Listen to a reading of this article (reading by Tim Foley): It’s ridiculously hypocritical for westerners to condemn Russia and China for responding aggressively to the US empire building up military threats on their borders, because the last time a credible military threat was placed near the border of the United States, the US responded so aggressively that it almost ended the world.
The best way to fight the strangling tentacles of the US Medusa is to expose it for what it is. Caitlin is one of the few people with a conscience who writes clearly and directly about it. The rest only dance and fiddle around the shenanigans of the Empire never going to its core. Go Caitlin!!!
The lack of imagination required to comprehend WHY Russia might react strongly to a NATO war camp being built on their border is amazing.
"In this scenario, does anyone in their right mind think the United States would have tolerated this for eight years? Or that they would not have been justified, after years of trying to peacefully resolve the situation, in choosing a military solution?
As a certain decrepit, demented, deeply foul leader likes to say, “Come on, man!”"
Gone are the days when pointing out someone's hypocrisy will cause shame and a change in behavior, especially among the minions of the Empire. Hypocrisy is what they do, what they excel at, and they do it with a straight face (and deny every bit of it). We don't live in a world where people take responsibility for their mistakes; hell, they don't even admit they made them.
The Cuban Missile Crisis is my first clear memory. I was only 4, but I remember my parents being scared, stocking up on bottled water and canned goods, and then bundling me into the car and traveling 400 miles north from San Antonio to the Texas Panhandle, where my uncle had a farm and they thought we might be safe from from something called atomic bombs.
I remember asking who these Russians were and my mom telling me they used to be our allies and how it was a shame this was happening. I remember seeing Titan missiles sticking up out of the Texas prairie, steam venting from them.
I remember the farm, good food, and a day where all the adults relaxed and then the drive back.
This time, instead of missiles, there were grazing cows. To this day I associate cows with peace. It was this experience which drove me to learn all I could about the Russians, and Cubans, for that matter. And why countries did such things. It never made much sense until I read Marx. THEN I understood why.
A very good essay, as usual. Just finished reading An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz. It starkly illustrates that the founding principles of the US and the much worshiped "founding fathers" weren't laudable ideals but war-making and genocide. And here we are, 250+ years later, with ossified, sclerotic principles. Shameful.
And the Cuban crisis was a one-off precipitated by Western nuke instalments right on Russia's borders- and they were quietly and diplomatically removed - for a while. Quite unlike the total encroachment of Russia by NATO since 1991. Our famous "values" come in two distinct packages: one for how others must act toward us, and a totally different set on how we can quite legitimately and with a halo over our heads - treat them.
Washington practices one of the most laughable hypocrisies ever. It claims the whole world as it "sphere of influence," while it grants other nations none--- and that is the essence of the war in Ukraine. As a matter of national security Russia had to intervene in Ukraine with a fascist Western puppet state on its border.
A minor scuffle in Africa is considered a "national security threat." Of course this and more become transparently fraudulent pretexts for war on the world.
We might also conclude Washington suffers from acute paranoia .
The interesting thing about propaganda is that it is often not the Contant of the message itself that determines whether the message is propaganda, but rather the context in which the message occurs.
For example, if government A which in recent memory has killed 1 million people says, “oh my God, government B just killed 1000 people they are pure evil!“ I would argue they are engaging in propaganda because intrinsically they are asking you to make a moral judgment of government, B’s behavior absent the critical context of their own behavior.
Granted, this is over-simplifying it a bit, but I think the principle is pretty easily and intuitively understood and applied. If governments A and B are engaged in some sort of a geo-strategic conflict, then their behavior relative to one another, becomes even more critical.
But they’re special. Repeat that a thousand times? Not needed. You’ve heard it a thousand times from them. Not that there should be any dispute. Look at their health care and social outcomes. They didn’t have to handwash or wear masks for Covid. That had nothing to do with their leading the world in Covid deaths and cases. Nooo. Covid didn’t dare attack the great, at least not that much. Covid is no dummy.
