{"id":248814,"date":"2022-01-26T12:21:02","date_gmt":"2022-01-26T12:21:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=248814"},"modified":"2022-01-28T08:54:31","modified_gmt":"2022-01-28T08:54:31","slug":"moscow-to-washington-remove-the-nukes-on-our-doorstep-and-stop-the-eastward-push","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=248814","title":{"rendered":"Moscow to Washington: “Remove the Nukes on Our Doorstep and Stop the Eastward Push”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mike Whitney \u2013 The Unz Review Jan 25, 2022<\/strong><\/h1>\n

\u201cThere arrives a moment of truth when the West either accepts our proposals or other ways will be found to safeguard Russia\u2019s security.\u201d<\/strong> Konstantin Gavrilov, head of the Russian delegation at the Vienna negotiations<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s a simple way to test your understanding of the current US-Russia standoff. All you need to do is answer one very-basic question about the nature of the conflict, and that answer will determine whether you understand what is actually going on or not. Here\u2019s the question:<\/p>\n

What is the source of the confrontation between the US and Russia in the Ukraine:<\/strong><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Russia has amassed over 100,000 combat troops near Ukraine\u2019s eastern border and is threatening to invade.<\/li>\n
  2. Russian President Vladimir Putin wants to rebuild the Soviet Empire by expanding Russia\u2019s territory beyond its borders.<\/li>\n
  3. The western media has concocted a fake storyline about a \u201cRussian invasion\u201d to divert attention from Moscow\u2019s reasonable demands for legally-binding security guarantees that address the pressing issue of hostile foreign armies (NATO) and nuclear missiles on Russia\u2019s doorstep.<\/li>\n
  4. None of the above.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    If you picked Number 3, then pat yourself on the back, that is the right answer. (Please, see: \u201cThere Is No Russian Invasion Threat To Ukraine\u201d<\/a>, Moon of Alabama; Quote: \u201cThe story of Russian preparations for an invasion of the Ukraine is made up from whole cloth.\u201d) The current crisis has nothing to do with the fictitious \u201cRussian invasion\u201d that was invented to conceal the real issue. The real issue is Russian security and the demands that Russia has made in the form of two draft treaty agreements. The western media\u2013 in concert with the Intelligence agencies, the Pentagon, the Biden administration, and the US foreign policy establishment\u2013 have done everything in their power to prevent the American people from reading the contents of these draft treaties for fear that they will see that Russia\u2019s demands are both reasonable and appropriate.<\/strong> Russia isn\u2019t asking for anything more than any sovereign country should expect. As FDR famously said, \u201cSecurity for one, is security for all.\u201d We support that sentiment and we think the American people do too.<\/p>\n

    Russians do not want to live with nuclear missiles aimed at their Capital and located just a few hundred miles from their targets. That is a nonstarter. Nor do Russians want hostile armies and military bases looming on their western flank in Ukraine.<\/strong> Again, that is a nonstarter. What Russia wants, is a written agreement that prevents Washington from using NATO to pursue its long-term geopolitical strategy of encircling, weakening and ultimately, splintering the Russian Federation into smaller pieces in order to become a bigger player in the development of Central Asia and in order to exert greater control over China\u2019s explosive growth. That is the basic Gameplan,<\/strong> and the US foreign policy establishment has not abandoned that plan despite 30-years of catastrophic military failures stretching from North Africa across the Middle East and into Central Asia. Here\u2019s how author Stephen Kinzer summed it up in an article that appeared in the Boston Globe more than a decade ago:<\/p>\n

    \u201cFrom the moment the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, the United States has relentlessly pursued a strategy of encircling Russia, just as it has with other perceived enemies like China and Iran. It has brought 12 countries in central Europe, all of them formerly allied with Moscow, into the NATO alliance. US military power is now directly on Russia\u2019s borders\u2026This crisis is in part the result of a zero-sum calculation that has shaped US policy toward Moscow since the Cold War: Any loss for Russia is an American victory, and anything positive that happens to, for, or in Russia is bad for the United States. This is an approach that intensifies confrontation, rather than soothing it.\u201d (\u201cUS a full partner in Ukraine debacle\u201d, Boston Globe<\/a>)<\/p>\n

    What can we glean from this paragraph?<\/p>\n

    We can appreciate the historical context of the current crisis which dates back to the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Following the collapse of the USSR, leaders in the West felt that \u201cHistory had ended\u201d and that the western system had triumphed over communism. This triumphalism, in turn, was accompanied by wave after wave of eastward expansion, where NATO\u2013 the Cold War relic\u2013 doubled in size and pushed closer and closer to Russia\u2019s borders. Now\u2013 30-years on\u2013 Washington wants Ukraine to become a member of the Alliance which will put hostile armies, military bases and missile sites just a few hundred miles from Moscow. Naturally, Putin cannot allow this development to take place. Naturally, he must do everything in his power to prevent the supporters of this strategy from implementing their plan.<\/strong><\/p>\n

    And that\u2019s what the current confrontation is all about, Russia\u2019s security. It has nothing to do with the threat of a Russian invasion. The \u201cRussian invasion\u201d meme was invented to garner public support for a confrontation with Russia and to conceal details about Russia\u2019s security demands.<\/strong> It is basically fake news created with the clear intention of misleading the American people about an issue that should be a grave concern to them and to people around the world.<\/p>\n

    So, what is it that Putin wants, after all, we cannot determine whether the Russian leader is being reasonable or not unless we know what he is demanding. A short excerpt from the draft treaty should tell us everything we need to know. Here\u2019s an excerpt:<\/p>\n

