First published at Axis of Logic 2015-11-14.

Miles Report No. 63 - Russia - nyet!

From RT News and other media sites:

A UN General Assembly committee has passed a resolution “combating glorification of Nazism,” with 126 countries voicing their support. Meanwhile, the US, Ukraine and Canada voted “against,” raising eyebrows. Moscow has called the decision “regrettable.”

Oh, well, perhaps if the current ambassador is a Harper appointee this “no” vote to condemn nazism and racism is understandable. One of Harper’s strongest commentaries was in favour of the Ukrainian government after the Maidan coup that ousted their democratically elected - if corrupt - government. The Maidan events, the Odessa massacre, and the military attacks against Donetsk and Luhansk were orchestrated by the right wing sector of neo-nazis within the Ukrainian government.

The Maidan events were also coordinated by the U.S. - who also voted “no” to condemn nazism - as per the actions of U.S. assistant secretary of state, Victoria Nuland, married to right wing neo-con of the Bush era, Robert Kagan. She handed out more than cookies.

Channelling Harper?

It was reported that at the recent G-20 meeting that our brand spanking leader of ”sunny ways”, Justin Trudeau, told Putin to stop interfering in Ukraine. Was he temporarily channeling Harper?

Is he unaware of the history of the Ukraine: how Crimea (Sevastopol) was established by historical Russia; how the territory of eastern Ukraine was given to the then Soviet Ukraine Republic as a gift by Kruschev; how some Ukraine territory was gained from Poland after WW II; how Clinton promised Gorbachev that NATO would not move any further east; how the neo-nazi Right Sector came to power after the Maidan coup, initiated as indicated by the U.S. and its assets; how Crimea was annexed by Russia after a majority vote of the population (under occupation? No more or less than elections in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Palestine that at the time were lauded as democratic); how the Kiev junta decided to attack the eastern regions, with slogans condemning Russians to death……????

The mainstream media certainly does not present this history for Canadians. It makes me incredulous that our government, especially the new Liberals, would support Ukraine in these two ways - by voting against UN document condemning nazism, and continuing to follow the U.S. as a militant sycophant to their stated position to contain/destroy Russia.

If you do not believe the latter statement, go read Zbgigniew Brzezinski’s “Grand Chessboard” and the essay/pamphlet for the “Project for a New American Century”. It is clear that the U.S. will use all possible means to prevent the rise of any competitor that would challenge their global dominance. Fortunately they are proving quite inept at that; unfortunately that ineptness has created much terror throughout the Middle East.

ussia is not the “aggressor”

Certainly Russia has strong interests in Ukraine. Some sectors are predominantly Russian, such as the breakaway republics in the Donbas. It has strong industrial, commercial, and obviously cultural ties to Ukraine. What are Canada’s interests, other than following the U.S. in its hegemonic drive? I cannot think of an answer that would satisfy any stream of logic.

Is it about retaining the Ukrainian vote in Canada? Is it about appearing to be at least a moderate tough guy, an appeasement gift to the U.S. deep state’s desires for global control? Is there some personal antipathy towards Russia? Is it pure ignorance, more likely a wilful ignorance?

Consider this: the U.S. has over 750 military bases throughout the world in over 150 countries; the U.S.’ modern history shows that they have used covert and overt military and economic operations around the world to overthrow often democratically elected governments that did not support the U.S. ideal. It started well before WW II but with the creation of the CIA after the war, many countries have suffered from U.S. attacks. The first in 1953 was the overthrow of the democratically elected Mossadegh government in Iran in order to control its oil resources followed quickly by the overthrow of the democratically elected Arbenz government of Nicaragua in order to prevent land reform affecting mostly U.S. agrobusiness (from whence “banana republic”).

Recently, the world has seen illegal U.S. assaults on Afghanistan (the UN came in after the fact in a “reconstruction” role), on Iraq, on Syria, on Libya (sure, the UN approved a no fly zone, but that did not stop aerial bombing - lots by Canada - of civilian infrastructure and government forces, nor did it stop JTF2 combatants on the ground), on Somalia, Yemen, Sudan.

Russia on the other hand has only acted aggressively in a handful of areas. They entered Afghanistan by mistakenly accepting the government’s invitation for support (from whence the support and organization of the mujahideen “freedom fighters” as per Ronald Reagan that morphed into the Taliban, then al-Qaeda, and now into ISIS.) They entered South Ossetia after the Georgian government, supported by Israel and the U.S., decided to attack this breakaway province.

