Review of Bob Woodward's Latest Book "War" and Failure of "Access Journalism"
It should have been called: Breaking "Hearts & Minds" of those who still believe in Watergate and Bob Woodward. Part 1: Ukraine.
***Spoiler Alert: Just a warning, there will be some spoilers in this article, if you’ve bought this book (doubtful, I know) and are planning to read it you might want to save this to read in post. Maybe you will gather a completely different conclusion than I did. If you do, keep in mind that I’m right! At the same time, this book is rich in data and new info about the conflicts we are currently enthralled in internationally, although a large amount of that data and info is mistranslated, half told (like a “limited hangout”), and sometimes flat out false. If it wasn’t so obviously propaganda, I would never spoil the plot of a good book, but in this case, I feel the need to do my very best to bring to light the truth and the lies for the betterment of an informed public. I hope I can serve this purpose well. Thank you, let me know how I did in the comments or by unsubscribing “en masse” (No, please stay!).
First Thought: Where is the rest of it?!
Hmm… Some timing: This book it seems, was very conveniently released, half-finished, around the same time that the media dropped their “Joe Biden’s too old” cover, and this war was not even close to being over! Like this was going to be the October Surprise in case they needed something to make Joe Biden seem like he was still capable to carry the office. It was released October 15th, 2024, when the question of the Biden Administration’s ability was very much a top issue. This book does a lot to lend them credibility for what’s been happening in the last three and a half years.
Enter the Context
Where are we at right now? It’s the beginning of December; Donald Trump just had a very big win at the ballot box. Two weeks later Joe Biden approves the use of ATACMS missiles to be fired into Russia, they have a range of 190 miles. The phrasing they keep using is “Deep into the heart of Russia…” What makes it worse is they (Ukrainians) cannot use these weapons without us. They don’t have the capabilities. They need our satellites and data entry systems to enter the coordinates.
I must thank
from Liberty Lockdown because his show was my first hearing about the Storm Shadow Missile System that was approved by the Europeans. They come up in a minute. In the following video is Putin addressing this 2 months ago,So, Putin has known about this, he’s saying if they go through with this, we, NATO and the West, (which includes the US) are declaring war with Russia. Following 30 years of provocations from Washington, as was mapped out in the new book written by
, released this month called Provoked: How Washington started the New Cold War with Russia and the Catastrophe in Ukraine, with 7,800+ footnotes pointing directly to the source. Absolutely superior to this book by Bob, being that Provoked lays out the controversial truth and gives proof of every single claim and War lays out the mainstream account, in the worst form, says nothing remotely controversial and can’t even be bothered to give actual sources for that. (If it sounds like I’m trying to sell you the book, I am. We need as many people to know the truth laid out in this book as possible. It’s the only way to beat this propaganda machine)
As of writing this, it’s late-November, early-December, Joe Biden has approved use of long-range missiles to be fired into Russia, the very next day, November 19th, a new story breaks that Ukraine has used them, firing 6 ATACMS missiles into Russia, they were able to take down 5 of them and the 6th malfunctioned, then on the 21st Ukraine fires British Storm Shadow missiles, and US made HIMARS into Russia, here’s Reuter’s on this:
After approval from the administration of President Joe Biden, Ukraine struck Russia with six U.S.-made ATACMS on Nov. 19 and with British Storm Shadow missiles and U.S.-made HIMARS on Nov. 21st, Putin said.
"From that moment, as we have repeatedly underscored, a regional conflict in Ukraine previously provoked by the West has acquired elements of a global character," Putin said in an address to the nation carried by state television after 8 pm Moscow time (1700 GMT).
The next day after that Russia uses the new Oreshnik missile against the Ukrainian city of Dnipro. Which I understand could be loaded with nuclear weapons if they want, and they were testing it out as kind of a show of force. I want to underline this again, Ukraine DOES NOT HAVE THE CAPABILITIES TO USE THESE WEAPONS if they are being fired, military personnel from Britain and the US are doing it, and Putin knows this.
I really am hoping this doesn’t put Russia in a dangerous position in the war. Making it unlikely that they will overreact, but what it does is cause more of a public outcry in Russia which, there’s no telling what that could lead to. Not because I love Putin but because I love living. It could work in our favor and make Russia more willing to negotiate which is what I believe it’s supposed to do, or it could cause more of an overreaction leading to more escalation. This is why war is the worst possible scenario for all circumstances, there’s just too many possibilities and it’s unpredictable to chance. We’re talking about human lives. This thing could have been negotiated 2 years ago, while Ukraine still had middle-aged men left alive, but that’s the current, now here’s the past.
