May 16—Tens of billions of dollars are being poured into Ukraine to extend a bloody conflict that will continue to claim the lives of (primarily) Ukrainians and Russians, based on the idea that eventually a Ukrainian “victory” can be secured over Russia. But where are that money and the weapons it is used to purchase going? Perhaps we have just seen an aspect of its effects in racist murderer Payton Gendron, who killed ten people in Buffalo over the weekend. What’s the connection?
Gendron’s 180-page manifesto begins with the Sonnenrad symbol used also by the Azov group and references Brenton Tarrant as Gendron’s greatest inspiration. Tarrant killed 51 Muslim worshippers at mosques in Christchurch New Zealand in 2019 in an attack that he livestreamed. His viewpoint was picked up by the neo-Nazi Azov grouping in Ukraine, which distributed a racist, ethno-nationalist manifesto. In 2019, American lawmakers sent a letter to the State Department, noting that “The link between Azov and acts of terror in America is clear.” The 2017 events in Charlottesville included several members of the Rise Above Movement, whose leader described Azov as an inspiration. In 2018, the Congress denounced Azov, banning the government from providing any “arms, training or other assistance.”
But now tens of billions of dollars of military equipment are flooding into Ukraine. Where are these weapons going? No one knows. Sen. Rand Paul’s efforts to include an Inspector General have been denounced, and were defeated in an 81-11 cloture vote on Monday to advance the $40 billion on Ukrainian “aid.”
The premeditated murders in Buffalo should cause a rethinking of policy towards Ukraine.
But instead, it can predictably be expected to be blamed on some combination of guns, Republicans, social media, and the “Great Replacement Theory.”
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul—who could inquire into why law enforcement in her state let Gendron fall off the radar—has instead made the false claim that “We will protect the right to free speech, but there is a limit … hate speech is not protected.” There is no question that hate speech (which no one is adequately capable of defining) is protected under the First Amendment.
While Hochul held social media responsible, the legacy media were absolutely mum to the connections to the Azov forces being sent arms in Ukraine!
Defeating the ideology that animated the Buffalo killer requires not censorship, but an actual discussion about a future. Where is the future of the United States, the trans-Atlantic, NATO?
Are perpetual wars with Russia and China—enforced through bans on dissenting outlooks—are these wars to become the enduring legacy of the so-called democracies of the West? Is green depopulation a mission?
No! The security, growth, and well-being of the people of this planet require a new paradigm of international relations, economic growth, and of culture, based on the universal capability of human beings to discover fundamental principles and use them socially to transform our relationship to the universe.
The pursuit of such a mission, with cooperation between the U.S., Russia, China, India and others, is the only path to durable survival on this planet.
