Fwd: Germany, experts on Nazism as they say here, tell Russia to fuck off and speak the truth many couldn't see.

[Thomas Eckhardt]

Am 10.03.2022 um 22:47 schrieb rich:

> In Thomas' defense I don't believe he wants to see Ukraine humbled by
> Putin but pointed out some nasty elements within Ukraine (a virus that
> effects many countries) in its armed forces and establishment today and
> historically.

Thank you for reading what I actually wrote, rich.

I don't support Russia's illegal war of aggression against
Ukraine. I also don't believe, and have never said, that the bulk of
Ukrainian armed forces are neo-Nazis or, God forbid, that the majority
of Ukrainians are neo-Nazis. I harbour no ill will towards the people of
Ukraine and will do what I can for the refugees from Ukraine just now
arriving in my hometown, just like I would do for refugees from any
other country.

As for the topic at hand, however, I strongly disagree. No, these are
not only "some nasty elements" "just like in Russia, US, in Germany and
elsewhere". I am very well aware of the neo-Nazi problem that exists in
the German Bundeswehr, especially its "elite troops", which has become a
lot more concerning in recent years (preparations for the "Day X", death
lists). Germany, however, has not e.g. integrated a Nazi battalion in
its armed forces, the SS-Wolfsangel is verboten as a political symbol,
and we don't name streets after Hermann Göring or Josef Goebbels,
celebrate their birthdays with torchlight marches or erect memorials for
them.

For more background on this, I can recommend the Wikipedia articles on
Oleh Tyahnybok, Svoboda and especially Andriy Parubiy. The last time I
looked, these entries still contained reasonably good information.
Follow the links to "Patriot of Ukraine" and "Social-National Party of
Ukraine". Read about the Right Sector and Dmytry Yarosh. Read up on the
shootings on the Maidan (Ivan Katchanovski) and watch the videos of the
pogrom in Odessa whose victims (burned alive, strangled, clubbed to
death, shot at) nobody here seems to care about - they are "unworthy
victims", as Chomsky and Herman have it, just like the thousands of
victims of the shelling in the Donbas region that has been going on for
eight years now and which intensified in February. Nobody cares for
them, nobody ever mentions them, it never happened. There are images
that you will never forget, mostly scrubbed from the internet. The
murderers of Odessa have been identified but went off scot-free in this
"young fledgling democracy" which the West supports against Mordor and
the Orcs.

Ukraine, however, had been a democracy all along, even if its
democratically elected president turned out to be a corrupt assclown.
This, however, was not the reason for his disposal in a violent,
Western-backed coup, which was finalized by Ukrainian right-wing and
foreign snipers on exactly the day that the foreign ministers of Poland,
Germany and France had, with the consent of Russia, negotiated a
reasonable agreement between Yanukovych and the opposition which
included early elections and the disarmament of paramilitary groups.
Both Ukrainian snipers (BBC, proudly) and Georgian snipers (Italian and
Israeli television documentaries) have confessed to these crimes. No,
the reason for the coup was that Yanukovich had rejected to bring his
country, Zbgniew Brzezinski's "geopolitical pivot", into the orbit of
the Western powers via the EU association agreement which, by the way,
included a section on military cooperation.

I am not necessarily right on all of this, and some of it is indeed a
matter of opinion and not of the veracity of factual claims. The fact,
however, that the issues I raise are dismissed out of hand, in a
Pavlovian response, as it were, and without any evidence, as "Russian
disinformation", is astonishing. Of course, otherwise it would not be
possible to continue with the frighteningly Manichean narrative ("light
against darkness", oh my) which rightfully belongs to 10-year olds who
have just for the first time watched the "Lord of the Rings" movies.

As for who wields the real power in Ukraine, I recommend reading the
Grayzone article I linked before. Zelensky was elected on a platform
calling for deescalation with Russia and implementation of the Minsk
agreements. When he tried to implement this policy, the Banderites told
him that they would hang him from a tree or suggested that he might be
torn to pieces by a grenade if he tried to move into that direction (as
an aside: you may have noted that the SBU, who some strangely see as a
credible source of information in the ongoing conflict, has meanwhile
shot at least one of the members of the delegation negotiating with
Russia). This was a decision about the most existential issue Ukraine,
and perhaps the world, faced and the result made resoundingly clear who
the actual sovereign is. Certainly not the government of Ukraine.

https://thegrayzone.com/2022/03/04/nazis-ukrainian-war-russia/

But perhaps the Grayzone is spreading disinformation? This is always a
possibility. One would then expect that their claims and the sources
they used to back up their claims would be debunked. At least, this is
how we do it in the reality-based community. Others, of course, prefer
to live in the reality the Empire has created for them.

What to do? The first priority is to avoid WW III. Give Russia the
security guarantees it needs and has been demanding ever more urgently
for 15 years or so. Guarantee the neutrality of Ukraine. These are
legitimate interests. What would the US do, if Russia threatened to
deploy nuclear missiles in Canada, Mexico or, to pick a random example,
Cuba? They would rightly perceive this as an existential threat and act
accordingly.

Also, negotiate, deescalate and, for God's sake, do not send any more
weapons. This is helping no one but the armaments industry and raises
the risk that the situation gets out of control.

As for the Nazis: The West should from the beginning have put pressure
on Ukraine to have no neo-Nazis in government (three Svoboda ministers),
the police (e.g. Vadim Troyan) or the military (Azov etc.). So, put on
the pressure now. The Nazis would be pushed back into their fringe
existence, Russia would lose one of their reasons for their illegal war
on Ukraine, and the world would be a better place.

This is hard to do, of course, when the founder of the Social-National
Party of Ukraine, a neo-Nazi and racist, the "Commandant of Maidan" and
soon to be Secretary of the National Security and Defence Council of
Ukraine served as the point man of the US embassy on February 20, 2014.

But one can dream.

Now back to Two Minutes Hate.