Ukraine may be lost

But bribes paid and supplies depleted mean FJB's mission is accomplished.

The narrative for the media this week is that Ukraine may be lost.

BBC reported, “The former commander of the UK’s Joint Forces Command has warned that Ukraine could face defeat by Russia in 2024.

“General Sir Richard Barrons has told the BBC there is a serious risk of Ukraine losing the war this year.”

Barrons is a veteran of “The Troubles” (Britain’s fight with Irish terrorists), Afghanistan, Kosovo, and Iraq. You know what? For a time of peace, we sure have a lot of wars.

Sir Richard said the reason for the loss is because Ukrainians may come to believe they can’t win.

He said, “And when it gets to that point, why will people want to fight and die any longer, just to defend the indefensible?”

BBC declared Ukraine is not yet at that point.

The British equivalent of RT said, “But its forces are running critically low on ammunition, troops and air defenses. Its much-heralded counter-offensive last year failed to dislodge the Russians from ground they had seized and now Moscow is gearing up for a summer offensive.”

That seems closer to giving up than it seems like victory.

Jamie Dettmer of Politico reported, “Just ask a Ukrainian soldier if he still believes the West will stand by Kyiv for as long as it takes. That pledge rings hollow when it’s been four weeks since your artillery unit last had a shell to fire, as one serviceman complained from the front lines.

“It’s not just that Ukraine’s forces are running out of ammunition. Western delays over sending aid mean the country is dangerously short of something even harder to supply than shells: the fighting spirit required to win.

“Morale among troops is grim, ground down by relentless bombardment, a lack of advanced weapons, and losses on the battlefield. In cities hundreds of miles away from the front, the crowds of young men who lined up to join the army in the war’s early months have disappeared. Nowadays, eligible would-be recruits dodge the draft and spend their afternoons in nightclubs instead. Many have left the country altogether.”

The NATO nations are bored with the thing and Ukrainians realize that in war of attrition, they are outnumbered. The Soviet strategy that turning its men into cannon fodder made the Eastern Front into a death sentence for Nazi soldiers — and maybe it is working again.

To boost morale, Biden sent Bob Hope to Kyiv and by Bob Hope, I mean someone who is just as braindead as the late comedian and Kamalala-dee-dah.

USA Today reported, “U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in Ukraine on Tuesday in the first visit by a senior Biden administration official to the war-torn country since the U.S. passed a long-delayed $61 billion military aid package and as Russian forces appeared to be making advances near Kharkiv, Ukraine's second biggest city.”

The highlight of the trip was Blinken playing Neil Young’s Rockin In The Free World with a band called 19.99 — which gets you a Popeil Pocket Fisherman.

But wait. There’s more!

Blinken said Ukraine should not hold an election until it defeats Russia.

So no more elections for the Ukes. Ever. But RINOs and Democrats will keep feeding Ukraine money in the name of democracy.

Reuters reported, “The United States will provide Ukraine with $2 billion in foreign military financing, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Wednesday at a joint press conference in Kyiv alongside Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba.”

Blinken couldn’t get an audience with Preisdent-For-Life Zelensky for $2,000,000,000? Maybe the rumors of a Swiss chalet are right.

The bribes aside — Ukraine is the Western world’s laundromat for loot — the military aid has reduced the U.S. preparedness for a war with Red China, which rented to own FJB back in the Obama years.

A year into the war, CNN reported, “Ukraine is burning through ammunition faster than the US and NATO can produce it. Inside the Pentagon’s plan to close the gap.”

The Pentagon can just do what FDR did in World War II and crank up civilian companies to make war materiel. But are there enough factories left? Relying on Red China for steel and other products carried a price. Neocons and Democrats praised our dependence on communists for military supplies as the free market at play. We fell for that inane argument.

The war continues to kill Ukrainians and reduce our arsenal. To keep it going, the Economist reported this week, “To ask ‘what if Ukraine loses?’ was once a tactic favored by those looking to berate its Western allies into sending more money and weapons. Increasingly the question feels less like a thought experiment and more like the first stage of contingency planning.

“After a grueling few months on the battlefield, gone are last year’s hopes of a Ukrainian counter-offensive that would push Russia back to its borders and humble Vladimir Putin. These days it is fear that dominates: that an existing stalemate might crumble in favor of the invader, or of Donald Trump coming back to power in America and delivering victory to Russia on a silver platter. [Fact check: That is bullshit. Trump was the first president Putin feared.]

“Although a vanquished Ukraine has become a less far-fetched prospect, it is no less frightening. Sobering as the return of war on the continent has been, a successful invasion reaping geopolitical rewards for Mr. Putin would be much worse.”

Putin poses such a threat to Europe that the Economist was forced to admit, “Ukraine’s neighbors moved less fast than America in providing support. But in the European slow-but-steady way they feel they have done as much as could be asked of them. By sending arms (including using EU money to pay for weapons, a first), propping up Ukraine’s finances, taking in millions of refugees, applying a dozen rounds of sanctions against Russia and weaning themselves off its piped gas, the bloc’s politicians have pushed out the boundaries of what initially seemed possible. If it proves not to have been enough, plenty will ask whether the union at its core is fit for purpose. Populists—and Putin fans—in the mold of Hungary’s Viktor Orban or Marine Le Pen in France will crow that theirs is the best way.”

Once again, we must save democracy from populism, eh?

Sounds like Nancy Pelosi’s argument. She got owned in a recent debate with Winston Marshall, who skipped college to play banjo professionally. He plays many instruments but he found it easier to get studio gigs playing banjo because there are so few in England who do so.

He said populism is democracy. [Fact-check: Duh, but the media is too dumb to recognize this.]

Marshall said, “Populism has become a word used synonymously with racist. We’ve heard ethno-nationalist. We have bigot. We have hillbilly, redneck. We have deplorable. Elites use it to show their contempt for ordinary people.”

His presentation is here, complete with Pelosi making a fool of herself by interrupting him.

There is no populist support for Ukraine. This is an elitist war meant to keep the deep state happy. Ukrainians are not fighting for the motherland and by motherland, I mean Zelenskyland.

In March, Politico reported, “Draft-dodging plagues Ukraine as Kyiv faces acute soldier shortage. An early burst of patriotic fervor saw draft centers swamped with volunteers, but that has waned with Vladimir Putin’s war in its third year.”

By the way, after a decade of dismissing calls of a deep state as a conspiracy theory, elitists have changed their tune with George Stephanopoulos of Disney’s ABC saying, “The Deep State is packed with patriots. They don’t care about political parties.”

[Fact check: Double bullshit.]

Media coverage in the USA has, as they say, evolved, too.

CNN reported on Monday, “The changing language used by the Ukrainian military in 72 hours of daily updates tells the story: ‘Ongoing defensive fighting.’ ‘Significantly worsened.’ Russian ‘tactical success.’

“You rarely ever hear Kyiv’s top brass sounding downbeat, but their steep southerly trajectory reflects the grave place Ukraine finds itself in. Russia is not just advancing slowly in one place; it appears to be advancing in four, across the frontline.”

Maybe Zelensky can turn it around but here in the USA, support withers. NBC reported on Wednesday, “Russia makes key gains around Kharkiv and Sage the miniature poodle wins best in show: Morning Rundown.”

So Ukraine is slightly more important than the Westminster Kennel Club’s best in show contest.

But the denizens of DC don’t care. Biden and the Deep State got what they wanted: bribes and a weakened American military. Where will their next war be? (Spins globe.) Freedonia.