by B. R. GOWANI
Second World War (1939-1945) was history’s deadliest war
World War II also proved the most murderous for the Soviet Union
Germany invaded the Soviet Union on June 22, 1941
the invasion was named Operation Barbarossa
the Soviet Union lost 26.6 million people, civilian & military
Germany lost the War in May 1945; Japan wanted to surrender too
the War would have ended early but for the US — which prolonged it
the US wanted to try its newly developed weapon, atom bombs, on Japan
the reason?
to declare itself the superpower & scare the hell out of every country
doesn’t matter hundreds of thousands of Japanese died in an instant
millions were to suffer the effect of radiation for decades
by 1949, the Soviet Union was in possession of nuclear weapons
(currently nine countries have hold of such weapons)
the end of WWII saw Germany divided into two parts
East Germany in the Soviet sphere and & West Germany in the US sphere
in 1949, 12 countries formed a military alliance called NATO
the 1954 Soviet request to join NATO was rejected by the US and the UK
instead West Germany was allowed to become a NATO member in 1955
why the Soviet offer to be a part of NATO was denied?
simple — you need an “enemy” to maintain a huge war machine
an enemy in Europe in order to control the Western European countries
the Soviet Union was forced to form its own alliance called Warsaw Pact
Warsaw Pact consisted of the Soviet Union and seven other countries
Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev introduced Glasnost & Perestroika
that is, “openenss” and “restructuring”
the ensuing support & opposition to Gorbachev resulted in turmoil
on December 31, 1991, the Soviet Union ceased to exist
so now there were 15 countries, including Russia, instead of USSR
Ukraine, one of the Soviet Republics, became independent too
Glenn Sacks explains the Russia — Ukraine problem:
“In 1954, Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev administratively transferred the Crimea to the Ukraine, an essentially meaningless move at the time, since no one anticipated the demise and breakup of the Soviet Union several decades later. When Ukraine declared independence in 1991, it took Crimea along, even though there are four times as many ethnic Russians as Ukrainians in Crimea, which had been part of Russia since its annexation under Catherine the Great in 1783. Not long after Ukrainian independence, a pro-Russian popular movement arose in Crimea, which was repressed by the Ukrainian government.”
Russian position on Ukraine is not unreasonable as Aijaz Ahmad puts it:
“For a long time now, Russia has consistently taken three positions. One, the demographic complexity and regional diversity of Ukraine is such that it needs farreaching constitutional reforms that make it a genuine federation of regions with each region commanding very considerable autonomy for self-governance and guarantees of fairness for minorities inside those regions. For instance, as soon as Crimea became a part of Russia in March, three languages—Russian, Ukrainian and Tartar—were accorded equal official status there. Ukraine needs these kinds of flexible arrangements at the federal as well as regional levels. Second, Russia has seen the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) expand most threateningly all around its own frontiers and warns the West that further expansion of NATO into Ukraine will do possibly irreparable damage to the cordial relations Russia otherwise wants to maintain with the U.S.-E.U. combine.
“Third, Russia has also insisted that when the territorial unity of the Soviet Union disintegrated so suddenly, significant Russian populations were stranded in some of the emerging states—such as Ukraine or Latvia—and the Russian Federation would always feel obliged to protect these Russian populations in neighbouring states if they came under serious threat, as they currently are in Ukraine.”
six months backs, on July 1, 1991, the Warsaw Pact was dissolved
on the other hand, the NATO membership has risen to 30!
chances are the US will lure more European countries to join in
one could see from the above map that NATO is at Russia’s doorstep
Warsaw Pact countries & Soviet republics are now part of NATO
no wonder Russian leader Vladimir Putin is fighting back
the US news media is extremely nasty, hawkish, and propagandist
the National Public Radio has become National Pentagon Radio
The Guardian‘s main headline for so many days now is about Ukraine
similar with other news outlets
everyone knows NATO is US and the US is NATO
Russia doesn’t want Ukraine to join the NATO alliance
in 2014, Ukraine’s President Yakunovich’s government was ousted
the coup was supported by Western governments, especially the US
Victoria Nuland was one of the characters involved in the coup
she was an assistant secretary of State for European and Eurasian affairs
Russia friendly Yakunovich was replaced with Oleksandr Turchynov
Arseniy Yatsenyuk was made Ukraine’s prime minister — Nuland’s choice
“I think Yats is the guy who’s got the economic experience, the governing experience….”
(the leaked transcript of Nuland conversation can be found on BBC)
the US had promised Gorbachev that NATO won’t be expanded
but the US regularly and punctually breaks its promises
Scott Ritter laments that the US didn’t go for peace with Russia
“We had a moment in history, between 1988 and 1991, where we could have worked with Mikhail Gorbachev to make his vision of perestroika succeed. Instead, we allowed him to fail, without any real plan on how we would live with what emerged from the ruins of the Soviet Union. Save for a short period of time during the Second World War when we needed the Soviet Union to defeat Germany and Japan, we have been in a continual state of political conflict with the Soviet Union. Even after the Soviet Union collapsed, we viewed the Russian Federation more as a defeated enemy that we needed to keep down, than a friend in need of a helping hand up. Yeltsin’s Russia was useful to the US and NATO only to the extent that we could exploit it economically while controlling its domestic politics in a manner that kept Russia in a perpetual state of weakness. The Obama “reset” was simply a ploy to remove Vladimir Putin, who rejected the vision of Russia projected by the West, and replace him with Dmitri Medvedev, whom Obama believed could be remade in the figure of Yeltsin. The fact that Putin believes in a strong Russia has upset the plans of the US, NATO, and Europe for post-Cold War hegemony, predicated as they were on a weak, compliant Russian state.”
the peace and war is in the hands of the US leaders
war is profitable, attention diverting tool, nation uniting tactic
another benefit, as usual, the others — Ukrainians/Russians will suffer
a question many people have been asking is:
will the US permit Russian military forces in Canada and/or Mexico?
the answer is, of course, NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO…
B. R. Gowani can be reached at brgowani@hotmail.com