Chris Hedges speaks with British journalist Peter Oborne about worthy and unworthy victims, those we are allowed to pity, such as Ukrainians, and those, such as Palestinians or Iraqis, we ignore.
Having been suspended by Twitter for writing something extremely similar, though not as well written, I am just grateful Substack exists. And writers like you and Greenwald and Taibbi exist.
I asserted that the CIA and the Pentagon WANT Ukraine to be a bloody quagmire and failed state to create a proxy war to destabilize Putin’s regime, and that they don’t care how many Ukrainians die to make that plan come to fruition. That’s why there is little or no push from the US to make Ukraine negotiate peace.
Ukrainian radicals is committing outrageous crimes with russian speakers population in eastern ukraine and they do it because western media cover all their atrocities and make responsible for all their crimes russian army. So everyone who repeats those lies are responsible for crimes against russian speaker population in eastern ukraine. Everyone who tries finding out the truth closes the end of this war
Crap, do I believe you? Do I not? I just don't know what to believe... I do believe that innocent people are dying for government objectives. Russia's, US's and Ukraine's, and it's bull shit because it's always the innocents that pay the real price. Zaleski, Biden and Putin will never have to live in the dirt eating rats while their families and livelihoods are destroyed.
That's not so simple. The fact is that the US government is funding fascists in Ukraine. They are real fascists not figuratively speaking. They have been killing and torturing Russian speakers since 2014. Find the data of OSCE https://www.osce.org/ukraine-smm/reports. After months of regarding silence ukrainian government started massively bombing russian speaking Donbass since February 17th. Then the main political leaders of NATO heard Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky tell them at the Munich Security Conference that he intended to acquire nuclear weapons against Russia. Those ukrainians who are fleeing in EU from Russian aggression. Ask them what do they feel about people in eastern ukraine where 14 thousand people were killed by ukrainian government bombing since 2014. By the way those people were killed by american weapons.
I don't call these people separatists. They just want to speak their native language, which is Russian. They want to have good relations with Russia, where their relatives live. Now I can't even imagine the suffering of those Russian-speaking people who are under the ukrainian army. They torture them, kill them, destroy their homes for fun. And the Western media accuse the Russian army of all their crimes. It's disgusting. Mr. Hedges is a big disappointment. I do not know for what reason he doesn't speak about all this. I don't believe he doesn't know what's going on there and who really can stop this war
Thank you for your service sir and I hope you're life wasn't destroyed from your experience. My father was a two tour, marine corp vet of Vietnam. He lived the rest of his life haunted, drunk and high on drugs. I had a horrible childhood because of it. War is the nightmare that keeps giving nightmares through the generations.
Many in the MIC believe that they can 'win' a nuclear war ON Russia. 'Winning' means that 'only' 20 or 30 million Americans die in a nuclear exchange, but Russia is gone.
Yes, it's funny. Every time they think they can beat Russia, and every time they lose. I wonder what makes them think again and again that they can destroy Russia. They want to bring American troops into Ukraine. What can american army does with a modern army consisting of highly motivated soldiers with extensive military experience? As far as I know, the only area where American troops succeed is the killing civilians in third World countries. I can imagine how american soldiers plea to evacuate them from war: Please open a humanitarian corridor, the Russian barbarians are trying to kill us lol And by the way, these estimates are outdated. Keith Payne made them before the Russians launched the new Sarmat rocket
Yes, those are old numbers. New weapons, like the Poseidon drone are game changers.
Sadly the fact that Russia is developing new countermeasures and weapons, 'getting stronger', is one of the main arguments used by the maniacs. The maniacs firmly believe that, "We will have to fight Russia and China sooner or later. So better to hit them now while they are still relatively vulnerable."
China's strategic deterrent is still very weak and easily destroyed on the ground. But that is changing fast.
People like to tell me that, "No one wants war". They tell me this like they live in a democracy or something!
The fact that anyone would want to risk a war with any opponent who also has nuclear weapons is almost incomprehensible to most people I would think, but of course not those who have the power and desire to use them.
Fitzgerald famously said that, "the rich are not like us".
I would add the MIC to his list.
