Yes, the anti-war left is starting to rise! Here we are in Detroit calling for negotiations in Ukraine. We are holding teach-ins, marching, lobbying Congress. Join us. #peaceinUkraine pic.twitter.com/LYfQIf6FcJ
— Medea Benjamin (@medeabenjamin) October 17, 2022
I am the part of the left that actually thinks you should actively fight aggressors because oppression is bad and human rights violations are always wrong, and I think the people who don't understand that are actually unprincipled cowards who stand for pacifism at any cost because they can't fathom any cause worth fighting and even dying for. Me, I fight fascists. I support the fight against the rashists.
Russia is a terrorist state. They oppress Ukraine, and their own people. They are press ganging people in ethnic minority enclaves to fight this war and are basically intentionally using them as cannon fodder. They have announced militia law in the "annexed" territories which I think means press-ganging Ukrainians to fight other Ukrainians. This might go as well as the event where a low-level officer harangued ethnic Russians about their religious affiliation, to a sound and fatal fragging.
There is no negotiation with people who have left behind all decency, and even mouthpiece Lavrov is telling us that Russia isn't open to negotiating with "the West". Not if we're all hung up on who started what and committed genocidal activity upon whom and all that. They can send their useful idiots to talk about negotiation against the day they need it, but they are still on the brutal path that merits no quarter.
This is why I look at what the ambitious Speaker of the House hopeful Kevin McCarthy said recently, and think he is a gruesome shade of pink, himself. That actually sounded to me like he was going to relax the US position on being stridently opposed to totalitarianism, human rights abuses, and the defilement of sovereign states, the actual support of the concept of the "Free world" consisting of other nations that uphold our democratic ideals, and would just simp for Russia because whatevs. They supported Trump and can very well bring the GOP over the top in these here midterms, still and all, right?
Kevin McCarthy is squishy-soft on Russia, and that is funny for a Republican who shares a last name with a notorious anti-Russia hawk. But not so funny that I can't point out that the former Soviet state is run by oligarchs--Uber-capitalists, and is essentially fascist themselves.
I basically consider anyone pro-negotiation to be anti-freedom at the moment. You are not against war--you are against the self-defense of people who did nothing to deserve what is being delivered upon them.
Also, fuck Iran for supplying Russia with weapons. They were already pretty hateful and in a bad human rights place, and doubling down is extremely special. Although I am laughing a little bit at the idea of IRGC specialists going to occupied Crimea to teach Russians how the systems work: "Okay going to teach the drunks how to push buttons--hope they don't blow us all up!"
Sigh. I don't fear the nuclear thing. I fear how stupid people in the US will politicize international policy in ways that have nothing to do with anyone's global interests, just local beefs. Failing to understand how interconnected all of this is. Failing to appreciate the stakes.
2 comments:
I am 100% in favor of supporting Ukraine in pushing the invaders out. This aggression cannot stand, man.
But I also acknowledge that it's easy for me to take a hard line on Russia because they're not raining bombs in MY neighborhood.
Ukraine is not giving up and it's their land. I think my issue with the negotiators is they feel like it's the place of anyone but Ukraine to suggest they decide what limb of their country to cut off, and which group of their people they turn over to Russian torture and what children are processed into forced assimilation. The thing with what Russia is doing is that they are using Ukraine also to send a message to the West that they don't give a fuck about our ideals, and they will go farther and do worse. I don't think the Nordstream sabotage was anyone but them, for example. There seems to be threats of fuckery elsewhere--maybe to underwater cables for internet. The implied nuclear threat Russia is making seems to justify negotiation for some--but to me, nuclear-capable nations have engaged in land wars without resorting to that, and if Russia after several months is going there, it's because they know they can't exhaust the resolve of the people they assumed were too flabby and woke to prevail.
I remain unconvinced it's more than a threat, because in execution it would be like suicide by cop--a guaranteed fatal move.
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