JOE LAURIA: A History of Humiliation

Vladimir Putin would have to have near angelic grace not to take some pleasure in the West’s humiliation in Ukraine. Nobody’s attributed angelic grace to the ex-KGB man. From Joe Lauria at consortiumnews.com:

After a history of U.S. bullying and humiliation — from a broken promise not to expand NATO to deceit over Minsk — it can’t be assumed Moscow is bluffing when it warns of nuclear war.

In his momentous speech at American University in Washington 61 years ago, in which he controversially sought peace with Soviet Russia and an end to the Cold War, President John F. Kennedy said: 

“Above all, while defending our own vital interests, nuclear powers must avert those confrontations which bring an adversary to a choice of either a humiliating retreat or a nuclear war. To adopt that kind of course in the nuclear age would be evidence only of the bankruptcy of our policy — or of a collective death-wish for the world.”

Twenty-eight years later, the Bill Clinton administration and every U.S. administration since, culminating in perhaps the most reckless, has proven the bankruptcy of U.S. policy by doing the exact opposite of what Kennedy advised, namely displaying a determination to humiliate and bully nuclear-armed Russia.

Today that most frightening moment has arrived, one dreaded by generations. The United States on Monday continued to provoke Russia with American and British missile attacks on Russian soil fired from a third country with American and British personnel, ignoring Moscow’s unequivocally clear warning  that this could lead to nuclear conflict.  

By firing directly into Russia with its ATACMS and Storm Shadow missiles, the U.S. and U.K., which Russia has not attacked, have given Moscow “a choice of either a humiliating retreat or a nuclear war.”

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