Working for Peace on Earth and Peace with Earth since 1952
Posts by Stanley Heller, Administrator, Promoting Enduring Peace
Bring Back Animal Sacrifice? These Messianics Want To
August 31, 2024. An article in the Israeli liberal paper Haaretz on August 29 called "Israel's Messianic Far-right Is Dead Serious About Rebuilding the Temple" details the plans of those who want to put a temple on the famous hill in Jerusalem and to destroy the Dome on the Rock. Put aside that this has been a holy place for Muslims for 1500 years and might cause let's say...trouble. Just consider what this might mean for animals.
The authors of the Haaretz piece Yoram Peri and Gabi Weimann write, "The Third Temple will be earmarked solely for the members of the Chosen People. Its Priests and Levites will slaughter animals there day in and day out, as described by Yishai Sarid in his dystopian novel "The Third Temple" (English translation due this November). The scorched meat is intended for the God of the chosen people and for the supremacist Jews." [If you’re confused about talk of a “Third Temple” note that the First and Second Temples of the Hebrews were destroyed in ancient times. Hence talk of a new temple is of a "Third Temple".] These and only these animals could be sacrificed: oxen, sheep, goats, and turtledoves and certain pigeons.
In ancient times a huge number of animals were slaughtered in the Temple. It was believed to be needed in the process to wipe away sin and guilt. See this piece in Live Science or this piece talking about the book "Zealot" by Reza Aslan. A section of the Jewish Orthodox in Israel and their co-thinkers around the world want to bring it back.
The rationale for reviving animal sacrifice is presented here in the “Kook Torah” site and here on a Chabad page. Read the pieces and see if you’re convinced about the spiritual need for animal sacrifice. And this site proclaims, “Lab-grown or cultured meat can absolutely not be offered as an animal sacrifice.”
While Orthodox and Ultra-Orthodox Jewish religious leaders scorn other interpretations of Judaism, realize that they represent a tiny minority of Jews (In the U.S. around 10%). But politicians can’t seem to stop embracing them.
In Israel their power is growing. One of their chief advocates is the convicted terrorist and government minister Itamar Ben-Gvir. His incendiary idea is to propose building a synagogue on top of the hill alongside the Dome of the Rock and the mosque. He's come up with an innocent sounding rationale. It's a merely a matter of ending "discrimination". Why shouldn't Jews be allowed to build synagogues wherever they want?
The idea is asinine. Should a Jewish synagogue be built inside the Vatican or St. Peters Cathedral? Does Ben-Gvir have the right to build one inside the ruins of Ankur Watt?
A Critique of Hansen's "Hope vs. Hopium" Article
Especially His Call for Nuclear Power and "Fee and Dividend"
Famed climate scientist James Hansen says that global warming is actually accelerating. One of the reasons he says is a sharp decrease in aerosols. Aerosols are solid or liquid particles in a gas. Some are natural like fog. The man-made ones are the tiny particles created when wood and fossil fuels are burned.
Hansen argues that since 2010 there is more sun energy in the atmosphere, and less of the particles that can reflect it back into space thanks to efforts to cut pollution. The loss of those particles means there’s less of the cooling effect that they can have.This is particularly shown above oceans where ships have stopped using high-sulfur fuels.
Hansen talks about the “futility of net zero”. He says “by 2030, the date when nations are expected to have made measurable progress in climate policies, it may, at long last, be recognized that the “hopium” approach to climate policy – goals and promises of “net zero” emissions at some distant date, without realistic plans for reliable, carbon-free, energy – is hopeless”
He criticizes use or overuse of the term “tipping point” concept, implying an unstable climate response, is misused and overused, thus encouraging a fatalistic public response or climate change denial. Instead he thinks “Attention should be focused on the danger of passing the point of no return, when we lock in disastrous consequences that cannot be reversed on any time scale humans care about. The prime point of no return is collapse of the West Antarctic ice sheet.”
I’m certainly not qualified to judge Hansen’s complicated technical arguments. I’ll just note that another fine climate scientist, Michael Mann, disagrees that global warming is accelerating. He says the rate of increase is constant (which is bad enough).
