Were Confederate Government Officials Allowed to Serve Again After the Civil War
CIA Director Burns subsequently went to Moscow to endeavor and intimidate Putin into revoking troop buildup on Ukrainian edge
[Russell Bentley, a Texan and author of this article, served in the Donbass army. His motivation was to fight fascism; he envisioned himself equally an heir to members of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade who volunteered to fight fascism in Spain during the Castilian Ceremonious War.
In part 1, Bentley's provides an assessment of the current tensions in the Ukraine and the character of the regime. Ranked as 1 of the about corrupt governments in the earth, it is a monstrous cosmos of the U.S. empire guilty of big-calibration state of war crimes.
In role two, Bentley discusses three potential military options for Russia. CAM's position on this conflict is to endorse the Minsk protocol, which focuses on a diplomatic settlement that offers the Eastern Ukrainian provinces considerable autonomy and could assistance defuse tensions in the region.
The 3rd military machine option discussed by Bentley—the Kyiv plan which would entail a Russian march on Kyiv—has three primary dangers: a) Ukrainian rightists and nationalists would mobilize confronting the Russians and pro-Russian forces, prompting a prolonged and devastating war that could be a quagmire for Russia (rather than a cakewalk, every bit Bentley suggests); b) a Russian invasion would potentially ignite World War III past drawing in the U.Southward. and NATO; and c) it could even lead to the advent of nuclear war.
Russian President Vladimir Putin appears to exist conscious of these dangers and intent on restraining hawkish elements inside the Russian armed forces—a expert matter. At the same time, he has fabricated it articulate that Russia will defend its interests and non exist pushed around.—Editors]
Function 1
On October 18th, U.S. Secretary of Defense force Lloyd Austin III met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to affirm U.Due south. support for Ukraine'southward war against its eastern provinces.
Since the beginning of the conflict in 2014, the U.s.a. has provided more than $2.5 billion in security assistance to Ukraine, including $275 1000000 in military aid that has been appear in the last x months under President Joe Biden, a staunch champion of the war from its inception.
In early on November, President Biden dispatched CIA Director William F. Burns to Moscow to warn the Kremlin near its troop buildup on the Ukraine edge and to try and force information technology to dorsum off. Secretarial assistant of State Antony Blinken followed upwards this past week past threatening Russia farther in a articulation printing conference in Washington with the Ukrainian Foreign Government minister Dmytro Kuleba.
Ukraine, however, started the war post-obit the February 2014 U.Southward. backed insurrection and carried out sustained war crimes.
These crimes include: a) the recent kidnapping and torture of a Russian ceasefire monitor in Lugansk; b) a recent attack on Staromaryevka, a settlement of 180 civilians in the de-militarized "Grey Zone," which included the kidnapping of eight more unarmed civilians (who were as well Russian citizens) by neo-Nazi terrorists; and c) the utilize of a Turkish Bayraktar assail drone confronting Donbass defense forces.
All this is in addition to the repeated shelling of noncombatant areas and infrastructure along with a hardening of war rhetoric by the Kyiv authorities—with U.S. backing.
Readying for War
The main hope for a diplomatic solution to the disharmonize in Ukraine lies with the Minsk peace accords—which includes a provision that would allow for considerable autonomy for the eastern provinces. Predictably, the U.South. and Ukraine have shown little interest in adhering to the Minsk accords.
A no-fly zone is currently being enforced by Russia in the airspace over the Donbass Republic. Russia cannot recognize the Donetsk Republic considering it would invite further U.South. sanctions and efforts at political isolation; the Donetsk Republic is considered to be a renegade and the U.Southward. wants Russian federation to stay out of the war.
All military units of the DPR are currently on full combat alarm. News reports and videos have appeared with Russian armor, including "hundreds" of heavy combat vehicles, and 80,000 to 90,000 troops, moving toward the Ukrainian border from the Bryansk, Voronezh and Rostov military districts. They are stationed at Novy Yerkovich—a iv-60 minutes (250 km) drive to Kyiv—and along the border near Kharkov, which lies a scant 30 kilometers from Russia'south border.
The troop buildup indicates that Russia is prepared to defend the Donbass region, which consists of almost a million Russian citizens, and to potentially get further and liberate the part of Ukraine populated primarily by ethnic and Russian-speaking Russians.
