OMNI
US, RUSSIA, UKRAINE
war ANTHOLOGY #18
April 12, 2022
Compiled by Dick Bennett for a Culture of Peace, Justice, and Ecology
CONTENTS OF US, NATO, Russia, Ukraine War Anthology #18, April 12,
2022
Control of Information in the US regarding the US, NATO, Russia,
Ukraine War
What we
mean by alternatives to official war news: that of the US War Party and its
media. We have chosen different sources.
Survey
of OMNI’s 18 R/U Anthologies, 2014-2022:
Total number of entries: 306.
Most
of these entries were necessarily from sources other than the corporate
mainstream because US mainstream newspapers support the nation in its wars.
A
few examples from #18: The Unz Review, Extra! (FAIR), CovertAction Magazine, Internationalist
360, Orinoco Tribune, The 14th Newsletter, Bulletin of the Atomic
Scientists, Multipolarista, Dissident Voice, Consortium News, UN Wire
ORIGINS, CAUSES OF THE WAR
NATO
“NATO
Is a Problem, Not The Solution.” Popular
Resistance.org
“The U.S. proxy
war in Ukraine,” Monthly Review.
US Proxy War and Imperial Strategy
US-Led Provocations
US Peace
Council Statement On Russia’s Military Intervention In Ukraine. Popular Resistance.
US DEMONIZING
RUSSIA, PUTIN. SANCTIONS
Larry C.
Johnson: “The Ukrainian Army Has Been Defeated’”. Unz Review
“Escalation
without consequences on the Op-Ed page.” FAIR
CovertAction Bulletin Podcast: “U.S. Hypocrisy—CIA
Trains Insurgents in Ukraine.”
“U.S. and NATO
allies arm neo-Nazi units in Ukraine as Foreign Policy elites yearn for Afghan-style
insurgency.” Internationalist 360
“U.S. Congress
admits Nazi role in Ukraine.” Orinoco
Tribune.
“U.S. Media
Decries Brutal Russia Invasion of Ukraine—(But) Russians Were Welcomed as
Liberators in Southern Ukraine.” CovertAction Magazine
“US Media Pushing for World War III.” Consortium News (Via Abel Tomlinson)
Scarcity of CRITICAL
THINKING (a cause of war too little taught by our public schools):
“This is not the age of certainty. We are in the time of
contradictions.” The Fourteenth
Newsletter (2022).
“Russia’s non-proliferation disinformation campaign.” Monthly Review.
“What Western leaders need to remember about Zelensky’s emotional
appeals.” Roger Peterson.
“Ukraine is brutally repressing
the left, criminalizing socialist parties, imprisoning activists.” Monthly
Review
Aggressor Nations: US Context of Russia/Ukraine War.
The United States of War: A Global
History of America's Endless Conflicts, from Columbus to the Islamic State
by David Vine.
CONSEQUENCES OF THE WAR
“Which war crimes might Russians have committed in Ukraine?” BAS (March
24, 2022). Video.
Propaganda of Hatred during Wars
“Fabricating Putin quotes and banning paraplegic athletes to undermine
Russia: how low can the West go?” Monthly Review.
Atrocities: Bucha
Joe Lauria. “Questions Abound About
Bucha Massacre.” Consortium.
“The Bucha Provocation.” Moon
of Alabama.
CENSORSHIP [both cause and consequence of war, part of the deception inseparable
from war].
Peoples
Dispatch. “Lee Camp on censoring anti-war
voices.”
“Pity the Nation.: Monthly
Review
Opposition political parties banned in Ukraine and ‘unified information
policy’ imposed. Monthly Review
ILLNESSES WORSENING
WHO issues warning over Ukraine as Russia exits HRC. UN Wire
WORLD HUNGER
Hunger crisis looms as Ukraine war drives food costs up. UN Wire
George Paulson on book The First Casualty (of war is the truth) by
Philip Knightly
POSSIBLE CONSEQUENCES
Simulations reveal an attack on Ukrainian nuclear facilities could have
possibly been worse than Chernobyl. The
Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists.
PEACE
“U.S. Leaders Claim to Care About the Suffering of the Ukrainian
People, But Will They Step Up and Make the Compromises Necessary to End the
War?” Covert Action magazine.
“An antidote to the ‘split’ in
the U.S. Peace Movement: anti-interventionism.”
Monthly Review
“Divided World: The UN Condemnation of Russia is endorsed by Countries
run by the richest, oldest, Whitest people on Earth but only 41% of the World’s
population.” Monthly Review
“Halfway to the End of the War.” Monthly
Review
“Student event: Discussing Ukraine and the future of arms control with
Michael Krepon.” Student Pugwash USA
Dawn Stover. “10 must-read
Twitter threads on the war in Ukraine.” The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists.
