There's a simple explanation for Zbigniew "Zbig" Brzezinski's rabid anti-Russian hatred in the current Ukraine crisis (and others involving Russia). His forebears (and family name) are Poles from what is now Ukraine. His ideal would be to reduce Russia to a small Slavic state.
His family were members of the nobility (szlachta), from Berezhany (aka Brzeżany, Berzeżany, Бережани), in modern-day Ukraine. Berezhany is located in the Ternopil Oblast (province) of western Ukraine. Before WWII it was part of the much larger Poland. Zbig himself was born in Warsaw, Poland, where his parents had moved. Then, of course, in 1939 the USSR and Nazi Germany signed the 1939 Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact and divided up Poland between them, embittering the Brzezinskis for life.
If you think Zbig doesn't harbor a personal grudge about Russia, a grudge that grossly distorts his perception of what is in the USA's national interest, you would be greatly mistaken.
His forebears bore the Trąby coat of arms; the town of Brzeżany is the source of the family name. Zbig's father, Tadeusz Brzeziński, was a Polish diplomat who was posted to Germany from 1931 to 1935; and from 1936 to 1938 to the Soviet Union during Stalin's purge. The Second World War had a profound effect on Brzezinski: "The extraordinary violence that was perpetrated against Poland did affect my perception of the world, and made me much more sensitive to the fact that a great deal of world politics is a fundamental struggle."
This is the reason Zbig is so stridently in favor military action against Russia, including arming Ukraine and every other brinksmanship measure that increases the risk of a catastrophic war. (Many wars are not intentional nor sought by either side; which is why prudent diplomats generally try to put out the flames of war, not fan them as Brzezinski does.) This is why he was pushing so hard the past few years for the US to peel Ukraine away from Russia.
The US pushed too hard and too fast in Ukraine the past few years, we overstepped what a prudent statesman would have advocated for Ukraine. But Zbig is not prudent, when it comes to Russia. The transcript of the leaked phone call between Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland (wife of "the chief neoconservative foreign-policy theorist," Robert Kagan) and the US Ambassador to Ukraine, Geoffrey Pyatt, makes this clear.
This is not 'news'; I'm only surprised that his has not been made more clear by US news media, and even here on DailyKos. Ukraine is in Russia's 'sphere of influence.' Sevastopol in the Crimea is a major Russian Navy port. Russia would no more tolerate American arming Ukraine than we would tolerate Russia arming Mexico if there was violent armed struggle between the US and Mexico over Texas.
Just to be clear, this in no way justifies or supports Vladimir Putin's policies in Ukraine, Russia, or elsewhere. Putin is an evil man, a despicable tyrant, a form KGB chief (with all that conjures up -- polonium murders, etc.). He abolished elections for Russia's governors, choosing to appoint them instead. He has an 85% approval rating in part because he has crushed dissent, ordered the murder of journalists who critique him, etc. But there are better ways to defeat him than a war in Ukraine.
More, below the orange rogalik.
