At least within the circles I run, people who encounter purposely-created insanity and danger openly acknowledge the insanity and danger and, for reasons of self-protection and survival, want it stopped as fast as possible.
At the very top of all the insane and dangerous things upon the planet that can threaten us, I would list triggering World War III. But the more I believe that to be true, the more irrelevant the subject and threat seems to be for many others. Including some leaders, foreign policy “experts,” liberal and conservative pundits and much of celebrity-dom.
In a piece earlier this week for Fox News titled “Morning Glory: Israel’s war of survival” highly respected conservative commentator Hugh Hewitt wrote, “Bottom line, I’d have half as many facts and views of the war if I only listened to two of these four podcasts focused mostly on Israel’s war of survival. If I relied only on American legacy media, I would have a terribly distorted view of the war and would be blind and dumb to vast amounts of crucial data about the war.”
I happen to strongly agree with Hewitt regarding the American legacy media’s censorship of news coming out of that war and the deliberate shading of Israel. That acknowledged, my initial two questions for Hewitt — who seems to be (like so many) in favor of Ukraine fighting to the last Ukrainian in the war against Russia — are: Why isn’t he making the same point about the legacy media censoring all the news coming out of the war between Ukraine and Russia? And second, why isn’t he reporting all the news coming out of Ukraine himself?
Most specifically, why isn’t he reporting on the shocking and obscene casualty numbers coming out of that war? I believe Hewitt to be one of the best in the business, but even the best can have blind spots.
Last August, U.S. officials estimated that approximately 500,000 Russian and Ukrainian troops had been killed or wounded since Russia’s invasion in February 2022. Recently, a former intelligence official in the U.S. told me that troop casualties are now over 1 million. If the intent by some to call for Ukraine to march into the teeth of the Russian war machine was to use its people as cheap disposable pawns to be sacrificed in a proxy war to weaken Putin and Russia, then those people need to reevaluate their siloed thinking. While the Ukrainian pawns are being crushed, Russia may be turning the tide.
Many who are cheerleading Ukraine to fight to the last Ukrainian — from thousands of miles away from the battlefield, while existing in bubbles of luxury known only to a sliver of 1 percent on the planet — seem to be singing from the same hymn sheet: “Putin is evil and must be destroyed at all costs.” Okay.
That bumper-sticker policy might sound great being delivered from the back of a limo or a private jet on the way to Aspen, but what are the consequences? I guess we would know more if that “American legacy media” Hewitt rightfully castigated honestly and consistently reported those horrific casualty numbers. But … they don’t. It seems that many of them don’t want tens of thousands of dead and maimed bodies to get in the way of a bumper-sticker narrative.
While many of our leaders, experts and pundits have been continually pushing Ukraine to prosecute the war — while U.S and U.K. defense contractors are enriching themselves — others have been screaming out for an immediate cease-fire to prevent World War III. Unfortunately, for the most part, those voices have gone unheard.
Unheard because the American legacy media chose to ignore them. As did most “leaders,” “experts” and pundits the world over.
But, of late, others are now thankfully willing to say the quiet part out loud. One is Poland’s Prime Minister Donald Tusk. As World War III creeps closer and closer to reality, Tusk said: “War is no longer a concept from the past. It is real, and it started over two years ago. The most worrying thing at the moment is that literally any scenario is possible. We haven’t seen a situation like this since 1945.”
“Any scenario is possible.” And that “any scenario” gets more dangerous by the day. As Newsweek reported last month: “NATO Moving Missiles Closer to Russia’s Borders.”
While Hewitt and others might cheer on such a move, I find it blood-chilling. Just last month, President Vladimir Putin told the West that Russia was technically “ready for nuclear war” and that if the U.S. sent troops to Ukraine, it would be considered a significant escalation of the conflict. Also last month, we had this exclusive from CNN: “US prepared ‘rigorously’ for potential Russian nuclear strike in Ukraine in late 2022.”
This is the fuse of insanity burning down to an inevitable explosion.
As we in the United States get all worked up over identity politics, lawfare interfering in a presidential election or the mental fitness of our president, we are one mistake or miscalculation away from nuclear war.
Our leaders, the “experts” and various pundits are very bright people and surely have gamed this out. Which invites the question: Would some not mind a limited nuclear war?
How else can one explain the constant ignoring or brushing off of the unthinkable?
Douglas MacKinnon, a political and communications consultant, was a writer in the White House for Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush, and former special assistant for policy and communications at the Pentagon during the last three years of the Bush administration.