The first casualty of war is the truth. It is disturbing how all the media are sounding the same when it comes to the war in Ukraine. Putin is bad. Biden is good. Zelensky is about to be nominated for beatification. Making a dissenting voice would provoke fierce resistance, because the horrors of war and the madness of the decision to invade a sovereign country like Ukraine make any nuance impossible . The latter is understandable, but it doesn't get us any closer to a solution.
In the light of this one-sided view of the parties in conflict and the one-sided emphasis on the suffering and destruction caused, we cannot expect a constructive policy from politicians. In an emotional surge, the two ladies who lead Sweden and Finland are asking for NATO membership, just as Merkel decided in an emotional surge after the catastrophe in Fukushima to shut down all nuclear power plants in Germany. Von der Leyen went to Kiev with a questionnaire, which Zelensky promised to fill out dutifully within a week so that his country could soon join the family of civilized countries. Women in politics that leads to childish fuss, emotional reactions and a lack of logic for long-term planning. That is why the three aforementioned ladies are adding fuel to the fire, which has put the West in a very risky situation. The feminization of politics could have catastrophic consequences for the free world.
For that reason, it is good to listen to an American who wipes his feet on everything and speaks his mind in no uncertain terms. His opinion is based on his own war experiences as a Vietnam veteran and on twelve interviews with Putin over a period of two years. It concerns Oliver Stone, a film director best known for his documentaries about Kennedy, Castro, Bush and in 2017 about the Russian president.
In an interview with Michael Shermer of The Skeptics Society, an American association that combats irrational thinking, Stone draws a historical outline of US policy towards Russia. In 1962, the US had 17 times more nuclear weapons than Russia. It was feared that Russia would catch up by 1970. For that reason, influential American politicians, including Dulles, Secretary of State under President Eisenhower, proposed destroying with a first strike the Soviet Union with nuclear weapons. President Kennedy opposed this and signed a treaty with Khrushchev to limit the nuclear arsenal. That idea of a first strike has always lived on. Placing antiballistic systems in Poland has previously fueled Russia's fears of such a ' preemptive ' attack.
In 1991, the opportunity for Russia to participate in the Pax Americana was lost. According to Oliver Stone, Russia would have been a very important partner, for example in learning to manage the consequences of climate change. Russia has nuclear power stations that process their own waste. With the war in Ukraine, fossil fuels are now being used more than ever because President Biden is now prioritizing regime change in Russia.
Stone is angry because successive US administrations have not learned from the war experiences. After World War II, the US has already lost seven wars. Every time an attempt is made to help a pro-Western government leader through regime change, things go from bad to worse. In Indonesia , for example, with the help of the Americans, Suharto came to power who for thirty years could continue to be a thoroughly corrupt tyrant. In Chile Pinochet came to power, in Iran the Shah who had his opponents tortured. Other interventions in Latin America also failed with sad consequences for the population.
After 1991, in fact, the Americans no longer had any enemies except the terrorists, but they don't represent that many. In addition, Russia cooperated with the US to combat Islamic terrorism in Afghanistan. The idea that the US has a moral obligation to help peoples living under a dictatorship is untenable. According to Stone, there are 53 crises in the world every year. Every year there is a new Zelensky who is a martyr and asks for weapons. Do we have the correct information about what is happening in all those countries? Who cares about reality anymore? All those people who say that Russia must be dealt with harshly: do they have war experience, on what do they base their opinion? Do they know the history of Russia? Do they know that diplomatic solutions are also possible, that treaties can be concluded? What is Putin's position? How do we arrive at a balanced policy? In order to find a good answer to these questions, we must above all keep talking to the enemy.
When asked how we can end the war in Ukraine and reconcile Biden and Putin, something that now seems impossible given the US president's statements, Stone says that first and foremost Ukraine's neutral position needs to be repaired. Ukraine has always been a neutral country. This is not in the interest of the American neoconservatives, because they want Ukraine to become pro-Western. Someone more moderate than Zelensky has to come. Second, NATO should stop striving for regime change in Russia and withdraw to the borders agreed with Gorbachev by James Baker and George Bush. That agreement is denied by the neoconservatives or they claim that each independent country can decide for itself whether to join or not.
Adding more countries to NATO offers no advantages. We need to get rid of the idea that Russia will invade Europe. That is a remnant of the Second World War. Then NATO was founded and the Eastern Bloc reacted with the Warsaw Pact, despite the fact that the Soviet Union was one of the Allies during the war. Then the Cold War started. In 1955 Khrushchev gave an important speech in which he spoke about the crimes of Stalin and argued for a more humane policy. Hungary misunderstood this and started liberalization. Khrushchev had to react or the hardliners would revolt against him. Hence the invasion of Hungary, which resulted in a limited number of deaths. The death toll as a result of US imperialism in the aforementioned countries was staggering. In short, we need to get rid of the idea that America is good and Russia is bad. A more nuanced view is a precondition for achieving peace.
Like Oliver Stone, I don't want to mince my words either. We are on the brink of catastrophe. Beautiful cities like Odessa and Kiev are in danger of being destroyed. The survival of European civilization is at stake. During World War II, the Americans completely destroyed the German heritage, far worse than what the Taliban did in Afghanistan. Now a wicked American foreign policy could destroy the rest of Europe in nuclear war or as a result of missile strikes. For this urgent reason, the feminization of European politics must end and Europe must set its own course, separate from the US.
What the European policy should be is obvious. Ukraine remains a neutral country. The Donbas will be given autonomous status. Crimea is part of Russia. NATO withdraws to pre-1991 borders. This will be presented to Russia in a conference and negotiated until an alliance is formed between the countries between the North Sea and the Bering Sea. But first, a European statesman must be empowered to carry out a strong policy. Make no mistake, it is a matter of life or death and there is not a second to lose.
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