by Tyler Durden for Zero Hedge
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.”
This war has left thousands of dead, tens of thousands wounded, a million displaced, and has begun to threaten the post-Cold War stability of Europe,” Engel said.
Odd, perhaps the US state department should have thought of that in a little over a year ago when Victoria Nuland was plotting how to most effectively put her puppet government in charge of Kiev and how to overthrow the lawfully elected president in a US-sponsored coup.
Then again, one glance at the Rep. Engel’s career donors provides some explanation for his tenacity to start another armed conflict and to escalate what he himself defines as a cold war into a warm one.
So what will Obama do? As a reminder, the president has been far more eager to sit this one out, and giving Europe the upper hand when it comes to the decision if and when to escalate the proxy civil war in Ukraine. To be sure, the vote puts even more pressure on the Obama administration, which has repeatedly said it was considering providing lethal aid to Ukraine; it just never dared to actually pull the trigger. Several months ago, the Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman General Martin Dempsey said we would “absolutely consider” providing lethal aid, sentiments that were echoed by Defense Secretary Ashton Carter, who said that he was also “inclined” in that direction.
Obama’s options may be even more limited after NATO’s top military commander General Philip Breedlove said Sunday that the West should “consider all our tools” to assist Ukraine, including sending defensive weapons to areas held by pro-Russian rebels.
For now the president is delaying because according to the State Department, the White House is waiting to see whether the second Minsk ceasefire will hold before deciding whether to deliver lethal assistance.
Ironically, the biggest stumbling block ahead of an outright overture to World War III, may be Hillary Clinton herself. The former SecState, currently embroiled in an e-mail communication scandal, was recently revealed to have been a recipient of some very generous foreign donations into the Clinton foundation: donations where Ukraine was at the very top!
Considering last week’s news of a just as dangerous cold war being waged between Obama’s right hand (wo)man, Valerie Jarrett, and the Clintons, it is perhaps just as likely that Obama, whose foreign policy team is absolutely abysmal and whose offshore “achievements” can best be described as a disaster, is not eager to get involved in Ukraine not so much to avert the cold war with Russia to turn hot, but to make Hillary’s life difficult as she launches her challenge to Obama’s favorite populist Elizabeth Warren.
Then again, when it comes to calling the foreign shots, the US president is merely a figurehead, and the real decision-maker has always been the US military-industrial complex. So while Obama may stall sending weapons, he will ultimately get a tap on the shoulder from the gentle folks shown on the table below, who will soon demand something in exchange for their millions in lobby funding.
The prepackaged spin is already ready: “sending weapons to the Kiev government would not mean involvement in a new war for America”, claimed the abovementioned Eliot Engel who sponsored the document. “The people of Ukraine are not looking for American troops,” Engel said. “They are just looking for the weapons.”
Beautiful. And if weapons the Ukraine wants, the US MIC will be delighted to provide them.
So the only question is how Russia will responds to this escalation: according to RT, “Washington’s decision to supply Ukraine with ammunition and weapons would “explode the whole situation” in eastern Ukraine and Russia would be forced to respond “appropriately,” Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov said at the end of February.
“It would be a major blow to the Minsk agreements and would explode the whole situation,” TASS quoted Ryabkov as saying.
In other words, bullish for stocks – just think of the central-bank monetary paradrops that World War III would unleash.
There is a glaring missing ethnic identification for a series of donors to the Clinton Foundation. The “Wall Street Journal” is concealing the largest source of fund$ for the foundation. Let’s allow the readers to identify the missing donors, with the winner/s winning a free cigar.
You notice that Arab nations are clearly identified, but another ethnic/religious group is concealed. Dieudonné says, & I paraphrase, “I do not want to hear about the Holocaust. I want to hear what Jews do TODAY.” *Emphasis mine.
