Stop Blaming The West For Ukraine
Let alone the victim of Russian aggression
It’s quite fashionable, especially on the Left, to blame the West, or even Ukraine itself, for Russia’s invasion. The main reason seems to be that NATO’s enlargement was a provocation to Russia. It certainly was, but provocation is not the same as cause. It’s the political equivalent of asking a sexual assault victim:
“What were you wearing? Had you been drinking?”
It aids the aggressor. It helps his work.
Here are some other contenders:
Ukraine is full of Nazis
Come on. You’ve seen a picture of half a dozen soldiers with swastikas? That doesn’t even represent the Azov Battalion, let alone Ukraine. Putin is an actual fascist. He has brutally crushed democracy, murdered opponents and strangled press freedom. And he is calling Ukrainians Nazis? The same Ukraine that voted overwhelmingly for a Jewish President? They’re the Nazis, yes? The look of bafflement on Ukrainian faces when I bring this up is a sight. Make it make sense.
Verdict: Bullshit
The Euromaidan Was Fermented by the US
So the spontaneous protests sparked by groups as diverse as right wing nationalists to LGBT groups in 36 different Ukraine cities at the same time was down to the US? Not President Yanukovych’s decision to tear up the European Union-Ukraine Alliance Agreement, after years of painstaking negotiations, and choose closer ties with Russia, in direct contradiction to the wishes of 92% of Ukrainians? (source: Ukrainian Independence Referendum)
Verdict: Risible Bullshit
Ukraine is not a real country. It’s just Southern Russia.
The arrogance of this is beneath contempt. It’s pure Putin propaganda.
Verdict: Offensive Bullshit
America would not tolerate another power’s forces near its border
I’ve got to give you that one. There is no way America would allow that to happen, as we saw in the Cuban Missile Crisis. It doesn’t justify invasion, but America would have done it too. Aside from the hypothetical nature of this in in the present day, the caveat is that it's not up to Russia or the USA to decide what goes on in Ukraine. It is up to Ukrainians alone. They are entitled to arm themselves against aggression next door. With clear justification, as it turns out.
Russia complains about NATO enlargement on its borders, but why is that happening? Is it because the US is pushing Finland, Sweden and Ukraine towards the bloc, or because they feel materially threatened by a country with a long history of subduing its neighbours?
Verdict: True
It’s a proxy war to degrade Russia's capacity to fight in other conflicts
This is often used as a barb against America. But the US is not the only country providing aid and arms to Ukraine. There’s the 27 nations of the EU, the UK, Australia and New Zealand. It’s less of a proxy war that the international community assisting a smaller country face up to a bully.
While the arms donated are more likely to prolong the war than win it, which does damage Russia’s ability to fight other wars, if Russia was concerned about its offensive might, they could always try not starting a war in the first place. Russia invading Ukraine was hardly anybody else’s fucking idea.
Verdict: Flimsy
NATO promised not to expand into Eastern Europe in 1990 when the Soviet Union agreed to pull troops out of East Germany
Yes. America went back its word and not for the first time. It wasn’t part of a treaty though, so: “But you promised,’ is not a very persuasive position. Also, Poland, Czechia and Bulgaria are their own agents. They can decide if they want NATO protection. And they did, because Russia had invaded them before. While Russia realised it could not trust NATO’s word, members of the old Soviet bloc had good reason not to trust Russia.
Verdict: True
Maybe the ‘provocation’ goes back to Ukraine’s vote for independence from the Soviet Union in 1991. Its parliament voted by 346-2 (5 abstentions) for independence. This was no 52/48. Ukrainians voted overwhelmingly to sever Soviet and Russian ties and align more closely to Europe. It must have stung to hear, ‘Dear Russia, she’s just not into you’. But though they had fought side by side as brothers in the past, they had plenty of reasons, historical and recent, to step away.
Part of the reason to blame the West is anti-American sentiment based on the US’s self-appointed role as World Policeman. America has graphically illustrated that it is not qualified for that position; in Vietnam, Cambodia, Iraq, Afghanistan, Israel and throughout Latin America. Its brutal and tragic decisions have done nothing to dent its confidence, arms industry or position as the dominant culture. It more than grates. But the defence of Ukraine should not be confused with that blatant hypocrisy.
Hundreds of thousands of troops and civilians have been killed or injured since the start of the invasion and there is one person responsible for all of them, and that’s the rat-faced little tyrant in Moscow. He invaded Crimea as punishment for Ukraine’s rejection of Russia; Donbas because no one stopped him in Crimea; and there was no gun to his head when began his “special military operation” on February 24, 2022. There would have been no consequences to reaching the 25th without an invasion. It was a choice; a choice to rekindle Greater Russia. While many, in the UK at least, who blame NATO for the war add that ‘Putin is a cunt’, if you’re spreading his propaganda, what does that make you?
And in the US, it’s right-wing Republicans who are parroting the Russian dictator. WTAF?
Or…