The war in Ukraine has entered its second year, with much less interest than before & no reporting of consequence. A new campaign season will start soon, & the fighting is, of course, ongoing. To summarize the first year: Russia has had some victories in Eastern Ukraine after its spectacular defeat in Kiev. Ukraine has also had some victories, in the Southeast. The major result in Ukraine after a year is devastation & depopulation, with no prospect of victory for Ukraine. I expect, as last year, that the Russian military will win a horrible victory—by attrition & devastation. You can find my thoughts (here & here) on the terrible problems caused by American elites, who have not been capable of dealing with a despot as shrewd as Putin. For now, although America should look for an armistice, a negotiated end to the conflict that preserves Western Ukraine, & although most of Europe is doing little or nothing to help Ukraine, there are no statements whatsoever from American politics or diplomats that they want to end the war.
Instead, we get depressive propaganda. I’m a fan of country music, but not 21st c. country music. I’ve never felt the need to listen to Mr. Paisley sing before, but I gather that he is quite a successful musician. I think this is his first foray into war propaganda &, I hope, his last—it’s a very forgettable song & the sentiments are even blander than the melody.
It made me think of the old days when liberals would do these peace songs—I think Sting’s 1985 song Russians will serve as an example, since it’s about another Russian problem. It’s a better song, if much more pretentious. Sting, who has since been knighted by the late queen, has of course clarified that in singing the song again in these trying, he wishes for peace & that he has no sympathy for Putin, a bad man. That is, he is now a warmongering pacifist…
Propaganda has become much more simplistic in the mean time, but “Same Here” is the message Sting wanted to send, too. We’re all the same, a kind of cheap, sentimental humanitarianism, though Paisley gets Zelensky to talk on his track, Sting went with a Soviet news report. Here’s a thought, if we’re all the same, maybe it means we’re as fearsome as Putin. Russians, Sting hoped, love their children, too, & they do, which is partly why they created their various empires. Perhaps the bigger surprise is coopting country music, which was part of the Bush wars in the Middle East—that turned out to be a catastrophe—to serve for wars where Americans aren’t involved. Country music doesn’t seem like it can turn into a Democrat rather than a Republican genre, but right now Republicans still support the Ukraine war, if significantly less than Democrats. Still, Paisley is showing a very liberal attitude—his song is about being friends with California, Mexico, & Ukraine. I am not sure either California or Mexico want his friendship. Mexico doesn’t seem to care about Ukraine, either…
So transparently a "let's manipulate Red America" angle. Sing "I bought myself a country singer" to the tune of this REAL recent song, "I Bought Myself a Politician," by the Mona Lisa Twins. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_QAKz_cxTlQ&ab_channel=MonaLisaTwins
Titus expresses my general judgments on the war and Putin better than I could, BTW.