I’ve mentioned in passing in previous posts that both the Guardian and Independent censor my comments on the Ukraine war in their comments sections. In fact they both follow the same pattern. Critical comments are often allowed, but ones that are close to the bone, well-argued and convincing, are not allowed. The Guardian silently deletes them. The Independent ‘deactivates’ them. I wrote a comment on this article. The article is about the Ukrainian excursion into Kursk. There is nothing hugely wrong with the article, by the usual standards. It follows the short-term thinking of Kiev (as I discussed in my previous post). It plugs the “war crimes” angle, which is standard fare for Western propaganda but nothing out of the ordinary. I wanted to take issue with one sentence: “the war that Russia had launched against Ukraine, and well-documented atrocities committed by Russian soldiers”. I just wanted to call into question this easy narrative of “unprovoked war”. This is what I wrote:
“the war that Russia had launched against Ukraine, and well-documented atrocities committed by Russian soldiers”. The war that was forced on Russia. Obama declined to arm the Ukrainians because he was worried about ‘overagressive actions which cannot be sustained’. Trump started arming them. The coup regime overturned the position of not joining NATO. In 2021 the US signed a highly provocative document with Kiev reaffirming the NATO drive. In 2021 politicians in Kiev, echoed by the Western media, began openly repudiating Minsk which at least looked like a prelude to another ‘anti-terror’ operation against the Donbas. Russia had very little choice.
As for ‘well-documented’ atrocities that turn of phrase does not in fact mean they happened. Atrocities happen in wars, but so do atrocity stories, e.g it was long after the bombing of former Yugoslavia that it emerged that the ‘genocide’ against the Kosovo Albanians had been significantly exaggerated. I would wait on this one
All of the above can be documented. It is simply a (very) brief enumeration of some points which point to the idea that Russia’s “invasion” of Ukraine was not unprovoked. It is not rude, It is definitely not “misinformation”. The only possible reason it was censored by the Independent is that they don’t want such a (brief but clear) summary of the argument against their propaganda. So much for liberalism.
Before the Independent censored this comment another reader replied with the predictable “Ok, Ivan”. The Independent did not censor that comment. Which means, directly, that reasoned argument against the Western war narrative is not permitted, but crude (race based) insults are. I genuinely thought that the Independent might be better than that.