I want to commend a New York Times article to your attention, “The Partnership: The Secret History of the War in Ukraine”. It’s lengthy. Here’s a snippet:
With remarkable transparency, the Pentagon has offered a public inventory of the $66.5 billion array of weaponry supplied to Ukraine — including, at last count, more than a half-billion rounds of small-arms ammunition and grenades, 10,000 Javelin antiarmor weapons, 3,000 Stinger antiaircraft systems, 272 howitzers, 76 tanks, 40 High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems, 20 Mi-17 helicopters and three Patriot air defense batteries.
But a New York Times investigation reveals that America was woven into the war far more intimately and broadly than previously understood. At critical moments, the partnership was the backbone of Ukrainian military operations that, by U.S. counts, have killed or wounded more than 700,000 Russian soldiers. (Ukraine has put its casualty toll at 435,000.) Side by side in Wiesbaden’s mission command center, American and Ukrainian officers planned Kyiv’s counteroffensives. A vast American intelligence-collection effort both guided big-picture battle strategy and funneled precise targeting information down to Ukrainian soldiers in the field.
To my eye the piece, while couched in the most positive possible way, paints a fair picture of what went right and what went wrong since 2022. The picture they paint is one of a Ukraine that is militarily capable but politically weak.
There are some missing pieces, that, for example, the longer-distance missiles the Ukrainians have wanted required the direct participation of U. S. military personnel as has been pointed out by milbloggers.
As a counter-point you might want to reflect on Matt Taibbi’s piece, “Biden Lied About Everything, Including Nuclear Risk, During Ukraine Operation”. Here’s a snippet from that:
Now that the war appears lost, and newspapers abroad (conspicuously, not here) are full of news about an apparent bombing of Vladimir Putin’s motorcade, and the future of NATO hangs by a thread, the Times has run a 13,000-word “Secret History” that shows the same U.S. officials who denounced Trump and American voters for saying it out loud long ago concluded that they, too, should probably “walk away.”
The piece is also an extraordinarily comprehensive betrayal of Zelensky and Ukraine, exponentially worse than the “dressing down” by Trump. Authored by longtime veteran of controversial intel pieces Adam Entous, it’s sourced to 300 American and European officials who seem to be responding to their apparent sidelining via a shameless tantrum, exhibiting behavior that in the field would get military men shot. Not only do they play kiss and tell with a trove of operational secrets, they use the Times to deflect blame from their own failures onto erstwhile Slavic partners, cast as ignorant savages who snatched defeat from the jaws of America-designed victory. It’s as morally abhorrent a piece of ass-covering ever as I’ve seen in print, and that somehow is not its worst quality.
I sincerely doubt that President Biden lied to us but not because he was above lying. I don’t think he lied because I do not think he has the mental capacity to form the intention to deceive necessary for a lie. Any lies would be those of his staff and supporters.
My own questions are more about politicians, whether Ukrainian or American, using war and risks of war to bolster their own political interests. I don’t think our leaders should be doing that regardless of political party.
I am not going to pay to read Taibbi who has become centered on self-promotion, well he has always done that but maybe more obvious about it. What special knowledge does he have that we were supposedly closer to WW3? Also, shouldn’t at least acknowledge that if the war now seems lost it’s at least partially due to Trump pulling support? Finally, at least speaking for myself I thought that it was widely known that we were heavily involved in the intelligence aspect of this war and that we had people training and in country teaching Ukraine soldiers how to use our weapons.
Steve
Pentagon Papers II? Our government lied to us, again, is sadly no longer earth shaking news. Neither is the news we found the deaths of others acceptable to inflate egos of the political class. Afraid, we well see rah, rah Slava Ukraine, instead of reflection on our inability to stop meddling and accepting responsibility for it.
Dave Schuler: I sincerely doubt that President Biden lied to us but not because he was above lying. I don’t think he lied because I do not think he has the mental capacity to form the intention to deceive necessary for a lie.
Biden knew what he was doing, and there is ample evidence of his awareness of the policies of his administration. He was declining, as everyone knew, and he should have bowed out gracefully after his first term. But he was responsible for the Ukraine policy.
Dave Schuler: My own questions are more about politicians, whether Ukrainian or American, using war and risks of war to bolster their own political interests. I don’t think our leaders should be doing that regardless of political party.
There should be a firewall between policy and politics. However, what remained of the wall is now gone with Trump. There is Trump and only Trump.
Dave Schuler: Should There Be “Secret Histories”?
There is a tension between the right of the public to know, and the necessity for secrecy in warfare. After the Great Depression and WWII, Americans had a high trust in their government and their leaders. Leading into the Cold War, they granted a great deal of power to secret agencies to keep them safe. However, without accountability, power corrupts. This culminated in the Vietnam debacle. Since then, there have been a number of restraints placed on the government, but most of those have been shredded; bit by bit by both parties, then wholesale by Trump. It may be possible to salvage the Republic, but significant damage will probably be irreparable.
The problem is the Congress. The Congress must stop delegating its authority to the executive branch. That should be something on which there should be a bipartisan consensus. Delegating congressional authority to the executive inevitably results in things you don’t want to be done getting done.
Dave Schuler: The Congress must stop delegating its authority to the executive branch.
Bit by bit by both parties, then wholesale by Trump. The Supreme Court helped! (Railing against the existence of the administrative state is not a useful position, as the administrative state is an essential aspect of government, even in ancient times.)
Augustus Caesar kept the Senate and all their prerogatives. The Senators would huff and puff, but their decisions, were of little consequence.