tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-68912052402808761632024-03-20T01:45:48.176-07:00Meo MeoMeo Meohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18080992642193515731noreply@blogger.comBlogger724125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6891205240280876163.post-70915575254113193372022-06-11T13:01:00.004-07:002022-06-11T13:17:43.476-07:00How a century of political violence in Ukraine is linked to the atrocities of today <div class="article__summary summary">
The history of Ukrainian nationalist cruelty is an important factor, barely discussed, or known, in the West
</div><div class="article__cover"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><picture style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><source data-srcset="
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in the legs screaming in pain. Others dying from blood loss and shock.
With no one around to provide medical assistance. A Russian soldier <a href="https://t.me/zabar1986/4570" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">crucified</a> on an anti-tank barrier, chained to a metal ‘hedgehog’ and then burned alive…</div></div><div class="article__text text"><p>For many, graphic <a href="https://zen.yandex.ru/video/watch/6240b5dc1449d60b4ad5d849" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">footage</a>
of Russian servicemen tortured and killed by the Ukrainian Armed
Forces, and nationalist battalions, came as a real shock. But this did
not surprise those who are familiar with the ‘traditions’ of Ukraine’s
‘fighters for national freedom’, as they have more than a century of
history in this sort of thing.</p><h3><b>Europe</b><b>’</b><b>s</b><b></b><b> F</b><b>irst </b><b>C</b><b>oncentration </b><b>C</b><b>amps</b><b></b></h3><p>The
first concentration camps in Europe – Terezin and Thalerhof – were
established in Austria-Hungary in the fall of 1914, not to hold
prisoners of war, but the empire’s own citizens. This is how Vienna,
then the ‘sick man of Europe’, tried to protect its eastern border areas
from members of its population which sympathized with neighboring
Russia. Fighting between the two countries had broken out just before
the beginning of the First World War. Austria-Hungary’s last emperor,
Charles I, <a href="https://varjag2007su.livejournal.com/7358166.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">confessed</a> in his edict of May 7, 1917, <i>“All the arrested Russians are innocent, but they were detained to prevent them becoming guilty.”</i></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><picture style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;">
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<img alt="Under the Wolfsangel: The uncomfortable truth about radical ideologies in Ukraine" class="read-more__cover lazyautosizes lazyloaded" data-sizes="auto" data-src="https://cdni.russiatoday.com/files/2022.03/xxs/6230848785f540304964b19d.jpg" src="https://cdni.russiatoday.com/files/2022.03/xxs/6230848785f540304964b19d.jpg" />
</picture></div><div class="read-more large read-more__right" data-has-alias="">
<a class="read-more__link" href="https://www.rt.com/russia/551975-nazi-influence-ukrainian-politics/" target="_blank">
<div class="read-more__text">
<div class="read-more__title">Read more</div>
<span class="read-more__footer">Under the Wolfsangel: The uncomfortable truth about radical ideologies in Ukraine</span>
</div>
</a>
</div>
<p>People from Galicia who did not want to call themselves Ukrainians,
as the Austrian authorities insisted, and continued to use the name
‘Rusyns’, were arrested and incarcerated in two places – in a garrison
fortress in Terezin and in a valley near Graz, the capital of Styria.
While the prisoners in Terezin were held in the vaults and dungeons of
the fortress, with the support of local Czechs, the concentration camp
later known as Thalerhof was little more than a bare field fenced in
with barbed wire.</p><p>Today, most of Galicia is in Western Ukraine and
the largest city is Lviv, which was known as Lemberg by the Austrians
and Lvov by the Soviets and Polish. </p><p>The initial prisoners were
brought there in September of 1915, and the first barracks began to be
built only at the beginning of the following year. Prior to that, the
people were forced to lie in the open in the rain and cold. According to
US Congressman Joseph McCormick, the prisoners were often beaten and
tortured. (<i>Terrorism in Bohemia; Medill McCormick Gets Details of Austrian Cruelty</i>. ‘New York Times’, December 16, 1917)</p><p>According
to the memoirs of those who survived the inhumane conditions (about
20,000 prisoners passed through the camp), 3,800 people were executed in
the first half of 1915 alone, and 3,000 people died from the horrific
conditions and diseases in a year and a half. Vasily Varvik, a writer,
poet, literary critic, and historian who endured Thalerhof’s hell
describes the atrocities in the internment camp as follows: “<i>In
order to intimidate people, to prove their power over us, the prison
authorities drove poles into the ground all over Thalerhof Square, on
which brutally beaten martyrs often hung in unspoken torment.”</i></p><p>What
do the Ukrainians have to do with it? The fact is that Ukrainian
nationalists were specially recruited to guard the Thalerhof camp.
According to numerous testimonies, the arrested, which comprised nearly
the entire Russian intelligentsia of Galicia and thousands of peasants,
were also escorted to the camp by the Ukrainians.</p><p>Indeed, descriptions given in the <a href="https://talergof.org.ua/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Thalerhof Almanac</a> detail how Ukrainian <i>Sichoviki</i>
in the Carpathian village of Lavochnoye tried to bayonet the prisoners,
among whom there was not a single Russian, but only their fellow
Galicians.</p><p>It was the Ukrainian nationalists who were the concentration camp guards’ cruelest torturers and murderers.<i>
“In the end, the atrocities committed by the Germans do not equate to
the victimization of your own people. A soulless German could not get
his iron boots so deeply into the soul of a Slavonic Rusyn as well as a
Rusyn who called himself a Ukrainian,”</i> wrote Vasily Varvik.</p><h3><b>From the Volyn Massacre to 1954</b></h3><p>At
the end of February 1943, the ‘revolutionary’ wing of the Organization
of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUP), headed by the current idol of many
Ukrainians, Stepan Bandera, decided to create the so-called ‘Ukrainian
Insurgent Army’ (UPA) to ‘fight the advancing Red Army’, which was
driving the Nazis from the country. But the first detachments that
emerged in March and April, of the same year, began to fight not the
Soviets, whose troops were still waiting for the Nazis to strike near
Kursk, but Polish peasants in territory that had belonged to Warsaw up
until 1939. These events, which lasted for more than six months, were
called the ‘Volyn Massacre’. UPA detachments and units from the SS
Galicia division, which was made up of locals from the eponymous area,
killed from 40,000 to 200,000 people, according to various estimates.
The Polish Sejm and Senate put the number of victims at approximately
100,000 people, and July 11 is recognized as a ‘National Day of
Remembrance of the Victims of the Genocide of Polish Citizens by
Ukrainian Nationalists’</p><div class="article__cover"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><picture style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><source data-srcset="https://cdni.russiatoday.com/files/2022.05/original/627b80cf2030275d57431723.jpg"></source><img alt="RT" class="read-more__cover lazyautosizes lazyloaded" data-sizes="auto" data-src="https://cdni.russiatoday.com/files/2022.05/original/627b80cf2030275d57431723.jpg" height="465" src="https://cdni.russiatoday.com/files/2022.05/original/627b80cf2030275d57431723.jpg" width="640" /></picture></div><div class="media"><div class="media__footer media__footer_bottom"><div class="media__title media__title_footer">
Corpses of Polish victims of the massacre brought for
identification and burial, March 26, 1943. © Wikipedia
</div></div></div></div><p>The Polish ‘Association of Memory of Victims of Crimes of Ukrainian Nationalists’ (<i>Stowarzyszenie Upami</i><i>ę</i><i>tnienia Ofiar Zbrodni Ukrai</i><i>ń</i><i>skich Nacjonalist</i><i>ó</i><i>w</i>
(SUOZUN)) is engaged in reconstructing the course of events surrounding
the Volyn Massacre. The materials collected by SUOZUN reveal shocking
details with respect to the cruelty with which Ukrainian nationalists
dealt with even babies and pregnant women. Polish researchers have
uncovered 135 methods of torture and murder practiced by Ukrainian
nationalists. Among them are:</p><ul><li>Running children through with stakes</li><li>Cutting a person’s throat and pulling their tongue out through the hole</li><li>Sawing a person’s torso in half with a carpenter’s saw</li><li>Cutting
open the belly of a woman in an advanced stage of pregnancy, removing
the fetus, and replacing it with a live cat, before sewing up her
abdomen.</li><li>Cutting open a pregnant women’s abdomen and pouring in broken glass</li><li>Nailing a small child to a door.</li></ul><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><picture style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;">
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<img alt="How Ukraine’s ‘Revolution of Dignity’ led to war, poverty and the rise of the far right" class="read-more__cover lazyautosizes lazyloaded" data-sizes="auto" data-src="https://cdni.russiatoday.com/files/2022.02/xxs/621517d620302715170fd8cb.jpg" height="224" src="https://cdni.russiatoday.com/files/2022.02/xxs/621517d620302715170fd8cb.jpg" width="400" />
</picture></div><div class="read-more large" data-has-alias="">
<a class="read-more__link" href="https://www.rt.com/russia/550266-euromaidan-ukraine-history-results/" target="_blank">
<div class="read-more__text">
<div class="read-more__title">Read more</div>
<span class="read-more__footer">How Ukraine’s ‘Revolution of Dignity’ led to war, poverty and the rise of the far right</span>
</div>
</a>
</div>
<p>According to Polish historians, it came to the point that even the
German butchers, having been shocked by these atrocities, began to
protect the Poles from the Ukrainian <i>Sokirniki</i> (from the Ukrainian word <i>sokira</i>, meaning ‘axe’).</p><p>All
this, including the ingenuity employed in conducting torture and
executions, continued after the Nazis had been expelled from Ukraine.
Only now the victims of the nationalists were citizens of Soviet Ukraine
– specialists like agronomists, engineers, doctors, and teachers who
had been sent from the eastern part of the republic to restore western
Ukraine after the war. Though the vast majority of these were ethnic
Ukrainians, the nationalists killed not only them, but even their own
fellow villagers who had cooperated with the Soviets.</p><p>These acts were carried out in accordance with <a href="http://old.redstar.ru/2008/03/22_03/3_02.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">instructions</a> given by the head of the UPA and former Wehrmacht hauptman Roman Shukhevich, who is now an idol for many Ukrainians: <i>“The
OUN should act so that all those who recognized the Soviet government
are destroyed. Not intimidated, but physically destroyed! Do not be
afraid that people will curse us for cruelty. Let half of the 40 million
Ukrainian population remain – there is nothing terrible in this,”</i>
he wrote. (Tchaikovsky A., Nevidoma viina, K., 1994, p. 224). According
to the KGB of the USSR, in 1944–1953, the irretrievable losses of the
Soviet side were 30,676 people. Among them are 697 employees of state
security agencies, 1,864 employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs,
3,199 military personnel, 2,590 fighters of destruction battalions;
2,732 - representatives of authorities, 251 communists, 207 Komsomol
workers, 314 - chairmen of collective farms, 15,355 collective farmers
and peasants, 676 workers, 1,931 - representatives of the
intelligentsia, 860 - children, old people and housewives.</p><h3><b>Maidan of Hate</b></h3><p>With
the return of the nationalists to Ukraine’s political scene, after the
Soviet collapse, the violence resumed as well. The existence of torture
rooms in Kiev City Hall, which was seized by ‘peaceful protesters’ at
the end of 2013, has been <a href="https://www.interfax.ru/world/351478" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">reported.</a></p><p></p><div class="article__cover"><div class="media"><div style="text-align: center;"><picture><source data-srcset="https://cdni.russiatoday.com/files/2022.05/original/627b7fea85f5400fb65ecf7f.jpg"></source><img alt="RT" class="read-more__cover lazyautosizes lazyloaded" data-sizes="auto" data-src="https://cdni.russiatoday.com/files/2022.05/original/627b7fea85f5400fb65ecf7f.jpg" height="426" src="https://cdni.russiatoday.com/files/2022.05/original/627b7fea85f5400fb65ecf7f.jpg" width="640" /></picture></div><div class="media__footer media__footer_bottom"><div class="media__title media__title_footer">
Anti-government protesters clash with police in
Independence Square on February 19, 2014 in Kiev, Ukraine. © Alexander
Koerner / Getty Images
</div></div></div></div><p>A lot of video footage from the
‘Revolution of Dignity’ has been preserved showing the bullying captured
police officers suffered at the hands of ‘peaceful protesters’. Some
doctors working on the Maidan had to <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ml0-5YMdJeA">protect</a> wounded officers that had been captured from being massacred. <a href="https://ok.ru/video/4465362186">Shots</a>
from the Hromadske.tv TV channel also captured a Maidan medic
categorically prohibiting people from calling an ambulance for a
policeman who had lost an eye on the grounds that he served in the
Berkut special unit, which was trying to suppress the uprising.</p><p>Here is how Kiev journalist Sergey Rulev <a href="https://www.politnavigator.net/na-majjdane-izbili-i-pytali-reportjora-sergeya-ruljova.html">describes</a> his experience in the torture chamber:<i>
“Four people beat me. There was a woman in a headscarf with them, who
kicked me in the groin without saying a word. Then they dragged me to
the occupied Ministry of Agriculture, where they searched me, took away
my documents, a press pass, accreditation to the Verkhovna Rada,
business cards, two phones, and two cameras. When they dragged me back
to Khreshchatyk, I started screaming and calling for help. I fell to the
ground and was kicked again, but no one reacted. At about 12:00, I was
dragged into the burned-out House of Trade Unions. In the lobby, I was
immediately beaten up. In the courtyard, unknown people in camouflage
fatigues bound my hands, stripped me to my underwear, and continued to
beat me… After that, the four of them pinned me to the floor, injected
something into my arm again, and said, ‘Now you’re going to talk to us,
bitch! Which special services do you work for?’”</i></p><p>Once he was
tied up, an unknown woman began to rip out Sergey’s nails with pliers.
Subsequently, he identified this sadist as Amina Okuyeva, a medic in the
‘8th hundred’ Maidan Self-Defense unit, who later <a href="https://espreso.tv/article/2017/10/30/khto_taka_amina_okuyeva_y_chomu_na_neyi_ta_yiyi_cholovika_polyuvaly_specsluzhby_rosiyi" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">fought</a> in the ‘ATO (Anti-Terrorist Operation) Zone’ as part of the neo-Nazi Kiev-2 and Dzhokhar Dudayev Battalions. She was <a href="http://hromadske.od.ua/v-odesi-vijskovi-volonteri-ta-gromadski-diyachi-otrimali-orden-narodnij-geroj-ukrayini/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">awarded</a> the title People’s Hero of Ukraine for her efforts.</p><h3><b>The Ukrainian State and the Nazis</b></h3><p>It
would be surprising if the Ukrainian nationalists, who were part of the
troops operating in the so-called ‘Anti-Terrorist Operation’ (ATO) in
the east of Ukraine, were to abandon their propensity for violence and
stop bullying, torturing, and murdering their enemies, as this is the
legacy of the totalitarian ideologies they have inherited from the last
century. Andrei Ilyenko, a member of the neo-Nazi Svoboda party who is
one of Ukrainian nationalism’s modern ideologists, admits, <i>“Italian
fascism, German nationalism, Croatian Ustashism, authentic Ukrainian
nationalism, Spanish Falangism, and other integral movements doubtlessly
share a single ideological basis.”</i> (Patriot of Ukraine organization, <i>Ukrainian Social Nationalism: a collection of ideological works and program documents</i>, Kharkov – 2007).</p><div class="article__cover"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><picture style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><source data-srcset="https://cdni.russiatoday.com/files/2022.05/original/627b7fc585f54063905ff72d.jpg"></source><img alt="RT" class="read-more__cover lazyautosizes lazyloaded" data-sizes="auto" data-src="https://cdni.russiatoday.com/files/2022.05/original/627b7fc585f54063905ff72d.jpg" height="387" src="https://cdni.russiatoday.com/files/2022.05/original/627b7fc585f54063905ff72d.jpg" width="640" /></picture></div><div class="media"><div class="media__footer media__footer_bottom"><div class="media__title media__title_footer">
Young participants in a nationalist march marking
Stepan Bandera's 109th birthday, in Lviv. © Sputnik / Stringer
</div></div></div></div><p>And
this has not happened. Literally from the first days of the
‘Anti-Terrorist Operation’, information began to arrive about atrocities
committed by nationalist battalions in the Donbass. After all, in
addition to radical nationalists brought up to hate everything Russian,
many of the participants were criminals convicted of violent crimes.
Usurper Oleksandr Turchynov, who does not hide the fact that he <a href="https://www.unian.net/politics/1518844-turchinov-rasskazal-kak-vo-vremya-revolyutsii-s-drakoy-vyiryival-iz-tolpyi-regionalov-kotoryih-hoteli-povesit-na-maydane.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">threatened</a> MPs with physical violence if they did not vote for his appointment as acting president, <a href="https://www.bbc.com/ukrainian/features-russian-39598719" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">recalled</a>: <i>“I
remember one meeting at the front with volunteer units where one of
those present, who was covered in tattoos, asked: ‘Boss, will there be
amnesty or not? The guys are interested in us there.’ I asked, ‘What do
they want with you?’ ‘Well, for stuff like... murder, robbery...’”</i></p><p>The
crimes committed by nationalist battalion members went ‘unnoticed’ by
the authorities for a long time, but when international human rights
organizations began to scream about the most egregious cases, some facts
regarding their atrocities finally reached the courts. Several leaders
from the nationalist Aidar Battalion were convicted. For example, they
created a prison in a sausage shop’s smokehouse and <a href="https://www.vesti.ru/article/2687249">placed</a> prisoners there in unheated cells measuring 80x150 cm, where people had to crouch for several months.</p><p>A
lot of people got away with serious crimes on the grounds that they
were ‘Patriots of Ukraine’, and this was shown to be a government policy
in practice. For example, Sergey Sternenko, a nationalist from Maidan’s
Right Sector, escaped punishment for <a href="https://dumskaya.net/news/delo-letnego-teatra-teper-sternenko-inkriminiruy-080346/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">protecting drug trafficking</a> and <a href="https://www.unian.net/society/sternenko-sud-otmenil-podozrenie-napadayushchemu-na-sternenka-kuznecovu-novosti-ukrainy-11047169.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">murder</a>
on the basis of ‘patriotism’. Though Sternenko was sentenced to a
prison term of 7 years and 3 months for abducting a pro-Russian deputy
from Odessa named Sergey Shcherbich, his punishment was <a href="https://www.bbc.com/ukrainian/news-57189020" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">reduced</a>
to one year of probation after just three months. Given this policy, it
is not surprising that none of the participants in burning 49 people
alive in the Odessa House of Trade Unions on May 2, 2014, have yet been
brought to justice.</p><p>Criminal cases have been initiated against
Ukrainian nationalist Nikolay Kokhanovsky more than once. This ATO
participant and OUN battalion commander is also a member of the Azov
Regiment, which has been <a href="https://thehill.com/policy/defense/380483-congress-bans-arms-to-controversial-ukrainian-militia-linked-to-neo-nazis/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">recognized</a>
by the US Congress as a neo-Nazi organization. He has been accused of
attacking opposition TV channels, Moscow Patriarchate churches, Russian
diplomatic missions, and Russian banks, as well as committing an <a href="https://pravyysektor.info/novyny/sytuaciya-shchodo-perestrilky-kachmaly-i-kohanivskogo-maye-zakinchytys-pravdoyu" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">armed assault</a> on a nationalist like himself without a weapons permit. After his supporters <a href="https://ru.espreso.tv/article/2017/10/24/razbytyy_zal_suda_shturm_y_30_zaderzhannykh_chto_za_skandal_y_kto_takoy_kokhanyvskyy" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">smashed up</a> the court, Kokhanovsky was set free.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><picture style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;">
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<img alt="From peacemaker to warmonger: Tragic downfall of Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky" class="read-more__cover lazyautosizes lazyloaded" data-sizes="auto" data-src="https://cdni.russiatoday.com/files/2022.01/xxs/61effd242030273594304983.jpg" src="https://cdni.russiatoday.com/files/2022.01/xxs/61effd242030273594304983.jpg" />
</picture></div><div class="read-more large read-more__right" data-has-alias="">
<a class="read-more__link" href="https://www.rt.com/russia/547298-from-peacemaker-to-warmonger/" target="_blank">
<div class="read-more__text">
<div class="read-more__title">Read more</div>
<span class="read-more__footer">From peacemaker to warmonger: Tragic downfall of Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky</span>
</div>
</a>
</div>
<p>Perhaps the most horrific crime committed by Ukrainian nationalists was the creation of a <a href="https://iz.ru/1303003/video/vasilii-prozorov-rasskazal-o-pytochnoi-tiurme-biblioteke-v-mariupole" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">prison</a>
in the refrigerator at the airport in Mariupol in June of 2014, which
the jailers called the ‘library’. There, Mariupol residents were
subjected to beatings, death by torture, and rape for even the suspicion
of harboring sympathies for Russia or the unrecognized eastern
republics. The ‘library’ was headed by the Security Service of Ukraine
(SBU), whose chief, Valentin Nalivaichenko, was a friend of the leader
of the Right Sector, Dmitry Yarosh. And Nalivaichenko’s assistant, Yuri
Mikhalchishin, a member of the nationalist Svoboda party who goes by the
pseudonym ‘Nahtigal88’ (in honor of a sabotage battalion that was part
of the Third Reich’s counterintelligence division and the letters ‘NN’
denoting Heil Hitler), was responsible for the ideology of the special
service. Mikhalchishin openly asserts that <i>Mein Kampf</i> <a href="https://live24.ru/obschestvo/kak-mogu-byt-nacistom-ya-rossiya-provodit-denacifikaciju-ukrainy.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">has been his guidebook</a> since the age of 16. After being dismissed from the SBU, he went to fight as part of the Azov Regiment.</p><p>***</p><p>The
ideology of racial superiority has a long criminal history grounded in
hate. When its bearers get their hands on power, national pride
invariably turns into ruthless violence, and the radicals reveal their
willingness to employ bestial cruelty and exterminate ‘outsiders’. The
true foundations of their worldview will be seen more than once until
this lesson in history is finally learned.</p></div><div class="article__author-text"><p><i>By </i><b>Olga Sukharevskaya,</b><i> <i>ex-Ukrainian diplomat</i></i></p></div>Meo Meohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18080992642193515731noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6891205240280876163.post-5890435012339578422022-04-24T19:56:00.005-07:002022-04-24T19:56:36.168-07:00Daniel Kovalik: Why Russia's intervention in Ukraine is legal under international law<p>The argument can be made that Russia exercised its right for self-defense
</p><a class="description description-desktop" href="https://www.rt.com/op-ed/authors/daniel-kovalik/"><p><em><strong>Daniel Kovalik</strong>
teaches International Human Rights at the University of Pittsburgh
School of Law, and is author of the recently-released No More War: How
the West Violates International Law by Using “Humanitarian” Intervention
to Advance Economic and Strategic Interests.</em></p></a><br /><a class="description description-desktop" href="https://www.rt.com/op-ed/authors/daniel-kovalik/"></a><div class="Blog-author__socials"></div><div class="article__cover article__cover-left"><div class="media "><picture><source data-srcset="
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"></source><img alt="Daniel Kovalik: Why Russia's intervention in Ukraine is legal under international law" class="media__item lazyautosizes lazyloaded" data-sizes="auto" data-src="https://cdni.russiatoday.com/files/2022.04/xxs/625ebf9220302751ac49ee19.jpg" src="https://cdni.russiatoday.com/files/2022.04/xxs/625ebf9220302751ac49ee19.jpg" /></picture></div><div class="media__footer media__footer_bottom "><div class="media__title media__title_arcticle"><span data-role="title">Russian
military vehicles move on a highway in an area controlled by
Russian-backed separatist forces near Mariupol, Ukraine, Monday, April
18, 2022. Mariupol. </span><span data-role="copyright-symbol">© </span><span data-role="copyright"> (AP Photo/Alexei Alexandrov)</span></div></div></div><div class="article__text text "><p>For
many years, I have studied and given much thought to the UN Charter’s
prohibition against aggressive war. No one can seriously doubt that the
primary purpose of the document – drafted and agreed to on the heels of
the horrors of WWII – was and is to prevent war and <em>“to maintain international peace and security,”</em> a phrase repeated throughout. </p><p>As the Justices at Nuremberg correctly <a href="https://harvardilj.org/2017/04/continued-debate-over-the-crime-of-aggression-a-supreme-international-irony/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">concluded</a>, <em>“To
initiate a war of aggression ... is not only an international crime; it
is the supreme international crime differing only from other war crimes
in that it contains within itself the accumulated evil of the whole.”</em>
That is, war is the paramount crime because all of the evils we so
abhor – genocide, crimes against humanity, etc. – are the terrible
fruits of the tree of war.</p><p>In light of the above, I have spent my
entire adult life opposing war and foreign intervention. Of course, as
an American, I have had ample occasion to do so given that the US is, as
Martin Luther King <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/132643-the-greatest-purveyor-of-violence-in-the-world-my" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">stated</a>, <em>“the greatest purveyor of violence in the world.” </em> Similarly, Jimmy Carter recently <a href="https://www.npr.org/2019/04/15/713495558/president-trump-called-former-president-jimmy-carter-to-talk-about-china" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">stated</a> that the US is <em>“the most war-like nation in the history of the world.”</em>
This is demonstrably true, of course. In my lifetime alone, the US has
waged aggressive and unprovoked wars against countries such as Vietnam,
Grenada, Panama, the former Yugoslavia, Iraq (twice), Afghanistan,
Libya, and Somalia. And this doesn’t even count the numerous proxy wars
the US has fought via surrogates (e.g., through the Contras in
Nicaragua, various jihadist groups in Syria, and through Saudi Arabia
and the UAE in the ongoing war against Yemen). </p><div class="read-more large read-more__right" data-has-alias="">
<a class="read-more__link" href="https://www.rt.com/news/553925-west-want-war-moscow/" target="_blank">
<picture>
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<img alt="It appears that the West doesn’t want peace in Ukraine" class="read-more__cover lazyautosizes lazyloaded" data-sizes="auto" data-src="https://cdni.russiatoday.com/files/2022.04/xxs/6259519085f5406f7753b978.jpg" src="https://cdni.russiatoday.com/files/2022.04/xxs/6259519085f5406f7753b978.jpg" />
</picture>
<div class="read-more__text">
<div class="read-more__title">Read more</div>
<span class="read-more__footer">It appears that the West doesn’t want peace in Ukraine</span>
</div>
</a>
</div>
<p>Indeed, through such wars, the US has done more, and intentionally
so, than any nation on earth to undermine the legal pillars prohibiting
war. It is in reaction to this, and with the express desire to try to
salvage what is left of the UN Charter’s legal prohibitions against
aggressive war, that a number of nations, including Russia and China,
founded the <a href="https://media.un.org/en/asset/k1w/k1w1qatav5" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Group of Friends in Defense of the UN Charter</a>. </p><p>In
short, for the US to complain about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as a
violation of international law is, at best, the pot calling the kettle
black. Still, the fact that the US is so obviously hypocritical in this
regard does not necessarily mean Washington is automatically wrong. In
the end, we must analyze Russia’s conduct on its own merits. </p><p>One
must begin this discussion by accepting the fact that there was already
a war happening in Ukraine for the eight years preceding the Russian
military incursion in February 2022. And, this war by the government in
Kiev against the Russian-speaking peoples of the Donbass – a war which
claimed the <a href="https://www.crisisgroup.org/content/conflict-ukraines-donbas-visual-explainer" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">lives of around 14,000 people</a>, many of them <a href="https://reliefweb.int/report/ukraine/ukraine-conflict-emergency-response-situational-report-01-february-2022" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">children</a>, and <a href="https://reliefweb.int/report/ukraine/ukraine-conflict-emergency-response-situational-report-01-february-2022" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">displaced around 1.5 million more</a>
even before Russia’s military operation – has been arguably genocidal.
That is, the government in Kiev, and especially its neo-Nazi battalions,
carried out attacks against these peoples with the intention of
destroying, at least in part, the ethnic Russians precisely because of
their ethnicity. </p><p>While the US government and media are trying
hard to obscure these facts, they are undeniable, and were indeed
reported by the mainstream Western press before it became inconvenient
to do so. Thus, <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-cohen-ukraine-commentary-idUSKBN1GV2TY" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">a commentary run by Reuters</a>
in 2018 clearly sets out how the neo-Nazis battalions have been
integrated into the official Ukrainian military and police forces, and
are thus state, or at least quasi-state, actors for which the Ukrainian
government bears legal responsibility. As the piece relates, there are
30-some right-wing extremist groups operating in Ukraine, that <em>“have been formally integrated into Ukraine’s armed forces,”</em> and that “<em>the more extreme among these groups promote an intolerant and illiberal ideology... ” </em></p><p>That
is, they possess and promote hatred towards ethnic Russians, the Roma
peoples, and members of the LGBT community as well, and they act out
this hatred by attacking, killing, and displacing these peoples. The <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-cohen-ukraine-commentary-idUSKBN1GV2TY" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">piece cites</a> the Western human rights group Freedom House for the proposition that<em>
“an increase in patriotic discourse supporting Ukraine in its conflict
with Russia has coincided with an apparent increase in both public hate
speech, sometimes by public officials and magnified by the media, as
well as violence towards vulnerable groups such as the LGBT community.”</em> And this has been accompanied by actual violence. For example, <em>“Azov
and other militias have attacked anti-fascist demonstrations, city
council meetings, media outlets, art exhibitions, foreign students and
Roma.” </em></p><p>As reported in <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/evidence-war-crimes-committed-ukrainian-nationalist-volunteers-grows-269604" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Newsweek</a>,
Amnesty International had been reporting on these very same extremist
hate groups and their accompanying violent activities as far back as
2014.</p><p>It is this very type of evidence – public hate speech
combined with large-scale, systemic attacks on the targets of the speech
– that has been used to convict individuals of genocide, for example in
the Rwandan <a href="https://www.un.org/en/preventgenocide/rwanda/pdf/AKAYESU%20-%20APPEAL%20JUDGEMENT.pdf" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">genocide case</a> against Jean-Paul Akayesu. </p><p>To add to this, there are well <a href="https://tass.com/society/1282593" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">over 500,000 residents of the Donbass region</a>
of Ukraine who are also Russian citizens. While that estimate was made
in April 2021, after Vladimir Putin’s 2019 decree simplified the process
of obtaining Russian citizenship for residents of the Donetsk and
Lugansk People’s Republics, this means that Russian citizens were being
subjected to racialized attack by neo-Nazi groups integrated into the
government of Ukraine, and right on the border of Russia. </p><div class="read-more large" data-has-alias="">
<a class="read-more__link" href="https://www.rt.com/russia/554134-borisov-interview-defense-industry/" target="_blank">
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<img alt="Top official explains why Russia hasn't run out of precision missiles in Ukraine" class="read-more__cover lazyautosizes lazyloaded" data-sizes="auto" data-src="https://cdni.russiatoday.com/files/2022.04/xxs/625e7b5585f5400f5e0a7e1c.jpg" src="https://cdni.russiatoday.com/files/2022.04/xxs/625e7b5585f5400f5e0a7e1c.jpg" />
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<div class="read-more__text">
<div class="read-more__title">Read more</div>
<span class="read-more__footer">Top official explains why Russia hasn't run out of precision missiles in Ukraine</span>
</div>
</a>
</div>
<p>And lest Russia was uncertain about the Ukrainian government’s
intentions regarding the Russian ethnics in the Donbass, the government
in Kiev passed new language laws in 2019 which made it clear that
Russian speakers were at best second-class citizens. Indeed, the usually
pro-West Human Rights Watch (HRW) expressed alarm about these laws. As <a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2022/01/19/new-language-requirement-raises-concerns-ukraine" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">the HRW explained</a>
in an early-2022 report which received nearly no coverage in the
Western media, the government in Kiev passed legislation which <em>“requires
print media outlets registered in Ukraine to publish in Ukrainian.
Publications in other languages must also be accompanied by a Ukrainian
version, equivalent in content, volume, and method of printing.
Additionally, places of distribution such as newsstands must have at
least half their content in Ukrainian.” </em> </p><p>And, according to the HRW, <em>“Article
25, regarding print media outlets, makes exceptions for certain
minority languages, English, and official EU languages, but not for
Russian”</em> (emphasis added), the justification for that being<em> “the century of oppression of … Ukrainian in favor of Russian.”</em> As the HRW explained, <em>“[t]here
are concerns about whether guarantees for minority languages are
sufficient. The Venice Commission, the Council of Europe’s top advisory
body on constitutional matters, said that several of the law’s articles,
including article 25, ‘failed to strike a fair balance’ between
promoting the Ukrainian language and safeguarding minorities’ linguistic
rights.”</em> Such legislation only underscored the Ukrainian
government’s desire to destroy the culture, if not the very existence,
of the ethnic Russians in Ukraine.</p><p>Moreover, as the <a href="https://theowp.org/ukraine-declares-all-options-possible-even-war-to-retake-crimea-from-russia/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Organization of World Peace reported</a> in 2021, <em>“according
to Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council Decree no. 117/2021,
Ukraine has committed to putting all options on the table to taking
back control over the Russian annexed Crimea region. Signed on March
24th, President Zelensky has committed the country to pursue strategies
that . . . ‘will prepare and implement measures to ensure the
de-occupation and reintegration of the peninsula.’”</em> Given that the
residents of Crimea, most of whom are ethnic Russians, are quite happy
with the current state of affairs under Russian governance – this,
according to a <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/03/18/six-years-20-billion-russian-investment-later-crimeans-are-happy-with-russian-annexation/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">2020 Washington Post report</a>
– Zelensky’s threat in this regard was not only a threat against Russia
itself but was also a threat of potentially massive bloodshed against a
people who do not want to go back to Ukraine.</p><p>Without more, this
situation represents a much more compelling case for justifying Russian
intervention under the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) doctrine which
has been advocated by such Western ‘humanitarians’ as Hillary Clinton,
Samantha Power, and Susan Rice, and which was relied upon to justify the
NATO interventions in countries like the former Yugoslavia and Libya.
And moreover, none of the states involved in these interventions could
possibly make any claims of self-defense. This is especially the case
for the United States, which has been sending forces thousands of miles
away to drop bombs on far-flung lands. </p><div class="read-more large read-more__right" data-has-alias="">
<a class="read-more__link" href="https://www.rt.com/russia/554142-new-stage-ukraine-operation/" target="_blank">
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<img alt="New stage of Ukraine operation starting – Moscow" class="read-more__cover lazyautosizes lazyloaded" data-sizes="auto" data-src="https://cdni.russiatoday.com/files/2022.04/xxs/625e8c9420302751f632fe1c.jpg" src="https://cdni.russiatoday.com/files/2022.04/xxs/625e8c9420302751f632fe1c.jpg" />
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<span class="read-more__footer">New stage of Ukraine operation starting – Moscow</span>
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<p>Indeed, this recalls to mind the words of the great Palestinian
intellectual, Edward Said, who opined years ago in his influential work,
‘<a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/159778/culture-and-imperialism-by-edward-w-said/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Culture and Imperialism</a>’, that it is simply unfair to try to compare the empire-building of Russia with that of the West. As Dr. Said explained, <em>“Russia
… acquired its imperial territories almost exclusively by adjacence.
Unlike Britain and France, which jumped thousands of miles beyond their
own borders to other continents, Russia moved to swallow whatever land
or peoples stood next to its borders … but in the English and French
cases, the sheer distance of attractive territories summoned the
projection of far-flung interest ...”</em> This observation is doubly applicable to the United States.</p><p>Still,
there is more to consider regarding Russia’s claimed justifications for
intervention. Thus, not only are there radical groups on its border
attacking ethnic Russians, including Russian citizens, but also, these
groups have reportedly been funded and trained by the United States with
the very intention of destabilizing and undermining the territorial
integrity of Russia itself. </p><p>As <a href="https://news.yahoo.com/cia-trained-ukrainian-paramilitaries-may-take-central-role-if-russia-invades-185258008.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Yahoo News! explained in a January 2022 article</a>:</p><p class="lineblock"><em>“The
CIA is overseeing a secret intensive training program in the U.S. for
elite Ukrainian special operations forces and other intelligence
personnel, according to five former intelligence and national security
officials familiar with the initiative. The program, which started in
2015, is based at an undisclosed facility in the Southern U.S.,
according to some of those officials.</em></p><p class="lineblock"><em>The
program has involved ‘very specific training on skills that would
enhance’ the Ukrainians’ ‘ability to push back against the Russians,’
said the former senior intelligence official.</em></p><p class="lineblock"><em>The
training, which has included ‘tactical stuff,’ is ‘going to start
looking pretty offensive if Russians invade Ukraine,’ said the former
official.</em></p><p class="lineblock"><em>One person familiar with the
program put it more bluntly. ‘The United States is training an
insurgency,’ said a former CIA official, adding that <strong>the program has taught the Ukrainians how ‘to kill Russians</strong>.’”</em></p><p>(emphasis added). </p><p>To
remove any doubt that the destabilization of Russia itself has been the
goal of the US in these efforts, one should examine the very telling <a href="https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_briefs/RB10014.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">2019 report</a>
of the Rand Corporation – a long-time defense contractor called upon to
advise the US on how to carry out its policy goals. In this report,
entitled, ‘Overextending and Unbalancing Russia, Assessing the Impact of
Cost-Imposing Options’, one of the many tactics listed is<em> “Providing lethal aid to Ukraine”</em> in order to <em>“exploit Russia’s greatest point of external vulnerability.”</em></p><div class="read-more large" data-has-alias="">
<a class="read-more__link" href="https://www.rt.com/russia/553323-deaths-civilians-ukraine-bucha/" target="_blank">
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<img alt="Evgeny Norin: Bucha needs to be properly investigated, not used for propaganda" class="read-more__cover lazyautosizes lazyloaded" data-sizes="auto" data-src="https://cdni.russiatoday.com/files/2022.04/xxs/624c1ba185f5407a0d078e78.jpg" src="https://cdni.russiatoday.com/files/2022.04/xxs/624c1ba185f5407a0d078e78.jpg" />
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<span class="read-more__footer">Evgeny Norin: Bucha needs to be properly investigated, not used for propaganda</span>
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<p>In short, there is no doubt that Russia has been threatened, and in a
quite profound way, with concrete destabilizing efforts by the US, NATO
and their extremist surrogates in Ukraine. Russia has been so
threatened for a full eight years. And Russia has witnessed what such
destabilizing efforts have meant for other countries, from Iraq to
Afghanistan to Syria to Libya – that is, nearly a total annihilation of
the country as a functioning nation-state. </p><p>It is hard to
conceive of a more pressing case for the need to act in defense of the
nation. While the UN Charter prohibits unilateral acts of war, it also
provides, in Article 51, that<em> “[n]othing in the present Charter shall impair the inherent right of individual or collective self-defense... ”</em> And this right of self-defense <a href="https://www.un.org/law/counsel/Bethlehem%20-%20Self-Defense%20Article.pdf" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">has been interpreted</a> to permit countries to respond, not only to actual armed attacks, but also to the threat of imminent attack. </p><p>In
light of the above, it is my assessment that this right has been
triggered in the instant case, and that Russia had a right to act in its
own self-defense by intervening in Ukraine, which had become a proxy of
the US and NATO for an assault – not only on Russian ethnics within
Ukraine – but also upon Russia itself. A contrary conclusion would
simply ignore the dire realities facing Russia.</p></div>Meo Meohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18080992642193515731noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6891205240280876163.post-56474130054376496882022-04-22T17:15:00.002-07:002022-04-22T17:15:16.053-07:00The Military Situation In The Ukraine<h2 class="site-description"><br /></h2>
<a href="https://www.thepostil.com/the-military-situation-in-the-ukraine/"><figure class="wp-caption featured"><img alt="" class="attachment-post-thumbnail size-post-thumbnail wp-post-image" height="900" src="https://www.thepostil.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/Petr-Krivonogov-Capitulation.-1946.jpg" width="762" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">"Capitulation," by Petr Krivonogov, 1946.<br /><br />https://www.thepostil.com/the-military-situation-in-the-ukraine/<br /></figcaption></figure></a>
<header class="entry-header">
<h1 class="entry-title">The Military Situation In The Ukraine</h1>
</header>
<div class="entry-meta">
<span class="entry-date"><a href="https://www.thepostil.com/the-military-situation-in-the-ukraine/" rel="bookmark" title="12:00 am"><time class="entry-date" datetime="2022-04-01T00:00:00-04:00">April 1, 2022</time></a></span> <span class="byline"><span class="author vcard"><a class="url fn n" href="https://www.thepostil.com/author/jacques-baud/" rel="author" title="View all posts by Jacques Baud">Jacques Baud</a></span></span> </div>
<p class="has-medium-font-size"><strong>Part One: The Road To War</strong></p>
<p>For years, from Mali to Afghanistan, I have worked for peace and
risked my life for it. It is therefore not a question of justifying war,
but of understanding what led us to it. I notice that the “experts” who
take turns on television analyze the situation on the basis of dubious
information, most often hypotheses erected as facts—and then we no
longer manage to understand what is happening. This is how panics are
created.</p>
<p>The problem is not so much to know who is right in this conflict, but to question the way our leaders make their decisions.</p>
<p>Let’s try to examine the roots of the conflict. It starts with <a href="https://www.rts.ch/info/monde/6772950-les-separatistes-auraient-renforce-leurs-capacites-dattaque-en-ukraine.html" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">those</a>
who for the last eight years have been talking about “separatists” or
“independentists” from Donbass. This is not true. The referendums
conducted by the two self-proclaimed Republics of Donetsk and Lugansk in
May 2014, were not referendums of “independence” (независимость), as <a href="https://www.rts.ch/info/monde/5839879-pres-de-90-de-oui-a-lindependance-a-donetsk-selon-les-prorusses.html" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">some unscrupulous journalists</a> have claimed, but <a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4d/Decree_on_holding_the_Donetsk_status_referendum.png" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">referendums</a>
of “self-determination” or “autonomy” (самостоятельность). The
qualifier “pro-Russian” suggests that Russia was a party to the
conflict, which was not the case, and the term “Russian speakers” would
have been more honest. Moreover, these referendums were conducted
against the advice of Vladimir Putin.</p>
<p>In fact, these Republics were not seeking to separate from Ukraine,
but to have a status of autonomy, guaranteeing them the use of the
Russian language as an official language. For the first legislative act
of the new government resulting from the overthrow of President
Yanukovych, was the abolition, on February 23, 2014, of the
Kivalov-Kolesnichenko law of 2012 that made Russian an official
language. A bit like if putschists decided that French and Italian would
no longer be official languages in Switzerland.</p>
<p>This decision caused a storm in the Russian-speaking population. The
result was a fierce repression against the Russian-speaking regions
(Odessa, Dnepropetrovsk, Kharkov, Lugansk and Donetsk) which was carried
out beginning in February 2014 and led to a militarization of the
situation and some massacres (in Odessa and Marioupol, for the most
notable). At the end of summer 2014, only the self-proclaimed Republics
of Donetsk and Lugansk remained.</p>
<p>At this stage, too rigid and engrossed in a doctrinaire approach to
the art of operations, the Ukrainian general staff subdued the enemy
without managing to prevail. The examination of the course of the
fighting in 2014-2016 in the Donbass shows that the Ukrainian general
staff systematically and mechanically applied the same operative
schemes. However, the war waged by the autonomists was very similar to
what we observed in the Sahel: highly mobile operations conducted with
light means. With a more flexible and less doctrinaire approach, the
rebels were able to exploit the inertia of Ukrainian forces to
repeatedly “trap” them.</p>
<p>In 2014, when I was at NATO, I was responsible for the fight against
the proliferation of small arms, and we were trying to detect Russian
arms deliveries to the rebels, to see if Moscow was involved. The
information we received then came almost entirely from Polish
intelligence services and did not “fit” with the information coming from
the OSCE—despite rather crude allegations, there were no deliveries of
weapons and military equipment from Russia.</p>
<p>The rebels were armed thanks to the defection of Russian-speaking
Ukrainian units that went over to the rebel side. As Ukrainian failures
continued, tank, artillery and anti-aircraft battalions swelled the
ranks of the autonomists. This is what pushed the Ukrainians to commit
to the Minsk Agreements.</p>
<p>But just after signing the Minsk 1 Agreements, the Ukrainian
President Petro Poroshenko launched a massive anti-terrorist operation
(ATO/Антитерористична операція) against the Donbass. <em>Bis repetita placent</em>:
poorly advised by NATO officers, the Ukrainians suffered a crushing
defeat in Debaltsevo, which forced them to engage in the Minsk 2
Agreements.</p>
<p>It is essential to recall here that Minsk 1 (September 2014) and
Minsk 2 (February 2015) Agreements did not provide for the separation or
independence of the Republics, but their autonomy within the framework
of Ukraine. Those who have <a href="https://www.securitycouncilreport.org/atf/cf/%7B65BFCF9B-6D27-4E9C-8CD3-CF6E4FF96FF9%7D/s_res_2202.pdf" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">read the Agreements</a>
(there are very, very, very few of those who actually have) will note
that it is written in all letters that the status of the Republics was
to be negotiated between Kiev and the representatives of the Republics,
for an internal solution to the Ukraine.</p>
<p>That is why since 2014, Russia has systematically demanded their
implementation while refusing to be a party to the negotiations, because
it was an internal matter of the Ukraine. On the other side, the
West—led by France—systematically tried to replace the Minsk Agreements
with the “Normandy format,” which put Russians and Ukrainians
face-to-face. However, let us remember that there were never any Russian
troops in the Donbass before 23-24 February 2022. Moreover, <a href="https://foreignpolicy.com/2018/10/25/counting-the-dead-in-europes-forgotten-war-ukraine-conflict-donbass-osce/" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">OSCE observers have never</a>
observed the slightest trace of Russian units operating in the Donbass.
