World War 3 has already begun. Will it escalate into a nuclear war between Russia and the US?
Neocons and Liberal Interventionists pushing for unlimited escalation
Tucker Carlson frames the drive to war with Russia and the goal of regime change in Russia as an end stage of the Russia-gate conspiracy theory. Carlson plays parts of videos of Adam Schiff and Nancy Pelosi clearly stating that regime change in Russia is the goal of US support for Ukraine. Ukraine is acting as a proxy for the US. War Hawks in Congress are pushing for Congressional authorization for direct US military intervention in Ukraine. Carlson repeatedly makes the point that the US government is escalating support for Ukraine in a war against Russia, risking nuclear war. Carlson does not address the US interventions in Ukraine, including its role in staging a coup d’etat in 2014 in alliance with Nazi organizations which triggered a civil war in eastern Ukraine.
Carlson says that Russian invasion of Ukraine is bad, not justified, but in other commentaries has acknowledged that Russia has legitimate concerns about Ukraine becoming a part of NATO and waging war against ethnic Russians in eastern Ukraine, without ever offering the opinion that Russia is fighting a just war.
In the years immediately prior to the 2014 coup d’etat in Ukraine, the US poured 5 billion dollars into Ukraine, including money to buy / set up mass media outlets and financially supported Nazis who provided the muscle for the 2014 coup d'etat.
Prior to the coup, the Russian language was the linga franca not only in Ukraine but also in most of the former Soviet Union and former Warsaw Pact countries. About one-third of Ukrainians speak Russia as their native language, including a majority in east and southeast Ukraine, which was Russian territory prior to the formation of the Soviet Union. Russian is also widely spoken as a second language, a majority of people in central Ukraine speak a language which might be considered a dialect of Ukrainian or Russian, and a majority of its speakers can understand standard Russian and Ukrainian without the need for any formal instruction.
The Russian, Ukrainian and Belarusian peoples and languages have their roots in the Kievan Rus state of the 10th to 13th century, with its capital city being Kiev. The language and culture of Ukraine were influence by Polish and Austo-Hungarian rulers during a time when the eastern part of the Kievan Rus territory fell under control of the Mongolian empire.
In the 17th century, the Ukrainian government sought to become a part of the Russian empire, because the Ukrainian state was a very small landlocked state with Kiev as the capital city. Ukraine was incorporated into the Russian empire. Its territory enlarged to include most of what is now western and central Ukraine. What is now eastern and southeast Ukraine was Russian territory gifted to Ukraine by the Soviet Union.
The Ukrainian regime established in the wake of the 2014 coup d'etat was not popular with most ethnic Russians and native Russian speakers. The new regime banned the use of the Russian language in schools and many public places. Proficiency in Ukrainian became a requirement for public employment. Expressing “pro-Russian” views became a criminal offense punishable by imprisonment, and by death at the hands of Nazis acting outside of the letter of the law. Nazi paramilitary groups terrorized ethnic Russians, Russian speaking Ukrainians and other minority ethnic groups and native speakers of languages other than Ukrainian.
Nazis became a dominant force inside the Ukrainian military, in part because they were better motivated to fight ethnic Russians, who they consider sub human. The Ukrainian military killed upwards of 14,000 civilians in the Donbas between 2014 and 2022. Residents in the Donbas, especially in rebel held areas ceased to be treated Ukrainian citizens. The people of the Oblasts (provinces) of Lugansk and Donetsk voted to establish independent "peoples republics," with over 80 and 90 per cent of the population voting for independence in 2014.
The Minsk Accords of 2014 and 2015 was a diplomatic solution to the civil war in eastern Ukraine. The Ukrainian government agreed to the terms of the accords, which included a cease fire and the granting of autonomy to the territories that seceded from Ukraine and greater autonomy to other political subdivisions of Ukraine. Laws discriminating against speakers of Russian and laws against speaking Russian were to be repealed. The goal was to grant greater autonomy to Ukraine's provinces, especially in the Donbas in return for the disarmament of military forces of the Lugansk and Donetsk Peoples Republics. However, the US and the regime in Kiev never wanted to end the campaign of de-Russification and Ukrainianization of eastern Ukraine. The goal of the US has been to build up Ukraine's military in order to fight a proxy war against Russia. The war in eastern Ukraine forced many to seek refuge in Russia.
