The immediate cause of the MH17 disaster was a missile shot by pro-Russian forces who mistook it for one of the military aircraft they had been regularly shooting down. It is a terrible tragedy – and tragically not unique. There have been several such events in my lifetime, including the USS Vincennes incident and the Soviet downing of a Korean airliner.
The problem is that Vladimir Putin has revived the Soviet cult of perfectionism – the idea that the state simply cannot make a mistake. That Putin-backed forces could commit an error is therefore unthinkable, as that would imply that Putin made an error in backing and supplying them. Putin cannot make errors. We have therefore seen a stream of desperate propaganda stories emanating from the Russian media, such as the allegation that it was the government in Kiev attempting to shoot down Putin himself. These narratives are aimed at the domestic Russian nationalist audience, but are accepted by the small band of ardent Putin supporters in the West.
Many people in the West, myself included, have been shocked and alienated by the rampant and vicious immorality of Western foreign policy in what I might call the neo-con era, with the ascendancy of Bush and Blair marking a step change in the open use of military force to grab natural resources – a return to the Imperial heyday. The veneer of concern for democracy and human rights layered over Guantanamo, extraordinary rendition, the curtailment of long-cherished civil rights at home and the mass compound crimes of Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya, led to a visceral revulsion.
Putin’s successful opposition to western designs on Syria and Iran gave the impression, quite probably correctly, that a revived Russia was the only effective obstacle to western hegemony, China being passive. But unfortunately this led some who opposed Western neo-imperialism to join in the hero worship of Putin.
The mechanisms of this vary. In my view, the largest number are people who are not psychologically equipped to fight over-mighty power everywhere, which is a lonely path, and prefer the much easier option of joining the entourage of a big power, and convincing themselves that power is good. It is comforting to feel part of a powerful team. Some of course are paid by the Russians, and you see them turning up on Russia Today both as presenters and interviewees, but these are a small section. Some were supporters of the Soviet Union.
What is perhaps most extraordinary is that, the very things which these people criticise most about Western society, Russia and Putin do much worse. At the most fundamental level, the disparity of wealth between rich and poor in Russia is far, far worse than the still appalling level it has reached in the West.
The total Russian economy is 20% smaller than the total British economy. Yet Russia has almost three times as many billionaires as the UK, and the Russian billionaires’ combined wealth is over six times the combined wealth of British billionaires.
Go figure. Yet the delusional continue to contrive to believe that Russia is an alternative to global capitalism.
Russia is not only a much more unequal society than the West. It also much worse in the field of civil liberties and media freedom. Scores of real journalists have been killed, mostly unheard of internationally. The free media has vanished. In the West, the field of opinion reflected in the mainstream media has narrowed right down. In the UK, Andrew Gilligan was sacked for telling the truth about Iraqi WMD, while his source was murdered. But the West is moving in the direction of autocracy; Russia is already there. It in no sense represents an alternative, freer society than the West.
Nor is Russia any less imperialist. Putin is in fact an extremely aggressive nationalist imperialist, as his annexations of Abkhazia and Crimea have shown. Highly significant is the legislation just passed to award Russian nationality to ethnic Russians in former Soviet states. That is racially based legislation. It means for example that 40% of the population of Kazakhstan potentially become Russian citizens, with similar figures in the Baltic states. It is highly aggressive and designed to have destabilising potential.
One fact which has become undeniably clear in the Ukraine is that the pro-Russian insurgency in the East is commanded by members of the Russian military and security forces like Strelkov who are Russian, not Ukrainian citizens, and they are under tactical and strategic supervision from Russia. Again, the self-hating fantasist tendency in the West manage to convince themselves that what is happening in East Ukraine is massive destruction of civilian populations by NATO forces.
People who are that removed from reality cannot be helped.
Much more dangerous are those who do have a grip on reality, who understand exactly what is really happening, and who don’t care. That sums up the position of almost all western governments. The truth is that the financial interests of all those Russian billionaires are completely linked in with those of the super-rich of the West. To take only the UK as an example, these are the people Tony Blair, Peter Mandelson and Boris Johnson lunch and have holidays with. These are the people who employ Gerhard Schroeder and David Owen as lapdogs.
