From top: Clare Daly MEP addressing the European Parliament on Russia and Ukraine on March 12; Eamonn Kelly
The week that was
Jonathan Pie’s breakdown of how Putin essentially bought off Britain was really on the money. His post, “How Putin Weaponized London’s Greed” had the merit of pointing the finger back at the West in what is a kind of property investment style of appeasement of a dictator.
Pie suggested that all Russian properties in Britain should be seized and used to house Ukrainian refugees. It’s a funny world when only the comedians are really making political sense.
The posting would get you thinking about our own property arrangements with Russian Oligarchs, since, as Pie points out, the big money from Russia flooding into the British property markets, distorts the market for everyone.
On top of that it turns out that Europe’s gas bills are funding Putin’s war to the tune of €350 million a day.
Taking Sides
Clare Daly’s furious rant in the European Parliament seemed oddly inappropriate as she laid into her fellow Europeans with a good finger-wagging. It’s not that she was wrong as such, but listing the ills of the world and demanding that something be done about these as well, to the same level of interest currently being given to Ukraine, seemed curiously misplaced.
Afghanistan is Russia’s mess as much as it is the USA’s mess. It’s also the Taliban’s mess and Bin Ladin’s mess. The Afghan people are unfortunate. But to point to them as proof of the West’s lack of humanity seemed like misguided virtue signalling, particularly when people in the West are clearly doing their best to be humane in a world that, to date, generally doesn’t really care for people.
The countries of the West, for all their faults, stand for Liberal Democracy, with oppositional parties working within that value system. The war in Ukraine represents the Liberal Democracies being reluctantly drawn into a potential nuclear conflict with an autocratic regime on the downward leg of its global status. The implications are epochal.
Raising other issues at this time, that have been neglected by the political West, not only seems like being out of touch with the mood and priorities of the moment, but also has the effect of appearing to scorn the humanitarian efforts and gestures being made by ordinary people.
Strategies
Following on from Russian allegations that the US has chemical and biological testing facilities in Ukraine, the West immediately went into alert that the Russians were likely contemplating using chemical and biological weapons.
This apparently is a Russian strategy, to accuse the enemy of already doing something that they themselves plan to do. Interestingly, it also the strategy of small boys who think their mothers can’t see through them.
The general impression is that the Russians may be seriously looking at using chemical weapons as a means of getting around the military obstacles posed by urban environments, particularly urban environments reduced to rubble.
An army could conceivably spend months or even years trying to take a defended, rubble-strewn city with conventional weapons, as happened in Aleppo before Russia kindly supplied Assad with chemical weapons, solving the “problem” in a couple of weeks.
This idea that the US is conducting biological testing in Ukraine was further reinforced by the Russians at a security council meeting. Put simply, if Russia decided to attack Europe with biological weapons, as was basically threatened at the security council meeting, they could immediately claim that the release was due to an “accident” at a US-backed facility.
Unfashionable
Meanwhile the Telegraph (the Torygraph) reported that on Russian State TV, dissenting voices were heard on the Vladimir Soloviyev show, a political panel discussion programme, (more than can be said for Claire Byrne Live) likening the invasion of Ukraine to Afghanistan, only worse.
The Ukrainians apparently have better weapon-handling skills due to their Russian training, and better weapons, due to their Western connections. This makes them, in the estimation of Russians, the worst of both worlds as military opponents.
This incidence of TV dissent, coupled with Russian people’s street protests, may be a measure of the growing unpopularity of the war in Russia itself, with a possible pension plan for the bould Vladimir on the cards, who can retire to his palace and play his Beatles’ albums.
Besides, the entire invasion exercise is dull and unimaginative. If it wasn’t for the seriousness of the deaths and destruction the thing would be seen for the shallow exercise it is. From a fashion perspective running tanks into the neighbours’ backyard is so last century, particularly when there is so much else to be done.
Height Supremacy
Heightism was raised in the Irish Times on back of suggestions that Putin is suffering a Napoleon complex, due to him being 5’7”, the same height incidentally as Zelensky whose height attracts zero media attention, him being apparently immune to any adverse psychological side-effects due to being 5’7”. He may be a short man, but he’s our short man.
Margaret Steele, a lecturer in philosophy at UCC said that while heightism is not really an ism on a par with sexism, racism, ageism etc, she concedes that there is a cultural preference for tall men. This probably explains why Eamon Ryan is leader of the Green party. Most likely he’s the tallest bloke in the party. The tallest rhubarb in the rhubarb patch. No other explanation for his leadership presents itself.
From the wildly hilarious proposal that people grow lettuce on their window-sills to get in touch with their green side, to the now equally ludicrous proposal for drivers to slow down to save fuel (why not stop altogether? That would be a permanent saving) Ryan’s pronouncements have the effect of making you wonder who is writing his gags.
