We are the someones. And we need to raise our voices and be heard now when it counts for the courageous Ukrainian resistance.
A bipartisan majority of Our Representatives (both Dem & GOP) want to sustain aid to Ukraine. The National Security Supplemental Appropriations Act (HR 815) passed in the Senate by a 70 - 29 vote weeks ago.
Speaker Mike Johnson has not brought it to the floor of the House, so Democrats are circulating a discharge petition to force it out of committee and be voted on. The petition needs 218 signatures. It currently has 191-- only one Republican.
Everyone reading this can help by calling Republican Representatives and urging them to sign the discharge petition for HR 815 Ukraine Aid Package before it's too late. Call the U S Capitol switchboard (202) 224-3121 to leave a general statement of support, and call Speaker Johnson's office (202) 225-4000 to insist that he bring HR 815 to the floor.
For phone numbers of about two dozen specific Republicans known to support Ukraine aid, please click on recent Ukraine-related posts at https://www.FeathersOfHope.net
In Russia, life is cheap. ☠️ I volunteer usher for a large venue in SoFlo and sure appreciate the police, security guards and metal detectors protecting the public.
Agreed. His Seven Mountain Mandate, is a bunch of hooey! He is a Satanic sheep as a Putin proxy in the USA through his lord and master Treacherous-treasonous-traitorous-tantruming-Trump!
"If Ukraine and the West are guilty, then Russian security services do not have to explain why they failed to stop Islamic terrorists from killing so many Russians, because Islamic terror vanishes from the story. And if Ukrainians are to blame, then this would seem to justify the war that Russia is prosecuting against Ukraine."
If Palestinians and Iran are guilty, then Israeli security services do not have to explain why they failed to stop Hamas terrorists from killing so many Israelis, because the Netanyahu regime's complicity vanishes from the story. And if Palestinians are to blame, then this would seem to justify the war that Israel is prosecuting against Gaza.
The unprecedented political success of right wing religious extremists in Israel lead to the unprecedented intelligence failure of the Netanyahu regime on Oct 7. Prior to Oct 7 the Netanyahu administration was entirely focused on a Federalist Society style court capture - to deprive all Israelis of their civil rights, as they'd already suppressed those of Palestinians in Israel and the Occupied Territories. In their blinkered arrogance they did not imagine seeing millions of Israelis in the streets peacefully protesting for months. Nor did they credit warnings of an imminent terrorist attack by Hamas. Netanyahu's razing of Gaza is born out of personal and political panic, an impulse for retribution, and a desire for any distraction. If releasing the hostages and destroying Hamas is the goal, then it is a complete failure. At the cost of slaughtering civilians, creating a humanitarian crisis, and turning Israel into the monster its enemies had malignly and mistakenly painted it as, before Oct 8.
Thank you, Lin. The parallels are striking. Add in the victimhood aspect, where if they are the one injured first, they think they can retaliate to any degree, in any manner they decide.
"if they are the one injured first, they can retaliate to any degree, in any manner they decide."
Actually that is not the case. International laws of war and international treaties limit degree and manner of hostilities.
In February, at the urging of Sen. Chris VanHollen (D, Maryland) Pres. Biden issued National Security Memorandum 20. Which says those in line for US military aid must provide credible evidence of compliance with international law. Clearly Israel cannot provide this evidence. Netanyahu has truculently signaled he will go his own way. It is time to let him - by pausing military aid.
"... modern laws of war address the declarations of war, acceptance of surrender and the treatment of prisoners of war, military necessity, along with distinction and proportionality; and the prohibition of certain weapons that may cause unnecessary suffering."
Lin, I was referring to Netanyahu’s attitude. Which seems to be 1200 Israeli lives and the possibility of another attack justifies 30,000 Palestinians killed and counting, plus starvation and destruction of hospitals, etc. Not that Israel never did any harm to Palestinians previously.
“An eye for an eye” was supposed to be a limit on reprisal, an improvement over unlimited revenge. Not an injunction to take revenge. I am glad that Law of War and Memorandum 20 address proportionality and unnecessary suffering. Better late than never from the US. I have never understood why we still send aid to Israel, a prosperous country.
