ANTIWAR

RUSSELL BENTLEY—The photographs of the fuselage of MH17’s cockpit are all you really need to see. The perfectly round  30 mm holes can be seen in photos on Google Images. Or listen to what Canadian citizen and OSCE monitor Michael Bociurkiw said, just a few days after the event. Russian military radar detected at least one SU-25 in close proximity to MH17 just before the crash, consistent with eyewitness accounts from people on the ground at the time, including DNP Prime Minister Alexander Zaharshenko (6:14) Interestingly, the Wikipedia and other information sources about SU-25 flight capabilities were edited and changed before July 17th, to reduce the flight ceiling from 10,000 meters to 7,000 meters. The SU-25 CAN fly at 10,000 meters, (10:50) the height that MH17 was at when it was attacked.

ANDRE VLTCHEK—In some countries, which are seen as close allies of the West, like Indonesia and India, even speaking about independence can lead people to imprisonment, torture, rape, disappearance, and death. In Indian-administered Kashmir and Indonesian “administered” West Papua, hundreds of thousands have already vanished. In such places, just waving a flag of independence, can abruptly end human life. But in the Western lexicon, both Indonesia and India are defined as “democracies”, and their political systems are hardly ever attacked or criticized. No sanctions are imposed due to “human rights violations”.

LEONID SAVIN—Stories about bad guys tend to be the most effective. In general, the idea of the villain is used in the methodology of the political frame – the technique is always used in US elections, but it is also widely used in foreign policy. A test tube filled with washing powder can be waved around and Saddam Hussein can be accused of having chemical weapons. That was a story that did its job perfectly. Accusing Iran of preparing to develop nuclear weapons proved to be more complicated. Now, the volleys of an information war against China can be heard. While America’s top officials and bureaucrats do their thing, the country’s corporate media outlets are developing other avenues.

PATRICE GREANVILLE—Joaquin Phoenix’s seemingly impromptu and brave Oscar speech was way above and beyond the pampered audience’s comfort zone and comprehension, clearly outside the usual insufferably egocentric drivel delivered by most award recipients, and yet they eventually rose to their feet, perhaps dimly aware of the depth and scope of the message, something that the media custodians of the status quo  studiously failed to do. Their almost uniform response has ranged from outright scorn—as typified by the venom spat by the repulsive Murdoch rag, The New York Post—to hollowing out exactly all the major and substantive points in Phoenix’s clear expression of personal beliefs.

ROGER EBERT—If the singing of “La Marseillaise” in a bar in “Casablanca” was a call to patriotism, this scene is an argument against it. It creates a moment of quiet and tenderness in the daily horror these soldiers occupy — a world in which generals casually estimated that 55 percent of these very men might be killed in a stupid attack and found that acceptable.