{"id":170375,"date":"2015-08-03T20:21:01","date_gmt":"2015-08-03T20:21:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/?p=170375"},"modified":"2015-08-03T20:21:01","modified_gmt":"2015-08-03T20:21:01","slug":"u-s-propaganda-its-not-just-false-but-absurd","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/editorials\/u-s-propaganda-its-not-just-false-but-absurd\/","title":{"rendered":"U.S. Propaganda: It’s Not Just False, but Absurd."},"content":{"rendered":"

By Eric Zuesse, as originally published at strategic-culture.org<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s so ridiculous, no intelligent and informed person would give it any serious consideration whatsoever.\u00a0It insults the public\u2019s intelligence.<\/span><\/p>\n

Here\u2019s a typical example of the ridiculousness of U.S. propaganda: On July 16th, the U.S. State Department issued a\u00a0\u201cUkraine Travel Warning.\u201d<\/span><\/a>\u00a0It says:<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2013\u2013<\/span><\/p>\n

The Department of State warns U.S.\u00a0citizens to defer all travel to Crimea\u00a0and the eastern regions of Donetsk\u00a0and Luhansk, and recommends those\u00a0U.S. citizens currently living in or\u00a0visiting these regions to depart. …<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

Russia-backed separatists continue to control\u00a0areas in the Donetsk and Luhansk Oblasts.\u00a0Despite the signing of a ceasefire agreement\u00a0by representatives of Ukraine, Russia and the\u00a0OSCE, violent clashes between combined\u00a0Russian separatist forces and Ukrainian forces\u00a0continue in parts of the eastern regions of\u00a0Donetsk and Luhansk, resulting in thousands of\u00a0injuries and deaths. The ceasefire agreement\u00a0established a de facto dividing line between\u00a0Ukrainian government-controlled and\u00a0separatist-held areas of Ukraine, with\u00a0numerous checkpoints controlled by\u00a0government and separatist forces. Individuals,\u00a0including U.S. citizens, have been threatened,\u00a0detained or kidnapped for hours or days after\u00a0being stopped at separatist checkpoints. …<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

The Department of State also warns U.S.\u00a0citizens to defer all travel to the Crimean\u00a0Peninsula, which is occupied by Russia. The\u00a0Russian Federation is likely to take further\u00a0actions in Crimea throughout the remainder of\u00a02015 consistent with its attempted unlawful\u00a0annexation and occupation of this part of\u00a0Ukraine. The international community,\u00a0including the United States and Ukraine, does\u00a0not recognize this purported annexation. The\u00a0Russian Federation maintains an extensive\u00a0military presence in Crimea and along the\u00a0border of eastern Ukraine. …<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

\u2013\u2013<\/span><\/p>\n

Prior to the U.S.\u00a0overthrow<\/span><\/a>\u00a0of the democratically elected President of Ukraine\u00a0in February 2014,<\/span><\/a>\u00a0there was peace throughout Ukraine. Obama (his Administration, as shown in that video) replaced the existing Ukrainian President, Viktor Yanukovych, who, like all of his predecessors, was corrupt; and the U.S. propaganda-machine publicized his corruption, while virtually ignoring the fact of corruption\u2019s normalcy in at least post-Soviet Ukraine (corruption that had been greatly encouraged by the U.S.<\/span><\/a>). The U.S. didn\u2019t replace him because he was corrupt. The U.S. replaced him because he supported a non-aligned Ukraine: neither a stooge to the U.S., nor to Russia. Barack Obama repeatedly asserts that \u2013 as he phrased it\u00a0to West Point cadets on 28 May 2014<\/span><\/a>\u00a0\u2013 \u201cThe\u00a0United States is and remains the one\u00a0indispensable nation. [So: all other<\/i> nations\u00a0are \u2018dispensable.\u2019] That has been true for\u00a0the century passed [he\u00a0misspelled \u2018past\u2019]\u00a0and it will be true for the century to\u00a0come.\u201d Adolf Hitler and his Nazis said it for their country more succinctly: \u201cDeutschland \u00c3\u00bcber alles.\u201d Except that Hitler proclaimed that his would be a \u201cThousand-Year Reich,\u201d not merely \u201cfor the century to come.”<\/span><\/p>\n

The U.S. began its overthrow-operation\u00a0early in 2013.<\/span><\/a>\u00a0At that time, Yanukovych was still considering offers for Ukraine to join the U.S.-backed European Union,\u00a0or else to join the Russia-backed\u00a0Eurasian Economic Community.<\/span><\/a>\u00a0The EU is much larger, but Ukraine\u2019s centuries-long former association with, and economic extensions from (including favored-nation trading status with) Russia, would have been very costly for Ukraine to sever. Ukraine\u2019s economy had long been based far more on trade with Russia than on with trade with the rest of Europe.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

According to MIT<\/a><\/span>, the \u201cTop 5 export destinations” from Ukraine were: Russia\u00a0(24%),\u00a0Egypt\u00a0(6.5%),\u00a0Turkey\u00a0(5.2%),\u00a0Italy\u00a0(3.8%),\u00a0and\u00a0Kazakhstan\u00a0(3.5%). The \u201cTop 5 import origins\u201d into Ukraine were: Russia\u00a0(31%),\u00a0China\u00a0(9.0%),\u00a0Germany\u00a0(8.2%),\u00a0Belarus\u00a0(6.4%),\u00a0and Poland\u00a0(5.0%).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

