Ukraine: How the West is inciting violence

You're listening to Dr. Edward Herman, the late Emeritus Professor at Wharton, UPenn, and co-author of "Manufacturing Consent" with Noam Chomsky, discussing the United States' involvement in Ukraine's 2014 coup:

"Russia was pushed up against the wall. My view is that actually what's happened in Ukraine made it imperative for Putin to make a move. If he hadn't made a move, in this case, where a hostile government has been emplaced in Ukraine, with the definite aid of the West, and with NATO coming forward further into Ukraine. If Putin didn't resist this, Russia was dead. I think he had no alternative.

The hostile government came into power in Kyiv, and it was put in there with the help of the West. This constitutes a great security threat to Russia, that would make it a defensive action. You could argue that the real aggression is from the West. They engaged in what the former CIA officer Ray McGovern calls "subversive incitement."

Maybe the most important point was the West has engineered a coup in Kyiv and placed in power a government that was definitely hostile to Russia and aligned with the West, posed a real threat that, eventually, they would close down the Russian naval base. So, this was a genuine national security threat from the coup.

There was that deal between Gorbachev and the high officials of Germany and the US that in exchange for giving up East Germany, NATO would not expand one inch eastward. There was an understanding, and that understanding was violated very quickly, and the West and the United States have moved east steadily.

They've encircled Russia to a quite remarkable scale; they even placed missile defenses right at the Russian border, pretending that this was to protect Europe against Iran, which was a fraud; we all know about it. Here now, it is the West again on the southern border of Russia."

In addition to "Manufacturing Consent," Herman and Chomsky also co-authored "The Political Economy of Human Rights," "Necessary Illusions," and "The Washington Connection and Third World Fascism," among others.

Their collaboration was marked by a deep commitment to social justice, supporting numerous progressive causes, and a willingness to challenge dominant narratives.

What are your thoughts on Prof. Edward Herman's viewpoint regarding the US involvement in the 2014 Ukrainian coup?