Exclusive: The fate of Ukraine whether it descends into civil war or finds a path back from the brink may rest with President Obama and whether he can work with Russian President Putin while recognizing the legitimate concerns of both eastern and western Ukrainians, writes Robert Parry.
By Robert Parry
If President Barack Obama is to help defuse the worsening crisis in Ukraine, he will have to show a level of leadership on foreign policy that he has not demonstrated in his five-plus years in office. In particular, he will have to repudiate the one-sided narrative that has been created by his own State Department and the mainstream U.S. media.
Obama will have to recognize the complex reality of Ukraine, a society deeply divided between the west and east, and acknowledge that the U.S.-backed Maidan revolt overthrowing elected President Viktor Yanukovych was indeed spearheaded by neo-Nazi militias who continue to brutalize political opponents, including the May 2 massacre in Odessa that killed dozens of ethnic Russians.
President Barack Obama uncomfortably accepting the Nobel Peace Prize from Committee Chairman Thorbjorn Jagland in Oslo, Norway, Dec. 10, 2009. (White House photo)
What makes Obama’s position so politically difficult in the United States is that the political/media elite has adopted a narrative that excludes the nasty reality of what has actually occurred in Ukraine over the past six months. Instead, the simplistic U.S. narrative made first Yanukovych and then Russian President Vladimir Putin the cardboard villains, and conversely, the Maidan protesters the idealistic heroes.
The black-hat/white-hat narrative has systematically distorted the depiction of Ukraine reaching the American people. So, Obama would have to start back at the beginning and explain how the U.S.-backed regime in Kiev is not all sweetness and light and how the ethnic Russians in the east, who were the political base for Yanukovych, are not just mindless pawns of Moscow.
Not only would Obama have to come down off the U.S. “high horse” and admit that his own administration has been guilty of spinning the facts waging “information warfare” but he’d have to recognize that Putin’s cooperation is essential to bringing this increasingly bloody crisis under control. Obama would also have to admit that Putin was not the cause of the Ukraine mess.
That would challenge a powerful “group think” in Washington that has formed around the idea that the Ukraine crisis is just a Putin ploy to reclaim land lost when the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991. To believe that conspiracy theory, however, one has to suspend all sense of logic.
For Putin to have created the Ukraine crisis, he covertly would have had to get the European Union to dangle an unrealistic offer of membership to Ukraine, then get the International Monetary Fund to demand draconian “reforms” that forced Yanukovych to back away, then arrange massive demonstrations in the Maidan in support of a European future, then organize neo-Nazi militias to carry out the putsch, and then just pretend to help his ally Yanukovych survive while really having engaged in this grandiose scheme to drive him from office.
The fact that supposedly serious thinkers in Washington are even suggesting such a preposterous analysis indicates how far the political/media elite in Washington has strayed from sanity, a process that has been underway for decades but has accelerated in the neocon-dominated era since the run-up to the Iraq War.
Whose Disinformation?
One of the worst offenders in this deviation from reality has been the New York Times, whose coverage of Ukraine must be read like you might read a newspaper in a totalitarian society, gleaning a few facts here and there but understanding that they have been assembled as propaganda, not truth.
For instance, on Tuesday, the Times offered up this example of biased journalism: “The [Ukraine] government seemed to be stepping up its efforts to counter the pro-Russian disinformation campaign that has flooded the television airwaves in the country’s east and portrayed the central authorities as illegitimate. [Acting President Oleksandr] Turchynov’s office released a number of statements, including one that criticized efforts by those it called terrorists to enlist miners from eastern Ukraine in antigovernment actions.”
So, the Times has determined as flat-fact that the TV news reaching eastern Ukraine is “pro-Russian disinformation,” citing as the only example the portrayal of the Kiev regime as “illegitimate.” But the question of legitimacy is not a question of fact but of opinion.
And, there is no factual doubt that Yanukovych was ousted via extra-constitutional means. There was a violent takeover of government buildings by neo-Nazi militias on Feb. 22 and there was no impeachment that followed the provisions of the Ukrainian constitution. Indeed, much of the constitutional court which is supposed to have a role in an impeachment was disbanded in the coup.
