North Korean parliament enshrines nuclear ambitions in constitution
Leader Kim Jong Un says the constitutional amendment will help North Korea hold a ‘definite edge’ in deterring threats.
North Korea’s parliament has unanimously moved to enshrine its nuclear programme in the country’s constitution.
The state news agency KCNA reported on the “crucial agenda item” early on Thursday, explaining that the new constitutional amendment would establish North Korea’s pursuit of a nuclear force “as the basic law of the state”.
The news follows a meeting on Tuesday and Wednesday of the Supreme People’s Assembly, North Korea’s rubber-stamp legislature. The country’s leader, Kim Jong Un, addressed the assembly to support the passage of the amendment.
Kim called to “accelerate the modernisation of nuclear weapons in order to hold the definite edge of strategic deterrence” against perceived threats, like the United States and South Korea…………………………………….
The announcement that nuclear weapons would be enshrined in the country’s constitution comes in defiance of multiple UN Security Council sanctions, meant to deter North Korea from pursuing nuclear arms.
Over the past year, North Korea has been escalating the number of weapons tests it conducts, launching an array of ballistic and cruise missiles……………. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/9/27/north-korean-parliament-enshrines-nuclear-ambitions-in-constitution
US Flouts International Law With Pacific Military Claims
One of these military controls, “the defense veto,” enables the United States to prevent the compact states from forging international agreements that could impede U.S. military priorities. Consequently, the compact states have never joined the Treaty of Rarotonga, which established a nuclear free zone in the region.
There is no legal basis for the United States to prevent ships from other countries from peacefully traversing the compact states’ exclusive economic zones.
Officials argue that Washington has the authority to block enemy navies from an area ‘nearly as large as the continental United States’
Anti-War.com by Edward Hunt
In defiance of international norms and rules, U.S. officials are laying claim to the large oceanic area in the central Pacific Ocean that is home to the compact states.
Now that they are renewing the economic provisions of the compacts of free association with Palau, the Marshall Islands, and the Federated States of Micronesia, U.S. officials are insisting that the compacts provide the United States with exclusive control over an area of the central Pacific Ocean that is comparable in size to the United States.
“We control essentially the northern half of the Pacific between Hawaii and Philippines,” U.S. special envoy Joseph Yun told Congress in July.
For decades, the United States has overseen compacts of free association with Palau, the Marshall Islands, and the Federated States of Micronesia. Under the compacts, the United States provides the three countries with economic assistance while it maintains powerful military controls over the islands and their waters.
One of these military controls, “the defense veto,” enables the United States to prevent the compact states from forging international agreements that could impede U.S. military priorities. Consequently, the compact states have never joined the Treaty of Rarotonga, which established a nuclear free zone in the region.
Another U.S. military control is “the right of strategic denial” by which U.S. officials assert that they can prevent other countries from accessing the compact states’ lands, waters, and airspace.
“The compacts do give us full defense authority and responsibility in those countries and provide our ability to strategically deny third country military access,” U.S. diplomat Jane Bocklage told Congress earlier this year.
Although the compacts include language that permits the United States to foreclose access to the islands by third-party military forces, U.S. officials have broadly interpreted this language to mean that they can exclude third parties from the compact states’ exclusive economic zones (EEZs), which extend up to 200 miles around each island’s coastlines.
At a congressional hearing in July, Senator John Barrasso (R-WY) asserted that strategic denial authority “allows us to deny access to any potential adversary in an area of the Pacific comparable in size to the continental United States.” An associate presented a map that portrayed the EEZs as one contiguous area under U.S. control. “It’s nearly as large as the continental United States,” Barrasso remarked.
Defense Department official Siddharth Mohandas agreed with the senator’s interpretation. He claimed that the United States maintains unfettered and exclusive access to the area. “We have the ability to deny foreign militaries access and the ability to operate in the exclusive economic zones of the Freely Associated States,” Mohandas said, referring to the compact states.
This interpretation of strategic denial is inconsistent with international law. Under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, all countries have the rights of navigation and overflight in the exclusive economic zones of other countries, as stipulated by Articles 58 and 87.
Most countries, including the compact states, are parties to the convention. The United States has never ratified the convention, but high-level U.S. officials have expressed their support for it.
“Although not yet a party to the treaty, the U.S. nevertheless observes the UN LOSC as reflective of customary international law and practice,” the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration explains, referring to the Convention on the Law of the Sea.
