By Craig Jones
Both things are true: The US military empire invaded and occupied Iraq in 2003, attempting to justify it with lies; and now the Russian military empire is invading and will occupy Ukraine, attempting to justify it with lies. In fact, both these atrocities are purely the outcomes of military-industrial-state complexes.
Military empires can be depended upon to perpetrate atrocities.
There is historic context to what is going on.
It has been clearly documented that the “West” with the US in the lead made promises via Glasnost that NATO would NOT expand further towards Russia; but those promises were demolished precisely by NATO expansion, with military forces, year after year moving ever on, right up to Russian borders.
This NATO militarism has fueled Russian paranoia, founded on centuries of European and Asian land wars and invasions into Russia; and has provided the excuse for yet another power-mad autocrat with his military empire to strike.
It MIGHT have been possible in the preceding months for this invasion to be avoided, had the US and NATO nations been willing to contemplate no further NATO movement towards Russia; and to use mutually-serving diplomacy to pursue, however long it could take, to de-militarize the NATO-Russian interface.
This opportunity was roundly squandered, and instead predictable saber-rattling on both sides has resulted in what we have now.
Of course, the military forces now invading Ukraine are by no means “peace-keepers.”
The best that can be done now is to impose the strictest sanctions possible. And it is equally justified to use sanctions against continuing military atrocities across the globe.
(How about closing the forever-gulag-without-judicial-remedy on Guantanamo, and returning it and the adjacent US Marine threat to Cuba?)
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More great information Craig. I would make a minor point on the comparison to our illegal invasion of Iraq for which some of our political leaders should have faced prosecution. But, the difference is, Russia intends to physically keep Ukraine, we never intended to keep Iraq in the same sense.
Not to mention Iraq was never part of the US, whereas Ukraine used to be part of the USSR and before that the Russian Empire.
We were in Iraq an awfully long time.