More so than perhaps any story in my adult lifetime, there is now an astonishing amount of disinformation pertaining to Vladimir Putin’s war of aggression in Ukraine. Russian disinformation and Russian propaganda, by now infamous for any American with even a cursory knowledge of the 2016 and 2020 presidential elections, has of course proliferated on social media.
But, crucially, so has Ukrainian disinformation and Ukrainian propaganda. Amidst Putin’s reckless revanchism, Ukraine’s defiant president, Volodymyr Zelensky, has seized the opportunity to play a naturally sympathetic Western audience like a fiddle. How else to characterize the Ukrainian government’s opportunistic analogizing of Russia’s damaging of the Babi Yar Holocaust Memorial with the actual World War II–era genocide committed at Babi Yar — a genocide committed by German Nazis, that is, with no shortage of complicity from all-too-eager local Ukrainians? How else to describe the mysterious blue-checked Twitter account “@Ukraine,” which blasts out mawkish videos highlighting the ubiquity of Western support for the besieged country? Indeed, the Ukrainian cause replaced John Lennon’s “Imagine” as the apotheosis of liberal internationalist fantasizing.
To make such sober, hard-headed observations is not to engage in “whataboutism” or “both sides-ism,” let alone pro-Putin apologia. It is simply to note that the situation at hand is more complicated, and more nuanced, than the specious “retrograde Russian imperialism versus enlightened Western liberal democracy” dichotomy falsely proffered by a gullible Western press. It’s time to revisit some basics.Ukrainians are the clear victims and the Russians are the clear aggressors, but that does not mean Putin’s war fits neatly into the one-size-fits-all “black versus white” faux dichotomy we have been sold.
Putin is, obviously, a thug. He rose through the ranks of the old KGB during the Cold War, and he has repeatedly described the fall of Communism and the dissolution of the Soviet Union as one of the greatest tragedies in modern political history. If Putin had his druthers, he would forcibly resuscitate the old Soviet Union in its entirety. He harbors a vestigial anti-Americanism as a result of his Cold War origins, and he routinely allies with some of the very worst geopolitical actors — Iran, Syria, and, of course, China — on the world stage. On the home front, Putin has overseen mixed economic results (at best), as modern-day Russia now has a smaller GDP than such small countries as Italy and South Korea, and increasingly resembles a Persian Gulf–style petrostate. He poisons and murders domestic political foes. And his war of aggression in Ukraine is, at the end of the day, wrong — period.
But one can acknowledge all of that while simultaneously recognizing that modern post-Soviet Ukraine is not, and never has been, anything like the U.S./U.K.-style bastion of “liberal democracy” that midwit cable news talking heads — to say nothing of the propagandist @Ukraine Twitter account — depict it as. Ukraine is just as corrupt and just as oligarchic as Russia, if not more so. At the time of Ukraine’s 2014 color revolution (itself clandestinely abetted by liberal NGO types), which deposed the pro-Russian president, Viktor Yanukovych, the nation ranked as one of the absolute most corrupt nations in the world. There are neo-Nazi paramilitary units, such as the Azov Battalion, active in Ukraine. Ukraine, lest amnesic Westerners forget, is also the country of Hunter Biden and Burisma. Ukrainian oligarch Victor Pinchuk was, for years, a massive donor to the Clinton Foundation. And Zelensky himself, of course, was at the center of President Donald Trump’s first (entirely bogus!) impeachment. It seems there is something fundamentally rotten about modern Ukraine that no enterprising investigative journalist has yet uncovered.
The nation of Ukraine is also, for many Westerners, a convenient vehicle by which to act out on the world stage their long-incubated anti-Russian fervor. For a certain type of emotionally fragile Western liberal, it is all too easy to see how the pathological hysteria of the 2016 Russiagate hoax might lead, now half a decade later, to a performative virtue-signaling display of a Ukrainian flag in one’s Twitter bio. In this war, the Ukrainians are the clear victims and the Russians are the clear aggressors, but that does not mean Putin’s war fits neatly into the one-size-fits-all “black versus white” faux dichotomy we have been sold.
