Many, including the President of the United States, Joe Biden, have referred to Russian President Vladimir Putin as a ‘War Criminal’, characterizing his Special Military Operation, the Russian incursion into Ukraine, an unjust act of aggression into a sovereign country without provocation. The ranks of these individuals include the Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Chris Hedges with his recent piece in Mint Press News and many others on the left and right. Indeed, many western leaders, including the obnoxious and hypocritical UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, insist he (Vladimir Putin) be referred to the ICC for prosecution as a war criminal. As we’ll see, it is they, the criminal heads of state of these Western powers who should be referred to the ICC as war criminals. (Note: Chris Hedges’ piece is linked above with reservation – he is incorrect in his catagoric and unqualified characteriation of “Preemptive war” as a ‘war crime’ – it is not; to his credit, he notes the West’s failure to impliment the Minsk Accords – Vladimir Putin tried in vain to do this for 8 years leading up to the SMO).
Part of the problem with these individuals and Chris Hedges, who should know better, is willful ignorance, ignorance resulting from an invincible cognitive dissonance -they simply don’t see it –they have no way to reconcile their thoroughly propagandized and delusional world view of the West as some shining city on a hill as Ronald Reagan thought of the US as -with reality. The war in Ukraine -the suffering of the Ukrainian people, the 8-year-long pogrom of genocide perpetrated against the Donbass region and its ethnic Russian population, Russian citizens, Ukrainians who identify as Russian or speak the Russian language are the direct result of the 2014 Maidan coup in that country orchestrated by the Obama Administration.
We first present the origins of the Just War Doctrine, then the facts as they are now and then a compelling argument that the actions of Russian President Vladimir Putin are not only supported by the Just War Doctrine but that his failure to act would have been grotesquely immoral by any standard and a breach of his oath to protect his people from harm.
Origins of the Just War Doctrine
Augustine of Hippo (Canonized St. Augustine of Hippo, Doctor of the Church) promulgated his Just War Doctrine in the late 4th century (c AD 390 – 400). As Rome began to fall early in the 5th century (AD 408 – 410), Augustine confronted a viewpoint, long-held by many, that a war could be considered just, that it wasn’t always morally wrong to wage war. In the 13th century, Thomas Aquinas (Canonized St. Thomas Aquinas, Doctor of the Church), further built on Augustine’s original Just War Doctrine. A clear example of a Just War in the modern era was the fight to stop Hitler’s march across Europe and eventually, the entire world, a conflict only entered into late by the United States.
Desiring the peaceful settlement of any dispute, Augustine writes in 418:
“Peace should be the object of your desire; war should be waged only as a necessity…in order that peace may be obtained. Therefore, even in waging a war, cherish the spirit of a peacemaker, that, by conquering those whom you attack, you may lead them back to the advantages of peace…As violence is used toward him who rebels and resists, so mercy is due to the vanquished or captive”
With the doctrine Primum non nocere (Latin: first, do no harm) as the overarching principle, the Bishops of the United States in 1983 published a pastoral letter on War and Peace, citing the teachings of Augustine, that to wage a just war the following criteria must be met:
- the damage inflicted by the aggressor on the nation or community of nations must be lasting, grave, and certain;
- all other means of putting an end to it must have been shown to be impractical or ineffective;
- there must be serious prospects of success;
- the use of arms must not produce evils and disorders more grave than the evil to be eliminated. The power of modern means of destruction weighs very heavily in evaluating this condition.
The principles under-girding the Just War Doctrine of Augustine and Thomas, that it remain just are:
- to confront “a real and certain danger” to protect innocent life
- Competent Authority: declared by those with responsibility for public order
- Comparative Justice: Are the values at stake critical enough to override the presumption against war?
- Right Intention: War can only be conducted to satisfy the just cause
- Last Resort: All peaceful alternatives have already been exhausted
- Probability of Success: The outcome cannot be disproportionate or futile
- Proportionality: inflicted damage must be proportionate to the good expected
Context and Why did Putin Act Now
To describe how the Just War Doctrine can be invoked we must first establish context.
Many have wondered why now, why did Putin act now when the regular Ukrainian Army, under the command of right-wing fascists (ostensibly referred to in the pliant press as ‘nationalists’), the Azov Battalion and the Right Sector, have waged an 8-year long pogrom of genocide against the Donbass that continues to this day (as I write this, homes and lives are being destroyed by the Kiev regime – Zelensky’s government forces and their Nazi brigades) -why did he wait this long and decide to act now? Was it new intelligence or maybe he simply couldn’t stomach it any longer? In listening to President Putin’s remarks as he signed the order putting the Special Military Operation into motion, it’s clear it was the later combined with new evidence that the US has been actively building enhanced Bio Weapons laboratories in Ukraine with the full support of their puppet president.