For example, the U.S. intelligence map published by the <em><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/russia-ukraine-invasion/2021/12/03/98a3760e-546b-11ec-8769-2f4ecdf7a2ad_story.html" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">Washington Post</a></em> on December 3, 2021 does not show Russian troops in the Donbass.</p>
<p>In October 2015, Vasyl Hrytsak, director of the Ukrainian Security Service (SBU),<a href="https://www.kyivpost.com/article/content/war-against-ukraine/sbu-registers-involvement-of-56-russian-in-military-actions-against-ukraine-since-military-conflict-in-eastern-ukraien-unfolded-399718.htmlhttps://www.kyivpost.com/article/content/war-against-ukraine/sbu-registers-involvement-of-56-russian-in-military-actions-against-ukraine-since-military-conflict-in-eastern-ukraien-unfolded-399718.html" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank"> confessed</a>
that only 56 Russian fighters had been observed in the Donbass. This
was exactly comparable to the Swiss who went to fight in Bosnia on
weekends, in the 1990s, or the French who go to fight in the Ukraine
today.</p>
<p>The Ukrainian army was then in a deplorable state. In October 2018,
after four years of war, the chief Ukrainian military prosecutor,
Anatoly Matios, <a href="https://vesti.ua/strana/309880-nazvany-neboevye-poteri-vsu-na-donbasse" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">stated that</a>
Ukraine had lost 2,700 men in the Donbass: 891 from illnesses, 318 from
road accidents, 177 from other accidents, 175 from poisonings (alcohol,
drugs), 172 from careless handling of weapons, 101 from breaches of
security regulations, 228 from murders and 615 from suicides.</p>
<p>In fact, the army was undermined by the corruption of its cadres and
no longer enjoyed the support of the population. According to a<a href="https://www.justice.gov/eoir/page/file/1008261/download" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank"> British Home Office report</a>,
in the March/April 2014 recall of reservists, 70 percent did not show
up for the first session, 80 percent for the second, 90 percent for the
third, and 95 percent for the fourth. In October/November 2017, <a href="https://ipress.ua/ru/news/v_vsu_zayavyly_o_70_neyavky_vo_vremya_osennego_pryziva_237367.html" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">70% of conscripts</a> did not show up for the “Fall 2017” recall campaign. This is not counting <a href="https://observer.com/2017/06/ukraine-war-soldiers-suicide/" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">suicides</a> and <a href="https://www.refworld.org/docid/593a581b4.html" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">desertions</a>
(often over to the autonomists), which reached up to 30 percent of the
workforce in the ATO area. Young Ukrainians refused to go and fight in
the Donbass and preferred emigration, which also explains, at least
partially, the demographic deficit of the country.</p>
<p>The Ukrainian Ministry of Defense then turned to NATO to help make
its armed forces more “attractive.” Having already worked on similar
projects within the framework of the United Nations, I was asked by NATO
to participate in a program to restore the image of the Ukrainian armed
forces. But this is a long-term process and the Ukrainians wanted to
move quickly.</p>
<p>So, to compensate for the lack of soldiers, the Ukrainian government
resorted to paramilitary militias. They are essentially composed of
foreign mercenaries, often extreme right-wing militants. In 2020, they
constituted about 40 percent of the Ukrainian forces and numbered about
102,000 men, <a href="https://graphics.reuters.com/RUSSIA-UKRAINE/dwpkrkwkgvm/" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">according to Reuters</a>.
They were armed, financed and trained by the United States, Great
Britain, Canada and France. There were more than 19
nationalities—including Swiss.</p>
<p>Western countries have thus clearly created and supported <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2022/03/05/russia-invasion-ukraine-attention-extremist-regiment-nazi/9368016002/?gnt-cfr=1" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">Ukrainian far-right militias</a>. In October 2021, the <em>Jerusalem Post</em> sounded the alarm by denouncing the <a href="https://www.illiberalism.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/IERES-Papers-no-11-September-2021-FINAL.pdf" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">Centuria project</a>.
These militias had been operating in the Donbass since 2014, with
Western support. Even if one can argue about the term “Nazi,” the fact
remains that these militias are violent, convey a nauseating ideology
and are virulently anti-Semitic. Their anti-Semitism is <a href="https://www.jpost.com/diaspora/ukraine-progressively-restores-historical-memory-about-jews-652438" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">more cultural than political</a>,
which is why the term “Nazi” is not really appropriate. Their hatred of
the Jew stems from the great famines of the 1920s and 1930s in the
Ukraine, resulting from Stalin’s confiscation of crops to finance the
modernization of the Red Army. This genocide—known in the Ukraine as the
Holodomor—was perpetrated by the NKVD (the forerunner of the KGB),
whose upper echelons of leadership were mainly composed of Jews. This is
why, today, Ukrainian extremists are <a href="https://www.jpost.com/diaspora/antisemitism/far-right-protesters-in-ukraine-demand-israel-apologize-for-communism-654711" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">asking Israel to apologize</a> for the crimes of communism, as the <em>Jerusalem Post</em> notes. This is a far cry from Vladimir Putin’s “<a href="https://www.rts.ch/info/monde/12928403-podcast-ukrainerussie-cest-quoi-cette-histoire-de-nazis.html" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">rewriting of history</a>.”</p>
<p>These militias, originating from the far-right groups that animated
the Euromaidan revolution in 2014, are composed of fanatical and brutal
individuals. The best known of these is the Azov Regiment, whose emblem
is reminiscent of the 2nd SS Das Reich Panzer Division, which is revered
in the Ukraine for liberating Kharkov from the Soviets in 1943, before
carrying out the 1944 Oradour-sur-Glane massacre in France.</p>
<p>Among the famous figures of the Azov regiment was the opponent Roman
Protassevitch, arrested in 2021 by the Belarusian authorities following
the case of RyanAir flight FR4978. On May 23, 2021, the deliberate <a href="https://www.rts.ch/info/monde/12220530-la-bielorussie-a-arrete-un-militant-apres-avoir-intercepte-son-avion.html" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">hijacking of an airliner</a> by a MiG-29—supposedly with <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-LfZt4ESJ44&t=148s" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">Putin’s approval</a>—was mentioned as a reason for arresting Protassevich, although the<a href="https://www.belta.by/president/view/komandu-prinjat-v-minske-zaminirovannyj-samolet-ryanair-dal-lichno-lukashenko-442580-2021/)" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank"> information available</a> at the time did not confirm this scenario at all.</p>
<p>But then it was necessary to show that President Lukashenko was a
thug and Protassevich a “journalist” who loved democracy. However, a
rather revealing investigation <a href="https://www.foiaresearch.net/person/roman-protasevich" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">produced by an American NGO</a>
in 2020 highlighted Protassevitch’s far-right militant activities. The
Western conspiracy movement then started, and unscrupulous media <a href="https://www.rts.ch/audio-podcast/2021/audio/portrait-de-l-opposant-belarusse-roman-protassevitch-25201392.html" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">“air-brushed” his biography</a>. Finally, in January 2022, <a href="https://www.politico.eu/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/19/ICAO-Fact-Finding-Investigation-Report_FR497849.pdf" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">the ICAO report</a>
was published and showed that despite some procedural errors, Belarus
acted in accordance with the rules in force and that the MiG-29 took off
15 minutes after the RyanAir pilot decided to land in Minsk. So no
Belarusian plot and even less Putin. Ah!… Another detail: Protassevitch,
<a href="https://ici.radio-canada.ca/nouvelle/1798764/opposant-belarus-entrevue-television-torture-interdiction-vols-ue" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">cruelly tortured</a> by the Belarusian police, was now free. Those who would like to correspond with him, can go on his <a href="https://twitter.com/protas_by" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">Twitter account</a>.</p>
<p>The characterization of the Ukrainian paramilitaries as “Nazis” or “neo-Nazis” is <a href="https://www.lemonde.fr/international/live/2021/05/28/avion-detourne-par-la-bielorussie-sanctions-de-l-union-europeenne-posez-vos-questions_6081892_3210.html" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">considered Russian propaganda</a>. Perhaps. But that’s not the view of the <em><a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/hundreds-march-in-ukraine-in-annual-tribute-to-nazi-collaborator/" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">Times of Israel</a></em>, the <a href="https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/neo-nazis-far-right-ukraine/" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">Simon Wiesenthal Center</a> or the <a href="https://ctc.usma.edu/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/CTC-SENTINEL-042020.pdf" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">West Point Academy’s Center for Counterterrorism</a>. But that’s still debatable, because in 2014, <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/evidence-war-crimes-committed-ukrainian-nationalist-volunteers-grows-269604" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank"><em>Newsweek</em> magazine</a> seemed to associate them more with… the Islamic State. Take your pick!</p>
<p>So, the West supported and continued to arm militias that have been guilty of numerous <a href="https://www.osce.org/files/f/documents/e/7/233896.pdf" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">crimes against civilian populations</a>
since 2014: rape, torture and massacres. But while the Swiss government
has been very quick to take sanctions against Russia, it has not
adopted any against the Ukraine, which has been massacring its own
population since 2014. In fact, those who <a href="https://www.osce.org/files/f/documents/6/0/394781.pdf" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">defend human rights in the Ukraine</a>
have long condemned the actions of these groups, but have not been
supported by our governments. Because, in reality, we are not trying to
help the Ukraine, but to fight Russia.</p>
<p>The integration of these paramilitary forces into the National Guard was not at all accompanied by a “denazification,” <a href="https://www.rts.ch/info/monde/12928403-podcast-ukrainerussie-cest-quoi-cette-histoire-de-nazis.html" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">as some claim</a>. Among the many examples, that of the Azov Regiment’s insignia is instructive:</p>
<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter size-large"><img alt="" class="wp-image-16643" height="478" src="https://www.thepostil.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/Ukraine-Neo-Nazis-1024x478.jpg" width="1024" /></figure></div>
<p>In 2022, very schematically, the Ukrainian armed forces fighting the Russian offensive were organized as:</p>
<ul><li>The Army, subordinated to the Ministry of Defense. It is
organized into 3 army corps and composed of maneuver formations (tanks,
heavy artillery, missiles, etc.).</li><li>The National Guard, which depends on the Ministry of the Interior and is organized into 5 territorial commands.</li></ul>
<p>The National Guard is therefore a territorial defense force that is
not part of the Ukrainian army. It includes paramilitary militias,
called “volunteer battalions” (добровольчі батальйоні), also known by
the evocative name of “reprisal battalions,” and composed of infantry.
Primarily trained for urban combat, they now defend cities such as
Kharkov, Mariupol, Odessa, Kiev, etc.</p>
<p class="has-medium-font-size"><strong>Part Two: The War</strong></p>
<p>As a former head of the Warsaw Pact forces in the Swiss strategic
intelligence service, I observe with sadness—but not astonishment—that
our services are no longer able to understand the military situation in
Ukraine. The self-proclaimed “experts” who parade on our screens
tirelessly relay the same information modulated by the claim that
Russia—and Vladimir Putin—is irrational. Let’s take a step back.</p>
<p><strong>1. The Outbreak Of War</strong></p>
<p>Since November 2021, the Americans have been constantly threatening a
Russian invasion of the Ukraine. However, the Ukrainians did not seem
to agree. Why not?</p>
<p>We have to go back to March 24, 2021. On that day, Volodymyr Zelensky <a href="https://www.president.gov.ua/documents/1172021-37533" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">issued a decree</a> for the <a href="https://www.president.gov.ua/news/prezident-zatverdiv-strategiyu-deokupaciyi-ta-reintegraciyi-67321" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">recapture of the Crimea</a>,
and began to deploy his forces to the south of the country. At the same
time, several NATO exercises were conducted between the Black Sea and
the Baltic Sea, accompanied by a significant <a href="https://www.janes.com/defence-news/news-detail/us-uk-surge-surveillance-flights-over-ukraine-and-black-sea" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">increase in reconnaissance flights</a>
along the Russian border. Russia then conducted several exercises to
test the operational readiness of its troops and to show that it was
following the evolution of the situation.</p>
<p>Things calmed down until October-November with the end of the ZAPAD
21 exercises, whose troop movements were interpreted as a reinforcement
for an offensive against the Ukraine. However, even the Ukrainian
authorities refuted the idea of Russian preparations for a war, and
Oleksiy Reznikov, Ukrainian Minister of Defense, states that <a href="https://kyivindependent.com/hot-topic/defense-minister-downplays-russias-threat-says-its-similar-to-that-of-spring-2021/" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">there had been no change</a> on its border since the spring.</p>
<p>In violation of the Minsk Agreements, the Ukraine was conducting air operations in Donbass using drones, including <a href="https://nationalinterest.org/feature/ukraine%E2%80%99s-recent-drone-strike-reignites-tensions-donbass-195709" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">at least one strike</a>
against a fuel depot in Donetsk in October 2021. The American press
noted this, but not the Europeans; and no one condemned these
violations.</p>
<p>In February 2022, events were precipitated. On February 7, during his visit to Moscow, Emmanuel Macron <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QHDAYz7g4u4" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">reaffirmed</a> to Vladimir Putin his commitment to the Minsk Agreements, a commitment <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=InrDN7jYVOs" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">he would repeat</a>
after his meeting with Volodymyr Zelensky the next day. But on February
11, in Berlin, after nine hours of work, the meeting of political
advisors of the leaders of the “Normandy format” ended, without any
concrete result: the Ukrainians <a href="https://www.aa.com.tr/en/europe/normandy-format-talks-in-berlin-end-without-tangible-results/2499568" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">still refused to apply the Minsk Agreements</a>,
apparently under pressure from the United States. Vladimir Putin noted
that Macron had made empty promises and that the West was not ready to
enforce the agreements, as it had been doing for eight years.</p>
<p>Ukrainian preparations in the contact zone continued. The Russian
Parliament became alarmed; and on February 15 asked Vladimir Putin to
recognize the independence of the Republics, which he refused to do.</p>
<p>On 17 February, President Joe Biden <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2022/02/17/politics/joe-biden-russia/index.html" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">announced</a>
that Russia would attack the Ukraine in the next few days. How did he
know this? It is a mystery. But since the 16th, the artillery shelling
of the population of Donbass increased dramatically, as the daily
reports of the OSCE observers show. Naturally, neither the media, nor
the European Union, nor NATO, nor any Western government reacts or
intervenes. It will be said later that this is Russian disinformation.
In fact, it seems that the European Union and some countries have
deliberately kept silent about the massacre of the Donbass population,
knowing that this would provoke a Russian intervention.</p>
<p>At the same time, there were reports of sabotage in the Donbass. On
18 January, Donbass fighters intercepted saboteurs, who spoke Polish and
were equipped with Western equipment and who were seeking to create
chemical incidents in <a href="https://sprotyv.info/news/okkupanty-minirujut-mesta-hraneniya-ammiaka-na-zavode-stirol-dannye-gruppy-is" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">Gorlivka</a>. They could have been <a href="https://news.yahoo.com/cia-trained-ukrainian-paramilitaries-may-take-central-role-if-russia-invades-185258008.html" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">CIA mercenaries</a>,
led or “advised” by Americans and composed of Ukrainian or European
fighters, to carry out sabotage actions in the Donbass Republics.</p>
<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img alt="" class="wp-image-16650" height="1000" src="https://www.thepostil.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/Number-of-Explosions-in-Donbass-19-20-February-2022.jpg" width="1000" /></figure>
<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img alt="" class="wp-image-16649" height="1024" src="https://www.thepostil.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/Ceasefire-Violations-724x1024.jpg" width="724" /></figure>
<p>In fact, as early as February 16, Joe Biden knew that the Ukrainians
had begun shelling the civilian population of Donbass, putting Vladimir
Putin in front of a difficult choice: to help Donbass militarily and
create an international problem, or to stand by and watch the
Russian-speaking people of Donbass being crushed.</p>
<p>If he decided to intervene, Putin could invoke the international
obligation of “Responsibility To Protect” (R2P). But he knew that
whatever its nature or scale, the intervention would trigger a storm of
sanctions. Therefore, whether Russian intervention were limited to the
Donbass or went further to put pressure on the West for the status of
the Ukraine, the price to pay would be the same. This is what he
explained in his speech on February 21.</p>
<p>On that day, he agreed to the request of the Duma and recognized the
independence of the two Donbass Republics and, at the same time, he
signed friendship and assistance treaties with them.</p>
<p>The Ukrainian artillery bombardment of the Donbass population
continued, and, on 23 February, the two Republics asked for military
assistance from Russia. On 24 February, Vladimir Putin invoked Article
51 of the United Nations Charter, which provides for mutual military
assistance in the framework of a defensive alliance.</p>
<p>In order to make the Russian intervention totally illegal in the eyes
of the public we deliberately hid the fact that the war actually
started on February 16. The Ukrainian army was preparing to attack the
Donbass as early as 2021, as some Russian and European intelligence
services were well aware. Jurists will judge.</p>
<p>In his speech of February 24, Vladimir Putin stated the two
objectives of his operation: “demilitarize” and “denazify” the Ukraine.
So, it is not a question of taking over the Ukraine, nor even,
presumably, of occupying it; and certainly not of destroying it.</p>
<p>From then on, our visibility on the course of the operation is
limited: the Russians have an excellent security of operations (OPSEC)
and the details of their planning are not known. But fairly quickly, the
course of the operation allows us to understand how the strategic
objectives were translated on the operational level.</p>
<p><span style="text-decoration: underline;">Demilitarization:</span></p>
<ul><li>ground destruction of Ukrainian aviation, air defense systems and reconnaissance assets;</li><li>neutralization
of command and intelligence structures (C3I), as well as the main
logistical routes in the depth of the territory;</li><li>encirclement of the bulk of the Ukrainian army massed in the southeast of the country.</li></ul>
<p><span style="text-decoration: underline;">Denazification:</span></p>
<ul><li>destruction or neutralization of volunteer battalions operating
in the cities of Odessa, Kharkov, and Mariupol, as well as in various
facilities in the territory.</li></ul>
<p><strong>2. Demilitarization</strong></p>
<p>The Russian offensive was carried out in a very “classic” manner.
Initially—as the Israelis had done in 1967—with the destruction on the
ground of the air force in the very first hours. Then, we witnessed a
simultaneous progression along several axes according to the principle
of “flowing water”: advance everywhere where resistance was weak and
leave the cities (very demanding in terms of troops) for later. In the
north, the Chernobyl power plant was occupied immediately to prevent
acts of sabotage. The images of Ukrainian and Russian soldiers <a href="https://t.me/intelslava/20722" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">guarding the plant together</a> are of course not shown.</p>
<p>The idea that Russia is trying to take over Kiev, the capital, to
eliminate Zelensky, comes typically from the West—that is what they did
in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e4phB-_pXDM&t=1224s" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">what they wanted to do in Syria</a>
with the help of the Islamic State. But Vladimir Putin never intended
to shoot or topple Zelensky. Instead, Russia seeks to keep him in power
by pushing him to negotiate, by surrounding Kiev. Up till now, he had
refused to implement the Minsk Agreements. But now the Russians want to
obtain the neutrality of the Ukraine.</p>
<p>Many Western commentators were surprised that the Russians continued
to seek a negotiated solution while conducting military operations. The
explanation lies in the Russian strategic outlook since the Soviet era.
For the West, war begins when politics ends. However, the Russian
approach follows a Clausewitzian inspiration: war is the continuity of
politics and one can move fluidly from one to the other, even during
combat. This allows one to create pressure on the adversary and push him
to negotiate.</p>
<p>From an operational point of view, the Russian offensive was an
example of its kind: in six days, the Russians seized a territory as
large as the United Kingdom, with a speed of advance greater than what
the Wehrmacht had achieved in 1940.</p>
<p>The bulk of the Ukrainian army was deployed in the south of the
country in preparation for a major operation against the Donbass. This
is why Russian forces were able to encircle it from the beginning of
March in the “cauldron” between Slavyansk, Kramatorsk and Severodonetsk,
with a thrust from the East through Kharkov and another from the South
from Crimea. Troops from the Donetsk (DPR) and Lugansk (LPR) Republics
are complementing the Russian forces with a push from the East.</p>
<p>At this stage, Russian forces are slowly tightening the noose, but
are no longer under time pressure. Their demilitarization goal is all
but achieved and the remaining Ukrainian forces no longer have an
operational and strategic command structure.</p>
<p>The “slowdown” that our “experts” attribute to poor logistics is only
the consequence of having achieved their objectives. Russia does not
seem to want to engage in an occupation of the entire Ukrainian
territory. In fact, it seems that Russia is trying to limit its advance
to the linguistic border of the country.</p>
<p>Our media speak of indiscriminate bombardments against the civilian
population, especially in Kharkov, and Dantean images are broadcast in a
loop. However, Gonzalo Lira, a Latin American who lives there, presents
us with a calm city on <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uecv6AX8P3Q" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">March 10</a> and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b8RNhQjjn-4&feature=youtu.be" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">March 11</a>.
It is true that it is a large city and we do not see everything—but
this seems to indicate that we are not in the total war that we are
served continuously on our screens.</p>
<p>As for the Donbass Republics, they have “liberated” their own territories and are fighting in the city of Mariupol.</p>
<p><strong>3. Denazification</strong></p>
<p>In cities like Kharkov, Mariupol and Odessa, the defense is provided
by paramilitary militias. They know that the objective of
“denazification” is aimed primarily at them.</p>
<p>For an attacker in an urbanized area, civilians are a problem. This
is why Russia is seeking to create humanitarian corridors to empty
cities of civilians and leave only the militias, to fight them more
easily.</p>
<p>Conversely, these militias seek to keep civilians in the cities in
order to dissuade the Russian army from fighting there. This is why they
are reluctant to implement these corridors and do everything to ensure
that Russian efforts are unsuccessful—they can use the civilian
population as “human shields. Videos showing civilians trying to leave
Mariupol and beaten up by fighters of the Azov regiment are of course
carefully censored here.</p>
<p>On Facebook, the Azov group was considered in the same category as
the Islamic State and subject to the platform’s “policy on dangerous
individuals and organizations.” It was therefore forbidden to glorify
it, and “posts” that were favorable to it were systematically banned.
But on February 24, Facebook changed its policy and <a href="https://theintercept.com/2022/02/24/ukraine-facebook-azov-battalion-russia/" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">allowed posts favorable to the militia</a>. In the same spirit, in March, the platform authorized, in the former Eastern countries, calls for the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2022/mar/11/facebook-and-instagram-let-users-call-for-death-to-russian-soldiers-over-ukraine" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">murder of Russian soldiers and leaders</a>. So much for the values that inspire our leaders, as we shall see.</p>
<p>Our media propagate a romantic image of popular resistance. It is
this image that led the European Union to finance the distribution of
arms to the civilian population. This is a criminal act. In my capacity
as head of peacekeeping doctrine at the UN, I worked on the issue of
civilian protection. We found that violence against civilians occurred
in very specific contexts. In particular, when weapons are abundant and
there are no command structures.</p>
<p>These command structures are the essence of armies: their function is
to channel the use of force towards an objective. By arming citizens in
a haphazard manner, as is currently the case, the EU is turning them
into combatants, with the consequential effect of making them potential
targets. Moreover, without command, without operational goals, the
distribution of arms leads inevitably to settling of scores, banditry
and actions that are more deadly than effective. War becomes a matter of
emotions. Force becomes violence. This is what happened in Tawarga
(Libya) from 11 to 13 August 2011, where 30,000 black Africans were
massacred with weapons parachuted (illegally) by France. By the way, the
British Royal Institute for Strategic Studies (RUSI) <a href="https://rusi.org/explore-our-research/publications/commentary/what-do-uk-weapons-deliveries-add-ukraines-armed-forces" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">does not see any added value</a> in these arms deliveries.</p>
<p>Moreover, by delivering arms to a country at war, one exposes oneself
to being considered a belligerent. The Russian strikes of March 13,
2022, against the Mykolayev air base follow <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/3/12/russia-says-it-could-target-western-arms-supplies-to-ukraine" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">Russian warnings</a> that arms shipments would be treated as hostile targets.</p>
<p>The EU is repeating the disastrous experience of the Third Reich in
the final hours of the Battle of Berlin. War must be left to the
military and when one side has lost, it must be admitted. And if there
is to be resistance, it must be led and structured. But we are doing
exactly the opposite—we are pushing citizens to go and fight and at the
same time, Facebook authorizes calls for the murder of Russian soldiers
and leaders. So much for the values that inspire us.</p>
<p>Some intelligence services see this irresponsible decision as a way
to use the Ukrainian population as cannon fodder to fight Vladimir
Putin’s Russia. This kind of murderous decision should have been left to
the colleagues of Ursula von der Leyen’s grandfather. It would have
been better to engage in negotiations and thus obtain guarantees for the
civilian population than to add fuel to the fire. It is easy to be
combative with the blood of others.</p>
<p><strong>4. The Maternity Hospital At Mariupol</strong></p>
<p>It is important to understand beforehand that it is not the Ukrainian
army that is defending Marioupol, but the Azov militia, composed of
foreign mercenaries.</p>
<p>In its March 7, 2022 summary of the situation, the <a href="https://russiaun.ru/en/news/070322n" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">Russian UN mission</a>
in New York stated that “Residents report that Ukrainian armed forces
expelled staff from the Mariupol city birth hospital No. 1 and set up a
firing post inside the facility.”</p>
<p>On March 8, the <a href="https://lenta.ru/articles/2022/03/08/mariupol/" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">independent Russian media Lenta.ru</a>,
published the testimony of civilians from Marioupol who told that the
maternity hospital was taken over by the militia of the Azov regiment,
and who drove out the civilian occupants by threatening them with their
weapons. They confirmed the statements of the Russian ambassador a few
hours earlier.</p>
<p>The hospital in Mariupol occupies a dominant position, perfectly
suited for the installation of anti-tank weapons and for observation. On
9 March, Russian forces struck the building. <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2022/03/09/europe/russia-invasion-ukraine-evacuations-03-09-intl/index.html" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">According to CNN</a>,
17 people were wounded, but the images do not show any casualties in
the building and there is no evidence that the victims mentioned are
related to this strike. There is talk of children, but in reality, there
is nothing. This may be true, but it may not be true. This does not
prevent the leaders of the EU from <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/eu-condemns-russian-bombing-of-mariupol-maternity-hospital-as-a-war-crime/" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">seeing this as a war crime</a>. And this allows Zelensky to call for a no-fly zone over Ukraine.</p>
<p>In reality, we do not know exactly what happened. But the sequence of
events tends to confirm that Russian forces struck a position of the
Azov regiment and that the maternity ward was then free of civilians.</p>
<p>The problem is that the paramilitary militias that defend the cities
are encouraged by the international community not to respect the customs
of war. It seems that the Ukrainians have replayed the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LmfVs3WaE9Y" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">scenario of the Kuwait City maternity hospital</a>
in 1990, which was totally staged by the firm Hill & Knowlton for
$10.7 million in order to convince the United Nations Security Council
to intervene in Iraq for Operation Desert Shield/Storm.</p>
<p>Western politicians have accepted civilian strikes in the Donbass for
eight years, without adopting any sanctions against the Ukrainian
government. We have long since entered a dynamic where Western
politicians have agreed to sacrifice international law towards their <a href="https://www.rand.org/content/dam/rand/pubs/research_reports/RR3000/RR3063/RAND_RR3063.pdf" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">goal of weakening Russia</a>.</p>
<p class="has-medium-font-size"><strong>Part Three: Conclusions</strong></p>
<p>As an ex-intelligence professional, the first thing that strikes me
is the total absence of Western intelligence services in the
representation of the situation over the past year. <a href="https://www.20min.ch/fr/story/les-services-secrets-suisses-critiques-pour-leur-manque-danticipation-324567615362?utm_source=pocket_mylist" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">In Switzerland</a>,
the services have been criticized for not having provided a correct
picture of the situation. In fact, it seems that throughout the Western
world, intelligence services have been overwhelmed by the politicians.
The problem is that it is the politicians who decide—the best
intelligence service in the world is useless if the decision-maker does
not listen. This is what happened during this crisis.</p>
<p>That said, while some intelligence services had a very accurate and
rational picture of the situation, others clearly had the same picture
as that propagated by our media. In this crisis, the services of the
countries of the “new Europe” played an important role. The problem is
that, from experience, I have found them to be extremely bad at the
analytical level—doctrinaire, they lack the intellectual and political
independence necessary to assess a situation with military “quality.” It
is better to have them as enemies than as friends.</p>
<p>Second, it seems that in some European countries, politicians have
deliberately ignored their services in order to respond ideologically to
the situation. That is why this crisis has been irrational from the
beginning. It should be noted that all the documents that were presented
to the public during this crisis were presented by politicians based on
commercial sources.</p>
<p>Some Western politicians obviously wanted there to be a conflict. In
the United States, the attack scenarios presented by Anthony Blinken to
the Security Council were only the product of the imagination of a <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/02/14/white-house-prepares-russian-invasion/" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">Tiger Team working</a>
for him—he did exactly as Donald Rumsfeld did in 2002, who had thus
“bypassed” the CIA and other intelligence services that were much less
assertive about Iraqi chemical weapons.</p>
<p>The dramatic developments we are witnessing today have causes that we knew about but refused to see:</p>
<ul><li>on the strategic level, the expansion of NATO (which we have not dealt with here);</li><li>on the political level, the Western refusal to implement the Minsk Agreements;</li><li>and
operationally, the continuous and repeated attacks on the civilian
population of the Donbass over the past years and the dramatic increase
in late February 2022.</li></ul>
<p>In other words, we can naturally deplore and condemn the Russian
attack. But WE (that is: the United States, France and the European
Union in the lead) have created the conditions for a conflict to break
out. We show compassion for the Ukrainian people and the <a href="https://data2.unhcr.org/en/situations/ukraine" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">two million refugees</a>. That is fine. But if we had had a modicum of compassion for the same number of <a href="https://reliefweb.int/report/ukraine/ukraine-humanitarian-response-plan-2022-february-2022-enuk?utm_source=pocket_mylist" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">refugees from the Ukrainian populations</a>
of Donbass massacred by their own government and who sought refuge in
Russia for eight years, none of this would probably have happened.</p>
<p><em>Civilian casualties caused by active hostilities in 2018-2021, per territory</em></p>
<figure class="wp-block-table"><table><tbody><tr><td> </td><td>In territory control- led by the self-pro- claimed “Republics”</td><td>In Government- controlled territory</td><td><em> </em> In “no man’s land”</td><td><em> </em> Total</td><td>Decrease compared with previous year, per cent</td></tr><tr><td><strong>2018</strong><strong></strong></td><td>128</td><td>27</td><td>7</td><td>162</td><td>41.9</td></tr><tr><td><strong>2019</strong><strong></strong></td><td>85</td><td>18</td><td>2</td><td>105</td><td>35.2</td></tr><tr><td><strong>2020</strong><strong></strong></td><td>61</td><td>9</td><td>0</td><td>70</td><td>33.3</td></tr><tr><td><strong>2021</strong><strong></strong></td><td>36</td><td>8</td><td>0</td><td>44</td><td>37.1</td></tr><tr><td><strong>Total</strong><strong></strong></td><td>310</td><td>62</td><td>9</td><td>381</td><td> </td></tr><tr><td><strong>Per cent</strong><strong></strong></td><td>81.4</td><td>16.3</td><td>2.3</td><td>100.0</td><td> </td></tr></tbody></table><figcaption><em>As
we can see, more than 80% of the victims in Donbass were the result of
the Ukrainian army’s shelling. For years, the West remained silent about
the massacre of Russian-speaking Ukrainians by the government of Kiev,
without ever trying to bring pressure on Kiev. It is this silence that
forced the Russian side to act.</em> [<em>Source:</em> <a href="https://ukraine.un.org/sites/default/files/2022-02/Conflict-related%20civilian%20casualties%20as%20of%2031%20December%202021%20(rev%2027%20January%202022)%20corr%20EN_0.pdf?target=popup" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">“Conflict-related civilian casualties,</a>“<em> United Nations Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine</em>.]</figcaption></figure>
<p>Whether the term “genocide” applies to the abuses suffered by the
people of Donbass is an open question. The term is generally reserved
for cases of greater magnitude (Holocaust, etc.). But the definition
given by the <a href="https://www.ohchr.org/fr/instruments-mechanisms/instruments/convention-prevention-and-punishment-crime-genocide" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">Genocide Convention</a> is probably broad enough to apply to this case. Legal scholars will understand this.</p>
<p>Clearly, this conflict has led us into hysteria. Sanctions seem to
have become the preferred tool of our foreign policies. If we had
insisted that Ukraine abide by the Minsk Agreements, which we had
negotiated and endorsed, none of this would have happened. Vladimir
Putin’s condemnation is also ours. There is no point in whining
afterwards—we should have acted earlier. However, neither Emmanuel
Macron (as guarantor and member of the UN Security Council), nor Olaf
Scholz, nor Volodymyr Zelensky have respected their commitments. In the
end, the real defeat is that of those who have no voice.</p>
<p>The European Union was unable to promote the implementation of the
Minsk agreements—on the contrary, it did not react when Ukraine was
bombing its own population in the Donbass. Had it done so, Vladimir
Putin would not have needed to react. Absent from the diplomatic phase,
the EU distinguished itself by fueling the conflict. On February 27, the
Ukrainian government <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/ukraine-president-kyiv-kharkiv-foreign-fighters-join-russia-putin-rcna17844" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">agreed to enter into negotiations</a> with Russia. But a few hours later, the European Union voted <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-02-27/eu-approves-450-million-euros-in-lethal-military-aid-for-ukraine" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">a budget of 450 million euros</a>
to supply arms to the Ukraine, adding fuel to the fire. From then on,
the Ukrainians felt that they did not need to reach an agreement. The
resistance of the Azov militia in Mariupol even led to a boost of <a href="https://www.rferl.org/a/european-union-sanctions-russia-ukraine-borrell/31748462.html" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">500 million euros</a> for weapons.</p>
<p>In the Ukraine, with the blessing of the Western countries, those who
are in favor of a negotiation have been eliminated. This is the case of
Denis Kireyev, one of the Ukrainian negotiators, <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/ukraine-reports-claim-negotiator-shot-for-treason-officials-say-he-died-in-intel-op/" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">assassinated on March 5</a>
by the Ukrainian secret service (SBU) because he was too favorable to
Russia and was considered a traitor. The same fate befell Dmitry
Demyanenko, former deputy head of the SBU’s main directorate for Kiev
and its region, who was assassinated on March 10 because he was too
favorable to an agreement with Russia—he was shot by the Mirotvorets
(“Peacemaker”) militia. This militia is associated with the Mirotvorets
website, <a href="https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/dark-website-lists-russian-spies-26051893" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">which lists</a>
the “enemies of Ukraine,” with their personal data, addresses and
telephone numbers, so that they can be harassed or even eliminated; a
practice that is punishable in many countries, but not in the Ukraine.
The UN and some European countries have demanded the closure of this
site—refused by the Rada.</p>
<p>In the end, the price will be high, but Vladimir Putin will likely
achieve the goals he set for himself. His ties with Beijing have
solidified. China is emerging as a mediator in the conflict, while
Switzerland is joining the list of Russia’s enemies. The Americans have
to ask Venezuela and Iran for oil to get out of the energy impasse they
have put themselves in—Juan Guaido is leaving the scene for good and the
United States has to piteously backtrack on the sanctions imposed on
its enemies.</p>
<p>Western ministers who seek to <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ntzacqlm-Ac" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">collapse the Russian economy</a> and make the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n9BGOE_eVQc" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">Russian people suffer</a>, or even call for the <a href="https://lequotidien.lu/politique-societe/jean-asselborn-eliminer-physiquement-vladimir-poutine/" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">assassination</a>
of Putin, show (even if they have partially reversed the form of their
words, but not the substance!) that our leaders are no better than those
we hate—for sanctioning Russian athletes in the Para-Olympic Games or
Russian artists has nothing to do with fighting Putin.</p>
<p>Thus, we recognize that Russia is a democracy since we consider that
the Russian people are responsible for the war. If this is not the case,
then why do we seek to punish a whole population for the fault of one?
Let us remember that collective punishment is forbidden by the Geneva
Conventions.</p>
<p>The lesson to be learned from this conflict is our sense of variable
geometric humanity. If we cared so much about peace and the Ukraine, why
didn’t we encourage the Ukraine to respect the agreements it had signed
and that the members of the Security Council had approved?</p>
<p>The integrity of the media is measured by their willingness to work
within the terms of the Munich Charter. They succeeded in propagating <a href="https://www.hrw.org/fr/news/2020/05/12/le-covid-19-attise-le-racisme-anti-asiatique-et-la-xenophobie-dans-le-monde-entier" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">hatred of the Chinese</a> during the Covid crisis and their polarized message leads to the same effects <a href="https://fr.metrotime.be/belgique/harcelement-et-racisme-les-russes-de-belgique-victimes-collaterales-de-linvasion-russe" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">against the Russians</a>. Journalism is becoming more and more unprofessional and militant.</p>
<p>As Goethe said: “The greater the light, the darker the shadow.” The
more the sanctions against Russia are disproportionate, the more the
cases where we have done nothing highlight our racism and servility. Why
have no Western politicians reacted to the strikes against the civilian
population of Donbass for eight years?</p>
<p>Because finally, what makes the conflict in the Ukraine more
blameworthy than the war in Iraq, Afghanistan or Libya? What sanctions
have we adopted against those who deliberately lied to the international
community in order to wage unjust, unjustified and murderous wars? Have
we sought to “make the American people suffer” for lying to us (because
they are a democracy!) before the war in Iraq? Have we adopted a single
sanction against the countries, companies or politicians who are
supplying weapons to the conflict in Yemen, considered to be the “<a href="https://www.un.org/press/fr/2018/cs13586.doc.htm" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">worst humanitarian disaster in the world</a>?”
Have we sanctioned the countries of the European Union that practice
the most abject torture on their territory for the benefit of the United
States?</p>
<p>To ask the question is to answer it… and the answer is not pretty.</p>
<hr class="wp-block-separator" />
<p class="has-small-font-size"><em>Jacques Baud is a former colonel of
the General Staff, ex-member of the Swiss strategic intelligence,
specialist on Eastern countries. He was trained in the American and
British intelligence services. He has served as Policy Chief for United
Nations Peace Operations. As a UN expert on rule of law and security
institutions, he designed and led the first multidimensional UN
intelligence unit in the Sudan. He has worked for the African Union and
was for 5 years responsible for the fight, at NATO, against the
proliferation of small arms. He was involved in discussions with the
highest Russian military and intelligence officials just after the fall
of the USSR. Within NATO, he followed the 2014 Ukrainian crisis and
later participated in programs to assist the Ukraine. He is the author
of several books on intelligence, war and terrorism, in particular </em>Le Détournement<em> published by SIGEST, </em>Gouverner par les fake news<em>, </em>L’affaire Navalny<em>. His latest book is </em>Poutine, maître du jeu?<em> published by Max Milo.</em></p>
<p class="has-small-font-size"><em>This article appears through the gracious courtesy of <a href="https://cf2r.org/" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">Centre Français de Recherche sur le Renseignement</a>, Paris.</em> <em>Translated from the French by N. Dass.</em></p>Meo Meohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18080992642193515731noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6891205240280876163.post-67103871583227477722021-09-05T18:42:00.000-07:002021-09-05T18:42:08.741-07:00Vietnam War Victims Wanted Justice. They Were Given ‘30 Bags of Rice.’<p>South Korean troops were the largest foreign contingent fighting
alongside American soldiers during the Vietnam War. They have long been
dogged by allegations of brutality.</p><p> <a class="css-uwwqev" href="https://www.nytimes.com/by/choe-sang-hun"><img alt="Choe Sang-Hun" class="css-1bfqq7u ey68jwv2" src="https://static01.nyt.com/images/2018/07/18/multimedia/author-choe-sang-hun/author-choe-sang-hun-thumbLarge.png" title="Choe Sang-Hun" /></a></p><div id="fullBleedHeaderContent"><div class="css-1wx1auc e1gnum311"><div class="css-1tyn5zp"><div class="css-f11ndi epjyd6m1"><div class="css-233int epjyd6m0"><p class="css-aknsld e1jsehar1"><span class="byline-prefix">By </span><span class="css-1baulvz last-byline" itemprop="name"><a class="css-ozn3l9 e1jsehar0" href="https://www.nytimes.com/by/choe-sang-hun">Choe Sang-Hun</a></span></p></div></div><ul class="css-1u1psjv epjyd6m3"><li class="css-ccw2r3 epjyd6m2"><time class="css-129k401 e16638kd0" datetime="2021-08-21T05:00:24-04:00">Aug. 21, 2021</time></li></ul></div></div></div><section class="meteredContent css-1r7ky0e" name="articleBody"><div class="css-1fanzo5 StoryBodyCompanionColumn"><div class="css-53u6y8"><p class="css-axufdj evys1bk0">SEOUL
— The South Korean marine unit had a reputation for leaving nothing
breathing behind when they passed through hostile territory, not even a
pig suckling its litter.</p><p class="css-axufdj evys1bk0">After the
unit swept through Phong Nhi and Phong Nhut, villages in central
Vietnam, on Feb. 12, 1968, scores of bodies were found, all unarmed
civilians, most of them children and women, shot or stabbed with
bayonets.</p><p class="css-axufdj evys1bk0">“This old man came out of a
hiding hole, his hands held up,” recalled Ryu Jin-seong, a former marine
attached to the unit who was 22 at the time. “He kept begging for life,
apparently thinking he would be killed when he was taken away.”</p><p class="css-axufdj evys1bk0">In a fit of rage, a sergeant swore and emptied his clip on the man, Mr. Ryu said.</p><p class="css-axufdj evys1bk0">The
tragedy of the Vietnam War — echoing loudly this week during the
chaotic U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan — continues to haunt those
victims who witnessed and survived the two decades of bloodshed.</p></div><aside aria-label="companion column" class="css-ew4tgv"></aside></div><div class="css-1fanzo5 StoryBodyCompanionColumn"><div class="css-53u6y8"><p class="css-axufdj evys1bk0">Nearly a half-century after <a class="css-1g7m0tk" href="https://www.nytimes.com/topic/subject/vietnam-war" title="">the war</a>
ended, victims of the massacre at Phong Nhi and Phong Nhut are seeking
compensation from the Seoul government in the first lawsuit of its kind
being tried in a South Korean court.</p><p class="css-axufdj evys1bk0">Stung by shocking testimony, South Korean lawmakers and civic groups are also pushing for <a class="css-1g7m0tk" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HuHhECBDVTM&t=31s" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" title="">a special law</a>
to investigate long-held allegations that South Korean troops killed
thousands of civilians when they were the largest foreign contingent
fighting alongside American soldiers during the war.<br /><br /></p><div class="css-1xdhyk6 erfvjey0"><picture><img alt="Ryu Jin-seong, a former marine attached to the unit accused of massacring Vietnamese civilians, in Seoul in July." class="css-r3fift" decoding="async" height="400" sizes="((min-width: 600px) and (max-width: 1004px)) 84vw, (min-width: 1005px) 80vw, 100vw" src="https://static01.nyt.com/images/2021/08/18/world/00skorea-vietnam-2/merlin_190775943_afd8d891-07ef-440d-84a6-b84303b8755c-articleLarge.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale" srcset="https://static01.nyt.com/images/2021/08/18/world/00skorea-vietnam-2/merlin_190775943_afd8d891-07ef-440d-84a6-b84303b8755c-articleLarge.jpg?quality=90&auto=webp 600w,https://static01.nyt.com/images/2021/08/18/world/00skorea-vietnam-2/merlin_190775943_afd8d891-07ef-440d-84a6-b84303b8755c-jumbo.jpg?quality=90&auto=webp 1024w,https://static01.nyt.com/images/2021/08/18/world/00skorea-vietnam-2/merlin_190775943_afd8d891-07ef-440d-84a6-b84303b8755c-superJumbo.jpg?quality=90&auto=webp 2048w" style="cursor: pointer;" width="600" /></picture></div><figcaption class="css-18crmh6 ewdxa0s0"><span aria-hidden="true" class="css-16f3y1r e13ogyst0"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Ryu Jin-seong, a former marine attached to the unit accused of massacring Vietnamese civilians, in Seoul in July.</span></span><span class="css-cnj6d5 e1z0qqy90"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="css-1ly73wi e1tej78p0">Credit...</span>Chang W. Lee/The New York Times<br /></span><br /><div class="css-1xdhyk6 erfvjey0"><div class="css-8h527k" data-testid="lazy-image"><div data-testid="lazyimage-container" style="cursor: pointer; height: auto;"><picture class="css-1j5kxti" style="opacity: 1;"><img alt="The scene of the massacre, now a memorial site." class="css-1m50asq" decoding="async" height="400" loading="lazy" sizes="((min-width: 600px) and (max-width: 1004px)) 84vw, (min-width: 1005px) 80vw, 100vw" src="https://static01.nyt.com/images/2021/08/18/world/00skorea-vietnam-3/00skorea-vietnam-3-articleLarge.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale" srcset="https://static01.nyt.com/images/2021/08/18/world/00skorea-vietnam-3/00skorea-vietnam-3-articleLarge.jpg?quality=90&auto=webp 600w,https://static01.nyt.com/images/2021/08/18/world/00skorea-vietnam-3/00skorea-vietnam-3-jumbo.jpg?quality=90&auto=webp 1024w,https://static01.nyt.com/images/2021/08/18/world/00skorea-vietnam-3/00skorea-vietnam-3-superJumbo.jpg?quality=90&auto=webp 2048w" width="600" /></picture></div></div></div><figcaption class="css-18crmh6 ewdxa0s0"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span aria-hidden="true" class="css-16f3y1r e13ogyst0">The scene of the massacre, now a memorial site.</span><span class="css-cnj6d5 e1z0qqy90"><span class="css-1ly73wi e1tej78p0">Credit...</span>Linh Pham for The New York Times<br /><br /></span></span><div class="css-1fanzo5 StoryBodyCompanionColumn"><div class="css-53u6y8"><p class="css-axufdj evys1bk0">“I
have never been free from the nightmare of the day when South Korean
troops came to our village,” said Nguyen Thi Thanh, 61, who lost five
relatives, including her mother, sister and brother, and was herself
wounded in Phong Nhi in 1968. “But the South Korean government has never
once visited our village and never once asked us what happened.”</p></div><aside aria-label="companion column" class="css-ew4tgv"></aside></div><div class="css-1fanzo5 StoryBodyCompanionColumn"><div class="css-53u6y8"><p class="css-axufdj evys1bk0">South
Korea sent 320,000 troops, billing them as “anti-Communist crusaders.”
