It’s been 48 hours now, approximately, since Volodymyr Zelensky dazzled the world with a show of strength and resilience like nobody has seen in recent history. Comparisons have been made to Pearl Harbor, insofar as the unexpected power and show of force is concerned. That takes us back to 1941, which is 84 years ago. But Japan had the advantage of a sneak attack, of starting a war, whereas Ukraine has been under siege from Russia for over three years.
People have been waiting for the United States *president* to comment on this amazing feat of marshalling drones to destroy 34% of Russia’s aircraft, not to mention wounding Vladimir Putin’s pride. Oh yes, Trump mentioned in passing when he spoke at Arlington Cemetary that he “hadn’t been informed of the strike.” (Golly, wonder why that was?) But he hasn’t really addressed the issue because he can’t even comprehend it.
Plus, it would only serve to embarrass him more than he has already embarrassed himself. Trump and J.D. Vance acted despicably when Zelensky was in the White House. Trump is a draft dodger and he openly insulted a war hero and dismissed him like he was a server at Mar-a-Lago. Vance was even worse, if possible. I say even worse, because Vance has the intelligence to know what Zelensky was up against and he chose to tear him down on the world stage. Neither Trump nor Vance are fit to wipe Zelensky’s boots, yet they humiliated the man. And now they’re basically ignoring what took place. But the rest of the world is not. Trump looks almost as bad as Putin right now.
By definition, the fog of war distorts and obscures reality, so it sometimes takes a few days to fully take the measure of something as audacious and brilliant as what we just saw.
In one of the most extraordinary military operations in history, Ukraine just rewrote the rules of modern warfare; reminded us of its extraordinary resilience and defiance; and delivered a substantive as well as symbolic defeat to Vladimir Putin — and to all the princes, principalities, and orcs allied with him.
“Trump said we don’t have the cards ,” one Ukrainian aide observed. “This shows we do have the cards, and we can play them.”
And, damn, did they, sending an unmistakable message deep into Russia’s dark heart. This attack of the swarming drones came as a complete shock — neither the Kremlin, nor their allies in the White House had any clue it was coming — but the comparisons to Pearl Harbor are singularly inapt. This was not an unprovoked attack. The Russian bombers had been raining death on Ukrainian civilians; the West had failed to provide sufficient air defenses. So the Ukrainians took it upon themselves — and left much of Putin’s armada of death in ruins.
The armada of death is in ruins and Putin looks like the thug he is and Trump looks like the impotent imbecile he is.
The strike, which Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said was 18 months in the planning, is a disaster for Russia as it seeks to promote a sense of strength ahead of another round of negotiations with Ukraine in Istanbul beginning Monday.
Putin had a lot to brag about in theory: The new U.S. administration is seemingly scared of punishing Russia for its attacks on civilians, his forces are pushing to take more Ukrainian territory, and he has dramatically increased the scale of drone attacks against Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities.
Now, the narrative of the conflict has temporarily shifted to Ukraine’s side. Even if an operation as complex as “Spider’s Web” cannot be replicated in the near term, Russia will still need to plan for contingencies and contend with Ukraine’s long-range drones, which routinely target Russian airfields.
How Russia will respond to the attack is an open question. Russian media is attempting to downplay or ignore the damage, but footage of the attacks is already widely available on social media.
Historically, the way Russia regains the narrative in the war is to punitively bomb Ukrainian civilians. The very first drone attack on Ukraine’s cities came after Kyiv successfully bombed the Russian-built bridge connecting Crimea to Russia.
Russia has already been scaling up its drone attacks on Ukrainian towns and cities, but Putin may opt to launch an even larger large salvo of missiles and drones to show the Russian bomber fleet is not entirely out of the fight.
Politically, Putin could try to use the strike to drive a deeper wedge between the U.S. and Ukraine, but it’s unlikely to work.
The White House claimed that they were not warned of the attack, but the mood in the White House has also seemingly shifted from blaming Ukraine to pleading with Russia to cease bombing Ukraine and work towards peace.
Ukraine and Europe are now able to turn this around, or so it would certainly appear. The United States’ position in the world has lessened under Trump and a global realignment is underway. The United States has basically betrayed an ally, looking at it plainly, or, looking at the Ukraine situation in its most charitable light, the United States is now indifferent to the plight of its former ally. This is not the America that we were, even six months ago, but it is the America that we are now. And here is Steve Bannon trying to save MAGA’s bacon and looking pathetic doing so.
