News stories say Emmanuel Macron of France spoke to Vlad Putin this week and learned that Putin intends to take all of Ukraine. Of course he does; I hadn’t realized that wasn’t obvious. And it will take several more days, at least, maybe weeks. And a lot of people will die horribly. And it is all so pointless. Putin may win in the short run, but I don’t see how he can win in the long run.
On the American Right, you’ve got your hard-core nutjobs who still stand with Putin, and you’ve got your old-school national security hawks who never liked Putin anyway. In between are a lot of people who may or may not be making adjustments. Greg Sargent writes that Tucker Carlson and J.D. Vance are having a moment of self-doubt over Putin, in which Tucker once again shows off his spectacular talent for being an asshole:
“The invasion of Ukraine already is a legitimate disaster for Europe and the world,” Carlson told his viewers. “We’ve been taken by surprise by the whole thing. We’re not the only ones who were. But we’re willing to admit it.” …
… But then Carlson blamed Vice President Harris for his mistake. His logic: If the Russian threat were all that dire, President Biden wouldn’t have sent Harris abroad to handle diplomacy!
Carlson then launched into a creepily obsessive segment of cherry-picked clips meant to portray Harris as stupid and unprepared. But never mind that garbage. More notably, Carlson has little to say about what the administration actually did do in the run-up to the invasion.
This was a few days after Tucker had called for Ketanji Brown Jackson’s LSAT Score. And apparently he gets his feelings hurt when people call him a “racist.” Poor baby.
Oh, and J.D. Vance has had to tap-dance around a lot of recent comments to the effect that Ukraine just isn’t important. We should only care about our own borders, especially the southern one where brown people get through. America First! Now he’s having to admit that, well, okay, Russia’s invading Ukraine was bad.
Jennifer Rubin hopes that the Ukraine crisis will bury America First!, because people will see that what goes on beyond our borders is important. Considering that World War II didn’t bury isolationism completely for all time I am skeptical. But Rubin wrote,
Donald Trump and his allies (even the crowd that joined the administration by rationalizing their expertise would prevent debacles) believed, in particular, that international organizations impeded our sovereignty, sucked up our resources and helped the enemies of the United States. They told us we had been played for “suckers” and would do better when we did not need to collaborate, cooperate and coordinate with others. …
… Then came Ukraine.
Never before has the value of NATO been so apparent. The same Republicans who used to whine that NATO allies did not shoulder their obligations now appear to be peeved that Europe is “leading.” (The accusation is disingenuous, of course, because President Biden was the one to revive and energize the alliance.)
Meanwhile, a whole lot of “freedom” truck convoys are still headed to D.C., but they aren’t getting covered on national news that I’ve seen. You can track them only through local news coverage. Hint to truckers: Nobody cares. You’re old news. Go home.
Among the hard-core nutjob Right, I read that not only is Vladimir Putin still admired; they’ve figured out the Real True Reason anyone cares about Ukraine. This is from Mother Jones:
Anti-vaccine influencers claim that the United States owns a network of secret biolabs in Ukraine where dangerous infectious disease research takes place. For them, it’s just obvious that Biden is sending aid to Ukraine in order to protect those assets.
Sure. Some of the nutjobs claim there are “reports” that Putin is targeting the biolabs. Here’s another one:
Sherri Tenpenny, the anti-vaccine activist who has claimed that Covid shots make people magnetic, suggested in a Monday post to more than 150,000 followers that Jews were using the Ukraine conflict to distract the world from a meeting in Europe about pandemic preparedness.
And, of course George Soros figures into this somehow. Can’t leave him out.
On the Left, the “blame America first” crowd had a field day blaming the CIA and the United States and NATO for making Putin attack Ukraine. I’m seeing a bit less of that as the attacks go on, but then I’ve unfriended a few people. The most common accusation from Lefties is that NATO broke an agreement about not expanding NATO eastward, so Putin had no choice but to attack, because NATO was threatening him. And it was Ukraine’s fault that Russia attacked it because Ukraine wanted to join NATO. They should have been neutral, see, instead of pro-western. What was Putin supposed to do?
