{"id":121258,"date":"2014-05-28T07:25:00","date_gmt":"2014-05-28T07:25:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/?guid=2329055a5dd1749c3d3728b41fdd1096"},"modified":"2014-05-28T07:25:00","modified_gmt":"2014-05-28T07:25:00","slug":"war-without-mercy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/editorials\/war-without-mercy\/","title":{"rendered":"War Without Mercy"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\"><b>War Without Mercy<\/b><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">by Stephen Lendman<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">Ukraine&#8217;s President-Elect Petro Poroshenko ordered it straightaway. He wants Eastern freedom fighters crushed.<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">He calls them &#8220;terrorists.&#8221; He declared war without mercy. More on this below.<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">A 1990s board game is called War Without Mercy. It&#8217;s surreal. It&#8217;s a game. Warmaking is play-acting. No one dies.<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">Opposing forces are rated for offense, defense and movement. Armor against infantry warrants bonus rolls.<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">One side may attack en masse. With overwhelming force. For quick conquest. Or do it incrementally.<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">Air combat lets players launch fighters, bombers and transports. Naval operations wage war at sea.<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">Weather rules introduce harsh conditions. Both sides have strategic option choices. Winning requires choosing the right ones.<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">It&#8217;s fun and games. It&#8217;s fast-paced. It&#8217;s just a game. Ukrainian war without mercy is real.<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">Obama support it. He called Poroshenko. He congratulated him. He promised US help.<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">Poroshenko wants US military aid. He wants decisive quick victory. He wants freedom entirely crushed.&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">Democratic rights eliminated. Hardline rule instituted. Putschist power enforced. Real war without mercy rages.&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">On May 27, RT International <a href=\"http:\/\/rt.com\/news\/161716-ukraine-donetsk-storming-alarm\/\"><span style=\"color: #1255cc;\">headlined<\/span><\/a> &#8220;Alarm in Donetsk as people brace for Ukrainian forces attack.&#8221;<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">Residential areas are attacked. Homes are destroyed. Shop shelves are emptied.<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">Residents fear &#8220;full-scale storming. Fighter jets are buzzing overhead\u2026as self-defense prepares for a fight in the occupied administrative buildings.&#8221;<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">People expect longterm fighting. Many shops, banks, restaurants and cafes closed. Streets are mostly empty. Residents are too scared to go out.<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">Schools were evacuated. Bomb shelter addresses were distributed. Kiev forces blocked most roads.<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">Self-defense forces withdrew from most surrounding areas. They&#8217;re in Donetsk&#8217;s city center.&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">They&#8217;re barricaded inside administrative buildings. They&#8217;re braced for a fight.<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">No one feels safe in Donetsk. In Slavyansk, apartment buildings were shelled. At least three civilian deaths were reported.<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">A Twitter campaign was launched. Under the hashtag #SaveDonbassPeople. Hundreds of tweets showed civilians killed.<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">Some images are too disturbing to view. Skochinskogo, Abakumova, Chelyuskintsev, Trudovskaya miners walked out.&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">They&#8217;re protesting putschist aggression. &#8220;People have been standing by the entrances, not wanting to go underground,&#8221; they said.&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">They&#8217;re &#8220;having rallies demanding the suspension of military action.&#8221;<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">On Sunday, hundreds of Donetsk residents rallied outside oligarch Rinat Akhmetov&#8217;s home.<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">He&#8217;s one of Ukraine&#8217;s richest and most powerful. His net worth exceeds $11 billion.&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">He&#8217;s involved with organized crime. He deplores democracy. He supports Kiev putschists. He helped bankroll Maidan militants.<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">He &#8220;owns much of Ukraine&#8217;s industrial companies,&#8221; said RT. He pressured his employees to participate in what he calls &#8220;anti-separatist&#8221; rallies.<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">Threatened with &#8220;losing their jobs&#8221; if not, said RT. He supports war without mercy.<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">Bodies are piling up in Donetsk morgues. Poroshenko wants operations continued.<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">Civilians are attacked without mercy. Anything that moves is vulnerable. It&#8217;s part of Poroshenko&#8217;s plan.<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">A Slavyansk resident told RT:<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">&#8220;We came up to look at the man but he was already dead. A shell had fallen right next to a nine-story apartment block, all the glass was out. The man\u2019s head was bleeding, his arms and legs were broken.