Commentary
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, and 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 trans-Atlantic alliance (of which Ukraine is a mere proxy) is on the right side of history—spreading democracy, defending national sovereignty, and 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 vaccine 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 show 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, during which sexually perverted men dress up as women and interact with children? Is 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 Donbas region. In October 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 U.S. 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 just
approved on Jan. 31, 2022, another $2.2 billion weapons package for Ukraine, including “longer-range” missiles, I would say that Kyiv is certainly good for money now. Total aid is currently somewhere
near $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 U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley recently
claimed that Russian casualties (killed and wounded collectively) in Ukraine stand at more than 100,000.
Similarly, Hervé Bléjean, director-general of the European Union Military Staff,
said in early January that Russia had lost 60 percent of the total reserve of its military tanks. According to his estimates, the 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 more than 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 Milley? The same Mark Milley, D.C. 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 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’s 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'll 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.
Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