Putin apologists forgive him for his attack on Ukraine because they think he was betrayed when NATO expanded without his permission. Sort of, “they hit me first, so I can retaliate however I want.”
"Most of the aid—approximately $3.3 billion a year—is provided as grants under the Foreign Military Financing (FMF) program, funds that Israel must use to purchase U.S. military equipment and services. . .
Additionally, $500 million a year is slated for Israeli and joint U.S.-Israeli missile defense programs, in which the two countries collaborate on the research, development, and production of these systems used by Israel, including the Iron Dome, David’s Sling, and Arrow II. Iron Dome was solely developed by Israel, but the United States has been a production partner since 2014. For instance, the U.S. military contractor Raytheon manufactures Tamir interceptor missiles for Israel’s Iron Dome at its facilities in Arizona."
I think the criticism that the US has not held Israel to our own laws regarding military aid is valid. Biden stopped a proposed transfer of weapons because he reasonably thought they might fall into the hands of violent settlers. But he did transfer military aid to the army while trying every diplomatic possibility to work with Netanyahu. Who in part is pursuing the razing of Gaza to use it to split Democratic voters and help reelect Trump.
I agree the US gives special treatment to Israel. And loves our military contractors. I agree Netanyahu wants to help Trump. Also to avoid holding an election any time soon and be voted out of office and face corruption charges.
Well, you know the Crocus massacre does provide a different context for Islamist savagery than Israeli “settler colonialism.” Ought to make some people think twice about what is going on. Of course, it won’t.
"... a different context for Islamist savagery ..."
Islamist savagery? Do you want to unpack that phrase? In any context. I would think twice about that. At least twice. Even on first glance, it does not seem helpful to understanding or addressing these conflicts.
If you don’t see a deep and nasty Islamist cultural connection between the Bataclan Nightclub Massacre in Paris in 2015, the Orlando Nightclub Massacre in 2016, the Manchester concert massacre in 2017, the October 7 orgy of killing and raping, and the Moscow Cincert Massacre last week—then I urge you to think again.
Hamas has/had real reasons for October 7th, other than those claiming they want to destroy Israel, which they know they cannot do. The repercussions must not have been imagined as Israel goes beserk with retaliation to destroy Gaza and the lives of people living there.
Isis also had its reasons for the attack in Moscow.
I agree both Netanyahu and Putin are deflecting blame for security failures.
In Israel the problem goes deep to its beginning as a state and those who did not want to divide the land equitably as per the UN. Rather in the last decades they have been keeping an untenable occupation going especially now with the far right wing extremists running the country. They have the military might to do this. This invited terrorism and will continue to do so until there is a real solution to the basic problem.
Putin is running a gangster state kleptocracy and has nuclear weapons he is threatening to use. He claims Ukraine, a sovereign state, all the while attempting to destroy it.This is a gross violation of international law. ( the UN charter etc.)and Russia should be kicked off the security council. Putin is claiming he is fighting the West, the Euros and especially the US. All this with no justification whatsoever for this senseless war.
As an American Jew and Zionist who grew up in the shadow of the Holocaust, and as a Progressive, I've long thought the appropriation of Zionism by racist right wing religious extremists is *the* national security threat to Israel. AIPAC and the Evangelicals. This is personified by Netanyahu's successive and increasingly extremist regimes. And proven by their intelligence and now military failure. Religion introduces irrational habits of mind into government decision making. Trump's moving the American embassy to Jerusalem effectively ended negotiations for Israeli and Palestinian sovereign and geographically autonomous states. This also contributed to Oct 7. But what is elided by many Left wing narratives is that from the start there was a Right -Left divide in Zionism itself and in Israel. With the Left rejecting colonialism and seeking justice for Palestinians and the recognition of Palestine. Netanyahu is complicit in the assassination of Rabin. The extremists he represents are ascendent. But that is not all of Israel or every Israeli. For decades Israeli military and intelligence chiefs have denounced the Occupation. Tragically some of the Hamas victims and hostages are Israelis who spent their lives protesting for justice for Palestinians. It is wrong of the American Left to elide these Israelis and marginalize their allies. That is another story - of the influence of the antisemitism of Louis Farrakhan's Nation of Islam and Arafat's PLO - and their supporters at Left wing political protests selling copies of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion (a Russian conspiracy theory favored also by the KKK and Henry Ford.)
