by Stephen Lendman

The possibility is too real to dismiss. What's ongoing is how great conflicts begin. A forthcoming book discusses it in debth.

It's titled "Flashpoint in Ukraine: US Drive for Hegemony risks WW III." It's must reading when published. It's coming soon.

Washington seeks unchallenged global dominance. Advancing its imperium continues. All independent countries are targeted.

Major rivals Russia and China matter most. Ukraine is a worrisome global flashpoint. It's the gravest geopolitical crisis since WW II. It's a convenient pretext for confronting Russia. China likely next.

The battle for Ukraine's soul didn't end with putschists usurping power. It just began. It continues.

It's potentially spinning out-of-control. It bears repeating. Major conflicts start this way.

Madness drives US policy. Lunatics influence what goes on. Washington is humanity's greatest threat.

US hubris and imperial arrogance are unprecedented. Hegemons stop at nothing for unchallenged dominance.

Potential Ukrainian civil war looms. Regional war could follow. At risk is spreading it globally. Humanity hangs in the balance.

Daily events give pause for concern. Mossad-connected DEBKAfile (DF) reports a secret Kiev US financial/intelligence war room. Strategy for confronting Russia is planned.

Wars are waged multiple ways. Propaganda wars precede hot ones. Financial war may come first. It's potentially hugely destructive.

Last month, Obama said "Europe and America are united in our support of the Ukrainian government and Ukrainian people. We are united in imposing a cost on Russia for its actions so far."

Days earlier, he said new sanctions are "teed up and ready to go." A potential "scarlet letter" may follow.

Section 311 of the USA Patriot Act lets the US Treasury ostracize any bank or financial institution suspected of money laundering or underwriting terrorist activities.

DF said CIA director John Brennan established financial war "infrastructure" during his mid-April two day Kiev visit. Vice President Joe Biden highlighted it last week when he arrived.

It's set up. It's ready to go on Washington's say. It's calling the shots. Kiev putschists are convenient stooges.

Potential East/West confrontation looms. Hot war may follow propaganda and financial ones. Hegemons operate this way.

Permanent war is longstanding US policy. Paul Craig Roberts calls America "a lost land where nuclear weapons are in the hands of those who are concerned only with their own power."

"Washington is the enemy of the entire world and encompasses the largest concentration of evil on the planet."

It's systematically destroying it one country after another. World peace hangs in the balance. Armageddon is risked.

America's sordid history gives pause for worry. Obama claims a divine right to pursue unchallenged global dominance.

Confronting Russia financially and/or belligerently risks the worst of all possible outcomes. In 1982 congressional testimony, America's nuclear navy founder Admiral Hyman Rickover said:

"In all wars, man has used the best weapons available to him."

"If history has any meaning for us, it shows that men will continue to use (them) to win."

Thermonuclear wars are madness. They're unwinnable. Lunatics infest Washington. They invent nonexistent enemies. They promote war. They deplore peace.

They urge using every weapon in America's arsenal. They want Russia and China isolated and weakened. They want them made subservient US vassal states.

Flashpoint conditions risk the unthinkable. Global war risks mass annihilation.

Greek historian Thucydides warned 2,400 years ago about war following an established power's fear about a rising one.

US political scientist Graham Allison coined the term "Thucydides Trap." He explained as follows, saying:

"When a rapidly rising power rivals an established ruling power, trouble ensures. In 11 of 15 cases in which this has occurred in the past 500 years, the result was war."

WW I and II weapons were toys compared to today's. Thermonuclear war is madness. Waging it assures war to end future ones. Roaches and bacteria alone will remain.

Russian satellite images show thousands of heavily armed Ukrainian troops massed around Slavyansk. Tanks, artillery, armored vehicles and rocket systems were deployed.

Moscow's Defense Ministry said force size this formidable is "incommensurate" to Slavyansk's defense. It's enough "to raze the city to the ground with all its residents."

Russia responded with its own military drills. Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu said it had no other choice.

"The order to use force against civilians has already been given, and if this military machine is not stopped, the amount of casualties will only grow," he added.

On Saturday, over a dozen Right Sector thugs landed by helicopter. They attacked a Soledar checkpoint. It's close to a self-defense forces arms depot.

Attackers wore black uniforms. They used US-made weapons.

Separately, self-defense forces captured three Kiev "anti-terrorist" Alpha unit members. They're detained in Gorlovka.

Questioning revealed at least seven operatives infiltrated the city. Kiev deployed them. Similar groups were sent elsewhere in Eastern Ukraine.

Donetsk Rupublic self-defense force commander Igor Strelkov calls captured Alpha unit operatives POWs.

On Friday, Slavyansk self-defense forces detained eight "NATO spies." They were masquerading as foreign military observers.

People's Mayor Vyacheslav Ponomaryov said they had "cards with marks of all checkpoints."

It's "proof of their intelligence activities under the guise of the OSCE mission."

On April 27, Voice of Russia (VOR) headlined "Georgian nationalists to join crackdown on federalization protests in Eastern Ukraine - reports," saying:

They mercenaries. They're "volunteers." They're mostly Tbiliski-based. Former chief bodyguard Gocha Bakhia of the late Georgian president Zviad Gamsakhurdia organized them.

Reports suggest former US-installed Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili involvement. Radical and criminal elements were recruited.

Saakashvili remains a convenient US stooge. He supports Kiev putschists. He met with them earlier in Kiev.

Washington's dirty hands bear full responsibility for what's ongoing. Expect much worse to follow.

Russia's Foreign Ministry issued a statement saying:

"Lavrov has emphasized the necessity to take urgent measures to de-escalate the situation in Ukraine, firstly to cease the military operation against protest participants and stop aggressive actions of radical nationalists of the Right Sector."

"Kerry assured that Washington will aspire to use its capabilities to encourage the Kiev authorities for certain steps to decrease tension and expressed hope that the southeastern regions will respond to these steps."

Kerry represents the worst of rogue policies. He's an unindicted war criminal multiple times over.

He's a serial liar. He says one thing. He does another. Honor, trust and credibility aren't his long suits.

Crushing Eastern Ukrainian anti-Kiev resistance is official US policy. US-directed Putschist belligerence continues.

A duplicitous Kiev statement accused Moscow of triggering a "third world war."

The International Criminal Court (ICC) functions solely as a Western imperial tool. It targets victims Western powers designate.

Imperial crimes of war, against humanity and genocide go unpunished. It's chief prosecutor Fatou Bensouda is a Gambian lawyer/former state prosecutor/legal advisor.

She succeeded Luis Moreno-Ocampo. She'll continue his pro-Western policies. She's investigating Maidan killings.

She's doing so at Kiev's request. Expect business as usual. Expect indictments to follow.

Expect fingers pointing the wrong way. Expect putschist crimes to go unpunished. Expect whitewash. Expect much worse ahead.

Jimmy Carter is right saying "America does not at the moment have a functioning democracy." It's a rogue terror state.

It's heading things recklessly toward possible global war. Confronting Russia belligerently risks it.

-###-

Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.

His new book is titled "Banker Occupation: Waging Financial War on Humanity"

http://www.claritypress.com/Lendman.html

Visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com

Listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network.

It airs Fridays at 10AM US Central time and Saturdays and Sundays at noon. All programs are archived for easy listening.

http://www.progressiveradionetwork.com/the-progressive-news-hour