What I can criticize are James Hansen’s solutions to the problem. He calls for a vast increase in the use of nuclear power. He claims “by 2030, there should be multiple options for modern ultrasafe nuclear power that can serve as the needed complement to renewable energies to produce carbon-free electricity.” I’m dubious about the “ultrasafe” claim. Even if there have been engineering advances in running nuclear power plants I don’t see that the problem of what do to with nuclear waste has been solved.
Here's something I haven’t heard that Hansen has ever talked about, the monumental problem of war and nuclear power plants. Ten years ago I don’t suppose anyone would think a country would be so reckless as to conquer areas housing nuclear power plants and to then store weapons inside them. But we’ve seen just that happen in Ukraine. In addition a major disaster was narrowly averted when a dam in Ukraine broke (or was more likely destroyed because of the war) last June depriving nuclear plants of vital water. Chernobyl was occupied early in the war and administrated incompetently.
And yet if we follow Hansen there will be hundreds (thousands?) of new nuclear power plants all over the world, a world where new wars break out all the time and in unexpected places. Really a bad bad idea.
Hansen also is a big advocate of a plan he calls “fee and dividend”. Essentially it calls for gradual but large taxes on anything using fossil fuels and then giving back all that money raised by the government to the citizenry, good old free-market capitalist logic. Things made with fossil fuels would become more expensive so people would quickly stop using them. Since the money would all be given back to citizens the anti-government crowd who think all spending on civic programs is “wasteful’ would be kept satisfied.
An interesting idea. Humanity could try it if we had generations work it out.. But we have less than a decade. We need massive spending on sustainable energy, a swift end to fossil fuel use, a shift away to a plant-based diet and vast rewilding. That’s not going to come about with “consumers” buying greener products. We need rationing and big planned projects, something Promoting Enduring Peace has been thinking about for some time. Click here for a summary.
The Lawn Signs at the Trooper North Trial
March 14, 2024 There have been a few people who walk up and down in front of Superior Court saying they are supporting Trooper North and police in general. A number of tiny US flags with the blue strip (which shows support for police or white-nationalism depending on whom you ask) were planted on the grass next to the sidewalk. Also lawn signs saying things like "Stand with North" and "Real Heroes Die Serving the Law Not Resisting It" had been placed on the grass. Pro-justice supporters reacted and put up their own lawn signs, for example "Protect & Serve Does Not Mean Murder Teenagers" and "Mubarak's Seat Shouldn't have Been Empty at Graduation". The most dramatic is "Blue Lives Murder, Black Lives Matter".
The whole "incident" on January 15, 2020 was an outrage. Soulemane was in a stopped car with its windows up in an underpass of I-95. The troopers and cops made no effort at all to deescalate. They didn't even turn of their sirens. North yelled at him to come out of the car. Soulemane sat in the car unmoving in a seat belt. North's defense described Soulemane as "unconscious" though clearly he was not passed out. No doubt he was thinking, "What have I got myself into?" Then a West Haven cop smashed the passenger's window. Soulemane had a kitchen knife out and "moved". Within seconds he was shot seven times by North.
North's excuse for his conduct, his "Defense of Others" was that he feared for police on the passenger's side, one of whom he thought was trying to climb into the passenger side window. "Ridiculous" doesn't even begin to describe this concotion. Can we believe an officer would trying to move through a window full of glass shards onto a seat next to someone who had a knife? To what purpose? We know window was smashed so that the officer could shoot a taser into the vehicle. That didn't put anyone in danger from a knife that Soulemane was holding.
One would say this is an open-and-shut case against the trooper, but North is a white policeman and Mubarak Soulemane was Black. In America in the 21st century that still matters.
Eyewitness View of the End of the Trial of Trooper Brian North
Update 3:18
The judges instructions have concluded after about a half-hour. The jury is allowed to convict on manslaughter one, manslaughter two or criminally negligent homicide. However, even if the jury is unanimous on one of those charges it has to consider the defense called "Defense of Another". If the deadly force was used in a sincere and reasonable belief that North was defending another person and the amount of force was reasonable then the jury has to decide "not-guilty".
It seems a very high bar.
March 13, 2024 at 2:06 p.m.
On March 12 the defense brought police experts to testify. They said North acted reasonably. That was the end of the defense’s case. On the 13th I was able to attend the trial. There was one rebuttal witness, a retired police officer with decades of experience both as an officer and a trainer, and qualifications a yard long. He had a doctorate and taught police procedures. He was very direct, concise and forceful. He explained that because “adrenaline can run high” during an auto chase, regulations are to not approach a suspect in a car directly, but to have a “tactical pause” and wait for a supervisor to come to the scene to take charge and to try to establish communications. That was not done.
