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US House Votes 348-48 To Arm Ukraine, Russia Warns Lethal Aid Will “Explode The Whole Situation”
US House Votes 348-48 To Arm Ukraine, Russia Warns Lethal Aid Will “Explode The Whole Situation”
Yesterday, in a vote that largely slid under the radar, the House of Representatives passed a resolution urging Obama to send lethal aid to Ukraine, providing offensive, not just “defensive” weapons to the Ukraine army – the same insolvent, hyperinflating Ukraine which, with a Caa3/CC credit rating, last week started preparations to issue sovereign debt with a US guarantee, in essence making it a part of the United States (something the US previously did as a favor to Egypt before the Muslim Brotherhood puppet regime was swept from power by the local army).
The resolution passed with broad bipartisan support by a count of 348 to 48.
According to DW, the measure urges Obama to provide Ukraine with “lethal defensive weapon systems” that would better enable Ukraine to defend its territory from “the unprovoked and continuing aggression of the Russian Federation.”
“Policy like this should not be partisan,” said House Democrat Eliot Engel, the lead sponsor of the resolution. “That is why we are rising today as Democrats and Republicans, really as Americans, to say enough is enough in Ukraine.”
Engel, a New York Democrat, has decided that he knows better than Europe what is the best option for Ukraine’s people – a Europe, and especially Germany, which has repeatedly said it rejects a push to give western arms to the Ukraine army, and warned that Russia under President Vladimir Putin has become “a clear threat to half century of American commitment to an investment in a Europe that is whole, free and at peace. A Europe where borders are not changed by force.”
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
US “Loses” $500 Million In Weapons Given To Yemen, Now In Al-Qaeda Hands
US “Loses” $500 Million In Weapons Given To Yemen, Now In Al-Qaeda Hands
Nobody could have possibly foreseen that yet another US foreign diplomacy “success story” would turn out to be an epic disaster. Well, nobody, except for those who accurately predict that every US intervention abroad is now a staggering fiasco (for everyone involved except the US military-industrial complex of course). As for Yemen, the outcome was clear long ago:
- Yemen’s US-Backed Government & President Resign
- Obama’s “Partners” In Yemen Overthrown As Presidential Palace Falls To Local Militiamen
- Deserted US Embassy In Yemen Immediately Seized By Armed Rebels
- The Coup Is Complete: US Embassy In Yemen Shutting Down, Ambassador To Leave By Wednesday
And, naturally, after noting that “the employees said that more than 20 vehicles were taken by the fighters after the Americans departed from Sanaa’s airport” we asked how long until we have a “tabulation of losses to US taxpayers, just like the great Islamic State ‘robbery’ of hundreds of millions in US military equipment in Iraq?” That, of course, was another epic US intervention success story.
Anyway, thanks to WaPo we have an answer: according to Jeff Bezos’ recent media acquisition, “the Pentagon is unable to account for more than $500 million in U.S. military aid given to Yemen.”
Obviously, “can’t account for” means “has lost.” But while the US does not know where nearly half a billion in weapons can be found, it is more than informed who is the current owner: there are“fears that the weaponry, aircraft and equipment is at risk of being seized by Iranian-backed rebels or al-Qaeda, according to U.S. officials.”
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
Ukraine’s Prime Minister Yatsenyuk Declares War on Russia
Ukraine’s Prime Minister Yatsenyuk Declares War on Russia
Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk, who on 4 February 2014 was selected for his post by Victoria Nuland of the U.S. State Department, was quoted by Ukrainian media on Thursday March 12th of 2015 as saying that, “Ukraine is in a state of war with a nuclear state, which is the Russian Federation. Hostile countries over the past decade have spent billions of dollars rearming it.”
His quoted statement went on to blame Ukraine’s problems on Russia: “The country [Ukraine] is billions of dollars in debt, having been a corrupt and demoralized nation that has no gas in storage and no dollars to buy it. … [Russia] destroyed 20% of Ukraine’s economy, bombed the mines in the fighting, and produced a million displaced persons, who, as a result are forced to leave their homes.” [NOTE: Those bombs, some of which were firebombs, actually fell from Ukrainian Air Force planes, and were supplemented by Ukrainian Army missiles. The resident forces in the rebel area of the southeast that the Ukrainian Government is fighting against had no air force at all until recently, and very little even now. And, of course, any “rearming” of Russia is being done by Russia, not by “Hostile countries over the past decade.”]
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
US Considering Openly Arming Syrian al-Qaeda Faction, al-Nusra
US Considering Openly Arming Syrian al-Qaeda Faction, al-Nusra
As reported at Antiwar.com, the US and some of its regional client dictatorships are prodding the major al-Qaeda faction operating in Syria, a brutal terrorist group called al-Nusra, to “re-brand” so the US can openly arm it.
