The US and Russia, faded relics of the Cold War, unable to accept their terminal decline, launch futile and self-defeating wars to reclaim their lost imperial power.
We’d all be wise to end our support for big Ag, at least it’s something most of us can do something about. Chris himself has mentioned going vegan on a YouTube broadcast I just watched as well. Thanks for bringing it up the subsidy aspect,definitely another reason to avoid it.
Putin is not the one driving this conflict -- he does not have the strength, money or support -- whatever his dreams may be. He was backed into a corner by NATO. It’s not his war of aggression; it’s ours.
Putin chose the conflict. No one forced him to do anything. Russia promised in the Budapest Memorandum to leave Ukraine alone if they gave up their nuclear weapons. He was blinded into believing it would be a stroll in the park like Crimea. Now it's all about him trying to save face.
There was never any possibility of NATO attacking Russia. And everyone knows that. Putin had dreams of making Russia a Great Power again, of making a Eurasian empire. Now the best thing that could happen is to figure out how to maintain Ukraine's independence while allowing Putin to save face, and that won't be easy.
Far beyond a decade, more in the realm of indefinitely. We aren't talking about one bomb in one location, but about three nuclear world powers waging nuclear world war. What would remain untouched by nuclear fallout?
Let me be a bit of a Fact Check pest: Are there really conscripts in Ukraine after Putin forbade them and when conscripts were sent when OPutin found out he ordered them withdrawn? Do they therefore really suffer from disorganization, ineptitude and low morale?
Apparently conquest of Kiev was *never* an objective for Russia... the presence of troops around Kiev was pressure to force Zelensky to negotiate which his Azov Nazi and US Nato overlords would not permit. So they were withdrawn and repositioned, considered a Great Patriotic Victory of Zelensky!
Russia has encircled the 2/3 of ALL Ukrainian forces positioned just outside Donetsk and Luhansk -- they were poised for an invasion of Donbass which Russia *successfully foiled* -- and the Ukrainian forces vastly outnumber Russian troops committed so far ANYWAY. This "Special Operation" NOT a Germany-Thru-Belgium strategy and never was and you err in assuming it was.
Ukrainian troops have PLENTY of training from the US and Nato, ***NOT*** "little or no training" and Ukie forces are *NOT* poorly equipped (since 2014) NOR are they a numerically inferior force. Where do you get this shit?!
But you are right that Russia poses no threat to the NATO alliance or the United States, barring a nuclear attack ... EXCEPT the nuclear attack would be PROVOKED by the US and Nato, lets have the accurate chain of causality here, please Chris.
Other than those corrections to your reporting -- which you presumably got from the US Military CIA State media propaganda ministries, Great Essay.
You have also *totally missed* the *Clash of Christianities* involved here. The Roman Catholic Church has never ceased wanting to control the Eastern Orthodox Church and it is clear that the so-called East/West divide accurately follows the borders of the1054 schism. Plus the Crusades were as much to crush the Eastern Orthodox Church as they were to crush Muslims in the Holy Land. Count the Crusades as an invasion -- the first invasion -- from the West prior to Napoleon, Kaiser Wilhelm and Hitler. Long Orthodox and Russian memories of the sack of Constantinople.
Perhaps you should read more of The Saker and Moon of Alabama, links here.
Gonzalo Lira, the War Correspondent like you, Chris, who is on the ground in Ukraine but has one upped you by being disappeared for a week by the Zelensky Ukraine KGB, Recaps the War in Ukraine on Moon of Alabama:
Another fine Chris Hedges kind of reporter and analyst, Pepe Escobar in The Saker also writes about the Clash of Christianities:
Clash of Christianities: Why Europe cannot understand Russia
Western Europeans see the Orthodox and eastern Christians as satraps and a bunch of smugglers, while the Orthodox regard the Crusaders as barbarian usurpers bent on world conquest. By Pepe Escobar, Christianity, once again, at the heart of a civilizational battle – this time among Christians themselves.
EXCERPT: "Under an ubiquitous, toxic atmosphere of cognitive dissonance drenched in Russophobia, it’s absolutely impossible to have a meaningful discussion on finer points of Russian history and culture across the NATO space – a phenomenon I’m experiencing back in Paris right now, fresh from a long stint in Istanbul.
At best, in a semblance of civilized dialogue, Russia is pigeonholed in the reductionist view of a threatening, irrational, ever-expanding empire – a way more wicked version of Ancient Rome, Achaemenid Persia, Ottoman Turkey or Mughal India.
