{"id":213823,"date":"2022-05-30T12:00:17","date_gmt":"2022-05-30T11:00:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=213823"},"modified":"2022-06-01T08:25:52","modified_gmt":"2022-06-01T07:25:52","slug":"willing-suspension-of-disbelief-the-danger-of-overlooking-us-ties-to-nazism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2022\/05\/willing-suspension-of-disbelief-the-danger-of-overlooking-us-ties-to-nazism\/","title":{"rendered":"Willing Suspension of Disbelief: The Danger of Overlooking US Ties to Nazism"},"content":{"rendered":"

Humanitarian and peace-loving people take seriously the oft repeated vows of \u201cnever again\u201d to atrocities committed leading up to and during WWII.\u00a0 The lack of widespread outcry was thus disheartening when the US Congress uncritically approved unprecedented<\/a> amounts–$54 billion since March–of military aid to Ukraine, dangerously escalating hostilities in a country with a troubling track record of condoning Nazism<\/a> and ruthless persecution of its sizable Russian speaking population.<\/p>\n

I define Nazism as an authoritarian ideology exerting tight control over a chosen population, deemed inherently superior, while dehumanizing and condoning the exclusion, abuse and extermination of people belonging to undesirable groups.\u00a0 It facilitates extreme concentration of wealth and power by keeping working people divided, rewarding loyalty in useful players among the chosen and blaming any social ills on the undesirables.\u00a0 It is a tool of the ongoing stealth war of the super-rich predator class against the rest of humanity over control of the earth\u2019s people and resources that hides behind manufactured conflicts instigated to distract and demoralize.<\/p>\n

Successful theater depends on the audience\u2019s willing suspension of disbelief.\u00a0 US power brokers have employed theatrics behind the scenes to project a convincing anti-Nazi illusion while simultaneously enabling Nazism<\/a> in various ways during WWII, the Cold War, and the post-Cold War era, including in Ukraine today.<\/p>\n

WWII \u2013 Plausible Deniability<\/strong><\/p>\n

The US\u2019 official alliance with the Soviet Union in WWII gave it plausible deniability of clandestine support for Nazism.\u00a0 Nazi Germany could be seen as a useful tool<\/a> for defeating or at least massively weakening the Soviet Union and its communist principles of egalitarianism (however imperfectly implemented).\u00a0 In fact, many wealthy US industrialists and financiers, including Prescott Bush, whose son and grandson became US presidents, actively supported corporations building up the Nazi regime to subvert the growing power of workers\u2019 movements in the young Soviet Union and elsewhere. When Stalin, under heavy German invasion, implored the US and UK to open a western front, they held off doing so until 1944, after it became clear that the Soviet Army, sacrificing millions of lives in the fight against Nazism, was prevailing and would soon march triumphantly into Berlin.<\/p>\n

The Cold War \u2013 Covert Operations<\/strong><\/p>\n

After 1945, the US and the West trumpeted themselves as beacons of goodness and democracy. While the official script flipped from Nazis to communists as archenemies, the former were surreptitiously nurtured off-stage.\u00a0 Few are aware that communist East Germany methodically set about denazifying its civic institutions[i]<\/a>, while West Germany retained many Nazi\u2019s in high positions, as the US implemented Operation Paper Clip, welcoming Nazi scientists and engineers.\u00a0 Nazi Germany\u2019s chief anti-Soviet spy, Reinhard Gehlen, was hired by the CIA to re-activate and recruit spy networks in Ukraine and other Eastern European countries.[ii]<\/a><\/p>\n

Far from the limelight the sordid saga of Operations Gladio<\/a> in Europe and Condor in Latin America unfolded\u2014CIA and NATO-backed covert operations perpetrating political subterfuge, murder, kidnapping, and false flag bombings to thwart any rise in leftist movements seeking to promote workers\u2019 rights and a more equitable distribution of resources.\u00a0 Gladio\u2019s secret \u201cstay behind\u201d armies (comprised often of Nazi\u2019s left over from WWII) permeated virtually all Western European countries[iii]<\/a>.\u00a0 The CIA financed Gladio and Condor with Mafia drug money laundered by the Catholic church[iv]<\/a>, targeting anyone who threatened the elites\u2019 grip on power.<\/p>\n

