Here’s Why People and A Country Die

 

No one in the world, it seems, gives a damn about stopping the War in Ukraine.

For the most part they just want more.  They want more war, bigger war, fiercer war, more destructive war,  more complete, more endless war.

Zelensky swears they will fight to the last man, with shovels if that is all they have.

That would be comical rhetoric if he weren’t president of a nation currently destroying itself.

What is required is an immediate CEASE FIRE.

And that is what the whole world should be crying for, demanding, urging, suggesting, helping with.

CEASEFIRE.

But it never gets a mention.

And the biggest obstacle?  Ukraine and its insane ‘leadership’ (which doesn’t merit the word) which brought them to this.

Apparently, to the best of my knowledge,  they will not even contemplate talking at all until Russia accedes to their demands.  Principal amongst which is the ‘return’ of Crimea.

A total block right there. Completely cynical and deliberate show stopper.

And Russia, what does Russia want before they will talk (I’m told) ?  Honour the Minsk accords is it.

If anyone has more recent and better knowledge then please share it or at least a link to it.

My point is that all this should be front and centre at all times but it is not even in the margins.

Here’s what I believe now.  The Russians say this and the Ukrainians say this:

==========================

DEMANDS (as of 29 march 2022)

Russia demands

  • Recognise the independence of Luhansk People’s Republic and Donetsk People’s Republics
  • Recognise Crimea as Russian territory
  • Demilitarize to only defensive weaponry and no offensive weaponry
  • Declare neutral status and not join any military alliances or blocs like NATO (constitutional change)

COMPROMISE

  • Allow Ukraine to join the European Union
  • De-escalation of military activities in some parts of Ukraine, particularly near Chernihiv and Kyiv.

Russia Point of View

“(The operation’s ultimate goal is) to protect the people who have been subjected for eight years to genocide by the Kiev regime.

(Moscow would) embark on a demilitarization and denazification of Ukraine, and handing over to justice those who committed numerous atrocities against civilians.

We do not have plans to occupy Ukrainian territories. We are not going to impose anything on anyone by force”

Vladimir Putin
President
Russia
23 February 2022

DEMANDS (as of 29 march 2022)

UKRAINE   Demands

  • “NATO Article 5” type security guarantee – guarantors to include: Russia, United Kingdom, China, United States, Turkey, France, Canada, Italy, Poland and Israel.
  • Guarantors will go to war to protect Ukraine if it is invaded (as per what the security guarantee expected)
  • Territory to be guaranteed do not apply to Crimea and Donbass, however it do include parts of Luhansk and Donetsk’s oblast
  • No objection against joining European Union
  • 15 years moratorium on the status of Crimea to negotiate Crimea’s future
  • Both sides to not use military force to resolve Crimea issue

COMPROMISE

  • Pledge not to join any military alliances
  • Pledge not to host foreign military bases or foreign troops
  • Military exercises will require approval from guarantors

Pledge not to seek/obtain weapon of mass destruction including nuclear weapons

===========   and that’s it.

No one should be making pre conditions to talking.  No one.

But there is one precondition to talking:  CEASEFIRE.

Simply Cease Fire.  Everyone  hold positions and ceasefire.

Stop killing.  Stop destroying.

Let the Ukrainians reflect on what a terrible price they are paying and for what?  To stop LPR and DPR being what they said they could be?

Let the Russians reflect on just how necessary it is for them to go this route to protect the LPR and DPR and get the hatred and continual provocation of Ukraine’s mad leadership off their backs.

CEASE FIRE.

Democracy or Dictatorship – What Have We?

 

Just posted this in the comments on Noam Chomsky and David Barsamian’s conversation on Scheerpost at Substack today:

Everything looks insane.
A total disconnect between what we think should be and what actually is.
Where’s the reason for that?
It’s here:
We think we are in democratic countries with democratic rule.
But democratic rule means rule by the people of the people for the people.
‘By the people’. Get it?
By the people.
But the people are doing nothing to rule themselves.
All over our democracies we assume our elected representatives are doing it for us.
Well they are not.
And they are not even theoretically supposed to. They are supposed to represent our wishes. Us. They should represent us.
But when we elect one of them because they are of the Party that we least dislike then in effect We are representing Them.
Completely the wrong way round.

So we expect one kind of reality because we think we are ‘democratic’.
But we don’t attempt to function as democratic citizens.
Hence we get another kind of reality: effective despotism.

The despotism of inhuman big business is what it is, essentially, nothing more nor less than that.

We have to get the idea out of our heads that we’re democratic nations simply because someone said so.

We will never be democratic nations until the citizens participate continually in the political process.

And it is very doubtful we’ll ever get there because, clearly, the vast majority have no desire to participate. Too much trouble. Too hard.

They get plumbers to do the plumbing for them, electricians to do the electrical work, builders to do the building – and they expect politicians to do all the political work.

They don’t want to do it.

In effect, in fact, we live in dictatorships. The dictatorship of Big Business motivated by profit not by concern for humanity.

It is said the ideal govt would be benevolent dictatorship

We currently do not have a benevolent dictatorship. We have malevolent dictatorships.

Open the eyes. Drop the newspeak. Tell it as it is: we do not live in democracies, we live in dictatorships and then perhaps we can begin work on making those dictatorships benevolent instead of malevolent.

And here’s the conversation I’m talking about:

https://scheerpost.com/2022/06/17/noam-chomsky-in-ukraine-diplomacy-has-been-ruled-out/#comment-37630

New Book: Trial of Julian Assange

 

Not just another book.  This one proves the case that Julian Assange is effectively being tortured and has been for years.

The shame this brings on Australia and the Australian government is beyond measure.

And perhaps in that context this quote from the first page of that book is very apt:

Those who sleep in a democracy will wake up in a dictatorship.
—Otto Gritschneder

And here’s the guff on the book:

https://theconversation.com/a-new-book-argues-julian-assange-is-being-tortured-will-our-new-pm-do-anything-about-it-183622?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Latest%20from%20The%20Conversation%20for%20June%207%202022%20-%202313223042&utm_content=Latest%20from%20The%20Conversation%20for%20June%207%202022%20-%202313223042+CID_b5b67b198462f4216e3ed55ac7acf168&utm_source=campaign_monitor&utm_term=A%20new%20book%20argues%20Julian%20Assange%20is%20being%20tortured%20Will%20our%20new%20PM%20do%20anything%20about%20it

Here’s Who/What it is all about…

What profit to Ukraine this war?

Add up all the deaths, destructions, injury, cripplings, trauma etc…

Compare with the deaths, destructions, injury, cripplings,  trauma etc..  if Ukraine had been allowed by the USA to accede to Putins demands.

What’s the conclusion?   Slam dunk.  Ukraine on a hiding to nothing.  All this for NIL benefit for them.

Get on your smartphone.  Get the number of any soldier in the war there who’s snuck in or retained his phone and point all that out to him.  And give him a link to this the real reason why they’re risking their life and limb:

http://Arsenal of Autocracy? The Major Weapons Makers Cash in Worldwide, Not Just Ukraine by Editor May 25, 2022