In the mass media you’re not allowed to talk about the U.S.-NATO actions that diplomats, politicians, academics — even the head of the C.I.A. — have long warned would lead to war in Ukraine.
Dec. 9, 2019: From left: Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky, French President Emmanuel Macron and Russian President Vladimir Putin meeting in Paris for negotiations aimed at ending the war in the Donbass. (Kremlin.ru, CC BY 4.0, Wikimedia Commons)
By Caitlin Johnstone
CaitlinJohnstone.com
Listen to a reading of this article
In an interview with the Useful Idiots podcast not too long ago, Noam Chomsky repeated his argument that the only reason we hear the word “unprovoked” every time anyone mentions Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in the mainstream news media is because it absolutely was provoked, and they know it.
“Right now, if you’re a respectable writer and you want to write in the main journals, you talk about the Russian invasion of Ukraine, you have to call it ‘the unprovoked’ Russian invasion of Ukraine,” Chomsky said.
“It’s a very interesting phrase; it was never used before. You look back, you look at Iraq, which was totally unprovoked, nobody ever called it ‘the unprovoked invasion of Iraq.’ In fact, I don’t know if the term was ever used — if it was it was very marginal. Now you look it up on Google, and hundreds of thousands of hits. Every article that comes out has to talk about the unprovoked invasion of Ukraine.”
“Why? Because they know perfectly well it was provoked,” Chomsky said. “That doesn’t justify it, but it was massively provoked. Top U.S. diplomats have been talking about this for 30 years, even the head of the C.I.A.”
Chomsky is of course correct here. The imperial media and their brainwashed automatons have spent many months mindlessly bleating the word “unprovoked” in relation to this war, but one question none of them ever have a straight answer for is this: if the invasion of Ukraine was unprovoked, how come so many Western experts spent years warning that the actions of Western governments would provoke an invasion of Ukraine?
Noam Chomsky in 2011. (Andrew Rusk, CC BY 2.0, Wikimedia Commons)
Because, as Chomsky notes, that is indeed the case. A few days after the invasion began in February of last year a guy named Arnaud Bertrand put together an extremely viral Twitter thread that just goes on and on and on about the various diplomats, analysts and academics in the West who have over the years been warning that a dangerous confrontation with Russia was coming because of NATO advancements toward its borders, interventionism in Ukraine and various other aggressions.
It contains examples such as John Mearsheimer explicitly warning in 2015 that “the West is leading Ukraine down the primrose path, and the end result is that Ukraine is going to get wrecked,” and Pat Buchanan warning all the way back in 1999 that “By moving NATO onto Russia’s front porch, we have scheduled a twenty-first-century confrontation.”
Empire apologists love claiming that the invasion of Ukraine had nothing to do with NATO expansionism (their claims generally based on brazen misrepresentations of what President Vladimir Putin has said about Russia’s reasons for the war), but that’s silly. The U.S. war machine was continuing to taunt the possibility of NATO membership for Ukraine right up until the invasion, a threat it refused to take off the table since placing it there in 2008 despite knowing full well that this threat was an incendiary provocation to Moscow.
Most fascinating thing about the Ukraine war is the sheer number of top strategic thinkers who warned for years that it was coming if we continued down the same path.
No-one listened to them and here we are.
Small compilation ? of these warnings, from Kissinger to Mearsheimer.
— Arnaud Bertrand (@RnaudBertrand) March 1, 2022
This is to say nothing of the U.S. empire actively fomenting a violent uprising in 2014 which ousted Kiev’s sitting government and fractured the nation between its more Moscow-loyal populations to the east and the more U.S./EU-friendly parts of the country. This led to the annexation of Crimea (overwhelmingly supported by the people who live there) and eight years of brutal warfare against Russia-backed separatists in the Donbass.
Ukrainian attacks on those separatists are known to have increased exponentially in the days leading up to the invasion, and it has been argued that this is what provoked Putin’s final decision to commit to invading (which was a last-minute decision according to U.S. intelligence).
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The U.S. power alliance could very easily have prevented this war with a few low-cost concessions like enshrining Ukrainian neutrality, rolling back its war machinery from Russia’s borders and sincerely pursuing detente with Moscow instead of shredding treaties and ramping up Cold War escalations. Hell, it could likely have prevented this war just by protecting President Volodymyr Zelensky from the anti-Moscow far right nationalists who were openly threatening to lynch him if he began honoring the Minsk agreements and pursuing peace with Russia, as he was originally elected to do.
Instead it knowingly chose the opposite course: continuing to float the possibility of formal NATO membership for Ukraine while pouring weapons into the nation and making it more and more of a de facto NATO member with closer and closer intimacy with the U.S. war machine, and then either ordering, encouraging or tolerating Ukraine’s aggressive assault on Donbass separatists.
Why did the empire opt for provocation over peace? Congressman Adam Schiff gave a pretty good answer to that question in January of 2020 as the road to war was being paved: “so that we can fight Russia over there, and we don’t have to fight Russia here.”
If you don’t want Russia to fight Ukraine over there, don’t use Ukraine to fight Russia from here.pic.twitter.com/6B4QVFSZvV
— Aaron Maté (@aaronjmate) February 26, 2022
If you relinquish the infantile idea that the US empire is helping its good friend Ukraine because it loves the Ukrainian people and wants them to have freedom and democracy, it’s not hard to see that the U.S. sparked a convenient proxy war because it was in its geostrategic interests to do so, and because it wouldn’t be their lives and property getting laid to waste.
Brian Berletic put out a good video ago about a Pentagon-funded 2019 Rand Corporation paper titled “Extending Russia – Competing from Advantageous Ground,” which is exactly what it sounds like.
The U.S. Army-commissioned paper details how the empire can use proxy warfare, economic warfare and other Cold War tactics to push its longtime geopolitical foe to the brink without costing American lives or sparking a nuclear conflict.
