There Is No Ukraine War
No military expert has argued that Russia started a war with Ukraine. Instead, Russia tried a blitzkrieg operation to remove the current Ukrainian Government; it failed. After two weeks, we must ask the question again: is Russia waging war against Ukraine? The answer for me is…no.
No nation can quickly turn a “special military operation” into a war. All experts agree that the operation has failed. A war may develop in the future, but I can’t see it between Ukraine and Russia.
Compared to Russia, Ukraine does not have a real standing army, navy or air force.
Where are the Ukrainian Generals? Where are the military bases? Where is the Ukrainian Air Force? Ukrainians are fighting a guerilla war, no different than that fought by the Colonies of the United States against the British in the late 1700s.
I see the war through Western media. I don’t believe the “Western” media is purposely lying. However, they jump to conclusions without any reasonable doubt. I also find most reporters ignorant about the fundamentals of military operations and the geopolitical issues that created this conflict.
Today, March 10th, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov spoke about the attack on the maternity hospital in Mariupol. “This maternity hospital has long been occupied by the Azov Battalion and other radicals. They drove out the women in labor, nurses and general staff. It was the base of the ultra-radical Azov Battalion.”
Is this true? I’d like to say ‘no’. But I can’t. It is common practice for terrorist groups to take over schools and hospitals, keep some hostages, and dare sovereign nations to attack them. I don’t see that anyone in the mainstream media has made any effort, whatsoever, to verify this claim. I know that because they haven’t even recognized that it IS a common practice in the first place! They asked Lavrov this same question, as he pointed out, three times! Instead of repeating the question, Mr. Reporter, why not find out the answer for yourself?
For example, the media doesn’t mention that on 3 October 2015, a United States Air Force AC-130U gunship attacked a hospital in Afghanistan, killing 42 people. For 30 minutes doctors called the U.S. military command asking them to stop. Nor does it mention the 10 innocent Afghanis killed on August 29th, 2021 by a drone strike.
I’m not going to list all the civilians the U.S. military kills on a regular basis. I’m not dumping on the U.S. or claiming Russia is justified in this conflict. I’m only putting such claims into perspective.
Civilians get killed in guerilla wars. Does the Russian military care less about human life than any other military — despite what some over zealous history buffs like to claim? I’d like to see some hard data.
Who kills civilians? It takes months to figure out.
Yes, many young Russian conscripts have been sent into Ukraine ill-prepared and later labeled canon fodder. But we must keep in mind, Russia never expected the operation to fail. It expected that it would be over in 3 days and, practically speaking, all Russian soldiers would not have been able to tell the difference between a training exercise and their excursion into Ukrainian territory.
How easy the media forgets these simple facts.
Yesterday I spent some times leaving comments on Wall Street Journal and New York Times stories, correcting various assertions. Today I woke up realizing I was in no position to argue much of anything. Whether directed by the U.S. and Europe, performed by Ukraine, or a mixture of all — there is a complete media blackout of the major battles.
Who’s winning? I have no idea. As horrific an event as the family killed on the street, or the maternity hospital, they signify nothing about the overall conflict.
Every day we’re shown the same lame satellite photo of military vehicles that’s supposed to stretch 40 miles, but we only see, at best, one mile of it.
The maps one can find on the Internet could have been drawn with crayons. There is no detail. There are few reports of specific battles. All we see are abandoned and destroyed equipment. Most of them look lost or left behind. That is expected in all military conflicts. It happened in the Iraq War too.
Why aren’t reporters asking their sources for more information? The simple reason is they are told not to, or risk getting sent home.
My Recap (just opinion)
Europe used what Russia felt was extortion, not finalizing the Nord Stream II paperwork, to strong-arm Russia into selling its gas and oil at lower prices than Russia wanted to sell. The U.S., seeing an opportunity to further weaken Russia’s military, because the less Russia earns, the less it can invest in weapons, piled on. Putin, frustrated that he could not improve Russia’s position, ordered a quick invasion of Ukraine believing he would succeed (which was far from irrational).
Everything that could go wrong for Russia, went wrong. I have never changed my mind that Putin only threatened invasion. Putin has always been opportunistic.
Russia did not take over Crimea through a military invasion. Most people in Crimea may have wanted to join Russia. It’s a complex subject but the Western media glosses over it.
The Ukraine invasion was not an attempt to expand Russia’s borders. I just don’t see it. For starters, Russia has the military might to annex the Donbas region. If it hasn’t done it since 2014 why would it try through mad-rush dash towards Kyiv which never planned to attack longer than 3 days? None of it adds up to the narrative spun in the Western media.
It’s easy for me to argue that Russia should just accept that it lost and withdraw from Ukraine. Would it be human nature to do so? The U.S. remained in Afghanistan for 20 years even though the occupation was recognized as failure, long ago. Don’t get me started about Iraq. Or about the U.S. continuing to allow the its bombs to kill women and children in Yemen. We’re no saints and our media mostly re-writes government press releases.
I believe that Putin will be replaced. Russia will emerge a weak nation, no longer a super power.
I also predict a case of “better watch what you wish for.” Russia’s collapse will not be good for the U.S. It was a buffer between Europe and China. It wasn’t as poorly run a nation as some like to say. Until recently, most Russians seemed reasonably happy.
The world needs more energy. It will be more expensive to get it from a country as badly beat-up as Russia. When the smoke clears, I believe we will pay for it, dearly.
