And Fuck Off, It Certainly Did!

 

⚡️Two Ukrainian Neptun missiles hit Russian cruiser «Moskva» — Maksym Marchenko, the head of Odesa Regional Military Administration. «Moskva», the flagship of Russia’s Black Sea fleet, is the very same «Russian warship» from the meme. pic.twitter.com/Mh1j7JwssY

— UkraineWorld (@ukraine_world) April 13, 2022

Is it not the height of incompetence for Russia to experience one of their most demoralizing naval losses in a land war? (I am only asking questions.)

In other news, Finland and Sweden are seriously considering NATO membership despite (because of?) a stern warning that there would be retaliation from Russia if they joined. So much for Finlandization and neutrality. It's okay. Putin isn't sure he wants to blame NATO expansion anymore at the moment. But what of the bullshit he does still say?

Putin’s justifications for the war in Ukraine:

– “the main goal is to help people”
– “we were forced to do it”
– “we couldn’t put up with it any longer”
– “a clash was inevitable”
– “it was just a matter of time”
– “we didn’t have a choice, this was the right thing to do” pic.twitter.com/FxDttjqrqh

— max seddon (@maxseddon) April 12, 2022

Saying things like "it was inevitable" is Putin trying to shift off the idea that this was his choice, in much the same way he is purging top intelliegence officers who supposedly mislead him by telling him exactly what he wanted to hear. Putin's created reality is starting to look starkly peculiar. (The UK is staging atrocities to make him look bad? Intercepted phone calls from Russian soldiers to their families back home now tell us they were instructed to rape and pillage. And their families are not horrified. This is the vast moral damage that disinformation can produce.)

The situation, despite military successes, is dire, because this is no doubt, genocide, as President Biden has the guts to say. Putin has made clear many times that he does not think that Ukraine exists as a country except as a political delusion and that the nationalism and patriotism of the people who want to defend their homeland is what he has the utter gall to label "Nazi." When Putin says "de-Nazification"--he is saying  "de-Ukraineification".  And to de-Ukraineify, he must kill Ukrainians. And as for the case against Putin, whatever his whataboutisms, he is relocating masses of people including children. That's the proof. The destruction of maternity hospitals and schools is our proof. Putin has always been threatening the future of Ukraine by sending missiles towards its babies. 

Some people think Putin wants a win somewhere, somehow, a biscuit's worth of concessions thrown his way and he'll fuck off like the Moskva. The devastation already engaged in tells me that isn't it, just like the build up of troops on the Ukrainian border before the invasion told me they weren't in it for any stupid "negotiation tactics" and that Putin was certainly not some genius. If Russia continues to not get their way, they will still engage in total war, Vernichtungskreig, and kill everything in sight. And if there is any concession, they will still do so, because who the fuck is stopping them, then? 

The thing is, the free world has to. There is no concession to these tactics. only a total response to total war. The hand that does not draw back is struck off.  His concept of "inevitability" is not one I would care to live with, as a free person, and I despise anyone who would. It is not inevitable that Ukraine falls. It is, however, inevitable that if they did, he would seek another target. 

We aren't in the zone of "reasonable" talk. There isn't a value in pretending that if we don't call the atrocity what it is, that it will stop. Cheering on successes like the Moskva sinking don't stack up to the tragedy of the mass graves and ruined lives. What could? 

I am a partisan against Putin and international fascism. And fascists should always be made to fuck off.  I understand who the true totalitarian is. Everyone should.