Discussion Without an Agenda - Propaganda Fuels Talk of War

by
       Phillip Todd

  We conclude our interview with guest is Jack Hanick who recently completed the development of a state of the art television network in Moscow, built without government funding. Its evening news program broadcasts to 65 million homes in Russia across eight time zones. Previously Jack was a TV director, where he won the New York Emmy in 1994 for best director. His biography of Desmond Tutu also won a New York Emmy. He is considered an American expert on Russia. (Additional comments by John Pilger.)

PT – You spoke of the media and it's willingness to carry story after story of so-called Russian aggression towards it neighbors - are not the elitists, who own the western media, deliberately pushing the world towards war?

JH - We are moving closer and closer to a real war. Republicans and Democrats talk tough on foreign policy towards Russia. When all politicians are in agreement, there is no discussion of alternative approaches. Any alternative to complete isolation of Russia and a NATO build up on Russia’s borders is a

sign of weakness. Any alternative to this military build up is criticized as “appeasement,” likened to the failed foreign policy of British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain toward Nazi Germany between 1937 and 1938.

JP - The most effective propaganda is found not in the Sun or on Fox News - but beneath a liberal halo. When the New York Times published claims that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction, its fake evidence was believed, because it wasn't Fox News; it was the New York Times.

The same is true of the Washington Post and the Guardian, both of which have played a critical role in conditioning their readers to accept a new and dangerous cold war. All three liberal newspapers have misrepresented events in Ukraine as a malign act by Russia - when, in fact, the fascist led coup in Ukraine was the work of the United States, aided by Germany and NATO.

PT – Sanctions are continuously being applied to Russia to bring down the government. Do they think intimidation and isolation will accomplish this without another European war? 

JH - A war with Russia cannot be won economically. Russia has oil and an abundance of natural resources. It occupies the largest landmass in the world. It is growing in its ability to replace goods restricted from the west. The US flexing its military muscle will not solve the problems.

JP - This inversion of reality is so pervasive that Washington's military encirclement and intimidation of Russia is not contentious. It's not even news, but suppressed behind a smear and scare campaign of the kind I grew up with during the first cold war.

Once again, the evil empire is coming to get us, led by another Stalin or, perversely, a new Hitler. Name your demon and let rip.

JH - Sanctions are driving Russia away from the West and toward China. Chinese tourism in Russia is at record levels.

PT –Is a European war inevitable?

JH - This time the war will not be “over there.” The Russian bombers flying off the California coast on July 4 clearly demonstrate this point. Russians understand that the US has not fought a war on its soil since the civil war. If new hostilities start, Russia will not let the war be a proxy war where the US supplies weapons and advisers and lets others do the “boots on the ground” combat. Russia will take the war to the US. Imagine if Canada suddenly aligned itself with Russia or China. The US would surely see that as a threat on its border and act decisively. 

JP - "If you wonder," wrote Robert Parry, "how the world could stumble into WWIII – much as it did into WWI a century ago - all you need to do is look at the madness that has enveloped virtually the entire US political/media structure over Ukraine where a false narrative of white hats versus black hats took hold early and has proved impervious to facts or reason."

PT – The truth is that continuing along this path could truly become a world war in all hemispheres of the globe.

JH - War is not the answer but too often in history becomes the only solution when two sides refuse to see the other’s point of view. Understanding the Russian side and taking their arguments seriously can help prevent serious consequences.

PT – That would be the case for most rational people but it seems that the political elite have dollar signs in their eyes without regard for the consiquences to humanity. Thank you both for your insight into the continuing build up of these winds of war.