Fiona Hill has studied the words and actions of Vladimir Putin for years as a Russia expert on the National Security Council. Since Trump fired her, she has been at the Brookings Institurion and is free to speak in public.
I think you will find this interview in Foreign Policy interesting.
She thinks Putin is playing mind games with the West.
What a liar he is. He just signed a “historic” deal with Ukraine to allow Ukrainian wheat to reach global markets and ease world hunger. One day later, Russian missiles struck the port of Odessa, where the grain was supposed to be shipped out.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Long, but well worth reading the entire thing, at least, if you’re open to perspectives other than those fed to you by your own tribe: https://www.mintpressnews.com/forget-liberating-ukraine-liberate-our-minds/281063/
Diane, this guy, Cook, argues in this INSANE, anti-American rant FOR Iran having nuclear weapons. Yup. That’s right. He actually WANTS Iran to be a nuclear state.
I think that pretty much tells you all you need to know about this guy’s credibility.
And, though, of course, it was Russia who invaded Ukraine, he describes the current conflict as “NATO’S proxy war with Russia.”
So, a thief breaks into your home while you are sleeping. He’s going room to room, stuffing your things into a big bag. You lock him into a room and call the police. I guess that Jonathan Cook would call YOU a kidnapper.
This is the level of thinking in the Cook piece and in Dienne’s posts about Urkaine generally. Totally bat-guano crazy.
The piece by Cook is worth reading because it is so extremist, so bizarre. It’s really weird that anyone would think this a credible source. It’s so just, well, nuts. There’s reality, and then there is where this guy lives in an Alternative Facts Universe of his own fevered imagination.
The US needs to keep the heavy artillery coming AND send fighter jets.
And the UN needs to send an overwhelming peacekeeping force and clear the Black Sea of impediments to Ukrainian shipping.
Bob, you are so right. The UN should step in to stop Putin’s brutal war against Ukraine and end the hunger he is imposing on impoverished nations that need Ukraine’s wheat. I wish I could will it. Will the UN sit by idly and watch this maniacal dictator destroy millions of lives?
Don’t say you weren’t warned.
https://raymcgovern.com/2022/07/22/media-miss-major-moves-on-russia-ukraine/
Dienne, you have consistently defended Russia. Remember you said Putin would not invade Ukraine, because he said so. Then you said the 150,000 Russian troops massed on the Ukrainian border were friendly, just like US troops on the Mexican border. Then you said that Putin invaded because the Ukrainians were/are Nazis, because Putin said so. Then you said Putin had to invade to prevent NATO from expanding, or Putin felt NATO “encircled” Russia. In one comment, you claimed Russia had not committed war crimes, because Ukraine always lies. Then Finland and Sweden applied to join NATO because they didn’t want to face Russian aggression alone. At every step in this horrible unprovoked war of aggression, you have blamed the US and NATO, never the aggressor. Why?
For all of those assertions I provided links with evidence. Most of them are still valid. NATO expansion to Russia’s front door is historical fact. Russia views this as an existential threat and will react accordingly (as the U.S. would).
I provided at least a dozen mainstream U.S. and European sources dated prior to February of this year documenting the nazi take-over of Ukraine (with U.S. support). Again, this is historical fact. Or are you claiming those mainstream sources were lying then, in which case why do you trust them now? Or did those nazis suddenly disappear?
Have you read even one of the sources I’ve provided? Have you tried to argue with the evidence presented in those articles? Or is it just easier to paint me as a Putin lover?
The fact is that, with the exception of the initial invasion, Putin has largely done what he said he was going to do. His war was never the war the U.S. has painted it as. Putin focused very specifically on liberating the eastern Donbass region per the repeated request of the peoples of that region. He was never trying to take over Ukraine. He accomplished his objectives in eastern Ukraine, but then the U.S. started sending long-range weapons that pose a threat to those regions and to Russia, so Russia was forced to escalate the war to eliminate those weapons. They still don’t want to take over all of Ukraine, but they will if they need to.
