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Washington appears intent on making Russia's war on Ukraine into a moral crusade. Pentagon spokesman John Kirby last week declared that "we’re certainly seeing clear evidence that the Russian military is conducting war crimes."
Any large-scale conflict is going to kill civilians, some directly in combat, others from the impact of war's destructive impact on a modern society. Thus, Russian attacks on Ukrainian cities such as Mariupol cannot help but kill civilians. Last week the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights estimated 953 dead and 1557 injured Ukrainian civilians. But that is merely the number of victims whose death can be confirmed.
OHCHR reported that it "believes that the actual figures are considerably higher, especially in Government-controlled territory and especially in recent days, as the receipt of information from some locations where intense hostilities have been going on has been delayed and many reports are still pending corroboration. This concerns, for example, Mariupol and Volnovakha (Donetsk region), Izium (Kharkiv region), Sievierodonetsk and Rubizhne (Luhansk region), and Trostianets (Sumy region), where there are allegations of numerous civilian casualties. These figures are being further corroborated and are not included in the above statistics."
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China has been identified as the number one "threat" facing the US in the Pentagon's new National Defense Strategy (NDS), which was sent to Congress on Monday.
The full NDS is still classified, but the Pentagon released a fact sheet on the document that says it "will act urgently to sustain and strengthen deterrence, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) as our most consequential strategic competitor and the pacing challenge for the Department.
The fact sheet outlines four priorities for the Pentagon:
1. Defending the homeland, paced to the growing multi-domain threat posed by the PRC
2. Deterring strategic attacks against the United States, Allies, and partners
3. Deterring aggression, while being prepared to prevail in conflict when necessary, prioritizing the PRC challenge in the Indo-Pacific, then the Russia challenge in Europe
4. Building a resilient Joint Force and defense ecosystem
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Several weeks into the war in Ukraine, ABC’s George Stephanopoulos asked President Joe Biden if he agreed with those who call Russian President Vladimir Putin "a killer."
"I do," said Biden.
Since calling Putin a killer, Biden has progressed to calling him "a war criminal," "a murderous dictator," "a pure thug" and "a butcher."
It is difficult to recall an American president using such a string of epithets about the leader of a nation with which we were not at war.
What is Biden's rationale? What is his purpose here?
Franklin D. Roosevelt and Harry Truman, to their eternal embarrassment, called Joseph Stalin, a far greater monster than Putin, "good old Joe" and "Uncle Joe" when they sought his cooperation in World War II and the early postwar era.
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The leader of Georgia's breakaway republic of South Ossetia has said he’s ready to take steps to join Russia, and a referendum is expected to be held within the next few months.
South Ossetia is a de facto independent state and has been recognized by Russia and several other countries since the brief 2008 war. Russia intervened in 2008 to help South Ossetia fight off the forces of then-Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili, but most countries still recognize South Ossetia as part of Georgia.
"I believe that unification with Russia is our strategic goal, our path, the aspiration of the people," said South Ossetian President Anatoly Bibilov, according to Al Jazeera. "We will take the relevant legislative steps shortly. The republic of South Ossetia will be part of its historical homeland - Russia."
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According to a 2019 Rand report titled "Overextending and Unbalancing Russia", the US goal is to undermine Russia just as it did the Soviet Union in the cold war. Rather than "trying to stay ahead" or trying to improve the US domestically or in international relations, the emphasis is on efforts and actions to undermine the designated adversary Russia. Rand is a quasi-US governmental think tank that receives three-quarters of its funding from the US military.
The report lists anti-Russia measures divided into the following areas: economic, geopolitical, ideological/informational, and military.
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President Biden appeared to reveal on Monday that the US is training Ukrainian troops in Poland.
Biden made the comments when trying to explain a recent gaffe. In Poland on Friday, President Biden told members of the 82nd Airborne Division that Ukrainians were "stepping up" against the Russian assault and said, "You’re going to see when you're there," suggesting that the US soldiers would be entering the war zone.
Explaining his comments on Monday, Biden said, "We were talking about helping train the troops in - that are - the Ukrainian troops that are in Poland. That's what the context."
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