TEXTS #18
ORIGINS, CAUSES OF THE WAR
NATO Is a Problem, Not The
Solution
By
Yves Engler. PopularResistance.org (3-24-22). While in no way excusing Russia’s criminal
invasion, NATO expansion eastward increased its likelihood. Although we’ll
never know if the war would not have happened under different circumstances,
after a month of Russian violence against Ukraine the two countries’
negotiators have reportedly agreed that it will reject joining NATO
as part of a peace pact. Russia has long objected to NATO’s eastward expansion,
particularly Ukraine’s de facto incorporation into the alliance. It repeatedly
raised objections to NATO encircling its territory in the months leading up to
its illegal invasion. -more-
US Peace Council Statement On Russia’s Military Intervention In Ukraine. By U.S. Peace Council. PopulaResistance.org
(3-26-22). What we all hoped would not
happen has happened. The Russian Federation sent troops into Ukraine on
February 24 in response to decades of relentless US-led NATO provocation. The present situation puts many serious,
fundamental questions before the global peace movement. A fierce propaganda
campaign, long simmering with Russiagate and the onset of a new Cold War,
demonizing the Russian president and state has intensified. Wholesale
condemnation of Russia has assumed global proportions, instigated by the US and
allies, and supported by their sycophantic media. -more-
US DEMONIZING RUSSIA, PUTIN. SANCTIONS
Larry C. Johnson: 'The Ukrainian Army Has Been Defeated'
By Mike Whitney, The
Unz Review. There is
an air of desperation in Washington. Besides trying ban all things Russian, the
Biden Administration is trying to
bully China, India and Saudi Arabia. I do not see any of those countries
falling into line. I believe the Biden crew made a fatal mistake by trying to demonize all things and all people
Russian. If anything, this is uniting the Russian people behind Putin and
they are ready to dig in for a long struggle. I am shocked at the
miscalculation in thinking economic sanctions
on Russia would bring them to their knees. The opposite is
true. -more-
“Escalation without consequences on the Op-Ed page.”
Corporate
media outlets are calling for the United States and its allies to react to
Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine by escalating the war.
Originally published: FAIR (Fairness
& Accuracy in Reporting) by
Gregory Shupak (March 22, 2022 ). Posted Mar 25, 2022.
WarRussia, Ukraine, United StatesNewswire
“Corporate media outlets
are calling for the United States and its allies to react to Russia’s illegal
invasion of Ukraine by escalating the war. The opinion pages are awash with
pleas to pump ever-more deadly weaponry into the conflict, to choke Russian
civilians with sanctions, and even to institute a “no-fly zone.” That such
approaches gamble with thousands, and possibly millions, of lives doesn’t shake
the resolve of the press’s armchair generals.”
CovertAction Bulletin Podcast: “U.S. Hypocrisy—CIA
Trains Insurgents in Ukraine.” As the US government continues to say it does not want U.S. or
NATO forces coming into direct conflict with Russian troops, a recent report in
Yahoo News revealed that since 2015, the CIA has been overseeing a secret
intensive training program in the U.S. for elite Ukrainian special operations
forces who are trained for insurgency.
What is the real purpose of this CIA program? And what does it
actually say about U.S. intentions in the region?
In the latest episode of CovertAction Bulletin, we discuss the history of this decades-long CIA training
program in Ukraine, and more. Joining the show is Walter Smolarek, of the
podcast The Socialist Program.
We also discuss Ukranian President Voldymyr Zelensky’s speech
Sunday night where he denied Ukranian involvement in the Holocaust, the recent
disturbing tweet from Secretary Blinken blaming Yemeni people for the ongoing
U.S.-backed Saudi war in Yemen, and the role that U.S. intelligence agencies
have played in cyber attacks.
For
patrons who sign up for the CovertAction Bulletin at our patreon site, for as little as $3 per
month you can also listen to our exclusive interview with author, investigator,
journalist and poet Douglas Valentine, whose multiple books include The
CIA As Organized Crime, The Phoenix Program, The
Strength of the Pack, among other titles.
With Douglas, we take a look at the recent revelation in the
mainstream media that the CIA is training insurgents in Ukraine and step back
to look at how this fits in the larger pattern of CIA covert operations. We
also discuss Doug's book entitled CIA As Organized Crime and
dive deeper into an overarching view of how the CIA operates and its playbook
in Ukraine. And finally, Doug addresses the role of the U.S. security state in
the "War on Drugs." […]
The
post CovertAction Bulletin Podcast:
U.S. Hypocrisy—CIA Trains Insurgents in Ukraine appeared
first on CovertAction Magazine.