A Propaganda Puzzle
“I don’t take kindly to being threatened,” Shoigu finally responded.
“Mr. Minister,” Austin said bluntly with not a hint of anger, “I am the leader of the most powerful military in the history of the world. I don’t make threats.”—Chapter 35,
This book is like a jigsaw puzzle of propaganda. The quote above is from the book and Woodward quote's it in interviews and whatnot. It’s truly, everything I hate about these pro-war establishment types. It sounds like fantastical, Bruce Willis Die Hard-esque, American Exceptionalism, bullshit, you would expect a Washington-ite, boomer-con, from the intelligence community, to quote! “That Lloyd Austin is such a strong man! He ain’t gonna be played for no fool!” And the board-sitters of Raytheon and Lockheed Martin are creaming in their pants! Bob appeared on Colbert to promote his book sometime last month and just oozed bullshit:
Colbert: …In that reporting, you uncovered an event that you say is one of the most dramatic, and significant in US Military history. What was that?
Bob: There are a number of them. One I was able to get a literal transcript of, the General in the US, who is Defense Secretary.
Stephen: Lloyd Austin?
Bob: Lloyd Austin, strong, forceful man, calls up his counterpart in Russia and says, "We know you were about to use a Tactical Nuclear Weapon….
“Austin is so strong, the defense minister in Russia says “I don’t like being threatened.” Austin says, “Mr. Minister, I am the leader of the most powerful military in the history of the world, I don’t make threats."
As marvelous as it was and as tough and forceful as he claims Lloyd Austin is (how gay is that to say about another heterosexual man), I wonder why he didn’t even list it as a source? Because it was never said? I checked all his sources; it is nowhere. I would’ve accepted anything, “sources and methods”, “sources familiar with…” anything! But nothing?! This is like, the biggest moment in the book and it’s completely fabricated. I first heard of this book based on that quote. That’s the point of him saying it, old Bob knows his readers. Washed up, still believe in Russiagate and WMD’s in Iraq, hell probably still believe “Juicy” Smollett no way they’d check a source.
By the way, thank God nobody said that. It is the most unbelievably stupid and irresponsible, thing to say ever. YOU ARE THREATENING THE REST OF THE WORLD BY SAYING THIS!!! He is speaking to Russia’s 2nd in command, he’s speaking to the only other country with the capabilities to end the fucking human race, and because they heard through the grapevine that Russia might use nukes, so we proceed to beat and bluster at him, dear God, no way. The United States population is 4.25% of the human race. Washington is a hundredth of that, the rest of the planet don’t want to be in danger due to the egos of a hundredth of the population. Even if it’s true that he was considering it, and I’m sure he was, who the fuck does anyone in our State Department think they are, we have no moral high ground to stand on.
More From Bobby’s Book of Propaganda…
“Zelensky just doesn’t get it.” I think he does, Zelensky is quoted as saying to Kamala Harris when she’s warning that it looks like, according to intelligence, Russia is going to invade, the passage, from chapter 25 in the book is:
Zelensky was all denial. Harris sounded more and more like a prosecutor. They went back and forth. Zelensky reiterated that he took seriously the situation on his borders. “We do clearly understand what is going on,” Zelensky said. “This is our land, and the only thing we want is to have peace, bring the peace back to our country.” End the fighting in eastern Ukraine.
I wonder if this quote is misused, Bob likes to do that, I wonder if what he’s actually meaning, is yea, we are not dumb, we know exactly what is going on, this is our land not yours and WE WANT PEACE! He says, “We do clearly understand what is going on,” Zelensky said. “This is our land, and the only thing we want is to have peace, bring the peace back to our country.” If that is true, that he knows clearly what is going on, this was not a friendly interaction like is portrayed by Bob. Zelensky won his election, 70-30, an actor/comedian, on peace.
So, Who is Bob Woodward, Really?
If I were a betting man, I’d bet that he got this kind of access due to his deep state ties. This book is what could best be described as a Limited Hangout, where you get a side of the story that’s not yet out there, but leaves out just enough that it doesn’t damage their reputation or they leave key points out that protect the actual truth from coming to light. There’s stories in this book that has been litigated, fact checked, and debunked as false. Just pure war propaganda; You might ask, “why would he do that? Bob Woodward? The guy from Watergate?” Yes. Even Watergate has become something to be debated in recent years. Let me just lay out some undisputed acts:
Bob Woodward, one year before becoming the great Watergate journalist, was a Navy Intelligence Officer, working in Nixon’s White House.
