American Exceptionalism Justifies War on Humanity
America OKs mass murder. It permits flouting rule of law principles, norms and standards. America is a terror state. Criminality continues on an unprecedented scale.
Permanent war is official US policy. One country after another is ravaged and destroyed. Millions of corpses attest to America's barbarity. No nation in world history matches it. Obama exceeds the worst of his predecessors. He's a war criminal multiple times over.
Advancing America's imperium matters most. US hegemonic ambitions risk global war. So does its rage for full spectrum dominance over all land, surface and sub-surface sea, air, space, electromagnetic spectrum and information systems with enough overwhelming power to fight and win global wars against any adversary. International laws, treaties, conventions, standards and norms don't matter. Washington rules alone apply. Might v. right reflects them.
Obama's proxy war on Syria rages without end. Events in Ukraine reflect US-led NATO's drive East. Co-opting it into the Atlantic Alliance ensures encroaching on Russia's entire Western flank. US military strength on its borders cuts it off from Europe. Marginalizing, isolating and weakening it at the same time.
Washington's inexorable drive East threatens world peace. It hangs by a thread. Ukraine is a global flashpoint. It's the gravest geopolitical crisis since WW II. War without mercy continues. Obama offers full support. His insatiable hegemonic appetite is limitless.
His West Point address showed it. He glorified war in the name of peace. "America has rarely been stronger relative to the rest of the world," he said.
"(T)he United United States is and remains the one indispensable nation." "…America's willingness to apply force around the world is the ultimate safeguard against chaos." "Here's my bottom line: America must always lead on the world stage." "If we don't, no one else will…(H)istory and hope (are) on our side." America's agenda is "right and just."
In other words, waging war on humanity is OK. US interests alone matter. It's "our way of life," according to Obama.
Not for ordinary Americans. Monied interests alone benefit. Plundering world resources serves them. So does exploiting global populations. Wars without mercy are America's option of choice.
Ukraine is in the eye of the storm. On June 2, Russia's UN envoy Vitaly Churkin addressed a closed door Security Council session. He discussed Moscow's draft resolution. He told reporters
it's "not politicized and is of a purely humanitarian nature." It's to "alleviat(e) human suffering." "Every day civilians get killed, among them women and children. Ukrainian military and paramilitary forces impede the peaceful population, leaving besieged cities or sending their children to safe places." "Buses of children are turned back.” Ukraine's war without mercy includes "heavy and indiscriminate shelling of residential areas."
Russia demands...
...“an immediate cessation of hostilities, urges parties to commit themselves to sustainable ceasefire, and calls for the establishment by the parties of humanitarian corridors in order to allow the civilian population to leave safely and to ensure humanitarian assistance.”
Moscow's draft was submitted because
“we believe for the situation in Ukraine not to deteriorate further, something needs to be done now in order to stop the violence.”
Churkin criticized what he called Security Council "usual suspects." They're "showing no urgency" in resolving things diplomatically.
"How come we talk all the time, as you know, theoretically about the need of preventing diplomacy, about the need to stop conflict, and then some colleagues sit in the Council and sort of shake their heads and say, 'Well, maybe they are doing the right thing, this military thing, they have the right to do that.'" "Looking for various legal frames for this kind of an attitude is wrong." "It is our duty to stop the conflict as quickly as possible, to try to stop violence as quickly as possible."
Washington called Moscow's draft resolution "hypocritical." It blames Russia for its own crimes.
On Monday, State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki lied, saying:
"It is hypocritical of the Russian leadership to call for an end to violence and the creation of humanitarian corridors when, at the same time, armed irregular forces are entering Ukraine from Russia, weapons are being brought illegally from Russia into Ukraine, Russian-backed separatists are attacking new targets and holding OSCE monitoring teams hostage, and Russia is doing nothing to stop these activities." "So if they are going to call for or would support a reduction in tensions and a de-escalation, it would be more effective for them to end those activities."
On Monday, Sergey Lavrov said Western nations assured Russia things would improve after Ukraine's May 25 election. Instead,
"everything is happening in exactly the opposite way. People are dying every day," Lavrov stressed. "Peaceful civilians are suffering more and more. The army, military aviation and heavy weapons continue to be used against them." Russia forthrightly opposes "any attempts to politicize the humanitarian crisis and to use it to justify external forceful interference…"
On Tuesday, Russia's Children's Rights Commissioner Pavel Astakhov said:
"As many as 90,700 thousand orphans are staying in Ukraine, around one thousand of them are in the zone of hostilities." "Russian children's institutions are prepared to receive and accommodate all Ukrainian orphans." "The more Ukraine uses heavy weapons, the larger the number of refugees who ask for help to pass to Russia as the problem is that no humanitarian corridors had not been created yet."
Washington, Britain, France and Kiev putschists block them. They prioritize conflict. They deplore resolving things peacefully. They're mindless of civilian deaths and suffering. They wage war without mercy. Moscow accused US-led NATO of encouraging Kiev aggression. According to its NATO envoy Aleksandr Grushko:
"NATO is providing Kiev - a member of its Partnership for Peace program - with technical assistance, thus encouraging the prolongation of its use of force." "Thus the Alliance accepts a part of the responsibility for the escalation of the situation, and the collapse of diplomatic negotiations."