Nobody is more annoyed than Angela Merkel at the downing of MH17, not because she cares about those dead people, but because of the massive effort she has put into ensuring that, whatever Russia does in Ukraine, German economic interests will not be affected. Germany gets most of its electricity from Russian gas, and both Siemens and Mercedes, on a daily basis, have been lobbying Merkel to make sure that nothing is done that hurts German economic interests. Cameron has been receiving the same lobbying from his banker mates. In both these cases, the politicians are being talked to by the people who finance them.
The result is that there has been a strong diplomatic push, particularly by Germany, to divert the question of sanctions on to matters of process. The problem is not Russia trying to annex bits of Ukraine and funding, arming and staffing the destabilisation of a European state. The Germans are seeking to define the problem down to whether or not Russia cooperates in various stages of the air crash investigation.
Putin will continue his dangerous expansionist nationalism because it is a self-trapping path for a politician to take; but also he is encouraged that whatever he does, nobody makes any serious moves to stop him. The people on MH17 were killed because of the pusillanimity of Western politicians, financed and guided by the financial elite.
The pathetic “sanctions” adopted by the US and EU so far have been specifically designed to be completely toothless. They target middle and lower ranking individuals without major western links anyway. None of the top ten largest Russian billionaires has been touched.
Russia’s richest man – Alisher Usmanov – is extremely close to Putin and as chairman of Gazprominvestholdings has been directly involved for a decade in pressurising Ukraine, and was also Putin’s chosen instrument for closing down the free media. But you won’t see Usmanov on any sanctions list – he has 10% of Facebook, 29% of Arsenal FC, the most expensive mansion in Surrey and numerous other western connections, not to mention he is Gerhard Schroeder and David Owen’s direct boss.
Much has been said of the 1.2 billion dollars contract for two amphibious assault vessels Russia has ordered from France. Amphibious assault! Where?
But, actually much more interesting, 1.2 billion dollars incredibly happens to be the combined value of four of the World’s largest luxury yachts, which met together off Cap Ferrat and Antibes from 10 to 16 June this year. They are Dilbar, Madame Gu, Grand Bleu and Hermitage.
In Putin’s Russia, government, organised crime and secret services are absolutely integrated. All were well represented at the series of meetings that took place on those yachts, where deals were done on everything from metal prices to heroin – and Ukraine. If US drones had wanted to do some good in the world, there was their target, but they were too busy killing some 16 year old kid, and numerous bystanders, in Waziristan or Yemen for a dangerous interpretation of the Koran. None of the people at those meetings will appear on any sanctions list, though they are the men who rule Russia with Putin. They will all still be very welcome in boardrooms in London, Berlin and New York.
If Europe had followed from the start the excellent leadership offered by Radek Sikorski, the passengers on MH17 would not have died. I should like to think that the European Council will start to listen to Sikorski now. But I doubt it.
Someone said this:-
” Ask a Jew if they are a Zionist and many will say no.
Ask the non-Zionist Jews if they oppose what is being done in occupied Palestine and they will say yes.
Ask those non-Zionist Jews to, even a tiny way, actively work for the end of the occupation and get every Jew except those whose families were there in the 1920’s out of Palestine and they will to a man or woman say no.
Ergo most “non-Zionist& quote; Jews believe in Jewish supremacy.
Ergo they are doomed eventually because they can fool some of the people all of the time and all of the people some of the time but they can’t fool all of the people all of the time.”
Yet:-
A. Is there any truth in this?
B. Is there a disconnect between the actuality of the human rights abuses and the wiliness to call “pain” by its true name when there are undeniable human rights abuses?
C. How does Zionism square with the rule of international law – or – can it ever square?
@Phil: When did I say I forgave Grosny? I’m not going to flick back but do remember saying that in my opinion all bombing of civilians is terrorism… the world went mad in the 20th century, but I would have hoped that by the 21st political leaders would have learned from their military mistakes.
Charles Crawford
Thank you for your excellent post and I wish you would comment on this blog more often. You certainly hit the nail on the head this time.
BTW pay no attention to poster “Jives” – it’s well known that he’s not very bright and an attention-seeker.
Well done, Craig! Your excellent posts have left the mad leftists fulminating with rage. Just reading through the comments here is a real eye opener as to the mentality of these characters. They simply cannot accept that gangster Putin and his proxies are anything but a benign force in the world. They hate their own country and the West in general to the degree that they have blindly allowed themselves to be swayed by the most corrupt of foreign regimes. They deny all the evidence, but when the evidence becomes overwhelming they just make excuses. There’s really no cure for these types as we found out yonks ago. They will go down believing in Mother Russia or anyone who opposes the West, whatever their record.
