Hey everybody. Many of you have asked for my thoughts on the crisis in Ukraine, so here they are. I am away from home, and away from my normal recording setup, so please forgive the less than stellar audio (it’s not as bad as when it’s really bad, though).
Polish dude here. I don’t know what to make of this podcast, I don’t even know if I understood the message.
Of course US is very far from perfect, of course it wants to be the only empire out there, of course it uses dirty methods to achieve this goal. But here in Poland… out of all the empires we were given taste of, we strongly prefer to have US boot on our neck. It’s definitely the coziest. If this way of thinking, as well as the fact how genuinely glad we are of being part of NATO is programmed into us by US intelligence, I must say outstanding job!
I think my biggest issue with the commentary from yourself, Horton, Greenwald, and other similar folks is how much you don’t address. You talk about others having simplistic or Manichaean commentary. However, are you not guilty of this yourself, just from another direction? You give no time to Putin’s ideological motivations as laid down in his own past writings, and most recently, in his hour long speech just prior to recognizing the the 2 separatist republics and sending “peace keepers” in (just before the full invasion began). His views of Ukrainian ethnicity, how they owe Russia a great debt, have no right to exist independently from Russia, and how they betrayed Russia by seeking closer ties with the west are never addressed. It would be like looking at Hitler’s motivations and ignoring Mein Kampf or numerous other speeches and public statements. Nor is time given to how newly discovered resources in Ukraine might influence Putin’s decisions.
Instead, we get a grand narrative of how Russia was betrayed by the US and NATO (while the EU, which is at least as much of factor is barely mentioned). The so called “agreement” to not expand is endlessly cited as the cornerstone to this view. Yet no treaty or public agreement exists. We have disputed statements from behind the scenes talks. No mention of Gorbachev himself, never happy with NATO expansion, publicly stating later that a halt to NATO expansion was not part of the discussion. Further, besides the fact that no treaty was ever signed(and citing a German official’s statement as if it is the same thing is at least a large reach), the actual signed agreements Russia has violated by their actions in Ukraine are all conveniently ignored.
It is never explained just why Russia should have a veto over the foreign policy of its neighbors. The same neighbors who spent decades( (at least) under brutal Russian subjugation. In pursuit of “Strategic empathy,” the reasons Poland or Estonia or Ukraine might seek greater security & economic ties with the west are given no time. The role of the EU ( which has no murky, disputed statements regarding its expansion) is also strangely ignored. How close was Ukraine to joining NATO before this invasion? And why has Russia been able to function just fine with NATO member states on its border since 2003? Is its concern for NATO actually stemming from fears of invasion (while being a nuclear power)? Or is that concern more centered on how NATO is an obstacle towards re asserting its dominance over its neighbors in Eastern Europe.
If you’re going to make the argument that NATO expansion is Russia’s chief motivator here (which is an argument you can make) you at the very least need to address these other issues and why they are less important in factoring Russian motivations. Are Russian “security concerns” really all that defensive? Or are they centered removing obstacles towards re-establishing the greater Russian sphere?
This comment is already too long, but I’ll mention this. Your constant framing of the 2014 revolution as just a Coup is telling (especially while you ignore Russian meddling among those same states or wave them away as legitimate actions provoked by the west). As the Ukrainians themselves have now proven beyond a shadow of a doubt, they think their country and current government is worth defending. The entire last third of your podcast, aims to at least imply the lack of legitimacy of the current Ukrainian state and painting Russian actions in Ukraine as defensive and in pursuit of “legitimate security concerns.” A throwaway a line about how Americans need only care and comment on American actions doesn’t change this. You either take a look at all factors in your analysis or you don’t get to accuse others of simplicity or Manichaeism.
Also, I would love for you to expand on that throwaway line crediting Putin for “stepping down” to be in the lower position of Prime minister, as if he gave up any power in reality. You then frame him regaining the presidency as only due to those dastardly Americans tricking Russia on Libya. Really?
Edit: Also, what exactly is your view on what the US and Europe should do? Is the current line hitting Russia via sanctions and giving Ukraine aid (military and otherwise) ok? What should be done?
Mar 14, 2022·edited Mar 14, 2022Liked by Darryl Cooper
This is an important perspective, particularly if all you have been exposed to is hawkish anti-Russian propaganda in the last couple of weeks. I found it easy enough to find more balanced views, but I’m sure that’s not the modal case, so thank you Darryl for laying out the other side with your usual thorough and spirited clarity.
