland’s solidarity with Georgia following the August 2008 war with Russia.[86] A total of 394 Stratfor emails up to December 2011 (leaked by Wikileaks) contain the term “Intermarium.”[87]
Since around 2012, Stratfor has also used the term publicly. In 2012, the Hungarian-born geopolitical analyst and advisor George Friedman, founder of Stratfor and still at the time its head, was vocally promoting an Intermarium project in which Poland should distance itself from the EU and form a bloc with other Central and Eastern European countries between Germany and Russia.
In a video from the European Forum of New Ideas in October of that year, he stated:
“Poland must now depend on itself. Why? It’s a nation of 38 million, it has a vibrant economy, it has highly intelligent educated people, and it is rising. I will put a more radical idea forward to you, which I think is a fundamental one that we get from General Pi?sudski, the Intermarium, [which] basically says we are caught between Germany and Russia, and that stinks […][88]”
hxxps://covertactionmagazine.com/2019/03/23/imagined-geographies-of-central-and-eastern-europe-the-concept-of-intermarium/
Yes, and Germany essentially committed seppuku to facilitate the agenda of its American occupiers. I don’t understand why their leaders should not be put on the carpet, along with their American minders, when they enact such self-defeating policies, harming their own people and businesses just to ingratiate the “Big Guy” and his minions in DC. The absurdity is that Washington has no appreciation for the sacrifice nor would it ever reciprocate. This is not about protecting anyone’s freedom and democracy. In fact, the tyrants in Kiev were doing quite the opposite to the poor victims in the Donbas. It is strictly about enforcing America’s naked hegemony.
The United States has been the sitting imperial power in Europe since 1945. It calls the shots and Europe’s representatives fall over to ingratiate themselves to Uncle Sam. The reality is that what were once sovereign and democratic states are now willing to kowtow to the imperial overlord, yes sir, no sir, three bags full sir. It is truly disgusting spectacle, a euro-continent with no agency.
On what grounds do the ideas of sovereignty and internationally recognized boundaries, roundly granted to Ukraine in the Security Council, trump the actual security and safety of people living within those boundaries who legitimately and with good reason feel targeted by forces of their own government?
Is the U.N. about defending the sanctity of lines on a map or the sanctity of human life of those who must perforce live within those lines?
This is an excellent question.
Did the Security Council condemn the bombing of Serbia without UNSC authorization? The partition of Kosovo and Sudan? What were its positions on Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Syria, Yemen and Israel’s airstrikes. I think the Security Council’s judgment is inconsistent and its credibility questionable.
“I still don’t see the big invasion” Khrushchev’s Great-Granddaughter, (Nina Khrushcheva, professor of international affairs at The New School) Says War Can Still Be Avoided:
hxxps://youtu.be/c8rmk-2sVCg. (Kruscheva interview starts at minut 4:00)
It’s difficult not to feel discouraged at this development. The blatant hypocrisy of the US and the SC members is on full display. Cynicism reigns over our suffering planet. This trajectory is not sustainable.
I’ll be looking to Consortium and other non-MSM outlets for updates. The MSM are particularly nauseating right now.
I could not agree more, nauseating is putting it mildly and it is true globally of all the Western press. Talking about free press, what happened to it?
What happened to the free press? It was ordered to contract war fever by the regime in Washington and dutifully did so.
How about condemming the US for all its world-wide shenanigans??? Of course not…the lack of balls is quite obvious.
RE: “How about condemming the US for all its world-wide shenanigans??? Of course not…the lack of balls is quite obvious.”
FOR SURE!!!!
On a rare, encouraging, brighter note, in her 12/14/21 article, historian Dana Frank credits 4 members of Congress with helping avoid more bloodshed in the recent election in Honduras of democratic socialist, Xiomara Castro, the wife of the 2009 couped Mel Zelaya:
“How do we explain the State Department’s tentative acceptance of Castro? First, her wide lead in the polls would have made it difficult for the US to try to legitimate another election stolen by the National Party – especially when members of the US Congress, led by Representatives Jan Schakowsky and Hank Johnson and Senators Patrick Leahy and Jeff Merkley, have been ratcheting up pressure for the US government to rescind its support for Honduran security forces.
hxxps://newleftreview.org/sidecar/posts/honduran-dreams
We need a lot more of that!