It mentions Ukraine hundreds of times, and it explicitly discusses the same economic warfare tactics we’ve seen like sanctions and attacking Russia’s energy interests in Europe (the latter of which Berletic points out is also being used to bolster U.S. dominance over its vassals in the EU).
RAND Corporation headquarters in Santa Monica, California, in 2015. (Coolcaesar, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons)
The paper even explicitly advocates continuing to threaten NATO membership with Ukraine to draw out an aggressive response from Moscow, saying,
“While NATO’s requirement for unanimity makes it unlikely that Ukraine could gain membership in the foreseeable future, Washington’s pushing this possibility could boost Ukrainian resolve while leading Russia to redouble its efforts to forestall such a development.”
President Joe Biden has made calls for regime change in Moscow that can’t even really be called thinly disguised, and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has openly said that the plan is to use this war to “weaken” Russia, which other U.S. officials have told the press is indeed the policy.
Comments from the Biden administration continually make it clear that the U.S. alliance is buckling down to keep this war going for years to come, which would fit in nicely with Washington’s known track record of deliberately drawing Russia into military quagmires against U.S. proxies in both Afghanistan and Syria.
March 26, 2022: U.S. President Joe Biden delivers remarks on the war in Ukraine, at the Royal Castle in Warsaw, where he said Putin “cannot remain in power.” (White House, Adam Schultz)
So, make no mistake, behind all the phony hand-wringing and flag-waving, the U.S.-centralized empire is getting exactly what it wants from this conflict. It gets to overextend Russia militarily and financially, promote its narratives around the world, rehabilitate the image of U.S. interventionism, expand internet censorship, expand militarily, bolster control over its European client states. And all it costs is a little pretend empire money that gets funneled into the military-industrial complex anyway.
Which is why when it looked like peace was at risk of breaking out in the early days of the conflict, the empire sent in former U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson to tell Zelensky that even if he is ready for the war to end, his partners to the West were not.
Boris Johnson, then-U.K. prime minister, left, meeting Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky in Kiev, April 9, 2022. (Ukraine government)
So, as you can see, the notion that this war is “unprovoked” is a fairy tale for idiots and children; there’s no excuse for a grown adult with internet access and functioning brain matter to ever say such a thing.
Had China backed a coup in Mexico and now had a loyal vassal in Mexico City who was letting Beijing distribute weapons along the U.S. border while continually shelling English-speaking separatists in Baja California who are seeking U.S. annexation, there’s no question that Washington would consider this a provocation and would respond accordingly. You can tell me that’s not true, but we’d both know you’re lying.
But as Chomsky said, the press are still spouting this “unprovoked” nonsense anyway.
“Russia is widely believed to have been taken aback by the West’s assertive and unified response to its unprovoked invasion of Ukraine,” reads a CNBC article.
“The diplomatic visit underlines the importance of the Russian relationship for China, even in the face of international blow back against Moscow after its unprovoked invasion of Ukraine earlier this year,” reads a report from CNN. “It was an unprovoked attack on a sovereign country,” a source is quoted as saying in another CNN article.
It is, as Chomsky observed, really freaky how hard they’ve been hitting us with this line every time the invasion of Ukraine is mentioned. It seems like every time it comes up they’re obligated to say it, just as Michael Jackson had a quota for how often MTV hosts were obligated to refer to him as “The King of Pop Michael Jackson” when his name was mentioned.
In the mass media you’re not allowed to talk about the known U.S./NATO/Ukraine actions which experts have been warning for many years would lead us to this point. You’re only allowed to say Putin attacked Ukraine completely unprovoked, in a vacuum, solely because he is evil and hates freedom. And you have to do it while saying the word “unprovoked” at every opportunity.
Empire apologists get upset when you talk about the fact that this war was provoked because a large amount of empire apologia is built around pretending that provocation just isn’t a thing. By some trick of Orwellian doublethink, this concept we’ve all lived our entire lives knowing about and understanding is now suddenly a freakish and ridiculous invention of the Kremlin.
We’re all guilty of doing the things we knowingly choose to do. If I choose to provoke someone into doing something bad, then they’re guilty of choosing to do the bad thing, but I am also guilty of provoking them. I’m not saying anything new here; this is the plot behind any movie or show with a sneaky or manipulative villain, and it’s been a part of our storytelling since ancient times.
Nobody has ever walked out of Shakespeare’s Othello thinking that maybe Iago was just an innocent bystander who was trying to help out his friends.
Most of us learn that provocation is real as children with siblings, kicking the other under the table or whatever to provoke a loud outburst, and we’ve understood it ever since. But everyone’s pretending that this extremely basic, kindergarten-level concept is some kind of bizarre, alien gibberish. It’s intensely stupid, and it needs to stop.
Empire apologists will also argue that saying Russia was provoked into invading by the U.S. empire is like saying a rape victim provoked her rapist by wearing a tight skirt, or a battered wife provoked her abuser by disobeying him.
And as a survivor of multiple rapes and an abusive relationship I must say I find it extremely offensive when people compare blaming the most powerful empire that has ever existed for its well-documented aggressions to blaming victims of rape and domestic violence. The globe-spanning empire is not comparable to a rape victim, and if you find yourself thinking so it’s time to re-think your entire worldview.
It’s not okay to be a grown adult and still say the invasion of Ukraine was unprovoked. You’ve got a brain between your ears and an entire internet of information at your fingertips.
Caitlin Johnstone’s work is entirely reader-supported, so if you enjoyed this piece please consider sharing it around, following her on Facebook, Twitter, Soundcloud, YouTube, or throwing some money into her tip jar on Ko-fi, Patreon or Paypal. If you want to read more you can buy her books. The best way to make sure you see the stuff she publishes is to subscribe to the mailing list at her website or on Substack, which will get you an email notification for everything she publishes. For more info on who she is, where she stands and what she’s trying to do with her platform, click here. All works are co-authored with her American husband Tim Foley.
This article is from CaitlinJohnstone.com and re-published with permission.
The views expressed are solely those of the author and may or may not reflect those of Consortium News.