It was his first year as a journalist and he was given the biggest story in journalism history. He was from an unrelated field.
His #1 source for the Watergate story was the #2 guy at the FBI
At the time, Richard Nixon received the most votes of any president in history, he won the popular vote in 49 out of 50 states.
When he resigned, Gerald Ford, his Vice of course took his place and Gerald Ford was on the Warren Commission the commission that investigated the JFK assassination. Here’s a few factors on this provided by History.com
The Warren Commission was led by the Director of the CIA who JFK had fired 6 months before his death, Allen Dulles.
The Commission came to the conclusion based on their “evidence” that Oswald fired one bullet. The bullet that struck Kennedy in the back and exited through his throat. Given the lack of damage to the presidential limousine consistent with it having been struck by a high-velocity bullet, and the fact that Texas Governor John Connally was wounded and was seated on a jumper seat 1 1/2 feet in front of and slightly to the left of the president, the Commission concluded they were likely struck by the same bullet.
Gerald Ford secretly provided information on the Commission to the FBI. While serving as a leading member of the Warren Commission, future U.S. President Gerald Ford also acted as an inside informant for J. Edgar Hoover and the FBI. After Ford’s death in 2006, a cache of declassified documents revealed that Ford, then a U.S. congressman, had approached FBI Assistant Director Cartha DeLoach and offered to confidentially keep the Bureau informed on the Commission’s deliberations.
Earl Warren suppressed key evidence from the Commission. As a close friend of the Kennedy’s, he denied the Commission the ability to see the autopsy for fears of it being too disturbing. He blocked them from interviewing witnesses in Mexico who knew Oswald before the assassination, there’s been book’s written on this since, some people believe it might have changed the entire outcome of this investigation, and he tried to block an interview with Jackie Kennedy for fear of invading her privacy. I mean, members of the Commission already killed her husband, now they want to talk to her about it???
The FBI and CIA intentionally misled the Commission. Both agencies had been monitoring Lee Harvey Oswald for months prior to the murder. Oswald had once even left a threatening note for an FBI agent at the Bureau’s office in Dallas. Fearful of catching blame for not preventing the assassination, the FBI later destroyed the note and even removed the agent’s name from a typewritten transcript of Oswald’s address book provided to the Warren Commission. Congressman Hale Boggs would later say that FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover “lied his eyes out” to the Commission’s investigators.
Evidence also suggests that the CIA had Oswald under surveillance when he made a trip to Mexico in September 1963 and visited the Cuban and Soviet embassies, but the agency repeatedly denied any connection to the alleged shooter. The CIA also neglected to inform the Commission about its many covert operations in Cuba—including several schemes to assassinate Fidel Castro—even though those revelations might have helped shape the investigation.
A second government investigation came to a different conclusion after the public release of the Zapruder film. The U.S. House of Representatives formed the United States House Select Committee on Assassinations and reopened the investigation on the president’s murder. In 1979, the HSCA stated that acoustic evidence from a Dallas police officer’s radio showed it was likely that two shooters had fired on Kennedy’s limousine, and it concluded that the assassination “probably” involved a conspiracy.
I know I drifted pretty far away from who Bob Woodward is, but it seems he was very much involved in as Tucker Carlson put it on the JRE, “A deep state coup…”
Many of Bob’s books were written before the current age that we now live in. Back when the truth was much harder to come by. Bob Woodward has had, since the 90’s, this access to the White House, or the appearance of it at least, and although I’ve not read them all, I have wondered, what is he trading for this kind of access to the White House? I think I get it now, he’s trading integrity, the truth, not the truth they want you to know, but the actual truth. The right to say something! He’s a writer that parrots the establishment narrative, how much does that have to suck, never saying anything you actually feel. That’s like neutering a male porn star. Consider this, the “big headline-grabbing-controversy” of this book was Trump sending supplies like testing kits and masks to Putin during COVID, although it sounds like he wanted strong, forceful man Lloyd Austin’s I’m-so-tough quote to be it, it just wasn’t. Because he writes War books for bitches! That’s not a misogynist statement either, what I mean is people like Christopher Hayes and Rachel Maddow, Stephen Colbert and Sean Hannity.
BUT I THOUGHT YOU SAID THIS GUY WAS HITLER????
