The histrionics over Trump’s moves to end the war are depraved. Everyone who paved the way to this nightmare belongs in a cage, including Trump, who is trying to pin it all on Zelensky.
U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance, center right, and Ukranian President Volodymyr Zelensky, opposite him, meeting in Munich last week. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Vance’s right. (State Department, Freddie Everett)
By Caitlin Johnstone
CaitlinJohnstone.com.au
Listen to Tim Foley reading this article.
Everyone from Rachel Maddow to Bernie Sanders is freaking out about the Trump administration’s moves toward ending the war in Ukraine. David Hogg, now the vice chair of the DNC, said on Twitter that “If we abandon Ukraine — Poland is next. You know what’s going to be a lot more expensive than finishing this war and forcing Putin out of Ukraine? A third world war and a second Marshall plan.”
These histrionics are as depraved as they are ridiculous. Obviously the war in Ukraine needs to end. Polls say Ukrainians themselves want the war to end. If you want Ukrainians to keep dying in this war against the will of the Ukrainians themselves while you sit safe at home eating snacks and posting on the internet, you’re a monster.
But saying this really doesn’t go far enough. We should all be raging at everyone who pushed things to this point, especially at the leaders of the Western empire we live under. These psychopaths knowingly provoked an unwinnable war of unfathomable horror by first backing a regime change operation in 2014 and then amassing a proxy military threat on Russia’s border in ways the U.S. would never permit on its own border, then refusing off-ramp after off-ramp both before and after Russia invaded. Everyone who paved the way to this nightmare belongs in a cage.
And that includes Donald Trump. The sitting president is on social media right now trying to pin this whole thing on Zelensky, when Trump himself helped pave the way to this horror by becoming the first president to start openly pouring weapons into Ukraine while ramping up cold war tensions and shredding treaties with Russia.
Trump, former Presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden, former U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson, and all of NATO helped throw Ukraine into the meat grinder while countless Western experts and analysts warned urgently that their actions would result in Ukraine’s destruction. They should all suffer immense consequences.
But of course we all know they won’t. None of the government officials, empire managers, career politicians, pundits and think tank swamp monsters who helped steer Ukraine into the inferno will suffer any consequences of any kind for their atrocities. Nobody will even lose their career.
And what’s worse is knowing that most of them will re-emerge like zombies from the grave to help manufacture support for the next imperial bloodbath. Many of the same people who drummed up support for the war in Ukraine were responsible for helping to destroy Iraq, when they should have been languishing in a prison cell at The Hague this entire time.
We are ruled by the worst among us. Our world will never know peace as long as these freaks are at the steering wheel.
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This article is from CaitlinJohnstone.com.au and re-published with permission.
The views expressed are solely those of the author and may or may not reflect those of Consortium News.
Trump’s job is to get out the failed US effort before it fell apart completely.
They have changed the propaganda to blame it on Ukraine before its failure and total defeat would run the risk of exposing it as a US fiasco and blunder.
Zelensky has to appear to be resisting to create the impression that his task in the project is different than as someone just fulfilling the role assigned him.
He will continue to play whatever role he is given if he wants US protection from the Nazis in Ukraine and anyone else who puts the pieces together and wants revenge for his part in the mass murder of his countrymen.
It was difficult to see how they would squirm out of the impending total defeat and the brain-washing of the entire Western world that enabled the failed project.
Now we see . . .
Reflections in the mirror:
Every culture has had its Kapo’s
A kapo (German: Kapo) was one of the prisoner functionaries (German: Funktionshäftlinge) (Zelenskyy), a prisoner in a Nazi camp (Banderaist Ukraine) who was assigned by the SS guards (Biden and his cohort of collaborationists) to supervise forced labor (to the last Ukrainian patriot) or carry out administrative tasks (under the guise of being President of a capitalist democracy).
Now just replace the names mentioned, with that of Jonathan Pollard, and see what pops up in the mirror on the wall!
Maria Craig
I am 87 years old. Grew up in Nazi occupied Holland. See the similarities between then and now. Am horrified at the stupidity, ignorance about history and hubris of those that rule today. What can Ido but but cry my heart out in desperation for the future of our planet and its inhabitants.
America has always been good at pointing accusing fingers in all possible directions EXCEPT at itself.
And, Trump wants a third term??? Give me a break!
Assuming he is still around…
Both Reps and Dems should be happy to dump the Ukraine war now that Israel has what it paid them for in Syria.
The US and all unregulated market economies are pseudo-democracies, corrupt throughout.
They can elevate only scammers to the top of government. To stop that we must implement:
1. Constitutional amendments prohibiting election or media funding beyond limited individual donations;
2. Public and mass media education to identify and avoid dangerous social dependency upon tribal groups.
The question is when Russia and China will simply outbid US factions and AIPAC to dictate US elections and media.
