That’s not entirely true in this case. While it’s true that the US media is in full press on the Ukraine narrative, the sentiment of people I talk to is much different. The country is war weary and dealing with the very real material reality of inflation. The entire core of the Republican base (which is naturally inclined to want to see “Democrats bad”) does not want or understand why we are involved in Ukraine. The US media is basically controlled by 5 corporations. But their ability to manufacture consent wanes with every price increase, and every story about corporate profits. Stories like this are just another dent (sorry about using the other word) in the armor.
The ruling class knows this. That’s why they’re making this rapid pivot to China. Pelosi’s provocation accomplishes nothing but shifting the narrative from Ukraine (where they are going to lose) to China (where they would also lose bigly, but they hope the Homer Simpsons out there are too dumb and too complacent to think it through.)
You’re talking about the way ordinary people in the US view this conflict, and that’s nice and all that they’re skeptical, but frankly speaking their opinion is irrelevant and inconsequential. It’s a proven fact that US government policy is pretty much completely divorced from public opinion, what matters is what the establishment elites and the corporate donors (the MIC in this case) want. And there is still bipartisan consensus in the government on the Ukraine issue, barring a few rogue republicans who in my opinion are doing it mostly to be contrarian and have something to hit the democrats with. If it was a republican administration leading the charge the roles would simply reverse.
I hear some of the more trumpist inclined maga types make the argument that with the now seemingly inevitable midterm win in November they will get more so-called “populists” in the legislative and that they will put the brakes on the warmongering, but this is in my opinion just as delusional as the belief on the democrat side that getting so-called “progressives” in positions of power would change the direction of the democratic party. It turns out that the establishment just co-opted them all and the same will happen to the right wing, and even easier because they are already pre-disposed to jingoism and racism which will be easily leveraged to persuade them to support conflict with China.
The Vietnam war did not end because the ruling clsss was over it. It ended because of the pressure from the American people. You are right that the ruling class typically does not care what the people want, but there is a limit to how far you can rule when public consent swings wildly against you.
There is a difference between a war with direct involvement of US troops and a proxy war. You can keep the latter going for much longer without needing public support. And even when you are involved directly, if it’s not to a significant degree and if the majority of the population is insulated from the direct consequences of the conflict you can keep them going for decades like in the case of the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts.
Of course in this case people are not insulated from the consequences because those are economic now. But people are also suffering from say lack of healthcare in the US, and Medicare for All is simply not happening. The same goes for things like gun control, etc. There are plenty of issues that have clear negative impacts on the population and people want fixed, but none of that matters and the public opinion continues to be ignored.
I frankly don’t see at the moment an impetus for the US government to stop its support for Ukraine, all it needs to do is keep sending them money and weapons, and the money part is easy they can just print it at will, and the weapons being in demand just makes profits for the MIC, so it’s a win-win for the ruling class. The whole thing is too profitable a grift to give up. Only if things get bad enough at home will they be forced to stop.
I will say this: the one thing that the ruling class doesn’t like is to be on the losing side of a conflict, so while they will keep ignoring Ukraine’s crimes as long as they can keep the conflict going, when it becomes clear that defeat is imminent they will very likely try to find a way to distance themselves and blame it on the Zelensky regime. Using things like this Amnesty report may come in handy. But again, this is not about principles or about public opinion changing or about economic pressures, it’s simply that they will need to blame somebody else and reverse the hero image they have constructed of Ukraine in the West. This is ammunition for that eventuality. I think the same might happen with Israel once the whole thing starts to crumble, which it will because the situation there is inherently unsustainable and only being kept together by increasing brutality which only generates more resistance. But it will not be because the West has “seen the light” and wants to suddenly hold criminals accountable. The West loves it when nations are strong enough to avoid accountability for their war crimes, the US has been doing this for decades. War crimes trials are only held for losers in any given conflict.
That’s not entirely true in this case. While it’s true that the US media is in full press on the Ukraine narrative, the sentiment of people I talk to is much different. The country is war weary and dealing with the very real material reality of inflation. The entire core of the Republican base (which is naturally inclined to want to see “Democrats bad”) does not want or understand why we are involved in Ukraine. The US media is basically controlled by 5 corporations. But their ability to manufacture consent wanes with every price increase, and every story about corporate profits. Stories like this are just another dent (sorry about using the other word) in the armor.
The ruling class knows this. That’s why they’re making this rapid pivot to China. Pelosi’s provocation accomplishes nothing but shifting the narrative from Ukraine (where they are going to lose) to China (where they would also lose bigly, but they hope the Homer Simpsons out there are too dumb and too complacent to think it through.)
You’re talking about the way ordinary people in the US view this conflict, and that’s nice and all that they’re skeptical, but frankly speaking their opinion is irrelevant and inconsequential. It’s a proven fact that US government policy is pretty much completely divorced from public opinion, what matters is what the establishment elites and the corporate donors (the MIC in this case) want. And there is still bipartisan consensus in the government on the Ukraine issue, barring a few rogue republicans who in my opinion are doing it mostly to be contrarian and have something to hit the democrats with. If it was a republican administration leading the charge the roles would simply reverse.
I hear some of the more trumpist inclined maga types make the argument that with the now seemingly inevitable midterm win in November they will get more so-called “populists” in the legislative and that they will put the brakes on the warmongering, but this is in my opinion just as delusional as the belief on the democrat side that getting so-called “progressives” in positions of power would change the direction of the democratic party. It turns out that the establishment just co-opted them all and the same will happen to the right wing, and even easier because they are already pre-disposed to jingoism and racism which will be easily leveraged to persuade them to support conflict with China.
The Vietnam war did not end because the ruling clsss was over it. It ended because of the pressure from the American people. You are right that the ruling class typically does not care what the people want, but there is a limit to how far you can rule when public consent swings wildly against you.
There is a difference between a war with direct involvement of US troops and a proxy war. You can keep the latter going for much longer without needing public support. And even when you are involved directly, if it’s not to a significant degree and if the majority of the population is insulated from the direct consequences of the conflict you can keep them going for decades like in the case of the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts.
Of course in this case people are not insulated from the consequences because those are economic now. But people are also suffering from say lack of healthcare in the US, and Medicare for All is simply not happening. The same goes for things like gun control, etc. There are plenty of issues that have clear negative impacts on the population and people want fixed, but none of that matters and the public opinion continues to be ignored.
I frankly don’t see at the moment an impetus for the US government to stop its support for Ukraine, all it needs to do is keep sending them money and weapons, and the money part is easy they can just print it at will, and the weapons being in demand just makes profits for the MIC, so it’s a win-win for the ruling class. The whole thing is too profitable a grift to give up. Only if things get bad enough at home will they be forced to stop.
I will say this: the one thing that the ruling class doesn’t like is to be on the losing side of a conflict, so while they will keep ignoring Ukraine’s crimes as long as they can keep the conflict going, when it becomes clear that defeat is imminent they will very likely try to find a way to distance themselves and blame it on the Zelensky regime. Using things like this Amnesty report may come in handy. But again, this is not about principles or about public opinion changing or about economic pressures, it’s simply that they will need to blame somebody else and reverse the hero image they have constructed of Ukraine in the West. This is ammunition for that eventuality. I think the same might happen with Israel once the whole thing starts to crumble, which it will because the situation there is inherently unsustainable and only being kept together by increasing brutality which only generates more resistance. But it will not be because the West has “seen the light” and wants to suddenly hold criminals accountable. The West loves it when nations are strong enough to avoid accountability for their war crimes, the US has been doing this for decades. War crimes trials are only held for losers in any given conflict.