Posted on 01/17/2023 8:36:27 AM PST by Kazan
America’s infatuation with Ukraine and Zelensky (the Cocaine Comedian) is starting to wane, but most politicians and the public continue to believe the lie that Ukraine is an innocent country being bludgeoned by a communist Russia ruled by a dictator. Oh yeah. Don’t forget. Russia is suffering massive military and economic losses and just can’t live without U.S. investment and Europe’s technology. It is all nonsense, but if you are living in the United States and try to have a reasoned discussion with the fan boys and girls cheering for Ukraine, you would find more success talking to a brick wall.
But cracks are starting to show. One of my brilliant readers sent me the link to Michael Brendan Dougherty‘s latest in the National Review (a conservative icon in the magazine world), What Have We Bargained for in Ukraine? I encourage you to read the entire piece. More importantly, read the comments. That will give you some insight into the insanity that still reigns with regards to sending billions of dollars in money and materiel to Ukraine.
Here are the salient portions of the piece:
My friend and colleague Matthew Continetti writes that “securing America’s position and freedom’s future without direct intervention and for a rounding error in the federal budget is a strategic bargain. Ukraine needs more, not less, U.S. aid, and it needs it now.” In Commentary in November, Noah Rothman wrote that “Kyiv’s victories are our victories, too, insofar as they advance a core American national interest: preserving the stable European covenant that has blessed Western powers with the longest, most durable peace on the Continent in the modern age.”
This view holds that for pennies on the dollar, the U.S. has been able to preserve a democracy threatened by an authoritarian regime, cripple a rival military, strengthen the NATO alliance, prevent Vladimir Putin from an inevitable invasion of NATO territory, and scare off Xi Jinping from ever messing with Taiwan. . . .
Except, none of this is quite true. Crippling a rival military is only worthwhile when you have a strategic reason for doing so, and we conspicuously lack one. The NATO alliance’s duties have been radically expanded with no radical expansion in the share of the alliance’s burdens shouldered by Europe. Ukraine’s ultra-nationalist project is at odds with the democratic and liberal-internationalist values that are used to sell the conflict abroad. The conflict’s financial and moral costs to the U.S. have been growing for nearly a decade, and taking on Ukraine as a permanent dependent will grow them even more. The arc of the conflict is just as likely to encourage as to discourage Xi in his pursuit of Taiwan, given the ways in which our enmeshment in Europe will deplete our attention, resources, and will to be the world’s cop. And finally, no conflict in this blood-stained area of the globe is a mom-and-pop bingo game in which you can cash out your modest investments at any time; Vladimir Putin and Russia have a say in how this ends.
There you have it. A prominent conservative writer who was a strong supporter of Ukraine (and still insists that Putin is some sort of Darth Vader who enjoys borscht) is conceding that America’s strategy is based on a lie.
Over at Neo-Con central — i.e., the Institute for the Study of War — the stenographers masquerading as analysts grudgingly concede that Russia captured Soledar, but then proceeds to focus on their own fantastical speculation that there is political strife in Russia surrounding the Wagner Group’s success in the battle for Soledar. They write nothing about the strategic significance of the fall of Soledar, nothing about the growing Russian pressure on Bakhmut to the south of Soledar and nothing about Ukraine’s catastrophic casualties. It is genuinely bizarre.
Good analysis. If body bags were coming back to the US, this silly war would be over.
In March 2014, following the Euromaidan protest movement and the resulting Revolution of Dignity, large swaths of the Donbas became gripped by pro-Russian and anti-government unrest. This unrest later grew into a war between Ukrainian government forces and Russian and pro-Russian separatists affiliated with the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk "People's Republics", who were supported by Russia as part of the broader Russo-Ukrainian War. Both republics went unrecognized internationally until their recognition by Russia in 2022.
Perfect timing.
Off topic, but it’s interesting that people can get paid to write an article about another article, and a third of their article is an excerpt from the other article. I wonder if I could make some money writing an article on this guy’s article about the other guy’s article. I think I could come up with a few sentences and then just put his entire article in the middle.
On a side note, I am aligned philosophically with Larry Johnson but he rejects and deletes every post I have attempted on his sonar21 web site. I have no idea why.
My postings on The Duran (where Larry is a frequent video guest) and The Conservative Treehouse are accepted and popular with followers there.
I am an 11th generation American going back to the 1600’s.
A wise person should be able to discern friend from foe.
Defeat is inevitable and it will be humiliating. And perhaps catastrophic.
Europe will come to understand who destroyed Nord I and Nord II.
the best thing that can happen in the US is to provoke yet another war, and LOSE decisively.
Um, that already happened in Afghanistan in the most dramatic and humiliating way possible and it has been completely forgotten in less than three years, other than those who were really involved or just REMF involved. Other than getting into a real war with Russia, which would be a big deal even if involvement was overwhelmingly regular Army, AF and Marines, these conflicts attract only the interest of barca lounger warriors and those with some family connection to the fight. America and Americans today are lazy, ignorant, crassly materialist and uncaring while posing as good thinking ‘goood people’ whether left or phony conservative. It will take events that are really existential like nukes falling, to jolt Americans out of their prideful, sensual, drugged out sloth. The Europeans are worse.
Sadly, you're the joke. Shamefully, you are destroying what your own ancestors fought for. You also ignore what George Washington & James Madison warned about getting involved in foreign wars.
I hate to see those idiots doing this to FR. It’s only a few of them but they do post nonstop trashy propaganda around the clock. And they’re all so nasty.
They’ve driven some good FReepers from the site and a few more have stayed here but are no longer donating.
I hope this will be rectified sooner rather than later. My tolerance level for the day in and day out stupidity is dropping.
So remind me again about Lafayette, Rochambeau, and De Grasse, and what France did for the U.S. during the Revolutionary War?
Palpable regret among Russian trolls
What happened to you? You used to be a rock-solid patriot when you were in the Green Zone in Iraq, but now you want to roll over for Putin?
I don’t support censorship but I’d recommend to management that this material land on the back page somewhere. If people want to see it they can fish for it.
I come to the main page and often see it littered with misleading, repetitive garbage from the likes of this Timber Rattler crackpot, sappyintexas, etc.
They’ve hijacked the place for their own selfish insecurities.
The question then is - does this country have enough Democracy and civil society left to overcome our rapidly growing MIC and highly politicized and centralized DOJ/KGB lawfare/surveillance state?
- - - - - - -
I think no. The country will collapse before that happens.
I’ve recommended that they’re consolidated to one thread a day like the Q articles are.
My suggestion is that they can have a daily thread and put all of their British tabloid, Reuters, CNN and other oddball blog links there. And yes, I strongly support keeping it off the front page.
French interventionism led directly to the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars. Do you really think that was what their Monarchy was trying to accomplish?
You means those daily news stories I post from recognized worldwide news outlets like the BBC, Sky News, the Associated Press, UPI, etc.?
Maybe you just don't like the news. And if you don't want to read it, then you can always just keep scrolling and not hit the link.
Pretty simple.
But you're not being honest. What you really want is the mods to engage in censorship here, correct?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.