This argument is right up there with telling women they won’t get raped if they just stay home and keep their doors locked. But then I remember reading a news story about a rapist who got into a house by climbing a tree and removing a second-floor window air conditioner.
NATO doesn’t “threaten” anybody who isn’t a threat to others, but never mind. If you hear the one about the agreement, know that there was never any such agreement. There was discussion way back when, before the Soviet Union broke up, but nobody ever agreed to anything. If there had been an agreement, it would have been with the Soviet Union, which no longer exists.
I agree with Rubin that Putin is demonstrating why NATO is still important. Just think — if Ukraine had been admitted to NATO, would Putin be attacking it now? I rather doubt that. I suspect Estonia, Latvia, probably Lituania, would have been crushed by Russia already were it not for their NATO membership. But heaven forbid that countries bordering Russia would have sought out the protection of a mutual defense alliance.
Because lying is like breathing to people like Carlson, they'll easily shift back to adoring Putin once the bloodbath subsides a bit.
As a Ukranian, I know what the bowl of petunias thought.
"Curiously enough, the only thing that went through the mind of the bowl of petunias as it fell was Oh no, not again. Many people have speculated that if we knew exactly why the bowl of petunias had thought that we would know a lot more about the nature of the Universe than we do now."
? Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
We are plummeting to Earth. Again.
On the Left, the “blame America first” crowd had a field day blaming the CIA and the United States and NATO for making Putin attack Ukraine. I’m seeing a bit less of that as the attacks go on, but then I’ve unfriended a few people. The most common accusation from Lefties is that NATO broke an agreement about not expanding NATO eastward, so Putin had no choice but to attack, because NATO was threatening him. And it was Ukraine’s fault that Russia attacked it because Ukraine wanted to join NATO. They should have been neutral, see, instead of pro-western. What was Putin supposed to do?
My reading list must not be nearly as extensive as yours Barbara. Are there Democrats saying these things? If so, please name some names as I have not heard about them from the corporately owned media who are usually quite bold in pronouncing that 'the left' is as bad as the crazies in the rePuknican Party.
Oh yeah. They are there. The ones I've debated are pure pacifists, opposed to US Imperialism. I tend to agree about impure intentions when the US asserts itself militarily around the globe. I'm revolted by the blood on our hands for civilian deaths inflicted by the US military.
So we have a large base of agreement but I don't see that eliminating the US military is a good idea. (We spend way too much on the military and big money in politics plays a part in that.) I see the function of NATO, with decades of history as defensive and peacekeeping. (Look back in European history for eighty years of relative peace which I see as the by-product of NATO.
Petty dictators have (and do) exist in Europe but they can't expand or press their repression beyond their own borders. This is my view, not shared by those who would disband NATO and (by magic) eliminate all armies and wars in Europe.
I'm more comfortable with pure pacifists than I am with warmongers but eliminating shepards won't make wolves go away or change their nature. The US military is often the tool of corporate greed – that has to change. But it could be done more easily than changing the nature of despots.
Well said, doug.
The lefties making excuses for Putin aren’t Democrats, exactly. They tend to be left-leaning activists and blowhards who aren’t much into party politics.
Ukraine gave up nuclear weapons because of explicit promises that Russia would maintain peaceful relations. Once Russia broke that promise with the Orange Revolution in 2004 of course they started to look to the West.
Excellent point. Russia guaranteed Ukraine independence in exchange for the Russian nukes on Ukrainian soil that Russia wanted back. The collapse happened that fast. But consider the implications. I don't know the composition or numbers of the nukes that were in Ukraine but Ukraine wasn't a "buffer" country between nuclear Russia and the nuclear NATO countries. Russia moved their nukes, theoretically tactical nukes as close to the front as possible. But if Ukraine joined NATO, it's assumed by Putin that nukes would be advanced – because RUSSIA did and would and will go as far as they can.
