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Center for Research on Globalization
Feb 14 2015
How Stupid Do They Think We Are? Misleading Public Opinion on Russia and NATO
By Eric Zuesse
Newsweek magazine headlined on February 5th, ``Biggest NATO
Reinforcement Since Cold War' Sets Frontlines Against Russia,' and
reported that, `According to general Charles Wald, former-deputy
commander of U.S. European Command, ¦ `The question for Europe is:
`is Putin creeping further and further west?''
Wald is quoted as saying that the case of Ukraine especially worries
him. This article continues:
``Is this a precursor to Russia moving into Moldova? Nagorno Karabakh
has been bubbling up, and the Georgia issue is still unresolved. NATO
has essentially set these [new military] bases in its frontline
states,' Wald says, referring to the countries' proximity to Russian
territory.'
So: Russia is moving too close to NATO countries, according to the
U.S. `Defense' Department.
But it's a blatant lie. Actually, since 1999, 11 former members of the
Warsaw Pact, countries, which had been allied with Russia during the
communist Soviet Union throughout the Cold War, have switched to the
U.S. military alliance against their former ally Russia, NATO: Czech
Republic, Hungary, Poland, Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania,
Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, and Albania.
So: Russia hasn't been moving at all, not an inch; but the U.S.
certainly has ' by surrounding Russia with its NATO missiles.
This Newsweek story is `news' that's published in a mainstream U.S.
`news' source, which people pay bad money for ' it's worse than a
waste, it's their being charged for U.S.-Government propaganda.
Here is authentic news, from an authentic news source ' news which had
been posted just four days earlier than that Newsweek lie, on February
1st ' news that was posted at the Fort Russ blog, which not only is
free, but it's the most thorough and reliably truthful news site of
all on the Ukrainian conflict:
`NATO is moving closer to Russia and blaming Russia for being close to
NATO.' A video is shown there.
This video, which was posted to youtube on 17 October 2014, shows a
Pentagon spokesperson being asked at a press conference about
`Defense' Secretary Chuck Hagel's accusation, that Russia's army is
`on NATO's doorstep'; and the (extremely unusual, skeptical American
journalist) questioner then asks `Why is that?'
Hagel's press spokesperson insists there that it happens because
Russia has been seizing nations and thus moving closer to NATO; he
refuses to acknowledge that NATO has instead been expanding up to
Russia's very border, bringing U.S. weapons surrounding Russia's
periphery. How would the U.S. react if, say, Russia had tried to
install nuclear missiles in, say, Cuba ' like the Soviet Union tried
in 1962?
Here's that video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LexhW8SCM2c.
There are lots of reader-comments to that video, many of which are
from fools who are treating Russia as being evil and dangerous, and
ignoring the insult to their own intelligence that came forth from
Chuck Hagel's spokesperson in this video, which they had just watched.
However, Fort Russ reports this videoed statement without comment, as
being instead a self-evident lie from the U.S. Government, and it is
that; not as being (like Newsweek does) a supposed truth from the U.S.
Government, a supposed truth that's being unchallenged by Newsweek's
`journalist,' though if Newsweek had been an authentic news-source it
would have reported that the U.S. Government was simply lying there '
since that's the actual fact.
As regards the reader-comments to this Newsweek article, here's a
typical sequence of these reader-comments, so that you can see how
American readers responded to this piece of sheer American propaganda:
COMMENTS:
'-Bong Valencia · Don bosco academy pampanga
Everybody needs to stop calling Ukraine's enemies as Russian[backed
rebels. Let's call a spade a spade. Let's call them Russians! They
came from and were sent by Russia.
· 24 · February 5 at 7:57pm
'-Kevin Quinn · Top Commenter
But they LIVE in what's called `eastern Ukraine' and have been there
in some cases for centuries. That is Kyiv's main point. And theirs.
Some have received military training in the Soviet forces, as well as
the UA. Some of the younger have been trained in `militia camps' `
safe in Russia.
¢ · 3 · February 6 at 10:57am
'-Sergy K · Top Commenter · Harvard Kennedy School
Kevin Quinn there are at most 15% of locals, 85 % came from Russia,
and the military organizers came from Moscow
¢ · 1 · February 6 at 12:54pm
'-Ð`иÑ...аил Ð`оÑ?аÑов · Top Commenter · Ð`Ð?Ð?Ð` им. Ð'.Ð?. Ð?ÑÑ?пÑ?кой
Sergy K, Where did you take those percentage from? Maybe from The
History Of Russian State by N.M.Karamzin or Primary Chronicle Where
Did Russian Land Come From or The History Of Kiev Rus? Look these
books through in the Harvard Kennedy School Library or at least use
Google 'Russian-speaking population in Ukraine'.
