Jan Oberg

May 31, 2022

This is a deeply moving documentary produced by CGTN, China Global Television Network. You may of course avoid seeing it in the belief that China media are full of propaganda, deception and outright lies – and that Western mainstream media is all you need because they tell you the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.

What it illustrates is the societally deep-rooted, systematic and ongoing character of US militarism since the Vietnam war fifty years ago – and how you were lied to constantly. In all fairness, it also shows how the best among the American people are honest and tells you the truth about their own country’s barbarity.

The West in general and the US/NATO countries, in particular, seem to suffer from a complex systemic disease composed of:

1) obsession with the military, weapons and warfare – or militarism that infects the entire society,

2) a global missionary zeal to spread its own values and culture – if not with Bibles then with Swords – coupled with an equally systemic inability to recognise its disease,

3) a propensity to project its own dark sides onto others and see enemies everywhere, and

4) a subconscious feeling that the Empire is declining and will fall – which generates even more of the first three components.

These system characteristics – brilliantly illustrated in the video below by examples from the real world – are covered up by Western mainstream media 24/7. Not that they do not sometimes let critical voices be heard but they never expose the system disease and never the true proportions of the barbarity. Why? Because the illusionary assumption is that the US/NATO always went to war for some good and noble purpose. Truth is, as is also stated in the video, it invented the threats to look legitimate and also those noble goals – such as George W. Bush’s promise to bring freedom to the Iraqi people.

This has been incredibly destructive to the world, every corner of it, and – paradoxically one may add – also the US itself.

Militarism is now, I would maintain, the single most important reason that the United States is declining and its empire – and thereby NATO which is the centrepiece of it – will soon fall. This is a safe prediction because the US is unable to heal itself and recover from this militarism addiction. We see now in the case of Ukraine – an invasion and war to a high degree provoked by the US/NATO expansion over 30 years – how the only answer is: Pump in more weapons. More weapons. And even more weapons – supported of course by special forces, CIA, “intelligence” cooperation and a rampant media disinformation.

For those of us who – like myself – have never been “anti-American,” these are tragic, almost unbearable, moments of Western history to witness.

All this has been possible because of the role of mainstream media. One wonders how much longer after 50 years of lies, lost wars and trillions of dollars lost, ordinary Westerners are going to buy the message. So far, sadly, it seems to work also in the case of Ukraine.

But truth will out. There was also a moment when the Russians found out that they could not trust “Pravda,” the newspaper called Truth. The West will soon experience its Pravda Moment.

Now see this short documentary and help it go viral (and I am not saying that because there is also a short sequence with me).

PhD, Peace & future researcher + ‌Art Photographer, Professor Emeritus and media commentator

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