How media manipulation turns fantasy into facts

Have you noticed that our legacy media feels obliged to remind you that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine was a “full-scale” invasion? It wasn’t always so. In the early days of the war, the most popular descriptors of the war were “brutal,” “illegal", and, my personal favorite, “unprovoked.” Nobody called it “full-scale” because everybody knew it wasn’t. In January 2022, the Russian Army had about one million under arms. 150,000 at most went into Ukraine. It didn’t take long for the Russians to realize that was a mistake. They’d made the mistake the Americans made in their invasion of Iraq; thinking they’d be welcomed with flowers and parades. Hence the subsequent retreat and regrouping. The retreat was portrayed as Ukraine driving out the invader. Not really. For the most part, the Ukrainian forces were just moving into areas the Russians had vacated. But that summer of 2022 unleashed a great eruption of euphoric celebration of Ukraine’s savvy on the battlefield. Meanwhile, Russia regrouped. Putin ordered a doubling of his armed forces. Within months, they were back with 300,000 troops. Nothing has gone Ukraine’s way since. I’m not sure even that number would constitute “all-out invasion,” but oddly enough, that’s when you started seeing “full scale” as the main descriptor of the initial invasion. Not that it wasn’t still “brutal,” “illegal,” or “unprovoked,” but now the number one descriptor is “full-scale.” Why? Because the people in Washington who orchestrated this war realize it’s over. Reminding us at every turn that this was a full-scale invasion gives their excuses an aura of plausibility. We only lost because it was a full-scale invasion. If it had been merely a half-hearted and half-assed invasion, we would have triumphed! Sure. Why not just admit Ukraine and their NATO/US/EU backers have lost the war.