Something that Bob accidently brings to light in this book is this narrative that if Putin takes Ukraine, next he’s coming for Poland and then who knows? Maybe he’ll go after England next! Is complete and utter bullshit, it’s always been bullshit and not even Bob Woodward could tell this story without destroying that narrative. If what he’s saying is true, and I’m not saying the whole book is lies, there’s definitely some truth in it, during the covid years, Putin was isolated and digging through the historical archives, which would explain his hour-long-rant to Tucker Carlson about the history of Russia & Ukraine, (you know, “if you don’t mind I will only take 30 seconds or one minute to give you a short reference to history”, ONE HOUR LATER…) and he found justification for Ukraine being a part of Russia, basically justification to invade Ukraine and take it by force, so the idea that we should actually fear that Putin has started a war of conquest just like Hitler did is total bullshit. He had to find justification, after years of exclaiming his fear of losing Ukraine to NATO, he justified it by finding records that led him to believe Ukraine was supposed to be part of Russia. He’s not Hitler, the fucking guy wanted paperwork to justify his invasion. I’d like to see what history Hitler used to justify the Holocaust, it’d have to be a doozy. From chapter 8:
Other people learned Irish step dancing in quarantine, Jake Sullivan joked, but Putin went deep into Russian history.
Sullivan had heard that during a phone call between Putin and German chancellor Angela Merkel, Putin said you wouldn’t believe the stuff that I’ve been finding in the Russian archives.
It was clear to Merkel that Putin had spent a lot of his time in isolation just digging around in the archives, taking things out, studying ancient maps. Taking Ukraine had become kind of a fever dream during his Covid isolation. But the fever didn’t pass. It didn’t break.
He also wrote an article for the Kremlin website, pronouncing his findings. It’s almost exactly what he said to Tucker in his rant, the article was probably his script for the interview. It’s called “On the Historical Unity of Russians and Ukrainians“, and if it’s the reason he invaded, it’s fucking crazy, but it’s not Hitler, and it doesn’t lead you to believe he’s coming for the rest of the world next.
Boris “The DODO Bird” Johnson
Boris Johnson, Fmr. Prime Minister of the UK, confronted Putin via phone call after Biden and the US State Dept. presented the intelligence they had received which was leading them to believe Russia would invade Ukraine. Most of the people it was presented at the G20 meeting was skeptical of it, Boris couldn’t wait to confront Putin with it. He’s so “brilliant” he probably scared Putin into going through with the invasion!
In a phone call, Johnson confronted Putin.
“You have no reason to invade Ukraine,” Johnson said. “There is no way Ukraine would be joining NATO anytime soon.”
“Boris,” Putin said, “what do you mean by anytime soon? When is that? Next month?”
“No,” Johnson said, “look, I mean, the reality is Ukraine is not going to join in the foreseeable future.”
Johnson believed that Putin knew that. It was nonsense, Johnson felt, this was Putin’s paranoia about NATO.
But it wasn’t paranoia, this was the plan all along.
This war is about money, right Lindsey Graham? See video below…
By the way, same Boris Johnson:
“Russian and Ukrainian negotiators appeared to have tentatively agreed on the outlines of a negotiated interim settlement,” wrote Fiona Hill and Angela Stent. “Russia would withdraw to its position on February 23, when it controlled part of the Donbas region and all of Crimea, and in exchange, Ukraine would promise not to seek NATO membership and instead receive security guarantees from a number of countries.”
The news highlights the impact of former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s efforts to stop negotiations, as journalist Branko Marcetic noted on Twitter. The decision to scuttle the deal coincided with Johnson’s April visit to Kyiv, during which he reportedly urged Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to break off talks with Russia for two key reasons: Putin cannot be negotiated with, and the West isn’t ready for the war to end.
And Here’s More from Lindsey Graham
Woodwar portrays Lindsay Graham as Trump’s campaign adviser, which can’t be true because Lindsey is a loser and a war hawk. By the way, remember he’s not trying to be funny, it just comes off that way.
In late January, Trump had started to throw around the idea of making another run for the presidency.
“You know Jack Nicklaus was pretty famous for letting people collapse and just hanging around,” Trump mused to Senator Lindsey Graham over lunch at Mar-a-Lago, referring to the legendary American golfer. Trump said that should be his strategy with Biden. “When Nicklaus was behind in a tournament, he’d always say, well, what are you going to do? I’m just going to hang around and see what happens. That’s how he won the Masters in ’86. You know, you have two good holes and people start beginning to fall apart.
“Well,” Trump said, “I’m just going to be hanging around!”