The fall of the USSR a little over three decades ago did hurl Russia back three centuries – to its borders in the 17th century. Russia, historically, had been interpreted as a secular empire – immense, multiple and multinational. This is all informed by history, very much alive even today in the Russian collective unconscious.
But the focus and thrust of your essay is both accurate and correct.
I never understood the religious zealotry against Russia by the US as I grew up in the 1950s and 1960s -- how could a competing economic system fuel such hatred starting w Woodrow WIlson and his Palmer Raids thru McCarthy/Nixon/Hoover and then NO peace dividend after Reagan/Gorbachev and now anti-Russia FURY unleashed once again starting in 2016 and before.
It has a religious character and a religious base to it. Ther Schism. The US and Nato are following the supposed injunction of Jesus to ...
"Go therefore and conquer all nations, baptizing them in the name of the petrodollar, the free market and the rules-based international order."
Let me be a bit if a fact check pest on my own comment.
I have read credible reports that the Ukrainian conscript boots on the ground - except for Nazi Azov battalions - have received poor training despite the billions in military aid from the US and Nato countries since 2024.
It appears that the bulk of “training funds” from the Empire went to middle and upper echelons of the Ukie military - generals, colonels, captains - plus all the gee whiz golly techno and lethal new toys and bio labs they have been given to play with plus Cia state security assistance.
And who knows how much in kickbacks to locals and Biden - type families of the “West”.
This might be why Putin decided against a blitzkreig-thru-Belgium strategy in order to preserve Ukrainian state apparatus unlike the US which disbanded the Iraqi military.
I call Gonzo the name Mr Leer because of his derogatory attitude towards women of all ages as expressed frequently on his own babbling shows. He disrespectfully leers at women.
Another great essay of cliches from Chris Hedges. Chris Hedges used to be a journalist, and now he's just a writer who doesn't check facts, but lives in a world of his own pregudice and biases. Chris Hedges repeats the propaganda of the Western media. What kind of nonsense is it that the Ukrainian army is weak and small? The number of the Ukrainian army is hundreds of thousands of people. they were armed and trained by NATO for years. Plus they have combat experience, they fought with Donbass for 8 years. For the same 8 years, they have been building a defense line in the Donbass. They are receiving endless amount of weapons from West. So all this is utter nonsense that the Ukrainian army is weak. That was intended lie from Western media so that to claim that Russia was defeated because it couldn't win for 3-4 days.
So you don't care what lies Chris Hedges tells, as long as he doesn't repeat the lies of the government. It's charming. Why do I should go away ? Because I make uncomfortable your comfortable world of comfortable truth ?
I'm a retired newsman. I know news. I know newsman. Chris Hedges tells the truth. Sometimes it makes me uncomfortable, but that's a sign that I am conquering my cognitive dissonance and confirmation bias. Some poor souls can't do that.
This means that your fucking asses shouldn't complain and whine when they'll find themselves in the epicenter of some fucking war with Russia, because the Russian army is weak and helpless, as Mr. Hedges wrote from his parallel reality.
one of the most difficult things for me, being born as i was in 1952, is seeing the united states going from creating the national highway system, beautiful and lasting state capitals, and a commitment (however wobbly it was) to the constitution and bill of rights to a country whose government is incapable of simple reasoning. Highway systems filled with potholes, ramshackle court houses often made from doublewides, a homeless surge, the selling of state capitals to make up budget shortfalls due to lowering taxes on the rich, and foreign policy run by people whose belt size and IQ are roughly similar. Intelligent foreign policy is not rocket surgery, it is a very slow chess game that should be played by grandmasters whose ultimate goal is a world without war. It is embarrassing. And frightening. And I don't see how the collapse can be stopped. the founders I think never envisioned an entire congress and government bureaucracy filled with incompetents who had no desire to serve the country and its people.
Meanwhile Noam Chomsky is recently quoted as saying there is only one US statesman that has come out with a reasonable recommendation for dealing with Russia - Donald J. Trump.
"Noam Chomsky, in an interview this week, says "fortunately" there is "one Western statesman of stature" who is pushing for a diplomatic solution to the war in Ukraine rather than looking for ways to fuel and prolong it.
