There is an old “new” meme percolating over the internet today–Russia is losing in Ukraine. Looks like the Deep State talking points were distributed. I noticed that David Ignatius, writing opinion at the Washington Post, and Pat Lang’s Lithuanian organ grinding monkey, TTG, are using similar descriptors. TTG writes:
What was to be a swift decapitation of the government in Kyiv failed. The Russian Army is bringing the worse caricatures of the clumsily violent and cruel Red Army to life.
Ignatius adopts a global theme in proclaiming Putin’s failure:
On the matter of alliances, Putin’s dreams of remaking the global order seemed to crumble after his plan for a quick decapitation of Zelensky’s regime failed. Rather than shattering NATO, Putin has galvanized it, drawing Sweden and Finland into the pact and putting new pressure on Russia’s northern flank.
Got it? The Russians are failing and crumbling and NATO is rising. Oh my!! The Russian Minister of Defense apparently did not get the memo and continues to report the steady progress of Russian forces crushing Ukrainian troops in western Donetsk. Here are the highlights from General Konashenkov’s latest briefing:
High-precision weapons of the Russian Aerospace Forces have neutralized temporary deployement point of the Right Sector Nazi militia in Kamyshevakha, Zaporozhye Region. Up to 200 militants have been killed.
High-precision weapons have hit positions of battalion of 81st Airmobile Brigade of AFU near Dolina, Donetsk People’s Republic. More than 60 personnel have been destroyed, as well as 7 armoured vehicles and 1 ammunition depot.
In addition, high-precision weapons strike have destroyed ammunition depots for weapons supplied by the US and European countries near Belen’koye, Odessa Region.
To replenish the significant losses in personnel and equipment incurred by 66th and 72nd mechanized, 58th motorized infantry and 10th Mountain Assault Brigades of AFU operating in the Soledar direction, the forced mobilization of residents of Artemovsk, Chasov Yar, Soledar, Dzerzhinsk and other nearby settlements is under way. Vehicles are seized from local residents to equip the formations.
4 platoons of Grad multiple-launch rocket systems, 13 artillery platoons of D-20 howitzers and 10 artillery platoons of D-30 guns have been neutralized in Seversk, Serebryanka, Dronovka, Opytnoye, Krasnoye, Zvanovka, Ivano-Dar’evka, Paraskovievka and Ivangrad, Donetsk People’s Republic.
Operational-tactical and army aviation, missile troops and artillery have neutralized 7 command posts, including 81st Aero-mobile Brigade near Kramatorsk, Donetsk People’s Republic, 60th Infantry Brigade near Kirovo, 128th Mountain Assault Brigade near Vozdvizhevka, Zaporozhye Region, 5 ammunition depots in Vasyukovka, Velyka Novoselka, Donetsk People’s Republic, Novoaleksandrovka, Zaporozhye region, Pokrovskoye, Dnepropetrovsk Region, 2 fuel depots near Soledar and Novgorodskoye, Donetsk People’s Republic, as well as 197 areas of AFU manpower and military equipment concentration.
If this was a Russian fabrication then it would be easy work for Ukraine, with the backing of CIA and MI6 officers in charge of Ukraine’s covert action propaganda campaign, to refute these claims. Ukraine has said nothing. Apart from the steady stream of “sunny” reports appearing in the west declaring, without concrete evidence, that the Russians are fading, Ukrainian social media is mute when it comes to tallying up Russian losses.
Polish intelligence officers apparently are seeing the reality. Their latest report on the situation in Ukraine has been leaked, according to a Russian telegram channel:
According to the document, a catastrophic situation has developed in the formations of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. The number of irretrievable losses is more than 300 people per day, and this figure is underestimated by the president’s office to reduce the likelihood of a public explosion and create panic among civilians and the military.
The Poles emphasize that the systematic strikes of the Russia Armed Forces on command posts and training centers of the Armed Forces of Ukraine have led to the death of about 4,600 of the most trained military personnel, including senior officers, instructors and mercenaries over the past three months.
The report noted that untrained formations are sent to Donbass, the professional level of officers from the battalion commander and below is weak, the functions of commanders in the troops are often performed by national Battalion fighters.
Since May of this year, almost all management functions in the planning and conduct of hostilities have been assumed by foreign advisers from the United States, Great Britain and Canada. At the same time, the fact of their presence at command posts is kept secret in order to prevent the personnel of NATO military countries from being captured by the Russian Armed Forces.
At the same time, the report notes that the American 155-mm M-777 howitzers delivered to Kiev are not always used for their intended purpose. Instead of conducting counter-battery warfare, guns are often used to bombard cities.
