Eric Draitser

A rebel checkpoint Saturday as Ukrainian troops pressed their
assault on separatists in the east. (Photo: Sergey Ponomarev/NYT)

The Kiev regime’s deadly assault on cities in the East and South of Ukraine in recent days has opened a new chapter in the ongoing conflict in that country. The scores of dead and injured provide a sad testament to the fact that what was a united country little more than three months ago has now become a nation tearing apart at the seams.

As the Ukrainian military launches assaults on key cities in the East and South, the danger of civil war, which once seemed possible but unlikely, is now becoming an all too real threat. However, the threat does not end there. A full blown civil war in Ukraine would necessarily require intervention from Moscow as the security of Russian-speaking Ukrainians, Russian nationals in Ukraine, as well as Russia itself would be threatened. With a neoliberal-fascist alliance supported by, and subservient to, the West, ruling the day in Kiev, Moscow would be forced to respond if only as a defensive measure. In such a scenario, events and outcomes often become unpredictable, precisely the recipe for a military conflict of terrifying global proportions.

The Changing Complexion of the Crisis — In order to understand where the situation in Ukraine is heading, it is critical to examine how the nature of the conflict, specifically in the East, has transformed from one of political grievances and calls for regional autonomy, to a military and paramilitary campaign to crush opposition. In doing so, it becomes clear that this fundamental transformation has severely limited the political and diplomatic options of the various sides, making a civil war and regional instability a very real possibility.

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Paul Craig Roberts

“Live free or die” is the motto of the state of New Hampshire. I hope the residents are prepared to die, because living free is not what they do. NH is merely a cog within the Amerikan Stasi State, but I am referring to what goes on within NH itself, not the police state existence imposed by Washington.

On May 5 attorney William Baer was arrested at a school board meeting at which he went over a 2-minute speaking rule while trying to get some explanation from the Gilford, NH, school board for assigning sexually explicit reading material to his 14-year old daughter’s English class. The evasiveness of the school board angered Mr. Baer, and he spoke out again in support of another parents protests, and was promptly arrested by a goon thug cop.

The school board chairman, Sue Allen, who has no legislative power nevertheless managed to create a law backed by police violence. After all if Bush and Obama can create laws by edict, why not a school board chairman? Under Allen’s edict, if a parent violates the 2-minute rule that Allen imposed, she has the parent arrested. The goon thug cop wasn’t embarrassed to arrest a parent for making a legitimate complaint during the public comment period of a school board meeting.

Remember, we “freedom and democracy” ‘mericans have free speech and protest rights. Actually, don’t remember that, because you no longer have any such rights.These rights are dangerous. They enable terrorists and extremists such as those dangerous people who don’t believe The Government.

This is Amerika today. Mr Baer offered no resistance, but nevertheless was lucky that the goon thug cop did not taser him, pepper spray him, and call for a backup SWAT team to beat him senseless or even murder him.

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Nikolai Bobkin

While the flames of a civil war are beginning to burn in Ukraine and the blood is beginning to flow, it is becoming clear that Europe does not know how to react to a crisis it has played such a prominent role in initiating. The Kiev regime’s counterinsurgency operations against the population of southeast Ukraine are gaining momentum, the number of victims is growing, there is fighting in many populated areas, and the Council of Europe, having turned a blind eye to the crimes of the junta, is discussing new sanctions against Russia. The versions of events being put forward by Kiev regarding Russia’s involvement in what is happening are becoming increasingly absurd. In an interview with the BBC, Arseniy Yatsenyuk stated that the riots in Odessa were triggered by «pro-Russian separatists». This lie suits the West, which is currently establishing an information blockade around events in Ukraine.

Neither the US nor Europe wants to admit that the Kiev regime is using military weapons, tanks and aircraft to suppress those opposing its dictatorship. Dozens of protesters have been killed, while hundreds have been maimed, abducted and imprisoned. This is now the new face of the European Union’s eastern neighbour. There has been virtually no reaction from the Western media or human rights organisations to the tragic events in Odessa. The fact that people were burned alive in the Odessa trade union building was reported briefly, with the lie that Russia is to blame for everything once again being reiterated.

