Narrated by Eunice Wong Text originally published July 22, 2023 Witness - by Mr. Fish Films about war, shorn of the bone crushing fear, the putrid stench of the corpses, the deafening noise of explosions, the constant exhaustion and the nervous anxiety that comes with trying to understand what is happening in the terrifying chaos, are pale and inadequate reflections of the vast enterprise of industrial slaughter. And these are the good films, of which there are only a few.
I think if the Azov Battalion had not dug in and created such murderous resistance to the liberation of Mariupol by the Donbas militias backed by the Russian military, there would have been less destruction and suffering. The Russians came as liberators. The Azov’s detained citizens underground and brutalized them. When the Russians arrived the people came out of their basements and received them with open arms. The Russians provided food, water, relief and repatriation. The movie, by a Ukrainian reporter behind Ukrainian lines, is piec of blatant propaganda. Watch Patrick Lancaster for the truth. I’m saddened that Chris Hedges fell for this.
Chris hedges his film assessment over the facts omissions issue by omitting the Maidan coup, the People's Republics formation, the civil war against all Russians who are defending themselves against Kyiv, around 14 thousand killed by Ukrainian soldiers from 2014- 2021, and all the Russian, Turkish and even Ukrainian agreements of olive branches held out to stop the bloodshed, but blocked by US. Very disappointed the door on this was not fully opened, which has been requested by this channel's many followers. It does not suffice to inculcate in listeners the horrors of war because most of us have long felt the war pain, and now looking for solutions, which cannot be activated without taking into account Russian security, and the wishes of the people of both Donbas, Crimea, Odessa, and even the cities' populations in Ukraine. It is unlikely Ukrainians want to live under Polish rule either and likely wish to negotiate before complete decimation of Ukraine. Keeping the door half way open for followers to know the full truth of that contested area (formerly Eastern Ukraine) just does not work.
More people are getting tired of Hedges' playbook ...
I firmly believe he has been told by DS contacts to "stay in his lane" ...
There are truly fearless people out there like Naomi Wolf and Karen Kingston who refuse to cave in to TPTB, but I believe Hedges rolled-over for his DS overlords with very little resistance ... I've followed him closely enough for the past 10-12 years to have done a bit of a "psychological autopsy" on him and he really changed with the MAR '20 lock downs ... he is now making huge "withdrawals" on the reputation he built as a war correspondent 20 years ago as he cynically plays his gullible flock of clapping seals like a grand piano ...
I find it baffling that an admitted propaganda film that clearly seeks to paint their side as White Hat Cowboys and the other as Black Hat Cowboys could be called "a good film about war".
I was wondering the exact same thing Finster. I believe that the west kicked this crisis off in earnest in 2014. History will show that the west goaded Ukraine into this debacle to further their plan to "De-Colonize" Russia, (look it up). Chris Hedges is, IMO, among the finest political writers alive, if not the finest. But I gather that he sees Russia as the aggressor in this matter and I think he's wrong. People can respectfully disagree. We used to do that in the US, pre-cancel culture. And I don't doubt that this is a gripping movie, irrespective of its creators' objectivity or lack thereof.
I think is more Congress folks had a child in uniform and knew what really occurs in war they might reconsider their views and votes.
The realities of military weapons on a body is terrifying. All who vote for engagement should be aware of the consequences to those they send into combat.
If ten thousand, a hundred thousand, a million Ukrainians were to die, the Biden Administration (not to mention the puppet regime in Kiev) would consider it a good deal, as long as their deaths resulted in the suffering of at least one Russian person.
This is because Russia can do little or nothing, short of nuclear war, that will so much as inconvenience the decisionmakers in Washington. And the vultures in Kiev will simply bunk off to their villas in Italy and Miami. There is a reason so many Ukrainian oligarchs and politicians (Zelenskii included) were named in The Panama Papers and The Paradise Papers.
I remember watching on YouTube a video footage from
Mariupol where locals complained that the Azov kicked out pregnant women from the maternity ward building and established a camp there. Next morning I woke up to the images on CNN claiming that the Russian forces bombed that same maternity ward. I could not believe my eyes. Does Chris Hedges know that one of the young mothers whose photographs have been used by AP to promote the Western side of the story came out publicly explaining that all women were in the neighboring building because the American-supported Nazis took over their hospital, and that her photos were taken without her consent to promote who knows what? Yes, war is ugly but the West has being working on flaming it for decades. Since the breakup of the Soviet Union, if not before. There are plenty of documentaries about the plight of people of Donbas but people in the West will never be allowed to see those films.
Thanks Chris for reminding us (though I guess many of your readers will not have been as close to conflicts as you) of the gut-churning horror of being under fire with death a constant presence. But also for not accepting that the film out of Mariupol is totally without an ideological intent - for reminding us of the other stories which have since emerged of the inhuman Azov Militia involvement. I don't want such a war for the people - both "ethnic/linguistic" Ukrainians and Russians in Ukraine. I would much prefer to see the leadership - political and military - put into a field and there to fight it out - without guns - for victory - so that all civilians and infrastructure outside that designated field remain unaffected...getting on with their lives. (What a vision!)