Alex
Rubenstein.
“U.S. and NATO allies arm neo-Nazi units in Ukraine as Foreign Policy
elites yearn for Afghan-style insurgency.” Internationalist 360
(March 20, 2022). Posted Mar
23, 2022. Editor. Mronline.org (3-24-22).
Corporate U.S. media and foreign policy hardliners want to
create a new Afghanistan in the middle of Europe by flooding Ukraine with
weapons. The arms industry is very pleased.
Culture,
Ideology,
Strategy,
WarUkraine,
United
StatesNewswireNeo-Nazi, neo-Nazi Azov regiment,
North Atlantic Treaty
Organization (NATO)
Robert
Parry .
“U.S. Congress admits Nazi role in Ukraine.” Orinoco Tribune (12 June 2015). Reposted: March 21, 2022). Mronline.org (3-24-22).
Fascism, State
Repression, Strategy, WarUkraine,
United
StatesNewswireNeo-Nazi, neo-Nazi Azov regiment.
When even the hawkish House of Representatives can’t
stomach these Nazi storm troopers who have served as Kiev’s tip of the spear
against the ethnic Russian population of eastern
Ukraine, what does that say about the honesty and integrity of the New York Times when it finds these
same Nazis so admirable?
|
|
|
|
[This is a report from
Sonja Vandenende, a Dutch journalist who was embedded with Russian troops in
southeastern Ukraine. Previously, Sonja reported on the ground in Syria for
CAM. Her reporting substantiates that of Patrick Lancaster, a Russian-speaking U.S.
Navy veteran whose reporting on the war in Donbass for eight years is respected
by investigative journalists. CAM’s mission is to bring to your attention
alternative narratives gleaned by eyewitness accounts—even if they could be
misconstrued as pro-Russian.—Editors]
Last week I was embedded with the Russian army and visited two
towns in southeastern Ukraine. The first town was called Henichesk, a port city
along the Sea of Azov in Kherson Oblast (province) of southern Ukraine,
bordering on Crimea.
The Russian army, patrolling the city, went with us—the embedded
journalists—for protection. But actually the protection was not really needed;
the people in Henichesk, at least the majority with whom I spoke, were very
happy that the Russian army was there.
The people that I spoke to all said the same thing: They felt
protected from the criminal gangs, with their Nazi ideology, who raged the
towns. They in turn hoped that Ukraine will prosper again. […]
The post U.S. Media Decries Brutal Russia
Invasion of Ukraine—Yet an Intrepid Reporter Finds that the Russians Were
Welcomed as Liberators in the Southern Ukrainian City of Henichesk along the
Sea of Azov appeared first on CovertAction Magazine.
Abel Tomlinson. Here is an excellent
article on how the US Corporate Media is pushing toward World War 3.
JAKE JOHNSON.
“US
Media Pushing for World War III.” March
20, 2022. "The
mainstream media is repeating the same mistakes it made 20 years ago in the
lead-up to the U.S. invasion of Iraq," argued one critic. https://consortiumnews.com/2022/03/20/us-media-pushing-for-world-war-iii/
In the run-up to and during the Bush
administration's catastrophic invasion of Iraq, corporate media outlets were
accused of acting as stenographers for the White House, amplifying official
justifications for the attack—which were lies—while stifling dissenting
voices. Today, having apparently learned no lessons—or the wrong ones—from
Iraq, reporters for corporate newspapers and cable TV programs are yet again
facing criticism for their coverage of a war, this time one in which the White
House has vowed not to involve U.S. troops.
"Much of cable news has become nonstop cheerleading
for the U.S. to declare war on Russia."
During briefings held at
the White House over the past week as Russia ramped up its assault on Ukraine,
correspondents have incessantly pushed Press Secretary Jen Psaki on President
Joe Biden's refusal to escalate U.S. involvement in the war even further,
questioning the administration's refusal to impose a no-fly zone and send MiG-29 fighter jets to Ukraine.
By contrast, very few questions have centered on
the diplomatic talks between Russia and
Ukraine and what the U.S. is doing to facilitate the ongoing negotiations. MORE https://consortiumnews.com/2022/03/20/us-media-pushing-for-world-war-iii/
"The lesson that
national American media outlets have failed to learn is that their critical
role in our democracy is more than just questioning 'official'
narratives," she added. "It is also remaining critical, or even just
acknowledging the confirmation bias produced by the corporate war racketeering in Washington that
drives policymakers and the American public to think that our only choices in
the face of insecurity and conflict are more war or doing nothing."