Just imagine his voice and think of him saying this:
One weekend after the invasion, Republican senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina was at Mar-a-Lago, to play golf and have dinner with Trump.
“Going to Mar-a-Lago is a little bit like going to North Korea,” Graham said. “Everybody stands up and claps every time Trump comes in. So, I come in behind him and I get a standing ovation!” Graham said.
He assumed it was for his comments about Putin. “I’ve been saying get rid of Putin. If you have to kill him, kill him,” he said.
In a March 4 interview on Fox News, Graham had declared that Russians should assassinate President Putin. He followed it with a post on social media: “The only way this ends is for somebody in Russia to take this guy out. You would be doing your country—and the world—a great service,” Graham said.
The comments caused a brief firestorm. White House press secretary Jen Psaki was quick to clarify this was “not the position of the United States government.”
Kremlin press secretary Dmitry Peskov hit back by suggesting Graham was insane. “Unfortunately, in such an extremely tense atmosphere, there is a hysterical escalation of Russophobia. These days, not everyone manages to maintain sobriety, I would even say sanity, and many lose their mind.” Graham downplayed his comments to others at Mar-a-Lago.
Unfortunately, I’m sure this was all actual quotes. It sounds like Graham talks about killing Putin for the same reasons that I started playing guitar in high school!
During dinner that evening Trump and Graham talked about the threat of Putin using nuclear weapons in Ukraine.
“We can’t let him get away with that,” Trump said. “We’ve got a bigger military. We’ve got deadly submarines. I would have submarines going up and down the coast of Russia saying we’re watching you.
“Why can’t we get involved?” Trump asked Graham. “Why do we let the planes fly?” Graham realized Trump was wondering about why the U.S. hadn’t set up a no-fly zone to stop Russian planes from entering Ukraine’s airspace.
And here he is calling for our soldiers to go die while he brags about it on Fox News.
Zelensky was pleading for Biden to “close the skies.” Biden had repeatedly refused. He did not want a situation where U.S. or NATO forces would have to take out Russian planes. That could too quickly escalate into World War III.
“Everybody felt the Russians would roll through Ukraine in about a week and do some kind of peace deal and that’d be that” Graham said. “Well, the Ukrainians are fighting like tigers. Zelensky has become the Churchill of his time, and the Russians are in a world of hurt. They actually could lose this. They could actually lose this military engagement if we could do better in the air.”
The next morning, Graham played nine holes with Trump, who was now golfing five times a week. Some of the caddies came up and asked for a photo. Not with Trump, but with Graham.
“The caddies want to get rid of Putin too,” Graham joked to Trump. But the former president was no longer paying attention. He was fixated on the caddies, as if suddenly realizing being tough with Putin was popular.
Here’s a funny one, remember that Lindsey is the source here. “He was fixated on the caddies?” Nobody was fixated on the caddies but Lindsey Graham’s gay ass. Also, not a soul in America thinks more of anyone because they were tough on Putin! What a dumbass, Lindsey Graham thing to say! Whether they continued it after the election is a different story, but since 2000 the anti-war guy always wins!
“While in certain ways yesterday’s election was somewhat disappointing,” Trump wrote on his social media platform, Truth Social, “from my personal standpoint it was a very big victory—219 WINS and 16 Losses in the General—Who has ever done better than that?” But the result was generally viewed as a referendum on Trump.
“You’ve got a problem with moderate women,” Lindsey Graham told the former president. “The people that think the earth is flat and we didn’t go to the moon, you’ve got them. Let that go.”
Trump needed to move on from re-litigating 2020 and get back to a focus on real policy issues and on making 2024 a referendum on Biden, Graham believed.
Your argument, Graham said to Trump, should be:
“When I was in charge, we had a secure border and look what’s happened. When I was in charge, you could fill up your tank without having to mortgage your house. When I was in charge, Russia and China were in a box. When I was in charge, Iran was weak. When I was in charge, the Taliban didn’t have Afghanistan,” Graham said. “On and on and on. “Mr. President, it’s not enough to criticize Biden, it’s also you’ve got to say: I can fix this.
“Nobody gives a shit about the 2020 election,” Graham said.
Because if there’s advice anyone should trust on Moderate Woman, it’s a closeted homosexual who’s never been married, never had a girlfriend, or a public boyfriend and only loves war! Yes, Lindsey, I’m listening…
Senator Lindsey Graham blamed Mar-a-Lago for Trump’s inability to put the results of 2020 behind him.
