Lindsey Graham admits real reason why U.S. is providing unlimited funding of Russia-Ukraine war

E. Rowell:  Those who are giving the orders to our Representatives and Senators are moving full steam ahead with their long held plans of destroying national sovereignty everywhere it exists.  To this end they have invited into Western democracies in the UK, Europe, and the US, millions of Islamic jihadis who plan to bring down Western civilization.   As in World War II, the globalists are using the Nazis of Ukraine to be the face of their effort to destroy Russia.  In the Middle East, the globalists are using the Nazis of Tehran to be the face of their efforts to destroy Israel.  These plans are created by psychopaths who think about no one but themselves.   It matters not one whit to them if millions of people die as a result of their efforts.

Hint… it has nothing to do with preserving freedom or ‘democracy.’  The South Carolina neocon warmongering lawmaker says U.S. wants access to Ukraine’s ‘$10 to $12 trillion of critical minerals.’

By Leo Hohmann    10 June 2024

U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina) has become the first member of the Washington establishment to say the quiet part out loud regarding the U.S. funding of the war between Ukraine and Russia, which is really a war between the U.S./NATO and Russia. Ukraine is just NATO’s proxy.

Speaking in an interview with CBS News Face the Nation on Sunday, Senator Graham said Washington “cannot afford” to allow Russia to achieve victory in its war with Ukraine as this would mean losing direct access to vast mineral wealth.


Graham painted Russian President Vladimir Putin as a “megalomaniac” who is attempting to “re-create the Russian Empire by force of arms,” starting with Ukraine — this is a favorite talking point of Washington neocons which has no basis in fact. Graham claimed that if Moscow wins the war, it will proceed to take over Ukraine’s wealth and “share it with China.”

Share with China? This is from the mouth of a lawmaker who has no problem with China buying up valuable U.S. farmland and businesses.

Graham then suggested it would be better if this “gold mine” were claimed by the U.S. and its allies.

“They’re sitting on $10 to $12 trillion of critical minerals in Ukraine,” Graham said. “They could be the richest country in all of Europe… If we help Ukraine now, they can become the best business partner we ever dreamed of, that $10 to $12 trillion of critical mineral assets could be used by Ukraine and the West, not given to Putin and China.”

You can watch the video clip of Graham making these claims in this post to X.

But wait a minute. I thought this war was about defending freedom and democracy. You mean it’s really all about money and resources?

Thank you Senator Graham for telling the truth. You just admitted on national TV that everything being fed to the American people by the military-industrial complex and its lackeys in Congress, not to mention the corporate media, about why we are sending billions to Ukraine is a flat-out lie. More than two years of fake news were blasted into oblivion by that one-minute segment from Lindsey Graham.

Actually, Graham gave part of the truth but not the whole truth. The U.S./NATO wants to control not only the vast natural resources in Ukraine but in Russia as well. Russia’s natural resources dwarf those of Ukraine. It has huge amounts of natural gas, oil, gold and rare-earth minerals. That’s why they’ve openly called for a regime change in Russia, to replace Putin with a Western puppet more favorable to the financial interests of Western-based transnational corporations.

Lest you think my analysis is of my own imagination, you should know that breaking up Russia into several countries and stealing its resources has long been a topic of discussion among Western elites, and they know this can only be done through war. The US government’s Helsinki Commission held a Congressional briefing on June 23, 2022, plotting ways to break Russia up into several smaller countries, in the name of supposed “decolonization” and “anti-imperialism.”

Apparently, Graham wasn’t paying attention to the news over the weekend. It was the pro-war politicians like himself who were punished in the European elections on Sunday. Western people do not want war with Russia, and they certainly don’t want to send their sons or daughters to die in the Ukrainian meat grinder.

Or, there could be one other, more troubling possibility. What if the establishment pro-war American politicians like Graham have been assured that, unlike their globalist buddies in Europe, they no longer have to fear the election returns? Let’s hope that’s not the case, but the timing of the bird flu fear-porn campaign that’s starting to ramp up does seem a little odd, does it not? Another pandemic means unfettered access to mail-in ballots and then we are off to the races for another rigged election. Pray for Peace. Resist the evil of globalism and its perpetual war, famine, fake-news, fake food and fake vaccines.