[Scarcity of CRITICAL THINKING (a
cause of war too little taught by our public schools, a deficiency increased by
war)]
Vijay
Prashad. “This is not the age of certainty. We are in the time of contradictions.” The Fourteenth Newsletter (2022).
It is hard to fathom the depths of our time,
the terrible wars, and the confounding information that whizzes by without much
wisdom. Certainties that flood the airwaves and the internet are easy to come
by, but are they derived from an honest assessment of the war in Ukraine and
the sanctions against Russian banks (part of a broader United States sanctions
policy that now afflicts approximately thirty countries)?
“Russia’s non-proliferation disinformation campaign.” Even though specific claims about Ukraine seeking weapons of
mass destruction are blatant falsehoods they should not be dismissed as
inconsequential, says Abigail Stowe-Thurston, project lead at CRDF
Global. They muddy the waters, making the truth more difficult to
discern. Read more. Abigail Stowe-Thurston. Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists.
March 22, 2022. Mronline.org (3-27-22).
|
“What Western leaders need to remember about Zelensky’s
emotional appeals.” Ukrainian President
Volodymyr Zelensky has made repeated, emotional calls for help as
Russia continues its invasion. But if Western policymakers leave their
emotions about war unchecked, they may not make the best policy decisions,
says MIT political science professor Roger Petersen. Read more. |
Ben Norton. “Ukraine is brutally repressing the left, criminalizing socialist parties,
imprisoning activists.” Posted Mar 26,
2022.
Multipolarista (March 21,
2022 ). Editor.
Mronline.org (3-27-22).
Ideology, Inequality, State Repression, WarRussia, UkraineNewswireAzov, David Frum, Left, Nazis, Volodymyr Zelensky
Ukraine’s Western-backed government has criminalized
socialist political parties, while its Nazi-infiltrated intelligence agencies
are hunting down leftists, accusing them of being too soft on Russia. This comes after Kiev gave state honors to WWII-era
Ukrainian fascists who collaborated with Hitler.
Aggressor Nations: US Context of Russia/Ukraine War.
The
United States of War: A Global History of America's Endless Conflicts, from
Columbus to the Islamic State by David
Vine.
October
2020.
About the Book
From Our Blog
About the Author
ReviewsTable of
Contents Learn MoreMediaRelated Books
Publisher’s Description
The United
States has been at war or has invaded other countries almost every year since
independence. In The United States of War, David Vine traces
this pattern of bloody conflict from Columbus’s 1494 arrival in Guantanamo Bay
through the 250-year expansion of a global US empire. Drawing on historical and
firsthand anthropological research in fourteen countries and territories, The
United States of War demonstrates how US leaders across generations
have locked the United States in a self-perpetuating system of permanent war by
constructing the world’s largest-ever collection of foreign military bases—a
global matrix that has made offensive interventionist wars more likely. Beyond exposing
the profit-making desires, political interests, racism, and toxic masculinity
underlying the country’s relationship to war and empire, The United
States of War shows how the long history of U.S. military expansion
shapes our daily lives, from today’s multi-trillion–dollar wars to the
pervasiveness of violence and militarism in everyday U.S. life. The book
concludes by confronting the catastrophic toll of American wars—which have left
millions dead, wounded, and displaced—while offering proposals for how we can
end the fighting.
CONSEQUENCES OF THE WAR
“Which war crimes might Russians have committed in Ukraine?” BAS
(March 24, 2022). Video. Defining war crimes.
What are the
actual Russian war crimes that the International Criminal Court might
decide warrant prosecuting? Here's a look at the language defining some of the
war crimes that might have been caught on camera in this heavily documented
war. Read more.
Propaganda
of Hatred during Wars [Like so many other aspects of this
anthology, “Mobilizing a population to vilify and hate a targeted enemy,”
operates equally as a cause of war.]
“Fabricating Putin quotes and banning paraplegic athletes to undermine
Russia: how low can the West go?”
Dissident Voice by Rick
Sterling (April 7, 2022 ). Posted Apr 09, 2022.
Political
Economy, State Repression, Strategy,
WarRussia,
Ukraine,
United
StatesNewswireFake News, Russia-Ukraine War, Sanctions
Editor. Mronline.org (4-10-22).
Mobilizing a population to vilify and hate a targeted enemy
is a tactic that leaders have used since before the dawn of human history, and
it is being used to demonize Russia and Vladimir Putin in the current conflict.
Atrocities:
Bucha
Joe Lauria. “Questions Abound About Bucha Massacre.” April 4, 2022. Special to Consortium News.
https://consortiumnews.com/2022/04/04/questions-abound-about-bucha-massacre/
The West has made a snap judgment about who is responsible for the
massacre at the Ukrainian town of Bucha with calls for more stringent sanctions
on Russia, but the question of guilt is far from decided, writes Joe
Lauria.
