Jan 28, 2024
“Democracy Dies in Darkness” is the strapline of the Washington Post.
Well democracy is currently dying and we are in darkness.
We can thank the Putin murder gang for that.
But they were aided and abetted by Bush 1 with his ignorant and execrable “Chicken Kiev” speech, Bill Clinton with his “Budapest Memorandum” trickery, Clinton again for failing to act over Chechnya, France/Germany for doing huge business with Russia and blocking Ukraine and Georgia from Nato, Dubya for failing to act in 2008 when Putin committed terrible crimes invading Georgia, Obama/Biden for failing to respond properly to the Crimea and genocidal Donbas invasions, Trump for allowing Putin’s genocide to continue throughout his presidency, Biden again for failing to provide sufficient support in 2021, 2022 and the present; and Trump again; this time for orchestrating the collapse of US-Ukraine Aid.
The misery, death and horror Ukraine is experiencing now was caused in large part by Clinton, who browbeat nervous Ukrainian leaders into signing the Budapest Memorandum, which of course turned out to be not worth the paper it was printed on.
Clinton has acknowledged some responsibility for this:
“I feel a personal stake because I got them [Ukraine] to agree to give up their nuclear weapons. And none of them believe that Russia would have pulled this stunt if Ukraine still had their weapons….”
Notice Clinton’s legal training: he has framed his words artfully to avoid any legal admission of guilt. But at least he has admitted he was wrong.
Who could possibly claim that Russia would have unleashed full-blown genocide on Ukraine if it had retained its nuclear arsenal?
Brian Whitmore argued that if Ukraine had retained just one warhead, Putin would have been forced to wage only economic war on Ukraine. I think he’s probably right.
America as a country hasn’t admitted any responsibility for the Budapest deception. Neither has Britain.
Brian Whitmore was in Kyiv during the signing of Budapest. He said :
“Ukrainians were pissed. They were extremely worried about Russia and felt they could not trust Russians.”
Brian’s guest on the latest Power Vertical: George Bogden, said that while they were signing Budapest, the Russians were invading Chechnya. That I did not know. It’s unbelievable and absolutely disgraceful.
“On The Power Vertical Podcast this week, host Brian Whitmore speaks with George Bogden, an Olin Fellow at the Columbia University School of Law, a visiting researcher at Bard College, and author of a forthcoming book on the Budapest memorandum based on never-before-released archival files.”
Focusser has already posted the interview. It’s a very good episode. Here is the link :
As we now know, Yeltsin was just another bloodthirsty Russian imperialist.
Clinton succeeded in conning the world into thinking that Yeltsin was benign. He had already committed genocide in Abkhazia for God’s sake!
Under Yeltsin, imperial savagery also took place in Moldova: Ruritanian fake state “Transnistria” was violently created on Moldovan land.
Eduard Shevardnadze, Georgia’s first president, told Leonid Kravchuk and Clinton that they were dealing with old imperial Russia, not “new democratic Russia” as they had so naively believed. Kravchuk listened, Clinton didn’t.
George Bogden said that the Americans genuinely believed at the time that Russia had “accepted the western model of statecraft and diplomacy.”
How catastrophically wrong could anyone be?
“America prioritized relations with Russia over the former Soviet Republics , which led to a lot of bad outcomes.” :
Brian Whitmore. A bit of an understatement there Brian.
George Bogden : “why are we even talking about “the toxicity of Ukrainian nationalism?” As if Russian nationalism was so healthy and pure?!”
The Budapest Memorandum is almost never discussed by British or American politicians these days. The U.K. helps Ukraine because it is the right thing to do. Not because it feels any responsibility for Budapest. Perhaps it should? I certainly think so.
Apart from stopping Putin’s genocide in its tracks, the following countries should and must pay reparations to Ukraine:
Obviously number one has to be Russia. But these other countries must pay also :
The US, U.K., France, Germany.
The amount to be determined by international lawyers. First, the western countries at least must admit responsibility. Military Aid already provided can be credited and deducted from the total.
Regarding Germany, its failure to pay Ukraine reparations for the horrors it inflicted in WW2 should also be factored into the calculations.
For Russia, the horrors it inflicted on Ukraine in the Holodomor should also be factored into the calculations.
Furthermore, west-based politicians and media figures who can be proved demonstrably, by their deliberate deployment of lies and propaganda, to have aided and abetted a fascist regime to expedite genocide, should also face prosecution. If found guilty, their assets should be seized and donated to Ukraine.
An obvious candidate is the pardoned criminal Paul Manafort:
How Paul Manafort Helped Elect Russia’s Man in Ukraine:
https://time.com/5003623/paul-manafort-mueller-indictment-ukraine-russia/
The time really is long overdue for a complete overhaul of Ukraine Aid strategy. The first principles have to be :
No “land for peace.”
No reward for savagery.
A reminder : mainstream Republicans produced a document:
Proposed Plan For Victory In Ukraine.
It contained three essential items:
1/ providing critical weapons to Ukraine at the speed of relevance
2/ tightening sanctions on the Putin regime and :
3/ transferring frozen Russian sovereign assets to Ukraine.
The full document can be seen here :
I suggest they act on it.
NOW.
Couldn’t agree more to everything the author said.
The behavior of the West was very bad and downright unforgiving. Of course, mafia land is far worse. As the Ukrainians feel sad over its abandonment by the US and all the other bad things that the West caused and tolerated, which eventually led to this terrible war, its hate for mafia land and its brainless and evil population will last for generations to come.
I also believe Ukrainians, the worldwide Ukrainian diaspora, Poland, the Baltic states and others are responsible. Let’s face it, we all knew what Russia was capable of and we did nothing like begin to bolster and build our defense industry. Instead we (and I include myself in this category) put our head up out butts and said to ourselves that Russia was changing and yet we knew in our hearts especially after Putin was elected and after Georgia and after 2014 that we weren’t safe.
Frankly in 2014 we should have begun turning ourselves into war time economy and raise all the shit we could worldwide including demeaning the Brits and US for failing us.
We should also recognize our naivety in exclusively relying on others outside our country to help us. “God helps those who help themselves”.
I know hindsight is wonderful but there are lessons to be learned and from those lessons we should NEVER FORGET
Poland, Czechia, and the Baltic States have been warning for years about mafia land. But, the rest of Europe ignored them, thinking they know it better.