When U.S. officials say that they have a right to exclude third-party actors from the compact states’ exclusive economic zones, they are making claims that are inconsistent with the UN Convention. There is no legal basis for the United States to prevent ships from other countries from peacefully traversing the compact states’ exclusive economic zones………………………………. more https://original.antiwar.com/Edward_Hunt/2023/09/25/us-flouts-international-law-with-pacific-military-claims/
Antarctic sea ice at lowest winter level ever
Antarctic sea ice has reached a record low, with an area about seven times
the size of the UK effectively missing. The sea ice surrounding the
continent expands during the southern hemisphere’s winter, on average
peaking at almost 19 million sq km by September before beginning to melt
again.
This year, however, the ice reached 16.96 million sq km. Scientists
at the National Snow and Ice Data Center in the United States confirmed the
winter maximum. The new low is more than 1 million sq km below the previous
record set in 1986. “It is shocking to see, as a sea ice physicist,” Dr
Jeremy Wilkinson, from the survey, said.
Times 25th Sept 2023
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/antarctic-sea-ice-lowest-winter-level-ever-record-z9pbvxjvg
Bring radiation regulations up to international standards, say Nuclear Free Local Authorities
https://www.nuclearpolicy.info/news/bring-radiation-regulations-up-to-international-standards-say-nflas/ Ian Grant 26 Sept 23
Inadequate emergency planning zones, inconsistent iodine distribution, and a lack of public engagement and accountability are some of the criticisms the UK/Ireland Nuclear Free Local Authorities levelled in response to a consultation being conducted by the Department of Energy Security and Net Zero about the regulations governing emergency planning for nuclear accidents.
The Department has just conducted a periodic review of the 2019 REPPIR – Radiation (Emergency Preparedness and Public Information) Regulations – in conjunction with its partners in the Ministry of Defence and Health and Safety Executive.
The NFLAs have found that the regulations governing emergency preparedness are ‘wholly inadequate and fail completely to take account of the total area which would be likely contaminated by radiation in the event of a nuclear accident’.
The NFLAs have called on the government to amend the regulations so they meet the standards set out in guidance issued by the International Atomic Energy Agency to countries with nuclear power plants. This would mean that Detailed Emergency Planning Zones would be set at a radius of at least five KMs from the plant, an Outline Planning Zone set at least thirty KMs, and iodine tablets proactively issued as a precautionary measure to all residents in these zones.
The current regulations require a Detailed Emergency Planning Zone to be set, but these are currently below 5 KMs in radius, the setting of an Outline Planning Zone is not even mandatory, and the pre-distribution of iodine tablets for residents to self-administer in the event of an accident can be inconsistent, and not proactive.
The NFLAs are also critical that emergency planning is underfunded, inadequate, inconsistent, and often opaque; with a general failure to engage members of the public and wider stakeholders in its development.
Councillor Lawrence O’Neill, Chair of the NFLA Steering Committee, said: “The Windscale Fire and Chernobyl both showed that vast areas can be contaminated by a radioactive plume. Should an accident occur, any resultant radiation will not halt at the modest line recommended for emergency planning purposes to the local authority by the nuclear operator.
“We want to see larger DEPZs and Outline Planning Zones to reflect the true reality, including a recognition that accidents can contaminate large areas and large cities rendering them uninhabitable; the extensive pre-distribution of iodine tablets as a sensible precautionary measure; and an emergency planning regime that is better resourced rather than being a Cinderella service, that is accountable not opaque, and that embraces input from a wider range of stakeholders, including the public.
“To the NFLAs, the current regime appears to be collective hubris on the part of government ministers and industry insiders, each hoping that an accident will not happen and that if it does the worst can easily be contained within a 3 km DEPZ”.
Trudeau warned of nuclear weapon risk over emerging small modular reactors
National Observer, By John Woodside | News, Energy, Politics | September 27th 2023
A dozen nuclear energy experts are calling for a formal risk assessment of emerging nuclear technologies and warning Prime Minister Justin Trudeau if a company in New Brunswick were to be successful, its product could be used by other countries to make nuclear bombs.
The open letter sent to the Prime Minister’s Office is dated Sept. 22, and spells out concerns that Saint John-based nuclear startup Moltex is embarking on a risky path. The proposed Moltex reactor is planned to be built at the site of the Point Lepreau Nuclear Generating Station in Saint John, where it would essentially recycle spent nuclear waste sourced from CANDU reactors to produce more energy. The letter, signed by experts like former U.S. Nuclear Regulatory commissioner Peter Bradford, director of nuclear power safety with the Union of Concerned Scientists Edwin Lyman, George Washington University research professor and former State Department official Sharon Squassoni, says the risk is the plutonium in the used nuclear fuel could be separated and used to make weapons.