Inflation
Meanwhile, inflation rose by 5.6% in February, according to the CSO, with the main contributors to the rise being fuel and energy…and Vladimir, o f course. Next winter promises to be memorable for all the wrong reasons.
Eamonn Kelly is a Galway-based freelance Writer and Playwright.
Previously: Eamonn Kelly on Broadsheet
‘The tallest rhubarb in the rhubarb patch. ‘
I LOL’s at that.
Ukraine does not stand for Liberal Democracy Eamonn, it has a far right government with a military infiltrated by fascists and Nazis.
It is the equivalent of the US army having a battalion made up of KKK. That would never happen in the US of course because such does not exist in a vacuum- it requires support from many other branches of government and wider society.
But it is perfectly acceptable in Ukraine however and, to NATO too it appears. Azov were the first battalion that NATO provided support and equipment to, so they are quite prepared to suspend their principles when it suits.
But it doesn’t stop there. The brass neck of Trudeau, a man who jailed peaceful protestors and froze their bank accounts, to lecture anybody on democratic values, is a joke. I am not suggesting he is as bad as Putin or indeed Zelenskyy, but he is getting there.
SOQ, I don’t believe I said Ukraine was a liberal democracy, only that it is being backed by the liberal democracies. In my last article I quoted John Pilger’s report that Ukraine had voted against banning Nazi signs etc. With regard to the liberal democracies, we all know there are problems, but in this instance the Russian incursion appears to overshadow internal liberal democratic issues, particularly when it is feared that if Russia takes Ukraine they might just decide to keep on going into former soviet now NATO countries.
Thanks for the response Eammon. Ok so I was not commenting on just Ukraine but on some of the NATO members who would deal with the devil himself, if it suited them.
The good guy/bad guy propaganda is just that, and anyone of us who have been around a few blocks, know that there is no good guys in war.
As for Russia’s intentions- who knows, but then again the same could be said about the US whom hardly have a spotless record.
All we have to go on is Russia’s stated intentions and they are for an independent Ukraine, which given what we know already about the bio labs, it is currently not.
I very much doubt if Russia’s long term goal is expansionist myself because the implications of such are a third world war and a nuclear exit for most if not all of us.
Personally, I think what we are witnessing is the demise of the US dollar as the world reserve currency- time will tell.
Your article is awash is factual inaccuracies Eamonn. “happened in Aleppo before Russia kindly supplied Assad with chemical weapons” what evidence have you to support this claim? You also absolve the US and UK and their 20 year occupation of Afghanistan of being primarily responsible for the current state of the country by adding Russia to the mix as an equal. The Soviets left Afghanistan over 30 years ago! Any contribution to the current state pales in comparison to the clear causal link between US/UK actions up until just two years ago.
E’Matty. Go to hell. What do you expect for nothing, the New Statesman?
He should go to hell anyway
He’s a thundering dose
” if Russia takes Ukraine they might just decide to keep on going into former soviet now NATO countries.” Eh, what evidence have you for this statement? You seem to believe Russia want to take on NATO directly. What is this based on? What countries specifically do you think would be targeted?
People do be saying that there do be signs and portents:
https://twitter.com/InformNapalm/status/1503484824551624711
It is easy to think we know everything about the Ukraine situation. Can politicians & global media be really objective about the true state of affairs in the Ukraine given the level of financial & hight finance connections to this region? Does Clare Daly have a more accurate view of what is going on perhaps?
Well what we do know is that Joe Biden had a top Ukrainian prosecutor sacked- he admitted it himself, And, that his son who is great craic, has a comfy number of which he did not know if daddy wasn’t involved.
Also accusations have been made that a number of other US politicians- including Pelosi- having relatives in similar, so to claim Ukraine is neutral between the two blocks is BS.
Zelenskyy appearing in army gear makes him look like he’s in an eighties gay porno btw- I keep expecting Jeff Stryker to pop up.
‘An army could conceivably spend months or even years trying to take a defended, rubble-strewn city with conventional weapons, as happened in Aleppo before Russia kindly supplied Assad with chemical weapons, solving the “problem” in a couple of weeks.’
