This piece was reprinted by OpEd News with permission or license. It may not be reproduced in any form without permission or license from the source.
Reprinted from caitlinjohnstone.com by Unknown
Listen to a reading of this article:
?
Critics of the US empire have spent months compiling mountains of evidence showing that the empire knowingly provoked the war in Ukraine. Supporters of the US empire have spent months posting dog memes and accusing strangers of being paid by Putin. It's clear who's in the right.
?
So does everyone else in the world get a vote on whether their lives should be risked in an offensive to control who governs Crimea? Or will the Biden administration just be making that call on behalf of all living creatures?
It's so crazy how the fate of everyone alive and everyone who could potentially be born in the future is riding on the way two governments choose to navigate a conflict in Ukraine, just because those two governments have most of the world's nuclear weapons. It's like two people in a bar getting into a brawl that kills everyone in their city. Nobody else in the world gets a vote on the decisions being made that could kill everyone alive and end humanity forever; just a few people within those two governments and their militaries.
?
The US empire is telling Moscow "I'm the craziest motherf*cker around, I'll keep ramping up the brinkmanship looking you right in the eye and daring you to use nukes," while telling the rest of the world "I am the voice of sanity that you should all look to for leadership."
One of the empire's faces is the virtuous upholder of freedom and democracy, while the other face puts on an intimidating show of viciousness like a prisoner biting off someone's cheek in the prison yard. At least one of those faces is necessarily lying.
?
Literally the only reason mainstream westerners are fine with the US empire's nuclear brinkmanship with Russia is because most don't understand it, and those who do understand it don't think very hard about it. They avoid contemplating what nuclear war is and what it would mean.
Whenever I touch on this subject I get a bunch of replies like "Yeehaw! That's right b*tch, we're standing up to Putin!" They're not approaching the subject with anything like the gravity they would if they understood what's happening and had seriously thought about what could be. They don't understand how horrifyingly dangerous it is that the empire is considering backing a Crimea offensive, and they haven't sincerely contemplated what it would be like for every living creature to die horribly and for no one else to ever be born again for all of time.
Whatever position you have on this whole conflict, you should be approaching the possibility of nuclear annihilation with the most profound solemnity imaginable, because it is without exaggeration the single worst thing that could possibly happen. Take it seriously, or be silent.
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
