Global
Ukraine once possessed the world’s third-largest stash of nuclear weapons. Many Ukrainians wish they still had them.
In 1994, through what became known as the “Trilateral Process,” Kiev traded those warheads for clear assurances of what it assumed would be permanent peace and security.
Today, Putin’s Russia possesses the warheads Ukraine once owned. And there is no peace.
The original deal was cut with Russia and the US. Great Britain was a party to the negotiations. France and China signaled their approval.
Here’s the back story:
When the Soviet Union fell in 1991, a substantial chunk of its nuclear weapons arsenal was parked in Ukraine.
The conversation on settler colonialism must not be limited to academic discussion. It is a political reality, clearly demonstrated in the everyday behavior of Israel.
Israel is not merely an expansionist regime historically; it remains actively so today. Additionally, the core of Israeli political discourse, both past and present, revolves around territorial expansion.
Frequently, we succumb to the trap of blaming such language on a specific set of right-wing and extremist politicians or on a particular US administration. The truth is vastly different: the Israeli Zionist political discourse, though it may change in style, remains fundamentally unchanged throughout time.
Zionist leaders have always associated the establishment and expansion of their state with the ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians, later referred to in Zionist literature as the "transfer."
Convicted felon Trump and, in practice, his co-president Elon Musk are engaging in efforts to radically transform the federal government, with the support of billionaires, the Republican Party, and his increasingly shaky “base” of millions of right-wing citizens. The Supreme Court gave him “immunity” while he is president. He thus has been given a judicial “mandate” to say and do just about anything while in office without any fear of punishment. So, he stretches the truth and lies.
The Lies
For example, here’s what Linda Qui reported for the New York Times (https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/17/us/politics/trump-election-lies-fact-check.html).
“Before the 2020 election had even concluded, President Donald J. Trump laid the groundwork for an alternate reality in which he was declared the victor, falsely assailing the integrity of the race at nearly every turn.
