My guess is the Ukraine-Russia peace talks will fail until this administration pulls all financial, military and intelligence support forcing Ukraine and NATO’s hands.
Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, Bosnia, Afghanistan, Syria, Ukraine were all due to arrogant and belligerent U.S. hegemony and war mongering.
On 6-12-1987, President Reagan stated: “Mr. Gorbachev, take down this wall”; dividing East from West Germany after WWll. The USSR was imploding. On February 9, 1990, the U.S. and NATO agreed NATO would not “move one inch closer to Russia” if the USSR disbanded and gave back autonomy to European countries. The Ukraine war started in 1994 by violating that commitment. Clinton and our politicians disregarded its commitment to Russia and added Hungary, Czech Republic and Slovakia to NATO. Later, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Bulgaria and Romania were added. In 2002, the U.S. unilaterally withdrew from the anti-ballistic missile treaty with Russia. In 2007 at the Munich Security Summit, Vladimir Putin said STOP. In 2010, a new president of Ukraine (Yanukovych) knew the risks and refused any part of NATO. On February 22, 2014, the U.S. was the primary party in a violent overthrow of Yanukovych; installing their puppet regime. The arrogant and belligerent U.S. and NATO broke every treaty with Russia that provided mutual respect for each other’s security. Just as the U.S. risked WWlll in the 60’s when we didn’t want nuclear missiles in Cuba, Russia didn’t want the war-mongering U.S. on their door step in Ukraine. They warned us but we are too arrogant.
Every U.S. politician is owned, bought and paid for, to some extent, by some entity; the military industrial complex, big pharma, big tech, big banks, big oil, the Israeli lobby, etc. During war, military contractors make money from both sides. Ford motor company sold parts to Germany during WWll. The military industrial complex demands its war production profit from politicians, which gets partially laundered back to politicians. Every country the U.S. started a war in, we left in a complete mess of death and destruction. The U.S. is a global bully and widely hated, even by our allies. No country should trust us. Arrogance, belligerence, greed and delusion has killed millions, including 105,000 American military since WWll.
We will see if this administration can stand up to the BIG MONEY supporting another losing war and shut it down. We all know politicians won’t do it.
Jeff Musante is a resident of the Village of Calumet Grove.