I am not worried about Russia .It is acting honorably in my opinion .And also , a very good comment from Em regarding Israel annexation of the Golan heights.
The UN Secretary-General comments are not beholding of the title.
I am not worried about Russia either – it is the trigger-happy US that worries me.
I fully agree, It was important and essential to stop the attempted genocide by (Ukraine, UK and the USA) of all russian speaking people of Donbass and Lugansk.
I fully recall the Acadian genocide by England in 1755. 10 000 French speakers were forcibly removed from Acadia. Men and Women were seperated, women raped, and 8000 Acadians were killed or left to die of starvation along the Atlantic coast mainly in the british colonies. Their homes and land were given to english speaking colonials.
The UN was too quick to judge Russia for its action; it was rational if they had cared to see the entire situation: A coup orchestrated by the CIA and the removal of a democratically elected pro-Russian president, a hostile objection in the Dombass; The resulting Ukrainian Government unable or unwilling to quell the violence even after the Minsk Agreement; all the time the U.S. is pounding the drums of war so hard as to wear out the drum-heads with threats of closing the energy pipeline and other weapons ; exacerbating the situation by sending military hardware and troops as if all Europe were threatened; Fabricating pretexts as flimsy as tissue paper. Em is correct, the UN has a blind spot: What about the Golan Heights and the illegal encroachment of Israel on Palestinian land?
Maybe it is more than a blind spot, they are powerless because the USA controls the UN, it is why the UN has lost much credibility. Some of their rapporteurs resigned because of it, the tampered chemical report about Syria is one example.
What you have in Ukraine is basically a civil war and Russia is taking sides. Is the government in Kiev more legitimate then those in the LDNR? In 2014 a violent anti-Russian, U.S.-backed junta ousted the democratically elected president of Ukraine, despite his voluntary resignation and an agreement to hold elections in a month. What possible excuse could the junta have for what they did? They did not want to allow Ukrainians a democratic choice of government. Which is more legitimate, the junta or the popular governments of the LDNR? In my opinion the LDNR revolt was definitely legitimate and has more of a claim as a legitimate government. Since then the U.S. has been up to its neck in Ukraine, pulling strings behind the scenes and arming the junta, which has been a disaster for that country. Kiev is run be crooks, which are plundering the country, as is typical of U.S. stooge governments. The press is controlled and political rivals oppressed. In my opinion these problems are more important then Russia’s recognition of the LDNR, which admittedly is a blow to the Ukrainian state, and they need to be discussed more. Ukraine is semi-occupied by the U.S., which has prevented a resolution of the crisis for years.
Hear, hear. I agree with your comment. The U.S. has been the aggressor for years and did its usual “regime change” in Ukraine, unfortunately right on Russia’s border. Then the usual American mainstream media turned it upside down and declared that Russia was the aggressor. This is the old modus operandi of the United States since the end of WWII.
These hypocrites with their platitudes and empty and hollow rhetoric. Bemoaning the casualties to come while ignoring the real time terrorism the CIA-MI-6-NATO and their partner Azov Battalion have been inflicting on the ethnic Russian population for eight long years already. Politics and strange bedfellows? Witness the stark perverted hatred they encourage to harness from al Qaeda to ISIS to these Azov Battalion creatures.
Enough is enough.
My country, our country, is in the hands of people poisoned by ambition and the allure of dark power that demands it subjugates others. They do not seek peace. Nor justice. They are not my countrymen. Their aspirational and motivating agency is spawned of Hell. See how they cultivate and nourish its growth, even as they too are consumed in its flames.
They have sown the whirlwind, and harvest time is nigh for the Grim Reaper.
“… And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?”
I fully agree that “our country, is in the hands of people poisoned by ambition and the allure of dark power … They do not seek peace. Nor justice. They are not my countrymen.”
Nice.
The NATO strategy of infinitely delayed implementation of the Minsk2 agreements, and reverse-blaming Russia for the OSCE-verified Ukraine shelling of Donbass in recent days, forced action by Russia. The West fails to recognize the rights of minorities in situations of severe factional conflict. If it cared for people instead of MIC bribes to right-wing tyrants, it would support Minsk-like solutions until they fail, and then permit secession.
