The Russia-Ukraine War is stuck in what is often called a stalemate, although at this point it appears that Russia has more offensive capabilities than Ukraine. The tone of the Biden Administration is clearly shifting in response to a variety of pressures, including Republican opposition to continued funding and the pressure to shift American diplomatic more toward Asia and less toward Europe and the Middle East. Being in the position of vetoing a UN Security Council resolution for another “humanitarian [temporary] ceasefire” in the Israel-Gaza War, as it did yesterday, is not a good position for the US to be in, particularly since the threat of a wider war there is still very real.
Good summary of the current stalemate or stasis, Bruce, and how it is viewed by different analysts. Meanwhile Matt Taibbi shows how "The legacy press has framed most every war story as this or that snapshot moment in a long victory narrative." Such a narrative has been false since day one, which explains why "victory" for Ukraine was purposely never clearly defined:
Taibbi is right about that. Just in the last couple of months the tone of what US officials say and how the mainstream press coverage has run has become notably less optimisitic.
Notably less optimistic probably means dire because they've been so wrong each step of the way. Ukraine's top general is apparently talking with his Russian counterpart behind Zelensky's back (Hersh). It looks like it is going to be a frozen conflict and, unfortunately for Ukraine, Russia will get more territory than it would have if this thing had been solved early on, and I believe the evidence suggests it could have. There's even talk of Ukraine being in NATO but without NATO weapons stationed (Hersh, again, if you trust his sources).
Hersh has a solid record on his national security reporting. His version of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline bombing still makes the most sense, slough he was careful to say it was based on limited sourcing. (In his book on JFK back when, he turned out to be naive about parsing celebrity gossip about JFK‘s love life.) I can believe that NATO counties are making noises about putting Ukraine in NATO anyway. Ukraine are also involved in the formal accession process to the EU. But as long as UKR isn‘t in control of all its territory, I can‘t see how they could join either. Since both alliances have mutual-defense clauses for members states, it would in effect declaring war on Russia to accept Ukraine now.
Good summary of the current stalemate or stasis, Bruce, and how it is viewed by different analysts. Meanwhile Matt Taibbi shows how "The legacy press has framed most every war story as this or that snapshot moment in a long victory narrative." Such a narrative has been false since day one, which explains why "victory" for Ukraine was purposely never clearly defined:
https://open.substack.com/pub/taibbi/p/lying-was-the-only-plan-biden-us?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=1cmr39
Taibbi is right about that. Just in the last couple of months the tone of what US officials say and how the mainstream press coverage has run has become notably less optimisitic.
Notably less optimistic probably means dire because they've been so wrong each step of the way. Ukraine's top general is apparently talking with his Russian counterpart behind Zelensky's back (Hersh). It looks like it is going to be a frozen conflict and, unfortunately for Ukraine, Russia will get more territory than it would have if this thing had been solved early on, and I believe the evidence suggests it could have. There's even talk of Ukraine being in NATO but without NATO weapons stationed (Hersh, again, if you trust his sources).
Hersh has a solid record on his national security reporting. His version of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline bombing still makes the most sense, slough he was careful to say it was based on limited sourcing. (In his book on JFK back when, he turned out to be naive about parsing celebrity gossip about JFK‘s love life.) I can believe that NATO counties are making noises about putting Ukraine in NATO anyway. Ukraine are also involved in the formal accession process to the EU. But as long as UKR isn‘t in control of all its territory, I can‘t see how they could join either. Since both alliances have mutual-defense clauses for members states, it would in effect declaring war on Russia to accept Ukraine now.