The U.S./Eu/NATO and Ukraine have all been pretending since 2014 that "Russia invaded Ukraine"—which information technology never did, though Ukrainian provocations make information technology more than probable that information technology shortly will.
The state of war in Ukraine is not a Ukrainian civil state of war, nor is it a state of war betwixt Russians and Ukrainians.
It is a war by resurgent international neo-Nazism, led by the Us against a people fighting for their autonomy backed past a reinvigorated Corking Power, Russia, which wants to expand its regional influence and counteract a legitimate security threat on its edge.
World Wink Betoken
The fight in Donbass is 1 of the major earth'southward flash points alongside Syrian arab republic and Taiwan—where U.S. provocations threaten a major war with People's republic of china.
If the W forces a military confrontation with Russia in Ukraine, information technology can be sure it will face 1 with China over Taiwan simultaneously, neither of which information technology has any chance of winning. The Russians and Chinese have forged a partnership against Western, primarily U.S. aggression in the political, economic, and military machine spheres.
In Syria, the Turks (a NATO fellow member) accept in recent days directly threatened Russian military installations and troops; Should they really deport out attacks on Russians in Syria, Russia has fabricated clear it will burn back. Turkish troops are now also on the ground in Ukraine, involved in combat operations against Donbass Defense Forces. This besides, is a major and recent escalation.
Russia Prepares Its Saddle
But it is in Donbass that the situation is the well-nigh incendiary. In response to contempo Ukrainian provocations and acts of terrorism, Russia is again sending a military chore force to its border with Ukraine, as it did in the bound of this twelvemonth, which stopped the planned U.S./Ukrainian offensive in its tracks.
Afterward the offensive was scrubbed and the situation de-escalated, the Russian troops withdrew from the border, but now again have returned. This time, indications are that the Russian formations are preparing to, at minimum, come up into Donbass as peacekeepers, and perhaps become as far every bit Kharkov and Odessa as Liberators. Maybe even to Kyiv.
As the recent words of Putin, Lavrov, Medvedev and others accept made clear, the Russians have now decided that the time for talking is over. There is an former saying about Russians that applies perfectly well to the current situation—"The Russians are slow to saddle their horses, but when they do, they ride very, very fast."
Those horses accept now been saddled.
Responsibility to Protect (R2P)
If the Russians were to deepen their interest in the Ukraine, they would non be doing anything the U.South. and NATO have not done themselves on more than than i occasion.
Russia not just has therightto protect its citizens, it has the responsibility to do so, under international law.
The "R2P" or "Responsibility to Protect" concept is based on three "pillars" –
Pillar I—Each private state has the responsibility to protect its population from genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing, and crimes confronting humanity.
Pillar Ii—"States pledge to aid each other in their protection responsibilities."
Pillar III—If any state is "plain failing" in its protection responsibilities, so states should accept collective activeness to protect the population" in a "timely and decisive response."
The UN Security Council has recognized and reaffirmed its delivery to the R2P in more than 80 resolutions. R2P as such has the force of international law.
The flip side of R2P is that it has been used as an alibi past the most powerful countries for international war crimes and has resulted in the trampling of land sovereignty.
I of the requirements of R2P is a UN Security Council resolution approval its implementation. Though this volition never happen in the example of Ukraine, at that place tin be no doubt that Ukraine is, in fact, guilty of all the crimes that R2P was created to forestall, including a) war crimes, b) ethnic cleansing, and c) crimes against humanity, all of which have been, and continue to exist, committed by the Kyiv government and its armed services on a daily basis.
Russian intervention as such could exist justified under the R2P doctrine–though it is unlikely any NATO countries would acknowledge this.
Who Will Finish the Crimes Against Humanity?
The list of Kyiv's state of war crimes under international constabulary include: a) denial of water to almost 2.v million civilians in Crimea, b) the intentional targeting of civilians, journalists and medical personnel by artillery and snipers, c) random terror attacks on civilian areas, d) kidnapping, e) rape, f) torture and g) murder.
The Russians have over 2,000 specific state of war crimes cases open against the Kyiv government and its proxies, and more are being opened daily. Even the The states has opened state of war crimes investigations into at to the lowest degree vii U.S. citizens who fought on the Kyiv side in the war.
