{"id":54565,"date":"2015-03-02T12:00:55","date_gmt":"2015-03-02T12:00:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=54565"},"modified":"2015-05-05T21:26:01","modified_gmt":"2015-05-05T20:26:01","slug":"clapper-calls-for-arming-ukrainian-forces-who-would-that-actually-empower","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2015\/03\/clapper-calls-for-arming-ukrainian-forces-who-would-that-actually-empower\/","title":{"rendered":"Clapper Calls for Arming Ukrainian Forces: Who Would That Actually Empower?"},"content":{"rendered":"

27 Feb 2015 – <\/em>It\u2019s easy to forget that just two years ago, President Obama was determined to bomb Syria and remove the Assad regime, and U.S. establishment institutions were working to lay\u00a0the groundwork for that campaign. NPR began dutifully publishing reports<\/a> from anonymous U.S. officials that Syria had stockpiled large amounts of chemical weapons; the\u00a0NYT\u00a0<\/em>was reporting<\/a> that Obama was \u201cincreasing aid to the rebels and redoubling efforts to rally a coalition of like-minded countries to forcibly bring down\u201d Assad; Secretary of State John Kerry pronounced<\/a> that\u00a0forced removal\u00a0of Assad was \u201ca matter of national security\u201d and \u201ca matter of the credibility of the United States of America.\u201d<\/p>\n

Those opposed to the anti-Assad \u201cregime change\u201d bombing campaign argued that while some of the rebellion was composed of ordinary Syrians, the \u201crebels\u201d the U.S. would arm and empower (i.e., the only\u00a0effective anti-Assad fighters) were actually violent extremists and even terrorists aligned with Al Qaeda and worse. The people arguing that were invariably smeared as\u00a0Assad apologists because this happened to be\u00a0the same argument Assad was making: that the most effective fighters against him were jihadis and terrorists.<\/p>\n

But that argument in D.C. was quickly converted\u00a0from taboo into conventional wisdom the moment\u00a0it was needed to justify U.S. involvement in Syria. The U.S. is<\/em> now bombing Syria, of course, but rather than fighting against<\/em> Assad, the Syrian dictator\u00a0is (once again<\/a>) America\u2019s ally and partner<\/a>. The rationale for the U.S. bombing campaign is the same one Assad long invoked: that those fighting against him\u00a0are worse than he is because they are aligned with Al Qeada and ISIS (even though the U.S.\u00a0funded and armed those factions for years<\/a> and their closest allies in the region continue to do so<\/a>).<\/p>\n

A similar dynamic is at play in Russia and Ukraine. Yesterday, Obama\u2019s top national security official, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, told a Senate Committee \u201cthat he supports arming Ukrainian forces against Russian-backed separatists,\u201d as the Washington Post<\/em> put it<\/a>. The U.S. has already provided \u201cnon-lethal\u201d aid to Ukrainian forces, and\u00a0Obama has said he is now considering arming them. Who, exactly, would that empower?<\/p>\n

Russian\u00a0President Vladimir Putin has long said<\/a> that the Ukrainian coup of last year, and the subsequent regime\u00a0in Kiev, is\u00a0driven by ultra-nationalists, fascists, and even neo-Nazi factions. The Russian TV outlet RT also frequently refers<\/a> to \u201cthe active role far-right groups have played on the pro-government side in Ukraine since the violent coup of the last year.\u201d<\/p>\n

For that reason, anyone pointing out that arming the regime in Kiev would strengthen fascists and neo-Nazis is instantly\u00a0accused of being a Putin propagandist: exactly like those arguing\u00a0that the best\u00a0anti-Assad\u00a0fighters were al-Qaeda-affiliated were accused of being Assad propagandists (until that became the official position of the US Government). U.S. media accounts invariably depict the conflict in Ukraine as a noble struggle waged by\u00a0the freedom-loving, pro-west democrats in Kiev against the oppressive, aggressive \u201cRussian-backed\u201d separatists in the east.<\/p>\n

But just as was true in Syria: while some involved in the Ukrainian coup were ordinary Ukrainians fighting against a corrupt and oppressive regime, these claims about the fascist thugs leading the fight\u00a0for the Kiev government are actually true<\/em>. Writing in\u00a0Foreign Policy<\/em>\u00a0from eastern Ukraine last August, Alec Luhn observed<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Pro-Russian forces have said they are fighting against Ukrainian nationalists and \u201cfascists\u201d in the conflict, and in the case of Azov and other battalions, these claims are essentially true. . . .\u00a0 The Azov Battalion, whose emblem also includes the \u201cBlack Sun\u201d occult symbol used by the Nazi SS, was founded by Andriy Biletsky, head of the neo-Nazi groups Social-National Assembly and Patriots of Ukraine.<\/p>\n

In September, Shaun Walker wrote in the Guardian<\/em><\/a> about his experience\u00a0embedding with the pro-Kiev forces of the Azov, which he called \u201cUkraine\u2019s most potent and reliable force on the battlefield against the separatists.\u201d While dismissing as \u201coverblown\u201d Russian warnings that these groups seek to ethnically cleanse all of Ukraine,\u00a0Walked\u00a0described\u00a0\u201cthe far right, even neo-Nazi, leanings of many of its members,\u201d\u00a0<\/em>and noted that \u201cAmnesty International called on the Ukrainian government<\/a> to investigate rights abuses and possible executions by the Aidar, another battalion.\u201d Walker\u2019s principal concern was that these fascist militias intend, once the separatists are vanquished, to seek control of Kiev and impose their ultra-nationalist vision on the entire country.<\/p>\n