“It’s just, it’s the culture,” Graham told colleagues. “It’s the attitude down in Mar-a-Lago of all the people that go. You know, all the people he hangs around with down there. They constantly feed this narrative. “He keeps talking about Arizona,” Graham said, where an audit was still underway. “You know, he lost Arizona because he beat on John McCain and just went too far.” The late senator John McCain of Arizona had been a prisoner of war in Vietnam and Republican nominee for president in the 2008 election.
“He thinks he lost because of all these bizarre conspiracies,” Graham said. “He didn’t.”
“Biden won fair and square,” Graham added. “Trump doesn’t like to hear that.”
Graham was focused on the 2022 political races where Republicans needed to put their best candidates forward to take back the House and Senate majorities.
“There are very few Republicans that can get out of the whirlwind of dealing with Trump to think ahead,” Graham said. “Wishing Donald Trump away is not a viable strategy. Donald Trump’s not going away. There are millions of people in the Republican Party who believe in him, and the goal is to try to take the magic he has with our base and make it ‘Trump Plus.’
“Once you get in a general election if you repeat some of the things that the president’s saying, you don’t have a snowball’s chance in hell,” Graham said. “Some of our candidates are going to have to break from Trump on certain issues to get the ‘plus’ part.”
Graham rejected the notion that Trump was a wound that could not heal in the Republican Party.
“Trump represents a real part of the American family,” Graham said. “It’s not a wound. It’s part of who we are.”
He would be upset over Trump’s opinion of John McCain, you know who wouldn’t be? Families of the people he murdered in Syria, Iraq, Russia, Ukraine, and South America. Also Lindsey Graham:
And Lindsey, ONE MORE TIME FOR THE KILL—
You know, the guy who said, “Such as having rotating first ladies” when asked about being the first single man in office if he won in 2016. He also said this when talking to Daily Mail:
If you don’t want to watch it, he says, “My sister could be my First Lady.”
Says no one ever in history!
SNAKE ISLAND PROPAGANDA—Fog of War, Stated as FACT!
In chapter twenty-seven the invasion begins. Toward the end of the chapter the Snake Island story is mentioned very briefly, in a way that would lead you to believe the propaganda reported at the time was true. The book lays it out like this:
Early in the war, at Snake Island, a tiny Ukrainian outpost on the Black Sea, two Russian warships ordered the 13 Ukrainian border guards stationed there to surrender. One guard picked up the transmitter and responded, “Russian warship, go fuck yourself.” Russia captured Snake Island, but the defiance of the Ukrainians was played on media outlets all over the world, becoming a symbol of Ukrainian resistance.
The problem with leaving out facts about this story was believed to be exactly as originally reported at the time. Zelensky made a digital appearance, straight-to-camera, claiming they were killed, giving all of their names 1 by 1, and saying that they would the “posthumous title of ‘Hero of Ukraine’.” Soon after it turned out that they were alive and well and would be returned safely to their families and you could say, “How do we know? Isn’t this Putin propaganda?” and you could be right except as of May 31st, a bunch made it home via a prisoner exchange, but Bob’s purposeful vagueness and Zelensky’s propaganda would lead you to believe they were killed. So, we have Russian Propaganda VS Ukranian Propaganda, either way, it’s all propaganda, placed there to mislead you. In this case it was the Ukrainians disseminating and adding to the fog of war.
“THE QUOTE ON PAGE 88 IS BULLSHIT” BOB, Courtesy of Scott Horton of ANTIWAR.COM
Thanks to
in his post-election, pre-publication appearance on Part of the Problem with Dave Smith and in a letter to Bob that he also posted publicly on Antiwar.com and the Libertarian Institute website.“Third countries”—meaning, the United States—“have no right to express their position on the issue of NATO enlargement and are playing with fire,” Lavrov warned. “I am convinced that they cannot be unaware of this.”
“Those who mechanically repeat the points made in Bucharest and insist that ‘third countries’ have no right to express their position on the issue of NATO enlargement are playing with fire. I am convinced that they cannot be unaware of this.”
That quote was from a statement made by Sergey Lavrov, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, at the OSCE Ministerial Council on December 2nd of 2021. The entire statement is addressing worries of military confrontation with the west being felt in Russia. This military alliance conference, the OSCE, was created as an alliance including the West and Russia after the fall of the Soviet Union, something like a partnership for peace, but not the Partnership for Peace. In this quote, what Sergey is actually saying is, if they think third countries (Neighboring countries such as Russia) have no right to be upset by the decisions made at Bucharest in 2008 (Ukraine and Georgia joining NATO over the following years). They're playing with fire (they’re fucking crazy). We’re convinced they know this is an escalation.
