Stories from Ukrainian Soldiers at Bakhmut
- By Mike Scruggs
- Category: Mike Scruggs' Column
Excerpts from March 17 Kyiv Independent et al.
Ukrainian soldier, age 51, at Bakhmut medical stabilization point.
I have subscribed to the Kyiv Independent Ukraine Daily for a little more than a year as a source of news on political, economic, military, and foreign policy issues in Ukraine. This has, of course, been largely war news since March 2022. Shortly after the war began, all news on the war had to be approved by the Ukrainian Army General Staff. There is no longer unfettered free speech or a free press in Ukraine, and political parties and media opposed to President Volodymyr Zelensky have been closed down. Nevertheless, carefully read, the Kyiv Independent Daily, despite its obvious restrictions, understandable pro-Ukrainian bias, and ultra-strong anti-Russian slant, can sometimes be a source of truth unavailable elsewhere. Sometimes you have to read between the lines, and sometimes someone slips in something you know the Ukrainian General Staff and Internal Security Police would not approve unless they had some circuitous special objective. One possible motive is the desperate need for more financial and political support from the West against impending Russian victory. However, sometimes journalists insist on slipping some uncomfortable truths in their work despite pressures to conform to propaganda objectives.
- Hits: 328
The Troll Sagas
- By Mike Scruggs
- Category: Mike Scruggs' Column
Chapter 10 - The Battle of Flatmark
North Flatmark 2020
The first night at Flatmark, after Ketel, Ivar, and Flicka departed to search for Marja, went smoothly. The wolves and reindeer took turns patrolling the perimeter of the farm. The reindeer, who with their huge antlers could not have easily gotten through the door of the longhouse, slept in the barn with Barki, when they were not on patrol duty. Trude and Valda found that although the reindeer were very large, they were quite tame and enjoyed giving the girls a ride on their backs. Besides, it was a safe place for them. The wolves had also become inseparable from the twins. They stayed close to them during the day and watched their every move. During the night they snuggled close to the girls and did not seem to mind them pulling their fur and ears.
- Hits: 220
Vietnam Lessons from a Two-Front War
- By Mike Scruggs
- Category: Mike Scruggs' Column
Media Bias, KGB Funding of Antiwar Groups, and Powder Puff Air-Warfare
Secretary of State Dean Rusk, Pres. Lyndon Johnson, Defense Sec. Robert McNamara.
The Vietnam War was a Two-Front war in this sense: There was a military front and a political and propaganda front. The military front was Vietnam, but also Laos, and Cambodia. The political and propaganda front was the American home front and an intense battle for American public .opinion.
The leaders of North Vietnam were strong believers in the wisdom of studying history. They remembered that the French did not abandon Indochina after eight years because they lost the Battle of Dien Bien Phu in May 1954, where 14,000 French Union and Foreign Legion troops in an isolated mountain valley were defeated by 80,000 unexpectedly mobile and well-equipped North Vietnamese. The North Vietnamese had put their primary focus on undermining the will of the French people by propaganda and political agitation. Dien Bien Phu was a tragic but recoverable loss, but in a two-front war, it was the propaganda and agitation in France, which was ultimately decisive and had worn out the French Parliament and lost Indochina. Between 1959 and 1963, the Soviet Union began sowing seeds of propaganda and agitation in the U.S. through Communist front organizations and sympathetic academic and media organizations. Hence the media reporting on the war typically reflected a leftist, anti-war bias.
- Hits: 447
Vietnam Lessons, Myths, Mistakes, and False Analogies
- By Mike Scruggs
- Category: Mike Scruggs' Column
Implications for Future Foreign Policy and National Security
On January 20, 1961, newly elected President John F. Kennedy gave a brief but eloquent inaugural address from the east front of the United States Capitol in Washington. At 43, Kennedy was the second youngest to hold the office. But the ceremony included 85-year-old poet Robert Frost reading his inspirational 16-line poem on the history of American determination to succeed, The Gift Outright, written in 1941. This is considered by some to be a poetic ideation of “American Exceptionalism.” Kennedy’s speech was remarkable for its precision, vigor, inspirational lines, and optimism on America’s future.
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Putin’s February 21 Speech to Russia—Important Excerpts
- By Mike Scruggs
- Category: Mike Scruggs' Column
A View of the Ukraine War through Russian Eyes
Vladimir Putin - February 21, 2023, Moscow.
According to Russian scholar and Princeton and New York University professor, Stephen F. Cohen, since 2008 and becoming more intense since 2014, the U.S. political-media establishment has engaged in an ongoing demonization campaign against Russian President Vladimir Putin. Cohen has warned:
“The personal vilification of Russia’s president is propelling the new Cold War toward hot war, poisoning American politics, and degrading US media.”
Just two days before the Russian invasion of Ukraine, conservative Hoover Institute Scholar and frequent Fox News commentator, Victor Davis Hanson, warned President Biden to stop demonizing Putin. Demonization of adversaries severely limits diplomatic alternatives for future peace. It is thoughtless, arrogant, and stupid, and causes unnecessary loss of life.
- Hits: 559
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Mike Scruggs is the author of two books: The Un-Civil War: Shattering the Historical Myths; and Lessons from the Vietnam War: Truths the Media Never Told You, and over 600 articles on military history, national security, intelligent design, genealogical genetics, immigration, current political affairs, Islam, and the Middle East. 
