Well. I will say this for Zelenskij: he has played a capable game vis a vis NATO. Agreed: from the start, NATO and the EU had no intention of allowing Ukraine in, and I think he, like all of us, knew that. He also knew, however, that the Western ruling circles were mobilizing their media to mobilize their citizens in the same way we were 'mobilized' for Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq, etc. And he played that card himself, intervening directly on Western media, hoping to redirect that same public opinion in the direction that he wanted.
What he didn't understand, however, is the degree to which 'mass democracy' is a joke in so much of the West. Look at Italy. Most of the country does not want to send weapons to Ukraine (including in Meloni's own party). So what does Italy do? It sends weapons to Ukraine. This plays out, in a dozen different contexts, all across the West. But IMO, a lot of folks in the East do not, or did not, grasp the degree to which Western ruling circles - starting with Corporate America - have learned to play the 'oceanic' game: fragment the population to the point that a numerically inferior ruling class can run things. In the end, the populations remain mobilized on the internet alone, and the leaders of course ignore them.
B, I compliment your stamina in keeping this site going and in continuing to do the research and produce the articles. Thanks.