Message at UNAC Conference

Neocons have successfully taken over both mainstream political parties in Washington. Obama’s administration is infested with the likes of:

Secretary of War Ashton Carter who wants confrontation with Russia and "preventive war” against North Korea and Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland who  is anti-Russian and was instrumental in toppling Ukraine's elected president just over a year ago.

The neocons are reigniting Cold War hysteria. 

Anyone in the west that speaks out against this provocative US-NATO chaos plan is “Putinized” in a classic replay of 1950’s style red-baiting.

Right after the US-NATO sponsored coup d’état in Kiev the neo-Nazi's were sent to take similar control of Crimea after their chaotic Maidan split the country and initiated civil war.

Scores of local Crimean citizens did much to defend themselves from the vicious attacks by the nationalist death squads.  Putin sent in the “little green men” to stabilize Crimea and the entire Russian operation was done without anyone (as far as I know) being killed.  In a subsequent referendum 95% of Crimean’s voted to join Russia.

Neo-Nazi's death squads have been given official status inside Kiev's military.  This means they are getting training from the US Army who are presently in western Ukraine. 

What is the plan? Continue to expand US-NATO bases up to the Russian border including Ukraine. Deploy so-called “missile defense” systems that are key elements in Pentagon first-strike attack planning. From eastern Ukraine US cruise missiles could reach beyond the Urals, where Russia’s main nuclear forces are located.

By 2020, when the current phase of NATO missile defense will be fully implemented, the MD shield (taking out Russia’s retaliatory capability) could be used after the US-NATO first-strike sword is thrust into the heart of Russia.

Russia has an aging satellite early-warning system and keeps its nuclear forces on launch on warning status – thus the chance of accidental nuclear war increases.  Forget any future negotiations on reductions of nuclear weapons – Russia and China repeatedly warn that US deployments of MD have killed nuclear disarmament talks.

The overall strategy, recently spelled out in a Chicago speech by George Friedman of Stratfor, is to destabilize the Putin government internally and externally which would create chaos and lead to regime change in Moscow.

One significant method of external destabilization is the European Reassurance Initiative signed by Obama at the cost of $985 million. These monies are for Pentagon "projects" that include: Airfield infrastructure & improvements for US-NATO war planes in Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, and Romania.

In late February US military vehicles paraded 300 yards from the Russian border in Narva, Estonia.  Narva sits 100km from Saint Petersburg. 

In early March the battles between the Ukrainian army and the pro-Russian self-defense forces in the east had largely stopped and heavy weaponry was being pulled back. The Minsk-2 cease-fire was then holding. At that same moment, US General Philip Breedlove, the top NATO commander in Europe, spoke to the media in Washington. Putin, Breedlove said, had once again "upped the ante" in eastern Ukraine by sending in Russian troops.

Der Spiegel reported that German leaders in Berlin were stunned. They didn't understand what Breedlove was talking about. The German government, supported by intelligence gathered from their own sources, did not share Breedlove’s irrational view.

In mid-April US airlift planes flew into western Ukraine delivering military hardware and soon thereafter hundreds of US Army “trainers” made the same journey followed by Canadian and other NATO troops. 

This military "capacity building" near the Russian border illustrates the game of hardball that Washington and Brussels are playing.  They are putting a loaded gun to Putin's head - the threat is being made to either submit or face expanded war and chaos similar to what the US-NATO have already unleashed in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Libya, and beyond.

The US corporate oligarchy thought they had Moscow safely in the bag back in the early 1990's.  Washington does not like to be denied and thus is willing to face a nuclear war with Russia in order to finish the job of corporate consolidation.  Sadly citizens in the US lack a clear understanding of the present situation. 

Not all of NATO is following the script, recently a Czech reserve unit issued the following statement: “We, the Czechoslovak soldiers in reserve, unanimously reject any participation in battles that are geopolitical acts of aggression of the global elite by way of NATO and the support of our governments.”

Last weekend more than 5,000 brave citizens in Kiev protested against the US-backed regime’s crackdown on political leaders and journalists – many of them killed in the past month.  Organizers of the protest were reportedly arrested following the march.

The US-NATO proxy war in Ukraine is a ‘trigger’ for a full-scale war with Russia.  In the past the peace movement has supported self-defense forces in places like El Salvador and Nicaragua.  We should be doing the same today in eastern Ukraine.

Russia has the world’s largest supply of natural gas… and due to climate change the Arctic ice is melting giving the oil industry the ability to ‘drill-baby-drill’ in that region.  Russia has the largest land border with the Arctic.  It’s clear that the job of the Pentagon is to serve as the primary resource extraction service for corporate capitalism.

Thank you.

Bruce K. Gagnon

~ Delivered this message at the UNAC Plenary Panel entitled "Endless Imperial War" on May 9 in New Jersey