June 11, 2024 | 41 Comments »

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41 Comments / 41 Comments

  1. @Peloni Yes, and thanks for pointing that out. Orban has mentioned it, too. And these are not Hungarian immigrants to Ukraine. These are parts of historic Hungary that wound up in Ukraine without having moved for many generations as a result of the stroke of the pen of diplomats!

    The same kind of diplomats who carved Africa in the 1890’s and the Muddle East 😀 starting in the 1920’s into gerrrymandered countries in which traditional borders were ignored and new countries were created out of whole cloth out of the wreckage of the Ottoman Empire that were just civil wars waiting to happen, e.g., Iraq, Syria, Rwanda, Eretz Israel.

    Reminds me of when I asked my late maternal great aunt on the Litvak side of my family that came here over the course of the entire 19th century, if she remembered being told anything about the old country and what she said:

    “Who knows. the borders kept changing.”


    From a popular satirical series of children’s books when I was little:

    “Mommy, Mommy, I don’t want to go to Europe.”
    “Shut up and get your other foot in the Care Package.’

    or alternatively

    “Mommy, Mommy, I don’t want to go to Europe.”
    “Shut up and keep swimming.”

    😀

    Present day U.S. foreign policy in a nutshell:

    “‘Daddy, are we lost,'” I arsked tenderly.”
    “‘Shut up,'” he explained.”

    – “The Young Immigrunts.” by Ring Lardner Jr. book. 1920.

    From back in the days when Good Humor was something more than just a brand of ice cream on a schtick. 😀

  2. @Bear @Tanna Thanks for enjoying my sense of humor. If I had to choose, I’d rather get a laugh than be right. 😀

  3. Mr. Zorn, I appreciate your sense of humor. In a troubled world, reading disheartening news here you’re a valuable treasure to help keep us anchored to reality. I get it…. You’re a funny man!

    However, you make a very good point. If USA can give weapons to Ukraine to attack inside Russian borders. Russia can give weapons to the enemies of America that want to attack inside of our borders. If World 3 happens, it’s looking more and more like America politician’s will be the ones to start it.

    “Pay the two dollars”

  4. @Sebastien
    Yes, the Ukrainian constitution has become a perverse alternate of its initial writing. Of course, the bargain was struck in Ukraine, unlike in other nations such as Estonia and Finland, in which full citizenship was bestowed upon the local minorities, and this was not limited to the Russian minorities. The Hungarian govt has remained a significant critic of how the rights of ethnic Hungarians have been summarily affected in the same way as those of the ethic Russians, for example. The preservation of minority rights and equal protection under the law is enshrined in the Helsinki Final Act, as it is included in the founding charter of the OSCE, it is included in the founding articles of the UN, and is one of the stipulations as referenced in the well defunct Budapest Memorandum. Yet, no one in the West speaks of these matters today, just as they were well ignored a decade ago, as these facts do not support the West’s Neocon objective to regime change Russia.

  5. Article 7, In Ukraine, local self-government is recognised and guaranteed.
    The state language of Ukraine is the Ukrainian language.
    The State ensures the comprehensive development and functioning of the Ukrainian language in all spheres of social life throughout the entire territory of Ukraine.
    In Ukraine, the free development, use and protection of Russian, and other
    languages of national minorities of Ukraine, is guaranteed.
    The State promotes the learning of languages of international communication.
    The use of languages in Ukraine is guaranteed by the Constitution of Ukraine and is determined by law. – 1996 Constitution
    https://rm.coe.int/constitution-of-ukraine/168071f58b

    Article 10
    The state language of Ukraine is the Ukrainian language.Ukraine.
    In Ukraine, the free development, use and protection of Russian, and other
    languages of national minorities of Ukraine, is guaranteed.
    The State promotes the learning of languages of international communication.
    The use of languages in Ukraine is guaranteed by the Constitution of Ukraine and is determined by law. 2019 revision

    https://www.constituteproject.org/constitution/Ukraine_2019

    This is just like the Soviet Constitution was. Sounds great on paper but most of it is a complete lie. Though, notice that the right to local self-government was taken out in the revised version of 2019, the year we see Zelensky laughing at the Minsk Agreement meeting.

    “…This agreement consisted of a package of measures, including a ceasefire, withdrawal of heavy weapons from the front line, release of prisoners of war, constitutional reform in Ukraine granting self-government to certain areas of Donbas and restoring control of the state border to the Ukrainian government. ..”

    Minsky Agreements/Wikipedia

  6. @Bear

    yes the Russian’s believe they are entitled to Ukraine.

