U. S. Institute for Peace Chairman says we need Russians to die in Ukraine.

As former Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs in the second Bush administration, Stephen Hadley is well acquainted with the shoot first, then negotiate (if you really have to) style of American diplomacy, but his recent comments to a gathering in Poland go well beyond that, especially considering he is now the head of the United States Institute for Peace!

U.S. instructor trains Ukrainian troops near Lviv, Ukraine.


US ‘Institute Of Peace’ Chairman Wants Russian Body Bags


Stephen Hadley’s militant message in Poland was far from peaceful and advocates the complete opposite of what the institute supposedly stands for. It's just been revealed that the Chairman for the US ‘Institute Of Peace' was caught red-handed in Poland lobbying for the US to arm the Kievan military back in June. According to The Intercept: "In a speech at Poland's Wroclaw Global Forum in June, Hadley argued in favor of arming the Ukrainian government in part because that would 'raise the cost for what Russia is doing in Ukraine.' Specifically, he said, 'even President Putin is sensitive to body bags — it sounds coarse to say, but it's true — but body bags of Russian soldiers who have been killed.'"

This stands in stark contravention to everything that the institute reportedly represents, making Hadley a devil of war when he claims to be acting as an angel of peace. Not only that, but upon closer examination, one realizes how the ‘Institute Of Peace' (and many more organizations just like it) is simply ‘academic' window dressing for preconditioning the ‘naively enlightened masses' to accept controversial and militant government policies. Confronted with this disturbing reality, inquisitive individuals eager to discern the objective truth about the most pressing political issues of our time need to resort to a heavy dose of non-mainstream reporting in order to counteract the effects of such deceitful Washington-sponsored entities as the ‘Institute Of Peace'.

Hadley's warmongering advocacy couldn't have been more off-message from his institute's stated core principles and strategic plan. Here are some of the ways in which his aggressive plea violates the spirit of peace:

"Core Principles:

1. We believe conflicts can be resolved without violence

That's not what Hadley said in Poland. He continued from his controversial quote by further elaborating that '…when you're dealing with a Russian policy as we see in Ukraine, there's going to be no political solution that does not have a military element.'"


(snip)


Read more at: http://sputniknews.com/columnists/20150804/1025389709.html

Are you someone who values the truth . . .

Do you genuinely want to know what really happened to flight MH17? If you can answer "yes" to both of those questions, please read on. If you can not, I politely advise you to read no further. Thank you.

Dutch experts and OSCE representatives work at Malaysian Airlines MH17 crash site.


MH17 Report Not Released As It Proves Russia Not Responsible for Crash

The facts don't support the US propaganda that Russia is responsible for the Malaysian Airlines flight MH17 crash; that is why Washington is pushing a UN International Tribunal on the catastrophe to get what it wants, Dr. Paul Craig Roberts stresses. There is something very fishy about the fact that Washington and Kiev refused to release crucial data related to the MH17 catastrophe, while Russia, in contrast, provided all evidence in its possession in full compliance with the evidentiary requirements of the investigation, according to Dr. Paul Craig Roberts, a prominent American economist, former Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Economic Policy and author.

"Washington refuses to release the information from its spy satellite that was directly overhead at the moment of the airliner's destruction, and Kiev refuses to release its communications with the airliner that directed the airliner to change course and to fly over a combat zone," Dr. Roberts pointed out.

"The Dutch or the Europeans, whoever it is that is responsible for investigating the downing of the Malaysian airliner MH-17, is unable to get a report released. What does this tell us? It tells me that the facts don't support the propaganda that Russia is responsible. You can bet your bottom dollar that if there was any evidence of Russia's responsibility, the report would have been out long ago," he stressed.

However, while Washington can block the Dutch report on the tragedy it cannot completely falsify it. Thus far, Washington is racing against the clock to push ahead a UN International Tribunal on the MH17 airliner in hopes of gaining the results it wants. In order to prevent its "frame-up," Moscow had to veto the resolution in the UN, and now it is accused by the West "of hiding its complicity in the attack on the airliner and opposing justice for Malaysia," Dr. Roberts noted.

(snip)


Read more at: http://sputniknews.com/politics/20150801/1025303329.html

Your cat will want to see this . . .

Congress cuts funding to Ukrainian "Azov Battalion" fascists.