The list insists that the Clinton Foundation gets 0 (I said NO) $$$ from the most lucrative source of funding for prostitute politicians. No insult meant to legitimate hard working prostitutes. I refuse to give away the answer. I will, however, reveal the source when my family celebrates the Seder, if none of you have guessed by then. Haaaa!!! Did I give it away???
The Ukraine contributions are telling. Did we forget Vice Pres. Biden’s son – & his appointment to the Ukraine’s largest Oil/gas company?
Yes, our Oligarch controlled leaders are a venal, violent, terrorist, evil, and corrupt lot.
What are we going to do about that?
For the Democratic Republics! Here and There!
IMAGINE
It’s all controlled at the top by an organized criminal syndicate. It is time to acknowledge it is organized crime. The syndicate is led by the same thugs controlling the nation you provided clues to.
In case the Dutch BOY is following my name and email address is provided for you.
@ Peter J. Antonsen,
Zero hedge = nomen est omen [like ‘The Daily Beast’]
It’s not about what they say, it’s all about what they do not mention.
Misdirection has become an art form and some have become very skilled at it.
Next will be articles published over at ‘WHAT REALLY HAPPENED’ [Rivero likes to yell in your face or so it seems] and ‘Prison Planet’ [Alex ‘Yes, my wife and kids can go and get a house in the Apartheid State’ Jones].
Nature does not only show us beauty. It shows us much more…
Dang. That was me. I’ll send a message to the webmaster.
and she’s a Skull and Bones member
Roll out the guillotine
Excuse: The Industry list is quite clear about the largest source of funding for Representative Engel, the Democrat gang -Author of the Congressional resolution on the sending of imperialist american weapons to the Kiev proto-Nazis. However, my remarks concerning the flawed list of donors to the Clinton Foundation – stand.
How hard would it be to add the ‘print button’ to texts? If it is too much work, ignore the suggestion, I just find myself often wanting to archive something from the Vineyard. These graphics are really vivid storytellers…
Best to all!
Just right-click on the graphic you want to save, and select “Save image as…” and give it any image you want.
How hard is it to type Ctrl-P instead of scrolling for the button? :-)
Not too hard, but the result is not same – it prints the whole page (with side pics and links, comments etc.) and not just the one text in printer friendly fashion. No matter, I am aware of all the ways to copy-paste-save myself and I am not complaining for the lack of “the button convenience”, it was a mere suggestion.
Regards!
I’ll ask the Webmaster
China will be sending a military honor guard unit of the PLA to the May WWII Victory celebration.
Symbolism is powerful. President Xi will attend, one of the first major leaders to accept.
Chinese troops in Moscow streets, partners in the Resistance against the Hegemon.
Historic partners and present partners against fascism and imperialism. And the two nations that lost the most people in the two theaters of war. Common bonds.
For China’s Victory celebration it was announce that President Putin will attend in Beijing.
Yes,Russia (the USSR included here) and China suffered more than any other countries and peoples during the war.While some peoples may have by percent lost more people.By shear numbers those countries were the big losers,by far in population. Which makes the Western revisionism of history these last months all the more despicable. While never according Russia (USSR) and China their due in the history of WW2.They are now spitting on the sacrifices that Russia (USSR) made towards winning the war.That is an insult to the millions of Russians (Soviets) killed in the war.As well as the survivors,their children and grandchildren alive today.I can’t think of any worse of an insult towards Russians the West could do.And hopefully they will pay a harsh price for that.
It is, indeed, a dire insult and the people will not soon forget it. Even the grandchildren of the millions of Soviet veterans talk about “The Great Patriotic War” with reverence. Bad, bad move on the part of the West to ignore Russia and China’s Victory Days.
@ Larchmonter445
China’s building an island in the ocean… and what’s Unca Sammy Doing?
Yeah, right. Zilch!
Que in the, ‘Blah, blah, blah…’ of someone who’s not allowed to speak to the media, but can’t keep his pie hole shut.
