To The Last Ukrainian

Every day lately we hear reports that Ukraine is running short of warm bodies to throw into their Spring-Summer-Fall offensive that never seems to go anywhere. American Neocons say it’s all a big success, because Americans aren’t dying in Ukraine—not in large numbers, anyway—so it’s all gravy for us if the Ukrainians manage to kill some Russians or destroy some Russian equipment. America will fight to the last Ukrainian, but when will that happen?

The Germans and Poles have a new take on the refrain “to the last Ukrainian.” Having had their fill of Ukrainian refugees already, they’re now rounding up Ukrainian draft dodgers and shipping them back to Ukraine. One gets the definite impression that they’ll be happy to wave goodby to the last Ukrainian.

Two recent articles address some of this. The first is from The American Mind:

To The Last Ukrainian

The author has been following the Ukrainian draft dodging story for over a year. She says that one thing that jumped out at her was this:

Vocally expressed nationalistic sentiments, as it turned out, don’t necessarily translate into willingness to take up arms — or even support of mass mobilization.

And so we arrive at this:

Ukraine is now insistent on drafting everyone. Since a large number of draft-eligible men fled abroad — 163,287 live in Germany alone — they need to be extradited. Poland already began the process of deporting Ukrainians back home to fill the trenches. Moreover, the Defense Ministry approved new drafting rules under which men suffering from disabilities ranging from slow progressing nervous system disorders to  hemorrhagic conditions are now eligible to be drafted. Morale and effectiveness of this kind of army is questionable. 

This late in the war, Ukrainians are unlikely to change their mind about marching into the meat grinder. Ukraine does not publicize its casualties, but multiple videos circulating on social media show sprawling fresh graves under the national banners. The recent official U.S. estimate is 70,000 dead and 150,000 to 200,000 wounded out of 5.5 million military age men—more dead in 18 months than the U.S. lost in the Vietnam War. According to German medical supplier Ottobock, which makes prosthetics, the number of amputees now stands at up to 50,000. With characteristic German understatement Ottobock adds that the real figure is probably higher because it takes time to process cases. Meantime, Ukraine is preparing for 1.5 million disabled.

There’s a lot more to be said about Ukrainian losses, including the number of Ukrainians who have voluntarily surrenedered. But the loss of women and children who have fled the country, likely never to return, will have as disastrous an effect on Ukraine’s future as the loss of a generation of young—and not so young—men. What were Ukrainians thinking about when they turned down Putin’s reasonable offer in Istanbul? Did they really think the West would stand behind them and prevent this tragedy? To the last Ukrainian, as long as it takes, as long as it’s not us.

Douglas Mackinnon

Douglas MacKinnon, a political and communications consultant, was a writer in the White House for Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush, and former special assistant for policy and communications at the Pentagon during the last three years of the Bush administration.Douglas MacKinnon, a political and communications consultant, was a writer in the White House for Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush, and former special assistant for policy and communications at the Pentagon during the last three years of the Bush administration.

has published an impassioned article on the subject, dripping with moral outrage. His disgust with the ghoulish American public figures behind this human catastrophe—the usual Neocons suspects, the bipartisan cheer leaders for war—is almost palpable:

Are 500,000 dead and wounded in Ukraine enough? Apparently not.

Do those calling for Ukraine to continually march into the teeth of the Russian war machine have a maximum number of Ukrainians in mind who can be slaughtered before they say, “You know, maybe we have to rethink our strategy”?

Most on the left seemed to be against such gruesome wars before they were for them.

Mackinnon was active in DC during the Iraq wars, and he draws the inevitable comparison:

Back then, many on the left were calling out President George W. Bush and his fellow advocates for the invasion of Iraq ...

These Bush-connected civilians, pundits and “experts” had no skin in the game, …

While their lives of privilege and luxury went on uninterrupted, history reminds us that the war with Iraq came at a very steep price in human lives lost. Approximately 4,500 American soldiers killed; 32,000 wounded; between 100,000 and 400,000 Iraqi deaths, depending upon the study; and a Middle East that is destabilized to this day.

Could the U.S. War with Iraq have been prevented? Of course. Could most of those lives lost have been spared? Yes.

Could the war in Ukraine have been prevented, or at least negotiated into a ceasefire, during the first few months of conflict?

Mackinnon goes on to to survey some of the war views of our Ruling Class, with commentary on Vivek and RFK, Jr., whom he quotes:

“Half a million dead and wounded soldiers in Ukraine. Was this proxy war to ‘weaken Putin’ worth their blood and our treasure?”

The American Experiment that started with so much hope seems to be dissolving into carnage and moral and civic degradation before our eyes. Can a nation that can avert its eyes from such obvious evils as its forever wars possibly be able to set itself back on the right path?