Sometimes people caught up in rigid, self-righteous demonization of their own country need to learn to pick a side and crawl into bed with those they despise

A number of people for various reasons anti-this and anti-that, some nevertheless rightfully so, perhaps, are making a common error. They justify their anti-American stance against NATO’s support of Ukraine against Russia’s invasion by collapsing it into the Global War on Terror. These activists claim there isn’t any difference between the American invasions and conquest of Afghanistan and Iraq and the Russian invasion to conquer Ukraine. 

Yes, there are differences, major differences, and they are significant.

The USA did not seek to conquer Afghanistan and Iraq to annex them into its unofficial empire. Nor did it seek to make those two countries part of the United States of America. The same can be said of Somalia, Libya, Yemen, and other countries where the Global Long War was waged. The US did tumble into the violent tarpit of occupation and nation building, a huge and expensive mistake it eventually realized before it withdrew from those places. There was no desire whatsoever even among US warhawks to annex any of those regions. Americans temperamentally like to win, go home, and make money.

There are historical precedents in America’s past, too. There were multiple occasions where a few American imperialists sought to have the USA invade and conquer Canada, the rest of Mexico, much of Central America, Cuba and much of the Caribbean, among others. While there were a long list of military interventions and economic, racist, neo-colonial exploitation, the majority of Americans did not really want to annex and administer those lands and felt jumpy squirmy about overt empire building. Even the conquered Native American tribes were still recognized by treaty as sovereign nations instead of being fully assimilated. Such was and is not the case with Putin’s Russian Federation and the way various ethnic nationalities are scattered across Eurasia in fake, pretend-republics anchored by gulags and dying cities.

Acknowledging the above US actions and events in no way justifies what was done or in some cases, not done or even undone. Such holds up a mirror to what is often forgotten or unknown by many Americans. Many US activists remember, tho, and still collapse US actions with those of Putin’s Russia.

Putin’s sense of history is as distorted as many Americans. His is grossly distorted. Years ago he bemoaned the collapse of the Soviet Empire and the earlier Russian Empire. He blamed NATO expansion on his invasions. Truth is, there was a time under President Yeltsin Russia sought membership in both NATO and the EU, and those efforts failed. The West missed several golden opportunities early on, but the Cold War had left the victors as broke and exhausted as the losers.

Having Ukraine declared a part of Russia without any right to exist as an independent nation-state as Ukraine is not a “real” country, Putin attempted to invade and conquer what was left of Ukraine. Russian and Ukraine have been at war since 2014, but in 2022 Putin decided to overrun Ukraine in three days or so. Putin failed.

Never mind Ukrainians have fought against the Russians numerous times including during and after both world wars and suffered greatly in the Stalinist Holodomor. Never mind Moscow was a little city-state of a duchy that grew into existence long after Kyivan Rus’ became the original Third Rome, and both were overrun by the Mongol Empire expanding out of East Asia. Never mind Crimea belonged to many different kingdoms, empires, and khanates over centuries, not just Russia. Remember, too, the USSR gave Crimea to Ukraine during a period of jurisdictional reorganization. Some would say, “given back.” Never mind Russia recognized Ukrainian borders back in 1991 and again in 1994. Never mind Ukraine gave up its nuclear arsenal and much of its navy to Russia in exchange for border security. Apparently some Ukrainians regret giving away its nuclear weapons as a form of deterrence.

Never mind Putin’s invasions of Chechnya and Georgia, its intervention in Syria, and the way it waged war to destroy everything in the way. Never mind hundreds of thousands of people fled and continue to flee the Russian Federation as thousands more still attempt to enter the European Union, the United States, and Canada. You don’t see refugees and immigrants flooding into Iran, Myanmar, North Korea, Red China, Venezuela, Cuba, Nicaragua, Belarus, El Salvador, and Russia, do you? Imagine what inspires them to gravitate towards so-called Western countries with all their many visible and ugly problems? Because isn’t life far worse within those dictatorships than in the messy, messy West? Yes?

Yes, well-meaning Western activists screaming and yelling and condemning NATO support for Ukraine are playing right into Putin’s crooked little hands. Some of these so-called pundits even deride the Western “misuse” of “Ukraine” instead of “the Ukraine.” They forgot or are ignorant of the facts Russia historically refers to “the Ukraine” as in a reductionist, proprietary sense while Ukrainians themselves refer to their nation as “Ukraine.” Time to step back and see the world for what it is, a world where empires still exist, like it or not, and nations fight over borders and resources. Doesn’t matter if climate change, pandemics, mass extinctions, coming asteroid collisions, economic collapse, solar megaflares, alien invasions, the AI and robotic singularity, et cetera, etc., are wiping us out for we humans are still gonna go to war over lines on a map, and kill each other over oil, water, religion, politics, and national identities. So pick a side. Or a side shall pick you.

Some empires are better than others in their contributions to world civilization even if they commit mass war crimes along the way. Sometimes the crisis is existential and too wicked to resolve. Sometimes one must, at least for a while, tone down their vitriol and get in bed with the enemies of your primary peer enemies. Yes, to get in bed with distasteful people. War with them later, perhaps. Right now we must survive this current round, together. So pick a damn side and fight!

William Dudley Bass
Thursday 25 August 2022
Sunday 9 April 2023
Sunday 30 April 2023
Shoreline/Seattle, WA
USA
Earth

Copyright © 2023 by William Dudley Bass. All Rights Reserved by the Author & his Descendants until we Humans establish Wise Stewardship over and for our Earth and Solarian Commons. Thank you.