There is now no health or social outcome I can find where the US is not last in the west. Dead effing last. (For rape they’re neck and neck with the Australians). But it’s worse than even that. For longevity, several Third World countries have zipped by them. Ecuador, Panama, Cuba,…even China, even though 40% of Chinese still smoke the cigarettes the American Tobacco Company addicted them to 100yrs. ago in a targeted campaign. And Americans now pollute twice as much per cap as anyone else. And why not? You don’t really believe their greatness deserves treatment equal to the lesser forms, do you?
But who cares about such trivia when you’re special. Very special. They specialize in being special. And really let’s be honest, God chose them to be special because they were special to begin with. It was their due. Any talk otherwise is just envy and meanness. And the health outcomes are just vicious lies from the envious. Sure the Japanese now outlive Americans by almost 10 yrs, but so what! Ten more years of eating rice? Ugh! So for 330 million Americans who forgo ten years of life to be American , that’s 3.3 billion life years lost and if life expectancy is 75-ish that adds up to 50 million lifetimes lost. That’s a number dwarfing any recorded Holocaust. But who cares when you had one death occurring in the genocidal terroristic Jan 6 coup-rebellion? Right?
They’re great and there’s just no denying their greatness. To deny that you have to lie, like about their pathetic social and Health outcomes. Did I say they were great? Well you can’t say it often enough. They’re great and no moral code or international law should apply to the truly great. So stop the bleating serfs who can’t recognize greatness. And donate what you have to make them even greater. Don’t make them have to take it by force. Yuppers. Great and special. Look if you want to say specially great or greatly special, I think it’s ok but will check. The Australians likely already have.
Timmy Taes: Given the classified Military Occupational Specialties of many aboard the Sultan, had she surrendered, the United States would have no doubt blown us out of the water, blamed the Soviets and turned the incident into a propaganda coup. In those days, it wasn't just infantry and artillery traveled by troop transport. It was every enlisted MOS and officers from captain down (though the commissioned officers and warrant officers were of course spared the tides of vomit that defined the troop bays). However it obtained, it would have been a substantial victory for the Soviets, because in 1962, all our senior NCOs were WWII and/or Korean War combat veterans, and even amongst troops who have never been tested by live fire, there is a vast difference in combat-readiness between raw recruits and those of us who have already completed most if not all of our active service (two years for draftees and; three years for Regular Army enlistees, as I was;. I don't remember the active-duty requirements for warrant officers or Reserve Officers Training Corps [ROTC] and Officer Candidate School [OCS] graduates with reserve commissions, but I think it was three years). Plus in '62, those of us on the Sultan homebound from Korea, nominally a 13-month tour of duty, had been extended there in place at least three months (in some instances, depending on MOS, as much as twice that) due to the Berlin Crisis. So none of us were FNGs, i.e., greeenies. In other words, the loss of those aboard the Sultan would have been comparable in impact to the losses of seasoned personnel at Pearl on 7 December 1941.
Great comments. Intelligent readers here. Added layer of irony that the US is not just 'allowing' but actively facilitating the current invasion at its own borders while it is perpetrating a "proxy war"? against border encroachments elsewhere. Cooperating with the same " bad actors" here while opposing similar actions abroad. Hypocrisy on steroids...its only ever OK when Amerika does it.
One of the little-known details of the Cuban Missile Crisis is the international magnitude of the Soviet preparations for war. As I was returning from Korea in August 1962 via the USNS Sultan, we were shadowed by a Soviet submarine from the moment we left Pearl Harbor – I don't recall the date -- until we entered San Francisco Bay early in the morning on 4 September 1962. Initially we saw only the Soviet sub’s periscope, but as we drew closer to the U.S., she would surface to charge her batteries and run along our port side maybe 1000 yards distant. Eventually we were waving to one another, the sub's crew on deck for a breath of fresh air and those of us going home aboard the Sultan behaving as if we were on a sea cruise. Years later, when the entire timeline of the crisis was declassified – when it became clear the Soviets were installing the missiles in August -- I realized why that sub was there. Had the proverbial balloon gone up, they'd have torpedoed us -- somewhat more than 4,000 trained and service-seasoned officers and enlisted personnel aboard an unarmed (and therefore utterly defenseless) WWII troop transport -- which would no doubt have killed us all and given them a pivotal (and utterly demoralizing) naval victory.