I was told by one senior international diplomat who was on the scene that after the Feb. 22 putsch, Western officials scrambled to help the shaken parliament cobble together a new government to avoid having a bunch of unsavory right-wing thugs become the de facto rulers of Kiev. The niceties of constitutional order were thrown out the window amid the crisis.
However, that means that the legitimacy of the acting government in Kiev is open to debate, not a flat-fact, as the Times would have you believe. But in the world of Official Washington, anyone who details this more complicated history is engaging in “pro-Russian disinformation.”
The other hypocrisy here is that it has been the U.S. government and the U.S. media that have actually practiced the dissemination of what appears to be disinformation, such as highlighting an anti-Semitic leaflet that was an apparent hoax falsely attributed to ethnic Russian protesters in eastern Ukraine to discredit them.
The Times also fell for a photographic hoax in which the Kiev regime and the State Department were palming off photos that purportedly proved that Russian troops, who had been photographed “clearly” in Russia, were later seen operating in eastern Ukraine (except that a key photo allegedly taken in Russia was actually snapped in Ukraine, destroying the story’s premise).
Then, when the Times belatedly sent two reporters to eastern Ukraine to investigate the ethnic Russian rebels, the Times discovered what appeared to be an indigenous force operating without any instructions from Moscow. [See Consortiumnews.com’s “Another NYT ‘Sort of’ Retraction on Ukraine.”]
What Does Putin Want?
Still, the U.S. narrative blaming the crisis almost entirely on Putin has proven powerfully resistant to facts. And that makes Obama’s job of laying out a truthful narrative, which could invite Putin’s cooperation in resolving the crisis, that much harder.
From my reporting on Putin, I have concluded that Official Washington’s analysis of him is seriously off-target. He is not particularly interested in taking over the economic basket case that is Ukraine. Crimea was a different story because of its strong historic ties to Russia, the presence of a Russian naval base at Sevastopol, and the overwhelming secession vote by the Crimean people. But even the expense of administering Crimea, including building a new bridge or tunnel from the Russian mainland, will tax the Kremlin’s treasury.
What Putin wants more than anything, I’m told, is to have Russia accepted as a member of the First World and be afforded the accompanying respect and respectability. That was one reason why he invested so much in the Sochi Winter Olympics. He also appears to have had a fondness for President Obama and was eager to work with him in finding diplomatic answers to crises in Syria and Iran.
But Putin is also a proud man who has been stung by his vilification over the Ukraine crisis which he feels was forced on him, not something he sought. The insults from Secretary of State John Kerry and other U.S. diplomats have been extremely offensive to him and he feels betrayed by Obama’s unwillingness to rein in the excessive rhetoric of his subordinates.
Putin is on the verge of forsaking his First World aspirations, I’m told, as he has come to view the U.S. government and the EU as sources of endless double standards and double talk, places without honor. So, as part of any summit or cooperation with Obama over Ukraine, Putin first wants to hear an American “statement of intentions,” i.e. a recognition of how valuable U.S.-Russian cooperation has been and can be.
But the prospect of Obama somehow finding the courage to rise to this occasion can’t be considered high. He would have to do something like President John F. Kennedy did in his famous address at American University on June 10, 1963, when near the height of the Cold War Kennedy had the courage to assert the common humanity of Americans and Russians.
In perhaps his most important words, Kennedy said, “For in the final analysis, our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this small planet. We all breathe the same air. We all cherish our children’s futures. And we are all mortal.”
Kennedy followed up his AU speech with practical efforts to work with Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev to rein in dangers from nuclear weapons and to discuss other ways of reducing international tensions, initiatives that Khrushchev welcomed although many of the hopeful prospects were cut short by Kennedy’s assassination on Nov. 22, 1963. [See Consortiumnews.com’s “Can Obama Speak Strongly for Peace?”]
The question now regarding Ukraine and the possibility of a new Cold War is whether Obama can pick up Kennedy’s torch of peaceful understanding and see the world through the eyes of the ethnic Russians in Donetsk as well as the pro-European youth in Kiev recognizing the legitimate concerns and the understandable fears of both.
