Respectful discussion is ongoing. Special Mention: A song composed and perfomed in Dachau

The ongoing war between Ukraine and Russia has been driven by internal and external factors. Those factors constitute two blades of a scissors, and explaining the conflict requires taking account of both blades. The external factors center on post-Cold War U.S. geopolitical strategy and the concomitant U.S.-sponsored eastward expansion of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). That expansion can only be understood by reference to the fractures (internal factors) created by the Soviet Union’s disintegration. The external factors reveal the role of the United States, which is implicated to the point of provoking the conflict and obstructing peace.

The external and internal factors come into play at different moments and take time to work their full effect, which is why history is so important to understanding the conflict. The two sets of factors play out over a timeline involving three key events. The first is Ukraine’s declaration of independence from the Soviet Union in August 1991. The second is the Maidan coup in February 2014 that overthrew democratically elected Ukrainian President Victor Yanukovych, who advocated Ukrainian autonomy and a nonaligned defense policy. The third is Russia’s military intervention in Ukraine, launched on February 24, 2022. This timeline is dramatically revealing. The United States and its NATO allies view the conflict as beginning in February 2022 (though sometimes saying it began when Russia first “invaded” Ukraine with the annexation of Crimea in 2014—an event following the coup), enabling them to ignore history. Russia views the conflict, more straightforwardly, as beginning with the February 2014 coup, which makes history and the onset of Civil War in Ukraine central to its political position. That fundamental difference in understanding hinders the possibility of a negotiated political settlement, and it is very hard to see how the difference can be reconciled, as accounting for history (namely the coup and the subsequent Civil War) yields a completely different narrative.

The U.S./NATO denial of history and penchant for explaining the conflict as simply an outgrowth of the February 2022 Russian “invasion,” confers a significant advantage in the accompanying propaganda war. Having the conflict begin with Russia’s military intervention is a simple, easily understood narrative. The Western public has little knowledge of or interest in history; this is especially true in the United States on the other side of the Atlantic, which is completely isolated from the conflict. Nor is Western media interested in history, which is difficult to explain and a commercial dud given a disinterested public. That configuration helps explain the resilience in the West of the U.S./NATO narrative. However, whereas denial of history works well for propaganda, it does not serve the cause of either truth or peace, as it denies the causes of the conflict which must be addressed if peace is to prevail.

Understanding the Ukraine Conflict: Internal and External Drivers

The Western U.S./NATO account of the conflict is history-light. The little bit of history that has managed to surface acknowledges, and then dismisses, NATO’s post-1990 eastward expansion. A proper historical understanding begins with the breakup of the Soviet Union. That breakup is recounted by Vladislav Zubok in his book Collapse: The Fall of the Soviet Union. The collapse is critical because it created the terrain for conflict.

As noted above, the conflict can be understood via the metaphor of a scissors. One blade is the internal, conflict-prone environment created by the Soviet Union’s breakup. The other blade is the continuing intervention by the United States, including the external eastward expansion of NATO. Both blades are necessary for understanding the causes of the conflict, its gradual escalation, and its political intractability.

[…]

cross-posted from: https://lemmygrad.ml/post/8383054

Going to sleep now, but damn, how many of history's battles were sieges?!

How the West wants Latina women to be

https://english.khamenei.ir/news/11426/How-the-West-wants-Latina-women-to-be

I think it is high time that generations raised on Borat, South Park, and ISIS beheading videos familiarized itself with what Iranian culture is actually like. Social justice is a longstanding subject from him this article not some kind of one-off occurence. The Ayatollah is woke. I picked this article because it is humorous and therefore eye-catching. Ask yourself why that worked though.

@history @iran #feminism #iran #history

Anatoly Fomenko Books - Archive.org

https://archive.org/details/AnatolyFomenkoBooks/DatingPtolemysAlmagestByAnatolyFomenko/page/n136/mode/1up

Review copies only, not for sale or redistribution.
Anatoly Fomenko is the most famous of scientific historians of the Russian Federation, who is credited as having popularized the inquiry into a New Chronology. The six books in this review folder includes:
* "History - Fiction or Science" volumes 1 to 4
* "Empirico Statistical Analysis" volume 1
* "Dating Ptolemys Almagest"

@history @books #books #history #science

In this fascinating episode of Guerrilla History, we bring on Kit Klarenberg of The Grayzone to discuss the NATO campaign against Yugoslavia, its relevance to today, and the delusion of US air power! We are also lucky to be joined by Nemanja Lukić as a guest host for this episode. In addition to being a keen analyst (and former guest of Guerrilla History), Nemanja personally lived through the bombing campaign. This is a terrific discussion with plenty of history, analysis, and connections being drawn between this event of the past and the ongoing genocide in Gaza. This is an important one, you won't want to miss a minute!

Kit Klarenberg is an investigative journalist and the UK Lead at The Grayzone. He also runs his personal site Global Delinquents and can be found on twitter @KitKlarenberg.

Nemanja Lukić is a Yugoslav anti-imperialist activist who runs the Anti-Imperialist Network website. You can also follow Anti-Imp Net on twitter @antiimpnet. Additionally, you should check out the article that Nemanja mentioned that he coauthored with our friend (and former guest) Alejandro Pedregal here.

cross-posted from: https://beehaw.org/post/19924028

The odds were against Edgar Feuchtwanger reaching the age of 100. He was born on 28 September 1924 into a time of poverty and political turmoil in post-first world war Germany. He was also born into a Jewish family in a society that was about to turn to National Socialism, an ideology that would ultimately be responsible for the murder of 6 million Jews. In 1929, when Feuchtwanger was five, something happened that made his long life even more unlikely. He got a new neighbour: Adolf Hitler.

In October that year, Hitler moved into the grand second-floor flat at Prinzregentenplatz 16 in Munich. His previous flat, on the other side of the Isar, the river that divides Munich, had become too small. Munich to him was the “Capital of the Movement”, a title he awarded the city officially in 1935. From 1929 on he lived in nine rooms in this corner building, with its long balconies and baroque facade. His staff moved in with him, and, soon, devotees and high-ranking SS officers were flocking to the flats nearby. Diagonally opposite, at Grillparzerstrasse 38, with a direct view of Hitler’s flat, lived the Feuchtwanger family.

Edgar Feuchtwanger, whom his parents called Bürschi, grew up in a respected and wealthy family that employed a chef and a nanny. His father, Ludwig, was a publisher and lawyer; his mother, Erna, a pianist. Intellectuals of the early 20th century were constantly in and out of the family home: the writer Thomas Mann; the lawyer Carl Schmitt, who later became a Nazi legal theorist and party member. And, of course, Ludwig’s brother, and Edgar’s uncle, Lion Feuchtwanger, the author of the novels Jew Süss and Success.

It's rather crazy to read about his story in an era where the U.S. is just disappearing anyone they don't much care for.

From March 13 to May 7, 1954, the Viet Minh’s relentless fight at Dien Bien Phu delivered a crushing blow to French colonialism. This victory didn’t just end decades of imperial, colonial rule - it ignited hope for liberation struggles worldwide.

Just a year later, the Vietnamese people would continue their struggle for full liberation of their homeland from imperialist designs, and on April 30, 1975 defeated the US and its proxy force.