The
Russia-obsessed corporate media continues to peddle the narrative
that Donald Trump has turned the United States into a client-state of
Russia, even while he directly provokes the former Soviet Union by
providing Russia’s foe — Urkaine — with the largest lethal
assistance to a country on its border.
by
Darius Shahtahmasebi
Part
1
Despite
the mainstream media’s insistence that U.S. President Donald Trump
is some sort of compromised Russian lackey, the fact is that at the
end of last year, his administration approved the largest U.S.
commercial sale of lethal defensive weapons to Ukraine since 2014.
This is a move that clearly infuriates and angers Russia, souring
relations between the two countries even more so than they already
had been under the Obama administration (and in various stages
throughout Trump’s first year in office).
According
to The Washington Post, administration officials confirmed that in
December the State Department had approved a commercial license
authorizing the export of Model M107A1 Sniper Systems, ammunition,
and other associated parts and accessories to Ukraine — a package
valued at $41.5 million.
At
first, it was reported there had not yet been approval to export the
heavier weaponry the Ukrainian government had been asking for, such
as anti-tank missiles. However, by the end of December, reports began
surfacing that the Trump administration was in fact going to provide
35 FGM-148 Javelin launchers and 210 anti-tank missiles. The Javelin
is allegedly one of the most advanced anti-tank systems on the
market. The total package is now valued at $47 million, and it
wouldn’t be surprising if this figure continues to rise in the
weeks to come.
Even
under the 2014 Ukraine Freedom Support Act, the Obama administration
never authorized large commercial or government arms sales, thereby
making the recent announcement the first time that the U.S. will
provide “lethal” weapons to the Ukraine military.
One
senior congressional official said that he predicted this would be
just the beginning, stating that the U.S. had “crossed the
Rubicon; this is lethal weapons and I predict more will be coming,”
according to the Post. Foreign Policy’s Michael Carpenter suggested
that NATO countries should follow suit and also provide Ukraine with
the arms it needs to counter the so-called threat of Russia.
Considering that in September 2017 Russia proposed that UN
peacekeepers be deployed to Ukraine, it should be clear that the U.S.
is more bent on escalating this conflict than on resolving it.
Russia
has already responded in kind, with Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei
Ryabkov stating that the U.S. has become an accomplice in the war and
that these developments make it impossible for Russia to remain
“indifferent,” thereby forcing Russia to consider retaliation
measures in response.
The
U.S. is the world’s largest arms dealer. The U.S. arms so many
countries so much of the time that most of us barely blink. And yet,
even taking at face value America’s stated goals of spreading
democracy and promoting human rights, the facts on the ground appear
to run contrary to those ideals and the U.S. is well aware of these
contradictions.
In
reality, the United States intervened covertly in Ukraine in 2014
because Russia and Europe were growing far too close to each other
for America’s comfort, with Russia supplying at least 30 percent of
Europe’s gas supply. This was an issue particularly in relation to
Germany’s growing fondness for Russian gas, as Germany is set to
become the EU’s major player.
This
is a deal-breaker for Washington, which would rather support known
neo-Nazis and anti-Semites in order to install a right-wing
government capable of opposing Russia as close to the Russian border
as one can get.
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