Eamonn Kelly: Don’t Mention The War

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From top: Russian President Vladimir Putin; Eamonn Kelly

The Week That Was

I’m guessing that RTÉs love affair with “Keev” over “Kiev” is an outcome of overly sensitive identity politics, driven by a fear of offending the natives of a country being over-run by Russian tanks. The Ukrainians might one day forgive Russia, but will they ever forgive RTÉ for mispronouncing Kiev?

Who To Believe?

In the media the challenge for the ordinary person, as ever, is to wonder who to believe about anything. While the Western media are calling Russia’s attack an “invasion”, the Russian media prefer the more benign “military operation”, coyly failing to mention that this involves one of the world’s strongest armies firing missiles into people’s apartment blocks.

The argument of who started it was in full swing at time of writing. To simplify, it is generally agreed that invading neighbouring countries is not the done thing. However, encroaching on countries with guided missiles and causing them to react in fear, is not very good form either. This appears to be the basic premise on which opinions differ.

Back in 1962 the Russians encroached on the US by having their friend Castro point some missiles at the US from Cuba. The US military immediately wanted to invade Cuba, but JFK resisted that drastic action in the belief that this could trigger a nuclear exchange, and instead went for back-door diplomacy.

This resulted in the Russians removing the missiles from Cuba in exchange for the US removing missiles from Turkey where they had been placed earlier, encroaching on Russia, revealing the Cuba move as a tat to the US Turkish tit.

Many people clearly still prefer to believe in good guys in white hats and bad guys in black hats. But what if neither side are good guys?

Encroachment

Noam Chomsky, John Pilger and others of the traditional left appear to see something similar in the Ukrainian situation, where former Soviet countries are now members of NATO, essentially placing Russia within striking distance, much as the US had been placed within missile reach in 1962.

From this they conclude that the encroachment is a provocation and that strictly speaking the invasion of Ukraine is understandable, if not necessarily commendable, since invading other countries is seen as a greater crime than encroachment.

So far so predictable. But then Nigel Farage takes the same view as the traditional left, and suddenly you’re wondering, if you’re Mick Wallace for instance, Am I now in the same camp as Nigel Farage? Is there even a left and right anymore now that the US Republican party seems to be rooting for Putin?

Complicating the issue even further is the fact that sitting right next door to autocratic Russia is a western style democracy, no matter how flawed western-style democracies might be in an ideal world. The last thing an autocratic leader like Putin needs is a democracy next door, setting a “bad” example for citizens who refuse to buy into his sole authority.

Israel

On top of all this you have critics of American foreign policy never tiring of asking that if it’s such a crime for one country to invade the territory of another country, how does the US justify continued support for Israel, who have clearly been appropriating Palestinian lands for a few generations now?

This of course leads in to the western ally in the middle east question, and the role of oil supplies in geo-political calculations, not to mention memories of 9/11, the Crusades and the broader religious divides of Islam, Christianity, anti-Semitism and World War II, which leads you neatly back to Russia’s claims that Ukraine is “infested” with “Nazis”.

John Pilger in his article of February 17, “War in Europe and the Rise of Raw Propaganda”, on the MPN news site, writes:

“On 16 December [2021], the United Nations tabled a resolution that called for ‘combating glorification of Nazism, neo-Nazism and other practices that contribute to fuelling contemporary forms of racism’. The only nations to vote against it were the United States and Ukraine.”

Make of that what you will.

Monitoring Mission

Craig Murray, former Ambassador to Uzbekistan in the Blair government who became a whistle-blower on human rights violations in Uzbekistan and was subsequently removed from his post for his troubles, writes in his latest blog post, “Ukraine: Where to Find the Truth in Enormous Detail”, that there is an international monitoring mission in Ukraine, called the “Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) Monitoring Mission,” which is now being described by western media as “biased”.

This monitoring mission in Ukraine represents 57 states, including Ireland, and has been “operating in conflict zones for over half a century…There are 700 monitors, and they have been in Ukraine since 2014…”

The monitoring mission’s job was “…to patrol both sides of the civil war conflict zone and to record infringements of the ceasefire and de-escalation agreements, bringing these to the attention of the relevant authorities…”

Murray claims that Western mainstream media have decided to ignore the reports from Ukraine by these monitors because the truth is the opposite of the picture they [western media] wish to paint.”

