Keystone XL, Ukraine and the Disconnect of Ruling Elites

The United States is a nation in crisis. This is clear from the reaction to what is happening in Ukraine. The animal-like shrieking set off by Russia's move to establish control of the Crimean peninsula is evidence of a country seriously off its rocker. And mind you, it is not the masses who have set up this wail. There is more evidence of mass mobilization over Obama's pending approval of the Keystone XL pipeline than anything having to do with what is going on in Ukraine. But you wouldn't know that from reading "the paper of record." Despite the fact that 300 people were arrested this past Sunday protesting Keystone XL in front of the White House, the Gray Lady chose to focus Monday morning on a pro-putsch rally of less than 300, mostly Ukrainian-Americans, that took place the previous day in midtown Manhattan.

The shrieking is coming from the elite. This is clearly on display each day in the pages of the New York Times. Take for instance today's story by Peter Baker, "Debate Over Who, in U.S., Is to Blame for Ukraine":

Most provocative, perhaps, was Senator Lindsey Graham, who faces a Republican primary challenge from the right in South Carolina. He traced the Ukrainian crisis to the 2012 attack on the United States diplomatic post in Benghazi, Libya, that killed the envoy to Libya and three other Americans. “It started with Benghazi,” Mr. Graham said on Twitter. “When you kill Americans and nobody pays a price, you invite this type of aggression.” He added in another post: “Putin basically came to the conclusion after Benghazi, Syria, Egypt — everything Obama has been engaged in — he’s a weak indecisive leader.”

This is the same Lindsey Graham who threatened punishing consequences for the Karzai government if it went ahead with a release of prisoners suspected of being affiliated with the Taliban. Well, the prisoners were released and as of yet no punishment.

Senator Graham might be forgiven since slapping around the black guy in the White House plays well to the Tea Party primary voters. But what about the U.S. State Department releasing a tendentious reply to Putin's press conference the other day? "10 False Claims About Ukraine" is an embarrassing attempt to staunch the daily information war losses to U.S. credibility. It is somewhat effective in creating the impressive that ethnic Russians are not under direct assault from their Ukrainian brethren. Of course, it never directly engages in the unpleasant facts regarding the looting of the arsenal in Lviv by Banderists, which prompted Yanukovych to flee Kiev after his security detail deserted, nor the prompt rescinding of the official status of the Russian language by the putsch parliament.

Today C.J. Chivers has a story, "One Goal in Hand, Kiev’s Demonstrators Vow to Stay ‘Until the End’," where he strolls the Maidan and describes the continuing mobilization of street fighters. What's noteworthy is how he airbrushes the history of collaboration with the Nazis and participation in the Holocaust by ultranationalist groups from Ukraine's west who hail Stepan Bandera as their patron saint:

The sotni formed in the tradition of western Ukraine’s World War II-era guerrillas, men who fought for Ukrainian independence even after the war, fighting the Soviets well into the 1950s. Some of the groups are nationalistic to the point of being ultra-right-wing. Among them, at least on the margins, are factions that many fellow Ukrainians regard as anti-Semitic and reactionary, including Right Sector, which commands Sotnya No. 23.

Back to the State Department's rebuttal of Putin, what is particularly weak is its defense of the legitimacy of the putsch government:

Mr. Putin says: Ukraine’s government is illegitimate. Yanukovych is still the legitimate leader of Ukraine. 

The Facts: On March 4, President Putin himself acknowledged the reality that Yanukovych “has no political future.” After Yanukovych fled Ukraine, even his own Party of Regions turned against him, voting to confirm his withdrawal from office and to support the new government. Ukraine’s new government was approved by the democratically elected Ukrainian Parliament, with 371 votes – more than an 82% majority. The interim government of Ukraine is a government of the people, which will shepherd the country toward democratic elections on May 25th – elections that will allow all Ukrainians to have a voice in the future of their country.

Ukraine has a constitutional process for removing a sitting president. It is called impeachment. We have it in the United States too. A trial must be conducted. It takes time. The States Department knows this. The State Department knows the the putsch government is illegitimate. The State Department is lying.

But let's return to the top of the post and those young college students who are willing to go to jail to prevent the export of tar sands via pipeline from Canada to port terminals in Texas. The U.S. strategy to weaken Russia is to speed the export of North America's natural gas bonanza by means of rapid construction of liquefied natural gas terminals at the nation's ports. Coral Davenport and Steven Erlanger have the story, "U.S. Hopes Boom in Natural Gas Can Curb Putin." Thomas Friedman indulged this fantasy in his column yesterday. The idea is that if the U.S. can flood overseas markets with natural gas, Europe will not be so vulnerably dependent on Gazprom and Putin will be neutered.

Of course there is hardly any mention how controversial this method, fracking, is that led to the current U.S. abundance of natural gas. Los Angeles recently banned it in the city limits.

Once again, governmental elites are totally disconnected from reality. Given the current trajectory, the situation cannot be maintained for too much longer.