Whatever happened to that there Afghanistan? Surely the Evil US Pseudo-Democracy turned them into a territory of lower class to do hard labor for USA benefit, right? What's that? Multiple nations across the world sent troops who destroyed the ruling Taliban authoritarian regime, created an independent republic government, and built hospitals and schools while raising the average life expectancy by ten years until the USA completely withdrew?
Oh, maybe Russia just wants to fix up Ukraine a little bit and then leave, too? Just like they are doing with Crimea. /s
The situation in Ukraine is an inevitable escalation in the war that started in 2014 with the US-backed fascist coup in Ukraine that goes against the interests and wishes of Eastern Ukrainians
and the subsequent killings of ethnic Russians in Eastern Ukraine, like Donbas, DPR, and LPR, by the coup gov for resisting.
To be clear, I don't support the invasion per se. In fact, its goal of suppressing fascism in western Ukraine seems to have kinda backfired from this after all, with the Ukraine gov using this as an excuse to suppress the left.
But the point is, what else could've they done? The US had meticulously blocked off all other options over the years. Russia had already tried to join NATO multiple times from even before the USSR’s overthrow and have been denied (since it's an imperialist org whose entire purpose is to suppress socialism globally, and particularly supress Russia) and they already had the Minsk agreements which the US sidelined through the coup. Not doing something about it would lead to the continued killing of ethnic Russians in eastern Ukraine by the coup gov, and NATO getting even closer to Russia since the post-2014 US puppet gov doesn’t abide by the Minsk agreements.
Can you share sources about how the coup was US-backed, how it was fascist, and on the ethnic cleansing of eastern Ukrainians? Ideally from human rights groups or independent news outlets like The Intercept if you can. Thanks.
Certainly no justification for Russia enacting war and doing a multitude of war crimes. Putin's intentions are certainly imperialist and not humanitarian.
“The failure to stop abuses and possible war crimes by volunteer battalions risks significantly aggravating tensions in the east of the country and undermining the proclaimed intentions of the new Ukrainian authorities to strengthen and uphold the rule of law more broadly.”
I absolutely agree with this. I don't know the full context of the conflict in 2014 with the annexation of Crimea, but no human rights abuses should be ignored and the people responsible need to be held accountable.
The invasion was never about suppressing fascism. Russia is as bad an actor as the United States has been generally, worse realistically. (Annexing many many countries at gunpoint post world war II. Slaughtering many in gulags for simple dissent. Invading, Afghanistan etc etc etc etc etc etc etc. ) Neither one is good. And we should not be justifying either one.
In this one situation, however. While the United States isn't strictly the good guy. They are more in the right than Russia is.
The USSR directly funded and supported national liberation movements against the US all over the world. Vietnam, Cuba, Korea, Bangladesh, Palestinian resistance organizations like the PFLP, etc; even directly supplied wars against "israel" for that last one. Afganistan is about the only one where the US and USSR funding opposite sides turned it into a warzone instead.
Russia's interests are still broadly aligned with most of the world against Imperial core countries. While they're not socialist anymore and have thus stopped funding Vietnam, PFLP etc because it's not profitable for the capitalists that are now in power since the USSR's overthrow, they continue to support the sovereignty of Global South countries like Syria, Venezuela, etc, and are a core part of BRICS.
Despite being a country relatively fleshly out of a revolution and a civil war, and bearing the brunt of the nazis and the largest war in recent history, the USSR had less prisoners by both percentage and raw numbers than capitalist countries like the US.
The socialist government met workers' needs far better than capitalist countries, or the post-Soviet capitalist countries, and made great strides in advancing women's rights. Cuba, which uses essentially the same political system as the USSR, currently has better LGBT rights than the neighboring USA despite the brutal sanctions and embargoes put on it, and its likely what those rights would be like in the USSR now if it wasn't overthrown.
No wonder then that 78% of its population voted to stay in the USSR right before it was illegally dissolved. (Page 1647)
Alot of this social and economic progress has since been undone with the USSR's overthrow, with forced privatization under capitalist rule and the unmitigated rise of the christfascist church.
In this one situation [...] United States [...] are more in the right than Russia is
In the right for backing a fascist coup, the killing of Eastern Ukrainians for resisting, and meticulously blocking off all options other than a proxy war?
Didn't Russia invade Afghanistan first which caused Osama to go there in the first place? Then after the Taliban beat Russia with American support, America invaded Afghanistan themselves.
Afghanistan is the pinnacle of getting screwed over by imperialism from superpowers.
That's a long list of strawmen. Whataboutism is no defense. And that's all you got. Whether or not the US jails more people. Doesn't excuse the brutally and abuses of ML countries and the fascist states they evolve into more often than not. I'm sure you honestly forgot 2 weeks ago. Where the modern Russia you enable and defend. Killed a political prisoner after repeated assassination attempts. Again, this is not a defense of the US. Just pointing out your blatant hypocrisy.
It's also quaint that you think a fascist like Putin was somehow benevolently concerned about other fascists. It was a bullshit excuse from the day he made it.
