Generational Dynamics World View News

[Guest]

What Volodymyr Zelensky’s Courage Says About the West
The Ukrainian leader’s refusal to back down is as inspiring as it is illuminating.

By Tom McTague

https://www.theatlantic.com/internation ... ia/622948/


A good takeaway from the article:

A senior European defense official told me recently that the West needed to find a way to reimagine itself and its role in the world, to avoid slipping into the trap of either pretending that nothing has changed or concluding that nothing can be done about it—that, Merkel- or Obama-style, leaders must simply manage the fallout and avoid becoming entangled in it.

This official said he was struck by how this sense of resignation was reflected in our culture as well. Movies and TV shows now rarely depict a heroic, grand visionary, “only a never-ending struggle for supremacy,” in the words of the official I spoke with. Instead of Cold War heroes such as Rocky, we have the cynical characters in Game of Thrones, Billions, and Succession, channeling our new cynical reality. Our imaginative understanding of the world has changed. The West has killed off the idea of itself as good. Does it still even recognize a baddie, this official asked, or has it concluded that countries such as Russia or China are no worse or better? This, in fact, is the Trump view of the world, largely shared on the far left too.

Perhaps this is why Zelensky is so inspiring. Western countries don’t have this type of leadership anymore: unembarrassed, defiant belief in a cause. So many people in the West have given up on the fairy tale of their own superiority because they understand how badly the West has behaved over the decades, from wars for colonial control to the War on Terror.

Yet perhaps the other reason Zelensky is so inspiring is that suddenly we can see that he is right. Vladimir Putin is a monster whose cause is unjust and immoral. In standing up to him, Ukraine is articulating a certain idea of itself that is righteous and dignified and heroic: virtues we long ago dismissed as old-fashioned. How tragic it is that Zelensky’s idea has to be attacked for us to be reminded of ours.

[Guest]

** 28-Feb-2022 World View: Expired food and medicine

> Food given to Russian troops has an expiration date of
> 2015. Captured rations have been shown on Ukraine social media by
> Ukraine soldiers. Most Russian units were only given 2-3 days of
> food and much of it is inedible. How much planning really went
> into this invasion? What kind of officer corps does the Russian
> army have?

> Is the medicine given to Russian army units also expired?

It only takes a few hours to drive from Belarus to Kiev, so the
Russian generals didn't bother to provide sufficient food or bullets.
They expected to roll into Kiev and raid the supermarkets. It's been
five days so far.

That's why Russian soldiers are looting supermarkets. That footage is also on social media.

[Guest]

There is no electricity in Mariupol, the city is under heavy air raids.

[Guest]

So much for Russian being a military superpower.

[MrGuest]

It's interesting that Putin's miscalculation may have a specifically generational component. Based on the post-WWII/Cold War risk-adverse norms that he grew up with the calculation that Ukraine would realize that they were over-matched and just roll over was perfectly reasonable. But 44 year old Zelenskyy and the young leaders* of Ukraine are farther removed from the horrors of WWII and far less risk adverse - to a point that would have seemed reckless not too long ago. I does seem clear that Zelenskyy's courage has given his nation a chance by inspiring allies to take measures against Russia that would have been unthinkable a week ago.

The pro-Ukraine stories floating around (whether true or not) all have a similar theme romanticizing war heroes and ordinary people risking their lives. The rah-rah tone from those watching from the sidelines of social media - spreading fun memes and badass stories - is extremely detached from the reality of war. It brings to mind stories like the civilian families setting up a picnic to enjoy the Battle of Bull Run ... and then running away in horror once the blood started to flow. Social media content guidelines make it easy to shield the squeamish from more graphic content, but I fear eventually something so grand and horrifying will happen and the tone will abruptly change. Right now people are watching as if it's a Marvel movie and good guys are about to win.

*I don't have stats on this, but watching the coverage it seems that most of Ukraine government officials are relatively young - lots of interviews with gun-toting MPs who seem to be around 30 years old).

[JCP]

Yes, more horrors to come, but unlike what happened in Chechnya in secret, they will be televised and close to Western Europe, not buried deep in the mountains a thousand miles away. And unlike Chechnya, the world is responding. Had this happened 23 years ago when Putin blew up apartment blocks in Moscow and falsely blamed the Chechens, invaded their country, and committed mass rape and genocide; the 2008 invasion of Georgia would not have happened; Ukraine would not be happening now. A lot of good and some just decent people would still be alive. But it wasn't to be. And it is not to be now.

[Guest]

Mayor of Mariupol announces that the city is surrounded on all sides and that the Russian Army is advancing in every direction

— The biggest Urban battle until the present moment of this War is about to begin.

[Guest]

Pavel Felgenhauer, talking on Al Jazeera on few minutes ago, said Russia might set off a nuclear bomb in the ocean to publicly demonstrate its determination.

[El Cid M]

An interesting interview was published today. https://www.politico.com/news/magazine ... e-00012340

‘Yes, He Would’: Fiona Hill on Putin and Nukes

A dozen interesting points were made in it, but foe the "Russia is so much clever than everyone else" crowd, one point stuck out:

Hill: Exactly. What stops a lot of people from pulling out of Russia even temporarily is, they will say, “Well, the Chinese will just step in.” This is what every investor always tells me. “If I get out, someone else will move in.” I’m not sure that Russian businesspeople want to wake up one morning and find out the only investors in the Russian economy are Chinese, because then Russia becomes the periphery of China, the Chinese hinterlands, and not another great power that’s operating in tandem with China.

Yes, Russia will end up a satrapy of China, or perhaps just a source of cheap labor and farmland. Or perhaps China will just invade Russia, kill the Russians, and take their land.

Karma.

And for the Putinistas on the board:

But this is also a full-spectrum information war, and what happens in a Russian “all-of-society” war, you soften up the enemy. You get the Tucker Carlsons and Donald Trumps doing your job for you. The fact that Putin managed to persuade Trump that Ukraine belongs to Russia, and that Trump would be willing to give up Ukraine without any kind of fight, that’s a major success for Putin’s information war. I mean he has got swathes of the Republican Party — and not just them, some on the left, as well as on the right — masses of the U.S. public saying, “Good on you, Vladimir Putin,” or blaming NATO, or blaming the U.S. for this outcome. This is exactly what a Russian information war and psychological operation is geared towards. He’s been carefully seeding this terrain as well. We’ve been at war, for a very long time. I’ve been saying this for years.

Russia is not stronk!

[Guest]

BEIJING: China's largest state controlled banks are limiting financing to purchase raw materials from Russia, fearing Western sanctions. WH believes China won't come to Moscow's aid and will respect power of US sanctions.