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The Plot to Scapegoat Russia: How the CIA and the Deep State Have Conspired to Vilify Russia
An in-depth look at the decades-long effort to escalate hostilities with Russia and what it portends for the future. Since 1945, the US has justified numerous wars, interventions, and military build-ups based on the pretext of the Russian Red Menace, even after the Soviet Union collapsed at the end of 1991 and Russia stopped being Red. In fact, the two biggest post-war American conflicts, the Korean and Vietnam wars, were not, as has been frequently claimed, about stopping Soviet aggression or even influence, but about maintaining old colonial relationships. Similarly, many lesser interventions and conflicts, such as those in Latin America, were also based upon an alleged Soviet threat, which was greatly overblown or nonexistent. And now the specter of a Russian Menace has been raised again in the wake of Donald Trump's election. The Plot to Scapegoat Russia examines the recent proliferation of stories, usually sourced from American state actors, blaming and manipulating the threat of Russia, and the long history of which this episode is but the latest chapter. It will show readers two key things: (1) the ways in which the United States has needlessly provoked Russia, especially after the collapse of the USSR, thereby squandering hopes for peace and cooperation; and (2) how Americans have lost out from this missed opportunity, and from decades of conflicts based upon false premises. These revelations, amongst other, make The Plot to Scapegoat Russia one of the timeliest reads of 2017.
240 pages, Paperback
Published June 6, 2017
33 people are currently reading
426 people want to read
About the author
Dan Kovalik
13 books79 followersTeaches International Law and International Human Rights at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 31 reviews
June 20, 2017
A fantastic and short overview of American post WWII policy. Almost like a deprogramming manual for American exceptionalism. Does a fantastic job of explaining not only how hypocritical the accusations against Russia are but how the demonization of Putin serves the same purpose as Cold War communist hysteria: to justify and distract from American crimes abroad and domestic issues at home. The behavior of democrats has been reprehensible as they largely ignore Trump's escalation of America's numerous crimes abroad and at home while attacking him for the one thing he has done that is sane: deescalate tensions with Russia.
Great overview of American crimes including this destruction of the Russian economy after the collapse of the Soviet Union with economic shock therapy as well as helping Yeltsin subvert Russian democracy via electoral fraud and literally sending the army to shut down the Russian parliament effectively throttling Russian democracy in the crib, which as the author points out is nothing new for the United States (Iran 1953, Guatemala 1954, Brazil 1964, Chili 1973, Nicaragua 1980s, Haiti 1991 and 2004, Venezuela 2002, Honduras 2009 and Ukraine 2014).
Great overview of American crimes including this destruction of the Russian economy after the collapse of the Soviet Union with economic shock therapy as well as helping Yeltsin subvert Russian democracy via electoral fraud and literally sending the army to shut down the Russian parliament effectively throttling Russian democracy in the crib, which as the author points out is nothing new for the United States (Iran 1953, Guatemala 1954, Brazil 1964, Chili 1973, Nicaragua 1980s, Haiti 1991 and 2004, Venezuela 2002, Honduras 2009 and Ukraine 2014).
June 25, 2017
This might not be an easy book for Americans to read, but I always believe in listening to two sides of any story. The author has been labelled as a Putin apologist and a "useful idiot" but it's hard to argue with many of the points put forward. The book is really not so much about Russia but provides a sweeping background of how past false narratives with their disastrous consequences might lead any reasonable person to at least question the current one being put forth of Russia being the perennial big, bad guy who is, as usual, threatening the security of the United States and even influencing its democratic processes.
February 13, 2022
In Dan Kovalik's view, the U.S. is and has been the greatest threat to world peace since WWII while Putin deserves the Nobel Peace prize...annually. Without doubt, the U.S. has made mistakes, lots of them but, according to Kovalik, has done nothing worthy of any level of praise. The U.S., in Kovalik's view, should emulate Putin and his predecessors' methods which have done nothing but support efforts to achieve world peace. Afghanistan, no the Soviets didn't invade and then commit countless atrocities against defenseless, villagers eking out subsistence existences. It was actually the U.S. who caused Afghanistan's problems because the U.S. armed mujahideen before the Soviets invaded. Gulag? Kovalik's only mention was to compare it, in favorable terms, to Florida's election laws which prohibit felons from voting. Yeah, Solzhenitsyn et al just really didn't appreciate the opportunities Soviet dictators provided to adjust their thinking. Kovalik's problem with this book isn't his willingness to point out U.S. mistakes but his unwillingness to do the same for Putin and post-WWII Soviet dictators. Kovalik's bias undermines his narrative.
October 25, 2025
If you require any further proof that Putin apologists are unhinged loons, read this book. The esteemed author gives us an indelible sampling of his intellectual primacy, with the following as highlights:
- Casting Ortega's child-recruiting Marxist army as a respectable liberation force.
- Trusting CIS opinion polls, because they are clearly free societies.
- Portraying the Soviets as European liberators with noble intentions.
- Admitting he supports Muslim immigration to the United States (and mass immigration in general, including for Haitians)
- Citing the liberal fan fiction author Adam Hoschild as a credible source on genocide.
- Casting Ortega's child-recruiting Marxist army as a respectable liberation force.
- Trusting CIS opinion polls, because they are clearly free societies.
- Portraying the Soviets as European liberators with noble intentions.
- Admitting he supports Muslim immigration to the United States (and mass immigration in general, including for Haitians)
- Citing the liberal fan fiction author Adam Hoschild as a credible source on genocide.
May 25, 2021
Another fine piece of investigative journalism by Dan Kovalik. One thing that stands out from his works on Iran and Venezuela is, as in this case, how the different stories and events from various parts of the world are all related. The US empire has now (May 2021) well and truly spread its tentacles across the globe, as evidenced by the 800 plus military bases and black sites. What it did in South and Central America in the 1950s, 60s and 70s has been duplicated in the Middle East and elsewhere. The same types of crimes are committed by the CIA and the Pentagon all across the globe.
Once again today, Russia is in the crosshairs of US foreign policy. As difficult as it is for some observers to believe, we now have spurious stories under the label of Russiagate making waves in mainstream media, and causing apparent trauma in the Democratic Party, as it seeks to blame someone else for Hillary Clinton's loss in 2016. Dan Kovalik covers some of these ludicrous details up to the early days of the Trump presidency. Now, with a repeat performance of the Democrats under Joe Biden, the nonsense is continuing to the point of insanity, as the US attempts to pressure Vladimir Putin via hybrid wars in Ukraine and Belarus, as well as the usual sanctions and pressure on the European Union wherever it can, regardless of the danger of nuclear war. It is the story of an empire flailing along in decline, hopelessly trying to behave as though it is still master of the world, as it assumed it was in 1989 when the Berlin Wall fell and the Soviet Union was about to break up.
Always readable, Dan Kovalik often has to sound a trifle sarcastic, as so many of the events he relates are so difficult to believe, as they seem to reflect some inherent ability on the part of the US to always make the wrong move and land on the wrong side of history.
Once again today, Russia is in the crosshairs of US foreign policy. As difficult as it is for some observers to believe, we now have spurious stories under the label of Russiagate making waves in mainstream media, and causing apparent trauma in the Democratic Party, as it seeks to blame someone else for Hillary Clinton's loss in 2016. Dan Kovalik covers some of these ludicrous details up to the early days of the Trump presidency. Now, with a repeat performance of the Democrats under Joe Biden, the nonsense is continuing to the point of insanity, as the US attempts to pressure Vladimir Putin via hybrid wars in Ukraine and Belarus, as well as the usual sanctions and pressure on the European Union wherever it can, regardless of the danger of nuclear war. It is the story of an empire flailing along in decline, hopelessly trying to behave as though it is still master of the world, as it assumed it was in 1989 when the Berlin Wall fell and the Soviet Union was about to break up.
Always readable, Dan Kovalik often has to sound a trifle sarcastic, as so many of the events he relates are so difficult to believe, as they seem to reflect some inherent ability on the part of the US to always make the wrong move and land on the wrong side of history.
September 7, 2017
The thesis of this book, which focuses mostly on world events since the fall of the USSR, is that American liberals are whipping up hysteria about Russian intervention in the 2016 election to deflect attention away from the fact that they suffered the worst political upset in recent history.
There were quite a number of editorial/spelling/grammatical errors, unfortunately; the book appeared to be rather hastily written or possibly not carefully edited. The writing style is straightforward, but nothing particularly special. I thought some of the points the author makes were quite interesting - and he does lay out a convincing argument about how the US has politically and militarily interfered in the affairs of other countries around the world in order to ensure multi-national (MN) access to resources, or sometimes simply to deny countries' aligning themselves with Russia. There is no doubt this is true, but it still doesn't cancel out the problem, if Russia did manage to tilt the election in Trump's favor, because it viewed Trump as being less inimical to Russia than Clinton. (Two wrongs don't make a right.) We're not in a position to "judge" or "complain" if we're "guilty" of doing the same thing to many other countries - this is what the book seems to be saying. But doesn't not complaining effectively de-legitimize the 2016 election?
Here are a number of interesting quotes from the book:
"The country's economic engine runs on blood and oil. Without the constant specter of a foreign enemy, there is no American prosperity."
"Over the past century, the US military and the CIA have overthrown democratically elected governments in Guatemala, Iran, Congo, Chile, and Indonesia; assassinated,jailed, or exiled leaders in these and other countries; subverted governments and elections in even allied countries like France and Italy; and hacked the phones of friendly leaders in Germany and Brazil."
"...a major impact of the USSR's disappearance was the pretty swift disappearance of social democracies throughout the world, including the US's own social democracy lite. The truth is that many Western countries reacted to the Russian Revolution, and the gains that workers had in the Soviet Union in terms of social benefits, by feeling compelled to grant their own workers some of these concessions."
"...Clinton would also take advantage of the disappearance of the Socialist Bloc to enter into horrible trade deals -- for example, the infamous NAFTA of 1994 and the PNTR agreement with China in 2000 - - which allowed major capital flight away from the US and therefore a massive loss of jobs in this country, while also creating a general downward pressure on wages world-wide."
"With NAFTA, for example, the US lost around one million good manufacturing jobs to Mexico for its much lower labor costs."
"...there were intangible benefits that "real existing socialism" brought with it. ... The citizens of the USSR and former East Bloc felt a much closer kinship with one another,and, if you'll forgive me, comradeship, than they do now."
