China Daily Global Weekly

Deceit and warmongeri­ng

US claims of a Russian invasion of Ukraine highly suspect, can precipitat­e greater conflict

- By KARL WILSON The writer is China Daily’s correspond­ent based in Sydney. The views do not necessaril­y reflect those of China Daily.

The US wants

The lie that Russia is preparing to invade Ukraine has been exposed. It took place on Feb 3 at the end of a US State Department briefing by spokespers­on Ned Price in which he outlined Washington’s claims that Russia is preparing to invade Ukraine. At the end of the presentati­on, the Associated Press’ Matt Lee asked a basic question which many in the mainstream media seem to have forgotten: “Where is the evidence?”

Price said the evidence was based on declassifi­ed intelligen­ce. Lee could have left it at that and walked away as many of his colleagues did, but he was persistent in his questionin­g. Price just repeated his earlier claim without producing one scrap of evidence.

Yes, Russia has troops stationed along its border with Ukraine, but does it plan to invade?

Russia has made no secret that it will resist any moves by Ukraine toward European institutio­ns, especially NATO — the alliance of 30 countries formed during the Cold War between the then Soviet Union and the West.

The United States wants a new Cold War. It has started on China and now it is looking at Russia.

Washington has been beating the Cold War drum over Russia for weeks now. US Colonel Alexander Vindman, who is involved in talks with the Ukrainian government, declared during an interview with MSNBC on Jan 19: “Why is this (Ukraine) important to the American public?

“It’s important because we’re about to have the largest war in Europe since World War II. There’s going to be a massive deployment of air power, long-range artillery, cruise missiles, things that we haven’t seen unfold on the European landscape for more than 80 years, and it is not going to be a clean or sterile environmen­t.”

What was the logic behind that statement? Or why even make it in the first place?

The US wants another phony war built on lies and deception. Just like Iraq. Just like Afghanista­n and just like Vietnam.

The invasion of Iraq was built on a lie and much of the media, not only in the US but internatio­nally, went along with it. Remember the weapons of mass destructio­n that did not exist? Remember then-president George Bush’s address to a joint session of the US congress on Sept 20, 2001, when he said: “Every nation, in every region, now has a decision to make. Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists.”

When the French questioned the premise for an invasion, Bush declared that French fries would “now be called freedom fries”.

Since the end of World War II, successive US government and intelligen­ce agencies have fabricated lie after lie to justify the illegal invasion of a sovereign nation. What makes it worse is the lies are picked up by the mainstream media and treated as fact.

The following exchange during the Price briefing is worth noting. The AP’s Lee asked, “Where is the declassifi­ed informatio­n?”

“I just delivered it,” Price said. “No, you made a series of allegation­s. … “

“What would you like, Matt?” “I would like to see some proof that you can show that shows that the Russians have been doing this.” “You have been doing this for — ““That’s right, I have been doing this for a long time. … I remember WMDs (weapons of mass destructio­n) in Iraq, and I remember that Kabul was not gonna fall … I remember a lot of things. So where is the declassifi­ed informatio­n other than you coming out saying it?”

Already the US has sent troops to Poland where they will be based along southeaste­rn Poland, near the borders with Belarus and Ukraine. Others have been sent to Germany.

White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said on Feb 6 that Russia could invade Ukraine “any day”, launching a conflict that would come at an “enormous human cost”.

France and Germany, on the other hand, have been active in trying to make diplomacy work, rather than saber rattling.

French President Emmanuel Macron met for more than five hours on Feb 7 with his Russian counterpar­t Vladimir Putin.

By Feb 16 Russian troops had started to move away from the border with Ukraine and were heading back to their bases inside Russia. This left the US and its allies unconvince­d with President Joe Biden still claiming the Russians were about to invade.

Let’s hope French fries have prevailed this time. Look at where “freedom fries” got us the last time. Are we willing to let it happen again … on a lie?

another phony war

built on lies and

deception. Just

like Iraq. Just like

Afghanista­n and

just like Vietnam.

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