ROBERT PARRY: Group-Thinking the World Into A New War
Exclusive: The armchair warriors of Official Washington are eager for a new war, this time with Russia over Ukraine, and they are operating from the same sort of mindless “group think” and hostility to dissent that proved so disastrous in Iraq, reports Robert Parry.
By Robert Parry
If you wonder how the lethal “group think” on Iraq took shape in 2002, you might want to study what’s happening today with Ukraine. A misguided consensus has grabbed hold of Official Washington and has pulled in everyone who “matters” and tossed out almost anyone who disagrees.
Part of the problem, in both cases, has been that neocon propagandists understand that in the modern American media the personal is the political, that is, you don’t deal with the larger context of a dispute, you make it about some easily demonized figure. So, instead of understanding the complexities of Iraq, you focus on the unsavory Saddam Hussein.
This approach has been part of the neocon playbook at least since the 1980s when many of today’s leading neocons – such as Elliott Abrams and Robert Kagan – were entering government and cut their teeth as propagandists for the Reagan administration. Back then, the game was to put, say, Nicaragua’s President Daniel Ortega into the demon suit, with accusations about him wearing “designer glasses.” Later, it was Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega and then, of course, Saddam Hussein.
Instead of Americans coming to grips with the painful history of Central America, where the U.S. government has caused much of the violence and dysfunction, or in Iraq, where Western nations don’t have clean hands either, the story was made personal – about the demonized leader – and anyone who provided a fuller context was denounced as an “Ortega apologist” or a “Noriega apologist” or a “Saddam apologist.”
So, American skeptics were silenced and the U.S. government got to do what it wanted without serious debate. In Iraq, for instance, the American people would have benefited from a thorough airing of the complexities of Iraqi society – such as the sectarian divide between Sunni and Shiite – and the potential risks of invading under the dubious rationale of WMD.
https://consortiumnews.com/2015/01/30/group-thinking-the-world-into-a-new-war/
= new reply since forum marked as read
That won't happen, however, because of the geographically strategic location of the Ukraine with regard to Russian access to the Mediterranean.
Opportunity and motive. Russia has a huge motive to control Ukraine -- its access to the Black Sea and the Mediterranean and Sevastopol. If the US and the Ukraine can insure Russian access and security, then perhaps with time, truly free elections will take place, and Ukraine can decide for itself what future it wants.
https://www.google.com/search?q=Ukraine+map+Black+sea+mediterranean&espv=2&biw=1280&bih=705&tbm=isch&imgil=TN4vJcmNrBsHbM%253A%253B-uxeUqDUIOEliM%253Bhttp%25253A%25252F%25252Fen.wikipedia.org%25252Fwiki%25252FBlack_Sea&source=iu&pf=m&fir=TN4vJcmNrBsHbM%253A%252C-uxeUqDUIOEliM%252C_&usg=__HCdNOkyHhgDpHUPzAE0KT8uyvEg%3D&ved=0CCcQyjc&ei=XknYVPfWDIW7ogSk24GgAQ#imgdii=_&imgrc=TN4vJcmNrBsHbM%253A%3B-uxeUqDUIOEliM%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fupload.wikimedia.org%252Fwikipedia%252Fcommons%252F5%252F52%252FBlack_Sea_map.png%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fen.wikipedia.org%252Fwiki%252FBlack_Sea%3B1200%3B915
The Aegean sea:
https://www.google.com/search?q=the+aegean+sea&espv=2&biw=1280&bih=705&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=oknYVIPoOdK6ogTb3YHYBA&sqi=2&ved=0CCUQsAQ#tbm=isch&q=the+aegean+sea+black+sea&imgdii=a94IwX1lkiGNWM%3A%3B_dJOvnzew8YNdM%3Ba94IwX1lkiGNWM%3A&imgrc=a94IwX1lkiGNWM%253A%3BXziyHnETdzjqDM%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252F
%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fwww.thecityedition.com%252FPages%252FArchive%252F2010%252FCataclysms.html%3B342%3B257
Russia has access to the Black Sea and thus to all the countries surrounding it anyway. But Ukraine is an insurance policy for Russia's coast on the Black Sea.
Still, Russia should not be panicking the way it is. Ukraine is a country that has the right to self-determination. We no longer live in the 19th century. This is 2015, not 1919.