{"id":3020,"date":"2022-02-05T16:35:47","date_gmt":"2022-02-05T16:35:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pbmv.com\/blog\/?p=3020"},"modified":"2022-02-05T16:35:47","modified_gmt":"2022-02-05T16:35:47","slug":"war-mania-leads-white-house-to-condemn-us-senator-as-russian-propagandist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pbmv.com\/blog\/?p=3020","title":{"rendered":"War Mania Leads White House to Condemn US Senator as Russian Propagandist"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Joe Lauria<\/a><\/p>\n

The Republican senator cited Russian \u201cthreats,\u201d but said going to war with Moscow over Ukraine was not in the interests of the U.S., which should go after China instead, Joe Lauria reports.<\/i><\/b>\"psaki.jpg\"White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

The extent to which the White House will not tolerate any dissent against its war messaging on Russia was revealed when President Joe Biden\u2019s press secretary on Wednesday condemned a sitting member of the United States Senate as a Russian propagandist for simply questioning the drive to war over Ukraine.<\/p>\n

Jen Psaki accused Republican Sen. Josh Hawley of \u201cparroting Russian talking points\u201d for sending a letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken questioning the drive for war.<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, if you are just digesting Russian misinformation and parroting Russian talking points, you are not aligned with long-standing, bipartisan American values,\u201d Psaki told reporters at a regular White House briefing.<\/p>\n

Those values are \u201cto stand up for the sovereignty of countries like Ukraine \u2026 their right to choose their own alliances and also to stand against very clearly the efforts \u2014 or attempts, or potential attempts \u2014 by any country to invade and take territory of another country,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Psaki added: \u201cThat applies to Senator Hawley, but it also applies to others who may be parroting the talking points of Russian propagandist leaders.\u201d The word \u201cothers\u201d is ominous. It can be taken to mean any other member of the U.S. Congress, U.S. independent media or ordinary Americans.<\/p>\n

Such vilification is designed to take agency away from American elected officials, journalists or private citizens \u2014 who are schooled in the American world view and not Russia\u2019s \u2014 to think for themselves, examine evidence and come to their own conclusion.<\/p>\n

Smearing government critics as agents of a foreign power is the oldest trick in the book. Anti-Vietnam War protestors were labelled apologists for Hanoi and critics of the 2003 invasion of Iraq as Saddam stooges.<\/p>\n

Hawley\u2019s letter<\/a> to Blinken was actually hawkish in tone, talking about Russian \u201cthreats\u2019 \u2014 hardly a Moscow \u201ctalking point.\u201d He wrote:<\/p>\n

\u201cThe United States has an interest in maintaining Ukraine\u2019s independence, sovereignty, and territorial integrity. And we should urgently deliver to Ukraine assistance it needs to defend itself against Russia\u2019s military buildup and other threats. Our interest is not so strong, however, as to justify committing the United States to go to war with Russia over Ukraine\u2019s fate. Rather, we must aid Ukraine in a manner that aligns with the American interests at stake and preserves our ability to deny Chinese hegemony in the Indo-Pacific.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hawley asked Blinken for \u201cclarity about the Biden administration\u2019s support for Ukraine\u2019s prospective membership in NATO,\u201d which to remain \u201cviable\u201d must have European members \u201cincrease defense spending above two percent of GDP \u2026 especially as the United States shifts resources\u201d elsewhere in the world.<\/p>\n

The U.S. is facing some degree of resistance to war from France, Germany and even Ukraine itself. Germany refuses to send arms to Ukraine, Emmanuel Macron is talking to Vladimir Putin and wants to include Russia in a new European security arrangement, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky says there\u2019s no imminent invasion. The U.S. can hardly use the undiplomatic language of accusing all three of \u201cparroting Russian talking points.\u201d<\/p>\n

The White House putdown of Hawley shows how the administration is shutting down debate on the issue most deserving of it in a so-called democracy, namely the question of peace or war. That the White House target is a member of the Senate, which is constitutionally charged with declaring war, is even more alarming.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Joe Lauria The Republican senator cited Russian \u201cthreats,\u201d but said going to war with Moscow over Ukraine was not in the interests of the U.S., which should go after China instead, Joe Lauria reports.White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki The extent to which the White House will not tolerate any dissent against its war […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3020","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pbmv.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3020","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pbmv.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pbmv.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pbmv.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pbmv.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3020"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.pbmv.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3020\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3022,"href":"https:\/\/www.pbmv.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3020\/revisions\/3022"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pbmv.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3020"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pbmv.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3020"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pbmv.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3020"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}