[The world needs to end this confrontation in Ukraine,
increasingly dangerous in East Asia. Regardless of differences it must
be halted. Not bloodily as in Shakespeare’s tragedy, but with some
form of détente,, however reluctant either side may be.]
[[link removed]]

OTHELLO AND THE WAR  
[[link removed]]


 

Victor Grossman
September 11, 2023
MR OnLine
[[link removed]]


*
[[link removed]]
*
[[link removed]]
*
*
[[link removed]]

_ The world needs to end this confrontation in Ukraine, increasingly
dangerous in East Asia. Regardless of differences it must be halted.
Not bloodily as in Shakespeare’s tragedy, but with some form of
détente,, however reluctant either side may be. _

Visitors look at the BARAK (top), PAC-3 MSE (middle), and THAAD
(bottom) missiles from Lockheed Martin on day one of the Defence and
Security Equipment International (DSEI) fair at ExCel on September 12,
2023 in London, (photo: Leon Neal/Getty Images)

 

The war in Ukraine, a horrific tragedy for the people of that unhappy
country, fateful as well for many young Russians and potentially
menacing for all the world, with burnished weapons of every size and
destructive power waiting in silos or submarines for a slip, a
blunder, a provocation. Tragic byproducts are further splits in weak,
divided peace and leftist movements around the world. Who should bear
the blame? For many the answer is a foregone conclusion. For some an
inner dispute continues.

As one of those plagued by such torment, my bookish background calls
to mind a tragedy of the stage—one of the most memorable. Is a
parallel possible? The handsome African general Othello, though deeply
in love with his beautiful young Venetian wife Desdemona, uses his
strong hands to strangle her—a shocking crime. But, scene for scene,
Shakespeare shows us how his sly enemy Iago conspired to cause this
tragedy, misusing all around him to make Othello believe that his
Desdemona betrayed his love. Do Iago’s intrigues absolve Othello?
They cannot. But they reveal where the blame is really concentrated:
Iago’s hatred, greed, jealousy, plain evilness, paired with a
cunning ability to dissemble and deceive. “But I will wear my heart
upon my sleeve,” Iago resolves.

I am not what I am.

Can a pure coincidence—a change of two letters in Iago’s
name—lead us to the conniving spirit weaving a web which Vladimir
Putin ripped through in February 2022? He is certainly no Othello, and
Zelensky has zero similarity with Desdemona. But what about NATO?
Hasn’t its role been a long series of Iago-like intrigues,
deception—and violence as well? Wasn’t its focus from its start
directed at defeating the USSR, which for President Reagan was “the
focus of evil in the modern world”?

An article in the Washington periodical “The Hill” described key
methods used to defeat this “evil empire“: “… covert support
of the Solidarity movement in Poland, an increase in pro-freedom
public diplomacy through instruments like the National Endowment for
Democracy, a global campaign to reduce Soviet access to Western high
technology and a drive to hurt the Soviet economy by driving down the
price of oil and limiting natural gas exports to the West.” This
“secret declaration of economic war” forced the USSR, still not
fully recovered from the immense damage done by the fascist invaders
in World War II, to spend some $8 billion annually to deflect its
impact.

However, the offensive was successful. George H. W. Bush could
announce:

For over 40 years, the United States led the West in the struggle
against Communism and the threat it posed to our most precious
values… The Soviet Union itself is no more. This is a victory for
democracy and freedom…

But soon after politely thanking Mikhail Gorbachev “for his
intellect, vision and courage” in helping to make this victory
possible, U.S. favor switched to the man who used tanks against the
elected Duma so as to throw Gorbachov out and seize power. Bush made
future principles clear:

We have been heartened and encouraged by President Yeltsin’s
commitment to democratic values and free-market principles, and we
look forward to working with him.

The Cold War chapter of history seemed closed. In January 1990 West
German Foreign Minister Genscher stated that “the changes in Eastern
Europe and the German unification process must not lead to an
‘impairment of Soviet security interests.’ Therefore, NATO should
rule out an ‘expansion of its territory towards the east… closer
to the Soviet borders.’” On February 10 Chancellor Kohl promised;
if the Soviets approved German unification NATO would not expand to
the east. Secretary of State James Baker assured Foreign Minister
Shevardnadze three times of the “not one inch expansion” and told
Gorbachev that “… also for other European countries it is
important to have guarantees… not an inch of NATO’s present
military jurisdiction will spread eastward.”

