[Peace-discuss] Convo Couch: "Military Action In Ukraine, Did Russia Have A Choice?"

[J.B. Nicholson]

https://youtube.com/watch?v=ymdb3XAMGOQ is an extract of a recent Convo Couch 
discussion with Scott Ritter about "Military Action In Ukraine, Did Russia Have A 
Choice?".

All agree that Russia did what they could to avoid war, Ritter also cites the case 
for pre-emptive self-defense (the Caroline precedent), the Minsk accords, the 
pressure Russia tried to bring on Ukraine to honor the Minsk peace accords they 
signed which (we now know from multiple sources) were signed in bad faith to build a 
military and get Crimea & the Donbass.

An excerpt of what Ritter said (starting at 10m21s into the previously-linked video):

> Scott Ritter: But that doesn't mean that Russia wanted that conflict. Russia was 
> begging; remember in June 2021 in Geneva, Putin met with Biden. And Putin begged
> Biden /begged Biden/ 'please make Minsk work. If Minsk happens, all of this goes
> away. All of this goes away. There will be no war.'. And Biden said 'oh yeah,
> yeah, I promise you we'll do that.'. Didn't do it. In October Lavrov met with his
> French and German counterparts and [eventually?] said 'I need you to get the
> Ukrainians to approve Minsk.' and they said 'No, we can't do it.'. But even then
> it wasn't definite; [because] Russia in December 2021 gave NATO two draft
> treaties, talked about a new European security framework which, if they had gone
> down the path of negotiating this in good faith, would have prevented a war.
> Russia did everything human possible to stop this war, to prevent this war. Russia
> acted when there was literally no other choice because that NATO-trained army was
> from the very beginning was built for one purpose: to invade the Donbass, was
> amassing on the Donbass. The OSCE, observers, they're monitoring the cease-fire
> reported 2,000 violations the vast majority of those violations from Ukraine to
> the Donbass in the weeks leading up to the Russian intervention. If Russia hadn't
> intervened, Ukraine would have launched an attack and they could have defeated the
> Donbass. So Russia had no choice.


To those that object to what is frequently cited as "Russia's invasion of Ukraine" 
(I've heard Aaron Maté and Chris Hedges say this and we're told that there were 
speakers at the "Rage Against the War Machine" rally raise this objection): what, 
precisely, should Russia have done in February 2022 that Russia did not do up to that 
point? Glib answers like "not invade" need not apply, as this is an honest and 
reasonable question which should be given due consideration particularly from 
Westerners. The American response should also avoid a double standard given the Cuban 
Missile Crisis.


Regarding Crimea: Per https://twitter.com/KanekoaTheGreat/status/1631046414926225408 
"NBC News journalist Keir Simmons recently went to Crimea and reported that most 
Crimeans are pro-Russia. Now, Ukraine has put him on its hit list website for 
reporting this fact.What does the U.S. government think about Ukraine adding an NBC 
journalist to its hit lists?"

Coverage of this rarity -- NBC News told the truth -- is scarce:
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/inside-crimea-russian-military-annexed-ukraine-retake-putin-rcna72606
https://www.rt.com/russia/572294-ukraine-kill-list-journalist/
https://youtube.com/watch?v=DvYSNNVGl4g
https://rumble.com/v2clnqs-ukraine-puts-nbc-reporter-on-kill-list.html
https://thepressunited.com/updates/nbc-journalist-added-to-kievs-kill-list/
https://freepresskashmir.news/2023/03/02/us-journalist-added-to-kievs-kill-list/

and there are copies of these in a few other places.

None of these sites (obviously excepting NBC News) are establishment sources which 
are likely to be read or seen by millions of people. Establishment news is not 
trusted (for good reasons) but we're not at the point where a lot of liberals will 
check The Grayzone, RT, and other even less-heard-of sources for news and commentary.