Checking Recent Western Establishment Russia-Ukraine Narratives – OpEd
Not a day seems to go by without simplistically high-profile tabloid inaccuracies regarding Russia. The prevailing theme spun is the brutal aspect of that country and its people. Several recent instances relate to this very point.
Mark Katz’s November 4 National Interest article on settling the Russia-Ukraine conflict is another idealistic pro-Kiev regime piece, at a realist leaning venue within the overall Capitol Hill slant. Concerning that limit, Katz isn’t off base in describing his piece as “pragmatic”. For a variety of reasons, it’s (put mildly) questionable for him to suggest that the Kiev regime and its Western backers have greater reason to be in disagreement with his peace proposal than Russia.
He opens with the dubious claim that “Russia’s poor military performance” has led Russia “to negotiate an end to the war.” Since the February 24 start of Russia’s armed action, Russian calls for diplomacy have been pretty consistent and not out of feeling cornered and on the brink of defeat.
Russia’s stated “special military operation” is called such in part to highlight that it’s far from engaging in an all-out conflict. In comparison, the Kiev regime is operating closer to a more maximum level to its overall capability. Russia is continuously seeking to achieve objectives with as less force as possible, which (among other things) seeks to limit casualties. On the other hand, it’s the Kiev regime side taking the far greater brunt of military casualties, along with the civilian fatalities caught in the crossfire.
Katz’s proposal is essentially what I advocated on March 11. Months later and tens of thousands of dead, Katz reaches the same settlement. A good deal has changed since then, leading me to an April 4 revision, which sees the Kiev regime losing more territory, in addition to its earlier loss of Crimea.
In September, Russia declared that Donetsk, Lugansk, Kherson and Zaporozhe are part of the Russian Federation. To go back on that declaration will be a severe blow to that country’s standing.
There’s nevertheless room to possibly secure a settlement, where the Kiev regime wouldn’t completely lose all of the territory recently proclaimed as Russian. In turn, Russia would be able to maintain in name these territories, with the other parts staying in Ukraine. For now, neither side appears so willing to consider this scenario.
The topic of human rights reveals a major difference between the likes of Katz and those being more inclined to see things my way. In his National Article, Katz carries on about Russian “war crimes”, as if there’s no evidence of Kiev regime misbehavior.
Upon getting the wrath of the Kiev regime, Amnesty International (AI) wasn’t able to convincingly walk back its accounting of the former’s use of civilians and civilian infrastructure as human shields – something that had already been pretty well established before AI’s finding.
There’ve been numerous instances of Western establishment downplaying and outright ignoring of Kiev regime abuses. On the nightly US national TV half hour news (ABC, CBS and NBC), one has yet to see any segments on Roma and people deemed as pro-Russian tied up to trees in Kiev regime-controlled Ukraine. Likewise, with the instances of people beaten and/or killed for that sentiment. In comparison, the evidence of this kind of behavior (verified, unverified or sheer crock) gets highlighted when done by Russia/Russians.
Brian Berletic’s November 7 YouTube commentary and Scott Ritter’s November 4 observations provide compelling counters to a PBS feature on what transpired at Bucha. With sarcastic wit, Mark Chapman’s November 3 blog post hits back at the Western mass media spin on Russian General Sergey Surovikin.
Berletic’s November 9 YouTube video summarizes the belief that recent events in Kherson aren’t indicative of an impending Russian defeat. Along with Andrey Martyanov, he comments further about this on Gonzalo Lira’s November 10 YouTube show.
Michael Averko is a New York based independent foreign policy analyst and media critic.
Russia seems to care more about Ukrainian lives than the Ukrainian government
This 11/10 30 minute show has something for everyone:
https://america.cgtn.com/2022/11/10/the-heat-russia-ukraine-conflict-10
Not buying that the withdrawal is part of some secret agreement, given that Russia’s trust of the Kiev regime and its Western backers is low.
The difficulty in dealing with Russia is that it has evolved into an “uncivil” state run by thugs. The level of corruption, permeating every day life, has extended to the looting of defense funds. The ‘rebuilding” of the Russian military, with outdated technology and poorly designed equipment (tanks) , has manifested itself in enormous equipment / personnel losses which the Russian military / government consistently lies about to its own people.
Russias focus on long range destruction / murder of civilians is no road map to negotiations. Discussion of withdrawal, reaprations and war crimes are important not just for Ukraine, but the civilized world.
Western establishment irony/projection on your part. Consider the billions in military aid slated to the Kiev regime, which results in limited and outdated armaments getting shipped on account of the US Military Industrial Complex not being able to effectively mass produce, to go along with not having hypersonic weapons along the lines of Russia.
As for your human rights banter, the Kiev regime is a corrupt, undemocratic and neo-Nazi influenced entity with blood on its hands, going back prior to 2/24/22 of this year and thereafter – noting its human shield approach, ages 16-60 draft including women, willingness to throw forces into certain mass death situations and integrating neo-Nazi militias into the Interior Ministry – recalling the SS placement outside of the Wehrmacht.
Russia didn’t dissuade the Kiev regime from the Istanbul settlement talks of this past March. Boris Johnson did. Russia also didn’t talk about fighting a parasitic proxy war to the last Ukrainian as articulated by uber chickenhawk Lindsey Graham.
Going back further, the Kiev regime failed to implement the UN approved Minsk Protocol of 2015 (for an autonomous Donbass), with Zelensky in 2021 saying that those speaking Russians and liking Russia should leave Ukraine. Instead of honoring the agreement, the Kiev regime was building up its forces while seeking NATO membership.
As noted by the esteemed Ivy League professor Jeffrey Sachs, US government action since 1950 has killed more civilians than any other country. As a case in point is the present situation in Yemen (involving the US and some others), where the number of deaths is much higher than the situation within Ukraine’s Communist drawn boundary.
The truly civilized and knowledgeable among us are aware of all of this unlike the many subconsciously duped.