Despite Moltex claiming its technology is “proliferation-resistant,” the expert letter says there is “every reason to be skeptical of Moltex’s reactor technology.” The letter points to failed attempts in the United States and the United Kingdom to reprocess nuclear waste as a fuel, resulting in hundreds of billions worth of cleanup costs. To date, Moltex has received at least $50.5 million worth of federal government subsidies, $10 million from New Brunswick, and $1 million from Ontario Power Generation –– and is eyeing roughly $200 million more.
……………………………………………………For the experts who wrote the letter, inadvertently creating a product that could be used to make nuclear weapons is a very real concern, and one with precedent. As the letter to Trudeau details, Canada and the United States were both exporting nuclear reactor technology to India decades ago for power generation purposes and ended up increasing the risk of nuclear war.
“Some of the plutonium India produced and separated with that assistance was used in the plutonium-fuelled prototype bomb India tested in 1974, precipitating the South Asian nuclear arms race,” the letter reads.
Canada and its allies are concerned that as new nuclear technologies are developed, the technology could similarly lead to unexpected nuclear weapon development. In May at the annual G7 meeting, Canada committed “to prioritizing efforts to reduce the production and accumulation of weapons-usable nuclear material for civil purposes around the world.”
The letter requests a nuclear weapons proliferation risk assessment of the technology………………………………………………..
As the energy transition unfolds, nuclear energy is increasingly seen as a contentious fuel. While it is non-emitting, making it a potentially valuable tool in the race to decarbonize, nuclear waste is a long-lasting environmental concern with unclear storage options given it can be hazardous for thousands of years. Moreover, preventing the worst impacts of climate change requires slashing fossil fuel use by about half globally by the end of the decade, meaning experimental technology not yet suitable for use does not have any meaningful role to play in near-term emissions reductions.
In fact, a report by the U.S. National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine concluded small modular reactor designs like Moltex’s would struggle to be deployed by 2050, and require tremendous large-scale investment to succeed. https://www.nationalobserver.com/2023/09/27/news/trudeau-warned-nuclear-weapon-risk-over-emerging-small-modular-reactors#:~:text=A%20dozen%20nuclear%20energy%20experts,countries%20to%20make%20nuclear%20bombs.
Democrat congressman Adam Schiff funneled millions to defense contractors after taking donations
The earmarks Adam Schiff delivered for donors
The Democratic congressman for years secured earmarks for defense companies while taking campaign donations from top corporate brass and Washington lobbyists.
Politico, By CHRISTOPHER CADELAGO, 09/25/2023
Adam Schiff is unapologetically touting his commitment to earmarks for local causes — like homelessness and drug treatment programs — as he seeks the Senate seat long held by Dianne Feinstein. The 12-term House Democrat and darling of the anti-Trump left is even calling out his closest rival in the race, Rep. Katie Porter, for her opposition to pork-barrel spending.
But Schiff has offered an incomplete and potentially misleading account of his record on earmarks. A close examination of that record reveals that he secured generous earmarks for corporate beneficiaries early in his career, including at times for recipients who were also major donors to his political campaigns………………
A POLITICO review of congressional earmarks and political contributions found that in addition to the money for homelessness and drug treatment, Schiff also steered millions to for-profit companies and raised tens of thousands for his House reelection campaigns from corporate executives and people connected to them. The review was mostly limited to publicly available data from the brief three-year window when corporate earmarks were disclosed……………………………………………………………
Several of Schiff’s earmarks would be barred under reforms adopted in 2010. Among them, Schiff secured millions in funding for Smiths Detection and Phasebridge, Inc., defense companies based in his district. He steered $6 million to Smiths Detection for military warfare sensors between 2003 and 2006 and earmarked another $3 million to Phasebridge that was developing a radar frequency distribution system for the Navy in 2004………………………………………………………………………………………………more https://www.politico.com/news/2023/09/25/adam-schiff-earmarks-001177—
UK’s nuclear lobby to take over education site?
South Gloucestershire and Stroud College (SGS) has made a move to put
Berkeley Green, its flagship Gloucestershire Science & Technology Park
(GSTP), up for sale. The news of the sale announced today comes in the wake
of a visit to the site by the government’s Great British Nuclear (GBN)
organisation, which is believed to be now likely to earmark Berkeley as a
centre for science and research in the next chapter for the UK’s nuclear
power investment.