I am with you 100% until the part which starts “ that is another story…..”
My background is similar w half my large extended family in Israel. I have had my head stuck in this saga forever. I think of myself as progressive. I do believe an Israel should exist but this one is a great disappointment.
Yes. Disappointment does not begin to describe it. I hope your family is keeping safe. I am on an island tourist area of Maine. Last Summer there were many more Israelis. I hear Hebrew, I chat. Many were on short visits - taking a break, getting their strength restored, to go back to keep protesting. And now ...
I would think American progressives under Trump would have empathy for Israeli progressives under Netanyahu - but it's like they don't even exist.
The 'another story' is complicated. There are many sources of antisemitism in the American Left.
And, now, the deployment of the Christ killer narrative. As though Netanyahu's crimes were not sufficient in themselves.
A fine essay in the Washington Post
"This Easter, let’s not try to pretend Jesus was a ‘Palestinian Jew’"
(Paula Fredriksen, Aurelio professor of scripture emerita at Boston University, is a historian of ancient Christianity and the author of “When Christians Were Jews” and “Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews.”)
There will be no Trump second term. I can’t go there. No way…
My family in Israel and here in NY and LA are not on the left or progressive for the most part. Very pro Israel unconditionally whatever and some if not a lot anti arab feelings. I am an outlier and in MA. I have progressive like minded family in Maine. So there are divisions and we don’t discuss. A few of the younger ones I don’t even know in Israel are in the army. Our last trip to Israel was for us upsetting to just feel the situation in the air… the tension. But everyone was pretending and going on living normally not looking over the walls. Israel is an amazing country if not for that huge issue. Much more to say….
"There will be no Trump second term. I can’t go there. No way…"
Whew. From your mouth ...
I do a lot of 'sweat equity' for democracy. Including phone banking and door knocking for Democratic candidates. In 2016 I knew Trump would win. 2020 I totally did not know. I was in DC cycling over to the White House to see the BLM fence. Suddenly a block away, traffic stopped, there was silence, then horns honking, people screaming, popping up out of the sun roofs of cars waving flags, hanging out building windows, pouring into the streets towards the WH - the election had just been announced for Biden. It was a mad scene. I never made it to the WH. The next morning I cycled over very early to see the fence. The streets were empty. There were champaign corks on the ground. I will be doing everything I can for *that* outcome.
Interesting article and the comments…whew…they’re exploding as to whether or not Jesus was Palestinian! Lots of daggers are being thrown every which way.
Yes. Just in time for Easter. The Christ Killer charge. It's back. In truth it was never gone.
I understand sources of antisemitism which inform the antisemitism of the Left. The Gospels and preaching of christian churches, the Soviets, Louis Farrakhan's Nation of Islam, Yasser Arafat's PLO ... for example. And the anti Zionism, which is not necessarily the same thing but is often inextricably enmeshed. It is unfortunate. It has mislead many in the American Left to abandon and then elide the Israeli Left - people who have spent decades struggling with their own government for justice for Palestinians. One might think that progressives living under the ascendency of the racist right wing religious extremist Republican regime, might have some consideration of Israelis living under Netanyahu regimes. The impassioned antisemitic and antiZionist flourishes are unnecessary. The crimes of the Netanyahu regime speak for themselves.
I continue to wonder if Zelensky's refusal to go along with Trump's "request," revealed by Alexander Vindman's heroic whistle blowing, played a part in Putin going to war with Ukraine. I imagine Putin was infuriated that Zelensky wouldn't cave to Trump's pressure. And perhaps this war is at least, in part, punishment from Putin to Zelensky.
Had Zelensky played Putin's part the way Putin wanted him to, most likely Russia would now entirely control Ukraine and have moved into it's next country or countries of conquest.
