The former US congresswoman suggests US and NATO want Moscow to attack so they can impose “draconian” sanctions and enrich the military-industrial complex
President Joe Biden and his NATO allies could easily prevent war in Ukraine but would rather see Russia invade their ally to justify harsh sanctions against Moscow and spur a money-making cold war, former US congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard said on Friday in a Fox News interview with Tucker Carlson.
Gabbard, an Iraq war veteran who ran unsuccessfully for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination, made her comments as Biden’s administration and US media outlets continued to hype a possibly “imminent” Russian attack on Ukraine. “It cements this cold war in place,” she said in the interview.
The US and its allies could prevent an armed conflict by pledging that Ukraine won’t be allowed to join NATO, Gabbard said. It’s “highly, highly unlikely” that Kiev will ever be approved as a NATO member, so refusing to promise what’s already a reality shows that leaders of the alliance don’t want peace, the Hawaii Democrat added.
Russia last December sent security proposals to Washington – among them, blocking Ukraine from NATO membership – but US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the alliance will maintain its open door policy.
“Why are we in this position then, if the answer to this and preventing this war from happening is very clear as day?” Gabbard asked. “And really, it just points to one conclusion that I can see, which is, they actually want Russia to invade Ukraine.”
An invasion of Ukraine would give Biden a “clear excuse to go and levy draconian sanctions, which are a modern-day siege against Russia and the Russian people,” Gabbard said. The result would be “locking in a new cold war.”
“The military-industrial complex starts to make a ton more money than they have been in fighting Al-Qaeda or making weapons for Al-Qaeda,” Gabbard said. “And who pays the price? The American people pay the price, the Ukrainian people pay the price, the Russian people pay the price. It undermines our own national security, but the military-industrial complex that controls so many of our politicians wins, and they run to the bank.”
The US has denied purposely arming radical Islamists, but researchers have reported cases of sophisticated American weaponry falling into the hands of fighters linked to Al-Qaeda and Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS).
Gabbard has been a prominent voice against America’s wars and regime change interventions. US media outlets have been largely dismissive of her arguments; the Daily Beast called her latest comments “Tulsi’s twisted theory.”
The ex-lawmaker earlier this week said “warmongers” have argued that the US must protect Ukraine as a democracy – all while supporting such anti-democratic actions in Kiev as shutting down critical TV stations and imprisoning an opposition party leader. On Friday, she pointed out that US leaders haven’t even made a case as to why the American people should want Ukraine to join NATO.
“I have a hard time seeing how President Biden or anyone can say with an honest face, ‘We are defending democracy,’” Gabbard told Carlson. “And the reason is because our own government has publicly supported these authoritarian actions by the Ukrainian president in shutting down their own political opposition … This sounds familiar to some of the things that unfortunately, we’re seeing play out right here at home.”
Russia has denied that it intends to attack Ukraine, while the White House said on Friday that an invasion could begin “at any time.” Western countries have been accusing Russia of amassing troops and military hardware dangerously close to Ukraine’s borders since last fall. Moscow has denied making threats to Kiev and blamed the West for the escalation in tensions.