I’m sympathetic to this viewpoint, to a point, but it treats the West a bit too monolithically and seems to overstate the importance of the hidden hand of America in foreign policy developments. We can’t forget that the EU, the West, and even NATO is not a monolith. There are many independent points of view here, and they all come together (or fail to come together) to give us exactly the balance of power and result we see today.
Poland and the Baltics have very good reasons to want to be in NATO without any prodding from Washington. If Putin saw this as American aggression, that is, in part, because he is overlooking the absolutely apocalyptic threat that these countries face from anyone who sees the fall of the Soviet Union as a catastrophic collapse. The proximity between Estonia and St. Petersburg runs both ways, but the power differential does not without NATO. (And it would probably be better for everyone involved if these countries had a European-only security alliance to join, but you face the future with the choices you have, not the ones you wish you had).
Also, I don’t think it would be possible for the US to institute (relatively) bloodless regime change if the organic support for it wasn’t there already. One just has to look at cases that have gone against the US to see why this is necessary (Bay of Pigs, 1979 Iran, Iraq 2, Afghanistan). So I see Euromaidan more as the US putting a thumb on the scale of a pre-existing conflict and not creating the conflict itself. And, roughly speaking for most cases, that is probably fair game because the other side(s) is putting their thumb on the scale too. The fact that hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians right now are willing to risk their lives to resist the Russian invasion shows that there is a measure of organic support for the West (globohomo and all) over whatever Putin may have to offer them. And I think Ukrainians are in a unique position to be able to discern between the two alternative visions. And yes, the usual caveat about masses being swayed by propaganda applies because it always applies in every case.
This was probably the most well-researched case that I’ve heard on the NATO-is-to-blame side of things. And I’m a huge Darryl Cooper fan. I’ve been listening since he was only on part two of Fear and Loathing. But I think he’s a little worked up (aren’t we all?) I found the Unraveling episode he did with Jocko back in early February before the war started a bit more balanced.
I did want to add: whichever podcast or sub stack you listen to or read, it is critically important to resist the crazy voices in our midst calling for a no-fly zone (or more!) Whoever doesn’t get the stakes here or thinks that Putin wouldn’t call our bluff (looking at you Garry Kasparov) is extremely dangerous and has to have their arguments dismembered thoroughly and publicly before we stumble into global catastrophe. It’s fine to support the Ukrainians and wage the usual economic struggles, but we have to bend over backwards to avoid any actual possibility of a shooting war with Russia.
Mar 14, 2022·edited Mar 14, 2022Liked by Darryl Cooper
To declare my biases upfront; British, voted to leave the EU. Had Russian business partners and did business in Russia for five years. Best friend’s wife is Ukrainian and she has family in Lviv.
You make a difficult argument to hear that the west’s political actions bear some responsibility for provoking Putin, I can’t disagree with them. That does not excuse or mitigate putins war against Ukraine in my opinion.
Your written cover to the anti humans episode excellently summarises the horrors inflicted on soviet satellites during the Cold War and you have discussed the holodomor before as well. Contrasting that is the ancient history between russia and Ukraine and the translocation of Russians into Ukrainian land. Ignoring the right/wrong of the translocation policy surely those translocated people have been there long enough to be considered Ukrainians and having a valid political viewpoint.
As a result there are Ukrainians that are deeply anti Russian and those that are deeply pro Russian. It ignores both of those view points and a Geordian knot of historical relations between the two states to solely point at the actions Of western governments as casus belli for putin.
I don’t want to disappear into an unfocused post that goes on forever so I am going to leave it here for the moment just noting that you raise valid points on nato enlargement and what is acceptable in terms of interference in other states politics.
Mar 14, 2022·edited Mar 14, 2022Liked by Darryl Cooper
I believe you said that you worked on the DOD for 20+ years in another podcast episode. Then at the beginning of this podcast you said "For one thing, I don't like war. I'm over that stage in my life," followed by a quote from Scott Horton, a man who is vehemently against war. I would be very curious to hear about the mental journey you took, even if it was it's own podcast episode, about your position on war.
