Ukraine has a bright future as i see it.
Ukraine is an interesting example of the veil in geo-politics. From the mainstream western media, which surrounds me, this article 'Western leaders try to halt Russia's advance into Ukrainian territory' from The Guardian, considered to be the most progressive outlets in the west, is a perfect example. In it US Secretary of State Kerry says. "It is really a stunning, willful choice by President Putin to invade another country. Russia is in violation of the sovereignty of Ukraine. Russia is in violation of its international obligations." A view i've now heard echoed almost word for word, not just in the corporate media, but also from individuals who refuse to read anything not written from that perspective.
As this is the dominant paradigm here the west, it's the one that most needs challenging here.
What Kerry calls a "stunning, willful choice by President Putin to invade another country" stuns me. As Jack Matlok, the former US Ambassador to the Soviet Union from 1987 to 1991 wrote today. "So far as violating sovereignty is concerned, Russia would point out that the U.S. invaded Panama to arrest Noriega, invaded Grenada to prevent American citizens from being taken hostage (even though they had not been taken hostage), invaded Iraq on spurious grounds that Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction, targets people in other countries with drones, etc., etc. In other words, for the U.S. to preach about respect for sovereignty and preservation of territorial integrity to a Russian president can seem a claim to special rights not allowed others." Of course, those who already agree with American exceptionalism see no contradiction in Kerry's position.
When Kerry says, "Russia is in violation of its international obligations." It makes me puke up in my mouth a little. In my adult life the US has invaded or overthrown countless countries, countries who presented no threat to US security, countries who's biggest mistake was to question the hubris of American exceptionalism.
If you follow the media in Russia, they can't get over Sec. Kerry saying to David Gregory that "you don't just invade a country on false pretenses", while on meet the press Sunday. But they also can't get over how Gregory didn't ask him, 'like the US did in Vietnam, Iraq, Libya, Grenada, Panama, Cuba, Venezuela, Nicaragua, Somilia, Afghanistan etc.'
Then there's drones, “According to Senator Lindsey Graham(R-S.C.), the Obama administration has killed 4,700 individuals in numerous countries, including Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia." wrote Karen J. Greenberg, director of the Center on National Security at Fordham University’s law school. Adding, Obama's "brand of warfare has helped lay the basis for a permanent state of global warfare via ‘low footprint’ drone campaigns and special forces operations aimed at an ever-morphing enemy usually identified as some form of Al Qaeda.”
What you won't read the western media is that while speaking at the the 25th session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva on Monday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said, "Russia wants to see the situation resolved through new talks. Any internal crises should be overcome by dialogue of all political forces, ethnic and confessional groups, in compliance with international obligations, first of all the obligations on international humanitarian law, the protection of human rights and ethnic minorities rights." Because it doesn't fit in the propaganda paradigm.
Another thing you won't read about is Lavrov explaining that he had discussed Ukraine with his Chinese counterpart and their views coincided on the situation there.
Believing is seeing. We start construction of our worldview with our first breath. Every sensual input must be triaged, each tagged with a value and accepted or rejected, made a bit player or a star in our movie. There are just too many inputs to deal with all at once as they arrive from our senses seeking our attention, we use our blinders defensively.
But those blinders not only protect us from overload they also stop us from learning. Instead of defending our interests, they put us in grave danger when new information must be assimilated quickly. Those cultural blinders are right now stopping many westerners from even considering the possibility that the corporate media is once again trumpeting the interests of their paymasters not those of the broad majority of the people.
