If
the paeans to McCain by diverse political climbers seems detached
from reality, it’s because they reflect the elite view of U.S.
military interventions as a chess game, with the millions killed by
unprovoked aggression mere statistics.
by
Max Blumenthal
Part
5 - Coddling the Neo-Nazis of Ukraine
On
December 14, 2013, McCain materialized in Kiev for a meeting with
Oleh Tyanhbok, an unreconstructed fascist who had emerged as a top
opposition leader. Tyanhbok had co-founded the fascist
Social-National Party, a far-right political outfit that touted
itself as the “last hope of the white race, of humankind as
such.” No fan of Jews, he had complained that a
“Muscovite-Jewish mafia” had taken control of his country,
and had been photographed throwing up a sieg heil Nazi salute during
a speech.
None of
this apparently mattered to McCain. Nor did the scene of Right Sector
neo-Nazis filling up Kiev’s Maidan Square while he appeared on
stage to egg them on.
“Ukraine
will make Europe better and Europe will make Ukraine better!”
McCain proclaimed to cheering throngs while Tyanhbok stood by his
side. The only issue that mattered to him at the time was the refusal
of Ukraine’s elected president to sign a European Union austerity
plan, opting instead for an economic deal with Moscow.
McCain
was so committed to replacing an independent-minded government with a
NATO vassal that he even mulled a military assault on Kiev. “I
do not see a military option and that is tragic,” McCain
lamented in an interview about the crisis. Fortunately for him,
regime change arrived soon after his appearance on the Maidan, and
Tyanhbok’s allies rushed in to fill the void.
By the
end of the year, the Ukrainian military had become bogged down in a
bloody trench war with pro-Russian, anti-coup separatists in the
country’s east. A militia affiliated with the new government in
Kiev called Dnipro-1 was accused by Amnesty International observers
of blocking humanitarian aid into a separatist-held area, including
food and clothing for the war torn population.
Six
months later, McCain appeared at Dnipro-1’s training base alongside
Sen.’s Tom Cotton and John Barasso. “The people of my country
are proud of your fight and your courage,” McCain told an
assembly of soldiers from the militia. When he completed his remarks,
the fighters belted out a World War II-era salute made famous by
Ukrainian Nazi collaborators: “Glory to Ukraine!”
Today,
far-right nationalists occupy key posts in Ukraine’s pro-Western
government. The speaker of its parliament is Andriy Parubiy, a
co-founder with Tyanhbok of the Social-National Party and leader of
the movement to honor World World Two-era Nazi collaborators like
Stepan Bandera. On the cover of his 1998 manifesto, “View From The
Right,” Parubiy appeared in a Nazi-style brown shirt with a pistol
strapped to his waist. In June 2017, McCain and Republican Speaker of
the House Paul Ryan welcomed Parubiy on Capitol Hill for what McCain
called a “good meeting.” It was a shot in the arm for the
fascist forces sweeping across Ukraine.
The past
months in Ukraine have seen a state sponsored neo-Nazi militia called
C14 carrying out a pogromist rampage against Ukraine’s Roma
population, the country’s parliament erecting an exhibition
honoring Nazi collaborators, and the Ukrainian military formally
approving the pro-Nazi “Glory to Ukraine” greeting as its own
official salute.
Ukraine
is now the sick man of Europe, a perpetual aid case bogged down in an
endless war in its east. In a testament to the country’s demise
since its so-called “Revolution of Dignity,” the deeply unpopular
President Petro Poroshenko has promised White House National Security
Advisor John Bolton that his country — once a plentiful source of
coal on par with Pennsylvania — will now purchase coal from the
U.S. Once again, a regime change operation that generated a failing,
fascistic state stands as one of McCain’s greatest triumphs.
McCain’s
history conjures up memory of one of the most inflammatory statements
by Sarah Palin, another cretinous fanatic he foisted onto the world
stage. During a characteristically rambling stump speech in October
2008, Palin accused Barack Obama of “palling around with
terrorists.” The line was dismissed as ridiculous and
borderline slander, as it should have been. But looking back at
McCain’s career, the accusation seems richly ironic.
By any
objective standard, it was McCain who had palled around with
terrorists, and who wrested as much resources as he could from the
American taxpayer to maximize their mayhem. Here’s hoping that the
societies shattered by McCain’s proxies will someday rest in peace.
***
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