Flashpoint in Ukraine

Flashpoint in Ukraine provides insight into today's gravest geopolitical crisis since WW II. Possible global war looms. Viewed from the perspective of Western mainstream media, the crisis arose due to pro-democracy activists overturning a brutal dictatorship, which led swiftly to Russian incursion into Ukraine and annexation of Crimea. Viewed from the perspective of the 22 highly-credentialed analysts who have contributed to this anthology, it's an entirely different story; Obama's pivot is global, in pursuit of unchallenged worldwide dominance, leading to multiple direct and proxy wars. Neocon-dominated Washington seeks to marginalize its Russian and Chinese rivals, surrounding both countries with US bases. Ukraine is in the eye of the storm, the crown jewel of NATO eastward expansion, the last step in Washington's drive to incorporate all former Soviet republics and Warsaw Pact countries into NATO and install missile defense sites on Russia's very border. To that end, the US has poured some $5 billion into "pro-democracy" NGOs which, counter to intention or not, were soon swept aside by neo-Nazi groups, and leading to the installation as President of former banker, Arseniy Yatseniuk, advance leaked as the unelected pick of Victoria Nuland, US Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs. While, as it is argued here, Russia did not invade Crimea and in fact has taken an extremely measured response with primary emphasis on diplomacy and ending the crisis, NATO, European and US spokespersons and media are seeking to dramatize and indeed resurrect a "Russian threat." Eastern resistance forestalls Obama's imperial project. The West appears willing to pursue it, at the risk not just of Ukrainian civil war and potential East/West confrontation but of global nuclear war. The flashpoint in Ukraine risks the unthinkable. This book explains what everyone needs to know, to get the world off the bandwagon to war. STELLAR CONTRIBUTORS: Robert Abele, Michel Chossoudovsky, Michael Hudson, Edward Herman, Mickey Huff, Andrew Kolin, Cynthia McKinney, John McMurtry, Mahdi Darius Nazemroaya, Michael Parenti, David Peterson, James Petras, Peter Phillips, Jack Rasmus, Paul Craig Roberts, Rick Rozoff, Rodney Shakespeare, Jeffrey Sommers. Matthew Witt