Who's Spreading Putin's Talking Points These Days?

A few days ago Glenn Greenwald "speculated" about U.S. intentions in Ukraine. 

Some have speculated that the US goal isn't to protect Ukrainians -- that's the pretext -- but rather sacrifice Ukraine by turning it into Syria or Afghanistan where war rages for years and destroys the country, bogging down Russia. No proof, but US actions consistent with that.

— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) March 5, 2022

Greenwald ignores the fact that it was Russia that invaded Ukraine and seems hell-bent on destroying the country, all while claiming that the goal of the U.S. is to turn Ukraine into Syria or Afghanistan.

Prior to admitting that there was no proof for his theory, Greenwald used the passive voice of "some people have speculated," which is interesting given that, until that time, I hadn't seen anyone else make those claims. But shortly after Greenwald's tweet on March 5, it became a talking point among several Putin apologists.

Appearing on Tucker Carlson's show two days later, retired US Army Col. Douglas Macgregor said that the U.S. government's plan was to "complete the destruction of Ukraine by turning it into a quasi Afghanistan." To put that comment in context, Macgregor is the man that Trump nominated in July 2020 to be the U.S. Ambassador to Germany. He has been such a racist Putin puppet that even the Republican-controlled Senate rejected his nomination. 

With that, Aaron Maté chimed in.

On the Biden admin's strategy in Ukraine:

"I do think the plan is to prolong the fighting… to complete the destruction of Ukraine by turning it into a quasi-Afghanistan." - Ret. US Army Col. Douglas Macgregor pic.twitter.com/6hNO744yB3

— Aaron Maté (@aaronjmate) March 8, 2022

Maté, who used to write for The Nation, has made a name for himself recently by going on right wing sites to promote the idea that the whole Trump-Russia investigation was a hoax. But given the fact that Putin's paranoia has been based on the idea that somehow the United States has been behind pro-democracy colour revolutions, take a look at what he wrote about the link between the 2014 Euromaidan protests and Russia's war against Ukraine.

Putin has carried out a major escalation of a conflict that has raged for eight years, at the cost of more than 14,000 lives. It began with a US-backed, far-right-led 2014 coup that ousted Ukraine’s democratically elected government in Kiev. In its place came a regime chosen not by the Ukrainian people, but by Washington.

Next it was Tulsi Gabbard's turn. She made an appearance on Fox News host Laura Ingraham's show Tuesday night and said this:

Nothing the Biden administration has done has helped make this situation better or helped de-escalate the situation...This war machine, this power elite in Washington. They want to turn Ukraine into another Afghanistan, turn it into a killing field for this long term insurgency is supported and they bleed out and cripple -- kill as many Russians as possible for who knows how long.

That would be the same Tulsi Gabbard who tried to sell herself as an anti-war candidate in the 2016 primaries - all while supporting the war crimes committed by Russia in Syria.

So after-the-fact, Greenwald is right: some pro-Putin apologists have been talking about how the goal of the U.S. in Ukraine is to turn it into another Afghanistan. How did they all latch onto the same talking points? Was it a coincidence? Did they simply follow Greenwald's lead? Or is there someone behind the scenes feeding them these lines?

These folks become enraged when accused of promoting Putin's talking points. But, as much as I'd like to avoid being a conspiracy theorist, it's hard to ignore this kind of coordination.