I got sent two great articles by our readers. Paul K gets the first wave of thanks.
Here’s what the far-left Occupy Democrats tweeted on February 24 as the Russian invasion began:
BREAKING: Ukraine’s Interior Minister announces that 10,000 automatic rifles have been handed out to the civilians of Kyiv as they prepare to fight tooth and nail to defend their homes against Putin’s invasion. RT IF YOU STAND WITH THE BRAVE UKRAINIAN PEOPLE!
Minutes later, they amplified the crusade:
If you’re an American who stands with the brave citizens of Ukraine who have been issued 10,000 automatic rifles as they prepare to repel Putin’s bloodthirsty invaders – please RT and follow our account for the latest breaking Ukraine news.
That’s difficult to square with their June 14, 2016 tweet mindlessly maligning the same concept:
No civilian needs an AR-15, regardless of whatever mental gymnastics you do. You are a very special breed of stupid.
Meanwhile, Joe Biden rightly sends thousands of small arms as part of a broader military weaponry aid package to Ukraine. Biden’s Department of Commerce is even expediting approval for private-sector U.S. manufacturers to export firearms and ammunition to Ukraine.
Last year, however, Biden mocked any suggestion that small arms might repel militarized oppression. “If you wanted, or if you think you need to have weapons to take on the government, you need F-15s and maybe some nuclear weapons.”
Biden Supports Gun Rights – Just Not for Americans (cfif.org)
Pretty much self-explanatory. do not expect them to see the contradiction even if you roll it and smack them on the nose with it. They will come with a “logical” explanation why it is not the same, probably something in the spere of “We are never going to see a tyrannical government in this country, you do not need and AR 15” or some similar trope.
And this great background check (see what I did there?) about Ukraine is courtesy of RogerG.
And just as with the baseless rush to war with Iraq, which every outlet of mainstream media loyally supported, those who refuse to repeat slogans of “Ukrainian democracy” or “Russian aggression” are denigrated, either as cowards or as apologists for the heinous actions of others, for which they are obviously not responsible. Besides being inaccurate, the latter accusation is particularly perfidious because it effectively makes reasoned dissent impossible.
But by pretending that history started with the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the story is made simple, a clear case of right and wrong. And while it is true that Russian president Vladimir Putin ordered the invasion of Ukraine and so is responsible for the present war, such a Manichean telling of the story does little to further informed policy discussion. Indeed, that is precisely the point: to ignore the decades of declared Russian security interests in the orientation of states directly at its border, as well as to obscure a history of US meddling in Ukraine.
Facing Unpleasant Facts: What You aren’t Supposed to say about the War in Ukraine | Mises Wire
Putin is truly still very much product of the Soviet Regime and the KGB. But Ukraine is not a little patch of Earthly paradise but a truly corrupt government.
The US has to back Ukraine because Lord know how many videos of Hunter Biden they have poking little girls and sucking meth like it was free bourbon.
Do not invest emotionally in a war that will have the US lose no matter which side it takes.
It’s crystal clear that they know small arms and insurgency are effective and because of that they do not want you armed incase they need to roll troops into your neighborhood.
I note also that “they” are playing up the smallarms-and-Molotovs angle; pay no attention to the guided missiles behind the curtain. Maybe something to do with trying to obfuscate the extent of Western military aid.
Oh, and “decades of declared Russian security interests in the orientation of states directly at its border”? Make that centuries. Centuries during which the Russians have earned the enduring hatred of all their neighbors. And oppressing the neighbors, for decades or centuries, does not create a right to continue doing so. (Besides which, the Ukrainians had been more or less getting on with their post-colonial lives; the current invasion has made them actively hostile again. Seems kinda contrary to security interests, unless Putin plans on going full Cato the Censor.)
Well, that is the thing about Pax Romana. It does, in fact, work if you can – and are willing to – completely wipe out populations who aren’t wiling to submit.
.
I’m not saying I agree with this approach by any means … but it does work. Just like the “violence never solved anything” scene from Startship Troopers
Wiping out whole populations is a whole lot easier said than done- and even the ruthless Romans were never really able to do so. Nor were the Mongolians, Romanoffs, Hitlers, Stalins, or other tyrants.
Usually the invader runs out of ruthlessness- cruelty is capacious after all- and the invadee gets tougher and more vicious. There’s a reason why the Balkans, Afghanistan, Vietnam, and modern Poland & Israel are tough bastards- they’ve been invaded and conquered and oppressed, again and again, by various ruthless foreigners.
Ukraine likewise.
As for the corruption thing, it’s not surprising that a country that spent over a century under the boot of autocrats and Communist would have an endemic culture of corruption. After all, corruption is what makes Communism even sorta work, and when the Soviet Union inevitably collapsed, it was the crooks who were best positioned to take over- and did.
If Venezuela or Cuba was to dump the dictators tomorrow, we’d see the same sort of situation with the crooks in charge.