Spinning Victory From Fiasco as the U.S. Tries to Avoid Peace With Russia, by Finian Cunningham

Image by PHOTObyTED via SmugMug

by Finian Cunningham
Writer, Dandelion Salad
Ireland
Crossposted from Strategic Culture Foundation, Feb. 22, 2022
February 23, 2022

The real danger is that the Ukrainian regime has been emboldened by Washington and NATO’s reckless indulgence. Its offensive against the Russian people of southeast Ukraine is becoming more frenzied in recent days.

So, now that great expectations and dire-laden predictions of Russia invading Ukraine failed to materialize, the next move is to present that fiasco as a diplomatic victory for the United States and its NATO allies.

Complicating the situation further is Russia’s dramatic recognition on Monday of the independent republics of Donetsk and Lugansk. If Russian troops now go to the aid of the newly recognized republics then they will do so as “peacekeepers”, not “invaders”. Is the move checkmate?

After last week’s spectacular non-invasion event, this week the Western media caravan moves on with reports that U.S. President Joe Biden has agreed to hold talks with Russia’s Vladimir Putin “for the sake of peace”.

The prospective talks have been facilitated by French President Emmanuel Macron who was busy over the weekend calling Moscow and Washington. Such tentative talks may now be postponed by Putin’s decree to recognize the independence of the Donetsk and Lugansk Republics.

Associated Press reported Monday: “The U.S. and Russian presidents have tentatively agreed to meet in a last-ditch diplomatic effort to stave off Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine as heavy shelling continued Monday in a conflict in eastern Ukraine that is feared will spark the Russian offensive.”

The BBC reported: “The talks proposed by France will only take place if Russia does not invade its neighbor, the White House said.”

Don’t you just love the hilarious audacity here?

Russia has been saying categorically for months that it has no intention of attacking Ukraine. The Kremlin has condemned Western accusations of an invasion plan as “hysterical warmongering”.

The crescendo of Western warnings of “imminent invasion” climaxed last week with predictions that Russian military forces would smash through the border of its neighbor. The British were predicting Moscow would install a puppet regime in Kiev and American diplomats were claiming that Russia has drawn up an assassination list of Ukrainian opponents.

Now that this doomsday evidently didn’t arrive, public attention should rightly turn to Washington, London and other NATO powers with demands for accountability over their failed predictions. Questions about scaremongering and warmongering by the Western news media should be asked. And if answers aren’t forthcoming then the matter is one of criminal information terrorism.

The get-out from that embarrassing dilemma is to portray the alleged Russian invasion as having been called off by Moscow due to Western threats of sanctions, as well as due to US and British troops having quickly been deployed in Poland and the Baltics to “defend” Eastern Europe, and noble declarations of NATO support for Ukraine.

Thus, we had British Prime Minister Boris Johnson commenting on the possible Biden-Putin talks as a “welcome sign” that diplomacy might prevail. Johnson had earlier warned at the weekend that Russia was planning to launch the biggest war in Europe since 1945.

The next step for diplomacy is reportedly a meeting to be held on Thursday between US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.

However, White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki said the meeting between Blinken and Lavrov would only go ahead “if Russia does not invade Ukraine.”

Blinken himself continued to warn that Russia was on the “brink of an invasion”. But he feigned the straining of diplomatic muscles for the sake of peace. “Until the tanks are actually rolling, and the planes are flying, we will use every opportunity and every minute we have to see if diplomacy can still dissuade President Putin from carrying this forward,” said Blinken.

The double-think is incredible. Russia has consistently said there is not going to be an invasion. It is the US and its Western allies who are shown to be the ones whipping up tensions and conflict with baseless claims of Russian aggression. Now that Washington and NATO have been exposed for their reckless disinformation and warmongering, they are claiming that a “Russian invasion” was averted by their valiant efforts. And now, they intone piously, we ought to pursue diplomatic negotiations – on the condition, of course, that Russia does not invade Ukraine.

What’s more, the farce is made all the more absurd by the fact that the diplomatic course now apparently being endorsed by the West is exactly what Moscow has been calling for all along. The need for a legally binding security treaty in Europe between the US-led NATO bloc and Russia is long overdue, and that’s why Moscow put out its precise proposals on December 17. There must be recognition of Russia’s existential security red lines, including the limit to NATO’s eastward expansion and installation of offensive American missiles.

That’s what the putative talks between Blinken and Lavrov, and between Biden and Putin are leading towards. The inevitable subject of indivisible and mutual security is, it seems, to be finally dealt with after much foot-dragging and procrastination by the US and NATO.

The fundamental problem is this: Washington has refused to deal with Moscow on an equitable, reasonable basis. It has used Ukraine as a pawn to distract from and delay the overarching issue of strategic security with Russia. A big part of the American motive stems from the fact that it doesn’t really want strategic security with Russia in Europe. Washington wants perennial instability and tensions in order to satisfy its militarized economy and its hegemonic ambitions over Europe, Russia and China. Ukraine has merely served as a projection point for this American agenda of reviving the Cold War.

Now though, Russia’s determination to bring the security issue to the fore has forced Washington to pay attention. The direction is just coming back to what Moscow has been proposing from the outset. Up to now, the path of diplomacy has been unnecessarily ditched, blocked and circuitous because of Washington’s arrogant refusal to deal reasonably with Russia.

The real danger is that the Ukrainian regime has been emboldened by Washington and NATO’s reckless indulgence. But Russia’s recognition of the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics puts paid to Kiev’s aggression as well as the possibility of Ukraine joining NATO. Washington’s obstinacy to make peace with Russia, and to end the Cold War once and for all, is obliging Moscow to take “military-technical measures” that are forcing the United States to the table in spite of its aggressive instincts.

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Finian Cunningham, is a columnist at the Strategic Culture Foundation, Sputnik, and a Writer on Dandelion Salad. He can be reached at cunninghamfinian@gmail.com.

From the archives:

Chris Hedges: There is a Stoking of this Fear and Demonization of Russia by the Biden Administration

War in Europe and the Rise of Raw Propaganda, by John Pilger + John Pilger: An Enemy is Essential for US and Its Vassals

American Overlord Demands Europe Sign Suicide Note, by Finian Cunningham

America’s Real Adversaries are its European and other Allies, by Michael Hudson

The Warmongers Miscalculated, by David Swanson

Melinda Butterfield: No War! U.S./NATO hands off Russia and Donbass

Cracks Open Up In America’s Fragile Leadership Over Ukraine Crisis, by Finian Cunningham

4 Big Reasons Not To Go To War In Ukraine, by Rivera Sun

To Send Weapons and Troops to Ukraine You’d Have to Be a Stupid Son of a Biden, by David Swanson