I learned a lot about US and UK propaganda from the Syrian civil war, where western narrative managers advocated for military intervention and regime-change.

And now we’re seeing the same kinds of media deceptions and full-throated propaganda in Ukraine. With the so-called “Bucha massacre” we’re in the midst of another false-flag incident, which many have predicted. All of the usual suspects from the deep state and corporate media are working overtime to project the new narrative in order to predictably call for large-scale escalation.

Unsurprisingly, within minutes of the “breaking news”, western leaders–heads of state, foreign ministers, former politicians–popped up with statements duly kept ready and only based on the videos and photos ready to pour accusations. Meanwhile, in a stunning bit of projection, both the New York Times and Washington Post, the house organs for the national security set, refer to past Russian dismissals of alleged chemical weapons attacks in Syria as false flags used to frame Damascus, while of course making no mention of the mountains of evidence that this has indeed occurred.

Anyone paying-attention will not miss the striking similarity between these incidents and the numerous put-up jobs that featured in Washington’s covert operation in Syria and the campaign of those famous “moderate rebels” and their accomplices, the White Helmets, who just happened to be at the perfect place to capture evidence of Syrian or Russian perfidy while rescuing cute babies and who desperately, desperately wanted to draw the U.S. into the conflict. 

Just like in Syria, where the White Helmets were created by an ex-British intelligence officer, there are unconfirmed reports that Britain’s MI6 concocted this macabre theater with the Ukrainian service.

If you will recall from the way-back machine, President Donald Trump bombed Syria with cruise missiles in the wake of a fabricated report that Bashar al-Assad had used such weapons in an attack on Khan Shaykhun in 2017. It turned out that the anti-regime terrorists (read al Qaeda) who were occupying the city at the time had themselves staged the attack and deliberately blamed it on the Syrian government to produce an expected US response.

The Russian “intervention” in the Syrian civil war and “intervention” in Ukraine can be thought of as a Russian counter-offensive against the US empire and it’s NATO allies in response to the ongoing attempt to regime-change the Putin administration as well as their unceasing hostility. What I find particularly fascinating is that in both cases the US utilized proxies as their shock-troops. In Syria the US was employing al Nusra, the Syrian al Qaeda franchise, while in the Ukraine it’s the Neo-Nazi Azov Regiment. Also, it seems that whenever US proxies are in peril there’s a strong possibility of a false-flag event used to galvanize US public support for American intervention. You know–a no-fly zone.

It’s almost surreal the way in which the media manipulation template for Syria has morphed into the portrayal of Russian actions in Ukraine. The Mariupol maternity hospital “bombing” was a staged media operation closely resembling the White Helmets in Syria, as were claims of Russian airstrikes on the theater in the same city which was proclaimed to have been holding thousands of civilians at the time. The western headlines ran with accusations of Russians slaughtering civilians from the sky.

However, when the government and corporate media are trying to get us on board with some agenda, we should always ask–qui bono–who benefits? Funny how all of the recent “so-called” false-flag events all seem to point in one direction–towards official enemies, like Russia, China, Iran, etc.

The propaganda war is not the war, but the propaganda war is useful in shaping US security elite behavior and responses while rallying the hysterical masses who will believe any media headlines they see. This sophisticated operation has produced a steady stream of sophisticated propaganda aimed at stirring up public and official support. I sometimes think there just has to be a Ministry of Truth somewhere deep in the bowels of the State Department. You know– “War is Peace,” “Freedom is Slavery,” and “Ignorance is Strength.”

It’s been obvious for a long time that the US empire has been working overtime to shore up narrative control to strengthen its hegemony via internet censorship, propaganda, tech algorithm manipulation, and the normalization of the persecution of journalists like Julian Assange. We may now simply be at the stage of narrative control where they can begin openly condition the public to be lied to for their own good.

Indeed, the claim that “The Bucha Massacre” is a Russian war crime is so patently false that a rational observer can only be left astounded by the combination of bare-faced nerve and slapdash incompetence displayed by the media outlets and politicians pushing this disgusting smear.

Unfortunately all too many Americans are ready to be lied to.

Update: “One of the advantages of having power – especially when it is power over narratives – is that the perception of any real-world event can be shaped in ways that serve the interests of power.”