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The Saker

The AngloZionist plutocracy was behind WW II and this war
led directly to the so-called Cold War. A new cold war may
lead to WW III, after which it may be too late for any lessons.

If anything the past 24 hours have proved, once again, that the US and NATO are opposed to any form of negotiations, confidence-building measures or any other type of negotiations with the Donbass and with Russia. Even though Putin tried really hard to sound accommodating and available for a negotiated solution, the US/NATO policy is clearly to provoke and confront Russia and its allies in every imaginable way. The same goes, of course, for the junta freaks whose forces have acted with special brutality during repressive operations in the city of Mariupol. As for the AngloZionist Empire, it is organizing all sorts of military maneuvers in Poland, the Baltic states and elsewhere. Logically, many of you are coming to the conclusion that a war is becoming a very real possibility and I therefore want to repeat a few things yet again.

First, there is no military option for the AngloZionists in the Ukraine, at least not against Russia. This is primarily due to three fact things: geography, US overreach and politics. Geography, it is much easier for Russia to move a ground forces to the Ukraine than it is for the US/NATO, especially for heavy (mechanized, motor-rifle, armored, tank) units. Second, simply too many US forces are committed elsewhere for the US to have a major war in against Russia in eastern Europe. Third, for the time being the western public is being deceived by the corporate media's reports about the "Russian paper tiger", but as soon as the real fighting starts both Europeans and Americans will suddenly wonder if it is worth dying for the Ukraine. Because if a shooting war between the USA and Russia really begins, we will all be at risk (see below). — Remember how the very same media promised that the poorly equipped, poorly trained, poorly commanded and poorly motivated Russian military could not crack the "tough nut" represented by the NATO-trained Georgian military?

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John W. Whitehead

"First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out because I was not a Socialist. Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out because I was not a Trade Unionist. Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out because I was not a Jew. Then they came for me and there was no one left to speak for me." ~ Martin Niemöller

Despite what some may think, the Constitution is no magical incantation against government wrongdoing. Indeed, it’s only as effective as those who abide by it. However, without courts willing to uphold the Constitution’s provisions when government officials disregard it and a citizenry knowledgeable enough to be outraged when those provisions are undermined, it provides little to no protection against SWAT team raids, domestic surveillance, police shootings of unarmed citizens, indefinite detentions, and the like.

Unfortunately, the courts and the police have meshed in their thinking to such an extent that anything goes when it’s done in the name of national security, crime fighting and terrorism. Consequently, America no longer operates under a system of justice characterized by due process, an assumption of innocence, probable cause and clear prohibitions on government overreach and police abuse.

Instead, our courts of justice have been transformed into courts of order, advocating for the government’s interests, rather than championing the rights of the citizenry, as enshrined in the Constitution.

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Jeffrey Steinberg

The United States is trying to provoke a confrontation with Russia and using the crisis in Ukraine as an excuse to achieve its goal, a political commentator says. Jeffrey Steinberg, senior editor at Executive Intelligence Review, made the remarks in a phone interview with Press TV on Wednesday.

“I think, this entire crisis, if you look at it honestly, has been provoked from the United States and some other NATO member countries in Europe. The illegal coup d’état that took place in February was in reaction to the fact that the legally- elected Ukrainian government refused to sign a partnership deal with the European Union that would have meant economic destruction of the country.”

“And that government is violently overthrown by… the children and grand children of the wartime pro-Nazi Ukrainians, who fought with the Axis (the Axis powers) against the Soviet Union, United States, Britain and others in World War Two."

“These violent people carried out the military coup, and the United States and most European countries have refused to acknowledge that, and fully support the overthrow of a legitimately-elected and certified government.”

“Now they have turned against Russia because Russia has told the truth about the neo-Nazi networks deeply involved in the coup, about the illegality of it. So, now Russia is being punished basically for telling the truth and for defending the Russian minorities in Ukraine at a time when they are genuinely under threat."

