Hypocrisy writ large

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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.

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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.

107 COMMENTS

    • Wow what a way to work your anti Jacinda rhetoric into a conversation.
      All NZ governments and politicians blindly align with the US

      • @ Jack. You might like to watch Russell Brand speaking.
        Here’s his latest Youtube on the Russia / Ukraine horror.
        Seriously, he’s worth the 17 minutes 49 seconds.
        “Russia has invaded Ukraine – according to [the] much of the MSM and certain politicians it’s as simple as Putin being the new Hitler. But is it that simple? What role did our own governments play? And are we headed towards WW3? ”
        https://youtu.be/595Esg6Mz0U

        • John, why do you “All Lives Matter” the invasion of Ukraine, rather than focusing on the Russian abuse of superpower?
          You are clear in speaking out for West Papau and Palestinians, yet you can’t seem to bring yourself to clearly and unequivocally condemn Russia. It is sad.

      • I’m guessing he’s something like this…” Hmmmm….. I wonder how much money I can make out of this. I’m going to make some phone calls.
        Hello? Aston Martin dealership? I might get that upgrade after all. “

        • going by uncles festers air nz deal with the saudis they’re probably refurbishing russian fighter jet engines as we speak….exaggerating of course..

  1. Well said John. I admittedly don’t for one second understand the full history of the Ukraine Russian relationship and much like the Balkans I’m wary of people who think they do. These disputes are as much as complicated as they are ancient.

    But I would guarantee that if Mexico had ever joined the Warsaw Pact, US troops would have been in downtown Mexico City by lunchtime tomorrow.

      • jezza, if only you had the same sympathy for the people of the donbass who have been shelled and terrorised by fascist ukrainian gangs..like the azov brigade an integral part of ukrainian forces for years.
        ….of course only a small portion of ukrainians are actual nazis but the ukrainian autocrats find them bloody useful.

      • Because the same sort of destabilisation of liberal democracies is happening all over the world with sites like https://nuremberg.nz/
        And Jeremy, do you denounce the right-wing site https://nuremberg.nz/ ?
        Seems to be a deathly silence from you, on all the other blog-posts.
        So, does your reticence mean you agree with politicians, health experts and media being threatened with execution Jeremy?
        Your deathly silence on other blogposts here at TDB is approval of this right-wing death threat site?
        Ergo Jeremy, you’re a Dirty Politics 4.0 shill operative and your paymasters are closely linked to this death site?

        • I really don’t know what your talking about.
          I don’t endorse any far right sites.
          Don’t have any as you put it “ paymasters are closely linked to this death site”
          I’m absolutely opposed to people being murdered the same as I was during the US invasion of Viet Nam and various other countries since.
          My views are sincere but you have turned me into some kind of monster.
          It’s ridiculous.

      • It’s relevant because this is a flip the script scenario of the hypocrisy of the US position? Where was the outrage when the US illegally invaded Iraq, destroyed that Nation based on lies of WMD & murdered a million Iraqi’s? Libya, Syria & Afghanistan are destroyed, failed States thanks to American interventions! Their still illegally in Syria stealing their Oil! Where is the outrage over America’s torture sites the most infamous ine at Guantanamo bay, another illegally occupied US military base in Cuba! The hypocrisy is unbelievable!

      • Back to your Dad’s basement Jeremy. Your right-wing agenda here, is just another manifestation of the fact you will not denounce https://nuremberg.nz/ and its existential threats against politicians, medical experts and media.

        Denounce https://nuremberg.nz/ Jeremy.
        Then people here might consider your viewpoints.
        Otherwise your talking points from your political paymasters at Dirty Politics HQ, are just inane shallow shill-speak.

        • Gosh where did you learn that ridiculous speak?
          Why don’t you simply say what you mean rather than attempt to demonstrate some sort of intellectual snobbery.

  2. The US has displaced between 38 and 60 million people across eight countries since 2001. Keep this in mind the next time you hear US government officials pledge to defend “international law,” “human rights,” or “sovereignty and territorial integrity” abroad.