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The U.S. national interest, which is the sole criterion by which U.S. foreign policy should be implemented, is indeed best served by Zelensky staying in power. Belarus, Ukraine’s northerly neighbor, is at this point a total Russian satrapy — it was, for instance, one of only five nations to vote against the UN General Assembly’s recent condemnation of Putin’s war. America’s closest Central and Eastern European allies, such as Poland, would prefer — especially given the Belarus juxtaposition — to maintain Ukraine as a Putin-free buffer zone. That preference is logical, and it militates in favor of U.S. support for Zelensky.
But it is imperative that the means of American support stay sober and prudential, lest we get sucked into a new conflict in the European theater at a time that America’s great 21st-century geopolitical rival, China, builds up its army at an alarming rate and looks ever-so-longingly across the Taiwan Strait. Any and all calls for escalation should be soundly dismissed.
Every dictator has his butt kissers.
That would also include biden
There is nothing “nuanced” or “complicated” about what Vladimir Putin is, or what he’s doing. He’s like a rapist in a public setting, holding back outraged onlookers with the threat that he’ll kill everybody if anyone tries to stop him. There may be some backstory–there’s always some backstory–but that’s what’s presently happening.
Democrats Cancel Climate Hearing to Lecture Big Oil as Gas Prices Hit $3.84 at the Pump and $116 per Barrel Thanks to Joe Biden
Prepare for it to go higher. Biden told you for weeks that Putin was preparing to invade Ukraine. You claimed it was all a scam. You were told for weeks what would happen to gasoline prices if that happened. That was also true. Biden’s reluctance to extend sanctions to Russian oil on the global market is the only reason gasoline prices haven’t gone MUCH higher already. On the one hand, you’ve been bitching because he didn’t do that. On the other, you’re ready to attack him for what will inevitably happen when he does.
This is not rational.
Oh, we’re prepared. As long as we have corrupt idiots running the government that are so rich they don’t care how much gas costs, we are prepared for everything to get more expensive. Gas prices have been going up since January 20th, 2021. We are getting REALLY prepared for November 8th, 2022. We’ll vote these stupid scumbags out and get energy production back up and running.
Only 1/4 of US oil production and 1/8 of gas production is on federally controlled land. All the rest is state or private. Around 9,000 of the leases currently held by US corporations on federal land are not currently in production. That’s not because of any drilling or pumping restrictions. They simply haven’t used their drilling rights.
And even with that, we were energy independent under Trump…and could be tomorrow.
Do you have a point?
I bet some land could be leased real quick with Six Billion dollars rather than given to Ukraine to do…well, nothing.
There isnt time to explain the logistics required to set up oil or gas drilling operations go look it up and quit being a friggin government fed mushroom.
Keystone XL wouldn’t be instantaneous either, would it? And it would be moving tar sand, not oil. Save it for another thread.
Not sure how old you are, son, but we fought the Russians/Soviets and broke them. Any leader of the US who wasn’t compromised would NEVER let energy independence slip and give Russia this hand to play.
We’d have oil now if Biden does didn’t shut it down.
Save it for another…just save it.
actually greggie the XL pipeline also transports Montana, North Dakota and South Dakota light crude which is easiest to refine. You are very good at making up your own facts!
Biden caused this. He controls our gas prices.
There’s not a single component of gasoline pump prices directly controlled by a president. It’s all a matter of global supply and demand. Decisions made about a pipeline have no effect on current prices.
Incorrect. Biden’s actions increased gas prices, most likely intentionally.
Decisions made about a pipeline have had DRASTIC effects on current prices.
