The truth cannot be tolerated, therefore comforting delusion must take its place. In tandem with selective delusion many excuses will have been long-readied alongside a generous supply of responsibility-obscuring mud for ‘those over there’.
The entire panoply of western leadership are continuing to surround themselves in mirages of misplaced breast-beating over Ukraine rather than facing anything as onerous as facts.
Those facts are of course incredibly hard to face considering the assumption of western leaders that they are hugely righteous, amounting to the greatest collective global power in existence to whom the concept of defeat is entirely unknown. And that defeat therefore is entirely unthinkable.
Meanwhile, Ukraine goes from one defeat to another, talking all the while of an eventual victory. Its leaders too are blind to the stark reality facing them. The reality of imminent defeat.
Therefore, happily for them (for the time being) all is wished away by means of one total fantasy or another.
Unfortunately for them reality has a nasty habit of barging headlong into even the most beloved of fantasies sooner or later. And, if you look closely you will now see those fantasies beginning to leak at the seams, this being evidenced by signs of an inevitable blame game starting.
The first example concerns Joe Biden, who for no evident reason, recently brought up the fact that Zelensky had initially been unwilling to accept the fact that Russia was about to initiate a campaign in Ukraine. It was a purely gratuitous criticism about a situation more than three months earlier that had no current context to explain it, except an indication from Biden (and perhaps a warning to Zelensky) that if things carried on as they appeared wont to do mud-slinging would not be one-sided in the event of an eventual debacle.
Then there was the article in the New York Times which bemoaned the fact that the western powers knew much more about Russia’s military tactics and activities than about those of Ukraine, giving the distinct (and false) impression that they were to some degree in the dark due to Ukraine not providing adequate information. I predict we will hear more of this kind of talk in due course.
On the Ukrainian side we can also see the mud being gathered ready for slinging.
Neither Zelensky nor any of those in the front line of Ukraine’s leadership are going to capitulate. They are going to act in defiant fashion, forever calling for more assistance by way of heavy weaponry, never for a moment suggesting any desire to come to any agreement with Russia, always ready to fight to the last man. However, the western world is rapidly diminishing in its ability or willingness to supply what the Ukrainian leadership demands. Zelensky and his people cannot say any different, to capitulate for them means almost certain death, or at least perpetual ignominy. A much safer strategy is to keep breast-beating, keep posturing heroically, keep insisting on eventual victory and most important of all, keep demanding more weaponry from the West.
This latter point is vital as it provides the mud to sling later when the protective spin for them will be that they fought like devils for Ukraine but were let down by those promised so much but then failed to deliver.
There is no way Zelensky and co. can agree to talks with Russia now. This route was taken only a few weeks into Russia’s campaign. It was even bearing some fruit. Ukraine agreed to some important (though not enough) crucial aspects that provided some hope that continued talks might bring a meaningful breakthrough. It was the western leaders who apparently convinced Zelensky to break off these talks and row back on the progress made. Chief of those who convinced Zelensky of this was seemingly Boris Johnson but undoubtedly Joe Biden had a hand in it also. It seems Zelensky was told that if he abandoned talks with Russia he would be delivered overwhelming firepower with which to defeat Russia.
This defeat of Russia is now extremely obvious by its absence. Yet still both sides make a pretense of confidence on an ‘if only’ basis. If only the West provided the enormous number of weapons required and if only Ukraine provided the troops to operate them.
It is becoming ever more clear however that both of these ‘if only’ factors are also going to be obvious by their absence. The logistics of providing the arms, ammunition and training necessary by the West make the first part of the task unattainable and the decimation of Ukrainian troops via tactical incompetence by Ukraine make the second part unattainable also. Besides, Russia has the manufacturing base to supply and resupply both men and materiel on such an unlimited basis to defeat Ukraine no matter what is done now.
So we will no doubt see this theatre of the absurd continue whereby both the western powers and the Zelensky regime talk pie in the sky while that sky increasing falls down upon them. Neither appear willing to face reality. Too much is at stake for them personally if they do. Meanwhile Ukrainian troops die in their droves. The politicians are doing their level best to save their own necks while that abominable suffering drags ever on. No talks. No concessions. More deaths. More territory taken. But the heroic status of Zelensky retained till the end with a finger pointing at the deceivers and foot-draggers of the West who let his country down. In the USA and across the western world we will hear a different refrain however, one that talks of Ukrainian officials providing “inaccurate information”, officials who talked up victories that had no reality but that conjured up in their own minds. So it will go, I predict.
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