At the very least, please read the Mintpress News article posted above to understand the difference in how Russia views our actions compared to how we view them. We think we’re the good guys, but it doesn’t look that way to Russia. The idea that Russia is reacting to U.S./NATO actions makes a helluva lot more sense than the idea that the guy who has successfully led Russia for 20 years is just a deranged madman, doesn’t it?
I’ve never denied that Russia lies. All governments do. But you insist on believing that your government and the Ukrainian governments are telling the whole truth regardless of the long and documented histories of lying and corruption that both countries have. Ukraine, for instance, had to fire the propaganda minister when the who “Russian soldiers raped babies” atrocity porn was revealed as a sham. The facts on the ground as best presented by international observers, not to mention basic logic, more closely favors Russia’s point of view. There is no reason for Russia to commit war crimes in eastern Ukraine which is filled with ethnic Russians naturally allied with Russia. There is every reason to believe that Ukrainian forces who have been bombing eastern Ukraine for 8 years and who have committed known pogroms against the Romani peoples and ethnic Russians might commit further war crimes.
Again, as I’ve said many times, I’m not necessarily asking you to exclusively believe anything I’ve presented. I’m asking you to open your mind to the possibility that the U.S. government, which has lied before, might again be lying to you for its own agenda. Supplying endless weapons to Ukraine is lucrative for our weapons manufacturers. Using Ukraine as a proxy war is a good way to weaken Russia regardless of the costs to the Ukrainian people. The U.S.’s hands are not clean here, as they weren’t clean in Vietnam, Cambodia, Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Syria and many other places.. Acknowledging the possibility is all I’m asking.
Dienne, there are Russian dissidents in prison now who disagree with you and Putin. You find nothing to criticize in his naked aggression. You defend his unprovoked war against a neighboring country struggling to be free of his pernicious influence. Lucky for you that you live in the US, where you won’t be jailed for opposing the government, as happens in Putin’s police state.
A link to an opinion blog is not evidence.
What was your evidence when you said Putin would not invade Ukraine?
Dienne’s ridiculous take on Putin and Ukraine is revealed for what it is by simply reading Putin himself. See his essay “On the Historical Unity of Russians and Ukrainians.” There, in his own words, he CLEARLY lays out his semi-mystical commitment to imperialism and empire–to creating a Greater Russia that includes not only Ukraine but other countries engulfed by Russia. It’s sickening, frightening, demented stuff.
Here’s the thing: Russia has extremely active intelligence services that pay assets and agents to churn out propaganda, much of it OBVIOUSLY ridiculous (Ukraine, with its Jewish president, is a Nazi state; NATO threatens Russia). And then utterly foolish people buy it, hook, line, sinker.
Dienne, there must be a reason you defend Putin and despise Ukraine but I can’t figure out what it might be.
There are a lot of people who believe Ray McGovern as he was the only one openly saying that there were no WMDs in Iraq. He was correct. There are many Dems who listen to him and take his word as “gospel”. Me, personally…..I don’t like any war for any reason. I’m just saying that I know of a few far leaning left Dems who have gone this route …. Dienne77 is likely one of them.
Dienne is an ideologue. Her extremist ideology completely blinds her. She is incapable of seeing anything except through its distorting filter. It’s an utter waste of time engaging with her. She hasn’t a freaking clue, and everything she says on the subject of Ukraine is nuts.
LisaM says: “There are a lot of people who believe Ray McGovern as he was the only one openly saying that there were no WMDs in Iraq. He was correct.”
“…the only one…”?? What are you talking about? He wasn’t the “only one”.
A broken clock is also correct twice a day. There were racists and far right white supremacists who didn’t think there were WMD in Iraq – does that mean that that people should listen to them always?
