{"id":654075,"date":"2022-05-14T14:27:20","date_gmt":"2022-05-14T14:27:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dissidentvoice.org\/?p=129605"},"modified":"2022-05-14T14:27:20","modified_gmt":"2022-05-14T14:27:20","slug":"new-york-times-shifts-prowar-narrative-documents-failure-of-u-s-in-ukraine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2022\/05\/14\/new-york-times-shifts-prowar-narrative-documents-failure-of-u-s-in-ukraine\/","title":{"rendered":"New York Times Shifts Prowar Narrative, Documents Failure of U.S. in Ukraine"},"content":{"rendered":"

The New York Times<\/em> has a job to do \u2013 and it has done that job spectacularly well over the past few months.\u00a0 The Times<\/em> is a leader, in the opinion of this writer, the <\/em>leader in spelling out the US narrative on the war in Ukraine, a tale designed to keep up morale, give the war a high moral purpose and justify the untold billions pouring from the taxpayers\u2019 pockets into Joe Biden\u2019s proxy war on Russia. Day in and day out, in page after page of word and picture, it has been instructing one and all, including politicians and lower level opinion shapers, exactly what to think about the war in Ukraine.<\/p>\n

So, when the Times<\/em> says that things are not going well for the US and its man in Kiev, Volodymyr Zelensky, it is a man bites dog kind of story.\u00a0 It tells us that some truths have gone from uncomfortable to undeniable.\u00a0 Such was nature of the page one story<\/a> on May 11, headlined \u201cRussians Hold Much of the East, Setbacks Aside.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even that anti-narrative headline softens the bitter truth.\u00a0 The first paragraph of the story fesses up more completely, stating, \u201cObscured in the daily fighting is the geographic reality that Russia has made gains on the ground.\u201d Not \u201cholding\u201d ground but \u201cgaining<\/em>\u201d ground.\u00a0 Not exactly a morale booster.<\/p>\n

The Times<\/em> goes on, \u201cThe Russian Defense Ministry said Tuesday that its forces in eastern Ukraine had advanced <\/em>to the border between Donetsk and Luhansk, the two Russian-speaking provinces where Moscow-backed separatists have been fighting Ukraine\u2019s army for eight years.\u201d Here it reminds us that the first shots in this war were not fired on February 24, as the narrative goes, but eight long years ago in the Donbas.\u00a0 It is a jolting reminder for those who base their support for the war on \u201cwho fired the first shot,\u201d that their \u201cmoral\u201d view has a considerable blind spot.<\/p>\n

The Times<\/em> continues: \u201c\u2026. the Donbas seizure, combined with the Russian invasion\u2019s early success in seizing parts of southern Ukraine adjoining the Crimean peninsula \u2026.gives the Kremlin enormous leverage in any future negotiation to halt the conflict.\u201d<\/p>\n

It goes on: \u201cAnd the Russians enjoy the added advantage of naval dominance in the Black Sea, the only maritime route for Ukrainian trade, which they have paralyzed with an embargo that could eventually starve Ukraine economically and is already contributing to a\u00a0global grain shortage<\/a>.\u201d\u00a0 More bad news.<\/p>\n

More: \u201cRussia has all but achieved one of its primary objectives: seizing a land bridge connecting Russian territory to the Crimean peninsula.\u201d\u00a0 And: \u201cThe last stronghold of Ukrainian resistance in this area, at the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol, has been whittled to a few hundred hungry troops now confined mostly to bunkers.\u201d\u00a0 Ouch!<\/p>\n

Finally, turning its attention to the economy, the Times<\/em> states: \u201cThe war has ‘put Ukraine\u2019s economy under enormous stress, with the heavy devastation of infrastructure and production capacities,’ the bank said in an economic update. It estimated that 30 percent to 50 percent of Ukrainian businesses have shut down, 10 percent of the population has fled the country and a further 15 percent is displaced internally.\u201d\u00a0 That is a grand total of 25% of the population displaced from their homes.<\/p>\n

This sad tale of failure, misery and death is broken up by considerable verbiage, some anecdotes from the front and the testimony of Avril Haines, Director of National Intelligence, whose testimony is guarded but bleak.\u00a0 But read with thought, there is a big failure looming over the enterprise.<\/p>\n

So, in a panic the US continues to throw mountains of cash at the problem, about $63 billion if one includes the recent infusion of about $40 million about to whistle through the Senate and already passed by the House with only 57 Nays, all Republican.<\/p>\n

But why this abrupt shift in tone by the Times<\/em>.\u00a0 Lax editorial oversight?\u00a0 This does not appear to be the case, because right on cue on the same day we are treated to an Opinion piece<\/a> entitled: \u201cAmerica and Its Allies Want to Bleed Russia. They Really Shouldn\u2019t.\u201d\u00a0 It suggests that it is time for the U.S. to wave the white flag.<\/p>\n

The piece concludes thus:<\/p>\n

But the longer the war, the worse the damage to Ukraine and the greater the risk of escalation. A decisive military result in eastern Ukraine may prove elusive. Yet the less dramatic outcome of a festering stalemate is hardly better. Indefinite protraction of the war, as in Syria, is too dangerous with nuclear-armed participants.<\/p>\n

Diplomatic efforts ought to be the centerpiece of a new Ukraine strategy. Instead, the war\u2019s boundaries are being expanded and the war itself recast as a struggle between democracy and autocracy, in which the Donbas is the frontier of freedom<\/a>. This is not just declamatory extravagance. It is reckless. The risks hardly need to be stated.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It appears some in the Foreign Policy Elite and other precincts of the Deep State have seen the looming disaster for the proxy war on Russia being waged by Biden, Nuland, Blinken and the rest of the neocon cabal.\u00a0 The prospect of nuclear holocaust lying at the end of this road may be enough to rouse them from their Exceptionalist torpor. They seem to want to stop the train that they have set in motion before it runs off the cliff.\u00a0 It is not clear whether they will prevail.\u00a0 But it is clear that we need to drive those responsible for this dangerous debacle out of power -before it is too late.<\/p>The post New York Times<\/em> Shifts Prowar Narrative, Documents Failure of U.S. in Ukraine<\/a> first appeared on Dissident Voice<\/a>.\n

This post was originally published on Dissident Voice<\/a>. <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The New York Times has a job to do \u2013 and it has done that job spectacularly well over the past few months.\u00a0 The Times is a leader, in the opinion of this writer, the leader in spelling out the US narrative on the war in Ukraine, a tale designed to keep up morale, give [\u2026]<\/p>\n

The post New York Times<\/em> Shifts Prowar Narrative, Documents Failure of U.S. in Ukraine<\/a> first appeared on Dissident Voice<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":544,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48134,1784,24,376],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/654075"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/544"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=654075"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/654075\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":654454,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/654075\/revisions\/654454"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=654075"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=654075"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=654075"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}