GUEST BLOG: Pat O’Dea – Russia Must Stop the War

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“Pat O’Dea is claiming ,,, as his post suggests ,,,, that Martin Luther King would not consider this to be violence”
Reason
In my post, ‘Russia Must Stop the War’ I suggested, if Martin Luther King were alive today, he would be against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine

I Pat O’Dea – I did not claim ,,, nor does my post suggest ,,, that I think MLK would not consider this to be violence.

Reason, the brutal picture contained in the link above, that you provided, with the veiled accusation that I “would not consider this to be violence’, is a photo of a child starving to death as the result of the US Proxy state of Saudi Arabia’s war against the people of Yemen.
This is most definitely violence, and I have not suggested it isn’t. This is a dirty slur on your part, to justify your support for Russia’s bloody invasion of Ukraine.
Your motive for slandering me in this way, is to imply that I am only against Russia’s wars and atrocities, and not against America’s wars and atrocities.

You have supplied an image. I have too. I would like you to look at the image contained in the following link.

It is a photo, similar to yours, of people starving to death as a result of the actions of an imperial power.

Not of Russian imperialism or American imperialism, but of British imperialism, from a time when Britain, not the US, was the world’s foremost global Super Power. It is of course a photo from the infamous Bengal Famine.

What is notable about this photo is that it was widely circulated by the German Minister of Propaganda Joseph Goebbels to the people of Germany, to show them the evils of British Imperialism. This image, is similar to many other images and newsreels and narratives of the time, circulated in Germany by the nazis. The nazis  purpose was to warn the German people of the danger of the Imperialist Powers of Britain, France and the US, to world peace. Hitler even had election posters made proclaiming that he, Hitler was the “Peace Candidate” promoting himself as a fierce opponent of the predatory Western, (particularly British) imperialism. Every thing that Goebbels and the Nazis said about British imperialism was true. The British Empire is responsible for the deaths of over 40 million people during the British Empire’s conquest and subjugation and colonisation of much of the world.

Goebbels and Hitler held out the promise that the new Nazi empire they envisaged, would be progressive, modern, enlightened, and even humane. We all know how that worked out.

Your mistake Reason, is that you have let your blind hatred of American imperialism clouds your judgement. Your blind hatred is exactly that, ‘blind’. You are blind to the fact that every imperialist power is murderous, is racist, is genocidal. That includes the Russian Federation under Putin’s autocratic rule and his fantasy of recovering Russia’s lost empire.

My message to you Reason, is that American imperialism is not the only evil in the world.

TDB Recommends NewzEngine.com

You have supplied me an image from America’s ally Saudi Arabia.

I have supplied you some images from Russia’s ally Syria

Pat O’Dea is a unionist and human rights activist.

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR

39 COMMENTS

  1. 15th April 2022:
    “Last Sunday, U.S. officials confirmed that General Aleksandr Dvornikov had been appointed to lead Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, in a grim omen that it may pursue even more ruthless tactics in the ongoing war.

    “Dvornikov has been called “the butcher of Syria,” having led a brutal campaign in Syria’s civil war in 2015.

    “Some of the most devastating attacks on Ukraine have happened under his watch, including in the southern city of Mariupol, which has been all but obliterated, and the missile strike on a train station that killed at least 50 people.” https://www.npr.org/2022/04/15/1092882592/russia-ukraine-war-update-butcher-of-syria-putin-dvornikov

  2. 12th April 22
    Russia has appointed a new general to lead its faltering assault in Ukraine.

    The new commander, Gen. Alexander Dvornikov, 60, is notorious for his brutality against civilians, including when he commanded Russian forces in Syria. In the fall of 2015, Moscow began its military campaign there in support of its ally Bashar al-Assad as his regime was besieged by a civil war that emerged from the “Arab spring.”

    Dvornikov has a reputation for brutality, and US officials fear that a new, more gruesome phase of the war is about to begin. https://www.kurdistan24.net/en/story/27952-Moscow-appoints-%27Butcher-of-Syria%27-to-head-Ukraine-invasion

  3. From the Middle East Monitor, 14th April ’22
    “His role in Syria in particular has made him infamous, giving him the nickname the “Butcher of Syria” after he applied the same tactics used in Grozny on the major city of Aleppo in 2016: the laying of a siege, the bombardment of all infrastructure, the killing of civilians and starvation of the population, and then the entrance of ground forces into the ruined city after its devastation.”