In return for its contribution, it won American aid that helped build
the national economy. But rumors have long persisted that South Korean
troops committed mass killings of Vietnamese civilians.</p><p class="css-axufdj evys1bk0">Discussions
of the topic had been a taboo under the past military dictatorship. But
as South Korea enjoyed a greater freedom of press in the late 1990s,
more outlets began publishing stories about the alleged civilian
massacres. The one in Phong Nhi and Phong Nhut was the most documented.</p><p class="css-axufdj evys1bk0">The United States military investigated what happened just days after the killings occurred, according to <a class="css-1g7m0tk" href="http://webviewer.nl.go.kr/imageviewer_mobile/imageviewer.jsp?control_no=CNTS-00053801063" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" title="">declassified American documents</a>.</p><p class="css-axufdj evys1bk0">According
to the documents, American Marines and South Vietnamese militiamen
operating in Dien Ban, Quang Nam Province, heard firing and saw huts
burning after the South Korean marine unit moved into Phong Nhi and
Phong Nhut. The Americans and South Vietnamese assisted villagers
fleeing with wounds. They later visited Phong Nhi to find piles of
bodies, including a child and pregnant woman shot in the head at close
range and “a young woman who was still alive and had her breast cut
off,” the documents said.</p><p class="css-axufdj evys1bk0">One of the American Marines took pictures.<br /><br /></p><div class="css-1xdhyk6 erfvjey0"><div class="css-8h527k" data-testid="lazy-image"><div data-testid="lazyimage-container" style="cursor: pointer; height: auto;"><picture class="css-1j5kxti" style="opacity: 1;"><img alt="Nguyen Thi Thanh, a survivor of the massacre. Last year, Ms. Nguyen filed a lawsuit against the Seoul government." class="css-1m50asq" decoding="async" height="412" loading="lazy" sizes="((min-width: 600px) and (max-width: 1004px)) 84vw, (min-width: 1005px) 80vw, 100vw" src="https://static01.nyt.com/images/2021/08/18/world/00skorea-vietnam-4/00skorea-vietnam-4-articleLarge.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale" srcset="https://static01.nyt.com/images/2021/08/18/world/00skorea-vietnam-4/00skorea-vietnam-4-articleLarge.jpg?quality=90&auto=webp 600w,https://static01.nyt.com/images/2021/08/18/world/00skorea-vietnam-4/00skorea-vietnam-4-jumbo.jpg?quality=90&auto=webp 1024w,https://static01.nyt.com/images/2021/08/18/world/00skorea-vietnam-4/00skorea-vietnam-4-superJumbo.jpg?quality=90&auto=webp 2048w" width="618" /></picture></div></div></div><figcaption class="css-18crmh6 ewdxa0s0"><span aria-hidden="true" class="css-16f3y1r e13ogyst0"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Nguyen Thi Thanh, a survivor of the massacre. Last year, Ms. Nguyen filed a lawsuit against the Seoul government.</span></span><span class="css-cnj6d5 e1z0qqy90"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="css-1ly73wi e1tej78p0">Credit...</span>Linh Pham for The New York Times</span><br /><br /><div class="css-1xdhyk6 erfvjey0"><div class="css-8h527k" data-testid="lazy-image"><div data-testid="lazyimage-container" style="cursor: pointer; height: auto;"><picture class="css-1j5kxti" style="opacity: 1;"><img alt="Ms. Nguyen pointing to names on a memorial stone of relatives, including her mother, who were killed in the massacre." class="css-1m50asq" decoding="async" height="414" loading="lazy" sizes="((min-width: 600px) and (max-width: 1004px)) 84vw, (min-width: 1005px) 80vw, 100vw" src="https://static01.nyt.com/images/2021/08/18/world/00skorea-vietnam-5/00skorea-vietnam-5-articleLarge.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale" srcset="https://static01.nyt.com/images/2021/08/18/world/00skorea-vietnam-5/00skorea-vietnam-5-articleLarge.jpg?quality=90&auto=webp 600w,https://static01.nyt.com/images/2021/08/18/world/00skorea-vietnam-5/00skorea-vietnam-5-jumbo.jpg?quality=90&auto=webp 1024w,https://static01.nyt.com/images/2021/08/18/world/00skorea-vietnam-5/00skorea-vietnam-5-superJumbo.jpg?quality=90&auto=webp 2048w" width="620" /></picture></div></div></div><figcaption class="css-18crmh6 ewdxa0s0"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span aria-hidden="true" class="css-16f3y1r e13ogyst0">Ms. Nguyen pointing to names on a memorial stone of relatives, including her mother, who were killed in the massacre.</span><span class="css-cnj6d5 e1z0qqy90"><span class="css-1ly73wi e1tej78p0">Credit...</span>Linh Pham for The New York Times</span></span></figcaption></span></figcaption></div></div></figcaption><figcaption class="css-18crmh6 ewdxa0s0"><span class="css-cnj6d5 e1z0qqy90"><br /></span></figcaption><div class="css-1fanzo5 StoryBodyCompanionColumn"><div class="css-53u6y8"><p class="css-axufdj evys1bk0">More than 70 villagers died in the attack, according to the American documents and recent testimony from survivors.</p></div><aside aria-label="companion column" class="css-ew4tgv"></aside></div><div class="css-1fanzo5 StoryBodyCompanionColumn"><div class="css-53u6y8"><p class="css-axufdj evys1bk0">“The
victims of this incident were defenseless civilians, the great majority
of which were women and children, who were murdered as they plead for
their lives,” Major John M. Campanelli, an American Marine investigator,
wrote in the declassified documents on Feb. 18, 1968. He added that “in
an attempt to placate the survivors and relatives of the dead and
wounded,” the executive officer of the South Korean Marine battalion
“offered his apologies and provided 30 bags of rice to the District
Chief.”</p><p class="css-axufdj evys1bk0">By April 1968, American
military investigators concluded that “there was some probability that a
war crime was committed,” and shared the information with the top South
Korean officer in Vietnam, Lt. Gen. Chae Myung-shin. General Chae
responded by claiming that the “massacre was an act conspired and
mercilessly elected by the Communists.”</p><p class="css-axufdj evys1bk0">South Korean veterans told a different story.</p><p class="css-axufdj evys1bk0">Mr.
Ryu said there was a standing order that if marines received even small
fire, they should trace its origin and destroy everything they found,
even unarmed civilians, to instill fear among the enemy. The task of
demonstrating cruelty often fell into units nicknamed “killer
companies,” including Mr. Ryu’s, he said. The attack in Phong Nhi and
Phong Nhut started after small fire from near the villages injured a
South Korean marine, according to the American documents.</p><div class="css-1xdhyk6 erfvjey0"><div class="css-8h527k" data-testid="lazy-image"><div data-testid="lazyimage-container" style="cursor: pointer; height: auto;"><picture class="css-1j5kxti" style="opacity: 1;"><img alt="Remains shortly after a South Korean marine company attacked the village." class="css-1m50asq" decoding="async" height="391" loading="lazy" sizes="((min-width: 600px) and (max-width: 1004px)) 84vw, (min-width: 1005px) 80vw, 100vw" src="https://static01.nyt.com/images/2021/08/18/world/00skorea-vietnam-7/00skorea-vietnam-7-articleLarge.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale" srcset="https://static01.nyt.com/images/2021/08/18/world/00skorea-vietnam-7/00skorea-vietnam-7-articleLarge.jpg?quality=90&auto=webp 600w,https://static01.nyt.com/images/2021/08/18/world/00skorea-vietnam-7/00skorea-vietnam-7-jumbo.jpg?quality=90&auto=webp 1024w,https://static01.nyt.com/images/2021/08/18/world/00skorea-vietnam-7/00skorea-vietnam-7-superJumbo.jpg?quality=90&auto=webp 2048w" width="626" /></picture></div></div></div><figcaption class="css-18crmh6 ewdxa0s0"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span aria-hidden="true" class="css-16f3y1r e13ogyst0">Remains shortly after a South Korean marine company attacked the village.</span><span class="css-cnj6d5 e1z0qqy90"><span class="css-1ly73wi e1tej78p0">Credit...</span>United States Marine Corporal J. Vaughn</span></span></figcaption><figcaption class="css-18crmh6 ewdxa0s0"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="css-cnj6d5 e1z0qqy90"><br /></span></span></figcaption><figcaption class="css-18crmh6 ewdxa0s0"><div class="css-1xdhyk6 erfvjey0"><div class="css-8h527k" data-testid="lazy-image"><div data-testid="lazyimage-container" style="cursor: pointer; height: auto;"><picture class="css-1j5kxti" style="opacity: 1;"><img alt="Images of the remains of Ms. Nguyen’s mother, from a book about the killings written by a South Korean journalist." class="css-1m50asq" decoding="async" height="418" loading="lazy" sizes="((min-width: 600px) and (max-width: 1004px)) 84vw, (min-width: 1005px) 80vw, 100vw" src="https://static01.nyt.com/images/2021/08/18/world/00skorea-vietnam-8/00skorea-vietnam-8-articleLarge.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale" srcset="https://static01.nyt.com/images/2021/08/18/world/00skorea-vietnam-8/00skorea-vietnam-8-articleLarge.jpg?quality=90&auto=webp 600w,https://static01.nyt.com/images/2021/08/18/world/00skorea-vietnam-8/00skorea-vietnam-8-jumbo.jpg?quality=90&auto=webp 1024w,https://static01.nyt.com/images/2021/08/18/world/00skorea-vietnam-8/00skorea-vietnam-8-superJumbo.jpg?quality=90&auto=webp 2048w" width="626" /></picture></div></div></div><figcaption class="css-18crmh6 ewdxa0s0"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span aria-hidden="true" class="css-16f3y1r e13ogyst0">Images of the remains of Ms. Nguyen’s mother, from a book about the killings written by a South Korean journalist.</span><span class="css-cnj6d5 e1z0qqy90"><span class="css-1ly73wi e1tej78p0">Credit...</span>Linh Pham for The New York Times</span></span></figcaption><figcaption class="css-18crmh6 ewdxa0s0"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="css-cnj6d5 e1z0qqy90"><br /></span></span></figcaption><figcaption class="css-18crmh6 ewdxa0s0"><div class="css-1fanzo5 StoryBodyCompanionColumn"><div class="css-53u6y8"><p class="css-axufdj evys1bk0">Mr.
Ryu, a member of the second platoon, said that when his unit swept
through the villages, it found no armed men but rounded up villagers. It
was widely known within the company that the third platoon, which was
bringing up the rear, massacred the gathered villagers, he said.</p><p class="css-axufdj evys1bk0">“We
heard that when the company commander was asked what to do with them,
he raised a thumb and made the gesture of cutting the throat,” he said.</p></div><aside aria-label="companion column" class="css-ew4tgv"></aside></div><div class="css-1fanzo5 StoryBodyCompanionColumn"><div class="css-53u6y8"><p class="css-axufdj evys1bk0">The
United States military reopened its case in late 1969 after the RAND
Corporation, in one of its studies, uncovered allegations of brutality
by South Korean troops against Vietnamese civilians. It was around this
time that the South Korean intelligence agency began questioning members
of the marine unit about the massacre, former officers told South
Korean media in 2000. At least one of the officers gave an account
similar to that of Mr. Ryu.</p><p class="css-axufdj evys1bk0">There is no evidence that Washington or Seoul pursued the matter further. Instead, the American military was <a class="css-1g7m0tk" href="https://www.nytimes.com/1970/01/10/archives/vietnam-killings-laid-to-koreans-researcher-says-he-found-evidence.html?searchResultPosition=2" title="">accused by refugees and student researches in the United States of suppressing evidence</a> of civilian atrocities carried out by South Korean forces.</p><p class="css-axufdj evys1bk0">After
South Korea and Vietnam opened diplomatic ties in 1992, South Korean
visitors encountered Vietnamese villagers who remembered the atrocities
of South Korean troops. One study by a South Korean researcher, based on
interviews with survivors and witnesses from the villages, reported
that dozens of alleged mass killings carried by South Korean troops left
as many as 9,000 Vietnamese civilians dead.</p><p class="css-axufdj evys1bk0">In 2015, Ms. Nguyen and another woman became the first Vietnamese victims to <a class="css-1g7m0tk" href="https://apjjf.org/2019/12/Jang.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" title="">visit </a>South Korea to share their stories. In 2019, with the help of <a class="css-1g7m0tk" href="http://www.kovietpeace.org/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" title="">South Korean civic groups</a>,
she and 102 people from 17 Vietnamese villages petitioned President
Moon Jae-in of South Korea for an investigation and apology. Last year,
Ms. Nguyen filed a lawsuit against the Seoul government.</p><div class="css-1xdhyk6 erfvjey0"><div class="css-8h527k" data-testid="lazy-image"><div data-testid="lazyimage-container" style="cursor: pointer; height: auto;"><picture class="css-1j5kxti" style="opacity: 1;"><img alt="An undated photo of Mr. Ryu in South Korea after he returned from the Vietnam War." class="css-1m50asq" decoding="async" height="949" loading="lazy" sizes="((min-width: 600px) and (max-width: 1004px)) 84vw, (min-width: 1005px) 80vw, 100vw" src="https://static01.nyt.com/images/2021/08/18/world/00skorea-vietnam-6/merlin_190778706_fd49f14a-a59e-4a6d-bfa0-4ae0b1ae7815-articleLarge.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale" srcset="https://static01.nyt.com/images/2021/08/18/world/00skorea-vietnam-6/merlin_190778706_fd49f14a-a59e-4a6d-bfa0-4ae0b1ae7815-articleLarge.jpg?quality=90&auto=webp 600w,https://static01.nyt.com/images/2021/08/18/world/00skorea-vietnam-6/merlin_190778706_fd49f14a-a59e-4a6d-bfa0-4ae0b1ae7815-jumbo.jpg?quality=90&auto=webp 683w,https://static01.nyt.com/images/2021/08/18/world/00skorea-vietnam-6/merlin_190778706_fd49f14a-a59e-4a6d-bfa0-4ae0b1ae7815-superJumbo.jpg?quality=90&auto=webp 1366w" width="634" /></picture></div></div></div><figcaption class="css-18crmh6 ewdxa0s0"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span aria-hidden="true" class="css-16f3y1r e13ogyst0">An undated photo of Mr. Ryu in South Korea after he returned from the Vietnam War.</span><span class="css-cnj6d5 e1z0qqy90"><span class="css-1ly73wi e1tej78p0">Credit...</span>Ryu Jin-seong</span></span></figcaption><figcaption class="css-18crmh6 ewdxa0s0"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="css-cnj6d5 e1z0qqy90"><br /></span></span></figcaption><figcaption class="css-18crmh6 ewdxa0s0"><div class="css-1fanzo5 StoryBodyCompanionColumn"><div class="css-53u6y8"><p class="css-axufdj evys1bk0">South
Korea maintains that it has found no evidence of civilian killings in
its wartime records. When lawyers demanded that the intelligence agency
make public the results of its reported investigation of marines in
1969, it refused, saying that it could “neither confirm nor deny”
whether an investigation took place.</p><p class="css-axufdj evys1bk0">In
response to the petition in 2019, the Defense Ministry said it could
not look into the allegations because Vietnam was not ready to
cooperate.</p></div><aside aria-label="companion column" class="css-ew4tgv"></aside></div><div class="css-1fanzo5 StoryBodyCompanionColumn"><div class="css-53u6y8"><p class="css-axufdj evys1bk0">When
he visited Hanoi in 2018, President Moon expressed “regrets over an
unfortunate past,” but stopped short of issuing an official apology,
which Hanoi has never requested.</p><p class="css-axufdj evys1bk0">His words hardly soothed the victims in Vietnam.</p><p class="css-axufdj evys1bk0">“No
South Korean government officials have asked us survivors whether we
wanted an apology,” said the petition to Mr. Moon from Ms. Nguyen and
others. “We do want an apology.”</p><div class="css-1xdhyk6 erfvjey0"><div class="css-8h527k" data-testid="lazy-image"><div data-testid="lazyimage-container" style="cursor: pointer; height: auto;"><picture class="css-1j5kxti" style="opacity: 1;"><img alt="The area where the Phong Nhi and Phong Nhat massacre took place on Feb. 12, 1968." class="css-1m50asq" decoding="async" height="425" loading="lazy" sizes="((min-width: 600px) and (max-width: 1004px)) 84vw, (min-width: 1005px) 80vw, 100vw" src="https://static01.nyt.com/images/2021/08/18/world/00skorea-vietnam-9/00skorea-vietnam-9-articleLarge.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale" srcset="https://static01.nyt.com/images/2021/08/18/world/00skorea-vietnam-9/00skorea-vietnam-9-articleLarge.jpg?quality=90&auto=webp 600w,https://static01.nyt.com/images/2021/08/18/world/00skorea-vietnam-9/00skorea-vietnam-9-jumbo.jpg?quality=90&auto=webp 1024w,https://static01.nyt.com/images/2021/08/18/world/00skorea-vietnam-9/00skorea-vietnam-9-superJumbo.jpg?quality=90&auto=webp 2048w" width="637" /></picture></div></div></div><figcaption class="css-18crmh6 ewdxa0s0"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span aria-hidden="true" class="css-16f3y1r e13ogyst0">The area where the Phong Nhi and Phong Nhat massacre took place on Feb. 12, 1968.</span><span class="css-cnj6d5 e1z0qqy90"><span class="css-1ly73wi e1tej78p0">Credit...</span>Linh Pham for The New York Times</span></span></figcaption><figcaption class="css-18crmh6 ewdxa0s0"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="css-cnj6d5 e1z0qqy90"><br /></span></span></figcaption><figcaption class="css-18crmh6 ewdxa0s0"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="css-cnj6d5 e1z0qqy90"><br /></span></span></figcaption></div></div></figcaption></div></div></figcaption></figcaption></div></div><br /></span></figcaption></div></div></section>Meo Meohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18080992642193515731noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6891205240280876163.post-33410075749171550632021-05-09T15:27:00.001-07:002021-05-09T15:27:15.404-07:00 The end of strategic ambiguity? America has finally stopped pretending it would risk war with Russia over supposed ‘ally’ Ukraine<p> </p><h1 class="article__heading" style="background-color: white; font-family: Archivo, sans-serif; font-size: 2.6em; line-height: 1.19em; margin: 0px 0px 0.8em; padding: 0px;">The end of strategic ambiguity? America has finally stopped pretending it would risk war with Russia over supposed ‘ally’ Ukraine</h1><div class="article__date" style="background-color: white; display: inline-block; font-family: Archivo, sans-serif; font-size: 10.001px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: top; width: 406.609px;"><span class="date date_article-header" style="color: #999999; display: block; font-size: 1.3em; margin: 0px 0px 0.230769em; padding: 0px; white-space: nowrap;">8 May, 2021 12:06<span class="update_date_visible" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"></span></span></div><div class="article__short-url" style="background-color: white; display: inline-block; font-family: Archivo, sans-serif; font-size: 10.001px; margin: 0px 0px 2.3em; padding: 0px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom; width: 406.609px;"><div class="short-url" style="font-size: 1.3em; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative;"><a class="short-url__link" href="https://on.rt.com/b7qt" style="background: 0px 0px; border-bottom: 0.0769231em dashed rgb(4, 79, 170); color: #044faa; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none;">Get short URL</a></div></div><div class="article__cover" style="background-color: white; font-family: Archivo, sans-serif; font-size: 10.001px; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px;"><div class="media " style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative;"><picture style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><source data-srcset="
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America has finally stopped pretending it would risk war with Russia over supposed ‘ally’ Ukraine" class="media__item lazyautosizes lazyloaded" data-sizes="auto" data-src="https://cdni.rt.com/files/2021.05/xxs/6096700f20302755402d615a.jpg" sizes="813px" src="https://cdni.rt.com/files/2021.05/xxs/6096700f20302755402d615a.jpg" style="border: 0px; display: block; height: auto; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; opacity: 1; padding: 0px; transition: opacity 300ms ease 0s; width: 813.234px;" /></picture></div><div class="media__footer media__footer_bottom " style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; width: 813.234px;"><div class="media__title media__title_arcticle" style="color: #999999; font-size: 1.3em; line-height: 1.28571em; margin: 10px 0px 0.714286em; padding: 0px;"><span data-role="title" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Servicemen of the 173rd Airborne Brigade of the United States Army before the Ukrainian-American joint military exercises Fearless Guardian-2015. </span><span 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style="background-color: white; font-family: Archivo, sans-serif; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.4em; margin: 0.8em 0px; padding: 0px; width: 813.234px;"><p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">By <span style="font-weight: 700; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Glenn Diesen</span>, Professor at the University of South-Eastern Norway and an editor at the Russia in Global Affairs journal. Follow him on Twitter @glenndiesen</em></p></div><div class="article__summary summary " style="background-color: white; font-family: Archivo, sans-serif; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.4em; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px;">Would the US go to war with Russia over Ukraine? As tensions escalate between Moscow and Kiev, some have warned that the latter’s ‘alliance’ with Washington could spiral into a conflict between the two main nuclear superpowers.</div><div class="article__text text " style="background-color: white; font-family: Archivo, sans-serif; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.4em; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px;"><p style="margin: 0px 0px 0.6em; padding: 0px;">Except, of course, there is no alliance between the US and Ukraine. This week, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken effectively ended the notion that Ukraine has Western backers ready to step in at a moment’s notice if it finds itself under attack.</p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 0.6em; padding: 0px;">Pressed on whether American forces could be sent into battle against Russian troops to support Kiev in the event of war in an interview with MSNBC, he answered only that Washington is committed to <em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">“helping Ukraine defend itself.”</em></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 0.6em; padding: 0px;">In other words, no. Indeed, with these words, Blinken backed up suspicions in Moscow that Washington stands ready to fight Moscow down to the very last Ukrainian, but would never risk its own troops.</p><a class="read-more-big" href="https://www.rt.com/russia/522390-ukraine-slam-reuters-crimea-ball/" style="background: 0px 0px; border: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); box-sizing: border-box; color: #044faa; display: block; margin: 30px 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transform: translateZ(0px); transition: opacity 0.2s ease 0s; width: 813.234px;" target="_blank"><span class="read-more-big__container" style="-webkit-box-direction: normal; -webkit-box-orient: horizontal; color: rgb(0, 0, 0) !important; display: flex; flex-flow: row nowrap; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="read-more-big__content" style="-webkit-box-direction: normal; -webkit-box-flex: 0; -webkit-box-orient: vertical; box-sizing: border-box; display: flex; flex-flow: column nowrap; flex: 0 0 33.33%; margin: 0px; padding: 16px 16px 32px;"><span class="read-more-big__subtitle" style="font-size: 16px; font-weight: 700; margin: 0px 0px 60px; padding: 0px; text-transform: uppercase;">ALSO ON RT.COM</span><span class="read-more-big__title" style="font-size: 26px; font-weight: 700; line-height: 1.2; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">It's all propaganda! Ukrainian diplomats slam Reuters news agency for reporting on costumed ball held to mark spring in Crimea</span></span><span class="read-more-big__cover lazyloaded" data-bgset="
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" style="-webkit-box-flex: 1; background-image: url("https://cdni.rt.com/files/2021.04/l/608995082030271fd70c71a0.jpg"); background-position: center center; background-repeat: no-repeat; background-size: cover; display: flex; flex: 1 0 auto; margin: 0px; opacity: 1; padding: 0px 0px 259.594px; transition: opacity 300ms ease 0s;"></span></span></a><p style="margin: 0px 0px 0.6em; padding: 0px;">It is difficult to overstate the importance of the secretary of state’s response, which has effectively ended a calculated policy of strategic ambiguity over Ukraine. For years, the State Department has been reluctant to be drawn on just how far it would go for the Eastern European nation, and whether it would send its own soldiers into battle for its supposed ally.</p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 0.6em; padding: 0px;">The fact that mask has slipped now fundamentally changes the nature of the situation. It comes as the White House has also seemingly pivoted its foreign policy in the region by revising a section in an official transcript to play down the prospect of Ukraine joining the NATO military bloc. After turning to the West following the 2014 Maidan, Kiev has played up its credentials with the EU and US, emphasizing the importance of its ‘alliances’ and its role as a vanguard against supposed Russian aggression towards Central Europe. That argument is now based on less and less evidence.</p><h2 style="font-size: 1.15em; margin: 1.2em 0px 0.4em; padding: 0px;">The gamble of strategic ambiguity</h2><p style="margin: 0px 0px 0.6em; padding: 0px;">Strategic ambiguity, neither confirming nor denying your red lines and potential responses, is often an ideal approach when it concerns the defense of an ally or partner such as Ukraine. Most notably, the US has applied a similar approach to Taiwan.</p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 0.6em; padding: 0px;">Suggesting that Washington may provide direct support intends to deter adversarial states like Russia and China, as the added uncertainty about the US response makes it hard to predict how a situation might escalate.</p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 0.6em; padding: 0px;">Strategic ambiguity is preferable to making firm commitments to defend its partners for two main reasons – first, the US would lose its credibility in the arena of global security if a war broke out and it decided at the last minute to not live up to its commitments. Second, offering firm promises of support could encourage states like Ukraine or Taiwan to pursue bolder and more aggressive strategies.</p><a class="read-more-big" href="https://www.rt.com/russia/522758-ukraine-nationalists-march-odessa/" style="background: 0px 0px; border: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); box-sizing: border-box; color: #044faa; display: block; margin: 30px 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transform: translateZ(0px); transition: opacity 0.2s ease 0s; width: 813.234px;" target="_blank"><span class="read-more-big__container" style="-webkit-box-direction: normal; -webkit-box-orient: horizontal; color: rgb(0, 0, 0) !important; display: flex; flex-flow: row nowrap; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="read-more-big__content" style="-webkit-box-direction: normal; -webkit-box-flex: 0; -webkit-box-orient: vertical; box-sizing: border-box; display: flex; flex-flow: column nowrap; flex: 0 0 33.33%; margin: 0px; padding: 16px 16px 32px;"><span class="read-more-big__subtitle" style="font-size: 16px; font-weight: 700; margin: 0px 0px 60px; padding: 0px; text-transform: uppercase;">ALSO ON RT.COM</span><span class="read-more-big__title" style="font-size: 26px; font-weight: 700; line-height: 1.2; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Ukrainian Neo-Nazis parade through Odessa on seventh anniversary of post-Maidan massacre in which dozens were burned alive</span></span><span class="read-more-big__cover lazyloaded" data-bgset="
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" style="-webkit-box-flex: 1; background-image: url("https://cdni.rt.com/files/2021.05/l/608f0f8d2030275f343029fc.JPG"); background-position: center center; background-repeat: no-repeat; background-size: cover; display: flex; flex: 1 0 auto; margin: 0px; opacity: 1; padding: 0px 0px 259.594px; transition: opacity 300ms ease 0s;"></span></span></a><p style="margin: 0px 0px 0.6em; padding: 0px;">With the support of the Americans, for example, Ukraine may be emboldened to attempt to attack and take back the Donbass region by force. Likewise, Taiwan could be emboldened to officially declare independence from China if it believed Washington had its back. Thus, there is the risk that the tail begins wagging the dog, as minor powers like Ukraine and Taiwan would suddenly be capable of influencing their supposed protectors.</p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 0.6em; padding: 0px;">For this reason, the US has avoided firm security guarantees towards both Ukraine and Taiwan since neither Russia nor China can be deterred in the event of escalating war scenarios. If Kiev were to attack the Donbass, it would be politically impossible for Russia to stand by, and any sign of weakness would likely embolden NATO to expand into Ukraine, which Moscow deems to be an existential threat. Similarly, it would be impossible for China to accept Taiwan’s secession, seeing it instead as a repetition of the so-called Century of Humiliation, with the subsequent intolerable domestic and international consequences that entailed.</p><h2 style="font-size: 1.15em; margin: 1.2em 0px 0.4em; padding: 0px;">The failure of strategic ambiguity in Ukraine</h2><p style="margin: 0px 0px 0.6em; padding: 0px;">Strategic ambiguity failed in Ukraine because it created unrealistic expectations. The policy was not intended to deter a Russian invasion, but to enable Kiev to negotiate a more favorable political settlement to fighting in the Donbass, between its forces and those loyal to the two self-declared People’s Republics.</p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 0.6em; padding: 0px;">That negotiated settlement came in the form of the Minsk Agreement, which Kiev also signed. The agreement explicitly demands that Kiev establish direct diplomatic ties with the leaders in the breakaway regions to negotiate constitutional changes, including decentralizing power in order to grant the east of the country a degree of autonomy in a reunited Ukraine. However, years have passed and Kiev has been reluctant to honor its obligations and establish that dialogue with local leaders.</p><a class="read-more-big" href="https://www.rt.com/russia/522622-ukraine-undermine-unity-un-envoy/" style="background: 0px 0px; border: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); box-sizing: border-box; color: #044faa; display: block; margin: 30px 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transform: translateZ(0px); transition: opacity 0.2s ease 0s; width: 813.234px;" target="_blank"><span class="read-more-big__container" style="-webkit-box-direction: normal; -webkit-box-orient: horizontal; color: rgb(0, 0, 0) !important; display: flex; flex-flow: row nowrap; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="read-more-big__content" style="-webkit-box-direction: normal; -webkit-box-flex: 0; -webkit-box-orient: vertical; box-sizing: border-box; display: flex; flex-flow: column nowrap; flex: 0 0 33.33%; margin: 0px; padding: 16px 16px 32px;"><span class="read-more-big__subtitle" style="font-size: 16px; font-weight: 700; margin: 0px 0px 60px; padding: 0px; text-transform: uppercase;">ALSO ON RT.COM</span><span class="read-more-big__title" style="font-size: 26px; font-weight: 700; line-height: 1.2; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">By firing ‘bullets & shells’ at breakaway eastern regions, Ukraine is undermining own calls for unity, Russian UN envoy claims</span></span><span class="read-more-big__cover lazyloaded" data-bgset="
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" style="-webkit-box-flex: 1; background-image: url("https://cdni.rt.com/files/2021.04/l/608c32ae85f54056fb68d55e.jpg"); background-position: center center; background-repeat: no-repeat; background-size: cover; display: flex; flex: 1 0 auto; margin: 0px; opacity: 1; padding: 0px 0px 259.594px; transition: opacity 300ms ease 0s;"></span></span></a><p style="margin: 0px 0px 0.6em; padding: 0px;">Instead of fulfilling its role as required under the Minsk Agreement, Ukraine has aimed to renegotiate the entire agreement while changing the realities on the ground – rebuilding its military power, mobilizing support from Western powers, and intensifying sanctions against Russia.</p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 0.6em; padding: 0px;">Washington has continuously signaled that it supports Kiev’s efforts to repudiate the treaty, while Western Europe has been unwilling to put any pressure on Ukraine to seek to implement the terms of the deal. Washington’s continuous references to Ukraine as an <em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">“ally”</em> and promises of NATO membership undoubtedly gave Kiev the expectation of US support in its bid to scrap the Minsk Agreement, and potentially even if it attempts to resolve the conflict by force.</p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 0.6em; padding: 0px;">The recent mobilization of Ukrainian troops towards the contact line with Donbass was intended to be the pinnacle of pressure on Russia to renegotiate the settlement along terms more favorable to Kiev. However, the Russian military build-up along the border destroyed Kiev’s entire strategy. Moscow signaled clearly that it will uphold its red lines irrespective of the cost, for the simple reason that NATO’s continued expansion is considered an existential threat.</p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 0.6em; padding: 0px;">Unwilling to go to war against Russia, the G7 countries have since instead affirmed that the Minsk Agreement is the sole solution to the conflict. Without the possibility of renegotiating the pact, Ukraine is at a crossroads. An attack on the Donbass would almost certainly result in defeat and even potentially lead to the destruction of Ukraine as a state, while honoring the Minsk Agreement would make the country’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky, vulnerable to the far-right nationalists that could topple him in another supposedly ‘democratic revolution’.</p><a class="read-more-big" href="https://www.rt.com/russia/522555-ukraine-politics-nazi-past/" style="background: 0px 0px; border: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); box-sizing: border-box; color: #044faa; display: block; margin: 30px 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transform: translateZ(0px); transition: opacity 0.2s ease 0s; width: 813.234px;" target="_blank"><span class="read-more-big__container" style="-webkit-box-direction: normal; -webkit-box-orient: horizontal; color: rgb(0, 0, 0) !important; display: flex; flex-flow: row nowrap; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="read-more-big__content" style="-webkit-box-direction: normal; -webkit-box-flex: 0; -webkit-box-orient: vertical; box-sizing: border-box; display: flex; flex-flow: column nowrap; flex: 0 0 33.33%; margin: 0px; padding: 16px 16px 32px;"><span class="read-more-big__subtitle" style="font-size: 16px; font-weight: 700; margin: 0px 0px 60px; padding: 0px; text-transform: uppercase;">ALSO ON RT.COM</span><span class="read-more-big__title" style="font-size: 26px; font-weight: 700; line-height: 1.2; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">West turns a blind eye to march honoring WW2 Nazi ‘SS’ in Kiev: Ukraine may not be a fascist state, but it has a fascism problem</span></span><span class="read-more-big__cover lazyloaded" data-bgset="
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" style="-webkit-box-flex: 1; background-image: url("https://cdni.rt.com/files/2021.04/l/608bd7742030274e345ba3cb.png"); background-position: center center; background-repeat: no-repeat; background-size: cover; display: flex; flex: 1 0 auto; margin: 0px; opacity: 1; padding: 0px 0px 259.594px; transition: opacity 300ms ease 0s;"></span></span></a><p style="margin: 0px 0px 0.6em; padding: 0px;">Zelensky is in a difficult spot as he is being forced to withdraw with no real gains, and desperate times often call for desperate measures. By making it clear that it will not defend Ukraine, the US is discouraging Kiev and the right-wing militias from engaging in reckless actions. Furthermore, it also signals to Moscow that Washington is committed to de-escalation and Russia does not need to take unilateral actions to resolve the conflict.</p><h2 style="font-size: 1.15em; margin: 1.2em 0px 0.4em; padding: 0px;">What will Russia do? Returning to the revisionism versus status quo debate</h2><p style="margin: 0px 0px 0.6em; padding: 0px;">What will happen now as Washington withdraws its strategic ambiguity by making it clear the US will not defend Ukraine? Will Russia invade or de-escalate?</p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 0.6em; padding: 0px;">A revisionist power is defined as one that seeks to change current circumstances to obtain a more favorable balance of power, while a status-quo power aims to preserve its existing position against the challenges of revisionists who want to reopen old conflicts.</p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 0.6em; padding: 0px;">The narrative that Russia is a revisionist power, spun by the Western political and media classes, infers that without a security guarantee from the US, Russia is free to conquer Ukraine and <em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">“restore the Soviet Empire.”</em> However, that will be challenged if the US’ signals that it is no longer providing security guarantees result in Russia de-escalating, because the threat of an offensive in the east of the country and NATO expansion are minimized.</p><a class="read-more-big" href="https://www.rt.com/russia/522939-anti-russian-propaganda-facts/" style="background: 0px 0px; border: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); box-sizing: border-box; color: #044faa; display: block; margin: 30px 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transform: translateZ(0px); transition: opacity 0.2s ease 0s; width: 813.234px;" target="_blank"><span class="read-more-big__container" style="-webkit-box-direction: normal; -webkit-box-orient: horizontal; color: rgb(0, 0, 0) !important; display: flex; flex-flow: row nowrap; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="read-more-big__content" style="-webkit-box-direction: normal; -webkit-box-flex: 0; -webkit-box-orient: vertical; box-sizing: border-box; display: flex; flex-flow: column nowrap; flex: 0 0 33.33%; margin: 0px; padding: 16px 16px 32px;"><span class="read-more-big__subtitle" style="font-size: 16px; font-weight: 700; margin: 0px 0px 60px; padding: 0px; text-transform: uppercase;">ALSO ON RT.COM</span><span class="read-more-big__title" style="font-size: 26px; font-weight: 700; line-height: 1.2; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">It doesn’t matter if it isn’t true: No matter how many times it’s debunked, Western anti-Russian propaganda is immune to facts</span></span><span class="read-more-big__cover lazyloaded" data-bgset="
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" style="-webkit-box-flex: 1; background-image: url("https://cdni.rt.com/files/2021.05/l/609262ea2030276b3c038b6c.JPG"); background-position: center center; background-repeat: no-repeat; background-size: cover; display: flex; flex: 1 0 auto; margin: 0px; opacity: 1; padding: 0px 0px 259.594px; transition: opacity 300ms ease 0s;"></span></span></a><p style="margin: 0px 0px 0.6em; padding: 0px;">The theory of an expansionist and revisionist Russia has repeatedly failed. It was argued that Russia would go on to invade Georgia when the country intervened in response to Tbilisi’s attack on South Ossetia in 2008. Instead, Moscow merely restored the status-quo by pushing the Georgian troops out of South Ossetia. In 2015, Russia intervened in Syria to prevent Western-backed regime change, and again to preserve the status quo. In Ukraine, Russia has similarly aimed to defend the local population in Donbass following the 2014 coup and prevent further NATO expansionism.</p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 0.6em; padding: 0px;">Are US security guarantees and NATO expansion instruments of revisionism in Europe or are they preserving the status quo? This question seems to have now been answered, as promises of military support and bloc membership are walked back, opening the door for a peaceful settlement in Ukraine.</p></div>Meo Meohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18080992642193515731noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6891205240280876163.post-2763112977313674982021-01-15T13:58:00.003-08:002021-01-15T13:58:26.611-08:00How China Won Trump’s Trade War and Got Americans to Foot the BillBloomberg News<p><span style="background-color: white; font-family: BWHaasGrotesk-55Roman-Web, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">January 11, 2021, 1:00 PM PST</span></p><br />*Chinese trade surplus, exports rose despite Trump’s rhetoric<br />*Biden administration likely to favor technology controls<br /><br />Supply Lines is a daily newsletter that tracks Covid-19’s impact on trade. <a href="http://bloomberg.com/account/newsletters/supply-lines?source=article">Sign up here</a>, and <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/prognosis/id1440051086/?itm_source=inline">subscribe to our Covid-19 podcast</a> for the latest news and analysis on the pandemic.<br /><br />U.S. President Donald Trump famously <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/969525362580484098?s=20">tweeted</a> that “trade wars are good, and easy to win” in 2018 as he began to impose tariffs on about <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-01-14/china-tariffs-to-stay-put-until-after-u-s-election-despite-deal">$360 billion of imports</a> from China. Turns out he was wrong on both counts.<br /><br />Even before the coronavirus infected millions of Americans and sparked the steepest economic downturn since the Great Depression, China was withstanding Trump’s tariff salvos, according to the very metrics he used to justify them. Once China got the virus under control, demand for medical equipment and work-from-home gear expanded its trade surplus with the U.S. despite the levies.<br /><br />While trade tensions between the world’s two biggest economic powers didn’t start under Trump, he broadened the fight with the unprecedented tariffs and sanctions on technology companies. The tougher approach, according to the scorecard that follows, didn’t go as he hoped. But he’s leaving his successor Joe Biden a blueprint of what worked and what didn’t.<br /><br />“China is too big and too important to the world economy to think that you can cut it out like a paper doll” said Mary Lovely, an economics professor at Syracuse University. “The Trump administration had a wake-up call.”<br />The U.S. Trade Deficit Grew<br /><br />Trump vowed in his 2016 election year to very quickly “<a href="https://factba.se/transcript/donald-trump-speech-poughkeepsie-ny-april-17-2016">start reversing</a>” the U.S. goods trade deficit with China, ignoring mainstream economists who downplay the importance of bilateral deficits. However, the deficit with China increased since then, hitting $287 billion in the 11 months to November last year, according to Chinese data.<div><br /></div><div>China’s Trade Surplus with the U.S.<p class="chart__subtitle" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: BWHaasGrotesk-55Roman-Web, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 16px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: auto;"></p><div class="chart__container" data-src="https://www.bloomberg.com/toaster/v2/charts/862b0e5b40174bff8e300269e6bc2ffa.html?brand=businessweek&webTheme=businessweek&web=true&hideTitles=true" data-toaster-id="367285431" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #3c3c3c; font-family: PublicoText-Roman-Web, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 8px 0px 0px; min-height: 295px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><iframe data-toaster-id="367285431" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" src="https://www.bloomberg.com/toaster/v2/charts/862b0e5b40174bff8e300269e6bc2ffa.html?brand=businessweek&webTheme=businessweek&web=true&hideTitles=true" style="border-style: initial; border-width: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; height: 295px; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; min-width: 100%; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 830px;"></iframe></div><p class="chart__source" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: BWHaasGrotesk-55Roman-Web, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 5px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: auto;">January-February 2020 is combined by source</p><p class="chart__footnote" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: BWHaasGrotesk-55Roman-Web, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 5px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: auto;">Data: China’s General Administration of Customs<br /><br /><br /></p>The deficit did fall year-on-year in 2019, as U.S. companies switched to imports from countries like <a href="https://www.census.gov/foreign-trade/statistics/product/enduse/imports/c5520.html">Vietnam</a>, but it remained higher than the $254 billion gap in 2016. That was partly because Beijing’s imposition of retaliatory tariffs on about $110 billion in goods reduced its imports of American products, and these only started recovering in the last few months of 2020.<br /><br />As part of the phase-one trade deal signed a year ago, Beijing made an ambitious vow to import $172 billion worth of U.S. goods in specific categories in 2020, but through the end of November it had bought just <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-12-28/china-lags-u-s-trade-deal-target-with-deadline-just-weeks-away">51% of that goal</a>. The slump in energy prices amid the pandemic and the problems with <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/quote/BA:US">Boeing Co.</a>’s <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-11-18/boeing-max-cleared-to-fly-as-faa-lifts-longest-u-s-grounding">planes</a> played a part in that failure.<br /><br />The persistent deficit demonstrated how reliant companies are on China’s vast manufacturing capacity, which was highlighted again by the pandemic. China was the only country capable of increasing output on a big enough scale to meet surging demand for goods such as work-from-home computers and medical equipment.<br /><br />President Xi Jinping expressed his <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-01-12/upbeat-xi-says-time-on-china-s-side-as-turmoil-grips-u-s">confidence</a> in China’s rise Monday, telling officials that “time and the situation are in our favor.” The Chinese leader said that he saw “opportunities in general outweighing challenges,” a marked shift from his sometimes dire-sounding warnings of recent months.<br />China’s Export Machine Rolls On<br /><br />Trump repeatedly said that China’s accession to the World Trade Organization in 2001 caused its economy to take off like a “<a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/remarks-president-trump-vice-president-pence-members-coronavirus-task-force-press-briefing-24/">rocket ship</a>,” a result he viewed as unfair. As it turned out, Trump’s trade war with China coincided with another expansion in Chinese exports. After shrinking for two straight years in 2015 and 2016, China’s total shipments grew each year after Trump took office, including in 2019 when exports to the U.S. fell.<br /><br /><h3 class="chart__title" id="china-exports" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: BWHaasGrotesk-55Roman-Web, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 22px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: 0.02em; line-height: 27px; margin: 0px 0px 6px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: auto;">China Exports</h3><p class="chart__subtitle" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: BWHaasGrotesk-55Roman-Web, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 16px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: auto;"></p><div class="chart__container" data-src="https://www.bloomberg.com/toaster/v2/charts/a98e89b1b0e745b698f289934dbb3f3c.html?brand=businessweek&webTheme=businessweek&web=true&hideTitles=true" data-toaster-id="367285356" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #3c3c3c; font-family: PublicoText-Roman-Web, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 8px 0px 0px; min-height: 298px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><iframe data-toaster-id="367285356" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" src="https://www.bloomberg.com/toaster/v2/charts/a98e89b1b0e745b698f289934dbb3f3c.html?brand=businessweek&webTheme=businessweek&web=true&hideTitles=true" style="border-style: initial; border-width: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; height: 298px; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; min-width: 100%; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 830px;"></iframe></div><p class="chart__source" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: BWHaasGrotesk-55Roman-Web, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 5px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: auto;">January-February 2020 is combined by source</p><p class="chart__footnote" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: BWHaasGrotesk-55Roman-Web, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 5px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: auto;">Data: China’s General Administration of Customs<br /><br /><br /></p>A group of 10 Southeast Asian nations <a href="http://en.people.cn/n3/2019/0717/c90000-9598017.html">replaced</a> the U.S. as China’s second-largest trading partner in 2019. The shift to Asia is likely to continue as Southeast Asian economies are projected to grow faster than developed countries over the next decade. Those trade links will be further cemented by the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-11-15/asia-pacific-nations-sign-the-world-s-biggest-trade-deal">pact</a> signed late last year, which will see 15 regional economies gradually drop some tariffs on each others’ goods.<br /><br />What Bloomberg Economics Says...<br /><br />The fact that exports were little affected after four years of trade war speaks to the resilience of China’s manufacturing capacity. However the trade war has exposed China’s vulnerability in certain bottleneck sectors such as high tech.<br /><br />-- Chang Shu, chief Asia economist<br />U.S. Companies Stay in China<br /><br />Trump said that tariffs would encourage U.S. manufacturers to move production back home, and in a 2019 <a href="https://twitter.com/realdonaldtrump/status/1164914960046133249?lang=en">tweet</a> he “ordered” them to “immediately start looking for an alternative to China.” But there is <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-12-18/foreign-investment-pours-into-china-despite-trade-war-pandemic">little evidence</a> of any such shift taking place.<br /><br />U.S. direct investment into China increased slightly from $12.9 billion in 2016 to $13.3 billion in 2019, according to Rhodium Group data.