This outcome was always the plan. Trump and Putin will share the ressources in former East Ukraine, now West Russia.
Kiev, the EU, China and BRICS lost the game.
Assorted Western proponents of perpetuating the conflict in Ukraine have jumped to Volodomyr Zelenskyy’s defense against Donald Trump’s charges of “dictatorship,” but some of us are not so easily gaslit.
If Ukraine under the Zelenskyy administration is so democratic, what are we to make of the needless deaths of figures from the purported savior of Kyiv, Denys Kireyev, to Gonzalo Lira (the latter-day equivalent to Charles Horman and Frank Teruggi, two US citizens also hung out to dry by their own government and left in the clutches of a murderous regime, or in the best-case but still unacceptable scenario, Sergey Magnitsky, who similarly died as a product of medical neglect by his Russian captors based on Andrei Nekrasov’s 2016 documentary, later corroborated by a 2019 DER SPIEGEL investigation, contradicting the accounts of rapacious robber baron Bill Browder, who also lobbied against CICIG anti-corruption efforts in Guatemala)? What of the efforts to harass and prosecute the likes of the pacifist anti-war activist Yurii Sheliazhenko, who has vigorously condemned the adverse effects of both Ukrainian and Russian militarism on his society, and even the pro-war journalist Yuriy Nikolov, who exposed certain corruption within Ukraine’s military institutions under Zelenskyy? What of Zelenskyy’s government banning what was the country’s largest opposition party even after they had already condemned the Russian invasion and suspended their deputy leader Viktor Medvedchuk from his position due to personal ties to Vladimir Putin’s family, in addition to ten other opposition parties? What of Zelenskyy’s administration shuttering several independent media outlets in early 2021 around a year before the full-scale Russian invasion had even began? What of them banning adherents of an entire religious denomination (the Russian Orthodox Church) from openly holding services in the country? What of the Ukrainian government cancelling all elections in the country right down to the municipal level, even in locations as far removed from most combat activity as Ivano-Frankivsk?
Notably, the Ukrainian situation stands in stark contrast to, e.g., the United States holding elections – including the 1864 presidential election – in the midst of a raging civil war without banning a party whose membership often had affinities with much of the Confederate agenda and whose “Copperhead” constituency wanted to sue for peace with the Confederacy and permit its continued existence; Panama not ultimately banning the Democratic Revolutionary Party (PRD) associated with the military government of Manuel Noriega ousted in the 1989-90 US invasion, even including pro-Noriega legislators such as Balbina Herrera de Periñan, permitting their participation in elections which PRD presidential candidate Ernesto Perez Balladares proceeded to win in 1994; or Iraq holding parliamentary elections in 2005 while still in the midst of a civil war and US occupation (for any of the civil libertarian flaws that bedeviled all of those situations as well).
Hysterics about Poland give away a religious bias between orthodoxies that also seems to have been running our country and Supreme Court in religious culture war in leading NATO as well to war to cripple that other orthodoxy that moved from Constantinople to Kyiv to Moscow in centuries past and even drove Napoleon on due to the US reneging on their investment in the US revolution and creating economic disaster for them and the rest of Europe.
Which VP and President was a driving force in the Ukraine and also on excessive free immigration flooding in as a potential demographic threat to US elections.
In like manner our regime change strategic Middle East policy produced an immigration flood that has been destabilizing Europe.
While our western religious antisemitism has centuries of impacts offloaded now on the Middle East and is still threatening LGBTQ and divorce and marriage in the US.
The final end of the closing of the Silk Road was the cause of raiding gold in the Americas and due to the British pirates sent off to the Philippines to buy Chinese goods and destabilize the Chinese Empire with too much wealth in gold and silver that led to western pillage and opium sales.. In addition to funding permanent wars in Europe in technology that threatens all of civilization.
An excellent article. But as to your last comment, I’m afraid that imagining a different world is beyond our ken. The very structures of modern “democracy” are against us. These structures ensure that people who have a lot to gain from certain govt actions and policies will, by hook or by crook, get what they need. “The business of America is business”, after all …
I full daylight, they have given hundreds of billions of $ more to their masters in the MIC;
In full daylight, they switched Europe’s cheap Russian gas and oil energy with much more expensive American LNG (made even more expensive by taking Russian sources offline) for their masters in mining/energy;
In full daylight, they have begun destruction of the west’s legacy of free speech and assembly and elections to minimize the ability of the commoners to revolt against their masters’ interests;
None of this is secret. From Saint Bernie to the rightest neocon, they agree and cooperate … in fact, the operatic arguments make a pretty front show while the big steal happens in open sight. No one will save us but ourselves.
The Trumpsters’ recent withering criticisms of their European co-conspirators amounts to:
“you dolts have been just TOO good a pack of obsequious vassals!!!”
