Jeffrey Sachs: Biden Needs To Tell Ukraine To Stop Bombing The Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant

Jeffrey Sachs, the president of the United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network, told The Grayzone that President Biden is right when he warns that the war in Ukraine could lead to "Armageddon" and the best thing the U.S. could do to end the war would be to tell our allies in Kiev to stop bombing the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant and blaming it on Russia.

About the disputed bombings of the nuclear plant, Sachs said: "Our media says they don't know who is shelling the plant. And they can't put one and one together to say that if Russia is in control of the plant, maybe they're not shelling their own plant. Maybe it's Ukraine who is shelling the plant."

"It is almost surely Ukraine shelling the power plant and we can't bring ourselves to express a simple truth and that hurts because they continue to shell the power plant with impunity."

"We don't know ever with our government what is really going on because they don't tell the truth," he stated. "That just goes with the business of government, the way that it is viewed in Washington."

"This country is a war machine. And the main job of the president of the United States is to stop the war machine from making wars. And we are now in an escalation, heading towards Armageddon, according to the president. That's not a spectator sport, that's his job to keep us away from Armageddon," Sachs added.

JEFFREY SACHS: I am actually a little relieved in a way that Biden said this [war could be the end of the world] because I have felt this all along. I felt that the U.S. policy was on a path of escalation and they didn't have an offramp in their minds.

By the way, there is an obvious offramp, and this is the whole point of this war if you really know something about it from the beginning. The offramp is NATO saying they're not going to enlarge to Ukraine, period. That was the offramp that would have prevented the war. That was the offramp that would have stopped this war in March when Russia and Ukraine, under the mediation of Turkey, exchanged documents and said publicly, as well as the Turkish mediators, we're close to an agreement.

Many of us think the U.S. rushed in and said not to do that. We don't know ever with our government what is really going on because they don't tell the truth. That just goes with the business of government, the way that it is viewed in Washington.

But my feeling is that there are a lot of signs the U.S. has been against a negotiated end to this war. Because my interpretation is this issue of NATO enlargement is a deeply held objective of the U.S. going back to the early 1990s. It is as deeply rejected by Russia since that time, I've watched it on both sides. That is why we have a collision course that continues to escalate and why we should take damn seriously this nuclear threat.

But why? Biden should ask himself what is the offramp. I'll give him this suggestion. We should never have suggested NATO enlarge into Ukraine and we should stop now because Putin was very clear at the end of 2021.

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By the way, you can't have Zelensky negotiating with Putin. This is a war between the U.S. and Russia. And we need to have the president of the United States and the president of Russia talking with each other and avoiding Armageddon.

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I've studied the Cuban missile crisis all my professional life. I wrote a book about the aftermath of the Cuban missile crisis. I've looked at this issue in great detail. We came close to nuclear Armageddon exactly 60 years ago this month. And during that period, one of the provocations was Castro saying, "Fire, fire!" Telling Khrushchev to do a preemptive strike. Just what Zelensky is doing right now. You could kind of understand it, but you know what Khrushchev said when Castro said to do a preemptive strike.

Khrushchev said, "My God, this is supposedly our ally who would end the world? We'd better speed up the negotiations because this is not stable."

When Zelensky says these things, I'm horrified. And yeah, they walked it back. But he didn't say sanctions, he said preemptive strike. And they talk recklessly, maybe understandably given their circumstance, I don't think so, but I think it shows how unstable this is.

By the way, during this whole period of this proxy war that is really a confrontation between the U.S. and Russia we have pretended that it is a confrontation only between Russia and Ukraine. And we have said constantly whatever Ukraine says is the right thing. So we're kind of giving carte blanche to the most extravagant, dangerous, provocative statements.

Another example: We don't know for 100%, but let me do a little quiz. Russia is in control right now of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant. It is being shelled. We hear that is very dangerous, which it is, you shouldn't shell nuclear power plants. Now one side controls the plant. So who is actually shelling the plant? Well, our media says they don't know who is shelling the plant. And they can't put one and one together to say that if Russia is in control of the plant, maybe they're not shelling their own plant. Maybe it's Ukraine who is shelling the plant.

I can tell you, I speak to a lot of people, it is almost surely Ukraine shelling the power plant and we can't bring ourselves to express a simple truth and that hurts because they continue to shell the power plant with impunity.

And we should say stop shelling the power plant. Yes, it would be good if the U.N. controlled the power plant, but don't shell a nuclear power plant. But we can't even find those words. That's the problem.

Because we're kind of faking the whole thing as if this isn't a U.S.-Russia thing, and we say do it, go, defeat Putin, that's what we want. Defeat the guy with 1,600 active nuclear warheads and several more in reserve. Go ahead, go do it, as if this isn't our Armageddon that we're heading to.

One thing I've learned, and I'm 67 years old, I've been through a lot of U.S. wars -- Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Nicaragua, Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan, Liya, Afghanistan, and more. It is the job of the president of the United States to put on the brakes. Because this country is a war machine at the top. We don't see it, we don't know it exactly. Eisenhower told us about it with the military-industrial complex speech. This country is a war machine.

The main job of the president of the United States is to stop the war machine from making wars. And we are now in an escalation, heading towards Armageddon, according to the president. That's not a spectator sport, that's his job to keep us away from Armageddon.

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2022/10/09/jeffrey_sachs_biden_needs_to_tell_ukraine_to_stop_bombing_the_zaporizhzhia_nuclear_power_plant_or_we_will_get_a_real_armageddon.html