The Western media’s orgy of anti-Russia propaganda includes the curious claim that it is Moscow that is undermining faith in the U.S. presidential election, not the widely despised major party candidates, notes William Blum.
By William Blum
“Russia suspected of election scheme. U.S. probes plan to sow voter distrust.” That’s the Washington Post page-one lead headline of Sept. 6. Think about it. The election that Americans are suffering through, cringing in embarrassment, making them think of moving abroad, renouncing their citizenship; an election causing the Founding Fathers to throw up as they turn in their graves … this is because the Russian Devils are sowing voter distrust! Who knew?
But of course, that’s the way Commies are – Oh wait, I forgot, they’re no longer Commies. So what are they? Ah yes, they still have that awful old hang-up so worthy of condemnation by decent people everywhere – They want to stand in the way of American world domination. The nerve!
A military parade on Red Square. May 9, 2016 Moscow. (Photo from: http://en.kremlin.ru)
The first Cold War performed a lobotomy on Americans, replacing brain matter with anti-communist viral matter, producing more than 70 years of functional national stupidity. For all of you who missed this fun event there’s good news: Cold War Two is here, as big and as stupid as ever.
Russia and Vladimir Putin are repeatedly, and automatically, blamed for all manner of bad things. The story which follows the above Washington Post headline does not even bother to make up something that could pass for evidence of the claim. The newspaper just makes the claim, at the same time pointing out that “the intelligence community is not saying it has ‘definitive proof’ of such tampering, or any Russian plans to do so.” But the page-one headline has already served its purpose.
Hillary Clinton in her debate with Donald Trump likewise accused Russia of all kinds of computer hacking. Even Trump, not usually a stickler for accuracy, challenged her to offer something along the lines of evidence. She had nothing to offer.
In any event, this is all a diversion. It’s not hacking per se that bothers the Establishment; it’s the revelations of their lies that drives them up the wall. The hack of the Democratic National Committee on the eve of the party’s convention disclosed a number of embarrassing internal emails, forcing the resignation of DNC Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz.
On Sept. 12 we could read in the Post that a well-known physician had called for Hillary Clinton to be checked for possible poisons after her collapse in New York. Said the good doctor: “I do not trust Mr. Putin and Mr. Trump. With those two all things are possible.”
The Crimea ‘Invasion’
Numerous other examples could be given here of the Post’s near-juvenile anti-Russian bias. One of the most common subjects has been Crimea. Moscow’s “invasion” of the Crimean peninsula in Ukraine in February 2014 is repeatedly cited as proof of Moscow’s belligerent and expansionist foreign policy and the need for Washington to once again feed the defense-budget monster.
Assistant Secretary of State for European Affairs Victoria Nuland, who pushed for the Ukraine coup and helped pick the post-coup leaders.
But we’re never reminded that Russia was reacting to a U.S.-supported coup that overthrew the democratically-elected government of Ukraine on Russia’s border and replaced it with a regime in which neo-Nazis, complete with swastikas, feel very much at home. Russia “invaded” to assist Eastern Ukrainians in their resistance to this government, and did not even cross the border inasmuch as Russia already had a military base in Ukraine.
NATO (= USA) has been surrounding Russia for decades. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov captured the exquisite shamelessness of this with his remark of Sept. 27, 2014: “Excuse us for our existence in the middle of your bases.”
By contrast here is U.S. Secretary of State, John Kerry: “NATO is not a threat to anyone. It is a defensive alliance. It is simply meant to provide security. It is not focused on Russia or anyone else.”
NATO war games in these areas are frequent, almost constant. The encirclement of Russia is about complete except for Georgia and Ukraine. In June, Germany’s foreign minister, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, shockingly accused NATO of “war-mongering” against Russia. How would the United States react to a Russian coup in Mexico or Canada followed by Russian military exercises in the same area?
Since the end of Cold War One, NATO has been feverishly searching for a reason to justify its existence. Their problem can be summed up with this question: If NATO had never existed what argument could be given now to create it?
The unmitigated arrogance of U.S. policy in Ukraine was best epitomized by the now-famous remark of Victoria Nuland, Assistant Secretary at the State Department, reacting to possible European Union objection to Washington’s role in Ukraine: “Fuck the E.U.”, she charmingly declared.