To be sure, Russia has supported the breakaway regions of Ukraine, but it has not used its military directly to interfere. Be real - from the display of power that Russia is demonstrating in Syria, if they wanted to take over Ukraine, they could have done so in weeks if not days.

Our allies?

Consider our alliances within this discussion. The Ukraine is governed by people who honour and support Stepan Bandera, a WW II Nazi sympathiser whose organization massacred thousands of Poles and Jews in what is now Ukraine. The current supporters have used both the swastika and the infamous SS runes for military and political symbols. How are they not neo-nazis? How are they not to be condemned for wanting to ethnically cleanse or use genocide against the Russian inhabitants of eastern Ukraine?

This is a bit of a sidestep, but consider our ally, the wonderful feudal tribal monarchy of Saudi Arabia, supported by the Wahhabi sect with their extreme fundamentalist ideals. With little if any rights for women, using stonings, beheadings, and amputations as judicial penalties, with no democracy for anyone, and willing to attack other non-democracies to preserve the rule of monarchs (Bahrain, Yemen) - why are we allied with them?

Which leads back to the situation in Syria.

The mess with ISIS can be traced back, as above, to U,.S. interference in South Asia and the Middle East. They are not the only factor, but are by far the most powerful and most disruptive. Syria was one of the last two countries the U.S. neocons wanted to overthrow (last is Iran). Using the Saudi alliance (for oil and dollar hegemony stability) and Turkeys fickleness and desire to be a modern day caliphate unto itself, throw in a sprinkle of Kurdish desire for autonomy, the Israeli desire to break any possible contender for Middle East power into much smaller pieces (thus Iraq, 2003), along with Syria’s recalcitrance in kowtowing to the U.S. way of thinking and Russia’s long time support of Syria (with recognition that it never promoted Syria attacking anyone or trying even to regain the illegal Israeli annexation of the Golan Heights) and the brew is ripe for major disruption.

Saudi Arabia wants to promote its Wahabbi fundamentalism through its support of different terrorist groups that are attacking western interests and is actively supporting the IS (and what about all those Saudis who supposedly flew the planes into the WTC - why has that section of the 9/11 commission report never been released to the public?) It is also against Syria as it fears its alliance with Iran as both are Shia and possible contenders to Saudi dominance in the region (aside from Israel).

And so it is, with the various parties promoting different relationships with different other parties such that they are at strong odds with each other, such as the U.S. support for the Kurds against the Turkish desire to squelch any Kurdish show of strength. Then along comes Russia…

...and changes the picture completely. Russia has demonstrated U.S. incompetence at best and/or U.S. connivance at worst. Because the U.S. has been unable to locate many IS bases, and/or because it wants Assad removed more than it wants IS “degraded”, the U.S. has spent four years proving its inability to both remove Assad and get rid of IS.

Very quickly the Russians have proven they are capable of gathering the intelligence and using their forces to aid the Syrian army in combatting the terrorist groups supported by the U.S.working within Iraq and Syria. The U.S. is acting like a spoiled brat, not willing to share intelligence nor cooperate with Russia’s actions to eliminate IS, being revealed for what they truly are, an imperial adventurer trying to divide and conquer a region from which it should simply depart.

Another factor is that Russia is acting within international law having been asked into Syria by the still functional government of Syria. The U.S. is acting outside of international law in its support for various countries who defy international standards (Saudi Arabia) and by supplying armaments and their illegal trade within the region.

Tell me why….

If anyone can tell me why the Liberal Trudeau government continues to channel Harper and oppose Russian actions, I would be pleased to hear from them. Obviously the usual hubris and rhetoric about Russia being the aggressor, about Russia acting as an invader in Ukraine, or with Russia having its military “at NATO’s doorstep”, or with Russia causing more turmoil and creating more terror in the Middle East by supporting the Syrian government against U.S. backed terrorist organizations - none of that stands up to logical scrutiny.

It all appears to me to be the same old pattern of creating an ‘evil’ other in order to rally the troops/masses into supporting government actions or inactions. But for what purpose? What is the end goal as the Ukraine will never be as it was, nor will the Middle East?

After the Paris massacre, it is interesting to note that Russia and France are agreeing on coordinating their efforts to eliminate ISIS rather than to just degrade and contain them. My comments on the Paris attacks are available here, here, here, and here. ...along with my latest review of Canada in Africa by Yves Engler, here, and here. The Miles Report is available on line here and here.