In a remarkable show of sanity the United States House of Representatives has passed legislation which denies funding for any training or equipping of the "Azov Battalion," a Kiev-supporting volunteer unit composed of fascists from the "Right Sector" political movement. This unit has been involved in some of the most intense fighting against separatists in Eastern Ukraine. It has also frequently been implicated in Ukrainian violations of the Minsk ceasefire agreements.

Azov battalion fighters in Kiev.


Ukrainian Neo-Nazis Strike Back: Azov Battalion Bashes US Congress

On Thursday, US lawmakers voted against providing training to one of Ukraine's notorious ultra-nationalist militia, the Azov Regiment, on the grounds that its fighters held neo-Nazi beliefs. The Russian Foreign Ministry welcomed the move saying it was better late than never. Moscow has persistently urged Western countries to open their eyes to the crimes Ukrainian ultra-nationalists have committed in the Donbass region and elsewhere.

Needless to say, Azov was outraged by the decision itself and the explanation US lawmakers provided. The group turned to Facebook to express the extent of its indignation. "We are extremely surprised and profoundly outraged by these remarks. Our battalion has always embraced patriotism and has never adopted other world ideologies," the militia said in a statement. And patriotism of a distinct but worrisome flavor it is. Take Azov's logo, for instance, which incorporates the Wolfsangel runic symbol, also known as a wolf's hook. The Wolfsangel was present on the insignias of several divisions of the Waffen-SS. Dutch Nazis also used it as a party insignia for a while.

If symbols are not deeds, then Azov's actions speak louder than words. Azov fighters are under investigation for attempting to commit terrorist acts and setting mosques in Crimea ablaze. The group has been actively engaged in stirring up discord in the Russian peninsula in an attempt to ruin intricate inter-ethnic relations there.

"It took US Congress over a year to see that the [Azov] battalion is a band of sheer Nazis, sporting the emblem used by Hitler's SS and acting like vigilantes on an occupied territory," Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich said in a statement. The next step, according to the diplomat, is to finally acknowledge that the 2014 coup in Kiev, Washington eagerly supported, "was carried out by the same Nazi thugs."


Read more at: http://sputniknews.com/europe/20150613/1023306657.html

Kiev police forced to protect LGBT Pride marchers from Right Wing attacks.

These Right Wingers are from the organizations which maintain volunteer battalions involved in the fighting in the Donetsk and Mariupol sectors of the Donbas region. There are those in this country who think we should make modern weapons available to fascistic groups like these (after all, they have been the most willing of Ukraine's soldiers to actually fight, and we have supported even worse criminals). I wonder how much of our "non-lethal aid" has already gone to them?



Anti-gay protesters attack a policeman during the so-called Equality March, organized by a lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community, in Kiev, Ukraine, June 6, 2015. (Reuters)


Teargas, arrests & injuries: Far right attacks 2nd Kiev gay rights march

Up to 30 assailants who attacked a gay rights march in Kiev were arrested on Saturday as scuffles broke out between members of the Ukrainian LGBT pride march and their fiercely nationalist opponents.

The march of around 300 LGBT supporters reportedly lasted for only half an hour and came under attack despite the presence of police in riot gear. The attackers hurled flares, smoke bombs and teargas at the crowd walking along bank of the Dnipro River. Ten radicals, three law enforcement officers and four marchers have been injured, RIA Novosti reported. The Equality March is the fourth that the LGBT community intended to have in the Ukrainian capital, but only the second they actually managed to hold, the first taking place in 2013, when police ensured the safety of the participants.

Kiev Mayor Vitaly Klitschko earlier advised that the event be canceled due to a threat of violence from the Pravy Sektor (Right Sector) nationalist group which had threatened to disrupt the protest. But the organisers nonetheless decided to proceed with the "March of Equality."

"This march shows that we exist. We are fighting for equal rights that, unlike others in Ukraine, we currently lack," a 31-year-old woman told AFP. "I am very frightened," she said, adding: "But I am also very proud of myself - proud that I came out and so many people supported us."


Read more, and view video at: http://rt.com/news/265441-equality-march-gay-parade/

Seventy years ago today . . .

Spring had reached the smoldering ruins of Nuremberg, Germany only shortly before his artillery battery did. I imagine it seemed the best Spring of his life, for he was young, the war was almost over, and he had survived. In fact, the last few days in Nuremberg he had been more of a tourist than a soldier in a conquering army. Though the city had largely been bombed into ruins several times over, there was still much to see. Especially stunning was the vast and nearly intact sports arena where the Nazi's had once held their infamous rallies. It was an epic moment to be an American soldier in occupied Germany.

