The Obama administration tottered on the edge of launching a cruise missile attack on Syria this past August and September. Obama hesitated and decided to seek congressional approval before blowing up many targets on the Syrian landscape. After Americans made it loud and clear that they did not want another war, congressional opposition helped curb his bellicosity. But he came close to plunging the United States into another war, and the episode provides warnings for the next foreign-policy brouhaha.

After it accused the Syrian regime of launching a chemical-weapons attack that killed masses of civilians, the administration harangued Americans to support going to war on the basis of blind faith in the president's character and wisdom. On August 28, a front-page Washington Post headline blared, "Proof Against Assad at Hand." But that hand remained hidden. On a Sunday talk show on September 8, White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough admitted that the administration lacked evidence "beyond a reasonable doubt" proving that the Syrian regime had carried out the gas attack. But McDonough asserted, "The common-sense test says [Assad] is responsible for this. He should be held to account."

Two days ago a mob, supported by the fascists Right Sektor, killed over 30 federalist Ukrainians in Odessa by pushing them from their camp into a building and then setting fire to it. Those who escaped the massacre, not the perpetrators, were rounded up by police. Today pro-federalism people besieged the police headquarter in Odessa until the police released those it had earlier arrested.

In the east some military and National Guard units under government control were in sporadic fights with federalists but right now the government forces seem to be again in retreat. There were attacks on private bank outlets in the east because the owner of the bank, a well known oligarch, is suspected of financing the fascist Right Sektor paramilitaries.

The U.S. plan for Ukraine seems to be to bait Russia into an occupation. This would destroy EU-Russia relations, embolden NATO and help the U.S. to keep the EU as a secondary partner under its control. There would be lots of economic upsides for the U.S. in such a situation. Selling more arms and increasing energy market shares are only the starters.

Finian Cunningham's title will strike propagandized Americans as strange, as according to Washington Russia has already sent troops into Ukraine.

Whether one agrees with Cunningham's advice to Vladimir Putin, Finian's denunciation of the mendacity and inhumanity of Washington, its NATO puppet governments, and the entirety of the Western media is on the mark. It is an extraordinary thing that the US government, which markets itself as a light unto the world, the Great Policeman who defends, alone among nations, human rights everywhere, is in brutal fact a cruel, inhumane, vicious murderer of peoples all over the world. The murders of unarmed citizens that are underway in the Russian inhabited areas of Ukraine as I write are Washington's murders. The neo-fascists, neo-nazis who are murdering Russians in Ukraine are murdering with Washington's support and on Washington's orders.

The only conclusion I can come to is that the US government is in the hands of insane psychopaths.

Why are civilized European countries allied with an insane psychopath? How did the Western media, allegedly the home of free speech, become an organization of sociopaths?
-- Paul Craig Roberts

Yesterday in Odessa, Ukraine, more than 30 anti-Kiev protesters were burned alive, as a US-backed pro-Kiev mob set fire to the trade union building into which they ran to escape the pro-Kiev crowd. It was the largest loss of life in Ukraine since the US-backed coup in February, and it may well be a turning point in the east versus west struggle that ensued.

The pictures from the scene were ghastly (warning: graphic), as desperate protesters tried to claw their way out of the building as they were burned alive. Also ghastly were the photos of the young girls happily making the molotov cocktails that were thrown into the building.

More ghastly still, was the US media coverage of the savage event. Even when 25 minutes video available clearly demonstrated what happened in Odessa, clearly demonstrated who was responsible for the incineration of unarmed protesters, the US media all hewed to the State Department line that pointedly refused to pin any blame on the pro-Kiev mob supported by Washington. Said the State Department release:

The events in Odesa that led to the deadly fire in the Trade Union Building dramatically underscore the need for an immediate de-escalation of tensions in Ukraine. The violence and efforts to destabilize the country must end.

Contrast this to US government's very different position when violence broke out in Kiev in February: even as evidence pointed to much violence committed by the protesters, the US nevertheless blamed the then-Yanukovich government exclusively.

"As the building was engulfed in flames, photos posted on Twitter showed people hanging out of windows and sitting on windowsills on several floors, possibly preparing to jump. Other images showed pro-regime elements celebrating the inferno. Some jeered on Twitter that "Colorado beetles are being roasted up in Odessa," using a derogatory term for pro-Russian activists wearing St. George's ribbons."

- Mike Head, Washington responsible for fascist massacre in Odessa, World Socialist Web Site

"I think what's happening now shows us who's actually been orchestrating the process from the beginning. At first, the United States preferred to stay in the shadows, but now they've exposed themselves as the leaders of this whole process."

- Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Members of the fascist Right Sector set fire to Odessa's Trade Unions House on Friday killing 40 anti-coup activists who had retreated to the building to escape escalating street violence. Witnesses say that members of the Ukrainian security forces withdrew from the scene allowing the rightwing radicals to block the exits and firebomb the building forcing many to jump from open windows to the pavement below where they died on impact. The few who survived the fall were savagely beaten with clubs and chains by the nearly 300 extremist thugs who had gathered on the street. Much of the murderous provocation was caught on video including footage of the terrified occupants leaping to their deaths.

