War Been ‘Berry, Berry Good’ to Victoria
Dear Friends of the Ron Paul Institute:
Many of you recall that classic 1970s Saturday Night Live skit, where comedian Garrett Morris played a retired Dominican Republic-born baseball player, Chico Escuela. “Baseball,” he told the fictional gathering of the St. Mickey’s Knights of Columbus, “been berry, berry good to me.” The club had gone $900 into debt to pay for an inspirational speech from Escuela and club leaders were shocked when he sat down after uttering the single phrase. “Is that it, Chico,” the John Belushi character asks in disbelief. Chico replies, “Keep you eye…keep you eyes…on de ball.”
Soon Morris/Escuela and his catch phrase were firmly established in popular culture and was one of the longest running jokes of the classic days of SNL.
Just as baseball was “berry, berry” good to Escuela, we find that pushing war has been “berry, berry good” to former US Assistant Secretary of State for European Affairs, Victoria Nuland (and in fact to the whole Kagan neocon clan of which she is a part).
You will recall that it was Assistant Secretary Nuland along with sidekick, US Ambassador to Ukraine Geoffrey Pyatt, who not only had a big part in planning the coup against a democratically-elected government in Ukraine, but who went as far as taking to the streets to provide US-funded refreshments to the protestors/rioters who burned and shot their way into power.
When they finally got their coup, Nuland was caught on the phone with Pyatt actually plotting who should take power in Ukraine when the duly elected president was overthrown. She told Pyatt that they would get their man in the UN, former US diplomat Jeffery Feltman, to “glue this thing” and if the EU got in the way of this “made in America” coup? Well, she said, “(expletive) the EU!”
The Russian reaction to a US-backed coup that saw an extremely hostile junta take control of neighboring Ukraine was predictably negative. When the coup-government started making moves to ban the use of Russian language in areas that had voted 90 percent plus in favor of the deposed, Russia-friendly candidate, Russia moved in on Crimea, an historically Russian enclave, and moved to assist ethnic Russians and Russian-speaking Ukrainians in the eastern part of the country.
To Washington, its provoking of an anti-Russia coup on Russia’s doorstep was just “democracy promotion,” while Russia’s reaction to Washington-inspired unrest next door was “Russian aggression.” The human toll of this US “regime change” operation is often ignored, but more than 10,000 people were killed in Ukraine from 2014 to 2017. That’s blood on Nuland’s hands.
With the Ukraine operation in motion, the narrative was set and it was overwhelmingly backed by the mainstream media and politicians out to make a buck and earn some votes selling fear. All of a sudden the talk was not of the US-backed coup in Ukraine, but rather of the Russian “invasion” of Ukraine. Strangely, there were never any photos presented of this massive Russian military operation in Ukraine. We have seen in Syria what a major Russian military operation looks like so surely there should be some footage of the Russian invasion of Ukraine? None yet.
Back in the US homeland, the Russian reaction to the US-backed coup was just the excuse needed to reinvigorate a NATO that had taken a beating following its “liberation” of Libya which rather than usher in a new era of peace and democracy had produced a gang- and jihadist-infested hell on earth. Suddenly, thanks in part to Victoria Nuland’s handiwork, the Cold War was new again! New military operations on Russia’s borders were hastily planned and executed to “deter Russian aggression.” NATO troops were operating just yards from the Russian border in the Baltics. US troops were to be permanently stationed for the first time in former Eastern Europe. Weapons sales to “worried” NATO allies shot upward.
For NATO and the Washington weapons dealers, happy days were here again! There is no doubt that hundreds of millions — probably more — in military equipment sales have been generated by Victoria Nuland’s coup in Ukraine.
So what happens to Nuland, as Barack “Nobel Peace Prize” Obama leaves office? She lands a plum position in the “private” sector, being named Chief Executive Officer of the neocon-occupied Washington think tank Center for a New American Security last week. As the Center writes in its press release announcing its new hire, “As CEO, Ambassador Nuland will lead CNAS’ efforts to develop bold, innovative, and bipartisan solutions to the most pressing national security and defense issues.”
Sadly, more US military interventionism overseas is a “bipartisan” issue.
So who funds the Center for a New American security? This may shock you, but it is the Pentagon and the military industrial complex. From their own website, they enjoy the largesse of:
- Department of Defense
- Northrop Grumman Aerospace Systems
- The Boeing Company
- BAE Systems, North America
- Chevron Corporation
- National Defense Industrial Association
- Raytheon Company
- General Dynamics Corporation
- Lockheed Martin Company
- Aerospace Industries Association
- DynCorp International
- Honeywell
- L3 Technologies, Inc.
This is only a very partial list.
This is what we are up against. The real “revolving door” where government officials work for the military-industrial complex while they are in office so that they can work for the military-industrial complex once they are out of office. The think tanks are populated with people like Victoria Nuland, her husband Robert Kagan, the other Kagans, and a coterie of neocons and “humanitarian” interventionists who are living well and considered experts despite blunder after disaster.
So yes, fomenting war has been “berry, berry” good to Victoria Nuland, but we can break this chain. We can break this cycle. It is a matter of educating the American people that they are being played for fools, that their children and grandchildren will live far worse than they (if they live at all) because the wealth of the nation is being funneled into this scam.
We are doing our part to shine the light on this big rip-off. They don’t want Americans to know how their gravy train works, but we will not allow them a moment’s peace. We will not allow their lies to go unchallenged. Please help us amplify our voice with a tax-deductible donation to the Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity. Let’s work together for a better, neocon-free future.
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Excellent.