Mar 14, 2022·edited Mar 14, 2022Liked by Darryl Cooper
I just subscribed in order to comment - and it turns out that I also listen to the Jocko Wilink podcasts... In any case, after 10 minutes, you seem spot on, you're saying the same kinds of things I'm saying. At 35 minutes, in talking about the neocons/neolibs, you're saying the same kinds of things I was saying in a discussion club we had in Kansas City in the 1990s - and the neoliberals have had a lock on the NatSecState since 1981 or so it seems, and the NatSecState sets policy. We need to have a real discussion about the role of the National Security State/Military Industrial Complex in the US - those are people who have formed what is essentially a secret double government in the US beyond the bounds of democratic and constitutional accountability, and it hasn't provided much in the way of security, national or otherwise. I'm sticking this up on my substack page, you're nailing it.
I see like Tucker Carlson, Jimmy Dore, Tulsi Gabbert, Aaron Mate and Max Blumenthal we have another Putin patsy here, (sarcasm). Thanks, Daryl for a well thought out response. It's refreshing to see someone use logic and rationality to analyze an extremely complex situation. Nuace is lost on most of the American public and the entire legacy corporate media. The best analogy I've heard describing the situation is that, if you push a bear into a corner and poke it with a stick for 20 years and you eventually get your arm mualed I understand why. It doesn't mean I'm pro bears mualing people either, I just understand why it happened.
Thanks for putting this out DC, great work. Hard to believe it but I actually miss the covid narrative from last season. I'm sorry for the long musings below.
Jokes aside, what has me down at the moment is not just the war itself but the propaganda, lies and deception in the West. Like you, I see this war as an absolute tragedy that could have been avoided and watching it unfold and escalate in real time is truly heartbreaking. I'll be honest and admit I was a pro-war dipshit when I was younger and I still have a weird view of war; that it is sometimes necessary and some good can come of it (for example, Ukrainian national identity will be strong for generations regardless of what the outcome of this is - except in the worst case of nuclear war and our subsequent return to the stone age). But this one was wholly avoidable :(
What really scares the fuck out of me is the escalation of hateful rhetoric in response to this from people I know were completely anti-war a month ago, seemingly without anyone wondering how we got here. Apparently Putin just appeared out of nowhere and like a movie villain he is dead set on wholesale destruction. I once heard that wars are only ever started over fear, fear of the other. It might be hard for a lot of us to imagine fearing America because we live inside the Empire. But if you're on the outside looking in, the American Empire is truly terrifying. It's almost unprecedented that a country can wage war(s) with almost zero effect on the homefront such as rationing, conscription and in the modern era the mass destruction of cities and civilian casualties. DC laid out the steps the West has taken over the last 30 years since the fall of the USSR, and once you know and understand that it's easier to understand how and why Putin and Russia are scared.
We're now at a place where you're a Putin shill for not wanting to go down the road to WWIII. I was young, not as clued in and it was a different world in the early 2000s but I distinctly remember calls to de-escalate any type of hatred of Arabs or the Muslim world during the global war of terror. But I am seeing something dark at the moment with the anti-Russian stuff. The Russian embassy in my country was attacked and the gates and fence were vandalised/graffitied, including Nazi symbols. It feels like we have all been put on a conveyor belt towards war, like something out of the Guns of August. Why the different media approach now?
If we are to hold Putin accountable for his actions and decision to invade (which we should), we should also hold our own governments accountable for their actions that lead us down this path. But no one seems to have any interest in that. A democracy out for blood is something very dangerous that I think a lot of people don't understand. And it feels like we are being prepped for something big. I'm not sure if it's true so someone please correct me if I'm wrong but am I right in saying in the last US presidential election foreign policy was not allowed to be debated by Biden and Trump? How can people hold their leaders accountable if diplomacy is not deemed worthy of public debate?
'War is a Racket' is a short but brilliant book by a former US marine, which details how much profiteering goes on during war time. America doesn't manufacture much in country anymore, but one thing it still does make is military hardware. The stock prices of Lockheed Martin, Raytheon etc are all up. Some people will make a lot of money the longer this conflict is stretched out. Even though I deeply deeply sympathise with a country like Ukraine with a big bully neighbour next door, but I will never (again) advocate for a war which I wouldn't be willing to fight and die in myself. We have all been brought down this path by hubris, greed and shit diplomacy, and we need to calm down before it's too late.
This was an excellent podcast. You certainly made a comprehensive and compelling case for the justified grievances held by Russia and the major role we played in setting those events in motion. You definitely gave me a lot of great content to provide context for what is going on.
