November
27, 2019
© Photo: Flickr / SCU Media
Students
Australian-born John Pilger
has worked for over five decades as a reporter and documentary film-maker
covering wars and conflicts all over the world. In the following interview, the
award-winning journalist says the world is arguably at a more perilous geopolitical
juncture than even during the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962 at the height of the
Cold War. This is because American “exceptionalism” – which, he points out,
mirrors that of Nazi Germany – has developed into a hyper-rogue phase. The
relentless denigration of Russia by American and Western media show that there
are few red lines left to restrain aggression towards Moscow, as there were, at
least, during the past Cold War. Russia and China’s refusal to bow down to
Washington’s dictate is infuriating the would-be American hegemon and its
desire for zero-sum world domination.
John Pilger also gives his
wide-ranging views on the systematic deterioration of Western mainstream
journalism which has come to function as a nakedly propaganda matrix for power
and corporate profit. He further condemns the ongoing persecution and torture
of fellow-Australian publisher Julian Assange who is being held in a
maximum-security British prison commonly used for holding mass murderers and
convicted terrorists. Assange is being persecuted for telling the truth and for
exposing huge crimes by the US and Britain, says Pilger. It is a grim warning
of a covert war that is being conducted against independent journalism and free
speech, and, more ominously, indicative of a slide towards police-state fascism
in so-called Western democracies.
INTERVIEW
Question: In your documentary film, The Coming War on China (2016), you assess that the
United States is on a strategic collision path with China for control of
Asia-Pacific. Do you still see the threat of war looming between these two
powers?
John Pilger: The threat of war may not be immediate, but we know
or should know that events can change fast: a chain of incidents and missteps
can ignite a war which can spread unpredictably. The calculations are not in
dispute: an “enemy” has barely 12 minutes to decide whether and where to order
a nuclear retaliation.
Question: Recently, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo accused
China of being “truly hostile to America’s interests”. What in your view is
motivating US concerns about China?
