By David Swanson
http://davidswanson.org/node/
Elizabeth Murray of VIPS, a member of our Center for Citizen Initiatives delegation to Russia in late June, was invited to speak at a small meeting on July 22 in Everett, Washington, with Congressman Rick Larsen. “New Democrat centrist” Larsen showed himself (or professed to be) abysmally ignorant about which side is responsible for the marked increase in tension in Ukraine. Were Larsen not a member of the House Armed Services Committee, his “ignorance” might be more credible.
A familiar dilemma: It is hard to tell which is worse: real, or feigned ignorance. If it’s real, well, at least Larsen dovetails comfortably with 90 percent of Americans – malnourished as they are, to the point of starvation, on the reasons Russia reacted as it did to the Western-sponsored Putsch in Kiev on Feb. 22, 2014. His reaction, rather, points more to a synthetic kind of ignorance – witness how he ignored Murray’s offer to send him additional information on Ukraine. (Don’t bother me with facts.) In this piece, David Swanson includes Elizabeth Murray’s account of the cognitive dissonance Larsen seemed to be experiencing (poor fellow).