Daniel DePetris’ Tribune commentary ‘Forget about diplomacy. Putin’s annexation guarantees a longer war’ is a masterwork in disinformation and misdirection.
It frames Russia’s annexation of four Ukrainian regions, Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia, into the Russian Federation, solely as an attempt to achieve victory from current Russian failures in its war against Ukraine. It further claims the annexation will make negotiations to end the war impossible.
But DePetris ignores the US role that looms large in both premises. A more likely case can be made that the annexation became inevitable when the US blew up the tentative 15 point March peace agreement brokered by NATO member Turkey that could have ended the war in its first month. Ukraine president Zelensky even hinted at such an agreement in a speech to his people.
But first, UK PM Boris Johnson, then US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, hurried to Kyiv to disabuse Zelensky of any agreement. It was critical for the US to force Ukraine to stay in the war to prevent Russia from having any role to play in the European political economy, thousands of Ukrainians needlessly being killed in the process be damned. That expanded the Russo Ukraine war into a US proxy war against Russia.
DePetris’ second premise, that annexation makes negotiations impossible, is ludicrous. Further, it’s harrowing in its acceptance, indeed justification, that the Russo Ukraine war is now America’ newest perpetual war, the first of which that may go nuclear.
It’s ludicrous because it posits that Zelensky has neither ability nor desire to pursue negotiations. That ignores the fact that Zelensky is totally dependent on US intelligence, logistics and tens of billions in weaponry to continue the war one day longer. Should the US make further assistance dependent on initiating negotiations to end the war, Zelensky would be on the phone to Russian president Putin within hours.
It’s harrowing because DePetris leaves us with no path to peace. By claiming that only Putin and Zelensky can end this war, he obliterates the universal peace process that ends virtually every war save the few in which one side obliterates the other. That is unlikely in Ukraine. What is truly harrowing is that the Chicago Tribune, through its foreign policy spokesperson DePetris, is pointing the way to eventual nuclear confrontation.
Walt Zlotow became involved in antiwar activities upon entering University of Chicago in 1963. He is current president of the West Suburban Peace Coalition based in the Chicago western suburbs. He blogs daily on antiwar and other issues at www.heartlandprogressive.blogspot.com.
Zelensky has no agency. He does what the US wants. The claim Zlotow makes here is that the US can end the war by forcing Zelensky to negotiate. That is what is ludicrous. The US has no intention of doing so or it wouldn’t have started the war in the first place.
These people who think this is going to end with some sort of negotiated peace that leaves Ukraine intact are delusional. They forget this is a war between the West and Russian. Ukraine is only a proxy and the West always, always sacrifices its proxies.
The Ukraine part of this war will end with a Russian victory and control and reformation of Ukraine. The rest of the war between Russia and the West will continue beyond that. The only thing in question is what form will it take.
Zelensky calls for the US to make a preemptive nuclear attack on Russia. Here is Andrei Martyanov’s comment:
A special address by the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9plcAPFQrHY&t=1112s
The Chicago Tribune once committed one of the gravest acts of fascist solidarity and treachery in American history. Don’t expect them to break any stories on Azov, except that it did express grave concern about the regiment during the Russian assault on Mariupol.
“The Tribune’s June 7, 1942, front page announcement that the United States had broken Japan’s naval code was the revelation by the paper of a closely guarded military secret.[29] The story revealing that Americans broke the enemy naval codes was not cleared by censors, and had U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt so enraged that he considered shutting down the Tribune.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago_Tribune#Years_of_McCormick
Destroying the narrative that the US president was unaware of the looming Pearl Harbor attack in advance.
The great Chicago Tribune of those days has *absolutely* no connection to the Chicago Tribune of today beyond the name. The paper even abandoned the Colonel’s beloved Tribune Tower.
There is nothing “great” about committing treason to help the war effort of Nazis. And as far as that goes, history doesn’t repeat Itself, but it often rhymes.
“Many still believe the Tribune carried a story saying that the Jap code had been broken. Actually, the Tribune story merely listed the names of a number of Japanese battleships. The spelling of the names was that used in the naval code and not that listed in Jane’s Fighting Ships…The Japanese couldn’t get a copy of the Tribune…” (Lol, no internet in those days)
From newsman Walter Trohan’s memoirs on p.179.
The first actual word the Japanese got that their naval code had ben broken was from an intercepted radio broadcast by Jewish proto-neocon Walter Winchell. But they didn’t believe him because they were convinced the code was unbreakable. That’s from the same page of the same book. There’s more about the attempt to prosecute that was actually rejected by the grand jury-something that never happens in the Slave America of today.
“One day while going to the bridge, he passed through the captain’s cabin, where an open message lay on the desk. Johnston told the Grand Jury he did not touch the message, but memorized its content. This was the basis for his article. Rear Admiral Theodore S. Wilkinson, then Director of Naval Intelligence, used his influence and power to prevent any naval officer from appearing before the Grand Jury. Hence, the jury knew nothing about the breaking and using of a Japanese naval code. William D. Mitchell, therefore, had to tell the press on 20 August 1942 that “no violation of the Espionage Act had been disclosed.”
https://www.usni.org/magazines/proceedings/1977/september/freedom-press-or-treason
To close this particular historical loop, perhaps we will have a trial of Trump, or perhaps he is blackmailing the government by threatening to reveal some fatally damaging information? Or do you have some alternative, antisemitic theory?
Walter Winchell was the kind of guy who made it very clear he was Jewish. Neoconservatism began as a Jewish movement-books have been written about that . If Justin Raimondo were still alive, he wouldn’t hesitate to tell you Jewish neocons were the main driving force behind the campaign for the Iraq War in 2003. Raimondo was a top aide to Pat Buchanan in his first campaign, he wasn’t the kind of guy to have an aneurysm if someone pointed out that (for example) Hollywood was basically a Jewish shop.
Neoconservatism neither began as, nor has ever been, a “Jewish movement.” It’s always been a movement in which many if not most prominent figures are Jews. There’s a difference. Most of the workers at my local McDonald’s seem to be African-American, but that doesn’t make McDonald’s an “African-American restaurant.”