As we watch the tragedy unfolding in Ukraine, the depth of hypocrisy in the Western world with the U.S. leading the pack comes into focus. As always, the mainstream media is promoting the big lie that everything the Empire does is in the name of moral purity. This is not the first time the media has taken its marching orders from the national security state. There was that remarkable evening when Brian Williams disgraced NBC anchor doing a rehabilitation tour on MSNBC had a metaphoric orgasm describing U.S. missiles raining down on an airfield killing Syrian people. “I am guided by the beauty of our weapons…fearsome armaments making…a brief flight. Tacky certainly but far behind in the race for top tacky comment on that kill strike. First prize goes to that lunkhead Fareed Zakaria losing his mind over the same airstrike — “I think Donald Trump became president of the United States last night. I think this was actually a big moment.” [4/7/2017]
Far different is the media response to the Russian invasion —“Russia ramps up attacks on Ukrainian cities as war enters 12th day” [New York Post, 3/7/2022]. The New York Times clucked indignantly “Russia batters key cities in widespread attacks.” [3/2/2022]. The TV media was awash in characterization of the invasion as “a deadly attack” full of “chilling images.”
Buttressing the narrative of Russian atrocities is the picture of Ukrainian heroics —housewives making Molotov cocktails, school children confronting soldiers. Images that were never part of the narrative when the invaded country was Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Syria, Yemen or Somalia. It’s different when the U.S. is doing the invading. Then the takeaway is the US right to invade a sovereign nation and violate its territorial integrity.
Long time ago there was an opportunity for the media to wax eloquent about civilians coming to the aid of other civilians in another country, Afghanistan. In a 2007 leaked video (Collateral Murder video) a U.S. Apache aircraft shoots and kills a journalist and several others in a public square in Baghdad. Why they shot them is unclear, probably faulty intelligence from the CIA, the most incompetent intelligence agency in the world. Here’s the part that would have gripped the emotions of every viewer if they had been allowed to see it. A car carrying Iraqi adults and children stops to help the victims. A selfless and heroic act in a war zone. What transpired next was must-see TV. As the rescuers jumped out of their car, the same deadly aircraft with the same mindless U.S. stooges piloting it, fired on the would-be rescuers killing them as well. It never aired on any mainstream outlet. Lucky for the survival of truth, two brave souls, Chelsea Manning and Julian Assange, weren’t about to let this horrendous war crime go undisclosed. Here’s the real kicker. For their defiance in service to the American people, both men wound up in the slammer. The publisher of the video, Julian Assange, has been imprisoned for over a decade and faces 175 years in prison demanded by a vindictive U.S. government.
What is the difference between Ukrainian mothers joining the battle for their homeland and Afghan citizens rushing to help innocent Afghan victims? First, when the U.S. is the aggressor nation committing war crimes in Mideast countries like Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Somalia and Yemen (assisting co-conspirators), heroism is neither rewarded nor even tolerated. Making matters worse, black and brown people elicit zero media handwringing than people “who look like us.” Ukrainians are white. Ergo, they look like us. The civilians in Mideast countries U.S. firepower has destroyed don’t. Consider the overwhelming approval of the media following Ukrainian president Zelensky’s answer to President Biden’s offer of help to leave Ukraine — “I don’t need a ride, I need ammunition.” Imagine how U.S. leadership and the media would have reacted if a Palestinian leader had said that.
“We aren’t going to let anyone in” Race has become the only credential for refugees trying to find safe havens in Europe. Put simply Ukrainians are welcomed, middle eastern refugees are given the cold shoulder. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán wasn’t ashamed to make that distinction chillingly clear. In December, 2021 he slammed the doors shut on refugees from the Mideast and Africa — “We aren’t going to let anyone in.” This week he told a group of Ukrainian refugees — “We’re letting everyone in.”
He joins most other European leaders wearing racism on their sleeves. Poland was effusive in greeting Ukrainians We will do everything to provide safe shelter in Poland for everyone who needs it,” including handing out sandwiches at the border. More than half of the estimated two million fleeing Ukraine have entered Poland, the rest going to Hungary, Moldova, Slovakia and Romania. They have been treated as heroes [NPR, 3/8/2022]. Contrast those heart-warming scenes with the plight of dark-skinned people trying to find a safe haven in the same places — “We have no money to buy bread, or get some medicine for my child,” [Asadullah, Afghan street vendor, BBC, 8/13/2021] The U.S. is no outlier when it comes to the treatment of black and brown people. This stupefying justification came from John Kirby, Pentagon flack describing the horrendous conditions Afghan refugees endured at the hands of the U.S. military —“We’ll be the first to admit that there were conditions at Al Udeid [US air base in Quatar] that could have been better,” Want to know what those “conditions” were that Kirby gave the back of his hand to? “…bone-tired children sprawled across a patchwork of green Army cots, some stained from babies in need of diapers. With only part of the hangar air-conditioned, the air often felt thick from the 115-degree heat outside. Plastic bottles and human waste littered bathroom stalls. [The New York Times, 11/12/2021]
In case you’re still puzzled by the treatment accorded to refugees based on their race, the Bulgarian Prime Minister Kiril Petkov revealed the true depths of racism all over the world —“These people [Ukrainians] are Europeans. These people are intelligent, they are educated people. … This is not the refugee wave we have been used to, people we were not sure about their identity, people with unclear pasts, who could have been even terrorists …”
The world’s dispossessed have no power to combat the terrible wrongs they have endured. Where are their defenders? Who will speak up for them? Sooner not later we must find our voices.
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