But—shades of Iago—this pledge was not put into writing, there
were no signatures. Within a year Poland’s Foreign Minister visited
NATO Headquarters and President Lech Walesa said that Poland wants
“a safe Europe, which is guaranteed by NATO”. In March 1992, NATO
Secretary General Manfred Wörner assured Poland that “the door to
NATO is open.” In 1999 Czechia, Hungary and Poland became NATO
members, followed in 2004 by Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania,
Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia.

Yeltsin was a weak, acquiescent head of state who opened the Russian
door to capitalists from near and far (the Russian ones were called
oligarchs). By 2000 the population had been robbed of billions, the
economy neared total collapse—until a tough new ruler took over.
Vladimir Putin rescued the economy in the nick of time, and was intent
on raising Russia up from the third level it had been demoted to and
re-establishing it as a major power.

In Munich, in February 2007, Putin recalled the “one inch”
promises and questioned “the so-called flexible frontline American
bases with up to five thousand men in each. It turns out that NATO has
put its frontline forces on our borders… I think it is obvious that
NATO expansion does not have anything to do with ensuring security in
Europe. On the contrary, it represents a serious provocation that
reduces the level of mutual trust. And we have the right to ask:
against whom is this expansion intended? And what happened to the
assurances our western partners made after the dissolution of the
Warsaw Pact? Where are those declarations today? No one even remembers
them.”

The expansive plan to surround European Russia, economically and
militarily, centered on Ukraine. As early as 2008, in a secret cable
made known by Julian Assange, the American ambassador to Moscow,
William Burns, sent a far-sighted warning to Washington:

Following a muted first reaction to Ukraine’s intent to seek a NATO
Membership Action Plan at the Bucharest summit, Foreign Minister
Lavrov and other officials have reiterated strong opposition,
stressing that Russia would view further eastward expansion as a
potential military threat.

“NATO enlargement, particularly to Ukraine, remains ‘an emotional
and neuralgic’ issue for Russia, but strategic policy considerations
also underlie strong opposition to NATO membership for Ukraine and
Georgia. In Ukraine, these include fears that the issue could
potentially split the country in two, leading to violence or even,
some claim, civil war, which would force Russia to decide whether to
intervene,” the cable said.

Burns was promoted; he now heads the CIA. But his wise warning was
purposefully disregarded.

This became crystal clear when Victoria Nuland, Hillary Clinton’s
right-wing aide, spent $5 billion or more to organize an opposition to
Ukraine’s elected government and then overthrow it in a bloody
putsch in February 2014. A hacked telephone call revealed that she had
even selected the next premier—in league with gangs of armed men,
many wearing Nazi symbols, some giving Hitler salutes, and all
honoring their dead hero Stepan Bandera, who had urged and led the
murder of thousands of Russians, Jews, Poles and Hungarians in 1941.

In March 2016 the expert Australian journalist John Pilger warned 
that nuclear warhead spending “rose higher under Obama than under
any other American president… In the last 18 months, the greatest
build-up of military forces since World War Two, led by the USA, is
taking place along Russia’s western frontier. Not since Hitler
invaded the Soviet Union have foreign troops presented such a
demonstrable threat to Russia.

Ukraine has become a CIA theme park. Having orchestrated a coup in
Kiev, Washington effectively controls a regime that is next door and
hostile to Russia: a regime rotten with Nazis, literally. Prominent
parliamentary figures… openly praise Hitler and call for the
persecution and expulsion of the Russian-speaking minority… In
Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia—next door to Russia—the U.S.
military is deploying combat troops, tanks, heavy weapons.

In fact, the first measures taken by the new USA-backed Kiev
government were to suppress the Russian-speaking parts of the
country—leading to the breakaway of Crimea and the Donbas
region—and to civil war. And while swift membership in NATO was not
possible, a series of naval and military maneuvers on Russia’s
southern  borders was pursued, with most NATO members joining in.

In February 2022, just as Ambassador Burns had warned, Russia did feel
forced to intervene. A frightening decision, with terrible, bloody
results. I must condemn Putin, just as the audience blames Othello.
But should Iago be praised?

What is the goal of those who finance, support and largely control the
leaders in Kiev—and urge a battle until victory? Pres. Biden, at a
Business Roundtable meeting of the wealthiest American elite,
declared,

There’s going to be a new world order out there, and we’ve got to
lead it. We’ve got to unite the rest of the Free World in doing it.