The Armed Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine after accelerated training are unable to independently maintain complex air defense systems, therefore, foreign instructors from among mercenaries are often in artillery positions.
If the Polish report is accurate the Ukrainian army has suffered catastrophic losses and is struggling to replace the experienced officers with competent personnel. As General Konashenkov noted, Ukraine is now acting desperately by “forcibly mobilizing” residents of the Donbas still under their control. This is not a recipe for success. Coerced civilians are not magically transformed into frontline super soldiers just because Zelensky declares it so.
Another fine effort, Larry. I note that truth seekers and those that will not be silenced from speaking the truth are rare in America. Just by accident I discovered another and here he is: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FzGRQdp0XoQ
Commendable and brave. All of you are heroes and I thank you for what you do.
I noticed the same thing. It’s weird. Even reasonably intelligent people who I know who often criticize the US media for constant “fake” news and politicians for being pathological liars, morph into unquestioning believers when they are told these silly tales about Russia bungling the “invasion”. My response is always that maps don’t lie and look at the gains Russia is making. They invariably retort that Russia is going to face a counter attack any day now and Russia totally failed in its objective of taking Kiev. If I try to correct them on that latter point, they actually become angry and say something about me being propagandized by Russian sources. Very weird reaction. These aren’t military people. They have no material investment in UKR.
“Pat Lang’s Lithuanian organ grinding monkey” LOL. Really, you’re being too kind to TTG and you’re insulting organ grinding monkeys.
Dear Mr Newhill, it is not just your friends and associates who refuse to change their minds when confronted with the evidence. These two studies are revealing
https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/327341
“the investigators explain that, as previous research shows, “[p]eople are more influenced when others express judgments with high confidence than low confidence.”
“We found that when people disagree, their brains fail to encode the quality of the other person’s opinion, giving them less reason to change their mind.”
“it is the fact that our brains ignore the strength or urgency of ideas that contradict our own that may explain why so many people are likely to persist in mistaken beliefs, establishing a gap between themselves and individuals with different ideas and belief systems.”
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/think-well/201812/why-many-people-stubbornly-refuse-change-their-minds
“people continually reduce their cognitive dissonance* to align their beliefs with their actions, thereby maintaining psychological consistency and feeling less mental stress.
This phenomenon, first described by Leon Festinger in 1957, helps explain why so many people will vigorously defend, excuse, justify, and keep their sacred beliefs even when confronted with irrefutable proof they are wrong.
*”cognitive dissonance is the mental discomfort experienced by a person who simultaneously holds two or more contradictory beliefs, ideas, or values. “
Jimmywalter,
Agree. Cognitive dissonance is a powerful and ubiquitous psychological force operating within individuals and society. Basically, people/societies want to maintain a fundamental understating – often deeply subconscious, but also overtly public – that they understand their world, that they have categorized and organized their perceptions correctly and that they are the good guys/are righteous. Anything threatening any of that is either ignored or – if too big to be ignored – despised and derided.
The question then arises, “what makes the Russian special military operation and the reality of Russian success so threatening to the world view of Americans that cognitive dissonance kicks in, and kicks in hard?”
A part of that feature – I guess it’s a defensive tactic – found in the spectrum of phenomena associated with cognitive dissonance, wherein that which threatens one’s world view is derided, is that the derision often goes all the way to labeling the threat as being “evil”. Then, no one wants to think of “evil” as being competent. It’s too scary. If evil is competent, it could win.
I think the above is behind all of the suckers buying into the Russia is losing meme. However, it begs the question, “How did Americans come to perceive Russia as evil?”. I’m 58 years old. I clearly recall the nuclear attack drills we periodically performed in grade school and middle school (get under the desk, etc). I recall some shock shows on TV about nuclear exchanges and the aftermath. I remember talking to parents about all of that. For my generation and older, Russia = enemy = evil is probably more seared into our collective subconscious than we realize. Then there was Reagan and the “tear down that wall” speeches, nightly tales of imperialistic aggression in Afghanistan and Bin Laden as George Washington needing support to save his country from it. People actually cheered (or at least smiled) when hearing reports of US supplied missiles taking down Soviet helicopters. Lots of that sort of thing. I get it.
