27 February 2015. PenzaNews. Numerous high-ranking US officials are trying to manipulate public opinion using falsified information in an attempt to transform the Ukrainian crisis into a full-scale conflict with Russia, concluded William Dunkerley, media business analyst and consultant, Senior Fellow at the American University in Moscow, in his article titled “Ukraine is a kind of Iraq II: Won’t They Ever Learn?” published in the foreign media.

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In his opinion, the new deception strategy is largely similar to the 2002-2003 blame campaign against the Iraqi government.

“I’m talking about the deception of the American people about a threat that may not even exist. Iraq had its ‘weapons of mass destruction.’ Ukraine has its alleged ‘invasion’ by Russia and threat to the rest of Eastern Europe,” compares the author.

At the same time, he mentions his book titled “Ukraine in the Crosshairs” released in November 2014, where William Dunkerley conducted a thorough analysis of news sources during the year of the Ukrainian revolution and compared it with the facts. According to him, what he has found allows him to say that those who say Russian soldiers entered Ukraine have no ground to stand on.

“In all honesty I don’t know whether or not Russia has played the role it’s been accused of. But I did find that those who are trying to convince us of that rely upon fabrications. I’ve got evidence of that,” William Dunkerley stresses.

From his point of view, it would be unwise and reckless to blame the media in all that happened, since they mostly resorted to relaying information coming from other sources.

“It’s true that there are a handful of media commentators and a few media outlets that have made Russia bashing their forte. But that’s not what’s been propelling this story. There needs to be more focus on exposing the brains (or lack of brains!) behind the false stories about Ukraine,” the analyst thinks.

Going further, he points out that both the US Republicans and the Democrats are on the same page when it comes to Moscow.

“Jump back to the Council on Foreign Relations report of 2006. It was titled ‘Russia’s Wrong Direction: What the United States Can and Should Do.’ The task force that produced it was chaired by John Edwards (D) and Jack Kemp (R). Again, bipartisan. This is an issue on which the two parties could reasonably disagree. But we find people like John McCain and Hillary Clinton on basically the same page. But, neither they nor their comrades-in-arms can formulate a factual basis for their positions. They rely upon innuendos and allegations based on falsehoods, past and present. Perhaps the most honest of the bunch is Senator Lindsay Graham. When asked on national TV why he favored sending lethal weaponry to Ukraine, the best he could come up with was the statement, ‘It will make me feel better.’ That may have made him sound like a nit-wit, but at least he was honest about it and didn’t just offer fabrications a la Clinton and McCain,” William Dunkerley writes.

In his opinion, right now the stakes are much higher than during the war in Iraq.

“We’re not talking about just using weapons of mass destruction on a minority population, as bad as that surely is. Now the stakes border on global thermonuclear war. American University in Moscow president Dr. Edward Lozansky, himself a nuclear scientist, has urged that parties in the Ukrainian crisis ‘step back from the brink of a nuclear confrontation that would destroy the entire northern hemisphere of the earth.’ According to the Telegraph, former Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev has issued his own warning that ‘the world is at risk of a ‘nuclear war’ because of the tensions between Russia and the West over Ukraine’,” the author adds.

But in spite of that threat, the media continue their fear-mongering to make people think the unthinkable, the analyst writes, while sending lethal aid to Ukraine will only make the fire burn harder.

At the same time, William Dunkerley notes, many people have tried to speak for the truth about Ukraine, such as Stephen Cohen, a well-known historian that focuses on USSR and Russia.

“His efforts to set the record straight have netted him a hatchet-job attack in the venerable New York Times. For Cohen’s standing up for the truth, the Times characterized his reputation as ‘divisive.’ Well, to that I say hooray for divisiveness and boo to the Times,” William Dunkerley writes.

However, he admits that in the end such attempts to disprove the deception will not be enough to change the course.

“The lesson of Iraq was not enough. Now it seems that the history of deception is repeating itself. It’s being enabled by the Clintons and McCains. My own senator Chris Murphy has been suckered into the movement. Recently I wrote him and advised, ‘Think about what you are doing. Do you really want to create a world for your children to inherit based on a dangerous and ignorant mythology, or would you rather champion a more reality-based approach to peaceful U.S.-Russia relations?’ He offered no substantive response to that,” the analyst writes.

In conclusion, William Dunkerley urges the US top officials to think twice before making any steps.

“In the midst of the Vietnam conflict, at a time when the U.S. and the Soviet Union were butting their nuclear heads, there was a popular song titled, ‘Where Have All the Flowers Gone?’ It bemoans the buffoonish tendency of humanity to repeat a destructive cycle of history that seems impossible to break. The ending line says, ‘When will they ever learn, when will they ever learn.’ I suggest that Mrs. Clinton, Mr. McCain and the rest who are engaged in repeating the mistakes of history listen to that song over and over again, and think about what they are doing. Are the short term rewards they seek for themselves by misleading the country really worth it?” asks the author.

According to news reports published on February 27, the House representatives Mac Thornberry (R) and Adam Smith (D) announced legislation that aims to provide a total of $1 billion of military help to Ukraine, including lethal aid.

The document was co-signed by 28 other representatives.

The document directed to the House Committees on Foreign Affairs and Armed Services aims to authorize the Secretary of Defense in coordination with the Secretary of State “to provide assistance, including training, equipment, defensive weapons, logistics support, supplies and services, and sustainment to the military and national security forces of Ukraine” through September 30, 2017.

According to the authors of the bill, Kiev will be provided aforementioned assistance to “protect its sovereign territory against foreign aggression” and calls for “having a negotiated settlement to end the conflict.”

However, it is still not yet clear what kind of weaponry Adam Smith and Mac Thornberry are suggesting to send to Ukraine: however, the GOP representative stated that it would include “lethal defensive systems.”

Earlier, a ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee James Inhofe (R) introduced a similar bill to the Senate that also suggests to provide weapons to Ukraine: however, his legislation leaves the final word not to the Secretary of Defense, but rather to the US President himself.

In mid-December 2014, Barack Obama has signed the Ukraine Freedom Support Act approved by Congress. It allowed imposing new sanctions against Russia and authorized military assistance to Kiev, but with no plans to refrain to such measures in the nearest future.