<br /><br />Foreign Direct Investment<p class="chart__subtitle" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: BWHaasGrotesk-55Roman-Web, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 16px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: auto;"></p><div class="chart__container" data-src="https://www.bloomberg.com/toaster/v2/charts/31678a0249304aa1954e10e92ccd89d3.html?brand=businessweek&webTheme=businessweek&web=true&hideTitles=true" data-toaster-id="367285365" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #3c3c3c; font-family: PublicoText-Roman-Web, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 8px 0px 0px; min-height: 298px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><iframe data-toaster-id="367285365" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" src="https://www.bloomberg.com/toaster/v2/charts/31678a0249304aa1954e10e92ccd89d3.html?brand=businessweek&webTheme=businessweek&web=true&hideTitles=true" style="border-style: initial; border-width: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; height: 298px; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; min-width: 100%; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 830px;"></iframe></div><p class="chart__source" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: BWHaasGrotesk-55Roman-Web, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 5px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: auto;">Data: Rhodium Group<br /><br /><br /></p>More than three quarters of 200-plus U.S. manufacturers in and around Shanghai surveyed in September said they didn’t intend to move production out of China. U.S. companies regularly cite the rapid growth of China’s consumer market combined with its strong manufacturing capabilities as reasons for expanding there. “No matter how high the Trump administration raised any tariffs, it was going to be very difficult to dissuade US companies from investing,” said Ker Gibbs, president of the American Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai.<br />Economic Losses on Both Sides<br /><br />Trump claimed that tariffs had boosted the U.S. economy, while causing China’s economy to have its “<a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/remarks-president-trump-announcement-state-opioid-response-grants/">worst year in over 50</a>” in 2019. However, direct economic impacts were small relative to the size of the two countries’ economies as the value of exports between them are tiny relative to gross domestic product.<br /><br />China grew at or above 6% in both 2018 and 2019, with tariffs costing it about 0.3% of GDP over those years, according to Yang Zhou, an economist at the University of Minnesota. By her <a href="https://yangzhouumn.weebly.com/uploads/1/3/2/2/132217142/jmp_yang_zhou.pdf">estimate</a>, the trade war cost the U.S. 0.08% GDP over the same period. The clearest winner was Vietnam, where the tariffs boosted GDP by nearly 0.2 percentage point as companies relocated.<br />U.S. Consumer Foots the Bill<br /><br />Trump repeatedly claimed that China was paying for the tariffs. Economists who crunched the numbers were surprised to find that Chinese exporters generally didn’t lower prices to keep their goods competitive after the tariffs were imposed. That meant U.S. duties were mostly paid by its own <a href="https://review.chicagobooth.edu/economics/2020/article/who-paying-trade-war">companies and consumers</a>.<br /><br />The tariffs led to an income loss for U.S. consumers of about $16.8 billion annually in 2018, according to a National Bureau of Economic Research <a href="https://www.nber.org/digest/may19/us-consumers-have-borne-brunt-current-trade-war">paper</a>.<br /><br />Another own goal: Tariffs on imports from China tended to reduce U.S. exports. That was because globalized supply chains mean manufacturing is shared between countries, and the U.S. raised the costs of its own goods by levying duties on imports of Chinese components.<br /><br />U.S. Export Value<p class="chart__subtitle" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: BWHaasGrotesk-55Roman-Web, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 16px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: auto;">Year-over-year change</p><div class="chart__container" data-src="https://www.bloomberg.com/toaster/v2/charts/b340ac63dfc74a83a3cbb0913c293b17.html?brand=businessweek&webTheme=businessweek&web=true&hideTitles=true" data-toaster-id="367285394" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #3c3c3c; font-family: PublicoText-Roman-Web, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 8px 0px 0px; min-height: 351px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><iframe data-toaster-id="367285394" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" src="https://www.bloomberg.com/toaster/v2/charts/b340ac63dfc74a83a3cbb0913c293b17.html?brand=businessweek&webTheme=businessweek&web=true&hideTitles=true" style="border-style: initial; border-width: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; height: 351px; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; min-width: 100%; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 830px;"></iframe></div><p class="chart__source" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: BWHaasGrotesk-55Roman-Web, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 5px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: auto;">Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Bloomberg calculations<br /><br /><span style="background-color: transparent;"><br /></span></p><p class="chart__source" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: BWHaasGrotesk-55Roman-Web, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 5px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: auto;"><span style="background-color: transparent;">Companies which together account for 80% of U.S. exports had to pay higher prices for Chinese imports, according to analysis of confidential company data by </span><a href="https://ideas.repec.org/p/nbr/nberwo/26611.html" style="background-color: transparent;">researchers</a><span style="background-color: transparent;"> at the National Bureau of Economic Research, the U.S. Census Bureau and the Federal Reserve, reducing export growth.</span></p>The Rustbelt Stayed Rusty<br /><br />Trump campaigned hard back in 2016 on pledges to revive the Rust Belt by taking on China and bringing the jobs back home. It didn’t happen.<br /><br />Growth in U.S. manufacturing jobs <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-10-29/trump-s-china-scorecard-shows-many-defeats-and-one-big-change">flatlined</a> in 2019, partly due to falling exports. Even regions home to industries such as steel, which received explicit protection from Trump’s tariffs saw declines in employment, according to research by New York University Stern School of Business economist <a href="https://www.waugheconomics.com/">Michael Waugh</a>, suggesting that the trade war didn’t significantly alter the trajectory of U.S. manufacturing.<br /><br />“That stuff is just naturally going to move offshore. The protection maybe delays it a little bit,” Waugh said. “There’s no evidence that the tariffs benefited workers.”<br /><br />The pandemic’s disruption to the world economy in 2020 makes it difficult to estimate the effect of the tariffs on jobs and investment.<br />China Changed at Its Own Pace<br /><br />The Trump administration claimed that tariffs provided leverage over the Chinese, which would force them to make reforms to benefit U.S. companies. “I love properly put-on tariffs, because they bring unfair competitors from foreign countries to do whatever you want them to do,” Trump <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/remarks-president-trump-whirlpool-corporation-manufacturing-plant/">said</a>.<br /><br />The biggest victory claimed by the administration as part of its trade deal were promises from Beijing to enhance intellectual property protections. But that was probably in China’s interests anyway.<br /><br /><a href="https://www.fordham.edu/info/23643/c_-_d/7809/mark_a_cohen">Mark Cohen</a>, an expert on Chinese law at the University of California Berkeley School of Law and Fordham University, said that while Beijing has made “tremendous legislative changes” to strengthen IP protection in the past two years, its own motivation to enhance innovation may have been a more important factor than U.S. pressure. The agreement didn’t “push the structural reforms in China that would make its system more systemically compatible with most of the world,” he added.<br /><br />Chinese companies <a href="https://stats.oecd.org/Index.aspx?DataSetCode=TISP_EBOPS2010">paid</a> a record $7.9 billion in intellectual property payments to the U.S. in 2019, up from $6.6 billion in 2016, and its courts <a href="https://www.gtlaw.com/en/news/2019/9/press-releases/greenberg-traurig-represents-balanced-body">imposed</a> some record-breaking fines on IP infringement involving U.S. companies. But that rate of increase was slower than for its <a href="https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/BM.GSR.ROYL.CD?locations=CN">IP payments</a> to the whole world, according to World Bank data, showing the payments to the U.S. were part of a general trend.<br /><br />China’s Payments for Use of U.S. Intellectual Property<p class="chart__subtitle" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: BWHaasGrotesk-55Roman-Web, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 16px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: auto;"></p><div class="chart__container" data-src="https://www.bloomberg.com/toaster/v2/charts/7367f452fd4645f5b8e6dc877855d6b5.html?brand=businessweek&webTheme=businessweek&web=true&hideTitles=true" data-toaster-id="367285444" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #3c3c3c; font-family: PublicoText-Roman-Web, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 8px 0px 0px; min-height: 350px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><iframe data-toaster-id="367285444" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" src="https://www.bloomberg.com/toaster/v2/charts/7367f452fd4645f5b8e6dc877855d6b5.html?brand=businessweek&webTheme=businessweek&web=true&hideTitles=true" style="border-style: initial; border-width: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; height: 350px; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; min-width: 100%; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 830px;"></iframe></div><p class="chart__source" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: BWHaasGrotesk-55Roman-Web, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 5px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: auto;">Data: Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development<br /><br /></p><br />Washington was also not able to extract any significant commitments on reform of China’s state-owned enterprises, which were also cited as a justification for tariffs.<br />Trade War to Tech Wars<br /><br />It’s now up to President-elect Biden to decide whether to keep up the trade war. In a recent <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-12-02/biden-tells-nyt-he-won-t-quickly-remove-china-phase-one-tariffs">interview</a>, he said he wouldn’t remove the tariffs immediately and would instead review the phase one deal.<br /><br />Washington was also not able to extract any significant commitments on reform of China’s state-owned enterprises, which were also cited as a justification for tariffs.<br />Trade War to Tech Wars<br /><br />It’s now up to President-elect Biden to decide whether to keep up the trade war. In a recent <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-12-02/biden-tells-nyt-he-won-t-quickly-remove-china-phase-one-tariffs">interview</a>, he said he wouldn’t remove the tariffs immediately and would instead review the phase one deal.<br /><br />Compared with tariffs, an escalating conflict over technology is of more concern to China. <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-12-18/u-s-to-blacklist-smic-and-dozens-more-china-firms-reuters-says">Sanctions</a> and export restrictions imposed by Washington have threatened the viability of leading technology companies such as <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/quote/40978Z:CH">Huawei Technologies Co.</a> and microchip maker <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/quote/981:HK">Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp</a>. That is an existential threat to Beijing’s plans for economic growth.<br /><br />“If the U.S. continues to increase its technological blockade, China’s modernization towards the high-end of the global industrial chain will undoubtedly be affected,” two researchers at the official Communist Party school in the province of Jiangsu wrote in an article.<br /><br />So far, the impact of U.S. actions has been to accelerate Beijing’s drive for technological self-sufficiency. The issue has rocketed up the Communist Party’s agenda, symbolized by a statement last month that increasing “strategic scientific and technological strength” is the most important economic task.</div>Meo Meohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18080992642193515731noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6891205240280876163.post-88804829890213052102021-01-14T12:33:00.003-08:002021-01-14T12:33:28.506-08:00A 'Very Real War' in Vietnam, and the Deep U.S. CommitmentHOMER BIGART<br />Originally published in The New York Times, February 25, 1962.<br /><br />SAIGON, Feb. 24 — The United States is involved in a war in Vietnam. American troops will stay until victory.<br /><br />That is what Attorney General Robert Kennedy said here last week. He called it "war in a very real sense of the word." He said that President Kennedy had pledged that the United States would stand by South Vietnam's President Ngo Dinh Diem "until we win."<br /><br />At the moment the war isn't going badly for "our" side. There is a lull in Vietcong activities, and the South Vietnamese forces are both expanding and shaping up better as a fighting force. But all that is needed to precipitate a major war is for the Chinese Communists and Communist North Vietnam to react to a build-up of American forces.<br /><br />American support to Vietnam has always been based on the fear that Communist control of this country would jeopardize all Southeast Asia. And it continues despite the fact that Diem's American critics — especially liberals repelled by the dictatorial aspects of his regime — have been predicting his imminent downfall.<br /><br />Diem remains firmly in charge and Washington's support for his regime today seems more passionate and inflexible than ever.<br /><br /><br />U.S. Involvement<br /><br />Actually, the United States has been deeply involved in the fate of Vietnam since 1949 when the decision was made to subsidize the continuation of French rule against the Communist Vietminh rebellion [see Times05/09/50]. The first United States Military Assistance Advisory Group (M.A.A.G.) arrived in 1951 to supervise the distribution of supplies. Thereafter the United States played an increasingly important role. To use a favorite Washington term, aid was "escalated" until today $2 billion has been sunk into Vietnam with no end to the outlay in sight.<br /><br />This may sound more reckless than the best brinkmanship of John Foster Dulles' days, and perhaps it is. But the United States is on this particular faraway brink because the Kennedy Administration seems convinced that the Communists won't rise to the challenge of the American presence and assistance.<br /><br /><br />Forces and Strategy<br /><br />The battle in Vietnam currently involves some 300,000 armed South Vietnamese and 3,000 American servicemen on one side, against 18,000 to 25,000 Vietcong Communist regulars operating as guerrillas.<br /><br />The battle that is being fought is complex — in the nature of the fighting, in the internal political background and in its international implications.<br /><br />The United States does not have any combat infantry troops in Vietnam as of now, but we are getting ready for that possibility. Marine Corps officers have completed ground reconnaissance in the central Vietnam highlands, a potential theater of large-scale action between American troops and Communist forces coming down from the north.<br /><br />American combat troops are not likely to be thrown into Vietnam unless Communist North Vietnam moves across the seventeenth parallel or pushes large forces down through Laos into South Vietnam.<br /><br />In that case the United States would have to move in fast. Forty miles below the frontier with North Vietnam and parallel to it is Highway 9. This road has high strategic importance. Not only is it one of the few adequate roads open across the mountains to the Laotian border but it extends across Laos to Savannakhet on the Mekong River frontier with Thailand. If Highway 9 could be held from the Mekong to the sea by American, Vietnamese, Laotian and Thai forces, South Vietnam might be saved.<br /><br />The situation right now is far more stable than it was last September, when the Communists were attacking in battalion strength and were even able to seize and hold a provincial capital, Phuoc Vinh, for a few hours [see Times09/19/61]. The September action seemed a prelude to an all-out Communist drive to overturn the Diem Government. It precipitated the present flood of American military advisors and service troops.<br /><br />Today American warships are helping the embryonic Vietnamese Navy to guard the sea frontier against infiltration from North Vietnam and U.S. Navy servicemen presently will arrive to help clean out guerrillas from the maze of tidal waterways in the Mekong River Delta. The U.S. Army helicopter crews have come under fire taking Vietnamese combat troops into guerrilla zones or carrying pigs and other livestock to hungry outposts surrounded by hostile country. U.S. Air Force pilots have flown with Vietnamese pilots on bombing missions against reported enemy concentrations and against two frontier forts recently evacuated by the Vietnamese Army.<br /><br />So far our contribution in blood has been small. One American sergeant has been killed by enemy action and another is missing and presumed captured. Inevitably our casualties will grow.<br /><br />It has not been easy to change from conventional warfare, in which the Vietnamese were trained so many years by M.A.A.G., to unconventional counter-guerrilla warfare. Under French influence, the Vietnamese had developed two tendencies difficult to erase: first, the habit of staying inside forts designed for the troops' protection rather than for the security of the populace; second, the habit of good living — a leisurely lunch followed by a siesta.<br /><br /><br />Hard Living<br /><br />But counter-guerilla warfare demands hard living. Troops must live in the jungle just as the guerrillas do and eschew the comforts of barracks life.<br /><br />There are some minor difficulties: most Vietnamese recruits are from the densely populated lowlands — rice paddy boys who have a fear of the jungles, not merely fear of snakes and tigers but fear of getting lost. They move fearfully, with the instinct of a herd, tending to bunch up and thus present fat targets for a Vietcong ambush.<br /><br />The Vietcong guerrillas also were former rice paddy boys, but they became inured to hardship by on-the-job training in the jungle. Further, the Vietnamese are somewhat smaller than Americans, so they get weary toting eleven-pound M1 rifles and pine for the lighter French weapons they were formerly equipped with.<br /><br />At a higher level, United States advisors, besides trying to eliminate political manipulation of troops, are attempting to dissuade the Vietnamese from launching large-scale operations based on sketchy intelligence. They see no justification for such operations until a more adequate intelligence system is developed and greater tactical mobility achieved.<br /><br />Intelligence will improve only when the Government is able to break the grip of fear with which the Vietcong muzzles the rural population. Greater mobility is being provided by American helicopter companies, but this is a costly and dangerous way to move troops.<br /><br /><br />President Diem<br /><br />The man who is at the center of the Vietnamese effort and who is also a center of controversy — President Diem- is something of an enigma. He is a mandarin (an aristocrat) and a devout Catholic. So there are two strikes against him at the start, for mandarins were regarded by the masses as greedy and corrupt, and Catholics as an unpopular minority.<br /><br />Diem, however, has proved incorruptible. Rumors of personal enrichment of members of his family have never been proved. And Diem has been careful not to arouse Buddhist hostility. He is a man of great personal courage, but he is suspicious and mistrustful. The creation of a central intelligence agency here was delayed for months until Diem found a director he could trust.<br /><br />Diem, a 66-year-old bachelor, often has been accused of withdrawing inside his narrow family clique and divorcing himself from reality. Critics say he distrusts everyone except the family and takes advice only from his brothers, particularly Ngo Dinh Nhu, his political advisor. His brother Nhu and his attractive, influential wife, are leaders, according to critics, of a palace camarilla which tries to isolate the President from the people.<br /><br />As commander-in-chief of the armed forces, Diem keeps close tabs on military operations. His personal representative on the General Staff is Brig. Gen. Nguyen Khanh who has appalled Americans by taking general reserve troops on quick one-shot operations without coordinating with the area commander. Khanh is young, vigorous and driving but, according to his critics, lacking balance and experience.<br /><br />Lieut. Gen. Le Ven Ty is Chief of the General Staff but he is in his 60's and lacks vigor. Consequently, much of the military direction comes from the President through Khanh.<br /><br />It is well to remember that Diem has been right and the United States wrong on some crucial issues. In 1955, for example, Diem wanted to crush the powerful Binh Xuyen gangster sect that controlled both the police and the gambling dens and brothels and made a mockery of government authority. President Eisenhower's special ambassador, Gen. Lawton Collins, opposed Diem's plan, fearing civil war. Diem coolly proceeded to assert his power and used loyal troops to crush the Binh Xuyen in sharp fighting in Saigon's streets [see Times04/29/55].<br /><br /><br />Denied Request<br /><br />More recently the United States resisted Diem's urgent requests for aid in the creation of the civil guard and self-defense corps. The United States insisted that a 19,000-man regular army was all Diem needed for national defense. Diem went ahead and organized the two forces, arming them with antiquated French rifles. Finally, after alarm bells were ringing to the widespread revival of Communist guerrilla activity and vast sections of the countryside were lost to the Vietcong, the Americans conceded Diem's point. Last year the United States started training and equipping the civil guard.<br /><br />It is now generally agreed that the civil guard and the self-defense corps are absolutely vital. For until these reserve forces are ready to take over the defense of villages, railroads, harbors, airports, provincial capitals and so on, the army will be so tied down to static defense duties that it will not have the manpower to chase guerrillas.<br /><br />Last week, in another apparent concession to Diem's wisdom, the United States agreed that any relaxation of tight political controls would be dangerous now. In a speech cleared with the State Department, Ambassador Frederick E. Nolting Jr. urged Diem's critics to cease carping and try to improve the government from within.<br /><br />Just how serious the criticism is is not clear and there seems to be no agreement among observers whether the President's popularity is rising or falling. One former Diem adviser said he was shocked by the loss of support among the people in the past two years. He blamed this on the fact that Government seemed to grope from crisis to crisis without a clear policy: "It's just anti-Communist and not pro anything."<br /><br />But another qualified observer, perhaps less biased, cautioned against underrating Diem. Increased guerrilla activity had not been matched, he said, by a corresponding rise in popular discontent and this failure to respond must have depressed the Communists.<br /><br />Most villages, he added, were like a leaf in the wind: "When the Vietcong enters, the population turns pro-Communist; when the Government troops arrive, sentiment shifts to the Government." But generally the village people would settle for the Government side, he said, not because they admired the Government but because they wanted peace.<br /><br />Consequently the Government has a great advantage. He estimated that of the 30 percent tending to the Vietcong, only a third were hard-core, another third would adhere to the Communists under adversity, while the remaining third would break off under pressure.<br /><br />Freedom from dictatorship and freedom from foreign domination are major propaganda lines for the Vietcong. Americans in uniform have now been seen by the peasants in virtually all sections of the country. This has given the Communists a chance to raise the bogey of foreign military domination.<br /><br /><br />Problems and Prospects<br /><br />The lack of trained troops to keep the Vietcong under relentless pressure probably will continue to handicap the military command throughout 1962, because at least a year must elapse before the self-defense units will be really capable of defending their villages.<br /><br />Whether because the Army is beginning to take the initiative and is penetrating secret areas of Vietcong concentrations or because the Vietcong has abated its activities in order to recruit and train, the fact remains that security seems better in most parts of Vietnam.<br /><br />In peaceful, booming Saigon there is much speculation on how the Vietcong will react to an American build-up. Senior American officers have been studying an enemy guide book to guerrilla warfare searching avidly for clues, as though this modest work were the Vietcong's "Mein Kampf."<br /><br />There will never be enough troops to seal off the frontiers. There aren't even enough troops to ring Vietcong enclaves near Saigon. Not before summer, when the civil guard and self-defense units are slated to take over the burden of defending their villages will enough troops be freed for a counter-guerrilla offensive. Then, instead of a conventional setpiece offensive of limited duration, a counter-guerrilla drive will seek to keep Vietcong units on the run at all times, tire them out by constant pressure and force them into less hospitable country where food supplies are scarce.<br /><br />The offensive cannot succeed unless the Government is able to mobilize positive popular support. This will be difficult, for the Government is just beginning to develop grass roots political cadres.<br /><br /><br />Need Modification<br /><br />Meanwhile something more than narrowly anti-Communist goals must be offered Saigon intellectuals, who are now scorned by both Diem and the Americans. This group may be permanently alienated unless there is promise of democratic reforms. Without pressure from Washington, there is not likely to be any relaxation of Diem's personal dictatorship. The struggle will go on at least 10 years, in the opinion of some observers, and severely test American patience.<br /><br />The United States seems inextricably committed to a long, inconclusive war. The Communists can prolong it for years. Even without large-scale intervention from the north, which would lead to "another Korea," what may be achieved at best is only restoration of a tolerable security similar to that achieved in Malaya after years of fighting. But it is too late to disengage; our prestige has been committed. Washington says we will stay until the finish.<br /><br />Copyright © 1962 by The New York Times Co.Meo Meohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18080992642193515731noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6891205240280876163.post-35754998789464423972021-01-11T20:08:00.003-08:002021-01-11T20:08:39.840-08:00To find Capitol perpetrators, U.S. ruling class should look in the mirror<p> <span class="date" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #0f0f1e; font-family: Larsseit-Light; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: 1px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; text-transform: capitalize;">January 11, 2021</span><span style="color: #101010; font-family: calluna; font-size: 20px;"> </span><span class="date mid" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #0f0f1e; font-family: Larsseit-Light; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: 1px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; text-transform: capitalize;">9:14 AM CST</span><span style="color: #101010; font-family: calluna; font-size: 20px;"> </span><span class="author" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #0f0f1e; font-family: Larsseit-Light; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: 1px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-transform: uppercase;"> BY <a class="author" href="https://peoplesworld.org/authors/ian-goodrum/" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #0f0f1e; line-height: 15px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none;">IAN GOODRUM</a></span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #101010; font-family: calluna; font-size: 20px; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px;">I don’t need to tell you what happened at the U.S. Capitol last week.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #101010; font-family: calluna; font-size: 20px; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px;">Videos and pictures do a good enough job of that. We all saw the angry crowds massing in support of lame-duck President Donald Trump in Washington. We saw them break into the halls of Congress to overturn the certification of last November’s election, and we saw them ransacking offices to their hearts’ content. Though five were killed in the melee, we also saw most of them getting politely escorted out by Capitol Police.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #101010; font-family: calluna; font-size: 20px; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px;">That lax level of security was a far cry from the militarized phalanxes present during the Black Lives Matter protests in the city last summer, raising a heap of questions about why one of the most secure buildings in the world was supposedly taken by surprise. Since the details of this were in the planning for months, these questions are well worth asking. For my part, it isn’t too difficult to connect the dots—especially after it was revealed how many of the rioters were off-duty police and military.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #101010; font-family: calluna; font-size: 20px; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px;">Nonetheless, many breathed a sigh of relief when the vandals were vacated. No doubt some will consider the inauguration of Joe Biden on Jan. 20 the end of a protracted national crisis. Trump will be written off as an aberration, his term nothing more than a bad dream, an “undigested bit of beef” as Dickens would have it.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #101010; font-family: calluna; font-size: 20px; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px;">But that’s a dangerously simple outlook. This didn’t begin with Trump, and it won’t end with him either. Too easily we forget the U.S. is a country built on slavery, with land forcibly taken from Indigenous populations. The first draft of the U.S. Constitution—right below high-minded passages about “a more perfect union”—deemed Africans property, three-fifths of a whole human being. That’s not a legacy that can be shaken off easily, and near-impossible when so many in power deny its significance.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #101010; font-family: calluna; font-size: 20px; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px;">This might seem an odd tangent, but what happened on Capitol Hill makes broader context even more essential. After a traumatic moment like this, there’s an understandable desire to return to normalcy—but that’s a risky thing to do. Any doctor will tell you it’s pointless to treat symptoms without curing the underlying condition.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #101010; font-family: calluna; font-size: 20px; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px;">I’m tired of the oft-repeated refrain of “this is not who we are” from Americans in denial of their own country’s history. The hordes who attacked Congress are the people who jeered students attending integrated schools. They’re the people who formed lynch mobs. MAGA and QAnon are just the John Birchers and Klansmen of yesteryear. Make no mistake: This is an old, abiding hatred with a fresh coat of paint.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #101010; font-family: calluna; font-size: 20px; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px;">But I also want to correct another irritating myth that’s been making the rounds. For too long the U.S. media have portrayed Trump’s most militant and unhinged advocates as members of an aggrieved working class, or rural people “left behind” by globalization. While there are certainly pockets of support in those communities, the data show by and large they opt out of elections completely—and after multiple administrations and little material benefit to show for it, who would be shocked?</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #101010; font-family: calluna; font-size: 20px; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px;">No, the majority of Trump’s base is financially comfortable enough to care about the phony culture war propagated on news outlets and social platforms; they could, after all, take time off to come to Washington, book hotel rooms, and deck themselves out in high-priced weaponry and tactical gear. Safe to say someone working low-paying jobs with no benefits—now risking their lives every time they leave the house, thanks to the U.S.’ criminally negligent pandemic response—has more important things to worry about.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #101010; font-family: calluna; font-size: 20px; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px;">So while Trump’s cult-like base has, for the most part, a greater degree of security than the wage laborers they look down on, it’s still not the ironclad stability the truly powerful enjoy. They make enough to feel invested in the system through property ownership and some expensive baubles, but not where they have any say in their own futures. Due to this “in-between” status, they identify strongly with their exploiters while blaming those below for hampering their success.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #101010; font-family: calluna; font-size: 20px; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px;">That bubbling rage manifests itself in furious resistance to any hint of social progress. To them, life is a zero-sum game, where if someone else wins they must by definition lose. Any concessions granted to an “other”—like, say, Black Americans who want their basic rights—is territory lost on an imagined battlefield. Trump, with his constant tirades against immigrants and minorities, was their protector. They want him in office, no matter the cost, because they believe the alternative is a far-left Marxist regime under Biden. As appealing as that sounds, the truth is far more boring: Biden is, at best, a moderate who will continue the U.S.’ slow, bipartisan march through neoliberal austerity.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #101010; font-family: calluna; font-size: 20px; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px;">Which will only make things worse. All the trends that led us here, building as they have for countless decades, were turbocharged by the consolidation of capital and the monopolistic control of information through enormous tech companies. With users’ worst impulses aggravated by an infinite-growth model of engagement at any cost, insulated, self-selected fiefdoms formed. The more outlandish and incendiary the posts, the better the numbers—and the greater the algorithmic rewards.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #101010; font-family: calluna; font-size: 20px; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px;">This goes double for the corporate media, the self-styled purveyors of “real news.” For years they regarded Trump as a curiosity, a surefire source for ratings. They invited him on late night talk shows and hung on his every word, and their bottom lines soared. The bonanza paid such fat dividends that not even the 2016 election gave them pause. Instead of much-needed soul-searching, they engaged in the bankrupt practice of “both-sides-ism,” which treats monstrous political views as identical to their exact opposite.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #101010; font-family: calluna; font-size: 20px; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px;">Even more offensive was the language they used to describe the attack. Everywhere you looked, you’d see some newscaster or commentator throw around terms like “Third World” or “banana republic” when talking about the violence. The implication is clear: This sort of thing can only happen in faraway, uncivilized places. Putting aside the racist connotations of such remarks, brutal force has been administered on workers and oppressed minorities for centuries, whether by mobs or the state itself. Think of the Tulsa and Colfax massacres. Wounded Knee. The Haymarket affair. Kent State. And that’s only a small sampling. Pretending this wasn’t a homegrown phenomenon is an act of shameful denial.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #101010; font-family: calluna; font-size: 20px; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px;">It’s particularly ironic to use “banana republic” to deflect because the term comes from U.S.-backed corporate coups! The “banana republics” had their governments overthrown by conglomerates like the United Fruit Company to maximize profits and maintain a sphere of influence. In their rush to deny U.S. culpability in this insurrection—and, by extension, their own—media outlets invoke the violence it perpetrated.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #101010; font-family: calluna; font-size: 20px; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px;">That’s hardly coincidental. For decades, the U.S. has fomented insurgencies around the world to achieve its political and economic aims, planting the seeds of color revolution to punish anyone who didn’t toe the line. Invasions and bombing campaigns were just the tip of the iceberg; even if outright regime change efforts didn’t work, endorsing and funding turmoil across the globe would at least destabilize any dissenters. Well, the chickens have come home to roost. The Contras are at the door.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #101010; font-family: calluna; font-size: 20px; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px;">By cultivating a base of paranoiacs and providing wink-wink nudge-nudge approval for their conspiracies, the right wing and their corporate backers laid the groundwork for this attack. They throw up their hands and ask for peace—but only now when their personal safety is under threat. Up to that point, they were perfectly happy to stoke the flames of hatred and resentment to further their own agendas.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #101010; font-family: calluna; font-size: 20px; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px;">So if they want to know who’s responsible for this sad state of affairs, they don’t need an FBI investigation.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #101010; font-family: calluna; font-size: 20px; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px;">They need a mirror.</p>Meo Meohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18080992642193515731noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6891205240280876163.post-10714880412397129002021-01-10T18:56:00.004-08:002021-01-10T18:56:58.522-08:00Fulbright on Camera<a href="https://newrepublic.com/authors/alex-campbell">Alex Campbell</a>/May 20, 1966 The New Republic Magazine<br /><br />Because he is using his powers as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to pressure President Johnson into a change of foreign policy, the name of Senator J. William Fulbright was dropped with a clang from the White House social list for six months, from last September until this March, when President Johnson apparently decided that wasn’t the way to influence an Arkansan. Fulbright’s response to the cease-fire took the form of three Christian A. Herter lectures, delivered at Johns Hopkins, in which he defends his dissent from the consensus as “the higher patriotism,” and defines his target as “the arrogance of power.” Further, his committee is continuing its rigorous cross-examinations of Dean Rusk, who as Secretary of State has the job that Fulbright was almost offered by President Kennedy, and of Defense Secretary McNamara and others.<br /><br />“In a democracy,” Fulbright told his Johns Hopkins audience, “dissent is an act of faith. … The correction of errors in a nation’s foreign policy is greatly assisted by the timely raising of voices of criticism within the nation. When the British launched their disastrous attack on Egypt, the Labour party raised a collective voice of indignation while the military operation was still under way refusing to be deterred by calls for national unity in a crisis, Labour began the long, painful process of recovering Great Britain’s good name at the very moment when the damage was still being done. Similarly, the French intellectuals who protested France’s colonial wars in Indochina and Algeria not only upheld the values of French democracy but helped pave the way for the enlightened policies of the Fifth Republic which have made France the most respected Western nation in the underdeveloped world.”<br /><br />Fulbright acknowledges that his committee’s televised hearings “have been criticized on the ground that they conveyed an ‘image’ of the United States as divided over the war” in Vietnam. He has two answers to make to this. National consensus can have value, but it can also sometimes be spurious. And it is a patriotic duty not to be silent in the face of apparent error. “Since the country obviously is divided, what was conveyed [by the hearings] was a fact rather than an image.…I see no merit in the view that we should maintain an image of unity even though it is a false image, maintained at the cost of suppressing the normal procedures of democracy.”<br />For Fulbright, this is the heart of the matter, that began as far as he is concerned last September, when his attack on US intervention in the Dominican Republic as a “grievous mistake” suddenly made him the loneliest man in Congress in spite of his 24 years there. President Johnson’s friend, Senator Dodd, attacked Fulbright’s “tolerance of Communism.” Other senators of both parties joined the attack. The House of Representatives passed, 315-52, an endorsement of armed intervention in Latin America to avert “subversive domination or the threat of it.”<br /><br />To Fulbright’s surprise and disappointment, much of the criticism was directed not at what I had said about the Dominican Republic and Latin America but at the propriety of my speaking out at all.… I was taken aback by the consternation caused by my breach of the prevailing consensus.” This led him to reexamine the role of the chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee. Should party loyalty be his guide? Fulbright decided that it ought not to have precedence.<br />The previous August, 1964, Congress had received an urgent request from President Johnson for immediate adoption of a joint resolution about Southeast Asia. Fulbright served as floor manager of the resolution and did all he could to secure its prompt and overwhelming adoption. In doing so, he was influenced by partisanship: an election campaign was in progress and “I had no wish to make any difficulties for the President in a race against a Republican candidate [Goldwater] whose election I thought would be a disaster for the country.” On August 7, Congress with only two senators, Morse and Gruening, dissenting adopted the “blank check” resolution, authorizing the President “to take all necessary steps, including the use of armed force,” against aggression in Southeast Asia. There had been only brief debate and perfunctory hearings by Fulbright’s committee. But, Fulbright, declared in his first Herter lecture, since the resolution “the Administration has converted the Vietnamese conflict from a civil war in which some American advisers were involved, to a major international war in which the principal fighting unit is an American army of 250,000 men. Each time that senators have raised questions about successive escalations of the war, we have had the blank check of August 7, 1964, waved in our faces as supposed evidence of the overwhelming support of Congress for a policy in Southeast Asia which in fact has been radically changed since the summer of 1964.”<br /><br />“Patriotic Liturgy”<br /><br />This and the Dominican Republic experience are the twin motors of Fulbright’s assaults on his country’s foreign policy. But just what he would like to see in its place he himself does not seem too clear about. Sometimes he says his modest aim is merely to “create a greater degree of caution” in the Administration. He can be quite happy and hopeful about the fate of critics like himself: “I see it as a mark of strength and maturity that an articulate minority have raised their voices against the Vietnamese war and that the majority of Americans are enduring this dissent, not without anxiety to be sure, but with better grace and understanding than would have been the case in any other war of the 20th Century.” But then he warns almost in the same breath: “We are succumbing to the arrogance of power [and] not living up to our capacity and promise; the measure of our falling short is the measure of the patriot’s duty of dissent. The discharge of that most important duty is handicapped in America by an unworthy tendency to fear serious criticism of our government. In the abstract we celebrate freedom of opinion as a vital part of our patriotic liturgy. It is only when some Americans exercise the right that other Americans are shocked….”<br />His definitions of American “arrogance” fluctuate widely. At one moment, it takes the form merely of “drifting into commitments which, though generous and benevolent in intent, are so universal as to exceed even America’s great capacities.” Then he says that “the great majority of the human race are demanding dignity and independence, not the honor of a supine role in an American empire,” and accuses this country of suffering from a psychological need to prove itself bigger and better, because stronger, than other nations.<br /><br />Fulbright is terribly conscious of American power; the US, he says, is “powerful as no nation has ever been before and the discrepancy between US power and the power of others appears to be increasing.” And he tends, sometimes, to equate power with evil. Thus he argues that the American impact on Vietnam has become as fatal to the Vietnamese as Captain Cook’s discovery of Tahiti was on the Tahitians, who were “corrupted by the white man’s diseases, alcohol, firearms, laws and concepts of morality.” In the same way, apparently, Saigon (which Fulbright has never visited) “both literally and figuratively has become an American brothel.” Saigon is no more an American brothel, literally or figuratively, than was Seoul, Berlin, Rome or wartime London. But the point Fulbright really wants to make is that wherever the United States goes in the world, it takes with it, according to him, “the condescending attitudes of a people whose very success breeds disdain for other cultures.” Americans, he insists, “become boorish when they are in somebody else’s country and treat the local citizens as if they weren’t really there”; the Americans “stamp around in sloppy clothes, drink beer and shout to each other.” All this boorish behavior he attributes to their “consciousness of belonging to the biggest, richest country in the world.” Further, he charges Americans with “trying to inflict our particular version of democracy” on Koreans, about whom we know nothing and actually care less, and on “ungrateful Latin Americans who stubbornly oppose their North American benefactors instead of the ‘real’ enemies we have graciously chosen for them.” <br /><br />Fulbright isn’t just rewriting The Ugly American. For evidence of his thesis, he goes back as far as the Gilded Age, and triumphantly quotes Mark Twain. But he misses the point. For Mark Twain called his Americans abroad innocents, not boors. “The peoples of those foreign countries,” the quotation runs, “are very ignorant. They looked curiously at the costumes that we had brought from the wilds of America. They observed that we talked loudly at table sometimes … In Paris, they just simply opened their eyes and stared when we spoke to them in French! We never did succeed in making these idiots understand their own language.” It is a sad indication of what Vietnam has done to us all that the normally urbane Fulbright quotes the passage to prove in deadly earnest that American “arrogance” was rife then as now. It was more rife then than now. Few if any Americans still defend the 1898 war with Spain, echo President McKinley’s belief that it is America’s duty “to educate the Filipinos,” or agree with Albert Beveridge’s description of Americans as a “conquering race.” But, in that case, what becomes of Fulbright’s judgment that “gradually but unmistakably we are succumbing to the arrogance of power?”<br /><br />Fulbright is a courageous man, when he feels a cause is worth being brave about; but he is never very sanguine that Americans, or other men, will behave with courage or intelligence. He is, he says, “without illusions as to the prospect of success” when he seeks to “bring reason and restraint” to the discussion about Vietnam. “Past experience provides little basis for confidence that reason can prevail in an atmosphere of mounting war fever. In a contest between a hawk and a dove, the hawk has a great advantage.…” He, alone in the Senate, voted against Joseph McCarthy getting funds to continue his evil work; and McCarthy did not prevail. But, says Fulbright, it is by no means certain that the relatively healthy atmosphere in which debate is now taking place will not give way to an era of McCarthyism.”<br /><br />That’s at home. Abroad, “we must stop fooling ourselves about economic progress in many countries that receive American aid … democratic methods are more often failing than succeeding in Asia, Africa and Latin America … violent upheavals are … very likely.…” And that’s not the worst that’s likely to happen. A “fatal expectancy” is leading the US and China “toward a tragic and unnecessary war.” People insist on being optimistic; Fulbright will have none of it. “We seem to feel somehow that because the hydrogen bomb has not killed us yet it is never going to kill us. This is a dangerous assumption….”<br />Hamlet’s own conscience worried him as much as the evil he equated with the King; so does Fulbright’s. He was the only senator who seriously tried to turn Kennedy against the invasion of Cuba in 1960 that became the horrible fiasco of the Bay of Pigs. But, at the time of the Cuban missile crisis of 1962, Fulbright was among those whom President Kennedy summoned to the White House. “When the President asked for comments, Senator Russell and I advocated the invasion of Cuba by American forces.” Fulbright did so “on the ground that a blockade, involving as it might a direct, forcible confrontation with Russian ships, would be more likely to provoke a nuclear war than an invasion which would pit American soldiers against Cuban soldiers and allow the Russians to stand aside.” He now says tartly that “had I been able to formulate my views on the basis of facts rather than a guess as to the nature of the situation, I might have made a different recommendation”; and he rather sourly consoles himself that, in any case, “the decision to blockade Cuba had already been made. The meeting at the White House broke up after 6 p.m. and President Kennedy went on television at 7 p.m.” to tell the American people. But he evidently finds it difficult to forgive himself for having proposed an American invasion of Cuba, and he now believes that the Cuban revolution “is unquestionably Cuban” and that Castro is “highly popular with the Cuban people.” He says the “facts” are that there are twice as many schools now as before the revolution, “formerly landless peasants … have been given small plots,” “almost everybody … has a job,” “children are well fed.” But “most important of all is the sense of dignity and national pride associated with the revolution. After six decades of being an economic colony of the United States, Cubans are immensely proud of Castro’s successful defiance of the North American giant.” This, apparently, far outweighs executions after kangaroo trials.