FWD : Calling Russia’s Attack ‘Unprovoked’ Lets U.S. Off the Hook
Cornelius Hamelberg
Harrow, Kenneth
kenneth harrow
professor emeritus
dept of english
michigan state university
Sent: Monday, March 7, 2022 6:33 AM
To: USA Africa Dialogue Series <usaafric...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: USA Africa Dialogue Series - FWD : Calling Russia’s Attack ‘Unprovoked’ Lets U.S. Off the Hook
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Cornelius Hamelberg
Poland, Hungary, and the other East European countries (Albania, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary, Poland, Romania) that were members of the Warsaw Pact and have since changed colours and joined NATO were not part of the USSR.
Relatively speaking, compared to Ukraine, the Baltic State of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania (former Swedish Colonies) are small fry….
Could we not also see that the prospect of Ukraine the formerly closest to Russia and the second most important state in the former USSR joining the enemy by installing missiles targetting Mother Russia would be seen as the kind of treachery that would certainly be the last straw?
Can you imagine Texas seceding from the Union and joining forces with e.g. Cuba to install hypersonic nuclear-tipped Russian missiles pointing at Uncle Sam’s Pentagon? Should it be unreasonable for even sleepy Joe Biden or Kenneth Harrow himself to say no to that kind of move?
Putin's conditions for an immediate cessation of hostilities are simple :
Cease military action
Change its constitution to enshrine neutrality
Acknowledge Crimea as Russian territory
Recognise the separatist republics of Donetsk and Lugansk as independent territories.
The fact is that in the coming weeks Russia is likely to demonstrate what is known as overwhelming force.
But it appears that Zellenskyy still hiding in his bunker somewhere, doesn't want to seek peace and pursue it, doesn’t want to make any concessions to peace, would prefer to prolong the suffering of the Ukrainian people – so unnecessarily. By praying to NATO to declare a no-fly zone over Ukraine, he seems to think that Joe Biden will do for him what Obama- Hillary did to Gaddafi and that they ( his errand boys in NATO & EU – maybe Brazil too ) - should supply him the latest attack jets - like manna from Heaven...so that he can defend “every inch” of his territory and win a war that he can never win. Ukraine is not Afghanistan.
Zelensky should wake up and smell the coffee:
Putin has several 'grisly' options before turning to nuclear weapons, warns Michael Gove
The former comedian is already sounding like Comical Ali
Cornelius Hamelberg
Harrow, Kenneth
kenneth harrow
professor emeritus
dept of english
michigan state university
Cornelius Hamelberg
I didn’t know that Ken could be so mean.
As you may have noticed, I side-stepped this pain in the somewhere, provocative, flippant or well thought out, that “putin is an expansionist, and should have joined the EU years ago “
When? Was Russia ever invited to join the EU? Would Uncle Sam have felt comfortable about that?
Would Britain who before Brexiting befriended so many Russian so-called oligarchs, otherwise known as “billionaires” in the US?
Uncle Sam has a lot of love and respect for Billionaires – it doesn’t matter where – which kind of hole they or the colour of their money comes from…
By the same token, Israel should have joined the Arab League long ago, when they were invited to do so by Muammar Gaddafi….
Here was the USSR.
Maybe the whole of the USSR - all of her including Ukraine should have converted to capitalism on the same day and joined the EU, together, and thereby taken over Europe together in that one smart move.
As Rabbi Michael Friedemann told me in the synagogue in Tallinn which is Estonia, after he had asked me, ”Do you know the difference between now and then?”, and I had suggested ”Now you are free” - “ No”, he had beamed at me, “ Back then it was Marx and Engels, but now it’s Marks and Spencer !”
Anyway, as Baba Karadima so poignantly brought to your attention the dissolution of the Warsaw military alliance in 1991 was not reciprocated by NATO - on the contrary, NATO what you falsely accuse Putin of being: expansionist - added fourteen new members to the NATO in their mission of expanding NATO's Military Empire to the very borders of Holy Russia…
Cornelius Hamelberg
Dear Kenneth,
Shalom.