The bio weapons program is far broader and deeper in scope than the 30 labs in Ukraine found (by the Russian Military). Many former Soviet Satellite countries that are now under the NATO umbrella are home to additional such facilities. These facilities have been funded and operating with the full knowledge, consent and support of the current and previous administrations (Obama), that it has been ongoing with the assistance of partner states such as Australia and the United Kingdom. Many public assets of the US (US taxpayer funds) such as Los Alamos National Laboratory are implicated – the US Taxpayer has been an unwitting partner in this scheme – US public money has been used to fund a dark, horrific, Frankensteinian program in a foreign country whose express purpose was to target the ethnic Russian population, not only in Ukraine but also in neighboring Russia!
And what is it that prompted Vladimir Putin to act when he did? It turns out that they (the Western Empire) had planned to launch a Bio Weapons attack on March 1st! Putin waited -literally- 6 days before the planned start of a covert Bio Weapons attack -February 24th was the start of the Special Operation! President Putin’s remarks, paraphrased, are understood as “We would have ceased to exist“.
A quote from the Russian Defense Ministry regarding the March 1st date:
During special military operation, classified documents of the command of the National Guard of Ukraine ended up in the hands of the Russian servicemen. These documents confirm the covert preparation by the Kiev regime of an offensive operation in the Donbass in March 2022.
Included in these classified documents were the following, implicating many high-level actors and agencies [of the US Government]:
Nuclear Weapons
Aside from the active operation of Bio Weapons labs within the borders of Ukraine, the West was assisting the Ukrainians in restarting their moribund Nuclear Weapons program, something that could never be countenanced by the Russians – a nuclear armed state on the Russian border!
The subtext and published reasons for the operation was “the de-Nazification and de-Militerization” of Ukraine.
A Nazi State on the Russian Border
The US and former Allied Powers often hold themselves in high esteem, declaring their losses and casualties as the main reason for Hitler’s defeat and the end of the war’s European Theater. The casualties suffered by the United States in both theaters of World War II was 530,000. The casualties and losses suffered by the Soviet Union, specifically Russia, is almost never mentioned with that number topping 27,000,000 (27 Million)! The Russians suffered the loss of 27 million to defeat Hitler and halt his march across the country. The West, in their rush to demonize Russia, never stops to consider that Vladimir Putin, taking the long view back to 1945 and the agreements that would divide Europe, the East and the West, would never allow the proliferation of a de-facto Nazi state on his south-west border. To him and any Russian leader, even the discussion of Ukraine being brought in under the NATO umbrella, is a serious provocation. The Russians have made it abundantly clear that Ukraine is a bright red line for them and they (the Western Empire -the US, Western Europe and NATO) need to abide by their 1990 promise not to expand one inch to the east after the unification of Germany.
With the Azov Brigade, an openly Nazi, fascist, extreme Right-wing nationalist member of the country’s National Guard, it’s no secret that Nazis have infiltrated all ranks of the Ukrainian military.
The period leading up to the 2014 Maidan Coup, the CIA played an active role in training these Nazis with the express purpose “to eliminate ethnic Russian citizens from Ukraine.” And so they attended to their task with murderous intent since 2014.
Stepan Bandera
The major nationalist militias, certain regiments of the Ukrainian National Guard and the country’s regular army have, within their ranks, members of the Right Sector and the Azov Battalion, either as full brigades or as individuals in command positions, individuals who trace their roots to and attribute their inspiration from Stepan Bandera, a WWII Nazi sympathizer and collaborator. Bandera was a member of the far-right Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists, a leader and ideologist of Ukrainian ultranationalists known for his involvement in terrorist activities. With the exception of pro-Russian Viktor Yanukovych (in office 2010 – 2014 and deposed in 2014 during the US-sponsored Maidan coup), all of Ukraine’s presidents since 2005 have been rightist nationalists. This isn’t hard to believe as many Ukrainians today regard themselves as Nationalists as reflected in the actions of their elected leaders; to wit: outgoing President Viktor Yushchenko in 2010 honored Bandera posthumously, bestowing on him the state honor, “Hero of Ukraine.” If that wasn’t bad enough, at the close of 2018, the country’s parliament (presumably elected representatives) designated January 1st, Bandera’s birthday, a national holiday and banned a book critical of him.
It’s clear then, that Russia has a serious Nazi problem, a metastasizing cancer growing on its southwest border. Electing extremists as your leader isn’t the business of anyone else but the citizens of a given country – electing a psycho as their leader is their business and their right -and no one else’s- but that doesn’t mean the rest of the world has to suffer because of it. And suffer the Russians living in the Donbass have for 8 years since Petro Poroshenko deposed the pro-Russian Viktor Yanukovych during in the 2014 Maidan coup, a coup planned and orchestrated directly by the United States by the Obama Administration under the watchful of then Vice President (and now President) Joe Biden, under Secretary of State Victoria Nuland and then US Ambassador to Ukraine, Geoffrey Pyatt. for European and Eurasian Affairs
The big question is then, what do you do when a neighboring country elects an avowed Nazi or a pro-Nazi as its leader – or that leader is imposed by a foreign power, and that leader fails to stop a genocide perpetrated on your people living in that country, people who identify with you or people who choose to speak your language?
