As the conflict in Ukraine is ever more clearly seen to result in a Russian victory over all the West could throw at it, western elites are already preparing their excuses, and ultimately, their most convincing lies. In the media goldfish bowl of the West this litany of distortion will blunt most of the shock and outrage expressed. Having got away with the deaths of hundreds of thousands across their previous wars of choice in recent times they know how to perform this trick.
We will be told (as western audiences were after the debacle of the Vietnam war) that we would have won if only we had done this, that or the other. Or if this, that or the other had been done right, or at the right time in the right place. This barrage of obfuscation will no doubt largely dispense enough media fog to blur the edges of the Ukrainian debacle. Naturally there will be no question of anyone owning up to any guilt over the matter. Perhaps a little bit of blame-gaming will take place however.
Joe Biden appears to be the most likely prospective fall guy. If only he had provided Ukraine with more earlier in the conflict. If only he had allowed NATO to fire missiles deep into Russia (saying all the while of course that the Ukrainians did it). If only he had not been so timorous but had been willing to risk nuclear war. (Of course those criticizing him won’t mention this latter factor, only that Russia should have been hit hard regardless of all such unnamed potentialities. The statements made will emphasize as many half-truths as possible in as convincing a style as possible. Ah, if only…
The armchair generals of the media along with the serried ranks of online know-it-alls will be out in force. This should have been done. That should have been done. He's to blame… no he is… perhaps him. Zelensky will get his share of brickbats of course though most ire will be directed at Biden for his pusillanimous, mouse-like temerity. Those somewhat in the know however, will point to Zelensky having far more interest in preserving himself than the Ukrainian people or nations. Mortally afraid of the vicious and unforgiving nature of Ukraine’s ultranationalists he knew he had to keep talking up victory and maintaining an utterly useless resistance, pouring ever more poor Ukrainian souls into the Russian meat grinder. All for self-preservation.
No doubt Zelensky was right about the various ultranationalist brigades such as AZOV. They, in their terminally nationalistic fervor and utterly delusional mania to fight to the very last, would have taken it exceedingly badly if Zelensky had thrown in the towel at any point. They would certainly, as it is said, have had his guts for garters if he had shown the slightest sign of wavering. So, hundreds of thousands of hapless Ukrainians essentially had to die to keep one man alive. This is the sorriest and most disreputable part of the entire lamentable saga. But without doubt, having taken the thing right to its bitter end with the Russians at the gate Zelensky will seize his moment and pop off to some villa in a secluded spot around the world to write his best selling memoirs.
So it will end. In fierce acrimony with vitriol spilled in momentous quantities. The blaming, shaming and regret will fill the headlines and political statements for a while, several days in fact, perhaps a week. Then radio silence will descend. As it has with Afghanistan. As it has with Iraq. And Syria. And Libya. So it will be with Ukraine. The Ukrainians will be left to stew in the poisonous juices left as yet another western proxy war dies. Left in penury with just a few empty promises of western state aid for rebuilding in their ears and some offers of slave wages from various western conglomerates who will hover like vultures seeking lower expenses and higher profits. A nation that showed much promise in the years before the western elites decided it needed to be assisted to destroy itself.
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