Firstly, I am admittedly biased since my ancestors are from Galicia and they left there before the Bolsheviks continued the long list of tragedies these people have endured. It wasn't a good place to live then, and it only got worse...
I cannot, even for a second excuse what Putin has done. Sure, he wants Ukraine to stay in their sphere of influence, maybe Ukraine should have a say in that? Does he think indiscriminate bombing of civilians is going to entice the citizens of Ukraine to think, "Wow, these guys are great, let's definitely stay aligned with the guy who killed our families!" Look no further than the Irish with 800+ years of turmoil with the British.
Perhaps they would rather roll the dice with the EU? Having spent time in Russia and the EU, I certainly think the pitch for EU is far more attractive, but maybe that's just me.
Frankly, I believe in self determination for any country. I am tired of hearing about Ukraine as if it's some chess board piece between the US/EU and Russia.
The coming weeks/months/years are going to be hell over there and the death toll is going to be horrendous. But I will say this; the Ukrainians are going to grind the occupying force down with an insurgency and when it is all settled, they will have earned the right to go whatever direction they want to. And I stand behind them 100%.
Keep up the great work Darryl, and for God's sake throttle your twitter. Lol
World hunger was all but eliminated, the James Webb telescope was launched, progress was made toward fusion reactors and inter planetary space travel. We're on the verge of accomplishing so much through our technology, but we have to do this shit again? More fucking wars for nothing to feed some disgusting pigs' corruption and conquest fantasy? Begs the question: can our institutions, or even humans generally be anything but corrupt?
I really appreciate Darryl Cooper's approach to analyze situations by carefully and thoroughly investigating both sides of a conflict with minimal emotional bias to either side even if he talks about atrocities that we all take an immediate side. This approach is crucial if you want to understand a conflict and resolve it. Thank you Darryl. I am at the last hour of the Fear and Loathing in the new Jerusalem and find this as an opportunity to thank you for your deep and wide analysis.
Polish dude here. I don’t know what to make of this podcast, I don’t even know if I understood the message.
Of course US is very far from perfect, of course it wants to be the only empire out there, of course it uses dirty methods to achieve this goal. But here in Poland… out of all the empires we were given taste of, we strongly prefer to have US boot on our neck. It’s definitely the coziest. If this way of thinking, as well as the fact how genuinely glad we are of being part of NATO is programmed into us by US intelligence, I must say outstanding job!
I think my biggest issue with the commentary from yourself, Horton, Greenwald, and other similar folks is how much you don’t address. You talk about others having simplistic or Manichaean commentary. However, are you not guilty of this yourself, just from another direction? You give no time to Putin’s ideological motivations as laid down in his own past writings, and most recently, in his hour long speech just prior to recognizing the the 2 separatist republics and sending “peace keepers” in (just before the full invasion began). His views of Ukrainian ethnicity, how they owe Russia a great debt, have no right to exist independently from Russia, and how they betrayed Russia by seeking closer ties with the west are never addressed. It would be like looking at Hitler’s motivations and ignoring Mein Kampf or numerous other speeches and public statements. Nor is time given to how newly discovered resources in Ukraine might influence Putin’s decisions.
Instead, we get a grand narrative of how Russia was betrayed by the US and NATO (while the EU, which is at least as much of factor is barely mentioned). The so called “agreement” to not expand is endlessly cited as the cornerstone to this view. Yet no treaty or public agreement exists. We have disputed statements from behind the scenes talks. No mention of Gorbachev himself, never happy with NATO expansion, publicly stating later that a halt to NATO expansion was not part of the discussion. Further, besides the fact that no treaty was ever signed(and citing a German official’s statement as if it is the same thing is at least a large reach), the actual signed agreements Russia has violated by their actions in Ukraine are all conveniently ignored.
It is never explained just why Russia should have a veto over the foreign policy of its neighbors. The same neighbors who spent decades( (at least) under brutal Russian subjugation. In pursuit of “Strategic empathy,” the reasons Poland or Estonia or Ukraine might seek greater security & economic ties with the west are given no time. The role of the EU ( which has no murky, disputed statements regarding its expansion) is also strangely ignored. How close was Ukraine to joining NATO before this invasion? And why has Russia been able to function just fine with NATO member states on its border since 2003? Is its concern for NATO actually stemming from fears of invasion (while being a nuclear power)? Or is that concern more centered on how NATO is an obstacle towards re asserting its dominance over its neighbors in Eastern Europe.
