Secretary of State Antony Blinke, 60, showed by he’s the State Department’s chief smoke blower, touting the failing Ukraine counteroffensive as successful. Blinken and his 45-year-old fellow smoke blower National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan continue to throw gasoline on the fire. Visiting Kiev, Blinken touts the disappointing Ukraine counteroffensive as making great progress, despite growing reports from military experts that the Ukraine War cannot be won on the battlefield. Blinken fights for 80-year-old President Joe Biden’s reelection, knowing that failure in Ukraine would jeopardize Biden’s second term. Blinken acts more like Biden’s propaganda minister than a secretary of state. ”The Russians have to get to the point where they acknowledge that they failed. They are not going to succeed,” Blinken said, throwing more gasoline on the fire.
Blinken speaks to the U.S. press hoping to fan more propaganda about Ukraine’s success when more battlefield evidence shows that the war is stalemated with Russia dug into Ukraine’s sovereign territory. Blinken keeps talking about Russia’s failure, repeating the same worn out talking points that Russian President Vladimir Putin failed because he couldn’t conquer Ukraine in the first week of war. Ukraine has continued to fight with U.S. cash-and-weapons at the expense of more death and destruction to Ukraine, driving millions of citizens into exile. Yet for Blinken, he must perpetuate the myth that Ukraine is on the verge of a major breakthrough, something not supported by military experts closely watching the war. “They already failed in what they were trying to do, which was to erase Ukraine from the map, to end its identity as an independent sovereign country, to subsume it into Russia,” Blinken said.
Blinken’s repetitive propaganda cannot go unnoticed, as he talks more rubbish precisely because more U.S. elected officials are catching onto the White House lies about Ukraine. Biden’s Ukraine policy panders to Ukraine’s 45-year-old President Volodymyr Zelensky’s decision to go to war against the Kremlin. Biden told Zelensky he would fund a proxy war to degrade the Russian military and topple Putin’s government. After nearly 19 months of war, Zelensky lost 25% of Ukraine sovereign territory, including its strategic Black Sea ports. Zelensky now depends on U.S. cash to pay for his bankrupt Kiev government and the war. “There is no one to go to the table with in case of Ukraine because Putn night now shows no evidence that he is interested in meaningful diplomacy,” Blinken said. Zelensky set unrealistic conditions for any ceasefire or peace talks.
Blinken announced another billion in military and humanitarian assistance to Ukraine, continuing what he says is the winning fight with the Kremlin. No other country sees progress in Ukraine other than the U.S., only because the White House cannot admit that the nearly $200 billion paid to Ukraine can’t drive Russia out of its sovereign territory. Zelensky keeps promising eventual victory but so far fights a war of attrition with Russia. Blinken says Putin isn’t interested in “meaningful diplomacy” with Ukraine because he won’t meet Zelensky’s demands to pull all Russian forces out of Ukraine, pay reparations and try Putin for war crimes at The Hague’s International Criminal Court. With conditions like that, the Ukraine War will go on indefinitely, unless Putin does something desperate, like uses nuclear weapons, something not impossible.
Putin offered Zelensky a way out of a protracted conflict in March 2022, shortly after the war started Feb. 24, 2022. He offered Zelensky to end the invasion if he recognized the independence of Donetsk and Luhansk plus Russian sovereignty over Crimea. Zelensky rejectd Putin’s offer and has been battling the Kremlin ever since. Now Blinken says that Putin isn’t interested in “meaningful diplomacy.” But to end the conflict the U.S. cannot broker for itself, must rely on U.N. peacemakers or independent intermediaries. Blinken makes the situation worse by antagonizing Putin, saying he’s lost the war. Well, if Putin has lost the war, why does he occupy 25% of Ukraine’s sovereign territory, when he only held 10% before the war started. If Putin’s lost the war, why has Ukraine been battered for the last 19 months, killing thousands of civilians and soldiers, facing more destruction?
Blinken and Sullivan continue their tag-team propaganda battle on the Ukraine War. Both must insist on victory for Ukraine or face a backlash with voters in 2024, disgusted with promises of victory when all they see is more U.S. tax dollars thrown down a rat hole. You know things are bad when Blnken repeats the same worn out talking points about Putin losing the war because he couldn’t conquer Ukraine in one week. Blinken talked to Zelensky about democratic reforms, something on the bottom of Zelensky’s wish list. Zelensky wants more cash from the U.S. beyond today’s billion to fund a new presidential election next year. But, as Zelensky says, it’s not in Ukraine’s Constitution to hold elections while the country’s at war. Zelensky, a former comedic actor, plays a good role as Ukraine’s revolutionary leader but can’t deliver results promised on the battlefield.
About the Author
John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news. He’s editor of OnlineColumnist.com and author of Dodging The Bullet and Operation Charisma.
