Opinion: Today's wars more focused on optics

Genghis Khan is often quoted as saying, “The greatest happiness is to scatter your enemy, to drive him before you, to see his cities reduced to ashes, to see those who love him shrouded in tears, and to gather into your bosom his wives and daughters.”

During the U.S. Civil War, Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee is credited with the observation, “It is well that war is so terrible, or we should grow too fond of it.”

When the Germans lost World War I, the new government was required to surrender approximately 10% of its prewar territory in Europe and all of its colonial empire. Additionally, it was required to pay reparations that amounted to $32 billion.

These conditions were considered draconian, and are believed to have resulted in World War II, which the Germans also lost, resulting in more land loss and reparations.

WWII imposed harsh conditions on Japan and also installed Gen. Douglas MacArthur as the de facto emperor of Japan.

Most major media organizations, print or electronic, international or domestic, have reluctantly reached the conclusion that Ukraine is losing its war. Left unsaid in the proclamations is exactly who is winning the war.

In point of fact, there are two declared adversaries in the current conflict: Ukraine and Russia. It would seem reasonable that if Ukraine is losing, the other side, who shall remain nameless, is winning.

Which leaves the Collective West in quite a dilemma.

Consider the following headlines:

n “Since 2023, Washington has been out of ideas for how to successfully end the war on terms favorable to Ukraine”

n “Neocons search for victory narrative in Ukraine”

n and “Ukraine Faces Its Darkest Hour”

My all-time favorite solution to the war in Ukraine comes from someone named Jeremy Shapiro, who is said to be head of the Washington office of the European Council on Foreign Relations. Shapiro notes that the Biden administration is aware that its current strategy is not working because, “we are losing the war.”

Putting aside the “we,” as in the United States losing the war, he goes on to report that, “They are thinking of how to move that war to a greater quiescence.”

In war today, it matters not what happens on the battlefield. What is important is the narrative.

How can we “end the war on terms favorable to Ukraine,” or at least, “move that war to a greater quiescence.”

Rube Render is a former Clovis city commissioner and former chair of the Curry County Republican Party. Contact him:

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