He's been asking for this? Ukraine has been fighting a defensive war against an invasion and imperial land-grab. It's a complete clownshow how imperialism apologists consider the only valid move to just give the imperialists everything they claim as their own, and any defensive act is "escalation". Ukraine did not choose to be invaded. Russia chose to invade. Ukraine then chose to act in defence of its territory against the invader. How dare they!
Which legislative body withdrew Ukraine from the ICCPR, ECHR, and ESC, thereby relieving itself of human rights obligations to civilians in the Donbas region? Was it the Russian Duma, or the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine?
Who's blocking and (allegedly) raiding humanitarian aid shipments...
from Ukraine? Is it Russian paramilitaries, or is it Ukrainian paramilitaries? Eight years' worth of alleged human rights abuses in Donbas as documented by Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, and the UN Human Rights Council? Who's been operating black sites in Donbas, where alleged (and in some cases, proven) instances of mass torture, sexual abuse, and rape have occurred?
That's
both sides, by the way. Which is why I keep referring to this situation as cyclical violence. One in which the West has no business, because...
As if the other power here isn't the one that unilaterally has chosen to invade, sponsor an insurgency, sneak disguised troops over the border for 6 years, invade again, extra-judicially slaughter civilians in the streets, and then annex masses of territory.
Psst:
that was the US. The CIA by the way of its front organization NED, has been up to this shit since Euromaidan, and more recently directly.
We're the ones training, funding, and arming these goddamn Ukrainian Nazis who have also (keyword
also) been running around Donbas acting like rabid animals for the better part of a decade ethnically cleansing the area of Russians, and we've been doing it the whole-ass time.
None of which you give a single, solitary shit about: its core to the imperialist mindset that some powers are allowed to do whatever they want. But any effort to stop them doing that? Beyond the pale!
And by "some" in your case, you mean the US and NATO. This isn't about Ukrainian independence for
anyone, you can fuck right off with that facade of righteous indignation. This is about whose proxy buffer-state Ukraine will be, US or Russia...that is once the ethnic cleansing is over. And make no mistake, at this point there
will be ethnic cleansing; the only question is, will that ethnic cleansing be with the full backing and support of Russia, or the US?
Your problem is that you've become too emotionally-invested in the outcome of this, for it to be anything but the great moral conflict of our time. There
must be a "bad guy" and there
must be a "good guy" for you. When the reality is, this is a proxy war of, by, and for genocidal lunatics inhabiting political extremes any sensible human on Earth should conclude must be eradicated at all costs, and because this is being waged by murderous psychopaths, it's turned into a cycle of ethnic revenge. That doesn't fit in your worldview, ergo you must ignore and push back against any argument or evidence that fails to confirm your biases, lest you ask yourself the uncomfortable question of who you're
really supporting.
I
still say withdraw multilaterally, evacuate what few noncombatants are left, and let the genocidal madmen have their stupid fucking Nazi fight over a swath of land nobody actually gives a shit about. Nuke the ones left standing, because fuck 'em, they're Nazis.
Ignoring all the other nonsense, this is very wrong as well.
It was extensively researched how much indiscriminate bombing of towns and cities had helped and the answer was "not very much at all". It only brings the bombed population together and stokes their anger. It does not make them more likely to surrender or seek peace. Even the damage to wartime industry hardly matches the ressources put into the bombing.
No, that's
quite how total war works. I never said it was effective, I just pointed it out for what it is.
Is it how "special military operations" that totally aren't wars work though?
Ask the Koreans, Laotians, and Cambodians.
Oh, so wait, the first time Russia attacked civilians this became "total war"? Because that was way before the bridge attack. Thank you for justifying Ukraine's actions!
So we're just ignoring the last eight years and pretending Russia just said "fuck it, let's go" one fine morning last February?