Eamonn I’ve enjoyed some of your previous writings, but I think the above quote reads like revisionist nonsense. I’m assuming you’re basing it on the 2017 report by the controversial “Human Rights Watch” organisation.
https://www.hrw.org/news/2017/02/13/syria-coordinated-chemical-attacks-aleppo#
“Syrian government forces conducted coordinated chemical attacks in opposition-controlled parts of Aleppo during the final month of the battle for the city, Human Rights Watch said today
Through phone and in-person interviews with witnesses and analysis of video footage, photographs, and posts on social media, Human Rights Watch documented government helicopters dropping chlorine in residential areas on at least eight occasions”
But this article by Prof Marcello Ferrada de Noli chairman of the Swedish Doctors for Human Rights group, details how time and again evidence presented by HRW to the UN Security Council was of such low quality that it never should have been taken seriously. And yet it was accepted unquestioningly without seeking any expert verification.
https://geopolitics.co/2017/03/07/white-helmets-macabre-manipulation-of-dead-children-staged-chemical-attack-swedhr/
Award-winning US journalist Seymore Hersh did some important investigative pieces documenting the evidence for chemical weapon use by militant Islamist groups in Syria during the conflict and how Turkey supplied the materials and training.. This piece by him is really worth a read, especially in light of the current situation in Ukraine:
https://web.archive.org/web/20140406120142/https://www.lrb.co.uk/2014/04/06/seymour-m-hersh/the-red-line-and-the-rat-line
Revisionist nonsense? Were you saving that phrase just for me, Lawless?
Well, could you provide a source for your claim that Russia supplied chemical weapons to Assad for use in Aleppo and that chemical weapons were decisive in regaining the half of the city not under its control?
And what do you mean in the quote below when you say “the general impression”? The general impression of who? Do you mean, according to most western media outlets? Corporate media is well practiced in manufacturing consent for war. In the lead up to war, the pretence of objective journalism goes out the window and is replaced by stenography of government-approved sources. The standout example that comes to mind is the 2003 Iraq War. The general impression of the supposed experts in the lead up to that war was that Saddam was within 45 minutes of launching weapons of mass destruction upon Britain. And according to a USA Today poll taken at the time of the invasion, 70% of the US public believed Saddam was responsible for 9/11.
“The general impression is that the Russians may be seriously looking at using chemical weapons as a means of getting around the military obstacles posed by urban environments, particularly urban environments reduced to rubble”
Why would Russia decide to use chemical weapons and do the one thing that would make overt NATO involvement virtually inevitable, thereby ensuring Russia’s own demise. If someone can give a plausible explanation as to why they would do such a thing, I’d like to hear it. “Putin’s just a crazed and reckless, evil-doer” doesn’t cut the mustard.
Isn’t the point that EK is sardonically summarising official news? I admit it’s hard to tell..
I was wondering that but then the paragraphs that follow from the one I quoted above don’t appear to fit that interpretation.
Lawless, write a treatise on my style why don’t you. I am so sick of this bull. This anonymous trolling. Goodbye.
Yea well “Galway-based”
What else would you need to know?
@ E Kelly – f_lawless doesn’t troll people, he holds objective truth in high regard. With the Syrian issue, it’s still tough to get an honest read. It was one of the five countries that was marked for western lead ‘revolution’.
If you’ve looked into WikiLeaks material there’s strong evidence for ISIS/ISIL being a CIA/MOSSAD operation, so questioning chemical attacks isn’t far fetched.
You’re contributions here are highly valuable, don’t let the other clueless idiots bother you or detract from your work.
Thanks Chris, and sorry Eamonn if I got a bit worked up and came across abrasively. I followed events in Syria with a keen interest at the height of the conflict and always tried to seek out the voices of independent investigative journalists – the few dissenters who weren’t afraid to challenge western establishment narratives as to what was really happening on the ground – eg Canadian Eva Bartlett and Englishwoman Vanessa Beeley who both had visited Syria on various occasions and spent several months travelling around the country.
For me, it was a real eye-opener into how complicit all of corporate media had become in facilitating the globalists’ bid for regime change in Syria and how extensive the propaganda operation was. From the Oscar-winning White Helmets terrorist front to Bana the Syrian child tweeting for world war 3 and all the rest.
I was just re-reading this important article by Prof. Tim Anderson which was written in the earlier part of the Syrian conflict. Very relevant to the current situation, in my opinion at least..
“War Propaganda and the Dirty War on Syria”
https://www.globalresearch.ca/war-propaganda-and-the-dirty-war-on-syria/5492175
You just reminded me it’s Pi day today and Pie is talking out of his pihole!
Verbatim. I’m glad I could be of some small assistance getting your anonymous brains working.
I would generally be in broad agreement and, on Rhubarb Ryan, spot on!
However, I find many unsettling aspects in this current war/invasion.
(i) I can’t believe that humans have taken a giant evolutionary step over the past month to now find ALL war abhorrent
(ii) I can’t differentiate between ‘war in Europe’ and wars elsewhere
(iii) There appears to be a type of mass hysteria about the whole thing; always try to keep away from the rabbit hole but – blanket MSM coverage went straight from covid to Ukraine. There is an absence of rational views (your article above execpted, thought went into it, it’s presented for discussion and you have the courtesy and interest to read and respond to comments.)
