39 Comments

It’s just a matter of time isn’t it? The American identity and feelings of self-worth seem to have nothing to do with success domestically. It’s about looking tough to win elections. The unprincipled amoral invasions of Nam, Iraq and Afghanistan will still reek in 200 years.

So Donbas or decent health care?

The US has crap health care at absurd cost leading to pathetic third world longevity.

It leads the world or Western world in obesity, divorce, child poverty, social inequality, racism, murder, racial murder, mass murder, guns, nukes, chemical weapons, incarceration, pollution (twice as much per capita as the Chinese), but is ~ last in maternal and infant mortality, etc.

World-leading Rape of their female colleagues is institutionalized their Armed Forces.

But in the MSM it goes without mention, in favour of Matt Gaetz, Ted and Heidi’s excellent vacation and sandbars in the S China Sea.

Obviously Donbas is more important but Americans will never get to vote on it.

Expand full comment

I tell you one thing, It's clear to me The Murican and Brit Anglo elite are NOT scared in the least: Ukraine will take the punishment (shocking that Ukraine is all ok with this), all Anglo powers have to do is erase Russia from the world's ledgers using that great sci-fi eraser: sanctions. That's the deal. SO they egg Ukraine on...atta boy....good fight....keep it up....awesome spirit......when in reality it's like sending a 15 year old in the ring to fight Mike Tyson.

Expand full comment

Caitlin, I reach the same conclusion you do -- NATO should back off -- but by different reasoning. I believe you have NOT adequately dealt with the "where do we draw the line" question. My reasoning is this: Who do you trust more -- NATO or Putin? I see Putin as the lesser evil, by a wide margin. Look at all the destruction NATO has wrought in so many different countries over the years.

But still, the question "where do we draw the line" is misleading -- who is this "we"? YOU AND I have no direct influence over what NATO is going to decide. The most that we have is indirect influence: We can communicate to our friends, our online acquaintances, and so on. I'll be carrying a sign next Sunday. In theory, we can phone the office of our congressional representatives, but personally I'm unable to do that: I see those people as liars, thieves, and mass murderers, and I cannot hold my stomach long enough for a phone call. They won't pay much attention to us anyway -- Gilens and Page proved statistically that our so-called "democracy" is really a plutocracy in disguise. So I'm communicating to my friends and my online acquaintances about some really big changes I'd like to see.

Expand full comment
Mar 1, 2022Liked by Caitlin Johnstone

the problem is that the US, the NATO countries and Russia all have economies reliant on arms production and sales

Expand full comment
Feb 28, 2022·edited Feb 28, 2022

Excellent analysis. It is interesting how the overwhelming response by the West has been punitive, and even more of a surprise to me has been the immediate supply of arms (including fighter jets) to Ukraine. There is a vilification of Putin on mainstream media and world leaders, without any kind of acknowledgement of conditions and context that has led to this disastrous and historic invasion of Ukraine. Even if true, the Western propaganda coming out of MSM that Putin is simply an irrational, 'evil' madman, the failure of world leadership to understand or manage the clear possibility of Putin's invasion - by measures other than more belligerent, and covert Western actions on Russia's border - including the never ending expansion of NATO etc - the reliance on arms alone by the West to resolve all geo-political issues (especially the US) which has invariably led to more violence and more wars rather than less - the actions by Putin are ALSO a clear failure of Western leadership to avoid such a confrontation.

Putin's actions are heinous nevertheless, but irrational? Given the militaristic climate that the so-called 'leader of the free world' - the United States -has now promoted for the last few decades, with 900+ military bases worldwide, and a military budget that dwarfs all other nations including Russia - the Illegal Wars the US has instigated on lies and billions spent with covert actions by an unchecked, unconstitutional rogue US deep state - how is Putin's actions any less rational than the militaristic world he lives in, promoted by the Western leaders and NATO itself? We see in this climate of increased unchecked militarism, Putin himself has then made a decision that is of course wrong, but not unpredictable, and arguably provoked by the unceasing belligerence of militarism in the West itself.

This failure of Western leadership and diplomacy that does not depend on military might - has now led us to this place where one man - one man alone appears to now hold in his hands the fate of the world: Putin. Is that the sign of good world leadership? Are we to blame Putin alone for the place we are at now?

On a side note, it does make me wonder, does the West believe that it can win a nuclear war? Do the US and allied nations believe they can perform a massive first strike upon Russia, killing millions in the process, but at the same time fixing all their Imperial headaches with one giant militaristic blow against Putin? Is that why they are so willing to push their punitive measures against Putin to the very very limit? Pushing punitive measures against someone they claim is an irrational madman??

Expand full comment

M. Albright would say : " Yes, it's worth it "

Expand full comment

They didn't annexe Crimea. There was a referendum, or so we are informed.