Personally, if Russia requested of the UN an agreement that a NATO Ukraine not have nukes, I'd support that. Making a nuclear country that's already paranoid worry about first-strike intentions isn't smart politics. I do not think Putin is concerned about NATO advancing nukes – NATO membership takes Ukraine off the board as a country Russia can assimilate.
Belarus was assimilated this year. There are large numbers of Russian soldiers in Belarus at the invitation of the president of Belarus and those Russians will not leave no matter what happens in Ukraine.
That leaves Georgia. Sweeden and Finland are not NATO countries yat but they have started talking about it.
Inspired and deserving of writing deserving of more than a Pulitzer. Like a collage, the pieces make a gestalt, a whole picture, funny, pathetic, insightful, and beyond. It is a pity the extinct intellectual conservatives can't give us their point of view. They would still be alive a writing in competition today – if – bad politics did not have bad consequences. But really, how much competition were they, even before they became extinct?
If your politics are that bad, just think, just who is going to get to breed with you? I submit exhibit A, Trump Jr. in evidence. Totally devoid of any semblance of hybrid vigor and voted least likely to appear on a cover as the sexiest man alive, this guy is serious proof. How does a family try to make a political dynasty out of that gene pool? It is a slam dunk we will have a Kentucky Derby winner this year with a better blood line than he has, to sire anything of value…even if the winner was priced way below average as a colt. Horse sense is all you need to know for that.
Horse sense was a minimum competency requirement for most truckers in the Teamster days. Now? Many of them who just can't seem to figure out which side of the semi-trailer the tractor hooks onto, are the types you have to work with. At least Republican politics is giving them a fallback option when they inevitably fail. I guess this batch does not know you can just still send your resume by mail and still get your inevitable Fed. rejection notice. Worse yet they might give you a job offer. Agent Orange is not the only hazard they give as a fringe 'benefit'. You might even get a large dose of BOHICA. My dad even got that from taking a job at the post office.
I just keep crying at the courage.
And the horror…
The horror…
The horror…
A long time follower of your blog, I am frankly disappointed with this article. You seem to be perfectly fine with the illegal and brutal military adventures of the US all over the globe, Iraq, Syria, Vietnam, Nicaragua, Panama, Afghanistan etc., which have killed millions of people who oh happen to be of a different melanoin. Did I hear any of this hysterical nonsense then?
Not to mention the export of "democracy" by the CIA, that entity with an unauditable bottomless budget, to innumerable countries which have basically destroyed them. The 2014 coup in Ukraine arranged by the same at this point gets top billing. Not to recognize this is strange.
"Defensive" Nato has engaged in these same war crimes well outside Europe ar the instigation of its master.
I am not anti-military, it should exist to defend one's country, not to terrorize the world with over 700 military bases.
Also I wonder how the sanctimonious US would react to foreign bases anywhere close to its borders.
This blog began in 2002, although the archives don't go back that far, mostly to protest the Bush Administration's intentions to invade Iraq because of September 11. If you really were a long-time follower of this blog, you'd know what I think of the U.S. military misadventures you cite. And NATO is a necessary organization as long as there is a Russia controlled by a dictator. I expect a lot of non-NATO European countries will be signing up as fast as they can now. You are banned from posting here further.
I think that you can argue that expanding NATO eastward was provocative, yet still call this war "Putin's War". Maybe that eastward expansion was, in retrospect, necessary; or maybe it made its own necessity. The trouble with alliances is that they make wars rarer but worse.
Some feel pre-world-war-II vibes at present: unprovoked aggression by a mad expansionist tyrant. I grant that, but I also feel pre-world-war-I vibes: a world stumbling into a conflagration of folly and pride.
It’s not like NATO was going door to door trying to sign people up. I believe all of the nations admitted over the past thirty years or so are former Iron Curtain countries that really wanted to join, possibly because they didn’t want to be invaded again..