"...the US's "straight power" plays since WWII have succeeded in allowing itself, with only 5% of the world's population, to monopolize about 25% of its resources. ....far from advancing the "lofty" and "benign" goals of freedom and democracy, ...the US has been waging war around the globe to protect its own unjust share of resources. ...the US has needed the perceived threat of the USSR, or other like enemy, to justify this. [George] Kennan... said: "Were the Soviet Union to sink tomorrow under the waters of the ocean, the American military-industrial establishment would have to go on, substantially unchanged, until some other adversary could be invented. Anything else would be an unacceptable shock to the American economy."
"Now that the USSR is gone, the US has to continue to invent enemies in order to justify its bloated military - by far the biggest in the world."
"...despite the fact that the end of the Cold War was supposed to usher in a new period of peace and prosperity for the US, it did not, and it did because the US never wanted peace, nor did it really want prosperity, except the very few on top."
"Meanwhile, the prosperity the West promised to Russia if it would only give up its silly notions of socialism did not come either, and Bill Clinton and his cronies made sure of that."
"...the [neoliberal] course supported by the US was "painful" for the Russian people. But, [as noted in a Congressional Research Service (CRS) Report entitled "Russian Political Turmoil"]the argument went, the Russian people's pain was potentially our gain, given that "[a] weak and unstable Russia may be less likely to pose an aggressive military threat..."
"Through the US consultants' help, ... Yeltsin "... triumphed -- and along with it came the tools of modern campaigns, including he trickery and slickery Americans know so well" [according to a 7/15/96 "Time" magazine article entitled "Rescuing Boris."] Examples of the American "trickery and slickery" which Yeltsin used to win re-election were "extensive 'black operations,' including disrupting opposition rallies and press conferences, spreading disinformation among Yeltsin supporters, and denying media access to the opposition."
"The Duma, which still had a large contingent of Communists who were resistant to the market changes which were, by all accounts, wreaking havoc in Russia, was refusing to approve Yeltsin's pick for Prime Minister, Yegor Gaidar. "...the architect of the economic shock therapy..." In response, Yeltsin tried to dissolve the Duma, but the Duma declared this action to be unconstitutional. They then proceeded to remove Yeltsin from office and to install the Vice-President in his stead. Yeltsin responded by shutting off electricity and water to the White House (Duma building). ... when a number of Duma lawmakers still refuse d to leave and supporters showed up to ... protest Yeltsin's actions, Yeltsin, did what any good, democratic leader would do: he shelled the White House, killing anywhere between 200 and 2,000 people. A new Constitution was then adopted which gave more power to the Executive Branch. In the end, these "events that took place in October 1993 secure the domination of the executive branch over the legislative and judicial branches, effectively prohibiting the country from being a parliamentary republic."
"...as Paul Craig Roberts, former Assistant Secretary of the Treasury under President Ronald Reagan, explains: [D] the long Cold War,the Soviet Union, which is Russia in most people's minds, was demonized effectively. This demonization persists. Remember,the initial collapse of the USSR worked very much to the West's advantage. They could easily manipulate [Boris] Yeltsin,and various oligarchs were able to seize and plunder the resources of the country. Much Israeli and American money was part of that. When Putin came along and started stopping this and trying to put the country back in place, he was demonized."
"Meanwhile, in 1962, President Kennedy announced the National Security Doctrine which, as is generally true with US "national security" policies, had nothing at all to do with the security of the US homeland and its citizens, but rather with the goal of preserving the US's unjust hold over the world's resources by destroying social movements in the Third World that aimed at securing their countries' resources for their own people - an unforgivable aim."
"The US - through various means, including through the DEA and CIA - have supported both the right-wing paramilitaries, as well as drug cartels aligned with these paramilitaries, in order to foster the unequal distribution of land in Colombia."
"The result is that Colombia has the largest internally displaced population on earth (even greater than Syria) at over 7 million, with a disproportionate number of the internally displaced being Afro-Colombians and indigenous tribes, nay of the latter now being pushed to the point of extinction, leading some groups to raise the specter of genocide in Colombia."
"Again, this is all according to plan, and advances the interests of the US, which invented, and continues to support, the Colombian paramilitaries in order to make Colombia, Latin America and other far-flung countries safe for maximum corporate penetration and resource extraction."
"...former President Alvaro Uribe asked the US to extradite these paramilitary leaders because, back home in Colombia,they had begun "confessing not only their war crimes but also their ties to his allies and relatives."
"...the potential confession of paramilitary leaders to their links with the US government, as well as to US multinationals, was most certainly another reason for their extradition and treatment with kid gloves."
"...the only plausible explanation for the US partnership in such crimes is its quest for a disproportionate share of the world's resources..."
"Mr. Pinochet's regime ultimately was responsible for the murder of at least 3,197 individuals and the torture of over 30,000."
"Shortly before the coup in which he would die, Dr. Allende gave an impassioned speech at the UN decrying the interference of ITT, as well as Kennecott Copper in his country."
"Once the coup took place, the United States continued to support the Pinochet regime, including Manuel Contreras, who served as an agent of the CIA from 1974 to 1977, and went on to head Chile's intelligence agency, known as the DINA, which played the key role in the human rights abuses carried out in Chile."
"A Sept. 19, 2000, document released by the CIA... explains: US military assistance and sales grew significantly during the years of greatest human rights abuses."
"...Allende was not a communist. ...the US overthrew a constitutional democracy citing Cold War concerns, but such concerns were not bona fide in this case. Rather, the Chilean [coup]... as in so many US interventions, was about keeping Chile in a subservient economic role, and the US trusted that Pinochet was the man to ensure this. The Red Scare was just a pretext."
"...Colombia is currently the Western Hemisphere's leader in disappeared persons, with well over 92,000 persons disappeared and counting..."
"...there are few writers and journalists of [Mark] Twain's integrity today."
"...it appears that it was US mining interests, rather than any humanitarian concerns, that may have been the motivating factor for [Bill] Clinton to support the invasion of the DRC [Democratic Republic of the Congo]..."
"...the UN Security Council, in a 2002 report largely ignored by the media, also concluded that the Rwandan and Ugandan occupation of the DRC was not done for humanitarian purposes, but rather to secure mineral wealth there."
"...some argue...that...Clinton intentionally set the entire DRC war in motion in order to secure mining rights there."
"...Kambale Musavuli, a Congolese activist...explains: ...Chaos allows resources to leave from the Congo at a cheap price, and of course it's not actually just leaving, it's actually being stolen from the Congolese people."
"...the US press is all too willing to push any pretext for war that the US government puts forth..."
"...we in the United States have been collectively lulled into accepting our country's worst and most depraved crimes, and believing them to be acts of mercy and kindness."
"...Bill Clinton... ...admitted...that his trade policies in Haiti...allowed farmers, including Arkansas farmers... to dump cheap, subsidized food products into Haiti, destroyed the livelihood of small Haitian farmers."
"...in analyzing the 2016 election failure of Hillary Clinton, the Democrats might do better to focus on the failings of the Clintons which led to this defeat."
"...writer Harold Pinter in his 2005 Nobel Prize acceptance speech...[said]: The United States supported and in many cases engendered every right wing military dictatorship in the world after the end of the Second World War. I refer to Indonesia Greece,Uruguay, Brazil, Paraguay, Haiti, Turkey,the Philippines, Guatemala, El Salvador, and, or course, Chile. ... The crimes of the United States have been systematic, constant, vicious, remorseless, abut very few people have actually talked about them. .... It has exercised a quite clinical manipulation of power worldwide while masquerading as a force for universal good. It's a brilliant, even witty, highly successful act of hypnosis."
"...a key public relations spokesman for the new [Honduras] coup regime was none other than Clinton campaign team member Lanny Davis."
"...what was installed after the coup was something like a permanent counterinsurgency on behalf of transnational capital."
"...the Garifunas - Hondurans of African descent .... are being subjected to intense discrimination and are being forced off their land in large numbers by real estate developers and others who covet their land, with many being forced to leave Honduras altogether."
"...this [Yugoslav] intervention was really motivated by the desire of the US to destroy the last socialist state in Europe and to prime the Western world for a post-Soviet, uni-polar world order i which the US would use NATO to intervene anywhere in the world as it saw fit."
"...NAFTA...has been devastating for Mexico in terms of destroying the livelihood of about 2 million Mexican small farmers..."
"It is as if Russia is to have no self-interest anywhere i the world, while the US should be able to assert its self-interest everywhere."
"...Obama's Assistant Secretary of State, Victoria Nuland... ... admitted that, since 2004, the US has spent over $5 billion on promoting groups in Ukraine which would help align that country with the interests of the United States."
"...the US has had a hand in supporting Nazis in the Ukraine and elsewhere for a very long time."
"...John J. Mearsheimer, [in]....Foreign Affairs....states: Since the mid-1990s, Russian leaders have adamantly opposed NATO enlargement..."
"...[according to] former Reagan official, Paul Craig Roberts: ...in Ukraine...the United States organized and financed a coup."
"The Azov men use the neo-Nazi Wolfsangel (Wolf's Hook) symbol on their banner and members of the battalion are openly white supremacists, or anti-Semites."
"...Russia has no bases outside the former Soviet Union with the sole exception of Syria."
"The position of the US, which seems beyond question in this country, is that we have the right to project our power and our presence anywhere and everywhere throughout the world, while countries like Russia, and China too, are deemed to be acting aggressively and unreasonably if they claim any right to be free from the military presence of the US and other Western countries, even on their borders."
"...The Guardian explains, "[democratically elected Iranian Prime Minister Mohammad] Mosaddeq epitomized a unique 'anti-colonial' figure who was also committed to democratic values and human rights..."
"If the US did not support jihadists in Afghanistan to halt a Soviet invasion, as we had been led to believe, then what was it fighting in Afghanistan? As....Michael Parenti explains, the US was in reality fighting modernization efforts of a socialist government, albeit supported by the Soviet Union but not controlled by it."
"...the US actually decided to so far as overthrowing the regime in Syria in 2009 after Assad refused to allow an oil pipeline which would have allowed Qatar to connect through Syria to Turkey,in lieu of a pipeline allowing Russia to connect a pipeline from Syria through Iran and onward to Russia."