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Surely, Americans have been through the drill enough times to know when their government is manufacturing another war of aggression based on fantastic lies and unrelenting false narratives. The thing is, they’ve seen the lies prevail and justice thwarted time and again. Millions have been murdered with impunity by Uncle Sam’s stormtroopers around the globe. Millions more have been made homeless or maimed for life. Entire economies have been laid waste and families have been shattered and scattered to the four winds in the name of American “freedom” and “democracy.” With the internet and global media, we Americans have seen the evidence of these travesties being imposed upon other “no count” foreigners (often in countries that WERE free and democratic until our sociopathic ideologues, like the “neocons,” took a hatchet to their leaders, their populations, and their human rights) and we rightfully fear our own government’s ability to do the same to us, should we try to obstruct them and insist upon justice rather than more hegemony exclusively for the upper crust amongst us.
Donald Trump was no philosopher king, but look how his reputation, credibility and ability to lead in the role of president of the United States (!) was, from the moment of his election, systematically undermined, corroded and, in the end, thoroughly eliminated thanks to the magic of modern mass communication and its ability to destroy any person or any institution with the invention and dissemination of falsehoods. Those Americans trying to exercise their right to support and follow the man, whether right or wrong, perspicacious, shallow or misled, were made “enemies of the state” by the “other” major political party, “law enforcement,” and the intelligence components of the Deep State. Many are now cooling their heels in a federal penitentiary on trumped-up charges of starting an “insurrection” without any strategic plans, battle cry or weapons of any sort. Talk about an unprovoked imposition of armed power against a country’s own people merely expressing their displeasure with the “powers that be!” Look no further than Washington DC on 6th January 2021. And the strong-armed toughs running our perfect society half the world away contend that Moscow’s reaction to a nuclear harboring proxy of ours, a de-facto if not de-jure member of Nato with all rights and privileges of starting the next world war, haughtily perched on Russia’s very frontier was by no means a provocation to anyone whatsoever. Such whoppers are not encountered often amongst the annals of truly monumental history-changing lies. Lying might not be a thing that the American government does especially well, but it is a response that can be reliably counted upon like day following night and night following day…
It just makes me feel so good to repost this article on Facebook… like I am provoking friends and family. Really, it would be great if we could discuss it like adults….ho hum….
Thanks Caitlin J., you put it into words so well.
If Joe Biden were spending the billions he does in Ukraine on stopping global warming, how much better off would we be?
War with both Russia and China, what could go wrong?
…p.s., “Mrs. Johnstone, not for nothin’; but, years ago, 2017, you rocked the WARNING: “Proof That Your Government Is Lying To You And The Media Is Helping Them” MAY 9, 2017 (TWENTY SEVENTEEN)
hxxps://caityjohnstone.medium.com/proof-that-your-government-is-lying-to-you-and-the-media-is-helping-them-107e673a4297
The FULL Context, w/Video, Photos, etc;, imo, it’s a Caitlin Johnstone “masterpiece:” AND, “Proof That Your Government Is Lying To You And The Media Is Helping Them.” is so f/apropos. A BEST Read. A “Re-Visit” in its entirety. It sums up wtf is goin’ on!?!? It’s golden.
– “All for more money and power, the ruling elites have been using their leverage and the corporate media to facilitate an ecocidal, omnicidal agenda that will surely get us all killed if we don’t stop them. Here are some ideas I’ve put together for doing stopping them. Here are a few more. Thanks for reading. (CAITLIN JOHNSTONE)
“But as Chomsky said, the press are still spouting this “unprovoked” nonsense anyway, i.e., BIDEN’S-HARRIS’ Press Secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre & HER NOTEBOOK of Scripts.
“This GEM goes out to “KJP:” “It’s not okay to be a grown adult and still say the invasion of Ukraine was unprovoked. You’ve got a brain between your ears and an entire internet of information at your fingertips.” RESPECT Yourself!!!
TY, Caitlin Johnstone, CN, et al., “KEEP IT LIT.”
I have just read a related piece written by John Welsh on Asia Times, “The first US onslaught to ‘weaken’ post-Cold War Russia”, in which he stated that the US’ war (and EU) against Russia had started many decades before, in the form of economic sanctions and barriers (as Jeffrey Sachs’ quotes in this article explain how). Then the provoked war in Ukraine which is an “eye-opener” even for the staunchest pseudo-progressists, pro-democracy (at least subconsciously for now), which put everything we know about our nations, our politicians, institutions, media, civil society, education, science, etc into question. And I started wondering if the war against Saddam was really about Saddam and not already about Russia, which at that time was building good economic relations with Iraq; then Syria, then Libya, etc. Millions of dead people, even more victims suffering today just for an hegemonic, paranoiac, narcissistic itch of western elites; was it worth it? Madelaine would say yes again and even louder, of course. I even wondered about the poisonings of Navalny and others. were they staged up? We saw in this war how easily the Russians were blamed, so were Russians or Ukrainian behind them, Ukrainian who had all the motives and inherited from USSR tactics, weapons and chemicals? and if the latter were culpable was Germany and EU behind it? to apply pressure and sanctions? Was Bucha a deepfake satellite imagery? so many questions… It might be a very difficult time what we are seeing and experiencing today, but it might also be a time in which humanity truly transforms itself once and for all, one of the most important time in all human history
The fact that Caitlin has to use so many examples of how the war was absolutely provoked by NATO is a sad commentary on the lack of knowledge of history of the people in the West and on the devious power of mass media disinformation in the West. The West practices exactly what it supposedly rails against in other societies – lies, removal of freedoms, spreading of disinformation and ultimately unlawful state sponsored violence to achieve their objectives. The 1% of the “golden billion” are making hay now and don’t ever want to give it up. When Trump got America out of the Afghan war, it was a matter of very little time before America had to find another war to fight. The legacy of America is stealing from other nations using its military as a global mafia enforcer. And telling crazy childlike stories to fool the masses into believing its justifications. I believe most people who read Consortium News already know the truth and desperately seek our confirmation by reading these articles such as Caitlin has written, to preserve our sanity that some people in this mad world still can see through all the lies and deceit and are brave enough to state the truth. Thank you Caitlin Johnstone for doing this.