Foreigners are taking part along with Ukrainian forces in special operations in the southeastern city of Slavyansk, a representative from the city's self-defense movement told RIA Novosti Friday.

"When using radios, activists have heard English several times on the air," the activist said. According to the activist, this is "direct proof of the participation of foreigners in the retaliatory operations against Slavyansk."

Russia's Ministry of Foreign Affairs has repeatedly voiced its concerns about the involvement of agents from Greystone private security firm into Ukraine's crisis, as well as about the buildup of foreign forces in Ukraine.

Last month Moscow said it had reports that some 150 of agents from Greystone mercenaries were implicated in a crackdown on protesters in eastern Ukraine.

The self-defense forces who are opposing the assault on Slaviansk by the Ukrainian law enforcers this Friday claim that the Ukrainian soldiers are acting strangely, as if they are under the influence of some drugs.

"These people are overexcited, I personally witnessed a few episodes of unexplained aggression and merriment. As if they are fed pills with food, or something else," a pro-federalization activist told RIA Novosti, after observing the Ukrainian security forces at the abandoned protesters' checkpoint.

Previously, social networks and media reported that psychostimulants could have been given to people on Maidan under the guise of sports nutrition.

Specialists of the Kiev detoxication clinic Socioterapiya diagnosed the Euromaidan participants with signs of withdrawal symptoms, the so-called "cold turkey," which happens when an addict stops using drugs.

Nevertheless, these people deny having ever used drugs. The method of pumping up soldiers with psychotropic substances is a long known one, in particular, it has been has been practiced by the US military.

The murder of at least 38 people in the city of Odessa in the midst of Kiev's "anti-terrorist" offensive last Friday revealed the true face of the fascist regime that has seized power in Kiev - and the Western media is doing everything it can to cover up the truth.

Most "mainstream" accounts of what happened there are filled with ambiguity: it's "not clear" who's responsible, they say. Everybody was supposedly throwing Molotov cocktails and so who's to say who started which conflagration? And yet the truth is getting out there. The Washington Post reported on Saturday that "police said at least 31 people were dead after pro-Kiev demonstrators hurled Molotov cocktails into a building where a pro-Russia contingent was holding out." The piece cites tweets from Howard Amos, a Guardian reporter on the scene, noting that the fire broke out on the main floor of the Trade Union building, where a pro-Kiev crowd had gathered and was storming the building - and where, as USA Today noted, "Witnesses and journalists reported that as the building burned with people inside, a crowd shouted, 'Glory to Ukraine!" and 'Death to enemies!'"

The USA Today headline read: "Fire Kills 31 in Odessa." But did the fire kill them - or was it the people who set the fire? And let's go back to Howard Amos' tweets to find out exactly who is fighting on the front lines on the pro-Kiev side: why it's Right Sector! They're leading the crowd, just as they did on Friday.

Washington has no intention of allowing the crisis in Ukraine to be resolved. Having failed to seize the country and evict Russia from its Black Sea naval base, Washington sees new opportunities in the crisis.

One is to restart the Cold War by forcing the Russian government to occupy the Russian-speaking areas of present day Ukraine where protesters are objecting to the stooge anti-Russian government installed in Kiev by the American coup. These areas of Ukraine are former constituent parts of Russia herself. They were attached to Ukraine by Soviet leaders in the 20th century when both Ukraine and Russia were part of the same country, the USSR.

Essentially, the protesters have established independent governments in the cities. Thepolice and military units sent to suppress the protesters, called "terrorists" in the American fashion, for the most part have until now defected to the protesters.

With Obama's incompetent White House and State Department having botched Washington's takeover of Ukraine, Washington has been at work shifting the blame to Russia. According to Washington and its presstitute media, the protests are orchestrated by the Russian government and have no sincere basis. If Russia sends in military units to protect the Russian citizens in the former Russian territories, the act will be used by Washington to confirm Washington's propaganda of a Russian invasion (as in the case of Georgia), and Russia will be further demonized.

The Russian government is in a predicament. Moscow does not want financial responsibility for these territories but cannot stand aside and permit Russians to be put down by force. The Russian government has attempted to keep Ukraine intact, relying on the forthcoming elections in Ukraine to bring to office more realistic leaders than the stooges installed by Washington.

First lady Michelle Obama is scrapping her plans to deliver a graduation speech for high school seniors in Topeka, Kan., after hundreds signed a petition in protest.

Instead of delivering a graduation speech, Obama will speak before the school district the day before graduation, and will deliver remarks at a "Senior Recognition Day."

More than 1,750 people had signed a petition protesting the first lady's appearance at the graduation ceremony, angered that security concerns would limit the number of friends and family who could attend.

According to the Topeka Capital-Journal, students would have only been allotted six tickets apiece had the first lady maintained her original plans.In a statement to The Hill, the first lady's communications director said Obama wanted to accommodate all who hoped to attend the graduation ceremony.