That morning, however, he had an irresistible urge to find some real food. "Real" as in not the creamed-chipped beef on toast and powered egg substitute variety that was monotonously offered in the company mess. He wanted some fried eggs. Two of his friends borrowed a jeep and set off with him to find some black market eggs, "Real" eggs.

The streets of the city were full of people selling all kinds of things. Gold jewelry and family heirlooms were to be had for a few cigarettes, but almost nothing in the way of food was on offer. At last they were told by a helpful German civilian who knew some English that just a few miles outside the city was a farm whose owner could usually be convinced to sell a few eggs for a reasonable price. The man was kind enough to even sketch them a map with directions. Quickly they were on their way.

I have often wondered what they must have talked about on that drive into the Springtime German countryside. I guess they talked about what young American fighting men usually talk about, both then and today: The cars they had waiting back home, the girls they had waiting back home and the truly great plans they had for their futures. I like to think they were happy, laughing at each others' jokes and thinking how wonderful things would be as soon as they got back home.

They reached the farmstead just as directed and began to jump out of the jeep. He was just a couple of seconds slower getting out than were his two friends, those seconds were what saved his life. He was in the back as the three crossed a small foot bridge and a German machine gun began firing from the house. Hit by the first bursts, his two friends fell back against him, and the three tumbled into a shallow roadside ditch. His friends said nothing and did not move. They lay motionless on top of him, their blood slowly soaking his uniform.

How intently he must have listened to hear voices or footsteps coming toward them. But there was nothing to be heard except the normal sounds of a small country farm. No one came to check the bodies of the dead soldiers who lay on top of him. No one came to find him, and to finish him off. He lay there for hours. How long those hours must have been I can not begin to imagine.

Finally it became dark. Carefully, fearfully he chanced a movement and crawled out from under the weight of the dead men. In a near panic he hurriedly made his way back to his outfit and, covered in blood but physically unharmed, reported what had happened.

He had no way to know it, but that was the day Red Army soldiers were at last completing their costly conquest of Berlin, Hitler's Capital. It was also the day the German dictator shot and killed himself in his bunker there. One week later Nazi Germany officially surrendered, and World War II in Europe ended.

It would seem war-mongers win again.

Looks like another win for fatcats of the military/industrial complex and the many war-mongers who love them so. Our increasing military activity in the Baltics and Eastern Europe has alarmed the Russian Federation sufficiently, and they are going to respond in kind with more military deployments and readiness exercises on their side of the border. If this madness of reciprocal escalation continues, soon all that will be needed is a single spark to set-off the conflagration. I guess that may be what our arms merchants and their pet generals think they want? Lets just hope they never find out how mistaken they truly are!

A Polish soldier stands in front of U.S., Polish and NATO flags (Reuters)


Moscow Will Respond to NATO Military Buildup Near Russia's Border - Lavrov


NATO military buildup near Russia's border does not contribute to the restoration of trust in the Euroatlantic space, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Tuesday. "We have confirmed our stance that military buildup near our border does not contribute to the restoration of trust in the Euroatlantic," the Russian foreign minister said during a news conference with his Spanish counterpart.

Lavrov added that "we are forced to react in an adequate way, but we are sure that these problems need to be solved through an equal dialog based on mutual respect."

Following Crimea's reunification with Russia in March 2014 and the start of an internal armed conflict in Ukraine’s southeast in April, NATO has been boosting its military presence near Russia’s borders, including in the Baltic states.

On February 5, NATO defense ministers agreed to set up a new high-readiness force dubbed Spearhead Force as part of the NATO Response Force. Altogether, the enhanced Response Force will be increased and count up to around 30,000 troops. The ministers also decided to establish six command and control units in Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Romania tasked with “ensuring that national and NATO forces from across the Alliance are able to act as one from the start” if a crisis arises.


Read more at: http://sputniknews.com/politics/20150310/1019290192.html

The West's military imperialism is a danger to us all.

"We live in a world in which only interests and rights of the West are deemed legitimate, everyone else who fails to abide to the rules set by the West is portrayed as an evil dictator." I could not agree more, and I applaud the editors of Counterpunch for their courage in stating the facts so clearly.