Unlike the United States, Russia does not seek world domination, nor even domination of Ukraine, which Moscow could easily accomplish if it wished. Neither did the Soviet Union set out to dominate Eastern Europe post-World War II. It must be remembered that Eastern Europe became communist because Hitler, with the approval of the West, used it as a highway to reach the Soviet Union to wipe out Bolshevism forever; and that the Russians in World Wars I and II lost about 40 million people because the West had twice used this highway to invade Russia. It should not be surprising that after World War II the Soviets were determined to close down the highway.
The Washington Post’s campaign to depict Russia as the enemy is unrelenting. Again, on the 19th, we could read in the paper the following: “U.S. intelligence and law enforcement agencies are investigating what they see as a broad covert Russian operation in the United States to sow public distrust in the upcoming presidential election and in U.S. political institutions, intelligence and congressional officials said.”
Nothing, however, compares with President Obama’s speech to the U.N. General Assembly (Sept. 24, 2014) where he classified Russia to be one of the three threats to the world along with the Islamic State and ebola.
A war between nuclear-powered United States and nuclear- powered Russia is “unthinkable.” Except that American military men think about it, like Cold-War U.S. General Thomas Power, speaking about nuclear war or a first strike by the U.S.: “The whole idea is to kill the bastards! At the end of the war, if there are two Americans and one Russian, we win!” The response from one of those present was: “Well, you’d better make sure that they’re a man and a woman.”
William Blum is an author, historian, and renowned critic of U.S. foreign policy. He is the author of Killing Hope: U.S. Military and CIA Interventions Since World War II and Rogue State: A Guide to the World’s Only Superpower, among others. [This article originally appeared at the Anti-Empire Report, http://williamblum.org/ .]
Thank you for the article
I’m waiting for the New York Times to report that Russia is polluting our precious bodily fluids. It should be any day now.
As more and more Americans get some perspective on “terror” and terrorism, the politics of fear gets less and less effective as a way of manipulating public opinion. As a result, Washington gets more and more desperate for an enemy whose threat can be inflated without the public questioning its credibility. For, like Trump. the Washington establishment would love to — desperately needs to — “make America great again.” And since America’s “greatness” has been circling the drain ever since the end of the Cold War — ever since Ronald Reagan stepped into the oval office, actually — Washington in its desperation, incompetence, and lack of creativity is doing its best to turn back the clock.
Americans need to arm themselves against the anti-Putin propaganda campaign, but perhaps a deep dive into the history of US-Russia relations going back to the beginning of the communist revolution will not appeal to a big enough percentage of Americans. Even backtracking only as far as WWII when, contrary to the view that began being pumped out of Hollywood, it wasn’t the singular heroism of the US that won the war against Hitler but rather, the USSR. One only has to compare the body counts.
But one thing that might give a wider swathe of the population some perspective is Oliver Stone’s DVD series, “Untold History of the United States.” I was impressed by Stone’s relentless focus on the history and centrality of US-USSR relations and the elaborate propaganda campaign that kept Americans in a heightened state of panic, which led to the eagerness of Americans to support — even encourage — government to pour the lion’s share of taxpayer monies into an insanely destructive nuclear arms race and the capability to destroy the planet several times over. It made you wonder why anyone would need to destroy this fragile planet more than once — or at all. (And now Obama wants to earmark a trillion dollars for the upgrade of the US nuclear arsenal. Go figger.)
In the meantime, there is a PBS program being aired tonight following the vice-presidental candidates’ debate called “American Umpire.” PBS is admirable for many things, but I strongly suspect that this program will turn out not to be one of them, but it’s probably worth watching, if only to be able to make sense of American viewers’ response to it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cfvPFt-v_vw
— — five minutes.
Will future history teachers teach their students that yes we could have avoided WWIII, or WWIV, or WWV, if only the Americans had wished to do so? Will the students just shake their heads in disbelief over the arrogance of the exceptional indispensable U.S. who didn’t know when to stop intimidating the democratic governed Russia? Will students be amazed by the Putin speeches which in almost every speech Putin reached out to the West? Will the 2016 American Presidential Election be the demarcation line of where WWIII started? Will enough of time passed be enough to expose the Clintons and they’re Neocon brethrens as the deceitful liars that they are, or in this case were? As they say, only time will tell, and more importantly who will write this history?