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Finian Cunningham

We know that a massacre happened in the Ukrainian city of Odessa last week in which more than 40 pro-Russian civilian protesters were killed when a public building they were seeking refuge in was deliberately set ablaze by neo-Nazi supporters of the Western-backed Kiev junta.

Apparently, the victims died from the blaze or from smoke inhalation, or when they jumped from windows to the pavement below.

But in the aftermath, new shocking images have been published in various reputable Russian media sources that tell a far more harrowing story.

Photos show victims lying on the floor of the Trade Union building who were only partially burned, with their heads and upper limbs incinerated, the rest of their bodies strangely unscarred.

Suspiciously, in many of the images the surrounding space where the bodies lay bears no evidence of fire damage.

Other victims also appeared to have gunshot wounds to their charred heads. And in one particularly disturbing image, the body of a pregnant woman is photographed bent over backwards on an office desk. The victim appears to have been garrotted; neither her body nor theoffice where her remains were found shows any signs of fire damage.

Russian media report survivor accounts saying that the rooms they were hiding in to escape from the effects of the blaze were broken into by assailants who pretended to be pro-Russian protesters. On entering the offices, those inside were attacked by the intruders.

This suggests that persons associated with the neo-Nazi crowd outside the building somehow gained entry to the Trade Union building and then systematically set about murdering those inside.

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Peter Schwarz

In an interview Sunday in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung, NATO General Secretary Anders Fogh Rasmussen compared the annexation of Crimea by Russia with 9/11 and the “war on terror.” This comparison says more than Rasmussen and the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung perhaps intended.

For over twelve years, the terror attacks of September 11, 2001 have served the US government as a pretext for illegal wars and a massive buildup of its military forces. In the name of the “war on terror,” the US has attacked Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya; abducted, tortured and murdered suspected terrorists; spied on billions of people around the world; and built up the structure of a police state in America.

With the crisis in Ukraine, which they provoked, the ruling circles of Europe and, in particular, Germany, are embarking on a similar path. They are pursuing definite economic and geopolitical interests: pushing back Russia and expanding their influence in the Black Sea region, the Caucasus and Central Asia. They are also using the crisis to attempt to overcome deep-rooted popular opposition to militarism and build up the state apparatus in preparation for future class struggles.

Speaking to the newspaper, Rasmussen [also] called for a massive rearmament by Europe’s NATO members. “Stop running down your defense spending, turn the trend around and step by step invest more money in defense,” he demanded.

“What has happened in Ukraine must be a wake-up call for Europe,” he said. Russia had increased its defense spending by 30 percent, while some European NATO members had cut their spending by 40 percent.

The general secretary of the world’s biggest military alliance threatened Russia with “serious consequences” should it further destabilize Ukraine or provoke a conflict with a NATO member. The Russians, he said, cannot “have the slightest doubt that we consider an attack on one member as an attack on all of us.” He claimed that NATO’s deployment of troops, combat aircraft and naval units to Eastern Europe was a policy only of “deterrence.”

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Paul Craig Roberts

Where Is America’s Democracy?

Anyone who looks carefully behind the veil of words cannot find democracy in America. For years I have been writing that the US government is no longer accountable to law or to the people (see, for example, my book, How America Was Lost). The Constitution has been set aside, and the executive branch is degenerating into Caesarism.

Government is used to impose agendas that result from the symbiotic relationship between the neoconservative ideology of US world hegemony and the economic interests of powerful private interest groups, such as Wall Street, the military/security complex, the Israel Lobby, agribusiness, and extractive industries (energy, mining, and timber). Dollar imperialism, threats, bribes, and wars are means by which US hegemony is extended. These agendas are pursued without the knowledge or approval of the American people and in spite of their opposition.

Professor Martin Gilens at Princeton University and Professor Benjamin Page of Northwestern University have examined American governance and have concluded that the US is an oligarchy ruled by powerful rich private interest groups and that the US government has only a superficial resemblance to a democracy. Their analysis is forthcoming in publication in the journal, Perspectives on Politics.

