This article by Robert Parry, "Who's Telling the 'Big Lie' on Ukraine," is an excellent summary of the crisis so far and the laughable bullshit and shameless lying, and hubris, and horrifyingness of the Washington elite's imperialist fantasies.
I cannot believe the grip of the corporate media in America. I cannot believe how willingly infected we have become here in Canada. What am I saying? The head of B'nai Brith is so depraved that he saw fit to nominate racist torture advocate, stephen harper, for a Nobel Peace Prize. (To be fair, Frank Dimant was thinking about harper's whole-hearted support for slaughtering Palestinians, and NOT about harper's murderous hatred for the First Nations or his enabling of torture of Canadian citizens and Afghan prisoners.)
Together with the hysterical, hypocritical coverage of the ISIS crisis ("ISIS Crisis" - Pat. Pending, thwap inc.), this Ukrainian nonsense has me feeling more hopeless than ever before. People being threatened by the religious lunatics in ISIS have already been devastated by the events unleashed by bush II's invasion of Iraq. They've been suffering for years. But they're now a convenient humanitarian cause now that an official enemy of the USA targets them. The USA (and its disgusting allies) have left a trail of blood all across South-West Asia, but now that they're going to bomb someone else, they're heroes?
ISIS is a tool. It is a tool of the USA. It is a more important tool to the corrupt Arab monarchies in the Middle East. That the obscurantist, medieval drivel of Saudi and other Arab princes partially aligns with the goals of the Washington foreign policy elites means that the deluded half-wits in ISIS are allowed to receive weapons and funding and wreak havoc for a little while. The Obama administration wanted Iraq's Maliki gone, and ISIS (adherents of the Sunni version of that particular sect of religious delusion) has been allowed to destabilize Iraq and contribute to his downfall. But it's thus far and no farther for ISIS. That's why ISIS has taken hostages and is murdering them one by one. They knew their ambitions were bigger than Washington would allow them. They probably honestly believe in their brand of religious jibber-jabber and they want to see a nation-state organized (so to speak) along the lines of whatever the fuck it is they believe in. These journalist-hostages are supposed to allow ISIS to solidify their hold on the lands they've conquered. But the USA wants only one central government in Iraq. It has to be weak, and easily bullied, but its nominal legal authority must hold sway over all of the oil-rich country. That is why ISIS is intolerable to the foreign-policy elite and why it will be pushed back and, if it continues to fail at toppling Syria's Assad, eliminated altogether.
If the US corporate media spent as much time telling people about where ISIS came from, and who its enablers are, the self-righteous moralism about this crisis would be greatly reduced. (That is, assuming the US corporate media would HONESTLY describe the origins of these terrorists. Which is like hoping that Santa Claus is real. It won't happen.)
I was going to write about the Ukraine this morning. That article I linked to is really good. And, really, of the two crises, that in the Ukraine is more important, because Russia remains a nuclear power and an able military great power. While Putin (whose country is far weaker and poorer than the USA alone, to say nothing of comparing it to the coalition against him) has been pursuing diplomacy, the Russian nationalists under attack by Ukrainian fascists, have apparently been kicking ass. NATO's air force won't be going up against outdated Libyan or Iraqi fighter-jets. Watch harper's and baird's embarrassing blustering evaporate when Canadian C-18's get shot down over Russia. Russia's anti-air attack defenses are state-of-the-art and haven't been degraded by a decade of wearing down as Iraq's were. NATO's European soldiers aren't going to blindly march to their deaths just because their leaders are too debased to stop kissing Washington's ass. It will be up to the USA to do the heavy work against Russia. And they've been fighting so long against countries like Grenada and Afghanistan that they might not be prepared for a military almost as well-trained and armed as they are. It will be a slaughter.
I think Obama knows this. Part of this crisis shows that Obama is just a hollow shell of a man, doing what the US elite consensus wants. But I also think some of this is personal. It moves forward because Obama, instead of feeling grateful, felt humiliated when Putin provided him with a way out of a proposed attack on Syria. Obama won't commit to a direct attack on Russia. He'll ratchet down the rhetoric as the thugs in Kiev flounder militarily and economically and politically. Obama will hope that the Ukraine that is left behind will be so weak and chaotic that it will continue to irritate Russia.
On the other hand, the US foreign policy establishment is not monolithic. Picture Obama riding a seething mass of forces, sharing the same basic trajectory. There are more hawkish elements who might be so deluded as to force a showdown.