"...in Syria... ...the CIA and the Pentagon have been at times backing opposing militant groups that are fighting each other!"
"...while the media fixates on Russia's alleged crimes in Syria, there is nearly no discussion about the unfolding destruction of Yemen..."
"...the West...[removed] a secular leader in Muammar Gaddafi, quite possibly the greatest enemy of al-Qaeda, and [allowed] the country to be overridden by religious extremists."
"Putin publicly described the killing [of Gaddafi] as "repulsive," and publicly expressed his fear that the West was actively and intentionally moving to destabilize various societies, including Russia."
"...[Hillary] Clinton was the real architect behind NATO's imperial assault against Libya."
"...the US, and Clinton's team in particular, put forth the now-commonly used pretext of humanitarian intervention."
"...as Clinton's own emails show...the Clinton team itself did not believe ... that there was an impending human rights disaster that the Libyans needed protection from."
"...Libyan workers would be coddled no more, and would be forced instead to enter the dog-eat-dog world of the free market that we all love."
"...the US and NATO had demonstrated their willingness to ravage an entire country to keep countries like Russia out of the economic game..."
"...former President Jimmy Carter opined in July of 2015...that America is no longer a democracy, but rather, "an oligarchy with unlimited political bribery being the essence of getting the nominations for president or being elected president."
"...the unprecedented power that money has in the election process, a problem only exacerbated by the Supreme Court's Citizens United decision, which removed monetary caps on donations and opened the flood gates for secret PAC funding not subject not reporting requirements."
"...the outdated, anti-democratic Elector College system which allows someone (like Hillary Clinton, for example) to win the popular vote but lose the election anyway."
"...in the 2016 Presidential election, both major Parties ran the two most unpopular Presidential candidates in recorded memory, thereby leading many, particularly on the Democratic side to either stay home on Election Day or vote Third Party."
"...the DNC was dead set against who could have been a more popular, change candidate in Bernie Sanders, from winning the nomination."
"...the Democrats... ...have decided to blame Russia for their own failings."
"...in light of our own track record of interfering with, and indeed destroying, democratic institutions around the globe...the ferocity of the Democrats' expressions of concern on this issue is inversely proportional to what they have to offer the American people in terms of real policies."
"...the Russian hack story is a politically-motivated ploy being pushed mainly by the Democrats who revile Vladimir Putin,and , in my view, are desperately in need of a scapegoat for their recent election loss."
"One of the biggest players pushing the hack theory - ...is the CIA."
"...the CIA...is against a detente with Russia. Of course this makes perfect sense, for as George Kennan explained years ago, such a detente is simply bad for business, in particular the business of war which so profoundly undergirds the US economy, and which also ensures that the capital that is generated is siphoned off to the few rich on top instead of being wasted on social programs for the unwashed masses."
"...the CIA, may have been behind the hacks, but is making it look like the Russians did it.""
"...there is...good reason to believe that it is not the Russians at all who are blackmailing Trump, but rather, the CIA itself."
"...former President Bill Clinton..."received $500,000 for a Moscow speech from a Russian investment bank with ties to the Kremlin...""
"...the millions of dollars the Clinton Foundation has received over the years from Saudi Arabia..."
"We now face some of the greatest crises that humanity ... [has] ever seen - global warming, terrorism, nuclear proliferation, mass poverty and constant wars. To ally with a country like Russia to confront such challenges makes all the sense in the world."
There were quite a number of editorial/spelling/grammatical errors, unfortunately; the book appeared to be rather hastily written or possibly not carefully edited. The writing style is straightforward, but nothing particularly special. I thought some of the points the author makes were quite interesting - and he does lay out a convincing argument about how the US has politically and militarily interfered in the affairs of other countries around the world in order to ensure multi-national (MN) access to resources, or sometimes simply to deny countries' aligning themselves with Russia. There is no doubt this is true, but it still doesn't cancel out the problem, if Russia did manage to tilt the election in Trump's favor, because it viewed Trump as being less inimical to Russia than Clinton. (Two wrongs don't make a right.) We're not in a position to "judge" or "complain" if we're "guilty" of doing the same thing to many other countries - this is what the book seems to be saying. But doesn't not complaining effectively de-legitimize the 2016 election?
Here are a number of interesting quotes from the book:
"The country's economic engine runs on blood and oil. Without the constant specter of a foreign enemy, there is no American prosperity."
"Over the past century, the US military and the CIA have overthrown democratically elected governments in Guatemala, Iran, Congo, Chile, and Indonesia; assassinated,jailed, or exiled leaders in these and other countries; subverted governments and elections in even allied countries like France and Italy; and hacked the phones of friendly leaders in Germany and Brazil."
"...a major impact of the USSR's disappearance was the pretty swift disappearance of social democracies throughout the world, including the US's own social democracy lite. The truth is that many Western countries reacted to the Russian Revolution, and the gains that workers had in the Soviet Union in terms of social benefits, by feeling compelled to grant their own workers some of these concessions."
"...Clinton would also take advantage of the disappearance of the Socialist Bloc to enter into horrible trade deals -- for example, the infamous NAFTA of 1994 and the PNTR agreement with China in 2000 - - which allowed major capital flight away from the US and therefore a massive loss of jobs in this country, while also creating a general downward pressure on wages world-wide."
"With NAFTA, for example, the US lost around one million good manufacturing jobs to Mexico for its much lower labor costs."
"...there were intangible benefits that "real existing socialism" brought with it. ... The citizens of the USSR and former East Bloc felt a much closer kinship with one another,and, if you'll forgive me, comradeship, than they do now."
"...the US's "straight power" plays since WWII have succeeded in allowing itself, with only 5% of the world's population, to monopolize about 25% of its resources. ....far from advancing the "lofty" and "benign" goals of freedom and democracy, ...the US has been waging war around the globe to protect its own unjust share of resources. ...the US has needed the perceived threat of the USSR, or other like enemy, to justify this. [George] Kennan... said: "Were the Soviet Union to sink tomorrow under the waters of the ocean, the American military-industrial establishment would have to go on, substantially unchanged, until some other adversary could be invented. Anything else would be an unacceptable shock to the American economy."
"Now that the USSR is gone, the US has to continue to invent enemies in order to justify its bloated military - by far the biggest in the world."
"...despite the fact that the end of the Cold War was supposed to usher in a new period of peace and prosperity for the US, it did not, and it did because the US never wanted peace, nor did it really want prosperity, except the very few on top."
"Meanwhile, the prosperity the West promised to Russia if it would only give up its silly notions of socialism did not come either, and Bill Clinton and his cronies made sure of that."
"...the [neoliberal] course supported by the US was "painful" for the Russian people. But, [as noted in a Congressional Research Service (CRS) Report entitled "Russian Political Turmoil"]the argument went, the Russian people's pain was potentially our gain, given that "[a] weak and unstable Russia may be less likely to pose an aggressive military threat..."
"Through the US consultants' help, ... Yeltsin "... triumphed -- and along with it came the tools of modern campaigns, including he trickery and slickery Americans know so well" [according to a 7/15/96 "Time" magazine article entitled "Rescuing Boris."] Examples of the American "trickery and slickery" which Yeltsin used to win re-election were "extensive 'black operations,' including disrupting opposition rallies and press conferences, spreading disinformation among Yeltsin supporters, and denying media access to the opposition."
"The Duma, which still had a large contingent of Communists who were resistant to the market changes which were, by all accounts, wreaking havoc in Russia, was refusing to approve Yeltsin's pick for Prime Minister, Yegor Gaidar. "...the architect of the economic shock therapy..." In response, Yeltsin tried to dissolve the Duma, but the Duma declared this action to be unconstitutional. They then proceeded to remove Yeltsin from office and to install the Vice-President in his stead. Yeltsin responded by shutting off electricity and water to the White House (Duma building). ... when a number of Duma lawmakers still refuse d to leave and supporters showed up to ... protest Yeltsin's actions, Yeltsin, did what any good, democratic leader would do: he shelled the White House, killing anywhere between 200 and 2,000 people. A new Constitution was then adopted which gave more power to the Executive Branch. In the end, these "events that took place in October 1993 secure the domination of the executive branch over the legislative and judicial branches, effectively prohibiting the country from being a parliamentary republic."
"...as Paul Craig Roberts, former Assistant Secretary of the Treasury under President Ronald Reagan, explains: [D] the long Cold War,the Soviet Union, which is Russia in most people's minds, was demonized effectively. This demonization persists. Remember,the initial collapse of the USSR worked very much to the West's advantage. They could easily manipulate [Boris] Yeltsin,and various oligarchs were able to seize and plunder the resources of the country. Much Israeli and American money was part of that. When Putin came along and started stopping this and trying to put the country back in place, he was demonized."
"Meanwhile, in 1962, President Kennedy announced the National Security Doctrine which, as is generally true with US "national security" policies, had nothing at all to do with the security of the US homeland and its citizens, but rather with the goal of preserving the US's unjust hold over the world's resources by destroying social movements in the Third World that aimed at securing their countries' resources for their own people - an unforgivable aim."
"The US - through various means, including through the DEA and CIA - have supported both the right-wing paramilitaries, as well as drug cartels aligned with these paramilitaries, in order to foster the unequal distribution of land in Colombia."
"The result is that Colombia has the largest internally displaced population on earth (even greater than Syria) at over 7 million, with a disproportionate number of the internally displaced being Afro-Colombians and indigenous tribes, nay of the latter now being pushed to the point of extinction, leading some groups to raise the specter of genocide in Colombia."
"Again, this is all according to plan, and advances the interests of the US, which invented, and continues to support, the Colombian paramilitaries in order to make Colombia, Latin America and other far-flung countries safe for maximum corporate penetration and resource extraction."
"...former President Alvaro Uribe asked the US to extradite these paramilitary leaders because, back home in Colombia,they had begun "confessing not only their war crimes but also their ties to his allies and relatives."
"...the potential confession of paramilitary leaders to their links with the US government, as well as to US multinationals, was most certainly another reason for their extradition and treatment with kid gloves."
"...the only plausible explanation for the US partnership in such crimes is its quest for a disproportionate share of the world's resources..."
"Mr. Pinochet's regime ultimately was responsible for the murder of at least 3,197 individuals and the torture of over 30,000."
"Shortly before the coup in which he would die, Dr. Allende gave an impassioned speech at the UN decrying the interference of ITT, as well as Kennecott Copper in his country."