Professor Snyder's "The Road to Unfreedom" lays out very clearly that Russia has a long, long history of believing Ukraine is part of their country (much as Hitler claimed the Sudentenland was "historically" part of Germany). Putin believes he's reassembling the Russian Empire, and, if he wins Ukraine, the Baltics are probably next. All this "Nazi" and "Western gay values" bullshit is just justification for empire and a way of keeping the Russian people paranoid.
Pam Smith: What played a part in Putin’s going to war in Ukraine was that President Biden withheld the antitank missile’s call javelins for six months starting in June 2021, as a gesture of appeasement to Putin. These were the javelin missiles that Trump eventually supplied Ukraine. It’s Biden’s attempted appeasement of Putin that’s much more important important in Putin’s decision. Trump did provide the missiles—which Obama had refused to do after Putin’s seizure of Crimea and which Biden stopped doing. Maybe if Biden had not blocked the javelins, Putin would have thought twice. We’re you aware of any of this?
“Publicizing the photos of the tortured suspects, as Russia has done, almost seems like goading Islamic State. “
There will now be more attacks by Isis K. I still do not understand why the current Tajik Terrorists did not fight to the death or have suicide vests at the end. It doesn’t match other ISIS terror scripts to escape and be captured. Why not blow themselves up when it appeared they would be captured? Especially in Russia, where they would be tortured?
I’ve read a lot about the FSB, KGB, and Russian Mafia and tactics. It’s not uncommon for a FSB agent to use a cutout/dark intermediary to hire killers for hire. We may never know in this case. All four will be dead in a week, maybe a month. Case closed. That will inform our suspicions.
On my recent flight from CPH-MIA I sat next to a mother with three teenage kids. The oldest of the kids, a young girl slept almost the entire trip, and when I asked her what language they spoke, she said Russian. But she quickly added that they came from Belarus and weren’t Russians.
She also told me that she was so tired, as they had already travelled for a long time. I still wonder why it took them so long to travel from Belarus to Copenhagen? I never saw them in MIA baggage claim and also wonder if they even made it through US Immigration.
Meanwhile, Latvia plans to phase out teaching Russian. 🇱🇻 #ProtectDemocracy
Thanks for this additional appraisal. It is astonishingly on point to make the observation, even if as a strong hypothetical perspective,:
"... Because Putin denies that Islamic State is the actor, he cannot tell Russians that Islamic State is one thing and Muslims in Tajiks in general are another. He has created the impression, instead, that Muslims and Tadjiks are the enemy because they work for the West. "
This also has a significance as perspective, perhaps also better characterized 'hypothetical' , on Trump, his supporters among members of the US House and US Senate, and other of his supporters who regularly attempt to character their political opponents (thus labelled ONLY because these people do not share their views of American society, rule of law civil society, and the US Constitution and its governance system) and many groups of Americans and others as wittingly or unwittingly anti-Trump and anti-Trumpism.
In both instances, vast numbers of people are mislead and misinformed to the extent that they are lead to the false and extremely un-factual and dangerous (universally dangerous) conclusions that they must both fear and oppose these others and that norms that they apply to themselves and to those they like need not be applied to these others.
In both instances, the vicious distortions of peoples' characters and the diversity of aspirations and thoughts are consciously made and broadcast to others from the misplaced fear-based awareness that only others can and do cause one's sense of insecurity, personal danger, of obstacle to living within one's own willful controllable human ecology. This 'helpless and endangered' sense of personal moment and relational agency is so well illustrated by the two very different but very similar willfully acted out career paths of Putin and of Trump. Each and both have such tragic character and tragic living situation histories, and each and both willfully (if not deliberately) makes decision after decision that enforce and more deeply embeds each in tragic conflict with people and institutions around them.
Self-destruction. "Terror, delusion, and self-destruction".
In our support for the Ukrainian self-defense and the reconciliation and novel building of Ukrainian society and of its relations with the communities of the world, it seem to me to be so important and necessary to constantly remind myself to ask them to help us to have the facts - all the facts that they individually and collectively can provide - to assist us in our dialogue with them to dialogue with improved understanding, mutual understanding. This, I choose to believe, is also vital to our domestic American political dialoguing; I must make strenuous efforts and do so conscientiously and continuously to foster mutual understanding, no matter how hard that is when it causes me to question my own 'living map' of others and of the novel realities of the world.
