https://www.theepochtimes.com/youre-being-lied-to-about-the-war-in-ukraine_5029268.html
This isn’t a surprise to any honest observer of international politics.
It has therefore been frustrating to hear voices that many of us trust repeating the same tropes about “evil Vladimir Putin” and the “fight for democracy.” Likewise, as if reading off reports straight from the U.S. State Department or a CNN teleprompter, they tell us that the fascistic Russian regime is going to come tumbling down any day now.
All we need to do is continue to increase our support for the Zelenskyy administration—more money, more weapons, more “I stand with Ukraine” bumper stickers on the back of soccer moms’ minivans. No need to be concerned with the risk of escalation and potential nuclear war.
Why? Because, so they tell us, the United States-led transatlantic alliance (of which Ukraine is a mere proxy) is on the right side of history.
Spreading democracy, defending national sovereignty, ensuring human rights for all.
How quickly the speculating class returns to their neoconservative worldview.
Democracy?
Here in the United States we’ve seen our own electoral system totally upended in the past three years, a criminal justice system turned into a tool of political oppression, and half of the country demonized for “white supremacy” and portrayed as blood-thirsty fascists. The Twitter Files revealed that public discourse—what can be said and what can’t be said—was being curated by federal law enforcement attempting to directly influence the outcome of U.S. elections.
National sovereignty?
Every month, record numbers of unvetted foreign aliens pour across our wide-open Southern Border. Rather than seek to stem this flow, politicians argue about how these individuals should be provided with a path to naturalization, and some even support their right to vote (pre-naturalization), entirely destroying the concept of citizenship.
Human rights?
The President of the United States tried to mandate that the experimental COVID-19 mRNA shot be required in order for Americans to earn a living. We saw vaccination passports put in place around the Western world, and elites in every country attempted to turn neighbor against neighbor by spreading the lie that the unvaccinated were a physical threat to the vaccinated. Again, the Twitter Files showed how the right to free speech—one of our most fundamental “human rights”—was largely a joke.
Yet, we’re told that we must be cheering for the destruction of Russia and the liberation of Ukraine. Why, so that Ukraine can perform double mastectomies on minors for “gender-affirming care,” or host drag queen story hour where sexually perverted men dress up as women and interact with children? Is Vladimir Putin any worse than the above? At least his people don’t doubt the fact that he actually likes his country, which is more than we can say about our ruling class.
This isn’t a defense of any side. Not to tout my own predictions, but I’ve tried my best to write as a neutral observer of international trends. Here I wrote in July 2021 for the Euromaidan Press—a Ukraine-based online publication that’s obviously extremely pro-Kiev (or Kyiv, as they call it)—that the Western world should be paying attention to Putin’s hostile words as a precursor to future actions.
As a Russian speaker, I’ve also been able to see Moscow’s side of the story, and watch their reporting since 2014 on the continued Ukrainian assaults on the Donbass region. In October of 2021—five months before the beginning of the war—I noted how Kyiv’s attacks on the latter increased with the election of Joe Biden as president. I subsequently predicted that the decreased funds flowing to Ukraine may lead the Zelenskyy administration to further provoke conflict in an effort to open the cash spigot back up, inducing a reaction from Russia.
Considering that Biden on Jan. 31 just approved another $2.2 billion weapons package for Ukraine, including “longer-range” missiles, I’d say that Kyiv is certainly good for money now. Total aid is currently somewhere up around $100 billion.
I’m not saying I was right, but only that I attempted to honestly follow my observations. In comparison, others have simply seized on whatever their respective side tells them is the truth and used it to support the exact same thesis, left or right, Russian or Western: “Our side is going to win.”
Here’s a smattering of some of the numbers floating around from each side.
Chairman of the Joint Chief of Staff General Mark Milley recently claimed Russian casualties (killed and wounded collectively) in Ukraine stand at over 100,000.
Similarly, Hervé Bléjean, the director general of the European Union Military Staff, stated in early January that Russia had lost 60 percent of the total reserve of its military tanks. According to his estimates, total casualties for Moscow amount to nearly 250,000. Likewise, Ukraine previously reported that Russia had lost 20,000 troops (killed) in one single month of fighting alone.
Conversely, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu claimed several months ago that Russian deaths stood at less than 6,000, with Ukraine suffering over 100,000 casualties. According to the Kremlin, its Special Military Operation is proceeding perfectly apace in line with the strategic goals set out at the beginning of the war.
Sure, I’ll accept that Shoigu is lying.
But you expect me to trust Mark Milley? The same Mark Milley, DC darling who called the highest-ranking military officials in the Chinese Communist Party to tell them that he would preemptively warn them of an approaching U.S. attack because he personally hated Donald Trump?
Is Vladimir Putin “evil?” I don’t know. And neither does anyone else (at least in this world), regardless of what they tell you. But I do know that my own government has explicitly stated its hate for my political beliefs and attempted to portray me as an evil individual who is a threat to “democracy.”
So sorry, but I don’t “stand with Ukraine.” I stand with the United States of America, which I believe is more than the current individuals running our country can say. I don’t have the hubris to claim that I’m on the right side of history, but I will say that I believe myself to be on the side that loves this country—my country.
Any piece that attempts to moralize the war in Ukraine should be immediately met with your skepticism. Likewise, whoever says that Russia is finished any day now doesn’t have some insider information that you or I don’t know about—they’re merely playing the part of regime propaganda mouthpiece.
You, like me, are almost certainly not interested in hearing the grandstanding and fawning over Zelenskyy and the fight against big, bad Putin. If we did, we would simply tune into the Golden Globes or a Biden press statement.
It’s hard to know exactly where the Russo-Ukraine War is going, or who will “win” in the end (whatever that term even entails), but for now there’s one thing that we can conclude beyond a shadow of a doubt: We’re being lied to.