If you honestly think the USSR were liberators. I suggest you go talk to actual former Soviet block countries who lived under it. And finally got liberated from it. There's a reason they tore down all those monuments and statues erected by the murderous autocratic politburo.
Thank god my wholesome democracy would never do that over and over again for my entire life, otherwise I might have to think about who they tell me the bad guys are.
Also Ukraine is not a sovereign country. We stole their sovereignty ten years ago when we replaced their government with nazis.
The US is constantly and historically the ones propping up dictators all over the world. AND we have done it while people of those nations have either legitimately voted for the opposite, and/or were fighting for their freedom from colonial powers/dictators. We actively fund and create false narratives inside nations that we don't like to start color revolutions. We force other nations into backing brutal sanctions if they don't want us to go after them and to be allowed to trade with us. Our military is literally installed all over the globe, but we claim nations like China are somehow being "aggressive" for even patrolling their own areas. We create and groom evil and gaslight the world that we are somehow just allowed to police the globe. Fuck yourself.
The USA is a brutal dictatorship who invaded a sovereign country. What's the difference exactly? The USA has invaded someone more recently than Russia has, and they do it a lot more often. They're also more dictatorial and more brutal. The fact that the USA is mad at Iran for supporting their enemy is completely understandable. They're not being hypocrites, it's just mafia tactics and they're not ashamed of it. What's not understandable is you or anyone saying USA sending weapons to Ukraine and Iran sending weapons to Russia are somehow not equivalent.
To be clear, I am not at all justifying or forgiving the use of sanctions, it's a barbaric form of warfare that explicitly targets non-combatants, the USA should be ashamed and their leadership jailed.
I'm at Russia right now, I've been to Ukraine more than dozen times including twice to Crimea (Ukrainian at time of visit) and numerous times to Donbass (as Donetsk is literally hometown of my father). What's next? Have you ever been to one of the listed places yourself or are you just fantasizing from other side of the world?
Are their foreign interests not aligned with Global South countries against imperial core ones?
Russia has consistently supported the sovereignty of Global South countries like Syria and Venezuela against the US, host Palestinian meetings, and are a core part of BRICS. While Iran supports and funds Yemen, Palestine etc. There's a reason sentiment like this is common in third world countries.
If you were to divide the world into two camps, one with 1 milliard people and another with 7 milliard, and they wanted opposite things, would the 7 milliard group not represent most of the world? Now, I don't want you to dox yourself, but I ask rhetorically which camp the country you're from falls in.
Here's a map in case you're genuinely unsure. !alwaysthesamemap@lemmygrad.ml
Do you think Russia does what it does for the greater good of these people? Isn't Russia doing basically what every other imperial power did since long time ago? Conquer or at least control, because they want to be imperial power too?
Sure, US ain't no saint, EU neither, nobody is basically. But for me personally Russia represent something worse than those mentioned before. Not regular russian people, I even have some in my family, but people in power. Those who turn one of the richest country (in terms of natural resources) into powerty to build their billion dollar mansions, yachts and other luxury, while regular people can count themself lucky if they have flushing toilet and asphalt road in their street.
If you want to know a bit of my background, I live in a country that was 40 years under USSR "occupation", so I'm obviously not a big fan...
I'm ok with downvotes, that's what free speech is for. At least I don't have to avoid passing around windows or drinking tea.
Do you think Russia does what it does for the greater good of these people?
No. It does not matter why they do something, they're doing it, and it benefits the 7 milliard people.
Isn’t Russia doing basically what every other imperial power did since long time ago? Conquer or at least control, because they want to be imperial power too?
What they're doing in Ukraine isn't imperialism, it's self defense. (Self defense doesn't automatically mean it's justified. As with all things there's appropriate response and degrees). Would they partake in imperialism if given an opportunity? Absolutely, it's a capitalist dictatorship, they don't have morals.
But for me personally Russia represent something worse than those mentioned before.
What do they represent? "Those who (exploit) rich countries () to build their billion dollar mansions ()" is the enemy of the global majority. Carefully consider the USA and the EU nations' track-record. Russia by contrast has only existed since the 90s.
If you want to know a bit of my background, I live in a country that was 40 years under USSR “occupation”, so I’m obviously not a big fan…
And has your country improved? Is employment more dignified and abundant, are more people educated, class differences smaller, is infrastructure and housing being built more rapidly?
At least I don’t have to avoid passing around windows or drinking tea.
The USSR directly funded and supported emancipatory movements against the US all over the world, like Vietnam, Cuba, Korea, Bangladesh, Palestinian resistance organizations like the PFLP, etc; even directly supplied wars against "israel" for that last one. Afganistan is about the only one where the US and USSR funding opposite sides turned it into a warzone instead.
Russia's foreign interests, even after the USSR's overthrow, have remained broadly aligned with Global South countries as I explained in my previous comment.
I count myself like one of the most of the world part
I do too, and hence critically support Russia and Iran's role in geopolitics.