OPINION:
Nothing better illustrates the divide between reality and the bubble world of U.S. intelligence/propaganda than Daniel N. Hoffman’s recent commentary (“How Ukraine’s campaign to defend Bakhmut weakened Putin,” web, July 13).
Bakhmut was indeed a bloody battle, but it was far bloodier for the Ukrainians than for the Russians.
Moreover, the fall of Bakhmut upset the Western narrative about Ukraine “winning the war,” and thereby prompted the West to push Ukraine into a counteroffensive for which it was ill prepared.
Hence the horrendous casualties being suffered by Ukrainians as they fail to reach even the first line of the Russian defenses.
(The minimal Ukrainian advances have been occurring in the “gray zone” between the opposed armies.)
Verdict: This is just another Ukrainian venture undertaken purely for propaganda purposes, to keep the arms and cash flowing into a corrupt leadership and save the face of the Biden administration.
As for the Wagner Group mutiny or whatever it was, it wound up being a boon for Russian dictator Vladimir Putin.
It was defused in less than a day with little loss of blood, the Wagner Group is now being fully incorporated into the Russian military, and Mr. Putin‘s popularity is greater than ever (while Yevgeny Prigozhin and his rantings go off into their well-deserved obscurity).
CHRIS ALBRECHT
Bethesda, Maryland
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