GBN has been tasked with finalising six sites in the UK
for the new generation of small-medium nuclear reactors (SMRs). As well as
visiting Berkeley, it has also assessed South Gloucestershire’s nearby
decommissioned nuclear site at Oldbury as a possible location for the
reactors. Sources suggest the most likely scenario is for SMR installation
at Oldbury, with Berkeley’s site, in recognition of the academic investment
there since 2016, becoming a supportive centre for science, research and
training.
Punchline Gloucester 27th Sept 2023
https://www.punchline-gloucester.com/articles/aanews/sgs-berkeley-green-goes-up-for-sale
UK risks power supply crunch in January as nuclear plants halt.
Rachel Morison and Elena Mazneva, Bloomberg News, 27 Sept 23
(Bloomberg) — The UK’s National Grid Plc is preparing for a possible power crunch in January as several planned nuclear outages coincide with peak winter demand.
Electricity consumption is projected to climb to a high during the first two weeks of January, just as nuclear availability is forecast to drop, according to National Grid’s winter outlook report published Thursday. Blackouts are a less likely than last winter but can’t be ruled out, the grid’s Electricity Supply Operator said. ………..
Units at Electricite de France SA’s Hartlepool and Torness nuclear stations are scheduled to be offline for work in January, company data show.
National Grid expects it will need to use “operational tools” like market warnings to help balance supply and demand this winter. The network operator has been stress-testing tens of thousands of weather scenarios this winter to ensure it can manage margins, Dyke said. …….. https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/uk-risks-power-supply-crunch-in-january-as-nuclear-plants-halt-1.1977313
NATO Chief Admits NATO Expansion Was Key to Russian Invasion of Ukraine
The continuing U.S. obsession with NATO enlargement is profoundly irresponsible and hypocritical. And now Ukrainians are paying a terrible price.
JEFFREY D. SACHS, Sep 20, 2023, Common Dreams
“…………………………….. According to the U.S. government and the ever-obsequious New York Times, the Ukraine war was “unprovoked,” the Times’ favorite adjective to describe the war. Putin, allegedly mistaking himself for Peter the Great, invaded Ukraine to recreate the Russian Empire. Yet last week, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg committed a Washington gaffe, meaning that he accidently blurted out the truth.
In testimony to the European Union Parliament, Stoltenberg made clear that it was America’s relentless push to enlarge NATO to Ukraine that was the real cause of the war and why it continues today. Here are Stoltenberg’s revealing words:
“The background was that President Putin declared in the autumn of 2021, and actually sent a draft treaty that they wanted NATO to sign, to promise no more NATO enlargement. That was what he sent us. And was a pre-condition to not invade Ukraine. Of course, we didn’t sign that.
The opposite happened. He wanted us to sign that promise, never to enlarge NATO. He wanted us to remove our military infrastructure in all Allies that have joined NATO since 1997, meaning half of NATO, all the Central and Eastern Europe, we should remove NATO from that part of our Alliance, introducing some kind of B, or second-class membership. We rejected that.
So, he went to war to prevent NATO, more NATO, close to his borders. He has got the exact opposite.”
To repeat, he [Putin] went to war to prevent NATO, more NATO, close to his borders.
When Prof. John Mearsheimer, I, and others have said the same, we’ve been attacked as Putin apologists. The same critics also choose to hide or flatly ignore the dire warnings against NATO enlargement to Ukraine long articulated by many of America’s leading diplomats, including the great scholar-statesman George Kennan, and the former US Ambassadors to Russia Jack Matlock and William Burns.
Burns, now CIA Director, was US Ambassador to Russia in 2008, and author of a memo entitled “Nyet means Nyet.” In that memo, Burns explained to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice that the entire Russian political class, not just Putin, was dead-set against NATO enlargement. We know about the memo only because it was leaked. Otherwise, we’d be in the dark about it.
Why does Russia oppose NATO enlargement? For the simple reason that Russia does not accept the U.S. military on its 2,300 km border with Ukraine in the Black Sea region. Russia does not appreciate the U.S. placement of Aegis missiles in Poland and Romania after the U.S. unilaterally abandoned the Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty………………………………….
