Paul Craig Roberts

Today former US Treasury official, Dr. Paul Craig Roberts, spoke with King World News about the ongoing danger the world faces because of the crisis in Ukraine. Dr. Roberts also warned “the Chinese government regards Washington as an insane asylum.” The interview ends with an ominous warning for the entire world. Below is what Dr. Roberts had to say in Part III of this remarkable series of interviews.

US navy confirms missile destroyer USS Truxtun approaching
the Black Sea. The US Navy said in a statement that the USS
Truxtun left Greece on Thursday on the way to the Black Sea.

Eric King: How far will Putin go to defend those interests in Ukraine, and to put a stop to another set of missiles ending up in Ukraine? Is that going to be allowed, or does he have to put a stop to it?

Dr. Roberts: Putin has already said that he reserves the right to protect the Russian people in Ukraine as well as Russian strategic interests in Ukraine, and he means it. He wouldn’t say it if he didn’t mean it...

And there is nothing the U.S. can do about it on a conventional basis. We can’t put an army over there to engage the Russians that far away from our supply lines and expect to be on anything close to equal terms with the Russian Army.

Now if the moderates get back control of Ukraine, then Putin will arrange some deal with them. Putin has far more diplomatic skills than anybody we’ve got. He’ll try to arrange something that works for them both. But if this Ukrainian government agrees to have missile bases on the border, Putin may decide to simply occupy the territory. The Ukrainians wouldn’t be able to do anything about it and neither would the United States.

It will depend on how Putin sees the threat. It will also depend on whether he sees that the Americans have been chastened at all from their mistakes, or whether they remain as crazy as they show themselves to be.

More »

Margaret Kimberley

The corporate media are a key component of the U.S. imperial machine. Although styling themselves as watchdogs, they are in fact the dogs of war, whose mission is to hide Washington’s aggressions behind a fog of lies. War “crimes are committed with impunity in part because presidents get a helping hand from their corporate media partners.”

Prominent journalists in the United States may as well be on the White House payroll. They are consistent cheerleaders for whoever occupies the oval office and the corporate corner office. They make no attempt to hide their allegiance to power and their lack of interest in informing the public.

The rotten state of affairs becomes all too obvious whenever a president threatens action against another country. Reporters act more like press agents and spring into action shielding and protecting the aggressors. They make it clear to those few who gain access that questions, criticisms or anything else that smacks of independent thought will not to be tolerated. The American decision to use Ukraine as a means of attacking Russian influence is the latest effort to prop up the empire, and the corporate media obligingly show their approval.

More »

Paul Craig Roberts

This supporter of the Ukraine joining the EU has received
her reward: a 50% cut in her pension...

Washington and its EU puppets, who proclaim their support for self-determination, are only for self-determination when it can be orchestrated in their favor. Therefore, Washington [now] is busy at work suppressing self-determination in eastern Ukraine.

According to a report in Kommersant-Ukraine, the finance ministry of Washington’s stooges in Kiev who are pretending to be a government has prepared an economic austerity plan that will cut Ukrainian pensions from $160 to $80 so that Western bankers who lent money to Ukraine can be repaid at the expense of Ukraine’s poor. It is Greece all over again.

Before anything approaching stability and legitimacy has been obtained for the puppet government put in power by the Washington orchestrated coup against the legitimate, elected Ukraine government, the Western looters are already at work. Naive protesters who believed the propaganda that EU membership offered a better life are due to lose half of their pension by April. But this is only the beginning.

The corrupt Western media describes loans as “aid.” However, the 11 billion euros that the EU is offering Kiev is not aid. It is a loan. Moreover, it comes with many strings, including Kiev’s acceptance of an IMF austerity plan.

Remember now, gullible Ukrainians participated in the protests that were used to overthrow their elected government, because they believed the lies told to them by Washington-financed NGOs that once they joined the EU they would have streets paved with gold.

Instead they are getting cuts in their pensions and an IMF austerity plan.

More »