REFLECTIONS ON FOUR YEARS IN DONBASS

                                                         REFLECTIONS ON FOUR YEARS IN DONBASS


I arrived in Donetsk four years ago today, December 7th, 2014. A week later I enlisted in the Essence of Time combat unit of VOSTOK Battalion. I served as a rifleman, anti-sniper and RPG gunner at front line positions, punishing the "Punishers". Then we were rotated back from the Front at the end of June 2015 when the EoT unit became attached to XAH Battalion Spetsnaz. Two months later, at the end of August 2015, I began working full time as a war correspondent and human aid worker. I am still in the Novorussian Army reserves, and continue to write, make videos, do interviews and human aid work. At the age of 58, I can look back on the last 4 years and honestly say they have been the best years of my life.

These years have been good, but they have not been easy. I served at front line positions at Donetsk Airport, Spartak, and Avdeevka during the days of the heaviest fighting. The conditions were brutal, and the firefights were almost daily. The XAH Battalion was just as tough as being at the Front. XAH is probably the toughest unit in the whole NAF, and the lifestyle on base reflects that. My time since retiring from military service has also been marked by extremely hard work and difficult situations, dealt with on a daily basis. My wife and I work 12 to 14 hour days, every day. We do not take vacations, and if on a rare day we only work 8 hours or so, we consider it a day off. We don't get many days off.

I have traveled to Crimea twice, Moscow and Grozny once each, and to Rostov many times. Each of these trips was for work, none was anywhere near a vacation. Other than that, for the last four years, I have been in Donbass. I came here to fight Fascists and to help the regular people of Donbass, and that is what I have done and will keep doing. Maybe we will all take a vacation when the war is over. Until then, the job continues, every day. Since I left the Army in 2015, I have not been paid by anyone for my work, other than by friends and supporters who contribute to help keep me alive and continuing to work. They have my most heartfelt thanks and respect. They are an essential part of the work that all of us together have done here.

I have learned a lot in these last 4 years, about Russian history and culture, what it means to have a "Russian Soul".    (I do not say I have one, my friends say I do.) I have learned that even in the fight against genuine Fascism, there are good and bad people on both sides, that not everyone who professes to be against the Kiev Regime is necessarily on my side, or on the side of the People of the DPR. Some so-called "comrades" have tried as hard to put knives in my back as the ukrop soldiers have tried to put bullets in my face. I have deal with them as I see fit, based on what I see as being best for the Republic I came here to help and to defend, confident that all treachery will eventually be known and that those who try to set traps will eventually fall into them themselves.

I did not come here to make a career or a name for myself, or to make money. I came here to stand beside the people and the defenders of Donbass, and to live or die with them, come what may. I did not expect to live through that first Winter four years ago, but I came anyway, and I survived. I was lucky. Too many of those I stood with at the Front were not. Too many.

I stand by everything I have done here, every act, every word spoken or written. I am not perfect, not a genius or a saint, I have made mistakes. But I made them in good faith, working hard for a good cause. I did not try to hide them. And those who have done more than I, with less mistakes, are qualified to criticize my work. Those who have not should keep silence, and take a lesson from it. My work speaks for itself. Doing good, helping those in need, fighting against monsters, speaking truth to power on both sides, these acts are their own rewards. It has not been easy, but it has been worth it. Besides, as the saying goes, "If it was easy, everybody would be doing it."

Life is good here, and getting better daily, but it is not perfect. Just like me, the DPR has its problems, and the future is by no means sure, but  this is my home, the best place I have ever lived, and I intend to live here for the rest of my life, however long that may be. And I intend to do everything I can to make it as best as possible, for the greatest number of citizens here, my family.

The Donbass Republics have set an example for the world. We have fought the ukrop and western nazis to a standstill, and our continued existence is the proof of our victory. I am more proud of what we have done here, what I have contributed to, than any other thing I have been a part of in my life.

The two best examples set by the people of the DPR are courage and solidarity. They first understand that courage is the key to happiness - it is impossible to be happy if you are afraid. We are not afraid. By contrast, the people of the USA are consumed by fear of everything, but especially of each other. The people of Donbass know that to accept oppression and injustice is to invite further outrages by their enemies against them. So we do not accept them. We understand that there are things greater than ourselves, things worth giving our lives to and for, and that if there are things worth dying for, there are things worth fighting for.

Solidarity is another hallmark of the Donbass people. We look out for each other, and are well known for our generosity and hospitality. Along with the courage of our men and the beauty of our women, solidarity, generosity and hospitality are our defining characteristics. We are, by and large, proletarians, hard-working and wise. During the Soviet period, the people of Donbass were known as the most staunchly Communist people in the entire USSR. We do not just talk about their ideals, we live them. I am proud to be one of them.