Even Zelensky’s team knew that the quest for NATO enlargement meant imminent war with Russia. Oleksiy Arestovych, former Advisor to the Office of the President of Ukraine under Zelensky, declared that “with a 99.9% probability, our price for joining NATO is a big war with Russia.”……………………………………………
Putin made one last attempt at diplomacy at the end of 2021, tabling a draft U.S.-NATO Security Agreement to forestall war. The core of the draft agreement was an end of NATO enlargement and removal of U.S. missiles near Russia. Russia’s security concerns were valid and the basis for negotiations. Yet Biden flatly rejected negotiations out of a combination of arrogance, hawkishness, and profound miscalculation. NATO maintained its position that NATO would not negotiate with Russia regarding NATO enlargement, that in effect, NATO enlargement was none of Russia’s business.
The continuing U.S. obsession with NATO enlargement is profoundly irresponsible and hypocritical. The U.S. would object—by means of war, if needed—to being encircled by Russian or Chinese military bases in the Western Hemisphere, a point the U.S. has made since the Monroe Doctrine of 1823. Yet the U.S. is blind and deaf to the legitimate security concerns of other countries.
So, yes, Putin went to war to prevent NATO, more NATO, close to Russia’s border. Ukraine is being destroyed by U.S. arrogance, proving again Henry Kissinger’s adage that to be America’s enemy is dangerous, while to be its friend is fatal. The Ukraine War will end when the U.S. acknowledges a simple truth: NATO enlargement to Ukraine means perpetual war and Ukraine’s destruction. Ukraine’s neutrality could have avoided the war, and remains the key to peace. The deeper truth is that European security depends on collective security as called for by the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), not one-sided NATO demands. https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/nato-chief-admits-expansion-behind-russian-invasionb
Pentagon exempts Ukraine operations from potential government shutdown
The decision means that training on American tactics and equipment can move forward uninterrupted if lawmakers don’t reach a funding deal by the end of the month.
Politico By LARA SELIGMAN, 09/21/2023
The Pentagon will exempt its Ukraine operations from a potential shutdown if lawmakers can’t agree on a deal to fund the government by the end of the month, allowing key training and other activities in support of Kyiv’s forces to move ahead uninterrupted, according to a Defense Department spokesperson.
Washington is more resigned to the looming government shutdown every day. As the Sept. 30 deadline approaches, congressional leaders showed little progress this week in moving a stopgap funding bill to avert that scenario. The House was in chaos on Thursday as a group of GOP hardliners tanked a vote that could have offered a path to fund the government.
But if lawmakers fail to reach an agreement and government appropriations lapse, DOD has decided to continue activities supporting Ukraine, DOD spokesperson Chris Sherwood told POLITICO Thursday — just hours after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy met with Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, Joint Chiefs Chair Gen. Mark Milley and other senior leaders at the Pentagon.
“Operation Atlantic Resolve is an excepted activity under a government lapse in appropriations,” Sherwood said, referring to the named operation for DOD’s activities in response to the Russian invasion.
The move means that the U.S. military’s activities related to the war, such as training of Ukrainian soldiers on American tactics and equipment, as well as shipments of weapons to Kyiv, will continue despite any potential shutdown.
As recently as Tuesday, Sherwood had said the shutdown could halt those activities, as POLITICO first reported.
It’s good news for Zelenskyy, as U.S. and European officials worry that international support for continuing to aid Ukraine could be waning. Zelenskyy also pleaded his case with lawmakers on Capitol Hill on Thursday morning before heading to the White House to meet with President Joe Biden.
The Biden administration is also expected to announce a new package of military aid for Ukraine later on Thursday, including additional air defenses and artillery.
During the White House meeting, Biden announced a new $325 million package of aid for Ukraine, including more air defenses, artillery and additional cluster munitions. He also said that the first of the U.S. Army’s M1 Abrams tanks pledged to Kyiv are expected to arrive on the battlefield next week.
Typically, when the government shuts down, all military activities stop unless they are deemed critical to national security. ……………………………………………………………………………………. more https://www.politico.com/news/2023/09/21/pentagon-exempts-ukraine-operations-from-shutdown-00117482
Building Irish nuclear energy plants ‘does not make economic sense’, Eamon Ryan,Green Party leader
Irish Examiner, 24 Sept 23
Green Party leader says the construction of nuclear plants would be too expensive for a country the size of Ireland
Building nuclear energy plants in Ireland does not make economic sense and would result in people paying even higher electricity bills, Eamon Ryan has said.
The Green Party leader said constructing nuclear plants here to bolster wind and solar energy production would be too expensive for a country the size of Ireland.
It comes after Fianna Fáil MEP Billy Kelleher called on politicians and the public to take their “emotions” out of the nuclear energy debate and seriously consider building power plants here……………………….
He said there has been “an explosion” in the rollout of solar panels across the country, with 10% of energy coming from solar on some sunny days in July this year.