It is perfectly clear to everyone that Shakespeare’s Iago was a vile, immoral provocateur and therefore the main villain, the actual culprit in the murder of Desdemona. So, the fact that what the Russians call a special forces operation to demilitarize and denazify Ukraine began and continues to this day is the fault of its provocateurs and sponsors, namely the United States and NATO.
“FUGG ‘EM!!!” Everybody knows, “a calabash w/holes cannot be filled:”
Exhibit A-Z: “Pokin’ The Russian Bear”
MARCH 1, 2022, BIDEN said the United States was defending democracy against dictatorship ABROAD as the 150 Republicans who ATTEMPTED to establish a dictatorship at home, stood and applauded.
POTUS does the Yappin’, “GO GET HIM.” Congress does the Clappin’
There’s no difference in POTUS’ “Call for Violence” from Lindsey “the Grey Lady” Graham’s “Call for Violence:”
– MARCH 3, 2022, Thursday, “US Senator Lindsay Graham, an influential Republican Senator, called for the assassination of Russian President Vladimir Putin: “Is there a Brutus in Russia?”
Graham asked, referring to the assassination of Roman emperor Julius Caesar by Marcus Brutus and thus advocating what is, under international law, a war crime.
“The only way this ends is for somebody in Russia to take this guy out. You would be doing your country—and the world—a great service.” (Lindsey Graham)
!!! DAY 10, The Party of War, is in The House, US/NATO vs. Russia WAR in Ukraine, NObody IS seeking a negotiated settlement to end the conflict. Everybody IS escalating and inflaming it.”
-“FACTS have proved, more than once, that the U.S. is the direct threat to the international order and the culprit of the regional turbulence.” Chinese Defense Ministry
Washington wants the bloodbath in Eastern Europe to escalate and last for f/ever,, i.e.,“America Is Back!” AND, It’s NOT Pretty!!! It’s MADness (Mutually Assured Destruction). This is what happens when Con$umers order a POTUS (BIDEN-HARRIS) through the US Mail.
“Never have so many been manipulated so much by so few.” Aldous Huxley
Thank you for this article, Caitlin.
Mr. Chomsky appears correct in saying “unprovoked” is rarely used, but…
– The word is ubiquitous in references to the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor, despite US interference against Japan’s imperial supply routes, which unquestionably would have been viewed as “provocations” by Japan;
– John Foster Dulles reportedly said about N. Korea’s 1950 advance into S. Korea, “To sit by while Korea is overrun by unprovoked armed attack would start a disastrous chain of events leading most probably to world war,” despite many N-S border skirmishes in the preceding weeks and months that were initiated by the US-backed regime of President Syngman Rhee;
– “Unprovoked” was used to characterise the fabricated 1964 non-event known as the Gulf of Tonkin Incident before Congress, in order to pass the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, which lead to the slaughter and profits of Viet Nam;
– Rudi Giuliani used “unprovoked” on the day of 9/11, 2001: “This is a vicious, unprovoked act, a horrible attack on innocent men, women and children.” (hxxps://transcripts.cnn.com/show/bn/date/2001-09-11/segment/42) We all know how steadfastly the US mainstream media and government–Democrat and Republican–have avoided discussion of the “root causes” of terrorism–real and self-staged.
The word/lie “unprovoked” may be deployed only sparingly, but it has apparently been a (the?) go-to word for stirring hate and drumming up military-industrial business–Manufacturing consent–for at least as long as Mr. Chomsky has been around.
That said, the use of “unprovoked” in the case of Russia/Ukraine appears to be very unusual, maybe even unique, in one respect. By virtue of this Feb.24 statement (hxxps://www.nato.int/cps/en/natohq/official_texts_193719.htm), the word “unprovoked” has been put in the mouth of EVERY NATO head of state/government. If we can learn exactly how this single, rarely-used word/lie found its way into so many official mouths within 24 hours of Russia’s invasion–like a rhetorical virus–this might vaccinate us against similar propaganda in future.
And, somewhat tangentially, what would it take to update definitions of “belligerence” and “war crimes” in international law with a list of punishable provocations?
Caitlin Johnstone is quite correct, but I have been thinking about why using the word “unprovoked” seems to be so widespread. My theory is that we have been subjected for generations to the simplistic notion that provocation is measured by whether there was an attack which justified a response. It goes right back to school-yard fights when the defence is always “But he hit me first!” That notion is so engrained in the popular mind that, when there is no first attack, the practice is to invent one or stage a “false-flag attack”. Gone are any subtleties or analysis.
Thus, many wars of aggression over the past 70 years are based on he-hit-me-first emotion or he-was-going-to-hit-me-first unverifiable claims. (The latter doesn’t even get you any cover from the UN Charter’s self-defence clause.) Here is my list of the most noteworthy unprovoked wars which escaped any of the condemnation now heaped on Russia:
1. Israel’s Six-Day War in 1967 which was not preceded by any attack or threat but which was planned for 19 years in execution of the biblical vision of an Eretz Israel.
2. The Vietnam War which the US entered in support of French colonialism and for so-called anti-communist reasons, none of which could ever be considered provocation.
3. The First and Second Gulf Wars because …. well, what was the reason? Certainly no USA or UK territory or interest was attacked. WMD? Give me a break!
4. The invasion of Afghanistan …. of course, that landlocked country was too close to the North Atlantic [Treaty Organization] and posed a threat. Never mind that Afghnistan had nothing to do with 9/11, in case anyone wants to try to drive that argument.
On and on it goes with this simplistic phony blame-game. I’m very pleased that CN publishes adult-level analyses of what “provoked” really means, and does not mean.
I don’t understand how Chomsky and many other commentators including Chris Hedges, Cornell West and Medea Benjamin, can recognize the serious provocations that led to Russian invasion and still call it a”war crime” or “unjustified” without suggesting how Russia should have reacted to the instigation.