Expand full comment
Mar 1, 2022·edited Mar 1, 2022

The US is indeed risking nuclear Armageddon. There is plenty of irony here. It also should remind everyone that when the USSR became unglued, the US had a once in a millennium chance to lead on chemical and nuclear disarmament. The opportunity to develop a truly seminal landmark in human history was effortlessly pissed away. Instead it succumbed to metastasizing its 800 military bases to now 70 countries, creating secret places to torture, increasing its obscene and unaccountable military budgets several-fold, selling arms and making their purchase a de facto requirement for NATO membership, fighting endless wars and invasions and violating innumerable treaties and conventions. Not to mention badmouthing the UN nonstop, thwarting it relentlessly, abusing its veto and defunding the WHO at the height of a global pandemic. Why will it be any different this time?

Expand full comment

The US has been so accustomed to calling the shots it just didn't notice that Putin and Russia had maneuvered into a position where they could call a few. Putin's demands aren't extraordinary, he just wants some reasonable security guarantees for Russia, Russian speaking Ukrainians, and the Russian Donbas region. But the US and its frightened lackeys

can'r see it that way. Almost every other country is entitled to security, but not Russia. So the ball is in the West's court, and we all have to hope they don't fumble this time.

Expand full comment

Get a good portion of a populace in a lather and they'll slaughter anything in slashing distance given the correct frequency of microwaves.

Operation Crimson Mist was a CIA intervention on a tribal war in Rwanda in 1990's where they projected the frequency onto one side of the frenzied warriors from C-130 aircraft, resulting in over one million deaths from the induced berserking.

https://www.bitchute.com/video/7z8I9DPw2lXU/

If you think they stopped at that weaponry, you'd probably be wrong. I've no doubt they'll use some variation of it somewhere soon.

Expand full comment

This is akin to eating cold leftovers. I was born into a world where today was already set, and the passive language I find myself using accurately reflects my feelings at the current moment. I don't remember asking for any of it; yet here we are.

So what I'm getting from today's article is that there is no line, ever, because I can't think of anything that stands up against the annihilation of the human race, or at least a large chunk of it, so people like Putin just keep getting their way while the rest of us watch it on our computers?

This should have been dealt with at the dawn of the nuclear age, when proposals were made to have the UN in control of the nuclear arsenal. At least that would have represented a more hopeful version of technological insanity. Once it became a function of national interest, the die was cast. All my thoughts and opinions strike me as too little, too late, and therefore not helpful at all.

Whether true or not, I feel I have about as much input into my government's actions as the average Russian has on theirs. Clearly more freedoms, but the exact same input, which is none.

Expand full comment

No, of course it's not "worth it," nor is it rational. The US and all the NATO countries have caused this war because they all refuse to commit themselves to the exclusion of Ukraine from NATO. It would only take one and I'm sorry it wasn't Germany.

Expand full comment
Mar 1, 2022·edited Mar 1, 2022

Caitlin Johnson, have you ever read the 1994 Budapest Memorandum? I read your blog regularly, but, in this case, hold your horses. Armageddon rhetoric can certainly be effective at stirring people's imaginations, just as this creep Putin has begun, but before leaping to conclusions, please include, please begin a discussion about the 1994 Budapest Memorandum. Start here. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Budapest_Memorandum_on_Security_Assurances

Summation of the critical points:

-Respect Belarusian, Kazakh and Ukrainian independence and sovereignty in the existing borders.

-Refrain from the threat or the use of force against Belarus, Kazakhstan and Ukraine.

-Refrain from using economic pressure on Belarus, Kazakhstan and Ukraine to influence their politics.

-Seek immediate Security Council action to provide assistance to Belarus, Kazakhstan and Ukraine if they "should become a victim of an act of aggression or an object of a threat of aggression in which nuclear weapons are used".

-Refrain from the use of nuclear arms against Belarus, Kazakhstan and Ukraine.

-Consult with one another if questions arise regarding those commitments.

Hmmm.

Expand full comment

M.Albright : " Yes, it's worth it "

Expand full comment

It is a worrying thought. If pushed, I could imagine Putin launching a limited nuclear strike; with Hawaii being the best kind of target to hit since it is a US State, in the middle of a vast ocean, and not part of the CONUS. Question would then be how the US (and the world) would respond to that, knowing that any retaliatory response means the end of the world. And doing nothing will further weaken US credibility.

Expand full comment

Nous avons assez de se roi Dollar qui épuise nos économies qui nous enfonce dans une inflation et une chute de notre pouvoir d'achat, il siphonne notre plus-valus de nos ventes de pétrole et gaz " l'impérialisme capitaliste est un virus mortel " cordialement d'Alger

Expand full comment