The longer the proxy war in Ukraine continues, the closer we come to a direct confrontation with Russia. Once that happens, the Dr. Strangeloves running the show will reach for the nukes.
Chris Hedges just wrote the most important message to date. And, he conveys many powerful ones to us and the world. Our “elected leaders” must take heed and listen to this wisdom.
I don’t know where you find the courage to even write these articles. To confront these truths is an act of courage and integrity in itself and then to write about them with such clarity and insight...
Unbelievable.. and there is seemingly nothing NY of us can do about it to influence the outcome aside from banding.together is a physical 10 million person March on the white house... but even then, the police would use assault weapons on citizens at this stage. The only thing there is sto do is to watch from a place of ultimate quietness (which is limited and blurred line of sight from God herself) and observe it all without judgement as the humans who wish to punish are ultimately the ones who will be punished as the perpetrators causing all of humanity to be evaporated from this planet... just like a virus should be. Are we collectively anything better than a temporary virus on this floating rock?
Let's see if a miracle happens and the Puppet Masters all die from Sars Cov 2 first... I would imagine they are all in their 70s and have several co-morbidities as well.. so the odds are about the same as a lottery ticket.
Even so, others will fill their place until humans in critical mass realize we are all the same underlying person... who am I or anyone else to determine if humanity should survive.
Governments need to be defunded and starved to death.. they have accumulated far too much power and forgotten they are not to exist without the consent of the people. Democracy died a long time ago... we are already in WW3. Find your joy and peace in this moment everyone.. it may be some of your last.
Thanks for this summary of much surrounding Ukraine. It will be my go to introduction to the non believers.
I find most of my "smart" friends like the certainty of chest thumping more than the uncertainty of discussions??? Even when I talk about their children's demise.???
What about Putin's successor? Shouldn't we expect a much harder line?
How incredible for it to be 2022 and the last year has transported me back to the late 70s and early 80s, as a child and young adolescent. Nuclear war was a constant in the books I was reading, and a significant theme in the Madeline L'Engle's classics that so transported me. Will we see the pussywillows again? Will there be a next spring? And then Carl Sagan's wise counsel in the OG "Cosmos" of 1980, with the threat of nuclear extinction raised again and again. Can technological societies survive this turbulent adolescence?
Sagan's sensible dream of abandoning the arms race and MAD for mutual exploration of the universe may have always been a pipe dream, but even living this reality, it's difficult to imagine a more total rejection of a peaceful future than what the failson and faildaughter sociopaths now running the show have arranged. We're one transposed security code or misheard order from blowing up the world. In the 70s and 80s, people were upset about it. Now, aside from Hedges and Caitlin Johnstone and the few of us here, nobody knows. Rabid American support for yet another war, and right after having been lied to for 20 years about Afghanistan, is just incomprehensible.
It pains me to say this, but I'm glad Carl's dead. I would hate for him to have lived this long only to be so disappointed.
Some damn straight thinking. It really seems insane, a vicious oaf like Donald Trump being the only voice of sanity here. Putin may be the ultimate cutthroat, but he doesn’t want to see his country (and himself) annihilated anymore than anyone else would, and when leaders in the west posture and refuse to talk to him, they’re making a mistake of possible catastrophic proportions.
Well, I don't entirely agree with Chris. Most wars are fought to defeat "the enemy" and force him to submit to your will. This is not a war that Russia wants to fight and I don't think that they think that things are going all that badly nor do I think that they want to crush the Ukraine, either. Why do I say that? Well, Shoigu is still the head military man. Putin has demonstrated a willingness to can anyone who isn't doing what he thinks needs done. And Shoigu is still there. I don't think that Russian losses are anything like what the US claims. They've been fighting this whole time with forces smaller than the Ukraine's so I don't think this call up is because they're running out of troops. I think the Russians have finally gotten pissed and they are starting to kick the Ukraine's ass by knocking out a substantial portion of their power grid, for example. And the Z-man immediately started bleating about more weapons.
So what does all this mean? I think Russia wants to raise the pressure on the Ukraine to get them to come back to the table but the wild card is the US/UK/EU/Ukrainian Nazis threatening the Z-man to within an inch of his life. The reality is that every time the Russians have stood and fought, the Ukrainians got their asses kicked. The US wants to make it seem as if the Russians are at the end of their tether. Oh, they're running out of missiles and two day later they unleash a barrage. They're getting drones from Iran. Really? Proof? This is all because Russia keeps hitting the Ukraine with drones. I think the US has a serious case of blinded by their own preconceptions.
