LETTER: Is US hype on Ukraine another Iraq?

I wonder about the macabre similarities between the US government hyping up the Ukraine issue and forcing Russian President Vladimir Putin into a corner, and what we saw about 20 years ago when the Americans fabricated evidence of weapons of mass destruction, including chemical and nuclear weapons, in Iraq.

They then led a mighty invasion into that country that resulted in the fall of their one-time brother-in-arms Saddam Hussein. The Americans looked in every closet, warehouse, railway car, tunnel and rabbit hole and found absolutely nothing. This led to a failed state that is now in perpetual turmoil and is critically unstable in the most unstable corner of the planet.

I think it was Sir Winston Churchill who said the Americans always get it right eventually, after they have tried all the alternatives. But Sir Winston was wrong; the Americans never seem to get it right. They and their wretched sycophantic European allies are dying for a Russian invasion of Ukraine, and will stop at nothing to provoke the Russians. Earlier agreements that Nato would never accept membership of countries neighbouring Russia are paper tigers as the Americans are hell-bent on enfolding the Ukraine into their sphere of influence. If I were a Russian I would also see this as a threat.

Most readers were not around when former Soviet president Nikita Khrushchev tried to send a few missiles to Cuba, which is about 160km from the American mainland, to show support for his pal and comrade, Fidel Castro. US president John F. Kennedy went ballistic and threatened world war if the commies tried to land the ships carrying the missiles. Khrushchev eventually turned the ships around. I vividly recall this incident as it brought humanity to the brink of thermonuclear war.

The Munroe Doctrine is a core US policy. It states that any intervention by external powers in the politics of the Americas is a potentially hostile act against the US. While disliked by many other nations, this doctrine is respected. I am sure the Russians have their own version of this policy, and the Americans should respect it. They are notorious for getting into foreign wars all over the planet. Vietnam and Afghanistan are testimonials to the completely screwed up nature of American foreign policy.

It is the Americans and their Euro-chommies who must de-escalate the rhetoric and aggression, but they may well already have pushed Putin too far. All of the superpowers are spoiling for a fight, yet it is the little guy who will suffer. Both sides need to step back from the abyss.

Dr Peter Baker, Parktown North

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