Our Friday News Analysis | In Search of a Nation's Soul (Part 5)

Power Corrupts! Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely!!!

Punctured Gas Lifelines Need Fixing.

What an Opportunity to Help Build Bridges While Repairing Pipelines.

Will Russia Turn on the Gas After Russia and the EU Repair the Damage?

Can we maybe stop the war, a cease-fire if nothing else, to focus on fixing the pipelines? The European Union (EU) needs Russian gas!

What is the Side of the Story that is Not Yet Decisive?

By Abraham A. van Kempen, featuring Russian President Vladimir Putin, who on Friday presided over a ceremony at the Kremlin to annex four Ukrainian regions partly occupied by his forces.

Read the full-text transcript of his speech or view the video.

The Hague, 7 October 2022 | If you know of any story that is decisive, tell the world. We're still searching.

Yesterday, Ukraine’s wet-behind-the-ears President Volodymyr Zelensky desperately said no to a cease-fire. Instead, he invoked NATO to: “Let’s preemptively nuke Russia” (see video).

Mr. Zelensky is mad. If this war ends, Ukraine will face a brain drain and a country in ruins. Reportedly, five to 10 million Ukrainians have fled the country. It appears they’re all in Germany. Last week, while traveling through Germany, I met a few at a local pub. East Ukraine is now Russia. The people voted Vladimir Putin in and Vladimir Zelensky out. (In East Ukraine, Zelensky’s first name is ‘Vladimir,’ the Russian version of Volodymyr.) His military, one of the most powerful militaries in Europe – roughly 200,000 professional soldiers and 700,000 conscripts, dragged into the army from Ukrainian offices, universities, and construction sites – cannot come close to the military prowess of Russia, despite misrepresentations depicted in Western media. It’s become a NATO campaign to defeat the Russian Federation using Ukrainian men and women as cannon fodder and human shields. More than 100,000 soldiers have reportedly been killed, with as many as 40,000 injured. For what?

What is at stake? World dominion! For the EU-US/NATO Axis, Ukraine and Ukrainians are an afterthought.

We've had a war criminal or two over for a meal, including our late Prime Minister Wim Kok, accompanied by his wife, Rita. They came over for lunch. What an honor. No! We don't view him as a war criminal. But many people on all sides in former Yugoslavia still consider our respected friend a war criminal. What am I saying? The term 'war criminal' is relative. You're one there, but you're not one here. That's also true with either President Biden or President Putin. So, do what I do. Dismiss the propaganda. It doesn't matter from which side. In war, propaganda (disinformation) often triumphs.

Here's another story you might like – I've got so many. Not long ago, I asked Rita Kok why we Dutch inflict each other with many emotional bottlenecks. In short, we often disagree solely to fight for nothing. I thought she was going to give me a complicated answer. She says, and I'll never forget, "we're just stubborn, thick-skulled fools. For years we stop talking to each other. But wait until the levee breaks. Everyone will come out of their holes and help strengthen the levee to protect us from the sea; and then, we meet in the pubs, hold hands, hug each other, and boisterously sing our national folk songs."

Biden Versus Putin

Who is more powerful, Biden or Putin? Simply stated, the President of the United States, the leader of the Free World, can count on the approximate 40 countries (representing roughly 1 billion inhabitants) identified by former President George W. Bush as the You’re-Either-for-Us-or-Against-Us Coalition of the Willing. Former Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice, under George Bush, still refers to this Coalition as the ‘World Community,’ or ‘International Community’ as termed yesterday by Ukraine’s President Zelensky.

Who is the leader of the remaining 158 countries, representing the remaining 6.8 billion people worldwide? Many view the Russian Federation as its global leader, a preeminence shared with the General Secretary of China. The clowns and stooges ruling the EU-US/NATO Axis disdain, dismiss and scorn this reality. Most of them are still steeped in pre-World War I colonial delusions. I promise that I will stop referring to them as clowns and stooges when they help themselves and the world by working together with Russia to repair the pipelines.

Killing Two Birds with One Stone

A civil war between the Nationalists in West Ukraine (mostly of non-Russian descent) versus the ‘Separatists’ in East Ukraine (mostly of Russian descent) has drawn two world powers, the EU-US/NATO versus the Russian Federation and its allies, into a battle to the death. Whoever wins will be the dominant hegemon, with preponderant influence in world affairs. The risk? World War III with nuclear confrontation! Most people on earth bewail:

               “Why don’t they share world dominion? Why can’t they work together to reach common goals? They’re out of their minds playing Russian Roulette with our lives.” Inside Ukraine, I hear whispers, "we resent serving as cannon fodder and human shields.”

Both world powers are intent on ‘killing two birds with one stone.’ First, as I mentioned last week, the EU-US/NATO Axis purports to champion Zelensky’s Nationalists in West Ukraine. It doesn’t matter how many Ukrainians get killed if the slain soldiers aren’t one of us. The EU pretends its EU solidarity with Ukraine. Second, the EU-US/NATO Axis wants to control Ukraine. What matters most to the EU-US/NATO Axis is that Ukraine becomes part of NATO, the first line of NATO’s defense against Russia, whether real or imagined.