"Once the coup took place, the United States continued to support the Pinochet regime, including Manuel Contreras, who served as an agent of the CIA from 1974 to 1977, and went on to head Chile's intelligence agency, known as the DINA, which played the key role in the human rights abuses carried out in Chile."
"A Sept. 19, 2000, document released by the CIA... explains: US military assistance and sales grew significantly during the years of greatest human rights abuses."
"...Allende was not a communist. ...the US overthrew a constitutional democracy citing Cold War concerns, but such concerns were not bona fide in this case. Rather, the Chilean [coup]... as in so many US interventions, was about keeping Chile in a subservient economic role, and the US trusted that Pinochet was the man to ensure this. The Red Scare was just a pretext."
"...Colombia is currently the Western Hemisphere's leader in disappeared persons, with well over 92,000 persons disappeared and counting..."
"...there are few writers and journalists of [Mark] Twain's integrity today."
"...it appears that it was US mining interests, rather than any humanitarian concerns, that may have been the motivating factor for [Bill] Clinton to support the invasion of the DRC [Democratic Republic of the Congo]..."
"...the UN Security Council, in a 2002 report largely ignored by the media, also concluded that the Rwandan and Ugandan occupation of the DRC was not done for humanitarian purposes, but rather to secure mineral wealth there."
"...some argue...that...Clinton intentionally set the entire DRC war in motion in order to secure mining rights there."
"...Kambale Musavuli, a Congolese activist...explains: ...Chaos allows resources to leave from the Congo at a cheap price, and of course it's not actually just leaving, it's actually being stolen from the Congolese people."
"...the US press is all too willing to push any pretext for war that the US government puts forth..."
"...we in the United States have been collectively lulled into accepting our country's worst and most depraved crimes, and believing them to be acts of mercy and kindness."
"...Bill Clinton... ...admitted...that his trade policies in Haiti...allowed farmers, including Arkansas farmers... to dump cheap, subsidized food products into Haiti, destroyed the livelihood of small Haitian farmers."
"...in analyzing the 2016 election failure of Hillary Clinton, the Democrats might do better to focus on the failings of the Clintons which led to this defeat."
"...writer Harold Pinter in his 2005 Nobel Prize acceptance speech...[said]: The United States supported and in many cases engendered every right wing military dictatorship in the world after the end of the Second World War. I refer to Indonesia Greece,Uruguay, Brazil, Paraguay, Haiti, Turkey,the Philippines, Guatemala, El Salvador, and, or course, Chile. ... The crimes of the United States have been systematic, constant, vicious, remorseless, abut very few people have actually talked about them. .... It has exercised a quite clinical manipulation of power worldwide while masquerading as a force for universal good. It's a brilliant, even witty, highly successful act of hypnosis."
"...a key public relations spokesman for the new [Honduras] coup regime was none other than Clinton campaign team member Lanny Davis."
"...what was installed after the coup was something like a permanent counterinsurgency on behalf of transnational capital."
"...the Garifunas - Hondurans of African descent .... are being subjected to intense discrimination and are being forced off their land in large numbers by real estate developers and others who covet their land, with many being forced to leave Honduras altogether."
"...this [Yugoslav] intervention was really motivated by the desire of the US to destroy the last socialist state in Europe and to prime the Western world for a post-Soviet, uni-polar world order i which the US would use NATO to intervene anywhere in the world as it saw fit."
"...NAFTA...has been devastating for Mexico in terms of destroying the livelihood of about 2 million Mexican small farmers..."
"It is as if Russia is to have no self-interest anywhere i the world, while the US should be able to assert its self-interest everywhere."
"...Obama's Assistant Secretary of State, Victoria Nuland... ... admitted that, since 2004, the US has spent over $5 billion on promoting groups in Ukraine which would help align that country with the interests of the United States."
"...the US has had a hand in supporting Nazis in the Ukraine and elsewhere for a very long time."
"...John J. Mearsheimer, [in]....Foreign Affairs....states: Since the mid-1990s, Russian leaders have adamantly opposed NATO enlargement..."
"...[according to] former Reagan official, Paul Craig Roberts: ...in Ukraine...the United States organized and financed a coup."
"The Azov men use the neo-Nazi Wolfsangel (Wolf's Hook) symbol on their banner and members of the battalion are openly white supremacists, or anti-Semites."
"...Russia has no bases outside the former Soviet Union with the sole exception of Syria."
"The position of the US, which seems beyond question in this country, is that we have the right to project our power and our presence anywhere and everywhere throughout the world, while countries like Russia, and China too, are deemed to be acting aggressively and unreasonably if they claim any right to be free from the military presence of the US and other Western countries, even on their borders."
"...The Guardian explains, "[democratically elected Iranian Prime Minister Mohammad] Mosaddeq epitomized a unique 'anti-colonial' figure who was also committed to democratic values and human rights..."
"If the US did not support jihadists in Afghanistan to halt a Soviet invasion, as we had been led to believe, then what was it fighting in Afghanistan? As....Michael Parenti explains, the US was in reality fighting modernization efforts of a socialist government, albeit supported by the Soviet Union but not controlled by it."
"...the US actually decided to so far as overthrowing the regime in Syria in 2009 after Assad refused to allow an oil pipeline which would have allowed Qatar to connect through Syria to Turkey,in lieu of a pipeline allowing Russia to connect a pipeline from Syria through Iran and onward to Russia."
"...in Syria... ...the CIA and the Pentagon have been at times backing opposing militant groups that are fighting each other!"
"...while the media fixates on Russia's alleged crimes in Syria, there is nearly no discussion about the unfolding destruction of Yemen..."
"...the West...[removed] a secular leader in Muammar Gaddafi, quite possibly the greatest enemy of al-Qaeda, and [allowed] the country to be overridden by religious extremists."
"Putin publicly described the killing [of Gaddafi] as "repulsive," and publicly expressed his fear that the West was actively and intentionally moving to destabilize various societies, including Russia."
"...[Hillary] Clinton was the real architect behind NATO's imperial assault against Libya."
"...the US, and Clinton's team in particular, put forth the now-commonly used pretext of humanitarian intervention."
"...as Clinton's own emails show...the Clinton team itself did not believe ... that there was an impending human rights disaster that the Libyans needed protection from."
"...Libyan workers would be coddled no more, and would be forced instead to enter the dog-eat-dog world of the free market that we all love."
"...the US and NATO had demonstrated their willingness to ravage an entire country to keep countries like Russia out of the economic game..."
"...former President Jimmy Carter opined in July of 2015...that America is no longer a democracy, but rather, "an oligarchy with unlimited political bribery being the essence of getting the nominations for president or being elected president."
"...the unprecedented power that money has in the election process, a problem only exacerbated by the Supreme Court's Citizens United decision, which removed monetary caps on donations and opened the flood gates for secret PAC funding not subject not reporting requirements."
"...the outdated, anti-democratic Elector College system which allows someone (like Hillary Clinton, for example) to win the popular vote but lose the election anyway."
"...in the 2016 Presidential election, both major Parties ran the two most unpopular Presidential candidates in recorded memory, thereby leading many, particularly on the Democratic side to either stay home on Election Day or vote Third Party."
"...the DNC was dead set against who could have been a more popular, change candidate in Bernie Sanders, from winning the nomination."
"...the Democrats... ...have decided to blame Russia for their own failings."
"...in light of our own track record of interfering with, and indeed destroying, democratic institutions around the globe...the ferocity of the Democrats' expressions of concern on this issue is inversely proportional to what they have to offer the American people in terms of real policies."
"...the Russian hack story is a politically-motivated ploy being pushed mainly by the Democrats who revile Vladimir Putin,and , in my view, are desperately in need of a scapegoat for their recent election loss."
"One of the biggest players pushing the hack theory - ...is the CIA."
"...the CIA...is against a detente with Russia. Of course this makes perfect sense, for as George Kennan explained years ago, such a detente is simply bad for business, in particular the business of war which so profoundly undergirds the US economy, and which also ensures that the capital that is generated is siphoned off to the few rich on top instead of being wasted on social programs for the unwashed masses."
"...the CIA, may have been behind the hacks, but is making it look like the Russians did it.""
"...there is...good reason to believe that it is not the Russians at all who are blackmailing Trump, but rather, the CIA itself."
"...former President Bill Clinton..."received $500,000 for a Moscow speech from a Russian investment bank with ties to the Kremlin...""
"...the millions of dollars the Clinton Foundation has received over the years from Saudi Arabia..."
"We now face some of the greatest crises that humanity ... [has] ever seen - global warming, terrorism, nuclear proliferation, mass poverty and constant wars. To ally with a country like Russia to confront such challenges makes all the sense in the world."
September 7, 2019
It takes enormous courage to write a book like this, which goes completely against the narrative promoted by America’s foreign policy and military establishments. Courage because now any defense of Putin and Russia as actors on the world stage will not be met with polite rebuttal and rational well-supported refutation, but personal vilification, marginalization, attacks on character and integrity, aspersions about disloyalty and lack of patriotic commitment, allegations of treachery and even sedition. Lacking anything—e.g. facts—with which to rebut and refute the message, opponents of a balanced, objective, truthful analysis of Russian-American relations must resort to attacking the messenger.
Early in the book, Mr. Kovalik describes the process which radicalized him, what personal events opened his eyes to the barbarity and hypocrisy which has been centerpieces of America’s history from its earliest days. His transformation occurred during a visit to Nicaragua during his college years. He learned then to question and always be highly skeptical of the “official rationale” inflicted on the general public in the U.S., with the covert intent of obtaining—often manufacturing out of thin air—consent for America’s bullying, manipulations, aggressions, destructive interference, regime changes, and outright subjugation of countries across the planet.
History is the best teacher for understanding the present. Our history, as is thoroughly documented in this short but incisive volume, is riddled with false flags, misrepresentations, distortions, propaganda and outright lies, carefully calculated to serve the real agenda of our government, which exclusively is unambiguous support for U.S. corporate interests, ruthlessly undermining any nation which dares to consider even the most diluted iteration of socialism, and punishing—all too frequently destroying—any country and its leaders for independently adopting policies which don’t disproportionately benefit the U.S. and honor the authority of the U.S. as world hegemon.