What do you do?
You do exactly what Russian President Vladimir Putin did on February 24 of this year.
The Deceit and Treachery of the Western Empire
The snake-oil salesmen who run this country and what one could reasonably refer to as the ‘Western Empire’, the cabal of nations euphemistically referred to as ‘The West‘ (the US, NATO and Western Europe), have known this day would come for years, since 1990 when then Secretary of State James Baker promised then Soviet Leader Mikhail Gorbachev that “NATO will not expand one inch to the east“, knowing full-well they had no intention of ever keeping that promise. Without exception, all Soviet leaders have been abundantly clear on this point and now, Russian president Vladimir Putin, reminding them not too long ago, that any linkage between Ukraine and NATO is a red line for them.
Secretary of State James Baker to Soviet Premier Mikhail Gorbachev, February 9, 1990:
“There would be no extension of NATO’s jurisdiction for forces of NATO one inch to the east”
Zelenski, the Puppet-President Turned War Criminal and Criminal Participation by Western Powers
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenski, perhaps holed up and protected by his masters at the US Embassy in Warsaw, has presided over a genocide since the 2014 US-sponsored coup that installed him as US puppet. For 8 years, the genocide and ethnic-cleansing operation perpetrated against Ukrainian-Russians, ethnic Russians, Russian citizens and Russian-language speakers living in the eastern Donbass region of the country has resulted in over 14,000 documented dead. As the Russian army makes its way across the Donbass, mass graves are being uncovered with stories of torture and dismemberment told by the residents. Carried out by the Nazi commanders at the highest levels of the country’s military, this has been willfully ignored by most western media and has now been, thankfully, halted by the Russian military.
Given that Zelinsky is AWOL, one could make the case that there is no functioning government in the country and that the only order remaining has been imposed by the Russians. The country has descended into a state of chaos and lawlessness, where active shoot-to-kill orders remain against anyone deemed an enemy of the state by the Nazi commanders now roaming the countryside much like dystopian scenes from MadMax Beyond Thunderdome.
So why is Zelensky a war criminal?
Simple, although he many not be the proximate cause of war crime(s), he is the commander in chief of his armed forces, including the Nazi brigades and commanders in the country’s regular army and their National Guard. As the commander in chief, he is responsible for their conduct and any war crimes committed by them. Further to that point, any third party power that provides direct training to anyone who is causally responsible for war crime(s) is also responsible for those war crimes; this would include any US and NATO commanders covertly (or overtly) involved in the training of those individuals.
March 9th, 2022 statement by the Russian Ministry of Defense in which they disclose commands, orders and plans of the Ukrainian Armed Forces and the criminal participation of their Western trainers and active participants.
▪️During special military operation, classified documents of the command of the National Guard of Ukraine ended up in the hands of the Russian servicemen. These documents confirm the covert preparation by the Kiev regime of an offensive operation in the Donbass in March 2022. (this is one of the primary reasons for the Russian military intervention)
▪️The Russian Ministry of Defense publishes the original secret order of the commander of the National Guard of Ukraine, Colonel-General Nikolai Balan, dated January 22, 2022.
▪️Order “On organizing the training of a battalion tactical group of the 4th operational brigade to perform combat (special) tasks in the joint forces operation as part of a brigade of the armed forces of Ukraine.”
The document is addressed to the heads of the northern Kiev, southern Odessa and western territorial departments of the National Guard of Ukraine.
▪️The order, brought to the command of the National Guard of Ukraine, explains the plan for preparing one of the shock groups for offensive operations in the so-called “Joint Forces Operation” zone in Donbass. Author’s note: The residents of the Donbass are Russian citizens, ethnic Russians, Ukrainians who identify as Russian or Ukrainians who speak the Russian language. The National Guard of Ukraine has within its ranks Nazi Commanders and the Azov Brigade, a radical, fascist Nazi regiment, known for committing atrocities and war crimes during the 2014 Coup that overthrew Viktor Yanukovych.
The document approves the organizational structure of the battalion-tactical group of the 4th operational brigade of the National Guard, the organization of its comprehensive support and reassignment to the 80th separate air assault brigade of Ukraine.
▪️I would like to emphasize that since 2016, this formation of the air assault troops of Ukraine has been trained by American and British instructors under the “NATO standard” training programs in Lvov.
▪️In accordance with the order, the Deputy Commander of the National Guard was tasked with organizing joint combat training of the battalion-tactical group of the National Guard as part of the 80th separate air assault brigade of the armed forces of Ukraine from February 7 to February 28, 2022.