Ever since the coup in Kiev was carried out, these unpleasant facts about the pro-government forces have been largely ignored\u00a0in most establishment U.S. media accounts, leaving a handful of commentators to point them out. In January of last year, as the coup was unfolding,\u00a0the Guardian<\/em>\u2018s Seumas Milne argued<\/a> that the west\u2019s morality narrative about Ukraine \u2013 democracy-fighters v. Putin oppressors \u2013 \u201cbears only the sketchiest relationship to reality\u201d and that, instead, \u201cfar-right nationalists and fascists have been at the heart of the protests<\/a> and attacks on government buildings.\u201d Britain\u2019s Channel 4 reported<\/a> on the central role played by far-right ultra-nationalists in that\u00a0coup, noting that Sen. John McCain traveled to the Ukrainian capital (pictured, above) and shared a stage with the worst fascist elements. Antiwar.com\u2019s Justin Raimondo has long been\u00a0warning<\/a> of \u201cthe ascension of a genuinely fascist<\/a> mass movement into the corridors of power\u201d in Kiev, noting that far from being a handful of fringe elements, \u201cthe activists of the two main fascist parties in Ukraine \u2013 Svoboda and \u2018Right Sector\u2019<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 provided the muscle the insurrectionists needed to take over government buildings in Kiev and across western Ukraine.\u201d<\/p>\n

These facts have now become so glaring that even the most mainstream organizations in the west are now being compelled to point them out. Last week, Vox published an article<\/a>\u00a0by Amanda Taub about the \u201capproximately 30 of these private armies fighting on the Ukrainian side,\u201d whose\u00a0\u201cfighters are accused of serious\u00a0human rights violations<\/a>, including kidnappings, torture, and extrajudicial executions.\u201d While claiming the militias operate largely separately from the central Kiev government, Taub nonetheless notes how central they have become to the fight against the separatists, and also acknowledges their clear use by Kiev officials:<\/p>\n

The militias have also gained more power because the Ukrainian government, led by new President Petro Poroshenko, brought them friends in high places. For instance, Arsen Avakov, Poroshenko\u2019s Minister of Internal Affairs, was previously the leader of former Prime Minister Yulia Timoshenko\u2019s political bloc in eastern Ukraine. He has a longstanding alliance<\/a> with members of the Azov Battalion, a far-right organization whose members have a history of promoting anti-Semitism and neo-Nazi<\/a> views. Avakov has has used his position to support the group, going so far as to appoint Vadim Troyan<\/a>, an Azov deputy leader, as the chief of police for the whole Kiev region. And Azov\u2019s leader, Andriy Biletsky, is now a member of parliament as well.<\/p>\n

The Intercept\u00a0<\/em>yesterday published reporting<\/a> from Marcin Mamon on the role jihadists are playing in the conflict on behalf of the government.<\/p>\n

U.S. media propaganda has not only sought to glorify the Kiev regime by suppressing all of these elements but also has actively\u00a0demonized the separatists as little more than Putin-controlled pawns. In fact, as BuzzFeed\u2019s Max Seddon describes in an excellent article<\/a> from a separatist stronghold in eastern Ukraine, those fighting against Kiev have a range of significant grievances against the Ukrainian government\u00a0quite independent of any Putin agenda, including violence against civilians and long-standing contempt for residents of the east:<\/p>\n

In the very areas Ukraine is fighting to regain, near-constant artillery bombardment and a crippling economic blockade have hardened attitudes to the point of no return. Almost every day, shelling claims the lives of civilians: someone\u2019s mother, husband, child. And every day, reconciliation between millions of Ukrainian citizens here and the Ukrainian government seems even further off.<\/p>\n

Whatever else is true, this is yet another case of the U.S. government \u2013 followed as always by its media \u2013 fabricating\u00a0a Manichean morality narrative to justify U.S. involvement and militarism. Just as the U.S. spent years funding and arming the precise\u00a0extremist elements it claims it wants to combat \u2013 in Libya, in Syria, and long before that in Afghanistan \u2013 arming Ukrainian forces would empower a monstrous crew of fascists and outright Nazi sympathizers. The coup itself, which the U.S. government supported, almost certainly did exactly that.<\/p>\n

One can debate whether\u00a0empowering such thugs is\u00a0a feature or a bug: it\u2019s hardly rare for the U.S. knowingly to arm and prop up fascists and other assorted tyrants which it believes will promote its interests (see this morning\u2019s David Ignatius column<\/a> arguing that Egyptian dictator Gen.\u00a0Abdel Fata Sisi is as bad as Mubarak when it comes\u00a0human rights abuses, but the U.S. must continue steadfastly to support him so that he preserves \u201cstability\u201d). But at least when the U.S. is in bed with regimes such as the Saudis or Egyptians, most people understand the kind of allies it has embraced. In the case of Ukraine, those facts have been almost entirely excluded from mainstream discourse. Now that Obama\u2019s leading national security official is expressly calling for the arming of those forces, it is vital that the true nature of America\u2019s allies in this conflict be understood.<\/p>\n

__________________________<\/p>\n

Email the author: glenn.greenwald@theintercept.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Go to Original \u2013 firstlook.org<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The U.S. has already provided \u201cnon-lethal\u201d aid to Ukrainian forces, and Obama has said he is now considering arming them. Who, exactly, would that empower? Russian President Vladimir Putin has long said that the Ukrainian coup of last year, and the subsequent regime in Kiev, is driven by ultra-nationalists, fascists, and even neo-Nazi factions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[207],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-54565","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-balkans-eastern-europe"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54565","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=54565"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54565\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54565"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54565"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54565"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}