<br /><br />Why, then, does the US persist in hostility toward Cuba, Fulbright asks, and replies that it is because “our sympathy for those who cry out against poverty and social injustice … dissolves into hostility when reform becomes revolution; and when Communism is involved, as it often is, our hostility takes the form of unseemly panic.… “ And he gives the Dominican Republic as an example. “Rather than use our considerable resources to compete with the Communists for influence with the democratic forces who actively solicited our support, we intervened militarily on the side of a corrupt and reactionary oligarchy.”<br /><br />But what was Fulbright doing when that was happening? The answer is: Nothing, just like all the other congressional leaders who were called, once again, to an emergency meeting at the White House. This time it was April, 1965. “We were told that the revolution had broken out four days before in the Dominican Republic had gotten completely out of hand, that Americans and other foreigners on the scene were in danger, and that American marines would be landed in Santo Domingo that night for the sole purpose of protecting the lives of Americans and other foreigners. None of the congressional leaders expressed disapproval of the action planned by the President.” But subsequently the Senate Foreign Relations Committee undertook an exhaustive review of the Dominican crisis in closed sessions. The review convinced Fulbright “beyond reasonable doubt” that, while saving lives may have been a factor, the major reason for the April 28 intervention was “a determination on the part of the US government to defeat the rebel, or constitutionalist, forces whose victory at that time was imminent.” Fulbright observes bitterly that “had I known in April what I knew in August, I most certainly would have objected to the American intervention.”<br /><br />General James M. Gavin, and General Matthew B. Ridgway who commanded the United Nations forces in Korea, have both testified before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that they share Fulbright’s fears that this country’s Vietnam involvement may deepen into war with China. Trying to get Americans to see the situation the way the Chinese may see it, Fulbright has asked: Suppose a Chinese army of 250,000 was fighting in Mexico, and Chinese bombs were dropping within 40 miles of the Rio Grande? But Fulbright admits that many Americans – who he says are “severely if not uniquely afflicted with a habit of policy-making by analogy” – use a different analogy from his, and “equate North Vietnam’s involvement in South Vietnam with Hitler’s invasion of Poland, and represent a parley with the Viet Cong as another Munich.” They shouldn’t. Fulbright thunders: “The treatment of slight and superficial resemblances as if they were full-blooded analogies … is a substitute for thinking and a misuse of history.” Instead of being so peevish – or arrogant? – Fulbright might have seized the opportunity offered by the Herter lectures to explain why his analogy is superior to the more common one, why the other analogy, with Hitler and Poland, is all wrong. Thus, he might have put a decisive end to tiresome repetitions of the Munich theme. What in fact he did, was portentously to declare: “The value of history is not what it seems to prohibit or prescribe, but its general indications as to the kinds of policies that are likely to succeed.”<br />Thailand Next? <br /><br />What kind of policy does Fulbright think might succeed in Vietnam? Of course, he wants a compromise, and darkly hints that the Administration doesn’t. We may be thinking about how disagreeable it would be to accept a solution short of victory … we may be thinking about our reputation as a great power, as though a compromise settlement would shame us before the world.” Just the sort of unworthy thinking that stamps the US as arrogant. However, Fulbright concedes that there are American proposals to negotiate peace in Vietnam. Unfortunately, the North Vietnamese view them as “fraudulent plots … to trick them into yielding through diplomacy what we have been unable to make them yield by force.” Meantime, Fulbright hopes there will be very careful consideration on the American side before enlarging the war; but he fears “that we are now expanding our commitment to Thailand in the same disorderly way that we became so deeply involved in Vietnam. There is still time, however, for the Senate to insist that any new commitment to Thailand be contracted in full accord with our constitutional procedures, including full and frank debate.”<br /><br />In the course of trying to educate the nation on foreign policy, Fulbright has been educating himself about China, particularly the wrongs done to that country by the West last century. One consequence of the antagonism between the US and China, he says, is that both seem to think of each other as abstractions: to the Chinese we are not a society of individual people but the embodiment of an evil idea, the idea of ‘imperialist capitalism’; and to most of us, China represents not people but an evil and frightening idea, the idea of aggressive Communism.” Both have been at pains ot dissociate the rival government from its people, though actually it is as foolish to imagine that most Chinese are alienated from their government as it is to suggest, which Peking does, that most Americans oppose theirs. It seems unlikely that either the Chinese people or their government will take kindly to Fulbright’s suggestion, in the third Herter lecture, that the way to handle China is to apply to it the rules that are “desirable in dealing with paranoid individuals.” The Chinese might even call this a typical instance of American arrogance.<br />“It would do the United States no harm in the short run,” Fulbright says, “and perhaps considerable good in the long run, to end our opposition to the seating of Communist China in the United Nations, and, depending on events, to follow that up with some positive suggestions for more normal relations. The United States has already proposed visits by scholars and newspapermen between China and the US and, although these proposals have not been rejected by the Chinese, it might be well, though not too often and not too eagerly, to remind them of the offer from time to time.”<br /><br />When Fulbright quits fulminating against American arrogance and gets down to brass tacks about specific foreign-policy steps – “cutting the cackle and getting to the ‘osses” as they say in Oxford, where he was a Rhodes Scholar – it’s awfully hard to see why his views should seem to upset President Johnson.<br /><br />This article appeared in the May 21, 1966 issue of the magazine.<p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; font-family: "Tiempos Text", serif; font-size: 18px; letter-spacing: -0.09px; margin: 20px 20px 20px 252.078px; max-width: 614px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; width: 614px;"></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; font-family: "Tiempos Text", serif; font-size: 18px; letter-spacing: -0.09px; margin: 20px 20px 20px 252.078px; max-width: 614px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; width: 614px;"></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; font-family: "Tiempos Text", serif; font-size: 18px; letter-spacing: -0.09px; margin: 20px 20px 20px 252.078px; max-width: 614px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; width: 614px;"></p>Meo Meohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18080992642193515731noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6891205240280876163.post-20741281859758856712021-01-10T16:59:00.002-08:002021-01-10T16:59:15.234-08:00How Not to ‘Win Hearts and Minds’VIETNAM '67<br /><br />By George C. Herring<br />Sept. 19, 2017<br /><br />From the early stages of the Vietnam War, American officials insisted that winning the hearts and minds (yes, the acronym was WHAM) of the South Vietnamese people was the key to victory. But the Americans tasked with carrying out that strategy were ill equipped, linguistically and culturally, to make it work. And in the end, that deficit destroyed whatever good will might have existed on either side and doomed America’s foray into Vietnam to failure.<br /><br />Bui Diem, South Vietnam’s ambassador to Washington from 1965 to 1972, once called the two countries “peoples quite apart.” And indeed, American and Vietnamese culture had little contact before 1950, when the United States began sending personnel to assist in the fight against Communism. Very few of the Americans sent to South Vietnam had more than a cursory understanding of the country’s language, history, religious traditions, etiquette or politics. The cultural disjunction was exacerbated by a strategic one: While the two nations agreed on the fundamental goal of preserving an independent, non-Communist South Vietnam, the stakes of the war for each were grossly disproportionate. The United States sought merely to uphold its credibility; South Vietnam fought for its existence.<br /><br />Theirs was a patron-client relationship. The United States, the world’s strongest country and still riding high off its victory in World War II, was confident in its power — and its virtue. It expected to lead, and to be followed. In contrast, the South Vietnamese, citizens of a fragile state newly freed from colonial rule and threatened by internal insurgency and external invasion, recognized their desperate need for American help, but they were also acutely sensitive to dominance by an outside power. They struggled to uphold their dignity and autonomy.<br /><br />Between 1950 and 1965, America’s role in the region, while significant in terms of money and matériel, occupied a limited footprint in the lives of everyday Vietnamese. That changed between 1965 and 1967, when the Americanization of the war brought hundreds of thousands of troops and civilians into the country and put an American face on the increasingly widespread destruction wrought by both sides.<br /><br />Bui Diem noted the absence of communication between the two peoples during the major escalation in 1965, the “un-self-conscious arrogance” of the Americans and the impotence of the South Vietnamese. “The Americans came in like bulldozers and the South Vietnamese followed their lead without a word of dissent, for the most part without a thought of dissent.”<br /><br />After 1965, the United States took on the burden of defeating the enemy militarily. It declined to establish a combined command structure with the South Vietnamese, as it had in Korea. It relegated the Army of the Republic of Vietnam to pacification, a task many Vietnamese considered demeaning. Americanization of the war also produced among South Vietnamese a “takeover effect,” inviting them to stand by and let the Americans fight the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese. Tragically, American actions encouraged dependency in a nation whose independence it sought to sustain.<br /><br />As the American presence swelled, tensions between the two peoples grew. Vietnamese resented the way their visitors looked down on them and imposed their ways on a presumably inferior people. They were annoyed by American impatience. Some envied the opulent lifestyle of the Americans, with their enormous bases equipped with all the conveniences of home, including air conditioning, shopping centers and movie houses. Others protested that the troops acted “despicably” toward them, speeding their trucks and cars through traffic at life-threatening speeds. Some claimed that America dispensed aid as though it were being “given to a beggar.”<br /><br />Most of all, many South Vietnamese resented their dependence on their ally and its suffocating presence in their lives. Some labeled the “American occupation” a “demoralizing scourge.” Vietnamese recognized that the Americans were not “colonialists,” the journalist Robert Shaplen observed, but, he perceptively added, “there has evolved here a colonial ambience that can sometimes be worse than colonialism itself.”<br /><br />In the bonanza atmosphere that followed Americanization, South Vietnam’s economy centered upon serving the needs of the new arrivals. Prostitution became a special problem. As the number of Americans in Saigon surged into the tens of thousands, the number of houses of ill repute expanded proportionally, provoking criticism in the United States and South Vietnam. Senator J. William Fulbright of Arkansas fumed that Saigon had become an “American brothel.” South Vietnamese Catholics and President Nguyen Van Thieu were especially concerned about prostitution, and pleaded with American officials to do something about the suffocating presence of so many troops.<br /><br />The result was Operation Moose (Move Out of Saigon Expeditiously), implemented mostly during 1967. Thousands of G.I.s moved to base camps outside the city (where the prostitutes soon followed), some joking that they had been “Moosed.” Saigon was also declared off limits for R & R. The pace was sufficiently slow that the operation was unofficially tagged Goose (Get Out of Saigon Eventually).<br /><br />The exodus left around 7,900 American soldiers in the city. Moose did not satisfy President Thieu, and it provided no more than a partial solution to the prostitution problem. It also left Saigon more vulnerable to the urban attacks launched by the Viet Cong during the 1968 Tet offensive.<br /><br />The American way of war also inflicted a huge toll on village life in South Vietnam. To limit its own casualties and cope with unfamiliar and often inhospitable terrain, the United States unleashed extraordinary firepower on the country it was trying to save. Areas of suspected enemy strength were bombed and shelled and burned with napalm, often with little consideration of its impact on civilians. Defoliants were used to deny the enemy food and cover, with horrific short- and long-term consequences for Vietnamese.<br /><br />American firepower destroyed homes, villages and crops and alienated those whose hearts and minds were to be won. American commanders declared entire areas free-fire zones. Troops would round up villagers, burn their hooches and relocate them from their ancestral lands into squalid refugee camps. The area would then be bombed and shelled. During Operation Cedar Falls in 1967, Americans forcibly relocated some 6,000 civilians from the village of Ben Suc. Caught between the Viet Cong and the Americans, villagers who wanted only to be left alone became sullen or outright hostile. By early 1967, over 1.5 million refugees had drifted into urban slums, where they were susceptible to Viet Cong propaganda.<br /><br />To be sure, many Americans developed close ties with Vietnamese. Many also committed acts of kindness such as providing medical care and food to people in need. Especially in the early years and in remote areas, American advisers formed attachments with Vietnamese soldiers and villagers. Thousands of troops married Vietnamese women.<br /><br />Still, most Americans arrived in the country without knowledge of the land and the people. “My time in Vietnam is the memory of ignorance,” one soldier later wrote. Not knowing the language or culture, the Americans did not know what the people felt, or even at times how to tell friend from foe. “What we need is some kind of litmus paper than turns red when it’s near a Communist,” one officer half-jokingly told a journalist.<br /><br />Relations with South Vietnamese soldiers were likewise strained. Unaware of the difficulties their counterparts labored under, American troops disparaged their fighting qualities. The newcomers expected the people they were defending to offer the sort of gratitude they believed their fathers had gained for liberating France in World War II. When instead they encountered indifference or even hostility, they grew resentful.<br /><br />For many Americans, the South Vietnamese became an object of contempt, even hatred. “The people were treacherous,” one soldier later recalled. “They say ‘G.I. No. 1’ when we’re in the village, but at night the dirty little rats are V.C.” The ability of the villagers to step around mines and booby traps that killed and maimed Americans provoked suspicion of collusion — and anger.<br /><br />Americans also brought with them deeply entrenched racist attitudes that prompted the use of slurs such as “gook” and “dink,” which they applied to enemy and friend alike. Contempt could quickly change to a rage that might be turned on Vietnamese civilians. During the summer and fall of 1967, the notorious Tiger Force, an elite commando unit, was assigned to remove civilians from the Song Ve River Valley, suspected to be a source of rice for Viet Cong units. The very name of the mission, Operation Rawhide, suggested a cattle roundup, which had a dehumanizing effect. When the civilians resisted, the Tigers vented their rage by burning their villages. Unhappy with the assignment and under constant fire from enemy snipers, the Americans declared the area a free-fire zone and shot anything that moved, resulting in the brutal killing of numerous civilians.<br /><br />Nevertheless, the Tigers were assigned another, similar mission, to remove civilians from Quang Tin province. Early in the operation, they were caught in a deadly ambush and suffered heavy losses. After that, all restraints came off. Commanders abetted their vengeance by setting a body count goal of 327 kills (to match the number of the 327th Infantry Regiment, of which the Tigers were a part). The Tigers proceeded to kill hundreds of civilians and compounded their crime by mutilating the bodies of victims, including old women and even babies. The carnage stopped only when the operation ended in November.<br /><br />The actions of the Tiger Force were replicated with even more savage results at My Lai, in Quang Ngai province, in February 1968, where American soldiers killed hundreds of Vietnamese civilians. Such atrocities were not typical of American behavior, and even at My Lai there were soldiers who pushed back against their commanders’ orders to kill. Nevertheless, the atrocious violence reflected attitudes toward Vietnamese that divided the two peoples and made the Vietnamese subservient to Americans. Given the frustrations and failures and mounting casualties of the American war effort, atrocities were perhaps only a matter of time.<br /><br />George C. Herring, an emeritus professor of history at the University of Kentucky, is the author of “America’s Longest War: The United States and Vietnam, 1950-1975.”Meo Meohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18080992642193515731noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6891205240280876163.post-54421785234966989452020-12-24T15:40:00.005-08:002020-12-26T03:00:41.659-08:00Mỹ sẽ chống TQ cho Việt Nam?<p>Tàu khu trục Mỹ John S. McCain vừa thực hiện 'Hoạt động Tự do Hàng hải' trên vùng biển gần Côn Đảo của Việt Nam nhằm chứng tỏ Mỹ không xem tuyên bố về chủ quyền lãnh hải của Việt Nam ra gì cả:</p><p><a href="https://finance.yahoo.com/news/uss-john-mccain-conducts-christmas-203524483.html">https://finance.yahoo.com/news/uss-john-mccain-conducts-christmas-203524483.html</a></p>Hạm đội Mỹ tuyên bố: 'Chiến hạm vừa thực hiện hoạt động bình thường trong lãnh hải mà Việt Nam đòi hỏi để thách thức đòi hỏi quá đáng đó và bảo vệ tự do hàng hải theo đúng với luật pháp quốc tế.'<br /><br />Tôi nhớ khi Mỹ đem tàu chiến bơi vào gần vùng biển mà TQ tuyên bố chủ quyền, đám người Việt cuồng Mỹ trong và ngoài nước cứ nhao nhao lên ca ngợi như Mỹ như là anh hùng, cứu tinh làm việc nghĩa cho thế giới vậy! Thật ra, đây chỉ là hành động nhằm khẳng định quyền đi lại trên biển của Mỹ nằm trên chủ quyền lãnh hải mà tất cả các nước trong vùng, trong đó có Việt Nam, tuyên bố thôi chứ có gì mà ham?!<br /><br />Thực tế lịch sử, ít nhất là giai đoạn từ sau Thế chiến II, cho thấy Mỹ là một đế quốc duy nhất chả coi chủ quyền của bất cứ quốc gia nào trên thế giới này ra gì cả. Nước nào càng yếu thì càng dễ bị Mỹ chà đạp lên chủ quyền hơn, cho nên giữa Việt Nam và TQ thì Việt Nam là nước dễ bị Mỹ chà đạp hơn nhiều, và vì thế, đừng quá vui mừng hớn hở khi Mỹ tuyên bố 'xoay trục'. Hơn nữa, Mỹ cũng chẳng bao giờ có ý định rút ra khỏi hay giảm nhẹ ảnh hưởng trên vùng Đông hay Đông Nam Á cả, cho nên thực tế cũng không có cái chuyện 'xoay trục' hay không 'xoay trục' rảy ra! <br /><br />Trong những lần Mỹ 'thực hiện Hoạt động Tự do Hàng hải' kiểu này, nếu là TQ, một nước có lực lượng hải quân hùng hậu thứ ba trên thế giới, thì Mỹ không thể tiến vào bên trong lãnh hải 12 hải lý Trung quốc tuyên bố chủ quyền, mà sẽ bị xua đuổi và phải chuyển hướng trước khi vào quá gần. Ngược lại, những nước có lực lượng hải quân còn thua xa Mỹ như Việt Nam thì không có khả năng ngăn chặn. Vậy thực ra, khi Mỹ tăng cường hoạt động ở khu vực này, Việt Nam mới là nước bị Mỹ thách thức, chà đạp chủ quyền chứ không phải TQ, và do đó đám me Mỹ người Việt đang cổ vũ cho Mỹ thách thức, chà đạp lên chủ quyền Việt Nam!<br /><br />Phe me Mỹ sẽ tiếp tục ngoan cố chống chế, 'Vì Việt Nam không theo phe Mỹ nên mới bị Mỹ làm thế', nhưng qua thực tế nhiều lần, cũng như lần này cho thấy, Mỹ luôn chính thức tuyên bố những hành động này thách thức đòi hỏi của cả TQ, Việt Nam và Đài loan theo như trong bài báo trên đã viết.<br /><br />Muốn bảo vệ chủ quyền tổ quốc thì không có cách nào khác là phải trông cậy vào thực lực của mình. Chẳng có ai, nhất là một đế quốc thô bạo như Mỹ, rảnh mà đi bảo vệ giùm cho mình. Nó không chà đạp lên chủ quyền Việt Nam thì thôi chứ cứ ở đó mà mơ! Bài học dựa vào Mỹ 'giữ nước' của ba que xỏ lá còn rành rành ra đó mà vẫn chưa tỉnh là sao?!Meo Meohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18080992642193515731noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6891205240280876163.post-92115753511652394062020-12-20T01:20:00.000-08:002020-12-20T01:20:22.901-08:00Mathews: Thank you, Texas, for taking Elon Musk off our hands<p>The Tesla CEO has become California’s Frankenstein; our monster turned against us</p><div class="header-features default" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 3em 0em 2em; vertical-align: baseline; width: 954.875px;"><div class="meta" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(215, 214, 210); border-bottom-style: solid; border-image: initial; border-left-color: initial; border-left-style: initial; border-right-color: initial; border-right-style: initial; border-top-color: initial; border-top-style: initial; border-width: 0px 0px 3px; box-sizing: inherit; float: none; font: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px 0px 1em; vertical-align: baseline; width: 954.875px;"><div class="byline" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: "Droid Sans", Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 0.9375em; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 1.71429; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">By <a class=" author-name" href="https://www.mercurynews.com/author/joe-mathews/" rel="author" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: 700; line-height: 1.7; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; text-transform: uppercase; vertical-align: baseline;" title="Posts by Joe Mathews">JOE MATHEWS</a> |</div><div class="time" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: "Droid Sans", Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 0.8125rem; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 1.42857; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">PUBLISHED: <time datetime="2020-12-19 06:10:09" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">December 19, 2020 at 6:10 a.m.</time> | UPDATED: <time class="updated" datetime="2020-12-19 17:51:24" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">December 19, 2020 at 5:51 p.m.</time></div></div></div><div class="article-body" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; height: auto; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; min-height: unset; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; text-overflow: ellipsis; vertical-align: baseline; width: calc(75% - 0.32rem);"><div class="body-copy" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: "Droid Sans", Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 1.03125em; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; letter-spacing: -0.01em; line-height: 1.63636; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Thank you, Texas, for taking Elon Musk off our hands.</p><p style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">It may seem strange for California to not care as the world’s fourth-richest person relocates to Austin. But we’re sanguine for two reasons: We recognize the hazards of living amongst the very rich, and we know this billionaire better than you. So with our thanks for giving refuge to the SpaceX and Tesla chief comes this advice:</p><p style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Watch your back, Texas, because Mr. Musk will mess with you.</p><p style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Musk’s exit is different than other California-to-Texas moves, about which we feel less good. The departures of company headquarters — recently Oracle, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, <a href="https://www.zocalopublicsquare.org/2018/01/15/california-corporate-giant-never-heard/ideas/connecting-california/" rel="noopener" style="border-bottom: 1px dotted var(--primary); border-image: initial; border-left: 0px; border-right: 0px; border-top: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">McKesson</a> — cost us high-wage jobs, and reflect real problems with our costs, regulations and governance. Even worse, younger working-class Californians often leave for the cheaper housing and better schools of suburban Dallas and Houston.</p><p style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; letter-spacing: -0.165px; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">But Musk’s exit is entirely different. While many people leave California because they can’t afford it, Musk is leaving because Californians finally figured out we couldn’t afford him.</p><p style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; letter-spacing: -0.165px; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Musk may be worth over $100 billion — but he’s even richer in hypocrisy and ingratitude. He cultivated the image of the lone, self-made innovator, when he was actually California’s biggest welfare case since the <a href="https://www.sfgate.com/books/article/Stanford-Hopkins-Huntington-Crocker-rode-3297907.php" rel="noopener" style="border-bottom: 1px dotted var(--primary); border-image: initial; border-left: 0px; border-right: 0px; border-top: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">railroad barons</a>. Musk’s three signature companies — SpaceX, Tesla, and SolarCity — are built on billions of dollars in government contracts, subsidies and other largesse. The federal government provided much of this, but California has showered him with money, and provided regulations favoring the electric cars and solar panels his companies sell.</p><p style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; letter-spacing: -0.165px; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Yet California’s support did not make Musk a good citizen of our state. Musk <a href="https://revealnews.org/article/tesla-says-its-factory-is-safer-but-it-left-injuries-off-the-books/" rel="noopener" style="border-bottom: 1px dotted var(--primary); border-image: initial; border-left: 0px; border-right: 0px; border-top: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">compromised worker safety</a> at Tesla’s Fremont plant, <a href="https://www.sec.gov/news/press-release/2018-226" rel="noopener" style="border-bottom: 1px dotted var(--primary); border-image: initial; border-left: 0px; border-right: 0px; border-top: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">flouted securities laws</a> and sabotaged unionization of his employees. Musk has become California’s Frankenstein; our monster turned against us.</p><p style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; letter-spacing: -0.165px; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">And when the pandemic hit, his behavior toward California turned unforgivably cruel. He railed against the federal economic relief packages that millions of Californians needed — while benefiting from those same packages. He accused California’s COVID response of being fascist while he remained friendly with the California-hating authoritarian in the White House.</p><div class="dfp-ad dfp-Cube_Article dm-gpt dm-gpt-e2e2228d-5342-46c4-ac8f-6307557c5bbb dm-gpt-div-gpt-ad-Cube_Article dm-gpt-300_250" data-ad-unit="Cube_Article" data-google-query-id="CNS73fua3O0CFVvRfgodjU8ABA" id="div-gpt-ad-Cube_Article" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; letter-spacing: -0.165px; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px auto 1.5em; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; position: relative; text-align: left; top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 1.03125em; letter-spacing: -0.165px;">Worst of all, Musk defied stay-at-home orders to reopen Tesla’s factory in Fremont, which may have produced a</span><span style="font-size: 1.03125em; letter-spacing: -0.165px;"> </span><a href="https://www.mercurynews.com/2020/07/15/tesla-has-more-than-130-employees-who-tested-positive-for-coronavirus-report/" rel="noopener" style="border-bottom: 1px dotted var(--primary); border-image: initial; border-left: 0px; border-right: 0px; border-top: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font: inherit; letter-spacing: -0.165px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">COVID-19 outbreak</a><span style="font-size: 1.03125em; letter-spacing: -0.165px;"> </span><span style="font-size: 1.03125em; letter-spacing: -0.165px;">there. Unbowed, Musk threatened to leave for Texas. Then he carried out the threat.</span></div><p style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; letter-spacing: -0.165px; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">On his way out, he broke all world records for chutzpah. He claimed California doesn’t support innovation — despite all the backing we gave him. He portrayed his departure as a righteous protest — never mentioning Texas’ lack of income taxes, and recent increases in his compensation package. He even had the pot-calls-you-the-kettle gall to accuse California of being “entitled.”</p><p style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; letter-spacing: -0.165px; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">But his brash brand of blame-shifting seems perfect for you, Texas. The state that asked the Supreme Court to cancel millions of other states’ votes — while demanding its presidential choice be ratified — is a fitting home for a billionaire who would deny others the government assistance that made him rich.</p><p style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; letter-spacing: -0.165px; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Just don’t be surprised when he betrays you. Your communities are subsidizing his businesses, even though he often falls short of promised jobs numbers. He’s sure to lash out at your politicians and oil industry. <a href="https://www.statesman.com/story/opinion/columns/your-voice/2020/06/23/opinion-donrsquot-give-tesla-more-corporate-subsidies/42522751/" rel="noopener" style="border-bottom: 1px dotted var(--primary); border-image: initial; border-left: 0px; border-right: 0px; border-top: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">A few editorialists</a> have noticed that Texas just welcomed America’s corporate welfare king.</p><p style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; letter-spacing: -0.165px; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">SpaceX and Tesla headquarters will remain in California — for now. But if Musk eventually take them with him, it might only be a short-term blow. If government support dries up, or if Musk gets in deeper trouble with the law, those companies could become houses of cards. And, Texas would have to handle the carnage of any Musk meltdown.</p><p style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; letter-spacing: -0.165px; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Lone Star leaders typically warn against the influx of all things California. But, Texas, you don’t seem worried — yet — about Musk and his companies.</p><p style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; letter-spacing: -0.165px; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">California, meanwhile, has only one new reason to worry: Much like SpaceX’s Falcon 9 in recent testing, Musk will attempt to return to us … and end up in flames.</p></div></div>Meo Meohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18080992642193515731noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6891205240280876163.post-39594595136077340552020-06-16T12:23:00.002-07:002020-06-16T12:48:25.361-07:00China signs defence agreement with South Korea as US angers Seoul with demand for $5bn troop paymentby <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/authors/julian-ryall/">Julian Ryall</a>, Tokyo<br />
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On the sidelines of regional security talks in Bangkok on Sunday, Jeong Kyeong-doo, the South Korean minister of defence, and his Chinese counterpart, Wei Fenghe, agreed to set up more military hotlines and to push ahead with a visit by Mr Jeong to China next year to “foster bilateral exchanges and cooperation in defence”, South Korea’s defence ministry said. </div>
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Seoul’s announcement coincided with growing resentment at the $5 billion (£3.9bn) annual fee that Washington is demanding to keep 28,500 US troops in South Korea.</div>
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That figure is a sharp increase from the $923 million that Seoul paid this year, which was an 8 per cent increase on the previous year. </div>
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</span><figcaption style="background-color: inherit; box-sizing: border-box; color: #888888; margin: 11px 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="article-body-image-caption" itemprop="caption" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "telesans text regular" , "arial" , sans-serif; line-height: 1.6rem;">Seoul's decision to terminate the intelligence sharing pact with Japan risks sending the "wrong </span></span><span class="article-body-image-caption" itemprop="caption" style="background-color: inherit; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "telesans text regular" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small; line-height: 1.6rem;">message", said General Robert B. Abrams, commander of United States Forces Korea</span><span style="background-color: inherit; font-size: x-small;"> </span><span class="article-body-image-copyright" itemprop="copyrightHolder" style="background-color: inherit; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "telesans text regular" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small; line-height: 1.3rem; text-transform: uppercase;"><span class="article-body-image-copyright-label" style="box-sizing: border-box;">CREDIT:</span> STAFF SGT. MARCUS BUTLER/UNITED STATES FORCES KOREA/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES</span></figcaption></figure><br />
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<span class="m_first-letter m_first-letter--flagged" style="box-sizing: border-box;">A</span>n editorial in Monday’s edition of The Korea Times warned that the security alliance between the two countries “may fall apart due to Washington’s blatantly excessive demands”. </div>
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Mr Trump has previously threatened to withdraw US troops if his demands are not met, with the editorial accusing the president of regarding the Korea-US mutual defence treaty “as a property deal to make money”.</div>
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<span class="m_first-letter m_first-letter--flagged" style="box-sizing: border-box;">T</span>he vast majority of Koreans agree, with a recent survey by the Korea Institute for National Reunification showing that 96 per cent of people are opposed to Seoul paying more for the US military presence. </div>
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There is also irritation at the pressure that Washington is applying to the South to make Seoul sign an extension to a three-way agreement on sharing military information with the US and Japan.</div>
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The General Security of Military Information Agreement is due to expire at midnight on November 23 and South Korea insists that it will only agree to an extension if Japan cancels restrictions on exports of chemicals critical to the South’s microchip industry. </div>
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Japan is widely believed to have imposed the restrictions as the latest incident in its troubled relationship with South Korea, which includes the issue of compensation for labourers put to work during Japan’s colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula. </div>
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</span><figcaption style="background-color: inherit; box-sizing: border-box; color: #888888; margin: 11px 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="article-body-image-caption" itemprop="caption" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "telesans text regular" , "arial" , sans-serif; line-height: 1.6rem;">US Defense Secretary Mark Esper, left, and South Korean Defense Minister Jeong Kyeong-doo, hold a joint press conference</span> <span class="article-body-image-copyright" itemprop="copyrightHolder" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "telesans text regular" , "arial" , sans-serif; line-height: 1.3rem; text-transform: uppercase;"><span class="article-body-image-copyright-label" style="box-sizing: border-box;">CREDIT:</span> JUNG YEON-JE/POOL PHOTO VIA AP</span></span></figcaption></figure><br />
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<span class="m_first-letter m_first-letter--flagged" style="box-sizing: border-box;">T</span>he two nations' defence ministers held discussions with Mark Esper, the US defence secretary, at the weekend but hopes that a breakthrough might materialise came to nothing.</div>
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Just days before an agreement designed to protect the allies from North Korean belligerence runs out, Tokyo and Seoul merely reiterated their long-held positions. </div>
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<span class="m_first-letter m_first-letter--flagged" style="box-sizing: border-box;">T</span>he US demanded in July that Japan pay $8 billion a year to keep 54,000 US military personnel in the country, Foreign Policy reported late last week.</div>
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Tokyo currently contributes $2 billion a year to US military costs in Japan.</div>
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“This kind of demand, not only the exorbitant number, but the way it is being done, could trigger anti-Americanism”, Bruce Klinger, an analyst at the Heritage Foundation think tank, told Foreign Policy. </div>
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“If you weaken alliances, and potentially decrease deterrence and US troop presence, that benefits North Korea, China and Russia, who see the potential for reduced US influence and support for our allies”. </div>
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Daniel Pinkston, a professor of international relations at the Seoul campus of Troy University, was more blunt in his assessment. </div>
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“It’s just extortion”, he told The Telegraph. “It’s little more than a mob boss going around and demanding protection money. The numbers that the US is demanding are politically impossible for Seoul and Tokyo to swallow and that is just fuelling resentment."</div>
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Meo Meohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18080992642193515731noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6891205240280876163.post-84577094509458566232020-06-15T18:01:00.001-07:002020-06-15T18:01:59.450-07:00The 10 greatest controversies of Winston Churchill's career<h1 class="story-body__h1" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #1e1e1e; font-family: Helmet, Freesans, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 2rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 1.125; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="color: #404040; font-family: inherit; font-size: 0.875rem; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-weight: inherit; letter-spacing: inherit;">By Tom Heyden</span></h1>
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<span style="font-size: 16px; font-weight: 700;">The UK is marking the 50th anniversary of the death of Winston Churchill. He is regarded by many as the greatest Briton ever, but for some he remains an intensely controversial figure.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 1rem; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-weight: inherit; letter-spacing: inherit;">During Britain's darkest hours in World War Two, Churchill's leadership was vital in maintaining morale and leading the country to eventual victory over Nazi Germany.</span></div>
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In 2002 Churchill <a class="story-body__link" href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/pressreleases/stories/2002/08_august/21/100_list.shtml" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(17, 103, 168, 0.3); border-bottom-color: rgb(220, 220, 220); border-bottom-style: solid; border-image: initial; border-left-color: initial; border-left-style: initial; border-right-color: initial; border-right-style: initial; border-top-color: initial; border-top-style: initial; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; color: #222222; font-family: inherit; font-size: 1rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: bold; letter-spacing: inherit; line-height: 1.375; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;">saw off</a> the likes of Shakespeare, Darwin and Brunel to be voted the greatest ever Briton.</div>
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But in a career spanning some 70 years, he had more than a few moments of controversy.</div>
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"There's a danger in Churchill gaining a purely iconic status because that actually takes away from his humanity," says Allen Packwood, director of the Churchill Archives Centre.</div>
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"He is this incredibly complex, contradictory and larger-than-life human being and he wrestled with these contradictions during his lifetime."</div>
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Here are 10 of the most common debates that have raged about Churchill's legacy.</div>
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position: relative; vertical-align: baseline;"><img alt="Red paint thrown over Churchill's statue" class="responsive-image__img js-image-replace" data-highest-encountered-width="624" datasrc="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/320/media/images/80417000/jpg/_80417295_red-paint.jpg" height="399" src="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/624/media/images/80417000/jpg/_80417295_red-paint.jpg" style="border: 0px; color: #bdbdbd; display: block; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; height: auto; letter-spacing: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px; transition: opacity 0.2s ease-in 0s; user-select: none; vertical-align: baseline; width: 616.203px;" width="624" /><span class="off-screen" style="border: 0px !important; clip: rect(1px, 1px, 1px, 1px); color: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; height: 1px !important; letter-spacing: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px !important; position: absolute !important; vertical-align: baseline; width: 1px !important;">Image copyright</span><span class="story-image-copyright" style="background: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.6); border: 0px; bottom: 0px; color: #ececec; font-family: inherit; font-size: 0.75rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; letter-spacing: 0.25px; line-height: 1.33333; margin: 0px; padding: 3px 8px 1px; position: absolute; right: 0px; text-transform: uppercase; vertical-align: baseline;">PA</span></span><figcaption class="media-caption" style="border: 0px; color: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; letter-spacing: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; visibility: visible;"><span class="off-screen" style="border: 0px !important; clip: rect(1px, 1px, 1px, 1px); color: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; height: 1px !important; letter-spacing: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px !important; position: absolute !important; vertical-align: baseline; width: 1px !important;">Image caption</span><span class="media-caption__text" style="border: 0px; color: #ececec; display: block; font-family: inherit; font-size: 0.8125rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; letter-spacing: inherit; line-height: 1.23077; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Paint thrown over Churchill's statue in Parliament Square, 2007</span></figcaption></figure><h2 class="story-body__crosshead" style="border: 0px; color: #1e1e1e; font-family: inherit; font-size: 1.5rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; letter-spacing: inherit; line-height: 1.16667; 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1. Views on race</h2>
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In April last year, Labour candidate Benjamin Whittingham tweeted that Churchill was "a racist and white supremacist".</div>
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Sir Nicholas Soames, Churchill's grandson, was outraged. And Whittingham's Conservative opponent Ben Wallace labelled the comments "ignorant" and "incredibly insulting". The tweet was deleted and the Labour Party said: "[It] does not represent the view of the Labour Party. He apologises unreservedly if it has caused any offence."</div>
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But there have previously been suggestions that Churchill held racist beliefs.</div>
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In 1937, <a class="story-body__link-external" href="http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=ihWyeQchBScC&pg=PA9&lpg=PA9&dq=palestine+royal+commission+report+churchill+red+indians&source=bl&ots=fqe10nKhWa&sig=GcbUowychoxzbRVPV9CYbqkB1T8&hl=en&sa=X&ei=quhAVFji1e4G_ceAsAU&ved=0CFEQ6AEwBw#v=onepage&q=palestine%20royal%20commission%20report%20churchill%20red%20indians&f=false" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(17, 103, 168, 0.3); border-bottom-color: rgb(220, 220, 220); border-bottom-style: solid; border-image: initial; border-left-color: initial; border-left-style: initial; border-right-color: initial; border-right-style: initial; border-top-color: initial; border-top-style: initial; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; color: #222222; font-family: inherit; font-size: 1rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: bold; letter-spacing: inherit; line-height: 1.375; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;">he told the Palestine Royal Commission</a>: "I do not admit for instance, that a great wrong has been done to the Red Indians of America or the black people of Australia. I do not admit that a wrong has been done to these people by the fact that a stronger race, a higher-grade race, a more worldly wise race to put it that way, has come in and taken their place."</div>
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Churchill certainly believed in racial hierarchies and eugenics, says John Charmley, author of Churchill: The End of Glory. In Churchill's view, white protestant Christians were at the top, above white Catholics, while Indians were higher than Africans, he adds. "Churchill saw himself and Britain as being the winners in a social Darwinian hierarchy."</div>
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"The mitigation would be that he wasn't particularly unique in having these views," says Richard Toye, author of Churchill's Empire, "even though there were many others who didn't hold them."</div>
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Soames thinks it is ludicrous to attack Churchill. "You're talking about one of the greatest men the world has ever seen, who was a child of the Edwardian age and spoke the language of [it]."</div>
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And Churchill's views on race were incomparable to Hitler's murderous interpretation of racial hierarchy, Toye says. "Although Churchill did think that white people were superior, that didn't mean he necessarily thought it was OK to treat non-white people in an inhumane way."</div>
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clip: rect(1px, 1px, 1px, 1px); color: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; height: 1px !important; letter-spacing: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px !important; position: absolute !important; vertical-align: baseline; width: 1px !important;">Image caption</span><span class="media-caption__text" style="border: 0px; color: #ececec; display: block; font-family: inherit; font-size: 0.8125rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; letter-spacing: inherit; line-height: 1.23077; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">British RAF armoured cars and bomber planes on duty in Iraq during the Mesopotamia conflict, 1922</span></figcaption></figure><h2 class="story-body__crosshead" style="border: 0px; color: #1e1e1e; font-family: inherit; font-size: 1.5rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; 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2. Poison gas</h2>
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Churchill has been criticised for advocating the use of chemical weapons - primarily against Kurds and Afghans.</div>
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"I cannot understand this squeamishness about the use of gas," <a class="story-body__link-external" href="http://globalresearch.ca/articles/CHU407A.html" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(17, 103, 168, 0.3); border-bottom-color: rgb(220, 220, 220); border-bottom-style: solid; border-image: initial; border-left-color: initial; border-left-style: initial; border-right-color: initial; border-right-style: initial; border-top-color: initial; border-top-style: initial; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; color: #222222; font-family: inherit; font-size: 1rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: bold; letter-spacing: inherit; line-height: 1.375; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;">he wrote in a memo</a> during his role as minister for war and air in 1919.</div>
