Western media goes white nationalist, calls Ukraine more ‘civilized’ than Iraq, whitewashes US wars

Western corporate media outlets that published demonstrable lies to try to justify the 2003 US invasion of Iraq have done a 180 and suddenly become staunch anti-war voices condemning Russia’s military intervention in Ukraine, which began on February 24.

Mainstream North American and Western European journalists have adopted what is essentially a white-nationalist narrative that has been widely denounced as racist, depicting Ukraine as a “civilized” European Christian country that is more worthy of sympathy than formerly colonized countries in the Global South, where the United States and its allies are killing civilians every day.

The US has roughly 800 foreign bases around the planet, with a military presence in the majority of the countries on Earth. The US is illegally militarily occupying both Iraq and Syria’s oil-rich territory, while helping Saudi Arabia bomb civilian areas in Yemen, in a nearly seven-year Western-backed war that has killed at least 377,000 Yemenis.

In fact, within hours of the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the United States bombed Somalia, Western-sponsored Saudi forces bombed Yemen, and Israel bombed Syria, just after Israeli occupation soldiers killed a teenage Palestinian.

The Times of Israel newspaper, without a hint of irony, even published an article on February 25 titled “Ukraine fighting reportedly not expected to keep Israel from bombing Syria.”

Meanwhile, Western media networks have bent over backward to portray Ukrainians as more “worthy victims,” emphasizing their whiteness, European culture, and Christianity, while these same outlets dehumanize or simply ignore dark-skinned people and Muslims in the Global South who are “unworthy victims” of Western wars.

This double standard was made blindingly obvious in comments by CBS News foreign correspondent Charlie D’Agata.

In a broadcast on February 25, titled “Russia closes in on Kyiv with more explosions reported across Ukraine overnight,” D’Agata insisted that the war in Ukraine is unique because the country is “civilized,” unlike nations invaded by the United States.

“This isn’t a place, with all due respect, like Iraq or Afghanistan, that has seen conflict raging for decades. This is a relatively civilized, relatively European — I have to choose those words carefully, too — city, where you wouldn’t expect that or hope that it’s going to happen,” the CBS News foreign correspondent declared.

Western corporate media coverage of Ukraine has gone full-on white nationalist, calling Ukrainians “civilized” white European Christians while whitewashing the US war on Iraq, bombing of Yemen, and Israeli attacks on Syrians & Palestinians

Read more here: https://t.co/YZCBzv4wXy pic.twitter.com/f4HZPOcaLz

— Benjamin Norton (@BenjaminNorton) February 28, 2022

The US war on Iraq killed more than 1 million people, and its two-decade war on Afghanistan killed hundreds of thousands more.

But the “unworthy victims” of US wars are dehumanized as “uncivilized,” whereas the “worthy victims” of Washington’s adversary Russia are portrayed as “civilized” white Christians.

D’Agata later apologized for his remarks, but he was by no means alone.

NBC News correspondent Kelly Cobiella stated openly, “Just to put it bluntly, these are not refugees from Syria. These are refugees from neighboring Ukraine. I mean, that, quite frankly, is part of it. These are Christians. They’re whites. They’re very similar to people who live in Poland.”

"Just to put it bluntly, these are not refugees from Syria. These are refugees from neighbouring Ukraine. I mean, that, quite frankly, is part of it. These are Christians. They're Whites. They're very similar to people who live in Poland."pic.twitter.com/T90tA101H9

— Zeeshan Khan (@IbnKhayyam) February 27, 2022

In the same vein, Ukraine’s deputy chief prosecutor, David Sakvarelidze, emphasized in an interview on the BBC that Ukrainians are unique victims because many have blond hair and blue eyes.

“It’s very emotional for me because I see European people with blue eyes and blond hair being killed, children being killed every day, with Putin’s missiles, and his helicopters, and his rockets,” Sakvarelidze said.

Western media outlets deny that Ukraine has a massive Nazi problem (it does), while they spread Nazi-esque propaganda: "It's very emotional for me because I see European people with blue eyes and blond hair being killed with Putin's missiles" 🧐 https://t.co/gCbnsm5EB4

— Benjamin Norton (@BenjaminNorton) February 27, 2022

Sakvarelidze was formerly a member of parliament in Georgia, from the right-wing, pro-Western party of former President Mikheil Saakashvili, one of Washington’s most loyal allies in the region.

Yet Sakvarelidze was given Ukrainian citizenship and appointed deputy general prosecutor in 2015, soon after the US-sponsored 2014 coup overthrew Ukraine’s democratically elected president and installed a pro-Western puppet regime.

Sakvarelidze’s Eurocentric rhetoric was echoed on Britain’s ITV News, by its correspondent Lucy Watson.

Recalling seeing Ukrainian children in strollers (or “buggies,” in British English), Watson said in exasperation, “Every single one of those buggies is a young child who was at nursery school, who was being looked after by their parents. Their parents were going to work, eating, drinking in cafes, doing the things that you and I were doing two, three days ago.”

“Now the unthinkable has happened to them. And this is not a developing, third world nation; this is Europe,” she added.

'Now the unthinkable has happened to them, and this is not a developing, third world nation, this is Europe.' pic.twitter.com/BFYvql7iie

— black lives matter (@jrc1921) February 27, 2022

British Conservative politician Daniel Hannan exemplified the imperial hypocrisy in an article in the right-wing Telegraph newspaper on February 26, titled “Vladimir Putin’s monstrous invasion is an attack on civilisation itself.”

“They seem so like us. That is what makes it so shocking. Ukraine is a European country. Its people watch Netflix and have Instagram accounts, vote in free elections and read uncensored newspapers,” Hannan wrote. “War is no longer something visited upon impoverished and remote populations. It can happen to anyone.”

Ironically, many people in Libya, Syria, Iraq, Yemen, and other countries attacked by the United States do indeed have Instagram accounts, and Netflix is available in some of these nations as well.

But the obvious implication of this media narrative is that Global South countries invaded, bombed, and militarily occupied by the United States and its Western allies are not civilized, and therefore that Washington’s and Brussels’ wars are justified.

‘Worthy victims’ vs. ‘unworthy victims’

This flagrant differentiation in treatment is a textbook example of the concept of “unworthy victims,” articulated by scholars Edward S. Herman and Noam Chomsky in their classic 1988 book “Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media.”

“Worthy victims” are those who are killed or abused by the US government’s Official Enemies – such as Russia, China, Iran, or Venezuela.

“Unworthy victims” are the people killed and abused by the US government and its allies – in Yemen, Iraq, Libya, Syria, Nicaragua, Somalia, Panama, Congo, and beyond.

Herman and Chomsky wrote:

Our hypothesis is that worthy victims will be featured prominently and dramatically, that they will be humanized, and that their victimization will receive the detail and context in story construction that will generate reader interest and sympathetic emotion.

In contrast, unworthy victims will merit only slight detail, minimal humanization, and little context that will excite and enrage.

Western media coverage of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine makes this imperial hypocrisy as clear as day.