¢ · February 10 at 5:06am
'-El D Den · Top Commenter
My hope is NATO destroys Russia once and for all.
· 9 · February 5 at 10:36pm
Noting the claim of one reader there (`Sergy K') to be from Harvard's
Kennedy School, the present reporter looked to see whether there is,
actually, any `Sergy K' who has been associated with that supposedly
august and supposedly authoritative School. This is what I came up
with:
http://belfercenter.ksg.harvard.edu/experts/203/sergei_konoplyov.html
http://belfercenter.ksg.harvard.edu/files/disc_paper_99_08.pdf
So: apparently, an `expert' at Harvard's Kennedy School, and even one
whose sole published work deals with Ukraine, does, indeed, actually
think that 85% of the fighters against the Kiev-based Ukrainian
Government's invasion of Ukraine's Donbass region are Russian
soldiers, not residents.
On that matter, here is the actual evidence (there's lots of it, but
these are perhaps the most striking):
http://rinf.com/alt-news/featured/ukrainian-government-russian-troops-fighting-us/
http://ukraina.ru/news/20150213/1012102730.html
http://www.buzzfeed.com/rosiegray/heres-the-ukrainian-delegation-that-gave-misleading-photos-t#.rdzqJPe5X
Furthermore, to the exact contrary of all the similar allegations by
the U.S. Government (which say that Russia wants to add to Russian
territory the land where Ukraine's pro-Russia rebels live), the
present reporter had headlined on 19 September 2014, `Russia's Leader
Putin Rejects Ukrainian Separatists' Aim to Become Part of Russia,'
and reported that not only did Putin reject it verbally, but that the
Ukrainian separatist leaders took his statement as being his final
word on the subject, and so decided `We will build our own country.'
In other words: the only reason why the Obama Administration is
pushing the fraudulent line that Putin is trying to seize the Donbass
region of Ukraine away from Ukraine, is because Barack Obama needs to
portray his own sponsorship of an ethnic-cleansing operation to get
rid of the residents in Donbass (the rebellious region of Ukraine) as
being instead an `Anti Terrorist Operation' by the Government against
rebel fighters who (as the Harvard Kennedy School `Expert' said) `85 %
came from Russia.'
We're supposed to be this stupid, and this misinformed, by a
propaganda-line that doesn't even make sense ' the line that says the
people who are bombing the residents in Donbass and destroying the
region, are the invading Russian army, and/or the residents who live
there (the `Terrorists,' as the Ukrainian Government calls them),
instead of being the Government forces that are trying to exterminate
the residents there, and who are actually terrorizing those residents
in order to get them to die or else to leave Ukraine.
As to the reason why Obama wants to get rid of those residents, look
at this map. It shows the results in the final nationwide Ukrainian
Presidential election, the one that was held in 2010 and which pitted
the pro-Washington Yulia Tymoshenko against the pro-neutral-Ukraine
Viktor Yanukovych. As you can see, the dark purple area is the region
that voted 90% for Yanukovych. That's also the area which the
Ukrainian Government has been bombing. If the voters who live there,
ever again vote for a President of Ukraine, then Obama's February 2014
coup which overthrew Yanukovych will be elected out of office: the
Obama coup-regime will end. That's why Obama wants those voters to
either die or else leave Ukraine. He needs them gone. (And official
Washington wants this mass-murder of them to increase; and this
genocidal push is bipartisan, both Republicans and Democrats.)
No wonder why the U.S. Government keeps lying, and its
propaganda-organs (virtually the entire U.S. press) are lying. The
press are controlled by the same aristocracy that control the
Government. But, in order to do this, they are playing the American
people for suckers. Maybe enough of the American public are, but
that's no justification for what America's aristocracy are doing. The
people who are being slaughtered aren't Americans at all, but are
instead the entirely innocent residents in the Donbass region of the
former Ukraine.
Prior to Obama's February 2014 Ukrainian coup, that entire country was
a democracy, and there was no ethnic cleansing there. But Obama has
the nerve now to accuse Russia of `aggression,' when in fact it is he
that is the aggressor. And that's the sole basis for the economic
sanctions that Russians now suffer.
What a massive crime: a war-crime that would be worthy of being tried
as such at Nuremberg ' but, this time, notby Americans. Obama is
instead the anti-FDR President. An American President like this would
make Franklin Delano Roosevelt turn over in his grave.
