Lois Gagnon: We must do better understanding Ukraine War

I am responding to the three rebuttals to the opinion piece “Stop the Double Standard, Tell the Truth About Ukraine,” that appeared on this page July 3. The authors of the original piece tried valiantly to interject some historical background to the U.S./NATO cartoon version of Ukraine that dominates the airwaves and newspapers. The charges of not being credible nor moral may as well have been written by the State Department.

I would hope that by this point in this country’s history of aggressive foreign policy towards countries who dare to resist U.S. domination, people would be wiser to the constant drumbeat of vilification of the leaders of those countries. There is in fact, a lot of credible information regarding the conflict in Ukraine that supports Russia’s case, but our corporate-captured media chooses to leave it out of its reporting in service to the narrative that Putin is evil and bent on reconstituting the Soviet Empire.

The U.S. is cast as only having the interests of the people of Ukraine at heart. Belief in this fairy tale is naïveté on steroids. For those reading this who are truly interested in learning information that puts the Ukraine situation in historical context, I highly recommend you visit the Consortium News website, founded in 1995 by the late investigative reporter Robert Parry. There you will find an easy to read and concise historical timeline leading to the present situation in Ukraine. If you appreciate what you read there, you can access the archives and read all the reporting about Ukraine going back at least to the coup, yes it was a coup, in 2014.

For a government up in arms about mis- and disinformation, Washington certainly relies very heavily on exactly that with regards to its foreign policy. It’s understandable that people are confused about Ukraine and many other issues given the selective propaganda being substituted for actual news. Without independent journalism, we are at the mercy of powerful corporate/state institutions for information. This is what I see reflected in the opinions published on July 3. We have to do better. All our lives depend on it.

Lois Gagnon

Belchertown

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