Investigative reporter Robert Parry broke many of the Iran-Contra stories for The Associated Press and Newsweek in the 1980s. You can buy his new book, America’s Stolen Narrative, either in print here or as an e-book (from Amazon and barnesandnoble.com). For a limited time, you also can order Robert Parry’s trilogy on the Bush Family and its connections to various right-wing operatives for only $34. The trilogy includes America’s Stolen Narrative. For details on this offer, click here.
Klagemauer tv on maidan and the plot behind:
http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=acYQmiAKQDs
The video is dubbed in Russian, but is perfectly understandable. Reality vs it’s deliberately distorted reflection in mass media.
My vision as to what Obama can do to save Ukraine is – keep his hands off it, effective immediately.
As to IMF conditioning their loans with Kiev maintaining South-East under control, word should be spread war and wide for people to hold their powers that be accountable for having anything to do with this organisation.
Dear All Anti-Russian guys.
Russia (in post-Soviet times) has never been funding and provoking the ethnic groups in USA, or wherever to breed this kind of processes like in Lybia, Syria, Ukraine.
USA and Co, in opposite, are permanently pushing this strategy (in post-Soviet area) under umbrella of democratization ( similar to what Communists were doing during Soviet Times under umbrella of permanent revolution).
The weaker the country leader, the more disgusting tools this “leader” and relevant administration is using to achieve their targets. This is confirmed by facts where Kiev is overpopulated today with CIA agents and White House politicians with cookies for NAZI, while NO recognized Russian piticians have ever visited Kiev since start of Ukrainian coup initiated by US on money of American taxpayers ($5B).
Russians and people worldwide are clever enough to see in USA actions the goal to start a war on European/Asian continents preferably between Russia and EU/NATO, and to get brave USA hiding as usual behind the oceans and with purpose to stay the one and the only with strong economy to servive and to rule the world.
For those who doesnot know, take a walk through pictures gallery on
http://images.yandex.ru/#!/yandsearch?stype=image&lr=213&source=psearch&text=%D0%BE%D0%B4%D0%B5%D1%81%D1%81%D0%B0%20%D0%B4%D0%BE%D0%BC%20%D0%BF%D1%80%D0%BE%D1%84%D1%81%D0%BE%D1%8E%D0%B7%D0%BE%D0%B2&uinfo=ww-1033-wh-664-fw-0-fh-458-pd-1
Or use wording in search engine: ОдеÑÑа дом профÑоюзов фото погибших
“Odessa, house of trade union killed citizens”
This is to enjoy for pro-Nazists, which do like Obama. And for those, who wants to know the real face of your president.
What he can do is ro cease meddling in matters that don’t concern him. Even here, on this supposedly alternative, independant site, we are faced with the same neo-colonial ideas and Obama-apologist rethoric, which seeks to perpetuate the idiotic idea of there being a real difference between the two parties, when it comes to foreign policy, and attempt to paint the Democrats as mere victims of the evil neo-conservative meddling. There is no difference between Bush, Clinton or Obama. All three are uncultured, amoral cowboys, who have brought nothing but further violence and discord to the world. From Clinton’s illegal attack on Yugoslavia, which was justified by lies that still smear the honour of his victims, to Bush’s invasion of Iraq, Obama’s various attempts at invasions and the ‘colour revolutions’ which have occurred during his presidency, and have brought nothing but extremists or Western lawns into power.
Wake up and see things as they are. You live in a country without real democracy, wiiut real freedom of the press, and a country which is slowly becoming the modern-day equivalent of Nazi Germany. I
Your country stands in opposition to all that is moral and just in this world, and it is all happening on your watch. It’s up to you to decide between simply watching it happen, while engaging in empty discussion, or doing something which may wash the collective guilt off your hands.
@John @Gary
Hallo guys.
You believe what you wrote?
..Too many think that the U.S wants to manipulate the Ukraine.. maybe, possibly… BUT that is for the Ukrainian people to decide themselves …….
It’s the biggest shit I ever read!
Of cause, its true that U.S. wants to manipulate the Ukraine and it’s not for Ukraine people.
It’s against EU and Russia, because they are too friendly.
EU oeconomic is much stronger as U.S. and Russia has more money then U.S.
U.S. has only paper and if they need more, they print more paper.
No other country make more war as U.S. (for pease, freedom, demokratie and health of the whole world) That you believe?