Scott Ritter has an excellent movie out about Not just Zalensky’s corruption but the role the USA neocons or rather their flunkies played in convincing Zalensky to fight fight fight Russia after (or during) Ms Nuland’s 2014 facilitation of Ukraine’s 2014 coup. Zelenskyy now owns at least 3plus big, fancy homes thanks to the USA’s ‘support’. None in Ukraine.
I saw a mention in the Russian press, so believe it or not as you like, that several Ukrainian Generals lost homes in the Los Angeles’ fires.
Russia destroyed the Nazi military in WW2. 27 million people died to save their country. The UK population was 48 million. Think about it. That’s only 80 years ago.
The US has never experienced a terror of that scale, yet, until now, has perpetuated hostility toward the very country that saved ‘The West’.
Since WW2 the US has killed over 20 million people throughout the World, mostly innocent citizens. For what?
Re “Since WW2 the US has killed over 20 million people throughout the World”
I ask without any doubt, criticism or challenge: do you have any published summaries
of this essence of the US … grotesque, recent proof that its colonial genocide was no “accident”?
Apparently the US caused or supported about 20 million deaths just since WWII, in Korea, Vietnam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Central Asia, the Mideast, and Latin America. A bit of searching or perhaps AI use should turn up the best tallies.
Some historical research is necessary to see that the US was the cause in many cases, because its role was concealed in special ops, influence ops, and economic support of wars and genocides.
Operation “Paper Clip” might be a good start .Cheers.
Some analysts of this period believe the Western governments wanted the Nazis to defeat the Soviets. They failed to consider the fierceness of the Russian people in defending their country. They’ve been trying to destroy first the Soviet Union and then Russia ever since. They are still failing and destroying themselves in the process. Deservedly so.
The Russophobic liberals and neo-cons who have acute cases of Putin derangement syndrome, will go to their graves never accepting any of this. Of course, they’ll prattle on about how, ‘if we only gave Zelensky more money and more military armaments, Ukraine would’ve taken back Donbas, etc.’ It’s sickening having to deal with these cretins.
Did you even read the article? Caitlin has a bit different take on it. If you don’t agree with her, please provide evidence and facts that support your claim. It looks like you fell for the BS of a serial con-man. People are so desperate for a savior, they suspend all reason and rely on faith, hope and hubris.
Meanwhile, the DT2 regime will expedite the already declining power of the US and millions of gullible and desperate followers will cheer him on. When their SS and Medicare is stolen, they will still make excuses for him and bow down to Elon the Oligarch like good medieval peasants. No critical thinking is required or desired
There is no such thing as liberals and conservatives or democracy anymore – only servants of oligarchy – this isn’t the 20th century anymore.
Yes, Trump armed and funded the Ukes during his first admin, I fully understand that. But it does appear that now the Trump regime is trying to dial things down on Russia’s Western border. That should be encouraged, otherwise you’re just a deluded cynic who’s given up all hope. Having said this, I realize Trump’s likely trying to achieve some semblance of peace in Ukraine probably in order to focus the empire elsewhere, perhaps the South China Sea or maybe Iran.
As Pepe Escobar reported: Lavrov and Rubio agreed to create a consultation mechanism to eliminate “irritants” (American terminology) in U.S.-Russia relations, and to cooperate on “issues of common geopolitical interest”, as per the State Department.
Lavrov said that he felt the negotiations he and Rubio engaged in were “positive”.
Trump’s no savior and could possibly inflict the kind of damage on the domestic front you allude to. But if he’s trying to end the Ukraine proxy war, shouldn’t we give him a chance?
He had plenty of “chances”. Like the previous regime, dude is a non-stop bullshitter and sociopath-asshole. Thinking “it will be different this time” and ignoring key facts is not reasonable nor helpful. But you can hope all you want.
The plan is to asset-strip what is left of Ukraine, and head-fake Russia into a false sense of security and try to break up Russia from China. The war against China is the endgame. Let’s face it, the sociopath-oligarch-idiots aint gonna bring us peace, only destruction and kleptocracy. The Bipartisan Consensus will finally steal what is left of SS and Medicare and the US becomes a dystopia. Domestic violence will become more likely as conditions worsen. So if you think “peace” will happen internationally, or domestically, I’m afraid you will be sadly disappointed. The US has a heavily armed civilian population and the conditions for more violence in the imperial homeland are set.
Give the kleptocratic oligarchy a chance
He has to end it before it completely falls apart and runs the risk of exposing that the US uniparty has been behind the entire failed, murderous fiasco.
That’s one of the roles he’s been given.
Thanks Catilin.
Attention spans are short , this needs a billboard or stapled on every pole
If CN put this article at the top every other day I would like it again and again .
A pullback to reality .
Surely is not ” Hogg Heaven ” with chips and dips delivered by amazon to my door .
Nice bitesize article cone ould swallow whole