The defense spoke first in its summation. Attorney Riccio pointed to all the police officers and troopers who were witnesses who said North acted reasonably. He said Soulemane had displayed a knife and that North was trying to protect an officer from a knife attack who he thought was trying to crawl into the passenger side window (which had been smashed by a West Haven policeman).
Inspector General Robert Devlin poured cold water on the idea that North was protecting other officers. He said it was irrational to think an officer was trying to crawl through a broken window to get at Soulemane. The prosecution said its own case was fairly simple. Soulemane was in a car boxed in by police vehicles with the windows up. Trooper North had his gun pointed at Mubarak Soulemane. Soulemane turned to North and displayed a kitchen knife. In 1/30th of a second North began shooting Soulemane and, in the end, shot him 7 times. According to the prosecution, North’s life was not at all in danger and he behaved recklessly. In addition, according to state trooper regulations he was supposed to reassess after each shot to see if there was need for more firing. He did not. So for those reasons he had to be found guilty of manslaughter.
The judge will give instructions to the jury within the half-hour. What he says about the law is very critical because juries naturally accept his interpretation of the law as authoritative. Hopefully he’ll explain the words “reasonable” and “reckless”.
The Savaging of Nasser Hospital
February 19, 2024. The Israeli paper Haaretz is worth reading to learn about Israeli liberal-left dissent, but its coverage of the current warfare and genocide leaves much to be desired.
On the 15th of February as Nasser Hospital, the biggest hospital in southern Gaza, was invaded and rendered unusable. Haaretz had an article with the headline "Israel: No Evidence So Far that Hamas held Hostages in Gaza's Nasser Hospital". Under the headline it reads "The army say they evacuated the hospital after receiving 'credible intel' that hostages were held there, and their bodies may remain on the grounds. Reports on the ground say Israeli forces unearthed temporary graves."
My comment which I made in several parts under the Haaretz article:
1. So, no hostages in Nasser hospital. 2. Lots of arrests of "suspects" which mean nothing. The IDF assumes all male Palestinians are Hamas. 3. A tunnel underneath - no surprise. There are hundreds of miles of tunnels under everything in Gaza. 4. And those pill bottles with the names of hostages!! The Times of Israel says none of the bottles had been opened. https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/vehicle-stolen-from-israel-unopened-medicine-for-hostages-found-at-nasser-hospital-says-idf/
Doesn't that suggest the hostages were never there? 5. Bodies were dug out of makeshift graves. Probably not bodies that Hamas was going to use to trade. 6. The amazing "command center" again. Moved from al-Shifa by magic? . 7. Admiral Hagari says the "terrorist" gave him wrong information. Is information obtained under torture reliable?
And for all this the biggest hospital in the South was completely disabled. How many were killed when all the electricity was shut off? How many who will die later as hospitalized human beings were denied the emergency service they desperately needed?
And why didn't you mention the war crime about the use of a prisoner in handcuffs to deliver the message that everyone had to evacuate Nasser hospital. In a second crime he was shot dead by the IDF when he tried to return to his captors. We in the West have all seen it. Only Israelis are not told. https://theintercept.com/2024/02/14/gaza-nasser-hospital-evacuation-israel-prisoner/
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Update 2-20 " A large number of Nasser Hospital medical staff were arrested by the Israel Defense Forces, which turned the facility into military barracks, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. " Source ABC News So after finding nothing the biggest hospital in southern Gaza is turned into a barracks to assist in the genocide. Crime upon crime.
A Response to a Washington Post Columnist
Time for the Ukrainian Government to Tear Down Tributes to Killers
Sept 28, 2023.
The Can
Climate News We Don't Want to Hear
Update 7/28 "The Era of Global Boiling has Arrived."
on Democracy Now today
July 27. From the article in the New York Times yesterday "A Grim Climate Lesson From the Canadian Wildfires"
David Wallace-Wells a few years ago wrote a book about worst-case outcomes if we didn't stop global warming. Then a year ago he said we probably were not going to hit worst-case. But that was before this.