One measure of Ukraine’s stunning success? The keening and wailing from the fetid recesses of MAGA: “Steve Bannon Calls on Trump to ‘Pull All Support’ for Ukraine After Drone Blitz on Russians”.
MAGA firebrand Steve Bannon called on President Donald Trump to condemn Ukraine’s weekend drone attack on Russian airbases and “pull all support” after reports that the White House was not informed in advance of the offensive….
Speaking to Human Events senior editor Jack Posobiec on Monday’s episode of The War Room, Bannon blasted Ukraine’s attack as “irresponsible” and accused Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) of pushing conflict with Russia behind Trump’s back.
“[If no one informed Trump] then the White House has to condemn this immediately and pull all support and tell Lindsey Graham to come home or we are going to put you under arrest when you come home. You’re stirring it up. Lindsey Graham’s over there saying: ‘Hey, forget Trump. I got the House and the Senate. We’re going to pass it. You’re going to see something in a couple of days.’ Remember that? He’s stirring it up over there. He’s telling me they got backing.
“If they did not give us a heads up on this, full stop, no minerals deal, walk away from all of it. They’re irresponsible. They’re dragging us into a kinetic third world war. As we said, us – we’re getting dragged in now. Or the deep state is driving us in there. Either of these are not good.”
Sad.
Tragic is how I see it. I was never ashamed to be an American prior to November 5, 2024. My one small consolation, as I’ve chanted here over and over again is, “Only 1.5%.” That’s how close this election was. It was close enough to insure disaster but at least it was not the “landslide” and “mandate” that the pathological liars now in power claim that it was.
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As I mentioned earlier complaints about Ukraine not giving the WH a head up are awfully hollow. First, remember that early in his first term Trump tried to hide his OVAL OFFICE meeting with Russia’s top two diplomats. They were the ones that spilled the beans, sort of an “I own you Donald” from Pootie to his Trumpty. Does anyone doubt for a second that had Trump known he wouldn’t have alerted Putin? So there’s that.
More problematic for Trump is he made a BFD a while back about cutting off Ukraine from getting intelligence gathered by the U.S. In other words TRUMP is the one who shut down communication on sensitive matters. Zelensky simply accepted the new status quo Trump created and responded in-kind. Trump has limited skills but somewhere there’s still some PR savvy in him and he might realize even if journalists are afraid to confront him directly others WILL point out it was Trump who burned the “sharing bridge.”
I knew the day that Trump and Vance disgraced themselves (and all of us) in the Oval Office that it would come back to haunt them and the only question was when. There is no long range planning with these imbeciles in power. Trump will be gone in a few years one way or the other. He’ll either finish his term or die in office. But the damage that his successors in the GOP will have to deal with, will go on for a very, very long time.
Personally, I think Vance may be done with. He may go out with the MAGA tide and not last in politics post Trump. We’ll see.
Denis, I think it should be noted that Trump and Musk blacked out the Starlink access just before Ukraine was about to attack Russia’s Black Sea fleet, and that the US “pause” (ie shutdown) of intelligence led to the loss of Ukraine’s salient into Kursk. The heroic Ukrainians are in no doubt about American alignment: it’s solidly with Putin. I suspect the only stuff they’ll share with Trumpler’s corrupt regime will be mis-info they want the Kremlin to have.
another excellent article!!
Trump is still pissed Zelensky didn’t cave the first time he held up Congress approved aid to try and strong-arm him to endorse the false ‘Biden under investigation’ conspiracy. If Mitch and his bevy of corrupt bitches hadn’t violated their oaths of office, much less NOT standing up for WHAT WAS THE RIGHT THING TO DO, Trump wouldn’t be where he is today. He will never ‘get’ Zelensky. Zelensky is a hardened warrior who has heart…a good one. He never asked for any of this. Putin invaded Ukraine. FACT. Trump is a spoiled little boy who never had to face real suffering, much less the constant threat of death when you and your family are in Putin’s crosshairs. Trump is the one who causes constant damage everywhere he goes. He mistakes that for courage. Zelensky bristles with courage. Warrior versus punk? No contest.
Right. Tell the Trump Administration your plans, only have him blurt it out to a Russian diplomat or have Pete “Whiskey Leaks” Hegseth advertise it on a Signal chat.
Or maybe Tulsi will relay it to her boss Vlad.
Any way you slice it, the US doesn’t want to be in this fight, they can be reduced to a spectator.