‘US acts in Ukraine as if it is its 51st state’ (STA BREAKING NEWS and ARCHIVES)

by Theresa , Tuesday, February 03, 2015, 18:46

Washington has been implementing its policy in Ukraine like it is part of the US even it is half way around the world, Richard Becker from the anti-war Answer coalition told RT.

RT:The Minsk agreements demand that both sides stop fighting and withdraw heavy weapons. But the US State Department suggested that supplying weapons to Kiev doesn't violate the spirit of the agreements. How is that?

Richard Becker: The US government acts in many ways like Ukraine is its 51 state even though it is half way around the world. When we look at agreements… since the beginning of the history of the US, since the US was a country, there have been so many broken agreements, so many broken treaties interpreted in such a way that allows the US government to proceed in a way that it wants to in any particular moment regardless of what the provisions were of those agreements. Certainly the idea that the US were now militarily intervening by supplying weapons to the Ukrainian government and the Ukrainian army can’t be interpreted in any other way except as a violation of that Minsk agreement.

RT: Meanwhile, White House Adviser Ben Rhodes said that he doesn't think the answer to the crisis in Ukraine is quite “simply to inject more weapons.” Why such a discrepancy in what we hear from the White House and the State Department?

RB: I think those words should be phrased very carefully. Ben Rhodes what he said was that it’s simply more weapons wouldn’t solve the problems but he didn’t say: “We are not going to supply more weapons.” I think there are politicians and governments, particularly US government figures often talk out of both sides of their mouth when they really mean the same thing. And what they mean is they want to be the dominant power in Ukraine. So just the weapons will not accomplish that. But what else Ben Rhodes has in mind in addition to weapons remains to be seen. Some of it we’ve seen already. There has been tremendous US intervention and there may be more intervention coming.

RT: If weapons are indeed sent to Kiev, what impact will it have on the conflict?

RB: I think that is impossible to say because we don’t know what kind of weaponry they are talking about and what level of weaponry they are talking about… If they are going to come in force and bring trainers, what they have to do if they want to come in with the more sophisticated weapon systems they could have a very significant effect if it is lesser amounts, if it’s small arms, and so forth, that will have a lesser effect. Either way I think that they are going to judge what Washington feels from past advances, their interest of domination, interest of bringing the Ukraine into the orbit of the US and NATO militarily as well as economically.

RT: Washington says it is giving itself the resources to confront global challenges such as Russian aggression. What is the US trying to achieve here?

RB: When they talk about resources, the resources of the people of the US, the resources of much of the world are being consumed by the US military budget. And talk about that budget surplus allows them to spend even more on weaponry is really an insult to the people here [in the US] and to the people of the world. If you really look at the [US] military budget, not just the Pentagon, but CIA, NSA, Homeland Security, etc., it’s about equal to all the other military budgets of all of the countries in the world. The idea that the problems of the world, the problems of the people of Ukraine, Russia, or of the US, or of anyone else can be solved by yet more weaponry is really an absurd one that can only meet the interests of the weapons makers.

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