Before anyone gets too self righteous about the West and the response to Putin, here’s a reminder of what “we” have done
I keep watching events, like the US secretly bombing Cambodia then publicly rescuing “boat people”. Somehow it’s never the right time to discuss how those things are connected.
Yeah, I know what you mean, seems to me every adult who’s got a full belly belongs to the guilty ones’
By Chris Hedges / Original to ScheerPost
Rulers divide the world into worthy and unworthy victims, those we are allowed to pity, such as Ukrainians enduring the hell of modern warfare, and those whose suffering is minimized, dismissed, or ignored. The terror we and our allies carry out against Iraqi, Palestinian, Syrian, Libyan, Somali and Yemeni civilians is part of the regrettable cost of war. We, echoing the empty promises from Moscow, claim we do not target civilians. Rulers always paint their militaries as humane, there to serve and protect. Collateral damage happens, but it is regrettable.
This lie can only be sustained among those who are unfamiliar with the explosive ordinance and large kill zones of missiles, iron fragmentation bombs, mortar, artillery and tank shells, and belt-fed machine guns. This bifurcation into worthy and unworthy victims, as Edward Herman and Noam Chomsky point out in “Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media,” is a key component of propaganda, especially in war. The Russian-speaking population in Ukraine, to Moscow, are worthy victims. Russia is their savior: The 1.5 million refugees and the millions of Ukrainian families cowering in basements, car parks and subway stations, are unworthy “Nazis.”
It is to taint the sainthood of the worthy victims, and by extension ourselves.
We are good.
They are evil.
Worthy victims are used not only to express sanctimonious outrage, but to stoke self-adulation and a poisonous nationalism.
The cause becomes sacred, a religious crusade.
Fact-based evidence is abandoned, as it was during the calls to invade Iraq.
Charlatans, liars, con artists, fake defectors, and opportunists become experts, used to fuel the conflict.
Maybe I should get back to talking babies and growing toddlers, since I’m in their moment right now. All this is simply too utterly heart wrenchingly awful, the view from the monitor is much cooler. Back to beginnings and hope. If a hollow ‘hope’ only to be lived in the moment of today, ignoring what’s unfolding outside these walls and the hellacious future we’re cascading into.
Here’s an even better one: Overthrow: America’s Century of Regime Change from Hawaii to Iraq by Steve Kinzer. Americans are so righteous about the evil Putin, etc. but forget, or were “brainwashed” into forgetting the US government has been “Putin” for a century or more. Doesn’t make Putin’s actions okay, but exposes the hypocrisy of being righteous about it.
Hedges is generally right, although all over the place.
The usual suspects are at it again; some of the same exact people. Americans have the shortest memories in history.
Wave a Palestinian flag at an England football match and you will be thrown out. Wave a Ukrainian flag and you will be congratulated
I don’t care you take this statement, but Israel and Ukraine are ran by Jews.
More on the Jewishness of this war: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/03/10/jews-ukraine-leaving-israel-russia-invasion/
Yeah we’re all dripping with hypocrisy
Yeah but this was supposed to be 2022, not a rerun of all our mistakes reaching back to the age of discovery.
We’re kind of running out of time for figuring this out and instead we’re back to 1930/40s.