Good question.
I agree with you. It is not a war crime to protect millions of your own ethnic and religious brothers and sisters and relatives from brutal murderous aggression and terrorism by a Nazi led state. The Russians are protecting their own and it’s quite easy to figure that out. I have much respect for Mr Chomsky but on this point I do not agree with him and never will.
It makes me think of a car accident in which the parked car is partially at fault just by existing, being at the wrong place at the right time.
Most of the MSM over here in the UK write “unprovoked war” as a basic minimum.
They usually go “brutal unprovoked war” or even better “brutal unprovoked war of aggression”.
I’m all for wars of non-aggression myself.
@micknolangalway
Once upon a time there was a very wicked King who, feeling especially ill-tempered and sans provocation, decided to invade a land of {entirely non-fascist} peaceable folk….. Every adult on planet earth likely understands why Russia invaded Ukraine -except Americans. Knowledge of basic history, especially one’s own, seems more or less a given throughout the world – except in the United States. The same goes for geopolitics and at least a bit of cultural understanding of different parts of this funny little world we inhabit. Americans, always prone to provincialism and xenophobia, have become the lone denizens of a bubble land. This of course is a generalization, but when a populace is ignorant of what’s been occuring that shapes human existence, prior to last Tuesday, we’re in trouble. This is why, for all the current distrust of government and corporate media, people in the U.S.A. remain receptive to propaganda; the endless recycling of bullshit that should only interest stand-up comedians. If this were not the case, it seems unlikely that this current proxy war could be maintained for years to come; as the Washington Death Machine is planning on.
The US has been provoking Russia-USSR-Russia since a few months after the Oct 1917 Bolshevik revolution when it invaded Russia with a primordial “coalition of the willing” to help “change” the fledgling regime.
Just wondering…is there such a thing as a Nobel Prize for the biggest liar??? Or perhaps a ‘cheaper by the dozen’ prize?
Barrack Obama comes to mind as the biggest liar.
Yes, the Nobel Peace Prize
Almost everyone I know is propagandized when it comes to this conflict. Makes my head hurt
I recently found a put-aside copy of a November “Figaro” from 2021 filled with headlines of the buildup of troops on the Ukrainian border (ie on the Russian side!) and pages about the poor Ukies who could not see their families, allegedly in Donbass. I have seen NO French papers, and few websites, with anything but exactly these points of view, ever since.
btw the same with 2018 and the “Skripal poisonings” and their alleged perps, in “the guardian” I have kept from that time!
Egg-f’ng-zackly! Caitlin’s synopsis of the Ukraine War (including her personal comments) is 100% historically correct, which of course is why it’s NEVER mentioned by the MSM, unless they briefly mention it as a supposed example of the person being a ‘Putin puppet’ or ‘tankie’ or whatever distractionary tangent they employ.
I still lament that the US leaders and so much of the general public who elect them, chose the militaristic road back in 1991 rather than disbanding NATO and experiencing the hoped-for ‘peace dividend’. I suspect in 100 years hence, honest historians will look back on this choice as a significant cause for the major international political problems they’re experiencing, assuming there are still historians—I suspect a post-apocalypse dystopia may have no use for them.
I remember what was unprovoked: The 2003 Washington Zio-con war against Iraq. You want to talk about genuinely unprovoked, there’s your answer.
Well laid out Caitlin. I personally think that there’s a very good chance that this will result in a Waterloo event for NATO and by extension, the US and its vassals.
The Russophobic mainstream media have engaged in the biggest and most grotesque systematic lying campaign in mass media history about who instigated Russia’s liberating SMO.
These million dollar talking heads, intel freaks, and defense [sic] operatives have successfully brainwashed 90% of the American population.
It’s a small miracle that Boebert and Gaetz have stood up against some of the funding of this wildly dangerous proxy war.
The Russians were deliberately provoked and the US corporate newsmedia continues to lie about this.
The media and politicians clearly do not trust members of the public to decide for themselves whether the war was provoked or not!
The situation in the U K is really bad. No Labour MP would dare quote from this article because that would lead to Keir Starmer barring them from standing as a Labour candidate at the next general election.
The Observer yesterday reported on a fresh call for a special tribunal to be set up ‘on the same principles that guided the allies when they met in 1941 to lay the groundwork for the Nuremberg war crimes trials of Nazi leaders.’
Implicit in this idea is regime change in Russia. The effect of this proposal would be to lengthen the war and probably escalate it too. My strong suspicion is that that is the intention for most of the signatories.
One of the signatories is Keir Starmer who defended giving a knighthood to Tony Blair despite his role in invading Iraq. No war crimes trial for him.
What to expect from the propaganda purposed mainstream corporate
media? John Pilger said it from the start, that this was a propaganda
war. Truth is on Russia’s side.
And since American corporate media supports the need for enemies
to make war on, so weapons manufacturers and Wall Street can profit
there is the big lie; “not one inch further” U.S. Secr. Baker to Gorbachev in 1991,
and weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, to Al Qaeda in Afghanistan to Russiagate
and back to St. Augustine’s “Just War Theory.”
American provocations do justify Russia’s invasion.
This is now standard operating procedure for all of the Psychological Operations being conducted by the conspiracy that includes: the CIA, FBI, DNC, big Tech and Legacy press. Those entities that manages the minds of so many Americans and Europeans. For example: Is is never allowed to report on any election fraud incidents without using terms such as ‘baseless allegations.’ Another favored ruse is to simply assert that anything that opposes the preferred narrative has been ‘completely debunked.’ Even when it very clearly hasn’t. Such as the blatant corruption and influence peddling of the Biden crime family. All of this would be comical if it were not so effective. The left has focused its’ disinformation thrust on young, vulnerable women. The results of various elections demonstrate that the lies are now working well enough that they dominate the Western world. Of course, the wide acceptance of the flood of mail-in ballots has been a Godsend for the conspirators.
