New sheriff in Slovakia to Mr. Z: ‘No more weapons for you.’

New sheriff in Slovakia to Mr. Z: ‘No more weapons for you.’

 

While US presidential candidates champion endless support for US wars, proxy and otherwise, one such candidate in Slovakia did the opposite. And he won.

 

Robert Fico’s Smer-SD party triumphed last month making Fico Prime Minster. He campaigned on reversing another round of Slovakian weapons for Ukraine which have done nothing but prolong the war for 21 months now. Fico promptly cancelled previously approved package of 140 KUB air defense system rockets, over 5,000 pieces of 125 mm cannon ammunition, and 4 million rounds of small arms ammunition.

 

Hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians would still be alive had US/NATO countries demanded negotiations early on instead of weaponry to prolong the bloodshed.  

                                             

Sure would be nice if Joe Biden and the dozen or so Republican candidates would follow Fico’s lead and campaign to cancel the current $61 billion weapons package proposal for Ukraine. Better to use that precious treasure to uplift the Homeland instead of further destroying Ukraine.

 

The moniker ‘Genocide Joe’ beginning to fit President Biden

 The moniker ‘Genocide Joe’ beginning to fit President Biden

The Chicago Tribune headline last nite should have been in the largest type available:

‘Civilians trapped in Gaza running out of food, fuel and hope.’

That’s not 23 or 230 or 2,300 civilians in Gaza. It’s 2,300,000.

That near genocidal ethnic cleansing by Israel is fervently supported and enabled by President Biden. It is the most ghoulish US foreign policy I’ve witnessed in my 72 years following America’s international affairs.

Biden appears to view the grotesque destruction he’s enabling of the 2.3 million folks there in purely political terms. He’s feeling the heat of tens of million nationally and likely billions worldwide, that immediate ceasefire and unlimited humanitarian relief must occur forthwith.

But Biden simply fakes empathy, calling for a ‘pause’ for humanitarian relief before the onslaught continues unabated. He sent his Secretary of State Tony Blinken to Israel to literally beg Prime Minister Netanyahu to implement such a pause. Netanyahu brushed him off like a fly on his lapel.

Biden has tremendous leverage to force both an immediate ceasefire and a commitment to work for a true two state solution to end Israel’s 75 yearlong imprisonment and destruction of the Palestinian people. He must implement his own ceasefire by cancelling America’s $3.8 billion annual giveaway to Israel forthwith. He should withdraw his request for a supplemental $14 billion in weaponry and other aid that supports genocidal ethnic cleansing. Israel needs not one dollar in US largess. Israel’s annual expenditure on defense has dropped from over 20% of GDP in ’73 to just 5% today. Why should Israel spend more when Uncle Sam helps make up the slack with borrowed US treasure? It has by far the most powerful military in the Middle East. No other power comes close.

Many can no longer look at Joe Biden’s visage without pondering: ‘Why is the most powerful leader in the world, allowing this unrelenting humanitarian catastrophe continue?’ Without an immediate and robust pivot to peace, Biden’s legacy may not be America’s 46th president.

He’s risking more and more it simply being ‘Genocide Joe.’

Ghost of McGovern haunts Democratic foreign policy

 Ghost of McGovern haunts Democratic foreign policy

The 2024 election marks the 20th in my 79 years.

The only true antiwar presidential nominee in my lifetime was Democrat George McGovern in 1972. He ran against pro Vietnam War president Richard Nixon, who claimed America could achieve peace with honor there. McGovern said ‘Bunk’ and pledged to end the war without, as Nixon’s policy guaranteed, getting hundreds of thousands more Vietnamese, and tens of thousands more U.S. soldiers killed. Result? The U.S. electorate rejected McGovern’s vision overwhelmingly, giving Nixon 49 states and a 23.2% vote margin. Democrats, traditionally less militaristic than Republicans, learned a hard lesson: never campaign for peace over war.

In the 13 presidential elections since, including this one, Democrats dared not champion peace against war loving Republicans. In 2004, former Vietnam peace advocate John Kerry had the chance to call out George W. Bush for his illegal, immoral and criminal Iraq war. Instead he bailed, campaigning on winning the war, which was in tatters, by fighting it more intelligently.

In 2008 and 2012, Barack Obama hinted at withdrawing from senseless wars. Once in office, he not only didn’t fully end them, he added to America’s Wars of Shame, intervening in Libya, Yemen and Syria; helping turn them into failed states, with hundreds of thousands of deaths and millions of refugees.

Trump also campaigned against America’s forever wars, then dropped more bombs than Obama, assassinated a high ranking Iranian general, and nearly started massive wars against both Iran and North Korea.

But rather than call out and campaign against this military bellicosity, Joe Biden campaigned for more military spending, more confrontation with China and Russia, adversaries he called “near peer powers”.

Biden got off to a good start by quickly ending America’s disastrous 20 year war in Afghanistan. Then he doubled, tripled quadrupled down on other perpetual warfare thruout his first term.

He’s provoked and enabled the Russian war in Ukraine, sabotaging every effort to end it early on. Ukraine is no longer a sustainable country without US life support. Hundreds of thousands are unnecessarily dead.

He’s expanded provocative rhetoric and military exercises against North Korea and China in the Far East.