Don’t you remember? History ended when the Soviet Union collapsed. Since then we have been in the tripartite world of 1984. After the fall of the wall we were allies with Eurasia, because we were always allies with Eurasia and enemies with Eastasia because they were always our enemies. Now we are enemies with Eurasia, because they have always been our enemies and we are friends with Eastasia because they have always been our friends. And Big Brother (or Big Sister after November) will make sure you toe the line or be fed to the rats. And of course wars are not fought to be won, they are the perpetuum mobile of economic well-being for the Inner Party elite. So fear no nuclear Armageddon, just buckle up for at least 8 more years of austerity and war. And remember: War is Peace, Freedom is Slavery and Ignorance is Strength.
There wont’t be anybody left to write this history.
Every cloud, they say, has a silver lining. By the end of WW2, it is likely the vast majority of Germans had become uncomfortably aware that the “Slav races” were, at the very least, the equals of Germans. Possibly, in some important ways, their superiors.
It’s a lesson that every human being could well take to heart. War, Ambrose Bierce tellingly asserted, is God’s way of teaching Americans geography. One might add that war is God’s way of teaching all arrogant elitists that, in very practical ways, all men are equal. So if you launch a war against people whom you despise and whom you think you can easily crush, you may learn a very bitter and practical lesson about those people.
“It must be remembered that Eastern Europe became communist because Hitler, with the approval of the West, used it as a highway to reach the Soviet Union to wipe out Bolshevism forever…”
…and, it should be added, to exterminate the “inferior Slav races” to provide more Lebensraum for the Master Race. Just as Israel aims to wipe out the “inferior Arab races” to provide more Lebensraum for the Master Race.
Here is an article that quite succinctly explains, in her own words, Hillary Clinton’s views of America’s role in the world:
http://viableopposition.blogspot.ca/2016/08/rebuilding-globe-in-hillary-clintons.html
By her own admission, it looks extremely likely that, under a Clinton II presidency, long-term international turmoil and confrontation lie ahead.
It is largely the American media that discredits both itself and the presidential candidates. I have never seen such unashamed bias before. Trump is double-teamed constantly on matters both important and trivial by Hillary’s campaign staff working hand-in-glove with the entire so-called mainstream media. Many internet sites that purport to be reporters of the news, such as the Huffington Post, devote almost the entire day’s text to bashing Trump… just one story after another, from the main headline to the bottom line in the issue, nothing but Trump bashing. And much, if not most, of it just made up without the slightest bit of evidence, the same as they constantly do to Putin, who is apparently Trump’s alter ego according to the American media. One wonders whether the propaganda fest will ever slow down once they get Hillary ensconced in office, or if the public will be constantly harangued with the neoliberal/neoconservative gospel to justify rash policy actions with questionable polls. Once a bandwagon effect commences, people are afraid to not get aboard, no matter how recklessly the vehicle may be careening down the road. I mean, at some point every good German got the message and stopped even thinking about bucking Hitler. Is that where this is all headed? I fear so.
as the estimable mr blum points out, the headline alone IS ITSELF sowing ‘distrust’ in the elections…
not that extreme distrust -to say the least- is not already widespread and already warranted; REGARDLESS of whoever the two factions of the one korporate money party chose to ‘represent’ us…
instant runoff, ranked choice, whatever you want to call it, those voting methods (ASSUMING a fair and accurate count! NOT a given: paper ballots; hand-counted; locally reported) would enable the 99% to regain a toehold in their own (sic) small-dee democracy…
EXACTLY why that will NEVER happen under the duopoly’s kind ministrations…
…and this horror story will repeat every two/four years as hollowed-out, ritualistic exercises of a potemkin democracy, and you will fucking smile and wave your flag and say you like it and ‘thank you, sir, may i please have another’, citizen, ’cause, MOTHERFUCKIN’ EAGLES, bitchez ! ! !
Y’know, ag, simply frothing at the mouth doth not a coherent comment make. After “the estimable mr blum”, with which characterization I absolutely agree, you lost me. So, how about just sleeping off whatever you ate, drank, snorted, or rubbed into your belly, and taking another shot at telling us wtf is on your so far less-than-coherent mind. No offence, excuse me, bless your heart.