-- by Tom Phillips
"It's a hard way to fight a war -- village by village, house by house --- with no guarantee of success."
So reported the New York Times recently in a front-page article about small gains in Ukraine's counteroffensive against Russian-held territory in eastern Ukraine. Meanwhile ABC's reporter showed Ukrainian troops firing at invisible targets, and said Ukrainian commanders "claimed" to have penetrated Russia's first line of defense.
These are journalists' private ways of signaling to a knowing reader that the story is bullshit. An actual Ukrainain counteroffensive would involve large-scale troop movements against Russia's heavily fortified front lines -- across a minefield that extends hundreds of miles. Depleted Ukrainian forces would be relying on fresh recruits who have never seen combat. It's not gonna happen.
What's happening now is a phony war --- not for those who are dying, but those who are trying to make it into something it's not. It's become a war of words, the US and Ukraine trying to spin minuscule advances by Ukrainian forces into what a Washington spokesman called "notable progress." Such language, echoed in the mainstream media, serves mainly to prop up two beleagured presidents --- Volodymyr Zelensky and Joe Biden.
Zelensky recently replaced his defense minister -- the new guy, Rustem Omerov, a bearded hipster who wears Ukrainian peasant shirts to his photo-ops. Zelensky said nothing about changing military strategy. He said defense minister Omerov would be devising "new formats of interaction with the military and society at large." In other words, PR and propaganda.
Biden meanwhile has dug hmself into a foreign-policy foxhole by promising NATO membership to Ukraine and a fight to the finish with the Russians. Poor Joe has to make it look good until election day 2024. After that, he can slink away from these unwinnable goals -- and hope that too much isn't made of yet another misadventure in "promoting democracy."
Half a million people have been killed over the last year and a half in Ukraine. Zelensky would be well advised to negotiate for peace with the present lines intact. But he is badly advised, by us. We don't seem to care that our military interventions wind up wrecking the countries we set out to help. Vietnam, Iraq, Somalia, Afghanistan, Libya, the list goes on.
"How many deaths will it take 'til we know that too many people have died?"
-- Copyright 2023 by Tom Phillips
Photo: Le Monde
