“Do you know who endorses revenge?” he says, “Azov endorses revenge. So the Donetsk people will have to look themselves in the mirror and say ‘do we really want to become that which we hate, or are we better than that?’ And its hard to be better than that when so many bad things have happened to you. But again, if they want to become part of Russia, they’re going to have to behave as Russians.”
Scott Ritter on the prisoner exchange, which included four leaders of Azov Battalion.
I didn’t see a tribunal, as revenge, but as justice. Revenge would’ve been executing them, on the spot, or worse!
Humanity has reached a tipping point. It is time for governments, international institutions and people everywhere to take stock and act with renewed urgency.
Recently I have been reading comments on social media, asking why I’ve written to Mrs. Olena Zelenska but not Mr. Vladimir Putin? Very good question, I’m glad you asked, here it is.
Roger Waters’ open letter to Vladimir Putin.
Dear President Putin, since The Russian Federation invaded Ukraine on February 24th this year I have tried to use my small influence to encourage a ceasefire and a diplomatic settlement that addresses the security needs of both Ukraine and The Russian Federation. In that endeavor I have written two open letters to Mrs. Olena Zelenska the wife of the Ukrainian President. These letters are readily available on the internet. I am increasingly asked to write to you too, so here goes. Firstly, would you like to see an end to this war? If you were to reply and say, “Yes please.” That would immediately make things a lot easier. If you were to come out and say, “Also the Russian Federation has no further territorial interest beyond the security of the Russian speaking populations of The Crimea, Donetsk and Lugansk.” That would help too. I say this because, I know some people who think you want to overrun the whole of Europe, starting with Poland and the rest of the Baltic states. If you do, fuck you, and we might as well all stop playing the desperately dangerous game of nuclear chicken that the hawks on both sides of the Atlantic seem so comfortable with, and have at it. Yup, just blow each other and the world to smithereens. The problem is, I have kids and grandkids, and so do most of my brothers and sisters all over the world and none of us would relish that outcome. So, please Mr Putin indulge me, and make us that assurance.
Alright back to the table, if I’ve read your previous speeches correctly, you would like to negotiate a state of neutrality for a sovereign neighboring Ukraine? Is that correct? Assuming such a peace could be negotiated it would have to include an absolutely binding agreement not to invade anyone ever again. I know, I know, the USA and NATO invade other sovereign countries at the drop of a hat, or for a few barrels of oil, but that doesn’t mean you should, your invasion of Ukraine took me completely by surprise, it was a heinous war of aggression, provoked or not.
When Mrs. Zelenska replied to me via Twitter, I was very surprised and mightily moved, if you were to reply to me, I would mightily respect you for it, and take it as an honorable move in the right direction towards a sustainable peace.
The ideologue of Trumpism promotes a right-wing movement that aims to reorient the political and economic management of the world towards an extreme liberal right.
Article was “fact-checked” by me. Everything checked out, except that Nina Rosenwald founded the Gatestone Institute. Although, Rebekah Mercer was on the Board of Governors.
In 2016, Gatestone partnered with The Rebel, a Canadian media company “with a historyof bigotry and anti-Semitism,” to produce a series of 12 “cross-branded videos.” The videos feature “misinformation expert” Daniel Pipes and Geert Wilders, and promote “paranoid, apocalyptic far-right themes vilifying Muslims and refugees.” A 2017 article in The Independent, found that Gatestone was one of two “US right-wing foundations” that have sponsored Wilders’ trips to America.
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Between 2014-2016, the Mercer family foundation, run by Rebekah Mercer, contributed $250,000 to Gatestone. In April 2017, journalist Eli Clifton revealed that “Mercer had been listed as a member of the board of governors” of Institute. Following inquiries from news outlets, Gatestone deleted any mention of Mercer on its board.
