South Front
By Drago Bosnic, independent geopolitical and military analyst.
Approximately 2,500 years ago, Sun Tzu, the legendary Chinese polymath, military strategist and overall one of the most brilliant minds in human history, wrote that all warfare is based on deception. The ability to not only hide crucial information from the enemy, but also subtly convey fundamentally false data is one of the most difficult and yet critically rewarding accomplishments in warfare. Its importance stems from the strong possibility of ensuring a strategic (and thus complete) victory over an opponent. Sun Tzu’s profound, almost immeasurably deep understanding of how the world works clearly indicates strategic deception is as old as civilization itself. And this isn’t only true in our age, but it may very well be even more pronounced than ever before.
With that being said, the latest Pentagon “leaks” would make an interesting case study of how an elaborate counterintelligence operation could be conducted. That is, if only the op’s primary target wasn’t Russia, a superpower that has extensive, well-over-a-millennium-old experience with strategic deceptions. What’s particularly curious about the “leaks” is the largely anemic reaction of Washington DC, perhaps best illustrated by John Kirby’s laughably theatrical “plea” for the whole world to quite literally scrub all the “top secret data” from the Internet. Such “requests” make absolutely no sense and US political elites are perfectly aware of this. However, the question arises then, why ask for it? No matter how strongly one might desire it, believing that Washington DC bureaucrats are that naive is indicative of one’s actual gullibility.
Still, we shouldn’t fall into the trap that everything presented in the “leaks” is false. And precisely this is what makes it so dangerous, as half-truths are often even more sinister than unadulterated lies. Also, several other “revelations”, such as the fact that NATO is neck-deep involved in a comprehensive aggression against Russia, are hardly breaking news, particularly for strategic planners in Moscow, which has already significantly revamped its posturing towards the belligerent alliance. The same could be said about the fact that Washington DC is spying on its vassals and satellite states, as this has been common knowledge for decades and it was proven beyond doubt by Julian Assange well over a decade ago, something that cost 11 years of his life (and counting).
Speaking of Assange, making a comparison between how the US reacted to his truly groundbreaking revelations and how it’s now reacting to this “leak” shows just how suspiciously lax Washington DC is. WikiLeaks presented undeniable evidence of the nearly incalculable scope of US aggression against the world and after the mainstream media initially published some of it, the massive amounts of data released by Assange and his team were viciously suppressed by the US, including through a comprehensive cyber warfare campaign of global proportions. This is without even going into specifics about the horrifying treatment Assange and his family have been subjected to all these years, a fact that the massive mainstream propaganda machine ignores altogether.
And yet, the same media were quick to jump on the Pentagon’s “top secret leaks” bandwagon. Virtually the entire US propaganda machine has been disseminating the “leaks” for days and neither the Pentagon nor the White House have pressed any charges or activated any similar mechanism to prevent further revelations. What’s more, many of the “leaks” perfectly fall in line with the political West’s numerous propaganda narratives that have no basis in reality. For instance, Egypt is accused of allegedly planning to send 40,000 artillery rockets to Russia. This narrative may very well serve the dual purpose of pressuring Cairo to distance itself from Moscow and keep the myth of “Russia running out of x, y, z” alive. Egypt has been less compliant than under the previous Muslim Brotherhood government, so this could serve to “put it back in line”.
On the other hand, the “leaks” also imply that the escalating sabotage and terrorist attacks in Russia and Belarus were “entirely Ukrainian initiatives” in which NATO supposedly played no part. This is clearly a pitiful attempt to whitewash the political West’s massive intelligence apparatus and conceal its critical role in most (if not all) such attacks. What’s more, the mainstream propaganda machine is adamant that “Ukrainian agents have pursued drone attacks inside Belarus and Russia, contrary to US and Western wishes”. According to this claim by NBC, we are all supposed to believe that “NATO doesn’t want escalation” or “attacks deep into Russia” while supplying ever longer-ranged weapons and munitions, as well as openly providing targeting data from its drones and other ISR (intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance) platforms.
Other notable “leaks” include the “actual” number of casualties on both sides (supposedly 16,000 Russians and over 70,000 Ukrainians), as well as detailed plans of the upcoming major offensive by the Kiev regime forces, which was supposedly planned to start in late April/early May. The estimated casualties for the Russian side are similar to earlier claims by Turkish media citing Israeli intelligence, as well as a far cry from six figure digits presented by the political West’s mainstream propaganda machine. On the other hand, Ukrainian casualties are grossly understated, as even top EU officials admitted they’re past 100,000 KIA, while other sources (including those citing Mossad) talk about well over 150,000. As for the mythical offensive, the “leak” could easily be an attempt to justify the Kiev regime forces giving up on it altogether, as citing Russia’s battlefield dominance is “bad PR”.
