Het Mes: “left leaning paper De Volkskrant.”

Haha! Left-leaning like the Guardian, you mean? Or left-leaning, like I’m the Pope.

Here’s very well-informed member of this household’s take on it:

“Left leaning means they support American aggression but don’t like Trump because he’s uncouth and eats meat and has intercourse with women.” Nice.

Whoever wrote this piece hasn’t been an eyewitness to the events described: this account is contradicted by video footage from reputable sources. Francesca has pointed this out, and helpfully supplied links.

Much of this reads like the narratives peddled years ago about Syria (and Iraq. And Libya) and that we were expected to believe. It has the same smell of propaganda.

“If we do not want to escalate this to Syrian proportions, rapid intervention is required.”

And sure enough: here we are, presented with the plea for intervention, just as we were with Syria. Left-leaning my foot! This is all about oil, just as it was with Syria (and Iraq. And Libya). Syrian proportions? Does the author have the smallest idea what’s going on – been going on – in Syria? Clearly not.

Lastly, we have this piece of pompous nonsense:

“This creates the ironic situation that they are on the same side as Vladimir Putin – the world’s foremost anti-interventionist.”

What the hell is the author talking about? Putin is known for espousing a Westphalian perspective with regard to international affairs: you better be glad that he does. And if you were an unfortunate citizen of any of the multitude of polities, in sth America and elsewhere, in which the US and NATO have interfered, you’d be wishing that both entities had also taken a Westphalian approach to their dealings with the rest of the world. Many more people would doubtless still be alive, and infrastructure still in one piece, had that been the case.

This entire piece is a puzzle, until we note that the author is Dutch. Or so we are told. And that explains so much….

Thank you Francesca.

Het Mes’ utter balderdash just rendered me speechless.

“No humanitarian sees military force and its corollary, death and destruction,as anything but absolute insanity
And you and your journo mate are faux lefties if you think teaming up with imperialist USA is a great idea.”

Yay, Francesca! I agree with everything you say here.

Maduro will not ‘step down’ as your imperialist friends want, because the Venezuelan people have voted for him to run the country for them.

David Stone: “this stunt in Venezuela is all too obvious.”

True. And in fairness to US citizens, I seem to recall protests there, prior to GW Bush’s insane adventure in Iraq. Not that it stopped him…

The political instability in Brazil, prior to Bolsonaro’s election, was straight out of the CIA playbook. And Bolsonaro himself Is a CIA stooge, just as is Guaido. No reported protests in the US over Brazil, though. But then there was no need for the threat of an invasion of Brazil to enforce the CIA plan. And I doubt even the most rabid of US war hawks would be so loony as to propose a military invasion there.

I think it’s a step too far D’esterre, The CIA works under the radar . Secrecy is their essential enabler , this stunt in Venezuela is all too obvious.
D J S

oh for godsake!
Are you aware that Maduro has allowed humanitarian food and medicine in to Venezuela?
http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/aid-wars-in-venezuela-russian-medicine-arrives-as-maduro-blocks-us-aid-141387
https://www.dw.com/en/un-releases-emergency-aid-to-venezuela/a-46463279
Regime troops did not set fire to the aid trucks
Video of the scene shows militants on the Colombian side preparing and chucking molotov cocktails at the trucks
https://www.tasnimnews.com/en/news/2019/02/25/1955276/video-shows-venezuela-s-us-backed-opposition-throwing-molotov-cocktail-at-aid-truck
If you have any interest in the subject you must surely have learnt by now that the Red Cross and UN aid agencies will have nothing to do with said “aid”as it has been grossly politicised
The “aid” in fact would be better distributed to Colombia which is poorer than Venezuela and ranked lower on the UN’s Human Development Index
And those who “bath in the nest scent” what does that even mean?
You’re supporting “rapid intervention”and make it clear that this would be military, and there you really betray yourself. No humanitarian sees military force and its corollary, death and destruction,as anything but absolute insanity
And you and your journo mate are faux lefties if you think teaming up with imperialist USA is a great idea.

This is the same Ukraine that just banned two prospective Eurovision contestants for not having the wrong politics.

This is wrong: there is no evidence at all that this is what happened, or is happening in the Donbass.

We have family in that part of the world. You forget that Crimea is Russian. Prior to the US-backed putsch in the Ukraine, Crimea had had two previous attempts since Ukrainian independence to decamp. When the putsch took place, Crimea wasted no time in making sure of a successful departure. Give Crimea and its citizens some credit for agency. They exercised it. No passive pawns there.

There were Russian troops in Crimea at the time: up to 22,000 were permitted, under the terms of the Black Sea fleet Treaty. Nothing at all – apart from claims by unreliable news sources in UK, EU and US – to indicate that “little green men”, or men of any other colour, slipped across the border

The same applies to the Donbass. The majority in that area are Russian speakers. In virtue of what should you suppose that the citizens there couldn’t manage their own uprising against the neonazi regime newly-installed in Kiev? Which they did.

The story of moment regarding Donbass is that the government in Kiev is waging war there: against its own citizens, to boot. Illegal coup – imposed government that enlisted Nazis and convicts straight from the jails to terrorise civilians, shelled civilian infrastructure for no recognisable military purpose, builds monuments to holocaust perpetrators… the list goes on.

That’s what you should be railing against, rather than repeating western propaganda.