“Also, battery technology is improving, and long-term storage is improving. So that gives you balancing capability and also interconnection…………………………………….
Interconnector with Spain
The environment minister added that he is looking at the viability of an interconnector with Spain “so if it’s calm and not sunny in Ireland, solar from the south can be pulled up and that’s much cheaper”.
He stressed the potential Ireland has to become a world leader in sustainable energy.
“I think our issue will be probably by 2030 we’ll have a surplus of wind, about 30 terawatt hours, and how we use that surplus and store it to give us the balancing capability is going to be one of the big developments in the next 10 years,” he said……………………… https://www.irishexaminer.com/news/politics/arid-41233219.htm
“Republicans for Ukraine”s Refreshingly Honest Ukraine War Ad
CAITLIN JOHNSTONE, SEP 25, 2023 https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/bill-kristols-refreshingly-honest?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=82124&post_id=137366801&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=1ise1&utm_medium=email
The Bill Kristol-led group “Republicans for Ukraine” has released a TV ad to help drum up GOP support for Washington’s proxy war against Russia, and it’s surprisingly honest about what this war is really about: advancing US strategic interests using Ukrainians as sacrificial pawns.
Here’s a transcript:
“When America arms Ukraine, we get a lot for a little. Putin is an enemy of America. We’ve used 5% of our defense budget to arm Ukraine, and with it, they’ve destroyed 50% of Putin’s Army. We’ve done all this by sending weapons from storage, not our troops. The more Ukraine weakens Russia, the more it also weakens Russia’s closest ally, China. America needs to stand strong against our enemies, that’s why Republicans in Congress must continue to support Ukraine.”
“Republicans for Ukraine” was launched last month by “Defending Democracy Together”, another Kristol-led narrative management operation which is funded by oligarchs like Pierre Omidyar. Kristol, who as a neoconservative thought leader played a pivotal role in pushing for the 2003 invasion of Iraq, tweeted on Saturday that the ad “will air on the Sunday shows tomorrow in DC.”
One of the dumbest things the empire asks us to believe is that this war simultaneously (A) was completely unprovoked and (B) just coincidentally happens to massively advance the strategic interests of the government accused of provoking it. From the moment Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022 westerners were aggressively hammered over and over and over again by the mass media with the uniform propaganda message that this was an “unprovoked invasion”, but ever since then we’ve also been receiving these peculiar messages from US empire managers and spinmeisters that this war is helping the United States crush its geopolitical enemies and advance its interests abroad.
This bizarre two-step occurs because the US-centralized empire needs to convey two self-evidently contradictory messages to the public at all times:
1. that the US is an innocent little flower who just wants to help its good friends the Ukrainians protect their democracy from the murderous Russians who invaded solely because they are evil and hate freedom, and
2. that it’s in the interest of Americans to continue this war.The second point is required because the message that the US is merely an innocent passive witness to the violence in Ukraine necessarily causes certain political factions to ask, “Okay, so what are we doing there then? Why are we pouring all this money into something that has nothing to do with us?” So another narrative is required to explain that backing this proxy war also just so happens to be a massive boon to US strategic interests abroad while creating American jobs manufacturing weapons at home.
And of course this war advances US strategic interests. Of course it does. Only an idiot would believe the US is pouring weapons into another country because it loves the people who live there and wants them to be free, and that it is only by pure coincidence that this happens to kill a lot of Russians, bolster NATO, and advance US energy interests in Europe. It doesn’t benefit normal Americans at home, but it absolutely does serve the interests of the globe-spanning empire that’s centralized around Washington. That’s why the empire deliberately provoked it.
Empire managers were openly discussing the ways a war in Ukraine would directly benefit the US empire long before the invasion. In 2019 a Pentagon-funded Rand Corporation paper titled “Extending Russia — Competing from Advantageous Ground” detailed how the empire can use proxy warfare, economic warfare and other Cold War tactics to push its longtime geopolitical foe to the brink without costing American lives or sparking a nuclear conflict. The US Army-commissioned paper mentioned Ukraine hundreds of times, and explicitly discussed how a war there could be used to promote sanctions against Moscow and attack Russia’s energy interests in Europe.