Wikipedia notes that al-Nusra:
…is a branch of al-Qaeda operating in Syria…
…has been designated as a terrorist organisation by the United Nations, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Russia, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Turkey.
…is generally made up of native Syrian mujahideen who adhere to Sunni Islam. Its goal is to overthrow Bashar al-Assad’s government in Syria and create an Islamic Emirate under Sharia law.
Members of the group have referred to the United States and Israel as enemies of Islam, and warned against Western intervention in Syria.
al-Nusra is also, according to both the United States government and ISIS itself, affiliated with ISIS, formerly known as AQI – al Qaeda in Iraq.
The Council on Foreign Relations notes:
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
Russia warns US: ‘Don’t arm Kiev’
Russia warns US: ‘Don’t arm Kiev’
A close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin has told the European Parliament that “all-out war” could result if the US supplies arms to the Ukrainian government in Kiev.
Alexei Pushkov, a leading Russian MP, was addressing about 100 MEPs in the parliament’s foreign affairs committee.
He was speaking after President Barack Obama said he had not ruled out sending arms to Kiev if diplomacy failed.
The option of lethal defensive weapons was being examined, Mr Obama said.
Mr Pushkov, who is on the US sanctions blacklist, warned that American weapons could “expand the war and turn it into a real threat to the whole European security system”, Tass news agency quoted him as saying.
He is not on the EU list of top Russian politicians and industrialists subject to a visa ban and asset freeze, imposed after Russia’s annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea peninsula in March 2014.
He was invited to Strasbourg by the foreign affairs committee. He told European Parliament TV that arms supplies were the first step in the US involvement in the Vietnam War in the 1960s.
“First they sent weapons, then they sent military advisers, then troops to protect military advisers, then troops to fight the Vietnamese.”
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
China opposes US plans to supply arms to Ukraine — Foreign Ministry
China opposes US plans to supply arms to Ukraine — Foreign Ministry
People in eastern Ukraine now are more in need of peace rather than weapons, China’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson said commenting on the US plans
BEIJING, February 9. /TASS/. China is against Washington’s plans to provide Ukraine with weapons, the country’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said on Monday.
“China calls for the political settlement of the crisis in Ukraine as this meets the interests of all the sides. People in eastern Ukraine now are more in need of peace rather than weapons,” the diplomat stressed, commenting on the US plans.
Beijing welcomes and supports the active mediation efforts, which have been recently taken by the parties to ease tensions in eastern Ukraine and resolve the crisis by political means, she said.
China urges all the sides to refrain from any actions that could lead to an increase in confrontation or affect the negotiation process, the Chinese Foreign Ministry’s spokesperson said.
“China will continue playing a constructive role in the political settlement of the crisis in Ukraine,” the diplomat said.
Last Sunday, the New York Times newspaper reported that the Unites States considered supplying arms to Ukrainian forces. The Russian Foreign Ministry’s official spokesman, Alexander Lukashevich, said last week Moscow was seriously concerned by these plans.
Ukraine conflict: Why U.S. arms could lead to ‘serious trouble’
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry meets with Ukrainian president
For nearly a year now, the U.S. has spurned calls to provide arms to Ukraine in its increasingly bloody conflict with Russian-backed separatists.
But now, officials in the White House are musing openly about sending “lethal aid” to Ukraine, which some military analysts believe is the only way to deal with what they see as belligerence from Russian President Vladimir Putin.
- U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry urges Russia to commit to Ukraine peace
- Ukraine conflict tilts U.S. toward arming country against rebels
Arming Ukraine “would be a very significant escalation, but it’s a necessary one,” says Stephen Blank, senior fellow with the American Foreign Policy Council in Washington, D.C., who calls Russia’s actions in Ukraine “the greatest threat to international security that we have today.”
But there’s a strong possibility that by arming Ukraine, the U.S. could spur Russia to unpredictable action, says John Mearsheimer, co-director of the Program on International Security Policy at the University of Chicago.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
Russia warns US not to arm Ukraine forces against pro-Russian rebels | World news | theguardian.com
Russia warns US not to arm Ukraine forces against pro-Russian rebels | World news | theguardian.com.
Russia has warned the United States against supplying arms to Ukrainian forces fighting pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine, hours before US vice-president Joe Biden was due to arrive in Kiev on Thursday.
Ukraine accused Vladimir Putin of treating its territory like a “playing field“, trying to unleash a full-scale war that would pose a broader threat to Nato countries.
Russian foreign ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich said in Moscow that a US official’s suggestion Washington should consider sending arms to Ukraine, where pro-Russian rebels have been fighting government forces since April, sent a “very serious signal“.
Lukashevich cautioned against “a major change in policy of the (US) administration in regard to the conflict” in Ukraine.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
