Germany Not Fooled by US Lies about Ukraine

by 

       George Sontag

      It was quiet in eastern Ukraine last Wednesday. Indeed, it was another quiet day in an extended stretch of relative calm. The battles between the Ukrainian army and the pro-Russian separatists had largely stopped and heavy weaponry was being withdrawn. The Minsk cease-fire wasn't holding perfectly, but it was holding. On that same day, General Philip Breedlove, the top NATO commander in Europe, stepped before the press in Washington. Putin, the 59- year-old said, had once again "upped the ante" in eastern Ukraine -- with "well over a thousand combat vehicles, Russian combat forces, some of their most sophisticated air defense, battalions of artillery" having been sent to the Donbass. "What is clear," Breedlove said, "is that right now, it is not getting better. It is getting worse every day."

       German leaders in Berlin were stunned. They didn't understand what Breedlove was talking about. And it wasn't the first time. the German authorities are “alarmed” by the US general’s statements on the Ukrainian conflict as his numbers of alleged Russian presence in Donetsk and Lugansk have always been significantly higher than those available to European members of NATO. Once again, the German government, supported by intelligence gathered by the Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND), Germany's foreign intelligence agency, did not share the view of NATO's Supreme Allied Commander Europe (SACEUR). The German Chancellery “simply shake their heads” each time Breedlove makes comments on Ukraine, Der Spiegel said. “False claims and exaggerated accounts, warned a top German official during a recent meeting on Ukraine, have put NATO – and by extension, the entire West – in danger of losing its credibility,” the paper wrote. The sources in the Chancellor’s office told the reporter that they viewed Breedlove's comments as “dangerous propaganda.” Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier even found it necessary recently to bring up Breedlove's comments with NATO General Secretary Jens Stoltenberg.

      According to the Spiegel, it is not the first time They drew several more examples of General Breedlove’s “slips of the tongue,” including one he dropped at the

beginning of the crisis; Breedlove said that Russians allegedly gathered 40,000 troops on the Ukrainian border and the situation was “incredibly concerning” as they were preparing for an invasion. Berlin ordered its Federal Intelligence Service to verify the numbers described by the top NATO commander and the check revealed “There weren’t 40,000 soldiers on the border, they believed, rather there were much less than 30,000 and perhaps even fewer than 20,000. Furthermore, most of the military equipment had not been brought to the border for a possible invasion, but had already been there prior to the beginning of the conflict. Furthermore, there was no evidence of logistical preparation for an invasion, such as a field headquarters,” Der Spiegel wrote.

       The German government is alarmed and has stated that the NATO commander also made “inexact, contradictory or even flat-out inaccurate statements,” the sources said. Are the Americans trying to thwart European efforts at mediation led by Chancellor Angela Merkel? Even those American intelligence officials who supply the BND with daily situation reports were much more reserved about the incidents. One intelligence agent says it "remains a riddle until today" how General Breedlove reached his conclusions. There are many at NATO headquarters in Brussels who are likewise concerned about Breedlove's statements. On Tuesday of last week, Breedlove's public appearances were an official item on the agenda of the North Atlantic Council's weekly lunch meeting. Several ambassadors present criticized Breedlove and expressed their incredulity at some of the commander's statements. Propaganda is one thing but outright lies that can be easily disproven are another.

      Western leaders, specifically NATO-countries, they really need public opinion to be backing whatever moves they are making around the world. In the case of Ukraine this is quite an aggressive move by NATO allies led by Washington DC. So it requires a lot of very sophisticated media and public opinion forming, and I think that’s what we are seeing. This is being discredited by the wild statements from the US commander. It is, however, unclear how far the US will push Russia – that may be decided upon by the level to which the American public is tricked into believing that Russia is ‘the bad guy’ in Ukraine. And although American’s appetite for war is low right now, passiveness is very high as evidenced by the lack of resistance to Obama’s covert wars.

       

      Those pushing for US control of Ukraine may have underestimated Russia, as the situation in Ukraine has obviously not worked out the way the US expected. So now it appears that the Obama administration is acting more desperately. They want the war resumed as quickly as possible, but Angela Merkel and other European leaders have urged that it not be resumed at all. Consequently, there is a split in the Western alliance about this matter. Europe doesn’t want to be involved in a war against Russia because it could turn nuclear quickly. However, on March 12th, the US led government's Yatsenyuk stated that “Ukraine is in a state of war with … the Russian Federation.” That is the service he is now providing to Barack Obama, and to the 90%+ of the members of the U.S. Congress who likewise want  this war and to begin arms shipments quickly as to keep our "war for profit" economy from collapse. If it weren’t so tragic, it would be somewhat entertaining to see what preposterous projection of lies the US comes up with next. I'm sure we'll find out very soon.