Why Are We Not Being Told the Truth About Ukraine? By Michael Wilkerson.
While I wish it were otherwise, the unpleasant fact is that Ukraine cannot win the war against Russia. The Biden Administration and the leaders of the U.K. and European Union know this full well. …
We are watching history repeat itself. A new generation of American leadership is rushing headlong into the same traps that ensnared the Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon administrations in Vietnam. The mistakes made then: veering outside of U.S. strategic interests, a ratcheting escalation of commitment of manpower and weapons, concomitant massive government spending contributing to an inflationary crisis, the institutionalized cognitive dissonance that refuses to acknowledge counterfactuals against the prevailing narrative, and finally, massive lying to the American public about the facts on the ground, are all being repeated in the war in Ukraine. …
Year-to-date through September, the United States has committed over $52 billion to support Ukraine, including nearly $28 billion in military aid. …
The EU, which has more to lose from the regional conflagration, has committed a relatively paltry $16 billion. The U.S. military-industrial complex is alive and well, and more than happy to see this war continue for as long as possible. …
War propaganda:
The American public repeatedly has been told that the Russian army is demoralized, that the Ukrainian military is prevailing on the battlefield, that Putin is dying of cancer and/or his generals are revolting, that sanctions are working, and that Russia’s economy is now worse than it was before the war. Like all good lies, these are built on kernels of truth exaggerated, twisted, or grossly inverted.
The fact, as distasteful as it feels to most Americans and to me, is that Putin has a firm grip on power, Russian national income remains strong, and Russia has the upper hand in the conflict. Russia will outlast Ukraine and the West in this conflict.
Ready for negotiations now?
Recent reports of U.S. officials secretly encouraging Ukrainian President Zelenskyy to be open to negotiations are more than just shows of good faith. This reflects the growing fatigue and cost of the war, as well as the dawning realization that Russia has more leverage in the situation than the leaders of the West are letting on publicly. …
Russia has had no problem finding new friends and forging new trading alliances on these terms. Iran is providing advanced missiles and drones to widen Russia’s military options. India and China are buying its oil and gas. Despite the sabotage of the Nord Stream pipeline, Russia has a number of hole cards, including the ability to choke food and fertilizer supply chains, natural gas, and of course, a powerful nuclear arsenal.
On the other hand, 4.5 million Ukrainians, mostly in or around Kiev, are now without power, and the mayor of the capital city has warned its residents to prepare to evacuate. Food, water, and medicine are scarce. Tens of thousands are already dead. Multiple large cities and related infrastructure have been laid waste. Winter is coming. The situation is getting more and more desperate, as reflected in President Zelenskyy’s increasingly strident and demanding tones. …
If more money is going to be spent, I’d much rather see it deployed into productive peacetime investments that could benefit the United States, such as using U.S. companies and equipment to rebuild the power grid and other national infrastructure, rather than on weapons of destruction with a guaranteed 100 percent loss on investment, and withering inflation to boot.
I’ve seen estimates it will cost Ukraine about US$350 billion to rebuild from the war damage. This dwarfs the US$68 billion in aid sent to Ukraine by the West so far.