If you’re going to make the argument that NATO expansion is Russia’s chief motivator here (which is an argument you can make) you at the very least need to address these other issues and why they are less important in factoring Russian motivations. Are Russian “security concerns” really all that defensive? Or are they centered removing obstacles towards re-establishing the greater Russian sphere?
This comment is already too long, but I’ll mention this. Your constant framing of the 2014 revolution as just a Coup is telling (especially while you ignore Russian meddling among those same states or wave them away as legitimate actions provoked by the west). As the Ukrainians themselves have now proven beyond a shadow of a doubt, they think their country and current government is worth defending. The entire last third of your podcast, aims to at least imply the lack of legitimacy of the current Ukrainian state and painting Russian actions in Ukraine as defensive and in pursuit of “legitimate security concerns.” A throwaway a line about how Americans need only care and comment on American actions doesn’t change this. You either take a look at all factors in your analysis or you don’t get to accuse others of simplicity or Manichaeism.
Also, I would love for you to expand on that throwaway line crediting Putin for “stepping down” to be in the lower position of Prime minister, as if he gave up any power in reality. You then frame him regaining the presidency as only due to those dastardly Americans tricking Russia on Libya. Really?
Edit: Also, what exactly is your view on what the US and Europe should do? Is the current line hitting Russia via sanctions and giving Ukraine aid (military and otherwise) ok? What should be done?
This is an important perspective, particularly if all you have been exposed to is hawkish anti-Russian propaganda in the last couple of weeks. I found it easy enough to find more balanced views, but I’m sure that’s not the modal case, so thank you Darryl for laying out the other side with your usual thorough and spirited clarity.
I’m sympathetic to this viewpoint, to a point, but it treats the West a bit too monolithically and seems to overstate the importance of the hidden hand of America in foreign policy developments. We can’t forget that the EU, the West, and even NATO is not a monolith. There are many independent points of view here, and they all come together (or fail to come together) to give us exactly the balance of power and result we see today.
Poland and the Baltics have very good reasons to want to be in NATO without any prodding from Washington. If Putin saw this as American aggression, that is, in part, because he is overlooking the absolutely apocalyptic threat that these countries face from anyone who sees the fall of the Soviet Union as a catastrophic collapse. The proximity between Estonia and St. Petersburg runs both ways, but the power differential does not without NATO. (And it would probably be better for everyone involved if these countries had a European-only security alliance to join, but you face the future with the choices you have, not the ones you wish you had).
Also, I don’t think it would be possible for the US to institute (relatively) bloodless regime change if the organic support for it wasn’t there already. One just has to look at cases that have gone against the US to see why this is necessary (Bay of Pigs, 1979 Iran, Iraq 2, Afghanistan). So I see Euromaidan more as the US putting a thumb on the scale of a pre-existing conflict and not creating the conflict itself. And, roughly speaking for most cases, that is probably fair game because the other side(s) is putting their thumb on the scale too. The fact that hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians right now are willing to risk their lives to resist the Russian invasion shows that there is a measure of organic support for the West (globohomo and all) over whatever Putin may have to offer them. And I think Ukrainians are in a unique position to be able to discern between the two alternative visions. And yes, the usual caveat about masses being swayed by propaganda applies because it always applies in every case.
This was probably the most well-researched case that I’ve heard on the NATO-is-to-blame side of things. And I’m a huge Darryl Cooper fan. I’ve been listening since he was only on part two of Fear and Loathing. But I think he’s a little worked up (aren’t we all?) I found the Unraveling episode he did with Jocko back in early February before the war started a bit more balanced.
I did want to add: whichever podcast or sub stack you listen to or read, it is critically important to resist the crazy voices in our midst calling for a no-fly zone (or more!) Whoever doesn’t get the stakes here or thinks that Putin wouldn’t call our bluff (looking at you Garry Kasparov) is extremely dangerous and has to have their arguments dismembered thoroughly and publicly before we stumble into global catastrophe. It’s fine to support the Ukrainians and wage the usual economic struggles, but we have to bend over backwards to avoid any actual possibility of a shooting war with Russia.
To declare my biases upfront; British, voted to leave the EU. Had Russian business partners and did business in Russia for five years. Best friend’s wife is Ukrainian and she has family in Lviv.
You make a difficult argument to hear that the west’s political actions bear some responsibility for provoking Putin, I can’t disagree with them. That does not excuse or mitigate putins war against Ukraine in my opinion.
