Better in their words…

A quick but hard-hitting C&C bonus mini-roundup for your Easter amusement.

Source: SIGNS OF LIFE ☙ Sunday, March 31, 2024 ☙ C&C NEWS

WORLD NEWS AND COMMENTARY

🔥 Yesterday, I briefly described a bizarre Washington Post op-ed headlined, “Opinion | Zelensky: ‘We are trying to find some way not to retreat’.” It was more or less written as a straight news piece, describing the reporter’s recent visit with Ukraine’s embattled president Zelensky in a fortified war bunker. The interview was obviously a lot of work, and presumably the WaPo organized and paid for the trip.

I wondered, why run it as an op-ed?

When I wrote about the story yesterday, in the context of a larger Ukraine update, I underestimated the peculiar significance of both the story itself and also the WaPo’s decision to run it as an op-ed.

After a little more research, it turned out the ‘op-ed’ has the CIA’s fingerprints all over it. It was written by longtime WaPo reporter and associate editor David Ignatius. Ignatius is an Ian Fleming-type character, having published eleven spy novels. In 2008, Ridley Scott filmed one of David’s books as a successful big-budget movie, “Body of Lies,” starring Hollywood heavyweights Russel Crowe and Leonardo DiCaprio.

Here’s how IMDB describes the film’s plot: “A CIA agent on the ground in Jordan hunts down a powerful terrorist leader while being caught between the unclear intentions of his American supervisors and Jordan Intelligence.” In David’s movie, CIA operatives are portrayed as selflessly heroic.

ChatGPT basically described Ignatius as a CIA cheerleader:

One commenter said Ignatius is often called “the CIA’s voice at The Washington Post.”

Knowing David’s CIA connections, his useful authorial skills, and knowing the CIA’s connections in Ukraine, the content and tone of the article becomes that much more interesting. It seems safe to assume the CIA brokered David’s meeting with Zelensky. If they did, it probably wasn’t just a favor.

So David’s op-ed is a fascinating study in how the intelligence community uses the media.

David’s story included some elements facially boosting Zelensky. But were they really complimentary? At one high point, David described the former actor as “animated and pugnacious,” and looking “less haggard” than at last month’s Munich Security Council. Taken together, those words can seemcomplimentary, but they also have a strategic ambiguity allowing them to be equally read as dark and defamatory.

Saying someone looks “less haggard” is not actually saying they look well rested. It’s a sort of backhanded compliment, like telling someone they look “less obese,” or “less stupid.” The carefully-chosen word “animated” was not quite like saying Zelensky seemed “energized.” Instead, “animated” insidiously reminded readers of widely-reported rumors about Zelensky’s cocaine addiction.

Perhaps the article’s worst ‘compliment’ was the word “pugnacious.” Here David Ignatius stretches furthest. Pugnacious is not even a backhandedcompliment. The word means unreasonably quarrelsome. It was almost a prophetic message suggesting why Zelensky will probably die alone in his bunker. He’ll never surrender or even negotiate — because he’s gone insane.

And those were the complimentary words. Now look at how, early in the op-ed, Ignatius described Zelensky’s environment, again conjuring a pathetic image of a paranoid leader languishing in a secret bunker late in the war:

Zelensky spoke in a sandbagged, heavily guarded presidential compound that seemed nearly empty of its old civilian workforce after more than two years of war. The security was so tight, I had to surrender my plastic felt-tip pens.

Zelensky, the actor who became a wartime president, now totally inhabits this role. He wore his habitual dress of a Ukrainian military sweatshirt and combat pants. He looked less haggard here on his home ground… He seems to relish being the symbol of a nation at war.

“We are trying to find some way not to retreat,” Zelensky continued.

Actor? Role? Symbol? A “nearly empty” compound? That is not a good look, not if you’re trying to describe a man on whom America should bet another $61 billion.

The second half of Ignatius’ article reads like a Q&A, with Zelensky describing Ukraine’s dire circumstances and vowing that, if the U.S. would just give some more expensive, high-tech weapons, then Ukraine can mount a new counteroffensive that this time, he promised, would drive the wicked Russians not only out of Ukraine but would send them packing from the entire Crimean peninsula.