Live in peace and believe only your corrupt gouverment!
Signed vom Germany
Rolf,
By the way, U.S company Shell Oil was doing research in the Ukraine & discovered large petroleum deposits in & around Crimea & Sloviansk in Eastern Ukraine. This about real estate & energy. As well, in many other parts of the country there is large undeveloped deposits. If developed, Ukraine would not only be energy self sufficient for the next 200 + years, but also exporting much of it to Europe cutting into Gasprom’s current energy monopoly. Many people do not know those facts & it seems to be hush hush…
By the way, I was born & raised in Canada. Yes I believe in my government.
Your country doesn’t have the cleanest past history when it comes to governance either.
Sudetenland annexed by NAZI GERMANY 1938. Crimea annexed by Russia 2014. A little similarity here?
“Sudetenland annexed by NAZI GERMANY 1938. Crimea annexed by Russia 2014. A little similarity here?”
Really? Sudetenland held a referendum and voters overwhelmingly voted to join Germany? And are you saying that it was Putin and Russia that was behind the Kievan putsch and not the U.S. with its $5 billion?
Hi folks! Please support financially Consortium News. I am not affiliated with them, I am just a reader like you. The reason I am making this plea is that I am horrified by the establishment media. All we get are lies, cliches, whitewash and brainwash. I think that without independent journalism such as this one we cannot survive as a free nation. Support some independent news source anyway. And yes, I have made a contribution.
Russia does not need Ukraine. Ukrainians are the rogue. Ukrainians have forgotten history. Neonazis grew in the Western part of Ukraine because they do not work. Poland did everything for this. The collapse of the Polish aircraft was planned from the USA. This crash killed all the first persons of Poland. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010_Polish_Air_Force_Tu-154_crash
The population in Eastern Ukraine work in industry. Europe needs a cheap labour force. Europe need to be competitive in agriculture. Europe is trying to generate strong crisis in Ukraine. U.S. grants a loan to Ukraine, which will steal by Yatseniuk, Poroshenko, Tyahnybok and Klitschko, and Ukraine will have to return the disappeared money. Ukraine will be put on the cook, and for the debts of the USA will take her gas transportation system.
Dear Mr Parry,
I have been been reading your articles for the past few months. I have no idea why you think that Obama isn’t a neocon. You always try to give the president the benefit of the doubt….however, actions speak louder than words. Barack Obama was a neocon before he entered the White House, He was a neocon when he received the Nobel Peace Prize, and he continues to be a neocon today!! What is it going to take for you to come to grips with reality!!
If you pay attention to actual policy, not rhetoric, the policies of the Obama administration are neocon policies. Whether Obama is a neocon or a weakling hardly matters. As President he is responsible for the policies of his administration. To end these neocon policies he has to be impeached and his whole administration thrown out just as Bush should have been. Any Democrat with an ounce of moral integrity should want to impeach Obama and get rid of Brennan, Kerry, Nuland, Rice, Jarrett etc.
Mr. PARRY, YOU ARE CORRECT AS ALWAYS. However, President Obama doesn’t want peace in Ukraine. If he did, he wouldn’t have allowed his administration to spend $5BN tax payer dollars to overthrow the elected government there. Having done so, he and Kerry are now demanding an “election” in hopes of installing a puppet government in a country overrun with violence. Anyone who can’t see what’s going in Ukraine simply isn’t looking.
O’Bamba can’t do anything to save Ukraine. Only the people of Ukraine can save Ukraine. Here’s why: An outsider cannot care for Ukranian interests. Ukrainian interests perish in the hands of an outsider. Of course it’s only common sense, and the people know it, so the people are spreading the idea of localism, the idea that only locals can take care of locals. This is the big news today.
I honestly do not think Obama has he moral fibre to do what Kennedy did.
To even suggest it at this point is almost blasphemous.
It is odd that the author happily condemns the extra-constitutional actions of the Maidan protesters while ignoring the fascist and extra-constitutional legislation rammed through the Verkhovna Rada that escalated tensions. If congress adopted laws that fundamentally violate the constitutional freedoms of its citizens, would they not be justified in taking action to prevent the implementation of such laws? Would this hypothetical congress not have rendered itself illegitimate?
