{"id":2183,"date":"2025-02-08T18:58:36","date_gmt":"2025-02-08T19:58:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.developeternal.com\/?p=2183"},"modified":"2025-02-08T20:28:44","modified_gmt":"2025-02-08T20:28:44","slug":"trumps-usaid-purge-has-revealed-us-scheming-in-kiev-but-wont-stop-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.developeternal.com\/index.php\/2025\/02\/08\/trumps-usaid-purge-has-revealed-us-scheming-in-kiev-but-wont-stop-it\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump\u2019s USAID purge has revealed US scheming in Kiev, but won\u2019t stop it"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s fun to watch \u201cindependent\u201d media and NGOs get outed, but Washington will always find ways to manipulate others<\/strong><\/p>\n

The catastrophe of the Ukraine War will leave a long trail of painful questions. Because this hubristic proxy confict has become such a pie-in-the-face fiasco for the West, there will be plenty of resistance to honest answers for a very long time.<\/strong><\/p>\n

But facts undermining self-serving Western narratives have started emerging already during the war. Most recently, revelations about the activities of USAID have delivered another hard blow to Western \u2013 and official Ukrainian \u2013 deception and self-deception.<\/p>\n

But before we get to USAID, let\u2019s note that those are not the first embarrassing disclosures with regard to the West\u2019s harebrained and bloody attempt to use Ukraine to demolish Russia. Those with eyes to see have long known, for instance, that large-scale war would have been avoided if the West and Kiev had not deliberately sabotaged the 2015 Minsk-2 agreement, a short but viable blueprint to end a still comparatively small conflict, which was endorsed by the UN General Assembly. Or if the West had not brushed Moscow off when it sent what was, in effect, a clear last warning in late 2021.<\/p>\n

Then there was a very early opportunity to stop the war, namely the almost-peace of the Belarus and Istanbul talks in spring 2022. Kiev, shocked by the reality of escalation, was ready to take this exit ramp. The conditions offered by Russia and the concessions it made during the negotiations \u2013 above all ending its advance on Kiev \u2013 amounted to a good deal for Ukraine, as one of Ukraine\u2019s key negotiators has since admitted<\/a>. And yet the West chose more war, and an obedient Vladimir Zelensky followed its lead. That failure, too, has long been denied but has to be acknowledged now under the weight of the evidence.<\/p>\n

Last but not least, the ongoing, absurd Western lying about the Nord Stream pipeline attacks \u2013 the largest ecoterrorist assault in European history and an act of barely-covert war among NATO allies \u2013 is not even amusing anymore. All that\u2019s left of that big lie is a reverse IQ test, sorting the indoctrinated dim from the normally intelligent.<\/p>\n

And now, USAID and Ukraine. There, the gist of the matter is that the Trumpists are now purging and (probably) recasting <\/a>that agency in what is a mean fight among US establishment insiders. Don\u2019t be too optimistic: Despite American leader Donald Trump\u2019s and henchman-in-chief Elon Musk\u2019s loud noises about USAID being a \u201ccriminal organization\u201d<\/em> that is \u201crun by a bunch of radical lunatics,\u201d<\/em><\/a> the Washington \u201cswamp\u201d<\/em> is not<\/em> being drained; it\u2019s just changing management.<\/p>\n

\n Read more<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\n \"US
USAID corruption at \u2018unexplainable\u2019 level \u2013 Trump<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/blockquote>\n

