“One thing you can’t hide, is when you’re crippled inside” -John Lennon
The Washington Post and Double Think
When, in the span of six weeks, the Washington Post both; gives a soap box to Zbigniew Brzezinski and receives a Pulitzer Prize for reporting on the Snowden leaks, a thoughtful person might be inclined to ‘think twice.’
Brzezinski’s ‘service’ to the USA has included advising figures from Jimmy Carter to Barack Obama, including the first USA [CIA] involvement in Afghanistan in 1979, and he is one of the architects of policy that has resulted in the rise of militant Islam. It is interesting to me a media outlet that provides platform for world class criminals, is lauded as a giant of journalism. The prize might have better been awarded solely to the Guardian journalists who met with Snowden and passed on the material to secondary outlets in media. Instead, we have an oxymoron; purveyors [The Washington Post] of criminal wonks [Brzezinski, among others] and their vicious ideation responsible for incalculable social damage world-wide, lauded as heroes of journalism.
George Orwell’s original term was not ‘double speak’ or ‘double talk’ but actually is ‘double think’
“Doublethink means the power of holding two contradictory beliefs in one’s mind simultaneously, and accepting both of them” -George Orwell
‘Simultaneous’ & ‘accepting’ points to a complete lack of normal brain function. The normal reaction [in a healthy mind] should be ‘cognitive dissonance’, perhaps best explained as ‘grotesque reflex’ of mental state or distress caused by mental apprehension of irreconcilable phenomena.
A comprehensive lack of cognitive dissonance, in face of irreconcilable ideation, points to a clear mental disorder. This mental disorder patently manifests in narcissist sociopath personalities, lacking any sense of taking responsibility for consequence.
For instance, Brzezinski’s replies to the questions…
Q: And neither do you regret having supported the Islamic [integrisme], having given arms and advice to future terrorists?
Brzezinski: What is most important to the history of the world? The Taliban or the collapse of the Soviet empire? Some stirred-up Moslems or the liberation of Central Europe and the end of the cold war?
Q: Some stirred-up Moslems? But it has been said and repeated: Islamic fundamentalism represents a world menace today.
Brzezinski: Nonsense! It is said that the West had a global policy in regard to Islam. That is stupid. There isn’t a global Islam. Look at Islam in a rational manner and without demagoguery or emotion. It is the leading religion of the world with 1.5 billion followers. But what is there in common among Saudi Arabian fundamentalism, moderate Morocco, Pakistan militarism, Egyptian pro-Western or Central Asian secularism? Nothing more than what unites the Christian countries.
…altogether ignores the fact of Brzezinski, as Carter’s National Security Advisor, dispatched USA support to rebels in Afghanistan in 1979, an endeavor put into hyperdrive by [Obama’s first Secretary of Defense] Robert Gates during the Reagan administration, resulted in the rise not only of the Taliban and al-Qaida but turned Afghanistan into the world’s leading supplier of heroin.
“Political language — and with variations this is true of all political parties, from Conservatives to Anarchists — is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind” -George Orwell
In any ‘healthy’ mentality, there would be some sense of contrition in having initiated the policy that had, over the ensuing years, resulted in the 21st century global jihad. Brzezinski experiences no indication of contrition [taking responsibility] and he experiences no sense of cognitive dissonance either. Now, let’s look at the Washington Post providing Brzezinski a soap box on Ukraine:
“Regarding the Russian aggression against Ukraine, much depends on what Vladimir Putin does next. But what Putin does depends on not only his calculation of the likely NATO (and especially the U.S.) response but also his estimate of how fiercely the Ukrainian people would respond to any further escalation by Russia. And, to complete the circle, the Ukrainian response would be influenced by citizens’ reaction to any repetition of Putin’s Crimean aggression and by whether the nation believes that the United States and NATO are truly supportive.
To begin with, career Russia hater and author of ‘The Grand Chessboard’ demanding Russia be cornered and isolated to the benefit of USA world domination, casts Russia as the instigator in Ukraine, following a USA supported putsch placing neo-nazis in power in a nation Putin had been telling the western democracies for six years to stay out and not meddle.
