Accurate.
Tag: perpetual war
Biden greets Zelensky at White House
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky arrived at the White House on Wednesday afternoon, greeted by President Biden and first lady Jill Biden for the start of an unprecedented first trip to Washington since the Russia war began.
Zelensky pulled up in a black SUV, featuring an American flag and a Ukrainian flag, that let him out on the South Lawn entrance.
The Ukrainian president, who was wearing his signature green long-sleeve sweater, shook hands with the Bidens, and the three stood for a photograph for a few seconds in front of the South Lawn entrance. They then turned and entered the White House, where the president put his arm on Zelensky’s shoulder.
Upon entrance to the Oval Office, President Biden told Zelensky, “I’m delighted you could make the trip.”
During remarks at the top of a bilateral meeting between the two leaders, President Biden addressed Russian President Vladimir Putin, saying he was “escalating his assault on civilians” and that he was trying to “use winter as a weapon.”
Zelensky, who said he wanted to come to the U.S. sooner, said he offered “all my appreciations from my heart and from the heart of all Ukrainians.” He also thanked the president, Congress and “ordinary people” for the support from the U.S. toward Ukraine.
US Military Thanks And Praises Retiring CNN “Journalist” For Her Service
The US military has been showering CNN’s retiring Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr with effusive thanks and praise for her lifetime of service, giving some insight into the cozy working relationship between the media and the war machine inside the US empire.
“Today closes a remarkable career for CNN’s Barbara Starr, a leader in the Pentagon Press Corps,” reads a post by the Twitter account for US Central Command. “Her aggressive reporting and tireless commitment to the truth brought this Nation closer to its military. She will forever be missed.”
Starr received a standing ovation at a Pentagon press briefing on Tuesday after Pentagon Press Secretary Pat Ryder sang her praises and thanked her for two decades on the job.
“I’d like to take this opportunity to say farewell to our media colleague, Miss Barbara Starr,” Ryder said. “Barbara has reported for CNN for over 20 years, and has been a fixture in the Pentagon Press Corps, and today marks her final day with CNN after a storied and fully-impressive — excuse me — truly impressive career.”
“So Barbara, on behalf of Secretary of Defense Austin, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Milley and the entire Department of Defense, I would like to extend a special congratulations and thank you for your many years of timely, insightful and important reporting on our nation’s most pressing defense issues,” Ryder continued. “And as someone who has worked with you for many of those last 20 years and someone who has had to take your late-night phone calls and emails and answer your tough, but fair questions, I can say from personal experience that the U.S. public and audiences worldwide have been well served by your in-depth reporting from the Pentagon, your journalistic integrity and your determination to tell the stories of service members worldwide, and to ensure the government and DOD remain transparent and accountable to the taxpayers and the American public they serve. Congratulations again, and we wish you the best of luck in your future endeavors.”
Will Ukraine Become Another Ceaseless War?
I have reported on at least a dozen wars in the Middle East and North Africa in the last 30 or more years and they have several features in common. First of all, modern day wars seldom terminate and consequently people in these war-ravaged countries, who see no end to the conflict, choose to leave the country and become refugees, most of them heading for central and western Europe.
Refugees who are at first warmly accepted as victims of tyranny may outstay their welcome and become resented and even hated. This is what happened to the five million Syrians who fled to Turkey and one million to Lebanon after 2011. The wars in Somalia and Yemen are not only endless, but are escalating.
Will the Ukraine conflict become another of these ceaseless wars? It is difficult to see why it should not, since neither Moscow nor Kyiv is likely to win a decisive victory but they still hope to improve their political and diplomatic position on the battlefield. The Russians are using precision-guided missiles and drones to destroy the Ukrainian infrastructure and the Ukrainians are beginning to fire missiles back at ostensibly military targets. It may not be long before they decide that if they are going to sit in the dark, so too will the Russians.
The Pentagon Budget Normalizes War
Two dogs walking. One of them says to the other: “I bark and I bark, but I never feel like I affect real change.”This is the caption of a New Yorker cartoon by Christopher Weyant from several years ago. It keeps popping up in my head — I mean, every day. Like everyone else, I want what I do to matter, to “effect real change.” What I do is write. Specifically, I swim in the infinity of possibility. Humanity can kill itself or it can learn to survive. Most people (I believe) prefer the latter, which is all about discovering how we are connected to one another and to the rest of the universe. This is what I try to write about.
Then Congress passes another military budget. And once again, there’s the New Yorker cartoon.
