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Mar 1 • 5 tweets • 3 min read
All things considered, an amazing tweet from a Democratic foreign policy official.
Read @robertwrighter today on why it's so immoral to use the cliché "whataboutism" to prevent an examination of your own country's past crimes in order to bar any inquiry into whether the principles they're claiming to support are genuine.

nonzero.substack.com/p/in-defense-o…
Also worth watching, at this important moment, this video from @JeremyScahill where he explains how the "whataboutism" cliché suppresses, by design, a vital examination of our own country's behavior to claim we support standards we refuse to abide by.

Obviously, no American wants anyone raising the question of whether there's anything Russia is doing in Ukraine that the US hasn't done repeatedly, not just in Iraq about around the world. This is how these moments are used to absolve past crimes and blind us to our own acts.
Our moral condemnation of other countries such as Russia would be stronger, not weaker, if we paired it with a recognition of what we ourselves do, rather than deceitfully posturing as people who would never tolerate such violence and aggression from our own leaders.

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More from @ggreenwald

Glenn Greenwald Profile picture
Mar 2
No such thing as an "innocent" Russia person any more, says Obama's former Ambassador. Seems like that premise, if accepted, could lead to some extremely dark places. Regardless of the outcomes, the claim itself is noxious.
I continue to think the reason these kinds of odious frameworks are accepted is because so many people either didn't live through 2002 as adults or have forgotten what was done. ImageImage
Bin Laden's argument for why US civilians were legit targets was they choose their leaders and thus are responsible for their acts. That was widely (and accurately) viewed as reprehensible. Even more odd to claim Putin is a totalitarian dictator, but *all Russians* are guilty.
Read 4 tweets
Glenn Greenwald Profile picture
Mar 1
Again, one of the most baffling aspects of current discourse -- a sign of how dissent is demonized -- is the claim that it's a new "pro-Putin" talking point to say NATO expansion is threatening to all Russians.

This thread shows: this view has long been mainstream in the West👇
If you want to say that someone is a "pro-Putin" Russia apologist for believing NATO expansion to Russia's borders has been genuinely threatening to most Russians, then you have to say Biden chose a traitor to run the CIA. Here's William Burns' warning to the Bush WH in 2008:
President Obama, in 2016, on Russia, Ukraine and the US. He was being pressed by the neoconservative editor of @TheAtlantic, @JeffreyGoldberg, on why he refused to "stand up to Putin" by arming Ukraine. Here's what Obama said. Well worth reading. This was after Crimea annexation:
Read 5 tweets
Glenn Greenwald Profile picture
Mar 1
Frum's career was built on smearing those who disagree with him as being traitors and on the Enemy's side. From Bush's "you're with us or with the terrorists" speech to Frum's 2003 article "Unpatriotic Conservatives" (about Iraq War opponents), it's his specialty. Won't stop now.
Everyone "now has a decision to make: Either you are with us or you are with the" Russians. ImageImage
He's now regarded in many media sectors and establishment liberal politics as the Conscience of the Nation. One key benefit of constantly locating new Hitlers (from Trump to Putin) is that it erases all prior sins, bestows elites with total absolution:

Read 4 tweets
Glenn Greenwald Profile picture
Feb 28
Given all the various claims about what "real leftists" must say and think about Russia/Ukraine, it's worth hearing this two-part answer from Noam Chomsky from February 13, when asked about rising tensions over Ukraine between Moscow and NATO:
The 2nd part. One of the most bizarre claims is now is that his view -- that NATO expansion is genuinely threatening to all Russians, not just Putin -- is some Kremlin propaganda invented last week when, in fact, it's what US officials and scholars have been saying for years.
Here's @PeterBeinart documenting how top US security officials, including the current CIA Director, have been warning for years: NATO expansion will provoke Russian action in Ukraine. You don't have agree, but don't pretend it's some new invention of RT:

peterbeinart.substack.com/p/bidens-cia-d…
Read 5 tweets
Glenn Greenwald Profile picture
Feb 27
🤣

In case you doubt that anyone who deviates from the mandated consensus instantly gets smeared as a Russian agent or apologist. The DSA statement was reasonable (see below); its crime was that it criticized NATO. Hence it must be "pro-Putin." The WH also attacked DSA.
Here's the @DemSocialists statement. I'm sure many would disagree with some of these claims but it's perfectly reasonable, and if you can't express this minimal dissent without being smeared by top Democrats and the WH as a Kremlin agent, then the climate is toxic and warped.
And again, just to illustrate how much more open and permissive the debate over Ukraine is around the world, here's one of Brazil's most influential YouTubers and commentators, @felipeneto, asking a question which, in the US, would prompt instant "pro-Putin" accusations:
Read 4 tweets
Glenn Greenwald Profile picture
Feb 27
War Propaganda About Ukraine Becoming More Militaristic, Authoritarian, and Reckless

greenwald.substack.com/p/war-propagan…
Every useful or pleasing claim about the war, no matter how unverified or subsequently debunked, rapidly spreads, including by US news outlets, while dissenters are vilified as traitors or Kremlin agents.

No matter your views, having falsehoods ratified is dangerous and harmful. Image
Even if you're certain you have apprehended the moral dimensions of this conflict, that only takes you so far - as was true of 9/11 or Saddam. Especially with calls for no-fly zones, regime change and "crippling" sanctions, vital debates remain, which require space to question. ImageImage
Read 7 tweets

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