These investigations into kidnapping, torture, rape, and murder are based on eyewitness, and video and forensic bear witness. It will be the beginning time the U.Southward. has prosecuted anyone nether the War Crimes Act since its passage into law in 1996, a quarter century ago.
The Ukrainian war machine has as of this writing massacred at least 10,000 ethnic Russian civilians. Some were killed in firm-to-business firm searches of noncombatant homes past paramilitary units wearing Nazi insignia on their uniforms. The Gestapo-like forces were searching for DPR and Russian passports and kidnapped those who had them.
The Russians cannot just stand up by and permit this to happen. And neither should Americans.
Western intellectuals have been quick to invoke R2P to support the bombing of Great socialist people's libyan arab jamahiriya and Syrian arab republic and a host of other Center East countries equally a cover for U.S. assailment. Just how many will invoke the same doctrine when information technology can be applied to really save people from large-scale indigenous cleansing and crimes against humanity—if Russian federation is the one doing the saving? Likely none.
Part 2: Three Options for Russia
The mode I see information technology, Russian federation currently has three chief options:
1) The Donbass Programme—The Russian Army can roll into Donbass as peacekeepers, forth the current contact line from North of Lugansk to Mariupol, after publicly announcing it to the earth a few hours ahead of time, in gild to warn the Ukrainian war machine confronting resistance, and to explain and justify its humanitarian intervention to the "international community." They would denote that they come in peace to stop the war crimes and the war, merely that any military resistance from any source will be instantly eliminated, with the warning, "If you shoot at usa, yous die."
This ultimatum would exist non-negotiable and backed up by Russia'southward full military ability, including air and missile forces, and practical not only to Ukrainian armed services units, only to U.South. and NATO troops in Ukraine and U.S. and NATO ships in the Black Ocean, as well as anywhere else. It can and should also include a reminder of Putin's previous quote that"Russia volition respond to any attack by the destruction not but of the source of the attack, but also the source of the orders for the attack."
This option would terminate all terrorist attacks against Donbass, permanently and completely, and would hopefully give fourth dimension for a diplomatic solution based on new political realities to be constitute. It would too not entail the taking of any territory under Ukraine control, simply that which has long been alleged nether "Russian occupation".
One time it is seen that the Russians reallyare coming, and they reallydo mean business, it is unlikely that the Americans, NATO, or the Ukrainians volition fire a shot. This is the least confrontational and to the lowest degree risky approach, every bit information technology could exist accomplished in a matter of 24 hours, with minimal bloodshed.
This may seem to be a pragmatic solution, but it has the to the lowest degree chance of finding a political compromise or permanent solution, in either the curt or long terms. And while it would terminate war crimes and protect Russian citizens, it would fail to resolve the overriding geopolitical problems Russia faces in Ukraine—belligerent war criminals on Russian federation'southward borders, the critical Crimean water security issue, foreign enemies in control of a neighboring state, etc. I advantage to this plan, however, is that could exist used equally a first phase of the Novorussia Plan.
ii) The second pick is The Novorussia Programme. Under this programme, the Russians can liberate the area known as Novorussia, virtually 1 third of current Ukraine, with bulk ethnic Russian populations, running along a line from Kharkov to Odessa (inclusive). This not simply protects the vast bulk of ethnic Russians (not just those in Donbass) from Ukrainian depredations, it solves the critical humanitarian water crisis in Crimea, and cuts Ukraine completely off from the Blackness Sea. This will also eviscerate all that is left of the Ukrainian economy and begin the process of the dismantling of Ukraine along ethnic lines while eliminating information technology as a country and as a threat to Russian federation once and for all.
It will as well serve every bit an example to the earth of the new political reality that Russian federation reserves the right to defend itself, unilaterally, if need exist, and that the nation with the virtually powerful military in the earth besides has the political volition to use it, if information technology has no other choice and if it is forced to defend itself. This scenario has the best hope of long-term stability for the region, and even the possibility of a future re-integration of some parts of central Ukraine with Novorussia.
Unfortunately, the vast bulk of state of war criminals would probably escape to the West, at least for a while.
