Guest Post by Ramin Mazaheri
In the United States media editorial policy has not wavered on one subject this year: Ukraine is always winning the war.
From the first week, when the Ukrainian air force and navy were smashed, to last week’s smashing of the electrical grid – this is what “victory” looks like in the Ukrainian language, apparently. The Russians can electorally incorporate territory after territory, but to suggest that Ukrainian victory hasn’t already arrived is verboten in American public spaces.
What is the point of reading American coverage of the unrest in Ukraine when it’s so very absurd?
The point is: to learn what America is thinking, of course. If it’s deluded then – like it or not – that’s the story, and the story always writes itself in honest journalism.
I was talking with a Polish cab driver whom I found extremely intelligent, and not only because he has an Iranian brother-in-law and thus knew and respected Iranian culture. This longtime immigrant cabbie was very pro-Ukraine and anti-Russian, which is his right and not unexpected, and he was a typical Pole in that he was ardently pro-American. However, he volunteered to me that he found Americans to be the most effectively propagandised people in the world – he said they, invariably, merely mouthed whatever they heard on TV news.
It is one thing to dismiss the criticism of your enemies, but the criticisms of your friends merit some refection.
I have also personally found the same iron-jawed retention of dogma: Americans tell me that only in very recent weeks have they heard anyone even suggest the idea that the war isn’t going well for Ukrainians. I agree, as I have yet to hear such a remark (outside of interviews of political analysts for my work at PressTV), and I have gotten many strange stares when I brought up the idea – in my personal life – for discussion.
It is happy news for Americans to talk about, after all: “Hey, did you hear? The Ukrainians are winning the war! Still!” However, it is my role in the US to be a wet blanket whenever discussions turn political, I lament.
When the subject of Ukraine comes up I start with the fact that I have lived in France for over the past decade and – because France is usually at the heart of European diplomacy – I have been reporting on the Ukraine unrest since 2014. At the mention of the idea that Ukraine existed before February 2022 a glaze goes over their eyes.
Similarly, someone recently congratulated me on the Iranian revolution. What a pleasant thing to hear, thank you! Unfortunately, this person was referring to the current anti-hijab law unrest and not 1979. Just as Ukraine is winning the war, so this person was convinced that these protests have effectuated a (counter-) revolution. When it comes to Iran the American “this information cannot be allowed to even momentarily penetrate my mind” eye-glaze starts sooner – it arrives at the very first contrary word I utter.
I bring up Iran to show the pattern: Ukraine has always been winning, is winning currently and will win in the future because the US always wins every war it embarks upon.
After all, the US was always winning the war in Afghanistan. The only internal disagreement ever allowed was regarding their total retreat in August 2020 – was it poorly planned, or not? If the former, then the total US victory was disgracefully (though merely slightly) tarnished by the total US retreat.
The US was always winning the war in Iraq, as well. Shock and awe prevailed from start to finish, with the finish being a total shock at how few positives the US-led war created for either the Iraqis or the Americans. The indisputable fact of the American victory, however: totally awesome, of course.
The Balkanised disaster which is Libya? Another victory. Assad still standing in Syria? Still a victory, though don’t ask for explanations. Cold wars in Iran, Cuba, Venezuela, North Korea, Nicaragua and any other revolutionary country? Victory is so close the US media can see it, they insist.
These foolish political mis-notions cannot be blamed on the average American: all these places are so far away and so far removed from the totally precarious daily rat race/shooting gallery which is American life, and the information they can find is so incredibly one-sided.
Negligence can constitute a crime, indeed, but we must learn that here there is not actual malice: I was not shocked to do a report on a top foreign policy poll which showed that 79% of Americans want peace with Iran. This is even the foreign policy issue which earned the most unanimity, excepting only one: by one percentage point more, Americans want more legislative control over the executive branch’s ability to wage war – i.e., they want more peace.
The crime committed by the average American is neither malice nor negligence but the fault of naiveté – their expectation that a media dominated by private and not public ownership will ever consistently produce journalism which benefits the people and not the rich owners. Call it Western Liberal Democracy or the American Way or neoliberalism: history shows that it has always failed, is failing and will only fail for the 99%.
The US media and politicians know which levers to pull to produce naiveté: note how it’s always the “Ukrainian people” against “Putin” – there are no Russian people. Putin, of course, is not an actual person either – he’s a monster.
Which side could a busy soccer mom possibly be expected to take, especially when trying to have pleasant chit-chat with other busy soccer moms? Why, the only American thing to do is to buy that $25 pro-Ukraine scented candle and display it proudly for others to envy….
In the United States Ukraine will always be winning the war, no matter what actually happens in the war. When their destructive loss is indisputable, that will be unimportant – the US will certainly be in the middle of winning a new war.
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I read this on the Saker this morning. It is as amazing as it is sickening to listen to brain washed zombies talk of things they know nothing about.
Off topic – I posted a comment a week or so back about not trusting stripe. I just read an article on Blacklisted News about stripe blocking payment to substack authors. No bueno.
https://www.blacklistednews.com/article/83677/stripe-calls-substack-a-restricted-business-not-eligible-for-payment.html
I have an answer for anyone says they heard Russia is losing: “Oh did you now? What’s it like to be retarded?”
