A dark character in the Ukrainian crisis
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Atilio A. Boron
- 2 Feb 2022 23:22
- 12 Shares
5 Min Read
Victoria Nuland, and with her the "hawks" in Washington, are the most radicalized and violent expression of imperialism in its turbulent phase of decline.
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For fanatics like Nuland, Kagan, and all the American neocons, war is the only way to regain the lost international hegemony
Ukraine seems doomed to infinite suffering. To its current domestic problems (economic crisis and corruption, according to the European Union) and in addition to those arising from the possible confrontation between NATO troops and Russia in its troubled territory, the dreadful presence of Victoria Nuland - Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs- has been added in recent days to the negotiations between Washington and Moscow.
Nuland's murky background rarely comes to light in the hegemonic press, inside and outside the United States. She is depicted as a career diplomat but more than anything she is a lobbyist for the “military-industrial complex” in her country, including General Dynamics, Northrop Grumman and other corporations whose profits grow in proportion to the warmongering of the United States foreign policy; profits which in part they return to their supporters in the federal agencies of Washington, including Nuland and others of the sort.
It is not a minor fact that she is married to Robert Kagan, one of the harshest warmongering neoconservatives, and that together they participate in a series of organizations and think tanks dedicated to exalt the “indispensable” American supremacism in world affairs. Both have a significant share of responsibility because they count among those who designed the tremendous military failures in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Syria, among other war adventures.
Between 2003 and 2005 Nuland was one of the main advisers to Vice President Dick Cheney and a fervent promoter of the invasion and occupation of Iraq, a policy that over the years produced a balance of half a million dead, although some estimates throw much higher figures. In his second term in office, President George W. Bush rewarded Nuland for her belligerence and appointed her ambassador to NATO between 2005 and 2008, during which time she devoted herself to organizing the international support for the US occupation in Afghanistan.
In 2013, Barack Obama appointed her Deputy Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs, a position from which she actively promoted the protests of nationalist and neo-Nazi groups against the government of Viktor Yanukovych, then president of Ukraine and representative of the Party of Regions, opposed to the assimilation of Ukraine by the European Union and NATO. Nuland not only sponsored the "soft coup" (which culminated in numerous bloody episodes) but, exceeding his powers, personally participated in the demonstrations that the extreme right staged in Kyiv's Maidan Square at the end of December 2013.
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Victoria Nuland and Geoffrey Pyatt together toured the opposition camp in Kyiv in December 2013
After the parliamentary removal of the Yanukovych government on February 22, 2014, the open US intervention in the internal affairs of Ukraine became even more visible. Despite the fact that Washington assured that the problems of Ukraine should be resolved by the Ukrainians, Nuland and Geoffrey Pyatt, the United States ambassador in Kyiv, were in charge of selecting who, among the opposition leaders, should take the reins of the new government.
The American option fell on Arseni Petrovich Yatseniuk, a lawyer and politician closely linked to the financial community who on February 27, 2014, was appointed as Prime Minister of Ukraine. In a leaked telephone conversation between Pyatt and Nuland, the ambassador suggested that before making the proposal in favor of Yatseniuk (who snubbed other opposition leaders) it would be advisable to check the opinion of the high-ranking members of the European Union. Nuland's response was coarse and vicious, and thus it was recorded and spread throughout the world: "F*** the European Union!" The subservient governments of the region, unworthy vassals of Washington according to Zbigniew Brzezinski, meekly accepted the offense. Angela Merkel and the President of the European Council, Herman Van Rompuy, limited themselves to saying that Nuland’s diplomatic blunder was "absolutely unacceptable" without demanding any disavowal from the White House. The incident proved the extent of the moral and political bankruptcy of the European governments!
Nuland, and with her the "hawks" in Washington, are the most radicalized and violent expression of imperialism in its turbulent phase of decline.
A few days ago, and this is the reason why I am writing this note, Nuland declared that if the Russian invasion of Ukraine materializes, the "Nord-Stream 2" gas pipeline -designed to transport gas from Russia to Western Europe without passing through Ukrainian territory- will not be able to start working. If there is one thing we can be sure of, it is that the rising role of Nuland is bad news because it will reduce the chances of finding a diplomatic solution to the current Ukrainian crisis.
Nuland, and with her the "hawks" in Washington, are the most radicalized and violent expression of imperialism in its turbulent phase of decline. They believe in the "civilizing mission" of their country (hence the idea of ​​the United States as "the indispensable nation") and consider Russia and China as barbaric nations that threaten the stability of the current world (dis)order and that the only language both understand is that of force.
That is why NATO has Russia encircled from the Baltic to the Black Sea and the US war fleet is approaching Taiwan. For fanatics like Nuland, Kagan, and all the American neocons, war is the only way to regain the lost international hegemony, even if they pay lip service to diplomacy.