    Well, to your point, Russia has more right to it than the Americans, but the Ukrainians could have kept it all. All they had to do was to come to the table to negotiate a settlement which left the Dombas in Ukraine with regional autonomy from the American imposed govt. Instead, they badly abused the negotiations at Istanbul to support the American demands. While it profited the greatly to the tune of many billions of yankee dollars, they sold their nationals sovereignty for that price and their pre-2022 national borderline as well.

    They will tell you America is the evil one!

    America is backing Iran as a regional nuclear hegemon. There is no greater evidence of evil than this and no defense for it either.

  7. @Laura, yes the Russian’s believe they are entitled to Ukraine. Huge farming area plus lots of natural minerals. It does not matter that they agreed to give it up the past. Putin did not agree to this and so basically he has reneged on the Russian Agreement of the past.

    If he can take back the former soviet lands and incorporate them into Russia he will. That is his goal and the goal of the Russian Nationalists. There are no rules or agreements of the past that apply to them. They will murder, rape, kidnap, lie, steal cheat. Those that back them go along with all this evil and debate with them is useless!!! They will tell you America is the evil one!

  8. @Laura Even if you were right.

    Pay the Two Dollars is a vaudeville sketch in which a man is subject to increasingly draconian and unnecessary legal jeopardy because of his lawyer’s unwillingness to pay a two-dollar fine. The catchphrase of the sketch has entered the popular lexicon to refer to a penalty that, even if the penalized party regards it as unjust, is too trivial to be worth contesting.

    Wikipedia

    Ephraim Kishon wrote a story based on it and it’s also the premise of HItchcock’s “North By Northwest” (1959)

    Hilarious 1940’s film adaptation. 8 minutes and change

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZKT8QoboD1g

  9. @Laura
    Thank you for your response.

    It would never occur to you that Russian oligarchs desire to raid Ukraine’s natural resources motivated its invasion.

    This is both silly and irrelevant to the fact that the US mounted a coup which placed the Ukrainian assets in the hands of such power barons as Biden and Soros.

    In fact, the oligarchs of Russia are a product of the American Shock Therapy of the 1990’s and were coincident with the creation of the Urkainian oligarchs which founded the Ukrainian state from the same US policy. So, yes, the Russian oligarchs would be quite enamored with the potential gain of Ukrainian assets, yet Russia specifically refused any role in the Ukrainian civil war in 2014. While the leadership of the Dombas demanded Russian support in 2014, that support was refused beyond the role facilitating the Minsk Accords which the US and its allies have confessed to have negotiated in bad faith. So while the American oligarchs were controlling the Ukrainian assets, the Russians were not permitted such a prize, by Putin himself.

    Furthermore, your presumption, and it is a presumption without basis, is that the Russian Oligarchs dictated the Russian invasion of 2022. If this presumption were accurate, why is it that Putin tried to negotiate a settlement avoiding war, right up to the days before the invasion. I mean if the Russian oligarchs were wagging the Russian dog in 2022 as the American oligarchs wagged the American dog back in 2014, why was Putin trying to arrange a settlement to keep the Dombas in Ukraine. Furthermore, if your presumption is correct, why is it that the Russians tried to negotiate a return to the pre-invasion boundaries at the Istanbul peace conference, I mean, if the Russian oligarchs were in such a position to dictate Russian foreign policy in 2022 as the American oligarchs were in a position to dictate foreign policy in 2014, how could Putin press for a settlement to deprive the Russian oligarchs of their prizes in Ukraine.

    Hence, as I stated above, your premise that the Russian oligarchs were the
    likely cause of the 2022 invasion is both silly and irrelevant to the fact that the US oligarchs were the likely cause of the US 2014 coup.

  10. Critical Concepts: Verbal Irony

    Verbal irony is a figure of speech. The speaker intends to be understood as meaning something that contrasts with the literal or usual meaning of what he says.

    Kansas State University
    https://www.k-state.edu/english/baker/cc-verbal_irony.htm

    possible ironic retort:

    “We’re not in Kansas, anymore, Toto.”

    – “Wizard of Oz’ (film) (1939).

    “To the Moon, [Felix]”
    – “The Honeymooners” – (American sitcom 1955.)