Former US Attorney General Ramsey Clark warned:
“The pitiful mentality and ethic that can tirelessly banter, threaten, and toy with omnicide cannot be permitted to wield such power… The obvious joy that men like Teller, Kaysen, LeMay, Rostow, Kissinger, Haig, Brzezinski, Allen, and Reagan reflect in wielding such power provides a clear warning of our peril.” [Kaku, viii]
We certainly can add the names of Bush, Cheney, Wolfowitz, Perle, Netanyahu, and a slew of neoconservatives. While working in a Top Secret war room, I personally witnessed officers planning wars of untold destruction. If necrophilia exudes a tone, then the prevailing mood in that war room was necrophilia. The clear warning is that we have allowed civilization to drift into the hands of necrophiliacs."
I think it also depends on how good your missile defense is. So I don't understand what Americans can count on in this area. After all, I think American commanders know the truth about their army and their weapons. and they wouldn't show this shame to the whole world . They will continue to destroy Russia in a roundabout way and, of course, to the last Ukrainian.
One thing that America always does is to "misunderestimate" their many enemies.
Buhs did it with militant Islam.
And who thought that skinny little Charlie with his bag of rice and AKM was any match for a B52?
Before they hit the beach at Iwo Jima the Yanks thought that the Japanese were weak rice eaters who could not see very well in the dark. Nineteen thousand casualties later. . .
I am seeing the same thinking today as the pundits are starting to describe the Russian army as a "paper tiger".
There are a lot of opinions. Some people say that Europe is just the US puppet and the US uses this war to weaken EU and rob it because the US economic is in a bad situation. There are a lot of evidence about the US role in unleashing previous world wars. Some people blame jews in everything. They says that jews hate Russians and Ukrainians and use this situation for revenge. That opinion is historically justifiable. Look what a jew Zelensky is doing with his own army ? he just destroys them. Some people say that Putin wants to restore the Soviet union. Of course, he has a geopolitical ambition so it's true. I think everyone uses this situation in his own benefit. Mr Hedges rantings has nothing to do with what really go on. And you are right. You should be worried because ukrainian side, russian side are highly motivated. It's not about state propaganda as naively say Mr Hedges. People has real reasons to be determined to kill each other and will take the world with them. You are right to drop american soldiers into this battle between highly motivated bloody enemies would be a total mistake.
Do you have any idea which of the NATO thugs is in Azovstal? Putin said that he canceled the assault because he cares about the preservation of Russian soldiers, which, of course, is a lie. People say that there are several high-ranking thugs from NATO there, and Putin is waiting for what NATO offers him for them
I couldn't agree more. What's happening in Ukraine is precisely what the warmongers have wanted and worked toward for decades. Those people and organizations who have been the loudest in their concern for Ukraine and Ukrainians are the very people who helped bring this tragedy to them. How convenient for the arms manufacturers that this new market opened up so quickly on the heals of the one in Afghanistan closing.
Lets all hope that Mr. Musk's bid is accepted and he brings the company private and can rid twitter of the Saudi's as they do not need to be all up in our business at this level
I think this issue transcends victims. It is the problem with the media deciding what is news worthy and what is not. It is also a part of the human population that can be so easily manipulated by the media toward a viral emotional reaction, and so easily made to forget other important events and stories.
Just read today that someone has been officially named a suspect in the Madeline McCann case. Multiple countries have spent over a decade investigating her murder.
Obama killed or injured 19 children, some of them little girls; with his beloved drones on just his third day in office. In Waziristan.
Most in the West have never heard about those murders and when you tell them about it, "So what???".
Obama killed at least 175 kids in Pakistan. There is no hunt, we know where he is.
My credulous friend was just listing all the RUSSIAN! atrocities that he had heard about from CNN. I told him, "I am sorry, but you have no idea about what is going on in Ukraine. And neither do I."
The sole example that they can come up with is the WMD lie. That big lie, in and of itself should be enough to turn even the most stolid good burgher into a skeptic, but it doesn't.
Never mind that almost all wars begin with literal lies, from WWI to today. Saddam never stole any incubators, and no Germans were killed at Gleiwitz either. I really don't know what these people are even tonkin a boat!
