I did not intend on today being a day of posts dedicated to the conflict in Ukraine and its leaders……but since the visit by Mrs. Z has made national news I figure there is more that I need to say.

For a couple of months now Zelensky has been purging the country of people that he deems dangerous to the ’cause’…..the first month or so of this conflict Zelensky started down this path…..

Before Russia invaded Ukraine, Western officials always cited corruption in Ukraine as the reason why Kyiv couldn’t join NATO or the EU. After the invasion, those concerns appeared to fall by the wayside as the US and its allies shipped billions of dollars worth of weapons and economic aid into Ukraine.

But Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s recent firing of two senior officials has brought the issue back up. Zelensky sacked his top prosecutor and the head of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) over allegations that many people in their departments were collaborating with Russia.

A Western official close to the Ukrainian government told Politico that Zelensky’s move appears to move away from the EU’s request for Ukraine to crack down on corruption and allow its law enforcement agencies to be more independent. Many anti-corruption activists believe the firings were an example of Zelensky using his wartime powers to consolidate more control.

Just a few months before Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, the US was still calling out the government of Ukraine for not appointing a corruption prosecutor. “The EU and the US are greatly disappointed by unexplained and unjustifiable delays in the selection of the Head of the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor Office, a crucial body in the fight against high-level corruption,” the US Embassy in Kyiv said on October 6, according to The Associated Press.

In June 2021, President Biden was asked if Ukraine will join NATO and said, “The fact is they still have to clean up corruption.” While Biden has expressed concern about Ukraine’s corruption, his family has benefited from it. After the US-backed ousting of Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych in 2014, then-Vice President Biden’s son Hunter landed a high-paying job on the board of Burisma Holdings, a Ukrainian natural gas company.

The State Department dismissed concerns about Zelensky’s latest firings. “In all of our relationships, and including in this relationship, we invest not in personalities; we invest in institutions, and, of course, President Zelenskyy has spoken to his rationale for making these personnel shifts,” State Department spokesman Ned Price told reporters on Monday.

Earlier in the war, Zelensky banned 11 political parties, including the country’s leading opposition party, Opposition Platform — For Life. But the move received little criticism from the West.

(antiwar.com)

Corruption?

And they think that since cash and weapons are pouring into the country….and corruption is suppose to cease with these purges….are we that naive?

Since the beginning I have not been a fan of Zelensky…there is much about the man that is been suppressed as the conflict rages….I do not think that we should put all our eggs in the Ukrainian president….

Volodymyr Zelensky, the embattled President of Ukraine has taken the world by storm. It seems everyone on Earth is singing his praises. It can be easy to feel that he deserves his legendary status. It is almost impossible to imagine him as anything less than a superhero pushing back against tyranny and saving the world. Is this a realistic characterization that anyone can live up to?

The war in Ukraine is a devastating and painful mess of towering misfortunes. In making sense of this disaster, it is very difficult to separate ourselves from the finality of what may seem inevitable. We try to interpret this tragedy in ways that make sense to us, we fall back to our ancient stories of good versus evil, David versus Goliath. Yet unfortunately our ancient stories and modern analogies are no use to us in the 21^st century, in reality they don’t help us understand the danger the world faces.

They do present convincing arguments when there is derisory emphasis on peaceful solutions to the war. We have to ask what is the goal in this war? We can assume the goal is to save lives, we can assume the goal is victory. By learning what’s most important we can more greatly understand the progress being made. Of most importance is for the war to de-escalate immediately.

It must be understood that escalation takes us in the wrong direction, because a war against a nuclear armed power can’t be won. Without this crucial realization the most impossible things become possible, like a hero saving the world. Of course it’s essential to have inspiration and motivation in trying times, but it’s also essential to be practical.

Why We Should Not Admire Zelensky

I have asked many times….what is the end game for the US?

The defeat of Russia?  We know that is not going to happen.

What is the national interests for the US (beyond the most obvious)….

To preserve democracy?  That is a joke.

There is no interest in any end to the suffering of the Ukrainian people?

All American opinions are based on the ‘expert’ advice of the retired generals (who work for the M-IC) and group we should NOT trust at all….

Listening to television commentary and interviews of retired U.S. generals, one would be forgiven for believing Russia is on the ropes, and Ukraine was winning the war. Looking at on-the-ground battlefield reality in Ukraine, however, it quickly becomes apparent that the generals’ boasts continue a decade-long trend of rosy combat proclamations that all too often turn out to be disastrously wrong. American media, Congress, and the public need to start applying a little more scrutiny to what these officers say.

For example, retired Gen. Ben Hodges said last week that the “Russians are exhausted,” from four months of fighting and that if “the West sticks together through this year, then I think (the war) will be over (early 2023).” Earlier this month, retired Gen. Mark Hertling told a CNN audience that as Ukraine “gets more and more artillery” from the West, Hertling concluded that he believes “you’re going to see a gradual turn in the tide.”

On July 10^th, former Vice Chief of Staff of the U.S. Army, Gen. Jack Keane – echoing Generals Hodges and Hertling – told Fox News that despite Russia’s progress in the Donbas, the “Ukrainians still have a real opportunity…to take back territory and we should not underestimate them.”

And yet, there is little credible evidence to suggest that any of these claims are accurate.

Why Do We Keep Listening to the ‘TV’ Generals on Ukraine?

These people are employed to keep the population squarely behind the decisions to piss away much needed American funds.

We, the People, should be outraged at the prolonging of this conflict and yet we stand by and make excuses for the waste of funds needed in this country to carry on a war that yet again has NO viable end (a position the US finds itself in every war since 1945)….

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”