Digest #7 - Ukraine: The Art of the Con, ‘Tactical’ democracy & Legal argument to starve children
Ukraine: The Art of the Con
The deal struck between the United States and Ukraine overnight has to be one of the biggest hatchet jobs in global politics. To understand why, we must take our minds back a few decades to 1994.
After the collapse of the USSR, Ukraine had the largest arsenal of nuclear weapons in the world. The US brokered a deal between Ukraine and Russia for the former to hand over all its nukes to the Russians. In exchange for this Ukraine would be financially recompensed and its security would be assured by the US, Britain and Russia. (read more here).
Thirty years later when Russia attacked Ukraine (ironic I know) , Ukraine rightly looked towards its friends to keep it safe. However both (as is the way) looked the other way. With the US offering the bulk of the financial support to keep Ukraine’s war effort going; giving just enough to keep the Russians out but never enough to allow Ukraine to strike a decisive blow. Zelensky was kept on a short leash, continually begging for more support.
What Ukraine is learning is that there is no such thing as a free lunch, someone has to pay. The bullying tactics of the US were on display when Zelensky met Trump at the Whitehouse.
Ukraine may be hailing the mineral deal as some kind of victory because they don’t owe the US any debt. There are details about sharing of revenue, reconstruction of Ukraine and the likes.
Going back to 1994 and looking at today there is only one clear winner. A warning for all nations that when the US offers support it offers it with a forked tongue.
‘Tactical’ democracy
The very notion of choice is that it allows someone to select the thing that they want the most. Give this choice to a five-year-old and they will always choose chocolate over a stick of celery; the same could be true of a 50-year-old , no one likes celery.
When a choice is made not purely on taste but on the intellect, then it becomes more profound; the choice is a reflection of the mindset of a person. The latter, in theory at least, is how democracy works. The masses choose a candidate from a list based on what they would want from an MP, a councillor, or a political party. This is the time to be principled.
Said out loud like that, democracy seems feasible. People come out on a sun-drenched Thursday, into school halls up and down the country, and make their choice. The reality is the kind of Machiavellian ‘tactical’ voting that will take place today; in an attempt to keep Reform UK from winning council seats. The same kind Muslims engaged in to vote in pro-Palestine candidates in the last election, knowing they disagree with their core ideological stances.
Today, when Tory voters vote Liberal Democrat to keep Reform UK out of office, stop and think: what happened to making principled choices?
The reality is democracy is about maintaining political power or stopping your opponents obtaining it and not about principles.
Source: here
The US offers legal argument to starve children
The US has given its backing to Israel’s ban on Unrwa delivering aid to Gaza.
Joshua Simmons, the US state department's legal adviser offered the legal position as to why Israel was not obliged to allow Unrwa to deliver aid. You can see the video here.
What kind of depraved international order has to listen to legal argument before children are fed?
David Lamy is doing David Lamy things
Remember David Lamy , of ‘dead raped babies’ infamy, foreign secretary of Britain, spreader of lies, beholden to god knows who for god knows what. He along with Macron of France wants to recognise a Palestinian state.
Apart from the fact the two state solution is a farce, what happened to all the dead babies Lamy? what kind of man negotiates with baby rapists? or was all of that just a lie?