    No, not Alice because

    a) that would be in “Wonderland” which is in DVD region 2.
    and
    b) “That would be telling.”
    – “The Prisoner” – British tv series (1969) (also in region 2, but, hey, what they hell, “a foolish consistency,” and all that. Hey, if Schvanz can get away with it, why can’t I?
    😀

    Ukraine and Russia are in DVD region 5. It’s good to have a region free player. Though that’s the only border I approve of being down.

    “Are the trees people, that you should besiege them?” – Deut 20. 😀 Gosh, I love that line. 😀

    right up there with

    “We can’t kill the actors. Actors are people.”
    “Oh, yeah, you ever eat with one?”
    -Mel Brooks’ (with Zero Mostell and Gene Wilder) “The Producers” (1967.) 😀

  11. Russia abducting Ukrainian children and offering on adoption websites.

    I wonder how much they are charging for the children they are trafficking in?

    Do they sell them as slaves like the Arabs do?

  12. Felix, the only one threatening nuclear war is Putin. I’m sure you read those remarks from Sergey Mardan on Russian TV regarding the Putin regime’s imperialistic aims.

    You want a nuclear war. Why?

  13. It would never occur to you that Russian oligarchs desire to raid Ukraine’s natural resources motivated its invasion.

    simply so the US oligarchs could raid the natural resources of that nation

  14. @Laura

    Wouldn’t it be awesome if Russia and China warred against each other.

    It would in fact be the best scenario for the West in general, which is why it was noted by Trump and others that the US should befriend Russia rather then mount a regime change operation against it. But leave it to the crazy Neocons and they are sure to do the wrong thing, and of course they did do the wrong thing. They overthrew a neighboring nation to Russia facilitating an anti-Russian govt in that nation, simply so the US oligarchs could raid the natural resources of that nation, that nation being Ukraine of course. The consequence of this folly was that Russia sought protection from the US rather than any sort of agreement with the West. Hence, the Russia of today is as likely to go to war with China as Zimbabwe is to go to war with the US. Russia and China and Iran all have common interests, but they each have their own uniquely monolithic history and culture which is both condescending and, in significant ways, opposed to the that of the other two nations. The culmination of all of this is that they will not war with one another, and that specifically Russia will not war with China. While Russia is annoyed by and envious of China’s rise to world prominence, they have neither the resources nor the potential allies to support a war with China. Thanks of course to the Neocon misadventures in Ukraine.

  15. Why is my comment which pours scorn on a boasting comment person called Bear Klein not understanding basic English grammar (their instead of there) been placed in moderation

    This management which literally denies the reality of the virus world has not earned the right to moderate me.

    I will not involve myself in such an uncouth outfit

  16. There are no Nazis in any positions of authority in Ukraine. It is a fabrication of the Putin regime, one of several lies that the regime has invented to convince their xoldiers and civilians to support their agression. However, several of the breakaway eastern Ukraine republics that Russia has annexed do have Nazi pasts. Some of these officials are also ethnic Russians who never lived in Ukraine and have never been Ukrainian citizens. There is also a high=ranking Russian general who was a member of a neo-Nazi group in his youth, allegedly he always keeps his uniform entirely buttoned up to the highest button in order hide the swastikas and other Naxi insignia that he had tatood on his chest during his youth.

  17. Bear Klein writes

    By the way the view of my Ukrainian friends is a majority view in Ukraine. Their (sic) are some Russians who do not agree but their country is Russia and not Ukraine.

    He boasts he has little time and is writing a book

    But does not know how to use basic English…his use of their as adverb is telling the world he’s a right dunce.

    But he can lie like merry hell!

  18. Sebastien Zorn

    Did you know what you were writing

    My comment: Maybe this is a good thing. If the globalist elites declare WWIII and devastate the planet, maybe the chattering classes will forget about harassing Israel for just a little while.

    Did you write those words and were not on drugs

    If Israpundit had any real self respect they would kick you right off the site this very moment.

    Why don’t they?

    How can those ideas be allowed to stand?

    Am I the only one thinks that? Surely not.

    You want a nuclear war. Why?

  19. I can’t imagine where anyone would get the silly idea that Putin’s Russia is imperialistic and wants to reestablish its empire:

    https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/chinese-outraged-as-putin-ally-vows-to-subjugate-russias-neighbors/ar-BB1o62BQ?ocid=BingNewsSerp

    Chinese Outraged As Putin Ally Vows to ‘Subjugate’ Russia’s Neighbors

    Ultranationalist Russian media personality Sergey Mardan has sparked anger on Chinese social media with his on-air remark that Russia must subdue its neighbors.