Investigative historian Eric Zuesse is the author, most recently, of
They're Not Even Close: The Democratic vs. Republican Economic
Records, 1910-2010, and of CHRIST'S VENTRILOQUISTS: The Event that
Created Christianity.
http://www.globalresearch.ca/how-stupid-do-they-think-we-are-misleading-public-opinion-on-russia-and-nato/5431251
Feb 14 2015
How Stupid Do They Think We Are? Misleading Public Opinion on Russia and NATO
By Eric Zuesse
Newsweek magazine headlined on February 5th, ``Biggest NATO
Reinforcement Since Cold War' Sets Frontlines Against Russia,' and
reported that, `According to general Charles Wald, former-deputy
commander of U.S. European Command, ¦ `The question for Europe is:
`is Putin creeping further and further west?''
Wald is quoted as saying that the case of Ukraine especially worries
him. This article continues:
``Is this a precursor to Russia moving into Moldova? Nagorno Karabakh
has been bubbling up, and the Georgia issue is still unresolved. NATO
has essentially set these [new military] bases in its frontline
states,' Wald says, referring to the countries' proximity to Russian
territory.'
So: Russia is moving too close to NATO countries, according to the
U.S. `Defense' Department.
But it's a blatant lie. Actually, since 1999, 11 former members of the
Warsaw Pact, countries, which had been allied with Russia during the
communist Soviet Union throughout the Cold War, have switched to the
U.S. military alliance against their former ally Russia, NATO: Czech
Republic, Hungary, Poland, Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania,
Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, and Albania.
So: Russia hasn't been moving at all, not an inch; but the U.S.
certainly has ' by surrounding Russia with its NATO missiles.
This Newsweek story is `news' that's published in a mainstream U.S.
`news' source, which people pay bad money for ' it's worse than a
waste, it's their being charged for U.S.-Government propaganda.
Here is authentic news, from an authentic news source ' news which had
been posted just four days earlier than that Newsweek lie, on February
1st ' news that was posted at the Fort Russ blog, which not only is
free, but it's the most thorough and reliably truthful news site of
all on the Ukrainian conflict:
`NATO is moving closer to Russia and blaming Russia for being close to
NATO.' A video is shown there.
This video, which was posted to youtube on 17 October 2014, shows a
Pentagon spokesperson being asked at a press conference about
`Defense' Secretary Chuck Hagel's accusation, that Russia's army is
`on NATO's doorstep'; and the (extremely unusual, skeptical American
journalist) questioner then asks `Why is that?'
Hagel's press spokesperson insists there that it happens because
Russia has been seizing nations and thus moving closer to NATO; he
refuses to acknowledge that NATO has instead been expanding up to
Russia's very border, bringing U.S. weapons surrounding Russia's
periphery. How would the U.S. react if, say, Russia had tried to
install nuclear missiles in, say, Cuba ' like the Soviet Union tried
in 1962?
Here's that video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LexhW8SCM2c.
There are lots of reader-comments to that video, many of which are
from fools who are treating Russia as being evil and dangerous, and
ignoring the insult to their own intelligence that came forth from
Chuck Hagel's spokesperson in this video, which they had just watched.
However, Fort Russ reports this videoed statement without comment, as
being instead a self-evident lie from the U.S. Government, and it is
that; not as being (like Newsweek does) a supposed truth from the U.S.
Government, a supposed truth that's being unchallenged by Newsweek's
`journalist,' though if Newsweek had been an authentic news-source it
would have reported that the U.S. Government was simply lying there '
since that's the actual fact.
As regards the reader-comments to this Newsweek article, here's a
typical sequence of these reader-comments, so that you can see how
American readers responded to this piece of sheer American propaganda:
COMMENTS:
'-Bong Valencia · Don bosco academy pampanga
Everybody needs to stop calling Ukraine's enemies as Russian[backed
rebels. Let's call a spade a spade. Let's call them Russians! They
came from and were sent by Russia.
· 24 · February 5 at 7:57pm
'-Kevin Quinn · Top Commenter
But they LIVE in what's called `eastern Ukraine' and have been there
in some cases for centuries. That is Kyiv's main point. And theirs.
Some have received military training in the Soviet forces, as well as
the UA. Some of the younger have been trained in `militia camps' `
safe in Russia.
¢ · 3 · February 6 at 10:57am
'-Sergy K · Top Commenter · Harvard Kennedy School
Kevin Quinn there are at most 15% of locals, 85 % came from Russia,
and the military organizers came from Moscow
¢ · 1 · February 6 at 12:54pm
'-Ð`иÑ...аил Ð`оÑ?аÑов · Top Commenter · Ð`Ð?Ð?Ð` им. Ð'.Ð?. Ð?ÑÑ?пÑ?кой
Sergy K, Where did you take those percentage from? Maybe from The
History Of Russian State by N.M.Karamzin or Primary Chronicle Where
Did Russian Land Come From or The History Of Kiev Rus? Look these
books through in the Harvard Kennedy School Library or at least use
Google 'Russian-speaking population in Ukraine'.
