The Ukrainian government is now so dominated by the US, really a client state at this point, that it appointed an American citizen (who was quickly nationalized) as Finance Minister. No Ukrainian wants to take the job of running the country into the ground for the IMF that is going to be the price for their new "pro-Western" orientation. And Stephanopoulos and ThinkProgress complain that Putin is "there"?!
Trump is also ridiculed for saying, when asked about Crimea: "The people of Crimea, from what I've heard, would rather be with Russia than where they were"--though he is again right about this, and ThinkProgress knows it. Rupar's article suggests that Crimea voted for union with Russia only because they were intimidated by "Russian troops," but does not dare actually deny what it knows to be true: Crimean's overwhelmingly supported reunification, as Trump said. Of course the fact that the Crimea was the site of Russia's only warm-water port, which the Kremlin was loathe to surrender to eventual NATO annexation, was a factor. Still, in Crimea, Russia followed the self-determination script that the US wrote for the world in Kosovo, without the massive bombing.
What the U.S. has done, and is continuing to do, in Ukraine is the same kind of thing it has done in many other countries: divide and destroy the country in order to promote "Western" solutions--meaning IMF austerity "reforms" and American military intervention. This time, it's upending a nation that has deep historical and economic ties to Russia, right on the Russian border. This policy has created a real risk of nuclear war. The Obama administration, the forthcoming Clinton administration, and the Democratic Party have terrible--really horrific and dangerous--policies on this. They are joined by the establishment of the Republican Party and the dramatis personae of the military-intelligence-neocon-State Department complex--all of whom are now presented by the Democratic Party as worthy of the deepest respect. That level of bipartisan consensus means a President Trump would probably be pushed into it accepting the policy also. I have no confidence that, once in office, Trump's policies would really be any less militaristic, no matter what he says during the campaign. Indeed, within his semi-coherent discourse, he seems to suggest that Obama "lost" Crimea because of his weakness, as strongest-man-ever Trump would not have. Let no one think there is any reason to support Donald Trump.
But Trump doesn't justify Hillary. Trump, unforgivably, insulted a Muslim family whose son died in Iraq; Hillary voted for the war that killed him. The established narrative about Russia and Ukraine (and Syria, and NATO and the Baltics) is false and dangerous -- a pack of lies at least as pernicious as that which preceded and enabled the Iraq War. And the media, with MSNBC and PBS among the worst, reinforces it uncritically, without presenting any ongoing debate. It is a narrative crafted to prepare the American people for the next unforgivable war--a military conflict with Russia. That narrative is now being intensified and used by the Clinton campaign, and it's being repeated by liberals who enjoy piling on the pummeling of Trump, and who don't much care if they're doing it for the wrong reasons. There is nothing more dangerous that people can do than spend the next few months promoting justifications for a war by the next president--almost certainly Hillary--just to get more kicks in against Trump, on her behalf. There are plenty of reasons to criticize Donald Trump. His stated aversion to war with Russia, his skepticism about NATO, and his more-accurate-than-the-Dems take on Ukraine and Russia, are not among them.
And please, let me know when George Stephanopoulos or any network or cable correspondent (MSNBC? I laugh) grills Hillary about why she insisted that the Democratic platform be written to kiss the feet of Netanyahu, Israel, and the major pro-Israel donors. Which foreign country has a stronger and more pernicious influence on American political parties: Russia or Israel? Which gets talked about? Manchurian Candidate? What about the Tel-Avivian Candidate? (Who is proud of it!) The day I hear a grilling with the words "Netanyahu" and "Israel" used as Stephanopoulos did "Putin" and "Russia," is the day an American correspondent, or an organization like ThinkProgress, will have some credibility.
Please stop promoting lies and war just to trash Donald Trump.
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