The West is losing in Ukraine

Meanwhile, the global proxy war is expanding to the Middle East

Remember the war in Ukraine? As I write over at UnHerd, there’s a reason that conflict has disappeared from public consciousness. Part of it, of course, has to do with the fact that the world’s attentions is catalysed on the ongoing carnage in Gaza (by the way, I’ll be returning with an update later today); but part of it has to do with the fact that events in the Middle East have allowed the Western media to blot out from public consciousness an uncomfortable truth: that despite billions of dollars spent and more than 100,000 casualties, Ukraine — and the West — are losing the war. This is now being admitted not only by Western pro-war pundits — but, even more astonishingly, also by Ukraine’s top military brass. The worst part is that this outcome was entirely predictable, and indeed had been predicted. How many lives were sacrificed in the pursuit of an impossible military aim? And how many could have been saved if the West had been more willing to tolerate an open discussion about the limitations of Ukraine’s, and NATO’s, stated aims?

Yet, Western governments still can’t afford to publicly admit this defeat, and push for a negotiated solution which would necessarily involve territorial concessions, because it would be a de facto admission of defeat for NATO. This is especially true since the outbreak of the war in Gaza, which effectively represents a second front in the global proxy war in which the West is pitted against a growing front encompassing Russia, China and Iran. What happens in the Middle East has direct implications for the conflict in Ukraine and vice versa, and both sides know it. Ultimately, however, just as in Ukraine, it is hard to see how the West can win in Gaza. Even if Israel succeeds in completely eradicating Hamas, the West’s carte blanche to Israel’s slaughter of civilians in Gaza will only harden anti-Western sentiments in the region, and beyond.

Read the full article here.

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Best regards,

Thomas Fazi

Website: thomasfazi.net

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Latest book: The Covid Consensus: The Global Assault on Democracy and the Poor—A Critique from the Left (co-authored with Toby Green