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Glenn Greenwald

Mar 5 • 9 tweets • 4 min read

"In Washington and European capitals, officials anticipate that the Russian military will reverse its early losses, setting the stage for a long, bloody insurgency," so the US is creating ways to "support a Ukrainian resistance."

nytimes.com/2022/02/16/wor…

Some have speculated that the US goal isn't to protect Ukrainians -- that's the pretext -- but rather sacrifice Ukraine by turning it into Syria or Afghanistan where war rages for years and destroys the country, bogging down Russia. No proof, but US actions consistent with that.

https://twitter.com/MSNBC/status/1498490752065757184

Just last week, Hillary Clinton on MNSBC explicitly invoked the Syria and Afghanistan model when explaining her vision for Ukraine: arm an insurgency that keeps Russia bogged down, fighting for years. Not good for Russia, but worse for those countries:

https://twitter.com/MSNBC/status/1498490752065757184

@EricSchmittNYT

Some journalists have taken the 2nd tweet out of the context of the thread. Note: 1) I've been noting for two weeks who has been saying this; 2) in this first and third tweets, I provide more evidence for it; 3) Here's what NYT's @EricSchmittNYT said on Daily Podcast this week:

More evidence for this thesis here, from a long-time Russia watcher from former Yugoslavia.

I'm sorry if I offended any US journalists with the suggestion that US motives might be different from what they claim (😲) or might be less than fully benevolent

niccolo.substack.com/p/fuck-it-russ…

@I_Katchanovski

Beyond the evidence above, read this thread from Univ. of Ottawa Political Scientist @I_Katchanovski on US/NATO goals in Ukraine: "Western governments want to fight #Russia to the last Ukrainian...the US treats Ukrainians just as tools to fight Russia."👇

https://twitter.com/I_Katchanovski/status/1500204726209724420

I realize the current situation is an important emotional moment -- we get to unite to be proud of our government; CIA is back!; we're fighting on the right side against the New New Hitler -- but that bar criticism of US/NATO or questioning if its stated goals are its real ones.

No matter how certain one is about their convictions regarding the war, it's still worthwhile - urgent even, given how united the consensus is - to read informed alternative views, such as this article by Peter Hitchens, who has long covered this region:

hitchensblog.mailonsunday.co.uk/2022/03/peter-…

https://twitter.com/ShantMM/status/1500203947515990019

And as one stays engrossed by the lockstep media messaging on this platform, it's worth keeping this in mind:

https://twitter.com/ShantMM/status/1500203947515990019

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More from @ggreenwald

Glenn Greenwald

@ggreenwald

Mar 7

https://twitter.com/mtracey/status/1500848185648066574

"Some 74% of Americans - including solid majorities of Republicans and Democrats - said the US and its allies in the NATO should impose a no-fly zone in Ukraine, the poll found.

An equally bipartisan 80% of Americans said the United States should stop buying Russian oil."

https://twitter.com/mtracey/status/1500848185648066574

It's definitely reasonable to assume -- and the Reuters article suggests -- that many people who say they support a no-fly zone don't realize all that it entails. But just 2 weeks ago, large majorities didn't want a major US role in Ukraine. That changed radically and quickly.

And note there's almost zero partisan difference. These views are fully bipartisan. There was (and, to a lesser extent, still is) some heterodoxy and debate within right-wing media circles, but GOP officials themselves have been 100% pro-Ukraine along with Dems from the start.

Read 4 tweets

Glenn Greenwald

@ggreenwald

Mar 6

https://twitter.com/Lowkey0nline/status/1500174625753513984

There are so many relevant facts that run counter to the mandated narrative for which no space exists now. But it's always the same cycle with wars: it takes weeks, usually months, sometimes years for the mob inebriation to wear off, and only then does sobriety and regret emerge.

https://twitter.com/Lowkey0nline/status/1500174625753513984

It's not as if people are suddenly inventing or dredging up these claims about Zelensky's massive wealth being laundered and hidden throughout the west through his ties to the Ukrainian oligarch funding Azov. Read this, from 2021 on the Pandora Papers:

aljazeera.com/news/2021/10/4…

Just last year, even **the Atlantic Council** was warning about Zelensky's deeply disturbing and seemingly corrupt dependence on this Ukrainian oligarch, under sanctions in the west, and the favors and silencing of dissent done on his behalf:

atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/ukrainea…

Read 7 tweets

Glenn Greenwald

@ggreenwald

Mar 5

Just a stunning article from NYT. For 5 years, US corporate outlets have depicted disinformation as the gravest of threats, requiring censorship.

Yet here they use a playful, borderline-admiring tone for the charming lies spread by Ukrainian officials:

nytimes.com/2022/03/03/tec…

I don't blame Ukrainian leaders for using propaganda and disinformation. All countries in war do.

The problem is US media outlets and various activists have been the most aggressive in ratifying it, renouncing their role as sorting fact from fiction to endorse "useful lies."

One of the most striking aspects of the propaganda regime imposed in the West is how so many once-common views -- NATO expansion threatens Moscow, US runs Ukraine, etc -- are now taboo.

For years the dangers of neo-Nazi militias in Ukraine were reported:

theguardian.com/world/2019/apr…

Read 4 tweets

Glenn Greenwald

@ggreenwald

Mar 4

https://twitter.com/VALERIEinNYT/status/1499498953720705032

Along with many War on Terror critics, I long argued: a key reason it continued was the media rarely if ever personalized or even noted the victims of US/UK violence, so they remained invisible. Imagine how different things might have been if they had received the same coverage:

https://twitter.com/VALERIEinNYT/status/1499498953720705032

The media attention on Ukrainian victims, refugees, and others is fully appropriate. A key journalistic function is to ensure people see the real results of the policies they support. But that's what was almost never done during 20 years of US wars:

theintercept.com/2015/07/06/civ…

If you say employees of US media corporations propagandize, they'll vehemently - even earnestly - deny: "Nobody tells us what to say," etc.

But much propaganda is from non-coverage. Dramatizing Ukrainian victims while ignoring Yemeni/Pakistani/Afghan victims warps perceptions.

Read 5 tweets

Glenn Greenwald

@ggreenwald

Mar 2

https://twitter.com/McFaul/status/1499016607041007619

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.

https://twitter.com/McFaul/status/1499016607041007619

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.

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

@ggreenwald

Mar 1

https://twitter.com/McFaul/status/1498706452583702531

All things considered, an amazing tweet from a Democratic foreign policy official.

https://twitter.com/McFaul/status/1498706452583702531

@robertwrighter

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…

@jeremyscahill

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.