Liberals Lose It After Cornel West Tells CNN That NATO Is To Blame For Ukraine Crisis

Left-wing activist and academic firebrand Cornel West appeared on CNN prime time Thursday night, and gave show host Kaitlin Collins a dose of reality not typically heard on the network when the issue of the Ukraine war is broached. West recently announced as a Third-party 2024 presidential candidate (seeking the Green Party's nomination), so during the interview he was pressed on his foreign policy stance. 

"If Russia had missiles in Mexico and Canada, the United States government would probably blow them to smithereens because that’s how empires behave. We had the same challenge in Cuba in 1962. So what we end up with is a criminal invasion," West stated firmly in the interview segment.

West then lashed out at the 'establishment Left' and mainstream Liberals in general...

"And I know that some of my left-wing comrades, ‘Oh it’s an invasion,’ but a criminal invasion provoked by the expansion of NATO, which is an instrument of U.S. global power," he said. Collins then asked what practical steps he would take to resolve the Russia-Ukraine crisis:

Collins: "Practically speaking, what would you accept in Ukraine? Like what? I mean, Trump claims he could fix it. What would that look like for you?"

West: "Oh, what I would do, I would bring in the Chinese, the Turks, the African rulers. I would sit down with the Ukrainian leaders and say, we must stop this war, stop these war crimes, cluster bombs on a variety of different parties and make sure that we begin a diplomatic process for a just peace."

He described robust negotiations which would inevitably lead to territorial concessions, to get Russian troops to leave...

"And that just peace is going to have some serious concessions across the board. Russian troops have to leave. There’s going to be debates over the territory. There going to be some kind of concessions over the territory, but stop the killing. Why?" West then answered his rhetorical question: "Because the Ukrainian brothers and sisters are precious and they are bearing so much of the suffering with this proxy war between the American empire and the Russian Federation."

"So there’s responsibility and blame across the board. But the American empire does bear a significant responsibility here, even though it is not the sole or exclusive responsibility. And it’s in no way a pro-Putin [talking point," he emphasized. 

Perhaps entirely to be expected, the "outrage" and pile-one began as clips of the interview quickly went viral, with Mediaite declaring in a headline that the Ivy League professor was slammed by mainstream voices for being "No Different Than Trump, RFK Jr, Tucker Carlson". Pundits at Politico and elsewhere naturally rolled out the 'pro-Putin' and 'Kremlin agent' trope, but without addressing the arguments.

But journalist Glenn Greenwald pointed out that it's "Absolutely hilarious how angry and confused establishment liberals are than an actual, life-long, committed left-wing scholar would vehemently oppose the CIA/NATO proxy war in Ukraine."

"They barely exist in the US and are so rarely heard from that liberals can't comprehend it," Greenwald added while underscoring that West's breakdown of the situation is something mainstream media consumers are very rarely exposed to.

Anger and outrage!...

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Remember when Christiane Amanpour began yelling at Wolf Blitzer about what you are allowed to say or not say concerning Ukraine over CNN airwaves?

Ed Snowden summarizes where things stand...

For another, albeit similarly fiercely independent angle...