On his very first fraudulent day in office, he controlled SUPPLY and, as you admit, that controls price. This IDIOT, fully under control of the far left of the Democrat party, marching (stumbling) to the tune played by AOC, knocked out our energy independence and ability to influence the global market. Democrats prefer the US to be a slave to outside influences.
Gas prices are going to go up and up and up and the only thing that makes that endurable is knowing that it is killing off the Democrat party. Idiot Biden did that (I got a new supply of 200 stickers yesterday).
It’s not rational to be a f*cking *sshole and pretend closing the Keystone Pipeline and opening Nordstream wasn’t a colossal, idiotic failure that was obviously at the behest of the Europeans who installed Biden and not in the interest of the American People.
Greg thinks you can just brown bag the oil to the refineries.
There is nothing “nuanced” or “complicated” about what Vladimir Putin is, or what he’s doing.
Thats right NATO keeps breaking its word over and over, at some point Vladd was going to put his foot down, and the lying scheming EU are squealing like spoiled children.
The lying, scheming EU? What planet are you living on?
lol its you that doesnt know the history.
Are you aware that Ukraine voluntarily gave up 1/3 of the former Soviet nuclear arsenal, in return for which the US, Britain, and Russia guaranteed their independence and territorial integrity?
It isn’t Ukraine that has invaded Russia.
How long did it take for kiev to ignore the minsk treaty? No UN resolutions to sanction the crap out of Ukraine.
It lasted until Russian-backed separatists attacked and took control of the Donetsk airport in defiance of the Minsk protocols.
The Liberal (academic use of the term) structures that kept the world together have broken.
This is not one crazy Putin against everyone else.
It’s the re-ordering of things. Your propaganda won’t be of use on this one.
Took control of an airport in their own state, and you are lying or ignorant about anything lasting.
You’re forgetting the agreement was to NOT to expand NATO.
But it was expanded.
Earth.
Which one are you on…or are you related to a Schwab?
“Tyranny is the deliberate removal of nuance”
Thank God you are not in charge of anything in the world, and have zero influence of citizens of any nation.
The rapist I see in a public setting is Joe Biden.
No matter what, Putin can’t be allowed to just invade another country because he wants to expand his territory. The only reason he would feel threatened by NATO is if he intends to invade the countries that might join NATO. In the face of Putin’s over aggressive intentions, why wouldn’t any country that might be on his border, or on the border of a country that he might extend his tentacles into and get the freedom to move forces through rush to join NATO?
Answer: China.
My take.
This is the war for the world, the “globalist” EU with its American strong arm it’s painstakingly taken over against China and its allies, namely Russia.
Kind of like Conservatives with antifa/BLM, the countries won’t do anything about Russia until they are actually at their door….and that will be too late.
I guess it’s time to take your stand over Ukraine. Putin has gone well beyond the point of no return. He is going to go all in on conquest of Ukraine and sanctions won’t stop him or make him turn back. Now, he’s a war criminal and if he doesn’t succeed, he’s a dead duck at home.
Nothing short of war is going to push him out of Ukraine. The listless UN could impose a “No Fly Zone”, which might help the Ukrainians, but unless those fat, juicy convoys are destroyed, the result is the same. A “No Fly Zone” would keep Ukrainian aircraft on the ground, too. This might lead to military retaliations by Putin elsewhere, or destructive cyber attacks.
Putin is committing crimes against humanity and it’s not like, as with Hitler, he views Ukrainians as sub-humans or vermin; they are merely in the way of his territorial expansion, and who says his appetite will be sated with Ukraine? What is different with, say, Poland or Romania?
Now, we can eventually stop Putin by cutting off his oil revenues and restoring our own production, but that will still leave Putin in place in Ukraine. So, either we do like the free nations did when Hitler swallowed up Czechoslovakia and say, “Well, sucks to be them, I guess. But, that ain’t happening again.” or THE UN goes in and destroys Putin’s forces and force him to withdraw.
Note: I have NO DELUSIONS that the UN will do anything but talk and frown menacingly.