Noam Chomsky has no idea what's really going on in Ukraine. He like Chris Hedges takes lies from western media. If you don't have proper information how can you solve the problem ? Here is an example. Recently Chomsky in his interview several times repeated that Russian minister of foreign affairs said that Russia's goal is neutralization of Ukraine. This is a ridiculous term that has nothing to do with word's of Lavrov. What is that? Intended distortion of words, incompetence or intended wrong translation ? Everyone in the West very carefully avoids the theme of funding Ukrainian fascists by the US government. Meanwhile Russia claimed that destruction those fascists is its main goal. It seems that so-called experts don't know history and have no idea what's really going on in Ukraine or in Russia but they are willing to do rantings about that war. So, the question arises: what are the reasons to believe that Chomsky knows about what is happening in the US? Or his words about Trump are just another bunch of ranting
Wow. Trump seems to own you like Musk owns AOC? It seems that his positive words on Trump triggered you.
Chomsky has written over 150 books and many of them on war and the related politics. He was one of the most outspoken against the Vietnam war. He got that right, didn't he? He used to be a friend of the left. But I guess now with the Dems taken over the 3rd wave feminists the they are the new neocons.
He is certainly a credible commentator on the topic.
Yes, he often is, but he's utterly wrong about Zelensky, whom he called honorable in an interview a couple of weeks ago. That's a serious misstatement of the facts; Zelensky's duplicity and dishonesty have been easy to discern since before the war, and it's off the charts now. Furthermore, Chomsky and a gaggle of other leftists who I still admire demanded that I vote for Biden in 2020, or else. I ignored them, and didn't vote, rightly recognizing that Biden would certainly be at least as bad as Trump. Turns out he's worse in every regard except for the addled tweets.
So, what's going on here? I think it's fear, coupled with age. Chomsky and company certainly see what's on store, and they're freaking out. At this point I don't see how WW3 is avoidable.
Did he call Zelensky honorable? It's definitely dementia. There is a way to avoid World War III. People all over the world should know about the crimes of the Ukrainian regime. Today marks the 8th anniversary of the brutal murder of people in Odessa. This crime has not been investigated. No one was punished. Today, a curfew has even been announced in Odessa so that people do not dare to honor the memory of the dead
I remember that Noam Chomsky mentioned that, according to the OSCE, since February 17, bombing of Donbass has intensified. And he added, but the OSCE is not obliged to find out who is bombing Donbass. I was stunned by this remark. So if Mr Chomsky really doesn't know who bombs Donbass he is incredibly stupid and incompetent. If he knows he is incredibly hypocritical and cynical.
I don't care about Trump. But I used to respect and trust people like Chris Hedges and Noam Chomsky. And now they disappoint me very much. I wonder if they are not telling the truth about this war, what else of what they said and I believed is not true? I don't care how many books he wrote. It doesn't matter if he's not telling the truth.
"Russia has been unable to overwhelm a poorly equipped and numerically inferior force in Ukraine, many of whose troops have little or no military training."
From what I read, the US and NATO, for over a decade, have pumped billions of dollars of military equipment into Ukraine and trained Ukraine military to NATO standards. The Russian forces were numerically FAR less than Ukrainian forces. The ration contradicts the 3/1 ratio of offense versus defense, as Scott Ritter has explained.
Why has Hedges accepted the mainstream US military analysis?
I think the truth is perhaps imbetween. I'd bet that the Ukrainian army has suffered immense losses; that former NATO military man, interviewed by Aaron Mate, pointed out that the Ukrainian army BEFORE the war started was having a very serious problem with desertion. I cant imagine that suddenly those recruits would be willing to die fighting now. But who knows? ( Notice how its virtually impossible to get ANY numbers at all about Ukrainian war losses?) The level of lying and propaganda being generated largely by the US can certainly affect even people who you might think would be a little more circumspect. My brother thinks "Putin" ( more accurately it's "the Russians" of course) is trying to reconstitute the "Soviet empire," a Hilary Clinton-level lie, and he's a self-described libertarian. All in all, utterly no reason to be optimistic.
Yes, when you consider that the U.S. has 750 military bases around the world and a string of recent major conquests half way around the globe while Russia is intent on securing its borders and supporting its friends, there is really no comparison. Two very different nations.
This might be there first time I've ever taken issue with the art of Mr. Fish. Shame on him for equating US Imperialism with the current Russian bear. Hedges share this flawed premise.
“NATO has been revitalized, the United States has reclaimed a mantle of leadership that some feared had vanished in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the European Union has found a unity and purpose that eluded it for most of its existence,”
This ie exactly the revanchism that US accuses Russia of and its implicit in both the art and premise of this piece.