With the new Russian tank got a lot of flak about it not being up to western standards.. it is like the west has a blind spot. Overlook or make discoveries by others as their own all the while degenerating progress by anyone else. The soviets were always a lot more responsible in their developments than the west has ever been. We can just look at history of the west to see how irresponsible they are about third world cultures and people as long as it gives them an advantage. The very same thing that is going on right now around the world. All of a sudden the west develops a conscience.. Global warming so everyone needs to reduce development.. Its a big deal.. We will all die if everyone has all their lights on 24×7 and drive a gas guzzling Humvee to just go to loo. But good heavens don’t ever turn off your own lights.. Its always someone else’s problem.. Because they just are not developed enough are not Christian enough. Just the US forces use more Oil a day than the great majority of entire countries in the entire world. But good heavens.. They don’t cause global warming.. Eating humongous amounts of beef makes the entire world smell nice.. Just like their personas..
Well if the west itself can admit it..
In early 1930s, the Soviets were instrumental to the advancement of nuclear physics. The initial Soviet interest in nuclear physics had begun in the early 1930s, an era in which a variety of important nuclear discoveries and achievements were made (such as the identification of the neutron and proton as fundamental particles, the operation of the first cyclotron to energies of over 1 MeV, and the first “splitting” of the atomic nucleus by John Cockcroft and Ernest Walton). Even before the Russian revolution and the February Revolution, the mineralogist Vladimir Vernadsky had made a number of public calls for a survey of Russia’s uranium deposits.[citation needed] The main motivation for nuclear research at the time was radium, which had scientific as well as medical uses, and could be retrieved from borehole water from the Ukhta oilfields.
After the discovery of nuclear fission in the late 1930s, Soviet scientists, like scientists all over the world, realized that nuclear reactions could, in theory, be used to release large amounts of binding energy. As in the West, the news of fission created great excitement amongst Soviet scientists and many physicists switched their lines of research to those involving nuclear physics, as it was considered a promising field of research. Soviet nuclear research was not far behind Western scientists: Yakov Frenkel did the first theoretical work on fission in the Soviet Union in 1940, and Georgy Flyorov and Lev Rusinov concluded that 3±1 neutrons were emitted per fission only days after similar conclusions had been reached by the team of Frédéric Joliot-Curie.
A very interesting account of the Soviet development of their atomic bomb (and the lead up to it) is written about by Pavel Sudoplatov is in his book “Special Tasks” published in 1994.He played a part in it,from inside the NKVD as an official. He was tasked with many operations during his career.From “wet work” to supervising “illegals” working in the West.One of the tasks assigned him was the elimination of Leon Trotsky in Mexico. And the running of agents across the US/Mexico border.I found the book fascinating.And important in getting the “feel” of the time of the early Soviet/Western cloak and dagger days.
Thank you for that title!
You may wish to see the spectacular Russian historical reconstruction 4-part video series “Subversives” by StarMedia, in HD (720p) with English subtitles, at
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rB6oym9r5uU&list=PLhuA9d7RIOdbia3wsqsHxcCTVwebFo3RB&index=1
Its Episode 4 (43 minutes), https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-bJfKxhRTZY , contains extremely interesting material on Pavel Sudoplatov. The episode starts with a reconstruction of his assassination of the leader of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (:-!) in a restaurant in the middle of Rotterdam in 1938. Then traces Sudoplatov’s activities throughout the WWII.
The bill is House Res. 162. The vote is Roll Call 131. Please notice the votes. It would have been nice if the article had provided this info.
If it comes to all out war I prey that the right wing imperial power of the west will be no more.
Warren, don’t get bamboozled by the whole “Right Wing/Left Wing” charade. To characterize American actions as Right Wing, in the typical sense of that term, does not add up. Both the Left and the Right, two peas in a pod, are behind this insane rush for war. True “Right wingers” and true “Left wingers” agree with each other on this, that the USA is run by lunatics and oligarchs.
@ warren schaich
Every bird needs both of its wings to fly… Whenever something goes wrong, you can’t blame the wings…, right?