I have found my home, my happiness, my place in life, my destiny. I hope you find yours. Because we are all in this together, we will all share our destiny together, in the Whole, or in the Hole. Davai!

DECEMBER FUND RAISER - HELP NEEDED NOW!

This may be the most important fund-raiser we have ever done. It has the potential to generate ongoing and major funding for our human aid and journalism projects here in Donbass.

Our December fund-raising project, of vital importance is to raise funds to print my book, The Donbass Cowboy, on paper (printed here in Donetsk) both in English and in Russian. The English e-book edition has sold multi-hundreds of copies, and raised over $5,000 for Donbass Human Aid projects. That's not bad, especially for a first-time author who is not using Amazon or other conventional sales outlets. The book has had very positive reviews for being well-written, honest, informative, unique and exciting. It's a good book! (If you haven't gotten your copy yet, you can.
Check this out. And this.)

The potential market for this book in Russia is HUGE. Russians love books and reading, and they really like a good war story. I have had offers of support for the publication of the book from major players in the Russian media, publishing and otherwise. The translation of the book into Russian is near completion, and should be done by the end of the year. Then, we need editing, formatting, artwork and printing. That's where you come in. That's what this super important fund-raiser is for. The Russian edition of the book has tremendous sales potential in Russia, and can generate funds for our human aid and other projects far above what the English e-book already has, in a continuous stream of funding that will not depend on contributions which can dry up or be blocked at any time.

THIS FUND-RAISER IS TIME SENSITIVE. NOW IS THE TIME TO CONTRIBUTE.

The de-funding and de-platforming of alternate news sources continues and is escalating. My fund raisers have been targeted before by major anti-Russian propagandists such as the BBC, with serious economic impact. Their efforts to undermine our freedom of speech and the funding of our human aid and journalism will continue and intensify. Now is the time to contribute. Tomorrow may be too late.

(UPDATE - ON DECEMBER 15TH, DHA PAYPAL ACCOUNT WAS BLOCKED. WE CURRENTLY HAVE OTHER OPTIONS, BUT THE ATTACKS WILL CONTINUE.)

There are several ways you can contribute -

If you can't afford a monetary contribution, you can at least help by sharing a link to this page as far as possible. Not everyone can contribute financially, but everybody can do something.
Even if you can't afford to send a donation, you can still contribute by sharing this info. 
Do your part!

You can make a monetary donation via-

Donbass Human Aid through our Patreon or direct accounts. you can use a credit or debit card, and the contribution is tax deductible. DHA is a registered tax-exempt 501(c)3 charity.

Western Union to me, Russell Bentley in Rostov, Russia. Once you have sent the money, I will need  the following info sent to my email account,  ( russellbbentley@gmail.com ) -

1) NAME of sender
2) CITY sent from
3) AMOUNT sent
4) MTCN #  (You will get the number from W.U. at the time of your transaction.)

Without ALL the info above, I cannot pick up the money. I take a 12 hour round trip bus ride to Rostov to pick up Western Union funds, and if there is a problem I either have to go again or rent a hotel, so please make sure all info is sent and correct!

In Russia, if you have a Sberbank account, you can transfer funds to the following card number -
4276 5219 3378 6422   (please be sure to double check you send to the correct card number!)

Thanks to all who have contributed in the past. I ask you now to donate again for this vital project.
If you have considered donating before but haven't yet, now is the time. Please don't put it off.
Do it now, today. Time is of the essence. Tomorrow may be too late.

It takes time to process the donations, get the funds and send them to Russia, and from there to Donetsk. So, now is the time to act. You can donate right now. You are online now, as you read this, and your credit card is right there in your purse or wallet. Go on, pull it out, make a donation for a good cause (or two!) part of your Christmas gift giving I promise, it's way better than going to the mall!

Good luck to all good people. May God protect the innocent and may the rest of us get everything we deserve...

Politics and Religion, Good and Evil in the World Today

Based on my remarks at the Politics and Religion conference held in Grozny, October 6th, 2018

POLITICS AND RELIGION, GOOD AND EVIL IN THE WORLD TODAY

When I look back on twenty years of political activism in the USA and more recently in Donbass, I must admit I sometimes wonder if it was worth it. I ask myself if I have actually done any good. "Good", both in the moral sense and as well as whether I've been effective. Whether I've done my share, made any actual difference. We all have a part to play, something that we can do. The question is whether we do what we can, or don't. Einstein said that the answers to all the world's problems lie in the space between what people do and what they could do, if they chose to, if they made the effort, took action instead of just talking about the world's problems, or worse, ignoring them.