I agree. Mr Hedges made wrong conclusions. The fact that Russian army wasn't prepare for this war means that Putin didn't plan invasion. I think it might be true that Ukranians planned to attack Donbass Belarus and Russia and Putin had to do something to prevent this. According to OSCE since February 17th after a long period of regarding silence Ukraine started massive bombing of Donbass. In a few days in Munich Zelensky said that Ukraine planned to create nuclear weapons against Russia. 24/7 escalation of the situation by the Western media, their endless statements about the inevitability of war, as well as Putin's complete denial of war plans, is also suspicious. And the situation with Taiwan is the same. I am sure that China is not planning any military invasion of Taiwan, and Taiwan is not small and not harmless. The US has been arming Taiwan for decades. Taiwan has a fairly powerful modern army.
bs, russia is not in decline, let alone terminal, it's on it's way up. but I guess you have to sell it to your primarily american audience like "it's okay we're doomed, at least russia is too" #vomit
My take on this essay, while it is correct in so many aspects, is really driven by Hedges' fear of being banned and is part of his defensive strategy to avoid being portrayed as a Russian tool (i.e the prior RT false attacks). I've never seen Hedges blink like this before, particularly on the Nazi and military aspects. The truth is a seamless whole, and sadly, both Hedges and Mr. Fish, give us only partial truths.
Why is there no mention - none at all - of various cultural, political, and military dimensions of the NAZI's in Ukraine, the history of Nazi's in current Ukrainian nationalists movements, and the military aspects of Nazi militia's?
Or murderous Azov and Svoboda attacks on the Donbass since the CIA (Obama) ignited Maidan Revolution of 2014?
Seems more like an orchestrated globalist event with dirty players on both sides - perhaps the USA’s being the worst. There’s also that nagging notion of a worldwide depopulation agenda at work.
It's possible that Chris has seen sufficient brutality on the part of the establishment that he now thinks twice before allowing himself to be viewed as a threat. He's not as dense as this article suggests, so perhaps they're tying his hands in some way. Perhaps the best he can do at present is to open up a discussion for the rest of us?
What is his honesty? Mr Hedges is cold war rusophob like his fella Matt Taibbi. Unfortunately that fact prevents them to accept the truth about this war.
"Russia’s forty-mile long convoy of stalled tanks and trucks, broken down and out of fuel, on the muddy road to Kyiv was not an image of cutting-edge military prowess."
Is this true, or US propaganda?
Scott Ritter claims that the Russian forces directed towards Kyiv were never intended as offensive forces seeking to capture Kyic and were basically scarified to create a diversion to shape the battlefield.
The war in Ukraine is very much like Vietnam. No matter how big and strong your army is, if it isn't protecting it's home and family, it has very little skin in the game and has no will to win.
Russian army IS protecting its home. But you have no idea about this because Western media very carefully avoids the fact that the US government is funding Ukraine fascists which kill and torture Russians. Did Western media mention February claim of Zelensky in Munich where he promised to create and use nuclear weapons against Russia. Did they mention how many thousands of Russian went to Ukraine as volunteers to fight fascism to protect honor and dignity of their ancestors ? I think no. Everything that Western media including Mr Hedges articles talks about this war is a a makeup.
The real winners in this war are the arms industry and the fossil fuel industry.
Along with big Ag and the ethanol industry, winners of the Government Subsidy industry!
We’d all be wise to end our support for big Ag, at least it’s something most of us can do something about. Chris himself has mentioned going vegan on a YouTube broadcast I just watched as well. Thanks for bringing it up the subsidy aspect,definitely another reason to avoid it.
If Biden's plans for nuclear world war go through, they'll go down with everyone else.
Putin is not the one driving this conflict -- he does not have the strength, money or support -- whatever his dreams may be. He was backed into a corner by NATO. It’s not his war of aggression; it’s ours.
Putin chose the conflict. No one forced him to do anything. Russia promised in the Budapest Memorandum to leave Ukraine alone if they gave up their nuclear weapons. He was blinded into believing it would be a stroll in the park like Crimea. Now it's all about him trying to save face.
There was never any possibility of NATO attacking Russia. And everyone knows that. Putin had dreams of making Russia a Great Power again, of making a Eurasian empire. Now the best thing that could happen is to figure out how to maintain Ukraine's independence while allowing Putin to save face, and that won't be easy.
as lampooned here:
https://youtu.be/LDqBHjDHkvw
Far beyond a decade, more in the realm of indefinitely. We aren't talking about one bomb in one location, but about three nuclear world powers waging nuclear world war. What would remain untouched by nuclear fallout?
