by Eric Zuesse, The Duran:
U.S. President Joe Biden’s interview with TIME magazine, published on June 4th, is informative about U.S. President Joe Biden’s plans to provoke both Russia and China into WW3 — using the war in Ukraine as the excuse for an American invasion of Russia, and using as an excuse to invade China a declaration of independence from China’s Government by Taiwan’s government, for which the U.S. has long been propagandizing within Taiwan, and has even been donating to Taiwan’s government U.S. weapons, in order to encourage it to declare its independence from China and so to become invaded by China so that the U.S. and it allies can cry out against ‘China’s aggression’ and then invade China to punish it for that ‘aggression’ — but what would that ‘aggression’ by China be ‘aggression’ against? Would it be ‘aggression’ against a separatist Province of China, which America has been arming in order that Taiwan declare its independence? (As we shall see here, the U.S. Government itself has an official policy that “The United States acknowledges that all Chinese on either side of the Taiwan Strait maintain there is but one China and that Taiwan is a part of China.” That policy even has a name: “the One-China policy”. So: America’s official policy is that Taiwan is a Province of China.)
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The TIME article pretends to include ‘fact checks’ of Biden’s allegations, but the most important of those checks are based upon dubious sources, such as the following important statement from Biden, which expresses Biden’s view that defeating Russia in Ukraine is a realistic primary objective of his Presidency:
The Russian military has been decimated. You don’t write about that. It’s been freaking decimated. [TIME’S FACT CHECK: “The Facts: This is a fair assessment, according to a Reuters report [12 December 2023] on a declassified U.S. intelligence assessment provided to Congress” [but never made public; so, what does ‘declassified’ even mean here, regarding a report which might not even exist, or else be from untrustworthy sources?]. The intelligence [What intelligence?] determined that Russia had 360,000 active military personnel when it invaded Ukraine in February of 2022. By December of last year, 315,000 Russian troops had been either killed or injured in the war — a reduction in troop strength by 87%.
Then, TIME observes that Biden “[Pulls out copy of speech Putin delivered on Feb. 21, 2022]” … You probably haven’t read it. Most people haven’t read it. He [Putin] says this is part of reestablishing the Soviet Union. [NO ‘FACT CHECK’ there, but Putin never said that.] That’s what this is all about.”
This speech by Putin wasn’t aiming to explain the invasion of Ukraine that began three days later; he wasn’t so stupid as to be referring to an invasion before it happened — but Biden’s statement published on 4 June 2024 pretends otherwise. Putin’s actual speech to his nation explaining why he had decided to invade Ukraine occurred on 24 February 2022. It, too, was very long and winding, and wasted much time detailing history that wasn’t directly relevant to the urgent national-security concerns which made this invasion necessary; and Putin said:
It is a fact that over the past 30 years we have been patiently trying to come to an agreement with the leading NATO countries regarding the principles of equal and indivisible security in Europe. In response to our proposals, we invariably faced either cynical deception and lies or attempts at pressure and blackmail, while the North Atlantic alliance continued to expand despite our protests and concerns. Its military machine is moving and, as I said, is approaching our very border. …
In December 2021, we made yet another attempt to reach agreement with the United States and its allies on the principles of European security and NATO’s non-expansion. Our efforts were in vain. The United States has not changed its position. It does not believe it necessary to agree with Russia on a matter that is critical for us. The United States is pursuing its own objectives, while neglecting our interests. …
We can see that the forces that staged the coup in Ukraine in 2014 have seized power, are keeping it with the help of ornamental election procedures and have abandoned the path of a peaceful conflict settlement. For eight years, for eight endless years we have been doing everything possible to settle the situation by peaceful political means. Everything was in vain. …
I have already said that Russia accepted the new geopolitical reality after the dissolution of the USSR. We have been treating all new post-Soviet states with respect and will continue to act this way. We respect and will respect their sovereignty, as proven by the assistance we provided to Kazakhstan when it faced tragic events and a challenge in terms of its statehood and integrity. However, Russia cannot feel safe, develop, and exist while facing a permanent threat from the territory of today’s Ukraine. …
