geo wrote: ↑Tue Dec 12, 2023 4:47 pm
I do think Putin is an evil dictator and his invasion against Ukraine was a brutish act, causing profound misery for untold numbers of people, both Ukrainians and Russians.
Maybe his invasion was justified to
some extent, given the perceived threat of NATO on Russia's doorstep.
I read an interesting article in Harper's, from two months ago, stating that there were negotiations on-going for a long time before the invasion, and that Zelensky was actually ready to accept Russian terms before he was challenged at home and reversed himself. Harper's loves to be iconoclastic, led by their chief foreign policy expert Alexander Cockburn, but if that was even substantially correct it puts the situation in a different light.
Of course, Zelensky may have been taking the only option available to him, in the same way that Czechoslovakia asked Hitler to name his terms for not invading (whereupon he invaded anyway), and then a firmer line in the U.S. may have encouraged him to be tougher, but that is not what events looked like.
geo wrote:As much as I disagree with United States' foreign policy since Vietnam, I feel like supporting Ukraine is definitely the right thing to do.
I agree. Whether or not this debacle could have been avoided, Putin's invasion must not be accepted. I am so ashamed of the Republicans' turnaround on this, I can't speak coherently about it. Okay, their M.O. is to cater to the rubes and the bougies so that they can hold power for the rich, whose bidding they actually do. Take money from the billionaires to buy ads that will keep them in power. I get that. But the old adage that politics stops at the water's edge was sound wisdom, and they have really sold us out to follow their Fearless Leader down the populist rabbit hole.
