We won't change Tucker's mind. The sides were chosen at least a decade ago. We need to target the undecided.
20220211F Original is among my emails for 07/23/2014. 20240219
From ten years ago, here's Ron Paul on the Malaysian Airline MH17 disaster of 2014.
I wrote then: Who shot down MH17? The Russian propaganda has been fairly successful. They even have a book.
Authored by Ron Paul via The Ron Paul Institute, My comments from 2014 with the purple stripe.
Just days after the tragic crash of a Malaysian Airlines flight over eastern Ukraine, Western politicians and media joined together to gain themaximum propaganda value from the disaster. It had to be Russia; it had to be Putin, they said. President Obama held a press conference to claim – even before an investigation – that it was pro-Russian rebels in the region who were responsible. His ambassador to the UN, Samantha Power, did the same at the UN Security Council – just one day after the crash!
While western media outlets rush to repeat government propaganda on the event, there are a few things they will not report.
They will not report that the crisis in Ukraine started late last year, when EU and US-supported protesters plotted the overthrow of the elected Ukrainian president, Viktor Yanukovych. Without US-sponsored “regime change,” it is unlikely that hundreds would have been killed in the unrest that followed. Nor would the Malaysian Airlines crash have happened.
This is an often repeated, well-crafted piece of propaganda in its own right. Yanukovych left of his own accord. The evidence is that the US and the West in general were overtaken by events. This was a spontaneous uprising, the kind of thing that puts fear into the US, EU and Russia equally.
Without Yanukovych' departure, of course, Ukraine would have remained under Russia's thumb, and Putin would have felt no need to cause trouble.
The media has reported that the plane must have been shot down by Russian forces or Russian-backed separatists, because the missile that reportedly brought down the plane was Russian made. But they will not report that the Ukrainian government also uses the exact same Russian-made weapons.
This is flat wrong. It is well known and widely reported that Ukraine has about 60 Buk systems.
They have not used them in this conflict because the rebels have no air power. They are allegedly being supported by Russian MIGs, but Ukraine is too cautious to shoot at them.
They will not report that the post-coup government in Kiev has, according to OSCE monitors, killed 250 people in the breakaway Lugansk region since June, including 20 killed as government forces bombed the city center the day after the plane crash! Most of these are civilians and together they roughly equal the number killed in the plane crash. By contrast, Russia has killed no one in Ukraine, and the separatists have struck largely military, not civilian, targets.
Note the constant use of colored words, a hallmark of propaganda whoever writes it. "Coup" is a colored, propaganda word. It is not a coup when almost the whole country is united in the desire to rid itself of a corrupt leader.
In a guerilla war it is impossible to tell who the civilians are. This is by design. The separatists (I'll call them by Ukraine's propaganda word – terrorists) have taken over the civilian infrastructure. The Ukrainians are in uniform. They are military.
They will not report that the US has strongly backed the Ukrainian government in these attacks on civilians, which a State Department spokeswoman called “measured and moderate.”
The United States has given diplomatic support but no logistical support. Ukraine is fighting pretty much with its own resources. The "terrorists" are using Russian-supplied arms.
They will not report that neither Russia nor the separatists in eastern Ukraine have anything to gain but everything to lose by shooting down a passenger liner full of civilians.
Shooting the plane down could not have been intentional. Even suggesting as much is a red herring.
They will not report that the Ukrainian government has much to gain by pinning the attack on Russia, and that the Ukrainian prime minister has already expressed his pleasure that Russia is being blamed for the attack.
Ukraine has gained immense world sympathy from this incident. Also the shameful aftermath – no access to the site, hidden black boxes, looting by armed and drunken men at the site.
They will not report that the missile that apparently shot down the plane was from a sophisticated surface-to-air missile system that requires a good deal of training that the separatists do not have.
The "terrorists" had shot down several Ukrainian airplanes in the previous week. When the battle turned against them, they suddenly had air defense missiles.
Who pulled the trigger is an interesting question. Shooting an innocent civilian aircraft would seem like an indication of a lack of training. In any case, all sides of this question have been widely covered in the press. Claiming that "they will not report" is just plain wrong. A lie.
They will not report that the separatists in eastern Ukraine have inflicted considerable losses on the Ukrainian government in the week before the plane was downed.
Of course it is reported! That's why they got SAMs.
They will not report how similar this is to last summer’s US claim that the Assad government in Syria had used poison gas against civilians in Ghouta. Assad was also gaining the upper hand in his struggle with US-backed rebels and the US claimed that the attack came from Syrian government positions. Then, US claims led us to the brink of another war in the Middle East. At the last minute public opposition forced Obama to back down – and we have learned since then that US claims about the gas attack were false.
I have to admit that I was convinced by the claims that Obama was rushing to war in Syria. I believed Putin. Events in Ukraine make me wonder if I was a victim of Russian propagande then as well. Anyhow, it worked.
Of course it is entirely possible that the Obama administration and the US media has it right this time, and Russia or the separatists in eastern Ukraine either purposely or inadvertently shot down this aircraft. The real point is, it's very difficult to get accurate information so everybody engages in propaganda. At this point it would be unwise to say the Russians did it, the Ukrainian government did it, or the rebels did it. Is it so hard to simply demand a real investigation?
He says this with his fingers crossed all the way up to his elbows. As committed as Ron Paul is to the Russian side of the story, there is no way he will ever recant.
Many are demanding an investigation. The Russians have and will continue to slow-roll and stonewall any investigation that might help. If they had any intention of being helpful, they would have allowed access to the crash site.
Contrast with: (link is dead, but publication still exists - gs) http://www.examiner.com/list/russia-s-top-10-lies-about-downed-malaysia-airliner
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That’s the news from Lake WeBeGone for today. My conclusion remains that Russia’s propaganda is unrelenting. We have to tell our own story loudly and consistently. We cannot afford the lazy liberal supposition that our opposite numbers are dumb, despicable deplorables. We have to treat them with respect and provide full and cogent answers to the arguments.
In other news, after nursing colds off and on for November through January, I have been back on the exercise bike for three weeks. Today I made my 60 RPM target for the first time in almost four months. Life is good.