Not only are some victims worthy and others are scorned, we make every possible excuse for the worthy victims, no matter how badly they behave, just as we make every possible excuse for the tormentors of the unworthy.
True, but the power of the mind control machine is such that anyone can be 'othered'.
I only know one Serbian, and he is a very fine man.
Wag the Dog should be taught in school.
Canadian Bacon told the story of an American invasion of Canada, and in it, Moore brilliantly shows how quickly American opinions about Canada could be flipped.
America will never invade Canada though. There is no need. They simply bought our media and our leaders who then ensured that good Canadians will dig, chop, pump or fish all day. And for cheap. Real cheap.
That free healthcare thing is a problem though, and that programme will have to end.
The invasion of Ukraine was 'preventative war', not a *'war of aggression'.
It was all about defending Russia from NATO, read, "American" aggression.
Putin, who tried his entire term for rapprochement with the West, is also sending a very very big message.
'We tried to be friends but it did not work. And now we tire of the constant aggression. It ends now.'
*Important to note that the self-righteous trials at Nuremberg, where it was decided that "wars of aggression" are the, "ultimate crime" never prosecuted a single allied soldier; let alone a leader or a General. The fake and selective justice at Nuremberg was ground zero on the cosmic hypocrisy of the West. Air Chief Marshal Harris, who firebombed Dresden, Hambourg, et al, was not hanged. In fact he has a statue. General Curtis Lemay firebombed most of Japan, killing hundred of thousands of civilians. He was lionised, not charged.
Life is sacred across the board: all humans, animals, plants, minerals, all of the earth....War is a tool for people who are unable and unwilling to admit that they are sociopathic, psychopathic, control freaks.
Shame on you Mr Hedges. When I hear this I wonder how good is a journalist Mr Chris Hedges ?By ranting about Putin's crimes and turning a blind eye to the crimes of the Ukrainian fascists, you cover this war one-sidedly. You so-called independent journalist should find out what's really going on. Instead you just repeat your favorite cliche and posture yourself as a highly moral person. So Mr Hedges bother yourself to find out the truth and find the courage to tell the world not only about Putin's crimes, but also about the crimes of the Ukrainian regime!
The interview was informative but it left out important information. The dichotomy of attack=bad is not universal. If the French Army had attacked the German Army in the Sudeten land before the war things may have been different. Hitler instructed his army at the time that if it received resistance to turn back. Of course it didn't and that fact encouraged Hitler to proceed. The Ukrainian War cannot be compared to the Iraq War with the above dichotomy. The Iraq war was prosecuted based on lies. The Ukrainian war on the other hand was basically defensive: To stop the attacks in the Donbas by the Ukrainian Army, to destroy or nullify the neo-Nazi elements in The Ukraine and to arrest the advance of a hostile NATO on the borders of Russia. The national character of a country is determined by its experience. Russia was invaded by the the Teutonic Order in 1242, Charles XII of Sweden in 1547, Napoleon and Hitler. Russia will win this war. Will the US be satisfied with this latest defeat? Also the question of race rears its ugly head when one makes differences between Ukrainian Verses Palestinian and Yemeni lives.
Agree, the amount of energy expended to shape/control our thinking is epic. Wish we could harness this energy in a meaningful sense. The "Russians" of course aren't worthy of the slightest consideration to act as a foundation for negotiation. The last thing these totalitarian warmongers want is peace. Peace doesn't satisfy their bottom line.
Am very disappointed you do not provide a written transcript. Am profoundly deaf and these podcasts are unlistenable. Hoped I could get more from the Chris Hedges Report.
I find it interesting that Peter Oborne advocates for consistency in reporting on the victims and perpetrators of war, yet in a recent interview he gave with Double Down News, he portrays Margaret Thatcher as a great politician. That’s the woman who started the neoliberal project in the UK, pushing thousands of people into unemployment and poverty, dismantling unions, privatising the whole country, being friends with the murderous Pinochet in Argentina, and she helped in the assassination of Steve Biko, believing that apartheid in South Africa was good for the world. I think Chris should have pushed Peter Oborne more on his own double standards, especially considering the neoconservative news outlets he used to work for.
