Guns or Butter

Het is kiezen: boter of kanonnen, de kapitalistische economie zit diep in het slop en het volk mort. Banen of vrede. De keuze is al eeuwenlang, en zeker sinds de industriële revolutie, zeer eenvoudig. De mainstream media zijn er klaar voor, goed voor de kijk- en luistercijfers en goed voor de kranten, die, zoals bekend, lijden onder de economische malaise. Het Amerikaanse Congres besteedt 58 procent van zijn toewijsbare federale budget aan wat officieel de 'National Security' heet. Al in 1961 waarschuwde president Eisenhower voor de onbeperkte invloed van dit militair-industrieel complex, dat inmiddels nog veel machtiger is geworden. Er zit niets anders op jongelui dan kanonnen of boter. Allebei kan niet. Zijn jullie bereid voor het vaderland te sterven? De oude mannen en vrouwen die de politiek bepalen zijn er helemaal klaar voor, ze zijn bereid jullie naar het front te sturen. Het is daar ook nog spannend, vraag maar aan de soldaten van de Twee Wereldoorlogen, een dolle tijd hebben ze gehad, terwijl jullie nu werkloos je tijd moet zien te doden. Alles staat gereed, nu nog  een concrete aanleiding om alles weer kapot te maken. En ziedaar: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guns_versus_butter_model

NATO says Russian invasion in Ukraine "highly probable"

News of Ukrainian forces closing in on the rebel-held city of Donetsk on Monday prompted NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen to claim there was a "high probability" of a Russian military intervention.

"We see the Russians developing the narrative and the pretext for such an operation under the guise of a humanitarian operation and we see a military build-up that could be used to conduct such illegal military operations in Ukraine," said Fogh Rasmussen in an interview with the Reuters news agency.

Earlier that day, Ukrainian military spokesman Andriy Lysenko told Reuters government forces had successfully cut off the road connecting Donetsk and Luhansk, the other main rebel-held city, situated closer to the Russian border. Donetsk is an industrial city with a pre-war population of nearly 1 million.

Some 20,000 Russian troops are reported to be situated along the border between the two countries, even though Moscow announced on Friday that it was ending its military exercises in the area, while Kiev confirmed it had been successful in using diplomacy to prevent Russia from launching an attack.

NATO, however, believes a Russian humanitarian mission would simply be used as a pretext to enter Ukraine in a bid to save the rebels fighting in the eastern and southern part of Ukraine, in an area Vladimir Putin has dubbed "New Russia".

Russian President Vladimir Putin had said that, in conjunction with the Red Cross and with approval of the Ukrainian government, Russia is sending an aid convoy to eastern Ukraine. Shortly after the Kremlin announcement, the Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko declared that an international humanitarian mission would be mounted - a plan that received the backing of US President Obama. The Kremlin then ruled out a unilateral humanitarian operation, with Putin's spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, saying that Moscow would only send humanitarian aid as part of an agreed international mission.

European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso "warned against any unilateral military actions in Ukraine, under any pretext, including humanitarian," in a statement following a call with Moscow.

 Over 1,100 people are believed to have been killed in a conflict which has been ongoing ever since pro-Kremlin President Viktor Yanukovych was ousted in February following mass protests, while official reports from Kiev said Ukrainian forces have lost 568 men during the conflict.