Antiwar.com Week in Review May 26, 2022

Your source for foreign policy news.

May 26th, 2022

Henry Kissinger Says Ukraine Should Cede Territory to Russia to Achieve Peace

Former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger on Monday said that Ukraine should cede to Russia the territory Moscow and the Donbas separatists controlled before invading to end the war and called for negotiations.

"Negotiations need to begin in the next two months before it creates upheavals and tensions that will not be easily overcome. Ideally, the dividing line should be a return to the status quo ante," Kissinger told the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

"Pursuing the war beyond that point would not be about the freedom of Ukraine, but a new war against Russia itself," he added.

Russia has controlled the Crimean peninsula since 2014, but Ukraine still claims the territory, and Ukrainian officials have said they wont give up Crimea to end the war. Before the invasion, separatists controlled a good portion of the eastern Donbas region and were seeking autonomy through the implementation of the Minsk agreements, which France and Germany brokered.

By Dave DeCamp

Russia-Ukraine War: George Bush's Admission of His Crimes in Iraq Was No 'Gaffe'

It was apparently a "gaffe" of the kind we had forgotten since George W. Bush stepped down from the US presidency in early 2009. During a speech in Dallas last week, he momentarily confused Russian President Vladimir Putin's current war of aggression against Ukraine and his own war of aggression against Iraq in 2003.

Bush observed that a lack of checks and balances in Russia had allowed "one man to launch a wholly unjustified and brutal invasion of Iraq I mean, Ukraine. Iraq too. Anyway Im 75."

It sounded like another "Bushism" - a verbal slip-up - for which the 43rd president was famous. Just like the time he boasted that people "misunderestimated" him, or when he warned that America's enemies "never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people - and neither do we".

By Jonathan Cook

Read the full story >

Biden's Dangerous Words on Taiwan

Earlier this week in Tokyo, Joe Biden said that the US would involve itself directly in the defense of Taiwan in the event of a Chinese attack. This is the third time since taking office that he has said or suggested that the US has a security commitment to defend Taiwan when it does not, and each time the White House staff have been obliged to clarify that Biden was not endorsing so-called "strategic clarity." The official line is that Biden was only restating existing policy that the US would provide military assistance to Taiwan. This is not what he said, and it was not how his words were interpreted. It is increasingly difficult to credit the White Houses claim that there has been no change in policy when the president habitually declares that the US "made" a commitment to defend Taiwan.

By Daniel Larison

Read the full story >

US Military Clears Itself of Blame in Syria Strike That Killed 'Piles' of Women and Children

No U.S. personnel will be held accountable for a March 2019 airstrike that killed scores of Syrian civilians including women and children, the Pentagon said Tuesday in announcing that an internal investigation into the massacre found that no laws of war were broken and that there was no cover-up of the incident as alleged in a New York Times expos.

An executive summary of a classified investigation led by US Army Gen. Michael Garrett stated that "no rules of engagement (ROE) or law of war (LOW) violations occurred" in connection with the March 18, 2019 strike near the Syrian town of Baghuz that, according to an initial battle assessment, killed around 70 people.

By Brett Wilkins

US Drawing Up Plans To Sink the Russian Black Sea Fleet: Ukrainian Official

Shortly after Reuters published an exclusive story that the White House was looking to move advanced anti-ship missiles to Ukraine, an official in Kiev said that the US is making a plan to sink Russias Black Sea Fleet.

Ukrainian Ministry of Internal Affairs adviser Anton Gerashchenko tweeted, "The US is preparing a plan to destroy the [Russian] Black Sea Fleet. The effective work of the Ukrainians on [Russian] warships convinced [the US] to prepare a plan to unblock the [Ukrainian] ports.

Deliveries of powerful anti-ship weapons are being discussed."

Gerashchenko cited the Reuters report on Washington's effort to ship Harpoon and Naval Strike Missiles to Ukraine. The missiles have a range of up to 300 km and cost $1.5 million each.

By Kyle Anzalone

General Milley Predicts Grim Future of Deadly Great Power Wars Fought in Cities

America's highest-ranking military officer painted a picture of a dark future with great power wars fought in urban environments. Speaking to graduating cadets at the United States Military Academy, General Mark Milley forewarned of death tolls for US soldiers in the tens of thousands.

Milley identified Russia and China as the growing powers America will face in the next generation. "We are facing right now two global powers, China and Russia," he said. "As we are entering a world that is becoming more unstable. The world you are being commissioned into has the potential for significant international conflict between great powers, and that potential is increasing, not decreasing."

By Kyle Anzalone

Pushing Nuclear War: Mitt Romney Reminds Americans That He Was Unfit To Be President

Hassan El-Tayyab: Now Is the Time to End the War in Yemen

Israel Tells US It Killed Iranian IRGC Colonel in Tehran

Do you want more news?

Keep your finger on the pulse of US foreign policy. Subscribe to our Daily Digest and each evening, the day's top news stories and editorials are delivered straight to your email. Please support our work by signing up.

Antiwar.com, 1017 El Camino Real #306, Redwood City, CA 94063 | 323 512 7095 | www.antiwar.com