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Western press fetishizes Ukrainian amputees as limb loss epidemic grows
The grayzone ^ | August 15, 2023 | Kit Klarenbberg

Posted on 09/02/2023 7:47:01 AM PDT by MarMema

With Ukrainian forces reportedly suffering a level of amputations reminiscent of WWI, a New York Times proxy war propagandist is spinning amputees as sex symbols and painting their gruesome injuries as “magical.” After 18 months of devastating proxy warfare, the scale of the depletion of the Ukrainian military is so extensive that even mainstream sources have been forced to concede the cruel reality. On August 1, The Wall Street Journal reported that “between 20,000 and 50,000 Ukrainians” have “lost one or more limbs since the start of the war.” What’s more, the outlet notes, “the actual figure could be higher” because “it takes time to register patients after they undergo the procedure.”

By comparison, around 67,000 Germans and 41,000 Britons underwent amputations during the entire four-year span of the First World War. The publication quotes the head of a group of former military surgeons who train Ukrainian military medics who maintained that “Western military surgeons haven’t seen injuries on this scale since World War II.”

While the implications of the Journal’s report have largely been studiously ignored by Western media, at least one mainstream journalist has displayed a keen interest in Kiev’s amputees. The New York Times’ columnist and ardent liberal interventionist Nicholas Kristof practically fetishized the mass disfigurement of Ukrainian combat veterans in the name of Washington’s war du jour.

In a July 8 op-ed titled “They’re Ready to Fight Again, on Artificial Legs,” Kristof insisted that rather than resenting being used as cannon fodder, Ukraine’s newly-disabled veterans “carry their stumps with pride.” Citing one soldier who expressed hopes of returning to the frontline despite missing three limbs, Kristof framed such “grit and resilience” as a sure sign Kiev is winning the proxy conflict, and will inevitably emerge victorious over Russia.

The gut-wrenching homage to crippled and mangled Ukrainian soldiers even spun amputation as a means of getting laid, quoting the wife of one amputee as saying, “he’s very sexy without a leg.”

Another amputee cited in the op-ed claimed he had never dared ask his hometown crush out on a date before being hospitalized for “mortar injuries that took his leg and mangled his arms.” But after suffering irreparable and life-altering injuries, he and his sweetheart have been together ever since, the disabled soldier claimed.

Kristof quoted the soldier as follows: “It’s magical. Someone can have all his arms and legs and still not be successful in love, but an amputee can win a heart.”

Hyping Russian losses, covering up Ukraine’s

Throughout the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Western officials and journalists have taken a decidedly asymmetrical approach to reporting combat losses. Since the conflict’s first days, legacy media has dutifully repeated the vast, unverifiable figures that NATO-affiliated analysts insist Moscow suffered on the battlefield. In April 2022, the BBC even went as far as to publish the names and photos of Russian soldiers allegedly killed during the war.

But when reporting on Ukrainian casualties, major news outlets typically refer to the figure as a “closely guarded state secret.” The same senior US intelligence and defense officials who are heavily involved in assisting Kiev on military planning and strategy appear to be genuinely in the dark. On the rare occasion that these sources comment publicly on Kiev’s losses, they invariably caution that they’re merely offering an “estimate.”

From the perspective of Kiev and its foreign backers, the proxy war’s informational component is among its most impactful, and the propaganda utility of concealing losses is clear. Shielding Western audiences from the devastating human cost of the conflict makes the ever-fanciful prospect of Ukrainian victory seem more attainable, and keeps public support for the fight high, arms shipments flowing, and the profits of major weapons manufacturers soaring.


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KEYWORDS: grayzone; ukraine
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A body of the piece was left at the site...because it is so long....but this comment toward the end nails it.

Despite the best offers of liberal interventionists like the New York Times’ Nicholas Kristof, who attempted to reframe war amputees as an indicator of Ukrainian fearlessness, rather than unambiguously grim symbols of an utterly catastrophic situation, Western citizens are increasingly repelled by the deluge of pro-war propaganda.