But of course, if you take the responsibility, the risk, of taking action, you must be sure it is for the right cause. This brings up the question of good and evil. You have to know what they are to know which side you're on.  So, let's start by defining both "Good" and "Evil", as moral, philosophic and materialistic concepts. Should we start with Good or Evil? As Anton Chigurh might say, "Let's flip for it." I did. It came up tails. Evil.

Many people say that money is the root of all evil. They are ignorant, (and we'll get to that) aping the words of others, clueless as to the real quote, where it came from, or what it really means. The real quote is from the Bible, First Timothy 6:10, and it says "The love of money is the root of all evil", and that is what it means. Big difference.  So, how is the love of money expressed? Through greed and selfishness of course, and greed and selfishness are also symptoms of fear.

Scott Peck, the brilliant psychiatrist and theologian, wrote a book, People of the Lie: The Hope for Healing Human Evil, in which he gave several excellent definitions of what evil really is. The first and most concise is simply "militant ignorance". Think about that for a moment, let it sink in. And ask yourself if there is a better, more all encompassing description than that for the USA in the 21st Century.  It is the definition of evil. There are other definitions and  indices of evil in his book, all of which are instructive. The title itself defines evil - "The People of the Lie". Is there a representative of the US government over the last 30 years for whom this title does not apply? The Bible, in John 8:44 describes the Devil, saying, "When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar, and the father of lies." Peck further defines evil as "a willingness to impose suffering on others, in order to avoid one's own spiritual growth." Again hauntingly familiar, a definition I am sure that the millions of suffering victims of the USA's 21st Century wars of aggression would readily agree with.

The modern history of the USA is one big lie. From the Warren Commission to 9/11, from Iraqi WMD's to Syrian chemical weapons, lies are the currency of the US government. And the worst kind of lies are self-deception, which allows people to continue to do evil, while pretending to themselves that they are good. The murder of Gaddafi and the destruction of Libya, under the excuse of Right-to-Protect ("R2P") is a perfect example. The "protection" that the US and NATO provided to Libya has led directly to an estimated minimum of 150,000 people in Libya, and a potential maximum of 360,000, with the mean average estimated at 250,000 people "protected" to death in Libya in the last 8 years. Under self righteous but demonstrably false premises. The same false premises have cost the lives of 2.4 million people in Iraq (NOT counting the 500,000 children killed by sanctions before the  2003 invasion, which Madeline Albright said were "worth it".)  Over a million are estimated to have been killed by US/NATO in Pakistan and Afghanistan, and the death toll of the US instigated civil war against the legitimate government of Syria is estimated at 511,000 as of March 2018, and the toll continues to climb. These illegitimate wars of aggression, started by the USA and their lackey have killed over 4 million human beings in less than a decade, and these war continue today, based on the same lies with which they were started. The people of the lie, indeed...

So, let's begin our definition of evil by agreeing that those who commit, facilitate, allow or ignore the murder of millions of human beings is genuinely evil.

Hannah Arendt's book, Eichmann in Jerusalem : A Report on the Banality of Evil, also offers useful definitions and insights into what evil really is. She came away from Eichmann's trial struck by the banality, the stupidity, the utterly unremarkable and unoriginal character of a man who was also a willing functionary in a regime that was guilty in the mass murder of millions of people whose only "crime" was allowing themselves to be victims.  We can see the same banality in Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, in Boris Johnson and Teresa May, in Petro Poroshenko and Benjamin Netanyahu. Their pseudo intellect and their pseudo humanity. Another telltale sign of evil is cowardice - most of the leading German nazis chose suicide, and even murdered their entire families, rather than face justice and try to justify to the world what they were and what they had done. Or perhaps,it would be better to say that evil is a symptom of fear. It is, after all, far more difficult to be good than to be evil, especially in the world today, though perhaps it has always been thus.