    The Saturday Mardan host said that “Russia is an empire, and an empire can only be a military state. And a military state must fight.”

    “It [Russia] must make the surrounding barbarians submit or be pacified,” he said, warning the country would itself “be pacified…if we aren’t strong enough economically, militarily, politically, and demographically.” Mardan has previously expressed nostalgia for czarist Russia, whose territory encompassed Ukraine and several other modern states.

    “A funny story: Russian propaganda TV host Mardan claimed, ‘Russia is a military empire. It always expands and subjugates her neighbors,'” European Resilience Initiative Center founder Sergej Sumlenny wrote in his translation of the comment on X, formerly Twitter, on Tuesday. “He did not think that Chinese listened, translated, and published this in China.”

    Wouldn’t it be awesome if Russia and China warred against each other.

  20. “Putin threatens to provide weapons to attack West over Ukraine strikes inside Russia
    Russian President Vladimir Putin suggested he could provide weapons to countries to attack Western targets after Biden and allies let…
    .5 days ago”

    “… The Russian leader also insisted that Washington and its partners were wrong to assume he would never use nuclear weapons…”

    https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/putin-threatens-weapons-attack-west-ukraine-strikes-inside-russia-rcna155795


    My comment: Maybe this is a good thing. If the globalist elites declare WWIII and devastate the planet, maybe the chattering classes will forget about harassing Israel for just a little while.

    Excerpt from “A Canticle for Leibowitz” by Walter M. Miller, Jr. (1959)
    https://pinchinat.wordpress.com/2024/06/12/a-canticle-for-leibowitz/

    “Tom Lehrer – So Long Mom, a song for WWIII”
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yrbv40ENU_o

    “George Carlin – The Planet is Fine”
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kmo8sh77G6Y

  21. @Inna1

    To invade a sovereign country, to destroy towns, to kill people – is it defending freedom and democracy?

    Do you support Israel’s right to have conducted its war in 1967, which was a defensive war even though it struck first? In fact, Israel should have also struck first in 1973 and last fall, and it would still have been a defensive war. Likewise, Russia was responding to a threat which had been waged against it and the ethnic Russian in the Dombas over the previous 8yrs. This was clearly voiced by the Russians, and the West refused to negotiate any settlement, that is after they (the West) had negotiated in bad faith for 8yrs.

    Yes, Ukraine is voting against Israel, but again, this has nothing to do with the Russian invasion.

    I absolutely agree with you. Neither Ukraine’s condemnation of Israel nor its recognition of ‘Paletsine’ nor Russia’s trade with Iran, nor its condemnation of Israel, has any bearing on whether Russia had cause to react as it did in February 2022. Of course, we disagree on whether Russia had cause to react, but I do appreciate your grasping the reality that two things are not necessarily relatable, even if we prefer it to be to satisfy a preferred narrative.

    Ukraine did not have any intention or capabilities to harm Russia.

    This is simply not true. They had the entire support of the US govt. As you noted, Zel was tied to Biden, and the US immediately placed crippling sanctions on Russia in support of Ukraine. Even though this did not have the crippling effect upon Russia which was intended by the US and Ukraine, the US and Ukraine distinctly believed that they could effect a regime change with those sanctions by sending the Russian economy back to the 1990’s level of devestation.

    Neither the USA nor NATO are giving Ukraine enough weaponry to win.

    They don’t have enough weaponry to give Ukraine to win the war. They lack a wartime economy, and this will not change anytime soon. Ukraine played its hand with utter disregard for its own survival. The persisted in doing so at the Istanbul peace conference, and they continue to do so to this day. While they refuse to face the hard facts of reality, their position is not getting stronger but rather it is becoming more bleak, again due to the lack of interest in its own survival as it acts to pursue American interests over its own.

    This article, as well as many other articles on this site about the Russian invasion, has nothing to do with reality.

    Well, we can agree to disagree, but I have to note that there is always an interesting conversation to be had with you, even when we do disagree as we do here.

  22. @Bear
    Regarding the quote you shared, do you have the citation? It is quite an edited version of reality. For instance, it ignores the American involvement in Yanuk being deposed.

    What is the relevance of Yanuk being a Russian speaker? Everyone in Ukraine spoke Russian, even those who spoke Ukrainian.

    he had a base of support in Ukraine’s predominantly Russian-speaking east but was never very popular in its predominantly Ukrainian-speaking west.