What has Russia under Putin done? It put Russia’s interests first, it openly criticized the U.S. for its wanton aggression and disregard for international law, called out the U.S. for its consistent meddling in the affairs of other nations, including all too often violently overthrowing governments it doesn’t approve of, and had the audacity to deploy national defense mechanisms which frees it of being blackmailed by U.S. military might. For the U.S., which regards itself as the “exceptional” nation selected by destiny to control the world, these constitute an affront which must be answered, a challenge which must be eradicated, even this requires a world war which likely will go nuclear.
So it’s Russia bad, Putin badder. Every imaginable and imagined accusation, typically presented as fact, is spewed out and flung at Putin and Russia. And thus what we get as “news” these days is a childish white hats vs. black hats depiction of the necessary battle of Great Good America vs. Scary Evil Russia, a facile scenario now dubbed as the Second Cold War.
The extremes our government spokespersons and the obsequious media has gone to in order to strike fear in all of us about Russia and to incite a personal hatred for Vladimir Putin, should by themselves raise suspicions and reasonable doubts about what’s going on. But when the media is controlled by six major corporations with unshakeable deference to official government propaganda and those who fabricate it, and political leaders from both major parties are owned by Wall Street, the big banks, the corporations, the ruling elite who obscenely profit from perpetual war, all everyday people get 24/7 is yarns about the Russian threat, Putin’s bloodthirsty desire to return to the glory days of Russia as a great power, Russian aggression, Russian invasions, Russian meddling in our otherwise perfect democracy, Russian targeted assassinations, Russian plots to subvert and destroy freedom-loving countries, Russian blame for everything from STDs to plugged sinks and family squabbles. It’s a premeditated program of brainwashing inflicted on a gullible and generally hapless American public.
The only possible pre-revolutionary antidote is thorough, unbiased investigative journalism, potent research, historical knowledge and perspective, personal insights shared with candor and clarity, all of the foregoing assembled by an author of the high caliber of Dan Kovalik, into an immensely readable and superbly informative book like The Plot To Scapegoat Russia: How the CIA and the Deep State Have Conspired to Vilify Putin.
Early in the book, Mr. Kovalik describes the process which radicalized him, what personal events opened his eyes to the barbarity and hypocrisy which has been centerpieces of America’s history from its earliest days. His transformation occurred during a visit to Nicaragua during his college years. He learned then to question and always be highly skeptical of the “official rationale” inflicted on the general public in the U.S., with the covert intent of obtaining—often manufacturing out of thin air—consent for America’s bullying, manipulations, aggressions, destructive interference, regime changes, and outright subjugation of countries across the planet.
History is the best teacher for understanding the present. Our history, as is thoroughly documented in this short but incisive volume, is riddled with false flags, misrepresentations, distortions, propaganda and outright lies, carefully calculated to serve the real agenda of our government, which exclusively is unambiguous support for U.S. corporate interests, ruthlessly undermining any nation which dares to consider even the most diluted iteration of socialism, and punishing—all too frequently destroying—any country and its leaders for independently adopting policies which don’t disproportionately benefit the U.S. and honor the authority of the U.S. as world hegemon.
What has Russia under Putin done? It put Russia’s interests first, it openly criticized the U.S. for its wanton aggression and disregard for international law, called out the U.S. for its consistent meddling in the affairs of other nations, including all too often violently overthrowing governments it doesn’t approve of, and had the audacity to deploy national defense mechanisms which frees it of being blackmailed by U.S. military might. For the U.S., which regards itself as the “exceptional” nation selected by destiny to control the world, these constitute an affront which must be answered, a challenge which must be eradicated, even this requires a world war which likely will go nuclear.
So it’s Russia bad, Putin badder. Every imaginable and imagined accusation, typically presented as fact, is spewed out and flung at Putin and Russia. And thus what we get as “news” these days is a childish white hats vs. black hats depiction of the necessary battle of Great Good America vs. Scary Evil Russia, a facile scenario now dubbed as the Second Cold War.
The extremes our government spokespersons and the obsequious media has gone to in order to strike fear in all of us about Russia and to incite a personal hatred for Vladimir Putin, should by themselves raise suspicions and reasonable doubts about what’s going on. But when the media is controlled by six major corporations with unshakeable deference to official government propaganda and those who fabricate it, and political leaders from both major parties are owned by Wall Street, the big banks, the corporations, the ruling elite who obscenely profit from perpetual war, all everyday people get 24/7 is yarns about the Russian threat, Putin’s bloodthirsty desire to return to the glory days of Russia as a great power, Russian aggression, Russian invasions, Russian meddling in our otherwise perfect democracy, Russian targeted assassinations, Russian plots to subvert and destroy freedom-loving countries, Russian blame for everything from STDs to plugged sinks and family squabbles. It’s a premeditated program of brainwashing inflicted on a gullible and generally hapless American public.
The only possible pre-revolutionary antidote is thorough, unbiased investigative journalism, potent research, historical knowledge and perspective, personal insights shared with candor and clarity, all of the foregoing assembled by an author of the high caliber of Dan Kovalik, into an immensely readable and superbly informative book like The Plot To Scapegoat Russia: How the CIA and the Deep State Have Conspired to Vilify Putin.
November 4, 2020
I picked this book up on the discount shelf in a red state, b/c the title reflected what I already thought. This is not the kind of thing that is going to sell well in the South, but that doesn't mean the premise isn't worth looking into. So I handed over my $2.99 & hoped Kovalik would have something to say to me that might answer my question about why the state (the US) seems to be trying to resurrect the Cold War. I both did & didn't get what I wanted.
The information in this book I have no quibble with, but the editing...oh, good lord the editing. Plenty of other reviewers have mentioned the editing so I'll leave a well-chewed bone alone. The content was an overview of the true way in which the US maneuvers itself globally. For some people, perhaps a large number of those who would even be willing to open a book titled as this one is, this information comes as no surprise. For other readers however, I could see it serving as a beginning primer to the idea that perhaps it might be beneficial to not blindly accept declared motives issued by the mouthpieces of the state apparatus as literal truth. The point of all that history in this book is to encourage the reader to view the fanning flames under all the recent talk about Russia with a critical lens, & a historical perspective. That then allows the author to put forth his case for the vilification of Russia by the most recent mouth pieces. He built a base, & then made his case.
Overall, I did like this book. The author was neither hysterical, nor extreme-leaning. The views put forth came from a very well informed background & a reason-seeking mind. Unfortunately, the editing kept it from being better, which is a shame. More history on Russia & the Russian-perspective could also have been helpful, but it might also have added bulk that could have weighed down the material. Despite its short-comings, it was still a decent work, & definitely worth my $.
Oh, & he introduced me to this guy, which was cool: https://raymcgovern.com/bio/
July 26, 2017
If you liked "Confessions of an Economic Hit Man" you will like this book at least as much.
Instead of write a detailed review, I refer readers to the excellent review by Adam Kiehl who said everything I wanted to, better than I would have.
Instead of write a detailed review, I refer readers to the excellent review by Adam Kiehl who said everything I wanted to, better than I would have.
August 17, 2018
This is a scary book to read, especially right after reading The Road to Unfreedom.
Kovalik is a Human Rights Lawyer and teaches it. In the book, he was against almost all American intervention after World War 2, alleging that the CIA was an evil organization and almost all the various Presidents of the United States had blood in their hands.
A large part of the book was an attack of American policy of intervention in Central America, Africa, Korea, Vietnam and the Middle East. So America supported any regime that was pro-American, and destroyed regimes that were communist or socialist. He alleged that the American army, paramilitary groups and forces supported by America committed numerous war crimes. He even alleged that all those wars fought to contain communism during the Cold War were unnecessary. He was very critical of NATO, alleging that its relentless push to add all the ex-Eastern bloc countries to its membership was an intentional provocation of Russia, and NATO was terrible to have killed Gaddafi when all he did was trying to fight some rebels.
Having explained that America is in fact the Evil Empire, and Europe not far behind, he explained that Russia did similar things that America did in its own backyard. So Russia really did invade Ukraine to protect local Russian speakers. All the Western media blamed Russia because they have been mind-controlled by the invincible CIA.
Having read this book, one would understand Trump’s position much better, especially his remarks that America was not that innocent, which of course outraged most of the American media.
Oh well. Even the great Lee Kuan Yew thought America was right to get involved in Vietnam and that helped stopped the expansion of communism from Vietnam down to Malaya and Singapore. It was also disturbing that Kovalik often emphasised the war crimes of American and America-supported troops but omitted those performed by the other side, for example during the Vietnam War when both sides bombed civilians. Also he conventionally omitted the fact that the Korean War started when North Korea invaded South Korea.
It was always great to read both sides of the story, and Kovalik is definitely in the same camp as Noam Chomsky. I contend that it is just really, really difficult to do the right thing sometimes, there are just no easy choices, and war is just terrible for whoever involved because someone is bound to get killed.
Kovalik is a Human Rights Lawyer and teaches it. In the book, he was against almost all American intervention after World War 2, alleging that the CIA was an evil organization and almost all the various Presidents of the United States had blood in their hands.
A large part of the book was an attack of American policy of intervention in Central America, Africa, Korea, Vietnam and the Middle East. So America supported any regime that was pro-American, and destroyed regimes that were communist or socialist. He alleged that the American army, paramilitary groups and forces supported by America committed numerous war crimes. He even alleged that all those wars fought to contain communism during the Cold War were unnecessary. He was very critical of NATO, alleging that its relentless push to add all the ex-Eastern bloc countries to its membership was an intentional provocation of Russia, and NATO was terrible to have killed Gaddafi when all he did was trying to fight some rebels.
Having explained that America is in fact the Evil Empire, and Europe not far behind, he explained that Russia did similar things that America did in its own backyard. So Russia really did invade Ukraine to protect local Russian speakers. All the Western media blamed Russia because they have been mind-controlled by the invincible CIA.
Having read this book, one would understand Trump’s position much better, especially his remarks that America was not that innocent, which of course outraged most of the American media.
Oh well. Even the great Lee Kuan Yew thought America was right to get involved in Vietnam and that helped stopped the expansion of communism from Vietnam down to Malaya and Singapore. It was also disturbing that Kovalik often emphasised the war crimes of American and America-supported troops but omitted those performed by the other side, for example during the Vietnam War when both sides bombed civilians. Also he conventionally omitted the fact that the Korean War started when North Korea invaded South Korea.
