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Monday, August 15, 2011

On western hypocrisy and Syria



Above you can watch an interview with me on Russia Today (RT), on the current situation in Syria, and why the US and its allies are only helping to inflame the situation there.


More on this story here.

UPDATE: On the subject of inflaming the situation in Syria, take a look at this (hat tip ‘Badger’on  Media Lens message board).



10 comments:

ICTY Watch said...

What is your opinion of RT, Mr Clark? You mentioned how the West over-simplifies issues such as the crisis in Syria. Would you agree that the way RT presents many issues (such as the war in Georgia) is often blatantly one-sided?

Douglas said...

I saw you on RT last night! RT is shown on MHz Worldview, one of my cable channels.

It's not a big shock to me that RT picked you, as you are a bit of a Russophile, in my opinion.

I don't know if you see RT's coverage of America or not. When RT reports on America, it's usually something like "Why is America so evil? Why is America falling to pieces?" And then they get some person I've never heard of, from some organization I've never heard of, on video. The person then says some variation on the theme of "Well, it's intuitively obvious to the most casual observer that America is so evil, and falling to pieces, because it's controlled behind the scenes by a cabal of neo-con turbo-capitalists."

But if you're happy to be on RT, then I'm happy for you.

I'm here to tell you that nobody of consequence in the US is beating a drum for intervention in Syria. The US is in three wars already (more if you count drone attacks), the country is broke, headed for bankruptcy without wrenching adjustments. We're just not in the mood.

The evidence for my claim is that there was a recent debate among Republican Presidential candidates, and Syria was not mentioned.

brian said...

so RT says syrian ships are shelling a syrian port....DUH! NATO ships have been shelling Libya for months, only they claim the shelling is to protect civilians! maybe syria should do the same!

Neil Clark said...

Rory: I think RT's coverage is balanced, much more so than certain western tv stations who give far too much airtime to extremist pro-war neo-con/liberal interventionist figures, whose views are only shared by a tiny proportion of the public. In the lead up to the Iraq war for instance, the neo-con extremist Richard Perle seemed to be on our tv screens every five minutes.

re coverage of Georgia, the way RT presents it is factually correct- unlike the way it was presented on many western tv stations.
The war in Georgia was quite a simple issue, it was a case of blatant aggression by Georgia's neocon President Mikheil Saakashvili (aka
Saakaswally) against the civilian population of South Ossetia.
http://neilclark66.blogspot.com/2008/08/wally-of-week-mikheil-saakashvili.html
But Russophobic commentators in the west turned the conflict on its head,
constructing "a mendacious narrative in which the aggressors become the victims of aggression and the victims of aggression the aggressors."
RT corrects that mendacious neocon narrative.

Douglas, I'm pleased you are watching RT! i wouldn't characterise the channel as being anti-American- criticising the corrupt warmongering and profiteering elite in the US- the people who have got the country into such a financial mess- is by no means an attack on America or the ordinary American people. You and other decent American citizens are being shafted by the war-mongering, profiteering elite Douglas- the deficit, as Eric Margolis correctly said on RT, is due to the cost of wars being fought on the national credit card. And now ordinary Americans are paying for it with cuts to essential services which they rely on.

jack said...

I haven’t watch the mainstream news events of what is happening in Syria but from what I have heard they don’t mention the presence of well armed and trained foreign mercenaries of then Syrian Muslim Brotherhood among the protestors.

@Neil Clark

Have you been interviewed on by the British TV media before?

@Rory Gallivan

Western media is blatantly one sided which claims to be independent and free with a massive annual budget but at least with RT although it is obviously bias on some issues and is government funded which it states on its YouTube page you can get an alternative perspective.

@Douglas

In Georgia they were proven right which was so obvious from the embedded and predictable bias pro Georgia western media.

"I don't know if you see RT's coverage of America or not. When RT reports on America, it's usually something like "Why is America so evil? Why is America falling to pieces?"

That is exactly how ALL the western media reports which they go one further that Russia is secretly planning to attack the west.

Rothschild City of London crony Economist writer Edward Lucas has made a career out of this.

Apparently the genocide we imposed on Russia and Ukraine after the collapse of the former communist system we imposed in 1917 when we tried to Balkanise the country just like Yugoslavia was just badly implemented economic policy by George Soros and his Harvard friends into the hand of his fellow Israeli/British mafia Oligarchs and with there stolen money of over a trillion dollars in offshore British bank accounts is swept under the rug.

Not surprising since Putin came to power millions of dollars in annual finance comes into Russia and Russian orientated countries through the usual NGO’s at one point as high as 600,000 with NED, USAID, Open Society, British Foreign Office, etc

The amazing thing about Russia and Russian commentators is that they make no effort what so ever to make any defence against western media and conspiracies against Russia despite having all the evidence including high profile instances like the Litvenenko Plutonium smuggling affair.

Maybe they just figured the west hates Russia anyway so what is the point of even trying.

Neil Clark said...

jack- in answer to your question, yes. Most recently by the BBC on the privatisation of the Tote.

Daniel McAdams said...

Excellent appearance on RT and kudos for pointing out the real goal as regime change rather than the bogus claim of "human rights." How about the Syrian security forces who have been massacred by the "peaceful protesters"? Of course that is not covered in the US media and I would bet gets only scant mention in the UK. Iran is the prize and Syria is the penultimate pearl in the neocon string.
Do you have an email address?
Greetings,
Daniel

Daniel Mcadams said...

Excellent appearance on RT and kudos for pointing out the real goal as regime change rather than the bogus claim of "human rights." How about the Syrian security forces who have been massacred by the "peaceful protesters"? Of course that is not covered in the US media and I would bet gets only scant mention in the UK. Iran is the prize and Syria is the penultimate pearl in the neocon string.
Greetings,
Daniel

Daniel McAdams said...

Excellent appearance on RT and kudos for pointing out the real goal as regime change rather than the bogus claim of "human rights." How about the Syrian security forces who have been massacred by the "peaceful protesters"? Of course that is not covered in the US media and I would bet gets only scant mention in the UK. Iran is the prize and Syria is the penultimate pearl in the neocon string.
Greetings,
Daniel

Neil Clark said...

Daniel- many thanks.
"Iran is the prize and Syria is the penultimate pearl in the neocon string."
Absolutely. To 'regime change' in Iran, first it's necessary to 'regime change' in Syria.