“How does Zionism square with the rule of international law ”
By utilizing the Law the way any lawyer worth his salt would; By shaping it as they go.
Take for example Cast Lead where non-military targets like bulldozers and water tenders were destroyed by design. They managed to get concessions from HRW that if such items could be used in the future for military purpose, then it was ok.
Kinda like the idea of ‘pre-crime’. It all depends on whether you can afford the best lawyers.
Gordon (re Radek Sikorski)
“A more right-wing Zionist prick you cannot imagine.”
______________________
Why “Zionist”, Gordon?
Is it because he’s married to the Anne Applebaum you mentioned, who’s Jewish?
If that’s your argument, then you’re an ignorant c**t.
Craig, don’t you think that if the AngloZionist Empire had proof that it was the Russians, or their proxies in Eastern Ukraine, that downed MH17, then they would have released it by now? Where are the satellite images? Where is the radar info?
But all they spout is hot air, emphatic assertions with zero actual evidence. Just like they did about the Syrian chemical weapons last year. And of course we all now know that their claims then were utterly false.
I am a great admirer of your work, but in this case your prejudices seem to have got the better of you.
I agree with Salford Lad; for a more balanced view you should look at this blog: http://vineyardsaker.blogspot.co.uk/
You would be well served to study The Saker in some detail Craig, his Ukraine archive is extensive and compelling. You would learn a lot more about Ukraine than you appear to know just now.
On the subject of pseudo-dissidence, not to mention the Unionist-BBC onslaught against Scottish independence, here’s the establishment’s old friend – last seen waving a Ukrainian flag in the general direction of a Russian conductor – calling upon Alex Salmon to denounce, get this, “homophobia in the Commonwealth”:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-28425024
The Peter Tatchell Foundation sounds increasingly like the Ford Foundation.
Anon
“They deny all the evidence, but when the evidence becomes overwhelming they just make excuses.”
___________________
Good post, Anon.
You omitted to mention that, on past evidence (Craig’s previous posts on Ukraine/Russia), the loonies will not stop at making excuses – they will accuse Craig of being a SIS/CIA/neocon stooge, or angling for a job at the FCO, or of being mad, or even that he’s going to lose his wife (numerous previous comments on those threads refer).
******************
Habbabkuk against racsim, Putin-worship and…lunacy.
Shame how these missiles got everybody so jumpy that a crappy little Grad near Ben-Gurion has got the Zionazis all bottled at home like Saddam was. No flights out of Tel Aviv. Don’t laugh, it’s not funny.
Why, I wonder, is Mr Goss (BSc in distortion and misinformation, NKVD University) absent from this discussion?
Perhaps he’s sounding off chez Squonk again?
“the world went mad in the 20th century, but I would have hoped that by the 21st political leaders would have learned from their military mistakes.”
LOL. OK I give up.
” You would learn a lot more about Ukraine than you appear to know just now.”
He’s already learned not to deny neo-nazi’s in Kiev, not that he would admit it.
Anon
Yup, he’s on Squonk, conversing with California Ben, who is spreading his usual poison about Craig, as in
“It’ll just bounce off his armadillo hide, John. I’ve had a post removed that was totally on topic, but if you take it as cough medicine without complaint, it will persist.
I’ve asked a simple question about his entire premise of the last two posts, and he hasn’t the courtesy to respond. I think he’s still interviewing for a job with Charles Crawford.”
I told you to insinuations and slanders wouldn’t be long in coming! (except that they haven’t yet summoned up the balls to post that sort of shit on CM itself)
*******************
Phil: I understand your exasperation… and it is so easy to be negative in a debate to make your opponent look a fool. But what have you achieved? I’ve deliberately avoiding asking you what you would do about Russia, US and their conflicting purposes for Ukraine. I get the impression that you are mightily pissed off, but don’t have any answers of your own.
“Shame how these missiles got everybody so jumpy that a crappy little Grad near Ben-Gurion has got the Zionazis all bottled at home like Saddam was. No flights out of Tel Aviv. Don’t laugh, it’s not funny.”
