The flag of North Atlantic Treaty Organization. /CFP
Editor's note: William Jones is a former White House correspondent for Executive Intelligence Review and a non-resident fellow of the Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies, Renmin University of China. The article reflects the author's opinions, and not necessarily those of CGTN.
NATO's expansion in recent years has been billed as extending "democracy" that U.S. President Joe Biden believes will strengthen the "alliance of democracies." Yet the exact opposite appears to be happening. The rights for individuals to express themselves freely or to speak the truth have gotten curtailed, especially in regards to how people are permitted to respond to the Russia-Ukraine conflict.
The conflict is more than just about Russia and Ukraine, but over the increasing confrontations between Russia and NATO alliance members. Since the 1990s, NATO has followed up on pulling the then-independent Ukraine away from Russia in order to eliminate it as a major competitor to NATO. The late U.S. National Security Adviser, Zbigniew Brzezinski was a major supporter of this policy.
By 2014, there was an inflection point at which NATO was training Ukrainian soldiers, which NATO has already admitted to. NATO has failed to reach a compromise with Moscow and that has led to Russia's launching of its "special military operations" in Ukraine on Febraury 24, 2022. Accordingly, NATO, led by the U.S., seized an opportunity to fight Russia in a surrogate war, while using Ukrainian soldiers and the most modern NATO weaponry.
Washington also controlled the war's media "narrative," in order to prevent "anti-war feelings" from spreading. NATO scrapped the "freedom of expression"' rights over the Russia-Ukraine conflict. Any comments that could be deemed critcal of NATO headquarters, the Ukrainian president and Ukrainian media, would be characterized as "Russian propaganda." Such actions serve a fitting reminder over anti-war Senator Hiram Johnson comments at the beginning of U.S. involvement in the First World War when he said, "The first casualty, when war comes, is truth."
The most egregious example is the "thought control" program founded in Ukraine, known as the "Center for Countering Disinformation (CCD)" and started in 2020. The CCD publishes a list of individuals who allegedly spread "Russian propaganda," since they had been contradicting the official narratives issued by Ukrainian ministries.
Anti-aircraft gunners of a special air defense unit of the National Guard of Ukraine are seen on a combat mission, Ukraine, August 24, 2022. /CFP
The list includes not only reputable journalists and representatives of humanitarian organizations, who have been very outspoken but also government officials and elected representatives from many different countries, including the United States.
While there have been many protests over publishing these lists, little has been done to suppress them. With the backing of the NATO alliance, Kyiv feels more emboldened to suppress the truth. The public in the U.S., UK and EU are expected to believe that the war is an "honorable" undertaking and the real perpetrator is Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The policy brooks no exceptions. No country can express opposition unless it wishes to be labeled an "agent of Russia" or "agent of Putin." They will be targeted as "purveyors of disinformation," regardless of their sterling reputations or status in society.
The thought control agenda did not begin with the Ukraine crisis, but it has become much more extreme in nature. The Biden administration is claiming that supporting Kyiv's role in the conflict must be perceived as aiding a "victim," since Ukrainians are fighting for freedom.
Any rumblings claiming that the U.S.-led NATO is the key instigator of the Russia-Ukraine conflict must suppressed. A nice window-dressing must be depicted on the Ukrainian cause and Putin gets villainized as a diabolical figure, who deserves sole blame for the bloodshed.
We have already entered a total Orwellian universe where up is down and down is up, while reality is what the powers say it is. The world that Orwell described was the one that he had actually lived under, which was the world of the British Empire. He experienced the the same thought control first hand and saw how London had prevented downtrodden British masses from protesting over the losses of their sons and daughters amid the numerous colonial wars that the British Empire was fighting.
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