If Zelensky tries to pull Baghdad Bob bullshit, in the event of an actual invasion, that will just prove why we should have gone hands off on Ukraine to begin with.Okay, great, but what if he decides to pull a Baghdad Bob and claim “there are noAmericanRussian troops anywhere nearBaghdadKyiv!” during live news coverage while there are such troops in the background waving at the cameras?
I get that you’re distrustful of Western media but at some point you have to be honest and recognize that the guy you want to believe may in fact not be telling the truth or is not playing with a full deck.
Maybe, but everything I've seen so far make me feel this is more likely a giant 'wag the dog' psyops to help shore up Biden and other Western politicains (Macron up for election soon) way to try to distract from thier unjustifiable, yet continuing, Wu Flu bullshit.“Either the U.S. and its allies genuinely believe shit is going down in the very near future or they don’t because of political concerns” is rather asinine statement. And I’d point out that this belief of an invasion in early 2022 (that is, the present) is something that’s been predicted pretty consistently across the board. They aren’t saying they want it to happen (quite the opposite, in fact) but they think it will.
Not to mention I think you seriously overestimate how any sort of ability to defuse the situation would be in helping poll numbers. Even with things getting tense, inflation, the economy, and stupid COVID restrictions are far bigger concerns than “Hey we managed to convince Russia not to invade Ukraine” though that isn’t just a U.S. thing and it’s as much that we finally got around to shipping a crapload of weapons to the Ukrainians.
Also, the CCP has asked Putin to not do anything while the Olympics are going on, and given how close Russia and the CCP are these days, I think that request carries real weight and may help deter things escalating in a way the West would have a hard time matching.