3) The third plan, the Kyiv Plan, would be to become to Kyiv, which may or may not involve engaging in a major war. In the best instance scenario for Russia, the U.S. and NATO would desert Ukraine in the face of a real fight and go out them on their own. Fifty-fifty if Ukraine did not capitulate in the outset few hours, whatever actual conflict could be finished in a few days, and the process of de-Nazification and war offense trials could begin. In an alternative scenario, the U.Southward. and NATO would launch air strikes and the war could devolve into a quagmire for Russia, with the take chances of nuclear war intensifying.
My conventionalities is that the outcome of the open gainsay phase of the state of war would be along the lines of the First Iraq War, (with lxxx% – 90% of Ukrainian soldiers surrendering without firing a shot) but the subsequent "occupation" would actually be a real liberation. With the removal of neo-Nazis and corrupt oligarchs from positions of power, and the improvement of life quality and life chances for a vast bulk of the population, near Ukrainians (with the exception of the rabid fascists in Galicia or Poland) will see the Russian Army as their grandparents saw the Red Army, as heroes and liberators from foreign occupation—which is exactly what they would be.
This may exist the to the lowest degree viable and least attractive of the three scenarios, but information technology is an option, and it would have the required event of stopping the war crimes against Russian citizens and eliminating Ukraine equally an existential threat correct on Russia's doorstep. It would besides have the benefit of the capture a large pct of war criminals (Ukrainian and otherwise) too as documents and evidence that might exist of great interest to history, Russian federation and the world—an choice worthy of serious consideration.
Of all three of these plans, the 2d, the Novorussia Plan has the nearly do good at the least cost. But going to the contact line in Donbass is not sufficient to resolve the festering Ukrainian problem, and going all the style to Kyiv may well cost more than than it is worth. The Novorussia Plan resolves all critical bug at an acceptable toll, and can be implemented, if demand be, as a 2nd stage of the Donbass Programme.
With the Voronezh troops coming in through (or around) Kharkov, Airborne and amphibious troops landing in (or around) Odessa, the Rostov Army coming up through Donbass, and the Crimean Regular army and Black Bounding main Fleet working along the coast, along with the Bryansk Army waiting in reserve and set to have Kyiv if required, the 700 Km Forepart, running from Kharkov to Odessa could exist formed and held in a affair of days.
Once Russian fuel and human assistance offset to flow to liberated Novorussia, grateful citizens will non only not oppose Russian "occupation," they will support it equally genuine liberation, and even exist ready to defend it themselves from the cold and hungry Ukrainians who will be begging to be allowed to immigrate to Novorussia.
Incorrigible Nazis and war criminals will exist rounded upward, tried, and sentenced to work battalions in Donbass, to repair every single matter destroyed or damaged in the war, including the monument at Saur Mogila and all monuments to the Red Army Liberators in the newly liberated lands of Novorussia. The bulk of Russian soldiers will chop-chop be free to return to Russia, and leave the administration and protection of the newly liberated lands to their inhabitants.
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Russians visiting Saur Mogila memorial to red Regular army soldiers who liberated Donetsk from the Nazis in World War I. [Source: inthefray.org] -
Separatist flags wing over ruins. [Source: inthefray.org]
Vladimir Putin has more than once recounted a lesson that he learned as a youth on the tough streets of Leningrad."If the fight is inevitable, it is best to strike first."
If war indeed breaks out, the main responsibility would residuum with the U.S. which triggered the electric current mess through its sponsorship of the February 2014 coup in Ukraine and gave a light-green-calorie-free for Ukraine to attack its Eastern provinces.
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Almost the Author
Russell Bentley is a former Texan who holds passports from Russian federation, the United states of america and the Donetsk People's Republic.
Russell came to Donbass in 2014 and served in the VOSTOK Battalion and XAH Spetsnaz Battalion through 2015.
He then transitioned into the Information War, equally a writer and video reporter, countering Western propaganda about the situation in Ukraine and Donbass.
He currently works every bit an accredited war correspondent in the DPR, is married and lives in a pocket-sized house with a large garden, 5 Km from the frontline in the ongoing Donbass War.
Russell can be reached at: russellbbentley@gmail.com.
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Source: https://covertactionmagazine.com/2021/11/12/is-biden-looking-to-reignite-a-dirty-war-in-ukraine-recent-visit-by-u-s-defense-secretary-lloyd-austin-raises-concerns/