Greed and stinginess are also symptoms of fear, and the ultimate goal of Capitalism can honestly be described in the vile maxim "All for me, and none for anybody else." In the USA today, the ultimate perversion of true Christianity is practiced by millions of affluent citizens under the contemptible name of "Prosperity Gospel". They say that they are rich because they are rewarded by God for being good, and poor people are poor because they are punished by God for their evil ways. This, of course, is the exact opposite of the true Gospel of Jesus, such as Matthew 19:24, " Indeed, it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God."  And Matthew 1:29, " "If you want to be perfect, go sell everything you own! Give the money to the poor, and you will have riches in heaven."   When it comes to riches, it was the Devil who "took Jesus on a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the Earth, and all their riches, and said, "All this I will give to you if you will but fall down and worship me." Matthew 4:8. Among the venal scum who preach this false religion, giving to the poor is not a priority. They live in multi-million dollar mansions, own private jets and luxury cars and build "mega-churches" the size of sports stadiums, as opulent as any Roman colosseum. "Pastrix" Paula White even gave multi-millionaire ($147 million) "Bishop" T. D. Jakes a $200,000 Bentley convertible for his 50th birthday. The top 10 richest "pastors" in the world live in the USA, or Nigeria. These scum spend millions on their own obscenely extravagant lifestyles, while giving a tiny fraction of their proceeds to the poor. They are paid by the Devil that they worship.

Bono's ONE Foundation is another glaring example - Though his own net worth is close to $700 million, he started the ONE Foundation to "raise awareness" of extreme poverty in Africa and elsewhere. The foundation raised over $11 million in 2008, and gave less than 2% to actual programs to help the poor. The rest went to the already obscenely rich Bono and his yuppie underlings.  Of course, centi-millionaire Bono's fraud is chump change compared to the Clinton Foundation, "a charity fraud of epic proportions".   The Clinton Foundation entities are part of a network that has defrauded donors and created illegal private gains of approximately $100 billion in combined magnitude, and possibly more, since 23 October 1997."  Remember the quote about the love of money? It is the root of all evil. These phony preachers, these fake progressives, they love their money, are willing to steal food from starving children to buy their mansions and private jets, these паразиты, these parasites, are truly evil.

There is an old canard, sometimes taught in 3rd rate ethics or philosophy classes that asks, "Is it wrong for a man to steal medicine for his dying wife if he cannot afford to buy it?"  What a ridiculous question. The answer is so obvious to any decent human being - "No, it is wrong for there to be medicine that is unaffordable to people who need it." 

So, what is "good"?

As a Communist, my interpretation of what is right and good is that which is the greatest good for the greatest number of people, and by "good", I mean that which promotes the health and happiness, that which ensures the basic necessities of life and the opportunity for each individual to fulfill their human potential to the greatest degree. As I see it, to the extent that someone's actions diminish or interfere with this, they cannot be good. To the extent that they impose unnecessary suffering on others, they are evil. Every billionaire on this planet is evil. Their love of money has led them to amass unearned and unjustifiable fortunes without any consideration of others. No one can earn a billion dollars. That amount can only be stolen or swindled. No one can work so hard or be so brilliant that they could possibly earn such a sum. And it must be understood and remembered that a billion is one thousand million, and most billionaires are multi-billionaires, they have multi thousand millions. And yet children on this planet still starve, millions live without even the most basic requirements of life. There can be no moral justification for this.

Other than a belief in God and an afterlife to be determined by what we do in this one, the broader definition of "religion" is a belief in something greater than one's self, and a moral code that reflects that belief. I am an Orthodox Christian, and I do believe in God and an afterlife, but whether God exists or whether there is life after this one or not, either way, the definition of "good" remains the same. "The greatest good for the greatest number of people."  Certainly, this would be the right way to earn the approval of God and a good place in the afterlife, but even if this life is all we have, we should still work for the same goal - we must make it as good and fulfilling as possible for ourselves and for all who share this short cosmic miracle of life with us. After all, we are all in this together. So, religion is the moral code by which we judge good and evil, ourselves and others, and politics is the method we use to realize our ideals. Thus politics and religion are inextricably intertwined.

Von Clauswitz famously said, "War is not an independent phenomenon, it is the continuation of politics carried out by different means." So, if war is politics carried out by different means, then politics is war carried out by different means. And make no mistake, our world is at war, the final war, Armageddon, the final conflict between good and evil, life and death. This war has the very real potential to annihilate not only all human life but also the very biosphere, all complex life on our planet. We are here, now, to choose our side and do our part in this war. We all have a part to play, and we all choose our side. Neutrality is not an option. Indifference is not an option. Evil is winning, death is winning, and all those who do nothing are on that side.

The open warfare in Donbass and Syria are only the most obvious flashpoints in this global war between good and evil, life and death. And every choice we make, our every act or failure to act, effects this war and its ultimate outcome. Unless we can drastically change the current trajectory of human activity, we ourselves may not see the end of Humanity, but our children will. Life is what we make it, what all of us together make it for all of us together. Evil is powerful, but it is small, and it is afraid. We can defeat it, if we choose correctly our own moral code and then live by it in real terms, come what may, if we cross that space between what we do and what we could do, we can find the answers to all the world's problems.

Let's go!