UNDESTANDING THE RUSSIA-UKRAINE CONFLICT/WAR (FEBRUARY 2022 to PRESENT). SUGGESTED READINGS (more in progress)

To understand an important issue, we need to know its history and how it came about. Of course, the historical background must be vetted and/or verifiable. - Bert M. Drona

Memory is a happening that links to the present but may be biased. History reconstructs the past via research and critical analysis. 

"To be persuasive we must be believable; to be believable we must be credible; credible we must be truthful." - Edward R. Murrow (1908-1965)

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LET US NOT KEEP OUR HEADS IN THE SAND

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A.  AMBASSADOR JACK MATLOCK Jr.

1. ‘Ukraine Today Is Not a Democracy’: An Interview with Former Ambassador Jack Matlock

by Gregor Baszak Posted onMay 01, 2024

Jack F. Matlock, Jr. served from 1987 until 1991 as the US ambassador in the Soviet Union and from 1981 until 1983 in Czechoslovakia. Es served in the National Security Council under President Reagan and participated in several arms control summits, including in Reykjavik in 1986. He served 35 years in the US Foreign Service, from 1956 until 1991. From 1996 until 2001 he served as the George F. Kennan Professor at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey. He is the author of three books: Superpower Illusions (2010), Reagan and Gorbachev: How the Cold War Ended (2004) and Autopsy of an Empire (1995). The transcript of a conversation held on April 22, 2024 follows. The transcript was lightly edited for clarity and length.

PLAY/SEE:
Ukraine Today is not a Democracy 

2. Despite Media Cheerleading, $61 Billion Won’t Beat Russia 
by Ted Snider 

Posted onMay 01, 2024

The United States continues to be the world’s banker for war. Last week, the U.S. invested $95 billion more in war. $61 billion of that is headed to Ukraine. While Congress waved Ukrainian flags, the American mainstream media abandoned its responsibility as investigative journalists and dutifully and enthusiastically acted as cheerleaders, celebrated the continuation of war and led the call for more.

What the mainstream media did not do is tell the American public that, while $61 billion is a lot of money, it is not enough to change the inevitable long-term outcome of the war. The current package of lethal aid will change the situation. It will prolong the war, and it will prolong Ukraine’s suffering. But it will not alter Ukraine’s inevitable defeat

PLAY/SEE:
Despite Media Cheerleading, $61B will not beat Russia,

3. Zelensky Told Trump That Putin Cannot Be Trusted. But Who Killed Minsk 2?

by Ted Snider 

Posted on March 06, 2025

On February 28, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky got a meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump that he had been hoping for. It was an opportunity to sign their agreement on minerals and, more importantly, to improve relations and heal their recent fight.

Instead, another fight erupted (you can see the whole discussion below).

PLAY/SEE: Can Putin be Trusted?

4. Trump Suspends Intelligence Sharing With Ukrainian Military

Mike Waltz said the pause on intelligence sharing and military aid could be lifted once peace talks with Russia are set.

 by Dave DeCamp March 5, 2025 at 1:59 pm ET CategoriesNewsTagsUkraine

PLAY/SEE:  Trump Suspends Intelligence Sharing With Ukrainian Military

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B. PROF. JEFFREY SACHS SPEECH AT EU PARLIAMENT IN BRUSSELS/BELGIUM [PLUS Q&A]

1. Professor Jeffrey Sachs’ speech at the European Parliament gains traction after the heated Oval Office exchange between President Trump and Ukrainian President Zelenskyy. On February 19, 2025, Sachs stressed Europe’s need for an independent foreign policy, recognizing both Russian and European perspectives. His remarks carry added weight as Trump’s approach to Ukraine fuels global concern. The recent Trump-Zelenskyy confrontation underscored sharp disagreements over handling Russia’s aggression, with Zelenskyy rejecting territorial concessions without security guarantees.
PLAY/SEE:
1. "PUTIN'S PUPPET..."

2. Putin's Speech. 43rd Munich Security Conference 2007

C. PROF. JOHN MEARSHER 

BIO: I am the R. Wendell Harrison Distinguished Service Professor in the Political Science Department at the University of Chicago, where I have taught since 1982.

Above all else, I am an international relations theorist. More specifically, I am a realist, which means that the great powers dominate the international system, and they constantly engage in security competition with each other, which sometimes leads to war.

Although I have dedicated my life to scholarship, I have also engaged in the policy debates of the day. For example, I was one of the most outspoken opponents of the 2003 Iraq War before it happened, and I have been deeply involved in the public discourse about the conflicts in Gaza and Ukraine. I firmly believe that social science theories are invaluable for making and analyzing foreign policy.

PLAY/SEE: John Mearsheimer REVEALS: The U.S. Deep State HIDES the TRUTH! U.S. KNEW Ukraine & Israel Would FAIL

D. PEPE ESCOBAR 
Pepe Escobar (born 1954) is a Brazilian journalist and geopolitical analyst.^[1][2] His column "The Roving Eye" for Asia Times regularly discusses the multi-national "competition for dominance over the Middle East and Central Asia."^[3] - WIKIPEDIA 

PLAY/SEE: ZELENSKY IS A "DEAD MAN WALKING" 

E. MICHAEL SCHULENBURG 

Michael von der Schulenburg, a former UN/OSCE diplomat, who has lately been working on the Vatican peace plan has published a new article on the Ukraine war, the importance of the UN-Charta, and the obligation to seek peace. 

Michael Sergius Graf von der Schulenburg (born 16 October 1948 in Munich) is a German politician and former diplomat of the OSCE and the UN. From 2009 to 2012 he was the highest representative of the UN in Freetown in Sierra Leone and head of the world's first integrated peacebuilding mission. In the 2024 European elections, he received a mandate in the European Parliament for the Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance party.

1. PLAY/SEE: EU NARROWMINDEDNESS

2. PLAY/SEE: EU MADNESS