    Again, what is the relevance of this statement? His election was based on the fact that he had a larger base than his opponent. The location of the votes is quite irrelevant.

    You may have heard the phrase “Orange Revolution”

    Yes, I am very familiar with the Orange revolution, which was another color revolution financed by the US, the repudiation of which led to Yanuk’s 2010 election.

    Like I said, a very rose tinted edition of reality. Facts matter, even if they don’t support a preferred narrative.

  23. @Bear

    that the USA assisted the Ukranian’s in freeing their country from control of Russian placed puppet is a good thing

    I am glad to hear that you do not dispute the American role in the coup. Though the fact that this appears to be celebrated by you is a bit off-putting. I had always believed you to be a champion of democracy rather than such anarchistic violence as was the tool employed to effect the American coup, never mind that the coup was financed by a foreign power intent on stealing Ukrainian assets for American power barons.

    By the way the view of my Ukrainian friends is a majority view in Ukraine.

    This claim is both dubious and irrelevant. They had an elected govt. Ballots, not bullets, and certainly not foreign financed bullets, is how govts are chosen. Foreign financed coups delegitimize such claims of ‘popular’ movements. Indeed, a similarly foreign financed color revolution has been waged against Bibi, with similar claims of a majority opposing him going back over a year now.

    The popular rebellion kicked the puppet Yanukovych out when he did not fulfill his constitutional obligations and did not join the EU as promised. Then allowed Russia to take over Crimea without batting an eyelash.

    This is complete fantasy. Where in the constitution of Ukraine did it state that Ukraine should join the EU? This was never present in the Ukrainian constitution, though, after the American coup, the Ukrainian constitution was changed. As to Yanukovych “allowed Russia to take over Crimea without batting an eyelash” the Russian occupation of Ukraine took place AFTER Yanukovych had been deposed, not before. It was your Ukrainian Nazi/Nationalist Monist govt which failed to bat an eyelash when Russia responded to the American overthrow of the legitimate govt of Ukraine.

    Yanukovych’s govt fell on Feb. 22 and the Russian invasion of Crimea took place on February 27. Please, take the time and look it up.

  24. Who is Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych?

    Viktor Yanukovych was elected Ukraine’s president in 2010. But he was ousted by popular protests and his own parliament in February 2014. He fled to Russia, where he is living in exile.

    The key facts about Yanukovych are this: he is pro-Russian (and, like lots of Ukrainians, actually a native speaker of Russian rather than Ukrainian), he has a well-earned reputation for corruption and heavy-handedness, and he had a base of support in Ukraine’s predominantly Russian-speaking east but was never very popular in its predominantly Ukrainian-speaking west.

    You may have heard the phrase “Orange Revolution”: this refers to the mass protests in 2004, after Yanukovych won a presidential election under widespread suspicion of fraud.

    Peloni that is all you get. Things to do kingdoms to take down!

  25. @Peloni, that the USA assisted the Ukranian’s in freeing their country from control of Russian placed puppet is a good thing in the view of freedom of loving people’s.

    By the way the view of my Ukrainian friends is a majority view in Ukraine. Their are some Russians who do not agree but their country is Russia and not Ukraine. Russia should have stayed out of Ukrainian affairs. They were covertly trying to take it over at first. When that did not work they attacked it militarily!

    The popular rebellion kicked the puppet Yanukovych out when he did not fulfill his constitutional obligations and did not join the EU as promised. Then allowed Russia to take over Crimea without batting an eyelash. Moral of the story is being loyal to the enemy might just get you kicked out as President in Ukraine at least.

    Brief explanation here: https://www.vox.com/2014/9/3/18088560/ukraine-everything-you-need-to-know

  26. @Bear

    Thank you for your response.

    you and I have never agreed on this and I do not anticipate either one of us to change their mind.

    We don’t have to agree. We simply have to accept what we know took place and explain our respective views. Laura calls it spin, but in truth it is perspective. So, as you defer to your friends, their claims are not consistent with the fact that the US Asst Sec of State confessed that the US spent $5Bn dollars in Ukraine as she was exposed at having setup a coup against the existing Ukrainian govt, which did in fact take place two weeks later.

    Regarding Yanukovych, describing him as a Russian stooge does not provide any legitimacy in murdering Ukrainian citizens while disenfranchising a significant portion of the nation at the behest of a foreign (US) govt.

