US Senator John McCain is calling on the Obama administration to send weapons to Ukraine, thereby turning up the thermostat in a country where an estimated 50,000 civilians and soldiers have already perished.
Sean Hannity began the Ukraine segment of his interview with John McCain by casually rewriting modern history, possibly in anticipation of another Hollywood blockbuster.
Hannity: “I know [Barack Obama] has met with Chancellor Merkel, but he seems reluctant and resistant [to deliver weapons] even though Crimea and the Ukraine were pretty much annexed by Putin to do anything to support [Kiev]. Why?”
The more I am forced to watch Fox News, the more I believe the pause/rewind button was invented so that viewers can make sure they heard the hyperbole correctly.
Did Hannity, a political opinionator for Fox News, actually suggest that Putin “pretty much annexed” Crimea and Ukraine? No, he didn’t suggest it, he actually said it, and we can be sure McCain will not correct him on the matter. Indeed, the old warhorse will place a cherry and some whip cream on top of Hannity’s heaping mound of what is generally known in the business as ‘bullsh*t.’
McCain: “Five thousand Ukrainians have been murdered. The first time since the end of World War II that one country has dismembered a nation in Europe and to not give them weapons to defend themselves will go down as one of the shameful chapters of American history, and the Chancellor of Germany and the President of France don’t surprise me, but they should be ashamed too.”
Pause-Rewind-Play-Scream.
First, McCain is being conveniently conservative with the number of fatalities in Ukraine. Just this week, a source in German intelligence told Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung that the real number of deaths in the Ukrainian civil war was about 50,000 – a number 10-times higher than that put forward by McCain and Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko.
Is McCain deliberately deflating the Ukrainian death toll so as not to alarm the European Union as to the true nature of the ticking time bomb on their doorstep? Is Poroshenko being disingenuous about death and destruction in order to secure more lethal means for attacking East Ukraine? Judging by his performance at the Munich Security Conference, where he flashed some “Russian soldiers’ passports” as some sort of proof of a full-blown Russian invasion of Ukraine, anything is possible.
Second [Hollywood script writers, please pay attention], Russia did not dismember Ukraine. Kiev seems quite capable of performing that feat without any outside assistance. Despite the provocative assertion that Russia “seized” Crimea, the reality would put American moviegoers to sleep in their seats.
About one month after Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich fled the Ukrainian capital Kiev, not looking back till he reached Russia, the people of Crimea decided to hold a referendum on whether or not to become part of the Russian Federation. Ninety-six percent of the residents voted in favor of the decision, and one year later, according to a poll, they remain very satisfied with their status.
Had McCain wanted to show a real example of a European country being physically dismembered, he could have pointed with much more honesty to the now-extinct Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, which was obliterated by 78 days of non-stop NATO bombings on the capital Belgrade (March 24, 1999 to June 10, 1999). The attack was never green-lighted by the UN and was the first time that NATO used force against a sovereign nation that posed no threat to members of the alliance.
Or he could have just as easily pointed to the string of serial invasions that have been carried out with impunity by the United States across the Middle East, where imported American weapons are falling into the hands of allies and enemies alike, from Syrian rebels with known links to al-Qaeda, to the newest bogeyman on the block, the Islamic State.
But that would have required an element not traditionally found in US politicians, especially when the subject is Russia, known as truth.
In any event, I can’t help wondering where we’d be now in Ukraine had John McCain won the White House against Barack Obama back in 2008. Perhaps that’s a question the people of Europe had better ask themselves, especially as Obama’s presidency winds down.
Clearly, there are some individuals in Washington who have no apparent qualms with parts of Europe going down in flames, so long as it strengthens American interests.
The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of RT.
The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of RT.