Since the fall of the Soviet Union it’s been a mixed bag. Bush Jr looked into Putin’s eyes and decide Putin had “a good soul”. However, more recently, the emphasis has returned to focussing on the evil of Russia. Russia/Putin has been accused of various assassinations of dissidents, starting unjust wars (like in Chechnya), seizing power as a dictator for life, meddling in our elections, belligerently taking the Crimea and so on. This new emphasis – by the neocons at root – has been easily absorbed and integrated into the world view by a society psychologically primed by the long Soviet period and its ramifications for Americans. I can’t tell if the neocons simply have a hyper-bad case of cognitive dissonance themselves, or if they are engaged in a deliberate Machiavellian manipulation of the public’s collective perceptions; probably some of both, in a self-reinforcing feedback loop that is further bolstered by material rewards from those who profit from military build-up and even war itself.
Also, agree on the tendency of people to believe that which is stated confidently by people with all of the trappings of authority. A general all decked out in uniform with lots of bling on his chest cuts an impressive figure, especially for those who never served. People want to believe that such a man (or woman, I suppose) is a deadly serious facts and mission focussed professional. I get that too. People with no intelligence or military background don’t understand what it takes to create and maintain an effective fighting force. They don’t understand military history, military science, etc, etc. They can’t conceive of the intense stress of combat and the need to prepare with rigorous and thorough training and morale and unit cohesion. The don’t understand the deployment of sophisticated weapons systems, etc. So minds that want to be put at ease are easily duped by rhetoric on topics they don’t understand. Their BS detectors are necessarily stuck down near 0.
Sometimes I think everything is psychological and that no one, other than our inner demons – and hopefully angels – are in charge.
Eric Newhill and jimmywalter, thanks for that thoughtful discussion. (In general, the quality and insight of the mere comments on LJ’s blog is truly amazing!)
I’ve been stunned, too, that so many people who saw right through the humbug surrounding Covid-19 nonetheless fell for the Ukraine psy-op.
Thank you, jmj59
I snicker when the demigods command, “follow the science”, or ~”this is ‘misinformation'”. The average person does not have the background nor the intelligence to determine either. What they are really saying is, ~”obey the commands of God! We are his mouthpiece”
Regarding the question:
“How did Americans come to perceive Russia as evil?”,
the answer is that
there has been a deliberate propaganda campaign to so portray Russia.
For an instance of that campaign in America,
watch the movie “Fiddler on the Roof”,
where one of the heroes is a Marxist student preaching revolution.
As an example of the POV of that movie, see what is said from 6:50 to 7:15 concerning the Czar.
For a description of how opinions were shaped in Russia itself,
see the 1980s document Russophobia (PDF) by the distinguished Russian mathematician Igor R. Shafarevich,
describing how Russians were told they should hate their own culture.
excellent post mr newhill , thanks for sharing your views
wow..this is mind blowing..now i understand why i cant make my friends to understand the reality on the ground and all the rest… its hard to me even to speak anymore with aprox 70-80 % of my friends even in my family i m seen as a ,, russian agent or such thing” just because i dare to tell them Zelenski is a clovn and all this crap about Russian Army are propaganda stories ((((…good to knwo ..i llt ry show them this
The difference between Pat Lang and the monkey chained to the calliope while the man churns the handle to grind out the tune is the name of the doctor who treats them for their fleas.
“If the Polish report is accurate”…then the Russian Federation is directly fighting NATO-led troops.
If so, one may reasonably expect the Russian Federation to execute a very public smack-down of said “leaders” in such a manner that the entire world will know that NATO is directing this fight. To date, NATO has held its direct involvement close to the vest; so any such smack-down would be intended to force NATO “out of the closet” and into the open, for the world to witness. Presumably, the Russian forbearance to date is intended to allow NATO further out on the limb, where a fall would be very public, and direct involvement obvious.
Say what you will regarding the Russian “information war,” but their judicious patience in allowing events and relationships to unfold in due time continues to garner ever increasing empathy by the neutrals who are observing, as the collective West repeatedly steps on its…tie.
I think that your interpretation of the situation is correct, I believe the trap has been set and when the gullibles in NATO/US are entrenched enough and can’t retreat or deny, the trap will then be sprung.
Loved you, Mr Johnson, on Redacted. There used to be a saying, “Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me”. Of the hundreds of PR (Propaganda Releases), not ONE has been proved true. Faith in the media has dropped to 16% for Newspapers, 11% for TV news. The Republicans will win big in November, but it won’t change the war cries: Only 57 Representatives and 5 Senators, all Republicans, but a small fraction of them, voted against the $40 BILLION graft for more US weapons, some being used shelling civilians in the DNR, many of which are already on the black market.