    #Ukraine #Russia #NATO

  3. Biden laughed, twice, during that press conference. Nobody else is laughing. The babushkas of Chernobyl deserve better than insatiable America, everyone does. Cheers.

  4. 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.

  5. 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.

  6. 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

  7. Thanks for the link Lois. Isn’t it ironic that there is all this info published by people who have been at the front of world affairs and the perspective is totally ignored by all MSM?
    When America implodes (soon) it will hopefully be a mercy to the world. Let’s hope she sinks quietly…

  8. I was driving to a supermarket yesterday and it was while I was waiting for the round a bout that I saw a very sleek smaller unmarked Gulf Stream esque jet heading in for a landing.
    I pondered who was on it, where had it come from, why was it here?
    I was in Invercargill.
    I heard from a reliable source that people had been digging bunkers in and around South Westland.
    !

    • anyone thinking a bunker in NZ is a long term survival strategy should read the late 50s novel ‘on the beach’ by neville shute

  9. I find Putin’s demands reasonable.
    The demilitarisation and de-nazification of Ukraine as well as to no nuclear weapons from NATO on Ukraine soil with also that Ukraine never becomes a NATO member.

    Who said history never repeats itself?

    Like Cuba and Turkey’s Missile Crisis of the JFK era. Also when Clinton met with Putin in the very early 1990’s in Moscow Putin then asked to become a member of NATO which accepted then, this situation would not have happened. Bill had other things on his mind. Then Yugoslavia disintegrated. This then set the tone for the next 30+ years. Russia became isolated from the West.

    Putin is nobody’s fool.

      • yeah but a very smart one, contempt for your enemy is ALWAYS a mistake

        and the ukrainian neo-nazis are not murderers? is that your thesis bert? one is morally superior, cos frankly that’s a crock of shit.

            • @bert Denny’s also missing a genuine whakapapa. More Ngati Hone Carter, than Ngati Paoa. Another paid shill by the Dirty Politics 4.0 brigade.

              • More silly combination of words that are meaningless.
                Are you unable to express your views in a coherent manner or is English not your first language.

                • That’s a bit racist sonny boy.
                  Almost as racist as your political masters’ hate-speech site, which you refuse to denounce https://nuremberg.nz/

                  Lots of brown faces on that Dirty Politics right-wing hate site.

                  More hate speech sonny boy when you play the man, not the ball.
                  Are you unable to express your views in a coherent manner or is English not your first language.

                  Don’t be obtuse sonny boy – what words are there that you, as a New Zealander, do not understand? Whakapapa? Ngati? or shill?

                  Just simply denounce https://nuremberg.nz/ as a racist, right-wing site, but you can’t, based on your earlier attack on my korero.

                  • No answer Jeremy? After being a racist pr!ck! And I quote you as proof:

                    “Are you unable to express your views in a coherent manner or is English not your first language.”

                    You’re a right-wing racist Jeremy, who refused on numerous occasions to denounce Nuremberg NZ.

                    Thankfully tonight, that hateful site, that threatens health experts, media and politicians is no longer accessible. Woohoo!

                    Hopefully you are shut down for your hateful racism, with the evidence here for all to witness, see and read.

                    Hopefully, they find out who pays you for your hate-speech and publish that too.

      • Bert most of them are murderers, many in the Western World, tell me a US president who has not got blood on his hands!

      • Bert,
        First time I absolutely agree with you.
        But the Ukrainian people can rest easy it’s not the fault of Russia but rather the United States who invaded Vietnam and other countries we are told on this site.
        That’s disgusting even if United State invaded other countries when they had no right to do so how does that make it ok for Putin to order the murder of people?
        I’m absolutely disgusted by the justification to murder people put forward by people on this site.
        Absolutely shameful.

