On New Year’s Eve America’s two most famous warmongers, US Senators John McCain (R-AZ) and Lindsey Graham (R-SC) visited the troops of Ukrainian President Pyotr Poroshenko in Mariupol overlooking the battle lines with self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s. Then scant minutes after the American dignitary’s departure, the soldiers they promised aid and support to opened fire. Breaking the Minsk imposed truce for the hundredth time, the so-called “UKROPS” began shelling areas of the Donbass.

McCain, some will recall, was the top US cheerleader for the Maidan coup that unseated the standing Ukraine government and started the civil war that led to current west-east tensions. Now, with the Syria asymmetrical strategies thwarted, the Pentagon’s chief evangelist is back in Ukraine proclaiming the intentions of the military industrial complex he and Graham represent. What is most striking about McCain in Ukraine at this moment, is the clearly desperate nature of his visit. This can be gleaned from watching this video segment of his speech from the square in Mariupol to the Ukraine people and the troops in the trenches. McCain showed the true hand of the players behind this civil war and others in this speech. He said, in part:

“In 2017 we will defeat the invaders and send them back to where they came from.”

The US Senator went on to address Russian President Vladimir Putin directly saying; “You will never defeat the Ukrainian people and deprive them of their independence and freedom.” He had sworn to provide Poroshenko’s troop whatever is necessary to defeat those in East Ukraine, in his visit to the bunker on the front lines already. The significance of the Arizona senator’s promises cannot be underestimated here, as the Minsk accords call for a strictly peaceful settlement, military victories having no place in the potential accord. McCain, his colleague Graham, and their constituents in Congress have done everything in their power to not only fun and promote ongoing conflict in the world, but they’ve joined the Obama administration in doing everything humanly possible to tie the hands of the incoming president. McCain, on behalf of the defense corporations that have supported him and Graham for decades now, is dead set on a war on Russia. This is not a matter for conjecture.

Legislation just signed by outgoing President Barack Obama is the latest, and possibly most damaging bit of “revenge” Obama casts at Putin and anti-hegemony advocates before leaving. S.2943 – the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2017 sponsored by McCain, contains words and constraints that in essence prohibit Donald Trump from allying with Russia against ISIL or any foe, until the former Ukraine falls into the NATO sphere. My colleague, geo-policy analyst Holger Eekhof delved into McCain’s efforts early in the drafting processes of this law. What he discovered was a hidden-in-plain-sight agenda that could lead to World War III. S.2943 states specifically:

“(Sec. 1233) Prohibits FY2017 funds from being used for bilateral military-to-military cooperation between the governments of the United States and Russia until DOD certifies to Congress that Russia has: (1) ceased its occupation of Ukrainian territory and its aggressive activities that threaten the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine and members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization; and (2) is abiding by the terms of and taking steps in support of the Minsk Protocols regarding a ceasefire in eastern Ukraine. Permits a waiver under specified conditions.”

Furthermore, this “McCain-Obama” law approves funding for the continued training, funding and equipping of “Anti-Assad” forces inside war torn Syria. McCain and his colleagues also rubber stamped a plan for the taking and “holding” of the eastern Syria city of Raqqa in the oil rich regions bordering Kurdistan. The significance of the latter bears special scrutiny given that Aleppo and most of western Syria is being retaken by the legitimate government of Assad. Raqqa, for those unfamiliar, is the key to Syria’s only real wealth of oil. This is the crux of the Syria regime change after all, the fragmentation or destruction of an Israel foe, coinciding with a robbery of still more oil riches from Middle Eastern sovereign peoples. The well is too deep to discuss here, but McCain and Obama have achieved at least part of what I believe the mission was all along.

TASS and other news agencies reported on the Minsk ceasefire breeches after Senator McCain’s visit, and I corroborated with my colleague on the ground in Donetsk who concurred. Minsk-2, signed in Minsk on February 12, 2015, is ceasefire regime between Ukrainian government forces and people’s militias in the self-proclaimed republics in Donetsk and Lugansk (DPR and LPR) requiring the withdrawal of heavy weapons from the line of engagement. The deal is supposedly a roadmap for a lasting settlement in Ukraine, including local elections and constitutional reform to give more autonomy to the war-torn eastern regions. Clearly, John McCain, Barack Obama, and lawmakers like South Carolina’s Graham have no intentions of aiding in any such peaceful negotiations. The only solution in this world for them, is an Obama-era solution. McCain and Graham are galivanting all around the frontiers of Russia bolstering the NATO message these last days, first in the Baltics, then Ukraine, and most recently in the Republic of Georgia. From my perspective both of them are reprehensible figures in American history, with their unprecedented posturing for war.

McCain, like Barack Obama and the other Washington reprehensibles, hammers a war drum no matter what. Peace and negotiations have no place in the military industrial complex playbook, and anyone with an ounce of intelligence can see it. Passing laws that propagate war behind he backs of the American people, McCain and these others are almost miraculous examples of what happens when a citizenry falls dead asleep at the wheel. Just how my countrymen can stand idly by and watch proven profiteer puppets operate for special interests, it boggles the mind. McCain, the man who came to prominence for his POW role in the Vietnam War, has become what many consider the most heartless killer of a generation. Millions have literally suffered and/or died via the policies of hegemony this man has championed. One can only hope that President Donald Trump can summon the necessary groundswell of support in Washington to ostracize their likes.

Phil Butler, is a policy investigator and analyst, a political scientist and expert on Eastern Europe, exclusively for the online magazine “New Eastern Outlook”.