Ray McGovern was a CIA guy who was advising White House regimes for decades, including Reagan and George Bush 1. Unlike the MANY Democrats who opposed the Iraq War — like Nancy Pelosi — McGovern was a long time CIA agent who had inside information. But dienne77 has no idea what errors in intelligence he made when he was advising Reagan and George Bush 1 when they were invading countries. McGovern was right about Iraq but so was Nancy Pelosi and many Democrats. dienne77 doesn’t trust Nancy Pelosi because she was right about Iraq. She trusts people who confirm her hatred of Dems and ridiculous defense of Putin’s horrendous murder of so many civilians in Ukraine.
This is why progressives have a hard time winning primary elections. Voters believe that dienne77’s insane pro-Putin ranting is what ALL progressive politicians believe. They don’t, but too many voters in the primary read the total nonsense dienne77 and her ilk say and are certain that dienne77 represents the progressive movement.
Russian Invasion of Ukraine Jeopardy
How the Russian high command has dealt with the widespread rape by its soldiers of little girls and elderly woman and anyone else female.
What would be “By simply denying that it is happening because spreading terror by this means is an intentional instrument of its war” for 100 points, Alex.
rasPutin’ being a serial liar, a thug, a cheat, a thief (I’ve read that Putin has stolen more than $200 billion from Russia and hidden that money in offshore accounts), a murderer, and a brutal dictator is the reason Traitor Trump worships rasPutin so much.
Traitor Trump wants to be just like his role model rasPutin.
In fact, I think Traitor Trump is obsessed with that idea, explaining another reason why he won’t give up on his BIG LIE, gifting the US to him so he can be America’s rasPutin, another demon in disguise.
We’re fools to trust them. They know this and can rely on our gullibility. Send Ukraine planes yesterday.
YES!!!!!!!!!!!
Imagine: the Russians signed an agreement to allow Ukrainian grain to be shipped to feed starving nations. Less than 24 hours later Russia bombed the port of Odessa and has not stopped. Putin can never be trusted.
Lord I love Dr. Hill. So bright and knowledgeable.
Aren’t Russian military-industrial oligarchs enriching themselves by shortchanging Russian soldiers the same way American companies shortchanged American soldiers in Iraq? Isn’t someone wealthy making money selling cheap junk at a high price to the military? Wars like that don’t end.
Trust me, we are spending so much on defense, not a single American soldier is getting shortchanged on equipment they need. They even get a lot they don’t need. They are getting shortchanged on pay and in many cases, benefits. Many others, those who put in their 20+ years, are doing quite well. The wealth that defense contractors get just comes from the amounts they submit to Congress, which include fat bonuses. We could cut Defense spending to about 40-50% and it would make no difference in the nation’s fighting capabilities. That’s how much annual tax money goes to defense.
In Iraq, U.S. soldiers were issued vests that didn’t stop AK assault rifle rounds, even though those vests existed. Half of the Humvees the soldiers drove were not armored. Sure, they were given lots of ordinance and ammo, but not protection. They were given the best tools to end lives, but not the best tools to save lives. And when the war was over, they had to fight to receive benefits and assistance.
Come to think of it, the way soldiers were treated not only reminds me of stories I hear out of Ukraine, it also reminds me of stories I hear out of Uber emails. I didn’t know, until I read about what Uber executives did, that purposely putting your workforce in harm’s way to elicit public sympathy for your brand was a thing. It was and is, though, apparently.
You are quite correct about the Iraq issues. It is my understanding that these issues have been solved. But your point remains, lotsa people getting rich off government dole.
Military contractors make out like bandits as well. As my grandmother would say, we spend like ‘drunken sailors’ on the military, and like charter schools there is little oversight and accountability.https://rollcall.com/2022/01/19/contractors-excess-profits-reignite-debate-on-pentagon-oversight/
Couldn’t read the interview. Went behind a
paywall.
Too bad. It’s a great interview. However, there are many really wonderful interviews with Dr. Hill on Youtube. Check those out, if you haven’t already.