Despite the warnings from history nations continue to immerse themselves in the wars they do not want, and ultimately with nuclear war cannot win. The problem and answer lies in history.
A free ebook: The Pattern Of History and Fate of Humanity
Like Caitlin, I’m Australian. We’re as much in thrall to the US as any Warsaw Pact nation was to Russia under the USSR.
Our prime ministers bend over forwards to accommodate our US masters. Our UN vote is not our own on the most crucial topics. We expend blood and treasure fighting as US proxies in their never ending wars against anyone who won’t bow to them.
Our media only report what the US wants. This means that they’re agents of a foreign power, knowingly acting against the interests of their own countrymen.
Rhetorical question: what hope do the enlightened have against that kind of imperial machine? Answer: about as much as any individual dissident had back when the Soviets were at the height of their power.
More truth about American Empire knowing no shame.
Caitlin again delivers a furious barrage of facts of truth upon the war mongers here. Great stuff again as usual.
Anyone remember a gentleman named Bill Browder who relinquished his US citizenship in 1998, citing a legacy
of bad feelings about the rule of law, could it have been tax law rather than the persecution of his family as he
claimed? What about Edmond Safra? Both founded Hermitage Capitol in 1996 for the purpose of invest seed
capitol of $25 billion during mass privatization. Beny Steinmetz, an Israeli businessman, was another of the
original investors. Safra died in a suspicious fire in Monaco 1999.
Browder is a man who has much to be known for, an his sometimes shadowy history seems to indicate he was
somewhat of Easteren European specialist. He worked for Robert Maxwell’s MCC for instance. Browder the
man who left the US returns after finding trouble in Putin’s Russia returns to the U.S.. It needs to be noted that
Browder returned July 27, 2017 to testify to the Senate Judiciary Committee on the topic of Russian interference
in the 2016 U.S. presidential election concerning the FARA Act and fusion GPS. We know the history there and it
does seem to reflect doubt in my mind about Mr. Browder and his tendencies.
Maybe things had been simmering since 1996 or before. Some of his history seems odd to me, oddly convenient
to facilitate someone acting in the shadows prosecuting a hidden agenda.
See the timing reflected in the wikis of Maxwell, Browder, Safra and Beny Steinmetz dual citizenship French | Israeli. Just reading these guys wikis is an adventure, but then what do I know.
I just cannot for the life of me stop. I see one common thread here all were/are billionaires with some baggage that needs to be searched.
What is it they say birds of a feather , . . generally have the same parasites instincts?
Thanks CN
Excellent article and the contents of which will never be seen and heard in the mainstream media and that includes MSNBC, where it apparently is forbidden to express a point of view which does not engage in the usual hysteria which is aimed against Russia.
Yes Terry, Caitlin is correct in every sense. However, CN readers already see and understand the (unmentionable) USA provocations that led to the SMO. CN readers know and trust Joe / CN. Caitlin would certainly know that she is writing to readers who agree with her observations. Success of the Russian SMO is the best outcome, as was the success of the Taliban and the Viet Cong, in clipping USA wings. I think that inevitable and that the USA will then abandon Ukraine to start new wars elsewhere. The fate of the tsunami of weapons flowing into Ukraine is unknowable. Perhaps another dark legion to wage wars and stage coups on US command? Regards.
Yes Mikael the US will abandon Ukraine, and the US leadership and their lackeys in the media and tech world will shift the focus as people are easily distracted. As Ron Suskind quoted an unnamed advisor to George W. Bush in his article in the NYT, Faith, Certainty, and the Presidency of George W. Bush,
“We’re an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you’re studying that reality — judiciously, as you will — we’ll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that’s how things will sort out. We’re history’s actors . . . and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do.”
Indeed. One cannot discuss this among our “liberal” friends without being pilloried for not agreeing that Putin is all evil.
Surely, Americans have been through the drill enough times to know when their government is manufacturing another war of aggression based on fantastic lies and unrelenting false narratives. The thing is, they’ve seen the lies prevail and justice thwarted time and again. Millions have been murdered with impunity by Uncle Sam’s stormtroopers around the globe. Millions more have been made homeless or maimed for life. Entire economies have been laid waste and families have been shattered and scattered to the four winds in the name of American “freedom” and “democracy.” With the internet and global media, we Americans have seen the evidence of these travesties being imposed upon other “no count” foreigners (often in countries that WERE free and democratic until our sociopathic ideologues, like the “neocons,” took a hatchet to their leaders, their populations, and their human rights) and we rightfully fear our own government’s ability to do the same to us, should we try to obstruct them and insist upon justice rather than more hegemony exclusively for the upper crust amongst us.
Donald Trump was no philosopher king, but look how his reputation, credibility and ability to lead in the role of president of the United States (!) was, from the moment of his election, systematically undermined, corroded and, in the end, thoroughly eliminated thanks to the magic of modern mass communication and its ability to destroy any person or any institution with the invention and dissemination of falsehoods. Those Americans trying to exercise their right to support and follow the man, whether right or wrong, perspicacious, shallow or misled, were made “enemies of the state” by the “other” major political party, “law enforcement,” and the intelligence components of the Deep State. Many are now cooling their heels in a federal penitentiary on trumped-up charges of starting an “insurrection” without any strategic plans, battle cry or weapons of any sort. Talk about an unprovoked imposition of armed power against a country’s own people merely expressing their displeasure with the “powers that be!” Look no further than Washington DC on 6th January 2021. And the strong-armed toughs running our perfect society half the world away contend that Moscow’s reaction to a nuclear harboring proxy of ours, a de-facto if not de-jure member of Nato with all rights and privileges of starting the next world war, haughtily perched on Russia’s very frontier was by no means a provocation to anyone whatsoever. Such whoppers are not encountered often amongst the annals of truly monumental history-changing lies. Lying might not be a thing that the American government does especially well, but it is a response that can be reliably counted upon like day following night and night following day.
Brava Caitlin Johnstone. I’ve been making this same essential point in many of my posts here and elsewhere. American minds have been colonized by the official narratives peddled to them by corporate news outlets, who receive their scripts from the Pentagon.
