Putin's lapdog Donald Trump.
https://twitter.com/ggreenwald/status/1468578603910717441
By the way, is it at all notable that Crimea became part of Russia during the Obama administration, and now Russia is supposedly preparing to invade Ukraine during the Biden administration, but never did either when they had their blackmail-controlled puppet in the White House?
Greenwald's points deserve some contemplation.
I am incredibly torn by this issue. I am certainly anti-war, and I certainly believe that it is in America's interest that there not be war with Russia, period. Some of the rhetoric on both sides of the spectrum is pretty ridiculous. Roger Wicker talking about the use of nuclear weapons??? You've got to be kidding me! Yet here we are. And I certainly understand the concerns of the Ukrainian people and their nation; their treatment by Russia/USSR/Russia again over time is not defensible. Russia doesn't have the moral high ground on THAT issue.
My gut instinct as to why we're here on this issue is one of "This is what happens when Diplomats carve out nations!". From the end of the Napoleonic Wars to the 1848 revolutions in Europe, to the end of the Crimean War and the Franco-Prussian wars, to Versailles, diplomats have carved out new nations and new boundaries for nations, and it has never gone well. What is going on with Ukraine now is, indeed, little different than what happened to nations and parts of nations after Versailles. There was an argument made at the fall of the USSR not to create an independent Ukraine, and all I can say about that is that if Ukraine had remained a part of Russia, we wouldn't be where we are now. I'm not saying whether that is bad or good. I am saying that World War III will not be a good thing, period.
The Ukrainian people do not deserve a Russian invasion. They deserve their nation, and their own experiment at self-rule. As for American foreign policy, I do believe that it is clear that our most reliable allies over time have been the democracies of the world. I am not for nation-building, and some parts of the World are areas where democracy is too much in opposition to long-standing cultural and religious norms. But where the people WILL have a democracy, we should be the "Friend of Liberty" as John Adams said. And, yet, there will be no liberty after a WWIII where China picks up the pieces, and this is a likely outcome to a WWIII over this issue.
"If my people, who are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek My Face, and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from Heaven, and I will forgive their sin and heal their land." (2 Chronicles 7:14) I truly believe that this situation requires Divine Intervention, in no small measure because of who leads Russia and who leads America at this moment. Healing our Land DOES mean bringing our country (and Ukraine) back from the brink of WWIII. I do believe that it is not constructive to encourage Ukraine to fight; it is an unfair fight, and a fight that they are certain to lose if Putin decides to go to war there. I do believe that God is bigger than Vladamir Putin, and I do believe that God can restrain a sinful man whose impulses is to do something "because he can".
I do think, however, that our relations with Russia, going forward, ought to be different. Putin is, by no means, the World's Worst Leader. That is another discussion for another time. I will say this: Our endless criticism of Putin and our reluctance to treat him as any kind of partner over time has resulted in him living up to our lowest expectations. A reassessment of our Russia Policy and what it has been, is very much in order.
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