Your written cover to the anti humans episode excellently summarises the horrors inflicted on soviet satellites during the Cold War and you have discussed the holodomor before as well. Contrasting that is the ancient history between russia and Ukraine and the translocation of Russians into Ukrainian land. Ignoring the right/wrong of the translocation policy surely those translocated people have been there long enough to be considered Ukrainians and having a valid political viewpoint.
As a result there are Ukrainians that are deeply anti Russian and those that are deeply pro Russian. It ignores both of those view points and a Geordian knot of historical relations between the two states to solely point at the actions Of western governments as casus belli for putin.
I don’t want to disappear into an unfocused post that goes on forever so I am going to leave it here for the moment just noting that you raise valid points on nato enlargement and what is acceptable in terms of interference in other states politics.
SrC
Last summer Vladimir Putin wrote an article about the historical relationship between Russia and Ukraine.
https://russiaeu.ru/en/news/article-russian-president-vladimir-putin-historical-unity-russians-and-ukrainians
In summary – due to extreme aggressiveness of US War party corrupt clique -- Russia intervention in Ukraine is – “Regretful but necessary.”
Russia has a better claim to Ukraine than the US has to Texas.
I believe you said that you worked on the DOD for 20+ years in another podcast episode. Then at the beginning of this podcast you said "For one thing, I don't like war. I'm over that stage in my life," followed by a quote from Scott Horton, a man who is vehemently against war. I would be very curious to hear about the mental journey you took, even if it was it's own podcast episode, about your position on war.
You can call for the deaths of Russians, but don't you dare misgender them.
We truly live in the ashes of civilisation.
Haven't even listened yet and I know it's gonna be 100 percent spot on.
I just subscribed in order to comment - and it turns out that I also listen to the Jocko Wilink podcasts... In any case, after 10 minutes, you seem spot on, you're saying the same kinds of things I'm saying. At 35 minutes, in talking about the neocons/neolibs, you're saying the same kinds of things I was saying in a discussion club we had in Kansas City in the 1990s - and the neoliberals have had a lock on the NatSecState since 1981 or so it seems, and the NatSecState sets policy. We need to have a real discussion about the role of the National Security State/Military Industrial Complex in the US - those are people who have formed what is essentially a secret double government in the US beyond the bounds of democratic and constitutional accountability, and it hasn't provided much in the way of security, national or otherwise. I'm sticking this up on my substack page, you're nailing it.
No need for apologies! We’re happy to hear regardless of audio issues :)
I see like Tucker Carlson, Jimmy Dore, Tulsi Gabbert, Aaron Mate and Max Blumenthal we have another Putin patsy here, (sarcasm). Thanks, Daryl for a well thought out response. It's refreshing to see someone use logic and rationality to analyze an extremely complex situation. Nuace is lost on most of the American public and the entire legacy corporate media. The best analogy I've heard describing the situation is that, if you push a bear into a corner and poke it with a stick for 20 years and you eventually get your arm mualed I understand why. It doesn't mean I'm pro bears mualing people either, I just understand why it happened.
Thanks for putting this out DC, great work. Hard to believe it but I actually miss the covid narrative from last season. I'm sorry for the long musings below.
Jokes aside, what has me down at the moment is not just the war itself but the propaganda, lies and deception in the West. Like you, I see this war as an absolute tragedy that could have been avoided and watching it unfold and escalate in real time is truly heartbreaking. I'll be honest and admit I was a pro-war dipshit when I was younger and I still have a weird view of war; that it is sometimes necessary and some good can come of it (for example, Ukrainian national identity will be strong for generations regardless of what the outcome of this is - except in the worst case of nuclear war and our subsequent return to the stone age). But this one was wholly avoidable :(
What really scares the fuck out of me is the escalation of hateful rhetoric in response to this from people I know were completely anti-war a month ago, seemingly without anyone wondering how we got here. Apparently Putin just appeared out of nowhere and like a movie villain he is dead set on wholesale destruction. I once heard that wars are only ever started over fear, fear of the other. It might be hard for a lot of us to imagine fearing America because we live inside the Empire. But if you're on the outside looking in, the American Empire is truly terrifying. It's almost unprecedented that a country can wage war(s) with almost zero effect on the homefront such as rationing, conscription and in the modern era the mass destruction of cities and civilian casualties. DC laid out the steps the West has taken over the last 30 years since the fall of the USSR, and once you know and understand that it's easier to understand how and why Putin and Russia are scared.