Let me be a bit of a Fact Check pest: Are there really conscripts in Ukraine after Putin forbade them and when conscripts were sent when OPutin found out he ordered them withdrawn? Do they therefore really suffer from disorganization, ineptitude and low morale?
Apparently conquest of Kiev was *never* an objective for Russia... the presence of troops around Kiev was pressure to force Zelensky to negotiate which his Azov Nazi and US Nato overlords would not permit. So they were withdrawn and repositioned, considered a Great Patriotic Victory of Zelensky!
Russia has encircled the 2/3 of ALL Ukrainian forces positioned just outside Donetsk and Luhansk -- they were poised for an invasion of Donbass which Russia *successfully foiled* -- and the Ukrainian forces vastly outnumber Russian troops committed so far ANYWAY. This "Special Operation" NOT a Germany-Thru-Belgium strategy and never was and you err in assuming it was.
Ukrainian troops have PLENTY of training from the US and Nato, ***NOT*** "little or no training" and Ukie forces are *NOT* poorly equipped (since 2014) NOR are they a numerically inferior force. Where do you get this shit?!
But you are right that Russia poses no threat to the NATO alliance or the United States, barring a nuclear attack ... EXCEPT the nuclear attack would be PROVOKED by the US and Nato, lets have the accurate chain of causality here, please Chris.
Other than those corrections to your reporting -- which you presumably got from the US Military CIA State media propaganda ministries, Great Essay.
You have also *totally missed* the *Clash of Christianities* involved here. The Roman Catholic Church has never ceased wanting to control the Eastern Orthodox Church and it is clear that the so-called East/West divide accurately follows the borders of the1054 schism. Plus the Crusades were as much to crush the Eastern Orthodox Church as they were to crush Muslims in the Holy Land. Count the Crusades as an invasion -- the first invasion -- from the West prior to Napoleon, Kaiser Wilhelm and Hitler. Long Orthodox and Russian memories of the sack of Constantinople.
Perhaps you should read more of The Saker and Moon of Alabama, links here.
https://www.moonofalabama.org/
Gonzalo Lira, the War Correspondent like you, Chris, who is on the ground in Ukraine but has one upped you by being disappeared for a week by the Zelensky Ukraine KGB, Recaps the War in Ukraine on Moon of Alabama:
https://www.moonofalabama.org/2022/04/a-recap-of-the-war-in-ukraine-by-gonzalo-lira.html#more
And The Saker
https://thesaker.is/
Another fine Chris Hedges kind of reporter and analyst, Pepe Escobar in The Saker also writes about the Clash of Christianities:
Clash of Christianities: Why Europe cannot understand Russia
Western Europeans see the Orthodox and eastern Christians as satraps and a bunch of smugglers, while the Orthodox regard the Crusaders as barbarian usurpers bent on world conquest. By Pepe Escobar, Christianity, once again, at the heart of a civilizational battle – this time among Christians themselves.
EXCERPT: "Under an ubiquitous, toxic atmosphere of cognitive dissonance drenched in Russophobia, it’s absolutely impossible to have a meaningful discussion on finer points of Russian history and culture across the NATO space – a phenomenon I’m experiencing back in Paris right now, fresh from a long stint in Istanbul.
At best, in a semblance of civilized dialogue, Russia is pigeonholed in the reductionist view of a threatening, irrational, ever-expanding empire – a way more wicked version of Ancient Rome, Achaemenid Persia, Ottoman Turkey or Mughal India.
The fall of the USSR a little over three decades ago did hurl Russia back three centuries – to its borders in the 17th century. Russia, historically, had been interpreted as a secular empire – immense, multiple and multinational. This is all informed by history, very much alive even today in the Russian collective unconscious.
https://thesaker.is/clash-of-christianities-why-europe-cannot-understand-russia/
And The Saker has its own article on the Clash of Christianities by Walt Garlington:
The Two Poles of Post-Schism Western Religion
https://thesaker.is/clash-of-christianities-why-europe-cannot-understand-russia/
But the focus and thrust of your essay is both accurate and correct.
I never understood the religious zealotry against Russia by the US as I grew up in the 1950s and 1960s -- how could a competing economic system fuel such hatred starting w Woodrow WIlson and his Palmer Raids thru McCarthy/Nixon/Hoover and then NO peace dividend after Reagan/Gorbachev and now anti-Russia FURY unleashed once again starting in 2016 and before.