However, as a side effect, details of some of USAID\u2019s very seedy activities are coming to light. Not that we have not known before that this \u201chumanitarian aid\u201d<\/em> and \u201cdevelopment agency\u201d<\/em> \u2013 founded in 1961 at the height of John F. Kennedy\u2019s \u201cliberal\u201d<\/em> drive to escalate the US struggle against genuine decolonization in the Global South<\/a> \u2013 has always served as a front for intelligence and in particular for the type of massive subversion that precedes and produces coups, regime change, and \u201ccolor revolutions.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Indeed, the more honest defenders of USAID have always admitted \u2013 really, boasted of \u2013 the fact that it has been a tool of strategy<\/a> in the geopolitical sense of the term. Even the presidential executive order that initiated the Trump administration\u2019s drive against foreign aid in general has now admitted that the latter serves \u201cto destabilize world peace by promoting ideas in foreign countries that are directly inverse to harmonious and stable relations internal to and among countries.<\/a>\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Indeed, USAID\u2019s last, Biden-administration head Samantha Power \u2013 a comically disingenuous regime change careerist and \u201cgenocide expert\u201d<\/em> who can recognize that crime anywhere as long as she\u2019s paid or promoted, just not\u00a0in US allies such as Israel \u2013 is a perfect embodiment of USAID\u2019s rotten top and core.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t get me wrong: It would be silly not to recognize that USAID has also provided some real assistance, even if never \u2013 yes, really never<\/em> \u2013 without political strings attached. Hence, if you think of \u201caid\u201d<\/em> as something given exclusively or even mainly out of compassion, then it\u2019s a misnomer here, as USAID critic Mike Benz has rightly pointed out<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In any case, before being gutted, USAID had an annual budget somewhere between 30 and 40 billion dollars and around 10,000 employees,<\/a> including 6,000 outside the US<\/a>. In fiscal year 2023, the agency was active in 130 countries (there are about 200 total). And its activities did include things such as food assistance, health services, and disaster relief in countries such as Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sudan, and Yemen.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s also be fair to those USAID staff and grant recipients \u2013 American or not \u2013 who have genuinely helped in valuable ways and out of sincere good will, often under harsh as well as dangerous conditions. In the world as it really is, many must make deals with the devil: it is not their fault that their organization has always worked as a front for political influence and subversion as well. Indeed, it is a bitter irony that those who really needed what was actually useful about USAID assistance and those distributing it are now being punished together with those who befouled all of it with their vile as well as rather ham-fisted subversion games. Samantha Power, for one, will, obviously, have the softest of landings, in a bespoke think-tank, Ivy League university, \u201cconsulting\u201d<\/em>\u00a0job (i.e., influence peddling), or media sinecure.<\/p>\n

One simple indicator of just how corrupt USAID has been is that, recently, the very top recipient of its aid has been, as it happens, Ukraine: in 2023, for instance, its hand-out of\u00a0more than $16 billion left runner-up Ethiopia<\/a> in the dust with less than $1.7 billion, that is about a tenth of Kiev\u2019s allotment. So much for helping the neediest the most.<\/p>\n

But serving as just one more funnel to pump endless gazillions into the always wide-open maw of the insatiable and highly demanding Zelensky regime was only one, if you wish, ordinary aspect of USAID\u2019s special role in Ukraine.<\/p>\n

This is where we return to those pesky revelations about the war: It turns out that USAID has also proactively and systematically helped to suffocate any hope for peace. And not in just one but two ways.<\/p>\n

\n Read more<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\n \"FILE
Ukraine\u2019s \u2018independent\u2019 institutions collapse as Trump unplugs the ATM<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/blockquote>\n

First, we now learn that almost the entire Ukrainian media sphere \u2013 90 percent of news organizations<\/a> \u2013 depended on USAID funding. Indeed, Olga Rudenko, editor-in-chief of the Kyiv Independent (the irony\u2026), a staunchly info-warring publication, fears that losing access to the USAID trough \u201chas caused harm to independent Ukrainian journalism on par with the COVID-19 pandemic and the onset of Russia\u2019s full-scale war.\u201d<\/em> Hear, hear.<\/p>\n

More generally, a recent article in the Columbia Journalism Review<\/a> is worrying that losing USAID money will threaten \u201cindependent\u201d<\/em> journalism worldwide. No wonder, as USAID itself has proudly claimed that the US government \u201cis now the largest public donor to independent media development globally<\/a>.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

But any talk of \u201cindependence\u201d<\/em> here is, just like Rudenko\u2019s complaint, obvious Orwellian-grade propaganda: Journalism that literally depends for its very existence <\/em>on funding from an organization serving as a front for the foreign interests of the single most powerful and aggressive country in the world may be anything, but it cannot be \u2013 by definition \u2013 independent. You may, if that\u2019s your thing, politically sympathize with such journalism or argue that you feel it is still, on balance, useful, if you wish, but please cut out the absurdity.<\/p>\n

In practice, Ukraine is a perfect illustration of how such media dependency-across-borders can easily end in catastrophe: Anyone who knows Ukrainian well enough \u2013 as I do \u2013 can have a look for themselves. What they will find is a Potemkin village of pseudo-diversity, at best, with very few and embattled exceptions. In reality, the Ukrainian public sphere has been massively manipulated by a monotonous diet of pseudo-\u201dpatriotic\u201d messaging. The single most urgent question concerning Ukraine\u2019s own national interests, however, has been systematically maligned and made taboo: namely, if serving as proxy war cannon fodder for the West has been worth it.<\/p>\n

The second manner in which USAID has promoted this devastating war was, if anything, even worse, in the sense of more drastic and hands-on: It\u2019s now almost forgotten, but when Ukraine\u2019s current past-best-by-date leader Vladimir Zelensky actually did face and win an election in 2019, his single concrete \u2013 and sensible \u2013 promise was to seek peace through negotiations.<\/p>\n