Noble sentiments—invoked in countless variations by almost every
president, especially when the USA was engaged in a subversion,
conflict, regime change, blockade or direct military intervention. No,
when leafing through my history books, I cannot find one case where
such actions by the USA and its NATO gauntlet in any way furthered a
better “new world order”—or anything but death and destruction,
chaos, misery, corrupt new rulers: Iran, Guatemala, Haiti, Dominican
Republic, Brazil, Bolivia, Argentina, Honduras, Iraq, Congo, Ghana,
Libya, most dramatically in Chile, most lengthily against Cuba, most
catastrophically in Vietnam, and perhaps most bitterly in decades of
support for apartheid in South Africa and the enforced
“settlement” of Palestine. Is there a single example where
Washington’s ”new order” brought improvement, not new suffering?
I can think of none!

Looking beyond the Othello level to the world stage, I see three
immense threats endangering not only the people of Ukraine and quite
likely Russia, but all of us, everywhere. First of all—the climate
catastrophe, heightening temperatures spreading from the Equator to
the poles and, with them, disappearing islands, retreating coastlines,
the extinction of fauna and flora, the despair of whole populations
faced by droughts, floods, fires and hurricanes.

Secondly, in response to worsening living standards for millions,
caused by the environmental collapse, by wars such as in Ukraine, by
the resulting distortions of world trade and by weak labor movements
whose resistance is limited by the lack of an active, uncorrupted,
multipolar Left, there is a growing danger of brutal fascism. This
became all too apparent in Washington in January 2021, it is visible
in the growing strength of the Alternative for Germany (AfD), it is
reflected in elections in France, Italy, Scandinavia, Austria and
elsewhere.

Thirdly, and most menacingly, though all too often overlooked or
ignored; the danger of atomic conflict and world conflagration. With
growing military confrontation and both sides’ fear of defeat, a
simple error of judgement, a mistakenly strayed missile, perhaps a
local provocation could set in motion a chain leading to total
catastrophe.

Lurking behind all three, I am convinced, we can find a dwindling
number of obscenely wealthy clusters of the world’s
multimillionaires and billionaires. No matter which field we examine,
we find more or less a handful of corporations dominating it. Five or
six auto makers, five or six pharmaceutic developers, even less seed
and herbicide monopolists, a few mighty film-makers, newspaper czars
and TV barons, even among book publishers. There are perhaps a few
dozen of such mighty groups.

Three are especially alarming. The giant fossil fuel drillers, dealers
and transporters, many more than a century in merciless boring and
mining, have done the most to poison the world, from the Arctic to the
Gulf of Mexico, from Amazon forests to the Niger delta—while
bribing  the hungry media bosses to help them dupe millions in the
belief that the climate damage they cause does not take place.

Potentially even more dangerous is the “Silicon Valley” kind of
wizardry, dominated by Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Twitter/X, Facebook,
Google, which increasingly influence our shopping, our entertainment,
our social life (or lack of it), our mind patterns, with growing
control of our purchases, preferences, movements, even, with such as
Alexa, in our living rooms and bedrooms. Also our political decisions!
And AI threatens far worse!

Yet even more fearsome are the armaments manufacturers. Dominated by
six or seven in the USA, augmented by makers of mass killer machines
in other countries, with the Germans, like Krupp or Rheinmetall having
the lengthiest, ugliest backgrounds. These companies, to stay on top
and please their profiteers, must produce more and more. When arms
storage sites and hangars are full, their contents must be used to
make room for more; expiration dates and warnings of obsolescence also
demand action! Such manufacturers can never favor peaceful solutions;
they would be their undoing!

These ruling clusters of the extremely wealthy—and there are some
Russian and Chinese oligarchs among them—are influencing, dominating
or controlling minds and actions of governments everywhere. It is they
who deceive and defy on climate issues, it is they who, while rarely
resorting to genuine fascism—as yet—frequently hold its ugly
features and methods in reserve, not all too overtly. But when
worsening living conditions or better organizers lead to growing
resistance or even rebellion from below, endangering a smooth flow of
profits or even their end, those reserves, impatiently  polishing
their weapons and their connections, are kept waiting eagerly in the
wings.