NATO chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen blamed Moscow irresponsibly saying:
"The climate at the moment is not good - not because NATO wants it that way, but because of Russia's illegal aggression against Ukraine."
US-led NATO bears full responsibility:
"We have noticed unprecedented NATO activity near Russia's borders," said Grushko. "It is excessive, inappropriate, and weakens stability, security and predictability in the Euro-Atlantic region."
War rages near Russia's border.
It's "necessary to employ all possibilities to put an end to violence and take the situation onto a peaceful road of negotiations." "We urged the Council members to demand from the Kiev authorities to immediately stop the punitive operation in the southeast of the country, to begin the implementation of the Geneva accord of April 17 and the 'road map' of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe." "We also expect the Alliance to at last denounce the criminal wrongdoing of radical nationalists, committed in different Ukrainian cities."
US-led NATO hypocritically supports "political dialogue based on democratic values, respect for human rights, the rights of minorities as well as supremacy of law." It's actions are polar opposite. They're "fraught with a growing tension in the Euro-Atlantic region." They disrupt "the existing system of security in the region."
They facilitate war without mercy. They risk potential East/West confrontation.
Russia continues going all-out for diplomatic conflict resolution. It champions peace. It deplores war. It's mindful not to let Washington draw it into conflict with NATO over Ukraine. It's horrified over war without mercy. Death toll numbers mount. Imagine using helicopter gunships, warplanes, tanks, artillery and other heavy weapons against civilian populations.
On Tuesday, a Slavyansk self-defense spokesman said:
"Several minutes ago two (Sukhoi) Su-25 airplanes conducted strikes…After them, five helicopters…launch(ed) massive airstrikes…" "There have been casualties and injuries both among militiamen and the civilian population."
Southeast Front self-defense spokesman Konstantin Knirik said:
"Two airstrikes have been launched against Semyonovka. One of them hit a roadblock, and the second one hit immediately the village." "At least one civilian resident has been killed and scores have been injured." "Two buses full of children tried to leave the city, but they were stopped by Ukrainian security forces." "Furthermore, (passengers) were told explicitly: turn back or we will start to bombard you."
Donetsk self-defense forces reported large-scale Ukraine aggression:
"Convoys of armored vehicles are moving toward Slavyansk." "Their numbers exceed the number of vehicles already deployed around the city by several times. Apparently, they are preparing to run tanks over us."
A Kramatorsk self-defense spokesman reported "a serious gun battle underway. Three local residents (were) killed" so far.
Slavyansk People's Mayor Vyacheslav Ponomaryov said:
"As a result of (Tuesday's) strikes (on) Slavyansk, one civilian resident has died. The strikes targeted mainly the village of Semenyovka and the city center."
Lugansk's press service chief Vladimir Inogoodsky called Monday's attack "a military crime."
"I was an immediate eyewitness of it, and I saw the warplanes make approaches and open fire," he said. "Ukrainian mass media are spreading (false) assertions now that we blew ourselves up on our own." "They not only pour out slander on us and deceive the international community but they also kill us."
Russia's Human Rights Commissioner Ella Pamfilova briefed Putin on refugee problems. "(T)he inflow from (Ukraine's East) has begun to grow," she said. "(W)e need an urgent systematic program as to how these people should be received, provided with jobs, and so on."
Putin responded saying:
"I will instruct the presidential secretariat to help implement all of your proposals along with the government."
Humanitarian crisis conditions worsen daily. Obama bears full responsibility. Megalomania defines his agenda. So do delusions of grandeur. He's heading America for full-blown tyranny and ruin. His war on humanity threatens world peace.
Poet Hayyim Bialik (1873 - 1934) once wrote about "with heart's blood and marrow pay(ing) the price of the blaze." A century later he'd have had weapons of mass destruction in mind. He'd have wondered how madness became policy. Why waging wars instead of preventing them is prioritized.
Washington is humanity's greatest threat. Its hubris and imperial arrogance are unprecedented. It stops at nothing for unchallenged dominance. Its war on humanity persists. It made planet earth unfit to live on.
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Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago. He has devoted his time and efforts to progressive causes and organizations, all involved in working for a more humane and just world for all people everywhere, but especially for the most needy, disadvantaged and oppressed. His efforts since summer 2005 have included writing on a broad range of vital topics ranging from war and peace; social, economic and political equity for all; and justice for all the oppressed peoples of the world like the long-suffering people of Haiti and the Palestinians. He also co-hosts The Global Research News Hour, gives occasional public talks, and appears frequently on radio and at times television. He is a Research Associate of the Centre for Research on Globalization. Also visit his blog and listen to The Lendman News Hour on RepublicBroadcasting.org Monday - Friday at 10AM US Central time for cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on world and national issues. All programs are archived for easy listening. His new book "How Wall Street Fleeces America: Privatized Banking, Government Collusion and Class War" can be ordered here. He can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.
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