&#8221;<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">&#8220;When we went further, we found a dead woman near a teachers college. A shell hit there too.&#8221;&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">Another body was found nearby. Mortar fire targeted Donetsk residential areas.<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">Coup-appointed vice premier Vitaly Yaryoma said operations will continue until no self-defense fighters are &#8220;left on the territory of Ukraine.&#8221;<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">&#8220;We saw the results yesterday,&#8221; he said. Expect more of the same, he stressed.<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">Kiev putschists blamed freedom fighters for their crimes. So-called &#8220;anti-terror operation&#8221; head Vladislav Selezniov said:<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">&#8220;To discredit Ukrainian security agencies engaged in the anti-terror operation\u2026the self-propelled artillery vehicle NONA, seized by the militants, was shelling residential districts of Slovyansk and Semenivka.&#8221;&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">&#8220;There is a casualty among civilians and wounded in the aftermath of the gunfire&#8230;Today terrorists are shelling residential districts of Slovyansk anew.&#8221;<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">He lied claiming &#8220;Ukrainian security (forces) do not subject residential districts to fire even when militants&#8217; firing positions are located there.&#8221;<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">He said reports otherwise are untrue. He turned verifiable evidence on its head saying so. Bald-faced lying is official putschist policy.<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">Sergey Lavrov wants all hostilities stopped. He wants crisis conditions resolved diplomatically.<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">He&#8217;s gone all-out to achieve it. He lacks a reliable peace partner. Obama wants war without mercy. So does John Kerry.<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">Russia is repeatedly blamed for Western crimes. &#8220;We perceive philosophically the fact that we are blamed for nearly each and every conflict that occurs in the world,&#8221; said Lavrov.<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">Attempts to pressure Russia won&#8217;t work, he stressed. &#8220;People are busy looking for whatever pretext can be found for putting pressure on us is just ridiculous.&#8221;<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">Doing so &#8220;never yielded results\u2026As for Western sanctions, had it not been Ukraine, it would have been something else.&#8221;&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">&#8220;Long before the tragic events in Maidan, before radicals had seized Maidan, there had been lots of complaints about Russia in connection with Syria or Iran, or why we hosted the Olympics, and so on.&#8221;&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">&#8220;This is a sign of deep-lying problems in the West,&#8221; Lavrov stressed.&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">It&#8217;s decadent. It&#8217;s lawless. It&#8217;s ruthless. It&#8217;s belligerent. It&#8217;s waging a losing battle.<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">It brought China and Russia closer together. It makes more enemies than friends.<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">It calls aggressive wars democratic ones. Lavrov called &#8220;(s)topping the use of the Armed Forces against the civilian population of Ukraine\u2026an &#8216;endurance test&#8217; for the Kiev authorities.&#8221;<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">He wants hostilities stopped immediately. &#8220;We firmly insist on it,&#8221; he said.<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">They continue. They show no signs of ending. Washington&#8217;s dirty hands are involved.<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">Obama bears full responsibility. He&#8217;s America&#8217;s latest warrior president. He deplores peace.&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">He exceeds the worst of his predecessors. His rap sheet is blood-drenched. He&#8217;s got new targets in mind.<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">Wars segue to new ones. An endless cycle of mass slaughter, destruction and human suffering follow.<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">The business of America is war. It&#8217;s the national pastime. It&#8217;s heading America for full-blown tyranny and ruin.<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">Neocons run things. They&#8217;re ideologically over-the-top. They make peace impossible.&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">What&#8217;s ahead bears close watching. Signs suggest plenty of reasons to worry.<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago. He can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">His new book as editor and contributor is titled &#8220;Flashpoint in Ukraine: US Drive for Hegemony Risks WW III.&#8221;<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"color: #1255cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.claritypress.com\/LendmanIII.html\">http:\/\/www.claritypress.com\/LendmanIII.html<\/a><\/span><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">Visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com.&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">Listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network.<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">It airs three times weekly: live on Sundays at 1PM Central time plus two prerecorded archived programs.