▪️I draw your attention that as many as five paragraphs of 4th paragraph are devoted to the issues of careful selection of personnel, psychologists examination and ensuring their high motivation.
▪️For this reason, the National Guard servicemen are provided with “visual agitation, information and propaganda materials, flags, and printing products.”
▪️The deputy commander of the National Guard for Staffing (personnel) was ordered to organize “an effective system of moral and psychological support for the battalion tactical group of the 4th operational brigade, internal communications of commanders with subordinates, informing.”
▪️At the same time, it is important to provide “an explanation to the personnel of command decisions and the importance of upcoming tasks.”
▪️I draw special attention to the fact that the 12th paragraph of the order prohibits sending National Guard servicemen who showed “unsatisfactory” results of psychological testing according to the criterion of “risk appetite” to the area of joint command training and to the place of “combat special tasks”.
▪️All events of joint combat training of the nationalists are ordered to be completed by February 28 in order to further ensure the fulfillment of combat missions as part of the Ukrainian “Joint Forces Operation” in Donbass.
▪️The document contains the original signatures of the officials of the command of the National Guard of Ukraine responsible for the tasks.
Vladimir Putin’s Just War in Ukraine
A man on a flying horse could see why Russian President Vladimir Putin is justified in his Special Military Operation in Ukraine. To be thorough however, we will discus each point of the Catholic Church’s Just War Doctrine as presented above within the context of what has been presented in this article. To wit (justification and/or explanation in bold type):
With the doctrine Primum non nocere (Latin: first, do no harm) as the overarching principle, the Bishops of the United States in 1983 published a pastoral letter on War and Peace, citing the teachings of Augustine, that to wage a just war the following criteria must be met:
- the damage inflicted by the aggressor on the nation or community of nations must be lasting, grave, and certain;
- the residents of Donbass, most of them Russian or Ukrainians who identify as Russian have been under direct bombardment since 2014. There was a credible Nuclear and Bio-weapons threat posed by Ukraine.
- all other means of putting an end to it must have been shown to be impractical or ineffective;
- the Ukrainian leadership and their western advisors ignored Russian overtures at a peaceful solution
- there must be serious prospects of success;
- There is no question that the Russian military was up to the task
- the use of arms must not produce evils and disorders more grave than the evil to be eliminated. The power of modern means of destruction weighs very heavily in evaluating this condition.
- The Russian military response has been proportional and appropriate for all situations. There were no indiscriminate attacks on civilians nor was their any disproportionate use of force; aside from the mountains of propaganda and lies published by the western press, the operation has proceeded, by all accounts, with the utmost care and professionalism.
The principles under-girding the Just War Doctrine of Augustine and Thomas, that it remain just are:
to confront “a real and certain danger” to protect innocent life
- there has been a genocide perpetrated by the Ukrainian Nazis of the Azov Brigade and the Right Sector on the civilians of the Donbass since 2014 with the active assistance and approval of NATO, the United States and many Western European states. Mass graves have been uncovered and accounts of atrocities committed by Ukrainian Nazis are blood curdling. Failure to act with this knowledge would have been tacit approval and an act of complicity, another war crime and a breach of the Russian leadership’s oath to protect its citizens. The threat to life and their very existence by a Bio-weapons attack and/or a nuclear weapons attack [on Russia] could not be ignored.
Competent Authority: declared by those with responsibility for public order
- The Russian President and Executive Leadership are the competent authorities
Comparative Justice: Are the values at stake critical enough to override the presumption against war?
- Yes, for the obvious threat to their existence as established!
Right Intention: War can only be conducted to satisfy the just cause
- It is completely justified as necessary for the preservation of life and the very existence of the Russian state
Last Resort: All peaceful alternatives have already been exhausted
- Yes, the Ukrainians, convinced in their delusion that they posed a serious military threat to Russia, ignored all overtures at a diplomatic/peaceful settlement and outcome
Probability of Success: The outcome cannot be disproportionate or futile
- The Ukrainian Armed Forces posed no meaningful threat to the Russians in any conventional-weapons confrontation scenario. The Russian military response was proportional and appropriate for all situations.
Proportionality: inflicted damage must be proportionate to the good expected
- The Russian military response was proportional and appropriate for all situations.
Related Articles and Content
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US Admits to Funding Biological Laboratories in Ukraine, with Dilyana Gaytandzhieva
Russia, Ukraine and the World’s Ignorance
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New CIA Declassified Documents Expose Nazi War Criminals – Ukraine’s Stepan Bandera is on the List
https://historynewsnetwork.org/article/122778
https://www.newsweek.com/ukraine-nazi-collaborator-birthday-holiday-anti-semitic-1272911
Featured Image: Russian President Vladimir Putin with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and French President Emmanuel Macron in the background.
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