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"I am strongly in favour of using poisoned gas against uncivilised tribes," he continued.</div>
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These quotes have been used by critics such as Noam Chomsky to attack Churchill.</div>
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But the controversy is misplaced, says Warren Dockter, a research fellow at the University of Cambridge and the author of Winston Churchill and the Islamic World. "What he was proposing to use in Mesopotamia was lachrymatory gas, which is essentially tear gas, not mustard gas."</div>
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Churchill's 1919 memo continued: "The moral effect should be so good that the loss of life should be reduced to a minimum. It is not necessary to use only the most deadly gasses: gasses can be used which cause great inconvenience and would spread a lively terror and yet would leave no serious permanent effect on most of those affected."</div>
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In another memo about using gas against Afghans, Dockter says, Churchill questioned why a British soldier could be killed lying wounded on the ground while it was supposedly unfair "to fire a shell which makes the said native sneeze - it really is too silly".</div>
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But some still criticise <a class="story-body__link" href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-29441383" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(17, 103, 168, 0.3); border-bottom-color: rgb(220, 220, 220); border-bottom-style: solid; border-image: initial; border-left-color: initial; border-left-style: initial; border-right-color: initial; border-right-style: initial; border-top-color: initial; border-top-style: initial; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; color: #222222; font-family: inherit; font-size: 1rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: bold; letter-spacing: inherit; line-height: 1.375; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;">the British air attacks</a> used to quell rebellious tribes in the region.</div>
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And it's important to note that he was in favour of using mustard gas against Ottoman troops in WW1, says Dockter, although this was at a time when other nations were using it.</div>
<figure class="media-landscape no-caption body-width" style="border: 0px; clear: both; color: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; letter-spacing: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 24px -24.6406px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="image-and-copyright-container" style="border: 0px; color: inherit; display: block; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; letter-spacing: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline;"><img alt="464 gray line" class="responsive-image__img js-image-replace" data-highest-encountered-width="624" datasrc="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/320/media/images/76941000/jpg/_76941069_464x2_line.jpg" height="2" src="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/624/media/images/76941000/jpg/_76941069_464x2_line.jpg" style="border: 0px; color: inherit; display: block; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; height: auto; letter-spacing: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px; transition: opacity 0.2s ease-in 0s; user-select: none; vertical-align: baseline; width: 616.203px;" width="464" /></span></figure><figure class="media-landscape has-caption full-width" style="background-color: #111111; border: 0px; clear: both; color: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; letter-spacing: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 24px -24.6406px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="image-and-copyright-container" style="border: 0px; color: inherit; display: block; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; letter-spacing: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline;"><img alt="Famine-stricken children in 1943" class="responsive-image__img js-image-replace" data-highest-encountered-width="624" datasrc="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/320/media/images/80414000/jpg/_80414821_famine.jpg" height="351" src="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/624/media/images/80414000/jpg/_80414821_famine.jpg" style="border: 0px; color: #bdbdbd; display: block; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; height: auto; letter-spacing: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px; transition: opacity 0.2s ease-in 0s; user-select: none; vertical-align: baseline; width: 616.203px;" width="624" /><span class="off-screen" style="border: 0px !important; clip: rect(1px, 1px, 1px, 1px); color: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; height: 1px !important; letter-spacing: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px !important; position: absolute !important; vertical-align: baseline; width: 1px !important;">Image copyright</span><span class="story-image-copyright" style="background: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.6); border: 0px; bottom: 0px; color: #ececec; font-family: inherit; font-size: 0.75rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; letter-spacing: 0.25px; line-height: 1.33333; margin: 0px; padding: 3px 8px 1px; position: absolute; right: 0px; text-transform: uppercase; vertical-align: baseline;">GETTY IMAGES</span></span><figcaption class="media-caption" style="border: 0px; color: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; letter-spacing: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; visibility: visible;"><span class="off-screen" style="border: 0px !important; clip: rect(1px, 1px, 1px, 1px); color: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; height: 1px !important; letter-spacing: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px !important; position: absolute !important; vertical-align: baseline; width: 1px !important;">Image caption</span><span class="media-caption__text" style="border: 0px; color: #ececec; display: block; font-family: inherit; font-size: 0.8125rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; letter-spacing: inherit; line-height: 1.23077; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Famine-stricken children in India, 1943</span></figcaption></figure><h2 class="story-body__crosshead" style="border: 0px; color: #1e1e1e; font-family: inherit; font-size: 1.5rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; letter-spacing: inherit; line-height: 1.16667; margin: 32px 0px 0px; 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3. Bengal famine</h2>
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In 1943, India, then still a British possession, experienced a disastrous famine in the north-eastern region of Bengal - sparked by the Japanese occupation of Burma the year before.</div>
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At least three million people are believed to have died - and Churchill's actions, or lack thereof, have been the subject of criticism.</div>
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Madhusree Mukerjee, author of Churchill's Secret War, has said that despite refusing to meet India's need for wheat, <a class="story-body__link-external" href="http://harpers.org/blog/2010/11/churchills-dark-side-six-questions-for-madhusree-mukerjee/" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(17, 103, 168, 0.3); border-bottom-color: rgb(220, 220, 220); border-bottom-style: solid; border-image: initial; border-left-color: initial; border-left-style: initial; border-right-color: initial; border-right-style: initial; border-top-color: initial; border-top-style: initial; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; color: #222222; font-family: inherit; font-size: 1rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: bold; letter-spacing: inherit; line-height: 1.375; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;">he continued to insist that it exported rice</a> to fuel the war effort.</div>
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"[The War Cabinet] ordered the build-up of a stockpile of wheat for feeding European civilians after they had been liberated. So 170,000 tons of Australian wheat bypassed starving India - destined not for consumption but for storage," she said upon release of the book in 2010.</div>
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Churchill even <a class="story-body__link-external" href="http://www.winstonchurchill.org/learn/in-the-media/churchill-in-the-news/966-without-churchill-indias-famine-would-have-been-worse" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(17, 103, 168, 0.3); border-bottom-color: rgb(220, 220, 220); border-bottom-style: solid; border-image: initial; border-left-color: initial; border-left-style: initial; border-right-color: initial; border-right-style: initial; border-top-color: initial; border-top-style: initial; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; color: #222222; font-family: inherit; font-size: 1rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: bold; letter-spacing: inherit; line-height: 1.375; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;">appeared to blame the Indians for the famine</a>, claiming they "breed like rabbits".</div>
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"It's one of the worst blots on his record," says Toye. "It clearly is the case that it was difficult for people to get him to take the issue seriously."</div>
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"Churchill viewed it as a distraction," he explains. Preoccupied with battling Germany in Europe, Churchill didn't want to be bothered by it when people raised the issue.</div>
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"We have this image of Churchill being far-sighted and prophetic," says Charmley. "But what he does tragically in the case of the Bengal famine is show absolutely zero advance [since] the Irish famine 100 years earlier."</div>
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It was a horrendous event but it needs to be seen within the context of global war, says Packwood.</div>
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"Churchill is running a global war at this point and there are always going to be conflicting priorities and demands," he says. "It's an incredibly complex and evolving situation - and he's not always going to get everything right."</div>
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Arthur Herman, author of Gandhi & Churchill, <a class="story-body__link-external" href="http://www.winstonchurchill.org/learn/in-the-media/churchill-in-the-news/966-without-churchill-indias-famine-would-have-been-worse" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(17, 103, 168, 0.3); border-bottom-color: rgb(220, 220, 220); border-bottom-style: solid; border-image: initial; border-left-color: initial; border-left-style: initial; border-right-color: initial; border-right-style: initial; border-top-color: initial; border-top-style: initial; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; color: #222222; font-family: inherit; font-size: 1rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: bold; letter-spacing: inherit; line-height: 1.375; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;">has argued that without Churchill the famine would have been worse</a>. Once he was fully aware of the famine's extent, "Churchill and his cabinet sought every way to alleviate the suffering without undermining the war effort", Herman wrote.</div>
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It was a failure of prioritisation, says Toye. It's true that Britain's resources were stretched, he says, but that's no excuse given the relatively small effort it would have taken to alleviate the problem.</div>
<figure class="media-landscape no-caption body-width" style="border: 0px; clear: both; color: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; letter-spacing: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 24px -24.6406px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="image-and-copyright-container" style="border: 0px; color: inherit; display: block; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; letter-spacing: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline;"><img alt="464 gray line" class="responsive-image__img js-image-replace" data-highest-encountered-width="624" datasrc="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/320/media/images/76941000/jpg/_76941069_464x2_line.jpg" height="2" src="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/624/media/images/76941000/jpg/_76941069_464x2_line.jpg" style="border: 0px; color: inherit; display: block; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; height: auto; letter-spacing: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px; transition: opacity 0.2s ease-in 0s; user-select: none; vertical-align: baseline; width: 616.203px;" width="464" /></span></figure><figure class="media-landscape has-caption full-width" style="background-color: #111111; border: 0px; clear: both; color: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; letter-spacing: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 24px -24.6406px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="image-and-copyright-container" style="border: 0px; color: inherit; display: block; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; letter-spacing: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline;"><img alt="Gandhi" class="responsive-image__img js-image-replace" data-highest-encountered-width="624" datasrc="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/320/media/images/80414000/jpg/_80414820_gandhi.jpg" height="351" src="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/624/media/images/80414000/jpg/_80414820_gandhi.jpg" style="border: 0px; color: #bdbdbd; display: block; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; height: auto; letter-spacing: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px; transition: opacity 0.2s ease-in 0s; user-select: none; vertical-align: baseline; width: 616.203px;" width="624" /><span class="off-screen" style="border: 0px !important; clip: rect(1px, 1px, 1px, 1px); color: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; height: 1px !important; letter-spacing: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px !important; position: absolute !important; vertical-align: baseline; width: 1px !important;">Image copyright</span><span class="story-image-copyright" style="background: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.6); border: 0px; bottom: 0px; color: #ececec; font-family: inherit; font-size: 0.75rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; letter-spacing: 0.25px; line-height: 1.33333; margin: 0px; padding: 3px 8px 1px; position: absolute; right: 0px; text-transform: uppercase; vertical-align: baseline;">GETTY IMAGES</span></span><figcaption class="media-caption" style="border: 0px; color: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; letter-spacing: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; visibility: visible;"><span class="off-screen" style="border: 0px !important; clip: rect(1px, 1px, 1px, 1px); color: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; height: 1px !important; letter-spacing: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px !important; position: absolute !important; vertical-align: baseline; width: 1px !important;">Image caption</span><span class="media-caption__text" style="border: 0px; color: #ececec; display: block; font-family: inherit; font-size: 0.8125rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; letter-spacing: inherit; line-height: 1.23077; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Churchill on Gandhi: "A seditious lawyer, posing as a fakir"</span></figcaption></figure><h2 class="story-body__crosshead" style="border: 0px; color: #1e1e1e; font-family: inherit; font-size: 1.5rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; letter-spacing: inherit; line-height: 1.16667; margin: 32px 0px 0px; 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4. Statements about Gandhi</h2>
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Churchill had strong views on the man now widely respected for his work in advocating self-determination for India.</div>
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"It is alarming and nauseating to see Mr Gandhi, a seditious Middle Temple lawyer, now posing as a fakir… striding half-naked up the steps of the Vice-regal Palace," Churchill said of his anti-colonialist adversary in 1931.</div>
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"Gandhi should not be released on the account of a mere threat of fasting," Churchill told the cabinet on another occasion. "We should be rid of a bad man and an enemy of the Empire if he died."</div>
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It's unfashionable today to question Gandhi's non-violent political tactics. He is venerated in much the same way as Churchill is in the UK. But for years he was a threat to Churchill's vision for the British Empire.</div>
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"He put himself at the head of a movement of irreconcilable imperialist romantics," wrote Boris Johnson in his recent biography of Churchill. "Die-hard defenders of the Raj and of the God-given right of every pink-jowled Englishman to sit on his veranda and… glory in the possession of India."</div>
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"Churchill was very much on the far right of British politics over India," says Charmley. "Even to most Conservatives, let alone Liberals and Labour, Churchill's views on India between 1929 and 1939 were quite abhorrent."</div>
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He was vociferous in his opposition to Gandhi, says Toye, and didn't want India to make any moves towards self-government to the extent of opposing his own party's leaders and being generally quite hostile to Hinduism.</div>
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Churchill's stance was very much that of a late Victorian imperialist, Charmley adds. "[Churchill] was terribly alarmed that giving the Indians home rule was going to lead to the downfall of the British Empire and the end of civilisation."</div>
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Younger Tories like Anthony Eden regarded Churchill with great mistrust during the 1930s because of his association with hard-line right-wingers in the party, he says.</div>
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"People sometimes question why on Earth did people not listen to Churchill's warnings about Hitler in the late 1930s," says Charmley, "to which the short answer is that he'd used exactly the same language about Gandhi in the early 1930s."</div>
<figure class="media-landscape no-caption body-width" style="border: 0px; clear: both; color: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; letter-spacing: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 24px -24.6406px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="image-and-copyright-container" style="border: 0px; color: inherit; display: block; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; letter-spacing: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline;"><img alt="464 gray line" class="responsive-image__img js-image-replace" data-highest-encountered-width="624" datasrc="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/320/media/images/76941000/jpg/_76941069_464x2_line.jpg" height="2" src="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/624/media/images/76941000/jpg/_76941069_464x2_line.jpg" style="border: 0px; color: inherit; display: block; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; height: auto; letter-spacing: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px; transition: opacity 0.2s ease-in 0s; user-select: none; vertical-align: baseline; width: 616.203px;" width="464" /></span></figure><h2 class="story-body__crosshead" style="border: 0px; color: #1e1e1e; font-family: inherit; font-size: 1.5rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; letter-spacing: inherit; line-height: 1.16667; margin: 32px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
5. Attitudes towards Jews</h2>
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In 2012 there were objections to a proposed Churchill Centre in Jerusalem on the basis that he was "no stranger to the latent anti-Semitism of his generation and class".</div>
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Sir Martin Gilbert, Churchill's official biographer, <a class="story-body__link-external" href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/israel/9005496/Plans-for-Winston-Churchill-centre-in-Israel-spark-controversy.html" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(17, 103, 168, 0.3); border-bottom-color: rgb(220, 220, 220); border-bottom-style: solid; border-image: initial; border-left-color: initial; border-left-style: initial; border-right-color: initial; border-right-style: initial; border-top-color: initial; border-top-style: initial; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; color: #222222; font-family: inherit; font-size: 1rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: bold; letter-spacing: inherit; line-height: 1.375; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;">countered that</a> "he was familiar with the Zionist ideal and supported the idea of a Jewish state".</div>
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But being anti-Semitic and a Zionist are not incompatible, says Charmley.</div>
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"Churchill with no doubt at all was a fervent Zionist," he says, "a fervent believer in the right of the Jewish people to a state of their own and that state should be in what we then called Palestine."</div>
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But he also "shared the low-level casual anti-Semitism of his class and kind", he says. If we judged everyone of that era by the standards of 21st Century political correctness, they'd all be guilty, he notes. "It shouldn't blind us to the bigger picture."</div>
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A 1937 unpublished article - supposedly by Churchill - entitled "How the Jews Can Combat Persecution" was discovered in 2007. "It may be that, unwittingly, they are inviting persecution - that they have been partly responsible for the antagonism from which they suffer," it said. "There is the feeling that the Jew is an incorrigible alien, that his first loyalty will always be towards his own race."</div>
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But there was immediately <a class="story-body__link-external" href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-smerconish/churchill-an-antisemite_b_44185.html" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(17, 103, 168, 0.3); border-bottom-color: rgb(220, 220, 220); border-bottom-style: solid; border-image: initial; border-left-color: initial; border-left-style: initial; border-right-color: initial; border-right-style: initial; border-top-color: initial; border-top-style: initial; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; color: #222222; font-family: inherit; font-size: 1rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: bold; letter-spacing: inherit; line-height: 1.375; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;">a row over the article</a>, with Churchill historians pointing out it was written by journalist Adam Marshall Diston and that it might not have represented Churchill's views at all accurately.</div>
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"Casual anti-Semitism was rampant," agrees Dockter, "[but] it's inconceivable to pitch him as anti-Semitic."</div>
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In a 1920 article, he wrote: "Some people like Jews and some do not; but no thoughtful man can doubt the fact that they are beyond all question the most formidable and the most remarkable race which has ever appeared in the world."</div>
<figure class="media-landscape no-caption body-width" style="border: 0px; clear: both; color: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; letter-spacing: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 24px -24.6406px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="image-and-copyright-container" style="border: 0px; color: inherit; display: block; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; letter-spacing: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline;"><img alt="464 gray line" class="responsive-image__img js-image-replace" data-highest-encountered-width="624" datasrc="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/320/media/images/76941000/jpg/_76941069_464x2_line.jpg" height="2" src="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/624/media/images/76941000/jpg/_76941069_464x2_line.jpg" style="border: 0px; color: inherit; display: block; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; height: auto; letter-spacing: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px; transition: opacity 0.2s ease-in 0s; user-select: none; vertical-align: baseline; width: 616.203px;" width="464" /></span></figure><div style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: 1rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; letter-spacing: inherit; line-height: 1.375; margin-top: 18px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<strong style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: 1rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; letter-spacing: inherit; line-height: 1.375; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill, 1874-1965</strong></div>
<figure class="media-landscape no-caption full-width" style="border: 0px; clear: both; color: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; letter-spacing: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 24px -24.6406px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="image-and-copyright-container" style="border: 0px; color: inherit; display: block; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; letter-spacing: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline;"><img alt="Winston Churchill seated" class="responsive-image__img js-image-replace" data-highest-encountered-width="624" datasrc="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/320/media/images/80419000/jpg/_80419543_churchill-at-table.jpg" height="491" src="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/624/media/images/80419000/jpg/_80419543_churchill-at-table.jpg" style="border: 0px; color: inherit; display: block; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; height: auto; letter-spacing: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px; transition: opacity 0.2s ease-in 0s; user-select: none; vertical-align: baseline; width: 616.203px;" width="624" /><span class="off-screen" style="border: 0px !important; clip: rect(1px, 1px, 1px, 1px); color: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; height: 1px !important; letter-spacing: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px !important; position: absolute !important; vertical-align: baseline; width: 1px !important;">Image copyright</span><span class="story-image-copyright" style="background: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.6); border: 0px; bottom: 0px; color: #ececec; font-family: inherit; font-size: 0.75rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; letter-spacing: 0.25px; line-height: 1.33333; margin: 0px; padding: 3px 8px 1px; position: absolute; right: 0px; text-transform: uppercase; vertical-align: baseline;">PA</span></span></figure><ul class="story-body__unordered-list" style="border: 0px; color: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; letter-spacing: inherit; line-height: inherit; list-style: none; margin: 18px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<li class="story-body__list-item" style="border: 0px; color: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: 1rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; letter-spacing: inherit; line-height: 1.375; list-style: outside square; margin: 18px 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 4px; vertical-align: baseline;">Born 30 November 1874 at Blenheim Palace in Oxfordshire. Attended Harrow and Sandhurst before embarking on army career, seeing action in India, and Sudan</li>
</ul>
<ul class="story-body__unordered-list" style="border: 0px; color: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; letter-spacing: inherit; line-height: inherit; list-style: none; margin: 18px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<li class="story-body__list-item" style="border: 0px; color: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: 1rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; letter-spacing: inherit; line-height: 1.375; list-style: outside square; margin: 18px 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 4px; vertical-align: baseline;">Became Conservative MP in 1900, but in 1904 joined the Liberal Party. Cabinet member from 1908, he was First Lord of the Admiralty from 1911 until the disastrous Dardanelles expedition in early part of WW1. Served on Western Front for a time, before rejoining government from 1917-1929</li>
<li class="story-body__list-item" style="border: 0px; color: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: 1rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; letter-spacing: inherit; line-height: 1.375; list-style: outside square; margin: 18px 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 4px; vertical-align: baseline;">Opposition to Indian self-rule, warnings about the rise of the Nazis and support for Edward VIII left Churchill politically isolated during 1930s. After WW2 broke out, he replaced Neville Chamberlain as prime minister, where his reputation as inspirational wartime leader was cemented</li>
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<ul class="story-body__unordered-list" style="border: 0px; color: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; letter-spacing: inherit; line-height: inherit; list-style: none; margin: 18px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<li class="story-body__list-item" style="border: 0px; color: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: 1rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; letter-spacing: inherit; line-height: 1.375; list-style: outside square; margin: 18px 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 4px; vertical-align: baseline;">Lost power in 1945 election but was returned to power in 1951, and continued as prime minister until 1955. Died 24 January 1965 and was given a state funeral</li>
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<a class="story-body__link" href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/people/winston_churchill" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(17, 103, 168, 0.3); border-bottom-color: rgb(220, 220, 220); border-bottom-style: solid; border-image: initial; border-left-color: initial; border-left-style: initial; border-right-color: initial; border-right-style: initial; border-top-color: initial; border-top-style: initial; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; color: #222222; font-family: inherit; font-size: 1rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: bold; letter-spacing: inherit; line-height: 1.375; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;">More from BBC History</a></div>
<figure class="media-landscape no-caption body-width" style="border: 0px; clear: both; color: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; letter-spacing: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 24px -24.6406px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="image-and-copyright-container" style="border: 0px; color: inherit; display: block; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; letter-spacing: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline;"><img alt="464 gray line" class="responsive-image__img js-image-replace" data-highest-encountered-width="624" datasrc="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/320/media/images/76941000/jpg/_76941069_464x2_line.jpg" height="2" src="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/624/media/images/76941000/jpg/_76941069_464x2_line.jpg" style="border: 0px; color: inherit; display: block; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; height: auto; letter-spacing: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px; transition: opacity 0.2s ease-in 0s; user-select: none; vertical-align: baseline; width: 616.203px;" width="464" /></span></figure><h2 class="story-body__crosshead" style="border: 0px; color: #1e1e1e; font-family: inherit; font-size: 1.5rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; letter-spacing: inherit; line-height: 1.16667; margin: 32px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
6. Attitudes towards Islam</h2>
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Paul Weston, chairman of the Liberty GB party, <a class="story-body__link-external" href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2614834/Arrested-quoting-Winston-Churchill-European-election-candidate-accused-religious-racial-harassment-repeats-wartime-prime-ministers-words-Islam-campaign-speech.html" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(17, 103, 168, 0.3); border-bottom-color: rgb(220, 220, 220); border-bottom-style: solid; border-image: initial; border-left-color: initial; border-left-style: initial; border-right-color: initial; border-right-style: initial; border-top-color: initial; border-top-style: initial; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; color: #222222; font-family: inherit; font-size: 1rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: bold; letter-spacing: inherit; line-height: 1.375; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;">was arrested last year</a> on suspicion of racial harassment after reading aloud some of Churchill's thoughts on Islam.</div>
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Weston was quoting from Churchill's 1899 book The River War, in which he wrote: "How dreadful are the curses which Mohammedanism lays on its votaries! Besides the fanatical frenzy, which is as dangerous in a man as hydrophobia [rabies] in a dog, there is this fearful fatalistic apathy.</div>
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"Improvident habits, slovenly systems of agriculture, sluggish methods of commerce and insecurity of property exist wherever the followers of the Prophet rule or live."</div>
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Snippets of these quotes now accompany Churchill's face in numerous internet memes purporting to show his anti-Islam stance.</div>
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"That was probably the most common view shared by British people of Churchill's era and I've no doubt that he believed exactly that," says Charmley.</div>
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But Churchill had a much more nuanced stance on Islam, Dockter says. The 1899 book was written in specific reference to the Mahdists of Sudan, immediately following the war there in which Churchill fought.</div>
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It was recently revealed that Churchill was sufficiently fascinated with Islam for his family to be concerned at one point <a class="story-body__link-external" href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/religion/11314580/Sir-Winston-Churchill-s-family-feared-he-might-convert-to-Islam.html" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(17, 103, 168, 0.3); border-bottom-color: rgb(220, 220, 220); border-bottom-style: solid; border-image: initial; border-left-color: initial; border-left-style: initial; border-right-color: initial; border-right-style: initial; border-top-color: initial; border-top-style: initial; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; color: #222222; font-family: inherit; font-size: 1rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: bold; letter-spacing: inherit; line-height: 1.375; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;">that he might convert</a>.</div>
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And in 1940, his cabinet set aside £100,000 for the construction of a mosque in London in recognition of the Indian Muslims who fought for the British Empire. He later told the House of Commons: "Many of our friends in Muslim countries all over the East have already expressed great appreciation of this gift."</div>
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"His relationship with Islam is far more complex than most people realise," Dockter suggests, noting that Churchill went on holiday to Istanbul and played polo in India with Muslims.</div>
<figure class="media-landscape no-caption body-width" style="border: 0px; clear: both; color: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; letter-spacing: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 24px -24.6406px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="image-and-copyright-container" style="border: 0px; color: inherit; display: block; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; letter-spacing: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline;"><img alt="464 gray line" class="responsive-image__img js-image-replace" data-highest-encountered-width="624" datasrc="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/320/media/images/76941000/jpg/_76941069_464x2_line.jpg" height="2" src="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/624/media/images/76941000/jpg/_76941069_464x2_line.jpg" style="border: 0px; color: inherit; display: block; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; height: auto; letter-spacing: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px; transition: opacity 0.2s ease-in 0s; user-select: none; vertical-align: baseline; width: 616.203px;" width="464" /></span></figure><figure class="media-landscape has-caption full-width" style="background-color: #111111; border: 0px; clear: both; color: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; letter-spacing: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 24px -24.6406px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="image-and-copyright-container" style="border: 0px; color: inherit; display: block; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; letter-spacing: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline;"><img alt="Striking miners in Tonypandy, South Wales, 1910" class="responsive-image__img js-image-replace" data-highest-encountered-width="624" datasrc="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/320/media/images/80417000/jpg/_80417294_striking-miners.jpg" height="475" src="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/624/media/images/80417000/jpg/_80417294_striking-miners.jpg" style="border: 0px; color: #bdbdbd; display: block; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; height: auto; letter-spacing: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px; transition: opacity 0.2s ease-in 0s; user-select: none; vertical-align: baseline; width: 616.203px;" width="624" /><span class="off-screen" style="border: 0px !important; clip: rect(1px, 1px, 1px, 1px); color: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; height: 1px !important; letter-spacing: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px !important; position: absolute !important; vertical-align: baseline; width: 1px !important;">Image copyright</span><span class="story-image-copyright" style="background: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.6); border: 0px; bottom: 0px; color: #ececec; font-family: inherit; font-size: 0.75rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; letter-spacing: 0.25px; line-height: 1.33333; margin: 0px; padding: 3px 8px 1px; position: absolute; right: 0px; text-transform: uppercase; vertical-align: baseline;">GETTY IMAGES</span></span><figcaption class="media-caption" style="border: 0px; color: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; letter-spacing: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; visibility: visible;"><span class="off-screen" style="border: 0px !important; clip: rect(1px, 1px, 1px, 1px); color: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; height: 1px !important; letter-spacing: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px !important; position: absolute !important; vertical-align: baseline; width: 1px !important;">Image caption</span><span class="media-caption__text" style="border: 0px; color: #ececec; display: block; font-family: inherit; font-size: 0.8125rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; letter-spacing: inherit; line-height: 1.23077; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Striking miners in Tonypandy, 1910</span></figcaption></figure><h2 class="story-body__crosshead" style="border: 0px; color: #1e1e1e; font-family: inherit; font-size: 1.5rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; letter-spacing: inherit; line-height: 1.16667; 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7. Treatment of strikers</h2>
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Churchill's reputation as being anti-union primarily stems from an incident in 1910.</div>
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His handling of the Tonypandy Riots that year was the source of much controversy and invited ill-feeling towards him in south Wales for the rest of his life.</div>
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His grandson <a class="story-body__link-external" href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/politics-obituaries/7352232/Winston-Churchill.html" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(17, 103, 168, 0.3); border-bottom-color: rgb(220, 220, 220); border-bottom-style: solid; border-image: initial; border-left-color: initial; border-left-style: initial; border-right-color: initial; border-right-style: initial; border-top-color: initial; border-top-style: initial; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; color: #222222; font-family: inherit; font-size: 1rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: bold; letter-spacing: inherit; line-height: 1.375; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;">even had to defend Churchill's actions</a> as late as 1978, when Prime Minister James Callaghan referenced "the vendetta of your family against the miners of Tonypandy".</div>
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The riots had erupted in November 1910 in the south Wales town because of a dispute between workers and the mine owners, culminating in strikes that ultimately lasted almost a year.</div>
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When the strikers clashed with local police, Churchill - then home secretary - sent in soldiers.</div>
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Allegations that shots were fired by the soldiers were unfounded, explains Toye. In fact he'd sent a memo expressly denying that the use of violence was a possibility.</div>
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Yet it made him a "pantomime villain" in the area ever since, Louise Miskell, a historian at Swansea University, <a class="story-body__link" href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-south-east-wales-26601738" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(17, 103, 168, 0.3); border-bottom-color: rgb(220, 220, 220); border-bottom-style: solid; border-image: initial; border-left-color: initial; border-left-style: initial; border-right-color: initial; border-right-style: initial; border-top-color: initial; border-top-style: initial; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; color: #222222; font-family: inherit; font-size: 1rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: bold; letter-spacing: inherit; line-height: 1.375; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;">told the BBC in March 2014</a>.</div>
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But a year later <a class="story-body__link" href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-merseyside-14529243" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(17, 103, 168, 0.3); border-bottom-color: rgb(220, 220, 220); border-bottom-style: solid; border-image: initial; border-left-color: initial; border-left-style: initial; border-right-color: initial; border-right-style: initial; border-top-color: initial; border-top-style: initial; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; color: #222222; font-family: inherit; font-size: 1rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: bold; letter-spacing: inherit; line-height: 1.375; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;">soldiers were again called in</a>, this time to strike-related riots in Liverpool. On this occasion the soldiers did fire their weapons and two people were killed.</div>
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And in later years his contempt for unions became more pronounced, says Charmley.</div>
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In 1919, under Churchill, by now Secretary of State for Air and War, tanks and an estimated 10,000 troops were deployed to Glasgow during a period of widespread strikes and civil unrest amid fear of a Bolshevist revolt.</div>
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The Tonypandy incident is comparable to Margaret Thatcher's later struggles with miners, Charmley suggests. One could argue that had Churchill not moved in troops the situation could have been much worse and he would have been criticised even more, he says.</div>
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In Boris Johnson's biography, he promotes the more liberal side of Churchill as the "begetter of some of the most progressive legislation for 200 years".</div>
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"Together with [former PM David] Lloyd George, he deserves the title of Founder of the Welfare State."</div>
<figure class="media-landscape has-caption full-width" style="background-color: #111111; border: 0px; clear: both; color: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; letter-spacing: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 24px -24.6406px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="image-and-copyright-container" style="border: 0px; color: inherit; display: block; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; letter-spacing: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline;"><img alt="David Lloyd George and Winston Churchill" class="responsive-image__img js-image-replace" data-highest-encountered-width="624" datasrc="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/320/media/images/80421000/jpg/_80421797_lloyd-george-and-churchill.jpg" height="481" src="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/624/media/images/80421000/jpg/_80421797_lloyd-george-and-churchill.jpg" style="border: 0px; color: #bdbdbd; display: block; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; height: auto; letter-spacing: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px; transition: opacity 0.2s ease-in 0s; user-select: none; vertical-align: baseline; width: 616.203px;" width="624" /><span class="off-screen" style="border: 0px !important; clip: rect(1px, 1px, 1px, 1px); color: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; height: 1px !important; letter-spacing: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px !important; position: absolute !important; vertical-align: baseline; width: 1px !important;">Image copyright</span><span class="story-image-copyright" style="background: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.6); border: 0px; bottom: 0px; color: #ececec; font-family: inherit; font-size: 0.75rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; letter-spacing: 0.25px; line-height: 1.33333; margin: 0px; padding: 3px 8px 1px; position: absolute; right: 0px; text-transform: uppercase; vertical-align: baseline;">GETTY IMAGES</span></span><figcaption class="media-caption" style="border: 0px; color: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; letter-spacing: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; visibility: visible;"><span class="off-screen" style="border: 0px !important; clip: rect(1px, 1px, 1px, 1px); color: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; height: 1px !important; letter-spacing: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px !important; position: absolute !important; vertical-align: baseline; width: 1px !important;">Image caption</span><span class="media-caption__text" style="border: 0px; color: #ececec; display: block; font-family: inherit; font-size: 0.8125rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; letter-spacing: inherit; line-height: 1.23077; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">David Lloyd George and Winston Churchill, 1915</span></figcaption></figure><div style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: 1rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; letter-spacing: inherit; line-height: 1.375; margin-top: 18px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
He supported quite radical social reform, adds Packwood, but it was more in the form of Victorian paternalism and he was a die-hard opponent of communism who saw the hand of it behind the Labour movement during the 1920s.</div>
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"For someone who has this terrible reputation with the unions," says Packwood, "he actually goes on to run two very conciliatory governments."</div>
<figure class="media-landscape no-caption body-width" style="border: 0px; clear: both; color: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; letter-spacing: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 24px -24.6406px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="image-and-copyright-container" style="border: 0px; color: inherit; display: block; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; letter-spacing: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline;"><img alt="464 gray line" class="responsive-image__img js-image-replace" data-highest-encountered-width="624" datasrc="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/320/media/images/76941000/jpg/_76941069_464x2_line.jpg" height="2" src="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/624/media/images/76941000/jpg/_76941069_464x2_line.jpg" style="border: 0px; color: inherit; display: block; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; height: auto; letter-spacing: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px; transition: opacity 0.2s ease-in 0s; user-select: none; vertical-align: baseline; width: 616.203px;" width="464" /></span></figure><figure class="media-landscape has-caption full-width" style="background-color: #111111; border: 0px; clear: both; color: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; letter-spacing: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 24px -24.6406px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="image-and-copyright-container" style="border: 0px; color: inherit; display: block; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; letter-spacing: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline;"><img alt="Sidney Street siege 1911" class="responsive-image__img js-image-replace" data-highest-encountered-width="624" datasrc="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/320/media/images/78421000/jpg/_78421060_churchill-at-sidney-street.jpg" height="485" src="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/624/media/images/78421000/jpg/_78421060_churchill-at-sidney-street.jpg" style="border: 0px; color: #bdbdbd; display: block; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; height: auto; letter-spacing: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px; transition: opacity 0.2s ease-in 0s; user-select: none; vertical-align: baseline; width: 616.203px;" width="624" /><span class="off-screen" style="border: 0px !important; clip: rect(1px, 1px, 1px, 1px); color: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; height: 1px !important; letter-spacing: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px !important; position: absolute !important; vertical-align: baseline; width: 1px !important;">Image copyright</span><span class="story-image-copyright" style="background: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.6); border: 0px; bottom: 0px; color: #ececec; font-family: inherit; font-size: 0.75rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; letter-spacing: 0.25px; line-height: 1.33333; margin: 0px; padding: 3px 8px 1px; position: absolute; right: 0px; text-transform: uppercase; vertical-align: baseline;">GETTY IMAGES</span></span><figcaption class="media-caption" style="border: 0px; color: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; letter-spacing: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; visibility: visible;"><span class="off-screen" style="border: 0px !important; clip: rect(1px, 1px, 1px, 1px); color: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; height: 1px !important; letter-spacing: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px !important; position: absolute !important; vertical-align: baseline; width: 1px !important;">Image caption</span><span class="media-caption__text" style="border: 0px; color: #ececec; display: block; font-family: inherit; font-size: 0.8125rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; letter-spacing: inherit; line-height: 1.23077; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Winston Churchill (in top hat, centre left) during the Sidney Street siege of 1911</span></figcaption></figure><h2 class="story-body__crosshead" style="border: 0px; color: #1e1e1e; font-family: inherit; font-size: 1.5rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; 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8. Sidney Street siege</h2>