We're now at a place where you're a Putin shill for not wanting to go down the road to WWIII. I was young, not as clued in and it was a different world in the early 2000s but I distinctly remember calls to de-escalate any type of hatred of Arabs or the Muslim world during the global war of terror. But I am seeing something dark at the moment with the anti-Russian stuff. The Russian embassy in my country was attacked and the gates and fence were vandalised/graffitied, including Nazi symbols. It feels like we have all been put on a conveyor belt towards war, like something out of the Guns of August. Why the different media approach now?
If we are to hold Putin accountable for his actions and decision to invade (which we should), we should also hold our own governments accountable for their actions that lead us down this path. But no one seems to have any interest in that. A democracy out for blood is something very dangerous that I think a lot of people don't understand. And it feels like we are being prepped for something big. I'm not sure if it's true so someone please correct me if I'm wrong but am I right in saying in the last US presidential election foreign policy was not allowed to be debated by Biden and Trump? How can people hold their leaders accountable if diplomacy is not deemed worthy of public debate?
'War is a Racket' is a short but brilliant book by a former US marine, which details how much profiteering goes on during war time. America doesn't manufacture much in country anymore, but one thing it still does make is military hardware. The stock prices of Lockheed Martin, Raytheon etc are all up. Some people will make a lot of money the longer this conflict is stretched out. Even though I deeply deeply sympathise with a country like Ukraine with a big bully neighbour next door, but I will never (again) advocate for a war which I wouldn't be willing to fight and die in myself. We have all been brought down this path by hubris, greed and shit diplomacy, and we need to calm down before it's too late.
The immense DNC-CIA’s Russia-gate hoax DIRECTLY led to the current catastrophe and tragedy in Ukraine
How US-backed Maidan coup, Russia-gate led to war in Ukraine
How US-backed Maidan coup, Russiagate led to war in Ukraine - YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M_Gzgu47wAc
------------------------------------------------------------
Ukraine on Fire – Oliver Stone (now censored by Amazon, Google, etc.)
Ukraine On Fire (rumble.com)
https://rumble.com/vwxxi8-ukraine-on-fire.html
This was an excellent podcast. You certainly made a comprehensive and compelling case for the justified grievances held by Russia and the major role we played in setting those events in motion. You definitely gave me a lot of great content to provide context for what is going on.
Firstly, I am admittedly biased since my ancestors are from Galicia and they left there before the Bolsheviks continued the long list of tragedies these people have endured. It wasn't a good place to live then, and it only got worse...
I cannot, even for a second excuse what Putin has done. Sure, he wants Ukraine to stay in their sphere of influence, maybe Ukraine should have a say in that? Does he think indiscriminate bombing of civilians is going to entice the citizens of Ukraine to think, "Wow, these guys are great, let's definitely stay aligned with the guy who killed our families!" Look no further than the Irish with 800+ years of turmoil with the British.
Perhaps they would rather roll the dice with the EU? Having spent time in Russia and the EU, I certainly think the pitch for EU is far more attractive, but maybe that's just me.
Frankly, I believe in self determination for any country. I am tired of hearing about Ukraine as if it's some chess board piece between the US/EU and Russia.
The coming weeks/months/years are going to be hell over there and the death toll is going to be horrendous. But I will say this; the Ukrainians are going to grind the occupying force down with an insurgency and when it is all settled, they will have earned the right to go whatever direction they want to. And I stand behind them 100%.
Keep up the great work Darryl, and for God's sake throttle your twitter. Lol
World hunger was all but eliminated, the James Webb telescope was launched, progress was made toward fusion reactors and inter planetary space travel. We're on the verge of accomplishing so much through our technology, but we have to do this shit again? More fucking wars for nothing to feed some disgusting pigs' corruption and conquest fantasy? Begs the question: can our institutions, or even humans generally be anything but corrupt?
I really appreciate Darryl Cooper's approach to analyze situations by carefully and thoroughly investigating both sides of a conflict with minimal emotional bias to either side even if he talks about atrocities that we all take an immediate side. This approach is crucial if you want to understand a conflict and resolve it. Thank you Darryl. I am at the last hour of the Fear and Loathing in the new Jerusalem and find this as an opportunity to thank you for your deep and wide analysis.