Hedges loves to TALK about war rather than fight the good fight with those of us who oppose the illegal and unconstitutional mandates and passports ... on this topic, St Chris has only said "it's a tough decision" ...
AND THEN, just 30 days after the explosive, court-ordered FDA FOIA release, he said: "I don't think we're going to stop the pandemic and mutations until everyone gets vaccinated"...
AND THEN, just 2m after making this same comment during an interview on the KRYSTAL, KYLE & FRIENDS" podcast, he actually admitted that he "does not trust Moderna or Phizer" ...
I find it incomprehensible that Hedges ignores the 8 years of bombing and shelling of the Donbas by the Azov and Aidan Battalions, that resulted in 14,000+ deaths, and can further ignore the first declared aim of the SMO, to liberate and relieve the beleaguered denizens of the Donbas. Putin had no choice. He should give him credit. Hedges falls in my estimatition if he cannot accept this.
And he also continues to push the globalist's easily disproven "climate change is an existential threat" narrative and continues to talk out of both sides of his mouth on the issue of divisiveness ... I've got all the details ... times, dates and context for a litany of head-scratching verbatim quotes by the duplicitous Mr. Hedges ... all ya gotta do is ask ...
What's been personally fascinating for me is seeing how bloodthirsty, simple-minded "Good Liberals" here in the west are now so quick to call any of us "Putin Lovers" when we indeed saw neoliberals ripping out the guts of the old USSR and taking everything for themselves. Then saying NATO wouldn't "take one step to the East," then doing just that. Encircling Russia with fear of invasion. A country invaded so many times, suffering so much more of the loses of WWII than we did fighting fascist Germany, and now embracing Azov and Ukrainian fascists who did the Germans' dirty work for them. Disgusting tools.
Great article. Vietnam was the last U.S. war to show us, every nite on the 6pm News, bombing civilians, and body bags being loaded off the tarmac. Now we hear statistics, lies mostly, and are spared seeing the lack of humanity that war exposes. I vote for buying billboard space that shows the worst of the worst, for folks to choke on while cruising along eating a Big Mac. I highlighted this in my own substack site...crossingtopanga.substack.com, my pacifist brother's true story of being imprisoned in the Vietnam War and being charged for mutiny..The Presidio 27 protesters all served in prison, but in the end they were vindicated. We HAVE to keep protesting war!
I think if the Azov Battalion had not dug in and created such murderous resistance to the liberation of Mariupol by the Donbas militias backed by the Russian military, there would have been less destruction and suffering. The Russians came as liberators. The Azov’s detained citizens underground and brutalized them. When the Russians arrived the people came out of their basements and received them with open arms. The Russians provided food, water, relief and repatriation. The movie, by a Ukrainian reporter behind Ukrainian lines, is piec of blatant propaganda. Watch Patrick Lancaster for the truth. I’m saddened that Chris Hedges fell for this.
Chris hedges his film assessment over the facts omissions issue by omitting the Maidan coup, the People's Republics formation, the civil war against all Russians who are defending themselves against Kyiv, around 14 thousand killed by Ukrainian soldiers from 2014- 2021, and all the Russian, Turkish and even Ukrainian agreements of olive branches held out to stop the bloodshed, but blocked by US. Very disappointed the door on this was not fully opened, which has been requested by this channel's many followers. It does not suffice to inculcate in listeners the horrors of war because most of us have long felt the war pain, and now looking for solutions, which cannot be activated without taking into account Russian security, and the wishes of the people of both Donbas, Crimea, Odessa, and even the cities' populations in Ukraine. It is unlikely Ukrainians want to live under Polish rule either and likely wish to negotiate before complete decimation of Ukraine. Keeping the door half way open for followers to know the full truth of that contested area (formerly Eastern Ukraine) just does not work.
More people are getting tired of Hedges' playbook ...
I firmly believe he has been told by DS contacts to "stay in his lane" ...
There are truly fearless people out there like Naomi Wolf and Karen Kingston who refuse to cave in to TPTB, but I believe Hedges rolled-over for his DS overlords with very little resistance ... I've followed him closely enough for the past 10-12 years to have done a bit of a "psychological autopsy" on him and he really changed with the MAR '20 lock downs ... he is now making huge "withdrawals" on the reputation he built as a war correspondent 20 years ago as he cynically plays his gullible flock of clapping seals like a grand piano ...
I find it baffling that an admitted propaganda film that clearly seeks to paint their side as White Hat Cowboys and the other as Black Hat Cowboys could be called "a good film about war".
