A Ukraine Miscellany (II): Zelenskiy and Media Coverage of Ukraine 2022 vs. Iraq 2003

Listening to the chants on the radio of 'USA Help Ukraine', I wondered if it ever occurred to any of these people that it was America's 'help', its meddling in Eastern Europe and Ukraine in particular that led to the current crisis? Had the United States remained in its own hemisphere, and had Washington avoided sponsoring a militaristic eastern expansion on the part of NATO, then perhaps the world wouldn't face this crisis. Are they aware of America's 'help' for Ukraine in the 2004 and 2014?

Listening to interviews on the BBC and elsewhere I wondered how many of these people even know where Ukraine is on the map? They clearly know nothing about Ukraine and seem ignorant of the region's geopolitics – let alone the events of the past ten, twenty, and thirty years. I always find it striking to hear the assumptions in people's statements. There's never any question with regard to what the US is doing there. How outraged would they be if China, Russia, or some other country was meddling in Mexico, Canada, or some other proximate country?

Cuba was an independent country that invited the Russians in. Due to the 1961 US-sponsored Bay of Pigs invasion a decision was made to install nuclear weapons as a deterrent. The US considered this a threat to its security and crisis ensued. Cuba was not allowed to make its own independent foreign policy decisions. Had the war party under Kennedy had its way the US would have invaded Cuba. Thankfully he stopped them in time and a settlement was reached. From the standpoint of the USSR, they were in part reacting tit-for-tat to US nuclear missiles being placed along their border in Turkey – a point kept from the American public at the time. In many respects Putin's responses are analogous and yet his 'pre-emptive' invasion will mean that forever after in the West, the Russian narrative will be lost and discredited along with Russia's concerns regarding a militaristic offensive alliance on its border and the likely placement of nuclear arms – something NATO is also known to lie about. The window dressing is different but the core issues are the same.

Zelenskiy is the hero of the hour, the champion of liberty and Western freedom. But it would seem that people and more poignantly the media have forgotten just who he is. He attempted to imprison his political rival and when the Constitutional Court resisted him he fired judges and at one point dismissed the entire cabinet as well. He shut down opposition television stations. The Pandora Papers revealed that he has offshore accounts implicating him in the same kind of widespread corruption seen in Russia. Zelenskiy also has his oligarchic allies and until he became a 'hero', there were discussions regarding just how much they influenced him. Zelenskiy has made no moves to purge the Neo-Nazi elements in the Ukrainian military. In fact the Azov Battalion has become a kind of Far Right foreign legion under Zelenskiy's tenure. It's also noteworthy that while Facebook blocked the group from receiving support in 2019, it has now (in 2022) relaxed some of its restrictions. Ukraine rates rather poorly on the Democracy Index. It's considered a hybrid regime riddled with fraud, a category that rates below 'failed democracy'.

How is the fight for Ukraine an issue of democracy?

Ukraine deserves our sympathy as the people are suffering a military invasion. However the country is hardly the liberal democratic bastion the media presents it to be and Zelenskiy is deeply corrupt and anti-liberal. Were he a politician in a Western European country his conduct would be scandalous and widely condemned. But move him several hundred miles to the east and in the context of the Russian border, he becomes a champion of liberal democracy and freedom.

Ah, but we can't judge Ukraine by the standards of Western Europe – someone will say. Okay, then why do you hold Russia to that standard?

We see the same thing in Russia with Western coverage of Alexei Navalny. In the West he would be condemned as a corrupt Right-wing extremist but because he opposed Putin, he is a darling of the West and a champion of liberal democracy.

Considerable coverage was given the destruction of the television tower in Kyiv (which is not pronounced 'Keev' in either Ukrainian or Russian), and yet listening I was reminded of the US destruction of the broadcast tower in Iraq. The difference in coverage is considerable. Presented as tragic in Ukraine, the event was all but celebrated when the US did it in Iraq. Generally speaking, I reflected on the very different orientation of coverage. With Ukraine the focus is on the people on the ground, the terror and hardship they experience. The coverage is meant to paint a very sympathetic picture. The bombs and missiles are cast in a brutal light.

It true enough. They deserve our sympathy. Aerial warfare and modern bombardment is particularly terrible. And yet when the US engages in these exact same behaviours the media is awestruck by the fireworks, the technology, and the surreal images of a cityscape marked by explosions as seen during the Shock and Awe campaign over Baghdad in 2003 in which even official death counts are in the thousands, but in reality may have been in the tens of thousands. It was treated like the fourth of July.

Probably the most obscene example of this was seen in 2017 when Trump (on the basis of bad or more properly misleading intelligence) launched a cruise missile strike against Syria – known as the Shayrat Missile Strike. More than a dozen Syrians were killed including several children. NBC anchor and moral degenerate Brian Williams responded with a paean – clearly moved by the 'beauty of our weapons' – a distortion of Leonard Cohen's lyrics.

Putin has targeted Zelenskiy it is said. I don't doubt it but has the media forgotten the Dora Farms attack in 2003 wherein the US attempted to kill Saddam Hussein by means of four large bunker-buster bombs? Officially one civilian was killed and about a dozen injured but we know the Pentagon lies about numbers when it's convenient. We could also mention the US was directly targeting dozens of Iraqi commanders and government officials – a kind of modernized and condensed version of the Phoenix Program during Vietnam. Imagine if a report emerged of Putin targeting dozens of members of the Ukrainian leadership like that?

Such equivalences are forbidden and because Saddam Hussein's government was viewed as a brutal dictatorship that had committed many crimes over the years (some with America's help) – then such warfare is viewed as justified. Even America's systemic atrocities in Vietnam are today, whitewashed and never subjected to the kind of scrutiny the media will direct at other countries.

The point isn't to draw comparisons between Zelenskiy and Saddam Hussein. There's no comparison. Once the war begins, the media's job is to tell the story and civilians are civilians wherever they live and whatever their culture. It's clear that Western media and particularly American media operates by a double-standard. Given its corporate foundations this shouldn't surprise us but one is forced to marvel listening to the talk of war crimes and the like when clearly the myriad criminals within the US regime are exempt.

And make no mistake Wall Street is making money off Ukraine. A local forge that produces bomb casings has just kicked up production. Germany has put in an order and a local trucking company is preparing for the demands of the order as they will be responsible for transporting the pre-bombs from one facility to the other as they're moved through the assembly process. This too is somewhat staggering when you're able to see just what is involved – all for something that has no purpose other than to kill. So much time and money are spent for no end but death and destruction.

I noticed RT was pulled from Roku today – though I can still access it through YouTube. I don't watch the network much. I only have in recent weeks just to compare and to see just how biased it is – it's not nearly as bad as many people would think, certainly no worse than what is seen in Western media and often much better. And yet did any EU nation talk about banning CNN or CBS during the Iraq War for their insidious and deceptive propaganda? Powell, Rumsfeld, Franks, and later Petraeus were all liars – not to mention Bush, Cheney, and Rice. Were their speeches redacted or silenced? Of course not. It's unthinkable.

Double standards and lies – it's the meat and potatoes of war coverage. This is nothing new and in no way do I intend to demean the suffering of the Ukrainians who face a terrible and criminal onslaught. I wish them peace and wish they would quit fighting but these events are part of a larger picture and context. The war started long before the shooting did and while the victors often tell good guy/bad guy tales it's always more complicated. This is true even with regard to the so-called 'good war' of World War II. How much more these other conflicts?