This article is a translation of "Gelekte e-mails werpen licht op de Amerikaanse strategie achter de burgeroorlog in Oekraïne"
A stash of e-mails from NATO commander General Philip Breedlove, leaked to the whistleblower site, DCLeaks, and first reported by Russia Today on 2 July last, documents how the the war party in the United States and NATO from late March 2014 began to elaborate a strategy based on mobilising fears of a major Russian military operation. The secession of the Crimea and its reincorporation into the Russian Federation was exploited to evoke the spectre of an impending invasion on several fronts, notably the Baltics and of course, Ukraine.
Breedlove's network, crucially including his predecessor at the time of the Kosovo War, General Wesley Clark, who was touring Ukraine as an adviser to the ultranationalist regime established by the coup of 21 February, reported to Breedlove and others in the network about the situation at 'the front', although no fighting was yet going on. Generally the hard-liners mailing among each other, Breedlove and Clark, assistant secretary of state Victoria Nuland (F**k the EU) and ambassador to Kiev Geoffrey Pyatt, were concerned that president Obama was not bellicose enough. Also the Joint Chiefs of Staff at the Pentagon were dragging their feet about confronting Russia.
After the occupation of government buildings in the eastern part of Ukraine on 6 April, nationalists called on the United States for a show of force and also to punish the oligarch, Rinat Akhmetov, who they claimed was behind this, before they changed the story and claimed that this was the beginning of a Russian invasion.
On 12 April, armed militia led by Russian nationalists turned the protest movement into an armed insurrection. The same day Wesley Clark wrote to Nuland that the US should make a statement supporting Kiev if it launched a military operation to regain control of the east. He also reported a conversation with the Bulgarian president who complained about Germany wanting to respect Russia's sphere of influence. Clark also asked Breedlove whether he could not arrange a statement blaming Moscow for the violence, because ´if the Ukrainians lose control of the narrative, the Russians will see it as an open door´ .
Still on 12 April, Clark in an e-mail to Breedlove expanded about the general geopolitical situation, claiming that 'Putin has read US inaction in Georgia and Syria as US “weakness”.'
Breedlove was impressed and wanted to hear more, but they missed each other that day. But Clark after a meeting with Victoria Nuland was able to confirm that she too was pushing for open US support for the regime in Ukraine to use force against protesters in the east.
The weekend of 13 and 14 April, the director of the CIA, John Brennan, paid a visit to Kiev, kept secret at the time. It was followed by the arrival of dozens of CIA advisers, whilst Blackwater (Academi) mercenaries were flown in to assist in the Ukrainian war against its own citizens that was launched on the 16th.
The civil war has gradually evolved into an ethnic cleansing campaign of the Russian-speakers in the former industrial heartland of Ukraine, driving out more than a million and killing tens of thousands. The e-mails of the Breedlove network now published reveal that it was a conscious decision of the US NATO command and assorted allies to force a conflict with Russia in Ukraine so as to prevent the rise of China and Russia and the 'crumbling of NATO'.
It may be that the leak of his e-mails has to do with Breedlove's aspirations to join a Hillary Clinton administration and that somebody thought this was not exactly a life insurance. Who knows. But then, Hillary has the same perspective, so there is nothing reassuring about his not getting the job.
Kees van der Pijl
After the occupation of government buildings in the eastern part of Ukraine on 6 April, nationalists called on the United States for a show of force and also to punish the oligarch, Rinat Akhmetov, who they claimed was behind this, before they changed the story and claimed that this was the beginning of a Russian invasion.
On 12 April, armed militia led by Russian nationalists turned the protest movement into an armed insurrection. The same day Wesley Clark wrote to Nuland that the US should make a statement supporting Kiev if it launched a military operation to regain control of the east. He also reported a conversation with the Bulgarian president who complained about Germany wanting to respect Russia's sphere of influence. Clark also asked Breedlove whether he could not arrange a statement blaming Moscow for the violence, because ´if the Ukrainians lose control of the narrative, the Russians will see it as an open door´ .
Still on 12 April, Clark in an e-mail to Breedlove expanded about the general geopolitical situation, claiming that 'Putin has read US inaction in Georgia and Syria as US “weakness”.'
China is watching closely. China will have four aircraft carriers and airspace dominance in the Western Pacific within 5 years, if current trends continue. And if we let Ukraine slide away, it definitely raises the risks of conflict in the Pacific. For, China will ask, would the US then assert itself for Japan, Korea, Taiwan, the Philippines, the South China Sea?
If Russia takes Ukraine, Belarus will join the Eurasian Union, and, presto, the Soviet Union ( in another name) will be back. …
Neither the Baltics nor the Balkans will easily resist the political disruptions empowered by a resurgent Russia. And what good is a NATO “security guarantee” against internal subversion?
And then the US will face a much stronger Russia, a crumbling NATO, and [a] major challenge in the Western Pacific. Far easier to [hold] the line now, in Ukraine, than elsewhere, later.
Breedlove was impressed and wanted to hear more, but they missed each other that day. But Clark after a meeting with Victoria Nuland was able to confirm that she too was pushing for open US support for the regime in Ukraine to use force against protesters in the east.
The weekend of 13 and 14 April, the director of the CIA, John Brennan, paid a visit to Kiev, kept secret at the time. It was followed by the arrival of dozens of CIA advisers, whilst Blackwater (Academi) mercenaries were flown in to assist in the Ukrainian war against its own citizens that was launched on the 16th.
The civil war has gradually evolved into an ethnic cleansing campaign of the Russian-speakers in the former industrial heartland of Ukraine, driving out more than a million and killing tens of thousands. The e-mails of the Breedlove network now published reveal that it was a conscious decision of the US NATO command and assorted allies to force a conflict with Russia in Ukraine so as to prevent the rise of China and Russia and the 'crumbling of NATO'.
It may be that the leak of his e-mails has to do with Breedlove's aspirations to join a Hillary Clinton administration and that somebody thought this was not exactly a life insurance. Who knows. But then, Hillary has the same perspective, so there is nothing reassuring about his not getting the job.
Kees van der Pijl
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