The situation in Ukraine is much like that of US before its Civil War, in which the real needs and goals of the South were not debated, despite the existence of practical means of liberating the slaves without economic impact upon the slaveowners. A simple wholesale tax on cotton would have subsidized wages and village construction for former slaves, and the centers of abolitionism were also the centers of cotton processing, manufacturing, and consumption, so the abolitionists were bound to pay for the cost of free labor anyway. But such means were never proposed or debated.
The US failure to conduct honest policy debate is a failure of government structure. See CongressOfDebate dot org for the solution to this problem. Of course that awaits reforms to eliminate economic influence upon all branches of the US government and mass media, which has destroyed democracy.
I disagree with your statement about the U.S. South before the Civil War. The “needs” of slaveholders to continue enslaving other human beings was the same as Hitler’s “need” to eliminate the Jews from Germany after the Nazis came to power. There could never be a legitimate defense of chattel slavery. That said, your comments regarding the U.S. and its regime change in Ukraine is correct.
The major issue of the 1860 election was whether the uncontrolled expansion of slavery could be brought back under democratic oversight. There was no will or interest in abolishing slavery; plank four of the GOP platform specifically guaranteed continued federal noninterference in the institution where it existed. Contrary to their endless victim propaganda, southern commercial interests dominated the federal government right from the start. Polk won the presidency in 1844 on the promise of getting more land for slavery but the huge area taken from Mexico in 1848 proved unsuitable for cotton cultivation. So the lobby turned its attention to the fertile Great Plains. In the 1850s, through the Fugitive Slave Act, the Kansas-Nebraska Act, and the Dred Scott decision the federal government the slaveholders dominated abolished every check the lobby had previously agreed on to regulate the extension of the slavery system – and blamed protesting Yankees for violating their “rights!” Their scheming ran contrary to the clearly expressed wishes of the great majority of American voters, who made it unequivocal that this land was for white family homesteading only, with no Africans, slave or free, to be tolerated there.
The Republican Party formed in 1854 to restore a balance in Washington to the malign power of the anti-democratic slaveholder lobby, not to end slavery. The cotton barons left the Union seven years later to pursue their agenda of westward expansion by other means: that’s all. If the “erring sisters” had been allowed “to depart in peace”, they would have soon gone to war to seize by force from the American people the rich farmland they coveted. By maneuvering the arrogant hotheads into firing on Old Glory at Sumter, Lincoln brilliantly mobilized public support for an immediate suppression of the insurgency, before its leaders could build an offensive military to contest the United States for possession of the west.
Of course slavery has no justification, and my comment in no way attempts that: read it again.
The moral high ground does not excuse failure to propose a peaceful solution where that exists.
Where the solution exists, all sides are at fault for failure to consider a peaceful solution to achieve justice.
The reality was that individual southern plantations could not unilaterally move to paid labor because the price structure would not cover the costs, and no national plan was proposed. The fault is as much in the North as the South.
Congress had become a circus of factional ideologues who never debated goals or solutions.
The several unhappy compromises failed to provide realistically and equitably for abolition, leading to an unnecessary war, despite the Amendment V provision against seizure of private property without compensation. The South controlled the Supreme Court and could have ruled in Dred Scott that he was free but compensation was required, but like the North chose to ignore a workable solution contrary to tribal ideology.
Emerson, the sage of Concord, suggested that the slaveholders be paid for their slaves, using proceeds from the sale of public lands (acquired unethically from native Americans). But in Congress no means of resolving inequitable sectional burdens was seriously proposed, so the South feared an unlawful taking of all they had worked for.
There no equitable plan of abolition because the US government does not have an independent branch for rational debate of policy, considering the true goals and alternative policies from all viewpoints. That is a major structural defect addressed by the Congress Of Policy Debate (see CongressOfDebate dot org).
Please keep all comments on topic. The comments section is not a social media platform.
Very good Sam F. I too found myself thinking of the War of Succession here in the states this morning. Great insights.
Amazing, when US or NATO troops move in, bombs & murders civilians like in Yugoslavia nobody in UN condemns this action although thousands of civilians were killed equal is the case with Syria. Just to mention 2 cases of the many more illegal actions by USA/NATO
in S. America, Far East & Africa??
US/NATO don’t do invasions, they do humanitarian intervention.
