Ukraine and the Apocalyptic Risk of Propagandized Ignorance

Written on June 17th, 2015 in politics Comments Off

Published on Dissident Voice, by David Swanson, June 15, 2015.

I’m not sure if there’s been a better written book published yet this year than Ukraine: Zbig’s Grand Chessboard and How the West Was Checkmated, but I’m confident there’s not been a more important one … //

… This book may very well be the best written one I’ve read this year. It puts all the relevant facts — those I knew and many I didn’t — together concisely and with perfect organization. It does it with an informed worldview. It leaves me nothing to complain about at all, which is almost unheard of in my book reviews. I find it refreshing to encounter writers so well-informed who also grasp the significance of their information.

Nearly half the book is used to set the context for recent events in Ukraine. It’s useful to understand the end of the cold war, the irrational hatred of Russia that pervades elite U.S. thinking, and the patterns of behavior that are replaying themselves now at higher volume. Stirring up fanatical fighters in Afghanistan and Chechnya and Georgia, and targeting Ukraine for similar use: this is a context CNN won’t provide. The partnership of the neocons (in arming and provoking violence in Libya) with the humanitarian warriors (in riding to the rescue for regime change): this is a precedent and a model that NPR won’t mention. The U.S. promise not to expand NATO, the U.S. expansion of NATO to 12 new countries right up to the border of Russia, the U.S. withdrawal from the ABM Treaty and pursuit of “missile defense” — this is background that Fox News would never deem significant. U.S. support for the rule of criminal oligarchs willing to sell off Russian resources, and Russian resistance to those schemes — such accounts are almost incomprehensible if you’ve consumed too much U.S. “news,” but are explained and documented well by Baldwin and Heartsong.

This book includes excellent background on the use and abuse of Gene Sharp and the color revolutions instigated by the U.S. government. A silver lining may be found, I think, in the value of nonviolent action recognized by all involved — whether for good or ill. The same lesson can be found (for good this time) in the civilian resistance to Ukrainian troops in the spring of 2014, and the refusal of (some) troops to attack civilians … //

… This story begins in the irrationality of collective trauma coming out of the holocaust of World War II and of blind hatred for Russia. It must end with the same irrationality. If U.S. desperation leads to war with Russia in Ukraine or elsewhere along the Russian border where NATO is engaging in various war games and exercises, there may be no more human stories ever told or heard.

(full text).

(David Swanson is an anti-war activist and blogger at War Is a Crime.org. Read other articles by David).

Links:

aus dem Newsletter vom KOPP-Verlag, 15. Juni 2015:

Von und über Gregor Gysi:

Ray McGovern, a former CIA Analyst who worked for the Agency for 27 years, spanning the terms of seven presidencies. As an analyst on foreign policy, McGovern was in charge of the daily briefings for senior White House officials:

Extra 3 auf NDR, 29.25 min, von extra 3 am 11. Juni 2015 hochgeladen;

Canada: des cigarettiers condamnés à verser 11,7 milliards de francs de dommages et intérêts à plus d’un million de victimes du tabac, [video 1.07 min], dans RTS.ch, le 2 juin 2015: il s’agit d’un record au Canada. Les trois multinationales condamnées, Imperial Tobacco Canada, Rothmans Benson & Hedges et Japan Tobacco International, ont immédiatement contesté le verdict du juge, qui avait été saisi dans le cadre de deux recours collectifs …;

on truthDig;

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