According to CNN—a news outlet distinguished as being one of the holiest sources of truth for American liberals aligned with the Democratic Party—over the course of the last week the Biden Administration confirmed to the press that they have given the Ukranian government permission to use American weapons against Russians inside Russian territory1. This serious escalation of a situation that is already putting the fate of the world in jeopardy further exposes the lie behind the narrative commonly believed by Democratic voters in the United States—the lie being that President Biden is not passionately supportive of war and has only acted defensively against “Russian aggression”. Though as striking as this revelation may be to some, President Biden’s embrace of proxy war against Russia as a key component of U.S foreign policy is part of a wider system of imperialism that opposes the Russian Federation for their sovereign development from the world-capitalist system despite the fact that the country is not even officially governed under socialism anymore. The imperialists demand nothing short of full spectrum dominance.
A common source of refrain from acknowledging the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) as a means of Russian encirclement militarily stems from the charge that Russia’s 2022 intervention in Ukraine was what instigated the West’s current involvement via proxy war. Even though evidence of Western collaboration with Ukraine’s anti-Russian government was numerous before Russia’s invasion, not even major leaders of the imperialists themselves bother to hide this truth anymore. For instance, in a publicly televised meeting with European Union officials, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg admitted that:
As you know NATO allies provide unprecedented levels of military support for Ukraine. Actually, NATO allies have been there since 2014 and trained, equipped, and supported Ukrainian armed forces but of course since the invasion in February allies have stepped up significantly and we also agreed to a comprehensive assistance package at the same time stating that NATO is not part of the war; we support Ukraine, a highly valued ally-but NATO would not be directly involved in the fighting on the ground in Ukraine2.
Despite having previously denied President Vladamir Putin’s charge that NATO has been integrating its military activities with Ukraine at Russia’s doorstep, now Western leaders boast about how over the span of several years they have turned Ukraine into the sacrificial lamb that they are using to wage war against the Russian people—corroborating claims made by President Putin and anti-imperialist critics alike. The political and economic establishment in the West has been using Ukraine as a proxy to wage a war that they themselves wish to be excluded from directly, feeding their military industrial complex at the expense of both Russian and Ukranian lives—not to mention the tax base from multiple countries that must be appropriated to support NATO’s siege-like posture in Eurasia. Once again, citizens of Western countries can see Big Government and Big Capital working together for evil—as usual.
Below is a video compilation by writer and video creator Matt Orfalea that shows the shift in Stoltenberg’s account of the role NATO played in influencing Russia’s decision to invade Ukraine:
Stoltenberg’s admission leads us new questions. For one, why has the NATO spent a decade aiding Ukraine’s far-right political movements? Interestingly, a research report done by the RAND Corporation provides us with some suggestions. In 2019 RAND published a report titled Overextending and Unbalancing Russia, which explores research they have done about various strategies the American government can use to damage Russia’s economy and military3. Included in the various strategies RAND recommended for accomplishing this project of “overextending and unbalancing” Russia were measures such as providing Ukraine with lethal arms, expanding U.S energy production, imposing sanctions on the Russian economy, reducing Europe’s Russian gas imports, and deploying additional tactical nuclear weapons across Europe and Asia4. Thus, the policy recommendations from this corporate think tank—which the Pentagon provides roughly two-thirds of the revenue for—were largely embraced by the Biden Administration years after this report was released5. As the report noted, it did not claim to encompass the totality of the U.S strategy for handling Russo-American relations—but some may find it hard to imagine that the Pentagon has been financing research on how to destabilize Russia without also having the intention to do so—especially in light of the ongoing proxy war in Ukraine6.
Notes:
Kylie Atwood, Jennifer Hansler, and Alex Marquardt, “Biden gives Ukraine permission to carry out limited strikes within Russia using US weapons,” CNN, May 31, 2024, https://www.cnn.com/2024/05/30/politics/biden-ukraine-limited-strikes-russia/index.html.
Surreal World News, “NATO supported Ukraine since 2014… Trained and Equipped (Ukraine) – Jens Stoltenberg,” YouTube video, 00:46, August 9, 2023, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0uHyhC08HyU.
RAND Corporation, Overextending and Unbalancing Russia (2019), p. 1-12 https://www.rand.org/content/dam/rand/pubs/research_briefs/RB10000/RB10014/RAND_RB10014.pdf.
RAND, Overextending, p. 4, 3, 7.
RAND Corporation, “How We're Funded,” www.rand.org, RAND, Updated March 30, 2023, https://www.rand.org/about/how-we-are-funded.html.
RAND, Overextending, p. 1-2.
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