This is what happens when you pump a bunch of crazy Nazis full of weapons. Kiev had 8 years to implement the Minsk agreements and they did damn-all. And this is somehow Russia’s fault? The real puppet master here is the US. The other guarantors of Minsk, Germany and France, like the rest of Europe have little independent agency. And the UN, which is largely a creature of the US as usual also did damn-all. Also, let us not forget that this country that the US proposes to risk the world for, also has all of its opposition politicians either in house arrest or under indictment, including their former president and US puppet, Poroschenko, and having all the opposition media outlets shut down. Sounds like it’s straight out of a Middle Eastern dictatorship.
The disappointing hits just keep on coming. I have found myself ambivalent on the question of whether China will be a force for good or progress in the new world order. As reported above it seems that Chinese leadership is not to be trusted or relied upon to do anything other than play coy and subtle games on the world stage.
It seems to me that Russia has displayed great restraint and patience during this western manufactured crisis. Only at the last minute and in order to prevent a massacre in DPR and LPR does Putin – with the deliberative urging of the Duma – recognize those regions as independent and offer to protect them under the umbrella of Russian military strength. I have seen no indication that this was the development or conclusion that Russia wanted “all along.”
I have little doubt that Russia fully understands the malfeasance of the US and its western allies, but I suspect that on this day Russia is reassessing its ties and collaboration with their new “friend” China.
You refer to China as Russia’s “friend”, with quote marks.
China was the only member of the UN Security Council that did not condemn Russia’s move.
That was as much friendship as could possibly be shown under the circumstances.
I admit to posting hastily this morning; began a similar line of reasoning at MoA and was similarly schooled. What bothers me is what was stated later (above) by Rober Emmett: “Is the U.N. about defending the sanctity of lines on a map or the sanctity of human life of those who must perforce live within those lines?”
“That was as much friendship as could possibly be shown under the circumstances.” That also is an opinion, and one that I don’t share.
[China was the only member of the UN Security Council that did not condemn Russia’s move.]]
I’ve a feeling that Russia had anticipated what was going to happen when Putin met Xi
in the Beijing Winter Olympics. I think Putin knew that China’s investments and relationships with Kiev could restrain China’s actions yet at the same time put China in a position to influence the Ukrainian position. In addition, both statesmen – Putin and Xi – probably foresaw Germany’s action over Nord Stream Two, hence the 30-year oil deal between their countries serves as notice that Russia has no worries regarding a lack of customers. With China as a perennial customer spot sales for oil in Europe might even bring more profits for Russia.
[China … did not condemn Russia’s move.]]
Annie: I’ve a feeling that Russia and Xi had anticipated what was going to happen – Kiev attacking the Donbass, etc. – when they met at the Beijing Winter Olympics. Perhaps Putin might’ve thought that China’s investments and relationships with Kiev could help restrain the latter and influence the Ukrainian position. That could explain China’s attitude. In addition, both statesmen probably foresaw Germany’s reaction over Nord Stream Two and struck the 30-year oil deal to serve as notice that Russia has no worries over oil sales. With China as a perennial customer spot sales for oil in Europe might even bring more profits for Russia.
Edited
[China … did not condemn Russia’s move.]]
Annie: I’ve a feeling that Russia and Xi had anticipated what was going to happen – Kiev attacking the Donbass, etc. – when they met at the Beijing Winter Olympics. Perhaps Putin might’ve thought that China’s investments and relationships with Kiev could help restrain the latter and influence the Ukrainian position. That could explain China’s attitude. In addition, both statesmen probably foresaw Germany’s reaction over Nord Stream Two and struck the 30-year oil deal to serve as notice that Russia has no problem with oil sales.
Please send a message to the U.N. Secretary-General asking if he recalls “that (the U.N.) considered “the decision of (Israel to illegally occupy, and eventually arbitrarily annex the Golan Heights) to be a violation of the territorial integrity and sovereignty of (Syria) and inconsistent with the principles of the Charter of the United Nations.”
Once again, this decision proves, for one and all to see, that the U.N. is merely a mouthpiece – biased and toothless organization, working for the power interests of the U.S. hegemon and its obedient hangers-on.
Listen closely to the rhetoric of the worlds leading hypocrite extraordinaire, of double standards, promoting democracy and human rights
hxxps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qtSpuXwQqvc