I have lived in the US for decades and am always amazed by the intentional miseducation of the public about the affairs of the government. Independent media and newsletters are disappearing by the minute. Almost every source of information is led by corporations. A few of us, like many in here, take the time and spend a few dollars to get diverse views. Chris and others like him, thank you!
Having been suspended by Twitter for writing something extremely similar, though not as well written, I am just grateful Substack exists. And writers like you and Greenwald and Taibbi exist.
I asserted that the CIA and the Pentagon WANT Ukraine to be a bloody quagmire and failed state to create a proxy war to destabilize Putin’s regime, and that they don’t care how many Ukrainians die to make that plan come to fruition. That’s why there is little or no push from the US to make Ukraine negotiate peace.
Ukrainian radicals is committing outrageous crimes with russian speakers population in eastern ukraine and they do it because western media cover all their atrocities and make responsible for all their crimes russian army. So everyone who repeats those lies are responsible for crimes against russian speaker population in eastern ukraine. Everyone who tries finding out the truth closes the end of this war
Crap, do I believe you? Do I not? I just don't know what to believe... I do believe that innocent people are dying for government objectives. Russia's, US's and Ukraine's, and it's bull shit because it's always the innocents that pay the real price. Zaleski, Biden and Putin will never have to live in the dirt eating rats while their families and livelihoods are destroyed.
That's not so simple. The fact is that the US government is funding fascists in Ukraine. They are real fascists not figuratively speaking. They have been killing and torturing Russian speakers since 2014. Find the data of OSCE https://www.osce.org/ukraine-smm/reports. After months of regarding silence ukrainian government started massively bombing russian speaking Donbass since February 17th. Then the main political leaders of NATO heard Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky tell them at the Munich Security Conference that he intended to acquire nuclear weapons against Russia. Those ukrainians who are fleeing in EU from Russian aggression. Ask them what do they feel about people in eastern ukraine where 14 thousand people were killed by ukrainian government bombing since 2014. By the way those people were killed by american weapons.
I don't call these people separatists. They just want to speak their native language, which is Russian. They want to have good relations with Russia, where their relatives live. Now I can't even imagine the suffering of those Russian-speaking people who are under the ukrainian army. They torture them, kill them, destroy their homes for fun. And the Western media accuse the Russian army of all their crimes. It's disgusting. Mr. Hedges is a big disappointment. I do not know for what reason he doesn't speak about all this. I don't believe he doesn't know what's going on there and who really can stop this war
Eastern Ukraine, but your point stands.
Yes, thanks, of course eastern ukraine. The West is everywhere now, so I made a mistake in typing
Thank you for your service sir and I hope you're life wasn't destroyed from your experience. My father was a two tour, marine corp vet of Vietnam. He lived the rest of his life haunted, drunk and high on drugs. I had a horrible childhood because of it. War is the nightmare that keeps giving nightmares through the generations.
Many in the MIC believe that they can 'win' a nuclear war ON Russia. 'Winning' means that 'only' 20 or 30 million Americans die in a nuclear exchange, but Russia is gone.
"Victory is Possible" - Keith Payne
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2003/05/keith-payne-is-don-rumsfeld-s-dr-strangelove.html
Yes, it's funny. Every time they think they can beat Russia, and every time they lose. I wonder what makes them think again and again that they can destroy Russia. They want to bring American troops into Ukraine. What can american army does with a modern army consisting of highly motivated soldiers with extensive military experience? As far as I know, the only area where American troops succeed is the killing civilians in third World countries. I can imagine how american soldiers plea to evacuate them from war: Please open a humanitarian corridor, the Russian barbarians are trying to kill us lol And by the way, these estimates are outdated. Keith Payne made them before the Russians launched the new Sarmat rocket
Yes, those are old numbers. New weapons, like the Poseidon drone are game changers.
Sadly the fact that Russia is developing new countermeasures and weapons, 'getting stronger', is one of the main arguments used by the maniacs. The maniacs firmly believe that, "We will have to fight Russia and China sooner or later. So better to hit them now while they are still relatively vulnerable."