It has a religious character and a religious base to it. Ther Schism. The US and Nato are following the supposed injunction of Jesus to ...
"Go therefore and conquer all nations, baptizing them in the name of the petrodollar, the free market and the rules-based international order."
N'est pas?
This is a much better comment than a superficial set of cliche from Hedges. He is a complete disappointment.
Funny you say, for a comment that had - "great essay" and "the focus and thrust of your essay is both accurate and correct".
This comment was the article! Thank you.
Let me be a bit if a fact check pest on my own comment.
I have read credible reports that the Ukrainian conscript boots on the ground - except for Nazi Azov battalions - have received poor training despite the billions in military aid from the US and Nato countries since 2024.
It appears that the bulk of “training funds” from the Empire went to middle and upper echelons of the Ukie military - generals, colonels, captains - plus all the gee whiz golly techno and lethal new toys and bio labs they have been given to play with plus Cia state security assistance.
And who knows how much in kickbacks to locals and Biden - type families of the “West”.
This might be why Putin decided against a blitzkreig-thru-Belgium strategy in order to preserve Ukrainian state apparatus unlike the US which disbanded the Iraqi military.
Not a fan of Mr Leer though I wrote Chilean Embassy to check on his safety after excellent The Duran requested. Wouldn’t call him a journalist.
Who the hell WOULD you call a journalist and what are your professional qualifications for doing do? And it’s LIRA not Leer snd Senor not Mister.
I call Gonzo the name Mr Leer because of his derogatory attitude towards women of all ages as expressed frequently on his own babbling shows. He disrespectfully leers at women.
Another great essay.
Another great essay of cliches from Chris Hedges. Chris Hedges used to be a journalist, and now he's just a writer who doesn't check facts, but lives in a world of his own pregudice and biases. Chris Hedges repeats the propaganda of the Western media. What kind of nonsense is it that the Ukrainian army is weak and small? The number of the Ukrainian army is hundreds of thousands of people. they were armed and trained by NATO for years. Plus they have combat experience, they fought with Donbass for 8 years. For the same 8 years, they have been building a defense line in the Donbass. They are receiving endless amount of weapons from West. So all this is utter nonsense that the Ukrainian army is weak. That was intended lie from Western media so that to claim that Russia was defeated because it couldn't win for 3-4 days.
I'll take Chris Hedges's facts over yours. One thing he does NOT do is repeat the government narrative--he does the opposite. Go away.
So you don't care what lies Chris Hedges tells, as long as he doesn't repeat the lies of the government. It's charming. Why do I should go away ? Because I make uncomfortable your comfortable world of comfortable truth ?
I'm a retired newsman. I know news. I know newsman. Chris Hedges tells the truth. Sometimes it makes me uncomfortable, but that's a sign that I am conquering my cognitive dissonance and confirmation bias. Some poor souls can't do that.
So the Ukrainian army isn’t weak.
So fucking what?
This means that your fucking asses shouldn't complain and whine when they'll find themselves in the epicenter of some fucking war with Russia, because the Russian army is weak and helpless, as Mr. Hedges wrote from his parallel reality.
This war is stupid and useless, and there’s plenty of blame for everyone.
Yes, you're right. I wonder where you all were before February 24, 2022 with your high morals and condemnation of wars
I can’t speak for everyone, but I’ve been a pacifist my whole life.
Every war, down to the last, is liars getting people killed. It’s like the herpes virus, but for our whole damn species.
one of the most difficult things for me, being born as i was in 1952, is seeing the united states going from creating the national highway system, beautiful and lasting state capitals, and a commitment (however wobbly it was) to the constitution and bill of rights to a country whose government is incapable of simple reasoning. Highway systems filled with potholes, ramshackle court houses often made from doublewides, a homeless surge, the selling of state capitals to make up budget shortfalls due to lowering taxes on the rich, and foreign policy run by people whose belt size and IQ are roughly similar. Intelligent foreign policy is not rocket surgery, it is a very slow chess game that should be played by grandmasters whose ultimate goal is a world without war. It is embarrassing. And frightening. And I don't see how the collapse can be stopped. the founders I think never envisioned an entire congress and government bureaucracy filled with incompetents who had no desire to serve the country and its people.
"A very slow chess game." To paraphrase Gore Vidal, what we have is a bunch of domino players when we should have had a bunch of chess players!
Meanwhile Noam Chomsky is recently quoted as saying there is only one US statesman that has come out with a reasonable recommendation for dealing with Russia - Donald J. Trump.