In December of 2021 John Deni of NATO propaganda firm The Atlantic Council authored a piece for The Wall Street Journal titled “The Strategic Case for Risking War in Ukraine,” subtitled “An invasion would be a diplomatic, economic and military mistake for Putin. Let him make it if he must.” Deni argued that “there are good strategic reasons for the West to stake out a hard-line approach” against Moscow and refuse to negotiate or back down over Ukraine, because if doing so provokes Russia to invade it would “forge an even stronger anti-Russian consensus across Europe,” “result in another round of more debilitating economic sanctions that would further weaken Russia’s economy,” and “sap the strength and morale of Russia’s military while undercutting Mr. Putin’s domestic popularity and reducing Russia’s soft power globally.”
The minds on the inside of the empire were talking about how this war would benefit the US before the invasion, and they’ve been talking about how much it benefits the US ever since. As the Washington Post’s David Ignatius put it this past July: “these 18 months of war have been a strategic windfall, at relatively low cost (other than for the Ukrainians). The West’s most reckless antagonist has been rocked. NATO has grown much stronger with the additions of Sweden and Finland. Germany has weaned itself from dependence on Russian energy and, in many ways, rediscovered its sense of values. NATO squabbles make headlines, but overall, this has been a triumphal summer for the alliance.”
The managers of the empire are getting everything they want out of this war. In public they rend their garments and cry crocodile tears and call it a terrible criminal atrocity, but every now and then they look at the camera and flash it a quick Fleabag-style grin.
They knew exactly what they were doing when they provoked this war, and they know exactly what they’re doing by keeping it going.
And they’re loving every minute of it.
Canadian parliament and its visitor Zelensky applaud Nazi Waffen SS veteran (VIDEO)
https://www.rt.com/news/583456-zelensky-trudeau-canada-galician/ 24 Sept 23
The 1st Galician Division, formed from Ukrainian volunteers during WWII, is blamed for multiple atrocities against Poles
Ukraine’s president and Canada’s prime minister greeted a former member of the infamous SS 1st Galician Division, which fought for the Nazis in World War II, as they attended a parliament session in Ottawa, according to images shared by the Associated Press.
One of the photos, taken in the House of Commons on Friday, showed a smiling Vladimir Zelensky clenching his fist and Justin Trudeau offering applause to somebody outside the image.
AP’s caption explained that the two leaders “recognize Yaroslav Hunka, who was in attendance and fought with the First Ukrainian Division in World War II before later immigrating to Canada.”
What the US news agency described as “the First Ukrainian Division” was in fact the 14th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS, also known as the 1st Galician Division.
Similar images have been shared by AFP, which described Hunka, aged 98, as a “Canadian-Ukrainian war veteran.”
Videos from parliament also showed MPs giving a standing ovation to the former Nazi unit fighter.
The 1st Galician Division was assembled the Nazis in 1943, when the Soviet Union was gaining the upper hand on the Eastern Front. It comprised some 80,000 volunteers, mainly Ukrainians, from the region of Galicia, spanning what is now southwest Poland and western Ukraine.
The infamous unit participated in brutal anti-guerrilla operations across Poland and Soviet Ukraine, and were accused of massacres and other atrocities against the Polish, Jewish and Russian civilian populations. It was crushed by the Red Army in July 1944 and soon rebranded as the Ukrainian National Army, before surrendering to the Western Allies after the fall of Berlin in May, 1945. After the war, some of the members of the 1st Galician Division fled to Canada, which has a large Ukrainian diaspora.
During his speech to the Canadian Parliament, Zelensky said Canada has always been on the “bright side of history” during previous wars, and thanked Trudeau’s government for the support it has provided to Ukraine amid the conflict with Russia.
In late August, Zelensky posted an image on social media, featuring a Ukrainian soldier sporting the patch of the 1st Galician Division. Kiev’s troops have also been spotted wearing patches of the notorious 36th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS, one of the worst Nazi penal units, the 3rd SS Panzer Division ‘Totenkopf’, and assorted swastikas and other far-right symbols.
Ukraine is the only country in the world that has integrated openly neo-Nazi militias into its national military. These units were once described by Western media outlets as “neo-Nazi,” but are being referred to as “far-right groups” amid the conflict between Kiev and Moscow.
This War Wasn’t Just Provoked — It Was Provoked Deliberately
Caitlin’s Newsletter, CAITLIN JOHNSTONE, SEP 24, 2023
In an interesting speech about the way US imperial aggression provokes violence around the world, antiwar commentator Scott Horton made reference to an April 2022 article from Yahoo News that had previously escaped my attention.
The article is titled “In closer ties to Ukraine, U.S. officials long saw promise and peril,” and it features named and unnamed veterans of the US intelligence cartel saying that long before the February 2022 invasion they were fully aware that the US had “provoked” Russia in Ukraine and created a powderkeg situation that would likely lead to war.
