Out on street again - no war with Russia!

Four of us spent the noon hour yesterday holding signs and banners on the street at a busy intersection in Westbrook, Maine. We got a steady flow of waves and honks - only two 'middle fingers' that we noticed. Again most people just drive by with no expression on their face - the zombie look. Our crew of folks is going out once a week to different busy intersections in the region. 

If you want to reach the American people stand on a corner with a sign and they will drive by at some point.

On the way home from Westbrook I was listening to right-wing talk radio and one caller said she had just watched the TV program called 'Inside Edition' (which claims to broadcast 'uplifting news') and heard that Vladimir Putin just fired 1,000 of his top people and now has a food taster so he does not get assassinated. This is the kind of crap the people in the US listen to every day. This is where they get their heads filled with all of the CIA talking points which are then spread to others. To say that Americans are colonized people is an under-statement. It's no wonder that so many people drive by our peace vigils with blank looks on their faces.

I saw a Pew research poll yesterday. According to the poll, 62% of Americans said that they would oppose “taking military action even if it risks a nuclear conflict with Russia.” However, 35% said they’d still support military action even if it meant nuke exchange. Results were almost equal on either side of the partisan divide, with 36% of Republicans and 35% of Democrats willing to risk atomic war with Russia, which has the world’s largest stockpile of nuclear warheads. Just goes to show both political parties are loaded with very ignorant people who are following Washington over the cliff.

The US is working hard to pressure China to renounce Russia and to join the US-EU in placing harsh sanctions on Moscow. China refuses. 

We often hear US-NATO talking heads say that the 'whole world' is with the US in sanctioning Russia. What is never reported in mainstream media is that besides China the following list are some of the nations not joining the US economic war on Moscow. 

Mexico, Bolivia, Cuba, Nicaragua, Iran, Thailand, India, United Arab Emirates, Israel, Serbia, Qatar, Egypt, Turkey, Brazil, Venezuela, South Africa, Malaysia, Vietnam, Burundi, Senegal, South Sudan, South Africa, Uganda, Mali, Mozambique, Syria, North Korea, Eritrea, and Pakistan.

 

What this list shows me (again this is not all of the nations refusing to sanction Russia) is that when you add up their combined population figures (compared to the US and Europe) they are the majority of the global population. 

But why are they staying neutral or actively supportive of Russia? I think it should be fairly clear to us that the vast majority of these nations have had lots of experience for hundreds of years of brutal colonization by the UK, France, Germany, Portugal, Spain, Netherlands, and the US. They have not historically had much ability to stand up to these western, white colonizers.

Russia (facing US-NATO's loaded gun pointed at its head) has been pleading for years for secure borders but the arrogant west has disdainfully ignored Moscow's honest pleas. Continual NATO expansion, and the 2014 US sponsored coup d' etat in Ukraine, have essentially forced Russia to reluctantly take a stand. It is generally my opinion that much of the colonized world sees Russia and China as nations that are not bowing before the global bullies - Mr. Big as I like to label the capitalist corporate western oligarchies.

 

Photos by Lou Kimball

So, it is a very divided world - the west verses the Global South.

The western corporate media boasts that their sanctions will destroy the Russian economy and help to force regime change in Moscow which is the real goal of US-EU. In response Russia is just turning away from the US-Europe and creating new economic institutions with China that will ultimately put the 'petrodollar' into the dumper. Already we see Washington's long-time 'best buddies' in Saudi Arabia agreeing to sell their oil to China using Yuan rather than dollars. This is a huge sign of this global turning away from the aggressive and arrogant west. Once this snowball gets rolling down hill it will be unstoppable.

The current US-NATO war on Russia is a clear indication to the Global South that the western nations will attempt to beat the hell out of anyone that tries to change the ‘new world order’. Russia is indeed being punished in many ways.

We can only hope that the desperate west does not in this current moment of change resort to a full-blown US-NATO war on Russia and China that could go nuclear in a red-hot flash. It is certainly quite possible that things could turn in that direction.

Sadly, there are many ‘progressives’ in the US and elsewhere across the west who are misreading this present dangerous conflict. It is astounding to anyone who knows better to watch peaceniks flying Ukrainian flags and denying the active presence of Nazis inside the Kiev military and security agencies. It’s very hard to watch some on the ‘left’ deny that Nazis are inside the big cities across Ukraine holding civilians hostage and killing them in order to blame Moscow.

But as usual, time will reveal much of what is now cloudy to some. Each day I see more people coming around to face the truth as to what is actually going on. 

Let's just hope that it won't be too late to really matter.

Bruce