Zelensky, the war bore

His showmanship is good but the stalemate is his undoing

AP reported that Zelensky is big mad at Donald Trump. In case you have forgotten, Zelensky turned Trump’s congratulatory call for being elected president of Ukraine into an article of impeachment. In retaliation, Trump said when he returns to power, he’ll end the Ukraine war in 24 hours. The Ukrainian crook felt that was a low blow.

Zelensky does not want the war to end. Why should he? The war has been a financial windfall as Western countries have poured hundreds of billions of dollars into his pissant nation. He marketed the war well as a threat to NATO. His pitch was either you stop Russia in Kyiv or Washington is next.

The guy is good. He quoted Churchill and MLK to Congress and various parliaments — and the applause and the money flowed in.

But his act has played out. After 2 years, well, no one except the kickback artists in politics seems much interested in his troubles. To get more money from Congress, Biden had to make an empty promise to fix our border, which he broke. Elsewhere, Ukraine is yesterday’s news.

Charles Gasparino of the New York Post wrote, “Volodymyr Zelensky is used to getting his way when it comes to money. Look at the untold billions U.S. taxpayers have given his country to defeat Russian aggression.

“Money from the private sector has been much less easy. Witness the chilly reception he received from bankers this past week at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. It spoke volumes about the enormous challenge Zelensky faces not just to beat back Vladimir Putin’s hordes, but also to repair the damage they unleashed on his economy.”

Gasparino also said, “During the closed-door talks, first reported by me at Fox Business, Zelensky might have made his predicament even worse. He did not indicate that he’s ready to hold peace talks with Putin, the man he recently called Hitler.”

Zelensky followed the Rahm Emanuel Rule: “You never want a serious crisis to go to waste. And what I mean by that is an opportunity to do things that you think you could not do before.” For Zelensky, the Ukraine War allowed him to silence critics, close TV stations, close churches and cancel the election. Putin could not have done a better job.

But Zelensky forgot Alinsky’s 7th rule: “A tactic that drags on too long becomes a drag.”

This war is a drag.

Judging by American wars, public support for a war seems to last about two years unless progress is made. The allies made enough progress to sustain public support for the time it took to eliminate Mussolini, Hitler and Tojo in World War 2.

This war is a stalemate. Everyone is running out of ammo and men as it has become a meat grinder. Putin has more men and will win a typical Russian Victory in which its supply of dead bodies outlasts the enemy’s supply.

FDR knew that which is why he supplied Russia with enough war materiel to keep Germany stuck in the quagmire of the Eastern Front. Stalin saw losing millions of Russians as a small price to pay for getting half of Europe after the war.

To be fair, all is not Zelensky’s fault. Palestinians breaking a ceasefire by invading Israel, and raping, torturing and murdering hundreds of innocent civilians blew Ukraine off the front pages. The anti-Semitic call for another ceasefire has revived antiwar sentiments in the West, which also dampens enthusiasm for the Ukraine War.

As his war drags on, Zelensky comes off as a loser. In light of the stalemate, his branding of a green T-shirt to make him look like a soldier us now a liability because it reminds people that despite giving Ukraine hundreds of billions of dollars, Zelensky isn’t winning and Putin isn’t leaving.

Also, Putin is stuck in Ukraine making him the dumbass in Donbas. I hardly can fear invasion by a man whose Luhansk Oblast campaign is now in its fourth month. A generation raised on video games has no patience. This means Putin is about as much a threat to the USA as those Murder Hornets were.

Zelensky’s PR man, Simon Shuster of Time magazine, has written a semi-official bio titled The Showman, which acknowledges that Ukraine’s president used his experience as a clown and comedian to sell the war.

In its review of the book, NYT said, “Shuster takes heart in small gestures of reticence, which he believes to be more than just an act. Ahead of Ukraine’s Independence Day in 2022, the country’s postmaster general visited Zelensky in his office and presented him with a mock-up of a postage stamp bearing his image. The president cringed. ‘It’s not the time,’ he said, ‘to start a cult of personality.’ The more pressing issue is whether Zelensky’s powers of persuasion — his showmanship — will be enough to sustain the West’s resolve until the end.”

“It’s not the time” implies that there will be a time.

Speaking of Time, biographer Shuster wrote a column in that magazine, “Where Zelensky Comes From.”

It turns out that far from being anti-Putin, Zelensky publicly supported Vlad.

Shuster wrote, “Zelensky, living and working in Moscow at the time, watched the turn toward authoritarianism in Russia with the same concern as all his peers in show business, and, like everyone else, he adapted. To stay on top, his team understood it would not be wise to make fun of Russia’s new leader. During one sketch in 2001, Zelensky’s character appealed to Putin as the decider ‘not only of my fate, but that of all Ukraine.’ A year later, in a performance that brimmed with nostalgia for the Soviet Union, a member of Zelensky’s team said Putin ‘turned out to be a decent guy.’”

Zelensky also said at the time, “Ukraine is always screwing Russia and Russia always screws Ukraine.”

And for two years, Ukraine has screwed the West by using Putin’s invasion as a means to shake money out of politicians. I have no evidence of kickbacks so I will not go there but I must point out that before the war began, Ukraine was the world’s money launderer and one of the most corrupt nations on Earth.

Despite the opportunities for kickbacks, most Western politicians are cooling to the pleas for more money. Zelensky’s challenge to Trump received scant notice in the TDS press, which is always on the look out for anti-Trump tidbits to inflame the left.