    The United States of America shall undertake to prevent further eastward expansion of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization <\/strong>and deny accession to the Alliance to the States of the former Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.<\/p>\n

    The United States of America shall not establish military bases in the territory of the States of the former Union of Soviet Socialist Republics that are not members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, use their infrastructure for any military activities or develop bilateral military cooperation with them\u2026\u2026<\/p>\n

    The Parties shall undertake not to deploy ground-launched intermediate-range and shorter-range missiles outside their national territories, as well as in the areas of their national territories, from which such weapons can attack targets in the national territory of the other Party.<\/strong><\/p>\n

    Article 7<\/p>\n

    The Parties shall refrain from deploying nuclear weapons outside their national territories<\/strong> and return such weapons already deployed outside their national territories at the time of the entry into force of the Treaty to their national territories. The Parties shall eliminate all existing infrastructure for deployment of nuclear weapons outside their national territories.<\/p>\n

    The Parties shall not train military and civilian personnel from non-nuclear countries to use nuclear weapons. The Parties shall not conduct exercises or training for general-purpose forces, that include scenarios involving the use of nuclear weapons.\u201d (\u201cTreaty between the United States and the Russian Federation on Security Guarantees,<\/a>\u201d Official Russian State Document, December 17, 2021)<\/p>\n

    Is it reasonable for Putin to demand that the US and its NATO allies not install military bases and nuclear missile sites on its border? Is it appropriate for the Russian president to insist that NATO abstain from placing hostile armies on Russia\u2019s doorstep? Here\u2019s what Putin said in reference to these developments just two weeks ago:<\/p>\n

    \u201cOur actions will depend not on the negotiations but on the unconditional security of Russia Putin \u2026we have made it absolutely clear that NATOs expansion to the East is absolutely unacceptable. What is unclear about this? It is not Russia that deploys missile systems to US borders. It is the other way around.<\/strong> The United States has brought its missiles to our borders. They are on our threshhold \u2026. What would the US do if we deployed our missiles to the Mexican or Canadian borders? \u2026We are not the one\u2019s that are threatening anyone. They came to our borders.\u201d (\u201cPutin: \u201cWhat Would Americans Do If We Went To Canada And Mexico And Deployed Missiles There<\/a>?\u201d, Rumble)<\/p>\n

    He has a point, doesn\u2019t he? The US would never allow China or Russia to build bases or missile sites on its borders. Shouldn\u2019t Russia expect the same treatment?<\/strong><\/p>\n

    Yes, they should, and it is certainly a principal worth fighting for. Keep in mind, Russia lost 27 million people in World War 2. That is no trifling sum. Russians have a clear understanding of the cost of war and they will do whatever it takes to prevent another one from breaking out on their soil. In the present case, that means insisting that encroaching adversaries sign legally-binding documents that block them from deploying lethal military hardware or nuclear weapons to Russia\u2019s perimeter. That is the crux of the matter; Sign the treaty or Moscow will be forced to find other ways to establish its security.<\/p>\n

    The head of the Russian delegation at the Vienna negotiations, Konstantin Gavrilov, summed it up like this:<\/p>\n

    \u201cThere arrives a moment of truth when the West either accepts our proposals or other ways will be found to safeguard Russia\u2019s security.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

    Does that mean war?<\/p>\n

    Not necessarily, but the options are certainly narrowing. If the Biden administration ignores these red lines and continues to blunder ahead with its current policy, there will be a war because this latest NATO expansion leaves Russia at a critical disadvantage. The location of troops and nuclear weapons upsets the fundamental balance of power which Russia will be forced to restore by whatever means necessary. Is that what Biden\u2019s foreign policy team wants?<\/p>\n

    The wiser members of the US foreign establishment have always cautioned against NATO\u2019s reckless expansion. Check out this quote from former US diplomat and author of the Soviet \u201ccontainment\u201d policy, George Kennan, who warned that NATO expansion would have dire consequences for both Russia and the United States. He said:<\/p>\n

    \u201cThe view, bluntly stated, is that expanding NATO would be the most fateful error of American policy in the entire post-Cold War era. <\/strong>Such a decision may be expected to inflame the nationalistic, anti-Western and militaristic tendencies in Russian opinion; to have an adverse effect on the development of Russian democracy; to restore the atmosphere of the cold war to East-West relations, and to impel Russian foreign policy in directions decidedly not to our liking \u2026 Such a decision may be expected to inflame the nationalistic, anti-Western and militaristic tendencies in Russian opinion; to have an adverse effect on the development of Russian democracy; to restore the atmosphere of the Cold War to East-West relations, and to impel Russian foreign policy in directions decidedly not to our liking.<\/strong>\u2026.I think the Russians will gradually react quite adversely and it will affect their policies. I think it is a tragic mistake<\/strong>. There was no reason for this whatsoever. No one was threatening anybody else. This expansion would make the founding fathers of this country turn over in their graves.\u201d (\u201cGeorge Kennan on Russia: Insights and Recommendations\u201d,<\/a> Russia Matters)<\/p>\n

    So, if NATO expansion is at the heart of the present confrontation, (and not the invented threat of Putin invading.), then what are the strategic objectives?<\/p>\n

    Perhaps, the best and simplest explanation of what is going on is provided by foreign policy expert John Mearsheimer in a presentation he gave at The University of Chicago in 2015 titled Why is Ukraine the West\u2019s Fault? <\/a>The whole video is worth watching but for our purposes, we\u2019ll highlight a few of the more crucial points.<\/p>\n