How NATO Provoked Russia
Judge Napolitano with Prof. Glenn Diesen
I had the great pleasure to discuss with Judge Napolitano: How NATO provoked Russia. The efforts to construct a war narrative that takes February 2022 as the starting point of the conflict neglect the important history since the Western-backed coup in Kiev in 2014. The US installed a new government with a new Ukrainian intelligence chief, and the first thing the new intelligence chief did on the first day after the coup was to call the CIA and MI6 to set up a covert war against Russia. This preceded Russia’s annexation of Crimea and the conflict in Donbas. The US set up CIA bases along the Russian border for spying, theft of sensitive technologies, and even raids into Russia. The Ukrainian population was subjected to de-russification by denying language rights and religious rights, while the political opposition parties and media were purged. The Germans and French (who negotiated the Minsk agreement) and the Ukrainians admitted there was no intention of implementing the agreement, rather the purpose was to buy time to change realities on the ground by building a large Ukrainian army. NATO modernised Ukrainian ports to fit US warships, and military exercises simulating war against Russia intensified. In November 2021, the “US-Ukraine Charter on Strategic Partnership” was signed, which the top advisor of former French president Sarkozy argued “convinced Russia that it must attack or be attacked”. Recognising that the invasion was provoked is important as it suggests there are diplomatic solutions to the security competition.
And I wonder that Russia and China still have not established a closer military pact, where they strategically come to each others aid if attacked, just like the Nato pact. Russia alone can of course not manage Nato, including Turkey, and outside the alliance, Israel.
China is next. China should not incorporate Taiwan, but instead like Russia vs Ukraine demand that Taiwan become neutral without US military presence on the island.
The US military should also leave North Korea, Japan - and Eastern Europe, so people there can live in peace. But US imperialism will never do that without being met by a counterweight in the form of a military alliance between Russia and China. It is all about power as Realist theory describes it.
Dr. Diesen explains points of contention between the West and Russia, but he has yet to explain the underlying irrational hatred of the West towards Russia. Until he or someone else can tackle that issue, absolutely none of this makes any sense, especially the incessant doubling down of western so-called leaders, along with their hysterical caricatures and paranoid projections.