Within hours of news Sunday that there had been a massacre at
Bucha, a town 63 kms north of the Ukrainian capital, the verdict was in:
Russian troops had senselessly slaughtered hundreds of innocent civilians as
they withdrew from the town, leaving their bodies littering the streets.
Unlike their judicial systems, when it comes to war, Western
nations dispense with the need for investigations and evidence and pronounce
guilt based on political motives: Russia is guilty. Case closed.
Except the case hasn’t even been opened yet and the sentence is
already being proposed. French President Emmanuel Macron, for instance, has
called for Russian coal and oil to be banned from Europe. “There are very clear
indications of war crimes,” he said on France Inter radio Monday. “What
happened in Bucha demands a new round of sanctions and very clear measures, so
we will co-ordinate with our European partners, especially with Germany.”
Other voices are now perilously calling for the U.S. to go to
war with Russia over the incident.
“This is genocide,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told
Face the Nation on CBS. “Mothers of Russians should see this. See what bastards
you’ve raised. Murderers, looters, butchers,” he added on Telegram.
Russia has categorically denied it had anything to do with the
massacre.
Where to Start MORE https://consortiumnews.com/2022/04/04/questions-abound-about-bucha-massacre/
“THE BUCHA PROVOCATION.” By Moon of Alabama. April 6, 2022 VIA PopularResistance.org. Educate!
Above photo[deleted]: Matthew
Hatcher/SOPA Images/REX/Shutterstock.
Update: If The Pentagon Can Not Confirm The Bucha Tales,
Who Can?
This was the most important one of yesterday’s news items.
Pentagon can’t independently
confirm atrocities in Ukraine’s Bucha, official says
WASHINGTON, April 4 (Reuters) – The U.S. military is not in a
position to independently confirm Ukrainian accounts of atrocities by Russian
forces against civilians in the town of Bucha, …
…
“The Pentagon can’t independently and single handedly confirm that, but we’re
also not in any position to refute those claims.”If the Pentagon, which
includes the Defense Intelligence Agency and the National Security Agency,
could not confirm what the government in Kiev claimed, who else could? Certainly not the European minions who
reacted to those dubious claims by removing more
Russian embassy personal from their countries.
The U.S. is again pushing the Europeans into suiciding their
economies. The U.S. would of course be the only country that would gain from
that.
Its over. The
Ukraine has lost the war. Its navy, air force and defense industry no longer exist. The
Russia air force is doing hundreds of bombing runs per night eliminating any
fuel and ammunition depot that is left in Ukraine.
Without fuel tanks and trucks are immobilized. Without ammunition
artillery falls silent. The heavy Ukrainian units along Donbas are now unable
to do maneuver warfare. They can not even flee. Replenishment and reserves are
unable to reach them. They have the choice of giving up or getting destroyed in
place. Anyone who is still pushing more
weapons into Ukraine or tells Kiev to prolong the war is putting more Ukrainian
lives at risk for zero potential gain. That’s
criminal.
The Bucha ‘Russian’ atrocities
propaganda onslaught may have worked well in the ‘west’ but it lacks evidence
that Russia had anything to do with it.
The former Indian ambassador M.K.
Bhadrakumar calls it an outright fake:
An indignant Moscow has angrily demanded a United Nations Security
Council meeting on Monday over the allegations of atrocities by Russian troops in
areas around Kiev through the past month. Prima facie, this allegation is fake
news but it can mould misperceptions by the time it gets exposed as
disinformation.
A Tass report says: “The Russian Defense Ministry said
on Sunday that the Russian Armed Forces had left Bucha, located in the Kiev
region, on March 30, while “the evidence of crimes” emerged only four days
later, after Ukrainian Security Service officers had arrived in the town. The
ministry stressed that on March 31, the town’s Mayor Anatoly Fedoruk had
confirmed in a video address that there were no Russian troops in Bucha.
However, he did not say a word about civilians shot dead on the street with their
hands tied behind their backs.”
Even more surprising is that within minutes of the
“breaking news”, western leaders — heads of state, foreign ministers, former
politicians — popped up with statements duly kept ready and only based on the
videos, seconds-long videos and a clutch of photos, ready to pour accusations. No expert opinion was
sought, no forensic work was done, no opportunity given to the accused to be
heard.
I had yesterday, at 15:09
UTC, posted a timeline of the
events in Bucha on Twitter. Here is an expanded version.
Mar 30 – Ru troops leave Bucha
Mar 31 – Mayor of Bucha announces town ‘liberated’, makes no
mention of atrocities.
