Leash That Dog

“The pattern, of course, is unmistakable. It begins with sanctimonious finger-wagging, economic sanctions and incendiary rhetoric…” Mike Whitney

I don’t have a good sense for what is happening in the Ukraine, though I suspect the US is up to its ears in back-channel intrigue. On ABC News recently ace correspondent Martha Raddatz said, “Putin’s ruthless aggression against Ukraine.” Is this how the people of Ukraine view things or is that assessment of Putin being fed to ABC News directly from the Pentagon and the CIA? The US has an agenda in the region – and likely played a role in the coup in Kiev -- that has little or nothing to do with the well being of the people living there. Vice President Biden’s recent comments – accompanied by sanctimonious finger wagging -- about no country having the right to seize territory from another by force are risible. Given the history of the past decade, the US is the last nation to talk about the use of force.

How soon we forget our own depredations.

What’s really going on here? Is Putin an evil tyrant hell bent on annexing territory and reconstituting the Russian empire, or is he merely reacting rationally to prevent Russia from being surrounded by NATO bases? From Putin’s vantage point, the saber rattling, military exercises and economic sanctions instigated by Washington must seem ominous.

As journalist Mike Whitney points out in an article he wrote for the website Counterpunch, this is how it begins. Aside from Counterpunch and Truthout, the American media continually refers to the situation in Ukraine as a “crisis,” a word so overused by talking heads – such as the aforementioned Martha Raddatz – that it’s meaningless. Providing any historical context is far too laborious a task for the mainstream media – after all -- there are missing airplanes and celebrity breakups and dance competitions and royal infants to cover in excruciating detail.

What I find astonishing is how quickly the US lurches from one international emergency to the next, from Syria and its stockpiles of deadly chemical agents, to Iran’s purported nuclear ambitions, to Putin’s territorial designs on the Crimea and Ukraine. The mortal enemy of the US, and by extension of freedom, liberty and capitalism, seems to change from week to week.

We are ever ready to unleash the dogs of war.