It was always great to read both sides of the story, and Kovalik is definitely in the same camp as Noam Chomsky. I contend that it is just really, really difficult to do the right thing sometimes, there are just no easy choices, and war is just terrible for whoever involved because someone is bound to get killed.
October 26, 2017
An urgently needed corrective to the US mass media's one-sided and hysterical propaganda campaign against Putin and Russia. Without a scintilla of evidence to support the central charge--that Russia hacked the DNC and tilted the election to Trump--they are doubling down on the demonization campaign, accusing Russia of fomenting racial division through Black Lives Matter, and Russian trolls sowing division via Facebook articles.
This is all reminiscent of the Red Scare in the 1950s. Propagandists know that repetition works. If you repeat a bald-faced lie to hundreds of millions of people often enough, over time more and more people start to believe it. We saw that in the lies the Bush administration rolled out about Iraq in the Fall of 2002. By the following Spring, large percentages of people believed that Saddam Hussein was somehow behind the events of 9/11. This made it easier for the war makers in government to launch another illegal war, this time against Iraq.
It doesn't matter that no evidence is produced to support the lie. Millions of people simply have no critical thinking skills. The mass media is softening them up, preparing them for war with Russia. But there can be no winners in wars between nuclear powers. One would have thought that point is obvious, but apparently it escapes our dear leaders in the Deep State and their media minions.
I have only given the book four stars because, while it is well written, it was poorly copy edited.
This is all reminiscent of the Red Scare in the 1950s. Propagandists know that repetition works. If you repeat a bald-faced lie to hundreds of millions of people often enough, over time more and more people start to believe it. We saw that in the lies the Bush administration rolled out about Iraq in the Fall of 2002. By the following Spring, large percentages of people believed that Saddam Hussein was somehow behind the events of 9/11. This made it easier for the war makers in government to launch another illegal war, this time against Iraq.
It doesn't matter that no evidence is produced to support the lie. Millions of people simply have no critical thinking skills. The mass media is softening them up, preparing them for war with Russia. But there can be no winners in wars between nuclear powers. One would have thought that point is obvious, but apparently it escapes our dear leaders in the Deep State and their media minions.
I have only given the book four stars because, while it is well written, it was poorly copy edited.
November 24, 2017
Definitely worth reading
An interesting summary of history, albeit not from a mainstream media perspective, on how our government with a complicit media, has consistently used a false narrative of Russia as justification for many atrocities and destructive foreign policy.
An interesting summary of history, albeit not from a mainstream media perspective, on how our government with a complicit media, has consistently used a false narrative of Russia as justification for many atrocities and destructive foreign policy.
March 26, 2021
As an indictment of US exceptionalism this is fairly on-point, but the author has little of value to say on Russia. At times shrill, at others just snarky, he would have done better to put some emotional distance between himself and this book.
February 7, 2020
It's all a conspiracy, hence it is about time that a group of determined people take over the power from these idiots that have a right to vote. Or shorter: Kovalik's take on Democracy.
Want to read
August 5, 2017
April 13, 2018
„The Plot to scapegoat Russia“ gehört zu den Büchern, die man gelesen/gehört haben muss, bevor man überhaupt anfängt, eigene Meinung zum Thema Russland, Putin, Konflikte in Syrien, Ukraine, etc. zu bilden.
Wer allerdings seine Meinung über die o.g. Themen lieber aus den sog. Leitmedien erfährt und das allgegenwärtige Russland- bzw. Putin-bashing treudoof gern weiterplappert, der kann sich getrost weiter vom Mainstream veräppeln lassen. Dem wird dieses Buch zu hoch sein: Das wird nicht in den von der offiziellen „Linie“ gesetzten Rahmen passen. Es ist etwas für diejenigen, die frei und selbst denken können.
Wer auch so „schlau“ ist und die abgenutzte Klamotte namens Verschwörungstheorie aus der alten Mottenkiste der offiziellen Meinungsmacher bemüht, dem sei gesagt, dass diese längst ausgedient hat. Klare Worte und unverfälschte Bilder sind heute gefragt. Alles andere ist Volksverdummung, davon gab es bereits reichlich.
Wer aber die Version der Leitmedien schon mal als wenig befriedigend empfunden, diese hinterfragt und nach Antworten zu brennenden Fragen der Gegenwart in guten Sachbüchern gesucht hat, für solche Leser/Hörer kann dieses Buch u.U. zum Augenöffner werden. Vieles, was man in den offiziellen Medien vergeblich sucht, ist hier klar, logisch nachvollziehbar und wohl begründet dargelegt worden. Spätestens ab der Mitte begreift man, warum der Titel dieses Buches so lautet. Passt prima zum Inhalt.
Wie Paul Schreyer in seinem ebenso sehr lesenswerten Buch „Die Angst der Eliten“ (2018) schreibt: „Das lateinische Motto divide et impera – ‚teile und herrsche‘ – bleibt weiter aktuell. Wem es gelingt, Menschen, Völker, Kulturen oder auch Anhänger von Parteien gegeneinander aufzuhetzen, so dass sie ihre grundlegenden gemeinsamen Interessen vergessen, der kann sie mühelos alle miteinander beherrschen.“ S. 158.
Diese These vertritt auch Dan Kovalik. Er sucht nach Ursachen der heutigen weniger erfreulichen Situation und findet sie im weltweiten, flächendeckenden Machtanspruch der superreichen Eliten.
Kovalik fängt damit an, dass er auch mal ein Kind der US- Propagandamaschinerie war, die Russen fürchtete und ihnen keine Butter aufs Brot gönnte, milde gesagt. Noch in seinen Studienzeiten aber kam er mit den Kriegen in Berührung, die USA in vielen Ländern wie Iran, Kuba, Haiti, Brasilien, Chile, Panama, uvm. aus o.g. Gründen führte. An die Öffentlichkeit wurde der Unfug als etwas Nobles verkauft: erst unter dem Mäntelchen des Kampfes gegen Kommunismus, und als dieser Grund entfiel, unter der Soße der Verbreitung demokratischer Werte. Kovalik sagt auch, wer und wann auf diese glorreiche Idee kam, bzw. von wem er diese abgekupfert hatte.
Kovaliks erzählt auch von seinen Bekannten, ehem. CIA Mitarbeitern, die aus patriotischen Gründen der Organisation beigetreten waren, um später völlig desillusioniert und zutiefst enttäuscht ihr den Rücken zu kehren und zu denjenigen zu werden, die über die Gräueltaten der US-Politik, z.B. über die illegalen Kriege, hier nach Terminologie von Daniel Ganser („Illegale Kriege“ (2016)) , die Öffentlichkeit aufklären und die Abkehr vom aggressiven Militarismus der Supereichen fordern.
Kovalik erklärt auch plausibel, dass Russland rein gar kein Interesse an Konfrontation mit dem Westen hat, vielmehr betont er, es kann sich auch aus rein wirtschaftlichen Gründen solche Allüren nicht leisten. Da gibt ganz andere, dringende Probleme, die gelöst werden müssen. Die Finanzmittel werden eher dort benötigt, statt sie im Militärsektor verschwinden zu lassen. Er gibt auch die Zahlen an, wie viel USA in Aufrüstung investiert und wie viel Russland. Da sind zwei verschiedene Dimensionen.
Der Autor stellt auch klar, dass die US-Wirtschaft auf der Rüstungsindustrie fußt, d.h. je stärker die Nachfrage hier, desto reicher werden die schon ohnehin Reiche, die von den Kriegen in vielerlei Hinsicht (Macht und noch mehr Geld) profitieren. Hier kann man auch die potentielle Bereitschaft, die Aggression zu zügeln, ablesen, sowie die Gründe für Russland-bashing finden, das seit einigen Jahren in den Leitmedien omnipräsent ist. Russland hat (noch) viel an Bodenschätzen, Landflächen, etc., von denen die Eliten kaum ihre Finger lassen können.
Kovalik sagt auch, egal in welches Land USA eingefallen war, ob Kuba, Chile, Lybien, Syrien, uvm. überall wurde der Machtinhaber im Amt sofort der öffentlichen Diffamierung unterzogen. Man sieht also, die Herrschaften verfügen über feste Abläufe in Sachen Unterwerfung anderer Länder. Diese werden checklistenartig von Land zu Land wiederholt. Putin-bashing gehört also zum Geschäft.
Etliche pikante Details, die das aggressive Verhalten der Superreichen offenlegen, über die verdeckten Kriege unter Regierungen Clinton, Obama, z.B. in der Ukraine, Syrien, sowie über H. Clinton und ihre Rolle in der Destabilisierung des Weltfriedens, i.e. über ihr unermüdliches Engagement bei der Entfachung des Konflikts in Lybien uvm. erfährt man einiges in diesem Buch ebenfalls.
Über die so breit diskutierten angeblichen Cyber- und andere „Angriffe“ der Russen sagt der Autor auch paar klare Worte.
Um Fazit zu ziehen, zitiert Kovalik zunächst New Yorker: „‘[t]he C.I.A., for ist part, worked to overthrow regimes in Iran, Cuba, Haiti, Brazil, Chile, and Panama. It used cash payments, propaganda, and sometimes violent measures to sway elections away from leftist parties in Italy, Guatemala, Indonesia, South Vietnam, und Nicaragua,‘“, und fährt fort: „While the New Yorker, as most other media sources, warns nonetheless of making ‚false moral equivalences‘ between the conduct of the US and Russia in such respects, let me say that I wold never do that: the US conduct ist so much worse that equating the two wold not at all be fair to Russia.“ S. 158.
Kovaliks Analysen haben mir kraft seines messerscharfen Verstandes sehr zugesagt. Da denkt einer klar und weiß es auch zum Ausdruck zu bringen, musste ich vielerorts denken.
Das Buch ist in einem hochprofessionellen Schreibstil verfasst worden: klar, knapp, griffig, präzise. Das Vokabular ist nicht sonderlich kompliziert, sodass man mit gutem, etwa B2 Level, da gut zurechtkommen würde.
Der Sprecher Alex Hyde-White hat sehr gut gelesen: alles sehr klar artikuliert, sodass es keinen Raum für Missverständnisse gegeben hatte. Seine Stimme, wie auch seine Art vorzutragen, ist angenehm, ich konnte da stundenlang völlig problemlos zuhören.