China's strategic deterrent is still very weak and easily destroyed on the ground. But that is changing fast.
People like to tell me that, "No one wants war". They tell me this like they live in a democracy or something!
What do you think is the level of economic degradation that can make Americans rebel? This is the only our hope to prevent the major war I believe
The fact that anyone would want to risk a war with any opponent who also has nuclear weapons is almost incomprehensible to most people I would think, but of course not those who have the power and desire to use them.
Fitzgerald famously said that, "the rich are not like us".
I would add the MIC to his list.
Former US Attorney General Ramsey Clark warned:
“The pitiful mentality and ethic that can tirelessly banter, threaten, and toy with omnicide cannot be permitted to wield such power… The obvious joy that men like Teller, Kaysen, LeMay, Rostow, Kissinger, Haig, Brzezinski, Allen, and Reagan reflect in wielding such power provides a clear warning of our peril.” [Kaku, viii]
We certainly can add the names of Bush, Cheney, Wolfowitz, Perle, Netanyahu, and a slew of neoconservatives. While working in a Top Secret war room, I personally witnessed officers planning wars of untold destruction. If necrophilia exudes a tone, then the prevailing mood in that war room was necrophilia. The clear warning is that we have allowed civilization to drift into the hands of necrophiliacs."
https://www.counterpunch.org/2015/05/15/winning-a-nuclear-war/
I think it also depends on how good your missile defense is. So I don't understand what Americans can count on in this area. After all, I think American commanders know the truth about their army and their weapons. and they wouldn't show this shame to the whole world . They will continue to destroy Russia in a roundabout way and, of course, to the last Ukrainian.
One thing that America always does is to "misunderestimate" their many enemies.
Buhs did it with militant Islam.
And who thought that skinny little Charlie with his bag of rice and AKM was any match for a B52?
Before they hit the beach at Iwo Jima the Yanks thought that the Japanese were weak rice eaters who could not see very well in the dark. Nineteen thousand casualties later. . .
I am seeing the same thinking today as the pundits are starting to describe the Russian army as a "paper tiger".
Okay, sure.
There are a lot of opinions. Some people say that Europe is just the US puppet and the US uses this war to weaken EU and rob it because the US economic is in a bad situation. There are a lot of evidence about the US role in unleashing previous world wars. Some people blame jews in everything. They says that jews hate Russians and Ukrainians and use this situation for revenge. That opinion is historically justifiable. Look what a jew Zelensky is doing with his own army ? he just destroys them. Some people say that Putin wants to restore the Soviet union. Of course, he has a geopolitical ambition so it's true. I think everyone uses this situation in his own benefit. Mr Hedges rantings has nothing to do with what really go on. And you are right. You should be worried because ukrainian side, russian side are highly motivated. It's not about state propaganda as naively say Mr Hedges. People has real reasons to be determined to kill each other and will take the world with them. You are right to drop american soldiers into this battle between highly motivated bloody enemies would be a total mistake.
In Korea, America literally killed 20% of the population in North Korea, and when it was 'over', they were right back at where they started.
The Empire won 'victories' over Panama and Grenada. That's the whole list I am afraid.
Do you have any idea which of the NATO thugs is in Azovstal? Putin said that he canceled the assault because he cares about the preservation of Russian soldiers, which, of course, is a lie. People say that there are several high-ranking thugs from NATO there, and Putin is waiting for what NATO offers him for them
Putin cares about Russians and Russia.
I couldn't agree more. What's happening in Ukraine is precisely what the warmongers have wanted and worked toward for decades. Those people and organizations who have been the loudest in their concern for Ukraine and Ukrainians are the very people who helped bring this tragedy to them. How convenient for the arms manufacturers that this new market opened up so quickly on the heals of the one in Afghanistan closing.
Lets all hope that Mr. Musk's bid is accepted and he brings the company private and can rid twitter of the Saudi's as they do not need to be all up in our business at this level
The day will come when you will thank Twitter for banning you. I sure do.
They censors will come here too. Bet on it.
Since when was that any secret?
rand.org/pubs/research_briefs/RB10014.html
All that though, which has been ongoing since WWII, is just fine with most people. But if Russia pushes back, even a little, they lose their minds.
