Common Grounds

Our Friday News Analysis | In Search of a Nation's Soul (Part 17)

December 29, 2022

By Abraham A. van Kempen

Our Friday News Analysis | In Search of a Nation's Soul (Part 17)

“The Hope of Ukraine is Russia”
Scott Ritter

During this holiday, please think of the millions of Ukrainians who cannot heat their homes, drink water, or cook food. Dining at their local restaurants or grocery shopping is out of the question. Christmas is not on the list for many Ukrainians, including the millions who have fled Ukraine. At least they are alive. Russia targets infrastructure,
not homes, though mishaps happen, (dismissed as collateral damage by the US Pentagon when missiles in Iraq strike the wrong people, at the wrong place, on the wrong time).

Mourn with the Ukrainian parents, brothers, and sisters, notwithstanding their friends and neighbors who share the loss of more than 800,000 Ukrainian troops plus the many wounded who are being cared for by Russia’s legion of physicians and medical care providers.

Grieve with the Russians mourning their 80,000 troops killed and those missing in action.

Finally, pray for President Joe Biden, President Vladimir Putin, and the European diplomatic corps to come to terms with their imprudent follies and reckless foolishness.

Ukraine (and the EU- US/NATO) is losing the war against the Russian Federation, despite the €93.8 billion sunk into Ukraine from 24 January to 3 October 2022, derived from 40 countries in financial, humanitarian, and military aid to Ukraine. (€52.3 billion came from the United States, €29.2 billion came from the European Union, and €12.3 billion came from other countries, mainly the United Kingdom.)

Russia counts on a Stockholm Syndrome – a stronger bond with Russia than with the EU-US/NATO Axis – to jolt the Ukrainian people into action. Most Ukrainians realize that the EU-US/NATO Axis are brutalizing and thrashing them as cannon fodder and human shields. Where was Western Europe when Russians shielded the Ukrainians from NAZI Germany? They share common interests, needs, and wants. Russians and Ukrainians share a common heritage in the Orthodox Church, notwithstanding their institutions of higher learning. I lectured at the University of Kyiv in Chelyabinsk, along the Miass River, East of the Ural Mountains. 2,500 kilometers from Kyiv.

Even though the Junta – radical nationalists – in Kyiv has outlawed the opposition, banned the Church, and arrested and killed their priests and others in the Ukrainian resistance, President Zelensky and his accomplices cannot survive. Despite Zelensky’s minority that tyrannizes Ukraine’s majority, the will of the Ukrainian people will prevail. They will end the nightmare in Kyiv.

The Hague, 23 December 2022 | If you know of any story that is decisive, tell the world. We're still searching.

What is the Side of the Story that is Not Yet Decisive? By Abraham A. van Kempen

William Scott Ritter Jr. (born July 15, 1961) is an American author, pundit, and former United States Marine Corps intelligence officer and United Nations Special Commission (UNSCOM) weapons inspector. He served as a junior military analyst during Operation Desert Storm ^[3] and then as a member of the UNSCOM overseeing the disarmament of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) in Iraq from 1991 to 1998, from which he resigned in protest.

Ritter rejects the Western media's coverage of the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine and has voiced his perspective on multiple podcasts, including Andrew Napolitano's.^[42]^[43] On April 6, 2022, Ritter was suspended from Twitter for violating its rule on "harassment and abuse" after he posted a tweet claiming that the National Police of Ukraine was responsible for the Bucha massacre. He called US President Joe Biden a "war criminal" for "seeking to shift blame for the Bucha murders" to Russia. The following day Newsweek reported his Twitter account had been reinstated.^[44]Scott Ritter writes various articles critical of NATO for the Russian channel RT (formerly Russia Today).[45]

Books by Scott Ritter

Disarmament in the Time of Perestroika is the definitive history of the implementation of the INF Treaty signed by Mikhail Gorbachev and Ronald Reagan in all its complexities, and the lengths both sides went to “trust, but verify” this successful and unique historic disarmament process. It demonstrates how two nations fundamentally at odds with one another could come together and rid the world of weapons that threatened international peace and security and, indeed, all of humanity. Those engaged were pioneers in what was to be the new frontier of superpower arms control―on-site inspection―that would define compliance verification for future treaties and agreements. Their work represents a guide and the standard upon which all future on-site inspections will be based and judged.

Ritter traces in great detail the formation of the On-Site Inspection Agency, which was...

Read more

SCORPION KING: America's Suicidal Embrace of Nuclear Weapons from FDR to Trump Paperback – by Scott Ritter (Author), William R. Polk (Foreword), May 14, 2020

We may be likened to two scorpions in a bottle, each capable of killing the other, but only at the risk of his own life.” -- ROBERT OPPENHEIMER Scorpion King: America’s Suicidal Embrace of Nuclear Weapons from FDR to Trump is a history of America’s corrosive affair with nuclear weapons and the failed efforts to curb this radioactive ardor through arms control. The book’s title refers to the allusion by Robert Oppenheimer, the father of the American atomic bomb, to dueling scorpions when discussing the deadly nuclear rivalry between the US and Soviet Union, and signals the dangers inherent in the resumption of the perilous US drive for nuclear supremacy. Providing a vivid and gripping A-Z history of...

In the run-up to the invasion of Iraq, Scott Ritter's War on Iraq was embraced by the antiwar movement in America. The Bush administration and the mainstream media ignored his claims that Iraq had been effectively disarmed. In the wake of the debacle, Ritter has been vindicated. Ritter, a former United Nations weapons inspector, has set his sights on the White House's hyping of Iran's alleged nuclear weapons program. In Target Iran, he once again sets the record straight.