Bucha liberated from Russian
invaders – mayor – Ukrinform
The
mayor of Bucha in Kyiv region, Anatoliy Fedoruk, stated that the town had been
liberated from Russian troops.
Fedoruk said this in his video address posted on Facebook,
Ukrinform reports.
“March
31 will go down in the history of our Bucha community as the Day of Liberation.
…”
Apr 1/2 – Azov Nazis enter Bucha
Scenes of desperation and
death as the Russians retreat from suburbs outside Kyiv. – New York
Times
Ukrainian
soldiers from the Azov battalion walked through the remnants of a Russian
military convoy in the recently liberated town of Bucha on Saturday, just
outside the capital after the Russians withdrew.
Apr 3 – Ukr MinDef publishes video of ‘Russian’ atrocities
Here are the latest
developments in the war in Ukraine. – New York Times, Apr 3
Footage
posted by Ukraine’s Defense Ministry and photographs from news agencies showed
the bodies of men in civilian clothes on the streets of Bucha, a town northwest
of Kyiv. Images showed some corpses with hands bound behind their back.
A screenshot of the original NYT piece was attached to my tweet. It included the sentence:
The New York Times was unable to independently
verify the assertions by Ukraine’s Defense Ministry and other officials.
The above tweet went viral with more than 3,000 retweets and nearly
5,000 likes. People obviously recognize the importance of the above timeline
for the question of who killed whom, when and how.
Gonzalo Lira, who is in Karkiv, has previously directed a professionally made movie. In this video he asserts that the main ‘Russian’
atrocity video, which shows cars driving down a street strewn with dead bodies,
is of a professional high production quality that can only be achieved with
high end equipment. He also remarks on additional evidence from the scenes that
points to a false flag operation.
Lira comes to the conclusion that the Azov Nazis have killed some
people in Bucha that had been too friendly with the Russian ‘occupiers’ and are
now blaming Russia for it.
Azov gangs are known for such atrocities.
Based on the above timeline I concur with Lira’s conclusion.
CENSORSHIP
Peoples Dispatch. “Lee Camp on censoring anti-war voices.” Mronline.org
(4-9-22).
As the world moves dangerously close to global violent
conflict, anti-war journalists have been banned and censored in Europe and the
U.S. One of these banned voices, Lee Camp, discusses the development and why it
is so dangerous.
Scott
Ritter. “Pity the Nation.”
Editor. Mronline.org
(3-25-22). [Censoring Iraq War
opposition repeated today.]
Fact-based arguments Scott Ritter made challenging the case
for war against Iraq were effectively silenced. Today he sees the same template
in play towards anyone challenging the dogma of “Putinism.”
“Opposition political parties banned in Ukraine and ‘unified information
policy’ imposed.” Editor. Mronline.org (3-25-22).
Zelensky justified the ban on mostly left and
anti-NATO parties in the country by claiming that they had alleged links with
Russia, despite the fact that most of these parties have publicly opposed
Russian intervention.
ILLNESSES WORSENING
WHO issues warning over Ukraine as Russia exits HRC. UN Wire (4-8-22).
Chronic and
preventable diseases will begin claiming lives in Ukraine if Russian forces do
not halt attacks on health care facilities and allow humanitarian aid to reach
hard-hit regions of the country, warns the World Health Organization while also
noting that it is making contingency plans for chemical attacks in Ukraine.
Members of the United Nations General Assembly this week voted to suspend Russia
from the UN Human Rights Council over its invasion of Ukraine -- prompting
Russia to quit the global body -- and UN Under-Secretary-General for
Humanitarian Affairs Martin Griffiths says he is "not optimistic"
that a cease-fire between the two countries will be reached soon. Full Story: Voice of America (4/7), Reuters (4/7), The Associated Press (4/7), The Guardian (London) (4/7)
WORLD HUNGER
Hunger crisis looms as Ukraine war drives food costs up. UN Wire (4-8-22).
Food prices
have climbed to the highest levels ever recorded by the Food and Agriculture
Organization as Russia's invasion of Ukraine continues to disrupt grain exports
from both countries. Shortages and supply chain issues worldwide have driven up
the risk of malnutrition in food-insecure regions of Africa, Asia and the
Middle East, and UNICEF warns more than 9.1 million children require
nutritional aid in Yemen, Sudan, Lebanon and Syria -- countries most affected
by the crisis in Ukraine.