Which brings me back to the stage—to Othello and Iago. I stress
again; I can never approve of killing, no matter how motivated, not of
killing and destruction in a neighbor’s country, except in
self-defense. And Shakespeare lets Othello die, killing himself in a
form of retribution.

But neither can I accept a lack of clarity about who really caused and
precipitated the tragedy. Putin is no angel, no hero, not an Othello.
Nevertheless, I believe that he is primarily motivated by the wish to
defend Russia against encirclement, suffocation followed by
subservience or dismemberment—the fate of an insubordinate
Yugoslavia not so long ago. Perhaps he keeps in mind the fates of men
who defied Washington’s drive for world hegemony: the heart attack
of Milošević in a prison cell, the death of Allende, the torture and
dissolving in acid of Patrice Lumumba, the castration and public
hanging of Afghanistan’s Najibullah, the hanging of Saddam Hussein,
the murder and oceanic body disposal of Osama bin Laden, the sodomy
killing of Muammar Gaddafi.

Until the war on Ukraine began most of the violence in the world was a
product of the intrigues, the aggression, the weapons managed and
controlled by those powerful clusters who maintain such a tight
control of congressmen and senators, half of them millionaires, of
Supreme Court majorities, almost always of the White House, also of
the Pentagon, CIA, NED, FBI and dozens of other institutions. It is
they, a tiny number, less than 0.1%, whose wealth outweighs that of
half the world’s population, but who can never be sated. They want
to rule the whole world.

Two large barriers remain, two big countries bar their course. They
are not the faultless, Utopian models some of us once dreamed of;
they, too, require a host of basic changes and improvements. But they
are barriers all the same, tough barriers in fact, also armed with
Satanic weapons.

The world needs to drop a curtain on this confrontation, increasingly
threatening in Ukraine, increasingly dangerous in East Asia.
Regardless of differences it must be halted—not bloodily as in
Shakespeare’s tragedy, but with some form of détente, however
reluctant either side may be.

Such a cease fire and successful negotiations must be the world’s
immediate and urgent goal. Ultimately it must face a deeper
imperative; not only reining in the super-rich, super-powerful
intriguers—but, as they are an outdated but constant source of
danger and dismay, their total banning from the world stage.

_Victor Grossman, born in NYC, fled McCarthy-era menaces as a young
draftee, landed in East Germany where he observed the rise and fall of
its German Democratic Republic (GDR). He has described his own life in
his autobiography Crossing the River: A Memoir of the American Left,
the Cold War, and Life in East Germany
[[link removed]] (University of
Massachusetts Press, 2003), and analyzed the GDR and questions of
capitalism and socialism in Germany and the USA, with his provocative
conclusions, along with humor, irony and occasional sarcasm in all
directions, in A Socialist Defector: From Harvard to Karl-Marx-Allee
[[link removed]] (New York:
Monthly Review Press). His address is wechsler_grossman [at] yahoo.de
(also for a free sub to the Berlin Bulletins sent out by MR Online)._

_Monthly Review, under the current editorial committee, led by John
Bellamy Foster, continues its long tradition of analyzing what is
new together with the equally vital task of seeing the longer process.
That tradition, as summarized by Paul Sweezy, is to see “the present
as history.” In 2006, MR began a daily web magazine, MRzine
[[link removed]], which in 2017 was migrated to a
new project, MR Online [[link removed]], a forum for
collaboration and communication between radical activists, writers,
and scholars around the world._

_Revenues from subscriptions and book sales have always fallen short
of the demands on MR‘s resources. The contributions and gifts of
a global community of several thousand people sustain MR. Today the
magazine makes all new articles available for free online, and MR
Online attracts a substantial and growing readership. If you have
found our website of value, please consider subscribing
[[link removed]] to the magazine or, better
yet, becoming an Associate
[[link removed]]._

* Arms manufacturers
[[link removed]]
* Ukraine
[[link removed]]
* China
[[link removed]]
* NATO
[[link removed]]

*
[[link removed]]
*
[[link removed]]
*
*
[[link removed]]

 

 

 

INTERPRET THE WORLD AND CHANGE IT

 

 

Submit via web
[[link removed]]

Submit via email
Frequently asked questions
[[link removed]]

Manage subscription
[[link removed]]

Visit xxxxxx.org
[[link removed]]

Twitter [[link removed]]

Facebook [[link removed]]

 




[link removed]

To unsubscribe, click the following link:
[link removed]