"In Quebec, more land was torched in June than in the previous 20 years combined."
"According to some tabulations, in 2021 wildfires in North America and Eurasia contributed more carbon dioxide to the atmosphere than any nation but China, the United States and India."
"In California the record-setting fire season of 2020, which produced five of the state’s seven largest fires in modern history, also entirely erased its emissions gains over the previous 16 years."
“The most powerful firefighting equipment that humans have — Canadair planes that cost roughly $35 million each and drop 30 bathtubs’ worth of water at a time — can extinguish fires with an intensity of up to 10,000 kilowatts per meter of fire line,” Henry Mance wrote recently in The Financial Times. “Today’s megafires are a different order of magnitude, sometimes exceeding 100,000 kilowatts per meter — 10 times as intense. Water dumped from above can evaporate before it reaches the ground."
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Also in the NY Times yesterday this news, "Warming Could Push the Atlantic Past a ‘Tipping Point’ This Century"
A major ocean current in the north Atlantic may collapse because of global warming. It could reach a “tipping point” with no way back.
“Were the circulation to tip into a much weaker state, the effects on the climate would be far-reaching, though scientists are still examining their potential magnitude. Much of the Northern Hemisphere could cool. The coastlines of North America and Europe could see faster sea-level rise. “
“That led them to predict that the Atlantic circulation could collapse around midcentury, though it could potentially occur as soon as 2025 and as late as 2095.”
Jeffrey Sachs on Solovyov's Show Five Times
What Does He Think of Solovyov's Calls for Nuclear Strikes on Ukraine?
August 28 Update
Apparently Sachs appeared on Solovyov program two more times after March 9, 2023 , once on June 2 and again in July. The July interview was weeks after Solovyov's second call for a nuclear strike on Ukraine. See screenshots below of twitter feeds of Francis Scarr (BBC Russia watcher) and Dietmar Pichler who calls himself a "disinformation analyst."
And on August 2 Newsweek reported that Solovyov for a third time called for the use of nuclear weapons against Ukraine. "I think we should strike," he said "As soon as they officially deliver [F-16s], we conduct a strike with tactical nuclear weapons."
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
June 24. There’s a Russian news presenter named Vladimir Solovyov who hosts Russian TV and radio programs. Solovyov is a confidant of Vladimir Putin. He was awarded the Order of Honor from Vladimir Putin in 2013. Needless to say Solovyov has been a supporter of Russia's invasion of Ukraine. On January 25 he described the attack as “a ‘holy’ and ‘patriotic’ war against all of NATO, as well as ‘50 Satanic countries’ who want "to destroy us." Responding to a guest who said using nuclear weapons would be a bad trend Solovyov replied that "not using nuclear weapons is a dangerous trend" as he said that Russia should make the most of its "superiority in tactical nuclear weapons."
None of that stopped liberal hero Jeffrey Sachs from going on Solovyov Live a month later on March 9 where he and Solovyov had a friendly banter about the destruction of the Nord Stream pipeline, Sy Hersh's claims, the possibility that a lab leak that could have created COVID 19, the responsibility of Victoria Nuland, the lie that Ukraine was forced to stop a peace plan with Putin because of Western pressure, why “the world” wants diplomacy, proxy war and so on. Sachs was on for 20 minutes and NEVER mentioned that Russia invaded Ukraine. In fact, I don’t think he disputed Putin’s confidant on anything. Sachs had been on the program at least twice before, in October 2021 and again in August of last year, six months after Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.
Surely he knew that Solovyov had called for a nuclear attack on Ukraine, but Sachs said not one word.
I call Sachs a liberal hero with some justification. He’s on CNN, Bloomberg, The Week, The Hill, etc. He must have been on Democracy Now five times in the last year. Last fall one of his appearances there got 3 million views on YouTube, far, far above a typical DN show (I suspect that these number were boosted by a certain foreign power’s bots, but I have no proof.)
Well, this week after Ukraine bombed the Chonhar bridge to Crimea Solovyov said, “We no longer have any option. We must wipe them from the face of the earth... their decision-making centers," Solovyov said. "If our tactical nuclear weapons give us an advantage, maybe it's time? Maybe we simply need to batter them."
Sachs has had nothing to say about this direct call by Putin’s pal to go and commit genocide.
