"Group-Thinking" the World into a New War

[unhappycamper]

http://smirkingchimp.com/thread/robert-parry/60743/group-thinking-the-world-into-a-new-war

"Group-Thinking" the World into a New War
by Robert Parry | January 31, 2015 - 10:09am

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.”

[newfie11]

1. ^^^^^^INFINITY Nt

[ColesCountyDem]

2. He's doing what he accuses others of doing, in one aspect.

I have family in Ukraine with whom I am in close contact. My family members are decidedly left-of-center, politically, and supported the revolution and ouster of Yanukovych and his gang of thuggish kleptocrats.

There is an element among political analysts who consistently overstate both the size and influence of fascist and/or neo-Nazi groups involved in the revolution. Mr. Barry is among that group who would have us all believe that no revolution could have occurred without the fascists and neo-Nazi elements of EuroMaidan, a patently silly concept, and who also look for any excuse available to defend or explain away President Putin's imperial ambitions.

[leveymg]

3. This is precisely why most Americans are still no more than ambivalent about Ukraine

Neither side is black or white, good or evil, and we won't be convinced that they're worth fighting Russia over. In this case, geography is the deciding factor.

[ColesCountyDem]

8. Indeed, just so!

The 'westward' shift among an overwhelming majority of Ukranians, including a substantial number of those who are ethnically Russian, is consistently misunderstood, misrepresented, downplayed or overlooked altogether by most Western journalist and a large percentage of so-called 'experts/analysts'. So, too, has the geographical significance of Comrade Major Putin's land grab, as you correctly note. 'Confuse or conflate' seems to be the motivation of many journalists and analysts, thereby turning a fairly straightforward issue into a needlessly complex one.

[ensemble]

9. What part of Ukraine do they live in?

That probably has a big effect on their perspective about the role of Russia.

It may be that in the long run, western Ukraine would be better being closer to the EU, but I think eastern Ukraine looks at the problems of the satellite countries of the EU and says no thanks.

I think the protests against Yanukovych would have happened regardless, but not so sure about the overthrow of the government without an election.

It's interesting to me that as important as this crisis is, there is almost no on the ground reporting from the west about what's going on.
Cities getting shelled, an airliner shot down, and we don't know who or why. It's all just another reason to turn the screws on Russia.
As they say the first casualty of war is the truth.

I don't think Parry would argue that 1) the Ukrainian gov't was corrupt or 2) Russia is looking out for it's own interests.
The idea, though, that this is all just a product of Russian meddling and aggression is a fantasy.

[ColesCountyDem]

11. Some live in Lvyv, and The others in Cherkasy, quite a bit south of Kiev.

There are substantial numbers of ethnic Russians in Cherasky (not so many in Lvyv), and most of the ones in Cherasky have no desire to become anything other than Ukrainians.

You're likely correct about it being a geographical thing, but I submit that that is a poor basis for determining whether or not a sovereign nation remains geographically intact. The Baltic states are watching what Comrade Major Vladimir's government is doing both overtly nd covertly, and they are rightly appalled.

[gregcrawford]

4. The hive mentality...

... in this country will only grow exponentially worse if conservative "charter schools" are allowed to corrupt and pervert the educational system by "teaching to the test," instead of guiding the growth of critical thinkers who have a solid ethical grounding. The poisonous influence of Ayn Rand and her sycophantic acolytes found fertile ground for their bumper-sticker "philosophy" of pathological selfishness as economic inequality flourished under conservative regimes, and that is the root of educational system now.

The power of corporate money in elections has ensured the expansion of conservative "core principles" as malicious swine exploited their constituencies and conned them into voting against their own best interests. Witness the Tea Party; a herd of witless fools consumed by inchoate resentment, and driven by the stick of fear of the manufactured "demon" of the moment, and the carrot of wealth that is never out of sight, but always out of reach.

Virtually all the international atrocities that have been perpetrated by conservative administrations have been in service to corporate interests. The power of corporations will metastasize like a malignant tumor if the Trans-Pacific Partnership is allowed to be unleashed on the world. If it happens, Obama should never be forgiven for his complicity. I once loved this guy, but any momentary "good" he might accomplish in the next two years will be over shadowed, and ultimately crushed, by the corporate coup d'etat that is the TPP. THAT will be his "legacy." And even the horrors occurring the Ukraine will be a piss-hole in the snow compared to the ruthless global oppression that will follow the enactment of the Trans-Pacific Partnership and its soon-to-come Atlantic twin.

The time for righteous outrage is NOW, not after its too late.

[another_liberal]

5. This is an important subject you raise, unhappy . . .

Especially now when many in positions of power and influence seem determined to start a shooting war with the "evil" President Putin's Russian Federation. It is high time we recognized how our government and our nation are being manipulated by a few greedy, ambitious and uncaring people.

[elias49]

6. Kick!

So true. Consider how Edward Snowden was demonized. Nothing about his message, it was all about HIM.
Some are not particularly discriminating.
Witness the hate spewed at Venezuela. Same basic thing...

[zeemike]

7. Yep, that is how it works alright.

And I saw it back in the 80s too, and it seems to work on most people.
Just repeat the propaganda enough times and people will believe it. The neo-cons learned a lot from the Fascist.

I have been called a Putin apologist right here on DU because I questioned, and if it works here it will work everywhere.
We should learn from the past, but we can't learn anything without critical thinking, and that seems to be out of fashion and group think is in.

[ctsnowman]

10. Any time our politicians

e.g. McCain, start talking about people's freedoms on the other side of the planet my radar gets turn on. They don't care about people living within 5 miles of our Capital building freezing or going hungry...

[nationalize the fed]

12. ^

k+r

..In other words, as the United States rushes into a new Cold War with Russia, we are seeing the makings of a new McCarthyism, challenging the patriotism of anyone who doesn’t get into line. But this conformity of thought presents a serious threat to U.S. national security and even the future of the planet.

It may seem clever for some New Republic blogger or a Washington Post writer to insult anyone who doesn’t accept the over-the-top propaganda on Russia and Ukraine – much as they did to people who objected to the rush to war in Iraq – but a military clash with nuclear-armed Russia is a crisis of a much greater magnitude...

...To understand why Russians are so alarmed by U.S. and NATO meddling in Ukraine, you have to go back to those days after the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991. Instead of working with the Russians to transition carefully from a communist system to a pluralistic, capitalist one, the U.S. prescription was “shock therapy.”

As American “free market” experts descended on Moscow during the pliant regime of Boris Yeltsin, well-connected Russian thieves and their U.S. compatriots plundered the country’s wealth, creating a handful of billionaire “oligarchs” and leaving millions upon millions of Russians in a state of near starvation, with a collapse in life expectancy rarely seen in a country not at war..