The, as you said, alleged, Polish report, if true, is the doctor’s report that the patient has not long to live. If they attack Crimea, it will be sooner
Rumor has it that Tucker might run. Why not you, Mr Johnson, or Macgregor, or Ritter, or Dore, or Rogan (but why don’t we hear more from Rogan on Ukraine? Have your publicist contact him to get you on his show – you do really good on TV). By November, everyone will see our emperors have no clothes. Write-ins will have a shot, if the count is fair.
What is wrong with ppl supposedly with military experience and objective analysis suddenly become IO operator like the TTG on SST who used col lang name and site to spread low quality propaganda from UK media rag or from ISW.
his whole posts and the rapid comment replies to any objection showed he did this with multiple ppl using his ID. and even worse i dont think articles on SST with pat lang name were all postsd by lang himself. seem like they both have acccess to the administrator ID to block or ban pll.
TTG started his insane IO after lang banned both larry johnson and patrick armstrong , 2 of the most objective posters on SST
Dear Larry,
in the 90s David Ignatius wrote this nice (i think also famous Allen Weinstein interview) article, saying what in former days CIA did regime changes that are now carried out by NED.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/opinions/1991/09/22/innocence-abroad-the-new-world-of-spyless-coups/92bb989a-de6e-4bb8-99b9-462c76b59a16/
That was real information back in 1991 – and now he’s propagandist of deep state? Or he always was – it’s easy being generous if you’re winning (and the deep state was winning in the 90s).
It’s so sad here in the west to see so many people captured in the matrix of virtual reality. Pretty much the same people who believe the msm nonsense about Ukraine also believe that they must continue to get more and more COVID shots and boosters to avoid getting a (not) deadly disease. These folks are totally brainwashed. You can’t put facts in front of them to dispute any of this. They will simply refuse to acknowledge what is right there in front of them if it doesn’t come from the msm. Oh well, we had a good run there for about 200+ years as a free nation, but we have become weak and lazy (there are exceptions of course, but overall as a nation we have squandered an exceptional opportunity) and will now be replaced by the stronger and more aware/intelligent. Darwinism in motion.
A quick decapitation of Zelensky govt and taking of Kiev is what we wanted so that we could foster insurgency in western Ukraine. In the early days, insurgency was the talk of DC.
Russia probably took a quick swing at Kiev just in case they collapsed quickly to fill a void that would have been created. Taking Kiev and replacing Zelensky would be a bad idea because a Vichy French govt would not have the credibility to govern what is left of Ukraine.
———
Oh and what happened to the Wagner group death squad that was trying to kill Zelensky in Kiev? You know the one that Ukraine immediately took out. Funny, no pictures of these assassins and no identification. It’s almost as if that was a made up story.
I suspect Russia is working to create an insurgency in the areas outside the Donbas. They are probably trying to leverage organically developing movements to take down the Zelensky government. Currently, it’s more of an intelligence operation that includes high value targeting, but it could become more than that; something more kinetic. On a previous thread someone asked why the UKR military is still fighting in eastern UKR given the punishment they receive from Russia on a daily – even hourly – basis. That confounds me a bit as well. IMO, one of these days, with the increasing proportion of new conscripts in the ranks, the UKR army will surrender, perhaps “switching sides” if Russia handles them well. Borrowed from the movie ‘Gladiator’, Zelensky’s days of honoring himself are soon coming to an end. Same for Nuland and team neocon.
” Same for Nuland and team neocon.”
I certainly hope so, it’s unbelievably stupid to have haters of Russia handling Russian affairs for the USA, they will and have made mistakes on a grand scale, we need level headed thinkers if we are to keep our rightful place in this world. They won’t destroy Russia, they will destroy us.
I was talking with a 75 year old woman the other day. She corrected my pronunciation of Kiev. I asked her if she had previously her whole adult life pronounced it as I just did, she said “yes”. I said to her that because some dude on tv said so, you believed him? “of course”, she said.
“They won’t destroy Russia, they will destroy us”
Like Cpt. Ahab in his maniacal pursuit of his despised white whale.
Time for a mutiny.
Dear Mr Newhill, you are right that Russia is destroying the “Rules based” hegemony. But as I said in another post here, only 57 Representatives and 5 Senators voted against the $40 Bil un-audited graft. So even though the Republicans will win big in November, the Russia phobia, the unchecked, unaccounted MIC bills will just keep coming. I also offer you a friendly caution: “mutiny”, deserved or not, could be twisted to claim you are inciting insurrection. The Mass Media and the Jan 6 witch hunt have shown their predilection for twisting, exaggerating, condemning and prosecuting dissidents. My fear is they will use some false flag to instigate martial law
Jimmywalter,
The Rs might save us from the insane Marxism of the modern Ds, but, as you say, the will destroy us anyhow with their love of all things military and their pursuit of senseless anti-Russia policies.