This is the typical mentality of a bully.
Only this time the bully has sun bombs.
Destroying Russia is The Empire's reason for being.
Twitter is for opinion control now.
It works too.
Thanks George! :)
I think this issue transcends victims. It is the problem with the media deciding what is news worthy and what is not. It is also a part of the human population that can be so easily manipulated by the media toward a viral emotional reaction, and so easily made to forget other important events and stories.
Just read today that someone has been officially named a suspect in the Madeline McCann case. Multiple countries have spent over a decade investigating her murder.
Obama killed or injured 19 children, some of them little girls; with his beloved drones on just his third day in office. In Waziristan.
Most in the West have never heard about those murders and when you tell them about it, "So what???".
Obama killed at least 175 kids in Pakistan. There is no hunt, we know where he is.
Some lives matter. Some. Very very very few.
Mass mind control, literal mind control, is now perfected science and it is used constantly.
It is still not 100% effective (see the comments here) but damn, it is effective enough.
The Russiagate psyop is a perfect example of what they can do.
The ten commandments of war propaganda:
1.We don't want war, we are only defending ourselves!
2. Our adversary is solely responsible for this war!
3. Our adversary's leader is inherently evil and resembles the devil
4. We are defending a noble cause, not our particular interests!
5. The enemy is purposefully committing atrocities; if we are making mistakes this happens without intention
6. The enemy makes use of illegal weapons
7. We suffer few losses, the enemy's losses are considerable
8. Recognized intellectuals and artists support our cause
9. Our cause is sacred
10. Whoever casts doubt on our propaganda helps the enemy and is a traitor
Based on the great book by British MP, Arthur Ponsonby, "Falsehood in Wartime".
https://archive.org/details/falsehood-in-wartime-lord-ponsonby/page/n1/mode/2up
My credulous friend was just listing all the RUSSIAN! atrocities that he had heard about from CNN. I told him, "I am sorry, but you have no idea about what is going on in Ukraine. And neither do I."
I am eternally amazed at the number of people who think that this is the first war within living memory that we haven't been lied into.
Remember when Panama just had to be invaded to, wait for it, arrest a rogue CIA agent?
That and something something, "wimp factor".
Don't even get me started on Colin Powell.
The sole example that they can come up with is the WMD lie. That big lie, in and of itself should be enough to turn even the most stolid good burgher into a skeptic, but it doesn't.
Never mind that almost all wars begin with literal lies, from WWI to today. Saddam never stole any incubators, and no Germans were killed at Gleiwitz either. I really don't know what these people are even tonkin a boat!
And still, they believe!
Not only are some victims worthy and others are scorned, we make every possible excuse for the worthy victims, no matter how badly they behave, just as we make every possible excuse for the tormentors of the unworthy.
Luke 6:19-31.
If only Obama had red-misted some little white girls. Then. Maybe. People would care.
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/11/24/unblinking-stare
To be fair, the folks in Serbia are pretty white and Clinton attacked them, regardless.
True, but the power of the mind control machine is such that anyone can be 'othered'.
I only know one Serbian, and he is a very fine man.
Wag the Dog should be taught in school.
Canadian Bacon told the story of an American invasion of Canada, and in it, Moore brilliantly shows how quickly American opinions about Canada could be flipped.
https://youtu.be/pbfBzWJVbX4
"The CN Tower. What's it really for?"
America will never invade Canada though. There is no need. They simply bought our media and our leaders who then ensured that good Canadians will dig, chop, pump or fish all day. And for cheap. Real cheap.
That free healthcare thing is a problem though, and that programme will have to end.
So well said.
More MSM time, tears and ink have been spilled over Ukrainian pets than on the 300 odd thousand victims of the Saudi war on Yemen.
The invasion of Ukraine was 'preventative war', not a *'war of aggression'.
It was all about defending Russia from NATO, read, "American" aggression.
Putin, who tried his entire term for rapprochement with the West, is also sending a very very big message.
'We tried to be friends but it did not work. And now we tire of the constant aggression. It ends now.'
