Our goal in TruthPursuit is to present facts about issues in order to discern the truth. As we have written extensively in prior posts, every author’s worldview and allegiances inform how they write about any topic. You should read (or reread) our posts on this subject: Here's the News! and Don't Believe the Headlines
Reporting on the current war in Ukraine is no exception. Our original analysis of the political issues, current and historical, in the relationship of Ukraine to Russia and Europe which we posted in October 2023 is one of our most popular posts.
Conflict over support for the war
US President Joe Biden has made continued support for Ukraine one of his most important policy initiatives. In Biden’s annual State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress last week on March 7, 20241 he said
Overseas, Putin of Russia is on the march, invading Ukraine and sowing chaos throughout Europe and beyond. If anybody in this room thinks Putin will stop at Ukraine, I assure you: He will not.
But Ukraine — Ukraine can stop Putin. Ukraine can stop Putin if we stand with Ukraine and provide the weapons that it needs to defend itself. That is all — that is all Ukraine is asking. They’re not asking for American soldiers. In fact, there are no American soldiers at war in Ukraine, and I’m determined to keep it that way.
But now assistance to Ukraine is being blocked by those who want to walk away from our world leadership.
If history is our guide, Biden’s statement that “there are no American soldiers at war in Ukraine” is no assurance that there aren’t American military advisors and operatives from the CIA and other agencies in Ukraine. But I digress.
After discussing NATO, Biden returns to Ukraine
If the United States walks away, it will put Ukraine at risk. Europe is at risk. The free world will be at risk, emboldening others to do what they wish to do us harm.
My message to President Putin, who I’ve known for a long time, is simple: We will not walk away. We will not bow down. I will not bow down.
Biden claims in his speech that Putin has goals of conquest in Europe beyond the Russian-speaking Donbas region of Ukraine. Politicians, analysts and historians hotly debate that claim. Putin has said publicly, most prominently in his recent interview with Tucker Carlson,2 that he has no interest beyond the Donbas region and “de-nazifying” Ukraine. And Putin had expressed his willingness to sign the Minsk accords that would have resolved the issues in the Donbas that were Putin’s reason to invade.
Does Putin have ambitions beyond his stated goals? Biden says yes and Putin says no. And you can find definitive statements taking both positions from the many politicians, analysts and historians currently pontificating.
US support for the war in Ukraine has been a contentious political issue from the start. Continued funding for the war in Ukraine was one of the divisive issues in the negotiations to keep the Federal government open when the current fiscal year ended on September 30, 2023 and in every continuing resolution since. As of now, the stated position of Speaker Johnson is that the House will not vote on the Ukraine funding bill passed by the Senate in February.3
De-Nazifying Ukraine
On the de-nazifying question, quoting again from our earlier post on the war in Ukraine
The Nazi’s were strong in Ukraine during WWII and the Azov Brigade (or Battalion) of the Ukrainian army has historical Nazi connections. It is important to note here that we aren’t talking about neo-Nazis. We’re talking about the real original Nazis who reportedly are still active in Western Ukraine, the Azov Brigade in particular. Putin has stated that “rooting out Nazis” is one justification for invading Ukraine.
Putin brought this up in his interview with Tucker Carlson, surprisingly seeming to catch Tucker by surprise. Putin has talked about this from the beginning and the Nazi issue will likely factor in to any attempt to normalize relations between Russia and Ukraine.
The Issue of Arms Manufacturers
Our post on Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. included a report of his appearance on Tucker on Twitter.4 In that interview Kennedy labels the Ukraine war as a proxy war with Russia, that also happens to enrich US armament manufacturers. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said we shouldn’t worry about sending billions to Ukraine because it all comes back to US arms manufacturers.5 Of course, I think it fair to say that Kennedy (who opposes the war) and McConnell (who supports it) have different opinions on the value of enriching US arms manufacturers!
As reported by Alex Krainer,6 whose posts we often recommend to you, the armed forces of Germany (and likely other NATO countries) are “seriously weakened by the shortages caused by the continuous supply of material and ammunitions to Kiev.”7
In the US, CNN reports that Pentagon officials have expressed concerns about using the remaining $4B in Ukraine funding it has “to draw from its own stockpiles to send military equipment to Kyiv” because “taking from DoD stockpiles with no plan to replenish that equipment could impact US military readiness.”8
Has the War Already Been Lost?
Despite President Biden’s pronouncements of support for Ukraine, it has been widely reported and opined that they are losing the war, having shortages of both personnel and materiel. Many young men and their families fled the country at the beginning of the war and it appears that those men who can are continuing to flee. Who would want to give their life in a war that has already been lost? Ongoing war is, as it has always been throughout history, only to the advantage of the bankers and the arms dealers.
So we have a situation in which the US and NATO are supporting a Ukrainian war that many believe is unwinnable, even with continued funding from America. The West, the NATO countries, is in the position of deciding if their countries must put boots on the ground to make this a “winnable” war and in the process risk turning a proxy war with Russia into an actual kinetic war between NATO and Russia, risking a nuclear World War III.
Many believe this war was avoidable by signing the Minsk Accords already negotiated with Russia. Can it now be ended by negotiation, by signing the Minsk accord? Perhaps more importantly, are Biden and NATO willing to so? Or is the military-industrial-intelligence complex Eisenhower warned against, determined to pursue this war against Russia, come what may?
Here is a link to the transcript of the speech as delivered: https://apnews.com/article/state-of-union-transcript-biden-2024-e84f5134e5201987eb441629aef5240c
Tucker on Twitter, Episode 73 The Vladimir Putin Interview https://twitter.com/i/status/1755734526678925682
https://www.cnn.com/2024/02/12/politics/senate-foreign-aid-bill-ukraine/index.html
Tucker on Twitter, Ep. 16 RFK Jr. explains Ukraine, bio-labs, and who killed his uncle https://twitter.com/i/status/1691228480556429312
https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/3873707-mcconnell-calls-ukraine-aid-a-direct-investment-for-us-against-putins-war-machine/
Alex Trainer’s TrendCompass can be found at alexkrainer.substack.com
I encourage our readers to read Krainer’s Ukraine war and Western system's fatal flaw
https://www.cnn.com/2024/02/28/politics/pentagon-considering-tapping-last-source-ukraine-funding/index.html
Thanks for this.