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Moon of Alabama

Without Russian Intervention And German Support, the U.S. Campaign Is Stuck

Two days ago a mob, supported by the fascists Right Sektor, killed over 30 federalist Ukrainians in Odessa by pushing them from their camp into a building and then setting fire to it. Those who escaped the massacre, not the perpetrators, were rounded up by police. Today pro-federalism people besieged the police headquarter in Odessa until the police released those it had earlier arrested.

In the east some military and National Guard units under government control were in sporadic fights with federalists but right now the government forces seem to be again in retreat. There were attacks on private bank outlets in the east because the owner of the bank, a well known oligarch, is suspected of financing the fascist Right Sektor paramilitaries.

The U.S. plan for Ukraine seems to be to bait Russia into an occupation. This would destroy EU-Russia relations, embolden NATO and help the U.S. to keep the EU as a secondary partner under its control. There would be lots of economic upsides for the U.S. in such a situation. Selling more arms and increasing energy market shares are only the starters.

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Alex Lantier

The Kiev regime faces immense pressure from Washington and the European imperialist powers, from the banks and from its own fascist supporters to retain control of Odessa at all costs.

In the wake of Friday’s fascist massacre of pro-Russian protesters at the Trade Unions House in Odessa, the US puppet regime in Kiev deployed National Guard units to the city yesterday. The sending of the National Guard, a force created by the Kiev regime after the fascist-led putsch in February that has worked closely with the neo-Nazi Right Sector militia to repress protests elsewhere in Ukraine, is a warning to the working class. The National Guard began street patrols yesterday, amid mounting popular outrage over the Friday massacre.

Yesterday, after Sunday’s mass protest to force the freeing of pro-Russian protesters detained by police, Odessa residents continued to bring flowers and pay their respects to the victims of the massacre outside the burned-out Odessa Trade Union building. “This is a tragedy for all of Ukraine,” teacher Nadezhda Yelenchuk told AP. “This is the result of a civil war that has already begun in Ukraine.” Everything points to the preparation by the Kiev regime and its US and European backers of another fascist atrocity to try to terrorize the city into submission.

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Alex Lantier

Fighting escalated across eastern Ukraine over the weekend after Friday’s massacre in Odessa, carried out by far-right supporters of the Western puppet regime in Kiev. Reports of the atrocity confirmed that it was an act of terror aimed at pro-Russian protesters and intended to inflame tensions throughout Ukraine and with Russia.

Some 1,000 well-armed football hooligans from Kharkiv and fascist thugs from the Right Sector militia attacked pro-Russian protesters, forced them into the city’s trade union hall, then besieged the building, shooting at it with small arms and torching it with Molotov cocktails. In all, 42 people died and 170 were wounded, making it Kiev’s single bloodiest act of repression against the protests. Odessa police allowed the assault to proceed, then jailed pro-Russian protesters who managed to survive both the flames and Right Sector thugs who attacked anyone they saw jumping from the building.

On Sunday, over 1,000 protesters in Odessa stormed police headquarters to force the release of the 67 detainees, shouting slogans such as “Odessa is a Russian city” and “One for all and all for one.” Once inside the building, they took down the Ukrainian flag and negotiated with police to free the detainees.

Thousands of people also gathered over the weekend in front of the trade union building to lay flowers at the site and pay their respects to those who had died.

On Saturday, Ukrainian Interior Minister Arsen Avakov declared that the regime’s military crackdown on pro-Russian protesters in the east would continue, saying, “We are not stopping.” He vowed that operations with “special units” would continue throughout eastern Ukraine.

The Odessa massacre is an indictment of the reactionary intervention of Washington and Berlin to install an unelected regime in Kiev in the fascist-led putsch of February 22. The neo-Nazi Right Sector was used by the Western imperialist powers as the shock troops for the coup.

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Robert Parry

Exclusive: As Ukrainian soldiers from the coup regime in Kiev tighten the noose around anti-coup rebels in eastern Ukraine, the New York Times continues its cheerleading for the coup regime and its contempt for the rebels, raising grave questions about the Times’ credibility.