I was wondering the exact same thing Finster. I believe that the west kicked this crisis off in earnest in 2014. History will show that the west goaded Ukraine into this debacle to further their plan to "De-Colonize" Russia, (look it up). Chris Hedges is, IMO, among the finest political writers alive, if not the finest. But I gather that he sees Russia as the aggressor in this matter and I think he's wrong. People can respectfully disagree. We used to do that in the US, pre-cancel culture. And I don't doubt that this is a gripping movie, irrespective of its creators' objectivity or lack thereof.
I think is more Congress folks had a child in uniform and knew what really occurs in war they might reconsider their views and votes.
The realities of military weapons on a body is terrifying. All who vote for engagement should be aware of the consequences to those they send into combat.
If ten thousand, a hundred thousand, a million Ukrainians were to die, the Biden Administration (not to mention the puppet regime in Kiev) would consider it a good deal, as long as their deaths resulted in the suffering of at least one Russian person.
This is because Russia can do little or nothing, short of nuclear war, that will so much as inconvenience the decisionmakers in Washington. And the vultures in Kiev will simply bunk off to their villas in Italy and Miami. There is a reason so many Ukrainian oligarchs and politicians (Zelenskii included) were named in The Panama Papers and The Paradise Papers.
I remember watching on YouTube a video footage from
Mariupol where locals complained that the Azov kicked out pregnant women from the maternity ward building and established a camp there. Next morning I woke up to the images on CNN claiming that the Russian forces bombed that same maternity ward. I could not believe my eyes. Does Chris Hedges know that one of the young mothers whose photographs have been used by AP to promote the Western side of the story came out publicly explaining that all women were in the neighboring building because the American-supported Nazis took over their hospital, and that her photos were taken without her consent to promote who knows what? Yes, war is ugly but the West has being working on flaming it for decades. Since the breakup of the Soviet Union, if not before. There are plenty of documentaries about the plight of people of Donbas but people in the West will never be allowed to see those films.
Thanks Chris for reminding us (though I guess many of your readers will not have been as close to conflicts as you) of the gut-churning horror of being under fire with death a constant presence. But also for not accepting that the film out of Mariupol is totally without an ideological intent - for reminding us of the other stories which have since emerged of the inhuman Azov Militia involvement. I don't want such a war for the people - both "ethnic/linguistic" Ukrainians and Russians in Ukraine. I would much prefer to see the leadership - political and military - put into a field and there to fight it out - without guns - for victory - so that all civilians and infrastructure outside that designated field remain unaffected...getting on with their lives. (What a vision!)
A good, and so necessary, report, Chris. Can't say it enough.
"Can't say it enough"? ....
I could not disagree more ...
Hedges loves to TALK about war rather than fight the good fight with those of us who oppose the illegal and unconstitutional mandates and passports ... on this topic, St Chris has only said "it's a tough decision" ...
AND THEN, just 30 days after the explosive, court-ordered FDA FOIA release, he said: "I don't think we're going to stop the pandemic and mutations until everyone gets vaccinated"...
AND THEN, just 2m after making this same comment during an interview on the KRYSTAL, KYLE & FRIENDS" podcast, he actually admitted that he "does not trust Moderna or Phizer" ...
Thanks much Chris!
I find it incomprehensible that Hedges ignores the 8 years of bombing and shelling of the Donbas by the Azov and Aidan Battalions, that resulted in 14,000+ deaths, and can further ignore the first declared aim of the SMO, to liberate and relieve the beleaguered denizens of the Donbas. Putin had no choice. He should give him credit. Hedges falls in my estimatition if he cannot accept this.
Well said ...
And he also continues to push the globalist's easily disproven "climate change is an existential threat" narrative and continues to talk out of both sides of his mouth on the issue of divisiveness ... I've got all the details ... times, dates and context for a litany of head-scratching verbatim quotes by the duplicitous Mr. Hedges ... all ya gotta do is ask ...
What's been personally fascinating for me is seeing how bloodthirsty, simple-minded "Good Liberals" here in the west are now so quick to call any of us "Putin Lovers" when we indeed saw neoliberals ripping out the guts of the old USSR and taking everything for themselves. Then saying NATO wouldn't "take one step to the East," then doing just that. Encircling Russia with fear of invasion. A country invaded so many times, suffering so much more of the loses of WWII than we did fighting fascist Germany, and now embracing Azov and Ukrainian fascists who did the Germans' dirty work for them. Disgusting tools.
Great article. Vietnam was the last U.S. war to show us, every nite on the 6pm News, bombing civilians, and body bags being loaded off the tarmac. Now we hear statistics, lies mostly, and are spared seeing the lack of humanity that war exposes. I vote for buying billboard space that shows the worst of the worst, for folks to choke on while cruising along eating a Big Mac. I highlighted this in my own substack site...crossingtopanga.substack.com, my pacifist brother's true story of being imprisoned in the Vietnam War and being charged for mutiny..The Presidio 27 protesters all served in prison, but in the end they were vindicated. We HAVE to keep protesting war!
If you have not already seen this film, check out- MANCHESTER BY THE SEA.
I think this film is worth discussing on your show.