By Peter Awele Odor
Just after WW2 in 1945, George Marshall declared “globalism”. This means that the US should police the world with military might in order to preserve its military and economic overlordship. In 1946 Mr George Kennan recommended that the US should carry out “firm containment of Russia” while in 1947 President Harry Truman declared the “containment of Communism”. When NATO was created in 1949 as a military alliance, Mr Kennan declared: “NATO will function as a tripwire, bringing the full military and atomic force of the United States to bear on the Soviet Union if it dared to cross the East-West line”. These four declarations, made because the Soviet Union was the only country that could match the military power of the US, violated the international relation policy which President George Washington recommended to the US in his Farewell Address (1796) and was “steadfastly maintained” until then. It heralded terrorism!
For decades, the US was warned that “the expansion of NATO to Eastern Europe would provoke Russia” because it has remained within its territory. Russian president, Vladimir Putin, protested that enlarging the membership of NATO across the East-West line, most notably with the Baltic countries joining the Alliance in 2004, violated the agreement reached and solemn promise made in order to ensure that peace is maintained. Following assurance given to Ukraine and Georgia in 2008 that they would be members of NATO, he warned that it was a “direct threat” to Russia.
Mr Kennan’s “containment of Communism” was achieved with the dissolution of the Warsaw Pact, change from “communism” to capitalism, and “the crash that brought Russia to its knees” — while Boris Yeltsin was the president of Russia, masterminded by the CIA, IMF and World Bank (1998). Ukraine’s membership of NATO which is being pursuit with determination is intended to provide the ground for the final onslaught on Russia to achieve the “Firm containment of Russia”, as the US used Diego Garcia for the onslaught against Iraq to murder President Sadam Hussein (Documentary by Christiane Amanpour). Therefore, Ukraine’s membership of NATO is a real and very serious threat not only to Russia but, more seriously, the continued existence of man on earth, because President Putin and the Duma are equally determined that Ukraine will never be a member of NATO.
The US government has always meddled in the affairs of European nations and violated their sovereignty and freedom, and also international laws, with impunity. It repudiated the League of Nations and Kellogg-Briand Pact, escalated the crises which preceded WW1 and WW2, and took advantage of the wars to become the most dominant in military, currency and economy terms in the world. Because the US is not in Europe and the US government has the authority that is respected in Europe, it should be a peacemaker.
What began as the consequence of the conspiratorial and violent removal of the legitimate president of Russia, President Viktor Yanukovych, in 2014, masterminded by US CIA, just as the CIA had overthrown several presidents and imposed US stooges on the nations, developed into a crisis on February 22, 2014 following the violation of the peace agreement signed on February 21, 2014 by parties to the crisis which Germany, France and Poland guaranteed compliance with. What followed was a series of onslaught on Russian diplomats and Russians in Dunestsk and Lugansk; the violation of Russian embassy and consulates, and destruction of properties in Russian Centre of Science and Culture and in Russian Orthodox Church. The provocative attacks got to intolerable peak with the change of the constitutional official language of Ukraine, Russia.
President Vladimir Putin, who while the series of actions were carried out sued for peaceful coexistence and preservation of the brotherly bond between Russia and Ukraine, based on their common ancestry, Kievski Rus, their communion under the Union of Soviet Socialist Republic (USSR), and respect of the agreements signed to allow the independence of Ukraine to no avail, launched several missiles into Ukraine on February 24, 2022 because the Duma recommended it.
Following the request for help by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who should have made peace with his brother, President Putin, all Russian finances in foreign banks were blocked, avalanche of sanctions were imposed on everything Russian, including Chelsea Football Club, in violation of “separation of sports and politics” rule, because a Russian owned it, and some governments, including China, India and Saudi Arabia, were told to stop business dealings with Russia. These known US strategies for winning a war have failed.
The reiteration at Brussels Summit in June 2021 of the decision reached in 2008 to bring Ukraine into the Alliance, the crossing of the East-West line by NATO, US mastermind of the coup in Ukraine in 2014, and the attacks, destruction, violation of Russian diplomatic heaven and change of the official language that followed it, caused the war and NOT the launch of the missiles. The assertion that President Putin planned to annex Ukraine was a strategic lie, like the lie told about President Sadam Hussein in order to murder him!
The emotions aroused by the images of dead and wounded Ukrainians, buildings destroyed in Ukraine, and Ukrainians fleeing Ukraine on the screens of mainstream media — none seen yet about Russia — are the bases of the condemnation of Russia over the war. But these are effects and not the causes of the war. The causes, revealed earlier, should be addressed for there to be peace between Ukraine and Russia and, indeed, in the world.
Some people have argued that President Zelenskyy has right to belong to NATO. His right ends where the right of President Putin to defend Russians and the territorial integrity of Russia begins.
The world needs Kellogg-Briand Pact and not NATO. President Biden, a devout Catholic, should end US pursuit of “Firm containment of Russia” without any delay. He should also recant his words: “This man (President Putin) cannot remain in power”. Obviously, President Zelenskyy exposed his political ambition, lust for power and political naivety.
Odor wrote from Akoka, Lagos