(iv) I don’t have a zenophobic bone in my body – never did – but can see a real danger in the state’s rush to prodigies of pathos towards welcoming thousands of Ukranians into the country as further strengthening right-wing neo-nazi groups already here through creating envious (and, have to say, understandable) mutterings among the many struggling to survive here. It’s all very laudable to provide PPS numbers, Social Welfare payments, housing (as opposed to centres) and up to third level education but so many of the ‘squeezed middle’ here are finding it increasingly harder to keep or attain these basics and it’s going to get worse
(v) I find the rush to invite what seems to be an overwhelmingly ‘white’ refugee group into peoples’ homes (and sniffy responses to those who won’t/can’t) at immense odds with the absence of such openness towards, dare one say it!, people of different skin hues …
Clare Daly is generally more right than wrong, which is all any of us can hope for and she seems to be the only person talking about peace, not war; it’s surely better to encourage those from ‘the left of the Assembly’ than ravin’ right-wingers.
Some good points here but let’s be objective/ we need white, educated, desperate folks to come fill various gaps in our labour market – in retail, on farms, hospitality, construction
I don’t personally care if our own “can’t pay won’t pay” folks can’t access welfare – shouldn’t your question be why are all these folks looking for handouts when there are clearly so many employment opportunities available?
We can’t let in enough of these folks in my opinion to flush out our own dirt for good and for all – most of them will go to the Uk anyway
+1
Somehow a +1 of mine that I added to Maura’s post has come out under someone calling themselves “Mad”. This is an error. I do not endorse anything “Mad” posts.
The feeling is mutual EK
I have to pull you up on the green bashing, I mean yes fine Eamonn Ryan might have questionable leadership skills but the move to slow down to save fuel is actually a very sensible one,especially on motorways. Fuel consumed increases with the square of the speed of the car so going from 120 to 100 saves about 30% on the fuel bill. Can make a big difference if you’re watching the budget.
Good man Cormac. It was hardly green-bashing. But I of course bow to your authority in “pulling people up”. I’m amazed really at the people who come on here, really just to put the boot in when they realize you have been reading the comments. It’s all the more cowardly because they are usually anonymous. I have given a lot of time and energy to this forum, and frankly, I’ve come to the conclusion that I am actually too good for this.
Ah bless
Up yours Frilly. That old passive aggression doesn’t fool anyone.
I left politics.ie because it just got worse and worse; thought I’d found a ‘better class’ (sez she who doesn’t ‘do’ class) of commentator on here but maybe not.
Don’t care in a way what opinions people hold as long as they make a coherent effort to express and/or defend them. That seems to happen less and less and unfortunately only adds to my belief that, far from Aquarius. we are now in an Age of Ignorance.
Get over yourself boy
You and your notions
Like I have given a lot of time and energy to this forum, and frankly, I’ve come to the conclusion that I am actually too good for this.
Too good for Broadsheet.
Well well well.
And there’s Broadsheet sending in the house band every so often to plug the occasional ‘great article Eamon’ ‘ well said Eamon’ when the comments are empty.
Poor White Dove
So, since you’re here doing favours
Tell me, humour me, be charitable like;
Up Yours Frilly
How is that not equally passive aggressive?
Or is it ’cause you’re allowed? Cause you’re a boy?
Like – you’ve already valued your contributions here way over and above mine anyway.
Is that going to be the same over with our other publishers Eamonn?
‘because.ye can all FRO
Vanessa, I just came across your response to my “up yours” comment. I left that thread a week ago and never read all the comments.
What is interesting about your comment is that you accuse me of being passive aggressive, but I was actually, deliberately, overtly aggressive with my comment, in order to unmask the passive aggression of your intrusion. And, unlike you, I put my name and my face to my comment.
It is not the first time you have been sweetly passively aggressive towards me, as “Frilly”, a trait I associate with middle-class people, who can then wriggle out of their masked insult and say it never happened, adding gaslighting to their passive aggression.
You also accuse me of being aggressive on a gender basis, pulling the old “I’m just a weak girl” routine in order to cast me as a bully, when in fact it was you who led with the passive aggression.
But you are correct in saying that I shouldn’t have said “Up yours Frilly”. I only said that because you were delivering your passive aggression from the safety of a pseudonym. What I should have said was, “Up yours, Vanessa Foran,” calling you out of your comfortable trolling anonymity, while at the same time answering your passive aggression with overt aggression in order to unmask your sugary dig.
Ah here, I wasn’t making a personal dig.,I’m just trying to point out that actually slowing down when driving is a good way to save petrol. You could just say, oh yeah, maybe you’re right rather than trading umbrage with my contribution. As for it being anonymous, I’d be more than happy to have a non anonymous discussion on the merits of road traffic policies. Anyways, don’t stop contributing on my account.
Eamonn K, I eagerly rush to read your posts each time I see you have submitted one. I’m in no doubt, many others in the shadows, who never comment feel the same way!
Really and truly you are a gem!
P.S. It being Idles of March, this is me settling my debt to you!