Zelensky is not the leader who is going to negotiate peace with Russia, not now, not any time, Martin Jay writes.
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Foreign Affairs magazine had a brief moment of attention beyond its normal limited elitist audience when it asked the question: “Should Ukraine Negotiate With Russia?” It presented the reader with a tome of reading which expanded on this subject and, at first glance, appeared to present a salient perspective on what we should all now accept is an unofficial ceasefire declared by Ukraine after running out of the requisite material needed for war: ammo.
Of course, it wasn’t a ceasefire declaration at all. I was humouring you and no one can blame me for this given that the quality of articles published by Foreign Affairs.
What absolute garbage these articles were! Broadly speaking, they all revolved around one incumbent theme which is boring at best and delusional at worst: that the U.S. was still a super power and held higher values that Russia and its president.
The mere idea that President Zelensky is even in a position to negotiate a peace treaty is hilarious. But what will have you wetting yourself when you wade into the pantheon of paternalistic claptrap is how the authors fail to acknowledge that the war in Ukraine is slowly being lost by Ukraine and its NATO partners and that it is for Russia to bite the bullet and make a number of concessions before it crawls on its knees to NATO bosses and asks for forgiveness.
The authors make the point that before the West can consider peace talks Russia has to reduce its activities around the world — code for “stop making more friends and allies” — by which point western elites would allow it to return to the “table of responsible nations”.
This delusional narrative, some might argue, is what got the West in the mess it’s in, in the first place as the stellar inability to look at realities on the ground and where the U.S. is in the world today, brought us to 130 billion dollars of U.S. cash blown on supporting a war which neither the West nor Ukraine can win. The mere idea that the West holds the high moral ground and that it is for Russia to clean its act up before it can be allowed back in as a guest member to the country club is hilarious.
These responsible nations, we should not forget faked a false flag attack in Sarajevo in the summer of 1995 just so illegal NATO air strikes could “win” the war with Milosevic; these same countries entered Afghanistan and after twenty years of fighting the Taliban had to leave with their tails between their legs after putting the enemy finally in power. And let’s not forget the U.S. army storming Baghdad and within hours looting Saddam’s gold, or even the oil which is stolen every day from Northern Syria and sold on the open market every day — all assisted by U.S. troops.
Hardly shining examples of morality at its finest. And yet, reading the articles, we are led to believe that not only is the West the only real power which matters, but that there is much to negotiate in Ukraine and even much more than Russia can do.
The idea of a Korean War armistice is dismissed by our authors who fail to grasp that the fortified line that the Russians have built is holding very well and that, in fact, it will be very hard if not impossible for Russia to even entertain the idea of a brokered peace settlement if Moscow is required to surrender any of the land captured and held. Foreign Affairs authors at least concede though that it is time to talk to Russia and this is the right time, at least so we have to assume that they understand the tenets of warfare which is that you have to have at least twice the number of soldiers the enemy has, be equipped to the teeth and have experienced army officers who can lead from the front if you are to stand any chance of taking any villages which are in Russian hands.
The admission from Biden that Ukraine “is running low on ammo” was clumsy and must have had Pentagon generals throwing their hands in the air. The problem with this delusional standpoint though is not only that the American elite are completely out of touch with the realities of the war there but that Zelensky in any case is not the leader that we might have thought he was; he’s not the leader who is going to negotiate peace with Russia, not now, not any time. And so the articles and certainly their titles, are stupid as they show the reader immediately how woefully misinformed the writers are and what cocoons of delusion and disinformation are accommodating them.
In the 1970s, when the American press were free to report on the Vietnam war, a writer called Michael Herr wrote Dispatches which alarmed a number of these same elitist types who couldn’t understand why with all the firepower the Americans had they couldn’t at any time of the war consider themselves even vaguely winning. The only certainty about the war in Ukraine is how the West repeatedly miscalculates and misinforms itself and this article is a very good example of what is wrong with the critical thinking, who is doing such thinking and where everything is heading: a messy, undignified exit like Vietnam, Afghanistan and to some extent Iraq is inevitable and just one look at the NATO photo of Zelensky looking bewildered, alone, lost and confused gives a clue to just how soon this is to happen. America needs a new Michael Herr to report the dark truth about the war. Only then will these elitist draft dodgers at Foreign Affairs get even a grip on reality before they indulge in more of this soiled keyboard folly which they probably call journalism.