Subjects completely DISAPPEARED from MSM ———-> any context/history of US/NATO/Ukraine/Russia relations…………. any analysis of the 2014 coup in Ukraine and the role of the US……………… any mention of the many times Putin has tried to engage the West to negotiate a comprehensive security arrangement for the entire region, and how he’s been ignored/rebuffed for YEARS……….. any discussion on how the Minsk Agreement was a ruse by the US/NATO to simply buy time to up arm up train Ukie Nazis (per recent admissions by Merkel and others)…………….,..
Russia’s SMO woulda’ been over in days/weeks had not the US/NATO immediately jumped in to escalate hostilities. Under the UN’s “Responsibility to Protect”, Russia intervened in Ukraine’s civil war to stop the slaughter of Russian-speaking people of Donbas. THIS, on top of 20 years of nothing but provocations from the US and NATO.
——-> a regrettable , but, necessary move – Russia’s intervention.
What to expect from the propaganda purposed mainstream corporate
media? John Pilger said it from the start, that this was a propaganda
war. Truth is on Russia’s side.
And since American corporate media supports the need for enemies
to make war on, so weapons manufacturers and Wall Street can profit
there is the big lie; “not one inch further” U.S. Secr. Baker to Gorbachev in 1991,
and weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, to Al Qaeda in Afghanistan to Russia gate
and back to St. Augustine’s “Just War Theory.”
American provocations do justify Russia’s invasion.
A few years ago, curious to understand more about “just war theory” and then-current “right/responsibility to protect” after searching around I came to the conclusion that R2P in its most theoretical state is much closer to what Muhammad delineated about coming to the aid of neighbors unfairly attacked, than any western/Christian notions of justified violence. But that is theory; in practice R2P is mostly just another element of doublespeak cover for US aggression.
I will have to follow your prompt on Augustine; perhaps I have heard his arguments without realizing the source. Was it Pope Urban III that declared “God wills it!”? Ancient Hebrew texts seem to be especially dehumanizing of any who would be the tribe’s enemies.
Yes, the constant repetition of “Russia’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine” is a necessary part of the war propaganda program. And, besides deflecting questions about why the US would choose to provoke Russia into a military action, the repetition of that trope is aimed at convincing the public that the war is about Ukraine. Which it is not, and never has been. It is about Russia as a Great Power interfering with the global ambitions of the US as laid out in the Wolfowitz Doctrine, back at the time of the collapse of the USSR. John Mearsheimer writes clearly about this, but it is still a taboo subject for ‘respectable journalists’ (as Noam Chomsky gently describes them). And of course it is a taboo subject, because it is forbidden to discuss the US as an empire. There is still a devout faith in the idea that US foreign policy aims to expand freedom and democracy worldwide. To speak, or even think, otherwise is heretical.
The treatment of Julian Assange, Edward Snowden, and other whistleblowers illustrates the point. The foreign policy establishment would burn them at the stake, if it were permitted.
When are the American people going to be provoked into doing something about are war crazy MIC loving governments and get this $h1t to stop? It seems like ever since the end of WW2 we have been on a crusade to stop the godless communists from wrecking the world when in actuality we are wrecking the world by spreading “democracy” around. Our track record sucks Korea Vietnam Iraq… We are winning biggly whose tired of all this winning yet? And I see a troubling trend on the far right in the u s. Since the Obama days of throwing around the terms Marxism and socialism at almost everything they dislike similar to throwing crap at the wall and see what sticks. Someday I would like to see the EU (and UK) get out of it’s high chair and pull up their big boy pants and stop kissing American a$$ all the time over anything war or defense related
I recall that stupid “Russians are coming” speech by Adam Schiff. It was one of the most ridiculous and paranoid speeches I ever heard from the U.S. Congress. The Russians had no intention of “fighting us over here”. The Russians had no intention to “fight us” at all! The only aggressor in the debacle was and continues to be the United States and NATO who are caught in a time warp and think the Cold War is still happening.
“If I choose to provoke someone into doing something bad, then they’re guilty of choosing to do the bad thing, but I am also guilty of provoking them.”
This analogy leaves a question, as it insinuates application to Russia last February. That is, generally, including alternative media, the tendency in February and directly following was to assert that despite being provoked Russia should not have invaded and used war as its response. This despite its numerous efforts to warn of consequences or indicate red flags over the preceding years back to 2014 at least.
The question is what then should it have done, how should it have responded? We should also note that at the time of the February 2022 invasion, attacks on the Donbas had massively increased, and strangely enough Biden predicted nearly exactly when Russia would invade. How did he know? Was the US instrumental in the increase of these attacks?
The other day in one of his talks Scott Ritter alluded to the question of whether Russia should have invaded by using the analogy that if the punch is on its way to your face you have a right to deliver a gut punch first as a matter of defense. Given the brutal and horrible nature of this war, as with any war, the question of whether Russia’s invasion was justified or whether there was an alternative could use more attention. Personally, I am not sure how to answer it, but I feel it’s important relative to the propaganda that Putin is the latest version of Hitler out to take over Europe and the globe generally.
I agree with you ^^
And by the way- this is no war but indeed a special military operation, just as declared by the Russian Federation.
As terrible as it still is for those suffering from it.
Because if it would be a war like the U.S./ NATO are usually practicing it, the (western) Ukraine would already be bombed into pieces since months.
Thank you again. That word the mainstream media uses, “unprovoked,” I’m not sure it means what they think it means… What was done was a planned, funded, organized, implemented, and marketed conspiracy to do harm. They were never going to stop regardless of what Russia did until they got the reaction they wanted so they could unleash their ultimate, Russia-killing, Western sanctions assault under cause.
