© Unknown "[Photo Agencies]"US Secretary of State Antony Blinken attends a meeting in Kyiv on May 15, 2024.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, making an unannounced visit to Kyiv on Tuesday, apparently tried his best to "rally the spirits of glum Ukrainians facing a fierce new Russian offensive", as the Associated Press observed.
Apart from assuring his audience they are not alone and that the long-delayed military aid from the United States is now on its way and will make a "real difference" on the battlefield,
the top US diplomat took to the stage at a local pub to play rhythm guitar and sing Neil Young's 1989 hit Rockin' in the Free World with a local band.The great lengths Blinken has gone to in a bid to boost Ukrainians' morale speaks volumes of how low it has fallen. Analysts have called the current situation in Ukraine one of the most dangerous moments since the Russia-Ukraine conflict broke out in February 2022 thanks to new offensive Moscow has recently organized in the northeast of Ukraine.
"We meet at a critical moment," said Blinken, showing the Joe Biden administration also recognizes the graveness of the situation despite the confidence he has tried to instill in the Ukrainians, when speaking to students at the Kyiv Polytechnic Institute. "The coming weeks and months will demand a great deal of Ukrainians, who have already sacrificed so much. I've come to Ukraine with a message: You are not alone."
But
the lukewarm responses from his audience should remind Blinken that Ukrainians have been fighting for the past 27 months and have heard such words before.For more and more of them, the conflict is one in which Ukrainians are sacrificing their lives for the US' interests. They see clearly that the majority of the US' aid to Ukraine, as Biden admitted, is invested in the US, creating jobs and upgrading the US arsenal, helping Biden to win support from voters by pleasing the workers, capitalists and championing himself as the leader of a "free world".
After the Gaza conflict started on Oct 7 last year,
the US' input in Ukraine has unavoidably been affected, as Israel has a greater claim on US support than Ukraine, something US lawmakers make no bones of.Blinken has visited the Middle East seven times since Oct 7, while the Tuesday visit to Kyiv was only his fourth since February 2022, and his last visit to Kyiv was in September.
The other factor Kyiv must have taken into account while receiving Blinken is what will happen if Biden is not reelected in the US presidential election in November. That's a question Blinken cannot answer.
Blinken told Kyiv that the US intends to support Ukrainians beyond the conflict's end helping them build "the strongest possible Ukraine". However,
the conflict has to end before any rebuilding takes place, and that is something the Biden administration has been trying to prevent. Instead, it is doing all it can to prolong the conflict, as long as no US blood is shed, of course, believing it serves the US' interests.
For how long will the Ukrainian people be willing to continue to die so that the Biden administration can claim it is rockin' in a free world.
Comment:
1) See also:
The West is worried, that's why Blinken made an urgent visit to Kiev2) The article appears to have instances of understatement, irony, and sarcasm.
There isunderstatement
Since the heading does not say that the US is responsible for rocking foundation of world peace, but given the article image, the reader can take the two and figure it out. [BTW: the SOTT US flag icon was added for clarification.]
There is irony
In juxtaposing the statements of Blinkin about Freedom and help to Ukraine, with the explanations about what the US money really helps to achieve which is the slavery of Ukraine and Ukrainians to buck to the coffers of the US military industrial complex. Similarly, it is ironic that the one who prides himself of Rocking in a free world is in fact not
There is humor
When the one who claims he is "rocking in free a world" is rocking world peace, to be more blunt the US is rocking for destruction which, incidentally, also does not exclude the US.
There is a suggestion of sarcasm
In this sentence: "the top US diplomat took to the stage at a local pub to play rhythm guitar and sing Neil Young's 1989 hit Rockin' in the Free World with a local band."
there is a suggestion of sarcasm, considering the contrast in style between a top diplomat from the self-proclaimed, self-important leader of the free world and a local pub. Rather than offering peace and freedom, he offers more manipulation and subjugation. The representatives of the Biden administration, may not appreciate it, but there is no exaggeration in
Western elites want to prosper at the expense of others - Putin, considering all that NATO and EU expansion, with the associated killing, for the sake of their ambitions promoted as ideology of "Freedom". Another option is
'West's governments need war' warns Martin Armstrong 'because their debts are no longer sustainable'Another formulation in this category might be: "
the conflict has to end before any rebuilding takes place, and that is something the Biden administration has been trying to prevent" Well, that is just top dollar.
A question or a statement?
"
For how long will the Ukrainian people be willing to continue to die so that the Biden administration can claim it is rockin' in a free world." remains suspended between being a question, which it is, and a statement, which is closer to the truth and alluded to by the missing question mark, if it is anything but an honest mistake, which is doubtful. Besides, while the mention is of Ukraine the sentence can be rephrased as a more general statement, given that the article is in English and meant for an international audience. Taking this approach one varient is:
For how long will the Ukrainian people of US aligned countries
, especially in Europe
, be willing to continue to die pay
so that the Biden administration can claim it is rockin' in a free world.3) A reader comment to the article
EU to sanction more Russian-language news outlets noted:
Commissioner for Values and Transparency
That sounds so much better than "Bureau of Censorship and Blacklisting"...
Is there no one in EUNATO with a sense of irony?
It may take some time before the honourable "Commissioner for Values and Transparency" gets around to blocking Chinese media outlets. In the meantime we can learn to understand Chinese thinking before needing to learn Chinese.
At this point, isn't that just a bald-faced lie?