    Russian forces have tried to apply similar tactics in the invasion of Ukraine, but it has been a decentralised and scattered attempt. Many analysts assert that the appointment of Dvornikov is to rectify that by centralising all of those operations under his command and supervision. Those analysts, as well as western officials, also predict that it means ever more brutal atrocities will be conducted against the Ukrainian population.
    https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20220414-russia-appoints-butcher-of-syria-general-to-lead-ukraine-op/

  4. The problem with your post title, Pat, is that Putin has no intention whatsoever of stopping the war. And, at the moment the world seems powerless to stop him.

    29th April 22
    “Mayor Vitali Klitschko said on Friday a missile attack on his city Kyiv was Russian President Vladimir Putin’s way of giving “his middle finger” to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and the West over the war in Ukraine.

    “The targeting of the capital on Thursday killed at least one person and wounded 10 others, and was the first on Kyiv since Russia refocused its efforts on the Donbas region in eastern Ukraine.”
    —
    Volodymyr Fesenko, a Ukrainian political analyst and head of the Kyiv-based Penta Center think-tank, said the missile attacks carried a message: “Russia is sending a clear signal about its intention to continue the war despite the international pressure.” https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/4/29/putins-middle-finger-to-the-un-sends-clear-message-to-the-west

  6. Russia is stopping war, they use targeted force because diplomacy only gets you so far when your people are being slaughtered. The unfriendly Western nations on the other hand, including New Zealand, have pumped billions of dollars into the war machine for Ukraine (not to mention the massive campaign of ugly, racist propaganda, censorship, theft and economic warfare), and act as if the last forty years of their aggression was nothing. Wtf is NZ doing there for a start? Is Ardern ok with the armed militia far right now, after denouncing it in a headscarf for three years? We have spent more per capita on the Ukrainian migrants in this country for war than on indigenous Maori in peace. Ergo, Ardern must care more about war than peace.

    • Hi Jody if you are going to swallow Russian propaganda hook line and sinker, and regurgitate it here.

      Consider this:

      Famed and highly respected journalist, Abby Martin who used to host the ‘Empire Files’ on Russia Today. In her show Abby Martin regularly exposed the crimes of US imperialism, with rare unflinching courage.

      In 2014, Abby Martin denounced RT and stormed off the set and quit on air, rather than spout the same propaganda that you repeated here. Abby Matin denounced the Russian Federation for behaving the same way in Ukraine as the US empire has behaved around the world.

      Abby Martin was well paid and had a permanent job at RT but quit on principal and gave it all up, rather than spread the sort of one sided Goebbels like propaganda that you are spreading here.

      https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/mar/05/russia-today-abby-martin-crimea-ukraine

      • That was an unnecessary reply, Pat. Jody has every right to say what Jody said because she doesn’t make any warlike decisions.

        I mean who cares if Jody says stuff like Ardern cares more about War than Peace???

        Someone who says crazy stuff like that is acting on emotions and should be handled differently. Okay?

        • You are right Sam. I was harsh to Jody. But I agonised how to reply to Jody. I just could not think of any other way to put it. Damning the evils of your enemy while ignoring your own side’s evil, is a Goebbels tactic. I hope Jody can understand that I wasn’t calling her Goebbels. But as I said I could not think of any other way to put it. And like Goebbels Jody is telling the truth, Western imperialism has committed terrible crimes. But that she is using this fact to justify this war and for her side to commit just as terrible crimes. And Jody can’t deny that Russia is committing terrible crimes in Ukraine, so she just doesn’t mention it. I have run ins with people like Jody before, and when you try and point this fact out they claim that the evidence of Russia’s war crimes in Ukraine were faked. You can argue at length with people like Jody that the awful images of the wounded pregnant woman being carried out of the bombed Mariupol Maternity Hospital, was staged for the camera by paid crisis actors. That the attack on the Maternity hospital was all Faked, that the Maternity Hospital was empty of patients and was a militia base, and legitimate target, which is what the Russian Foreign Affairs Minister Sergei Lavrov publicly claimed. Now Sergei Lavrov is a real modern day Joseph Goebbels. And you can argue all day with people like Jody about such things and they will accept Lavrov’s version over yours. But the things that people like Jody and Lavrov can’t deny, are the images of Russian rockets slamming into residential apartment buildings, images of Ukraine cites reduced to rubble, images identical to the destruction of Warsaw by the German Nazis, the point being made in the above graphic at the top of this post. The destruction of Warsaw was deemed war crime.

