This depiction is wrong on a number of accounts. Some of the items are half truths, some others are outright disinformation from the Russian space. I will break down the parts as best as I can.
1. is in my opinion entirely correct and a good starting points.
2. is squishy because there is no one set of "western terms". Different parties who are supporting Ukraine have domestic political constraints (and symptoms of democratic decline, e.g. Hungary and Slovakia) that prevent Europe from taking all the measures they might have taken if they had integrity and resolve.
3. In other news, the sky is blue. For morale and OPSEC reasons, an entirely fair and balanced account of the war's conduct and progress will not make it. And yet. sources like understandingwar.org and https://www.oryxspioenkop.com/2022/02/attack-on-europe-documenting-equipment.html along with reports from both ukrainian and russian new media information spaces, paint a fair picture of how things are going, likely better than any war has ever been documented before.
4. Russian disinformation. While this was clearly true in 1991-2013 or so, since the Maidan revolution and the Little Green Men incursion, Ukraine has been actively taking measures to get corruption under control. According to the Corruption index, Russia, Belarus, and Turkey now top the list.
5. I'm not an American (I'm Canadian) I'll grant that point at face value. Yet I'm aware of both Americans and Canadians who would defend Ukraine's interests to the bitter end.
6. Basically true, but the relationship of the Ukraine war to Taiwan and mainland China's Asian ambitions as a whole is complicated of course.
7. Your point? Europe is not a monolithic entity.
The UK is out post Brexit, but they were doing what they can while sync'ing with Biden.
France is, well, France. They have interests in Europe, Africa and elsewhere which consume their attention, and they practice soft and hard diplomay in a unique way.
Germany has sworn never again to look anything like what they did 100 years ago. Even Thatcher said she liked Germany so much, that she wanted 2 of them. Their camptains of industry got into bed with the USSR as part of Ostpolitik, as part of the rapproachment which was supposed to help end the cold war with trade. Whether this helped or not is subject to debate, but it was also done in order to make it easier for East (Soviet slave) and West (American vassal) Germany's inhabitants to be able to talk to and visit each other.
Europe south of the Alps has been a mess since the fall of the Roman Empire. Spain blew their moment in the sun 200 years ago. Scandinavia is powerful, but small. Eastern Europe is still busy picking up the pieces of dacades of Stalinist looting and misrule. Greece and Macedonia were great powers 2500 years ago.
Turkey, is, well, Turkey. What a wierdo.
8. Granted, but learning how to listen to Radio Moscow also helps. I used to do it in the 80's in Germany on short wave. Bunch of clumsy propagandistic bastards and they didn't even hide it, because they counted on intimidation, resentment and ignorance to do the work.
9. Free Speech has boundaries. The US has not set them, which is why you get people like Peter Popoff, Jeff Skilling, Bernie Madoff, and Alex Jones, and you have to send an ambulance chaser to get them under control.
Key to understanding and using free speech is to know when debate ends and incitement begins. Germans have more experience with this than you do. You would do well to learn something from them. 1933 happened because of free speech. The Weimar republic failed because of sustained interference by activists from both left and right. That was bad enough. If this happens to the US, it will be infinitely worse.
10. Your assumptions about Washington's past intentions are false. Washington wanted the regime to survive, but not for Ukraine to win, because the consequences of Russia losing the war are as thus and the insiders know this: The Russians need war for regime security so they're not going to stop unless Ukraine has ironclad security guarantees. If those are granted and Putin loses, Russia will undergo regime change and possible collapse. That will have to be dealt with. But not once did Biden or any of his staff say "Our objective is Ukraine's victory." They only ever said, "We will support Ukraine for as long as it takes". But what is "IT"? Not Victory - only regime survival.
Edit: Needed some general cleanup. Could use another pass.
This depiction is wrong on a number of accounts. Some of the items are half truths, some others are outright disinformation from the Russian space. I will break down the parts as best as I can.
1. is in my opinion entirely correct and a good starting points.
2. is squishy because there is no one set of "western terms". Different parties who are supporting Ukraine have domestic political constraints (and symptoms of democratic decline, e.g. Hungary and Slovakia) that prevent Europe from taking all the measures they might have taken if they had integrity and resolve.
3. In other news, the sky is blue. For morale and OPSEC reasons, an entirely fair and balanced account of the war's conduct and progress will not make it. And yet. sources like understandingwar.org and https://www.oryxspioenkop.com/2022/02/attack-on-europe-documenting-equipment.html along with reports from both ukrainian and russian new media information spaces, paint a fair picture of how things are going, likely better than any war has ever been documented before.
4. Russian disinformation. While this was clearly true in 1991-2013 or so, since the Maidan revolution and the Little Green Men incursion, Ukraine has been actively taking measures to get corruption under control. According to the Corruption index, Russia, Belarus, and Turkey now top the list.
5. I'm not an American (I'm Canadian) I'll grant that point at face value. Yet I'm aware of both Americans and Canadians who would defend Ukraine's interests to the bitter end.
6. Basically true, but the relationship of the Ukraine war to Taiwan and mainland China's Asian ambitions as a whole is complicated of course.
7. Your point? Europe is not a monolithic entity.
The UK is out post Brexit, but they were doing what they can while sync'ing with Biden.
France is, well, France. They have interests in Europe, Africa and elsewhere which consume their attention, and they practice soft and hard diplomay in a unique way.
Germany has sworn never again to look anything like what they did 100 years ago. Even Thatcher said she liked Germany so much, that she wanted 2 of them. Their camptains of industry got into bed with the USSR as part of Ostpolitik, as part of the rapproachment which was supposed to help end the cold war with trade. Whether this helped or not is subject to debate, but it was also done in order to make it easier for East (Soviet slave) and West (American vassal) Germany's inhabitants to be able to talk to and visit each other.
Europe south of the Alps has been a mess since the fall of the Roman Empire. Spain blew their moment in the sun 200 years ago. Scandinavia is powerful, but small. Eastern Europe is still busy picking up the pieces of dacades of Stalinist looting and misrule. Greece and Macedonia were great powers 2500 years ago.
Turkey, is, well, Turkey. What a wierdo.
8. Granted, but learning how to listen to Radio Moscow also helps. I used to do it in the 80's in Germany on short wave. Bunch of clumsy propagandistic bastards and they didn't even hide it, because they counted on intimidation, resentment and ignorance to do the work.
9. Free Speech has boundaries. The US has not set them, which is why you get people like Peter Popoff, Jeff Skilling, Bernie Madoff, and Alex Jones, and you have to send an ambulance chaser to get them under control.
Key to understanding and using free speech is to know when debate ends and incitement begins. Germans have more experience with this than you do. You would do well to learn something from them. 1933 happened because of free speech. The Weimar republic failed because of sustained interference by activists from both left and right. That was bad enough. If this happens to the US, it will be infinitely worse.
10. Your assumptions about Washington's past intentions are false. Washington wanted the regime to survive, but not for Ukraine to win, because the consequences of Russia losing the war are as thus and the insiders know this: The Russians need war for regime security so they're not going to stop unless Ukraine has ironclad security guarantees. If those are granted and Putin loses, Russia will undergo regime change and possible collapse. That will have to be dealt with. But not once did Biden or any of his staff say "Our objective is Ukraine's victory." They only ever said, "We will support Ukraine for as long as it takes". But what is "IT"? Not Victory - only regime survival.
Edit: Needed some general cleanup. Could use another pass.
Thought-provoking
Holodomor 2.0