Obama Remains High-Handed—And Wrong—About Ukraine

[Karmadillo]

http://www.commondreams.org/views/2014/11/19/obama-remains-high-handed-and-wrong-about-ukraine

Obama Remains High-Handed—And Wrong—About Ukraine
byWilliam Pfaff
November 19, 2014

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President Obama’s final words to Mr. Putin set the pattern for hypocrisy: “(We are) very firm on the need to uphold core international principles, and one of those principles is you don’t invade other countries or finance proxies ... to break up a country that has mechanisms for democratic elections.”

Is it possible that no one in his own government has yet worked up the courage to tell Mr. Obama that it was his own United States State Department that arranged a public uprising in Kiev last February, against a democratically elected (if corrupt) president of Ukraine, and sponsored the coup d’etat that made Arseniy Yatsenyuk (known as “Yats” in the department) prime minister? The Washington-sponsored coup occurred before there were any Russian troops in Ukraine, and before either government had as yet dreamed that Mr. Putin would annex Crimea in retaliation.

Obama, had he wished, could have read the whole story of the affair in a recent issue of the journal Foreign Affairs, written by the noted historian John Mearsheimer of the University of Chicago, or by Princeton’s Russia expert Stephen Cohen in other current publications.

Or he could have read an interview, published on the website TheRealNews.com Nov. 9, with Ray McGovern, a retired 27-year CIA veteran, who was the agency’s presidential daily briefer during the Reagan and George H.W. Bush administrations. McGovern explained how the affair was initiated at the NATO meeting in Bucharest in April 2008, which resolved to make Ukraine and Georgia NATO members (despite assurances to the contrary given by two American presidents; the Georgia attempt was made but failed in 2008). The president could even have read the inside story in this column, but I am certain did not.

As the West European members of NATO surely gave their agreement to this secret effort to overthrow and replace the Ukrainian government, it strikes me as not only hypocritical but dishonorable for them to have continued at Brisbane to berate Vladimir Putin for Russia’s supposed aggression against Ukraine.

more...

[dilby]

1. Didn't we help orchestrate the overthrow of the Ukrainian Government in the first place?

And lets not even talk about what we have done in the Middle East and Africa.

[GGJohn]

2. No, we didn't.

[stevenleser]

3. The continued attempts to justify Russia's unprovoked war of aggression in Ukraine are hilarious

[dionysus]

4. the cardboard cutout comrades sure are dogged in thier devotion to the cause.

[stevenleser]

5. Yup, it brings to mind words like Zealotry. nt

[Comrade Grumpy]

6. Both the US and Russia have been interfering in Ukraine. I don't know why that's so hard.

[geek tragedy]

8. 10/10 on the False Equivalence Scale. nt

[geek tragedy]

7. Stopped reading after the third bald-faced lie from this Poot-licking tool.

But then I caught where he criticized the President for not religiously reading Crazy Ray McGovern.

The insularity of the Obama-hating 'left.'

[11 Bravo]

9. Pootie just needs to take his shirt off again. Surely ...

that will endear him to those of us who regard him as a totalitarian, unreconstructed, ex-KGB thug.
(FUCK, a white thug! Have Drudge or Breitbart heard?)

[MineralMan]

10. So what do you think?

Is this writer trustworthy, and are you familiar with the writer's past accuracy? In other words, can you explain why we should give any credence to this? I'll wait here.

[Karmadillo]

12. Why rely on me when you have the power

of the mouse? William Pfaff gets around a fair amount, but if you're unfamiliar with him, you can click on the link at the end of the article if you make it that far. He also lays down pretty good clues on how to find the sources he cites throughout. P.S. I appreciate the repetitive nature of your occasional responses to my posts. I'm not sure they're as clever as you imagine, but it's nice to be remembered.

[MineralMan]

13. Why would I do that?

He's your source. I asked, thinking you might have the information. Since commondreams is quite spotty in the quality of writers who post there, I'm hesitant to automatically trust that site. You posted the article, so I asked you what you thought of what you posted and of the source.

You have not given an answer to either question, so I'll be on my way.

[GeorgeGist]

16. Your lazy response ....

Is quite revealing.

[bemildred]

17. Mr. Pfaff is a respected American journalist of long standing.

http://www.williampfaff.com/

I recognize the name immediately.

[nationalize the fed]

11. k/r

How many Americans would agree that it is/was a good idea to "invest" 5 billion dollars in Ukraine?

The Chevron logo says it all

except Nuland adds: "F&CK the EU"

Nuland- Wife of PNAC Co-founder Kagan. It's a "New American Century"

[SidDithers]

19. Green for victory!!...nt

Sid

[SidDithers]

14. ...

Sid

[Odin2005]

15. LOL, keep humping Putin.

[Tommy_Carcetti]

18. The amount of misinformation just in the sentences you've bolded is stagerring.

So the US "arranged" a public uprising in February 2014......never mind the fact that those protests had been going on for several months by that time? And then it says there was a "coup d'état" which is most definitely not a "public uprising". One denotes a small group, the other denotes thousands.....

More of the same trash.