tsgarp wrote: ↑Fri Mar 25, 2022 8:28 pm
Well, I haven't seen the media this pro-war since Gulf War One. After the dust had settled it turned out that a large part of what the media had told us about Saddam and the situation surrounding the war was just pure propaganda. What is on the media now resembles, in tone and volume, exactly what it looked like in '90. Someone is trying very hard to get us a society to react on emotion without giving a critical look to the whole picture; in short, we are being manipulated. I'm very worried when someone wants to manipulate us into direct conflict with a peer level nuclear power.
Quoted in full for posterity...
Having said that, I'm only interested in responding to the latter bit of your comment as the first bit is irrelevant to the discussion at hand. Although, if you're arguing that using chemical weapons against the Kurdish minority as well as the invasion of Kuwait weren't "as bad" as what the media portrayed, I do believe there's much bigger issue at play, again...
You're absolutely right, the Ukrainians are hoping for an emotional reaction - and why shouldn't they hope we'll be moved by the seemingly endless suffering at the hands of Russian cruise missiles and artillery shells; in addition to cluster munitions and dumb bombs being dropped indiscriminately on civilians as well as military targets. I mean, how could anyone with any shred of decency not look at the ruined theatre in Mariupol and not grieve for the 300+ innocent people whom died in a senseless attack?
It's a bit like how Rookie likes to rail on about how why is a Ukrainian worth more than a Syrian, or a Ugandan, etc. No one says they are, every life has value and is precious. But, there's a very large Ukrainian diaspora in Canada; which can sway opinion - not to mention there hasn't been a conflict of this magnitude in Europe let alone anywhere else in the world for some time. Yes, arguably the conflict in Syria was long and brutal - but that began as a crackdown on reformers, morphed into a civil war, then into an insurgency and conflict against ISIS... back into a civil war, etc.
But, I want to know what you feel is the "whole picture"? What isn't being reported in the reams of news footage, social media videos, etc., that you feel needs to be said about this invasion, illegal war of annexation, etc.? As for "direct conflict with a peer level nuclear power", seems to me that everyone is doing pretty much all they can to avoid any actual direct confrontation with Russia. Maybe that's the problem, actually, rather than sanctioning individuals/businesses, confiscating a few yachts or properties, freezing bank accounts, maybe we should actually be thinking about what comes next - because it's pretty unlikely that Putin will stop in the Donbas or Luhansk as he certainly didn't stop in Crimea... so why should we be so hesitant to beat our ploughshares into swords when our enemy flaunts international norms at every turn?