1 posted on 09/02/2023 7:47:01 AM PDT by MarMema
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To: MarMema

How many Russians have died in Ukraine? Data shows what Moscow hides

https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-war-military-deaths-facd75c2311ed7be660342698cf6a409


2 posted on 09/02/2023 7:55:50 AM PDT by USA-FRANCE
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To: USA-FRANCE

That isn’t the point of this piece.

It is about glamorizing Ukraine amputees.

Not about numbers of deaths.

Your reactivity is typical.


3 posted on 09/02/2023 7:58:42 AM PDT by MarMema (Eat your bananas, enjoy the decline)
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To: MarMema; P-Marlowe

The russians are no doubt using mines to channel the ukes into the kill zones. A tactic as old as war. Channel the enemy.
In any case, this should never have started. If only neutrality had been declared before any life was lost.


4 posted on 09/02/2023 7:58:43 AM PDT by xzins (Retired US Army chaplain. Support our troops by praying for their victory. )
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To: MarMema

...To say nothing of the American taxpayer. This war is costing us an arm and a leg.


5 posted on 09/02/2023 8:04:23 AM PDT by golux
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To: golux

And so fat, it has not helped to stop the killing.
It has only accelerated it.

Biden is a bloodthirsty pedo psychopath.


6 posted on 09/02/2023 8:09:56 AM PDT by MarMema (Eat your bananas, enjoy the decline)
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To: MarMema

This entire war is the biggest waste of life on both sides.

Egos and Megalomaniacs on both sides should be held accountable with their own lives.


7 posted on 09/02/2023 8:15:14 AM PDT by Roman_War_Criminal (Jesus + Something = Nothing ; Jesus + Nothing = Everything )
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To: MarMema; Admin Moderator
How many times are pro-Kremlin freepers going to post the same article from the same far left wing blog?

Previously posted: https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/4178762/posts

The Grayzone is an American fringe, far-left news website and blog, founded and edited by American journalist Max Blumenthal. The website, initially founded as The Grayzone Project, was affiliated with AlterNet before becoming independent in early 2018. It is known for its critical coverage of the US and its foreign policy and sympathetic coverage of authoritarian regimes. The Grayzone has downplayed or denied the Chinese government's human rights abuses against Uyghurs, published conspiracy theories about Venezuela, Xinjiang, Syria, and other regions, and published pro-Russian propaganda during the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Grayzone writers such as Blumenthal and Aaron Maté acted as briefers on behalf of the Permanent Mission of the Russian Federation to the United Nations at UN meetings organised by Russia.

8 posted on 09/02/2023 8:24:15 AM PDT by Alter Kaker (Gravitation is a theory, not a fact. It should be approached with an open mind...)
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Comment #9 Removed by Moderator

To: Roman_War_Criminal

That would be SO enjoyable.


10 posted on 09/02/2023 8:31:34 AM PDT by MarMema (Eat your bananas, enjoy the decline)
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To: MarMema
Max Blumenthal is not a far left fringe author.

LOL, yes he is. But in addition to being a fringe far leftist who hates Israel and the United States, he is also a paid propagandist for the Russian, Chinese and Iranian governments. Not just a socialist but a socialist traitor! Nice friends you have!

11 posted on 09/02/2023 8:36:34 AM PDT by Alter Kaker (Gravitation is a theory, not a fact. It should be approached with an open mind...)
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To: MarMema
Bloodthirsty warmongers disgust me.

Does that include Putin, the guy who actually started the war?

12 posted on 09/02/2023 8:38:41 AM PDT by Alter Kaker (Gravitation is a theory, not a fact. It should be approached with an open mind...)
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To: USA-FRANCE
Ten times as many Ukrainians have died than Russians. More 400,000. And, neocons like you don't give a damn.

All you care about is feeding your hatred toward Russia. You're a sociopath.