    You will agree that a civil war came as a result of that coup, and so, the popular support for the coup could hardly be described as being universal. Hence the unconstitutional seizure of the Ukrainian govt using the foreign financing from the US led to the greatest slaughter in Ukrainian history, at the hands of Ukrainians in any event.

    We can make what we want from the facts surrounding the 2014 coup, but pretending that we don’t know what we do know does seem the only way to support what your Ukrainian friends claim and what Laura claims is ‘Russian spin’.

    I am very interested in hearing a rational explanation of these events which supports the views of either Laura or your Ukrainian friend, but so far, neither you, Michael, Laura or Adam have been able to provide such an explanation. But I am still waiting to see if one of you will do more than respond as you and Laura have done here, ie by ignoring many facts, just a few of which I have shared in this and my previous post.

  27. @Peloni, my Ukrainian friends described the revolt as getting rid of a Russian paid and controlled traitor spy, who was a Putin puppet. This was a popular revolt against a Russian plant.

    So I will take my Ukrainian’s friends position as the correct one.

    I will make this short (especially as all my posts are being censor controlled now Russian style) you and I have never agreed on this and I do not anticipate either one of us to change their mind.

  28. “I thought this war was about defending freedom and democracy… ” It’s difficult to read this article. To invade a sovereign country, to destroy towns, to kill people – is it defending freedom and democracy? Nazis in Ukraine? Nazis are in the USA, Europe, even in Israel. The author used the same narrative on this war as, unfortunately, often appears on this page. The Ukrainian administration – Zelenski with Ermak, Markarova, Kuleba, etc. – is corrupt and has ties to Russia and Biden, but this does not change the fact that in this war, Russia is the aggressor and Ukraine is the victim. Yes, Ukraine is voting against Israel, but again, this has nothing to do with the Russian invasion. Ukraine did not have any intention or capabilities to harm Russia. Neither the USA nor NATO are giving Ukraine enough weaponry to win. There was an excellent interview in the Washington Post with Gen. Zaluzhny – now fired – where he described the situation in Ukraine. This article, as well as many other articles on this site about the Russian invasion, has nothing to do with reality.

  29. @Bear

    If Ukraine has vital minerals it is better for Ukraine to be part of the west

    Actually, this is something which needed to be decided upon, not by the West, nor by a violent and radical nazi and nationalist clique in Ukraine, but by the entire Ukrainian people as decided by the elected representatives in the govt which were chosen by the entire electorate.

    When the US acted in support of the Ukrainian coup against the duly elected Ukrainian govt, they overruled the chosen leadership of the Ukrainian people which should have been limited to being achieved in an election. Elections, not foreign sponsored coups is how legitimate govts are chosen, or at least this used to be the perspective publicly shared in the West. To be certain, the US sponsored coup resulted in the control of those Ukrainian minerals, and more importantly, the Ukrainian gas and energy products, being handed over to the American oligarchs, but foreign interests rather than Ukrainian votes was what was brought this about, at the cost of many lives as well.

  30. @Laura
    You have a right to your views, and four hundred words to express them, such as they are. But please stop voicing derogatory descriptions about those with whom you disagree.

    It would never occur to the pro-Russia shills

    There are no shills on this site, just commentators. You may find such abusive descriptions to be reassuring of your own views, but it is against this site’s policy against ad hominem attacks specifically because it inhibits open dialogue which this site affords to its commentators, which I reminded you about just last week. Please respect the guidelines and your fellow commentators.

  31. Putin has said numerous times that the greatest crime of the 20th century was the breakup of the Soviet Union. He and other Russian Nationalists have said numerous times they intend to right that wrong and recapture those lands and make them part of the Russia Federation.

    Their military actions speak that it was not just words as they attacked Ukraine in 2014 and 2022 to try and work to achieving that goal. All their talk about de-Nazification or fake motivations are just smoke screens.

    If Ukraine has vital minerals it is better for Ukraine to be part of the west and not have those minerals fall into the hands of the enemy Russians. Obviously those who wish to Putin to succeed will not see it that way.

  32. @Laura, having differing political opinions is part of living in a representative republic.

    If you have a foreign policy recommendation, make it. It will stand or fall depending upon your reasoning and the facts you bring to your argument.

    When you use words such as “pathetic” or “antisemitic” or “anti-American” you are attacking a person’s character. These words do not advance your ideas on foreign policy. I would much rather hear your ideas about how to improve life in the United States, Israel, or in the world at large.