Post-Cold War and Ukraine \u2013 Manipulating the Narrative<\/strong><\/p>\n

After the Berlin Wall fell, the West\u2019s theatrics surged into overdrive, proclaiming to wide audience acclaim a new era of peace dividends, prosperity and human rights, spinning tales that bore little relation to reality.\u00a0 The US no longer hid their support for unsavory elements, it simply dressed them in beneficent costumes and called them our friends, as with Croatian leader Franjo Tudjman<\/a>, admirer of Nazi-connected Ustasha, in the 1990\u2019s Yugoslavia<\/a> war, instigated by the US and Germany to justify NATO\u2019s continuing existence.<\/p>\n

Zbigniev Brzezinski articulated<\/a> US goals of controlling Eurasia\u2019s resources and preventing another country from challenging US dominance, while viewing Ukraine as critical for containing Russia. \u00a0But the Russia of today is no longer the malleable client state immediately following the Soviet collapse.\u00a0 2007<\/a> in Munich Putin did the unforgivable–insisting on Russia being treated as an equal partner–\u201cSecurity for one is security for all\u2026.\u00a0 We must seek a reasonable balance between the interests of all participants in the international dialogue.\u201d<\/p>\n

With pre-Maidan Ukraine leaning closer to Russia, the US openly praised the 2014 coup d’\u00e9tat<\/span><\/span><\/em> it had engineered, with CIA funded and trained<\/a> pro-Nazi elements, to bring Ukraine back into its neoliberal fold.\u00a0 The US and its allies subsequently turned a blind eye and deaf ear to Ukraine\u2019s blatant violations of Minsk I and II peace accords (stipulating autonomy for Donetsk and Lugansk), relentless attacks<\/a> including torture<\/a> by Nazi Aidar groups of residents and dissidents<\/a> in eastern Ukraine, and defiant plans to join NATO, while rebuffing Russia\u2019s repeated quest for dialogue to ensure mutual security in the region.\u00a0 Provoked<\/a> to its limit, Russia\u2019s military intervened in February, standing up to the big bully US and its gang of acolytes who arrogantly refuse to work towards peace.<\/p>\n

The ensuing spectacle<\/a> of PR controlled<\/a> theatrics have risen to new heights<\/a> while spellbound Western audiences lap it up.\u00a0 Ukraine\u2019s President Zelensky, a TV actor with no experience in politics or diplomacy, is delivering a masterful performance in his current role as spokesperson of the perceived underdog.\u00a0 Western leaders adulate him while corporate media report his every word as gospel truth, failing to consider his sponsors–US neocons, russophobic Nazis, and corrupt oligarch Igor Kolomoiksy–who are likely writing his script.<\/p>\n

In true Goebbels fashion (always accuse your enemy of that which you are doing), Zelensky falsely blames all the death and destruction on Russia. Western reports ignore eye-witness evidence<\/a> of Ukrainian forces, infused<\/a> with Nazi-linked Azov elements, killing innocents<\/a>, bombarding<\/a> Donbass cities, occupying civilian buildings and holding<\/a> local people as human shields<\/a>, thus creating scenes to make Russia look like the sole aggressor and Ukraine the innocent victim.\u00a0 Dead bodies at Bucha<\/a> and Kramatorsk<\/a> blamed on Russia have been shown to be victims of overzealous Ukrainian forces. An alleged mass grave<\/a> turns out to be non-existent. In an ironic twist of theatrics, a fake attack<\/a> on a theater in Mariupol<\/a> was staged.<\/p>\n

A former US intelligence officer suggested Russia is exercising restraint<\/a> in aiming only at military targets and avoiding damage to civilians as much as possible in pursuing its goals, namely\u2026.<\/p>\n

Demilitarization, Denazification, Mutual Security and Self-determination<\/strong><\/p>\n