Thankfully, there are judicious and legal procedures in the US making such a scenario impossible. No such protections existed in Ukraine, and the people suddenly found themselves in a police state without any alternative but recourse to violence. I don’t doubt that some of the participants were Svoboda (or worse) hoodlums. There is plenty of evidence of their deplorable actions. But to suggest the Maidan movement was “spearheaded” by neo-Nazis is pure malarkey, and the author has clearly fallen victim to the same “information war” and propaganda of which he accuses the State Department. There are plenty of first-hand accounts of the largely peaceful demonstrations in Maidan Square that were occurring before the fascist legislation was adopted.
“What Putin wants more than anything, I’m told, is to have Russia accepted as a member of the First World and be afforded the accompanying respect and respectability.”
You’re told? Dear author, who has told you such information? Why do you insist on believing in the myth of Putin’s benevolence, despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary? However you feel about how the interim government came to power, they are proposing elections this very month and opening the country to international observers. The question of legitimacy should then be settled after such elections, no? Why is Russia so intent on stoking ethnic tensions — historically, the most brutal and violent of conflicts — and dismembering the country before such elections can occur? The present government has pledged to respect the language rights of ethnic-Russians in Ukraine. They have pledged to grant greater autonomy to the regions. Why isn’t this process being allowed to unfold? If Russia has genuine concern over neo-Nazi and fascist elements in Ukraine, why can’t they see that their very actions — annexing a portion of its territory, amassing troops at the border, and supporting separatists within Ukraine — are fueling support for the very people they allege to oppose?
For all the words expended on the “information war” being conducted by the State Department, the author has neglected to mention the audacity of Russian propaganda and fabrications fueling hostilities. Perhaps Russian-speaking residents of eastern Ukraine would not feel so threatened if Russia had not deliberately lied by claiming that legislation was being adopted to ban the use of Cyrillic and force all citizens to convert to Roman script. Those words were broadcast by senior Russian diplomats across Russian news channels that were — due to the cutting of Ukrainian news sources — the only information available to citizens! And yet they have taken no responsibility for these actions. Aren’t those of significantly greater impact than whatever falsehoods the State Department may be spinning? Aren’t they a far greater contributor to the on-going hostilities and violence?
What utter absurdity. One disingenuous narrative should not be exchanged for another that is equally (and I’d argue far more) baseless.
The demonization of Putin started long before this crisis, and the current crisis is a consequence of it.
* The brutal terrorists in Chechnya were used against him as a propaganda weapon.
* Centrally appointed regional governors were interpreted as a sign of dictatorship. But France has centralized government too.
* It was said that the Russian TV is government controlled. But BBC is also government owned.
* Putin invaded Georgia. Could it be that the Ossetians do not want to be a part of Georgia? Yeltsin’s declaration of independence was reckless as it left the minorities to their fate.
* The most ridiculous was the latest hysteria about the “opression” of gays.
Russia passed a law banning “propagation of homosexuality to minors”. You can have your opinion about it, but is a hardly a Stalinist terror, and it is Russia’s internal matter. Our friends Afghanistan and Saudi Arabia actually criminalize homosexuality.
It is apparent that they tried to find any pretext to hurl some insult at Russia. Demonization of foreign leaders is a not a normal relation between states. And this cynical assault started AFTER Russia free itself from communism. It is abominable policy!
Could you tell us what “the fascist and extra-constitutional legislation rammed through the Verkhovna Rada” were? Who is to decide it was extra-constitutional?
When there is an elected government already in place there is no need to overthrow it and hold new elections. It will not be much of elections if the Russian speaking minority cannot vote.
“Why isn’t this process being allowed to unfold?” Because the neo-nazi thugs have just burnt alive dozens of Russians. This is nothing new. The Banderovtsy murdered 80 000 Polish civilians at the end of WWII.
There are separatists because they were attacked by the neo-nazi shock troops. And the Russian troops are amassed there because they will not tolerate Russians being murdered. If anything, the Russians have shown too much restraint. Stalin was good for something. He was more than a match for the Nazis.