@Warren,
Democrats and Republicans. Different circus. Same clowns.
Both push for wars and chaos in the world.
There is no “left” or “right” all follow, voluntarily or not, the “crazies in the basement”.
Regards,
Carmel by the Sea
Retweeted Gleb Bazov (@gbazov):
#BREAKING—#KOLOMOISKIY calls for public unrest in all cities of #Ukraine on March 28. Details to follow.
“is already ready”
And supposedly he is a native English speaker.
Daniel Rich, if you are around…
But isn’t US already delivering lethal arms to Ukraine? Weeks ago two Ukrainian airports were closed for a couple days to other traffic while US sent in cargo.
Also, Poroshenko went to Qatar to arrange purchase of weapons– ostensibly from Qatar, but presumably only serving as a US conduit.
I suppose larger volumes are possible if US admits (or brags) that it’s sending weapons.
But the real enabler is the fact that the US can get away w such mega-lies about who is the aggressor.
The gray space aliens are controlling the US and supplying it with energy ray weapons!
OK — that’s a lie, but it’s rather impotent because only a few nuts believe it. We can’t stop the US from saying Russia is the aggressor, but who believes it? And what can be done to wise people up to the lies? That’s what the information war is about.
Even those who were believing it are beginning to wise up on their own now, even if the warmongers, nuts, pollsters, and media keep repeating it. The other question, however, is even if no one believed it how much of a difference would that make to the ones making war? Chomsky and Parenti says it makes a huge difference, but I’m not so sure; when you get mugged the mugger knows you know you are being mugged and he doesn’t care — mugs you anyway.
http://www.warandpeace.ru/ru/news/vprint/99837/
American tanks spotted in Austria: “They are transported to Ukraine”
26 March 2015 “… The leader of Freedom Party of Austria, Heinz-Christian Strache has published in Facebook a photo of the first party of 50 tanks, sent to Ukraine. Those are Bradley tanks, sent to Austria through Linz. At least, that is Strache’s interpretation. And if this is correct, America has taken the course towards at least formal violation of the agreements signed in Minsk between Ukraine and Russia …”
http://news-front.info/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/austriya.jpg
***
[I wonder… Are these tanks perhaps going elsewhere? The U.S. has been sending some similar junk to that Grybauskaite scarecrow lately. Bradley isn’t much of a tank nowadays anyway … like some re-painted WWII vintage… Then again … and why through Austria?…]
I hope Austria isn’t getting into this mess. I thought the Austrians were sort of pro-Russia ?
Sorry, forgot link, please delete previous
There’s definately some serious western escalation going on. Strings on puppets are getting yanked (pun intended). Isn’t there a ceasefire in Ukraine being given a chance -supposedly?
In addition to OSCE monitors suffering selective blindness, the USA deciding to approve lethal weaponry to Ukraine, there’s also now an information war on steroids.
Read this gutter journalism from the supposedly independent CBC in Canada:
Bill Browder’s nasty glimpse into the black heart of Putin’s Russia
“House of Commons passes unanimous motion to punish those responsible for Sergei Magnitsky’s death”
“Now, all of a sudden, everything that I’ve been saying is affecting the world more broadly. Putin has invaded Ukraine; he’s shot down 298 innocent people on [Malaysia Airlines Flight] MH 17; Boris Nemtsov was murdered right in front of the Kremlin. All of a sudden, what we’re seeing is that this is a bad guy who’s gonna cause a lot of problems for everybody.”