There has already been significant criticism of the Ukraine policy of the USA government from a perspective of world peace. The base of US policy is the concept of a proxy war that can bleed and weaken Russia as much as possible (at great cost to the people of Ukraine as well as the peace and stability of the rest of the world). This has been documented at several places. However another important aspect which has unfortunately received very less attention is that the Ukraine policy of the USA government also seriously violates the real, broader interests of the USA government and people.
Globalization can function only if most participants believe it advances their interests. If the rest believe the West is unfairly using the system for its own benefit, the rules- based international order falls apart and alternatives will emerge.
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These concerns are generating considerable anti-Western sentiment across much of the Global South. While a nuclear-armed Russia shows no willingness to end a war its leaders cannot afford to lose; the West is rapidly losing the rest and thus undermining the very rules-based international order it has sought to create. Our most promising solution to this dilemma is likely to be some sort of diplomatic compromise.
Sep 22, 2022 – Scott interviews Roger Waters, co-founder of the band Pink Floyd. They begin with a look back at how Waters first woke up to the plight of the Palestinians. That leads to a discussion about the persecution of Julian Assange, which Waters has been actively speaking out against. Next, they look to the war in Ukraine and discuss Waters’ public back and forth with the first lady of Ukraine Olena Zelenska. Lastly, Scott brings Waters up to speed on the effort to end the war in Yemen.
The Ukraine war has generated great controversy, but of one point there can be no doubt, and Benjamin Abelow, a physician with a longstanding interest in public affairs, has properly emphasized this in his brief and excellent book. The policy of the United States toward the war, and more generally toward the Russian regime of Vladimir Putin, has been one of direct confrontation rather than peaceful accommodation. It is hardly a surprise that supporters of a noninterventionist policy have criticized the United Sates for this, but a number of those in the foreign policy “establishment” have done so as well, and Abelow has been able to secure the endorsement of some of these for his book. Jack Matlock Jr., for example, the last American ambassador to the Soviet Union, writes that the book is a “brilliant, remarkably concise explanation of the danger that U.S. and NATO [North Atlantic Treaty Organization] military involvement in Ukraine has created.”
On September 17, 2022, John Parker, the founder and coordinator of the Harriet Tubman Center For Social Justice in Los Angeles and a leading member of the Socialist Unity Party and a candidate for the US Senate in California on the Peace and Freedom ticket, and also a union organizer, public school teacher, journalist, activist and coordinator of the International Action Center, joins the show to discuss his recent Fact-Finding mission to the Donbass and their findings: US-NATO Proxy War on Donbass & Russia
We are very pleased to republish an excellent history of the massive campaign of threats and intimidation of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK, aka North Korea) by the United States and its puppet government in South Korea since 1953. This document was published in English on one of the official news websites of the DPRK – the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on 4 September 2022.
The DPRK is a Stalinist workers state whose rather austere brand of socialism is entirely conditioned by this continual threat of war from the United States and South Korea. Every attempt by the North Koreans to “open up” their country economically has been met with extreme hostility and renewed threats of war from the United States Government, who can never forgive the DPRK for the profound humiliation that heroic socialist workers state inflicted on the US during the Korean War as it successfully defended itself from one of the most murderous and genocidal attacks ever seen in world history. The increasingly threatening statements from the US Government of “Lesser Evil” Democrat Joe Biden to target and annihilate the North Korean leadership in a nuclear attack is what has led the DPRK to increase its expansion of its nuclear arsenal and to publish a revised statement of its intent to use nuclear weapons if necessary to defend itself and its people from any attack from the USA, South Korea or any other regional puppet regime. We say: the DPRK has every right to possess and to use nuclear weapons to defend itself from an attack launched by US imperialism or its puppets. We agree with the latest statement published by North Korea regarding its revised policy regarding the use of nuclear weapons to deter a war on the Korean peninsula and to utilize those weapons against the US forces in South Korea should they attempt to attack the DPRK. We will be republishing the text of that declaration of the DPRK in a new article as soon as possible.
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