    Russia certainly has ties to Iran, and potentially to other Iranian proxies, but that does not change the fact that Putin’s invasion did not occur in a vacuum, completely unprovoked. Actually Putin wanted to become a member of NATO around the year 2000, but was rebuffed. That does not imply Putin is an angel, it is simply a fact. Given that Putin invaded Ukraine in response to many perceived threats from the US and NATO, he felt justified in doing so. I am not saying everyone must accept his justification, I merely stated that in international relationships, like in personal relationships, it is useful to weigh as many facts as possible in order to understand the motives and goals of a given leader or country.

    America is all about having vibrant debates and discussion. That is the America in which I grew up. Perhaps that is not true for you. Since the Obama administration decided to weaponize the national security surveillance state to use against his political rivals, it became possible to criminalize dissent. THIS POLICY IS ANTI-AMERICAN and goes against everything Americans have fought and died for. Note I am criticizing a policy.

    Please do not use your comments to make character attacks on anyone here.

  33. It would never occur to the pro-Russia shills here that that is the reason Russia invaded Ukraine. We are to believe Russia has zero sinister motivations for its invasion of Ukraine, that’s it’s all about Russia defending itself against a non-existent threat. Pathetic. I’m sick of the anti-Americanism here while the same people completely ignore Russia’s ties to hamas and the strong possibility it had a hand in 10/7. I have no tolerance for antisemitism or anti-Americanism.

  34. @Michael, thank you for your comment.

    It is my understanding that there is a long history of NATO expansion eastward following a promise made to then Prime Minister Gorbachev that NATO would not expand one inch eastward. Well NATO continued to expand eastward, and the US created a coup in Ukraine in 2014 for the purpose of beginning the efforts to cut Ukraine off from Russia and beginning efforts to replace Russian oil and gas by US oil and gas. In addition, while Biden could have made peace with Russia by simply stating that Ukraine would remain neutral, he insisted on offering NATO membership to Ukraine, which certainly was a red line for Putin. The eastern part of Ukraine is Russian speaking and Ukraine committed terrorist acts against those people. Putin did eventually “invade” Ukraine but it was not as if this was out of the blue without any provocation. I know the CIA talking points like to make it seem like Putin is the lone aggressor and the US and NATO are the victims, but the reality is more complex.

    All of the US actions during Obama’s Presidency and Biden’s in foreign policy have motives of using US power to attempt to meddle in, if not overturn various governments around the world when those governments are not compliant with the globalist designs and plans. The most clear examples of this are in the continued monetary and weapons support for Iran, Hezbollah, Hamas, the PA, which amounts to a sum far greater than the US contribution to Israel. The US taxpayer is thus supporting Islamic terrorists in the Middle East whose goal is to destroy Israel. The US taxpayer is also supporting a War in Ukraine which benefits military contractors and the US oil and gas industry oligarchs. The numbers of people who end up dead in these wars apparently mean nothing to those making the decisions to start and continue these wars.

    It is also true that the US has supported Iran’s hegemony in the Middle East since 1979. The globalists running US foreign policy want Israel wiped off the map. They appear to want Russia wiped off the map as well.

    These efforts reveal the goals of the globalists: total world domination and enslavement of the world’s people.

    I agree with you, my preface did not focus solely on the content of the article but reflected on the broader meaning the author conveyed.

  35. Eve,

    I don’t gather what you said as coming from the article. It says of Graham,

    Graham painted Russian President Vladimir Putin as a “megalomaniac” who is attempting to “re-create the Russian Empire by force of arms,” starting with Ukraine — this is a favorite talking point of Washington neocons which has no basis in fact.

    Saying something has “no basis in fact” has become a boilerplate of censorship in recent years, especially by the Left. Regardless of whose conspiracy theory is the most viable, and in whose eyes it is, the fact remains that Russia invaded a neighboring country in February, 2022, and that it hasn’t left yet; and that none of this has anything to do with Israel.

  36. @Howard
    I quite agree with all the points you raised, and in particular I would argue that your suspicion regarding the American plot against Israel long preceded Obama is quite easily justified.

  37. Email from Howard.

    Your commentator Rowell and the author of this piece are absolutely correct.
    I would add:
    -Squeezing Israel out of existence by its own hands has been in the cards since at least Obama (Trump excepted- that’s why they want him dead).
    -If Russia loses more rapid and thorough oppression is in store for us in the West.