NATO insists and persists that Ukraine becomes the 31st NATO Member Country in Europe. Even the Kremlin could not have foreseen that being part of NATO means nothing. The NATO collective military security blanket makes no geopolitical sense. Article 5 is meaningless. Which country wants to rescue another NATO Member State only to end up with a nuclear crater in its backyard? NATO is a mirage. Have you noticed? Russia has annexed much of East Ukraine, with NATO pointing its atomic warheads from 30 NATO countries at Russia. NATO is not just incompetent. It has proven itself to be impotent.

Moreover, in a world without an explicit or implicit Cold War, NATO has become obsolete. The present ‘Cold War’ is make-believe, invented, and imaginary. Throughout history, most wars have been based on myth. Permit me to repeat myself. This war should never have happened. The EU leadership could have diplomatically reached workable compromises based on mutual interests and reciprocal guarantees. Instead, the EU-US/NATO Axis provoked war.

In short, the EU-US/NATO Axis failed. One, the Axis could not block Russia’s efforts to liberate the Ukrainians in East Russia, who the Nationalists had tyrannized in West Ukraine. Second, the war has helped Russia to secure its access to the Black Sea. In short, the EU-US/NATO conflict with the Russian Federation has shifted and corrected the balance of power. President Biden has lost his position as the only Sheriff on the world stage.

The EU-US/NATO Axis lured Russia to attack and invade Ukraine. The EU-US/NATO Axis continued to stoke Zelensky’s Nationalists in West Ukraine by supplying weapons of mass destruction to subdue the Ukrainians of Russian descent in East Ukraine. The Separatists in the East – Russians living in Ukraine for three to five generations – felt threatened. They begged Russia to rescue them from Zelensky’s tyranny. Russia struck Ukraine preemptively with two objectives: 1) to liberate the Ukrainian-Russians in the East and 2) to secure access to the seaports on the Black Sea with neither help nor hindrance of Ukraine, a volatile country in a civil war with itself.

Seemingly, the warmongers of the EU-US/NATO Axis terrorize its citizens with fear. They’re scaring the Free World into believing that Armageddon is around the corner but not to be played out on the plains of Megiddo, Israel-Palestine but somewhere between the Russian Federation and the EU, imaginably somewhere in Ukraine. Since Russia annexed much of eastern Ukraine, the Western media bombards the Free World with suggestive press releases to inculcate its citizens to anticipate a nuclear confrontation against the Russian Federation, offering false hope to crush Russia. This entire week, the EU-US/NATO propagates a barrage of news announcing potential nuclear launches from Russia when President Vladimir Putin explicitly and unambiguously stated: “if you know what’s good for you, don’t strike us first.”

Mr. Zelensky, on the other hand, stated yesterday: “NATO must preemptively strike Russia,” purportedly to add more fuel to the fire and to lure Russia to retaliate. So, will Russia escalate this civil war into World War III if NATO strikes preemptively first and Russia retaliates?

Please read or view and listen to President Putin’s speech on why Russia has annexed most of eastern Ukraine. Then, listen to the address of Ukraine’s former president, Petro Poroshenko. If you wondered why so many people in east Ukraine voted to join Russia, just watch what the former Ukrainian President said to them before US-trained soldiers killed thousands in the Donbas. It’s pretty obvious why they decided to leave, isn’t it? His official diatribe explains why 90 percent of east Ukraine voted to reunite with Russia.

Bottomline,

1. NATO no longer needs Ukraine to become its 31st NATO country.
2. Much of East Ukraine is now Russia. Much of the world rejoices with East Ukraine despite the EU-US/NATO Axis chagrin.
3. Ukraine does not yet qualify to become an EU Member State. Ukraine is still unstable and corrupt. With new leadership, Ukraine might become less so.

The pretext of war has become superfluous. In principle, the war is over. It is time to fix the pipelines and let the oil, gas, and capital flow freely. The people in Europe deserve to heat their homes this winter. And I’m getting myself ready to leave this Saturday for another transcontinental journey.

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Next week, from Bethlehem, Israel, we will feature:

'Europe, more than Putin, must shoulder the blame for the energy crisis.'

Jonathan Cook

14 September 2022 

The same arrogant, self-righteous posturing from the West fuelled the Ukraine war and is now plunging Europe into recession.

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Related Articles Recently Posted on www.buildingthebridgefoundation.com:

Our Friday News Analysis | 'In Search of a Nation's Soul (Part 4),' 16 September 2022

Our Wednesday News Analysis | Zionism During the Holocaust: The Weaponization of Memory in the Service of State and Nation – Book Review, 5 October 2022 

The Evangelical Pope| 'Love One Another!,' 3 October 2022.

The views expressed are solely those of the author and may or may not reflect those of the Building the Bridge Foundation, The Hague.