*Important to note that the self-righteous trials at Nuremberg, where it was decided that "wars of aggression" are the, "ultimate crime" never prosecuted a single allied soldier; let alone a leader or a General. The fake and selective justice at Nuremberg was ground zero on the cosmic hypocrisy of the West. Air Chief Marshal Harris, who firebombed Dresden, Hambourg, et al, was not hanged. In fact he has a statue. General Curtis Lemay firebombed most of Japan, killing hundred of thousands of civilians. He was lionised, not charged.
Life is sacred across the board: all humans, animals, plants, minerals, all of the earth....War is a tool for people who are unable and unwilling to admit that they are sociopathic, psychopathic, control freaks.
In our local Earth First! chapter, we say that war is bad for all species. That's all the reason you need to oppose all war.
100% agreed!
Johnson joking about war is good evidence that he is a sociopath.
He is.
Many of our leaders are sociopaths, and this is because the political reality all over the West is such that it self-selects for sociopaths.
“Everyone believes in the atrocities of the enemy and disbelieves in those of his own side, without ever bothering to examine the evidence.”
― George Orwell
Shame on you Mr Hedges. When I hear this I wonder how good is a journalist Mr Chris Hedges ?By ranting about Putin's crimes and turning a blind eye to the crimes of the Ukrainian fascists, you cover this war one-sidedly. You so-called independent journalist should find out what's really going on. Instead you just repeat your favorite cliche and posture yourself as a highly moral person. So Mr Hedges bother yourself to find out the truth and find the courage to tell the world not only about Putin's crimes, but also about the crimes of the Ukrainian regime!
The interview was informative but it left out important information. The dichotomy of attack=bad is not universal. If the French Army had attacked the German Army in the Sudeten land before the war things may have been different. Hitler instructed his army at the time that if it received resistance to turn back. Of course it didn't and that fact encouraged Hitler to proceed. The Ukrainian War cannot be compared to the Iraq War with the above dichotomy. The Iraq war was prosecuted based on lies. The Ukrainian war on the other hand was basically defensive: To stop the attacks in the Donbas by the Ukrainian Army, to destroy or nullify the neo-Nazi elements in The Ukraine and to arrest the advance of a hostile NATO on the borders of Russia. The national character of a country is determined by its experience. Russia was invaded by the the Teutonic Order in 1242, Charles XII of Sweden in 1547, Napoleon and Hitler. Russia will win this war. Will the US be satisfied with this latest defeat? Also the question of race rears its ugly head when one makes differences between Ukrainian Verses Palestinian and Yemeni lives.
Agree, the amount of energy expended to shape/control our thinking is epic. Wish we could harness this energy in a meaningful sense. The "Russians" of course aren't worthy of the slightest consideration to act as a foundation for negotiation. The last thing these totalitarian warmongers want is peace. Peace doesn't satisfy their bottom line.
Am very disappointed you do not provide a written transcript. Am profoundly deaf and these podcasts are unlistenable. Hoped I could get more from the Chris Hedges Report.
Good point. Greenwald does that. Unfortunately it costs money. But yes, it absolutely should be done.
*update, there are several apps that will do transcripts and they are free. I posted them. Not sure how closely Mr. Hedges reads the comments though.
Why don’t you make a request first Richard. Not all journalists produce and provide transcripts on substack.
I find it interesting that Peter Oborne advocates for consistency in reporting on the victims and perpetrators of war, yet in a recent interview he gave with Double Down News, he portrays Margaret Thatcher as a great politician. That’s the woman who started the neoliberal project in the UK, pushing thousands of people into unemployment and poverty, dismantling unions, privatising the whole country, being friends with the murderous Pinochet in Argentina, and she helped in the assassination of Steve Biko, believing that apartheid in South Africa was good for the world. I think Chris should have pushed Peter Oborne more on his own double standards, especially considering the neoconservative news outlets he used to work for.
I see all of these so called wars as 'criminal acquisition wars'
I have lived in the US for decades and am always amazed by the intentional miseducation of the public about the affairs of the government. Independent media and newsletters are disappearing by the minute. Almost every source of information is led by corporations. A few of us, like many in here, take the time and spend a few dollars to get diverse views. Chris and others like him, thank you!