The First Casualty of War is The Truth By Keith Porteous. Editorial
President Donald Trump signed the “Lindsey O. Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act of 2026” on September 18, 2026, codifying sweeping new economic penalties and tariff authorities against Russia. These sanctions target Russian oil, natural gas revenues, defense industries, and the “shadow fleet” of sanction-evading tankers. Other sanctions allow the President to levy up to 100% tariffs on major purchasers of Russian energy, such as China and India.
These sanctions of Russia by Trump follow the 7 separate times that Trump raised sanctions on Russia during his first term. Trump has also acted violently with economic sanctions and military aggression against Russian allies in Iran, Syria, Venezuela, and Cuba. So why is it that Western leaders like PM Carney and Canada’s former ambassador to the UN, Bob Rae, keep repeating the absurd accusation that Trump and Russian President Putin are “allies?” All of this follows from the debunked “RussiaGate” conspiracy theory.
At the same time, PM Carney and NATO allies align themselves with the unprovoked aggressions against Iran by the U.S. and Israel, in concert with the unbridled far-right and genocidal Netanyahu government, with Carney proclaiming at the NATO Summit in July, that the U.S. attacks on Iran were a “fair response.” Canada’s Prime Minister is saying that he wants more independence from the U.S., while aligning his foreign policy statements with support for U.S. and Israeli criminal aggressions in West Asia (Middle East).
Canada and Carney have also supported the criminal U.S. policies on Venezuela and Cuba, and the United Nations inspectors found Canada complicit in the Gaza genocide, with military, financial, and diplomatic support, despite the hollow declarations about making peace and hope for a decades long proposed, and disingenuous effort toward a “two-state solution.” Israel continues its killing of Palestinian civilians in Gaza and the furthering of violence in the West Bank, Lebanon, and Syria.
Under Trump, the U.S. has imposed asset freezes and visa bans on Russian leadership, including Vladimir Putin, government officials, and key oligarchs. The Trump administration has utilized tariffs and sanctions as a diplomatic mechanism to pressure Moscow toward a peace deal in Ukraine. The Government of Ukraine is buying major military equipment items. with logistics support including satellite intelligence and missile targeting of Russia, using Canadian and European contributions, and U.S. Foreign Military Financing.
The United States is selling weapons to NATO allies, European nations and Canada, who then transfer them or fund their delivery to Ukraine. Trump’s U.S. Department of State has made a determination approving a Foreign Military Sale to the Government of Ukraine for purchase of Air Defense Development Upgrades and related equipment and services. Critics note that the move began a gradual unraveling of the bilateral arms control architecture that had worsened after the demise of the INF Treaty.
President George W. Bush unilaterally walked away from the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty on December 13, 2001, to pursue national missile defense systems. The Bush administration viewed Cold War-era formal treaties as outdated constraints on U.S. “security”, while breaking the promise not to expand NATO eastward following Moscow’s agreement to reunify Germany. Now the U.S.-NATO, Canada, and the deeply unpopular European governments, want to put nuclear warheads on Russia’s borders.
If you listen to the leaders of NATO countries, and their servants in corporate media, you’d believe that Trump and Putin are allies and that Trump doesn’t oppose Russia in Ukraine, while Iran, Venezuela, and Cuba, China, and Russia represent “threats” to Western “security.” You are led to believe that Prime Minister Mark Carney is the paternalistic Western leader who is standing up to Trump, by selling Canadian based resources to American corporations and global capital. The first casualty of war is the truth.