We can only stare in outraged horror at these, and other mental abominations. Impotent to do anything about them. Lacking in the resources to counter the corporate media onslaught.
I cannot believe the grip of the corporate media in America. I cannot believe how willingly infected we have become here in Canada. What am I saying? The head of B'nai Brith is so depraved that he saw fit to nominate racist torture advocate, stephen harper, for a Nobel Peace Prize. (To be fair, Frank Dimant was thinking about harper's whole-hearted support for slaughtering Palestinians, and NOT about harper's murderous hatred for the First Nations or his enabling of torture of Canadian citizens and Afghan prisoners.)
Together with the hysterical, hypocritical coverage of the ISIS crisis ("ISIS Crisis" - Pat. Pending, thwap inc.), this Ukrainian nonsense has me feeling more hopeless than ever before. People being threatened by the religious lunatics in ISIS have already been devastated by the events unleashed by bush II's invasion of Iraq. They've been suffering for years. But they're now a convenient humanitarian cause now that an official enemy of the USA targets them. The USA (and its disgusting allies) have left a trail of blood all across South-West Asia, but now that they're going to bomb someone else, they're heroes?
ISIS is a tool. It is a tool of the USA. It is a more important tool to the corrupt Arab monarchies in the Middle East. That the obscurantist, medieval drivel of Saudi and other Arab princes partially aligns with the goals of the Washington foreign policy elites means that the deluded half-wits in ISIS are allowed to receive weapons and funding and wreak havoc for a little while. The Obama administration wanted Iraq's Maliki gone, and ISIS (adherents of the Sunni version of that particular sect of religious delusion) has been allowed to destabilize Iraq and contribute to his downfall. But it's thus far and no farther for ISIS. That's why ISIS has taken hostages and is murdering them one by one. They knew their ambitions were bigger than Washington would allow them. They probably honestly believe in their brand of religious jibber-jabber and they want to see a nation-state organized (so to speak) along the lines of whatever the fuck it is they believe in. These journalist-hostages are supposed to allow ISIS to solidify their hold on the lands they've conquered. But the USA wants only one central government in Iraq. It has to be weak, and easily bullied, but its nominal legal authority must hold sway over all of the oil-rich country. That is why ISIS is intolerable to the foreign-policy elite and why it will be pushed back and, if it continues to fail at toppling Syria's Assad, eliminated altogether.
If the US corporate media spent as much time telling people about where ISIS came from, and who its enablers are, the self-righteous moralism about this crisis would be greatly reduced. (That is, assuming the US corporate media would HONESTLY describe the origins of these terrorists. Which is like hoping that Santa Claus is real. It won't happen.)
I was going to write about the Ukraine this morning. That article I linked to is really good. And, really, of the two crises, that in the Ukraine is more important, because Russia remains a nuclear power and an able military great power. While Putin (whose country is far weaker and poorer than the USA alone, to say nothing of comparing it to the coalition against him) has been pursuing diplomacy, the Russian nationalists under attack by Ukrainian fascists, have apparently been kicking ass. NATO's air force won't be going up against outdated Libyan or Iraqi fighter-jets. Watch harper's and baird's embarrassing blustering evaporate when Canadian C-18's get shot down over Russia. Russia's anti-air attack defenses are state-of-the-art and haven't been degraded by a decade of wearing down as Iraq's were. NATO's European soldiers aren't going to blindly march to their deaths just because their leaders are too debased to stop kissing Washington's ass. It will be up to the USA to do the heavy work against Russia. And they've been fighting so long against countries like Grenada and Afghanistan that they might not be prepared for a military almost as well-trained and armed as they are. It will be a slaughter.
I think Obama knows this. Part of this crisis shows that Obama is just a hollow shell of a man, doing what the US elite consensus wants. But I also think some of this is personal. It moves forward because Obama, instead of feeling grateful, felt humiliated when Putin provided him with a way out of a proposed attack on Syria. Obama won't commit to a direct attack on Russia. He'll ratchet down the rhetoric as the thugs in Kiev flounder militarily and economically and politically. Obama will hope that the Ukraine that is left behind will be so weak and chaotic that it will continue to irritate Russia.
On the other hand, the US foreign policy establishment is not monolithic. Picture Obama riding a seething mass of forces, sharing the same basic trajectory. There are more hawkish elements who might be so deluded as to force a showdown.
We can only stare in outraged horror at these, and other mental abominations. Impotent to do anything about them. Lacking in the resources to counter the corporate media onslaught.
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