&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<p><\/p>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">http:\/\/www.progressiveradionetwork.com\/the-progressive-news-hour&nbsp;<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div><b>War Without Mercy<\/b><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>by Stephen Lendman<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Ukraine&#8217;s President-Elect Petro Poroshenko ordered it straightaway. He wants Eastern freedom fighters crushed.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>He calls them &#8220;terrorists.&#8221; He declared war without mercy. More on this below.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>A 1990s board game is called War Without Mercy. It&#8217;s surreal. It&#8217;s a game. Warmaking is play-acting. No one dies.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Opposing forces are rated for offense, defense and movement. Armor against infantry warrants bonus rolls.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>One side may attack en masse. With overwhelming force. For quick conquest. Or do it incrementally.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Air combat lets players launch fighters, bombers and transports. Naval operations wage war at sea.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Weather rules introduce harsh conditions. Both sides have strategic option choices. Winning requires choosing the right ones.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>It&#8217;s fun and games. It&#8217;s fast-paced. It&#8217;s just a game. Ukrainian war without mercy is real.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Obama support it. He called Poroshenko. He congratulated him. He promised US help.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Poroshenko wants US military aid. He wants decisive quick victory. He wants freedom entirely crushed.&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Democratic rights eliminated. Hardline rule instituted. Putschist power enforced. Real war without mercy rages.&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>On May 27, RT International <a href=\"http:\/\/rt.com\/news\/161716-ukraine-donetsk-storming-alarm\/\"><span>headlined<\/span><\/a> &#8220;Alarm in Donetsk as people brace for Ukrainian forces attack.&#8221;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Residential areas are attacked. Homes are destroyed. Shop shelves are emptied.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Residents fear &#8220;full-scale storming. Fighter jets are buzzing overhead&hellip;as self-defense prepares for a fight in the occupied administrative buildings.&#8221;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>People expect longterm fighting. Many shops, banks, restaurants and cafes closed. Streets are mostly empty. Residents are too scared to go out.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Schools were evacuated. Bomb shelter addresses were distributed. Kiev forces blocked most roads.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Self-defense forces withdrew from most surrounding areas. They&#8217;re in Donetsk&#8217;s city center.&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>They&#8217;re barricaded inside administrative buildings. They&#8217;re braced for a fight.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>No one feels safe in Donetsk. In Slavyansk, apartment buildings were shelled. At least three civilian deaths were reported.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>A Twitter campaign was launched. Under the hashtag #SaveDonbassPeople. Hundreds of tweets showed civilians killed.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Some images are too disturbing to view. Skochinskogo, Abakumova, Chelyuskintsev, Trudovskaya miners walked out.&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>They&#8217;re protesting putschist aggression. &#8220;People have been standing by the entrances, not wanting to go underground,&#8221; they said.&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>They&#8217;re &#8220;having rallies demanding the suspension of military action.&#8221;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>On Sunday, hundreds of Donetsk residents rallied outside oligarch Rinat Akhmetov&#8217;s home.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>He&#8217;s one of Ukraine&#8217;s richest and most powerful. His net worth exceeds $11 billion.&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>He&#8217;s involved with organized crime. He deplores democracy. He supports Kiev putschists. He helped bankroll Maidan militants.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>He &#8220;owns much of Ukraine&#8217;s industrial companies,&#8221; said RT. He pressured his employees to participate in what he calls &#8220;anti-separatist&#8221; rallies.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Threatened with &#8220;losing their jobs&#8221; if not, said RT. He supports war without mercy.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Bodies are piling up in Donetsk morgues. Poroshenko wants operations continued.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Civilians are attacked without mercy. Anything that moves is vulnerable. It&#8217;s part of Poroshenko&#8217;s plan.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>A Slavyansk resident told RT:<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>&#8220;We came up to look at the man but he was already dead. A shell had fallen right next to a nine-story apartment block, all the glass was out. The man&rsquo;s head was bleeding, his arms and legs were broken.&#8221;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>&#8220;When we went further, we found a dead woman near a teachers college. A shell hit there too.&#8221;&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Another body was found nearby. Mortar fire targeted Donetsk residential areas.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Coup-appointed vice premier Vitaly Yaryoma said operations will continue until no self-defense fighters are &#8220;left on the territory of Ukraine.