He’s enabled and supported Israel’s near genocidal ethnic cleansing of Gaza following Hamas’ attacks.

He’s committed to spending a second hundred billion of scarce American treasure to fund these totally unnecessary, self-destructive policies.

Biden is no fool regarding electability. He knows peace doesn’t sell with a war obsessed government and military fueled by companies selling hundreds of billions in weapons of mass civilian destruction. They ply their madness over a clueless, compliant and complicit electorate. And astride Biden’s shoulder, every blood drenched step of the way, is the ghost of George McGovern.

Mr. Zelensky: Everybody knows the war is over….everybody knows Ukraine lost

 Mr. Zelensky: Everybody knows the war is over….everybody knows Ukraine lost

Volodymyr Zelensky won the 2019 Ukraine presidency over incumbent Petro Poroshenko with overwhelming support from the Donbas Ukrainians tired of being brutalized and murdered by the ultra-nationalist Kyiv government installed by the US supported coup in 2014. Zelensky had pledged to unify Ukraine’s desperate East-West factions, ending the 5 year long civil war for Donbas freedom and independence.

Once in office Zelensky was informed by the real Kyiv power to either play ball with the purge of Donbas nationalism or leave Kyiv for his health. Zelensky chose the former. He turned on his Donbas base, ramping up the civil war and pledging to join NATO to keep Russia from intervening.

All that accomplished was the Russian invasion three years later. Russia spent that entire time pleading with Ukraine, the US and EU NATO members to fulfill their promise to grant Donbas independence under Ukraine sovereignty. The US, NATO and Ukraine simply stalled to build up Ukraine military to finish off Donbas Ukrainians.

Big mistake. Russia didn’t bluff on its warnings. Twenty-one months into the war, Ukraine is finished. Their trumpeted counteroffensive was a bust. They are running out of soldiers to fight no matter how many hundreds of billions in weapons Uncle Sam sends them. And Uncle Sam, sensing imminent defeat, is finally suggesting that negotiations must be considered. Besides, the US is more interested in sending billions in weapons for Israel to finish of the ethnic cleansing and destruction of Gaza, a sure winner instead of a sure loser.

Even the Ukraine military is now going public with ominous warnings the war cannot be won. Why go public? President Zelensky remains in denial of the impending loss of the area in Eastern Ukraine he was trying to destroy. Time Magazine quotes Zelensky’s advisors who charge he is in conflict with his generals, that his strategy for wining no longer reflects the reality on the battlefield, and verges on the messianic. They say, “We’re out of options. We’re not winning. But try telling him that.”

Everybody knows the war is over. Everybody knows that Ukraine lost. Everybody knows but Volodymyr Zelensky.

Ghost of McGovern haunts Democratic foreign policy

 Ghost of McGovern haunts Democratic foreign policy

The 2024 election marks the 20th in my 79 years.

The only true antiwar presidential nominee in my lifetime was Democrat George McGovern in 1972. He ran against pro Vietnam War president Richard Nixon, who claimed America could achieve peace with honor there. McGovern said ‘Bunk’ and pledged to end the war without, as Nixon’s policy guaranteed, getting hundreds of thousands more Vietnamese, and tens of thousands more U.S. soldiers killed. Result? The U.S. electorate rejected McGovern’s vision overwhelmingly, giving Nixon 49 states and a 23.2% vote margin. Democrats, traditionally less militaristic than Republicans, learned a hard lesson: never campaign for peace over war.

In the 13 presidential elections since, including this one, Democrats dared not champion peace against war loving Republicans. In 2004, former Vietnam peace advocate John Kerry had the chance to call out George W. Bush for his illegal, immoral and criminal Iraq war. Instead he bailed, campaigning on winning the war, which was in tatters, by fighting it more intelligently.

In 2008 and 2012, Barack Obama hinted at withdrawing from senseless wars. Once in office, he not only didn’t fully end them, he added to America’s Wars of Shame, intervening in Libya, Yemen and Syria; helping turn them into failed states, with hundreds of thousands of deaths and millions of refugees.

Trump also campaigned against America’s forever wars, then dropped more bombs than Obama, assassinated a high ranking Iranian general, and nearly started massive wars against both Iran and North Korea.

But rather than call out and campaign against this military bellicosity, Joe Biden campaigned for more military spending, more confrontation with China and Russia, adversaries he called “near peer powers”.

Biden got off to a good start by quickly ending America’s disastrous 20 year war in Afghanistan. Then he doubled, tripled quadrupled down on other perpetual warfare thruout his first term.

He’s provoked and enabled the Russian war in Ukraine, sabotaging every effort to end it early on. Ukraine is no longer a sustainable country without US life support. Hundreds of thousands are unnecessarily dead.

He’s expanded provocative rhetoric and military exercises against North Korea and China in the Far East.

He’s enabled and supported Israel’s near genocidal ethnic cleansing of Gaza following Hamas’ attacks.

He’s committed to spending a second hundred billion of scarce American treasure to fund these totally unnecessary, self-destructive policies.

Biden is no fool regarding electability. He knows peace doesn’t sell with a war obsessed government and military fueled by companies selling hundreds of billions in weapons of mass civilian destruction. They ply their madness over a clueless, compliant and complicit electorate. And astride Biden’s shoulder, every blood drenched step of the way, is the ghost of George McGovern.