America-bashers at al-Jazeera now peddling Heritage Foundation propaganda

There was a time not long ago that the al-Jazeera network was deemed such a threat to US interests that George W. Bush considered bombing their offices.

W can rest easy. AJE has an opinion piece on view today straight from the Heritage Foundation’s “Margaret Thatcher Fellow” Luke Coffey; It’s time to arm Ukraine.

Leaving aside Mr. Coffey’s extravagantly padded bio at the Heritage Foundation, (he “helped shape British Defence policy” while still a wet-behind-the-ears whipper-snapper in his 20′s), reading his article clarifies that he owes his post at HF not to his keen insights or rigorous analyses, but to his ability to hew to a particular ideological program in the face of all evidence against it.

We start with the usual PNAC bromides, apparently none the less appealing for having lead to unmitigated disaster for America over the past 15 years; the unspoken and unquestioned assumption of American exceptionalism and the inference that anyone who disagrees with America’s right to intervene in the internal matters of sovereign states at will is ethically and intellectually challenged.

As we all know, Russia is the aggressor and Obama is dithering. We expect nothing else and nothing less from the thinkers at this think tank.

Having set the stage, Coffey delivers his one-two punch of reasons the US needs to arm Ukraine now;

First, the people of Ukraine have demonstrated, whether on the streets of the Maidan or through the ballot box, that they see their future in the West and not under Russian domination.
There was a time not too long ago that closer ties with the West were discouraged by Ukraine’s leaders. In fact, until a few months ago there was even a law that prohibited Ukraine from ever joining NATO. Since the disposal of the Russian backed former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich this has all changed.
Second, the security situation has stabilised when compared to several months ago. When Russia first started backing the separatists the situation on the ground was chaotic. Nobody knew how far the separatists would go and where they would be stopped. The Ukrainian military was in disarray.
Now the situation is different. There is a front-line and a traditional linear battlefield. The Ukrainian military has consolidated. Although it has a long way to go, recruitment and training is taking place. Also, there is a less of a chance that western weapons will end up in the hands of the separatists.

That’s quite a batch of half-truths, non-sequitors, distortions, and out-right fabrications to serve up in two short paragraphs! The security situation has stabilised? The Ukrainian military has consolidated?…

So why does al-Jazeera, a network birthed to provide an alternative to the dominant Atlanticist world news industry, publish such obvious claptrap from such an obnoxious source? That’s easy; on the matter of demonizing Putin, the PNAC freedom-fighters at the Heritage Foundation and the anti-democratic nutters of Qatar’s royal family are on the same page.