The root cause of the Ukraine war - relentless NATO expansion
Before callously calling for the death of Russian President Putin, Tim Cox (Herald letters, May 6) would do well to review the root causes of the Ukraine war – unrelenting NATO expansion.
From 1998, warnings abounded about the consequences of pushing NATO to Russia’s borders.
I cite just a few below. More can be found in this 2023 comprehensive Twitter thread by Arnaud Bertrand.
In 1998 the great US foreign policy strategist George Kennan said NATO expansion was a ‘tragic mistake’ and predicted there were be ‘a bad reaction from Russia.’
In 2014 Kissinger was adamant that “Ukraine should not join NATO.” In 2023 he said NATO’s “grave mistake” caused the Ukraine war.
Prof John Mearsheimer said in 2015 “the West is leading Ukraine down the primrose path” and “Ukraine is going to get wrecked.”
Former US ambassador to the USSR Jack Matlock said NATO expansion was “the most profound strategic blunder.”
Clinton Defence secretary William Perry said NATO enlargement is the cause of “the rupture in relations with Russia.”
Noam Chomsky in 2015 said that the idea that Ukraine joining NATO would be “quite unacceptable to any Russian leader” and would not protect Ukraine but threaten it “with major war.”
Russian scholar Stephen Cohen warned in 2014 that moving NATO forces toward Russia’s borders will militarise the situation and “Russia will not back off, this is existential.”
Former CIA Director Bill Burns in 2008 wrote “Ukrainian entry into NATO is the brightest of all redlines for Russia” and is a “direct challenge to Russian interests.”
Australian PM Malcolm Fraser warned in 2014 that “the move east by NATO is provocative, unwise and a very clear signal to Russia.”
In 2015, former US defence secretary Bob Gates wrote, “Moving so quickly to expand NATO was a mistake. Trying to bring George and Ukraine into NATO was truly overreaching and an especially monumental provocation.”
Sir Roderic Lyne, former British ambassador to Russia warned in 2021 that pushing “Ukraine into NATO is stupid on every level.”
In 2014 journalist John Pilger wrote that Ukraine had become a “CIA theme park”, a situation he predicted would lead to a “NATO-run guerrilla war.”
In 2009, Chinese foreign policy scholar Shiping Tang wrote that the “EU must put a stop to the US/NATO way of approaching European affairs” especially with regards to Ukraine, otherwise it will “permanently divide Europe.”
Ukrainian presidential advisor Oleksiy Arestovych said in 2015 that if Ukraine continues down the path to join NATO, it will “prompt Russia to launch a large-scale military operation.”
In 2023, then NATO secretary Jens Stoltenberg admitted the war started because of NATO expansion.
It’s beyond tragic that these warnings were ignored.
What they DIDN'T want was NATO with nuke missiles within 4mins of Moscow, and a belligerent Nazi state on their borders treating ethnic Russians like Israhell treats the Palestinians.
“The war began with the violent overthrow of Ukraine President Viktor Yanukovych in February 2014, a coup that was overtly and covertly backed by the United States government in the service of NATO expansion.” (Director of the Center for Sustainable Development at Columbia, Jeffrey Sachs 3/8/23)
The main reason why the US/Western imperial powers wanted Ukraine was for their vast agricultural and mineral wealth which is now shown by the deal Trump made with Zelensky. Trump will now defend Ukraine to get that wealth. That was always the intention of the Capitalist class and the reason they hate Putin . Putin stopped them in Russia and now in Ukraine (although he wants that wealth for many of the same reasons). It's what the Western "civilized" nations have done to the global South for centuries...extracting their natural resources and keeping the indigenous populations in dire poverty.