DW Phillips

June 4, 2025

From time to time General Kellogg offers helpful comments. Sadly, too often, the good is lost in the sea of bad. The commentary below is an example of the bad.

On the other hand, Kellogg’s words criticizing Operation Spider’s Web are not surprising. The United States and Ukraine have two opposing strategies and two opposing value systems.

Concerning the values system – the United States has articulated a transactional perspective which covers up Russian war crimes, and is motivated by the pursuit of long term economic benefits with Russia at the expense of Ukraine, and an undefined vision of peace. The United States policy is appeasement of the aggressor nation. Our negotiation strategy is a reflection of our ethical chaos. U.S. approach has been to to marginalize Ukraine by withdrawing support, advance the Russian information war, and provide a vast array of unilateral concessions to Russia in the hope of “getting them to the table.” A critical part of this strategy has been to keep Ukraine in the perceived position of weak victim, and to discourage Ukraine from aggressively defending itself or making advances on the battle field. All this while Ukraine is forced to endure significant escalation of warcrimes from Russia against civilians and Ukrainian infrastructure.

The Ukrainian strategy has been to win. Their goal is to peace by ending Russian warcrimes (invasion, theft, murder, rape, torture). They have made every effort to honor their relationship with the United States in the face of historic bad behavior from the White House, while defending their nation by defeating the enemy with creativity, resources and the skills available.

Kellogg’s commentary today is a reminder that the White House does not want Ukraine to win. The correct response from Kellogg should have been:

“What Ukraine accomplished with Operation Spider’s Web is the greatest advancement towards peace since the Russian began their full scale invasion. Only by placing pressure on Russia and exposing their vulnerability can there be a scintilla of hope that Putin will back down. Ukraine struck strategic aviation because of the failure of the United States and our misguided policy of appeasement. It was a brilliant move by Kyiv which the United States will be studying for decades. The whole world owes Ukraine gratitude for making us all safer. There is more realistic hope of Russia backing down today than before. Congratulations Kyiv.”

………….

General Michael Flynn is Offended By Zelensky’s Success

Now that President Zelensky has carried out the greatest covert operation in modern history, the pomposity and ignorance of his American critics is revealed.

Even so, the mob is assembling to throw new insults.

The same critics who accused President Zelensky of being a helpless puppet lacking agency, are now feigning deep offense that he is actually a brilliant commander in chief capable of successfully doing what no other leader in the world has dreamed or dared to do.

General Michael Flynn is one such mob leader and critic.

How dare that Ukrainian destroy 34% of Russian strategic aviation, Flynn demands, without revealing his plans to America’s leading Russian advocate at the White House – DNI Tulsi Gabbard.

Flynn’s attack this week on Zelensky is no surprise. His personal record reveals him as the type who betrays friends, lies under oath, embraces unhinged conspiracy theories and cozies up to Putin for cash.

Some background:

Once upon a time Flynn was the most short lived national security advisor in history. Recall that before becoming Trump #45’s National Security Advisor, he gave a lecture on leadership at the Moscow headquarters of the Russian military intelligence directorate GRU, the first American official to be admitted entry to the headquarters. Later he was paid $45,000 to deliver a Moscow speech at the ten-year anniversary celebration of RT, a state-controlled Russian international television network, where he sat next to Russian president Vladimir Putin at his banquet table (see image below).

In February of 2017, he resigned from Trump’s cabinet after information surfaced that he had misled Vice President Mike Pence and others on substantive and ethical matters. In December 2017, Flynn formalized a deal with Special Counsel Robert Mueller to plead guilty to a felony count of “willfully and knowingly” making false statements to the FBI and agreed to cooperate with the Special Counsel’s investigation. In July of 2020, Flynn pledged an oath to the pro-Trump QAnon conspiracy theory, and as Trump sought to challenge the results of the 2020 presidential election, Flynn suggested the president should suspend the Constitution, silence the press, and hold a new election under military authority.

That’s the guy who criticized Zelensky.

Flynn wrote on social media:

“This wasn’t a bold action by Ukraine…..So, it appears Zelensky gave the go ahead to attack parked Russian nuclear capable bombers without informing @realDonaldTrump…This isn’t simply a breach of protocol. It’s a geopolitical insult and a warning sign. If Ukraine is willing to conduct strikes with strategic consequences without notifying the White House, we are no longer allies with coordination issues—we are co-belligerents flying blind.”