Disinformation on Ukraine
The Disinforming Outlook
Accusations and counter-accusations have become one of the features of the current conflict in Ukraine. There are many disturbing elements, none more disturbing than the potential of the disinformation to arouse passions, disorient and confuse people and even totally overwhelm them.
While most recipients of the reports are in no position to independently know what is happening there, it is clear the officials of the U.S./NATO countries, their media and acolytes, and Ukraine itself, have become past masters at blaming Russia for atrocities. The Russians are accused of committing war crimes which never seem to be investigated by impartial bodies following professional forensic standards. Many are found to be false but then the officials, their media and acolytes just move on to the next. They are successful at inflaming passions and covering up, remaining silent about the known crimes of the forces they support or whitewash them and then spew hatred against Russia to justify the commission of even more crimes which they then also blame on the Russians.
The more the crimes blamed on
Russia are exposed, the more extreme the crimes blamed on Russia
become. It is the outlook which imbues the way the stories are
told which makes what is happening acceptable or unacceptable
but that is not really the point. The point is that it serves to
divert the attention of the people from the need to mobilize
themselves to put forward their own demand to make Canada a zone
for peace, get Canada out of NATO and to dismantle NATO. In the
case of Ukraine, the U.S./NATO forces are doing everything to
prolong the war, saying that there is no solution through
negotiations, only a military solution. They are dumping arms
into Ukraine, in many cases using the conflict as an excuse to
get rid of obsolete technology and then direct huge sums to be
spent on the production of new weapons. Meanwhile they use
Ukraine to test the response of Russian forces, intelligence and
the like while complacently prolonging the war "to the last
Ukrainian."
The lend/lease law adopted in the United States means that the people of Europe will be paying the cost of these weapons for decades to come, besides the cost of "hosting" foreign troops and bases on their territories and suffering the consequences of sanctions on Russia. They are further expanding NATO in an outright provocation which further endangers Russia's security along its longest border with Finland. The reversal of Finland's foreign policy based on neutrality since World War II when its territory was used by the German Nazis to invade the Soviet Union, is a matter of serious concern for the peoples of northern Europe, all of Europe and the world.
For those who follow the reports closely, it is clear that the exposure of the crimes committed by the neo-Nazis who have been integrated into the Ukrainian armed forces have been quite extensive. They are simply dismissed by repeating the trite declaration that, in war, psy-ops and false news are par for the course. It is not possible to say who is telling the truth, they say, while quoting some ancient or modern expert on war strategy to underscore their point.
Nonetheless, what they cannot hide is the outlook they promote, which is racist, obscurantist, revanchist, belligerent, virulently anti-people and anti-Russia.
The best examples are the actions
and statements of those who make up what are called right-wing
extremists or right-wing elements when referring to the
neo-Nazis and descendants of former Nazi collaborators called
freedom-fighters. They are imbued with hatred and bravado about
committing heinous acts against Russians but, despite this, the
U.S./NATO officials claim they are not controlling the Ukrainian
military campaign led by a U.S./NATO command structure.
As for allegations of crimes committed by the Russians, Russia itself has pleaded with the UN to have independent fact-finding missions into the massacres, military strikes against civilians and sabotage Russian forces are alleged to have carried out. It has also asked for a serious response to its allegations of labs intended for use in biological warfare. This is indeed what should be done. Despite the serious arguments produced in the recent extensive article by Seymour Hersh on the sabotage of the NordStream 2 Pipeline, no measures are taken to corroborate or refute his allegations and the defamation of Russia which is alleged to have sabotaged the pipeline itself continues.
Beyond that, there is no need to comment on the outlook Russia espouses because it is the one that has been demanding a negotiated settlement since 2014 and continues to do so today and this too should be done. Furthermore, nobody can seriously argue that its cause, which demands international recognition and enforcement of legitimate security guarantees against threatening NATO enlargement is not just, or that the population of the Donbass does not deserve to be protected against the crimes committed against it by neo-Nazi formations.
Left: picket in 2014 in Ottawa
demanding Canadian government not support and fund neo-Nazis in
Ukraine; right: 2020 social media post from Donbass, Ukraine
The issue is not a matter that in war "both sides" commit crimes to reach their objectives. The issue is not that in opposition to such crimes one should side with a righteous Ukraine and oppose an evil Russia or vice-versa, side with a righteous Russia and oppose an evil Ukraine. War crimes cannot be excused by saying that in war "things happen." Everyone must be brought to justice but this is precisely what the U.S./NATO forces will not permit. They have been caught staging crimes and lying for so long and this cannot be lost from sight when evaluating what is taking place in Ukraine today.
It is a tried and true Nazi method to commit the most heinous massacres, such as the massacre of Polish officers in Katyn Forest which they then blamed on the Russians. And there are many other such crimes before, during and after WWII which the Nazi propaganda machine and Hearst newspaper empire in the United States blamed on the communists to cover up what cause was being defended by whom.
The litany of lies, stories and false flag operations the U.S. is known to have perpetrated in the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the U.S. engineered coups d'état and terror operations carried out throughout the 1950s, 60s, 70s and 80s, through to this day, speak volumes of the cause the U.S./NATO and its member countries defend.
The issue is that the "collective west," as the U.S./NATO offensive is now often referred to, is using Ukraine as a forward base to isolate, humiliate and crush Russia and, by the looks of it, expand its hegemony not only over Europe but also the Asia-Pacific so as to isolate China. It is also clearly using Ukraine as a dumping ground for obsolete U.S. weapons it has sold to NATO members and funnelled into the hands of the neo-Nazis which have been permitted to overrun Ukraine by the U.S./NATO forces. Most importantly, all the measures taken by the U.S./NATO countries, including Canada, which block a negotiated settlement and prolong the war should themselves be considered war crimes.
All Out for a Negotiated Settlement to the
Ukraine Crisis!
Oppose the Lies, Disinformation and Warmongering!
Far from Expanding NATO, Dismantle NATO!
Make Canada a Zone for Peace!
This article was published in
Volume 53 Number 1 - February 2023
Article Link:
https://cpcml.ca/Tmlm2023/Articles/MS53018.HTM
Website: www.cpcml.ca Email: editor@cpcml.ca