Sachs Appearances on Solovyov's program
Times Vladimir Solovyov called for nuclear strikes
By the way if you think that Sachs just didn't know about Solovyov's calls for nuclear strikes note that he was told about this in an open letter to him signed by scores of economists in March of 2023.
"A Private Militia for a Thug"
March 27. Netanyahu’s welcome “pause” in his campaign to gut the Israeli Supreme Court comes with strings attached. It’s part of a package in which there’s a poison pill. In exchange for the pause, religious-fascist Ben-Gvir was given a fully funded government militia. He’ll be put in charge of a brand new Israeli "National Guard”. The Israeli democracy movement (better called the Keep-Democracy-for-Israeli-Jews movement) is still in peril. The answer is staring it in the face. Unite with Palestinian forces to build a democratic and eco-socialist state.
The phrase for the title of this piece came from a comment reaction by “Lorraine” to an article in Haaretz with the headline “Explosives, Guns, Knives: Israeli Far-right Groups Call for Violence Against Protesters This Evening”. It refers to calls on encrypted WhatsApp groups for violent attacks on Israelis who have turned out in huge numbers to protest Netanyahu’s attempted “judicial coup”. There’s a barely disguised fascist “soccer fan club” La Familia that urges its members to turn out for counterprotests. And some callers want people to drive vehicles in crowds or to use gasoline.
As late as this morning a guest on Democracy Now predicted that Netanyahu would backtrack and that Ben-Gvir would quit the government and that we’d see a coalition much like one of Netanyahu's Far-Right-Center-Right coalitions of the past. It doesn’t look that way. Ben-Gvir, the ultimate extremist, is being given an army.
Lorraine nails it, “Netanyahu and company give the appearance of listening to the opposition while using the opportunity to slip in yet more anti-democratic take-overs. Don't fall for this! Don't accept these terms for a freeze!” The lack of counter-protesters in Israel until today shows that while the new coalition was able to scrape up a majority of votes it is weak in terms of power in the street. Yesterday the Histadrut union federation pulled off a general strike. Netanyahu and Ben-Gvir couldn’t do that. But they can use an armed gang loyal to a “thug” to violently smash the power in the street. Israel Jews must continue the massive demonstrations until the “militia” idea is scrapped.
But more must be done. Millions of people are shut out from the democratic protests. What does a Palestinian think when seeing seas of Israeli blue and white flags in demonstrations of protesters and counter-protesters? Both are waving the emblem of apartheid. What’s in it for Palestinians if there's a restoration of “liberal apartheid”.
Democratic forces in Israel need to go all the way and demand democracy for everyone “from the river to the sea”. This would gain support not only from millions of Palestinians, who are experts in struggle from 75 years of experience, but also from millions more in surrounding countries and across the sea.
And “eco-socialism”? Why bring that up? Well, Israel for the last 50 years has been conquered by neo-liberalism. Gaps between rich and poor are among the largest in the world. Most working people in Israel, who are victims of this way of life, fall for right-wing populist “solutions”, meaning racist measures. As climate collapse shows its first signs this will only grow worse. An alternative solution is necessary, but is available, a socialism that centers climate preservation and climate justice as an essential part of its structure. That’s what is meant by eco-socialism. It’s a key way of convincing the Israeli masses that abandoning apartheid will not just mean losing status and their few material privileges. It would instead open up new possibilities for a better post-racist and post-fossil-fuel-poisoned life.
P.S. March 28. You realize that when Smotrich on March 1 said that Huwara should be "wiped out", he qualified his remark saying, “I think the State of Israel should be the one to wipe it out, not, God forbid, private people.” Now the Kahanists are being given the vehicle to do just that.
Why Should Anyone Listen to Jeffrey Sachs Ideas about Ukraine?
The magazine Tikkun (June 29, 2022) has an article by Jeffry Sachs “Ukraine is the Latest Neocon Disaster”. For some reason liberals like to listen to Sachs. He was even on Democracy Now in June of ’21. But it’s rarely mentioned that Sachs has some direct responsibility for the disaster that is Gangster Capitalist Russia. His “shock therapy” program for Russia in the 1990's ushered in an era of capitalism at its worst, with the rise of Russian oligarchs and constant gangster assassinations. Sachs claims he didn’t invent “shock therapy” and the Russians under Yeltsin didn’t really follow his ideas, but he happily carries the New York Times 1993 article “Jeffrey Sachs, Shock Therapist” on this website.
