Marla wrote on Aug 15^th, 2023 at 6:52am:

No it's parmy. in arstralia.

Why can’t we be honest about Ukraine’s counter-offensive?

In early June one of the world’s foremost military intelligence experts David Petraeus said the Ukrainian counteroffensive would be “very impressive”. But to date it has been a disaster – one that should question the wisdom of providing further military and rhetorical support for the war, which could ultimately weaken Ukraine’s bargaining position in peace negotiations.

In more than two months Ukraine has retaken little territory at an unknown cost, despite months of Western training and total NATO military and economic aid since January 2022 of €165bn ($279bn – more than five times Australia’s annual defence budget), according to the Kiel Institute. Between 20,000 and 50,000 Ukrainians have lost one or more limbs since the start of the war, The Wall Street Journal reported earlier this month.

Even before the counteroffensive began, Ukraine had lost some 100,000 soldiers, according to US General Mark Milley. The reality could be even worse given Western media has generally created the impression that Ukraine is “winning”, even though more than five million Ukrainians have emigrated, the nation’s infrastructure has been crippled and more than 20 per cent of its territory is occupied.

In the Vietnam War the US, which then had a population over 200 million (more than five times that of Ukraine), lost around 60,000 soldiers. It lost 2400 in Afghanistan over 20 years.

Last year Elon Musk was derided for suggesting Russia be allowed to keep Crimea and the UN hold referendums on the status of the four annexed provinces in eastern Ukraine.

“This is highly likely to be the outcome in the end – just a question of how many die before then,” he said, prompting accusations the world’s richest man was on Vladimir Putin’s payroll.  Almost a year on, having instead heeded the wisdom of foreign policy experts, that looks like a best-case scenario.

Russia’s military advantage appears insurmountable in troops and artillery without mobilising, and sanctions appear to have failed. Eight in 10 Russians say they haven’t personally been affected them, according to a recent survey by the Chicago Council of Global Affairs. Crimea – supposedly under threat from Ukrainian military – is currently overflowing with Russian tourists.

Moreover, by promising to welcome Ukraine into NATO after the war ends (something Russia launched its invasion to prevent), Moscow has an incentive to keep the war going and even seize more of the country to make its ultimate NATO membership less of a problem. The promise of “Ukraine in NATO” created ample opportunities for virtue signalling but may have extended the war for years.

In May, Donald Trump was mocked by foreign policy experts during a CNN Town Hall interview for refusing to say whether he supported Ukraine “winning”. “I want everybody to stop dying. They’re dying. Russians and Ukrainians. I want them to stop dying,” he said. Experts were furious but his opinion may increasingly reflect that of the US public.

A CNN poll last week found 55 per cent of Americans opposed sending further aid – well up from 17 per cent in February 2022 when Russia launched its invasion. Yet the Biden administration asked congress last week for another $US24bn in aid for Ukraine – fully backed by top Republicans.

“We haven’t lost a single American … Most of the money that we spend related to Ukraine is actually spent in the US, replenishing weapons … So it’s actually employing people here and improving our own military for what may lie ahead,” Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell said, batting away criticism.

However much a boon for the US defence industry the war is, it’s not clear ordinary Ukrainians want it to continue. Opposition parties have been banned in Ukraine. Elections have been suspended. And all media and journalists have been under state control since January.

For months, social media has been awash with videos of young Ukrainian men being dragged into trucks to be sent to the frontline. Last week President Volodymyr Zelensky sacked 24 senior enlistment officers after it emerged wealthy Ukrainians were paying up to $US10,000 to avoid the draft, according to The New York Times.
Governments and their citizens’ interests diverge sharply during wartime, given the costs of fighting fall mainly on the latter.

In 2008 Putin privately told George W. Bush Ukraine would be dismembered if it sought NATO membership, according to John Mearsheimer’s 2018 book, The Great Delusion, which chronicles the disastrous unintended consequences of US foreign policy since 9/11. ...The sad reality is Moscow’s interests and arguments, whether we agree with them or not, will need to be taken into account in Ukraine, at least as much as Washington’s.

If that means the Russian-speaking parts of Ukraine become part of Russia, or even if Ukraine has to promise not to join NATO, perhaps that’s preferable to another 100,000 young Ukrainians dying or losing their limbs, and Moscow and Beijing becoming even closer allies. It may not be forever: Russia won’t be able to hold on to the territories it has annexed if the people don’t want to be part of Russia. Time will tell.
https://www.theaustralian.com.au/commentary/why-cant-we-be-honest-about-ukraines...