"Noam Chomsky, in an interview this week, says "fortunately" there is "one Western statesman of stature" who is pushing for a diplomatic solution to the war in Ukraine rather than looking for ways to fuel and prolong it.
"His name is Donald J. Trump," Chomsky says.
Noam Chomsky has no idea what's really going on in Ukraine. He like Chris Hedges takes lies from western media. If you don't have proper information how can you solve the problem ? Here is an example. Recently Chomsky in his interview several times repeated that Russian minister of foreign affairs said that Russia's goal is neutralization of Ukraine. This is a ridiculous term that has nothing to do with word's of Lavrov. What is that? Intended distortion of words, incompetence or intended wrong translation ? Everyone in the West very carefully avoids the theme of funding Ukrainian fascists by the US government. Meanwhile Russia claimed that destruction those fascists is its main goal. It seems that so-called experts don't know history and have no idea what's really going on in Ukraine or in Russia but they are willing to do rantings about that war. So, the question arises: what are the reasons to believe that Chomsky knows about what is happening in the US? Or his words about Trump are just another bunch of ranting
Wow. Trump seems to own you like Musk owns AOC? It seems that his positive words on Trump triggered you.
Chomsky has written over 150 books and many of them on war and the related politics. He was one of the most outspoken against the Vietnam war. He got that right, didn't he? He used to be a friend of the left. But I guess now with the Dems taken over the 3rd wave feminists the they are the new neocons.
He is certainly a credible commentator on the topic.
Yes, he often is, but he's utterly wrong about Zelensky, whom he called honorable in an interview a couple of weeks ago. That's a serious misstatement of the facts; Zelensky's duplicity and dishonesty have been easy to discern since before the war, and it's off the charts now. Furthermore, Chomsky and a gaggle of other leftists who I still admire demanded that I vote for Biden in 2020, or else. I ignored them, and didn't vote, rightly recognizing that Biden would certainly be at least as bad as Trump. Turns out he's worse in every regard except for the addled tweets.
So, what's going on here? I think it's fear, coupled with age. Chomsky and company certainly see what's on store, and they're freaking out. At this point I don't see how WW3 is avoidable.
Did he call Zelensky honorable? It's definitely dementia. There is a way to avoid World War III. People all over the world should know about the crimes of the Ukrainian regime. Today marks the 8th anniversary of the brutal murder of people in Odessa. This crime has not been investigated. No one was punished. Today, a curfew has even been announced in Odessa so that people do not dare to honor the memory of the dead
I don't think he's demented. I think he simply doesn't know the truth of the matter, and perhaps wishes things were different.
I remember that Noam Chomsky mentioned that, according to the OSCE, since February 17, bombing of Donbass has intensified. And he added, but the OSCE is not obliged to find out who is bombing Donbass. I was stunned by this remark. So if Mr Chomsky really doesn't know who bombs Donbass he is incredibly stupid and incompetent. If he knows he is incredibly hypocritical and cynical.
I don't care about Trump. But I used to respect and trust people like Chris Hedges and Noam Chomsky. And now they disappoint me very much. I wonder if they are not telling the truth about this war, what else of what they said and I believed is not true? I don't care how many books he wrote. It doesn't matter if he's not telling the truth.
Sounds like both Trump and Chomsky have dementia.
“Why can’t we use nukes?” Donald J Trump
This is not true:
"Russia has been unable to overwhelm a poorly equipped and numerically inferior force in Ukraine, many of whose troops have little or no military training."
From what I read, the US and NATO, for over a decade, have pumped billions of dollars of military equipment into Ukraine and trained Ukraine military to NATO standards. The Russian forces were numerically FAR less than Ukrainian forces. The ration contradicts the 3/1 ratio of offense versus defense, as Scott Ritter has explained.
Why has Hedges accepted the mainstream US military analysis?
I think the truth is perhaps imbetween. I'd bet that the Ukrainian army has suffered immense losses; that former NATO military man, interviewed by Aaron Mate, pointed out that the Ukrainian army BEFORE the war started was having a very serious problem with desertion. I cant imagine that suddenly those recruits would be willing to die fighting now. But who knows? ( Notice how its virtually impossible to get ANY numbers at all about Ukrainian war losses?) The level of lying and propaganda being generated largely by the US can certainly affect even people who you might think would be a little more circumspect. My brother thinks "Putin" ( more accurately it's "the Russians" of course) is trying to reconstitute the "Soviet empire," a Hilary Clinton-level lie, and he's a self-described libertarian. All in all, utterly no reason to be optimistic.