The change of the quote by Woodward completely changes the meaning to, the third country (is the United States) and has no right to express their opinion about NATO enlargement (stupidly ignoring that NATO is a US military alliance, created by the US to protect Europe after WW2, to help protect Europe while they are weak from fighting the World War). The way he’s able to make this translation is because NATO has what they call the open door policy, which states that if a country wants to join NATO it’s no ones business except for that country and NATO. Sergey is saying, screw your policy, of course it’s our business, they are the buffer country between two Great Powers. So, that whole section was bullshit. More chipping away of Woodward’s credibility…
Now for the “Limited Hangout” I Couldn't Wait to Talk About…
Page 90-91:
At the official dinner that evening, the 57 foreign ministers and secretaries of state sat at one of the biggest dining tables Blinken had ever seen. He was seated next to Ukraine’s foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba and directly across from him was Lavrov.
Lavrov lost no time launching into a diatribe about the origins of 2014, claiming there had been a coup perpetrated by the United States and others in Ukraine that caused the rightly elected president Viktor Yanukovych to be deposed.
Having lived through that period himself, Blinken felt he had to correct Lavrov as he attempted once again to replace history with the Putin preferred narrative.
“That’s not what happened,” Blinken interjected, “and you know it and everyone at this table knows it.”
Blinken went through the litany of what actually had happened in 2014.
Lavrov, unfazed, raised the Minsk process.
Blinken interjected again, “Sergey, we can talk about the Minsk process. “Here”—Blinken held a piece of paper in his hand. “Here are the requirements that Russia had under the Minsk process.
“Immediate and full cease-fire in particular districts of Donetsk and Luhansk Oblasts of Ukraine and its strict fulfillment as of 00.00 midnight (Kyiv time) on Feb. 15, 2015.
“You didn’t do it,” Blinken said. “Withdrawal of all heavy weapons.
“You didn’t do it,” Blinken said. “Allow OSCE monitoring.
This is the most infuriating piece of propaganda in the book. Leaving out one of the most important details in this conflict is fucking crazy. He tees it up, and then totally skips it. In a book surrounded by strange sources, and unverifiable quotes, then magically when it gets to the inconvenient part, nothing. What the fuck! Anyone who reads through this is looking for the whole story, which is why I read it. He could’ve at least given the establishment lie. If you’ve read or listened to anything from Scott Horton, or Antiwar.com, or Confessions of an Economic Hitman, or the Shock Doctrine by Naomi Klein, you know what he’s referring to, and yes, Blinken, we all lived through this.
I am going to have another article accompanying this post (released later on) that will explain how Democracy-influencing NGO’s like Open Society (George Soros) and the NED (National Endowment for Democracy) overtly overthrow governments as opposed to covertly as used to be handled by the CIA. I had it it here, but it was stretching this piece way too far, it might be too long already, we’ll see. I was at 8,000 words and only halfway through the Soros Foundation.
Jennifer Briney, someone who’s work I cite quite often, has been doing exhaustive work for over a decade with her podcast Congressional Dish, where she actually reads the bills that Congress passes—something they don’t even do—while doing her investigations for an episode she stumbled upon the 2014 Euro-Maidan Coup that was being carried out on the Yanukovych regime in Ukraine, this is what actually happened, that Blinken, the War Criminal, and Woodward, pawn for the powerful, wants completely memory-holed:
Pretty soon after the horrible Russian invasion in 2022, I learned of this story about the western overthrow of the Yanukovych Gov’t. If you didn’t watch the video or are hearing impaired, here’s a “quick” overview:
According to George Friedman of Stratfor: The World’s Leading Geopolitical Intelligence Platform, this was the “Most blatant coup in History”.
The EU was trying to bring Ukraine into their umbrella of influence through an Association Agreement.
Yanukovych as Carl Gershman, then head of the National Endowment for Democracy wrote in the Washington Post, was attempting to make reforms necessary to follow-through with the deal.
To push the deal more in their favor the US issued an International Warrant for Yanukovych's patron oligarch Dmitriy Firtash and had him arrested in Austria until Yanukovych was ready to sign the deal.
But the deal with the EU started to get worse and worse for the Ukrainian side, and Putin sweetened the deal:
The Europeans insisted on a severe austerity regime, freezing government salaries and pensions, an end to subsidies for heavy industry in Ukraine’s East, and huge hikes in utility rates.
