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The United National Antiwar Coalition (UNAC) Demands
"US Hands off Ukraine
and Venezuela"
The United
States government is the main instigator of
the present crises in both countries. The hypocrisy of Secretary of State John
Kerry’s statement on Face the Nation, “You just don't in the 21st century
behave in 19th century fashion by invading another country on completely
trumped up pretext," is beyond belief. What about the US invasions of Iraq
and Afghanistan, or regime
change in Libya, or the
threats to bomb Syria and
attack Iran?
The US
has waged a massive propaganda campaign of misinformation, distortion, and
outright lies and the national media has taken the State Department’s “facts”
and disseminated them without question or challenge. News about the US/EU
role in creating the current crisis is buried. The US is the only country that has its
troops throughout the world in over 120 countries. It sends drones and
special operations forces to kill anyone and anywhere it chooses and uses its
vast economic power to undercut any government that will not submit to its
policies. Although there is lip service to concerns about democracy and
sovereignty, the reality is that the US acts in the interests of
preserving its imperialist power and wealth.
Ukraine
and Venezuela
are not exceptions to this rule of imperialist intervention. For 20
years, $5 billion was invested in Ukraine
to support the opposition and to create tens of thousands of non-governmental
organizations (NGOs) to move the country more towards the US and EU and
their policies. In an intercepted phone call between Assistant Secretary of
State Victoria Nuland and the US
ambassador to Ukraine, she
discusses who the US wants
to be the head of the new illigitimate government, and lo and behold, the US pick,
Arseniy Yatseniuk, is named as the interim Ukrainian leader. This is
clearly outside intervention in the affairs of a sovereign country that would
not be tolerated if directed at the US or its allies.
What are the real objectives and why is Russia so
alarmed? Could it be the US-NATO campaign to militarily surround Russia and
bring neighboring countries into the western military and financial
orbit? Might it be that the largest supply of natural gas in the world is
in Russia and the pipelines
go through Ukraine, or that
global warming is opening the Arctic to oil drilling and Russia borders the Arctic?
It is clear that Russia
will not passively sit by while the Western-backed coup, led by violent fascist
forces and local billionaires, overthrows a democratically elected government
and installs a puppet regime on its border.
By treaty, Russia
can have 25,000 troops in Crimea. To
protect its military base there and to protect the people in the Eastern and
Southern parts of the country, where the coup is not supported, Russia has
moved some troops to the Ukrainian border and into the Crimean peninsula.
Many in the east and south are fearful of the new coup government and the
neo-Nazi and nationalist forces that led the street demonstrations.
The escalating threats of military and economic aggression
towards Russia
should not be taken lightly. Washington’s
recklessness and disregard for humanity have resurrected the worst vestiges of
cold war politics. They have created a dangerous situation that can
generate a real war with an adversary with a powerful military of its own.
The US is
similarly intervening in Venezuela.
There, the US
government wants a return to policies which brought the benefits of that
nation’s oil wealth to a privileged few. The Bolivarian Revolution has been
supported by a majority of Venezuelans in election after election. Yet the United States
persists in violating the sovereignty and self-determination of the Venezuelan
people. In 2002, the US
supported a coup against the late Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez. During this
coup, Chavez was forced onto a US
military plane to be taken out of the country. The Venezuelan people and
military were able to rescue Chavez and defeat the coup. However, the US has continued to intervene in Venezuela causing the government of Nicolas
Maduro to expel three US
officials for trying to organize students for anti-government protests.
As long as the United States
is committed to aggression, the whole world is endangered, just as Ukraine and Venezuela are. Libya fell, Syria
is under attack, there is a “pivot to Asia”,
and Africom controls the military in almost every African nation. We must
demand that our government stop its policy of imperialist domination which
generates conflict throughout the world.
NO TO US
WARS, THREATS, ATTACKS, SANCTIONS, AND COVERT OPERATIONS IN UKRAINE, RUSSIA,
VENEZUELA,
AND ALL OTHER SOVEREIGN COUNTRIES!
MONEY FOR JOBS, EDUCATION, HEALTHCARE AND MEETING SOCIAL
NEEDS, NOT WAR AND AGGRESSION TO BENEFIT THE RICH!
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