Why It’s Crucial To Expose
US Provocations in Ukraine
Donald Smith / Antiwar.com

(February 20, 2025) — If you believe that Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine was unprovoked, you will likely compare Putin to Hitler and will likely oppose President Trump’s peace negotiations with Russia. After all, if Putin’s invasion was unprovoked, a settlement would reward naked aggression and would be akin to Neville Chamberlain’s 1938 appeasement with Hitler in Munich.

This is why it’s so crucial that people who know the truth about U.S. provocations in Ukraine and about America’s extreme hypocrisy to be fearlessly outspoken in proclaiming: the U.S. intentionally provoked the war, to weaken Russia, to wean Europe from Russian energy, and to make Europe more dependent on the U.S.

Unless the truth about U.S. provocations is exposed, there will be continued opposition to a peace deal for Ukraine, in both the U.S. and the EU. There is a chance that hawks in D.C. will force Trump to back down from negotiating a peace deal and that the U.S. will send U.S. troops, as Vice President Vance has threatened. And there is a chance that EU countries will try to extend the war without help from the U.S.

So far, EU nations have been willing to sacrifice their economies and social democratic safety nets for the sake of conflict with Russia. Likewise, EU governments have been cowardly about challenging U.S. support for Israel’s destruction of Gaza and of the West Bank. Moreover, there is pressure now from Trump for EU nations to increase their military budgets, to up to 5% of nations’ GDP. If people in Europe knew the cynical truth about U.S. provocations, they’d likely change their hawkish policies, which enrich U.S. military contractors.

Another, perhaps more important, reason to expose U.S. provocations in Ukraine is to undermine public support in the U.S. for the MICIMATT in general, and for the planned war with China, in particular. Many of the Trump administration advisors who want to stop the war in Ukraine are eager to prepare for war with China. Avoidable disastrous wars need to be stopped. The bloated Pentagon budget needs to be cut. The empire of overseas bases need to be unraveled. Regime change operations need to be curtailed. The culture of secrecy needs to be ended.

So far, Trump’s actions have belied his sometimes antiwar words. In his first term in office, he increased the Pentagon budget. He surrounded himself with pro-war advisers such as John Bolton and Mike Pompeo. He withdrew from nuclear treaties with Russia and China. He encouraged Israeli aggression against Palestinians. He tightened sanctions on Cuba and Venezuela. He brought the U.S. to the brink of war with Iran. He armed Ukraine beyond what President Biden was willing to do. So, it will be ironic if Donald Trump, who is a conman and a quasi-fascist, is the one who makes peace with Russia and who negotiates disarmament with Russia and China, as Trump has suggested. Richard Nixon was the president who opened up with China, and Ronald Reagan made peace with Gorbachev. So there is precedence, and Trump may succeed.

President Biden’s administration refused to negotiate with Vladimir Putin, both before the 2021 invasion and afterwards; the Biden Administration stymied a peace deal that was in the works in March of 2022. Democrats are now the bigger war party, at least with regard to continuing hostilities towards Russia. Partly, this is a consequence of Russigate: Russia’s alleged interference in U.S. elections and Trump’s alleged cooperation with Russia. But evidence for Russiagate was exaggerated. (Contrast the tiny amount that Russia spent interfering in our elections with the $3 billion that USAID spent in Ukraine, according to the U.S. Embassy in Kiev, largely on anti-Russia media organizations.) On war with China, there is little space between mainstream Democrats and Republicans.

An example of recent pro-war rhetoric from the Democratic side is from Thom Hartmann, who calls Putin a “butcher” and “a murderous thug.” Hartmann added “Let’s be clear: Russia invaded Ukraine. Just like Hitler invaded Poland. And Japan invaded China.” Hartmann condemns Trump’s efforts at making peace with Russia. Similarly, liberal commentator Simon Rosenberg writes in Hopium Chronicles: “The United States now appears to be working with, not against, Putin, a genocidal war criminal who is intent on destroying the West and America.” Rosenberg also reiterated exaggerated allegations about Russiagate and the effects of Russian influence on the 2016 election.

Conservatives now have become the anti-war party, and not just with regard to Russia. Tucker Carlson says, in a recent email blast:

Why did the U.S. government spend three decades lying about Ukraine?

They never really thought admitting that country into the anti-Russia NATO alliance would lead to peace. How could it? America threatened extinction-level violence when the USSR put nukes on its border. Why would the Putin government act differently if Washington did the same?

Tucker Carlson and Judge Andrew Napolitano regularly interview Jeffrey Sachs and other progressive antiwar activists, such as Aaron Maté, who expose the rot at the core of the national security state. Carlson and Napolitano are not mainstream but they reach a lot of people, certainly more than are reached by the antiwar left.

The transpartisan Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft recently interviewed Scott Horton, director of the Libertarian Institute. Horton’s opinions on U.S. foreign policy and militarism sound almost identical to comments that progressive antiwar commentators such as Jeffrey Sachs, Medea Benjamin, and David Swanson would make. There is a left-right convergence on the need to rein in U.S. militarized foreign policy.

The antiwar message needs to be amplified. As argued above, an important way to do that is to expose U.S. lies about the war in Ukraine. Hence:

If you are a diplomat, academic, or foreign policy specialist, please consider signing this letter:
Letter by Concerned Diplomats, Academics and Foreign Policy Professionals about the War in Ukraine

I heard from multiple speakers at webinars that a large proportion of U.S. foreign policy experts and diplomats secretly agree with the contention that the U.S. provoked Russia in Ukraine. But they are afraid to step forward and state the truth, for fear of condemnation and possible retaliation. If people step forward and sign the letter, more will be willing to do so, and the effect can snowball.

Donald A. Smith is a writer, a peace activist working with CodePink, a Democratic Precinct Committee Officer, the editor of http://waliberals.org, and the creator of https://progressivememes.org. He lives in Bellevue, Washington and has a PhD in Computer Science.