Motus Mentis

One of the reasons that I laid off blogging for a while was that it had become just too dispiriting to try to speak the truth while living in a world of lies. Among the worst of these webs of falsehood (and outright stupidity) was the Narrative about our relationship with Russia in the post-Soviet era — which was used to justify, among other things, the relentless expansion of our empire in NATO; the U.S.-backed overthrow of the government of Ukraine in 2014; the combination of government institutions, Democrat political operators, almost all of our news media, and countless “useful idiots” to propagate the “Russian collusion” hoax; and finally, and most unforgivably of all, the willful destruction of Ukraine by consigning it, with the enthusiastic approval of the U.S. Congress and imbeciles in every corner of blue America, to utter ruination in the meat-grinder of an unwinnable proxy war. We fawned over the grifter and megalomaniac Zelenskyy, and sent scores of billions of our borrowed money to prolong the catastrophe, as we proudly waved those blue-and-yellow flags, in our safety and comfort, to show that We Care.

As a nation we should be paralyzed with shame and horror for the misery, suffering, devastation and death we have caused with such characteristically blithe arrogance — but we’ll just shrug it off and move along as always. So many of us tried, since the beginning of this unnecessary war, to sound the alarm, to wake people up, to shake them out of this madness, but to no avail.

My God, people, are we really this stupid, this careless? Evidently so. It makes me want to vomit.

I just saw this on Twitter, from someone named Maria Mateiciuc:

I just got back from Ukraine, where I was visiting some friends.

Everything we have heard about what’s happening in Ukraine is a lie.

The reality is darker, bleaker, and unequivocally hopeless. There is no such thing as Ukraine “winning” this war.

– By their estimates, they have lost over one million of their sons, fathers and husbands; an entire generation is gone.
– Even in the Southwest, where the anti-Russian sentiment is long-standing, citizens are reluctant or straight-up scared to publicly criticize Zelensky; they will go to jail.
– In every village and town, the streets, shops, and restaurants are mostly absent of men.
– The few men who remain are terrified of leaving their homes for fear of being kidnapped into conscription. Some have resorted to begging friends to break their legs to avoid service.
– Army search parties take place early in the morning, when men leave their homes to go to work. They ambush and kidnap them off the streets and within 3-4 hours they get listed in the army and taken away straight to the front lines with minimal or no training at all; it is “a death sentence.”
– It’s getting worse every day. Where I was staying, a dentist had just been taken by security forces on his way to work, leaving behind two small children. Every day, 3-5 dead bodies keep arriving from the front lines.
– Mothers and wives fight tooth and nail with the armed forces, beg and plead not to have their men taken away. They try bribing, which sometimes works, but most of the time they are met with physical violence and death threats.
– The territory celebrated as having been “won back” from Russia has been reduced to rubble and is uninhabitable. Regardless, there is no one left to live there and displaced families will likely never return.
– They see the way the war has been reported, at home and abroad. It’s a “joke” and “propaganda.” They say: “Look around: is this winning?”.
– Worse, some have been hoaxed into believing that once Ukrainians forces are exhausted, American soldiers will come in to replace them and “win the war”.

There is no ambiguity in these people. The war was for nothing – a travesty. The outcome always was, and is, clear. The people are hopeless, utterly destroyed, and living in an unending nightmare.

They are pleading for an end, any end – most likely the same “peace” that could have been achieved two years ago. In their minds, they have already lost, for their sons, fathers and husbands are gone, and their country has been destroyed. There is no “victory” that can change that.

Make no mistake, they are angry with Putin. But they are also angry with Zelensky and the West. They have lost everything, worst of all, hope and faith, and cannot comprehend why Zelenky wishes to continue the current trajectory, the one of human devastation.

I didn’t witness the war; but what I saw was absolutely heart-breaking.

Shame on the people, regardless of their intentions, who have supported this war. And shame on the media for continuing to lie about it.