It takes more to win a war than repeatedly asserting that you’re winning the war. From Moon of Alabama at moonofalabama.org:
At the beginning of the war in Ukraine I pointed out that the false narrative of ‘Ukraine is winning’ which the ‘western’ propaganda steadily promoted would not win the real war on the ground.
As the war continued I made the point again and again.
- Propaganda Does Not Change The War – The Ukraine Is Still Losing – Updated – March 25, 2022
- Ukraine – War Propaganda And News Items – October 11, 2022
- No – Such Propaganda Delusions Will Not Win The War – June 07, 2023
In this week’s SCF column Alastair Crooke makes the same point in much more detail.
Hubris consists in believing that a contrived narrative can, in and of itself, bring victory. It is a fantasy that has swept through the West – most emphatically since the 17th century. Recently, the Daily Telegraph published a ridiculous nine minute video purporting to show that ‘narratives win wars’, and that set-backs in the battlespace are incidentals: What matters is to have a thread of unitary narrative articulated, both vertically and horizontally, throughout the spectrum – from the special forces’ soldier in the field through to the pinnacle of the political apex.
The gist of it is that ‘we’ (the West) have compelling a narrative, whilst Russia’s is ‘clunky’ – ‘Us winning therefore, is inevitable’.
It is easy to scoff, but nonetheless we can recognise in it a certain substance (even if that substance is an invention). Narrative is now how western élites imagine the world.
War support, support the WAR.
The sport is war total WAR.
(h/t-Slayer, 1990)