“By last summer [meaning the summer of 2021], the baseline view of most U.S. intelligence community analysts was that Russia felt sufficiently provoked over Ukraine that some unknown trigger could set off an attack by Moscow,” a former CIA official told Yahoo News’ Zach Dorfman, who adds, “(The CIA and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence declined to comment.)”
Dorfman writes that initial support provided to Ukraine during the Obama administration had been “calibrated to avoid aggravating Moscow,” but that “partially spurred by Congress, as well as the Trump administration, which was more willing to be aggressive on weapon transfers to Kyiv, overt U.S. military support for Ukraine grew over time — and with it the risk of a deadly Russian response, some CIA officials believed at the time.”……………………
“I understand the moral argument,” says former CIA official Jeffrey Edmonds regarding the weapons transfers into Ukraine, “but I also understand the argument that, well, why would you want to give these things if it’s just going to increase the chances that Russia does something?”
So while we members of the public were blindly speculating about whether or not Russia would attack Ukraine, the US intelligence cartel was fully aware that the US was taking actions ensuring that that would happen. That’s the environment the US security state knew it was operating under when it continued to taunt the idea of adding Ukraine and Georgia to NATO right up until the final moments before the invasion.
It’s been funny to watch the response of empire apologists to NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg’s surprising refutation of a year and a half of empire propaganda by openly admitting that NATO expansion provoked the invasion of Ukraine and acknowledging that NATO powers rejected Moscow’s proposed compromises which could have averted the war. Basically the only argument they now have after this admission is to say that Russia should not have viewed NATO expansion as an existential threat.
Their only remaining trick is to argue with reality; to basically say that yes it’s reality that NATO expansion provoked this war because Moscow saw it as a threat, but reality shouldn’t have been what reality was. They argue that Russia should have felt completely different feelings about a military threat on its border than nations like the United States would feel, since as we’ve discussed previously the last time there was a credible military threat near the US border the US responded so aggressively that the world almost ended.
That’s really all they’ve got: “Yes it’s true that all the people who’ve died and lost their homes in this war did so because we were amassing a hostile military alliance near Russia’s border, but in our defense the Russians should’ve thought different thoughts in their heads than the ones that we ourselves would think about a hostile military threat on our border.”
If all westerners deeply understood all the suffering and danger that has been unleashed upon our world by this war, and deeply understood the fact that their own governments played a role in starting it, the political status quo of the western world would be impossible to maintain. Which is why such unprecedented levels of propaganda and internet censorship have gone into preventing westerners from coming to such an understanding. https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/this-war-wasnt-just-provoked-it-was?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=82124&post_id=137340680&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=1ise1&utm_medium=email
1 This Month
23-25 October – on Zoom – World BEYOND War’s annual global conferenc
Shut down the radiation-damaged Heysham nuclear reactors now
To see nuclear-related stories in greater depth and intensity – go to https://nuclearinformation.wordpress.com
Say No to NASA’s Reckless Nuclear Reactor on the Moon
Say No to NASA’s Reckless Nuclear Reactor on the Moon
-
Archives
- October 2026 (199)
- September 2026 (339)
- August 2026 (330)
- July 2026 (355)
- June 2026 (287)
- May 2026 (306)
- April 2026 (356)
- March 2026 (251)
- February 2026 (267)
- January 2026 (308)
- December 2025 (358)
- November 2025 (359)
-
Categories
- 1
- 1 NUCLEAR ISSUES
- business and costs
- climate change
- culture and arts
- ENERGY
- environment
- health
- history
- indigenous issues
- Legal
- marketing of nuclear
- media
- opposition to nuclear
- PERSONAL STORIES
- politics
- politics international
- Religion and ethics
- safety
- secrets,lies and civil liberties
- spinbuster
- technology
- Uranium
- wastes
- weapons and war
- Women
- 2 WORLD
- ACTION
- AFRICA
- Atrocities
- AUSTRALIA
- Christina's notes
- Christina's themes
- culture and arts
- Events
- Fuk 2022
- Fuk 2023
- Fukushima 2017
- Fukushima 2018
- fukushima 2019
- Fukushima 2020
- Fukushima 2021
- general
- global warming
- Humour (God we need it)
- Nuclear
- RARE EARTHS
- Reference
- resources – print
- Resources -audiovicual
- Weekly Newsletter
- World
- World Nuclear
- YouTube
-
RSS
Entries RSS
Comments RSS
