The different treatment of three recent sets of fatality statistics, indicate once again the unbridled hypocrisy of the Anglo-Saxon, neo-con elite and their supporters. First, there are the 295 casualties suffered by those aboard Flight MH17 over eastern Ukraine. Second there are those hundreds of civilian fatalities in eastern Ukraine suffered under the bombing and shelling by the armed forces wielded by the Kiev government. Third there are those 380 plus (and rising) citizens of Gaza (many of them children) at the hands of the second Israeli full-scale Blitzkrieg of this tortured and besieged land.

The tragic deaths of those 295 passengers aboard Malaysian Airlines flight MH17 have received extensive coverage in all strands of news media. For days now, politicians, reporters and editors of newspapers, radio and television have rushed to display their outrage, shock, grief, dismay and many other emotional outpourings. In comparison, very little has been said against the equally murderous actions of Kiev or of Israel.  However, the sincerity of these establishment figures over the plights of flight MH17 passengers, is also questionable given that this emotional outpouring has also been accompanied by something of a stampede to blame Russia.

There are no pictures of the faces of children killed in Eastern Ukraine or Gaza, plastering the front covers of newspapers, nor are there charges of murder laid at the doors of the presidents of Ukraine or Israel. No politicians are lining up to condemn Israel or Kiev. Yet charges of murder have been laid at the door of the Russian President and the faces of the children of flight MH17 have appeared on at least one UK newspaper.  This highly selective outpouring of grief demonstrates more than anything the utter hypocrisy of the neo-liberal elites in Europe and the West, who care little for the children or citizens in Ukraine or Gaza, or those millions killed in their own military wars, proxy wars or austerity wars.

Blame games and denial.

This blame game aimed at Russia is a continuation of essentially the same narrative that has been constructed over the tragic situation unfolding in Ukraine. Now I am no greater fan of capitalist Russia, than I was of Stalinist Russia, but it is clear the Anglo-Saxon elite narrative (US, UK and Europe) serves an ulterior motive. Those with this motive do not require substantiated evidence to attribute guilt. They cannot wait to point a finger of blame. Apparently everything, which happens in Ukraine is directly Russia’s fault. No fault at all lies with the Kiev government nor in the manipulations of the USA and Europe in this and other regions of the world.

For their self-serving neo-liberal politicised forensic analysis there is no chain of events, leading to any terrible outcomes. At least none in which they played a decisive part.  The neo-liberal pro-capitalist narrative dictates that everything bad which happens in the world is the fault of someone else. It is not the financial, economic, political or military sections of the capitalist class who cause any problems, nor the mode of production itself.

In Iraq, Afghanistan, for example, the military interventions – according to the western narrative – were undertaken for the best possible reasons. If things turned out badly in these two theatres of war, it was someone else’s (usually the occupied peoples) fault. This type of narrative is studiously copied and paraded by the Israeli establishment. Everything bad which happens in Palestine is not the fault of the illegal military occupation and oppression, but the fault of those who choose to resist it. Capitalist, Colonialists and neo-liberal Imperialists, like many alcoholics  and drug addicts are in a state of complete denial.

Direct and indirect culpability.

Yet practically everyone knows that very few things happen, without a chain of events leading up to them. When considering any serious circumstances, including disasters, those who do not have anything to gain from quickly pointing the finger of guilt at someone else, seriously consider the links in any chain of events and establish direct and indirect responsibility.  In such chains of events it then becomes possible to establish direct and indirect culpability.

In the case of the tragic downing of flight MH17, the capitalist operators of the Airline, will wish to point the finger of blame at external circumstances and away from their own profit-motive led decisions.  Yet this particular flight orientated chain of events includes the financial decision of the airline to fly over the airspace of a military conflict. This decision was taken in full knowledge that other aircraft had been shot down, and which it was known that a number of actors (Kiev, Russia, and possibly the dissidents) had the capacity to operate high level missiles capable of reaching 70,000 feet.

These facts were well known and many other airlines had decided to incur the extra costs of flying around Ukraine. But not Malayan Airlines. Profits at Malayan Airlines clearly trumped safety. Now if I decide to enter a war zone and get shot, then the direct culpability will be the person who pulled the trigger. But any reasonable person would also attribute an indirect responsibility to myself for taking such a stupid risk. By the same token, if the plane crash was in fact caused by a missile, any reasonable person would not only direct their anger and criticism against those who launched it, but also against those who chose to risk flying over a known dangerous hazard – in order to save fuel.

Similarly, the existence of a dangerous war zone in Eastern Ukraine is itself a product of a chain of events with a number of links not only over time, but to internal and external actors. If we only start from the events of the Maidan demonstrations, then we know that money and weapons were introduced into the Ukraine by both the USA, Europe and Russia. If flight MH17 was downed by a missile, (as yet there is no definitive evidence) then those who introduced these weapons bear an indirect responsibility, along with those who helped create the civil-war in the first place. Missiles could not have been used if they were not there in the first place, and manned by trained operatives. There would not be a militarised war zone, but for the events which unfolded over months in the Ukraine. Many actors contributed in one way or another indirectly and directly to this tragedy.

False flag ops and fabricated evidence.

In a world not dominated by powerful economic, financial and political forces, then the circumstances surrounding this second tragedy of a Malayan Airlines flight, could be examined impartially and the full circumstances surrounding it – including any direct and indirect responsibility eventually established. However, given the high political and diplomatic intensity of the struggle over the future of the Ukraine, this outcome is unlikely. Any guilty actor (Western backed Kiev, Russia or pro-Russian activists) will be highly motivated to destroy any incriminating evidence against themselves. Any guilty or even non-guilty actor will be motivated to fabricate evidence to make it appear that their enemies are guilty.

We need to remember, when sufficient powerful interests are at stake anything can happen. The history of the elites in control of the capitalist mode of production, proves that nothing devious is beyond them in order to pursue their interests. Nuclear and biological warfare, genocide, area bombing of civilians is well documented. Donning the enemies uniforms and committing  atrocities against their own allies, has been done. Allowing atrocities, which could have been stopped, to be carried out, is nothing new. Evidence (photographic or recorded) of wrong-doing destroyed or doctored – is routine. Fabricated evidence to lay guilt on an undesirable person is par for the course.

For revolutionary-humanists and anti-capitalists, there are many lessons to be learned from the current events throughout the globe. Number one: the neo-liberal fundamentalist elites in control of the capitalist mode of production, will attempt to save and promote their economic and political system, by any means possible and will use any tactic which their depraved patriarchal imaginations can conceive. They will blame anyone else but themselves, using whatever deceitful means they are allowed to deploy.  But we need to recall that these same male-stream Machiavellian characteristics were manifested within anti-capitalism by the Stalinist political elites and are manifested by fundamentalists of the religious kind.

Undoubtedly, humanity needs a completely different paradigm of organisation and way of thinking from those of the past.  The lesson I draw form the current state of the world is that there is an urgent need for the establishment of a revolutionary-humanist movement, free from sectarianism, dogmatism and patriarchy in any of their deceitful political or religious forms.

Roy Ratcliffe. July 2014.)