Obama meets Poroshenko: less than meets the eye
Verbatim transcript of live RT interview broadcast at 15:07GMT, June 4, 2014
RT: We now hear on America’s aid offer to Ukraine from Srdja Trifkovic, Foreign Affairs Editor ofChronicles magazine, talking to us here on RT International. America is ready to pour millions into the Ukrainian military because the Ukrainian army is in a sorry state, so to speak – and, on the other hand, why shouldn’t it take help, where it can?
Trifkovic: First
of all, there is less than meets the eye – because there is no
commitment to supply the so-called lethal aid. In other words, when
Obama mentions some night goggles and the like, and the training, he is
obviously reluctant to go all the way and supply the Ukrainian military
with heavy weaponry and the kind of equipment that would seriously tip
the balance in the East. Having said that, I would also expect
Poroshenko to effectively get his instructions on what to do and how to
proceed. You see, everybody talks about the Ukrainian president-elect as
if he were a decision-maker in his own right. That is really not the
case, because after the CIA Director’s, and then the U.S. Vice
President’s visit to Kiev, and subsequent strategizing with the FBI and
CIA advisors in the Ukrainian capital, really we are looking at a regime
which gets is marching orders from across the ocean. Obama may pretend
to listen to Poroshenko and to support his program for ending the
insurgency in the East, but effectively what we are looking at is a
contest of wills between Washington and Moscow. In that respect, I
really think it is time for Russia to impose a no-fly zone.
RT: On
the one hand, yes, you said that the U.S. praised Kiev and its leader
for what they are doing, but then again, we have the situation here
where America is aiding Ukrainian military. If America starts sending
military gear to the army, what about Moscow’s reaction – might it not
start aiding ethnic Russians in the east of Ukraine? How do you see it?
Trifkovic: I
don’t think that Russia should get directly involved, because that is
exactly what some strategists in Washington would like to happen. In
that case, they would exert pressure on the so-called Old Europe to
remove its objections to the imposition of serious sanctions against
Russia, and Germany in particular has been reluctant to take that path. I
think that Vladimir Putin is wise not to allow himself not to be
provoked into overt reaction. Nevertheless, it does not mean he should
allow the humanitarian catastrophe to continue developing; because if a
regime sinks so low as to start using air strikes and massive artillery
barrages against civilian targets and hospitals, then I think it’s time
for the Kremlin to invoke the so-called Responsibility-to-Protect
doctrine, which Washington…
RT: Speaking
of civilian targets, and you’ve just mentioned hospitals and other
civilian objects, we are not getting any reaction from the West, from
the Western media. Why do you think that is so?
Trifkovic: Because
of the chronic hypocrisy, which we have seen time and over again. When
Bashar al-Assad does X, it is a war crime and there should be a military
intervention to protect “poor civilians”;but when Poroshenko – or
someone else approved by Washington – does the same thing, then of
course it is a legitimate action against “terrorists.” It is because the
Western elites function on the basis of situational morality. Just like
in Lenin’s bolshevism, an act is not judged on its own merits, but in
terms of the ideological position of the actor in their own ideological
scale of values.
RT:
Mr. Trifkovic, I would like to thank you very much for talking to us,
we are running out of time unfortunately. That was Srdja Trifkovic,
Foreign Affairs Editor at Chronicles magazine.
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