“.. was forced upon Putin..” Heh. Everybody who lives near the borders of Russia, knows that in Putin’s eyes Ukraine does not exist – it is Novorussia for him. And preparations to this invasion were started in 2004. And in autumn 2013 Yanukovich got bribe/ultimatum to join Russia peacefully, or Ukraine will be taken by force. And so it came to pass.
Join peacefully? You are a lier. To join some trade organization doesn’t mean Putin wanted Ukraine to join Russia.
Oh indeed, what an ultimatum! Ukrainian industry is same standard as Russian, Byelorussian and Kazakstan (Customs Union) and Russia is its biggest market giving Ukraine jobs and revenues from sales. EU, dragging Ukraine into euro-association (which, as we all know, is not full membership, but duties to abide by EU laws with no rights of having reps. on EU bodies or take part in drafting EU laws), wouldn’t provide the €160,000,000 required for adjusting the industry to EU standards, which yanukovich had hoped for (been promised?). Previously EU did assist the new member states, such as Poland or the Baltic states, so this may have mislead yanukovich, but when he realized that the deal is Indeed more of colonization than anything else, for it presupposes collapse of own industry, hence economy as such, he backed off – and was swept by the “revolutionary” masses (each day on maidan cost $70,000 to sponsors – and we heard their public report on how much they spent in total on “democratisation”.
It’s up to you to judge which of the two versions is more credible.
One of Russia’s leading economists, MGIMO (Moscow State Institute of International Relations) Professor and Doctor of Economy Katasonov rightfully said that Ukraine’s ljoining EU and not CU ( customs union) is not for economists to evaluate, but (it’s a quote) for psychiatrists rather. The gentleman is the last person to label anyone anything and extremely knowledgeable.
Irina,
In my first post I put my full name. In my second post I stated where I was born and raised. I have no problem with that as I have nothing to hide. I have 3 questions for you. What is your full name? Where are you originally from? And, what country are you a resident of right now?
I am betting that from the level of English you use and the content you post that you are either cutting and pasting someone else’s words or you have been living in a western country for over 10 years.
Now everyone has the freedom to speak their mind, especially in a western country like Canada etc. I have no problem with that, as I served my country for 24 years providing the very blanket of freedom for people to speak their mind no matter the content. Fine… :-) No problem. However, what I do have a problem with is someone who used to live in another country immigrates here and shits all over the policies of the free country they live in. Are you one of these people? If so, remember the “spandex rule” .. just because you “could” doesn’t mean you “should”. I know for a fact that in Russia or Belarus you can be arrested for speaking too politically against the government.
If you are living in a western country, and Russia is so great, then I ask you.. “Why are you here?” Why don’t you leave and live in Russia where it is soooo great :-) I’m sure Putin’s government will find you a nice low paying profession and all the freedom to travel to various parts of that country and 3rd world nations visa free. Because remember, Russia recognizes dual citizenship. However, because you would be moving there, you would need to renounce the citizenship of the country you currently live in. To keep it would be hypocritical.. don’t you think? Be a Russian citizen only… apply the hard way to get a visa to travel to any 1st world country. Either you are pregnant or not.. there is no such thing as half pregnant .. yes? Oh hell.. why leave at all?? You would be in Putin’s paradise. Hey, if you have adult children as well, then I’m sure they will understand and come visit you.
That is, if you live in a western country.
John, I don’t think the article’s about either you or me, therefore, unlike you, I tried to stick to the point, which is Ukraine and what’s best for it. Whatever you think after having been (obviously) exposed to Russophobic propaganda for time sufficient to distort your self-identification out of all recognition (to anyone versed in Russian history it is apparent that there were no Ukraine/ukrainians before 1917), I feel deeply involved in the fate of MY people, for there is a difference between your kin and total strangers. Ever since this mess in Ukraine began, I keep my fingers on the pulse of events, have been watching maidan.live several nights in a row. If you have problems with that, well, what can I say other than – go visit your psychoanalytic. I am what I am, I do what I deem necessary to do in these times of infowar.
I live in Russia (st. Petersburg) and Belarus, and haven’t been captured by fsb or kgb yet, may be, it’s still to come, because I am anti-putinist to the core and never conceal this in social network, also taking part in certain opposition activities. The ideas I express are mine, figures I cite are from valid sources like MGIMO Prof., Doctor of Economy V. Katasonov, also happening to be of anti-putinist views.