Murray’s view seems to support the provocation angle. But the problem with that is that it inadvertently casts Putin as a victim, which, given the delicate nuances of identity politics, is an idea that could really mess with Western heads.

More Views

On “Triggernometry”, a You Tube show and podcast hosted by comedians Konstantin Kisin, who is a Russian married to a Ukrainian, and Francis Foster who is English, the February 24 posting had Kisin discussing the hour-long speech Putin gave outlining his reasons for the invasion of Ukraine, a speech which has been largely ignored by western media in which Putin explained why Ukraine is an accident of history and shouldn’t exist. This would be like Boris Johnson explaining why our republic shouldn’t exist.

Kisin holds the view that Russia was emboldened by the West’s lackadaisical reaction when Russia first invaded Ukraine in 2014, igniting a low-level civil war in the regions of Donetsk and Lugansk, and giving Putin the idea that Ukraine might be take-able without too much international friction.

Kisin comes to the conclusion that, far from being intimidated by the West surrounding Russia with missiles, Putin sees the West as distracted, interested only in “pronouns”, making it weak and ineffectual, creating the ideal conditions for an autocratic leader to put some expansionist plans into action.

These expansionist plans rely really on the same strategy of “defending” minority ethnic Russian people in other countries and then invading, say Latvia, Lithuania and all the other former soviet-bloc countries who have recently joined NATO.

Crisis Deepens

Meanwhile, over in RTÉ, the crisis deepened as it became clear that not everyone was on board with the re-pronunciation of Kiev, with Tony Connelly, reporting from Kiev itself, still calling the city by its old name and in real danger now of offending sensitivities.

Someone in RTÉ is bound to correct him soon enough, before any real damage is done, while Vladimir Putin hints at nuking countries, and our own Vlad marks the day when war broke out in Europe by, yes you guessed it, attacking Sinn Féin, who are clearly at fault in the entire debacle.

Eamonn Kelly is a Galway-based  freelance Writer and Playwright.

Previously: Eamonn Kelly on Broadsheet

Sam Boal/RollingNews

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15 thoughts on “Eamonn Kelly: Don’t Mention The War

  1. tom2

    “where former Soviet countries are now members of NATO, essentially placing Russia within striking distance, much as the US had been placed within missile reach in 1962.”

    Have you never heard of ICBMs?

    1. Timid

      Latest news is Ukraine apparently is being fast tracked to become members of the EU
      So technically if this bullpoo ramps up we as members of the EU are technically at war with Russia and the bad news might have to honour PESCO Which Leo or was it mehole signed is up to
      So maybe Irish meat to the grinder
      Not to mention our strategic position regarding shipping for supplies to the EU
      So ports airports all legit targets when a war exists

  2. Nigel

    ‘essentially placing Russia within striking distance,’

    tom2 got in before me but the entire world has been in striking distance of nuclear missiles since the introduction of ICBMs.

    ‘how does the US justify continued support for Israel, who have clearly been appropriating Palestinian lands for a few generations now?’

    It’s international geoplotics. Weighing up moral complexities on the historical level does no good if you can’t exercise clear judgement on current events. Historically, Saddam Hussein gassed the Kurds, that didn’t make the invasion of Iraq legitimate.

    ‘because the truth is the opposite of the picture they [western media] wish to paint.”’

    So, Ukraine invaded Russia?

    ‘which leads you neatly back to Russia’s claims that Ukraine is “infested” with “Nazis”.’

    It clearly has too many Nazis but so does Russia and Germany and the US, and while they are clearly a problem for the countries they happen to be in, unless you’re asserting that this is, indeed, a rational and acceptable reason for one country to imvade another, they’re irrelevant. Isn’t Putin’s top adviser, Dugin, an actual Nazi? Isn’t Putin following his game plan as laid out in the guy’s actual books?

    ‘Murray’s view seems to support the provocation angle.’