“Putin’s thuggish tactics in seizing Crimea offer some hints regarding his planning. He knew in advance that his thinly camouflaged invasion would meet with popular support from the Russian majority in Crimea. He was not sure how the thin and light Ukrainian military units stationed there would react, so he went in masked like a Mafia gangster. In the event of serious Ukrainian resistance, he could disown the initiative and pull back.
Anyone who’d acquired a C+ in the history of the former USSR would know the Russian ethnic majority of Crimeans would welcome a return to Russia with open arms. Putin knew this. Where Brzezinski lies with a clear conscience is in regards to this is, Crimea was the territory of Russia for two hundred years, to 1954, when Khruschev made a technical transfer of Crimea to Ukraine to put work on a canal under a single administrative body. The Crimeans not only celebrated their return to Russia, two thirds of the Ukrainian military stationed in Crimea defected to Russia or changed sides. Crimea had been historically, linguistically, culturally and factually Russia/Russian in everything but name. There was ZERO chance of ‘serious Ukrainian resistance’ but Brzezinski cannot pass up a chance to pose Putin as a thug and coward. The man knows no sense of shame.
“His initial success may tempt him to repeat that performance more directly in the far eastern provinces of Ukraine. If successful, the conclusive third phase could then be directed, through a combination of political unrest and increasingly overt use of Russian forces, to overthrow the government in Kiev. The result would thus be similar to the two phases of Hitler’s seizure of the Sudetenland after Munich in 1938 and the final occupation of Prague and Czechoslovakia in early 1939.
Here, Brzezinski projects a nonsensical historical comparison; the government in Prague was not toppled by forces threatening to Hitler, nor were the ethnic Germans being persecuted by a non-existent power hostile to Germany on its borders … and Putin is not the leader of a NAZI state, rather the reverse is true. The neo-nazi regime installed by the USA in Ukraine, on the other hand, has demonstrated extreme hostility to the large ethic Russian population, and the new leadership in Kiev has demonstrable NAZI roots represented in the five ministries held by the neo-nazi Svoboda party. Notice Brzezinski demonstrates no sense of cognitive dissonance, nor does he blink an eye over this next shameless lie:
“Much depends on how clearly the West conveys to the dictator in the Kremlin — a partially comical imitation of Mussolini and a more menacing reminder of Hitler — that NATO cannot be passive if war erupts in Europe. If Ukraine is crushed while the West is simply watching, the new freedom and security in bordering Romania, Poland and the three Baltic republics would also be threatened.
If Ukraine is ‘crushed’, it will consist of Putin doing exactly what he has stated will be his intention to do, were the nazis in Kiev to follow through with a large scale persecution of Ukraine’s ethnic Russians … put a stop to the nonsense unleashed on Russia’s very doorstep. Russian will go no further than push the Ukrainian military out of the majority Russian areas of a nation [Ukraine] with unnatural borders, deeply dividing a populace with a historical split, western Ukraine’s sympathies are with western Europe and eastern Ukraine’s sympathies are with Russia. The parties behaving like Hitler are the western democracies who’ve been fanning the fires in Ukraine and tossing a civil war in Russia’s face. These are problems Putin does not need or want but also problems he cannot ignore.
“This does not mean that the West, or the United States, should threaten war. But Russia’s unilateral and menacing acts mean the West should promptly recognize the current government of Ukraine as legitimate. Uncertainty regarding its legal status could tempt Putin to repeat his Crimean charade. The West also should convey — privately at this stage, so as not to humiliate Russia — that the Ukrainian army can count on immediate and direct Western aid so as to enhance its defensive capabilities. There should be no doubt left in Putin’s mind that an attack on Ukraine would precipitate a prolonged and costly engagement, and Ukrainians should not fear that they would be left in the lurch.
Brzezinski, who is proud he was able to draw the USSR into Afghanistan, bragging he’d handed the Russians their own Vietnam, is promoting a repeat, and the Washington Post has provided the soap box. There can be no doubt in Brzezinski’s mind that Putin will be forced to act in the circumstance of chaos delivered by the USA’s geo-political sleight-of-hand and then the finger pointed at Putin as the aggressor. Brzezinski is a shameless liar and no matter war breaking out could lead at some point to escalation including tactical nuclear weapons, were NATO to become involved, this is good in the mind of Brzezinski, if it serves his ‘Grand Chessboard.’
