|March 16, 2014|
Once again the U.S. establishment is promoting another violent coup d’état as a democratic uprising. Troops are moving, planes are flying, ships are advancing, war threats are being thrown. The governments of NATO and their media point fingers at Russia, but the provocation is fully hidden. Peace activists who should know better are buying this propaganda and spreading it.
Peace activists must urgently act to illuminate the travesty of justice that is taking place. We spoke together to support negotiations with Iran. We must raise our voices now.
Ukraine’s democratically elected president has been violently and forcibly removed with the financial and political support of the United States and European Union. The State Department did not just hand out cookies to a few protesters. It did not just select the replacement government. The U.S. spent $5 billion to instill Koch brothers democracy in Ukraine. The House has approved an additional $1 billion. What else? There are now two governments in Ukraine and the U.S./EU supported one is filled with neo-Nazis.
We must not forget how anti-government protests in foreign countries have historically been instigated and/or used by the CIA for nefarious purposes. The CIA playbook has been repeated so many times – from Iran in 1953 to Chile in 1973 to Haiti 1991 and 2004, Yugoslavia in the 1990’s, Honduras in 2009, Libya, Egypt and Syria, Venezuela, among many others. Government overthrows result. How can we forget the devastation these coups bring? Sometimes the government being deposed is democratically elected, sometimes not, but in either case a government is targeted because it shows independence from U.S. foreign policy demands.
The CIA instigates “democratic” uprisings, pays thugs to carry out violence. The State Department assisted by the corporate media demonizes a government, its leaders and anyone who supports them. U.S.-controlled financial institutions decimate the country’s economy to encourage even more disruption and violence. Then thugs attack government entities, private property, and threaten, intimidate and attack at will. False flag snipers, video and news distortions weaken any sense of honesty. Six corporations own 90% of our U.S. media. They flood news communications with propaganda here and abroad that the “democratic” opponents just want to get rid of corrupt government, install democracy and save their economy. They claim the issue is sovereignty of the country, that it is the right of the people of that country to determine their own destiny without imperialist intervention. They pretend not to be advocating for any government. How can we accept such lies?
What the U.S. and Europe are doing to Ukraine is only very slowly being exposed. The peace movement must not be silent!
We know that neocon Assistant Secretary of State for European Affairs Victoria Nuland and U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Geoffrey Pyatt were caught in a phone conversation plotting the coup.
Despite denials by U.S. representatives of the Fascist character of the protesters, Ukrainian Chabad Chief Rabbi Reuven Azman has recommended that Jews leave the city and perhaps the country. In addition, Israel has been asked to protect Ukraine’s Jewish population.
An atomized Ukraine is more susceptible to corporate exploitation, austerity and impoverishment of the population imposed from outside. NATO continues to move further east, rapidly enveloping Russia with bases and “anti-missile” batteries, another step on the way to confronting Russia. Former National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski has called for breaking up Russia, even as Ukraine is being divided
Capitalist Russia’s main export commodity is natural gas. Halliburton is leading the effort to frack natural gas in Ukraine. In addition, the U.S. has now become the largest producer of natural gas, which the State Department is arranging to sell abroad. When the U.S. Government engineers a friendly government in Ukraine, the U.S. fossil fuel industry is being subsidized to undercut Russia’s export market.
The Dulles brothers, John Foster as Secretary of State and Allen heading the CIA, began using extensive government resources starting in the 1950’s to destroy democracies such as Iran, Guatemala and Congo and generated the attacks on Cuba and assassination attempts on Fidel Castro. Furthermore, disasters, natural and human-made, are exploited to benefit the 1% at the expense of the majority and of democracy, from Chile to Moscow to New Orleans.
We should by now recognize the goal of the corporate monopolies. First to steal Ukraine’s sovereignty, then its resources and industry, then privatization and destruction of unions and civil society. Then on to Russia’s vast resources. Divide and conquer. A long-term policy of the U.S., Britain and other imperial states.
These events exacerbate the danger of an explosive war, a conflagration that could envelope the planet. The Peace Movement is commemorating the tragedy of WWI. Today’s events are reminiscent of the capitalist and imperialist competitions that led to it.
What can we do?
Generate local demonstrations. Confront our government and media. Let our elected officials know that we see through the fog. Expose the hypocrisy, lies and war mongering.
Then we must demand that Congress investigate another U.S.-instigated coup to determine which laws, national or international, were violated.
The people of the U.S. stopped Obama’s bombing of Syria. We must demand that the U.S. back away from more war, violent regime change and the imposition of austerity.
We must mobilize!
CONGRESS
Toll-Free: House 202-225-3121
Senate 202-224-3121
Peace and Justice,
Executive Board of the U.S. Peace Council