I know what a “mutiny” is – and so do you. It’s a very American concept.
Today’s Democrats are neoliberals, not “insane” Marxists.
It’s okay to oppose one or both ideologies without conflating the two. You otherwise make some good points worth reading and considering.
Zelensky order to shoot those refusing to fight is probably not helping.
My guess are junior ranks ready to fold but don’t have a leader to coalesce around and behind so many flee when they can.
I expect a lot of money, threats and foreign passports for family being thrown at key officers who may want to rebel, so far its working. Rank breaking at senior level seems limited or quickly controlled. At junior levels desertion seems to be accelerating.
I also expect that NATO is present at all gov meetings preventing the Ukrainians themselves stepping out of line.
Senior officers appear to be US largely with UK then Canada and France though France appears to have lost key people in Mariupol and cooled on war. It’s reporting is most objective ish of the NATO states. They expose early on that command in Ukraine was largely American led.
As for fighting continuing longer there are no shortage of mercenaries and special ops if anything deployment is increasing according to the spec ops I know. Salaries are good and they are keen on a ‘real grown up war’.
The critical stage will come when senior Ukrainian officers break Ranks or the desertion and KIA MIA is so high that no real military response is viable.
At that stage in expect that nato will launch every long range missile they have and try to smash everything before they are squeezed out. Can’t see a peaceful end to this.
Wider lens. Next war will be started in East Africa
US went from 0 to 3 serious bases in Kenya this year. Kenyan government is very stupid for letting them in, for years they had a policy of no foreign bases other than the UK one which is a genuine training camp. A very different type of soldier likely to be in the thousands moving in now not far from British base In Laikipia and north in Isiolo.
Uganda discovered over a trillion in gold and oil recently.
Biden withdrew from trade deal with kenya that trump made, actually a very fair deal all round, and has inserted new threats including no IMF loans and no trade deal if no complete obedience to US hitch includes no business withRussian and no letting Russia into mining and trade.
Stupid stupid Kenyan government, so much debt after covid they did a deal for bases for IMF loan now to repay dollar debts and now they are fucked.
Interesting to see how evil and vicious the Biden government is. The level of direct abuse and dominance and threats they are using on Africa is so open its staggering.
This will be a horrific war in East Africa if they are not stopped. Another absolute decimation if people that can’t fight back. Very sad to see indeed.
Also. Check out where the families of senior Ukraine officers live right now. Clue. Not Ukraine.
Do you have a link?
I disagree: Russians need Zelenskiy to capitulate. Anything less will undermine the finality and effect of capitulation.
NATO has created an off the books army in Ukraine, one which it has been training for almost a decade and tactically directed by senior NATO officers. Now they can only stand by and watch it be destroyed while persisting with the fantasy of success. What else can they do?
They really want to keep it going.
https://news.antiwar.com/2022/07/19/ukraine-defense-minister-offers-ukraine-as-a-testing-ground-for-nato-weapons/
Larry, in this last month, three Brazilian mercenaries died in direct confrontations with the Russians, another five mercenaries left, there are statements from one of them who died on the front saying how hard the war was and the Russian artillery was infernal.
se puder, leia esta reporstagem do site russo ria novost…e mostra o despreparo e desespero das forças armadas da Ucrania
https://ria.ru/20220720/plennye-1803461706.html
Sorry, I ended up finishing the comment in Portuguese, the final part follows in English..
be interested and can this report from the Russian site ria novost, which shows the lack of preparation and training of the Ukrainian armed forces…many soldiers cannot use NLAW, due to lack of knowledge and training
https://ria.ru/20220720/plennye-1803461706.html
The west knew it wouldn’t beat Russia but hoped the cost in Russian blood and treasure would cause the government to fall. As long as Russia doesn’t do anything stupid like string out the army so it’s not under it’s layered air defense it will end well for Russia. If say Putin’s assassinated and the war hawks in Russia take control and invade Europe, that would be the bankers dream scenario. They can use drones to drop chemical weapons (much cheaper than artillery shells) all along the Russians line. Note that the Russians captured chemical dispersal drones in Ukraine before they had a chance to use them. This scenario reminds me of the US Civil war. Here is a talk at the army war college about that situation about blood and treasure and failure to concentrate forces. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=lrXxz4iniRs
Meanwhile Ukrainians have started putting big holes into Kherson bridges.
Ships of the Russian black fleet are fleeing Sevastopol for Novorrosijsk.