“Meanwhile, NATO forces, consistent with the organization’s contingency planning, should be put on alert. High readiness for some immediate airlift to Europe of U.S. airborne units would be politically and militarily meaningful. If the West wants to avoid a conflict, there should be no ambiguity in the Kremlin as to what might be precipitated by further adventurist use of force in the middle of Europe.
Brzezinski is saying here, throughout, goad, lie, provoke, lie, call names, lie, arm up, lie, escalate, lie, and call for peaceful accommodation:
“In addition, such efforts to avert miscalculations that could lead to a war should be matched by a reaffirmation of the West’s desire for a peaceful accommodation with Russia regarding a joint effort to help Ukraine recover economically and stabilize politically. The West should reassure Russia that it is not seeking to draw Ukraine into NATO or to turn it against Russia. Ukrainians themselves can define the depth of their closeness to Europe and the scope of their economic cooperation with Russia, to the benefit of peace and stability in Europe. And after their May elections, they can revise some of the arrangements for a special status for Crimea, but they should not do so under duress or attack from a neighbor driven by imperial or personal ambitions”
And so, our soap box protagonist, Zbigniew Brzezinski, author of his personal imperial ambition named the Grand Chessboard, closes with pointing to Putin as the imperial ambition, when Putin has actually been placed in impossible circumstance demanding action on behalf of the ethnic Russians of east Ukraine, by the geopolitical engineering of the USA, with Putin cast as the boogeyman. This is really very much like the schoolyard bully, USA, smashing the smaller kids [Ukraine’s Russian minority] face and then crying to the neighborhood ‘look what little Billy [lying on the ground bleeding] did to my fists!’ And expect Putin would stand back and do nothing? This is messing with the wrong man. Europe should rethink its relationship of political fellatio to USA and NATO because ‘war is peace’ & ‘newspeak’ freaks like Brzezinski and his numerous fans at USA Department of State, CIA and NATO have no sense of reality. They are neither ‘normal’ nor ‘healthy.’
“For America, the chief geopolitical prize is Eurasia… Now a non-Eurasian power is preeminent in Eurasia – and America’s global primacy is directly dependent on how long and how effectively its preponderance on the Eurasian continent is sustained” -Zbigniew Brzezinski writes in ‘The Grand Chessboard‘
This immediate preceding Brzezinski position on projecting USA empire is at odds a full 180 degrees with what he professes (blames/projects) onto Russia in his Washington Post editorial on Ukraine. Here he admits the USA is the region’s imperial aggressor. If Orwell were here to ask, I would ask him if what he had noticed in people is the phenomena I have noticed; some people seem to have ‘cellularized’ sets of mutually exclusive ‘facts’ they (consciously or unconsciously) shift between, with no noticeable level of psychological discomfort. Brezezinski strikes me as one of these people.
In the end, a media outlet, in this case the Washington Post, giving platform to such depraved criminal mentality, should be disqualified from any journalistic recognition other than propagandist for the criminally insane-
“In the case of a word like DEMOCRACY, not only is there no agreed definition, but the attempt to make one is resisted from all sides. It is almost universally felt that when we call a country democratic we are praising it: consequently the defenders of every kind of régime claim that it is a democracy, and fear that they might have to stop using the word if it were tied down to any one meaning. Words of this kind are often used in a consciously dishonest way” -George Orwell
Meanwhile, think about it … in regards to media, do the western democracies geopolitical propaganda and depraved acts, promoted by the Washington Post and other outlets, meet Orwell’s description of ‘words used in a consciously dishonest way?’ Methinks: yes.
At the end of the day, it would appear that in any democracy, ethics, self restraint, tolerance and honesty will always play second fiddle to narcissism, avarice, bigotry & persecution, if only because people who play by the rules in any democracy, are at a disadvantage to those who easily subvert the rules to their own advantage.
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Ronald Thomas West is a former U.S. intelligence professional
Ronald Thomas West 
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