As for my English, I am a bearer of diploma with honours of Arkhangelsk Teachers’ Training Institute, and the high standards of our education have been confirmed to me by many a foreign colleague of mine, leave alone immigrants. So, you see, no n fervency you made is right, so next time I wouldn’t be so categorical, if I were you.
…No inference is right (sorry for the auto correction of the above post).
There is a new claim being made in this ongoing saga, the veracity of which may be quite dubious. But given the outrageous disinformation that has already been spun, the truth is anybody’s guess. One analyst claims, “Where Bandar Bush (Prince Bandar of Saudi Arabia) goes, John (“the great white ape”) Brennan can’t be far behind”. As the alternative punditry notes, “They don’t call him ‘Shaikh Brennan’ for nothing.” The claim is that Bandar has secretly dispatched Takfiri fighters from Syria to Kiev to reinforce Right Sektor and Svoboda death squads now carrying out reprisals against anti-Kiev protestors.
Many reader comments have been made on this site about “propaganda” in general. Some have noted the so-called “first rule”, which says, “Accuse your opponent of what you intend or actually are doing”. Another is “transference”, or creating a story based on truth but taken out of context. Those pictures of real soldiers taken in Ukraine but falsely claimed to be in Russia are a perfect example. The “Jew Registration” leaflet is another. Labeling your opponents with a hot-button pejorative like “terrorists” is also effective. It has been used with great success by western journalists. There is also the “big lie” strategy, which as we all know was effectively employed by Josef Goebbels. I might add that his modern day lookalike, Charles Krauthammer , has also gotten some mileage from it.
The truth is, propaganda is a lot like street fighting. The guy that throws the first punch usually wins. That’s usually the guy who’s done it before and has already decided to fight. This administration has already told the big lies, and told them first. Putin is still incensed that U.S. ally Saudi Arabia had the audacity to threaten his Sochi Olympics with Chechen terrorism. What better way to draw him into the fight than to threaten him again with those same terrorists?
The Kruschev-Kennedy analogy is more than applicable. But so are the consequences Kennedy faced for bucking Dulles, Angleton, Cabbel, Bissel and Phillips, among others. They told the big lie first, the Warren Commission swore to it, and the press dutifully served it up. Today, the general public faithfully subscribes to that gospel. Reading between the lines, it’s plain that many Intelligence Professionals know the truth. Until they spill their guts, we won’t see any such courageous Damascus Road conversions. The “big lies” have already been told, and everybody is sticking to the script.
Hmm. Excuse me, but Obama is either an idiot (if he doesn’t see the truth with all evidence) or a war criminal (if he sees…). In any case to hope for him is to believe in the miracle…
Obama is idiot!!!
Obama is an idiot. He doesn’t have his own opinion. He always refers to someone, he does not have its own decisions. He is a pawn.
Obama is the alleged world government puppet. Next to every country’s president candidacy is approved by them prior to elections show. Putin is no exclusion, just can’t be, given the country’s area and resources.
Evil has embedded itself in our government and the FED money system and most reasonable people know it. They are the warmongers who lust for money and domination (blood sacrifice of the goy)… which is a cancer eating at the USA from within, undermining any prospect of peace, instead hell bent on war.
The goal of the hijacked political office is not to work for the USA, but instead Israel, a foreign country, so they can dominate the entire middle east, subjugating Muslims and by virtue of being “chosen” to rule, Christians too.
The acts warmongering for Israel (putting the cost on interest bearing public debt), while misrepresenting US interests, seem treasonous to me. Please add Senator Dan Coats to the list of Israel assets that are undermining the USA by working for a foreign country.
Robert,
The reason most of us do not respect you is for your lack of facts in your writing. I live in Ukraine the East is not fighting the west. It is the Russians in Ukraine fighting the Ukrainians and getting paid by the Russians. Ukrainian do not own or have any guns. Look at the guns the Russian have brought into Ukraine.
Many people in the east of Ukraine want to be one nation with Ukraine and not a part of Russia.
Putin want to control and destroy.
Ukraine…
You talk about the NYtimes being irresponsible what about you….Get your fact correct.