On 19 November 2013, Yanukovych met with the European Commissioner for Enlargement and European Neighbourhood Policy. The economists at the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences had recently delivered their report to Yanukovych, which concluded that the net loss from joining the\u00a0EU would be\u00a0$160 billion<\/span><\/a>. Yanukovych\u00a0asked the Commissioner, \u201cIf we sign,\u00a0will you help us,\u201d so that Ukraine wouldn\u2019t bear the entirety of this enormous cost. The Commissioner said, \u201cSorry,\u201d no. (The Commissioner suggested that Ukraine might borrow the money from the IMF \u2013 which would be the kind of national suicide that actually occurred after the U.S. overthrew Yanukovych.) The next day, Yanukovych announced that he was turning down the EU\u2019s offer. Then, according to wikipedia, the \u201cMaidan\u201d demonstrations to oust Yanukovych from power\u00a0started on 21 November 2013.<\/span><\/a>\u00a0Brandon Turbeville has described the\u00a040-year-long development<\/span><\/a>\u00a0of the technology that the CIA and State Department built for that overthrow<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

But, in fact, as I documented back in February,\u00a0“The Entire Case for Sanctions Against Russia Is Pure Lies.\u201d<\/span><\/a>\u00a0The whole case is fraudulent<\/span><\/a>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

So: the U.S. State Department rejects the legitimacy of the overwhelming, and the repeatedly polling-confirmed<\/span><\/a>, desire of the Crimean people to cease being Ukrainian (which they had been only from 1954 to 2014), even though this same U.S. State Department accepts the legitimacy of the Scottish people to determine whether or not to continue being British (which they have been ever since 1707). The sovereign democratic right of Crimeans is denied<\/i>, while the sovereign democratic right of the Scotts is affirmed<\/i>. One needs to be a sucker to believe that, but it\u2019s the U.S. Government\u2019s official line.<\/span><\/p>\n

As for the residents of Donbass (\u201cDonetsk and Luhansk Oblasts\u201d)<\/i>, Obama needs to get rid of them<\/span><\/a>, because they had\u00a0voted over 90% for the man he overthrew.<\/span><\/a>\u00a0If they stay alive<\/span><\/a> and within Ukraine, then the regime that Obama installed will get voted out of office.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In fact, that\u2019s the reason why Russia\u2019s leader,\u00a0Vladimir Putin, has insisted that they remain within Ukraine<\/span><\/a>\u00a0\u2013 so that they will vote out of office the anti-Russian racist fascists that Obama installed<\/span><\/a>, next door to Russia, in Ukraine. That\u2019s as if during the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962, the dictator of the Soviet Union, Nikita Khruschev, had grabbed control over not only Cuba but even over Mexico right on America\u2019s border. Would the United States have tolerated that, then? So, Putin doesn\u2019t tolerate this, now.<\/span><\/p>\n

The irony is that it\u2019s Putin who wants the \u201cpro-Russian rebels\u201d to remain as part of Ukraine<\/span><\/a>; and it\u2019s Obama who wants them not to be \u2013 even while he claims that Putin does, and asserts that Putin is the aggressor.<\/span><\/p>\n

For example, on 3 September 2014, Obama said<\/span><\/a>:<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cFifth — we must continue to stand united against Russia\u2019s aggression in Ukraine. (Applause.) Keep in mind that, repeatedly, President Putin has ignored the opportunity to resolve the crisis in Ukraine diplomatically. The United States, the European Union, our partners around the world have all said we prefer a diplomatic solution. But in light of Russia\u2019s unwillingness to seize that opportunity, we have come together to impose major sanctions on Russia for its actions.\u201d<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

A more devilishly lying country than the United States of today is hard to imagine. It\u2019s even a\u00a0dictatorship:<\/span><\/a>\u00a0its government represents not the public (as its Founders had intended) but its aristocracy (which those Founders had tried to overthrow \u2013 and did overthrow, in their own era).<\/span><\/p>\n

The U.S. Government even has the brazen audacity to brag about its success at fooling the global publics \u2013 not only here but around the world \u2013 to deceive them to think that the demon is Putin, and not Obama.<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

In fact, as I headlined on 7 October 2014,\u00a0“Leading German Journalist Admits CIA \u2018Bribed\u2019 Him\u00a0and Other Leaders of the Western \u2018Press\u2019.\u201d<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

The U.S. Government holds the public everywhere in contempt.<\/span><\/p>\n

———-<\/span><\/p>\n

Investigative historian Eric Zuesse is the author, most recently, of They\u2019re Not Even Close: The Democratic vs. Republican Economic Records, 1910-2010<\/i><\/span><\/a>,<\/i> and of \u00a0<\/i>CHRIST\u2019S VENTRILOQUISTS: The Event that Created Christianity<\/i><\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Eric Zuesse, as originally published at strategic-culture.org. It\u2019s so ridiculous, no intelligent and informed person would give it any serious consideration whatsoever.\u00a0It insults the public\u2019s intelligence. Here\u2019s a typical example of the ridiculousness of U.S. propaganda: On July 16th, the U.S. State Department issued a\u00a0\u201cUkraine Travel Warning.\u201d\u00a0It says: \u2013\u2013 The Department of State warns […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1254,"featured_media":143859,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[461,1622],"tags":[115,30,32,96,535,59,526,543,524,523,49,76,40],"class_list":{"0":"post-170375","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-editorials","8":"category-featured","9":"tag-barack-obama","10":"tag-big-brother","11":"tag-cia","12":"tag-cover-up","13":"tag-global-news","14":"tag-military","15":"tag-propaganda","16":"tag-putin","17":"tag-russia","18":"tag-ukraine","19":"tag-usa-news","20":"tag-warfare","21":"tag-white-house"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170375","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1254"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=170375"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170375\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/143859"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=170375"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=170375"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=170375"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}