I thought that you were going to hit me hard, maybe a little blitzkrieg. I’m glad that you didn’t, even if I deserved it.
re - your " if the u.s. had wished to invade and take over cuba, what was to stop it? the bay of pigs failure seemed to end that aspiration, a half-hearted, half-assed endeavor."
You don't say!
Unfortunately, we cannot change what has been did and done, or change history. Revisionism changes nothing.
This morning was all too depressing. I first listened to a very anti-Putin and now former Russian World Champion in Chess, Gary Kasparov, sounding off on Ukraine - on CNN, and as if I hadn’t had enough, this was followed by a very affable Sir Robert John Sawers, former head of MI-6 doing some prime time, speaking some easy English - nothing jaw-breaking – about the Russia-Ukraine conflict at the Oxford Union...
As the rabbi says in the My Jewish Learning article “History of the Jews of Ukraine” (and he could have well been talking about the past whilst also acknowledging the sea of troubles being faced today and prophesying about the flexibility that’s necessary if the current Ukrainian leadership is to go beyond the impasse and to overcome, even as Smolensky says, from over there in his bunker, as unfazed as the proverbial lion, quietly enjoying his brief time on stage playing the role of hero - as if he is David the shepherd boy and Putin is Goliath :
“I’m not hiding, and I’m not afraid of anyone “
Of course, he could have said, more directly to President Putin, in Russian or in Ukrainian or even in English, “Rayshis chocma yir-as Adonai!” - “ The beginning of wisdom is the fear of HASHEM!”
Except for the slight misunderstanding, especially to be found among heretical heads of e.g. totalitarian governments, who sometimes erroneously believe or think or say, “I am the All-Mighty, the Lord and the President, all rolled into one!”
Fortunately, Vladimir Putin is not one such, as was stated in a recent Dagens Nyheter article about “Putin's world view being deeply rooted in the Russian Orthodox Church's religious ideology”.
Here’s another version.
All said and done, which only goes to show that Putin does not see himself as the Messiah, and secondly, President Putin has a conscience.
The rabbi says in the My Jewish Learning article,
This “political innovation” is exactly what is demanded of Zellenskyy right now, and I would substitute flexibility for “ political innovation”. Creative flexibility
If Zellenskyy had pre-emptively summoned the Ukrainian Parliament to an extraordinary session about three months ago, and there he had tabled a motion that Ukraine would not join NATO or they had proposed a moratorium for an x number of years during which Ukraine would not join NATO and the Ukrainian Parliament had duly ratified that commitment, then he ( Zelenskyy) would not be living in his bunker in only God knows where right now, nor would the death-toll have been 500 Ukrainian civilians killed and 850 wounded, 2,000, 000 displaced old men, women, children and foreign students on the run, not to mention the heavy battering that Ukrainian infrastructure has been subjected to in the last couple of days.
Now, all that Zellesnky has to do – in the name of Shalom/ peace, is to show some flexibility when responding to Russia’s demands:
#Acknowledge Crimea is Russian.
#Commit to not joining NATO
# Recognise the separatist republics.
# Stop fighting
- and thereby
put an end to
bloodshed…
Zelenskyy has a right to do all of the above.
Harrow, Kenneth
kenneth harrow
professor emeritus
dept of english
michigan state university
Toyin Falola
Great ones:
Let me make three pleas on Ukraine. I am not a gatekeeper and do feel free to ignore my request.
- Given the loss of lives, serious agonies of refugees, death, unpredictable calamities, the reasons for the war should take a back seat to give relevance to the war process and its possible outcomes. So let us muster our intellectual resources on mitigations. If other European countries join, Putin may have no option other than to use the nuclear bomb.
- The racialized aspect of this crisis has been so disturbing that I wonder why some of you are focused on the European tribal war. No one assisted us when we were looking for solutions to prevent the break-up of Ethiopia. Who donated to the Hutu and Tutsi? Who assist us with the victims of Boko Haram. The Russian invasion of Ukraine has shown that the people who matter are Europeans and not us. Let us talk about us since they can take care of themselves.
- The ongoing calamity in the Sahel may be far worse than what you see in Eastern Europe. Be warned.
Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye.