          Goebbels and Lavrov and possibly Jody would answer, but what about the destruction of Dresden, wasn’t that a war crime?

          And I would answer yes it was. But one crime does not justify the other. And the point is this, it is not Ukraine or the West leveling cities at this time, it is Russia. God help us all if the West starts leveling cities in Russia, which is what could happen if this war that Jody justifies and supports is continued to its ultimate conclusion.
          I may have been harsh on Jody, but then again, to not to forcefully state the fallacies in her one sided support for this war would be to patronise her. I hope she can understand that my intention was not to be malicious; but that I didn’t want to patronise her. I hope that Jody can still participate in this debate, and give us her response. No matter how harsh she might be, I promise to take it on the chin. And not take it as a personal attack, but as a sincere attempt on her part to get at the truth

          https://www.businessinsider.com/russia-says-mariupol-maternity-hospital-militia-base-no-evidence-2022-3

          • We are still dealing with Trump’s decision to send Ukraine anti tank missiles in the first place. It’s all water under the bridge now. With a Nuclear Super Power acting as a rogue state for a very good reason mentioned earlier means that there must be away for us to create unity in our efforts to reduce tensions be it peacefully or forcefully.

        • Sam Was your answer helpful in uncovering the elements behind this war? Why criticise Pat? It seems tioo frequent that people with an interest and knowledge about a problem start skirmishing with each other. Every point that is put forward is meat for the mincer that pulls in all the facts and exposes them to scrutiny. So please, take the facts and turn them over and round to see what sort of pattern they make in the jigsaw and then add some supposition as possibility, which might bring a breakthrough.

          My supposition has come from this from Kheala:
          The problem with your post title, Pat, is that Putin has no intention whatsoever of stopping the war. And, at the moment the world seems powerless to stop him. Now what if Putin cannot stop the war without harming his position? Do some of his generals think he has gone soft and that it is underhand doing his behind the scenes manipulation through extending financial infiltration and corruption into the west? Instead they consider, get in and go straight to the goal? And the matters of falling youth demographics and climate change etc plus the USA’s ability to create bigger deficits and bigger armaments plus space being entered by wealthy cowboys who are swelling to become supra-national moguls and also BRIC countries, they fear will crush Russia to her knees. Which could happen.

          They might say that all the diplomacy and working for a united peaceful world ideas have not worked out and the situation is slipping from their grip. They have suffered humiliation and loss of infrastructure and ventures over decades in different spots around the world. I am curious still about NZ sinking the Michal Lermontov, a flagship for their tourism sector, (a misjudgment, a stupid, careless error or what?). The following events were very strange – and the experienced pilot and NZ got off extremely lightly, or were the Russians short of international cash and wanted to collect insurance money? But it is a fact they have been struggling for years against the west and perhaps feel now they are in a corner.

          • Ukrainian military commanders know that any nato troops involved directly in the war will trigger a nuclear retaliation in short order. So they will only accept military aid. That is the bottom line.

      • But she’s absolutely right in parts . NATO members have been pouring billions of dollars into Ukraines military infrastructure and on training those nazi militias . This is a matter of public record .
        As for your slur against Jody where you imply gullibility and ignorance not by presenting reasoned counter arguments , instead digressing into an irrelevant moral lecture about the perfidious propaganda machine RT (which she never mentioned ) thereby inferring any commentator with views contrary to yours is a propagandized puppet , this sir is pathetic .
        And name me any major western publications that aren’t proven propagandizing liars having aided and abetted these never ending wars , a confirmed fact , by your reasoning , since Abbey Martin doesn’t and won’t work for any of them (and in actuality ) .
        Finally your attribution of motives without evidence i.e reasons blind hatred of American imperialism, Putins fantasy of the restoration of empire are assumptions
        Reason might have reasoned his way to a reasonable reason for writing whatever he did but your assumption of blind hatred is just that , an assumption .
        Likewise the Putin empire restoration .