How could anyone object to such goals?\u00a0 The US not only objects but actively subverts them, because doing so benefits the super-rich predator class. The US is escalating militarization, flooding Ukraine with all manner of weapons–a bonanza for the arms industry–prolonging the fighting and needless suffering of Ukrainian residents.\u00a0 It throws its full support behind a regime that condones violent attacks against Russian speaking citizens, bans their language, and prohibits Victory Day celebrations of the Nazi defeat in WWII, while honoring Nazi collaborator Stepan Bandera with statues and street names.\u00a0 The US persists in spearheading an expanding military alliance (NATO) that threatens peace and security in the region.\u00a0 It has shown zero inclination to heed the fervent aspirations, expressed via referenda and plebiscites, of the populations in Crimea and Donbass for autonomy from Ukraine.<\/p>\n

What Might the Future Hold?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Peace is possible in Ukraine if President Biden would stop hemorrhaging weapons and press Zelensky to negotiate with Russia in good faith towards meeting legitimate goals of all parties.<\/p>\n

Some view Western intransigence in Ukraine as the last straw<\/a> that will finally break up the US Empire<\/a>, perhaps causing faint rumblings of dissent<\/a> to surface within the Western establishment. Draconian sanctions against Russia–rejected by countries with the vast majority<\/a> of the world\u2019s population–are backfiring, bringing economic distress to the US and its European allies, while Russia pivots its key energy resources increasingly east and south. Russia\u2019s relationship with China is strong. \u00a0Asian, African and Latin American nations are increasingly looking to each other as trading partners.<\/p>\n

The US Empire\u2019s demise could play out in many ways, some more painful and destructive, others more hopeful and beneficial to humanity.\u00a0\u00a0 The latter route could bring a drastic reduction in military spending, global nuclear disarmament, and removal of the nearly 1,000<\/a> US military bases[v]<\/a> in 70 countries encircling the earth, along with mechanisms to ensure equitable distribution of resources and collaborative decision making from the bottom up rather than top-down.\u00a0\u00a0 It could see cooperation among all nations to ensure a dignified life<\/a> for every human being.<\/p>\n

To get there we must keep building movements to pierce the willing suspension of disbelief that bedazzles so many, and lower a final curtain on the stage of war propaganda that props up the predators.\u00a0 Meanwhile I mourn the anguish of people in all parts of Ukraine trapped in an avoidable civil war turned dangerous showdown between NATO and Russia.\u00a0 I mourn the needless misery of people around the world impacted by the immeasurable greed and lust for power of the few.\u00a0 I honor all who question deceptive<\/a> narratives serving the interests of those few.<\/p>\n

NOTES:<\/strong><\/p>\n

[i]<\/a> Victor Grossman, A Socialist Defector:\u00a0 From Harvard to Karl-Marx-Allee<\/em><\/p>\n

[ii]<\/a> Douglas Valentine,\u00a0 The CIA as Organized Crime:\u00a0 How Illegal Operations Corrupt America and the World<\/em><\/p>\n

[iii]<\/a> Daniele Ganser, NATO\u2019s Secret Armies:\u00a0 Operation Gladio and Terrorism in Western Europe<\/em><\/p>\n

[iv]<\/a> Paul Williams, Operation Gladio:\u00a0 The Unholy Alliance between the Vatican, the CIA and the Mafia<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

[v]<\/a> David Vine, Base Nation:\u00a0 How U.S. Military Bases Abroad Harm America and the World<\/em><\/p>\n

________________________________________________<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a> Marilyn Langlois is a member of TRANSCEND<\/a> USA West Coast. She is a volunteer community organizer and international solidarity activist based in Richmond, California.\u00a0 A co-founder of the Richmond Progressive Alliance<\/a>, member of Haiti Action Committee<\/a> and Board member of Task Force on the Americas<\/a>, she is retired from previous employment as a teacher, secretary, administrator, mediator and community advocate.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It is a tool of the ongoing stealth war of the super-rich predator class against the rest of humanity over control of the earth\u2019s people and resources that hides behind manufactured conflicts instigated to distract and demoralize.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[1126,1050,2625,91,1147,959,2571,278,961,70,581],"class_list":["post-213823","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-editorial","tag-hegemony","tag-imperialism","tag-manufacturing-consent","tag-nato","tag-nazism","tag-neo-nazis","tag-official-lies-and-narratives","tag-russia","tag-ukraine","tag-usa","tag-wwii"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213823","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=213823"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213823\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=213823"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=213823"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=213823"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}