“An emerging compromise on annual defense policy legislation will endorse a $45 billion increase to President Joe Biden’s defense spending plans,” Politico reports. “. . . The deal would set the budget topline of the fiscal 2023 National Defense Authorization Act at $847 billion for national defense.”
You know, more than the world’s next nine defense budgets combined. We have more than 750 military bases around the world. We’re sending billions of dollars’ worth of weapons to Ukraine to keep the war going, in the wake of our two decades of war in the Middle East to rid the world of terrorism . . . excuse me, evil. As a result, the planet is bleeding to death. Not to worry, though. We still have nukes.
How safe and secure can we get?
And here’s Northrop Grumman, presenting to the world the B-21 Raider, an updated nuclear bomber, a.k.a., the future of Armageddon. No need to worry. When Armageddon is ready to happen, it will happen smoothly, at the bargain cost of $750 million per aircraft.
Northrop Grumman itself puts it this way: “When it comes to delivering America’s resolve, the B-21 Raider will be standing by, silent and ready. We are providing America’s warfighters with an advanced aircraft offering a combination of range, payload, and survivability. The B-21 Raider will be capable of penetrating the toughest defenses to deliver precision strikes anywhere in the world. The B-21 is the future of deterrence.”
We’re dancing on the edge of hell.
Not a Party to Conflict?… U.S. Government Media Outlet Directs Air Strikes on Crimea
Surely a negotiated settlement to the conflict in Ukraine and the wider security concerns of Russia should be a priority. But regrettably, Washington and its European and Kiev minions are incapable of such diplomacy.
The Radio Free Europe outlet this week blatantly published satellite images of Russian military bases in Crimea and openly advocated for the Kiev regime to launch strikes. The reality is even more sobering and grim. It would not be the Kiev regime carrying out such strikes, but rather U.S., British and other NATO special forces acting as the brains and stealthy hands of the regime.
Moscow has already inveighed against NATO as being a direct participant in hostilities in Ukraine. The RFE report corroborates Russia’s claims. It is self-admission by the United States of being a party to the conflict.
The satellite images were provided by a private U.S. company called Planet Labs which has a history of working closely with the Pentagon. The images included an airbase at Dzhankoy which is described as a main logistics hub. Naval sites at Sevastopol were also listed in detail as well as purported ammunition tunnels in the surrounding mountains. Other targets included anti-aircraft positions near Feodosia on the Crimean Peninsula. From Moscow’s viewpoint, the peninsula is the sovereign territory of the Russian Federation. Yet here we have the U.S. government’s media mouthpiece giving out the coordinates and calling for air strikes on “prime targets”.
RFE is wholly owned by the U.S. government and it has a long and tawdry history of acting as a CIA conduit in Eastern Europe during the height of the Cold War. For the publication to publish targets for military attack and to advocate for such action is tantamount to Washington openly declaring itself to be director of war operations by the Kiev regime.
U.S. Defense Contractors Sponsor D.C. Party for Ukrainian Forces Amid Ongoing War
Four major U.S. defense contractors sponsored a Washington, D.C., party for the 31st anniversary of the Ukrainian armed forces as they stand to gain billions from the ongoing war in Ukraine, according to a report.
Vox reported Saturday that the celebration, hosted by the Ukrainian Embassy last week, took place in downtown D.C. at the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center, located less than a mile from the White House, and that Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley was in attendance.
The invitation said the event was “supported by” Northrop Grumman, Raytheon, Pratty & Whitney, and Lockheed Martin — their logos emblazoned on the invite, reportedly prompting some observers to “laugh out loud.”
“It’s really bizarre to me that they would put that on an invitation,” a think-tank expert told Vox’s Jonathan Guyer. An academic also told Guyer, “The fact that they don’t feel sheepish about it, that’s interesting.”
Biden Kills Senate Resolution To End Yemen Genocide
Bernie Sanders has withdrawn his bill to end US support for the Saudi war on Yemen following reports that the Biden administration was working to tank the resolution, with White House aids reportedly saying they’d recommend the president veto it.
Antiwar’s Dave DeCamp reports:
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) on Tuesday night withdrew his request to vote on the Yemen War Powers Resolution that would end US support for the Saudi-led war and blockade on Yemen, citing White House opposition to the bill.
Sanders said on the Senate floor that he was informed ahead of the scheduled vote of the administration’s opposition to the legislation, meaning President Biden would veto the resolution. The Intercept reported earlier in the day that The White House was pressuring senators to vote against the bill, and Democrats came out in opposition to Sanders’ resolution earlier on Tuesday, including Sen. Alex Padilla (D-CA).