13 posted on 09/02/2023 8:46:40 AM PDT by Kazan
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To: USA-FRANCE

If you hate the Russians so much, get your ass over to Ukraine and volunteer to fight them yourself. Deaths and horrific injuries don’t mean squat to someone that doesn’t have to put their own life on the line.


14 posted on 09/02/2023 8:48:07 AM PDT by Kazan
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To: MarMema
This kind of propaganda is all about convincing Ukrainians that life altering injuries are worth cost of fighting a proxy war for NATO and those in the West are profiting from it.
15 posted on 09/02/2023 8:50:21 AM PDT by Kazan
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To: Alter Kaker

Putin invaded to stop genocide.

But it does include the lying pos potuses we have had...since you asked...who declined to stop genocide in Rwanda (no oil), and killed 1/2 million Iraqi infants.

Who hired a marketing firm and even got a young girl to lie to congress about babies being tossed from incubators in Kuwait - lies and later admitted to be lies -

Who took deliberately fake photos of a man supposedly in a Serb pow camp with ribs showing, and made it widespread to demonize the Serbs with lies and falsehoods -

Who lied about every war we have begun. If this is not evil, nothing is...

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1651171.Ruses_for_War

http://www.srpska-mreza.com/guest/LM/lm-f97/LM97_Bosnia.html

https://www.democracynow.org/2018/12/5/how_false_testimony_and_a_massive


16 posted on 09/02/2023 8:50:43 AM PDT by MarMema (Eat your bananas, enjoy the decline)
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To: MarMema

This is some of the points I tried to make on my reply to those last night who cheer this war on which will result in nuclear exchange eventually if we do not stop.

Make it clear that a nuclear exchange wont be so heroic as they think. The absolute facts are there for anyone to see from the results of nuclear testing done within this country and outside this country.

We have already been contaminated by radiation. Not natural radiation, but man made. So, according to these war cheerleaders, what is a little more?

Final point is, they do not care. Blowing arms and legs off, or contamination from nuclear weapons. As long as they win right? That is all that matters.

These people are sick.

Not such a wild accusation now is it?


17 posted on 09/02/2023 8:53:05 AM PDT by crz
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To: Alter Kaker

None of those statements have anything but your paid propaganda opinion behind them.

I can post and say you beat your wife daily.

Same amount of truth and fact in either.


18 posted on 09/02/2023 8:57:10 AM PDT by MarMema (Eat your bananas, enjoy the decline)
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To: crz

These people are sick.


I hope for them to be the first to experience the results of their hopefulness for WW3.

Genetically incompatible with life.
Eradication can only be good for the pool in the long run.


19 posted on 09/02/2023 8:59:23 AM PDT by MarMema (Eat your bananas, enjoy the decline)
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To: Alter Kaker
---- "Nice friends you have!"

The "attack the messenger" is a well-used stratagem. I think a site and forum with the word "freedom" would allow many things. You'd played the quote in another thread, as you show. I responded and heard no counter from you.

8/31/2023, 10:53:02 AM · 21 of 34

Worldtraveler once upon a time to Alter Kaker

--- "I just don't see why you are amplifying this garbage."

In prosecuting any case, criminal or civil, one takes testimony from many sources, even those one may not "like."

I have read "Mein Kampf," but am not a Nazi. I have also read the "Communist Manifesto," and am no Communist, socialist nor devotee of Marx. I have read the Koran, and sure as hell am not a Muslim. Amplify garbage? Sometimes "garbage" can be VERY useful, especially in an investigation.

Your gambit is clear: "How many times are pro-Kremlin freepers going to post the same article from the same far left wing blog?"

You've just accused some Freepers of being "pro-Kremlin." There can be more than two sides to an issue, and far more than two perspectives. You've got one. There are many.

זי געזונט אַלטער קאַקער

20 posted on 09/02/2023 9:17:39 AM PDT by Worldtraveler once upon a time (Degrow government)
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