There is no good news left to show on the nightly newscasts today. The media presstitutes are suckers for video showing a ship getting hit with a Ukie missile and sinking, or a Ukie jet strafing a line of stalled Russian tanks, or Ukie artillery raking the positions of entrenched Russian soldiers.
But those videos are not available today. The best Ukraine can produce are clips pulled from realistic video games that even confuse hardened warriors (sarcasm alert) like Barry McCaffrey. Imagine my shock today to read this headline and story from CNN. (Note–The CNN story confirms as true the analysis that Andrei Martyanov and I have offered):
Former US soldier now fighting in Ukraine tells of days trapped in ‘house of horrors’
Kevin is part of a group of elite foreign special forces veterans, primarily American and British, who have enlisted to help the Ukrainian cause. He says that back in March, the group spent four days in the health spa – they called it “the house from hell” – often just 50 meters from Russian troops. It was, he says, the furthest-forward Ukrainian-held position in Irpin, a suburb on the outskirts of Kyiv, as Russian forces tried to push on through to seize the capital. . . . Despite a career as a former top-level US counter-terrorism operative, serving in Iraq and Afghanistan, Kevin says it is here in Ukraine that he has faced the most intense fighting of his life. . . . For the first time in his life, Kevin was defending against invasion by a better-equipped enemy. He, not the enemy, was the one who had to worry about airstrikes. There was no master plan, no air support – and there would be no evacuation in case of disaster. “It was like a movie,” he says. “It was insanity from the start. We started taking indirect fire driving in – small arms fire driving in. And I was in a pickup truck, just driving down the street.” “There’s tanks, and above us there’s helicopters. And you can hear the Russian jets flying by. And out in the open fields the Russians were dropping troops off in helicopters. And so you’re like: ‘Woah, wow!’ It’s a lot.” Kevin and his colleagues were on the receiving end of artillery fire. During battles in Afghanistan, Iraq, or Syria, these foreign soldiers were calling in the air strikes and artillery bombardments. They’d never known was it was like on the receiving end. . . . Day after day, Kevin and his buddies concluded that they, too, had had enough. Then the next day came, bringing with it new orders and new missions, and they found themselves staying on. Eventually, he says, they wound up at the sauna and gym complex where they holed up for four days, even as the building slowly disintegrated under Russian shelling. “We call it the house of horrors, because it was literally a nightmare in there,” he says. “This was four really miserable days of really little sleep, really heavy artillery, really heavy infantry presence from the Russians. No matter how many people that we removed from their side, they just kept coming.” . . .
Despite unloading this overflowing dumpster of truth on the unsuspecting reader, CNN still tries to put lipstick on the pig and insists that “Kevin” is glad he came to Ukraine and is staying on. Which leads me to a question–to do what?
Kevin and his team were not sitting on Ukrainian tanks charging the Russians and defeating them on the field of battle. Nope. He and his special forces buddies were hunkered down getting to experience the receiving end of aerial and artillery bombardments. Karma is a bitch.
Kevin described the dilemma of the average Ukrainian soldier–no air support, no artillery support, no rescue. But hey, those Ukie troops sure are brave. I have a news flash for Kevin–there were brave Nazi soldiers fighting Soviet troops in World War II and they lost (thank God!).
Fox News’ only story today on the Ukraine is the trial in Kiev of a lowly Russian soldier. When your big news is the prosecution of a low-level subordinate, that is a sure sign you’re scouring the universe for something good to report that will feed the meme of Evil Russians.
Ukraine war crimes trial: Russian soldier sentenced to life in prison for killing civilian (Fox News)
What about MSNBC? Nothing. As of 8:35 pm eastern daylight time, MSNBC Daily lists 11 stories–NONE deal with the war in Ukraine. There is no chorus of praise for the latest Ukrainian victory.
Looks like Ukraine may be slipping down the memory hole of America because Americans are more worried about finding baby formula and fending off surging inflation.