It’s hilarious, actually. We all know that Hamas rockets had/have the entire population of Israel in a state of terror, living on their nerves. But when the FAA orders US airlines to stop flying to Ben Gurion airport after a rocket attack on a nearby town, suddenly Netanyahu’s crowd are going frantic telling everyone, “No, it’s all totally safe! Don’t stop flying in!”
https://twitter.com/CNNSitRoom/status/491673199206490113
Where have all these Pete Fairhursts, Paul Rigbys, MJs and so forth come from?
They’re so on message one suspects they’re graduated from the Mary & John University
of Disinformation and Lies (“lunacy our speciality”).
They are the successor generation.
Thanks for x-posting that here, havasack. It has more gravitas coming from you as I think Craig has applied HABBABREAK to avoid my missives.
More interesting; what FCO crack did Charles Crawford crawl out of?
Or it may be that Putin is losing control and doesn’t want to lose face by admitting it. With Putin, I think it’s important to be very careful what you wish for – he may not be a bona fide democratic leader but he is nevertheless keeping Russia together as a relatively cohesive and humane society. This is something that Russia did not have for most of the 20th century.
Yeah. Even if you think Putin is Saddam, the Tikriti inspired less bloodshed than the vacuum his removal by Western hegemony has sown. The Pottery Barn Rule ‘Break it; buy it’ is the only redeemable legacy of Colon Bowel.
Hi Habbabkuk, I don’t know where you have come from either and I’m glad about that. Certainly, judging by the consistent anger and insults in your numerous posts on this thread, I’d rather not find out. Goodbye
“Where are the satellite images?”
What do you think this data would mean to the general public?
What do you think it would look like and what do you think it would prove to someone without the ability to interpret it?
What good would it do to print a white fuzzy line on a black background in the world’s newspapers? People would still have to take it on trust that that was the contrail of a missile and that it was somewhere in the Ukraine.
Sometimes America tells the truth, sometimes they don’t, this time I believe them because I honestly do not believe anyone would have shot down that plane deliberately. Nobody had enough to gain to outweigh the risk. The only explanation that makes sense is that it was mistaken for a military plane by someone who would not have had the capability to know that it wasn’t. I don’t think Russia was involved, I think it was shot down by a Ukrainian SAM unit which had defected to the separatist side. No other explanation makes any sense. Nobody who had the capability to do it has come out smelling of roses.
Poor old Habbabkuk, ranting and whining and smearing…and losing.
What’s really interesting is the increasing mess Uncle Sam is getting itself into. The German’s are wandering off America’s NATO reservation, and all the vile old cowboy can do is bluster and threaten. The latest evidence of rift?
NY Fed Slams Deutsche Bank (And Its €55 Trillion In Derivatives): Accuses It Of “Significant Operational Risk”
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-07-22/ny-fed-slams-deutsche-bank-and-its-%E2%82%AC55-trillion-derivatives-accuses-it-significant-o
Troubling times, indeed, eh,Habby, not least for Uncle’s British fifth columnists?
Well, Fred here’s someone who doesn’t believe the US.
Here’s his theory:
“Malaysian Airliner Massacre is Wall Street-City of London Riposte to Fortaleza Summit’s Creation of BRICS Bank, The Most Formidable Challenge Yet to International Monetary Fund, World Bank, Federal Reserve and Dollar Domination of World Trade; Putin Should Implement Full Glazyev Dirigism in Response to New US Sanctions.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oQMLCC1XRjQ
@Fred: Whoever is/isn’t telling the truth, that would sound like a perfect compromise. Only problem is that the medya (and families?) will want some trophy exhibits to put on trial and send to a “neutral” jail for a good few years. Hopefully not an obvious patsy like that retired Libyan.
As a charter member of the Association for the Abolition of the Aberrant Apostrophe (Keith Waterhouse be praised), humble apologies for the possessive “German’s” instead of the proper plural, “Germans.”
yup. Merkel is being nudged back into the fold with not-so-subtle means. I don’t think she is easily coerced out of the foul mood NSA has put her into.
Peacewisher
“I get the impression that you are mightily pissed off, but don’t have any answers of your own.”
Your impressions are laughable. You have no idea how laughable. Go on please tell me again about the “current red army”.
“I don’t think she is easily coerced out of the foul mood NSA has put her into”
The prospect of Germany’s biggest bank going to the wall might snap her out of that foul mood.