Jihadis of the Sheikh Mansur Battalion
CREDIT: (https://t.me/Batalon_Shaiha_Mansura)
We’ve heard the arguments against the war among our own conservatives: “What is Ukraine to us?” “Tell me why is Ukraine in America’s interest?” “What does ‘corrupt’ Ukraine have to do with us?” “Russians in Ukraine consider it Russian territory.” “Russia has security interests in Ukraine as a buffer against NATO.” “Is Ukraine Really Russia?”
So what did we get wrong?
“Ukraine…has a history of over 2000 years. The territory has been conquered and controlled many times throughout this history. The Cimmerians, Greeks, Scythians, Goths, Huns, Bulgars, Khazars (who are not Jews), the state of Kievan Rus', Byzantine Greeks, Kipchaks, Ottoman Turks, Golden Horde Tatars and the Mongols all controlled…(the region). In the 13th century, it was partly controlled by the Venetians and by the Genovese; they were followed by the Crimean Khanate and the Ottoman Empire in the 15th to 18th centuries, the Russian Empire in the 18th to 20th centuries, the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic and later the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic within the Soviet Union…”
The Washington Post reported this week that Democrats urged the President to re-evaluate American policy toward Ukraine. Conservatives, “Don’t give them a blank check!”
Once you’ve waded through the smoke screens, revisionist history corrected above, trigger words such as “corrupt,” sensationalism, fake news, inciting to get clicks and TV ratings, changing global events, personal opinion and “feelings,” and the disinformation directed from the Kremlin to disrupt American policy as it has for over a half century, the glass pane becomes clearer.
Far cleaner yet, as explained by the Kremlin’s highest-level defector.
“(Yuri) Bezmenov was the press agent for (the USSR’s) NOVOSTI…media-arm of the Kremlin, meaning, its secret services FSB and the Russian Federation’s military wing, GRU….Bezmenov’s assignments had been to impress and “turn” visiting diplomats, teachers, and journalists, to plant Soviet propaganda, disinformation, and active measures into western governments. Operations such as these are called “elite capture.”
NOVOSTI’s operatives had infiltrated the western press.
Today NOVOSTI and RT (Russia Today) are…in…the same business, promoting the social justice of Russia’s unprovoked unilateral aggression changing the borders of other nations, while murdering their civilians. NOVOSTI is in the business of messaging and influence: indoctrinating pundits, opinion writers, and editors in the western press.”
Anon: "There are no friends; no enemies, just common interests."
The United States’ common interests are shared with its trading and military partners and the world’s third largest economy, Europe. Europeans happen to be progenitors and scions of America’s founding fathers and America’s ancestors. In other words, they are us, and we are them.
NATO’s strategy is to block Russian forces from seizing for itself the trade routes, ports, rail and access roads to the underbelly of Europe and the seas that serve all, Azov, Aegean, Adriatic, Marmara, Mediterranean, Black, North and Baltic seas - routes to the Atlantic Ocean that connect them. These access routes are vital for American trade, American prosperity, global security, and the American military. Most importantly, these seas encircle the entire continent and connect to North Africa and Asia.
Unfortunately Ukraine borders Russia.
These waterways also lead to North Africa, Malta, Morocco, Algiers, Tunis, Libya, Cyprus, Turkey, Israel, and Egypt’s Suez Canal - the mainline for energy resources that power the west’s economies.
“The Suez Crisis began on October 29, 1956, when Israeli armed forces pushed into Egypt toward the Suez Canal, a valuable waterway that controlled two-thirds of the oil used by Europe. In July of that year, Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser nationalized the canal. The Israelis were joined by French and British forces, which damaged their relationships with the United States and nearly brought the Soviet Union into the conflict.”
“On…1 August 1975, the then Taoiseach, Liam Cosgrave was one of the signatories of the Helsinki Final act governing relations between European states. He signed along the United States, all other European countries (except Albania), and the USSR, which at the time encompassed both Russia and Ukraine.
Article one of the Helsinki Final Act said that the signatory states would
“respect each other’s sovereign equality, juridical equality and territorial integrity”,
and that they would refrain from the
“use of force or the threat of the use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state”.
“…Russia became a member on 28 February 1996. The Council of Europe is the source of a dense and comprehensive network of treaties on many topics... and its Treaties only have meaning to the extent that its members are willing to abide by international law.
The European Union itself also rests on the foundation of respect for international law. The EU only EXISTS because there is an assumption that international Treaties will be respected in ALL circumstances…”
In other words, Russia has had plenty of chances to join the civilized world and profit from it. It chose to ‘game the system’ instead and become another bad actor.
Earlier treaties were followed by the BUDAPEST MEMORANDUM which governs the post-Soviet relationships between Russia, Ukraine, UK, Europe and the United States - and to which Russia was signatory:
“…The "Budapest Memorandum on Security Assurances" is a diplomatic memorandum that was signed in December 1994 by Ukraine, Russia, the United States, and the United Kingdom…
Under the memorandum, Ukraine promised to remove all Soviet-era nuclear weapons from its territory, send them to disarmament facilities in Russia, and sign the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. Ukraine kept these promises.
In return, Russia and the Western signatory countries essentially consecrated the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine as an independent state…”
They specifically pledged they would refrain from making each other's territory the object of military occupation or engage in other uses of force in violation of international law.
All sides agreed that no such occupation or acquisition will be recognized as legal…”
NATO was specifically established to counter expansionist players from unilaterally claiming for themselves the territory of other nations, and in this case, the trillions worth of Ukraine's natural resources on which the world depended for survival and prosperity: steel, aluminum, oil, gas, cobalt, rare earth minerals and grain (Europe's food supply in fact). These represent the wealth of a very fertile Ukraine.
Accordingly we were left with no choices - the law is clear - but to block Russia’s historic imperialist agenda. We are complying therefore lawfully with internationally agreed-to pre-existing security guarantees, treaties, and understandings.
It is only Russia that is not. The Russian invasion of Crimea in 2014, and the rest of Ukraine in 2022, is not a partisan, Democrat or Republican issue. It is a global security issue.
Anon: "There are no friends; no enemies, just common interests."
Rational foreign policy must advance freedom, trade, and global security across the world, which happens to be America’s historical, if unintended role; and specifically in the national interest. Free and safe access to international waterways, the passage of Americans, markets, goods and supplies, and military action, happen to be among them.
For without America, there is no free world.
AMERICA'S ROLE IN THE UKRAINE WAR, HOPEFULLY LIMITED, IS 100% IN THE GLOBAL, COMMON, AND AMERICAN INTEREST.
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© Andrew G. Benjamin is in finance, real estate and equities, a former economic advisor to New York City mayor ‘s office (Subcommittee on Taxation, Finance and the Budget). Benjamin wrote extensively about politics, transnational and domestic, intelligence and military affairs, security and strategy, economic issues, Mideast, terrorism, technology and high end audio.
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