To the Editor:
Even if the Iran conflict fortuitously ended tomorrow—a huge “if”—humankind would still find itself in mortal peril of global conflagration. That’s because Ukraine, egged on by its desperate European sponsors, is recklessly escalating assaults on purely-civilian Russian targets, with the unmistakable intent of provoking Moscow’s reaction and a wider war—ironically, precisely when leading Western narratives underpinning this bloody meat-grinder now stand exposed as utterly fraudulent.
How many times have Americans heard the phrase, “Russia’s unprovoked invasion”? Recently declassified U.K. documents blow that fakery to smithereens. They quote British diplomats, assuring their Russian counterparts in February 1997, that NATO would not offer membership to ex-Soviet republics (like Ukraine), because this would understandably “aggravate” Moscow. British then-PM John Major repeated that formulation one month later, consistent with the solemn 1990 U.S. pledge not to expand NATO “one inch eastward,” in exchange for Soviet noninterference with German reunification. If ripping those promises to shreds doesn’t constitute a provocation, then that word has no meaning.
Similarly, how often have we been told that charging Kyiv with harboring neo-Nazis is mere Russian propaganda? Yet on May 19th, Zelenskyy obtained the remains of one Andriy Melnyk for reburial in Ukraine as a national hero, calling him “a thorn in the side of the Kremlin.” Indeed, he was—as a leading Nazi collaborator! Melnyk joined the German spy service in 1938, cheered on Hitler’s 1941 invasion of the U.S.S.R., and with the Bukovinian Battalion actively participated in the Holocaust. He even wrote a 1942 pamphlet, extolling the Nazi “new order” and “the crusade against Moscow.” Melnyk joins other Ukrainian fascists (Bandera, Lebed, etc.) as among Kyiv’s highest honorees.
We’re spending hundreds of billions to defend this?!
Ominously, it’s now gotten way beyond money and weapons. Growing signs indicate that Ukrainian drone strikes on Russia not only transit NATO countries’ airspaces, but are being launched from their territories. Mistaking Putin’s patience for weakness would be a monumentally strategic blunder. We’re moving ever closer to the point where Russian retaliation against Kyiv’s non-Ukrainian enablers plunges humanity into complete catastrophe.
Please tell me: For what?
Sincerely, Doug Mallouk