The EU and IMF were being chintzy about loaning them enough money to remain solvent.
The EU demanded the release of his political rival from the 2004 Orange Revolution (Backed by the same people as Euromaidan), the “Gas Princess”, billionaire Yulia Tymoshenko.
The Kremlin worried that this new deal, since Ukraine and Russia have a trade agreement, would flood the Russian market with cheaper finished goods from Europe and undermine their own trade and industrial capacity. The architects of the EU deal imagined the harm done to the Russian economy would force Putin from office.
Putin makes an offer of $15 billion in aid and half price on Russian gas or take the EU deal and your trade pact with Russia is canceled. Publicly he said he didn’t mind if Ukraine took the deal, but behind the scenes was different. Putin had already started restricting trade as a show of what was coming, and it became clear that if Yanukovych signed with the EU the Ukrainian economy would crumble.
When Yanukovych backed out of the EU deal, the Obama administration, with people like Victoria Nuland (Satan Herself) and John McCain (who’s waiting in hell for her to join him) organized street demonstrations that evolved into one of the most technologically advanced and PR-driven regime change operations in history, known to the world as Maidan, EuroMaidan, or the Revolution of Dignity, etc.
What Scott Horton in Provoked, describes as a Street Putsch, protestors, some who wanted the EU to join with Ukraine so they could escape the terribly poor country, and some who were paid by pro-democracy NGO’s such as the NED, NDI, and IRI, took to the streets against Yanukovych.
Victoria Nuland was passing out cookies to the protestors, John McCain was on stage with Tyahnybok, and Yatsenyuk, and Chris Murphy was…does anyone even know who Chris Murphy is???
A phone call was leaked between Geoffrey Pyatt—US-Ambassador to Ukraine—and Victoria Nuland—Deputy Secretary of State under Hillary Clinton—that although idiots in the comments will claim it means something else; the call was clear, they were planning Ukraine’s government for whoever was going to be at the top.
February of 2014, the protests forced Yanukovych into exile in Moscow.
Then late that same month, the Russians responded by invading Crimea.
That Mr. Blinken, and Mr. Woodward is what happened in 2014. God protect us all from the danger these idiots keep putting us in.
With ALL that Being Said, this was Just the Ukraine Half of the Book…Part 2: War in GAZA Coming Soon…
I think I’ll end with this, I don’t have any problem with Bob Woodward. I think I get it now, some people are Woodward and Bernstein guys, I’m more of a Matt Taibbi and Sy Hersh type. I found an article in the NYT comparing Woodward to Hersh, and it struck me as true:
The fraternity of investigative reporters, who make a point of not talking on the record about each other, consider Mr. Woodward as a man with access in high places, with both the insight and blinkers that entails. They tend to see Mr. Hersh as pursuing those in the operational heart of the intelligence agencies who feel things are going wrong. Jeff Stein, a Washington writer who has covered intelligence issues, said, ''Woodward covers the administration, and Sy covers the back alleys.''
This makes sense, that’s why every book by Woodward is based solely on access to the White House, he can’t go too far, he’ll lose his access and end up like Seymour Hersh and Matt Taibbi, on Substack, with me. Go figure. This is where I’m starting because I don’t know where else to go, this is where they ended up because they had nowhere else to go. What a world. Thank you for reading.
Thank you so much Brandy. Yea, I felt the same way, it kinda fucked me up, it was like, oh, so they’ve done this before. It’s the difference in their ability to propagandize us now compared to in the 70s. The amount of lies they feed us now, when we can verify shit, we can’t imagine how much they lied back then. “For the greater good” right? I always was told that Nixon was the biggest crook that ever held office! No doubt he wasn’t perfect, he did try the silence the Pentagon Papers, but then, that was related to watergate too! Daniel Ellsberg won at trial for leaking the Pentagon papers because the same guys who broke into watergate hotel, the CIA employees, also broke into Daniel Ellsbergs therapists office looking for dirt on Ellsberg. That was uncovered and Ellsbergs case was dismissed. Ellsberg was a fearless anti war activist, I’m not saying he was bad, but the CIA set that up too to chip more away from Nixon image. It’s a bottomless pit of corruption. Thank you for reading and sharing Brandy.
Commenting a bit as I go so I don't forget: didn't know about Woodward/Watergate. Feeling a bit unmoored. This is what they tried to do to Trump. Now I feel bad for Nixon. Sounds like I should.