As the Ukraine crisis, or actually the latest chapter in a virtual novel of crises in that region, comes to a new plateau, I’ve not much to say that isn’t repetitive.
Vladimir Putin is an autocratic jerk. Russia is a confused, internally torn and politically pulsating mess: a reflection of the rest of the world. Ukraine is a country led by a guy who became famous as a comedian and only entered politics in 2019 when he was elected leader of his country. He’s a fumbling tantrum thrown by a population sick of corrupt leaders and the tension of perpetual diplomatic crisis.
In short, it’s a mess.
At this point, I’ve no idea what will finally happen and I’m not alone. No one, including probably Vladimir Putin, knows for sure.
What I do know is that the government of the United States and its fawning media are demonstrably steeped in a culture of mind-boggling hypocrisy and it’s galling that so few people are calling them out.
The whole point is Putin’s support of what our media continues to call “Russian backed separatists” in two regions of Ukraine that have, at this point, declared themselves separate republics.
This kind of mess happens all the time in many parts of the world because many of these countries aren’t really products of natural historical and cultural development: they are patched-together products of convenience and acquisition by powerful super-countries. They aren’t unified culturally or historically and, under stress and pressure, they break apart.
The hint here is when our media talks about “Russian backed separatists”, they are admitting that there are, in fact, separatists in those declared republics. There are real people who don’t want to be part of Ukraine and are willing to die for that right. While Putin may be using the situation to a diplomatic advantage this is not a Russian plot; it’s a real conflict.
How these conflicts arise is a great topic of discussion for us all in the long-term because maybe that has some relevance to the United States and its hopefully impending revolution. But that’s not what I’m talking about here.
What catches my attention is how these guys in Washington are screaming at Putin for supporting those two separating “republics” going so far as to call it “criminal behavior” or “cynical pretext”. I think it may, in fact, be a pretext but…yo!…pot kettle black!!!
You can, if you wanted to engage in a painful exercise, make a long list of countries, regions, movements, etc. in which the United States government has supported opposition groups (usually right-wing) in their attempt to overthrow legitimate, often elected, governments. It’s one of our government’s favorites in its bag of immoral tactics and it’s the one that most people from other countries point out when a U.S. person tries to claim moral superiority.
Just look at Latin America alone! Venezuela, Panama, Honduras, Chile, Cuba…the list goes on and on. It also incorporates countries and situations in other regions of the world including Asia and, to an obscene extent, Africa. We know little about Africa because our media doesn’t cover that continent but read any news source from another country and you’ll get a taste of what’s what. It’s unbelievable!
It will surprise no reader here that I think the answer to this problem is to get a new government and a new system. But in the meantime we can demand that this coverage be honest and denounce it when it’s not because right now it’s not honest. None of it! It starts from a disingenuous staging point and travels to a point of near criminality.
Remember an important historical lesson: Iraq. George W. Bush lied about Saddam Hussein’s weaponry of “mass destruction” and his intentions to use it. Using the support of prominent journalists, including the New York Times, he got the people of this country to go gung ho on one of the most destructive and protracted wars in U.S. history. And it was all a lie. This was a war for absolutely no reason.
That’s what a lying government and a cynical, stupidly fawning media can do. That’s the harm. Only this time, this isn’t a small country torn by internal strife; this a major nuclear power that is, like it or not, pretty unified internally.
Isn’t it frustrating to search and search among the most-heard and “authoritative” voices of our time and not be able to find an honest one? Isn’t it scary to think that humanity could be in its end-game and it looks like this?