      • RT is a excellent Channel! Why Abby left RT was her Business, like others such as Thom Hartman who left for the same reasons but RT provided them with a job & a a Platform that they never got on any other MSM News channels or have since leaving RT! Abbey was never hindered in anyway or censored by RT! What’s ironic is that you can use the same rhetoric to make a ill informed judgment on what your accusing RT off as a Propaganda News network of Russia but is this any different from Western MSM who are shrill’s & apologists for their own Countries agendas such as the US trying to maintain its Hegemony? At least RT showed dome journalistic integrity by providing viewpoints from both sides not just one view from western news! Now Abbey & Thom run YouTube channels as Independents & champion the same issues they used to raise on RT because no MSM would ever hire them both, at least RT took a chance on them & made a name for them which they would otherwise never have gotten!

  7. Another problem with the title is that “War” is a euphemism.
    It legitimises sadism, brutality, slaughter, torture, imprisonment, starvation, endless cruelty.

    This is not a mere”war” – it is an onslaught, a ruthless invasion, a licence not just to kill or to maim but to commit torture in all its forms, to indulge the worst sadistic impulses of any and all who are actively involved.

    The word “war” lends an air of legitimacy to unspeakable crimes against humanity. It creates the illusion of a kind of normalcy, of something somehow acceptable. It plays into the maniac’s narrative, according an illusion of sanity to the criminally insane.

    • K that’s exactly what war is, any war, all war, it cannot ever be fought cleanly that’s why it’s war…to kid ourselves any different is either stupidity or hypocrisy.

    • The UK is sending the troops to NATO nations, not Ukraine. The NATO nations have been very clear there will be no NATO troops in Ukraine and there will be no NATO aircraft over Ukraine. NATO and Russia are both well aware of the nuclear risk of a direct confrontation.

      It has become a proxy war, in that it is the Ukrainians who actually fight the war, but are supplied by NATO

      • In your understanding, Wayne, can AO/ NZ take a stand and say that we will supply humanitarian aid only, in this war going forward? Is it a possibility? Is there anything that would prevent us from taking such a stand?

        Humanitarian, – as in food and medical supplies and services, refugee support services etc.

        If we were to do that, to commit to helping at a humanitarian level (only), wouldn’t that be of greatest value to all?

      • For nations that are “well aware of the nuclear risk”, both Russia and the UK are continuing to make some bizarre threats.
        https://www.lbc.co.uk/news/russian-tv-threatens-underwater-poseidon-nuke-uk/
        “Dmitry Kiselyov, dubbed Putin’s propagandist-in-chief, broadcast a bizarre video on Russian TV in which he threatened the Kremlin will attack Britain with a hypersonic missile, known as Satan 2, and an “underwater robot drone”, known as Poseidon.”

        Kiselyov said: “What will happen after Boris Johnson’s words about a retaliatory strike on Russia?

        “Why do they threaten vast Russia with nuclear weapons while they are only a small island?

        “The island is so small that one Sarmat missile is enough to drown it once and for all. Russian missile Sarmat [aka Satan-2], the world most powerful…is capable of … destroying an area the size of Texas or England.

        “A single launch, Boris, and there is no England anymore. Once and for all. Why do they play games?”

        He used his Sunday night show to call for attacks on Britain with a Poseidon “underwater drone” that he said would trigger a 1,600ft radioactive tidal wave and “plunge Britain to the depths of the ocean”.

        As Kiselyov spoke, an animated clip showed the route a missile would take on a map.

        He also repeated warnings from Putin about the “Satan 2” missile.

        Putin claimed the Sarmat missile was tested last week and was capable of firing 12 warheads at once if the West continues to “interfere” in Ukraine.

        It has raised concerns that conflict in Ukraine could escalate further in coming days.

    • number one–the daily hate isn’t a reliable source for anything except the cricket scores and I’d check them

      the uk is only doing what nz is doing ie sending troop to adjoining nato countries
      mind you one size 12 ammo boot inside the ukraine and all bets ore off.

  9. We here in Aotearoa NZ do NOT need to be sucked in to this grotesque war in another part of the planet.
    If nearby Switzerland can remain neutral, so can we on the far side of the planet.
    We should have a humanitarian role ONLY!!

    • As a anti-anti Russian defender I totally support food/medical/clothes to be sent to Ukraine, for civilians only.
      This is a USA war against Russia, that’s killing Ukrainians, their lives and their country. NZ should have no part in a military response, apart from being pointless on every level we should remain completely neutral.
      The Wardogs in the Whitehouse are a disgusting gang of power crazy dolts. Just send aid.

