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If Russia wins in Bakhmut, the neocon narrative that Ukraine’s victory is inevitable will be discredited – LifeSite

(LifeSiteNews) — The battle for Bakhmut in the Donbass is almost over, with the Russians slowly bringing their encirclement of the town to completion. 

Since the Russians began their assault on Bakhmut last August, the media has insisted it is of no strategic importance. There are two reasons why Bakhmut matters.  

The media campaign is the one the West has been winning since 2014, when the war in Donbass began. According to the media, the war in Ukraine is only one year old. It is being fought for democracy, despite the fact that Ukraine is not a democracy. It is about freedom, despite the fact the Ukrainian regime has banned independent media, closed down churches and prohibited freedom of expression.  

The war is not about Ukraine, which is simply the site of the neoconservative goal of destroying Russia. The plan, which has been laid out in many forms including this RAND Corporation document, is to:

  • destroy the Russian army in the field 
  • isolate and destabilize Russia with sanctions 
  • promote regime change in Russia 
  • install a client regime such as was done with Ukraine in 2014 

This plan is one which advances the total domination of the world by the technocratic managerialists of the West. From Klaus Schwab’s “masters of the future” to the “Open Societies” beloved of George Soros, the so-called Rules Based Order is simply an attempt to lock down the globe under the rule of a U.S. directed total surveillance state.  

It is one which envisages a horrifying posthuman future for its populations. Any resistance to the surrender of sovereignty sees nations such as Hungary, Russia and China targeted for propaganda, punishment and regime change. The would-be masters of the future see themselves in a zero-sum game with those who will not submit. It is one in which they are willing to gamble with our lives to win. 

It is fitting the campaign to advance this project over the ruin of Russia should take place in Ukraine, which has forcibly closed Christian churches and was the leading destination for the sale of babies and embryos before the Russian invasion. Things, however, are not going entirely to plan for the management. This makes them dangerous. 

To keep this plan on track, the media must be marshaled to encourage continuing support for the war and the sanctions regime which informs its purpose. 

News of a strategic defeat would discourage western governments from sending the billions in aid and weapons required to prolong the war. This would mean the abandonment of the first war aim. 

It would likely weaken support for a sanctions regime for which Western Europe, and not Russia, is paying a very high price. Record inflation, economic stagnation, deindustrialization and the detonation of German pipelines compare poorly with a Russian economy which is growing, and which has adapted well to the sanctions. 

The Russians were kicked out of the SWIFT banking system against economic advice. The sanctions themselves were predicted to hurt Europe far more than Russia. What has happened is that the Russians have successfully built trade relations outside the Western system which have brought them closer to China and have accelerated the development of BRICS as a parallel trade bloc to rival that dominated by the U.S. 

The war aims are not going well, given that they have promoted a major strategic partnership between nations outside the sanctions regime. This is not news, because it both bad news and was entirely predictable. These facts demonstrate the nature of of the ideology which directs Western foreign policy. It disregards advice and is impervious to reality, believing it has the power to remake reality itself. 

This quote, attributed to former deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove, is a neat illustration of the neoconservative point of view: 

We’re an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you’re studying that reality—judiciously, as you will—we’ll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that’s how things will sort out.

The fall of Bakhmut is taking place in reality. This is a problem for the war campaign, as it shows the Russians are not losing. What will happen as a result of this inconvenient intrusion of rogue reality is that another reality will be crafted in the media. 

Why have the Ukrainians invested so many lives in the defense of a place without strategic importance? In a briefing to the German Parliament in late January, the German foreign intelligence service (BND) raised the alarm over the shocking rate of Ukrainian losses around Bakhmut:

On the front near Bakhmut, Ukrainians are currently suffering huge losses….about three-digit numbers of casualties per day. According to the analysis, the fall of Bakhmut would have consequences for the entire line of Ukrainian defense. They say that Russia is now dropping soldiers like cannonballs.

The Ukrainians have lost thousands of soldiers per day defending this place of no importance, which we are now told is a crucial stronghold for the defense of Ukraine.

Earlier in January, British intelligence is quoted to believe  “that Russian troops have increased pressure on Bakhmut, but they are unlikely to surround the city in the near future.” 

The first statement, by the Germans, is factual. The second is ideological. It is an instance of information warfare, intended to pacify European leaders about to attend the February Munich Security Conference. Their support must be guaranteed with  positive news, and so reality was remade to fit the Russian regime change recipe. 

These two perspectives were gained in the same time frame, and demonstrate clearly the reason for their contradictory claims. Bakhmut is indeed of vital strategic importance, and so it must be described as insignificant  – and its capture unlikely. 

So much of the news about this war can be simply reversed to reveal the truth. With the fall of Bakhmut imminent, it is wise to expect a new wave of reality fabrication to obscure the collapse of the Ukrainian front line. 

Putin himself has suggested that this may take the form of a false flag attack using chemical weapons. Whether or not this is the means by which attention is refocused and determination to prolong the war reignited, there will certainly be some attempt to wrest the media narrative from the reality of a defeat and back to the objective of defeating the Russians. 

The taking of Bakhmut means the beginning of the end for the Ukrainian army in Donbass. Beyond Bakhmut, to the west, lie the secondary defenses of Slavyansk and Kramatorsk. Beyond those, there is no tertiary line. This episode may see the Russians capable of striking deep into Ukraine, opening the way to the Dnieper river. 

Bakhmut (marked with an ‘i’), with Slavyansk and Kramatorsk to the West.

The entire Ukrainian front line is pictured below, with the natural barrier of the Dnieper river in the center of the map. Positions shown are current as of 01 March 2023. 

Images courtesy of Neue Zurcher Zeitung

In reality, there is a second line of defense some 30-50 kilometers from Bakhmut, but there is no third line. The Russians will be moving on these defenses next, likely making the “major advances” predicted by German intelligence as they do so. 

The question is what will the neoconservatives do to keep the show on the road? A staged atrocity would be an effective means of mobilizing support for an escalation of the war. There are very few European states with a credible army. The manpower is not in place for a NATO ground war. It is likely, therefore, that any NATO response would come from the air. 

We shall have to wait and see what new realities are forged in this desperate project of destruction. The war is being prolonged by an hysterical faction to whom the wastage of human lives and nations means nothing. It is to be hoped that reality makes the best argument when the next escalation is pushed from the faction of forever war. 

Yet these people are not the only ones with the power to shape the media reality. They can be played  – and beaten – at their own game. Now is the time. It is imperative that you contact your elected representatives and petition them to move for a negotiated settlement to end the war. The enemy is truly at home, but their faction is imperiled by the recklessness of their behavior. They can be stopped if we make our voices heard. Act now to make your nation a hostile environment for these Godless, amoral and mortal enemies of humanity. 

 

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