Dear Friends and Colleagues,
Ambassador Charles Freeman, a distinguished US career service officer, recently wrote an important article on the lessons that we have learned from the Ukraine war. The article is quite compelling in its insights, and we felt it important to share it with you. The lessons apply not only to the US but also to NATO, Russia, and the EU.
In lieu of us providing our comments on the article, we feel it best to forward it to you for your consideration. There are some important insights here that may be worthy of further reflection.
Regards,
Director CCI
The Many Lessons of the Ukraine War
September 26, 2023
By Ambassador Chas W. Freeman, Jr. (USFS, Ret.)
I want to speak to you tonight about Ukraine – what has happened to it and why, how it is likely to emerge from the ordeal to which great power rivalry has subjected it; and what we can learn from this. I do so with some trepidation and a warning to this audience. My talk, like the conflict in Ukraine, is a long and complicated one. It contradicts propaganda that has been very convincing. My talk will offend anyone committed to the official narrative. The way the American media have dealt with the Ukraine war brings to mind a comment by Mark Twain: “The researches of many commentators have already thrown much darkness on this subject, and it is probable that, if they continue, we shall soon know nothing at all about it.”
It is said that, in war, truth is the first casualty. War is typically accompanied by a fog of official lies. No such fog has ever been as thick as in the Ukraine war. While many hundreds of thousands of people have fought and died in Ukraine, the propaganda machines in Brussels, Kyiv, London, Moscow, and Washington have worked overtime to ensure that we take passionate sides, believe what we want to believe, and condemn anyone who questions the narrative we have internalized. No one not on the front lines has any real idea of what has been happening in this war. What we know is only what our governments and other supporters of the war want us to know. And they have developed the bad habit of inhaling their own propaganda, which guarantees delusional policies.