Full Story: The Associated Press (4/7), The Associated Press (4/8)
George Paulson on The First Casualty,
Hi all,
I'm currently reading a book that seems quite relevant to
this discussion. It was written by the Australian writer Philip
Knightley and
is titled The First Casualty, the first casualty of war
being the truth. It traces the history of the war correspondent and what
we would call media coverage of war starting with the Crimean War. It was
written years ago but was updated with a couple of new chapters to cover
the wars in Yugoslavia and Iraq. I hesitate to ever recommend a book if I haven't
finished it, but I'll make an exception for this one. It is taking me a
relatively long time to finish because it is so full of fascinating information
and details, all of which are important. I'm only about halfway through
the book (currently on World War II, if that helps). The big
takeaway is that it is always extremely difficult even under the most
optimal of circumstances to get reasonably accurate information about a war,
especially while it is still going on. In every war, without exception, the
warring sides (and their allies) have a vested interest--an interest that they
themselves often rightly view as existential--in doing everything they possibly
can to ensure that only information that helps their cause and hurts the cause
of their enemy is made available and reported on. The information that the
public consumes about war is always subject to and deeply colored by what we
would all call "censoring" by the interested warring powers as well
as the personal prejudices of the war correspondents themselves. A few
examples out of many to illustrate what I'm saying. The English war
correspondents covering the American Civil War were for the most part
pro-Confederate and, because of this fact, the British newspaper-reading public
got a very distorted view of the war. The war correspondents from the UK and
the USA covering the Russian Civil War were almost all very anti-Bolshevik and
because of this fact, the British and American newspaper-reading public got a
very distorted view of the war. Most of the Western correspondents
covering China during the Second World War and subsequent Chinese Civil War
were supportive of Chaing Kai-shek's Nationalist government and were hostile to
or at best ignored Mao's Communists, giving their readers a distorted view of the
war. In all three of the above cases, the newspaper reading public was
surprised by the eventual outcome. In World War I, state censorship of
all aspects (and I mean all) of the war was taken to new and previously
unimaginable heights. The British authorities were the absolute masters
of perfecting the art of war propaganda, so much so that others copied them
(Goebbels based much of the propaganda model the Nazis would use in WWII on the
British model). They routinely lied about all aspects of the war, all the time,
and because they severely restricted what war correspondents were allowed to
hear and see, the newspaper-reading public was consistently misinformed about
the course of the war. And even when war correspondents knew the truth
about a battle, for example, they would almost always self-censor either out of
a sense of patriotism or for fear of losing their jobs. Perhaps the
greatest British contribution to the art of war propaganda and shaping the
narrative was the perfection of the atrocity story. They were marvelously
successful at painting the Germans as brutal inhuman monsters and
demonizing the Kaiser as a barbarian, a madman, a lunatic, a monster, a
criminal. While this may have helped win the war, the long-term result was
that people were understandably reluctant to believe stories of German
atrocities the next go around.
I do not know the truth about the
atrocities in Ukraine you are all discussing. And neither do you.
The US and its NATO allies are all pro-Ukrainian and anti-Russian. Western
media is overwhelmingly pro-Ukrainian and anti-Russian. The
Ukrainian government has an obvious (and often openly stated) interest in
trying to get other powers like the US and its NATO allies to directly
intervene in its war with Russia. The classic way this has usually
been done is with the atrocity story. This does not mean that the
Russians did not commit the atrocities you are all discussing. It
just means that the governments of Ukraine, the USA and its NATO allies, plus
the vast majority of Western media correspondents reporting or commenting on
the war all have a vested interest in claiming that the Russians did, in fact,
commit them.
The first casualty of war is the
truth.
Peace, George
POSSIBLE CONSEQUENCES
“Simulations reveal an attack on Ukrainian nuclear facilities could have
possibly been worse than Chernobyl.”
The Bulletin of the Atomic
Scientists. March 24, 2022.
If
attacks on Ukraine's Zaporizhzhya nuclear power complex had caused a meltdown
or spent fuel pool fire, simulations show that large population relocations
could have been required in up to five countries. Read more.
PEACE
U.S. Leaders Claim to Care About
the Suffering of the Ukrainian People, But Will They Step Up and Make the
Compromises Necessary to End the War? By Jack Gilroy on Apr 08, 2022.
The U.S. media have been saturated by reports
of Ukrainian suffering since the Russian invasion of February 24, 2022, and of
heroic Ukrainian resistance. Even progressive media outlets and politicians
have favored more arms supplies to Ukraine in this climate.
When Congress passed a massive $13.6 billion
aid package to Ukraine, at least half of which was designated for military
supplies, only three congressmen voted nay. Many of the people who turned up at
anti-war demonstrations following the invasion advocated for more weapons
supplies to Ukraine or even a no-fly zone.
But will these weapons actually end the war
by contributing to the defeat of the Russians, or will they prolong it and
deepen the suffering of the Ukrainians?