This is false a premise. There is no evidence that Putin is pursuing revanchist or imperial objectives.
"Putin’s revanchism is matched by our own."
Yes, when you consider that the U.S. has 750 military bases around the world and a string of recent major conquests half way around the globe while Russia is intent on securing its borders and supporting its friends, there is really no comparison. Two very different nations.
This might be there first time I've ever taken issue with the art of Mr. Fish. Shame on him for equating US Imperialism with the current Russian bear. Hedges share this flawed premise.
“NATO has been revitalized, the United States has reclaimed a mantle of leadership that some feared had vanished in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the European Union has found a unity and purpose that eluded it for most of its existence,”
This ie exactly the revanchism that US accuses Russia of and its implicit in both the art and premise of this piece.
Right-on Bill Wolfe
Check my more lengthy comment above.
I agree. Mr Hedges made wrong conclusions. The fact that Russian army wasn't prepare for this war means that Putin didn't plan invasion. I think it might be true that Ukranians planned to attack Donbass Belarus and Russia and Putin had to do something to prevent this. According to OSCE since February 17th after a long period of regarding silence Ukraine started massive bombing of Donbass. In a few days in Munich Zelensky said that Ukraine planned to create nuclear weapons against Russia. 24/7 escalation of the situation by the Western media, their endless statements about the inevitability of war, as well as Putin's complete denial of war plans, is also suspicious. And the situation with Taiwan is the same. I am sure that China is not planning any military invasion of Taiwan, and Taiwan is not small and not harmless. The US has been arming Taiwan for decades. Taiwan has a fairly powerful modern army.
bs, russia is not in decline, let alone terminal, it's on it's way up. but I guess you have to sell it to your primarily american audience like "it's okay we're doomed, at least russia is too" #vomit
I would be interested in hearing more of your views on Russia
My take on this essay, while it is correct in so many aspects, is really driven by Hedges' fear of being banned and is part of his defensive strategy to avoid being portrayed as a Russian tool (i.e the prior RT false attacks). I've never seen Hedges blink like this before, particularly on the Nazi and military aspects. The truth is a seamless whole, and sadly, both Hedges and Mr. Fish, give us only partial truths.
Why is there no mention - none at all - of various cultural, political, and military dimensions of the NAZI's in Ukraine, the history of Nazi's in current Ukrainian nationalists movements, and the military aspects of Nazi militia's?
Or murderous Azov and Svoboda attacks on the Donbass since the CIA (Obama) ignited Maidan Revolution of 2014?
Seems more like an orchestrated globalist event with dirty players on both sides - perhaps the USA’s being the worst. There’s also that nagging notion of a worldwide depopulation agenda at work.
This is ALL on the U$A, Chris! Are you being cute as to NOT be censored everywhere, or permanently?
It's possible that Chris has seen sufficient brutality on the part of the establishment that he now thinks twice before allowing himself to be viewed as a threat. He's not as dense as this article suggests, so perhaps they're tying his hands in some way. Perhaps the best he can do at present is to open up a discussion for the rest of us?
“The masters of war require an enemy. When an enemy cannot be found, as George Orwell understood in Nineteen Eighty-Four, an enemy is manufactured.”
https://youtu.be/nUDoGuLpirc
So grateful to read the words written by an honest journalist.
What is his honesty? Mr Hedges is cold war rusophob like his fella Matt Taibbi. Unfortunately that fact prevents them to accept the truth about this war.
"Russia’s forty-mile long convoy of stalled tanks and trucks, broken down and out of fuel, on the muddy road to Kyiv was not an image of cutting-edge military prowess."
Is this true, or US propaganda?
Scott Ritter claims that the Russian forces directed towards Kyiv were never intended as offensive forces seeking to capture Kyic and were basically scarified to create a diversion to shape the battlefield.
The war in Ukraine is very much like Vietnam. No matter how big and strong your army is, if it isn't protecting it's home and family, it has very little skin in the game and has no will to win.
And more incentive toward corruption
Russian army IS protecting its home. But you have no idea about this because Western media very carefully avoids the fact that the US government is funding Ukraine fascists which kill and torture Russians. Did Western media mention February claim of Zelensky in Munich where he promised to create and use nuclear weapons against Russia. Did they mention how many thousands of Russian went to Ukraine as volunteers to fight fascism to protect honor and dignity of their ancestors ? I think no. Everything that Western media including Mr Hedges articles talks about this war is a a makeup.