Gary Benoit Editor of The New American Asking if Ukraine-Russia is Our Fight 4:08PM Monday February 07, 2022, on KWRO
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The Gary Benoit Interview ~ Is Ukraine-Russia ~ February 07, 2022
Bio: Gary Benoit is the longtime editor of The New American magazine, a position he has held for three decades. He holds an undergraduate degree in physics from University of Massachusetts Lowell.
Russia vs. Ukraine: Is It Our Fight?
The long-simmering dispute between Russia and Ukraine appears ready to boil over into all-out war. Should that happen, will NATO become embroiled in the conflagration? How about America?
Charles Scaliger
In early November of 2021, a world already preoccupied by the coronavirus pandemic was jolted anew by the sudden announcement of a massive Russian military buildup along Ukraine’s eastern border. The long-simmering territorial dispute over the Donbas, a region in eastern Ukraine that is culturally and linguistically Russian, almost overnight became a potential theater for a major war between East and West.
American and European leaders lined up in support of Ukraine and its charismatic young president, Volodomir Zhelensky, even as Russia’s longtime strongman President Vladimir Putin drew a line in the sand. Ukraine, Putin insisted, was historically part of Russia, and would never be permitted to join NATO alongside fellow former Soviet republics Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia.
The West, in turn, accused Russia of threatening Ukraine’s sovereignty and vowed resolute action against Russia — including possible military involvement — should Putin opt to invade. President Biden himself hinted at drastic economic sanctions, including perhaps cutting off Russia from the Belgium-based SWIFT (Society of Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication), a system that allows international trade, money wiring, and currency convertibility. As a result of this conflict, in tandem with the growing crisis over Taiwan in the Far East, the world is facing the first real threat of a major war between nuclear-armed superpowers since the Cold War, and the first use of nuclear weapons since World War II.