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Not long after the Tonypandy Riots, Churchill was under fire for rash involvement of a different sort.</div>
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The siege of Sidney Street was a gunfight in London's East End in January 1911. Some 200 police surrounded the hideout of a gang of Latvian anarchists led by "Peter the Painter", who had killed three policemen the month before.</div>
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A long gun battle ended with the deaths of two of the gang, after Churchill had ordered firefighters not to put out the burning building they'd been hiding in until the shooting had stopped.</div>
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But the controversy for Churchill arose from the appearance that he'd been issuing orders and directly meddling in police operations.</div>
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Arthur Balfour told the Commons: "He and a photographer were both risking valuable lives. I understand what the photographer was doing but what was the right honourable gentleman doing?"</div>
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For Churchill's opponents it was an example of rashness and instability, says Toye. A newsreel film <a class="story-body__link-external" href="http://www.britishpathe.com/video/london-sidney-street-siege" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(17, 103, 168, 0.3); border-bottom-color: rgb(220, 220, 220); border-bottom-style: solid; border-image: initial; border-left-color: initial; border-left-style: initial; border-right-color: initial; border-right-style: initial; border-top-color: initial; border-top-style: initial; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; color: #222222; font-family: inherit; font-size: 1rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: bold; letter-spacing: inherit; line-height: 1.375; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;">had caught him in the midst of the action</a>.</div>
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A contemporary wrote in a letter that "I do believe that Winston takes no interest in political affairs unless they involve the chance of bloodshed", explains Charmley.</div>
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"Churchill liked a photo opportunity before the word had been invented," says Charmley.</div>
<figure class="media-landscape no-caption body-width" style="border: 0px; clear: both; color: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; letter-spacing: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 24px -24.6406px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="image-and-copyright-container" style="border: 0px; color: inherit; display: block; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; letter-spacing: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline;"><img alt="464 gray line" class="responsive-image__img js-image-replace" data-highest-encountered-width="624" datasrc="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/320/media/images/76941000/jpg/_76941069_464x2_line.jpg" height="2" src="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/624/media/images/76941000/jpg/_76941069_464x2_line.jpg" style="border: 0px; color: inherit; display: block; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; height: auto; letter-spacing: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px; transition: opacity 0.2s ease-in 0s; user-select: none; vertical-align: baseline; width: 616.203px;" width="464" /></span></figure><figure class="media-landscape has-caption full-width" style="background-color: #111111; border: 0px; clear: both; color: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; letter-spacing: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 24px -24.6406px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="image-and-copyright-container" style="border: 0px; color: inherit; display: block; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; letter-spacing: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline;"><img alt="Black and tans," class="responsive-image__img js-image-replace" data-highest-encountered-width="624" datasrc="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/320/media/images/80419000/jpg/_80419544_black-and-tans.jpg" height="377" src="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/624/media/images/80419000/jpg/_80419544_black-and-tans.jpg" style="border: 0px; color: #bdbdbd; display: block; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; height: auto; letter-spacing: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px; transition: opacity 0.2s ease-in 0s; user-select: none; vertical-align: baseline; width: 616.203px;" width="624" /><span class="off-screen" style="border: 0px !important; clip: rect(1px, 1px, 1px, 1px); color: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; height: 1px !important; letter-spacing: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px !important; position: absolute !important; vertical-align: baseline; width: 1px !important;">Image copyright</span><span class="story-image-copyright" style="background: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.6); border: 0px; bottom: 0px; color: #ececec; font-family: inherit; font-size: 0.75rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; letter-spacing: 0.25px; line-height: 1.33333; margin: 0px; padding: 3px 8px 1px; position: absolute; right: 0px; text-transform: uppercase; vertical-align: baseline;">GETTY IMAGES</span></span><figcaption class="media-caption" style="border: 0px; color: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; letter-spacing: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; visibility: visible;"><span class="off-screen" style="border: 0px !important; clip: rect(1px, 1px, 1px, 1px); color: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; height: 1px !important; letter-spacing: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px !important; position: absolute !important; vertical-align: baseline; width: 1px !important;">Image caption</span><span class="media-caption__text" style="border: 0px; color: #ececec; display: block; font-family: inherit; font-size: 0.8125rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; letter-spacing: inherit; line-height: 1.23077; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The "Black and Tans" (pictured in Tipperary, 1921) gained a reputation for excessive violence</span></figcaption></figure><h2 class="story-body__crosshead" style="border: 0px; color: #1e1e1e; font-family: inherit; font-size: 1.5rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; letter-spacing: inherit; line-height: 1.16667; margin: 32px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
9. Role in Ireland</h2>
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In January 1919 Churchill assumed the role of Secretary of State for War and Air. Eleven days later the Irish War of Independence began.</div>
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Churchill's role in Ireland is most associated with deploying the controversial "Black and Tans" to fight the Irish Republican Army (IRA). Named after their uniforms, these temporary constables soon developed a reputation for excessive violence.</div>
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In Churchill: The Greatest Briton Unmasked, Nigel Knight claims that Churchill repeatedly refused to stand down the Black and Tans and even advocated the use of air power in Ireland.</div>
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But it would be unfair to label Churchill as anti-Irish, says Toye.</div>
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Although Churchill was against home rule for Ireland and initially implemented harsh repression, he was also an early advocate of partition, Toye explains. Churchill played a key role in the Anglo-Irish Treaty of 1921, which ended the war.</div>
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"It comes back to his character, which is: 'In war, resolution, in peace, magnanimity'," says Packwood. "When he felt that there was a fight he would push very hard [and] when he thought there was a chance of peace and dialogue he was also at the forefront of that."</div>
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Churchill had expressed support for home rule <a class="story-body__link-external" href="http://www.winstonchurchill.org/support/the-churchill-centre/publications/chartwell-bulletin/2012/45-mar/1406-what-did-churchill-really-think-about-ireland" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(17, 103, 168, 0.3); border-bottom-color: rgb(220, 220, 220); border-bottom-style: solid; border-image: initial; border-left-color: initial; border-left-style: initial; border-right-color: initial; border-right-style: initial; border-top-color: initial; border-top-style: initial; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; color: #222222; font-family: inherit; font-size: 1rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: bold; letter-spacing: inherit; line-height: 1.375; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;">as early as 1912</a>.</div>
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He also recognised the role that Irish personnel serving in the British armed forces played in both WW1 and later in WW2, adds Toye.</div>
<figure class="media-landscape no-caption body-width" style="border: 0px; clear: both; color: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; letter-spacing: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 24px -24.6406px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="image-and-copyright-container" style="border: 0px; color: inherit; display: block; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; letter-spacing: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline;"><img alt="464 gray line" class="responsive-image__img js-image-replace" data-highest-encountered-width="624" datasrc="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/320/media/images/76941000/jpg/_76941069_464x2_line.jpg" height="2" src="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/624/media/images/76941000/jpg/_76941069_464x2_line.jpg" style="border: 0px; color: inherit; display: block; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; height: auto; letter-spacing: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px; transition: opacity 0.2s ease-in 0s; user-select: none; vertical-align: baseline; width: 616.203px;" width="464" /></span></figure><h2 class="story-body__crosshead" style="border: 0px; color: #1e1e1e; font-family: inherit; font-size: 1.5rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; letter-spacing: inherit; line-height: 1.16667; margin: 32px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
10. Cash for influence</h2>
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"In return for a fee of £5,000 two oil companies, Royal Dutch Shell and Burmah Anglo-Persian Oil Company [later BP], asked him to represent them in their application to the government for a merger," Gilbert's official biography stated.</div>
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By modern British political standards, the 1923 payment would be considered highly inappropriate.</div>
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Churchill, whose "political career was in the doldrums" at the time, according to a history of British Petroleum, agreed to use his parliamentary influence to raise the issue in return for money.</div>
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"But I'd be careful about calling it a bribe," Toye says. "He accepted all sorts of gifts, which in today's culture of full disclosure would get you expelled from the Commons. But those rules were not in place at the time."</div>
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The Register of Members' Interests was introduced in 1975. "You can argue that it was a conflict of interest, you can even argue that it was wrong, but you can't call it a bribe in the sense that it was actually illegal," Toye says.</div>
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"Politicians' links with business and the media weren't under the same level of scrutiny as they were then," says Packwood, "he was operating in a slightly different ethical environment."</div>
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More on Churchill</h2>
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In October 2014 British planes were involved in their third air campaign over Iraq in 23 years. The RAF bombed Iraq more than 90 years ago - and that controversial strategy has had a huge impact on modern warfare and the Middle East.</div>
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Meo Meohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18080992642193515731noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6891205240280876163.post-73868631044810189782020-06-15T17:54:00.001-07:002020-06-16T12:05:26.553-07:00The Rest of Us Always Knew Churchill Was a VillainBy Shashi Tharoor<br />
February 15, 2019 8:00 PM PST<br />
<br />
The recent flap over Winston Churchill -- with Labour politician John<br />
McDonnell calling Britain’s most revered prime minister a “villain” and<br />
prompting a rebuke from the latter’s grandson -- will astonish many<br />
Indians. That’s not because the label itself is a misnomer, but because<br />
McDonnell was exercised by the death of one Welsh miner in 1910. In<br />
fact, Churchill has the blood of millions on his hands whom the British<br />
prefer to forget.<br />
<br />
“History,” Churchill himself said, “will judge me kindly, because I<br />
intend to write it myself.” He did, penning a multi-volume history of<br />
World War Two, and won the Nobel Prize for Literature for his<br />
self-serving fictions. As the Australian Prime Minister Robert Menzies<br />
remarked of the man many Britons credit with winning the war, "His real<br />
tyrant is the glittering phrase, so attractive to his mind that awkward<br />
facts have to give way.”<br />
<br />
Awkward facts, alas, there are aplenty. As McDonnell correctly noted,<br />
Churchill as Home Secretary in 1910 sent battalions of police from<br />
London and ordered them to attack striking miners in Tonypandy in South<br />
Wales; one was killed and nearly 600 strikers and policemen were<br />
injured. It’s unlikely this troubled his conscience much. He later<br />
assumed operational command of the police during a siege of armed<br />
Latvian anarchists in Stepney, where he decided to allow them to be<br />
burned to death in a house where they were trapped.<br />
<br />
Shortly afterward, during the fight for Irish independence between<br />
1918-23, Churchill was one of the few British officials in favor of<br />
bombing Irish protesters from the air, suggesting using “machine gun<br />
fire bombs” to scatter them. As Secretary of State for the Colonies, he<br />
followed through on that threat in Iraq. He ordered large-scale bombing<br />
of Mesopotamia in 1921, with an entire village wiped out in 45 minutes.<br />
When some British officials objected to his proposal for “the use of gas<br />
against natives,” he found their objections “unreasonable.” In fact he<br />
argued that poison gas was more humane than outright extermination: “The<br />
moral effect should be so good that the loss of life should be reduced<br />
to a minimum.”<br />
<br />
This underscores the fundamental contrast in views of Churchill. In<br />
Britain and much of the West, he’s seen as the savior of “Democracy,<br />
Freedom, and all that is good in Western Civilization,” as one<br />
enthusiastic correspondent put it. In fact, his record is far more mixed<br />
even there. Throughout the 1920s and early 1930s, Churchill was an open<br />
admirer of Mussolini, declaring that the Italian Fascist movement had<br />
“rendered a service to the whole world.” Traveling to Rome in 1927 to<br />
express his admiration for the Fascist Duce, Churchill announced that he<br />
“could not help being charmed, like so many other people have been, by<br />
Signor Mussolini’s gentle and simple bearing and by his calm detached<br />
poise in spite of so many burdens and dangers.”<br />
<br />
What Churchill was above all, though, was a committed imperialist -- one<br />
determined to preserve the British Empire not just by defeating the<br />
Nazis but much else besides. At the start of his career, as a young<br />
cavalry officer on the northwest frontier of India, he declared the<br />
Pashtuns needed to recognize “the superiority of [the British] race” and<br />
that those who resisted would “be killed without quarter.” He wrote<br />
happily about how he and his comrades “systematically, village by<br />
village, destroyed the houses, filled up the wells, blew down the<br />
towers, cut down the great shady trees, burned the crops and broke the<br />
reservoirs in punitive devastation. Every tribesman caught was speared<br />
or cut down at once.”<br />
<br />
In Kenya, Churchill either directed or was complicit in policies<br />
involving the forced relocation of local people from the fertile<br />
highlands to make way for white colonial settlers and the incarceration<br />
of over 150,000 men, women and children in concentration camps. British<br />
authorities used rape, castration, lit cigarettes on tender spots and<br />
electric shocks to torture Kenyans under Churchill’s rule.<br />
<br />
And his principal victims were the Indians -- “a beastly people with a<br />
beastly religion,” as he charmingly called us, a “foul race.” Churchill<br />
was an appalling racialist, one who could not bring himself to see any<br />
people of color as entitled to the same rights as himself. (He “did not<br />
admit,” for instance, “that a great wrong has been done to the Red<br />
Indians of America, or the black people of Australia … by the fact that<br />
a stronger race, a higher grade race, has come in and taken its place.”)<br />
He fantasized luridly of having Mahatma Gandhi tied to the ground and<br />
trampled upon by elephants.<br />
<br />
Thanks to Churchill’s personal decisions, more than 3 million Bengalis<br />
died of hunger in a 1943 famine. Churchill deliberately ordered the<br />
diversion of food from starving Indian civilians to well-supplied<br />
British soldiers and even to top up European stockpiles, meant for<br />
yet-to-be-liberated Greeks and Yugoslavs. “The starvation of anyway<br />
underfed Bengalis is less serious” than that of “sturdy Greeks,” he<br />
argued. When reminded of the suffering of Bengalis, his response was<br />
typically Churchillian: The famine was the Indians’ own fault, he said,<br />
for “breeding like rabbits.” If the suffering was so dire, he wrote on<br />
the file, “Why hasn’t Gandhi died yet?”<br />
<br />
It’s important to remember that these weren’t enemies in a war --<br />
Churchill also wanted to “drench the cities of the Ruhr” in poison gas<br />
and said of the Japanese, “we shall wipe them out, every one of them,<br />
men, women and children” -- but British subjects. Nor can his views be<br />
excused as being reflective of their times; his own Secretary of State<br />
for War, Leo Amery, confessed that he could see very little difference<br />
between Churchill’s attitude and Hitler’s.<br />
<br />
Britons and Oscar voters may yet thrill to Churchill’s stirring words<br />
about freedom. But to the descendants of the Iraqis whom Churchill<br />
gassed and the Greek protesters on the streets of Athens who were mowed<br />
down on his orders in 1944 (killing 28 and maiming 120), to sundry<br />
Pashtuns and Irish, to Afghans and Kenyans and Welsh miners as well as<br />
to Indians like myself, it will always be a mystery why a few bombastic<br />
speeches have been enough to wash the bloodstains off Churchill’s hands.<br />
We shall remember him as a war criminal and an enemy of decency and<br />
humanity, a blinkered imperialist untroubled by the oppression of<br />
non-white peoples, a man who fought not to defend but to deny our freedom.Meo Meohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18080992642193515731noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6891205240280876163.post-2629526940071658292020-06-15T17:31:00.001-07:002020-06-15T17:31:36.678-07:00The crimes of Winston Churchill<nav class="r s t u v c w x y" style="background-color: white; box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.05) 0px 4px 12px 0px; box-sizing: inherit; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8); font-family: medium-content-sans-serif-font, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Oxygen, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Open Sans", "Helvetica Neue", sans-serif; left: 0px; position: absolute; right: 0px; top: 0px; z-index: 500;"><div style="box-sizing: inherit;">
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The crimes of Winston Churchill</h1>
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<a class="bw bx bg bh bi bj bk bl bm bn ej bq ca cb" href="https://medium.com/@write_12958/the-crimes-of-winston-churchill-c5e3ecb229b3?source=post_page-----c5e3ecb229b3----------------------" rel="noopener" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: inherit; box-sizing: inherit; fill: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-weight: inherit; letter-spacing: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none;">Nov 3, 2018</a> · 14 min read</div>
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Churchill was a genocidal maniac. He is fawned over in Britain and held up as a hero of the nation — voted ‘Greatest Briton’ of all time. Below is the real history of Churchill. The history of a white supremacist whose hatred for Indians led to four million starving to death. The man who loathed Irish people so much he conceived different ways to terrorise them. A racist thug who waged war on black people across Africa and in Britain. This is the trial of Winston Churchill, the enemy of all humanity.</div>
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<span class="fr he" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Afghanistan:</span></div>
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Churchill found his love for war during the time he spent in Afghanistan. While there he said “all who resist will be killed without quarter” because the Pashtuns need “recognise the superiority of race”. He believed the Pashtuns needed to be dealt with, he would reminisce in his writings about how he partook in the burning villages and peoples homes.</div>
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<span class="cd" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-style: normal;">“We proceeded systematically, village by village, and we destroyed the houses, filled up the wells, blew down the towers, cut down the great shady trees, burned the crops and broke the reservoirs in punitive devastation.” — Churchill on how the British carried on in Afghanistan, and he was only too happy to be part of it.</span></div>
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Churchill would also write of how “every tribesman caught was speared or cut down at once”. Proud of the terror he helped inflict on the people of Afghanistan Churchill was well on the road to becoming a genocidal maniac.</div>
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<span class="fr he" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Cuba:</span></div>
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Churchill wrote that he was concerned Cuba would turn in to “another black republic” in 1896. By “another” he was referring to Haiti which was the first nation in modern times to abolish slavery. Haiti has been punished for doing so ever since.</div>
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<span class="fr he" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Egypt:</span></div>
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“Tell them that if we have any more of their cheek we will set the Jews on them and drive them into the gutter, from which they should never have emerged” — Winston Churchill on how to deal with Egypt in 1951.</div>
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<span class="fr he" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Greece:</span></div>
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The British Army under the guidance of Churchill perpetrated a massacre on the streets of Athens in the month of December 1944. 28 protesters were shot dead, a further 128 injured. Who were they? Were they supporters of Nazism? No, they were in fact anti-Nazis.</div>
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The British demanded that all guerrilla groups should disarm on the 2nd December 1944. The following day 200,000 people took to the streets, and this is when the British Army on Churchill’s orders turned their guns on the people. Churchill regarded ELAS (Greek People’s Liberation Army) and EAM (National Liberation Front) as “miserable banditti” (these were the very people who ran the Nazis out). His actions in the month of December were purely out of his hatred and paranoia for communism.</div>
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The British backed the right-wing government in Greece returned from exile after the very same partisans of the resistance that Churchill ordered the murder of had driven out the Nazi occupiers. Soviet forces were well received in Greece. This deeply worried Churchill. He planned to restore the monarchy in Greece to combat any possible communist influence. The events in December were part of that strategy.</div>
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In 1945, Churchill sent Charles Wickham to Athens where he was put in charge of training the Greek security police. Wickham learned his tricks of the trade in British occupied Ireland between 1922–1945 where he was a commander of the colonial RUC which was responsible for countless terror.</div>
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In April 1945 Churchill said “the [Nazi] collaborators in Greece in many cases did the best they could to shelter the Greek population from German oppression” and went on to say “the Communists are the main foe”.</div>
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<span class="fr he" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Guyana:</span></div>
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<div class="gv r gw gx" style="background-color: #f2f2f2; box-sizing: inherit; margin: auto; position: relative;">
<div class="hr gz r" style="box-sizing: inherit; height: 0px; padding-bottom: 279px;">
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<img class="s t u gs ai ha hb bc sg" height="279" role="presentation" src="https://miro.medium.com/max/60/1*kH2B3iYu_BgOLek8DWsHrg.jpeg?q=20" style="box-sizing: inherit; filter: blur(20px); height: 279px; left: 0px; position: absolute; top: 0px; transform: scale(1.1); transition: visibility 0ms ease 400ms; vertical-align: middle; visibility: hidden; width: 465px;" width="465" /></div>
<img class="mt ry s t u gs ai hd" height="279" role="presentation" sizes="465px" src="https://miro.medium.com/max/465/1*kH2B3iYu_BgOLek8DWsHrg.jpeg" srcset="https://miro.medium.com/max/552/1*kH2B3iYu_BgOLek8DWsHrg.jpeg 276w, https://miro.medium.com/max/930/1*kH2B3iYu_BgOLek8DWsHrg.jpeg 465w" style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; height: 279px; left: 0px; opacity: 1; position: absolute; top: 0px; transition: opacity 400ms ease 0ms; vertical-align: middle; width: 465px;" width="465" /></div>
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Churchill ordered the overthrowing of the democratically elected leader of ‘British Guiana’. He dispatched troops and warships and suspended their constitution all to put a stop to the governments nationalisation plan.</div>
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<span class="fr he" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">India:</span></div>
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<img class="s t u gs ai ha hb bc sg" height="560" role="presentation" src="https://miro.medium.com/max/60/1*7kRsKBrOJqVbFb5UqdddVA.jpeg?q=20" style="box-sizing: inherit; filter: blur(20px); height: 476px; left: 0px; position: absolute; top: 0px; transform: scale(1.1); transition: visibility 0ms ease 400ms; vertical-align: middle; visibility: hidden; width: 680px;" width="800" /></div>
<img class="mt ry s t u gs ai hd" height="560" role="presentation" sizes="700px" src="https://miro.medium.com/max/800/1*7kRsKBrOJqVbFb5UqdddVA.jpeg" srcset="https://miro.medium.com/max/552/1*7kRsKBrOJqVbFb5UqdddVA.jpeg 276w, https://miro.medium.com/max/1104/1*7kRsKBrOJqVbFb5UqdddVA.jpeg 552w, https://miro.medium.com/max/1280/1*7kRsKBrOJqVbFb5UqdddVA.jpeg 640w, https://miro.medium.com/max/1400/1*7kRsKBrOJqVbFb5UqdddVA.jpeg 700w" style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; height: 476px; left: 0px; opacity: 1; position: absolute; top: 0px; transition: opacity 400ms ease 0ms; vertical-align: middle; width: 680px;" width="800" /></div>
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</figure><blockquote class="hf hg hh" style="box-shadow: rgb(41, 41, 41) 3px 0px 0px 0px inset; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 0px -20px; padding-left: 23px;">
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<span class="cd" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-style: normal;">“I’d rather see them have a good civil war”. — Churchill wishing partition on India</span></div>
</blockquote>
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Very few in Britain know about the genocide in Bengal let alone how Churchill engineered it. Churchill’s hatred for Indians led to four million starving to death during the Bengal ‘famine’ of 1943. “I hate Indians. They are a beastly people with a beastly religion” he would say.</div>
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Bengal had a better than normal harvest during the British enforced famine. The British Army took millions of tons of rice from starving people to ship to the Middle East — where it wasn’t even needed. When the starving people of Bengal asked for food, Churchill said the ‘famine’ was their own fault “for breeding like rabbits”. The Viceroy of India said “Churchill’s attitude towards India and the famine is negligent, hostile and contemptuous”. Even the right wing imperialist Leo Amery who was the British Secretary of State in India said he “didn’t see much difference between his [Churchill] outlook and Hitler’s”. Churchill refused all of the offers to send aid to Bengal, Canada offered 10,000 tons of rice, the U.S 100,000. Churchill was still swilling champaign while he caused four million men, women and children to starve to death in Bengal.</div>
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Throughout WW2 India was forced to ‘lend’ Britain money. Churchill moaned about “Indian money lenders” the whole time.</div>
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<mark class="sa sb je" style="background-color: rgba(12, 242, 143, 0.2); box-sizing: inherit; color: currentcolor; cursor: pointer;">The truth is Churchill never waged war against fascism. He went to war with Germany to defend the British Empire. He moaned “are we to incur hundreds of millions of debt for defending India only to be kicked out by the Indians afterwards”.</mark></div>
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In 1945 Churchill said “the Hindus were race protected by their mere pullulation from the doom that is due”. The Bengal famine wasn’t enough for Churchill’s blood lust, he wished his favourite war criminal Arthur Harris could have bombed them.</div>
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When India was partitioned in 1947 millions of people died and millions more were displaced. Churchill said that the creation of Pakistan, which has been an imperialist outpost for the British and Americans since its inception, was Britain’s “bit of India”.</div>
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<span class="fr he" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Iran:</span></div>
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<img class="s t u gs ai ha hb bc sg" height="391" role="presentation" src="https://miro.medium.com/max/60/1*X7gGWzrLLfK4fuZAovqGTg.jpeg?q=20" style="box-sizing: inherit; filter: blur(20px); height: 391px; left: 0px; position: absolute; top: 0px; transform: scale(1.1); transition: visibility 0ms ease 400ms; vertical-align: middle; visibility: hidden; width: 575px;" width="575" /></div>
<img class="mt ry s t u gs ai hd" height="391" role="presentation" sizes="575px" src="https://miro.medium.com/max/575/1*X7gGWzrLLfK4fuZAovqGTg.jpeg" srcset="https://miro.medium.com/max/552/1*X7gGWzrLLfK4fuZAovqGTg.jpeg 276w, https://miro.medium.com/max/1104/1*X7gGWzrLLfK4fuZAovqGTg.jpeg 552w, https://miro.medium.com/max/1150/1*X7gGWzrLLfK4fuZAovqGTg.jpeg 575w" style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; height: 391px; left: 0px; opacity: 1; position: absolute; top: 0px; transition: opacity 400ms ease 0ms; vertical-align: middle; width: 575px;" width="575" /></div>
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</figure><blockquote class="hf hg hh" style="box-shadow: rgb(41, 41, 41) 3px 0px 0px 0px inset; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 0px -20px; padding-left: 23px;">
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<span class="cd" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-style: normal;">“A prize from fairyland beyond our wildest dreams” — Churchill on Iran’s oil</span></div>
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When Britain seized Iran’s oil industry Churchill proclaimed it was “a prize from fairyland beyond our wildest dreams”. He meddled in Iranian affairs for decades doing his utmost to exclude Iranians from their natural resources. Encouraging the looting of the nation when most lived in severe poverty.</div>
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In June 1914 Churchill proposed a bill in the House of Commons that would see the British government become become the major shareholder of the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company. The company would go on to refrain from paying Iran its share of the dividends before paying tax to the British exchequer. Essentially the British were illegally taxing the Iranian government.</div>
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When the nationalist government of Mohammad Mosaddegh threatened British ‘interests’ in Iran, Churchill was there, ready to protect them at any cost. Even if that meant desecrating democracy. He helped organise a coup against Mosaddegh in August 1953. He told the CIA operations officer that helped carry out the plan “if i had been but a few years younger, I would have loved nothing better than to have served under your command in this great venture”.</div>
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Churchill arranged for the BBC to send coded messages to let the Shah of Iran know that they were overthrowing the democratically elected government. Instead of the BBC ending their Persian language news broadcast with “it is now midnight in London” they under Churchill’s orders said “it is now exactly midnight”.</div>
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Churchill went on to privately describe the coup as “the finest operation since the end of the war [WW2]”. Being a proud product of imperialism he had no issue ousting Mosaddegh so Britain could get back to sapping the riches of Iran.</div>
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<span class="fr he" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Iraq:</span></div>
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<img class="s t u gs ai ha hb bc sg" height="1144" role="presentation" src="https://miro.medium.com/max/60/1*Gv3o-IVznfqiZFGRMX1-HA.jpeg?q=20" style="box-sizing: inherit; filter: blur(20px); height: 432.172px; left: 0px; position: absolute; top: 0px; transform: scale(1.1); transition: visibility 0ms ease 400ms; vertical-align: middle; visibility: hidden; width: 680px;" width="1800" /></div>
<img class="mt ry s t u gs ai hd" height="1144" role="presentation" sizes="700px" src="https://miro.medium.com/max/1800/1*Gv3o-IVznfqiZFGRMX1-HA.jpeg" srcset="https://miro.medium.com/max/552/1*Gv3o-IVznfqiZFGRMX1-HA.jpeg 276w, https://miro.medium.com/max/1104/1*Gv3o-IVznfqiZFGRMX1-HA.jpeg 552w, https://miro.medium.com/max/1280/1*Gv3o-IVznfqiZFGRMX1-HA.jpeg 640w, https://miro.medium.com/max/1400/1*Gv3o-IVznfqiZFGRMX1-HA.jpeg 700w" style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; height: 432.172px; left: 0px; opacity: 1; position: absolute; top: 0px; transition: opacity 400ms ease 0ms; vertical-align: middle; width: 680px;" width="1800" /></div>
</div>
</div>
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</figure><blockquote class="hf hg hh" style="box-shadow: rgb(41, 41, 41) 3px 0px 0px 0px inset; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 0px -20px; padding-left: 23px;">
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<span class="cd" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-style: normal;">“I am strongly in favour of using poisoned gas against the uncivilized tribes… it would spread a lively terror.” — Churchill on the use of gas in the Middle East and India</span></div>
</blockquote>
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Churchill was appointed ‘Secretary of State for the Colonies’ in 1921. He formed the ‘Middle East Department’ which was responsible for Iraq. Determined to have his beloved empire on the cheap he decided air power could replace ground troops. A strategy of bombing any resistance to British rule was now employed.</div>
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Several times in the 1920s various groups in the region now known as Iraq rose up against the British. The air force was then put into action, indiscriminately bombing civilian areas so to subdue the population.</div>
<div class="fp gd ap cd fr b fs ft ge fu fv gf fw fx gg fy fz gh ga gb gi gc cv" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="e820" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-family: medium-content-serif-font, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 21px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin-bottom: -0.46em; margin-top: 2em; word-break: break-word;">
Churchill was also an advocate for the use of mustard and poison gases. Whilst ‘Secretary for War and Air’ he advised that “the provision of some kind of asphyxiating bombs” should be used “for use in preliminary operations against turbulent tribes” in order to take control of Iraq.</div>
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When Iraqi tribes stood up for themselves, under the direction of Churchill the British unleashed terror on mud, stone and reed villages.</div>
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Churchill’s bombing of civilians in ‘Mesopotamia’ (Kurdistan and Iraq) was summed up by war criminal ‘Bomber Harris’:</div>
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<span class="cd" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-style: normal;">“The Arab and Kurd now know what real bombing means within 45 minutes a full-sized village can be practically wiped out, and a third of its inhabitants killed or injured, by four or five machines which offer them no real target, no opportunity for glory as warriors, no effective means of escape”. — Arthur ‘Bomber’ Harris.</span></div>
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<span class="fr he" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Ireland:</span></div>
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<span class="cd" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-style: normal;">“We have always found the Irish a bit odd. They refuse to be English” — Churchill</span></div>
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In 1904 Churchill said “I remain of the opinion that a separate parliament for Ireland would be dangerous and impractical”. Churchill’s ancestry is linked to loyalism to Britain. He is a direct descendent of the ‘Marquis of Londonderry’ who helped put down the 1798 United Irishmen rising. He would live up to his families reputation when it came to suppressing revolutionary forces in Ireland.</div>
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The Black and Tans were the brainchild of Churchill, he sent the thugs to Ireland to terrorise at will. Attacking civilians and civilian property they done Churchill proud. Rampaging across the country carrying out reprisals. He went on to describe them as “gallant and honourable officers”.</div>
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It was also Churchill who conceived the idea of forming the Auxiliaries who carried out the Croke Park massacre. They fired into the crowd at a Gaelic football match, killing 14. Of course this didn’t fulfill Churchill’s bloodlust to repress a people who he described as “odd” for their refusal “to be English”.</div>
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He went on to advocate the use of air power in Ireland against Sinn Fein members in 1920. He suggested to his war advisers that aeroplanes should be dispatched with orders to use “machine-gun fire or bombs” to “scatter and stampede them”.</div>
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Churchill was an early advocate for the partitioning of Ireland. During the treaty negotiations he insisted on retaining navy bases in Ireland. In 1938 those bases were handed back to Ireland. However in 1939 Churchill proposed capturing Berehaven base by force.</div>
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In 1941 Churchill supported a plan to introduce conscription in the North of Ireland.</div>
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Churchill went on to remark”the bloody Irish, what have they ever done for our wars”, reducing Ireland’s merit to what it might provide by way of resources (people) for their imperialist land grabs.</div>
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<span class="fr he" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Kenya:</span></div>
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<img class="s t u gs ai ha hb bc sg" height="1350" role="presentation" src="https://miro.medium.com/max/60/1*npMOgpnzoqmKPeUFYpi92g.jpeg?q=20" style="box-sizing: inherit; filter: blur(20px); height: 510px; left: 0px; position: absolute; top: 0px; transform: scale(1.1); transition: visibility 0ms ease 400ms; vertical-align: middle; visibility: hidden; width: 680px;" width="1800" /></div>
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Britain declared a state of emergency in Kenya in 1952 to protect its system of institutionalised racism that they established throughout their colonies so to exploit the indigenous population. Churchill being your archetypical British supremacist believed that Kenya’s fertile highlands should be only for white colonial settlers. He approved the forcible removal of the local population, which he termed “blackamoors”.</div>
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At least 150,000 men, women and children were forced into concentration camps. Children’s schools were shut by the British who branded them “training grounds for rebellion”. Rape, castration, cigarettes, electric shocks and fire all used by the British to torture the Kenyan people on Churchill’s watch.</div>
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In 1954 during a British cabinet meeting Churchill and his men discussed the forced labour of Kenyan POWs and how to circumvent the constraints of two treaties they were breaching:</div>
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<span class="cd" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-style: normal;">“This course [detention without trial and forced labour] had been recommended despite the fact that it was thought to involve a technical breach of the Forced Labour Convention of 1930 and the Convention on Human Rights adopted by the Council of Europe”</span></div>
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The Cowan Plan advocated the use of force and sometimes death against Kenyan POWs who refused to work. Churchill schemed to allow this to continue.</div>
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Caroline Elkins book gives a glimpse into the extent that the crimes in Kenya were known in both official and unofficial circles in Britain and how Churchill brushed off the terror the colonial British forces inflicted on the native population. He even ‘punished’ Edwina Mountbatten for mentioning it, “Edwina Mountbatten was conversing about the emergency with India’s prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, and the then colonial secretary, Oliver Lyttleton. When Lyttleton commented on the “terrible savagery” of Mau Mau… Churchill retaliated, refusing to allow Lord Mountbatten to take his wife with him on an official visit to Turkey”.</div>
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<span class="fr he" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Palestine:</span></div>
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<span class="cd" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-style: normal;">“I do not agree that the dog in a manger has the final right to the manger.”</span></div>
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In 2012 Churchill was honoured with a statue in Jerusalem for his assistance to Zionism.</div>
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He regarded the Arab population Palestine to be a “lower manifestation”. And that the “dog in a manger has the final right to the manger”, by this he meant the Arabs of Palestine.</div>
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In 1920 Churchill declared “if, as may well happen, there should be created in our own lifetime by the banks of the Jordan a Jewish State under the protection of the British Crown which might comprise three or four millions of Jews, an event will have occurred in the history of the world which would from every point of view be beneficial”.</div>
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A year later in Jerusalem he told Palestinian leaders that “it is manifestly right that the Jews, who are scattered all over the world, should have a national centre and a National Home where some of them may be reunited. And where else could that be but in this land of Palestine, with which for more than 3,000 years they have been intimately and profoundly associated?”.</div>
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At the Palestine Royal Commission (Peel) of 1937, Churchill stated that he believed in intention of the Balfour Declaration was to make Palestine an “overwhelmingly Jewish state”.</div>
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He went on to also express to the Peel Commission that he does “not admit for instance, that a great wrong has been done to the Red Indians of America or the black people of Australia. I do not admit that a wrong has been done to these people by the fact that a stronger race, a higher-grade race, a more worldly wise race to put it that way, has come in and taken their place”.</div>
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Four years later he wrote of his desire for a ‘Jewish state’to be established after the second war world. The establishment of the colonial settler state however was done by the British Labour Party under Attlee, who were always there to back their Tory counterparts when it came to British foreign policy.</div>
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<span class="fr he" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Russia:</span></div>
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<img class="s t u gs ai ha hb bc sg" height="530" role="presentation" src="https://miro.medium.com/max/60/1*XqWwcA56iQVtgVB049u2pA.jpeg?q=20" style="box-sizing: inherit; filter: blur(20px); height: 530px; left: 0px; position: absolute; top: 0px; transform: scale(1.1); transition: visibility 0ms ease 400ms; vertical-align: middle; visibility: hidden; width: 634px;" width="634" /></div>
<img class="mt ry s t u gs ai hd" height="530" role="presentation" sizes="634px" src="https://miro.medium.com/max/634/1*XqWwcA56iQVtgVB049u2pA.jpeg" srcset="https://miro.medium.com/max/552/1*XqWwcA56iQVtgVB049u2pA.jpeg 276w, https://miro.medium.com/max/1104/1*XqWwcA56iQVtgVB049u2pA.jpeg 552w, https://miro.medium.com/max/1268/1*XqWwcA56iQVtgVB049u2pA.jpeg 634w" style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; height: 530px; left: 0px; opacity: 1; position: absolute; top: 0px; transition: opacity 400ms ease 0ms; vertical-align: middle; width: 634px;" width="634" /></div>
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Churchill’s hatred and paranoia about communism saw him suggest that an atomic bomb should be dropped on the Kremlin. He believed this would “handle the balance of power”.</div>
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<span class="fr he" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Saudi Arabia:</span></div>
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<img class="s t u gs ai ha hb bc sg" height="612" role="presentation" src="https://miro.medium.com/max/58/1*ufN4jiOUtWHhMbm_eSdSVw.jpeg?q=20" style="box-sizing: inherit; filter: blur(20px); height: 612px; left: 0px; position: absolute; top: 0px; transform: scale(1.1); transition: visibility 0ms ease 400ms; vertical-align: middle; visibility: hidden; width: 600px;" width="600" /></div>
<img class="mt ry s t u gs ai hd" height="612" role="presentation" sizes="600px" src="https://miro.medium.com/max/600/1*ufN4jiOUtWHhMbm_eSdSVw.jpeg" srcset="https://miro.medium.com/max/552/1*ufN4jiOUtWHhMbm_eSdSVw.jpeg 276w, https://miro.medium.com/max/1104/1*ufN4jiOUtWHhMbm_eSdSVw.jpeg 552w, https://miro.medium.com/max/1200/1*ufN4jiOUtWHhMbm_eSdSVw.jpeg 600w" style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; height: 612px; left: 0px; opacity: 1; position: absolute; top: 0px; transition: opacity 400ms ease 0ms; vertical-align: middle; width: 600px;" width="600" /></div>
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</figure><blockquote class="hf hg hh" style="box-shadow: rgb(41, 41, 41) 3px 0px 0px 0px inset; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 0px -20px; padding-left: 23px;">