For Americans interested in foreign policy, the New York Times has become the last U.S. newspaper to continue devoting substantial resources to covering the world. But the Times increasingly betrays its responsibility to deliver anything approaching honest journalism on overseas crises especially when Official Washington has a strong stake in the outcome.

The Times’ failures in the run-up to the disastrous Iraq War are, of course, well known, particularly the infamous “aluminum tube” story by Michael R. Gordon and Judith Miller. And, the Times has shown similar bias on the Syrian conflict, such as last year’s debunked Times’ “vector analysis” tracing a sarin-laden rocket back to a Syrian military base when the rocket had less than one-third the necessary range.

But the Times’ prejudice over the Ukraine crisis has reached new levels of extreme as the “newspaper of record” routinely carries water for the neocons and other hawks who still dominate the U.S. State Department. Everything that the Times writes about Ukraine is so polluted with propaganda that it requires a very strong filter, along with additives from more independent news sources, to get anything approaching an accurate understanding of events.

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Finian Cunningham

Residents of Slovyansk paying their respects in a memorial, set up
at the bottom of a Lenin statue, to four pro-Russian demonstrators
who recently died. (Photo: Mauricio Lima / The New York Times)

With a death toll of at least 50 over the weekend inflicted by the Western-backed unelected, fascist regime in Kiev, has the time come for Russian President Vladimir Putin to send his troops into eastern Ukraine?

The escalating violence committed by the Kiev junta under the Orwellian guise of "an anti-terror operation" strongly warrants that President Putin should give the go-ahead.

The stakes are high. Washington and its European allies, their puppet regime in Kiev and the Western mainstream media have for weeks been accusing Russia of covertly orchestrating protests in eastern and southern Ukraine. With no facts to support its claims, Washington alleges that Moscow is "building a pretext to invade and annex Ukrainian territory".

If Russia intervenes now, there will be howls of Western assertions that Moscow's "sneaky plot" is finally being executed. Already Washington is lining up more sanctions against Russia for alleged violation of Ukrainian sovereignty - again based on groundless assertions. And with NATO military forces assigned to Russia's neighboring countries, a Russian invasion of Ukraine might risk a broader war.

But regardless of Western propaganda accusing Russia of malfeasance and in the face of Western threats of punitive response, Moscow should act with boldness based on the facts.

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Finian Cunningham

There seems little doubt that the arrest of Irish republican leader Gerry Adams this week over alleged involvement in a tragic murder 44 years ago is politically motivated.

The political interests pushing this agenda have no respect for victims of Ireland's recent 30-year conflict. These interests are being selective in their focus on victims, cynically vying for political gain, and in particular to damage the rise of Sinn Fein, the Irish republican party.

Later this month, Ireland is heading into European Parliamentary elections, which up to now was promising to see major electoral gains for Sinn Féin, the party of which Adams has been president of since 1983.

In recent years, Sinn Féin has emerged has the fastest growing political party in both the British-occupied north and the independent southern state. It has become the second biggest party in the Northern Ireland Assembly, while in the southern legislative chamber, Dail Eireann, Sinn Féin has seen its number of parliamentarians expand three-fold over the past three elections to become an increasingly pivotal force there.

Sinn Féin can rightly claim to be the only all-Ireland party with representatives and organizational structure that transcend the British-imposed border, which partitions the island into northern and southern jurisdictions. Sinn Féin is distinguished from all other political parties by its manifesto calling for a united, independent country.

That manifesto not only threatens the British interest of maintaining its political presence in the North of Ireland; the so-called Irish political parties in the South of Ireland also see their establishment interests challenged by the growing popular support for Sinn Féin and its calls to shake-up the stagnant status quo on both sides of the border.

This is the important context in which the Sinn Féin leader was taken into custody this week by police in Northern Ireland. Adams has not been charged but his arrest over the murder took many observers by surprise, coming seemingly out of the blue. The allegations will revive memories of a dark episode in Ireland's 30-year conflict.

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