    • Ha, Putin himself is propped up his own Neo Nazis. USA is not the worker’s friend but neither is Putin nor the CCCP they aren’t any better than USA, but in so many ways far worse. At least USA doesn’t persecute religions, harvest prisoner’s organs or send people to the Gulag.

  10. 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.

  11. Why single out the USA with accusations of hypocrisy? Germany has condemned Russia too and if you fail to see the irony in that you’re thick. At least the US has never sacrificed 30 million of its people on the altar of an unworkable ideology.

    • Germany isn’t a free country. Their occupational government supplies weapons to support zionist genocide of Palestinian human beings.

      • The Germans have Guilt complex over what the Nazis did to the Jews. Germany and the rest of the world seem to be supporting the Zionist Jews against the Palestinians. But, the Jews are doing to the Palestinians, what the Germans did to the Poles and Jews in the Krakow Ghetto? History does repeat, and so does genocide under the pretext of Lebensraum.

    • Well it is kind of doing that with being married to neoliberalism and corporatism LOL …How many homeless, unemployed, underemployed, insecurity of work/precariat, mentally ill, drug/alchol addicted people, prisoners with the highest incarceration rate etc. prob right now easily 30 million sacrificed “on the altar of an unworkable ideology”LOL.

    • no but it has murdered as many in other countries with it’s illegal bombing campaigns! Laos ,North Vietnam,Cambodia , Afghanistan, Serbia, Iraq, Grenada.To name a few and then there is the CIA’s destabilization campaigns in democratic countries. Chile, Argentina, Venezuela, Nicaragua,Bolivia , Guatemala , Honduras, Syria, Eastern Europe. The USA is a rogue state with zero moral authority and you are an ignorant moron Gaby!

    • what irony gaby?

      the ukraine was firm friends and good buddys with both the austrian corpral (y’know the one that murdered 6million jews–that guy) and the kaiser before him….

  12. 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!

  13. 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.

    • 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?

  14. 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.

  15. Thin.

    I like democracies and think dear Russia is worthy of it. It takes adjustment — Germany famously took 27 years. All those who’ve read and been inspired by Russian literature from the 19th century on know she is a latent democracy. Not to believe so is disrespect for the Russian people.

    Putin is the Mule from the 2nd volume of The Foundation series — an unpredictable mutant who is ultimately irrelevant.

  16. 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.

  17. 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.

  18. This is a ‘Regime’ change again.
    By the usual suspects, the US and NATO again. Look what happened when these same clowns attempted this for the last dozen times in the last 30 years. The world isn’t a safer place, is it?

  19. 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.

    • Good heavens we are now going back to NZ 1863 and whilst you say maybe true what relevance does it have?
      Can we move on?

  20. Ukraine is an independent country with a democracy. Not sure what she’s done wrong that the Left can’t respond accordingly with fire and anger. Are we mixed up but slightly less than the Right? Why the species is going to hell?

    Reason and democracy go together. There are many voices now but clarity is still clear. Truth will out from time to 40 years, hence Bernie. But those 40 years have bent the will and outlook of every other Leftist leader. Power politics and our short lives. Beyond Bernie is Chomsky.

    The Sweden comment above I now take as a criticism of the Russian attitude to Ukraine rather than Ukraine. All about what’s going on in the head of the dictator — he thinks it belongs to him, is a border state that should be subservient.

    • the ukraine is not a democracy.
      she wants to join an aggressive pact aimed at her neighbour russia (that’s how the russians see it)

      as for subservient border state what do you think we are? what do you think the aussies are? what do you think the UK IS? try breaking away from US control and see what happens….it’s not fair but realpolitik is realpolitik not a crystal healing session.

      • See Bob Trotter’s extensive ( and silly arse) retreat from pro-Russia. All the fkn details explaining himself and condemning the invasion.

        Social-democracy is about ideals of the rule of the people and truth from proof (science). It lasted as a first principle from ’35 to ’84. And by my continued belief in it I’m still ahead of the over-complicated ‘art of the possible’ Leftists. As per Bernie Sanders.

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