¢ · February 10 at 5:06am
'-El D Den · Top Commenter
My hope is NATO destroys Russia once and for all.
· 9 · February 5 at 10:36pm
Noting the claim of one reader there (`Sergy K') to be from Harvard's
Kennedy School, the present reporter looked to see whether there is,
actually, any `Sergy K' who has been associated with that supposedly
august and supposedly authoritative School. This is what I came up
with:
http://belfercenter.ksg.harvard.edu/experts/203/sergei_konoplyov.html
http://belfercenter.ksg.harvard.edu/files/disc_paper_99_08.pdf
So: apparently, an `expert' at Harvard's Kennedy School, and even one
whose sole published work deals with Ukraine, does, indeed, actually
think that 85% of the fighters against the Kiev-based Ukrainian
Government's invasion of Ukraine's Donbass region are Russian
soldiers, not residents.
On that matter, here is the actual evidence (there's lots of it, but
these are perhaps the most striking):
http://rinf.com/alt-news/featured/ukrainian-government-russian-troops-fighting-us/
http://ukraina.ru/news/20150213/1012102730.html
http://www.buzzfeed.com/rosiegray/heres-the-ukrainian-delegation-that-gave-misleading-photos-t#.rdzqJPe5X
Furthermore, to the exact contrary of all the similar allegations by
the U.S. Government (which say that Russia wants to add to Russian
territory the land where Ukraine's pro-Russia rebels live), the
present reporter had headlined on 19 September 2014, `Russia's Leader
Putin Rejects Ukrainian Separatists' Aim to Become Part of Russia,'
and reported that not only did Putin reject it verbally, but that the
Ukrainian separatist leaders took his statement as being his final
word on the subject, and so decided `We will build our own country.'
In other words: the only reason why the Obama Administration is
pushing the fraudulent line that Putin is trying to seize the Donbass
region of Ukraine away from Ukraine, is because Barack Obama needs to
portray his own sponsorship of an ethnic-cleansing operation to get
rid of the residents in Donbass (the rebellious region of Ukraine) as
being instead an `Anti Terrorist Operation' by the Government against
rebel fighters who (as the Harvard Kennedy School `Expert' said) `85 %
came from Russia.'
We're supposed to be this stupid, and this misinformed, by a
propaganda-line that doesn't even make sense ' the line that says the
people who are bombing the residents in Donbass and destroying the
region, are the invading Russian army, and/or the residents who live
there (the `Terrorists,' as the Ukrainian Government calls them),
instead of being the Government forces that are trying to exterminate
the residents there, and who are actually terrorizing those residents
in order to get them to die or else to leave Ukraine.
As to the reason why Obama wants to get rid of those residents, look
at this map. It shows the results in the final nationwide Ukrainian
Presidential election, the one that was held in 2010 and which pitted
the pro-Washington Yulia Tymoshenko against the pro-neutral-Ukraine
Viktor Yanukovych. As you can see, the dark purple area is the region
that voted 90% for Yanukovych. That's also the area which the
Ukrainian Government has been bombing. If the voters who live there,
ever again vote for a President of Ukraine, then Obama's February 2014
coup which overthrew Yanukovych will be elected out of office: the
Obama coup-regime will end. That's why Obama wants those voters to
either die or else leave Ukraine. He needs them gone. (And official
Washington wants this mass-murder of them to increase; and this
genocidal push is bipartisan, both Republicans and Democrats.)
No wonder why the U.S. Government keeps lying, and its
propaganda-organs (virtually the entire U.S. press) are lying. The
press are controlled by the same aristocracy that control the
Government. But, in order to do this, they are playing the American
people for suckers. Maybe enough of the American public are, but
that's no justification for what America's aristocracy are doing. The
people who are being slaughtered aren't Americans at all, but are
instead the entirely innocent residents in the Donbass region of the
former Ukraine.
Prior to Obama's February 2014 Ukrainian coup, that entire country was
a democracy, and there was no ethnic cleansing there. But Obama has
the nerve now to accuse Russia of `aggression,' when in fact it is he
that is the aggressor. And that's the sole basis for the economic
sanctions that Russians now suffer.
What a massive crime: a war-crime that would be worthy of being tried
as such at Nuremberg ' but, this time, notby Americans. Obama is
instead the anti-FDR President. An American President like this would
make Franklin Delano Roosevelt turn over in his grave.
Investigative historian Eric Zuesse is the author, most recently, of
They're Not Even Close: The Democratic vs. Republican Economic
Records, 1910-2010, and of CHRIST'S VENTRILOQUISTS: The Event that
Created Christianity.
http://www.globalresearch.ca/how-stupid-do-they-think-we-are-misleading-public-opinion-on-russia-and-nato/5431251