What I really fear is the Deep State won't give it a rest and will keep pushing including putting US forces into the Ukraine. If that happens, all hell is likely to be loosed.
Chris, I love your work. I sometimes wonder if public truth tellers like yourself ever feel isolated and alone among your own family/friends. I wonder if the people in your company are hip to your clear sighted understanding of geopolitics, or if you are constantly suppressing conversations in the name of keeping peace with those who might be easily triggered or in denial.
From the beginning of the Russian invasion, I was devastated when people close to me started waving the blue & yellow flags without any recognition of what this war could and likely would lead to. No mobilization or outspokenness about the dangers of this proxy war. It's been like watching something horrifying in slow motion.
I wish we ALL could be children of Chomsky and the great thinkers who not only analyzed geopolitics, but the social psychology of a culture enslaved by endless war--how it's manufactured in ubiquitous, myriad forms, and the demoralizing effect it has on society. I wish I had thinkers like Chris in my immediate circle. It quite possibly would make this time less painful.
Are there any serious attempts to stop the warmongers or deter them from their path? Can the upcoming November elections change anything in this grim scenario?
I've signed a good number of CodePink & other peace petitions & wonder what it will take for antiwar sentiment to gain traction, make an impact.
Doesn't help, of course, that even NPR tends to spout the party (Neo-Con) line ...
The worst response we can have to this article is to throw up our hands and say there is nothing we can do, it is out of our control. Too many comments here reflect that resignation. But we can lobby our representatives in Congress, and Biden himself, to stop escalation and start diplomacy. Call or write them now.
Thanks for this.......I wish I knew how citizens could contribute to the calls for negotiation. Where I live the cheering for war seems to have gone silent, but the calls for a peace settlement that allows both sides to save some face is absent.
We have to do more than just grow weary of the cheerleading for Ukraine. But its hard to know what.
We are governed by sociopaths.
Chris Hedges just wrote the most important message to date. And, he conveys many powerful ones to us and the world. Our “elected leaders” must take heed and listen to this wisdom.
I don’t know where you find the courage to even write these articles. To confront these truths is an act of courage and integrity in itself and then to write about them with such clarity and insight...
Unbelievable.. and there is seemingly nothing NY of us can do about it to influence the outcome aside from banding.together is a physical 10 million person March on the white house... but even then, the police would use assault weapons on citizens at this stage. The only thing there is sto do is to watch from a place of ultimate quietness (which is limited and blurred line of sight from God herself) and observe it all without judgement as the humans who wish to punish are ultimately the ones who will be punished as the perpetrators causing all of humanity to be evaporated from this planet... just like a virus should be. Are we collectively anything better than a temporary virus on this floating rock?
Let's see if a miracle happens and the Puppet Masters all die from Sars Cov 2 first... I would imagine they are all in their 70s and have several co-morbidities as well.. so the odds are about the same as a lottery ticket.
Even so, others will fill their place until humans in critical mass realize we are all the same underlying person... who am I or anyone else to determine if humanity should survive.
Governments need to be defunded and starved to death.. they have accumulated far too much power and forgotten they are not to exist without the consent of the people. Democracy died a long time ago... we are already in WW3. Find your joy and peace in this moment everyone.. it may be some of your last.
Thanks for this summary of much surrounding Ukraine. It will be my go to introduction to the non believers.
I find most of my "smart" friends like the certainty of chest thumping more than the uncertainty of discussions??? Even when I talk about their children's demise.???
What about Putin's successor? Shouldn't we expect a much harder line?
How incredible for it to be 2022 and the last year has transported me back to the late 70s and early 80s, as a child and young adolescent. Nuclear war was a constant in the books I was reading, and a significant theme in the Madeline L'Engle's classics that so transported me. Will we see the pussywillows again? Will there be a next spring? And then Carl Sagan's wise counsel in the OG "Cosmos" of 1980, with the threat of nuclear extinction raised again and again. Can technological societies survive this turbulent adolescence?
Sagan's sensible dream of abandoning the arms race and MAD for mutual exploration of the universe may have always been a pipe dream, but even living this reality, it's difficult to imagine a more total rejection of a peaceful future than what the failson and faildaughter sociopaths now running the show have arranged. We're one transposed security code or misheard order from blowing up the world. In the 70s and 80s, people were upset about it. Now, aside from Hedges and Caitlin Johnstone and the few of us here, nobody knows. Rabid American support for yet another war, and right after having been lied to for 20 years about Afghanistan, is just incomprehensible.
