The latest Washington lie, this one coming from NATO, is that Russia has invaded Ukraine with 1,000 troops and self-propelled artillery.<\/p>\n
How do we know that this is a lie? Is it because we have heard nothing but lies about Russia from NATO, from US ambassador to the UN Samantha Power, from assistant secretary of state Victoria Nuland, from Obama and his entire regime of pathological liars, and from the British, German, and French governments along with the BBC and the entirety of the Western media?<\/p>\n
This, of course, is a good reason for knowing that the latest Western propaganda is a lie. Those who are pathological liars don\u2019t suddenly start telling the truth.<\/p>\n
But there are even better reasons for understanding that Russia has not invaded Ukraine with 1,000 troops.<\/p>\n
One reason is that Putin has invested heavily in diplomacy backed by unprovocative behavior. He would not risk his bet on diplomacy by sending in troops too few in number to have a decisive effect on the outcome.<\/p>\n
Another reason is that if Putin decides he has no alternative to sending the Russian military to protect the Russian residents in eastern and southern Ukraine, Putin will send in enough troops to do the job quickly as he did in Georgia when the American and Israeli trained Georgian army invaded South Ossetia and was destroyed in a few hours by the Russian response. If you hear that 100,000 Russian troops accompanied by air cover have invaded Ukraine, it would be a more believable claim.<\/p>\n
A third reason is that the Russian military does not need to send troops into Ukraine in order to stop the bombing and artillery shelling of the Russian populations by Washington\u2019s puppet government in Kiev. The Russian air force can easily and quickly destroy the Ukrainian air force and artillery and, thereby, stop the Ukrainian attack on the secessionist provinces.<\/p>\n
It was only two weeks ago that a fabricated report spread by the UK Guardian and the BBC that a Russian armored convoy entered Ukraine and was destroyed by the Ukrainian Military. And two weeks prior to that we had the hoax of the satellite images allegedly released by the US State Department that the corrupt US ambassador in Kiev spread around the world on social media allegedly showing that Russian forces were firing into Ukraine. One or two weeks from now we will have another lie, and another a week or two after that, and so on.<\/p>\n
The cumulative effect of lie piled upon lie for most people is to build the view that the Russians are up to no good. Once this view is established, Western governments can take more serious moves against Russia.<\/p>\n
The alleged entry of 1,000 Russian soldiers into Ukraine has been declared by NATO Brigadier General Niko Tak to be a \u201csignificant escalation in Russia\u2019s military interference in Ukraine.\u201d The champion liar Samantha Power told the US Security Council that \u201cRussia has to stop lying.\u201d The UK ambassador to the UN said that Russia was guilty of \u201ca clear violation of sovereign Ukrainian territory.\u201d UK prime minister Cameron warned Russia of \u201cfurther consequences.\u201d German chancellor Merkel announced that there would be more sanctions. A German Security Council advisor declared that \u201cwar with Russia is an option.\u201d Polish foreign minister Sikorski called it Russian aggression that required international action. French president Hollande declared Russia\u2019s behavior to be \u201cintolerable.\u201d Ukraine\u2019s security council imposed mandatory conscription.<\/p>\n
This suicidal drive toward war with Russia by Europe\u2019s leaders is based entirely on a transparent lie that 1,000 Russian troops crossed into Ukraine<\/p>\n
Of course the Western media followed in lock-step. The BBC, CNN, and Die Welt are among the most reckless and irresponsible.<\/p>\n
The mountain of lies piled up by Western governments and media has obscured the true story. The US government orchestrated the overthrow of the elected government in Ukraine and imposed a US puppet in Kiev. Washington\u2019s puppet government began issuing threats and committing violent acts against the Russian populations in the former Russian territories that Soviet leaders attached to Ukraine. The Russian people in eastern and southern Ukraine resisted the threat brought to them by Washington\u2019s puppet government in Kiev.<\/p>\n
Washington continually accuses the Russian government of supporting the people in the territories who have voted their separation from Ukraine. There would be no war, Washington alleges, except for Russian support. But, of course, Washington could easily stop the violence by ordering its puppet government in Kiev to stop the bombing and shelling of the former Russian provinces. If Russia can tell the \u201cseparatists\u201d not to fight, Washington can tell Kiev not to fight.<\/p>\n
The only possible conclusion from the facts is that Washington is determined to involve Europe in a war with Russia or at least in an armed standoff in order to break up Europe\u2019s political and economic relations with Russia.<\/p>\n
Europe\u2019s leaders are going along with this because European countries, except for Charles de Gaulle\u2019s France, have not had independent foreign policies since the end of World War II. They follow Washington\u2019s lead and are well paid for doing so.<\/p>\n
The inability of Europe to produce independent leadership dooms Russian President Putin\u2019s diplomacy to failure. If European capitals cannot make decisions independently of Washington, there is no scope for Putin\u2019s diplomacy.<\/p>\n
Notice that the very day after Putin met with Washington\u2019s Ukrainian vassal in an effort to resolve the situation, the new lie of Russian invasion was issued in order to ensure that no good can come of the meeting in which Putin invested his time and energy.<\/p>\n
Washington\u2019s only interest is in hegemony. Washington has no interest in resolving the situation that Washington itself created in order to bring discomfort and confusion to Russia. With the caveat that the situation could be resolved by Ukrainian economic collapse, otherwise the longer Putin waits to resolve the situation by force, the more difficult the task will be.<\/p>\n
_____________________________<\/p>\n
Dr. Paul Craig Roberts\u00a0<\/strong><\/em>was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Economic Policy and associate editor of the Wall Street Journal. He was columnist for Business Week, Scripps Howard News Service, and Creators Syndicate. He has had many university appointments. His internet columns have attracted a worldwide following. Roberts’ latest books are The Failure of Laissez Faire Capitalism and Economic Dissolution of the West<\/a> and How America Was Lost<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n