The Russians are here shooting and burning these people…While you sit in the USA and write lies….
“…Putin want to control and destroy. Ukraine…”
Why? What is the reason?
You are an idiot.
“What is the reason?”
Man, are you stupid? The guy is a criminal and is afraid Russians will take the Ukrainians example and start thinking they can also live without their corrupt leaders…
Indeed, Ukraine produces parts for Russian nuclear weaponry, so wanting to destroy it sounds sooo logical and credible…
Oh, please. Translate in Ukraine what you’ve just written here, Mr. Harry. We’ll find out where you’re from. Or it’s another cool story about Russian invisible forces and black ops from man who has nothing to do with Ukraine and doesn’t know where it’s on the map actually. Am I right?
Oh, please. Translate in Ukraine what you’ve just written here, Mr. Gary. We’ll find out where you’re from. Or it’s another cool story about Russian invisible forces and black ops from man who has nothing to do with Ukraine and doesn’t know where it’s on the map actually, isn’t?
Gary, I so agree with this. As well, many Russians living anywhere in the world listen to too much propaganda from RT TV & .ru websites that they truly believe it. Very sad actually. Too many think that the U.S wants to manipulate the Ukraine.. maybe, possibly… BUT that is for the Ukrainian people to decide themselves & not Russians from Moscow. One thing for sure, no matter what path the Ukrainian people choose, it will certainly NOT be with Moscow. That needs to come to an end for sure. Far too long Ukraine has been politically & economically raped by Russia. Ukraine needs an answer to the Russian question & if the Western nations can help, so be it. Putin does not care about the Russian people either in his own country or other countries. He does not care about the Ukrainians, Belarusians, Estonians, Latvians, or Lithuanians, Finns etc. Putin only cares about Putin & how he will try to restore the Soviet Union one KGB piece at a time. It’s all about real estate. If that were the case about caring for Russian people in other countries, then why not attack Alaska? There are many descendants of the original Russian settlers there… Go ahead Vlodya … just try your bullshit in Alaska & watch what happens….
Haven’t read to the end – find it overflowing with lies to. a recent instance of economic “rape” of Ukraine by Russia: buying $ 15 Bln. Worth of Ukrainian worthless “treasuries” fully realising this would be a bad debt (btw, violating own laws prohibiting such deals with the stab. fund money. Discounted prices for gas not paid for (another serial rape sample).
Just to compare – EU and US giving LOANS conditioned by salaries and pensions lowering, social security benefits cancellation, tariffs increase by 50%, removing ban on sale of the land, with gold reserves (no exact cost available from open sources) and priceless scythes gold with market value of $ 28 Bln. sent to the USA TO SECURE THE LOANS. Loans to be paid in transhes of $ 1,5 Bln. approx. – as good as nothing, given that Ukraine owes Russia $ 35 Bln. for gas supplies in arrears…
Which of the two approaches reminds you of rape, dear readers?
You write for the money lies and distorts the facts.
I live in eastern Ukraine in Luhansk region . It is an hour’s drive from the Slovyansk .
Slovyansk was attacked by hired american forces together with Nazis from Western Ukraine. People of Slovyansk keeping defenses , protect their lives and families , their family home and territory, fighting for their constitutional right to speak in Russian language and the right to hold a referendum.
Our guys in Slovyansk almost unarmed . They are hoping for help from Russia. But at that moment from Russia there is no help . Our people are mined weapon in combat only.
The Nazis and U.S.A. want to kill the inhabitants of Donbass , because people of Donbass do not want to obey the criminal authority of Ukraine. This illegal brutal bloody authority was set by America.
In Odessa May 2, was killed by Ukrainian Nazis, U.S.A. and Israel mercenaries more than 200 citizens of Odessa.
Slovyansk permanently under attack. The Ukrainian government forces killing civilians Slovyansk with planes, helicopters, tanks, mortars, gas, snipers. Dying even women, children and elderly.
Save our souls !
Watch video “Children of Slovyansk come out on meeting on May 6 14” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pZ6qiqn-qr0
It is ukrainian maidan thugs who burn people alive. Don’t try to blame victims for crimes of ukrainian bandera’s followers.
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