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<span class="cd" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-style: normal;">“My admiration for him [Ibn</span><span class="fr he" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;"><span class="cd" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-style: normal;"> </span></span><span class="cd" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-style: normal;">Saud] was deep, because of his unfailing loyalty to us.” — Churchill</span></div>
</blockquote>
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Prior to 1922 the British were paying Ibn Saud a subsidy of £60,000 a year. Churchill, then Colonial Secretary, raised it to £100,000.</div>
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Churchill knew full well of the dangers of wahhabism. He gave a speech to the House of Commons in 1921 where he stated that Ibn Saud’s followers “hold it as an article of duty, as well as of faith, to kill all who do not share their opinions and to make slaves of their wives and children. Women have been put to death in Wahhabi villages for simply appearing in the streets… [they are] austere, intolerant, well-armed and bloodthirsty”. He was however content to use the House of Saud’s twisted ideology for the benefit of British imperialism.</div>
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Churchill went on to write that his “admiration for him [Ibn Saud] was deep, because of his unfailing loyalty to us”. He showered Ibn Saud with money and presents — gifting Ibn Saud a special Rolls-Royce in the mid 1940s.</div>
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<span class="fr he" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">South Africa:</span></div>
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<img class="s t u gs ai ha hb bc sg" height="600" role="presentation" src="https://miro.medium.com/max/60/1*bu8VgqX0tC6HGTzuGe8m3A.jpeg?q=20" style="box-sizing: inherit; filter: blur(20px); height: 510px; left: 0px; position: absolute; top: 0px; transform: scale(1.1); transition: visibility 0ms ease 400ms; vertical-align: middle; visibility: hidden; width: 680px;" width="800" /></div>
<img class="mt ry s t u gs ai hd" height="600" role="presentation" sizes="700px" src="https://miro.medium.com/max/800/1*bu8VgqX0tC6HGTzuGe8m3A.jpeg" srcset="https://miro.medium.com/max/552/1*bu8VgqX0tC6HGTzuGe8m3A.jpeg 276w, https://miro.medium.com/max/1104/1*bu8VgqX0tC6HGTzuGe8m3A.jpeg 552w, https://miro.medium.com/max/1280/1*bu8VgqX0tC6HGTzuGe8m3A.jpeg 640w, https://miro.medium.com/max/1400/1*bu8VgqX0tC6HGTzuGe8m3A.jpeg 700w" style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; height: 510px; left: 0px; opacity: 1; position: absolute; top: 0px; transition: opacity 400ms ease 0ms; vertical-align: middle; width: 680px;" width="800" /></div>
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Thousands were sent to British run concentration camps during the Boer wars. Churchill summed up his time in South Africa by saying “it was great fun galloping about”.</div>
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Churchill wrote that his only “irritation” during the Boer war was “that Kaffirs should be allowed to fire on white men”.</div>
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It was Churchill who planted the seed to strip voting rights from black people in South Africa. In June 1906, Churchill argued that Afrikaners should be allowed a self-rule which would mean black people would be excluded from voting.</div>
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He went on to state to Parliament that “we must be bound by the interpretation which the other party places on it and it is undoubted that the Boers would regard it as a breach of that treaty if the franchise were in the first instance extended to any persons who are not white”.</div>
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<span class="fr he" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">In conclusion:</span></div>
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There have been a number of attempts to rehabailtate the image of the British Empire in Britain in recent years. Particularly via the medium of cinema. The film <em class="hi" style="box-sizing: inherit;">Darkest Hour </em>didn’t show you anything about Churchill’s crimes. On the contrary it presented him as a hero. Gary Oldham won an Oscar for his portrayal of one of the most evil, imperialists ever.</div>
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British Nationalist groups in Britain hold Churchill up as their posterboy. And so they should. He was a racist to the core. In response to migration from the Caribbean to Britain he said England should “be kept white”. Throughout worl war two his cabinet obsessed over British people viewing American Black GI’s favourably. They were concerned that they would fraternised with white English women. A true believer in white supremacy, Churchill blamed the Native American and Aboriginal Australian people for their genocides. He said he did “not admit that a great wrong has been done to the red Indians and the black people of Australia.”</div>
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Winner of the Noble Prize in Literature, Churchill actually plagiarised his most well known speech from an Irish Republican called Robert Emmet who was hanged and then beheaded by the British in 1803. Winston’s famous “we shall fight them on beaches” line was lifted from Emmet’s <em class="hi" style="box-sizing: inherit;">speech from the dock.</em></div>
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When it came to his own fellow Brits he was less than complimentary and displayed a deep hatred for the working classes. He suggested “100,000 degenerate Britons should be forcibly sterilised”. And that for “tramps and wastrels there ought to be proper labour colonies where they could be sent”.</div>
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It needs to be put once and for all that Churchill was despicable, racist, war criminal. Some will argue his “sins” are expiated for his actions during the second world war. It is nothing but nonsense to suggest Churchill went out to fight fascism. He lauded Mussolini as a “roman genius”, donated to Nazi war criminal Erich Von Manstien’s criminal defence and sought to desperatly cling on to the British Empire from which Hitler himself took inspiration for his Reich. What we have to remember is Churchill was not a uniquely villianous British Prime Minister. He was not out of ordinary but in fact a true representation of Britain.</div>
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</article>Meo Meohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18080992642193515731noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6891205240280876163.post-60994775655622620012020-05-01T04:58:00.003-07:002020-05-01T07:23:18.899-07:0030 THÁNG 4 VÀ NHỮNG NGỘ NHẬN<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Trong một dịp kỷ niệm 30/4 nhiều năm trước, tôi có viết một bài về những ngụy biện thường gặp trong ngày này: <a href="https://dontbullshit.blogspot.com/2013/04/30-thang-4-va-nhung-nguy-bien.html">https://dontbullshit.blogspot.com/2013/04/30-thang-4-va-nhung-nguy-bien.html</a><br />
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Dịp kỷ niệm lần thứ 45 này, tôi sẽ bàn về hai ngộ nhận thường gặp về lịch sử kháng chiến chống Mỹ. Nhiều người trong và ngoài nước trẻ cũng như già, phe này hay phe kia đều bị dẫn đắt bởi những ngụy biện nói trên mà sinh ra những ngộ nhận đó.<br />
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Ngộ nhận thứ nhất: Đó là cuộc chiến 'miền Bắc đánh miền Nam' hay 'miền Bắc xâm lược miền Nam' hay là cuộc chiến tranh giữa hai miền Nam Bắc.<br />
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Xuất phát từ vị trí sai lè ra ngay từ đầu nên hệ thống tuyên truyền của Mỹ đã hoạt động hết công suất để bịa đặt bóp méo xuyên tạc, nói ngược nhằm biến khách thành chủ, giành chính nghĩa, thế chủ động cho hành động xâm lược Việt Nam.<br />
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Để hợp thức hóa hành động xâm lược, Mỹ nhảy vào Việt Nam lập nên ngụy quyền Diệm rồi mới dùng danh nghĩa đồng minh đem quân vào chiếm đóng lâu dài chứ không nhảy vào cướp chủ quyền trắng trợn như chủ nghĩa thực dân cũ đã từng làm.<br />
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Việc Mỹ và chư hầu đem quân xâm lược cưỡng chiếm miền Nam được bóp méo xuyên tạc, nói ngược thành 'giúp miền Nam chống lại sự xâm lược của miền Bắc'!<br />
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Luân lý của xã hội loài người đã bị đảo lộn! Lần đầu tiên trong lịch sử loài người, luận điệu miền này 'xâm lược' miền kia trong cùng một quốc gia đã được một cường quốc đưa ra. Trước đó, may ra thì chỉ có đám lưu manh đầu đường xó chợ mới có thể khốn nạn vô liêm sỉ đến mức độ như thế!<br />
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Rõ ràng vấn đề là khi đã gọi 'miền Bắc' 'miền Nam', tức là hai miền của cùng một nước thì không thể dùng từ 'xâm lược' mà phải là 'thống nhất' hay 'giải phóng'.<br />
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Một số người ngu dốt mà còn ngoan cố sẽ tiếp tục ngụy biện rằng ở Việt Nam thời đó có hai quốc gia nên dùng từ 'xâm lược' hay 'đánh' là đúng.<br />
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Đúng ra phải kể đến chính quyền Mặt trận dân tộc giải phóng miền Nam. Mỹ-ngụy chỉ kiểm soát được một nửa miền Nam và chúng đã cố gắng đánh chiếm luôn nửa còn lại do Mặt trận kiểm soát. Cho nên sự thật là Mỹ đang xâm lược miền Nam dang dở và miền Bắc đã cùng quân dân miền Nam đánh cho Mỹ cút ngụy nhào.<br />
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Sự thật lịch sử còn cho thấy thời đó không có ai cho rằng trên lãnh thổ Việt Nam có hai quốc gia, ngay cả ngụy quyền Sài gòn! Mời xem những bằng chứng bằng hình ảnh dưới đây:<br />
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Rõ ràng là ngay cả ngụy quyền cũng đòi 'bắc tiến', 'giải phóng' với 'thống nhất' chứ không hề xem rằng lúc đó trên lãnh thổ Việt Nam có hai quốc gia riêng biệt nha!<br />
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Nếu họ thành công (khi nào heo nái biết leo cây) thì họ cũng đã ăn mừng thống nhất với giải phóng hàng năm rồi. Chỉ vì thất bại nên họ mới ngụy biện dèm pha. Thắng thì đó là 'thống nhất', thua thì giả làm nạn nhân cào mặt ăn vạ bị 'xâm lược'. Đúng chất ba que xỏ lá nói xuôi rồi lại ngược!<br />
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Nhiều người cũng hay ngộ nhận đây là cuộc chiến giữa hai miền, chỉ là 'huynh đệ tương tàn'. Hãy xem xét các chủ thể trong cuộc đối đầu này là những ai để nhận định cho chính xác. Đó không phải là miền Bắc và miền Nam mà là Mỹ và người Việt Nam chống Mỹ trên cả hai miền đất nước. Ngụy quyền chỉ là bình phong, công cụ, tay sai, ký sinh ăn bám do Mỹ dựng lên (bao gồm người Việt Nam từ mọi vùng miền) để sai khiến và hoàn toàn không có quyền quyết định. Có hai chủ thể là Mỹ và người Việt Nam chống Mỹ (ở cả hai miền) thì cuộc chiến đó mới xảy ra. Không có Mỹ thì ngụy quyền Ngô Đình Diệm đã không thể tự sinh ra. Ngụy quyền Bảo Đại có Pháp hay không cũng không có khả năng đối đầu với Việt Minh! Mỹ nhảy vào Việt Nam thì mới có chiến tranh. Do đó bản chất của nó là cuộc chiến tranh Việt-Mỹ chứ không phải giữa hai miền.<br />
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Ngộ nhận thứ hai về vấn đề 'hòa hợp hòa giải'.<br />
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Mỗi tháng tư về tôi lại phải nghe cái điệp khúc 'hòa hợp hòa giải' từ nhiều người, nhiều phía đến phát ngán, nhưng không có bất kỳ ai nói rõ, cụ thể ra ai phải 'hòa hợp hòa giải' vói ai và cụ thể phải làm gì! Nhiều người còn hát 'hòa hợp hòa giải để phát triển'! Vậy có nghĩa là 45 năm nay Việt Nam không hề phát triển tí nào vì chưa có 'hòa hợp hòa giải'?!<br />
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Những người hát cái câu trên cũng không giải thích rõ chuyện 'hòa hợp hòa giải' đó liên quan như thế nào, một cách cụ thể, đến sự phát triển của Việt Nam!<br />
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Sư thật cho thấy đã có rất nhiều Việt kiều biết làm ăn buôn bán hay giỏi chuyên môn ngành nghề, có bằng cấp học vị, biết thời thế đã về Việt Nam lập nghiệp mà không bị phân biệt đối xử hay xét hỏi lý lịch từ ngày Mỹ vừa dỡ bỏ cấm vận đến nay. Thành phần vẫn còn mồm loa mép giải chống phá, đòi hỏi ngược ngạo thì chỉ là loại du thủ du thực, ăn bám, khốn nạn, vô liêm sỉ gần chết hay không chết cũng vô dụng. Thật tình thì tôi không hiểu rằng lấy lòng cái đám này thì sẽ giúp ích gì cho sự phát triển của Việt Nam nữa!<br />
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Quan trọng hơn nữa là bản thân việc đem khái niệm 'hòa hợp hòa giải' dùng cho trường hợp Việt Nam đã là sai rồi. Nó chỉ có thể áp dụng cho trường hợp như bên Trung Quốc giữa ĐCSTQ và Quốc Dân Đảng ở Đài Loan. Cả ĐCSTQ và QDĐ đều kháng chiến chống Nhật. Sau khi Nhật đầu hàng Đồng minh, họ mới quay sang đánh nhau. Cả hai bên đều không mang tội phản quốc thì mới ở ngang hàng phải lứa để nói chuyện 'hòa hợp hòa giải' được.<br />
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Ba que xỏ lá là thành phần phản quốc theo giặc có gia phả và đam mê trong huyết quản. Lúc Pháp đô hộ Việt Nam thì chúng làm tay sai trong chính quyền thuộc địa và đi lính cho Pháp đàn áp người Việt. Lúc Việt Minh chống Pháp thì chúng vẫn tiếp tục theo Pháp chống lại sự nghiệp giải phóng dân tộc! Đến năm 1948 Pháp thấy khó nhằn phải lập ra chính quyền bù nhìn Bảo Đại để mị dân và chia rẽ lực lượng kháng chiến thì chúng được Pháp chọn làm thành phần nòng cốt. Pháp thua Mỹ nhảy vào thì chúng chỉ đổi tên đổi chủ và vẫn tiếp tục theo giặc phản quốc chống lại nguyện vọng độc lập thống nhất của dân tộc!<br />
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45 năm nay chúng vẫn nuôi thù hận (ngược) đối với những người không những đã tha chết mà còn tạo điều kiện cho chúng sang định cư làm công dân ở quốc gia mà chúng luôn ca ngợi là sung sướng nhất thế giới, nằm ngửa ra cũng có người phục vụ tận răng!<br />
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Trên thế giới này không có bất cứ quốc gia nào lại làm cái chuyện ruồi bu 'hòa hợp hòa giải' với thành phần phản quốc vô ơn không biết điều khốn nạn vô liêm sỉ như thế cả! Chỉ có tội phạm xin khoan hồng tha thứ chứ không có ai lại phải đi 'hòa hợp hòa giải' với một đám tội phạm cả!<br />
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Cho nên ba que xỏ lá nếu biết điều thì phải biết ăn năn hối cải, quì xuống xin dân tộc tha thứ mới phải! Xin lỗi! Có phải tôi đã đặt 'ba que xỏ lá' và 'biết điều' vào trong cùng một câu?<br />
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Kết luận: Những kẻ mà đến giờ này vẫn còn già mồm ngụy biện, dèm pha ngày vui thống nhất của dân tộc thì rõ ràng thuộc loại tận cùng của khốn nạn vô liêm sỉ đáng lẽ không đáng nhắc tới. Ngặt cái là không hiểu sao có rất nhiều người, ngay cả báo chí, quan chức trong nước cũng ăn phải bả của bọn khốn nạn vô liêm sỉ này mà ngộ nhận về cuộc kháng chiến chống giặc ngoại xâm của dân tộc. Xem ngụy quân ngụy quyền phản quốc theo giặc ngang hàng với hàng triệu liệt sĩ đã xả thân vì độc lập tự do thống nhất!<br />
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Từ bản chất là cuộc chiến chống đế quốc xâm lược của người Việt Nam, ba que xỏ lá ngụy biện thành cuộc chiến tranh 'huynh đệ tương tàn' bắt 'bên thắng cuộc' phải nhận lỗi 'cưỡng chiếm miền Nam' mà đến báo chí, quan chức cũng mủi lòng thì tôi cũng đến chịu! Nhiều người ngu không có khả năng phân biệt phải trái như thế mà Việt Nam được như ngày hôm nay thì cũng là phép lạ rồi chứ còn đòi phát triển đến như thế nào nữa?!<br />
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<br />Meo Meohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18080992642193515731noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6891205240280876163.post-54153368480562323492020-04-06T18:45:00.002-07:002020-04-06T18:45:34.508-07:00OAN THỊ MẦU À CÁC CON CHIEN?Một trong những cái ác độc lớn nhất của Chúa giáo là nó tẩy não nhồi so điều kiện hóa con chien từ khi còn ẵm ngửa chưa biết gì đều đặn cho đến chết, cho nên mặc dù kinh sách, tổ chức giáo hội có nhảm nhí độc ác đến đâu thì con chien cũng bất chấp sự thật, tự động như cái máy bênh vực tôn giáo mình đến cùng! Bài viết này muốn giải quyết tận gốc vấn đề như sau:<br /><br />Có nhiều con chien hay bảo người ta nói oan cho Cong giáo như này:<br /><br /><<Mình theo cg, nội ngoại đều theo đạo, thờ cha mẹ ông bà, đi lễ lm dạy điều tốt đẹp. Mình thấy ổn mà, đạo cg đâu xấu, xấu là do con ng mà thôi.>><br /><br />1. Nói như trên là nói ngược. Nó có nghĩa là gia đình dòng họ con chien ghẻ này mới là đại diện chính thống cho Cong giáo chứ không phải là 'Kinh Thánh' của dân mọi Trung Đông mấy ngàn năm trước mà tín lý Cong giáo dựa trên, hay Giáo hội La mã, tổ chức đã sáng lập ra Cong giáo và tồn tại hơn 1500 năm nay! Suy nghĩ, hành động của gia đình dòng họ con chien nói trên, chứ không phải là suy nghĩ, hành động của giới lãnh đạo Cong giáo trong hơn 1500 năm nay trên thế giới và ở Việt Nam, mới là đại diện xứng đáng cho Cong giáo!<br /><br />2. Câu nói trên còn có một lỗ hổng ngụy biện như sau:<br /><br />Gia đình dòng họ con chien, linh mục địa phương tốt, suy ra Cong giáo là TỐT..<br /><br />Nếu nói như vậy thì người ta suy diễn như thế này càng đúng hơn chứ:<br /><br />'Kinh Thánh' toàn dạy cướp hiếp giết. 'Chúa' trong đó là một tên độc tài, tàn ác, khùng khùng điên điên, tiền hậu bất nhất. Giáo hội Cong giáo La mã đã làm đúng theo 'Kinh Thánh', nên có một lịch sử rất lâu dài cướp hiếp giết, độc tài tàn ác, khùng khùng điên điên, tiền hậu bất nhất. Con chien thì bị biến thành một đám súc vật cắm đầu trong vâng phục, chỉ được nghe theo 'đấng bề trên', cấm cãi. <br /><br />Suy ra Cong giáo là XẤU.<br /><br />Hãy bình tĩnh nhận xét xem suy luận của con chien hay người ngoài tôn giáo như trên chính xác, bao quát, đầy đủ hơn?!<br /><br />Con chien mà còn tốt là vì còn ảnh hưởng của dòng máu Việt chứ cái đạo mọi Trung Đông độc ác thú vật đó không thể nào làm cho nó tốt hơn được!<br /><br />3. Các con chien bị tẩy não, nhồi sọ, điều kiện hóa từ khi còn ẵm ngửa thì cũng giống như người ta bị dính virus Corona vậy. Người bị dính virus có thể không có triệu chứng của bệnh trong 14 ngày nhưng không có nghĩa là họ không mang và lây bệnh trong 14 ngày đó!<br /><br />Con chien đã bị bơm vào đầu từ thuở chưa biết gì một giáo lý phi dân tộc, thì một ngày nào đó, khi được các 'đấng bề trên', mà nó phải cắm đầu trong vâng phục tuyệt đối cấm cãi, kích hoạt ra lệnh, nó sẽ sẵn sàng làm chuyện phản dân tộc. Lịch sử VN từ ngày Cong giáo du nhập vào đã chứng minh rất rõ ràng. Những tên phản quốc với đam mê mãnh liệt nhất, tay sai đắc lực nhất của tây lông trong sự nghiệp phá hoại, xâm lược thôn tính VN luôn luôn là những con chien. Đó chắc chắn không phải là chuyện tình cờ vì hễ phi dân tộc thì nhất định nó sẽ phản dân tôc có hoặc vô ý thức!Meo Meohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18080992642193515731noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6891205240280876163.post-62568814986452854362019-12-14T18:37:00.002-08:002020-12-27T03:25:03.066-08:00ME TÂY MUỐN HÒA TAN CHỨ 'HÒA NHẬP' CÁI CON CÁ!<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEji_FBr9lUig4z-zB64codspVRK7l4LjJobVVGr7lpouA8vdja2rdLDtEtGPCPZYurYjax3ASrH-SC0PaDvYFuUB5J74OkUWeeibWJP_6IKE1pKp1syS1lx-snrPvFQCQIqXwTRBWnrw5EY/s1600/7971503925341433468262541670893521122361344n-1576254834057367661888.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="781" data-original-width="586" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEji_FBr9lUig4z-zB64codspVRK7l4LjJobVVGr7lpouA8vdja2rdLDtEtGPCPZYurYjax3ASrH-SC0PaDvYFuUB5J74OkUWeeibWJP_6IKE1pKp1syS1lx-snrPvFQCQIqXwTRBWnrw5EY/s640/7971503925341433468262541670893521122361344n-1576254834057367661888.jpg" width="480" /></a></div>
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Hiệu trưởng trường ĐH Sư phạm Tp HCM, <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.95); color: #222222; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: -0.2px;">PGS.TS Đỗ Văn Dũng, viện cớ 'hội nhập' để ngụy biện cho việc dựng cây thông Chrismas trong khuôn viên trường làm mất đi tính trung lập về tôn giáo của </span><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.95); color: #222222; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: -0.2px;">trường học</span><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.95); color: #222222; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: -0.2px;"><br /><br />Có ý kiến trên fan page trường này cho rằng trường học không phải là nơi truyền đạo thì ông này lại trả lời vòng vo tam quốc không đâu vào đâu. Tây lông gọi nó là cây thông Christmas. Học đến tiến sĩ mà không biết 'Christmas' nó có nghĩa là gì lại vòng vo ngụy biện như thế?<br /><br />Hắn cho rằng cây thông là biểu tượng ngày Tết của tây lông cũng như cây đào cây mai của Việt Nam trong ngày Tết cổ truyền cho nên trường cũng phải dựng cây thông để 'hội nhập', 'giúp sinh viên quốc tế nhớ ngày Tết quê mình'!</span><a href="https://tuoitre.vn/lam-cay-thong-thong-minh-cao-11m-hieu-truong-bi-to-lang-phi-20191213234041968.htm?fbclid=IwAR3tYvQMW8Ndn7D-MESLGy_vzzBidMk063Y2-gyGVT-D3bT0Npe-Pg00wtI">https://tuoitre.vn/lam-cay-thong-thong-minh-cao-11m-hieu-truong-bi-to-lang-phi-20191213234041968.htm?fbclid=IwAR3tYvQMW8Ndn7D-MESLGy_vzzBidMk063Y2-gyGVT-D3bT0Npe-Pg00wtI</a><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.95); color: #222222; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: -0.2px;"><br /><br />Nói như vậy thì trường bên Âu Mỹ chắc hẳn họ cũng phải chưng mai, đào ngày tết để 'hội nhập' với các nước Đông Á và để </span><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.95); color: #222222; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: -0.2px;">giúp sinh viên Đông Á nhớ ngày Tết quê mình?!<br /><br />Và không biết vào dịp Tết cổ truyền Việt Nam, hắn có dùng ngân sách của trường để tài trợ việc chưng mai đào hoành tráng như cây thông Chrismas này không?<br /><br />Đây là một me tây muốn đồng hóa, hòa tan Việt Nam vào thế giới tây lông chứ 'hòa nhập' cái con cá!</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.95); color: #222222; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: -0.2px;"><br /></span>Meo Meohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18080992642193515731noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6891205240280876163.post-79697072935543910812019-12-02T21:49:00.006-08:002020-09-12T05:59:11.105-07:00ĂN-LẠC-XONG-ĂN-CÀ-RỐT MIỆT THỊ TAM GIÁO VÀ BẢN CHẤT CHÚA GIÁO<a href="https://www.blogger.com/#"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvufJoXxFV0OjQjs-WGW0dtG3AxxXITdiTFzwFL5SHwIH-CqZtSgsnjEulJL8zLfHgS3HCZQ73G__tqjHIvxqb8NFTrnmnHiyRo-LVpceu_J65smGN9upvjuj3Mnnifagv2GGAkWU2XfaH/s640/44023843_2105475906432849_5786359711322341376_n-1.jpg" /></a> <br /> <br />Trong 'Phép giảng tám ngày' Alexnadre de Rhodes với thái độ trịch thượng và sự ngu dốt của mình đã mạnh miệng miệt thị cả ba tôn giáo lớn tạo nên nền văn minh Đông Á. Gọi Phật Thích-ca là 'thằng' và đạo Phật là đạo mọi rợ. https://thuvienhoasen.org/a33045/alexandre-de-rhodes-thoa-ma-duc-phat-va-miet-thi-tam-giao-trong-phep-giang-tam-ngay- <br /><br />Tín đồ theo đạo thờ tây lông bất chấp lại ngoan cố ngụy biện rằng: 'Không thể đem tiêu chuẩn ăn nói của ngày hôm nay áp đặt cho thế kỷ 17 được'. Vậy có nghĩa là họ cho rằng thời ông bà tổ tiên của họ ăn nói mất dạy hơn mình nhiều?! Các tín đồ thử về nhà hỏi lại ông bà của ông bà mình có ăn nói mất dạy như thế không nhé rồi hẵng bênh thằng Rốt nha!<br /><br />Mấy thằng tây lông mất dạy này thật có phúc! Chúng nó chẳng dính dáng gì đến dân tộc này hay những đứa thờ chúng mà lại được bọn cuồng tín bản địa lăn xả, liều mạng bênh vực ngay cả khi chúng đang chửi cha cả cái dân tộc này là sao ta?! <br /><br />Thái độ khinh miệt, mất dạy này của Chúa giáo đối với tất cả các đạo khác phát xuất từ giáo lý của nó. Cụ thể là 'điều răn' thứ nhất trong 'Mười điều răn': <br />'I am the LORD your God: you shall not have strange Gods before me.' <br />'Ta là Chúa, Thượng đế của các ngươi: các ngươi không được thờ bất kỳ thần lạ nào ngoài ta.' http://www.vatican.va/archive/ccc_css/archive/catechism/command.htm <br /><br />Ngon lành chưa? 'Lời răn' này cấm cúng bái bất kỳ thần thánh hay hình tượng nào ngoài 'Chúa'. Đối với Chúa giáo chỉ có độc nhất một thần, một con đường. Đa nguyên, đa tôn giáo là không thể nào chấp nhận được. Bởi vậy đứa nào theo đạo này mà đòi tự do, dân chủ, nhân quyền, với đa nguyên thì nghe nó buồn cười lắm. Y như nó đang tự chửi cha nó vậy!<br /><br />Tổng thời gian Rốt làm việc thời đó ở cả Đàng Trong và Đàng Ngoài là khoảng bảy năm và cuối cùng bị trục xuất ở cả hai Đàng. Ở Đàng Trong, y thường xuyên chạy qua chạy lại giữa Macau và Hội An và phải làm lén lút vì bị lọt vào sổ bìa đen của chính quyền trước khi bị bắt, kết án tử tình nhưng sau được giảm thành trục xuất. <br /><br />Tại sao thằng Rốt nói riêng và bọn truyền giáo tây lông nói chung lại bị cấm cửa ở các nước Đông Á và phải làm ăn lén lút cực khổ vậy? Vì đạo của chúng truyền mang tính chất mê tín cực đoan mà thái độ còn quá trịch thượng và mất dạy! Chính quyền phong kiến đương thời thấy rõ bản chất của chúng là mê tín mà còn đòi hỏi sự vâng phục tuyệt đối từ tín đồ thì chắc chắn sẽ trở thành phản loạn. Truyền đạo này tức là gieo mầm phản loạn.<br /><br />Văn hóa tam giáo là văn hóa trí lễ nghĩa, mà bọn này vào lại đòi đạp đổ tất cả để dựng thần, đạo mê tín của chúng lên! Nhốt tín đồ vào các xứ đạo, tách họ ra khỏi cộng đồng dân tộc và sự quản lý của chính quyền, tức biến dân bản địa thành người ngoại quốc theo sự chỉ huy của bọn giáo sĩ! Chân lý của chúng là một và duy nhất, còn tất cả là 'đạo dối', không thể chấp nhận đa nguyên, vậy chẳng phải khi đã có được tín đồ và thế lực thì chúng sẽ gây chia rẽ sâu sắc trong cộng đồng dân tộc, chống chính quyền không theo đạo của chúng đến cùng, thành ra một đám phản quốc tôn thờ ngoại bang hay sao?! Bạn có thể tự đọc cuốn 'Phép giảng tám ngày' của Rốt để hiểu thêm: https://kholuu.files.wordpress.com/2015/07/phep_giang_tam_ngay.pdf. Không có thì giờ đọc hết thì có thể dùng công cụ tìm kiếm hoặc xem trích dẫn những đoạn miệt thị tam giáo trong linh ở gần đầu bài. <br /><br />Đạo Phật được truyền vào Đông Á cũng bởi những nhà sư 1000 năm trước đó nhưng lại được chính quyền đương thời tiếp nhận với sự tôn kính và cởi mở bởi vì họ là những bậc đại trí biết lễ nghĩa và tôn trọng chủ nhà. Đạo của họ mở mang trí tuệ con người và do đó có thể giúp dân giúp nước, không hề bắt ai 'quên mình trong vâng phục' với ai, hòa mình vào dân tộc, chứ họ không phải là những thằng mê tín mất dạy mà còn nói ngược xem chủ nhà là mọi rợ như cái đạo kia! <br /><br />Sự thật lịch sử cho thấy sau một thời gian bám rễ và phát triển số lượng tín đồ đủ đông thì chúng sẽ len lỏi leo lên thượng tầng chính trị hoặc làm phản để thực hiện mục đích cuối cùng là biến toàn bộ dân bản xứ thành một đám súc vật thần phục tây lông tuyệt đối. <br /><br />Ở TQ có nạn Thái Bình Thiên Quốc vào thế kỷ 19 gây ra một cuộc nội chiến tàn khốc nhất trong lịch sử nước này làm chết từ 20-50 triệu người.<br /><br />Ở Triều Tiên, Chúa giáo từ từ thò chân vào triều đình nên đã bị quan nhiếp chính Heungseon Daewongun tận diệt cũng vào thế kỷ 19, chỉ có ba giáo sĩ tây lông trốn thoát được nên không bị giết, hàng vạn tín đồ đã bị hành hình bên bờ sông Hàn. newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/French_Campaign_against_Korea,_1866<br /><br />Ở Nhật thì có cuộc nổi dậy của Chúa giáo ở Shimabara thế kỷ 17. Chính quyền Mạc phủ Tokugawa đem quân đi dẹp và sau khi thành công đã chém đầu 37.000 tín đồ Chúa giáo nổi loạn và đồng phạm. Chém luôn cả lãnh chúa vùng này vì tội tắc trách. Đuổi hết thương buôn Bồ vì tình nghi giúp đỡ bọn phản loạn. Bắt đầu giai đoạn cấm Chúa giáo triệt để hơn 200 năm, đến nửa sau thế kỷ 19 mới ngưng. Thằng Rốt ban đầu được Vatican điều đến Nhật, nhưng vì khi bơi sang đến Đông Á mới biết Nhật đã đóng cửa cấm đạo triệt để nên mới mò vào Việt Nam: https://www.britannica.com/biography/Tokugawa-Iemitsu<br /><br />Các Chúa Trịnh, Nguyễn và triều đình Nhà Nguyễn sau đó đã quá nhân từ nên mới bị mất cả nước vào tay tây lông để lại hậu quả bây giờ là tỉ lệ tín đồ Chúa giáo ở Việt Nam đứng thứ hai Châu Á, chỉ sau Phillippines, nhưng vẫn bị chúng nó chửi là ác! Chính quyền cộng sản cũng quá nhân từ. Sau khi chúng 'theo 'Chúa' vào Nam' gần sạch sẽ thời 1954-55, lỡ bị bọn chúng chửi là 'cộng sản vô thần' rồi mà lại không tiện dịp đập hết 'nhà thờ', bắt bỏ đạo hết đám còn ở lại thì bây giờ chúng nó đâu có đẻ ra nhiều trứng như thế mà 'đòi đất' cho tây lông với đòi chính quyền 'từ bỏ chủ thuyết vô thần mà tin theo Chúa'?! Rõ ràng nhân từ với giặc là tàn nhẫn với chính mình.Meo Meohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18080992642193515731noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6891205240280876163.post-42154040763838753812019-11-30T04:52:00.010-08:002021-07-12T14:55:47.438-07:00AI ĐÃ 'TÙY TIỆN'?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="text-align: start;"><i><span style="font-size: x-small;">Ảnh: 'Tonkin-les dieux s'en vont', 'Bắc kỳ-Các vị thần đang rời đi'. Ảnh cho thấy bọn linh mục và con chiên vứt tượng thờ của người Việt xuống đất và đặt thần của bọn chúng lên. 'Tự do tôn giáo' của chúng là như thế đấy!</span></i></span></div>
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Tín đồ theo đạo thờ tây lông ở Việt Nam rất nhây. Mấy chục năm nay họ vẫn luôn chờ cơ hội, viện đủ lý do tào lao để vinh danh tên giặc Alexandre de Rhodes (AdR).<br />
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Thất bại trong việc đòi đặt tên đường AdR ở Đà Nẵng sau <a href="https://www.facebook.com/ChuaGiacNgo/photos/a.269155846604594/1317168001803368/?type=3&theater" target="_blank">bản kiến nghị</a> không đặt tên đường, họ rất hậm hực cay cú và tiếp tục ngoan cố đòi đặt! PGS TS Hoàng Dũng vừa đưa ra ý kiến trên báo trẻ trâu rằng '<a href="https://tuoitre.vn/pgs-ts-hoang-dung-khong-the-tuy-tien-len-an-nguoi-xua-nhu-the-20191129233736099.htm" target="_blank">Không thể tùy tiện lên án người xưa như thế</a>'. Cũng trên báo này, 'nhiều trí thức' cũng đòi đặt tên đường '<a href="https://tuoitre.vn/nhieu-tri-thuc-thinh-nguyen-dat-ten-duong-alexandre-de-rhodes-va-francisco-de-pina-20191127165937815.htm" target="_blank">không cần tranh cãi</a>'!<br />
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Đám cuồng tây lông này ngang ngược độc tài vãi! Con đường là của chung mà các bố lại muốn tùy tiện thích thì đặt, cấm cãi! Khi có người phản đối dùng bằng chứng, lý luận hẳn hoi thì các bố lại nói ngược là người ta 'tùy tiện'!<br />
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Tên đường có ý nghĩa rất quan trọng không những chỉ để vinh danh tiền nhân có công với nước mà còn mang ý nghĩa giáo dục thế hệ sau. Do đó nó nhất định phải đạt được sự đồng thuận tuyệt đối ít nhất là trong giới trí thức. Không làm như thế mà cứ đặt thì mới là tùy tiện. Bộ bây giờ Việt Nam hết anh dùng dân tộc và danh nhân các lĩnh vực rồi hay sao mà lại phải nhất quyết dùng tên của một nhân vật gây tranh cãi chứ đừng nói đến việc đây là một tên giặc hẳn hòi cho bằng được vậy?!<br />
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Lý do ban đầu được đưa ra để vận động cho tên đường là, 'AdR là người đã sáng tạo ra chữ quốc ngữ', nhưng các nhà nghiên cứu đã chứng minh rõ ràng hắn không phải là người sáng tạo ra chữ quốc ngữ thì đáng lẽ mọi chuyện đã phải dừng lại ở đó. Xem số 4 và 5 trong bản kiến nghị <a href="https://www.facebook.com/ThichNhatTu/photos/a.879753085381990/2862498227107456/?type=3&theater" target="_blank">này</a>.<br />
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Nếu phe muốn đặt tên thấy bằng chứng, lỹ lẽ trên là sai thì phải đưa ra bằng chứng, lý lẽ khác để phản bác và chứng minh AdR chính là người đã sáng tạo ra chữ quốc ngữ. Nhưng không, đám cuồng tín thờ tây lông này lại tiếp tục tùy tiện đưa ra những ngụy biện không liên quan đến nội dung trên và ngoan cố đòi vinh danh tên giặc này! Những đứa khôn hơn tí, biết cãi không nổi thì phán 'không tranh cãi' nữa mà cứ đặt tên đường thôi!<br />
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Những ngụy biện mà họ tùy tiện đưa ra là:<br />
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1. 'AdR không phải là người đầu tiên hay duy nhất sáng tạo ra chữ quốc ngữ nhưng có công trong việc truyền bá chữ quốc ngữ'.<br />
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Sự truyền bá chữ quốc ngữ phổ thông có kết quả nhất chỉ xảy ra sau ngày Cách mạng tháng 8 thành công. Trước đó, trong thời thực dân Pháp cai trị, 90% dân Việt mù chữ, thành phần trí thức toàn học tiếng Pháp.<br />
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Thời AdR đến Việt Nam, thế kỷ 17, người Việt dùng chữ Hán và Nôm. Không có bằng chứng nào được đưa ra cho thấy AdR có hoạt động truyền bá chữ quốc ngữ tại thời điểm đó.<br />
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Họ lại tùy tiện ngoan cố gán ghép rằng cuốn tự điển Việt-Bồ-La do AdR biên soạn đã đóng góp vào việc truyền bá chữ quốc ngữ. Cái này rất ngu xuẩn và buồn cười! Người ta dùng tự điển để tra cứu ý nghĩa giữa các ngôn ngữ SAU KHI đã biết rành mặt chữ, để học ngoại ngữ (như bọn truyền giáo lúc đó đang có nhu cầu học tiếng Việt) chứ không ai dùng tự điển để dạy mặt chữ cho người chưa biết chữ cả mà 'truyền bá chữ viết' cái con cú gì?!<br />
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Hơn nữa, sự thật lịch sử cho thấy, khi AdR đến Việt Nam thì các giáo sĩ Bồ cùng con chien người Việt đã tạo ra chữ quốc ngữ và tự điển Việt-Bồ để dùng rồi (tham khảo kiến nghị nói trên). AdR chỉ dùng cuốn tự điển trên dịch thêm phần tiếng La-tin thành tự điển Việt-Bồ-La THEO CHỈ THỊ CỦA VATICAN nhằm giúp cho các giáo sĩ không phải người Bồ cũng có thể tra tiếng Việt (La-tin là ngôn ngữ phổ thông trong đám giáo sĩ thuộc Vatican). Rõ ràng hắn không phải là người sáng tạo ra chữ quốc ngữ và mục đích soạn cuốn tự điển Việt-Bồ-La chỉ là để giúp Vatican có thêm công cụ truyền đạo chứ chả liên quan gì đến việc 'truyền bá chữ quốc ngữ' như bọn thờ tây ngoan cố tùy tiện gán ghép cả.<br />
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Phong trào truyền bá chữ quốc ngữ chỉ xuất hiện từ đầu thế kỷ 20 do người Việt Nam chủ xướng và chẳng dính dáng gì đến AdR đã 'về với Chúa' hơn hai thế kỷ trước đó cả.<br />
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2. '<a href="https://tuoitre.vn/tp-hcm-dat-ten-duong-alexandre-de-rhodes-tu-lau-da-nang-chua-dat-vi-tranh-cai-20191125222806346.htm" target="_blank">TP HCM đặt tên AdR từ lâu', suy ra Đà Nẵng cũng nên đặt</a>'.<br />
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Trả lời ngắn là, bạn thấy con chó ăn c*t thì bạn có nên ăn c*t giống nó không?!<br />
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Trả lời dài:<br />
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Tên đường AdR ở Tp HCM có từ thời Diệm. Diệm là một tên cuồng đạo, từng làm tu sĩ trong những tu viện Âu-Mỹ khi Việt Minh đang tiến hành cuộc kháng chiến chín năm. Mấy anh em Diệm từng làm lễ 'dâng Việt Nam cho Đức Mẹ' vào năm 1959, nên họ muốn đề cao, gán cho AdR, một trong những nhà truyền giáo đầu tiên, một công trạng để phô trương, kể 'công' Chúa giáo ở Việt Nam thì cũng rất dễ hiểu. Sau 1975, tên đường này đã được đổi một lần, rồi lại đổi lần nữa trở lại tên AdR. Đó là một sai lầm cần được sữa chữa chứ không phải để tiếp tục phạm vào một lần nữa!<br />
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3. AdR vào Việt Nam thế kỷ 17, Pháp xâm lược Việt Nam vào thế kỷ 19, suy ra không thể ghép tội AdR nối giáo cho giặc Pháp xâm lược.<br />
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AdR không thể nối giáo cho giặc vì hắn chính là giặc bởi vậy mới bị các Chúa Trịnh, Nguyễn ở cả Đàng Ngoài Đàng Trong kết án trục xuất thậm chí tử hình. Sau khi bị buộc phải rời Việt Nam, hắn đã viết thư xin triều đình Pháp chu cấp binh lính trở lại đánh Việt Nam.<br />
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Nhiều đứa thờ tây tiếp tục ngoan cố ngụy biện rằng người ta đã 'hiểu sai ý nghĩa bức thư'. Chữ 'chiến sĩ' trong thư có nghĩa là 'chiến sĩ truyền giáo' và do đó 'AdR chỉ có ý định xin giáo sĩ chứ không phải xin binh lính'.<br />
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Ngụy biện trên có hai cái ngu:<br />
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- Hắn đã bị kết tội tử hình ở Đàng Trong và được khoan hồng giảm án xuống thành trục xuất mà lại ngu đến nỗi xin thêm vài giáo sĩ khác dẫn vào Việt Nam để bị chặt đầu cả lũ à?!<br />
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- Giáo sĩ người Pháp thời thế kỷ 17 vẫn hoàn toàn nằm dưới sự kiểm soát và điều động của Vatican thì triều đình Pháp làm gì có cái quyền điều động giáo sĩ mà AdR xin họ? Cho nên ngoan cố bào chữa dịch thành 'chiến sĩ truyền giáo' là rất ngu.<br />
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Việc AdR làm là một trò mèo thông dụng vào thời đó của Vatican và thực dân đế quốc phương tây. Đầu tiên chúng cho đám truyền giáo vào. Làm ăn suôn sẻ thì tốt, chúng sẽ cải đạo gần hết dân bản địa thì tự động họ sẽ dâng cả quốc gia lên cho Vatican và thực dân chia chác khỏe re như Philippines hay nhiều nước Trung, Nam Mỹ, Châu Phi. Nếu bị chính quyền bản địa ngăn cấm, chúng sẽ sủa ầm lên là 'không có tự do tôn giáo', trở về nước vác cà-nông sang đánh rất dễ dàng vì chúng đã nắm trong tay rất nhiều thông tin tình báo khi truyền đạo trước đó và từ con chien bản địa. AdR đã diễn rất đúng theo kịch bản, nhưng nước Pháp lúc đó nhà còn bao việc nên chưa sẵn sàng thôi.<br />
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4. 'Không vinh danh AdR là vô ơn. Dùng chữ của người ta mà lại chửi người ta'<br />
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Thứ nhất, AdR có ơn đâu mà vô?! (Xem lại số 4 và 5 trong bản kiến nghị trong link ở gần đầu bài viết này)<br />
Hắn không phải là người phát minh ra chữ quốc ngữ, cũng không đóng góp gì trong việc truyền bá nó cả, nên không có ơn gì ở đây cả.<br />
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Thứ hai, tất cả các triều đại phong kiến Việt Nam từ đầu cho đến cuối đều dùng không những chữ Hán mà còn cả tiếng Hán! Một phần ba từ vựng thông thường hiện nay của Việt Nam là Hán-Việt, trong văn viết chiếm đến 60%. Nói như những đứa ngu kia thì người Việt Nam không thể chửi TQ khi TQ làm bậy? Lý Thường Kiệt, Nguyễn Trãi ngày xưa không được làm thơ, hịch chống người Hán bằng chữ Hán, tiếng Hán à?! Người ta không thể dùng vũ khí của giặc giết giặc à?! Óc chó là có thật!<br />
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5. 'Dùng chữ tây góp phần phát triển Việt Nam'<br />
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Chữ viết chỉ là công cụ, phương tiện để ký âm. Nếu không có chữ tây thì người Việt Nam chắc chắn cũng sẽ cải tiến chữ viết của mình như các nước Đông Á để phát triển. Chữ viết của tây không thể giúp con người hay một quốc gia phát triển cao hơn khả năng, bằng chứng là nhiều nước Đông Nam Á như Phi, Mã, indo, Việt Nam dùng chữ tây nhưng phát triển vẫn thua xa các nước Đông Á Trung, Hàn, Nhật về mọi mặt. Nếu việc dùng chữ, tiếng tây có thể giúp một đất nước phát triển thì Philippines đã không bèo nhèo như thế! Nhiều nước châu Phi phải là cường quốc rồi! Đừng có cuồng tây lông đến ngáo như thế chứ?!<br />
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<span face=""helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif" style="background-color: #f2f3f5; color: #1c1e21; font-size: 13px;"></span>Meo Meohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18080992642193515731noreply@blogger.com13tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6891205240280876163.post-85939087628450148952019-11-29T20:53:00.000-08:002019-11-29T20:55:01.698-08:00BIỂU TÌNH 'ÔN HÒA' KIỂU ME MỸ<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="5i5ia" data-offset-key="43lnl-0-0" style="background-color: white; color: #1c1e21; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;">
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Trong bài viết trước, có bạn chụp mũ rằng tôi lo cho HK này nọ nhưng sự thật thì tôi không hề nha! HK loạn, Việt Nam đang hưởng lợi từ đó sướng thế thì tại sao tôi lại phải lo cho họ?! Tâm thần à?!<br />
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Bọn tâm thần đang lo, 'prayforhongkong', 'standwithhongkong' suốt là bọn me Mỹ Việt Nam nha! Chúng ca ngợi bọn me Mỹ bên đó, ao ước, kêu gọi trẻ trâu Việt Nam bắt chước phá hoại nền hòa bình ổn định (để phát triển) của đất nước. Tôi lo là lo cho Việt Nam lại bị bọn me Mỹ ghiền ăn c*t báo hại một lần nữa, rồi các nước bạn khốn nạn lại trục lợi mà tiến nhanh tiến mạnh, còn Việt Nam lại tụt hậu như lịch sử đã từng xảy ra thôi nha!<br />
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Mời mọi người xem clip 'biểu tình ôn hòa', 'đấu tranh cho một tương lai tốt đẹp hơn' của me Mỹ nhé! Đây là clip của một kênh ở HK: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYWSlgQB1BpfQTkNm_P5qIw<br />
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Những hành động 'biểu tình ôn hòa' được liệt kê trong clip này bao gồm gặp cái gì thì đập phá, đốt cái đó trong thành phố, bất kể là của công hay tư, cửa hàng, nhà băng, xe hơi, trạm tàu điện ngầm, ngay cả Starbucks, hôi của, tấn công hành hung, tống tiền người dân. 51 trên tổng số 93 trạm tàu điện ngầm đã phải đóng cửa để sửa chữa.<br />
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Bọn me Mỹ này giống thần tượng của bọn nó vãi! Miệng thì nói nhân nghĩa đạo đức không nhưng hành động thì lại như khủng bố. Vậy mà cũng có một đám người Việt thần tượng, ca ngợi bọn nó là 'dân trí cao' chứ! Óc chó là có thật!<br />
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<br />Meo Meohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18080992642193515731noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6891205240280876163.post-24144338583886590332019-11-28T04:16:00.001-08:002019-11-28T04:16:08.337-08:00ĐẶC ĐIỂM CHUNG CỦA ME MỸ <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgu9dF8xJEoQ2TNotupVepDy0kJrH_fZcbAl7zqhVf8S6VaJxHF7VGGY2xhxi8lvJevRyJzQQE9-4vXw-2nDSAfKmVCoRLGi726MWwo58Ojx72igHhTYX1PxZgOtGryEuPXVIdoktwsieRV/s1600/Flag.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="773" data-original-width="1160" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgu9dF8xJEoQ2TNotupVepDy0kJrH_fZcbAl7zqhVf8S6VaJxHF7VGGY2xhxi8lvJevRyJzQQE9-4vXw-2nDSAfKmVCoRLGi726MWwo58Ojx72igHhTYX1PxZgOtGryEuPXVIdoktwsieRV/s640/Flag.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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Sau khi tốn rất nhiều công sức cào mặt ăn vạ, đập phá nơi mình sinh sống, gây khó khăn cho việc mưu sinh của chính dân HK suốt nửa năm, lặn lội sang tận Mỹ 'điều trần' xin xỏ trước quốc hội Mỹ, cuối cùng thì đám me Mỹ HK cũng đã được toại nguyện. Trump đã ký vào dự luật 'Dân chủ và Nhân quyền Hong Kong' do Quốc hội Mỹ thông qua trước đó và nó sẽ được thi hành. Nội dung của dự luật này nói chung là dựng lên những rào cản cho kinh tế HK, tức nó sẽ tạo ra thêm những khó khăn về kinh tế, cái mà đám me Mỹ tham gia biểu tình đang đòi cải thiện! :v<br />
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<a href="https://vnexpress.net/the-gioi/trump-ky-luat-ve-hong-kong-4018779.html?fbclid=IwAR0IpXwq0smOkSuZvKZ8WfJI6-gX4sh7J4UqJagTpXPkUZtsIu9ieE0iUkU" target="_blank">Link 1</a><br /><a href="https://vnexpress.net/the-gioi/du-luat-hong-kong-cua-my-gay-anh-huong-gi-4016335.html" target="_blank">Link 2</a><br />
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Biểu tình triền miên suốt mấy tháng qua cũng đã đẩy một số doanh nghiệp và vốn đầu tư sang nước khác.<br />
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Một trong những khẩu hiệu chính của đám me Mỹ HK này là 'tranh đấu cho tương lai'. Chúc mừng các me đã cầu được ước thấy. Tương lai các me sẽ được bốc c*t mà ăn nhé! 👏<br />
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Trong một diễn biến khác xảy ra không lâu trước đó, me Mỹ Ukraina được Mỹ hậu thuẫn xúi giục đã làm cách mạng lật đổ chính quyền để mơ một tương lai mới tươi sáng theo voi Mỹ hít bã mía. Sau khi được toại nguyện thì đất nước này bị chia đôi, bán đảo Crime bị Nga đòi quà lấy lại. Kinh tế sụp đổ tụt hậu xuống dưới cả nước 'độc tài cộng sản'! Như vậy, bọn me Mỹ Ukraina cũng đã được toại nguyện như me Mỹ HK, bốc c*t mà ăn! 👏<br />
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Quay trở lại một quốc gia rất gần Hồng Kông là Việt Nam. Me Mỹ Việt ngày xưa đã từng rước Mỹ vào tàn phá tan nát đất nước này, chia cắt nó 20 năm, đổ hàng triệu tấn bom đạn chất độc xuống dẹp mấy trăm năm không hết. Nhờ công ơn hàng triệu anh hùng liệt sĩ quên mình hy sinh, đất nước này mới được hòa bình thống nhất, chỉ phát triển bình thường được 20 năm thôi. Vậy mà bây giờ me Mỹ Việt các thế hệ cũ và mới chúng đã lại rửng mở muốn 'noi gương' me Mỹ HK biểu tình, 'standwithHongKong' để được Mỹ khen rồi lại được bốc c*t ăn như ngày nào!<br />
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Nếu bạn phất cờ Mỹ cầu xin can thiệp thì chỉ có hai khả năng xảy ra. Khi không can thiệp nhiều được, Mỹ sẽ gây khó khăn về kinh tế, cấm vận cho bạn bốc c*t ăn. Nếu can thiệp được thì nhẹ, dân trong nước tự choảng nhau, rồi cùng nhau bốc c*t ăn, lãnh thổ bị lân bang lợi dụng lúc hỗn loạn chiếm mất. Nặng, Mỹ đem quân vào thì tất cả nát như bướm. Giữ được mạng sống để ăn được c*t cũng là một vấn đề!<br />
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Đặc điểm chung của me Mỹ khắp nơi trên thế giới là rất thích bốc c*t ăn và báo hại làng xóm, đất nước phải ăn c*t với chúng. Mọi người hãy cẩn thận.Meo Meohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18080992642193515731noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6891205240280876163.post-73924050657730949952019-11-27T04:39:00.004-08:002019-11-27T04:39:51.766-08:00BỌN TỘI PHẠM LÀM BẬY NHƯNG DOANH NGHIỆP VIỆT NAM MỚI LÀ KẺ BỊ PHÁN XÉT!<div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6lWiGQizwrkEu5tgvpDMTJJ2cKNyi7GHMHLIx7Uw6PfJjq2wKN0sgP5OC7h7rtyeaf5DRNhaCaQwSOCJktxOg-dBVEq68BVipZpRVFmAn3qXcNV6T2-UtGf0SHZNip95vkwCx3iPBC7Tu/s1600/39.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="560" data-original-width="508" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6lWiGQizwrkEu5tgvpDMTJJ2cKNyi7GHMHLIx7Uw6PfJjq2wKN0sgP5OC7h7rtyeaf5DRNhaCaQwSOCJktxOg-dBVEq68BVipZpRVFmAn3qXcNV6T2-UtGf0SHZNip95vkwCx3iPBC7Tu/s640/39.png" width="580" /></a></div>
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Mỗi lần có chuyện gì xôn xao tí thì bọn anh hùng yêu nước bằng máu của người khác, nhân nghĩa, đạo đức bằng mồm nhưng sống như lol, chuyên làm từ thiện bằng tiền người khác, lại có dịp tung hoành thể hiện. </div>
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https://canhco.net/26-ty-dong-hau-su-cho-39-nan-nhan-khong-qua-lon-de-phai-dan-do-p333793.html</div>
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'2,6 tỉ không quá lớn đề phải đắn đo'. Ui cha tiền túi của người ta mà nó có quyền quyết định tỉnh bơ là nhiều hay ít, có cần đắn đo hay không luôn chứ!</div>
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Bi giờ nó bắt doanh nghiệp Việt Nam phải bao luôn cho bọn tội phạm, không thì nó chửi là 'không rộng lượng'! Mấy thằng trộm chó, cướp của giết người cũng toàn là hoàn cảnh khó khăn không đó. Bao bọn buôn cần này thì phải bao luôn cho tất cả các loại tội phạm khác cho nó công bằng? Phải bao luôn cho tất cả công dân lương thiện Việt Nam vì họ càng đáng được bao phải không ạ? Rộng lượng thì phải đi đôi với công bằng nữa chứ? </div>
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Từ ngày có mạng thì dễ dàng nhận ra Việt Nam có nhiều lợn dữ!</div>
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Meo Meohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18080992642193515731noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6891205240280876163.post-21003195766828432702019-11-27T03:12:00.001-08:002019-11-27T03:12:18.355-08:00CHIEN LẠI TẤU HÀI TRƯỚC TÒA <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_s_1fT8ZIimp5YMPh-KydlTbWpq1v07a4XwE7V4GCR6mfes6iIOB2uLLcJ051o-aumgIBXVtClf9PJ4KAd4oiSdmlO0MPcyP5kMr3xI4cMBsjLFovz5mzekieqyIYmUkJXPp2m_SieDl2/s1600/chien.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="489" data-original-width="960" height="326" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_s_1fT8ZIimp5YMPh-KydlTbWpq1v07a4XwE7V4GCR6mfes6iIOB2uLLcJ051o-aumgIBXVtClf9PJ4KAd4oiSdmlO0MPcyP5kMr3xI4cMBsjLFovz5mzekieqyIYmUkJXPp2m_SieDl2/s640/chien.png" width="640" /></a></div>
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Trích 'Phê rô' Nguyễn Năng Tĩnh tại tòa án tỉnh Nghệ An 15/11/2019:<br />
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“... Tôi khát khao một đất nước tự do, dân chủ.<br />
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Tôi lo lắng cho vận mệnh đất nước và dân tộc; lo lắng cho môi trường sống của nhân dân bị đầu độc.<br />
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Tôi không thể vô cảm và cam tâm trước nguy cơ mất chủ quyền quốc gia, trước mối đe doạ xâm lăng của Trung Quốc.<br />
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Dù mức án có cao đến đâu, 10 năm, 20 năm, kể cả tử hình, tôi cũng không thay đổi chính kiến...”.<br />
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1/ Một trong những chuyện khôi hài nhất trên đời này là khi con chien đòi tự do dân chủ nhân quyền với người khác mà không phải là với Vatican vì Vatican mới chính là cái tổ chức đã tước đoạt những quyền đó của con chien.<br />
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Con chien không có quyền lựa chọn tôn giáo mà bị bắt buộc phải theo từ khi não còn chưa được kết nối hoàn chỉnh. Phải sống suốt đời trong một đàn chien dưới sự kềm cặp của 'chủ chăn' để khỏi bị 'lạc đạo'. Ngay cả cái quyền căn bản nhất của con người là dùng óc để tự đọc, tư hiểu 'kinh thánh' con chien cũng không có. Vatican độc quyền việc đọc, suy diễn 'kinh thánh' và con chien phải 'quên mình trong vâng phục', nhắm mắt mà nghe theo cấm cãi! 'Chủ chăn' cũng là do Vatican sắp đặt và cấm cãi luôn!<br />
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Bị tẩy não từ khi còn ẵm ngửa, con chiên hoàn toàn mất khả năng nhận biết mình bị Vatican tước đoạt quyền làm người, quyền tự do suy nghĩ, biểu đạt, quyền tham gia vào những quyết định của 'đấng bề trên'. Nếu cộng sản không cho con chien tự do thì hàng ngày đàn chien và 'chủ chăn' vẫn đang cầu nguyện trong cái gì vậy?!<br />
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2/ Con chien mà lo 'mất chủ quyền quốc gia' thì cũng cực hài vì chúng đã dâng chủ quyền quốc gia của mình cho Vatican từ lâu và mục tiêu của chúng vẫn <a href="https://www.google.com/search?q=d%C3%A2ng+vi%E1%BB%87t+nam+cho+%C4%91%E1%BB%A9c+m%E1%BA%B9&rlz=1C1NDCM_enUS726US726&oq=d%C3%A2ng+vi%E1%BB%87t+nam+cho+%C4%91%E1%BB%A9c+m%E1%BA%B9&aqs=chrome..69i57.10500j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8" target="_blank">luôn là dâng hết phần còn lại của Việt Nam cho Vatican</a>.<br />
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Đất đai nhà nước cấp cho CG xây nhà thờ thì coi như mất toi cho Vatican luôn rồi. Các 'xứ đạo' ở Việt Nam hiện nay trên thực tế đã thuộc chủ quyền Vatican vì chúng chỉ treo cờ Vatican, lãnh đạo bởi viên chức, cán bộ của Vatican, chứ không phải quốc kỳ Việt Nam và chính quyền Việt Nam. Chúng đã trở những vùng tự trị của Vatican nằm trong lãnh thổ Việt Nam.<br />
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Con chien lo mất 'chủ quyền quốc gia' chỉ vì chủ quyền quốc gia đã bị 'mất' vào tay người Việt Nam không theo Vatican nên chúng vẫn chưa thể dâng toàn bộ đất nước này lên cho Vatican được. Đó là lý do chúng luôn ấm ức với chính quyền này.<br />
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3/ Cái hài nhất và cuối cùng là con chien bảo 'Chúa' là kẻ tạo ra cũng như chủ nhân duy nhất của toàn bộ cái vũ trụ này, và sức mạnh, phép màu của 'Chúa' là vô cùng tận nhưng cũng cái miệng đó nó lại bảo sợ TQ lấy một miếng đất bé tí xíu không bằng một hạt bụi trong vũ trụ trong tay 'Chúa'! Chẳng lẽ nó nghĩ TQ còn bá đạo lợi hại hơn cả 'Chúa toàn năng'?! :v<br />
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Câu kết của con chien 'Phê rô' cho thấy việc cải tạo một con chien đã bị tẩy cmn não từ khi còn ẵm ngửa là không thể.Meo Meohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18080992642193515731noreply@blogger.com0