Scott Ritter, former Marine and UN weapons inspector, argues that there is a growing pessimism amongst the anti-war movement. Ritter proposes that the anti-war movement seek guidance from sources they normally spurn — that one must study the "enemy" to learn the art of campaigning and waging battles when necessary. They need to understand the pro-war movement's decision-making cycle, then undertake a comprehensive course of action.

The Iran deal was a crowning moment of international diplomacy, allowing the world to step away from the edge of a self-created abyss. Donald Trump's decision to withdraw from this agreement threatens to return the world to that precipice.

Dealbreaker recounts how this deal was made, why it was broken, and what the consequences of that action could be.

Read more

Other books by Scott Ritter:

Iraq Confidential: The Untold Story of the Intelligence Conspiracy to Undermine the UN and Overthrow Saddam Hussein Hardcover – by Scott Ritter (Author), Seymour Hersh (Foreword), September 15, 2005
Frontier Justice: Weapons of Mass Destruction and the Bushwhacking of America Paperback – by Scott Ritter (Author), July 1, 2003
Endgame: Solving the Iraq Crisis Audible Audiobook – Abridged – Scott Ritter (Author), Simon & Schuster Audio (Publisher), October 30, 2008

Click here for additional titles authored by Scott Ritter

Scott Ritter – Just How Tough are the Russians?

Click HERE to WATCH the VIDEO: Scott Ritter – Just How Tough are the Russians?

Scott Ritter – Lies and Deception of the Conflict

Click HERE to WATCH the VIDEO: Scott Ritter – Lies and Deception of the Conflict

Australian Journalist – John Pilger, This is a War of Propaganda

Click HERE to WATCH the VIDEO: Australian Journalist – John Pilger, This is a War of Propaganda

The following are excerpts from our ‘Special Edition | Clarification’ published on December 6, 2022.

The Kremlin knows that countries like the Netherlands, Germany, France, and others in the European Union do not want nuclear craters in their backyards. Sooner than later, the EU leadership will cave in. Another world war is unacceptable, reprehensible, and unpardonable.

And now, with 20-20 hindsight, the people of Europe are beginning to realize that the EU-US/NATO could have prevented Russia's preemptive strike in response to the EU-US/NATO's incessant rubbing-it-in provocations and tacit but unambiguous aggression. (Read John Mearsheimer on Putin's Ambitions After Nine Months of War – The realist American political scientist explains why Russia's move to annex four Ukrainian provinces isn't imperialism, by Isaac Chotiner, New Yorker Magazine, 17 November 2022).

Does it make sense that the EU-US/NATO Axis risk the lives of 800 million people to save one of the poorest and most corrupt countries on earth? The EU-US/NATO Axis should NEVER have persisted in tormenting Ukraine to become its proxy serving its EU-US/NATO masters as cannon fodder and human shields at the frontlines of the EU-US/NATO war against Russia.

The clowns in Brussels and the bozos in Strasbourg, still parading as world leaders, must sue for peace. Unless the EU amputates NATO from usurping its authority, the EU political elite will soon be held accountable for negligence by their electorate.

Why did they opt for war when they could have diplomatically resolved the impasse between the Russian Federation and Ukraine?

Why didn't the EU choose a live-let-live route instead of the irreversible kill-get-killed option?

The EU can still embolden Ukraine to become an economic conduit between the Russian Federation and the European Union. Ukraine could earn new capital from the East and West as their respective trading partners.

Instead of perpetrating war against the Russian Federation and bolstering the Ukrainian civil war — the Nationalists in the West pitted against the Separatists in the East — the EU could have and still can mitigate the Russian-Ukraine conflict.

The EU could have and still can guarantee the safety of all Ukrainians, including Ukrainians of Russian descent.
The EU could have and still can ensure Russia's access to the seaports on the Black Sea, including Odesa.
The EU could have and still can secure the pipelines, Europe's lifelines, flowing with oil and gas.

How will they justify their negligence, their abandonment of fundamental tasks and duties to keep Europe safe from a nuclear holocaust?

And why did Brussels and Strasbourg allow NATO to send € billions of military support to Ukraine between 2014 and 2023 with the sole intent of provoking Russia? Wasn’t it offense under the guise of defense?

It’s a fight to the death. Russia will neither cave in nor give up. The people of the Russian Federation will not compromise their national soul.

So, what has Ukraine gained?

Ukraine has ‘gained’ a brain drain of millions of Ukrainians who have sought refuge in the EU or Russia.
Ukraine has ‘gained’ a new neighbor in East Ukraine, a new territory voted by 86 percent of its inhabitants to become part of the Russian Federation.
In want of warmth inside their homes, Ukraine has ‘gained’ increased power blackouts with freezing temperatures outside.
For every 10 Ukrainians killed, Ukraine has ‘gained’ one dead Russian.
Finally, Ukraine has ‘gained’ growing resistance from its people against their government. They no longer want to serve NATO as cannon fodder and human shields, especially under harsh winter conditions.

Thank you, EU-US/NATO, for all your assistance. The more military aid, the more Ukrainians dead. Worse, if left with no choice, Russia will retaliate and opt for nuclear defense. For the moment, the Russian Federation will continue to turn off the lights to obstruct Ukrainians from heating their homes and driving their cars. Russia’s strategy is to signal the Ukrainians to revolt against the present NATO puppets in Kyiv.

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“Figuring out Ukraine’s post-conflict future will be essential not just for the Ukrainian victims of Russia’s invasion but also for Europe and the world. Heeding the lessons of the twentieth century, today's victors must proceed in the spirit of the Marshall Plan, not the Treaty of Versailles.”

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From all of us at the Building the Bridge Foundation, The Hague,
Happy New Year.

The Evangelical Pope | Christ is Our Peace – Est Pax Nostra!