Beide Ausgaben, Hörbuch und TB, habe ich geholt. Das passiert mir bei manchen, besonders guten Büchern.
Fazit: Sehr lesenswertes Werk für all diejenigen, die die heutige polit. Situation, v.a. ihre Ursachen besser verstehen wollen. 5 hell leuchtende Sterne und unbedingte Lesepflicht.
Bezeichnend ist, dass dieses Buch nur in der Originalfassung zu haben ist. Das gibt zu denken. Es fand sich bisher also kein Verlag, der dieses Buch dem deutschsprachigen Publikum zugänglich machen würde. An Brisanz, sowie lesenswerten Inhalten, mangelt es hier bestimmt nicht.
Erfreulich ist, dass Kovalik mit seinen Ansichten nicht allein dasteht. Mit u. g. Autoren stimmt er in weiten Strecken überein:
„Illegale Kriege“ von Daniel Ganser,
„Lügen die Medien?“ von Jens Wernicke,
„Fassadendemokratie und Tiefer Staat“ von Ulrich Mies, Jens Wernicke,
„Die Angst der Eliten“ von Paul Schreyer,
„Wir sind die Guten“ von Mathias Bröckers und Paul Schreyer,
„Eiszeit“ von Gabriele Krone-Schmalz,
Werke von Noam Chomsky
Wer allerdings seine Meinung über die o.g. Themen lieber aus den sog. Leitmedien erfährt und das allgegenwärtige Russland- bzw. Putin-bashing treudoof gern weiterplappert, der kann sich getrost weiter vom Mainstream veräppeln lassen. Dem wird dieses Buch zu hoch sein: Das wird nicht in den von der offiziellen „Linie“ gesetzten Rahmen passen. Es ist etwas für diejenigen, die frei und selbst denken können.
Wer auch so „schlau“ ist und die abgenutzte Klamotte namens Verschwörungstheorie aus der alten Mottenkiste der offiziellen Meinungsmacher bemüht, dem sei gesagt, dass diese längst ausgedient hat. Klare Worte und unverfälschte Bilder sind heute gefragt. Alles andere ist Volksverdummung, davon gab es bereits reichlich.
Wer aber die Version der Leitmedien schon mal als wenig befriedigend empfunden, diese hinterfragt und nach Antworten zu brennenden Fragen der Gegenwart in guten Sachbüchern gesucht hat, für solche Leser/Hörer kann dieses Buch u.U. zum Augenöffner werden. Vieles, was man in den offiziellen Medien vergeblich sucht, ist hier klar, logisch nachvollziehbar und wohl begründet dargelegt worden. Spätestens ab der Mitte begreift man, warum der Titel dieses Buches so lautet. Passt prima zum Inhalt.
Wie Paul Schreyer in seinem ebenso sehr lesenswerten Buch „Die Angst der Eliten“ (2018) schreibt: „Das lateinische Motto divide et impera – ‚teile und herrsche‘ – bleibt weiter aktuell. Wem es gelingt, Menschen, Völker, Kulturen oder auch Anhänger von Parteien gegeneinander aufzuhetzen, so dass sie ihre grundlegenden gemeinsamen Interessen vergessen, der kann sie mühelos alle miteinander beherrschen.“ S. 158.
Diese These vertritt auch Dan Kovalik. Er sucht nach Ursachen der heutigen weniger erfreulichen Situation und findet sie im weltweiten, flächendeckenden Machtanspruch der superreichen Eliten.
Kovalik fängt damit an, dass er auch mal ein Kind der US- Propagandamaschinerie war, die Russen fürchtete und ihnen keine Butter aufs Brot gönnte, milde gesagt. Noch in seinen Studienzeiten aber kam er mit den Kriegen in Berührung, die USA in vielen Ländern wie Iran, Kuba, Haiti, Brasilien, Chile, Panama, uvm. aus o.g. Gründen führte. An die Öffentlichkeit wurde der Unfug als etwas Nobles verkauft: erst unter dem Mäntelchen des Kampfes gegen Kommunismus, und als dieser Grund entfiel, unter der Soße der Verbreitung demokratischer Werte. Kovalik sagt auch, wer und wann auf diese glorreiche Idee kam, bzw. von wem er diese abgekupfert hatte.
Kovaliks erzählt auch von seinen Bekannten, ehem. CIA Mitarbeitern, die aus patriotischen Gründen der Organisation beigetreten waren, um später völlig desillusioniert und zutiefst enttäuscht ihr den Rücken zu kehren und zu denjenigen zu werden, die über die Gräueltaten der US-Politik, z.B. über die illegalen Kriege, hier nach Terminologie von Daniel Ganser („Illegale Kriege“ (2016)) , die Öffentlichkeit aufklären und die Abkehr vom aggressiven Militarismus der Supereichen fordern.
Kovalik erklärt auch plausibel, dass Russland rein gar kein Interesse an Konfrontation mit dem Westen hat, vielmehr betont er, es kann sich auch aus rein wirtschaftlichen Gründen solche Allüren nicht leisten. Da gibt ganz andere, dringende Probleme, die gelöst werden müssen. Die Finanzmittel werden eher dort benötigt, statt sie im Militärsektor verschwinden zu lassen. Er gibt auch die Zahlen an, wie viel USA in Aufrüstung investiert und wie viel Russland. Da sind zwei verschiedene Dimensionen.
Der Autor stellt auch klar, dass die US-Wirtschaft auf der Rüstungsindustrie fußt, d.h. je stärker die Nachfrage hier, desto reicher werden die schon ohnehin Reiche, die von den Kriegen in vielerlei Hinsicht (Macht und noch mehr Geld) profitieren. Hier kann man auch die potentielle Bereitschaft, die Aggression zu zügeln, ablesen, sowie die Gründe für Russland-bashing finden, das seit einigen Jahren in den Leitmedien omnipräsent ist. Russland hat (noch) viel an Bodenschätzen, Landflächen, etc., von denen die Eliten kaum ihre Finger lassen können.
Kovalik sagt auch, egal in welches Land USA eingefallen war, ob Kuba, Chile, Lybien, Syrien, uvm. überall wurde der Machtinhaber im Amt sofort der öffentlichen Diffamierung unterzogen. Man sieht also, die Herrschaften verfügen über feste Abläufe in Sachen Unterwerfung anderer Länder. Diese werden checklistenartig von Land zu Land wiederholt. Putin-bashing gehört also zum Geschäft.
Etliche pikante Details, die das aggressive Verhalten der Superreichen offenlegen, über die verdeckten Kriege unter Regierungen Clinton, Obama, z.B. in der Ukraine, Syrien, sowie über H. Clinton und ihre Rolle in der Destabilisierung des Weltfriedens, i.e. über ihr unermüdliches Engagement bei der Entfachung des Konflikts in Lybien uvm. erfährt man einiges in diesem Buch ebenfalls.
Über die so breit diskutierten angeblichen Cyber- und andere „Angriffe“ der Russen sagt der Autor auch paar klare Worte.
Um Fazit zu ziehen, zitiert Kovalik zunächst New Yorker: „‘[t]he C.I.A., for ist part, worked to overthrow regimes in Iran, Cuba, Haiti, Brazil, Chile, and Panama. It used cash payments, propaganda, and sometimes violent measures to sway elections away from leftist parties in Italy, Guatemala, Indonesia, South Vietnam, und Nicaragua,‘“, und fährt fort: „While the New Yorker, as most other media sources, warns nonetheless of making ‚false moral equivalences‘ between the conduct of the US and Russia in such respects, let me say that I wold never do that: the US conduct ist so much worse that equating the two wold not at all be fair to Russia.“ S. 158.
Kovaliks Analysen haben mir kraft seines messerscharfen Verstandes sehr zugesagt. Da denkt einer klar und weiß es auch zum Ausdruck zu bringen, musste ich vielerorts denken.
Das Buch ist in einem hochprofessionellen Schreibstil verfasst worden: klar, knapp, griffig, präzise. Das Vokabular ist nicht sonderlich kompliziert, sodass man mit gutem, etwa B2 Level, da gut zurechtkommen würde.
Der Sprecher Alex Hyde-White hat sehr gut gelesen: alles sehr klar artikuliert, sodass es keinen Raum für Missverständnisse gegeben hatte. Seine Stimme, wie auch seine Art vorzutragen, ist angenehm, ich konnte da stundenlang völlig problemlos zuhören.
Beide Ausgaben, Hörbuch und TB, habe ich geholt. Das passiert mir bei manchen, besonders guten Büchern.
Fazit: Sehr lesenswertes Werk für all diejenigen, die die heutige polit. Situation, v.a. ihre Ursachen besser verstehen wollen. 5 hell leuchtende Sterne und unbedingte Lesepflicht.
Bezeichnend ist, dass dieses Buch nur in der Originalfassung zu haben ist. Das gibt zu denken. Es fand sich bisher also kein Verlag, der dieses Buch dem deutschsprachigen Publikum zugänglich machen würde. An Brisanz, sowie lesenswerten Inhalten, mangelt es hier bestimmt nicht.
Erfreulich ist, dass Kovalik mit seinen Ansichten nicht allein dasteht. Mit u. g. Autoren stimmt er in weiten Strecken überein:
„Illegale Kriege“ von Daniel Ganser,
„Lügen die Medien?“ von Jens Wernicke,
„Fassadendemokratie und Tiefer Staat“ von Ulrich Mies, Jens Wernicke,
„Die Angst der Eliten“ von Paul Schreyer,
„Wir sind die Guten“ von Mathias Bröckers und Paul Schreyer,
„Eiszeit“ von Gabriele Krone-Schmalz,
Werke von Noam Chomsky
May 20, 2019
If you can explain Iran-Contra, then you can probably skip ahead to the last chapters of this book, where the author zero's in on America's failures during Soviet reform, betrayal of Russian sovereignty, and dependence on exaggerated Russian threats to justify predatory foreign policy and military interventions. If you can explain Iran-Contra, then you will have no trouble tracking with the Russia portion of this book. If you cannot explain Iran-Contra, then you probably need to back up and learn about the rogue American predator, the CIA. Established in the final days of WWII as a counter-terrorism agency to check Soviet imperialism, the CIA (originally OSS) staffed up with Nazi SS officers and Ukranian collaborators smuggled into America via Operation Paperclip. The rationale was that the West needed to import and exploit Nazi espionage experience and information gained from front line combat with the Soviet Communists. Thus in 1953, within years of its formation, the CIA helped set up Iran's secret police force known as the SAVAK. According to the author, the SAVAK torture techniques were copied from the Nazis. Decade after decade thereafter, the CIA would raise up or work with terrorist groups on every continent to overthrow governments and install dictators who could be relied on to supply the resources demanded by international corporations. Since most CIA paramilitary projects were not approved by Congress, they were/are funded by black budgets and drug trafficking. "Containment" of Communist expansion has been the cover story justifying American military and paramilitary action; but Communism was never contained. The real reasons are 1) control of oil, mineral, and other resources; and 2) boosting sales for the military-industrial complex. Just be careful in reading this book that you do not wind up, with the author, romanticizing imagined virtues of peasant uprisings and revolutionary leaders such as Che Guevera.
