The way a war is fought tells a lot about the nature of the power fighting that war. Since its inception, the U.S. armed forces have perpetrated genocide against Native American people, invaded, occupied, and staged coups throughout the world, dropped nuclear bombs on civilian populations, napalmed farming villages and everyone who lived in them, trained legions of baby-killing death squads, assassinated leaders they didn’t like, terrorized wedding parties with drone bombings, and much more. They’ve also lied about every bit of this.

Not only do the leaders of the U.S., Democrat and Republican alike, continue to present themselves as the “good guys” fighting for democracy and “freedom,” far too many people in this country fall into line with that. The ongoing proxy war the U.S. is waging in Ukraine is no exception. It is not at bottom a war between “democracy and autocracy, or authoritarianism.” It is a war between rival imperialist powers—with the U.S./NATO using the Ukrainian people and army to advance its interests—each trying to establish itself as the dominant world power.

Think about what you can learn about the nature of the war the U.S. is fighting by proxy in Ukraine from just the following two incidents and exposures, which occurred or came to light in the past few weeks.

Nord Stream Pipeline Explosions—the Crime, and the Cover-up

In September 2022, explosions ruptured two major natural gas pipelines under the Baltic Sea—Nord Stream 1 and 2. The pipelines, which run from Russia to Germany, were a major supplier of natural gas to Western Europe. Biden administration officials quickly said Russia was to blame, and Joe Biden said the explosions were “a deliberate act of sabotage.” He promised that the U.S. would “get to the bottom of exactly what … happened.”

On June 6, 2023 the Washington Post reported that a European intelligence report indicated that the Ukrainian military had planned an attack on the undersea pipes. A Ukrainian team of divers, who reported directly to the commander in chief of the Ukrainian military, carried out the operations. The article said the “Biden administration learned this from a close ally” in June 2022, three months before the explosions.

Volodymyr Zelensky, Ukraine’s president, was deliberately not informed of operational details of the sabotage mission, so he could maintain “plausible deniability” of the attack. What remains unknown are the extent of U.S. involvement in the training and supply of the saboteurs, and what exactly Biden and other top U.S. officials knew of it. As the Post reported, when American and NATO officials gather to plot out their next steps in the war against Russia, they all know not to “talk about Nord Stream.”

Ukrainian Forces Wear Nazi Insignia—Biden Administration Shrugs: “What’s the Big Deal?”

Recently numerous photos showing Ukrainian soldiers wearing Nazi insignia on their uniforms have appeared in the Western media. The New York Times and other leading U.S. media outlets have attempted to blandly explain this away. They basically argue that it’s no real cause for concern that actual Nazis—you know, the kind who put swastika symbols on their helmets—are fighting on behalf of the U.S. As Jennifer Cafarella, of the Institute for the Study of War, said on PBS, “sometimes the enemy of my enemy is my friend in war.”

Open Nazis have long been part of the Ukrainian military. Andriy Biletsky, a white supremacist and founder of the fascist Azov Battalion, said in 2010 that Ukraine’s national purpose is to “lead the white races of the world in a final crusade … against Semite- [Jewish] led Untermenschen [German for inferior people].” Biletsky’s nickname is “Bely Vozd”—white ruler.” The Azov Battalion has been part of Ukraine’s National Guard since 2014.

Patches featuring an image of a skull and crossbones called the Death’s Head are seen with “some regularity on the uniforms of [Ukrainian] soldiers fighting on the front line,” according to the Times. The Death’s Head image became infamous throughout the world when it was worn by a Nazi unit that guarded concentration camps during World War 2. The Times blithely and without commentary accepts the excuse that imagery exulting in the genocide of Jewish people somehow takes on a different, and not so menacing, meaning when displayed by Ukrainians. It approvingly quotes a solider who said the Death’s Head “symbolizes Ukrainian sovereignty and pride, not Nazism.” Here’ a fact to ponder when you think about what that symbol might mean in Ukraine: “Over one-quarter of the Jewish victims of the Holocaust, approximately 1.5 million people, were killed within the territory of what is now Ukraine.” (our emphasis)

Times editors seem to think that open Nazis fighting for the defense of what Joe Biden and other Western leaders call “democracy” is a public relations concern, and a minor one at that. Bootlickers like Sean Penn and Timothy Snyder probably have no problem with it.

How about you? What does this tell you about the war the U.S. is fighting through its Ukrainian proxies? And what do you think you should do about that?