Nevermind the fact that the expensive, high-tech weapons currently aren’t coming. In his daily YouTube update yesterday (1:20:16), delightful war commenter Alexander Mercouris referenced Ignatius’s article and called Zelensky’s promises of a new offensive “delusional.” Mercouris ticked off about a dozen reasons why, regardless how many billion-dollar tanks and missiles the West sends it, there is exactly zero chance that Ukraine could mount any kind of effective counteroffensive.

Last summer, Ukraine bristled with brand-new, out-of-the-box Western weapons. Then it shot its entire counteroffensive wad, with disastrous results. A year later, Ukraine is now running low on its one irreplaceable resource: men.  Nowhere in his op-ed did Ignatius ask Zelensky about the critical manpower crisis, or about any ways the country might possibly assemble the soldiers it needs to “drive the Russians out of Ukraine.”

Which brings us to the now-obvious reason the WaPo ran this story as an opinion piece. Zelensky’s war propaganda was so awfully and so obviously false that if the article were run as straight news, the paper would’ve had to contradict (or at least counterpoint) the bunkered president’s delusional claims.

But run as ‘opinion,’ Zelensky’s fanciful magical thinking stands alone, exposed, neither contradicted by nor supported by anybody else. See the wonderful authorial symmetry? Ignatius began the article describing Zelensky as physically isolated in his presidential compound, with all its civilian workers now presumably dead, fled, or fighting. That’s how Ignatius rhetorically set up the second half of the article: Zelensky’s equally isolated, delusional revenge fantasies.

In other words, Ignatius — the author — painted a CIA-approved word portrait of Zelensky being abandoned by everyone. One possibility is the op-ed’s goal was to pressure Congress to pass an aid package when it returns in a couple weeks.

But I don’t think so. I think the goal was the exact opposite. I think the op-ed’s real goal was to undermine Ukraine aid, by painting Zelensky as a paranoid madman and by slyly comparing him to that other infamous World War II leader who hid out in a bunker at the war’s pathetic end.

So.

🔥 As each month ends, I always have a bunch of interesting stuff left in my stack. Here are a few stacked leftovers that haven’t already gone stale, for further holiday reading:

— LOL! Medical News Today, February 16th, “Switching arms for vaccines could help boost your immunity, study finds.” Or, it could help boost your turbo-cancer on both sides.

— Good! CNN Business, March 19th, “Trump sues ABC News and George Stephanopoulos for defamation over Nancy Mace interview.” Stephanopoulos falsely claimed multiple times during the interview with Mace that Trump had “raped” Carroll — a claim the jury specifically rejected. Now Stephanopoulos is getting sued.

— Supreme Court audio of the March 18th oral arguments in Missouri v. Biden (1:42:31). A fascinating, if troubling, listen.

— A Russia Today report described biolabs in Ukraine that illegally conducted Pfizer drug trials on unsuspecting locals including Ukrainian orphans (6:10)..

— Deep state lawyer admits stabbing Trump in the back. Politico, March 26th. “‘Assured failure’: Ex-White House lawyer provides new details of final days of Trump’s 2020 election gambit.” Former WH lawyer Pat Philbin admitted that he, behind Trump’s back, organized threats of mass resignations to successfully block Trump from appointing an acting attorney general who would seriously investigate the 2020 election.

— Finally, more good conservative counter-revolution news! From the Oregon Capital Chronicle, March 7th. “Washington Legislature approves three citizen initiatives.” Three citizen initiatives to lift restrictions on police vehicle pursuits, prohibit income taxes, and establish a “bill of rights” for parents of K-12 students are set to become law in Washington after winning approval in the state House and Senate. The initiatives do not require the governor’s signature.

Signs of life in Washington State!

And that’s a wrap. Have a blessed and fulfilling Easter, loyal C&C supporters! I, the Childers family, and our terrific team are extremely grateful for you. See you tomorrow!

Share

We can’t do it without you. Consider joining with C&C to help move the nation’s needle and change minds.  I could use your help getting the truth out and spreading optimism and hope, if you can:  ☕ Learn How to Get Involved 🦠

How to Donate to Coffee & Covid
Twitter: jchilders98.
Truth Social: jchilders98.
MeWe: mewe.com/i/coffee_and_covid.
Telegram: t.me/coffeecovidnews
C&C Swag! www.shopcoffeeandcovid.com