Washington Choreographing All-Out War with Russia?



By Finian Cunningham



April 25, 2015 " Information Clearing House" - " SCF " - The reckless American leaders are putting in place incendiary elements that heighten the risk of all-out war with Russia.

For several weeks now the Ukrainian self-defence militia in the breakaway eastern Donbas region have been warning that the US-backed Kiev regime is readying to break a fragile ceasefire and resume its offensive. The refusal, as mandated by the truce, to fully withdraw heavy artillery and the ongoing practice of live-fire drills near the conflict zone are evidences cited.

With the reported arrival of 300 American paratroopers in Ukraine collaborating with Kiev’s Neo-Nazi National Guard brigades – the worst offenders over the past year’s fighting in eastern Ukraine – that development is an alarming harbinger of imminent conflict.

The Minsk ceasefire – brokered by Russia, Germany and France – has up to this moment held for over two months. Given the Kiev regime’s past breach of previous ceasefires, the duration of the truce signed on February 12 surprised many. But now it seems the levee is about to burst ushering more violence in the region.

Of utmost concern is that the US military forces have reportedly moved into the Donetsk region near the conflict zone.

The arrival of the US troops was already described by Moscow as a breach of the Minsk ceasefire. Bad enough was that the Americans were supposed to conduct their military exercises in the far west of the country, near the city of Lviv. Inexplicably, according to the Russian Ministry of Defence, US troops belonging to the 173rd Airborne Brigade have taken up «training» positions in Donetsk only 20-30 kilometres from the conflict zone. Those positions include the towns of Artemivsk, Severodonetsk and Volnovakha.

Moreover, the military training given by the Americans to their charges include the use of US-made weapons, not the usual Soviet-style munitions that the Ukrainian Armed Forces traditionally use. Russia’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich notes that the mode of training indicates that Washington is preparing to fulfil its promises of supplying lethal weapons to the Kiev regime.

The disturbing upshot of the ceasefire breaking in eastern Ukraine is that this time around the United States will be an overt participant in any renewed war. Not only the US, but two other closely aligned members of the NATO alliance – Canada and Britain. Nearly 600 troops from these three countries are in place acting as «military advisors» and providing weapons training to Kiev’s forces.

If the shaky Minsk ceasefire collapses, as many fear it might, then the situation has American, Canadian and British military boots on the ground and on the side of the Kiev regime. There is no equivocation about it. These NATO members will then be overtly at war in Ukraine fighting for a Neo-Nazi regime that has been responsible for 6,000 deaths over the past year in its wanton offensive on the Russian-speaking people of Donetsk and Luhansk.

That new situation will have dispelled the erstwhile pretence of Washington and its allies «only» providing indirect support to Kiev. For these Western powers will be at war – officially.

In addition to the sinister military build-up on the ground, Washington has began a revamped choreographing of disinformation and war propaganda.

In recent days, the US ambassador to Kiev, Geoffrey Pyatt, took to social media with more shrill claims of Russian military presence in eastern Ukraine. Pyatt averred that it was «the highest concentration of Russian air defence forces in eastern Ukraine since [last] August.» He posted a photograph of a Buk Missile system, which actually turns out to be taken from a commercial military exhibition held in Russia two years ago.

Pyatt, along with State Department official Victoria Nuland, it may be recalled, was the architect of the coup in Kiev last February when the American CIA backed the violent overthrow of the elected government of President Viktor Yanukovych.

Meanwhile, back in Washington, the US State Department used the exact same formulation of words to claim Russia was installing advanced air defence systems in eastern Ukraine. There is «no doubt that Russia is involved,» said spokeswoman Marie Harf, without, as usual, providing any evidence. When asked about exact numbers of alleged Russian forces in eastern Ukraine, Harf's cosmetic demeanour appeared to crumble with uncertainty. «It is really hard to get precise information about Russian troop numbers specifically, but we know there is a substantial Russian presence,» she told reporters.

Ironically, Washington cited these alleged infractions to accuse Russia of «violating the Minsk ceasefire». That could be construed as an act of war «requiring» Kiev forces to «respond». The irony is cloyingly rich given that it is the US that has sent paratroopers into eastern Ukraine to train Neo-Nazi brigades on how to kill more ethnic Russians.

Apart from outright falsification of the alleged presence of Russian forces in Ukraine, the potential is rife for so-called false-flag terror attacks carried out by the Kiev regime and its American handlers. Such an atrocity, amplified by the dutiful Western news media, could in turn be cited as «justification» to relaunch hostilities.

Earlier this year, for example, on January 13, near the town of Volnovakha, a bus carrying civilians was blown up reportedly with a roadside mine, killing 12 people onboard. The US-backed president in Kiev Petro Poroshenko immediately blamed «Russian terrorists». It has been a familiar routine over the past year whose choreography suggests premeditated planning. In the Volnovakha bus massacre only later did it emerge that the explosive device belonged to the Kiev forces who hold that area, and it may indeed have been set off deliberately to impute the pro-Russian rebels. Volnovakha is one of the towns in eastern Ukraine where US troops are now reportedly carrying out military exercises with the disreputable National Guard whose crimes against civilians in eastern Ukraine is amply documented, even by Western human rights groups.

The combined factors in this equation do not bode well. US and NATO troops on the ground in eastern Ukraine working with Neo-Nazi paramilitaries plus renewed audacious media attempts to criminalise Russia. That array of factors equals a return to all-out war, this time with NATO openly participating. The provocation to Russia has to be seen in the wider even more troubling context of American-led NATO build-up of troops, warplanes, warships and missiles across Eastern Europe – and all pointed at Russia.

This begs the inimitable conclusion of Washington choreographing events for an all-out war with Russia.

And given the decrepit, crumbling state of America’s global empire and its bankrupt capitalist economy, the pernicious motive for such a war begins to look compelling.