Matthew 7:5
Harrow, Kenneth
kenneth harrow
professor emeritus
dept of english
michigan state university
Sent: Wednesday, March 9, 2022 7:51 AM
To: usaafric...@googlegroups.com <usaafric...@googlegroups.com>
Cornelius Hamelberg
Unfortunately, it is with the same kind of understanding that the United States views with apprehension/ trepidation and revulsion, China’s intention of reuniting Taiwan with mainland China. the logic of Chinese people being united even if separated by the waters of the South China Sea.
If it’s a matter of collective self-determination for each and every minority nation within a nation – applying the same logic to (thinking here of e.g. the strong Arabian identity within the Nigerian Federation/ comity of nations – Palestinian Gaza and West Bank) a peaceful way forward would have been – and could still be (after war there is peace) - and in this case too, a referendum could be held in the separatist regions and the rest of Ukraine as to whether they want to be autonomous enclaves with a right to total self-determination including friendly relations with other nations, the right to choose whatever military alliances, economic policies etc.
The reality is that beyond what may be disguised in imperial rhetoric, missiles and bombs, Putin is very clear about his objective – the conditions for peace with the government of Ukraine that is being led by Zellenskyy in Kiev
You and Gloria, and Baba Kadiri have been there before: we’ve got to be practical, even if the genocidal son of a gun cannot restore the governing of the United States to the original Native American Confederacies because today the new name of the game is Marks & Spencer
Harrow, Kenneth
kenneth harrow
professor emeritus
dept of english
michigan state university
Sent: Wednesday, March 9, 2022 8:05 AM
To: usaafric...@googlegroups.com <usaafric...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Three Pleas on Ukraine
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Cornelius Hamelberg
I SMELL A RAT - We’re being lied to, repeatedly and consistently. Here’s why…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RRJLPwlbypM
https://twitter.com/georgegalloway?lang=en
Emeagwali, Gloria (History)
Prof. of History/African Studies
Please be cautious: **External Email**
Harrow, Kenneth
kenneth harrow
professor emeritus
dept of english
michigan state university
Sent: Thursday, March 10, 2022 8:27 AM
To: Cornelius Hamelberg <cornelius...@gmail.com>; USA Africa Dialogue Series <usaafric...@googlegroups.com>
Toyin Falola
Ken and Gloria:
All forms of imperialism are grounded in manufactured reasons. Thus, let us shift the logic of the conversation.
Remember: Africa the dark continent!
Remember:
Take up the White Man's burden—
Send forth the best ye breed—
Go bind your sons to exile
To serve your captives' need;
To wait in heavy harness
On fluttered folk and wild—
Your new-caught, sullen peoples,
Half devil and half child.
Take up the White Man's burden—
In patience to abide,
To veil the threat of terror
And check the show of pride;
By open speech and simple,
An hundred times made plain.
To seek another's profit,
And work another's gain.
Take up the White Man's burden—
The savage wars of peace—
Fill full the mouth of Famine
And bid the sickness cease;
And when your goal is nearest
The end for others sought,
Watch Sloth and heathen Folly
Bring all your hopes to nought.
Take up the White Man's burden—
No tawdry rule of kings,
But toil of serf and sweeper—
The tale of common things.
The ports ye shall not enter,
The roads ye shall not tread,
Go make them with your living,
And mark them with your dead!
Take up the White Man's burden—
And reap his old reward:
The blame of those ye better,
The hate of those ye guard—
The cry of hosts ye humour
(Ah, slowly!) toward the light:—
"Why brought ye us from bondage,
Our loved Egyptian night?"
Take up the White Man's burden—
Ye dare not stoop to less
Nor call too loud on Freedom
To cloak your weariness;
By all ye cry or whisper,
By all ye leave or do,
The silent, sullen peoples
Shall weigh your Gods and you.
Take up the White Man's burden—
Have done with childish days—
The lightly proffered laurel,
The easy, ungrudged praise.
Comes now, to search your manhood
Through all the thankless years,
Cold-edged with dear-bought wisdom,
The judgment of your peers!
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Harrow, Kenneth
kenneth harrow
professor emeritus
dept of english
michigan state university
Sent: Thursday, March 10, 2022 8:48 AM