On March 8, President Joe Biden declared, in a speech announcing a ban on imports of Russian oil and gas, that these and other actions taken by the United States government “to inflict further pain on [Russia President Vladimir Putin]” would “cost us as well, in the United States.”
Since then, the US government’s economic sanctions on Russia — as well as spending, military training, intelligence sharing, and weapons transfers to attack the Russian military — have increased as the economic conditions in America have declined. Some of that economic decline is a result of the actions against Russia, as Biden suggested would be the case. Other parts of the decline have other causes.
Tag: Russia
There was a time when some Democrats in the United States House of Representatives would speak out against and vote against US wars. Sadly, the Tuesday US House of Representatives vote on a bill (HR 7691) to spend over 40 billion dollars in pursuance of the US war on Russia demonstrates that anti-war Democrats are now extinct in the House.
In March of 2003, as the United States military prepared for its imminent invasion of Iraq, Paul Wolfowitz suggested to US Congress members that the US would not foot the bill for rebuilding Iraq after the devastation the US invasion would bring to the country. Wolfowitz, who was then deputy secretary of defense, assured Congress members that Iraq, through its oil revenue, could pay for its own reconstruction.
The Axis powers, including Germany and Japan, were the foes of the United States and other Allied powers in World War II. Decades later, President George W. Bush chose to term some other nations — Iraq, Iran, and North Korea — as a new “axis of evil.” That was followed by a US invasion and overthrow in Iraq. Decades later, US troops remain in Iraq, and US sanctions and hostility directed at the other two nations continue.
This week, the United States House of Representatives is set to bring the Axis designation back to the big time — seeking to lump China in with Russia as the new Axis powers the US should be devoted to opposing. The movement toward a new world war — the first one with nuclear powers on both sides — grows stronger.
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Good for Koch Industries
While many American companies have fled from doing business in Russia as media and politicians have built up the message of hate against the country, Koch Industries has continued to pursue commerce in Russia.
Ron Paul gained the recognition and admiration of many people due to his advocacy in presidential campaigns for the United States adopting a noninterventionist foreign policy. No to war and sanctions. Butt out of other countries’ affairs. Yes to trade and communication. Thus, it should be expected that Paul would object to President Joe Biden, in the midst of Biden ramping up sanctions and antagonistic rhetoric against Russia, promoting a “new world order.”
Many Congress members in Washington, DC are loudly proclaiming their support for the United States government continuing and even increasing its support for the Ukraine government’s fight against Russia. In contrast, former US House of Representatives member Ron Paul is arguing, as he did when he was a member of the House, that the US government should mind its own business in regard to Ukraine.
The United States government is busy banning and sanctioning virtually all things Russian. Meanwhile, big money media and social media are nearly uniformly proclaiming anti-Russia sentiment and working hard to limit Americans’ exposure of contrary information.
In this context, it is little surprise that last week RT America, with its connection to the government of Russia, ceased broadcasting. The silencing of the news organization arises from a Russia scare relentlessly fueled in America and several other countries in recent years that reached its highest manic level in the last few weeks.
Seventeen votes from among 433 United States House of Representatives members. That is all the support for peace or free trade with Russia that was on display in the House on Wednesday when the House passed the Suspending Energy Imports from Russia Act (HR 6968) by a vote of 414 to 17, with two members not voting.
The tense situation between the United States and Russia governments concerning Ukraine is a topic of much discussion in the media recently, including in today’s episode of the Ron Paul Institute’s daily video program.
Once you have watched that Ron Paul Liberty Report episode, a great next step for background information about the situation is Patrick J. Buchanan’s editorial “Putin to Biden: Finlandize Ukraine, or We Will.”