Is Ukraine Drifting Toward Civil War And Great Power Confrontation?

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http://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2014/02/20/ukraine-drifting-toward-civil-war-great-power-confrontation/

Is Ukraine Drifting Toward Civil War And Great Power Confrontation?
February 20, 2014 | Categories: Articles &
Columns | Tags: Ukraine, war, | Print This Article


Is Ukraine Drifting Toward Civil War And Great Power Confrontation?

Paul Craig Roberts

People ask for solutions, but no solutions are
possible in a disinformed world. Populations
almost everywhere are dissatisfied, but few have
any comprehension of the real situation. Before
there can be solutions, people must know the
truth about the problems. For those few inclined
to be messengers, it is largely a thankless task.

The assumption that man is a rational animal is
incorrect. He and she are emotional creatures,
not Dr. Spock of Star Trek. Humans are
brainwashed by enculturation and indoctrination.
Patriots respond with hostility toward criticisms
of their governments, their countries, their
hopes and their delusions. Their emotions
throttle facts, should any reach them.
Aspirations and delusions prevail over truth.
Most people want to be told what they want to
hear. Consequently, they are always gullible and
their illusions and self-delusions make them easy
victims of propaganda. This is true of all levels
of societies and of the leaders themselves.

We are witnessing this today in western Ukraine
where a mixture of witless university students,
pawns in Washington’s drive for world hegemony,
together with paid protesters and fascistic
elements among ultra-nationalists are bringing
great troubles upon Ukraine and perhaps a deadly war upon the world.

Many of the protesters are just the unemployed
collecting easy money. It is the witless
idealistic types that are destroying the
independence of their country. Victoria Nuland,
the American neoconservative Assistant Secretary
of State, whose agenda is US world hegemony, told
the Ukrainians what was in store for them last
December 13, but the protesters were too delusional to hear.

In an eight minute, 46 second speech at the
National Press Club sponsored by the US-Ukraine
Foundation, Chevron, and Ukraine-in-Washington
Lobby Group, Nuland boasted that Washington has
spent $5 billion to foment agitation to bring
Ukraine into the EU. Once captured by the EU,
Ukraine will be “helped” by the West acting
through the IMF. Nuland, of course, presented the
IMF as Ukraine’s rescuer, not as the iron hand of
the West that will squeeze all life out of Ukraine’s struggling economy.

Nuland’s audience consisted of all the people who
will be enriched by the looting and by
connections to a Washington-appointed Ukrainian
government. Just look at the large Chevron sign
next to which Nuland speaks, and you will know
what it is all about.
http://www.sott.net/article/273602-US-Assistant-Secretary-of-State-Victoria-Nuland-says-Washington-has-spent-5-billion-trying-to-subvert-Ukraine


Nuland’s speech failed to alert the Ukraine
protesters, who are determined to destroy the
independence of Ukraine and to place their
country in the hands of the IMF so that it can be
looted like Latvia, Greece and every country that
ever had an IMF structural adjustment program.
All the monies that protesters are paid by the US
and EU will soon be given back manyfold as
Ukraine is “adjusted” by Western looting.

In her short speech the neoconservative agitator
Nuland alleged that the protesters whom
Washington has spent $5 billion cultivating were
protesting “peacefully with enormous restraint” against a brutal government.

According to RT, which has much more credibility
than the US State Department (remember Secretary
of State Colin Powell’s address to the UN setting
up the US invasion of Iraq with his “evidence” of
Iraqi weapons of mass destruction, a speech
Powell later disavowed as Bush regime
disinformation), Ukrainian rioters have seized
1,500 guns, 100,000 rounds of ammunition, 3
machine guns, and grenades from military armories.

The human-rights trained Ukrainian police have
permitted the violence to get out of hand. A
number of police have been burned by Molotov
cocktails. The latest report is that 108 police
have been shot. A number are dead and 63 are in
critical condition.
http://rt.com/news/ukraine-kiev-firearms-weapons-police-934/
These casualties are the products of Nuland’s
“peacefully protesting protesters acting with
enormous restraint.” On February 20, the elected,
independent Ukraine government responded to the
rioters use of firearms by allowing police to use firearms in self-defense.

Perhaps the Russophobic western Ukrainians
deserve the IMF, and perhaps the EU deserves the
extreme nationalists who are trying to topple the
Ukraine government. Once Ukrainians experience
being looted by the West, they will be on their
knees begging Russia to rescue them. The only
certain thing is that it is unlikely that the
Russian part of Ukraine will remain part of Ukraine.

During the Soviet era, parts of Russia herself,
such as the Crimea, were placed into the
Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, perhaps in
order to increase the Russian population in
Ukraine. In other words, a large part of today’s
Ukraine–eastern and southern provinces–are
traditional Russian territory, not part of historical Ukraine.

Until Russia granted Ukraine independence in the
early 1990s, Ukraine had experienced scant
independence since the 14th century and had been
a part of Russia for 200 years. The problem with
the grant of independence is that much of Ukraine
is not Ukrainian. It is Russian.

As I have reported previously, Russia regards the
prospect of Ukraine as a member of the EU with
NATO with US bases on Russia’s frontier as a
“strategic threat.” It is unlikely that the
Russian government and the Russian territories in
Ukraine will accept Washington’s plan for
Ukraine. Whatever their intention, Secretary of
State John Kerry’s provocative statements are
raising tensions and fomenting war. The vast bulk
of the American and Western populations have no
idea of what the real situation is, because all
they hear from the “free press” is the neoconservative propaganda line.

Washington’s lies are destroying not only civil
liberties at home and countries abroad, but are
raising dangerous alarms in Russia about the
country’s security. If Washington succeeds in
overthrowing the Ukrainian government, the
eastern and southern provinces are likely to
secede. If secession becomes a civil war instead
of a peaceful divorce, Russia would not be able
to sit on the sidelines. As the Washington
warmongers would be backing western Ukraine, the
two nuclear powers would be thrown into military conflict.

The Ukrainian and Russian governments allowed
this dangerous situation to develop, because they
naively permitted for many years billions of US
dollars to flow into their countries where the
money was used to create fifth columns under the
guise of educational and human rights
organizations, the real purpose of which is to
destabilize both countries. The consequence of
the trust Ukrainians and Russians placed in the
West is the prospect of civil and wider war.



About Dr. Paul Craig Roberts

Paul Craig Roberts was Assistant Secretary of the
Treasury for Economic Policy and associate editor
of the Wall Street Journal. He was columnist for
Business Week, Scripps Howard News Service, and
Creators Syndicate. He has had many university
appointments. His internet columns have attracted
a worldwide following. His latest book, The
Failure of Laissez Faire Capitalism and Economic
Dissolution of the West is now available.