The joke in all this is that the planners are ideological bigots and fools and US planning for quite some time now has been riddled with them. These dim-bulbs at State and in the intelligence services assumed that the massive US/EU/G7 sanctions machine was going to bring Russia to its knees so that they could then move on unheeded to China. “Surprise, surprise surprise,” as Barney Fife of Mayberry used to say. Of course, their planning was, and is, based on wishful thinking and nonsense. They have failed completely to understand the Russia, and world, that they are dealing with rather than then one they have so creatively and self-servingly imagined. What we are witnessing, in fact, is a replay of how the Bush dim-bulbs assumed that invading and occupying Iraq was going to a cakewalk which would lead to bringing down Iran. Remember that? I guess there’s nothing new under the sun.
Neocons tend to drink deeply from the same polluted well. In contrast, we find that Russia is not led by dim-bulbs. An interesting fact is that Putin is a high ranking black belt in judo, which I know to be a beautiful sport with a well grounded philosophy. In judo, one uses ones opponent’s strength and momentum against them. It is not a philosophy of war and aggression but of peace. Peace which often has to be defended from dim-bulbs.
“Peace which often has to be defended from dim-bulbs.”
Thank you for your comment and conclusion ^^
Unfortunately many people seem to be not aware of the urgent need to always defend peace.
Otherwise those “dim-bulbs” could not do a thing.
One wonders whether the Americans actually believe their own bullshit or not. Moreover they also have the EU and its pathetic minions being told what they are going to, or not going to do, as America wills it. In short the EU is a bit short on sovereignty and democracy. Finland had been one equal terms with Russia/USSR for many years since 1945 and Sweden slightly less so. But that nonsense had to end – Uncle Joe doesn’t approve of it, and these pathetic Quislings couldn’t jump high enough to stay in Uncle Joe’s books. Actually I blame the EU for letting themselves be pushed around by this Behemoth, but there you go, that’s what you get for letting the school-bully make you jump through the hoop. Oh, and BTW, the war is not going to be fought in the US its going to be fought Europe. So its all aboard for the Roller Coaster.
But firstly there is the little tricky bit about destroying Russia. Firstly those very naughty Sarmat29s which cannot be stopped and will hit any target in either Europe or North America. Then there are Russian nuclear armed submarines which can loiter anywhere submerged in the Atlantic or Pacific coasts. Then there are Russia aircraft which can operate anywhere over the huge Russian hinterland and carry a payload. These aircraft can also operate over the seas surrounding Russia. Moreover within the vast Russian hinterland there are trucks trains and various other vehicles which are carrying missiles and constantly moving around and undetectable. Finally there is the ‘Perimeter Defence’ This is a system of defences somewhere in the vast Russian plain which are deep and hardened to withstand a nuclear strike. They can withstand an American first strike and mount their own counter-strike automatically. This is because the US cannot be sure of way they sighted and movable. Then of course there is nuclear winter following such a war, hmm, can’t do much sun-bathing or grow crops in that.
Still fancy your chances? I wouldn’t put money on it.
Arnaud Bertrand’s “small compilation” of the warnings, turned out to be not so small in the long run. And most decidedly authentic and well documented.
As Ms. Johnstone says:
“You’ve got a brain between your ears and an entire internet of information at your fingertips.”
Unfortunately, it would appear to the vast majority, that taking the time/trouble to research is counter productive to their collective apathy. I am dismayed at the amount of people who say they can’t be bothered with the news and have no idea of what is happening in the world.
Humans should learn to get along with each other and help each other to improve our advancement, not destruction to our entire planet. To higher beings we are viewed as primitives and destructive. If something really bad were to happen to Earth one day, how many humans will be rescued them?
How many wars must we experience before we learn from history the wisdom of peace?
Will the war in Ukraine escalate beyond borders to WW3 with global nuclear war?
What will be the system cost to repair Ukraine after the war is over?
What nations will take advantage of Ukraine after the war?
this is from Sept. but since it´s about long-term planning:
“European think tank warns against state fragmentation and a criminalized war economy in event of a long war in Ukraine.”
hxxps://www.german-foreign-policy.com/en/news/detail/9035
“(…) A current statement from the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR), a think tank headquartered in Berlin, warns that Ukraine may succumb to state fragmentation and a “criminalized war economy. (…) It suggests investing more than €100 billion in the complete replacement of Ukrainian weaponry stocks with state-of-the-art Western-designed weapons. (…)”
Jan 20, 2022 Washington Post article quotes Biden as saying that Russia will ‘move into Ukraine soon’ because ‘Putin has to do something’. In my experience, no one ever HAS TO do anything unless there are forces at work making them do it. This is a telling quote from Biden, one whose meaning has been entirely ignored. Russia had to do something because NATO was forcing them into a position of having to do something. So ‘unprovoked’ is pure bullshit.
Given the mid term election results, I strongly suspect that the Biden Administration, the Washington, DC Republican establishment, in league with the US State Department, CIA, NSA, & Pentagon have learned nothing from their past twenty five years of aggressive Eastern European encroachment against Russia.
Ms. Johnstone has done us all a favor for her accurate recording the road we are now on. Bravo! Unfortunately, being witness to a terrible crime is not the same as stopping it. Yet, here we are today.
[File under: Hopelessly stumbling and bumbling our way into a nuclear WW III with Russia.]
thank you very much for the concise summary.
All this is bad, unless of course, NATO realized it would be good.
Thus none of the steps now in effect came about over night.
It´s not the if but the when.
The decision to station the latest nuclear bombs in Germany, to buy F-35s, to pay for the 20 year development of that piece of junk, selling super-heavy tanks to Poland, even though they can´t use those roads, and so on.
All these decisions were made long ago and despite changing governments in Europe they were never reversed.
How come no serious EU initiative was ever taken to, e.g., create a nucelar-free zone? The South Americans can do it. The Russians would have liked to have it here.
But even after 1991 that was never on the table.
So no progress since Rapacki´s idea for a nuclear-free zone from 1957.
Instead Poland has become the place most war-mongering of all.
Astonishing. Horrible. Puzzling.
What should I expect. Even a publication like Le Monde Diplomatique called such an idea nonsense just a 10 months ago.