Sanders’ justification for not holding the vote was that the administration claimed it would work with Congress on ending the war in Yemen. He said the White House wanted to “work with us on crafting language that would be mutually acceptable” and insisted if that didn’t happen, he would resume his efforts to end the war through a resolution.
But even if the White House really wants to engage with Congress on the issue, or if Sanders chooses to reintroduce the resolution, the plan will take time, which Yemenis don’t have. There has been a cessation in violence in Yemen, with no Saudi airstrikes since March, but there has been a recent uptick in fighting on the ground.
It’s probably also worth noting that this administration has been consistently lying about its intentions to end this war, with Biden campaigning on the promise to bring peace to Yemen and make a “pariah” of Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman, then turning around and keeping the war going while greeting the crown prince with a friendly fistbump ahead of a meeting where the two leaders coordinated their governments’ continued intimacy.
“Today, I withdrew from consideration by the U.S. Senate my War Powers Resolution after the Biden administration agreed to continue working with my office on ending the war in Yemen,” Sanders said on Twitter. “Let me be clear. If we do not reach agreement, I will, along with my colleagues, bring this resolution back for a vote in the near future and do everything possible to end this horrific conflict.”
“At which time the House, under GOP control, will block your efforts,” former congressman Justin Amash replied. “But you know that already. As does the Biden administration, which is why they don’t want you to pass this joint resolution now, when all the pressure is on the president, because his party currently controls.”
“What I’m acknowledging is that both Rs and Ds in government are addicted to war,” Amash added. “They’re playing a game. When Trump was president, everyone knew he wouldn’t sign a Yemen joint resolution, so it passed Congress. Biden has to pretend he’d sign it, so he needs Congress to block it.”
Visualizing The Amount Of US Taxpayer Dollars Flowing To Ukraine In 2022
The below graphic illustrates in a two-minute video the total amount of US aid enacted or proposed for Ukraine in the year 2022, after the Russian invasion has surpassed ten months.
In the visual which over the last several days has been shared widely – each dot represents $100,000 in US taxpayer dollars, and is broken up according to type of support, with military aid (in red) being the largest expenditure by far…
Visualizing U.S. Aid to Ukraine from Will Geary on Vimeo.
Last Friday the Biden administration unveiled another $275 million in weapons and defense equipment for Ukraine, notably including more anti-air missile systems, which crucially will come via the presidential drawdown authority, meaning the Pentagon will pull arms from its own stockpiles to fulfill the package.
To understand some of the above figures which enter the tens of billions range in each category, it’s important to remember that the way in which the White House almost routinely at this point announces aid packages can be confusing. These announcements have more to with with describing how specifically the administration intends to use the money which has already been appropriated by Congress.
As seen in the below chart, there’s also the key distinction between what has been proposed vs. already enacted…
US Set To Send Ukraine Patriot Missiles In Major Escalation
CNN’s chief Pentagon correspondent is reporting the breaking news based on multiple anonymous US defense officials – including a senor Biden administration official – that the White House is currently finalizing plans to send Patriot missile defense systems to Ukraine.
“The Biden administration is finalizing plans to send the Patriot missile defense system to Ukraine that could be announced as soon as this week, according to two US officials and a senior administration official,” CNN writes. “The three officials told CNN that approval is expected.”
If approved, this could be a tipping point in the conflict leading to direct confrontation between nuclear-armed powers given transfer of Patriots would mark the longest-range missiles sent to Ukraine thus far.
Washington has so far been reluctant, despite Kiev officials since nearly the start of the invasion making repeat pleas for the US to help “close the sky” – as President Zelensky many months ago urged Congress.
As The Guardian reviewed of the dangers involved in sending the Patriot:
“Long sought by the Ukrainians, the missiles have a range of up to 300km, but so far the US and its allies, including the UK, have declined to supply them because they could be used to hit targets inside Russia. Supplying them would help “bring the war to an end as soon as possible”, Johnson said.
Patriots have long been deployed in neighboring Poland, but Ukrainian leaders have been persistent in requesting them on their own soil amid a major uptick in recent Russian aerial attacks. Former UK prime minister Boris Johnson this week urged in a Wall Street Journal op-ed for the West to get serious about supplying Patriots and other anti-air systems, even including military aircraft.
Hellbound and Down 
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