May 6, 2022
If the USA doesn't have a villain they'll create one.
In this book Kovalik shows how Putin was turned into the prime enemy in the 21st century and now in 2022 with the Ukraine conflict and the media slavering anti Russian propaganda we can see the fruits of the plan.
Internationally all through the 20th and 21st century the USA has been involved directly or indirectly in all conflicts either by fighting themselves or supplying training and weaponry to 1 or both sides.
They are so skilled at it that the west in general thinks or pretends to think they are saving the world when they are just fueling a massive military industry.
The enemy de jour is Russia until that enemy serves its purpose then will it be Iran, China...we'll see.
In this book Kovalik shows how Putin was turned into the prime enemy in the 21st century and now in 2022 with the Ukraine conflict and the media slavering anti Russian propaganda we can see the fruits of the plan.
Internationally all through the 20th and 21st century the USA has been involved directly or indirectly in all conflicts either by fighting themselves or supplying training and weaponry to 1 or both sides.
They are so skilled at it that the west in general thinks or pretends to think they are saving the world when they are just fueling a massive military industry.
The enemy de jour is Russia until that enemy serves its purpose then will it be Iran, China...we'll see.
October 29, 2017
Not a BAD book but it drifts away from the subject. When I bought it I expect to read more about Russia and less about Nicaragua, Colombia, Honduras... I understand that to mention all the damage the US influence did on foreign countries is indeed important to show the hipocrisy on the crying against Putin, but I think most of people interested in this subject already know and have had a lot about what USA did on the past decades. I feel I didn´t get the answers I was expecting. Ironically, one of the few interesting parts of the book is exactly about Nicaragua. A 3,5 stars here but I give it 3 because the writing is not exciting too.
March 13, 2020
A conspiratorialists dream comes true book. America the true purveyor of evil and overreach. Found it on a relatives shelf and found it fascinating. Took with a pound of salt. Looks at US interventionalism since ww2. Makes it seem a lot more cohesive than the reality. Good read but take it for what it is.
August 14, 2017
Everyone in the U.S. should read this book. It will demystify the McCarthy era reduxboth the Democrats and Republicans are embracing.
March 7, 2018
I'm convinced
HRC wants us to shoot the messenger. Never mind the message. Please make the effort to see who is the real aggrrssor. SAD!
HRC wants us to shoot the messenger. Never mind the message. Please make the effort to see who is the real aggrrssor. SAD!
September 17, 2018
Silly garbage suited only for the gullible weak minded. Save your time and your money.
January 16, 2020
An excellent book that points out well with documented facts how the USA has been interfering with other countries.
March 27, 2022
An explosive book that exposes how the West denounced Russia and demonized Putin for its vested interests amid the New Cold War. In the words of Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels, “Accuse the other side of that which you are guilty.” Policies including American exceptionalism, NATO expansionism, regime change, and an unipolar world order are justly excoriated.
The author acerbically critiques the so-called “humanitarian” interventions of the US in Serbia, Latin America, the Middle East, and Africa, which were propelled by unfair casus belli. There are many sharp witted remarks, but this one easily takes the cake: “The land of the free is not so free and it is not so democratic.”
Furthermore, the book highlights how the West struck a Faustian bargain with certain groups in Ukraine, thereby engineering the 2014 Euromaidan coup and supporting ultranationalist neo-Nazis. Dan Kovalik deserves credit for speaking truth to power.
The author acerbically critiques the so-called “humanitarian” interventions of the US in Serbia, Latin America, the Middle East, and Africa, which were propelled by unfair casus belli. There are many sharp witted remarks, but this one easily takes the cake: “The land of the free is not so free and it is not so democratic.”
Furthermore, the book highlights how the West struck a Faustian bargain with certain groups in Ukraine, thereby engineering the 2014 Euromaidan coup and supporting ultranationalist neo-Nazis. Dan Kovalik deserves credit for speaking truth to power.
October 1, 2025
Repeats verbatim several sections from his book on Venezuela, but the sections on America’s continued Russia hysteria are must-read, even if they are now nearly a decade old. Hey, has anyone check up on those neo Nazis in Ukraine in a while? Thank goodness that got resolved.
December 13, 2022
Noam Chomsky lite.
July 12, 2023
A horribly biased, misinformed and ignorant piece of absolute bullshit. Skip this crap.
October 10, 2023
never believe ANYTHING the u.s says :)
February 21, 2022
If you think that we are not told the truth about US policies, humanitarian interventions, weapons of mass destruction, drones employment for the defence of the world from Russia, violations of the Geneva Convention, this is the right book for you. Dan Kovalik, Columbia graduated, attorney, human rights activist, professor, writer and investigative journalist, says that we shouldn't pick "a speck from our brother’s or sister’s eye when we have a plank in our own"; that's why, in this work, he provides us with facts, names, sources and numbers. Do you know who dropped 26,171 bombs in 2016? Who ordered drone attacks indiscriminately and preferably on Tuesdays? Who bombed Serbia for seventy-eight-day? Who drone-killed a 16-year-old boy whose name was Abdulrahman al-Awlaki, American citizen? And, do you know who killed "nearly 300 civilians in Iraq in just one bombing raid"? Have you ever heard of the murder of the environmental rights campaigner Berta Càceres? Well, these are just a few questions. The answer is not Russia. Nor Putin. The answer is the United States of America. But if you think this is a book aimed at glorifying Putin, you are going in the wrong direction. Kovalik points out:
"what I am trying to do is not to apologize for Putin or to deny his own wrongdoings, but to explain them; to put them in some context, particularly in the context of US conduct, which has been seen, many times quite reasonably, as hostile to Russia and its interests, and which have helped bring us to the point where our two countries now stand in relation to each other."
To put Putin's wrongdoings in" some context" is essential. Sadly it never happens in the western mainstream media that is complicit in fabricating a fake narrative where the West is the good side of history and the East is the evil one. In "The Plot to Scapegoat Russia" you will find that the former USSR is not a rich country as it is depicted in the magazines headlines and you will formulate your own conclusions when you will find that Putin “stubbornly resisted calls for the reinstitution of the death penalty in Russia” (this quote is excerpted from the Chicago Tribune’s article titled “Is it fair to call Putin a killer?” which I strongly recommend you to read, footnote 62).
The chapter 10, “HILLARY AND THE HONDURAN COUP”, begins with an emblematic quote from Harold Pinter’s 2005 Nobel Prize acceptance speech, that I want to mention here:
"The United States supported and in many cases engendered every right wing military dictatorship in the world after the end of the Second World War. I refer to Indonesia, Greece, Uruguay, Brazil, Paraguay, Haiti, Turkey, the Philippines, Guatemala, El Salvador, and, of course, Chile. The horror the United States inflicted upon Chile in 1973 can never be purged and can never be forgiven. Hundreds of thousands of deaths took place throughout these countries. Did they take place? And are they in all cases attributable to US foreign policy? The answer is yes they did take place and they are attributable to American foreign policy. But you wouldn’t know it.
It never happened. Nothing ever happened. Even while it was happening it wasn’t happening. It didn’t matter. It was of no interest. The crimes of the United States have been systematic, constant, vicious, remorseless, but very few people have actually talked about them. You have to hand it to America. It has exercised a quite clinical manipulation of power worldwide while masquerading as a force for universal good. It’s a brilliant, even witty, highly successful act of hypnosis."
Dan Kovalik wants to save you from hypnosis. It's up to you to stay awake.
"what I am trying to do is not to apologize for Putin or to deny his own wrongdoings, but to explain them; to put them in some context, particularly in the context of US conduct, which has been seen, many times quite reasonably, as hostile to Russia and its interests, and which have helped bring us to the point where our two countries now stand in relation to each other."
To put Putin's wrongdoings in" some context" is essential. Sadly it never happens in the western mainstream media that is complicit in fabricating a fake narrative where the West is the good side of history and the East is the evil one. In "The Plot to Scapegoat Russia" you will find that the former USSR is not a rich country as it is depicted in the magazines headlines and you will formulate your own conclusions when you will find that Putin “stubbornly resisted calls for the reinstitution of the death penalty in Russia” (this quote is excerpted from the Chicago Tribune’s article titled “Is it fair to call Putin a killer?” which I strongly recommend you to read, footnote 62).
The chapter 10, “HILLARY AND THE HONDURAN COUP”, begins with an emblematic quote from Harold Pinter’s 2005 Nobel Prize acceptance speech, that I want to mention here:
"The United States supported and in many cases engendered every right wing military dictatorship in the world after the end of the Second World War. I refer to Indonesia, Greece, Uruguay, Brazil, Paraguay, Haiti, Turkey, the Philippines, Guatemala, El Salvador, and, of course, Chile. The horror the United States inflicted upon Chile in 1973 can never be purged and can never be forgiven. Hundreds of thousands of deaths took place throughout these countries. Did they take place? And are they in all cases attributable to US foreign policy? The answer is yes they did take place and they are attributable to American foreign policy. But you wouldn’t know it.
It never happened. Nothing ever happened. Even while it was happening it wasn’t happening. It didn’t matter. It was of no interest. The crimes of the United States have been systematic, constant, vicious, remorseless, but very few people have actually talked about them. You have to hand it to America. It has exercised a quite clinical manipulation of power worldwide while masquerading as a force for universal good. It’s a brilliant, even witty, highly successful act of hypnosis."
Dan Kovalik wants to save you from hypnosis. It's up to you to stay awake.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 31 reviews