The answer appears to be the latter. Only
compassion and compromise will end the suffering, not more killing and
wounding, not more millions of refugees and devastation.
Unfortunately, the American media have helped
condition the public through its one-sided coverage to support sending more weapons
to Ukraine and to deprioritize negotiation and compromise—even if only the
latter can help end the suffering and misery of the Ukrainian people. […]
The post U.S. Leaders Claim to Care About
the Suffering of the Ukrainian People, But Will They Step Up and Make the
Compromises Necessary to End the War? appeared first
on CovertAction Magazine.
“An antidote to the “split” in the U.S. Peace Movement:
anti-interventionism.” John V. Walsh. Mronline.org (4-9-22).
Massachusetts Peace Action, a venerable part
of the U.S. Peace Movement, has been around since the 1980s and its
predecessors date back to the 1950s. Its voice is heeded and it represents most
of the shared opinions of the liberal and progressive U.S. peace movement.
Editor.
Mronline.org (3-31-22).
Just as the imperial core of North America,
Europe and Japan does not represent the world in their population numbers,
demographics, wealth, or power, neither does the imperial core speak for the
world on crucial issues of war, peace, justice, and international law. Indeed
the Global South has already spoken to the Global North so many times, in so
many ways, with patience, persistence and eloquence, to little avail.
Editor.
Mronline.org (3-27-22).
Russia and Ukraine are taking the first steps
towards ending the war through direct and video negotiations. After the past
four rounds, progress was registered between the negotiators, notwithstanding
the continuous clanging of arms.
|
“Student event: Discussing Ukraine and the future of arms control with
Michael Krepon.” Join
this discussion on Mar. 26 with Michael Krepon, co-founder of
the Stimson Center. Learn about how the war in Ukraine is impacting arms
control and find out steps that can be taken to reverse the course. This
interactive talk is hosted by Student Pugwash USA. Read more. |
|
Dawn Stover.
“10 must-read Twitter threads on the war in Ukraine.” The
Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists.
March 21, 2022. https://thebulletin.org/2022/03/10-must-read-twitter-threads-on-the-war-in-ukraine/?utm_source=Newsletter&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=ThursdayNewsletter03242022&utm_content=NuclearRisk_10MustReadTwitterThreads_03212022 If
you follow any of the Bulletin’s editors on
Twitter, you know that they regularly retweet threads they find particularly
interesting. This article highlights some thoughtful threads on the war in
Ukraine that were chosen by Bulletin
contributing editor Dawn Stover. Read more. |
[This article
displays the obvious complexity in the internet age not only of seemingly
countless “threads” of opinions but of threads retweeted!. Here are Stover’s Keywords (Twitter, Ukraine, biolabs, nuclear war) and Topics (Biosecurity, Nuclear
Energy, Nuclear
Weapons, Nuclear
Risk). The final tweeter cited offers
this sympathetic comment:
@MadisonUCS As a nuclear weapons abolition organizer, I can spend
basically my entire workday thinking about #nuclearwar. Here is
how I take care of my mental health, plus some tips for folks who might be
experiencing extra stress, worry, and anxiety right now. –Dick]
Contents of #17
HTTPS://JAMESRICHARDBENNETT.BLOGSPOT.COM/2022/04/OMNI-US-RUSSIA-UKRAINE-COLD-WAR-II_8.HTML
Origins, CAUSES of the war
Sonja Van den Ende. Russian Perspective for Donbass
republics of
Donetsk and Luhansk.
Editor of MR. Origins of New Cold
War.
Jacques Baud Interviewed by Thomas Kaiser.
US: Prevent German and
Russian Cooperation.
US, the Biggest Spoiler, Welcomes War between Ukraine and Russia.
TeleSUR. Washington’s Role in Ukraine
Jeopardizes World Stability.
Sanctions.
EU Continues to Send Weapons to Ukraine.
Nazis in Ukraine. Putin’s Aim to
De-Nazify Ukraine.
Patrick Lancaster. Ukrainian and Azov
Forces.
Ukraine: Obama, Trump, Biden.
Jonathon Cook. Biden on Regime Change of
War Criminal Putin.
consequences of the
war
Atrocities: Bucha.
Mision Verdad, Art Hobson, Evan Bukey.
Nuclear Risks: NIRS.
Food Crisis, Hunger: Michelle
Nichols, Ukrainian Farmers.
Economic War: Prabir Purkayastha on US Dollar.
PEACEFUL FUTURE?
Constructive Peace Talks Now.
Negotiations after Ceasefire: 3 Articles from the Bulletin of the Atomic
Scientists.
END US, RUSSIA, UKRAINE
WAR ANTHOLOGY #18
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