There is an evil tyrant bombing a vibrant country into the stone age and killing thousands of innocents, and a small (but loud) segment of American conservative movement is trying to understand “both sides.” The faithful disciples of Tucker Carlson are rationalizing a mad man invading a free (granted, imperfect!) state in the middle of Europe, raining death, creating a massive humanitarian crisis and having neighboring countries live in fear of invasion. Yet, people who usually make reasonable arguments are in full blown denial, telling us that there is “more to this story than meets the eye” and “both sides need to be understood.”
- There is a “historical context” to the invasion
If you want to know the “historical context” of the Ukrainian conflict, the link is here. The breakup of the Soviet Union was indeed a messy affair, and what followed was complicated. Even experienced historians steeped in Soviet history have trouble agreeing on the issues that followed. Yet, we have American pundits with no knowledge of the subject whatsoever and nothing but Google search at their disposal, spreading Putin’s propaganda that “the evil West” is the reason for the invasion.
Donbass is indeed a bloody conflict that took 14,000 lives. However, those casualties were mostly guerilla fighters killing each other. They were not military personnel leveling cities and dropping bombs on civilians. Comparing regional guerilla conflict to a full-scale invasion is comparing apples to oranges if there ever was one.
There is a historical context to any conflict; it is never a basis for an invasion of a sovereign country.
- Biden propaganda – bad; Putin propaganda – good
Here is a stunning piece of propaganda that is currently circulating around the isolationist’s world, masquerading as an exercise in investigative journalism. Who knew Lara Logan was applying for a job as Putin’s press secretary?
Granted, she’d do a better job than the current one, because a few Americans are buying what she is selling. For example, who knew that American elections can be stolen, but any “referendum” held by Putin are “an example of thriving Democracy?” Saying “Crimea voted for independence!” takes quite a leap of faith – if you take into account that all people counting the votes were employed by the Kremlin.
Also, who knew “military operation” in Ukraine is “a stunning success?” Just like Biden’s presidency, it’s going according to plan. And Lara Logan’s source of information is – wait for it – the Russian military! The same people describing anything coming out of Jen Psaki’s mouth as propaganda (and rightfully so!) are taking information coming out of the Russian military as “investigative journalism.”
The spread of Putin’s propaganda on American news pages is abhorrent. No, the horror of the city of Mariupol was not staged: the actual piece of investigative journalism – not propaganda taken from Russian military – is here.
Putin’s initial plans in Ukraine completely failed. Putin’s plan was a quick takeover of the country. That did not happen. Now, Putin is terrorizing the civilian population to demand more favorable terms of surrender.
- Ukraine is a totalitarian society
“The defenders of freedom” are upset with President Zelensky’s “crackdown on the opposition” at time of war, calling Ukraine “a totalitarian society.” Let’s re-examine the definition of “totalitarian society,” shall we? How many opposition parties do you know in North Korea? How about China? Any self- respecting totalitarian society does not allow any opposition. Stating that a President allowed 11 opposition parties at any time contradicts the very definition of “totalitarian country.”
No functioning government would allow an enemy controlled TV channels to spread propaganda in their country in time of war. Suspending freedom in times of trouble is not an example of “totalitarianism.” Any government imposes restrictions when lives are in danger – President Lincoln is no exception.
Ukraine is not a totalitarian society. Their government was fairly elected by their citizens – unlike the government of the country that is trying to install its puppet state there. Thinking that Putin is trying free Ukraine from “totalitarianism” is like saying that BLM is destroying downtown Portland to help black businesses.
- Ukraine is corrupt
For the few people who did not know it a month ago: Ukraine is not Switzerland. It is quite surprising that some are just now realizing that fact. But also, some seem to think that civilian deaths in a “corrupt” country are less worthy of a worldwide outrage than in any other country. Somehow the argument is: why would we care about the deaths of civilians who have to bribe someone to open a business?
Ukraine is such a “terrible” and “corrupt” country that people don’t want to leave it – even though many “less corrupt” countries opened the doors for them. When I tell my friends to take this chance and escape to a “better” country, they laugh at me. They love their country, and they want to go home. Yet, Tucker Carlson and his crew are telling us that Ukraine is so “corrupt” it is barely worth mentioning.
When Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait, there were no pundits on TV exploring what an “imperfect” country Kuwait was. I know you will be shocked, but Kuwait was no more resembling Switzerland than Ukraine is. Kuwait is one of “sh&thole countries” Donald Trump was famously talking about. And yet, nobody said the invasion of Kuwait was “media propaganda” and “not our fight.”
What is the historical difference? Tucker Carlson was not around to push his dopey agenda, which is:
- It’s all Obama’s fault!
And here comes “let’s blame the globalists!” crew: “Putin – evil. Obama and Hilary – more evil!”
There is one thing to understand about Ukrainian conflict: it is not about American politics. Invasion of Ukraine is not “a Hilary Clinton sneaky attempt to get us into war.” In fact, there is not one person in this country – and that includes people who have the loved ones in Ukraine, and even people living in Ukraine – who advocates for America confronting Putin militarily. There are different strategies being discussed for NATO to help, but nobody is advocating for US military conflict with Russia.
Invasion of Ukraine has nothing to do with Hilary Clinton or Barak Obama. It has nothing to do with the US “notorious” biolabs, or Zelensky’s “admiration” for George Soros. “Zelensky – Trudeau conspiracy” is laughable, to put it mildly. But not at all unlike mainstream media blaming Trump for anything that’s wrong with the world, there are people on our side blaming Hilary Clinton for Putin’s madness.
Invasion of Ukraine happened for two reasons. One – Putin lost his mind. And two – Biden is incompetent and weak. Those are the only two factors that led to the invasion. If you are looking for “globalists” hiding under your bed, you need to get off the Tucker Carlson fan page. I know it’s hard to believe, but there are more evil forces in the world than Hillary Clinton and Barak Obama.
If you believe that Ukraine invasion is “not our concern,” consider yourself in a small “fringe” minority.
Sebastian Gorka does not agree with you. Nigel Farage does not agree with you. Sean Hannity does not agree with you. And Donald Trump does not agree with you. These are hardly the people belonging to the “clan of globalists” trying to get us into “another war.” Every one of these conservative leaders is demanding that US does everything in their power to help the people of Ukraine.
There are evil forces trying to destroy American society. There are also evil forces that are trying to disrupt the world order. Because the first is true, it does not mean we have to ignore the latter – or make a connection where there is none. “Understanding both sides” of Ukrainian invasion is not “minimizing truth and freedom.” However, it is extremely misguided, and is terribly unfair to a country whose citizens are now suffering and dying from the actions of a brutal mass murderer.