Clearly, at the time, that promise was a major factor in his unprecedented landslide victory. Once in office, for a very short moment, it seemed as if Zelensky was trying to keep that promise<\/a>. But then \u2013 years before the 2022 escalation \u2013 he made a 180-degree turn and emerged as an uncompromising and shortsighted nationalist and a tool of the US \u2013 if a very expensive and occasionally capricious one. It is likely that he will soon be discarded, as tools can be. But the damage he has already done to his country is enormous.<\/p>\n

Many observers have long been puzzled by early Zelensky\u2019s terrible turn. Was it fear of the powerful and aggressive Ukrainian far-right? Was it a misconceived play for even more popularity? Was it money? Was it Western pressure? We still don\u2019t know the whole story, but we do know one important new thing: a wave of \u201cpopular\u201d<\/em> resistance \u201cfrom below\u201d<\/em> and by \u201ccivil society\u201d<\/em> against Zelensky\u2019s initial attempts to look for peace was not genuine. Instead, it had massive Western backing, including from USAID.<\/p>\n

\n Read more<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\n \"FILE
Why Trump\u2019s assault on USAID could change US foreign policy forever<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/blockquote>\n

In particular, the organization was one of the key sponsors of a\u00a0\u201cjoint statement<\/a>\u201d<\/em>\u00a0which presented a concerted threat to Zelensky in 2019, that is, almost immediately after he assumed office. On the surface the product of 70 Ukrainian NGOs, this was, in reality, a massive affront to democracy and the rule of law: Its sole purpose was to unconstitutionally constrain the newly elected president with so-called \u201cred lines\u201d<\/em> and, in particular, nullify what so many of his voters wanted, namely an honest search for peace. None of this means that Zelensky is innocent. On the contrary, it was his duty and, literally, his job to resist such shameless pressure tactics and their foreign backers and stand up for his voters and the country as a whole. His failure to do so is his and will remain so forever.<\/p>\n

Those NGOs were supported<\/a> not only by USAID, but also by the National Endowment for Democracy, another US subversion front, the US embassy, and NATO, to name only a few. Whatever else the so-called Ukrainian \u201cdiaspora\u201d<\/em> (that is organized Ukrainian exile nationalist organizations rooted in World War Two fascist nationalism) was up to, it also took part in that big arm-twisting: the Temerty Foundation,\u00a0 a key \u201cdiaspora\u201d<\/em> power broker, also figured among those NGO supporters.<\/p>\n

Here is the sad irony: Ukraine has never been \u201cfree\u201d<\/em> and it has never had a \u201ccivil society\u201d<\/em> of its own. Instead, it has been used and manipulated by false \u201cfriends\u201d<\/em> from the West and a comprador \u201celite\u201d<\/em> that has put Western interests above those of their own compatriots. Together, they have openly and covertly colonized Ukraine\u2019s public sphere and fed its people into a meatgrinder proxy war that is being lost as we speak. Soon, the West will sell out what is left of Ukraine entirely. None of this is unprecedented: It is a classic pattern of imperialist abuse. All those smart Westerners who have tried to apply \u201cpost-colonial\u201d<\/em> categories to the case of Ukraine: Go ahead \u2013 but look at yourself. You are the baddies.<\/p>\n

In any case, don\u2019t mistake the purge of USAID for some kind of principal improvement. It is true that some \u2013 rest assured: very selective \u2013 light is now thrown on its seedy, subversive activities. That\u2019s a plus, for now. And yes, it\u2019s fun to see Centrists and liberals exposed. Schadenfreude can be legitimate.<\/p>\n

Of course, none of the above means that Washington intends to generally abandon foul play. On the contrary, under new Trumpist management, the US will remain as mean as ever. There will always be money for subversion, sabotage, disinformation campaigns, regime change, and coups. It will just flow through different channels, and the LGBTQ+ and DEI angles will be dropped. News flash: The US did not need those to coup Iran and Guatemala in the 1950s and have Chile regime-changed and its president Salvador Allende murdered in 1973, for instance.<\/p>\n

Even the good old USAID is down but not dead: Marco Rubio, Donald Trump\u2019s extraordinarily obedient secretary of state, has already announced<\/a> that its work just has to be aligned with American foreign policy. How funny: As if it had not.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s fun to watch \u201cindependent\u201d media and NGOs get outed, but Washington will always find ways to manipulate others The catastrophe of the Ukraine War will leave a long trail of painful questions. Because this hubristic proxy confict has become such a pie-in-the-face fiasco for the West, there will be plenty of resistance to honest…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2185,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2183","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.developeternal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2183","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.developeternal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.developeternal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.developeternal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.developeternal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2183"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.developeternal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2183\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2186,"href":"http:\/\/www.developeternal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2183\/revisions\/2186"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.developeternal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2185"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.developeternal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2183"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.developeternal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2183"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.developeternal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2183"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}