US President Joe Biden is right to say Russia is guilty of a “flagrant violation of international law” with its attack on Ukraine.
However, most of Biden’s statements are self-serving hypocrisy:
“The prayers of the entire world are with the people of Ukraine tonight as they suffer an unprovoked and unjustified attack by Russian military forces. President Putin has chosen a premeditated war that will bring a catastrophic loss of life and human suffering.”
“Russia alone is responsible for the death and destruction this attack will bring, and the United States and its Allies and partners will respond in a united and decisive way. The world will hold Russia accountable.”
The Russian invasion of Ukraine is the outcome of Biden and NATO’s failure to accept Russia’s concerns at the prospect of US missiles being positioned on Russia’s border in Ukraine if it joined NATO.
Just remember for a moment the hysterical reaction of the US when Russia sought to position its nuclear missiles on America’s doorstep in the early 1960s. The “Cuban missile crisis” resulted in the threat of nuclear war. Putin is likewise refusing to accept US missiles on Russia’s border.
This issue could have been, and should have been, resolved without warfare but from all reports I’ve seen there was never any good faith on the US and NATO side which has sought to encircle, destabilise and dominate Russia before, and following, the breakup of the Soviet Union.
When it comes to “flagrant breaches of international law” the US is the undisputed world leader with its countless campaigns to destabilise democratic states and actively support the most brutal despotic regimes across much of the world. I’ve lost count of the number of countries they have bombed since the Second World War.
Biden’s latest efforts in reading US propaganda from an auto-cue are aimed mainly at the US domestic population. He wants to appear strong and statesmanlike after last year’s humiliating defeat in Afghanistan. However, he only succeeds in sounding like a used-car salesman.
The best we can do in New Zealand is to campaign to raise the profile and credibility of international law and United Nations resolutions so all humanity can be held accountable for war crimes and abuses of human rights.
Too true.
Jacinda’s government further obfuscates matters in blindly aligning NZ with the US.
Wow what a way to work your anti Jacinda rhetoric into a conversation.
All NZ governments and politicians blindly align with the US
What’s Luxon’s position on the Ukraine situation?
Human beings don’t support either filthy american puppet.
Probably pull Air New Zealand flights.
Biden laughed, twice, during that press conference. Nobody else is laughing. The babushkas of Chernobyl deserve better than insatiable America, everyone does. Cheers.
There is more to this story. From my reading, oil corporations want Russia to broken up onto smaller countries, easier to bully, in order to access the oil under the Arctic now that climate change is melting the ice.
re: international law..The war on Iraq was the crime of the century..Biden supported it. And my God..The US has stolen Afghan revenues , deliberating creating famine..famine too in Yemen with US approval , US weapons
In 2014, there was a bloody CIA-instigated coup in Ukraine that overthrew the elected govt, (remember Victoria Nuland and ‘f..’ Europe.?.she is high up in the US State Dept today )
For more info:1) interview with Bruce Gagnon of Global Network against Weapons and Nuclear Energy in Space ..plainsfm.org.nz, enter Earthwise..click Episodes
2) Read Diana Johnstone
https://consortiumnews.com/2022/02/23/diana-johnstone-us-foreign-policy-is-a-cruel-sport/
Diana Johnstone was press secretary of the Green Group in the European Parliament from 1989 to 1996. Her latest book is Circle in the Darkness: Memoirs of a World Watcher
Bullshit …there were protests against an autocratic would-be Dictator pro-Russian/Russian puppet leader in which many Police and Army refused to fire on them. Members of his own party turned their backs against him and opposition together with them called a new election and his loyalists were defeated then he fled to Moscow. If Russia succeeds in taking Kiev lo and behold you’ll prob see him back in office as a sockpuppet of Putin.
Well said John. The smug outrage of the West is pure hypocrisy in light of all the USA actions since WW2 in their drive for World ownership.
This is the government the whole of Europe and the Anglosphere is supporting, and these are the openly neo nazi militia doing their blood soaked killing work in the Donbas
“British scholar Richard Sakwa pointed out that the Ukrainian National Guard units, manned by far right militants “often lacked discipline and treated south-east Ukraine as occupied territory, regularly committing atrocities against civilians and captured ‘terrorists’”.[14] Freedom House has reported that some whistleblowers raised a public concern about an integration of Ukrainian Neo-Nazi into the Ukrainian law enforcement. They claim the process seems to be bolstered by the need to incorporate the uncontrolled military units of the Neo-Nazi volunteers into the national armed and security forces.[3]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Far-right_politics_in_Ukraine
Military assistance worth billions from the US alone has been sent to Ukraine since 2014, and whose hands has the weaponry fallen into, and who has suffered the slaughter?
The OSCE, (organisation for security and cooperation in Europe) is tasked with monitoring cease fire violations on both sides of the contact line in the Donbas .They clearly show by far the majority if violations are perpetrated by the Ukrainian army , Azov Batallion, and Right Sector.A UN report recorded that 80% of the total casualties in the region have been suffered by the civilians of the separatist Donbas
Was this publicly available data ever considered to be worthy of mention in the free, democratic, humanitarian western press? No, there are worthy victims and unworthy victims and the Western population must be kept from unpalatable truths.
Lois, you’re a bloody hero for all you do
Thank you!
