“The pattern, of course, is unmistakable.
It begins with sanctimonious finger-wagging, economic sanctions and incendiary
rhetoric…” Mike Whitney
I don’t have a
good sense for what is happening in the Ukraine, though I suspect the US is up
to its ears in back-channel intrigue. On ABC News recently ace correspondent
Martha Raddatz said, “Putin’s ruthless aggression against Ukraine.” Is this how
the people of Ukraine view things or is that assessment of Putin being fed to
ABC News directly from the Pentagon and the CIA? The US has an agenda in the
region – and likely played a role in the coup in Kiev -- that has little or
nothing to do with the well being of the people living there. Vice President
Biden’s recent comments – accompanied by sanctimonious finger wagging -- about
no country having the right to seize territory from another by force are
risible. Given the history of the past decade, the US is the last nation to
talk about the use of force.
How soon we
forget our own depredations.
What’s really
going on here? Is Putin an evil tyrant hell bent on annexing territory and
reconstituting the Russian empire, or is he merely reacting rationally to
prevent Russia from being surrounded by NATO bases? From Putin’s vantage point,
the saber rattling, military exercises and economic sanctions instigated by
Washington must seem ominous.
As journalist
Mike Whitney points out in an article he wrote for the website Counterpunch, this is how it begins. Aside
from Counterpunch and Truthout, the American media continually
refers to the situation in Ukraine as a “crisis,” a word so overused by talking
heads – such as the aforementioned Martha Raddatz – that it’s meaningless.
Providing any historical context is far too laborious a task for the mainstream
media – after all -- there are missing airplanes and celebrity breakups and
dance competitions and royal infants to cover in excruciating detail.
What I find
astonishing is how quickly the US lurches from one international emergency to the next, from Syria and
its stockpiles of deadly chemical agents, to Iran’s purported nuclear
ambitions, to Putin’s territorial designs on the Crimea and Ukraine. The mortal
enemy of the US, and by extension of freedom, liberty and capitalism, seems to
change from week to week.
We are ever ready
to unleash the dogs of war.
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