The persecution of ethnic Russians and speakers of Russian in Ukraine predictably drove those who were persecuted to oppose the regime in Kiev and to favor secession from Ukraine. Ukraine was compelled to sign on to the Minsk Accords in part because discipline broke down in the Ukrainian military, with many soldiers deserting or defecting to the Donetsk and Lugansk militias. The Ukrainian military was rebuilt via an infusion of Nazis, including the incorporation of Nazi formations into the reserves and the integration of Nazis into the regular army, including its officer corps.
Zelensky was elected president of Ukraine in 2019 on a platform of ending the civil war, implementing the Minsk Accords. Zelensky is an ethnic Russian Jew who ran as a peace candidate. Zelensky got 73% of the vote nationwide, with support in excess of 80% in eastern and southern Ukraine. Zelensky fell short of a majority only in the Oblast (province) on border of Poland with Lviv / Lvov as its capital city.
On the eve of the Russian intervention in February 2022, Zelensky's job performance had the approval of only 26% of those surveyed in a nationwide opinion poll. Under Zelensky, political repression greatly increased. "Pro-Russian" news outlets and parties were banned in 2019. After the Russian intervention in 2022, all of the news media was placed under government control and all political parties were outlawed, except for Zelensky's party, the Svoboda Party and old-school Nazi groups, such as Right Sector, Slova 14, Aiden and Azov movements.
The Zelensky government relies on support from the US and Ukrainian Nazi, allies who can easily topple the government if Zelensky stops doing their bidding. Even if you give Zelensky the benefit of the doubt as to his commitment to ending the civil war in eastern Ukraine via diplomacy rather than the total military defeat of the rebellion, he could not have reformed the regime that he was given an electoral mandate to reform , even if he wanted to do so. However, Zelensky’s main backer is a billionaire oligarch, Igor Kolomoisky, who funded Zelensky’s television production company and a television program starring Zelensky as a high school teacher who ran for president and won on an anti-corruption platform. Zelensky’s portrayal as corruption-fighting president on a TV program no doubt contributed to his popularity as a presidential candidate in real life. Kolomoisky is also the owner of Burisma, which gave Hunter Biden a highly compensated, no-show job and was a big financial supporter of the Azov and Aidan organizations.
In most of eastern and southern Ukraine where a majority of the population faced repression based on their ethnicity and / or native language, it is not illogical for a majority of the population to regard the Russian army as liberators. Even in much of western Ukraine, it is possible that a large part of the population is not at all content with the regime in Kiev. A large part of the population in central and western Ukraine might welcome the Russian army as liberators. The US-installed regime in Kiev provoked a civil war which a majority of the population wanted to end via diplomatic methods. Ukraine's economic interests were also subordinated to those of the US. Ukraine became a much poorer country as a consequence of becoming a de facto colony of the US.
The US NATO war propaganda is far more divorced from reality than that of Russia's. The Russian intervention in Ukraine is supported by a huge majority of the Russian population. By comparison to Russia, support inside of NATO countries for a war against Russia is not as broad and deep. The economic war by NATO against Russia is also doing more damage to NATO countries than to Russia.
Within the US, the broadest and deepest support for a war against Russia is within the Democratic Party's electoral base. Support for a war against Russia has been cultivated by promotion of the evidence-free Russia-gate conspiracy theory and by the relentless demonization of Vladimir Putin and the Russian government. However, a majority of Americans are not willing to support the goal of regime change in Russia via direct US military intervention in Ukraine, and the attendant risk of a nuclear war. However, the US government is escalating its support for Ukraine's war effort, and attempting to win public support for further escalation. Ukraine is essentially a proxy for the US in its war with Russia.
There is a serious chance that the US will not refrain from direct military intervention in Ukraine to prevent the military defeat of the Ukraine government. The narrative about Ukrainian government having overwhelming popular support and winning the war against Russia was designed to provoke dissent in Russia, boost the morale of the Ukrainian armed forces and to bolster support for the Ukrainian government in the US and other NATO countries. However, Russia is winning the war, and the US wants a prolonged war, or even better, a victorious Ukraine
The stated Russian goals of de-Nazification and ending an 8 year old civil war are dismissed by the US State Department as Russian propaganda based an a gross exaggeration of the influence of Nazis in the Ukrainian government and the claim that the peoples republics in the Donbas are Russian creations imposed on the people by Russia rather than byproducts of popular resistance to the Kiev regimes de-Rusification program.
The US need to keep their war picking arms manufacturing profit returns to shareholders machine just a’ rolling along.