The Soviet Union officially ended on the last day of 1991. In 1992 Russia’s population was 148 million. By 2000 after 9 years of “shock therapy” it population was two million less, with deaths outnumbering births each of those years.
The reaction to the “wild” ‘90’s led to the rise of a strongman (Putin) who vowed to keep order. You can read about this in detail in the article NPR put on its website in March of this year headlined, “How 'shock therapy' created Russian oligarchs and paved the path for Putin”. Or you can read a much earlier article in The Nation.
Sachs was a disaster for Russia. Why should anyone publish anything he says unless it was a heartfelt apology?
But for the sake of argument let’s look at what he says. His words in plain type. My criticisms or sarcasm in boldface type
Looking at Sachs' "Ukraine is the Latest Neocon Disaster"
Analysis by Stanley Heller
He starts by saying:
The war in Ukraine is the culmination of a 30-year project of the American neoconservative movement. The Biden Administration is packed with the same neocons who championed the US wars of choice in Serbia (1999), Afghanistan (2001), Iraq (2003), Syria (2011), Libya (2011), and who did so much to provoke Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Poor Russia is just a victim, forced to blow up whole cities. What rot.
The neocon track record is one of unmitigated disaster, yet Biden has staffed his team with neocons. As a result, Biden is steering Ukraine, the US, and the European Union towards yet another geopolitical debacle
… (paragraphs about the rapaciousness of the neo-cons are omitted)
After the fall of the Soviet Union, both the US and Russia should have sought a neutral Ukraine, as a prudent buffer and safety valve.
They did after a fashion. The U.S. and Russia in 1994 negotiated and signed an agreement to respect Ukraine’s then “existing borders” which included Crimea.
Kagan penned the article as a private citizen while his wife Victoria Nuland was the US Ambassador to NATO under George W. Bush, Jr. Nuland has been the neocon operative par excellence. In addition to serving as Bush’s Ambassador to NATO, Nuland was Barack Obama’s Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs during 2013-17, where she participated in the overthrow of Ukraine’s pro-Russian president Viktor Yanukovych,
“Participated in” covers a lot of ground. Nuland did indeed stick her nose in, but most Ukrainians were happy with the “overthrow”. For some peculiar reason they didn’t like Yanukovych shooting dead hundreds of protesters.
and now serves as Biden’s Undersecretary of State guiding US policy vis-à-vis the war in Ukraine.
The neocon outlook is based on an overriding false premise: that the US military, financial, technological, and economic superiority enables it to dictate terms in all regions of the world. It is a position of both remarkable hubris and remarkable disdain of evidence. Since the 1950s, the US has been stymied or defeated in nearly every regional conflict in which it has participated. Yet in the “battle for Ukraine,” the neocons were ready to provoke a military confrontation with Russia by expanding NATO over Russia’s vehement objections because they
The objections weren’t so “vehement”. When 7 countries joined NATO is 2004 Lavrov attended the ceremony.
fervently believe that Russia will be defeated by US financial sanctions and NATO weaponry.
…paragraphs omitted
The most likely outcome of the current fighting is that Russia will conquer a large swath of Ukraine, perhaps leaving Ukraine landlocked or nearly so. Frustration will rise in Europe and the US with the military losses and the stagflationary consequences of war and sanctions. The knock-on effects could be devastating, if a right-wing demagogue in the US rises to power (or in the case of Trump, returns to power) promising to restore America’s faded military glory through dangerous escalation.
And this is all the result of the crimes of the neo-cons. Putin is an innocent lamb, provoked beyond measure. His desire to incorporate these 40 million people who don’t know they’re Russians has nothing to do with it.
Instead of risking this disaster, the real solution is to end the neocon fantasies of the past 30 years and for Ukraine and Russia to return to the negotiating table, with NATO committing to end its commitment to the eastward enlargement to Ukraine and Georgia in return for a viable peace that respects and protects Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.
At this point negotiations are a “fantasy”. What is Putin offering to do other than erase the notion of Ukraine from history?
The neo-cons are indeed bad news and their “support” for Ukraine is only to further their idea that the U.S. must dominated every region, but they’ll never be defeated with this one-sided analysis by a economist who should be considered long discredited.