Volodymyr Zelensky and Ukraine’s NATO sponsors are hailing it’s development of advanced drone technology and ability to hit targets deep inside Russia as a turning point in the stalemated war. Lily Lynch writes in the New Left Review’s Sidecar blog that “they are depicting Russia – and only Russia – as the country facing a dire political and economic crisis.” The narrative is designed to bolster public support for the military buildup in the West and its continued flow of arms and fiscal support to underwrite the Ukrainian war effort.
But "the image of a Ukraine filled with patriotic liberals eager to fight a high-tech war until total Russian collapse is a fiction”, she says. "According to a recent Gallup poll (one that was largely buried in the Western press),Ukrainians are even less enthusiastic about fighting this war than Russians are. Less than one in four adults (24 per cent) say Ukraine should keep fighting until it wins the war, while 66 per cent say Ukraine should seek to negotiate an end to the war as soon as possible." Part of the reason for mass disillusionment is what Lynch describes as “the brutal practice of ‘busification’ – whereby military age men are snatched off the street which continues to inspire loathing.” The average age of a Ukrainian soldier is now 45 as many draft age men have fled abroad or are otherwise trying to find ways to avoid conscription. Ukraine’s impressive drone production can’t compensate for its demographic deficit. “The majority of both Russians and Ukrainians want negotiations to end the war now” she concludes." Only a minority want to continue fighting until their side’s most maximalist aims are met. Absent the propaganda of a youth-driven drone tech revolution in war, Ukraine looks in a remarkably similar situation to Russia: two countries hurtling toward demographic oblivion, in a conflict directed by a profiteering political elite and fought in part by the unwilling, the coerced, the foreign and the old.” -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Groups.io Links: You receive all messages sent to this group. View/Reply Online (#42635): https://groups.io/g/marxmail/message/42635 Mute This Topic: https://groups.io/mt/120442198/21656 -=-=- POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. #4 Do not exceed five posts a day. -=-=- Group Owner: [email protected] Unsubscribe: https://groups.io/g/marxmail/leave/13617172/21656/1316126222/xyzzy [[email protected]] -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