The best way to fight the strangling tentacles of the US Medusa is to expose it for what it is. Caitlin is one of the few people with a conscience who writes clearly and directly about it. The rest only dance and fiddle around the shenanigans of the Empire never going to its core. Go Caitlin!!!
All true, but it is fruitless to point out the hypocrisy of a sociopath.
Force, a gun to the head and the sure knowledge that you will pull the trigger without hesitation, is the only language power understands.
The lack of imagination required to comprehend WHY Russia might react strongly to a NATO war camp being built on their border is amazing.
"In this scenario, does anyone in their right mind think the United States would have tolerated this for eight years? Or that they would not have been justified, after years of trying to peacefully resolve the situation, in choosing a military solution?
As a certain decrepit, demented, deeply foul leader likes to say, “Come on, man!”"
https://open.substack.com/pub/ourimperialpress/p/a-simple-analogy-for-the-war-in-ukraine?r=nv5i&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
Gone are the days when pointing out someone's hypocrisy will cause shame and a change in behavior, especially among the minions of the Empire. Hypocrisy is what they do, what they excel at, and they do it with a straight face (and deny every bit of it). We don't live in a world where people take responsibility for their mistakes; hell, they don't even admit they made them.
The Cuban Missile Crisis is my first clear memory. I was only 4, but I remember my parents being scared, stocking up on bottled water and canned goods, and then bundling me into the car and traveling 400 miles north from San Antonio to the Texas Panhandle, where my uncle had a farm and they thought we might be safe from from something called atomic bombs.
I remember asking who these Russians were and my mom telling me they used to be our allies and how it was a shame this was happening. I remember seeing Titan missiles sticking up out of the Texas prairie, steam venting from them.
I remember the farm, good food, and a day where all the adults relaxed and then the drive back.
This time, instead of missiles, there were grazing cows. To this day I associate cows with peace. It was this experience which drove me to learn all I could about the Russians, and Cubans, for that matter. And why countries did such things. It never made much sense until I read Marx. THEN I understood why.
A very good essay, as usual. Just finished reading An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz. It starkly illustrates that the founding principles of the US and the much worshiped "founding fathers" weren't laudable ideals but war-making and genocide. And here we are, 250+ years later, with ossified, sclerotic principles. Shameful.
I was there!
81 now thanks to JFK!
Thanks Caitlin for expressing thoughts and feelings I've held for many years.
Wait until Cuba joins BRICS in early 2024. Hell hath seen no fury like an empire scorned.
And the Cuban crisis was a one-off precipitated by Western nuke instalments right on Russia's borders- and they were quietly and diplomatically removed - for a while. Quite unlike the total encroachment of Russia by NATO since 1991. Our famous "values" come in two distinct packages: one for how others must act toward us, and a totally different set on how we can quite legitimately and with a halo over our heads - treat them.
Washington practices one of the most laughable hypocrisies ever. It claims the whole world as it "sphere of influence," while it grants other nations none--- and that is the essence of the war in Ukraine. As a matter of national security Russia had to intervene in Ukraine with a fascist Western puppet state on its border.
A minor scuffle in Africa is considered a "national security threat." Of course this and more become transparently fraudulent pretexts for war on the world.
We might also conclude Washington suffers from acute paranoia .
The interesting thing about propaganda is that it is often not the Contant of the message itself that determines whether the message is propaganda, but rather the context in which the message occurs.
For example, if government A which in recent memory has killed 1 million people says, “oh my God, government B just killed 1000 people they are pure evil!“ I would argue they are engaging in propaganda because intrinsically they are asking you to make a moral judgment of government, B’s behavior absent the critical context of their own behavior.
Granted, this is over-simplifying it a bit, but I think the principle is pretty easily and intuitively understood and applied. If governments A and B are engaged in some sort of a geo-strategic conflict, then their behavior relative to one another, becomes even more critical.
But they’re special. Repeat that a thousand times? Not needed. You’ve heard it a thousand times from them. Not that there should be any dispute. Look at their health care and social outcomes. They didn’t have to handwash or wear masks for Covid. That had nothing to do with their leading the world in Covid deaths and cases. Nooo. Covid didn’t dare attack the great, at least not that much. Covid is no dummy.