My uncle tells me he’s a billionaire and he keeps asking me for “G”.
Try “You sound vaccinated.”
Oceania has always been at war with Eurasia.
Who knew that having an Iranian brother-in-law would help make one “extremely intelligent” ???
War is Peace
Ignorance is Strength
Freedom is Slavery
Now, losing is winning.
At Wayt-watchers and Jennie Crayg losing is winning, so there’s that.
Lockheed Martin 1973: $2.21/share
2022: $415/share high this year.
That is the winning they strive for. Nothing else.
The most common phrase I hear an American family member say when one of theirs is murdered, raped, assaulted, bankrupt, cancer, heart attack, robbed, “I never thought…”
But they always know to check their likes on IG, FB, Twitter, YT, buy that six pack or box of wine.
I hear the phrases “I don’t understand why” or I don’t know why” a lot, for those same topics you list.
Pun intended?….
Raytheon making a killing on Ukraine weapons demand
US-based Raytheon Technologies, one of the largest aerospace and defense manufacturers in the world by revenue and market capitalization, posted a near 5% year-on-year surge in third-quarter revenue on Tuesday.
Company sales grew to $16.95 billion during the period – based largely on its missile and defense contracts – thanks in part to the ongoing conflict in Ukraine, as well as rising air travel demand, which buoyed parts and services sales.
https://www.azerbaycan24.com/en/raytheon-making-a-killing-on-ukraine-weapons-demand/
In TFA above, Mazaheri writes
I believe that was August 2021, under Biden’s watch.
Maleducated Americans still believe we won WWII , when in effect, we lost bigly.
“Before some audiences not even the possession of the exactest knowledge will make it easy for what we say to produce conviction. For argument based on knowledge implies instruction, and there are people whom one cannot instruct.”
Aristotle
I get it but for the edification of the average TBP’er you might want to explain why we lost.
The only sentence I disagree with:
I agree that there is no malice, but
Ignorance that is persistently cultivated IS negligence.
One would think you would see less and less of this over time but, instead, I see more and more of it.
I also see it having greater intensity than it used to, and the author adequately captures the physical phenomena that accompany the psychological defense mechanism. Any information that conflicts causes actual psychic trauma.
The brainwashing and dumbification starts early and continues life long.
Ancient Government Tactic,
“bread and circuses”
– Offerings, such as benefits or entertainments, intended to placate discontent or distract attention from a policy or situation.
– The idea that people can be pacified by food and entertainment when they should be rallying to their prescribed civic duties
– A metonymic phrase referring to superficial appeasement.
They do it here in the West on a grand scale never witnessed before in human history. A fine tuned, well oiled propaganda machine.
Orwell:
‘The Party seeks power entirely for its own sake. We are not interested in the good of others; we are interested solely in power – pure power.’
‘The masses never revolt of their own accord, and they never revolt merely because they are oppressed. Indeed, so long as they are not permitted to have standards of comparison, they never even become aware that they are oppressed.’
‘Power is in tearing human minds to pieces and putting them together again in new shapes of your own choosing.’
‘The choice for mankind lies between freedom and happiness and for the great bulk of mankind, happiness is better.
George Orwell – 1984
At least 80% of humans are incapable of holding even one independent thought in their entire life. Therefore “The masses never revolt of their own accord”
Except the most arrogantly condescending of naive Americans watch PBS and listen to NPR.
Right now it’s all public- and that ain’t good.
Well, here’s some information courtesy of open source intelligence (OINST) allegedly detailing the Ukrainian loss of soldiers to date. You will need to use a translator to read some of it. According to these sources, the total loss of life of the Ukrainian Armed Forces since February 24, 2022 totals:
387,000 dead
Loss of life of mercenaries and volunteers provided courtesy of Poland, the Baltics, and Romania totals:
31,240 dead
Total Loss: 418,240
Some other interesting information:
“These are the OSINT data, calculated using reports from funeral agencies, extracts from morgues, as well as the results of an analysis of the radio, cellular and satellite exchange of forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
The media also report that the Committee of Soldiers’ Mothers of Ukraine prepared more than 320,000 appeals “about the fate of the missing soldiers”, but the SBU banned them for national security purposes – however, these widespread data are not documented. Their source is the statements of a number of members of the Committee of Soldiers’ Mothers, made orally and on social networks. These statistics can be compared with casualty estimates made by the Western military.
The former deputy head of the US European Command, Stephen Twitty, said in an interview with Linke Zeitung that “200 thousand fighters somehow mysteriously disappeared from the Armed Forces of Ukraine, and no one will say where they are today”.
https://www.whatdoesitmean.com/index4073.htm
https://www.yaplakal.com/forum1/topic2521201.html
Because- he’s part of the tribe – he didn’t kill himself and no one else killed him either.
When Dementia Joe pulled the troops out of Afghanistan in August of 2021 https://www.britannica.com/event/withdrawal-of-United-States-troops-from-Afghanistan My first thought was they were pulled out to be redeployed for active duty elsewhere. It seems I was correct as US soldiers are being deployed and repositioned to fight in Ukraine.
Is this mere saber rattling or is full on conflict about to jump off?