It pains me to say this, but I'm glad Carl's dead. I would hate for him to have lived this long only to be so disappointed.
Robert Kagan and Victoria Nuland are married, right? What is their reason for this?
Some damn straight thinking. It really seems insane, a vicious oaf like Donald Trump being the only voice of sanity here. Putin may be the ultimate cutthroat, but he doesn’t want to see his country (and himself) annihilated anymore than anyone else would, and when leaders in the west posture and refuse to talk to him, they’re making a mistake of possible catastrophic proportions.
It’s at least a 50/50 at this point ...
Guaranteed mutual destruction
I’m figuring the govt idiots are stupid enough to think they’ll win
And we can see the billionaires know better and will be fleeing to their multimillion dollar bunkers
WHY?
Me?
I’d rather walk out and watch them coming ... be annihilated in the first round
I certainty don’t want to be alive, suffering and trying to keep alive in what will be an unrecognizable world
If it happens -I’m going out with a bang
Those bloody idiots 😥
Well, I don't entirely agree with Chris. Most wars are fought to defeat "the enemy" and force him to submit to your will. This is not a war that Russia wants to fight and I don't think that they think that things are going all that badly nor do I think that they want to crush the Ukraine, either. Why do I say that? Well, Shoigu is still the head military man. Putin has demonstrated a willingness to can anyone who isn't doing what he thinks needs done. And Shoigu is still there. I don't think that Russian losses are anything like what the US claims. They've been fighting this whole time with forces smaller than the Ukraine's so I don't think this call up is because they're running out of troops. I think the Russians have finally gotten pissed and they are starting to kick the Ukraine's ass by knocking out a substantial portion of their power grid, for example. And the Z-man immediately started bleating about more weapons.
So what does all this mean? I think Russia wants to raise the pressure on the Ukraine to get them to come back to the table but the wild card is the US/UK/EU/Ukrainian Nazis threatening the Z-man to within an inch of his life. The reality is that every time the Russians have stood and fought, the Ukrainians got their asses kicked. The US wants to make it seem as if the Russians are at the end of their tether. Oh, they're running out of missiles and two day later they unleash a barrage. They're getting drones from Iran. Really? Proof? This is all because Russia keeps hitting the Ukraine with drones. I think the US has a serious case of blinded by their own preconceptions.
What I really fear is the Deep State won't give it a rest and will keep pushing including putting US forces into the Ukraine. If that happens, all hell is likely to be loosed.
Chris, I love your work. I sometimes wonder if public truth tellers like yourself ever feel isolated and alone among your own family/friends. I wonder if the people in your company are hip to your clear sighted understanding of geopolitics, or if you are constantly suppressing conversations in the name of keeping peace with those who might be easily triggered or in denial.
From the beginning of the Russian invasion, I was devastated when people close to me started waving the blue & yellow flags without any recognition of what this war could and likely would lead to. No mobilization or outspokenness about the dangers of this proxy war. It's been like watching something horrifying in slow motion.
I wish we ALL could be children of Chomsky and the great thinkers who not only analyzed geopolitics, but the social psychology of a culture enslaved by endless war--how it's manufactured in ubiquitous, myriad forms, and the demoralizing effect it has on society. I wish I had thinkers like Chris in my immediate circle. It quite possibly would make this time less painful.
As usual, The NY Times editorial (naively? or corruptly?) gets it very wrong in asking:
"Has the administration’s goal shifted to destabilizing Putin or having him removed?"
Regime change has always been - from before day one - one of Biden/Blinken's strategic objectives.
Are there any serious attempts to stop the warmongers or deter them from their path? Can the upcoming November elections change anything in this grim scenario?
I've signed a good number of CodePink & other peace petitions & wonder what it will take for antiwar sentiment to gain traction, make an impact.
Doesn't help, of course, that even NPR tends to spout the party (Neo-Con) line ...
The worst response we can have to this article is to throw up our hands and say there is nothing we can do, it is out of our control. Too many comments here reflect that resignation. But we can lobby our representatives in Congress, and Biden himself, to stop escalation and start diplomacy. Call or write them now.
Thanks for this.......I wish I knew how citizens could contribute to the calls for negotiation. Where I live the cheering for war seems to have gone silent, but the calls for a peace settlement that allows both sides to save some face is absent.
We have to do more than just grow weary of the cheerleading for Ukraine. But its hard to know what.
Well said Cris, thanks.