  10. Well at least in the US and the UK people can protest at LM sites and have media coverage ( BBC reported some at the beginning of March). May be I am generalising and you could in Russia as well(?) but for how long, not sure.

    I get what the protests are trying to do and it makes sense to say stop making war so profitable and it might be less frequent. That being said I would not trust human nature enough to stop making weapons to, at the very least, protect and defend. Do tyrants/imperialists exist because of weapons being available or does the existence of tyranny make weapons necessary?

    • ‘does the existence of tyranny make weapons necessary?’ (Wheel) I think there is something beyond tyranny that gets us fighting. ‘m reading a saga about Britain in the 1000s. There were eight kings fighting in one part of it for control and their men were good with the sword and shield. The Danes were hated then by one group in the chapter I am reading. ‘Warriors Of The Dragon Gold’ by Ray Bryant
      · Epic novel about the intrique and infighting over the English crown between Ethelred the Unready and the end of Harold. Claims to solve two mysteries on the Bayeux Tapestry.
      (The Dragon Gold I think refers to the Saxon banner)

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Anglo-Saxon_England#Viking_challenge_and_the_rise_of_Wessex_
      ( 9th_century)

      While we are getting a better grasp of Maori and colonial history here, which it is about time we learned and shut up those poo-bahs playing their little post-colonial games, we could do well to read and understand the history of conquest, human exploration and restlessness and lack of respect for other cultures and peoples. We are all two-faced to some extent, picking out the bits that we want to know and slide the rest under the rug.

  11. Looking forward to any reply from my good mate ‘reason’ . . who knew someone might take exception to his constant shit?

  13. Look you imperialist retards.

    Russia will stop this war when the US, EU, NATO stop funding the Nazi government in the Ukraine!

    Oh, and when they finish killing of the neo-Nazi Azov battalion.

    Jeeeesus! It’s another US proxy war you dummies!

    • “…It’s another US proxy war you dummies!” Tane/Male/Man, not Female/Woman.

      Kia ora Tane, in your opinion, was Vietnam another Soviet proxy war?

    • You can tell a lot about how worked up and invested in support for the war against Ukraine Tane is, by the ad hominem invective he directs toward those opposed to the war.

      “…It’s another US proxy war you dummies!” Tane/Male/Man, not Female/Woman.

      For all its pro-war posturing and maneuvering, Nato did not invade Russia. Russia invaded Ukraine. This is a war of choice by Russia, Russia is the aggressor here, not Nato. Nato is not levelling Russian cities.

      Tane/Male/Man, not Female/Woman shows us how war propaganda works.

      Obliterating cities is Ok with Tane because y’know Nato.

      Nato is not leveling Ukrainian cities, Russia is.

      Tane obviously thinks this is justified because y’know Nazis.

      Stick a hateful label on other human beings, dehumanise them, then you can commit or justify any crime against them you like, and do it with a clear conscience.

      Whatever ‘ist label Tane and those like him care to stick on other human beings, Capitalist, Communist, Fascist, Nationalist. Islamist
      Can not justify in any way, the crimes that Russia is committing in Ukraine. No matter how much they think it does

      During the Great Depression of the 1930s millions of Germans came to believe that Jewish capitalists had caused the Depression. Sticking an ‘ist label on people of Jewish faith removed any reservations about murdering millions of Jewish men women and children. A small number of Jews were rich capitalist bankers, sure.
      Some Ukrainians are neo-nazis. So what?

      The accusation by the Russian imperialists that the Ukrainians are nazis is a false one. It is just an excuse used to invade and take over their land.
      In the modern world the worst possible thing you can be called is a nazi.
      To accuse someone of being a nazi is to dehumanise them, if you can dehumanise them, you can then commit any crime you like against them with a clear conscience. Any crime you commit against them, even genocide, can justify to yourself, they are just ‘nazis’,less than us, sub-humans, genocide is too good for them.
      Yes there are some Nazis in Ukraine, just as there are some Nazis in New Zealand or indeed in Russia itself, which is infested with neo-nazi groups.
      But to use this fact to attack and murder the Ukraine peoplle and drive them off their land is just an excuse of a greedy and blood thirsty empire.

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