&#8221;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>&#8220;We saw the results yesterday,&#8221; he said. Expect more of the same, he stressed.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Kiev putschists blamed freedom fighters for their crimes. So-called &#8220;anti-terror operation&#8221; head Vladislav Selezniov said:<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>&#8220;To discredit Ukrainian security agencies engaged in the anti-terror operation&hellip;the self-propelled artillery vehicle NONA, seized by the militants, was shelling residential districts of Slovyansk and Semenivka.&#8221;&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>&#8220;There is a casualty among civilians and wounded in the aftermath of the gunfire&#8230;Today terrorists are shelling residential districts of Slovyansk anew.&#8221;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>He lied claiming &#8220;Ukrainian security (forces) do not subject residential districts to fire even when militants&#8217; firing positions are located there.&#8221;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>He said reports otherwise are untrue. He turned verifiable evidence on its head saying so. Bald-faced lying is official putschist policy.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Sergey Lavrov wants all hostilities stopped. He wants crisis conditions resolved diplomatically.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>He&#8217;s gone all-out to achieve it. He lacks a reliable peace partner. Obama wants war without mercy. So does John Kerry.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Russia is repeatedly blamed for Western crimes. &#8220;We perceive philosophically the fact that we are blamed for nearly each and every conflict that occurs in the world,&#8221; said Lavrov.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Attempts to pressure Russia won&#8217;t work, he stressed. &#8220;People are busy looking for whatever pretext can be found for putting pressure on us is just ridiculous.&#8221;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Doing so &#8220;never yielded results&hellip;As for Western sanctions, had it not been Ukraine, it would have been something else.&#8221;&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>&#8220;Long before the tragic events in Maidan, before radicals had seized Maidan, there had been lots of complaints about Russia in connection with Syria or Iran, or why we hosted the Olympics, and so on.&#8221;&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>&#8220;This is a sign of deep-lying problems in the West,&#8221; Lavrov stressed.&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>It&#8217;s decadent. It&#8217;s lawless. It&#8217;s ruthless. It&#8217;s belligerent. It&#8217;s waging a losing battle.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>It brought China and Russia closer together. It makes more enemies than friends.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>It calls aggressive wars democratic ones. Lavrov called &#8220;(s)topping the use of the Armed Forces against the civilian population of Ukraine&hellip;an &#8216;endurance test&#8217; for the Kiev authorities.&#8221;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>He wants hostilities stopped immediately. &#8220;We firmly insist on it,&#8221; he said.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>They continue. They show no signs of ending. Washington&#8217;s dirty hands are involved.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Obama bears full responsibility. He&#8217;s America&#8217;s latest warrior president. He deplores peace.&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>He exceeds the worst of his predecessors. His rap sheet is blood-drenched. He&#8217;s got new targets in mind.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Wars segue to new ones. An endless cycle of mass slaughter, destruction and human suffering follow.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>The business of America is war. It&#8217;s the national pastime. It&#8217;s heading America for full-blown tyranny and ruin.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Neocons run things. They&#8217;re ideologically over-the-top. They make peace impossible.&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>What&#8217;s ahead bears close watching. Signs suggest plenty of reasons to worry.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago. He can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>His new book as editor and contributor is titled &#8220;Flashpoint in Ukraine: US Drive for Hegemony Risks WW III.&#8221;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.claritypress.com\/LendmanIII.html\">http:\/\/www.claritypress.com\/LendmanIII.html<\/a><\/span><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com.&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>It airs three times weekly: live on Sundays at 1PM Central time plus two prerecorded archived programs.&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<p><\/p>\n<div>http:\/\/www.progressiveradionetwork.com\/the-progressive-news-hour&nbsp;<\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1217,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[461],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-121258","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-editorials"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121258","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1217"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=121258"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121258\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=121258"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=121258"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=121258"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}