The Editor,
I was pleased to read an opinion in the Low Down outside of the usual echo chamber, (Anti-Russian rhetoric reaches fever pitch, March 8 edition). In my experience, Vagner Casthilo's criticism of the Western media is well-founded. The "simplistic good vs evil" rhetoric about the war in Ukraine is on display all over European, American, and Canadian mainstream media. There are few dissenting voices, little nuanced debate, and no challenges to the hypocrisy of the West and the illegal and murderous wars they've waged in the name of "democracy" and for the enrichment of military/industrial merchants of death.
And what of the horrific wars the media does not even report on (or under-reports on) in Yemen, Syria, Somalia, and other beleaguered countries? To be sure, Putin has brought us closer to a third world war. And, however legitimate his claims about NATO's threat to Russia's security, the killing of innocents is never justified. Invading a sovereign country (like the US and its allies did in Iraq) is wrong. Bombing civilians (and lying about it) is wrong. Firing shells close to a nuclear power plant is wrong. Controlling the media so that his people don't know what is being done in their name is wrong. Truth is the first casualty of war.
Paula Halpin
Masham, QC