American troops in Afghanistan listen to comments by departing Defense Secretary, Chuck Hagel, in December, 2014 (AP)


US, UK Imperial Ambitions Are Real Challenge World Needs to Contain



The West portrays Russia as a culprit for stirring up the conflict in Ukraine, however the truth is that all Russia did was simply dared to resist the American Empire, taking a stand against its hypocrisy, double standards, and complete lack of respect towards other countries and cultures, US monthly CounterPunch reported.

The last year coup in Ukraine was openly supported by the West. US Senator John McCain along with EU representative Catherine Ashton traveled to Ukraine personally to show their support and urge on the protesters in Kiev. Now, as a mental exercise, just imagine what the United States would have done if Russian officials traveled to Mexico or Canada and openly supported anti-US protests to topple their elected governments, replacing them with pro-Russian alternatives? The United States is a global hegemon with over 1,000 military bases and 11 navy battle carrier groups around the world and a military budget that exceeds budgets of all other industrialized nations combined.

The truth is that the challenge facing the world right now is how to deal with the United States and its imperial ambitions, rather than contain a made-up Russian threat. The Ukrainian crisis has once again shown that “we live in a world in which the West’s interests and rights are the only ones deemed legitimate”. The imperial hegemonic agenda of the United States and Britain is the root cause of the crises currently taking place in eastern Ukraine and the Middle East. American and British hypocrisy knows no borders, the US monthly said. How the United States and Britain who played central roles in diminishing Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya and Syria into an abyss of carnage and savagery, could then make statements that Putin is a greater threat to Europe than the Islamic State?

Russian President Vladimir Putin, the man who dared to stand against the Western hypocrisy, is accused of “forging Russian Empire”, being compared to none other than Adolf Hitler and called a dictator who ought to be stopped. Downright ridiculous and hypocritical, CounterPunch says.



Read more at: http://sputniknews.com/world/20150309/1019245414.html

Hasn't it been wonderful!

I have enjoyed the break from worrying so much about whether our nation would launch World War III over control of eastern Ukraine. For the last two weeks civil war on Russia's western border has appeared less and less likely to propel us into a nuclear conflict with our old cold war adversary. It is more likely to slowly become another pitiful monument to Western arrogance, ignorance and greed. While sad, that is the vastly preferable outcome.

And on top of everything else . . . Spring is nearly begun!

European Union Foreign Ministers pose for the media during their informal European Union Ministers of Foreign Affairs meeting (Gymnich) in Riga March 6, 2015. (Reuters)


‘Give peace a chance, decide sanctions later’: EU split over extension, new Russia penalties


The latest EU meeting has shown that many of its members are in no rush to extend the sanctions which were imposed on Russia last year following a US example, or to exert any more pressure on Moscow, as long as the Minsk ceasefire agreement is holding. Most foreign ministers at the EU two-day meeting in the Latvian capital expressed hopes that the latest Minsk agreement would be a success, and there would be no need to impose further sanctions on Russia. The meeting had a format of an informal discussion, where the ministers touched the topics of the Minsk agreements and the OSCE mission in Ukraine, as well as the possible stepping up of pressure on Russia to “promote peace.”

Scheduled ten days before an official summit in Brussels, the meeting has shown that the EU can’t yet agree even on the automatic extension of existing sanctions – a move that some of the hawkish states have been actively promoting. “In my opinion, we must not make any other steps, we have to give peace a chance. The extension could take place, but only if there is no improvement of the situation,” Spanish FM Jose Manuel Garcia-Margallo said, expressing his views after the meeting , according to Russian news agency RIA Novosti. The Spanish FM is heading to Moscow, during which he will not only discuss the Ukrainian crisis, but will also meet with the Russian Energy minister.

Meanwhile, Italian FM Paolo Gentiloni told reporters the he sees “encouraging signals” on the ground in eastern Ukraine, and so “at the moment we don’t need either new sanctions or automatic renewals.” Austrian Foreign Minister Sebastian Kurz shared the views of his Italian counterpart, saying that there is a “glimpse of hope” following the Minsk agreements: “We should do everything now to improve the situation and decide later whether that improvement really happened and we can reduce the sanctions, or, if we have to, extend them,” Kurz said.

Greece has also spoke out against any new sanctions as long as Russia supports the Minsk agreements, with Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Kotzias saying the Greek experience suggests that “not every sanction is constructive” and can succeed. “We support sanctions that bring the other side to the negotiation table,” Kotzias told German ARD. “But we are against sanctions that are imposed simply because someone is angry.”

(snip)


Read more at: http://rt.com/news/238733-eu-ministers-russia-sanctions/