Author: Benjamin Abelow

The following is a revised and expanded version of an interview with Benjamin Abelow, author of How the West Brought War to Ukraine: Understanding How U.S. and NATO Policies Led to Crisis, War, and the Risk of Nuclear Catastrophe, originally published in Italian translation by the Italian news and commentary site, QuotidianoWeb.

Question: In your book on the Ukraine war, you say that the United States and NATO provoked the war. How do you understand this word, “provoked”?

Abelow: To say that the U.S. and NATO provoked the war could mean two different things. Do I mean that they wanted a war, and that they knew their actions would start one? That is one possible meaning of “provoked.”

But “provoked” can also mean that their actions caused the war unintentionally. In fact, one can provoke a war while trying to avoid war. Although it is possible that some in the U.S. foreign policy elite wanted this war, I believe that most did not. I think that most were honestly trying to stabilize the peace. In English we have an idiom, “The road to hell is paved with good intentions.” I think this expression applies to the role of the United States and NATO in creating this war.

Continue reading “Interview with Benjamin Abelow, author of How the West Brought War to Ukraine“

What follows is a welcome comment by Benjamin Abelow on a discussion held last Monday (Dec. 5) with Glenn Diesen, Alexander Mercouris, and Ray McGovern. Ben is the author of the recent How the West Brought War to Ukraine (see: www.BenjaminAbelow.com ) Abelow’s remarks follow:

AN UNBELIEVABLY GOOD DISCUSSION

his is really one of the very best discussions I’ve heard about the Ukraine war, US-Russia policy, and the like, with three very smart and well-informed persons. It features, especially, Ray McGovern, but the other two have brilliant things to say as well.

Briefly, McGovern (aside from having a wonderfully dry sense of humor) is a 27-year CIA veteran, now retired. He ran the Russia desk in the CIA’s analytic (information gathering and analysis) wing (as opposed to their “operations” wing), and was personal briefer to the president during Reagan’s presidency. On his retirement, he was awarded the CIA’s Intelligence Commendation medal, which he returned in protest over the CIA’s use of torture. In 2003 he co-founded VIPS — Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity — to warn the U.S. president that the intelligence he was receiving on Iraq was fraudulent, though his warnings were not heeded and Iraq was invaded on false pretexts. Among the members of VIPS is William Binney, who served at the NSA as a senior technical director.

The first part of the discussion provides a thorough debunking of Russiagate. In that context, let me say to my progressive friends that McGovern himself is a liberal and has stated that he considers Donald Trump to have been a horrifically bad president. That said, I highly recommend to everyone (regardless of political affiliation) that you listen to the first 15 minutes. But then the interview / discussion moves on to other topics — also brilliantly. This discussion is so good that it really could take the place of a Saturday-night movie on Netflix.

Even if you hate consuming content in video or audio, the first 15 minutes are really special:

You can also find this as a regular audio interview on your mobile device at “The Duran” podcast program — which is a great source of analysis in general.

This originally appeared at RayMcGovern.com.