    Not without taking into account Putin’s clear territorial ambitions over Ukraine. Then it bcomes a pretext.

    ‘given the delicate nuances of identity politics, is an idea that could really mess with Western heads.’

    Nobody sees Putin as a victim. Even his supporters, boosters, enablers and apologists think he’s a virile manly genius who toys with his enemies like a cat with a mouse. And not for nothing, ethnonationalism is the predominant form of identity politics in the world at the moment, not just the West, and it ain’t delicate.

    ‘Putin sees the West as distracted, interested only in “pronouns”, making it weak and ineffectual,’

    I buy the first part, but the middle bit hides the evil violent homphobia of Putn and his regime. I doubt he buys in to the cutlure war ‘pronouns’ hate his money and troll farms help promote in the EU and US as acceptable forms of civilised homophobia per se, his is the full-on evil reactionary opression of minorities, and the ‘pronouns’ hate is his way of rallying people in the West who share his contempt for the progressive inclusive cultures they live in.

    1. E Kelly

      Nigel, you need to brush up on your irony. The point being, if encroachers are the villains it follows that Putin would have to be the victim. As for the rest, you sound war-wired.

          1. Nigel

            I’ve been misread, misattributed and straw-manned on this site so often it barely even registers any more, so congrats on actually making me go huh?

  3. Maura

    Thank you Eamonn Kelly!

    Unfortunately, nuance can’t be ‘done’ in 147 characters and that’s where too many fingers are at present, proving true the old Iranian proverb ‘the halfwit spoke and the brainless believed’ (eg Varadkar comparing Putin to Hitler).

    Re Wallace and Farage on the same page, it’s usually a sign that all’s not well in the state of Denmark …

    ‘Dulce et Decorum Est’ should preface any and every pronouncement/’reportage’ on ALL wars everywhere.

    https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/46560/dulce-et-decorum-est

    Oh to live in an Age of Nuance and play ones part in the Global War on Stupidity …

  4. Gavin

    Given the complexity of the issue (which most seem happy to ignore) that seems like a reasonably balanced piece.

  5. SOQ

    I do agree with you Eammon where a bit like the pandemic, this thing has thrown up some strange bed fellows. Perhaps it should not be viewed through the Left / Right prism but more the globalist / nationalist one?

    What is interesting is the oil / gas angle where the cutting of SWIFT will hurt some western countries- especially Germany- as much as it will hurt Russia, so they have conveniently omitted such from any sanctions.

    Trump had some things to say about that in 2018.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=liGZGGQTYQk

  6. Shitferbrains

    Make of Pilgers tripe what you will. And the obligatory swipe at the Jews sorry Israelis. Amazing altogether. Why no Chomsky ? No not the BS one the other one. What is it about Galway and hard left self righteous twaddle ? Must be something in the sea air.

  7. Horsethieving Dopesniffer

    Russia’s main interest is extraction and trading of their resources. Oil, gas, minerals.
    Without it, they are gone.
    NATO’s interest is to get some of those resources and to get China back into order along the way.
    In order to protect themselves, Russians have created buffer countries and installed puppet regimes into them. Belarus, Ukraine, Moldova are some of those.
    And now also Syria.
    In recent history, NATO alliance has managed to overthrow Russian puppet regime in Ukraine and install what might look like their own.
    Russian butthurt about Ukraine has reached epic proportions since then.

    And can someone please explain how the sanctions are supposed to work if Ukrainian gas transport operator is still delivering Russian gas into Europe, and Nord Stream 1 is still running at a full capacity?
    Here:
    https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/27/business/ukraine-gas-explosion-kharkiv.html
    Nord Stream 2 will soon go into full operation, but at the moment it would be a bad PR for Europe, sothey are taking it slow.

    Yes, we’re all ruled by psychopats that have blood on their hands.
    It’s only a question of who has a better PR.

    Want to stop the wars?
    Stop buying gas and oil from Russia, Iran, Saudi Arabia and USA.
    Stop buying electronic trash from China.
    Stop being mindless consumers.
    Ain’t going to happen, we all know that.

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