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Showing posts with the label Propaganda

Four Western Myths about the Ukraine War

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  Myths kill.  Nowhere is this truth more evident than in Ukraine, where tens of thousands of Ukrainians and Russians have been maimed or killed on the battlefield in a war now in its third year and still ongoing.  The Ukraine war could have been averted had politicians in the West not clung to four myths with devastating consequences. Myth 1: Ukraine will defeat Russia. One year into Russia's war in Ukraine, US President Biden proclaimed in Warsaw, Poland that "Ukraine will never be a victory for Russia. Never." Exuding even more confidence, Europe Commission President von der Leyen declared that "I'm deeply convinced that Ukraine will win this war."  Of all the lies about the war in its third year, this one is the hoax of the 21st century. To put it bluntly, Ukraine has no plausible pathway to victory against Russia. Slightly smaller than Texas, utterly dependent on Western aid, it is simply no match for its Russian neighbor with 1,226 miles of shared bord...

Athenian Democracy and Human Chattel

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Athenian democracy f rom the 5th to the 4th century BCE h as been regarded as the model of modern democratic systems. Equal political rights, freedom of speech, participation in politics and governance all came from ancient Greece. Rather than doomed to oblivion, its three branches of government - the Citizens' Assembly, the Senate, the  Executive Committee, and the courts  have become the norms all over the world. When visiting Greece in 2016, President Obama lauded Greece "for the most precious of gifts: the truth, the understanding that as individuals of free will, we have the right and the capacity to govern ourselves."  Even non-democratic regimes have a semblance of separation of power and citizens' representation and "guarantees" political rights and freedom of speech.   But  Athenian democracy is far from perfect. Although its flaws are well-known, modern democratic leaders tend to deemphasize them while glorifying its political achievements. The tru...