So what? …the only civilians that remained in Luhansk-Donbass after the Russia-instigated and Russian-led coup are Russian Occupier-Colonialist Settler Russians there mostly planted there after WWII similar to the ‘Plantation’ of Protestant Scots in Northern Ireland and the Israeli Settlers in Palestine. Why do you oppose one group of colonizers but whitewash/propagandise for another?. Neo Nazis are a small fraction of Ukrainian Right, let alone of the Patriot Movement as a whole …and Ukraine’s Anarchist & Commie Leftists have also raised Fighters too. Does a cause lose validity just coz politics makes strange bedfellows. By your reasoning no rebellion/ insurrection/revolution/civil war against a tyrant/dictatorship is ever acceptable coz inevitably different political/religious factions will be involved. eg. Spain Republicans, Social Democrats, Stalinists, Trotskyists, Moderate and Liberal Catholics/Christisn Socialists vs Rightists/ Monarchists/ Fascists/ Conservative Catholics eg Syria eg Libya etc etc When the people get fed up and revolt of course opportunist fringe politics ‘rise’ to the occasion’/take advantage eg Violent Anarchist Black Bloc jumping into Occupy/ANFS/GPJ/Climate Change protests or our own NeoNazis & religious nutters jumping into the anti-vax/anti-mandate protests.
Oh for fucks sake .The Azov Batallion has become part of Ukraine’s National Guard.Its not some random band of skinheads.Which also means the US is funding neo nazis. So what you say? Neo nazis a division of a national army?Pffft
God almighty.
And you seem to think its ok for a govt to kill and maim its own people because they protest an election , which is what the Donbas people did
Seriously, grow up
That’s my viewpoint exactly.
The US propaganda machine is currently at full scream.
The only hope for Ukrainian people is that their leaders will come to senses and start negotiations with Russia on the basis of the future neutrality of Ukraine. The much better option than we in Czechoslovakia had in 1968.
In ther words capitulate, surrender, give the Russian bully the Ukrainian’s lunch money. Ukrainian people have right to decide own future. Russia has no right to dictate to them. Putin’s doing this coz he prodded and prodded and west was weak in response. Neville Chamberlain found out appeasement doesn’t work. Give the bully an arm, next time he’ll take the leg.
Gaby – “Why single out the US with accusations of hypocrisy?” Because, starting with the genocide it waged on the indigenous American Indians, and then on to include victims of the slave trade, the US, in pursuit of its ideology of global hegemony, has plundered nations on very continent, sacrificing the lives of many countless millions on the alter of its hubris, so making the usual suspects look like amateurs And if you fail to understand that you’re more than just thick!
John, I dont disagree with your comments or the comments of many above about who is culpable and what lead to this etc. But here’s the thing. What gives anyone the right to invade a sovereign country to control their domestic policies?!!! Sorry security or economics or ideology doesnt cut it! We live in the 21st Century and this shit right here (equally all the shit that came before, Iraq etc) is completely unacceptable.
I hope that the Ukrainian’s fight for their freedom to the last man and that they shame the West into delivering them from the situation.
Do we only value greed here in the West? We can encourage a country to risk war with its neighbour for our own gain but then when its screwed we throw our hands up and say “Nothing to do with me!”
Can you imagine handing out a gun to your 17 year old and telling them to shoot whoever comes through the door? Putin, Hitler, Xi – the world has learnt nothing since WW2. And just consider while you mull the rights and wrongs, that it may be Ukraine today, Taiwan tomorrow and NZ in 15 years time.
Sadly there seems a lot of support for Putin on this site.
The silly buggers should have flown the white flag as soon as Russian troops entered the country. It might have saved a lot of lives. Zelenski is now, somewhat belatedly, trying to arrange talks with Putin, to take place neutral territory. Meanwhile Biden has offered to get him out of the country and away to safety. I seems obvious that Biden doesn’t want talks between the two leaders to go ahead.
Pipi
Your understanding doesn’t feed your imagination.
Can you imagine handing out a gun to your 17 year old and telling them to shoot whoever comes through the door?That sort of thing has happened in Peacetime in the USA. I don’t like that or the numerous wars and attacks that have been, and are now taking place, but let’s look at the whole picture before making snap judgments. Or do you have them all written down on a piece of paper at the bottom of a barrel and you pick out one to exclaim about every morning?
The United States would not tolerate having missiles in Mexico, Canada or anywhere else close to them. I don’t support that creep in Russia but I can sure as hell understand how worried they are because if the Ukraine joins NATO there will be missiles across the border from Russia.
Pipi you say “What gives anyone the right to invade a sovereign country,,,,?”. Not much.
Could fear of intermediate-range nuclear misslies aimed at your major population centres perhaps be an exception?
Steve , there are no excuses or exclusions. The Russians have played a cold war for generations and they could easily do so with Ukraine if necessary. My fear made me take over your country just in case, doesnt cut it. Also Sweden and Finland can now expect the same thanks to the West’s inertia and the largely self interested brayings of morally bereft ‘democracies’.
The silly buggers should have flown the white flag as soon as Russian troops entered the country. It might have saved a lot of lives. Zelenski is now, somewhat belatedly, trying to arrange talks with Putin, to take place neutral territory. Meanwhile Biden has offered to get him out of the country and away to safety. I seems obvious that Biden doesn’t want talks between the two leaders to go ahead.
I don’t think that it’s true that Russia could have continued a lengthy “cold war” against the Ukraine. From Russia’s point of view the latter’s drift westwards had to be nipped in the bud for strategic reasons.
The silly buggers should have flown the white flag as soon as Russian troops entered the country. It might have saved a lot of lives. Zelenski is now, somewhat belatedly, trying to arrange talks with Putin, to take place neutral territory. Meanwhile Biden has offered to get him out of the country and away to safety. I seems obvious that Biden doesn’t want talks between the two leaders to go ahead.
What conceivable points of conflict are there between Sweden/Finland and Russia? I’m not aware that any of the conditions fuelling the Ukraine conflict exist in Scandanavia.
Just as bad as to what happened in 1863 when the crown and colonial troops and mercenaties invaded the private property of Taranaki, Tainui, Taurangamoana, Turanga, Tamaki and Hauraki tribes and killed a few mothers babies and children then confiscated the fertile land that were growing wheat for export.
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