As if straight out of Roger Ramjet, when United States Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Mark Milley admits Ukraine’s counter-offensive ‘hasn’t been a total failure’, you know it’s not long until this proxy war against Russia is exposed as a disaster. Just like the fall of Rome, it wasn’t the boots who lost Ukraine it was the suits. Right now, on so many levels, we are in a fight for the soul of the West. This is what the suits miss. That’s what is at stake. And Ukraine is a good example of how much damage can be done by so few to the lives of so many.

It’s not that the war in Ukraine has made Russia stronger; it’s that it has made the West weaker. This should be of major concern to Australia. As our country embarks on the Aukus deal we should be demanding answers not about the hardware, but about the software; in other words, the people dictating our strategic direction. It’s people who fight wars, not machines.

Putting aside that this proxy war with Russia should have never happened, once it was certain, the suits at Nato failed to deliver. Instead, they suffered from the four poisons of the mind – fear, confusion, hesitation and surprise. When it comes to physical confrontation, in the absence of Odysseus’s cunning, the best approach is Achilles’: swift, brutal and decisive.

One of those responsible for the mess in Europe and a weakened Nato, is European Union Commissioner Ursula von der Leyen. Ms von der Leyen is an example of what happens to the security of a nation led by the woke-globalists. During her time as German Defence Minister, units of the Bundeswehr had to use broomsticks for guns during a Nato exercise. Meanwhile, transgender workshops are all the rage within the US military. Now these same people want more war with Russia, and it appears China. Yet, nothing suggests the suits will have learned their lesson.

While displaying formidable synchronisation of mortars, drones and small unit tactics, Ukraine does not have an endless supply of soldiers. The counter-offensive has resulted in the slaughter of between 25,000 and 28,000 Ukraine soldiers, possibly more. This is on top of the 300,000 already dead and an equal number wounded. Next time you are at a full house at the MCG, think three times more. It is estimated Ukraine has ten brigades left, somewhere between 35,000 and 40,000 trained and equipped troops.  Ukrainian soldiers did everything demanded of them by US President Joe Biden and the suits at Nato. Yet President Biden, Milley, and US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, along with the rest of the suits claim Russia has lost.

As with Barbie, they are living in a parallel universe. And most Western media just goes along with it, more obsessed with bending truths than delivering cold hard facts.  Asking questions, makes you a Putin stooge. So, this fantasy continues. Now our ammunition cupboards are bare, and Australia can only send stuff stored in the back paddock. At the same time most of the world does not support the West’s position because with the return of big-power politics, it’s the strongest tribe. And they are sick of being lectured by the suits in the West.

The one aspect lost on the suits is that war in Ukraine represents a fight for the soul of all that has made the West great. Like the withdrawal from Afghanistan, it is another flashing flight on the dashboard of the West. That is what’s on the line. While we reward participation, they refuse to be victims.  While we demand equality of outcome, they study harder. Even infrastructure projects, such as roads, bridges, airports, and wharves must be ‘gender inclusive’, whatever that means. And in a game of grand strategy, we are told Putin doesn’t fight fair.

Potential allies siting on the fence are not going to support a side unsure of itself.  A side that constantly lectures itself about its supposed evil and racist past and present. Take Foreign Policy magazine’s article by Dr Bret Devereaux arguing the US Army doesn’t need warriors. The brave Dr Devereaux ridicules the idea of emulating the Spartan ethos. According to Dr Devereaux anyone aspiring to be a Spartan is a right-wing nut job. It’s this ideology that leads to weak men. As Canadian psychologist Jordan Peterson says, it’s not dangerous and disciplined men letting the West down, or the community or their family, its weak men. Whether Spartan, US or Ukrainian soldier, we want them in our trenches, just not the suits.

With this attitude it’s not surprising Nato has failed. All this while Europe and the US are in a domestic mess. Their open-borders policy is allowing in millions with zero affiliation with Western values, freedom, democracy and culture. Consider the effect on the state’s responsibility to preserve power and security in a generation. Who thinks they are interested in our national security? Even Western banks such as those in the UK are in on it, cancelling the accounts of those they deem as ‘politically exposed’. This is on top of 1984-style censorship laws and where defending women can get you labelled a Nazi.

Tanks, submarines, Javelins, F-35s and Aukus deals are not ends in themselves. These pieces of kit, and our soldiers, are the means to defend all we hold dear. Just ask Israel. Big or small, conflict runs along a moral, mental and physical continuum. Virtue and windmills will not protect you from bullies.

https://www.spectator.com.au/2023/08/a-fight-for-the-soul-of-the-west/

'Russian authorities have filed a lawsuit against Andrey Melnichenko as they seek to seize and nationalise one of the companies in the billionaire oligarch’s metals and mining empire, claiming its purchase five years ago was a corrupt deal. The state’s accusations come amid a campaign by the Kremlin to entice wealthy Russians to bring their wealth and businesses back home'.

There's no corruption in Putin's Holy Russia. That's a NATO big lie, where did that idea come from?