There is now no health or social outcome I can find where the US is not last in the west. Dead effing last. (For rape they’re neck and neck with the Australians). But it’s worse than even that. For longevity, several Third World countries have zipped by them. Ecuador, Panama, Cuba,…even China, even though 40% of Chinese still smoke the cigarettes the American Tobacco Company addicted them to 100yrs. ago in a targeted campaign. And Americans now pollute twice as much per cap as anyone else. And why not? You don’t really believe their greatness deserves treatment equal to the lesser forms, do you?
But who cares about such trivia when you’re special. Very special. They specialize in being special. And really let’s be honest, God chose them to be special because they were special to begin with. It was their due. Any talk otherwise is just envy and meanness. And the health outcomes are just vicious lies from the envious. Sure the Japanese now outlive Americans by almost 10 yrs, but so what! Ten more years of eating rice? Ugh! So for 330 million Americans who forgo ten years of life to be American , that’s 3.3 billion life years lost and if life expectancy is 75-ish that adds up to 50 million lifetimes lost. That’s a number dwarfing any recorded Holocaust. But who cares when you had one death occurring in the genocidal terroristic Jan 6 coup-rebellion? Right?
They’re great and there’s just no denying their greatness. To deny that you have to lie, like about their pathetic social and Health outcomes. Did I say they were great? Well you can’t say it often enough. They’re great and no moral code or international law should apply to the truly great. So stop the bleating serfs who can’t recognize greatness. And donate what you have to make them even greater. Don’t make them have to take it by force. Yuppers. Great and special. Look if you want to say specially great or greatly special, I think it’s ok but will check. The Australians likely already have.
Timmy Taes: Given the classified Military Occupational Specialties of many aboard the Sultan, had she surrendered, the United States would have no doubt blown us out of the water, blamed the Soviets and turned the incident into a propaganda coup. In those days, it wasn't just infantry and artillery traveled by troop transport. It was every enlisted MOS and officers from captain down (though the commissioned officers and warrant officers were of course spared the tides of vomit that defined the troop bays). However it obtained, it would have been a substantial victory for the Soviets, because in 1962, all our senior NCOs were WWII and/or Korean War combat veterans, and even amongst troops who have never been tested by live fire, there is a vast difference in combat-readiness between raw recruits and those of us who have already completed most if not all of our active service (two years for draftees and; three years for Regular Army enlistees, as I was;. I don't remember the active-duty requirements for warrant officers or Reserve Officers Training Corps [ROTC] and Officer Candidate School [OCS] graduates with reserve commissions, but I think it was three years). Plus in '62, those of us on the Sultan homebound from Korea, nominally a 13-month tour of duty, had been extended there in place at least three months (in some instances, depending on MOS, as much as twice that) due to the Berlin Crisis. So none of us were FNGs, i.e., greeenies. In other words, the loss of those aboard the Sultan would have been comparable in impact to the losses of seasoned personnel at Pearl on 7 December 1941.
Great comments. Intelligent readers here. Added layer of irony that the US is not just 'allowing' but actively facilitating the current invasion at its own borders while it is perpetrating a "proxy war"? against border encroachments elsewhere. Cooperating with the same " bad actors" here while opposing similar actions abroad. Hypocrisy on steroids...its only ever OK when Amerika does it.
One of the little-known details of the Cuban Missile Crisis is the international magnitude of the Soviet preparations for war. As I was returning from Korea in August 1962 via the USNS Sultan, we were shadowed by a Soviet submarine from the moment we left Pearl Harbor – I don't recall the date -- until we entered San Francisco Bay early in the morning on 4 September 1962. Initially we saw only the Soviet sub’s periscope, but as we drew closer to the U.S., she would surface to charge her batteries and run along our port side maybe 1000 yards distant. Eventually we were waving to one another, the sub's crew on deck for a breath of fresh air and those of us going home aboard the Sultan behaving as if we were on a sea cruise. Years later, when the entire timeline of the crisis was declassified – when it became clear the Soviets were installing the missiles in August -- I realized why that sub was there. Had the proverbial balloon gone up, they'd have torpedoed us -- somewhat more than 4,000 trained and service-seasoned officers and enlisted personnel aboard an unarmed (and therefore utterly defenseless) WWII troop transport -- which would no doubt have killed us all and given them a pivotal (and utterly demoralizing) naval victory.