In politics, there is often no reward, only penalty, for being right, especially when you go against the messaging of the ruling elites.

Gonzalo Lira, an American citizen, war commentator and blogger, has died in Kharkiv, Ukraine, after a prolonged period of medical neglect in prison. His misfortune was being too prescient about the war being unwinnable, the regime of Volodymyr Zelensky being increasingly dictatorial and corrupt, and that the US should have tried diplomacy rather than spearheading another futile but brutal proxy war.

Just as pundits and politicians in the West have made sure you hear about the plight of some foreign journalists but not others, so they have kept deafeningly quiet about Lira’s imprisonment and death at the hands of Ukrainian authorities. Lira is Jamal Khashoggi 2.0; another proof of President Joe Biden’s love of press freedom.

Lira died on January 11 after an eight-month imprisonment by local authorities for making “pro-Russian” statements. He was arrested last year for “production and dissemination of materials justifying Russia’s armed aggression against Ukraine”.

His........

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