Seems we’ve got mostly conservative Republicans, Trump supporters, and “Libertarians” screaming at each other over this war.
Unfortunately, Putin’s shocking and bloody “maximalist” invasion of Ukraine came as a surprise to many participants, even most Ukrainians & Ukrainian nationalist politicians like Zelensky.
What led up to it, what is now at stake there and how far NATO and Putin are willing to go to “win” — the answers to these questions are ambiguous. Simple “pro-Russian” / “anti-Russian,” or “pro-Ukrainian” / “anti-Ukrainian” or “pro-U.S.” / “anti-U.S. imperialism” politics do not translate into simple black and white policy.
We are mostly now individually powerless to stop this war, which is becoming a “proxy war” with terrible potential to fly out of control. It is ruining economies and devastating Ukraine. It needs to be stopped and a negotiated cease fire and peace agreement reached, one that accepts some hard realities … including that Crimea will remain in Russian hands and at least parts of Donbas as well. Neither side seems ready for this right now, but one way or another that will change.
No point in everybody here acting superior to one another, insulting each other — as if they understand the situation clearly and know exactly what must or can now be done. In any case, one’s ideological or political partisanship concerning domestic politics does not really translate into adopting any clear international policy in this matter.