Or maybe it will all come to a crashing end. Now that he’s unmasked as a thug, Putin is increasingly at risk, according to Browder.”
http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/bill-browder-s-nasty-glimpse-into-the-black-heart-of-putin-s-russia-1.3010521
Here is some interesting reading on this “Bill” Browder: https://marknesop.wordpress.com/2011/08/21/its-not-what-you-know-its-who-you-know-deconstructing-william-browder/
*
For the uninitiated, this professional fraudster had as a “lawyer” no-one else but the infamous Magnitsky (the very one who croaked in captivity, was found guilty of fraud posthumously by court, and was not a lawyer at all, but an accountant). “Bill” himself is of Jewish heritage, is a persona non grata in Russian Federation (in 2006, after 10 years of crooked dealings in Russia – where he founded an NGO, “Heritage Foundation” – he was kicked out as “a treat to national security”!), is a grandson of the late leader of the Communist party U.S.A., has been a British subject since renouncing his U.S. citizenship in order to evade paying U.S. taxes, etc., etc…
An interesting thing about this zerohedge article is that the warmonger inciting war in the Ukraine (former Ukraine), some zio-nazi parasite/traitor called Engel, was mostly funded by the Israeli-drug multinational lobbies, not by the “military industrial complex”, the latter not even listed among the doners to this zionazi quisling.
Lithuanians Under Police State Attack: and the world under Washington’s attack — Paul Craig Roberts – According to news reports https://ltnacionalistas.wordpress.com/angliskai/lithuanian-government-intensifies-persecutions-against-anti-imperialist-activists/ and to this appeal by Kristoferis Voishka https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X6MDj2uvyLk
the pro-American government installed in Lithuania is persecuting Lithuanians who dissent from the anti-Russian propaganda that is driving Washington’s NATO puppets to war with Russia. Unlike their puppet government, Lithuanians understand that war with Russia means that Lithuania on the front line will be utterly destroyed, a result that would not bother Washington in the least, just as Washington is undisturbed when its forces obliterate weddings, funerals, and children’s soccer games.
What is Lithuania? To Washington it is a nothing.
Read more here – http://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2015/03/25/lithuanians-police-state-attack-world-washingtons-attack-paul-craig-roberts/
From the Washington Post 24 March 2015 article titled “U.S.-v.-Russia: Even Stephen Cohen Is Starting to Speak the Truth”, http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2015/03/u-s-v-russia-even-stephen-cohen-starting-speak-truth.html (check the original for the in-text web links):
“…
An alarming development is that Stephen F. Cohen, the internationally prominent scholar of Russia, is acknowledging that (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vWzHhW_qNiM , 1:35 on the video) “for the first time in my long life (I began in this field in the 1960s), I think the possibility of war with Russia is real,” and he clearly and unequivocally places all of the blame for it on the U.S. leadership. He calls this “possibly a fateful turning-point in history.” He also says “it could be the beginning of the end of the so-called trans-Atlantic alliance.”
…
Regarding Obama (13:00): “I have never seen an American President make such personal remarks about a Russian leader [Putin] in public.”
Regarding the existing Ukrainian Government (14:10): “This is not a democratic regime. … Unless the West stops supporting Kiev unconditionally, I fear we are drifting toward war with Russia.”
…
He doesn’t even so much as mention the Ukrainian Government’s war to eliminate the residents in the resisting region (Donbass — Ukraine’s far-east).
…
But it’s a lot better than Cohen’s earlier mealy-mouthed statements. And what it shows to all of us is that he is now truly alarmed.
…
Things are so scary now, that even he is beginning to come close to saying publicly (to whatever small public the U.S. aristocracy will allow him to be heard) that America’s corruption at the top is threatening the continued existence of civilization.
…”
[Cohen’s talk is also mentioned in http://russia-insider.com/en/2015/03/20/4761 .]
(That was Washington Blog, not “Washington Post”, sorry.)
In my memory Stephen Cohen was always defending Russia. On RT wioth Sophie Shevardndze. On Thom Hartman. In The Nation. For over ayear now.
Most of the American weapons supplied to South Vietnam were captured by the North, in 1975. Some of them ended up in the hands of South American “left insurgencies”. Read this article:
http://www.wilsoncenter.org/publication/vietnam-covertly-supplied-weapons-to-revolutionaries-algeria-and-latin-america