To think more, to think more often beyond the possibilities imposed by fears, and to think of others as having similar capacities to think and to think without the blocks imposed by fears -- these ways of thought and thoughtful perception are, I believe, what has enabled President Zelenskyy and his close supporters (which include the majority of Ukrainians) to consciously support themselves and seek supports from others in order to overcome fear and to continue willfully to build self-defense, to improve self-defense and to work within the notion of 'successful and internationally supported and shared goals of self-defense' leading directly and realistically to a democratic, secure postwar domestic and international civil environment. Environment is the conscious and the practical creation of rule of law, of humanitarian values for social and international relationships, and of a competence-based confidence in doing better future together.
As Tony Judt points out in Postwar, A History of Europe Since 1945, this sort of thinking and thoughtful effort must be on-going and its must have consciously enforced gradual and inclusive character.
Perhaps this is also part of choosing, and doing so with the conscious intention that this is mutual and shared human capacity, to be a 'free' choice-maker and to inform freedom in personal willful agency. A person need not fear the collapse of personal previously held ideas and emotional preferences when conscientiously engaged with others in becoming better and more mutually informed. I am free to have failed ideas, views, emotional preferences; I am being free when I make choices and acting within the intention of personal responsibility to myself and to others, predicated on the awareness that choices and actions may and often do reflect a sense of collective and mutual need but ALWAYS and in all ways do arise from incomplete and partial perception and understanding of the world. Choice, responsibility, mutuality of respect and commitment, limited understanding, willingness to correct and to voluntarily proceed together
This stood out to me: “The Ukrainian far right has never done well in elections, and is far less prominent than in any European state you care to name, let alone the United States. Ukrainians have an active civil society, a vibrant press, multiple political parties, and freedom of speech. Ukraine's president won a free and fair election. He is also, incidentally, Jewish. The Ukrainian minister of defense, for that matter, is a Muslim. The commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian armed forces was born in Russia, where his parents still reside. This kind of political and social pluralism is unusual by any standards.”
Russians live in such a gray haze unless they have seen outside the country. What else can people do to remain sane but live in an unknowing gray haze? We experienced a similar effect under Trump. It was and is difficult to listen to his finger nails on chalk board bullshit guttural sounds. Then think if this haze of mental survival lasted for decades and generations including persecutions to anyone who tries to claw up and out of the fuzzy gray haze. Suddenly there is a collapse of power and Russia is no longer Communist. By the late 1990s there were Russians who still did not know that had happened. They would not or could not watch tv or keep up with any sort of current events. Some could not afford a tv. Others, the more educated, knew current events under authoritarianism is utter nonesense and bullshit. Then Putin began to come into power. Mostly only educated Russians knew. Putin ordered people to become Russian Orthodox, get baptized, and wear an Orthodox cross necklace showing their baptism. So Russians did. About the only thing Russians know is that following orders and not standing out means survival and most likely there is some propaganda about how following orders will grant a more prosperous life. Maybe that is why many Orthodox converts with their baptismal necklaces were allowed to work outside the country? Look at the Olympics, the ice skaters wore their baptismal necklaces, the synchronized swimmers performed to Russian Christian Orthodox themes. Many did not know why, others probably were grateful for a mental change. But most, after decades and generations of militant atheist rule did not have a clear concept of what Christian Russian Orthodoxy even was. With the exception of what was left of the underground and educated Russian Orthodox believers who's families had long resisted Communism. Which had become very few and far between. They kept warning with mutters under their breath that a KGB thug coming to power would not end well. Their friends exiled outside Russia backed their claims and even more vocally voiced their disapprovals of a KGB thug coming to power. For twenty years. Twenty years of knowing a KGB twenty year strategical cycle, and watching it come to fruition, has to be brutal to anybody's well being and mental health. Starting the twenty year cycle with Bush Jr. "looking into Putin's soul" after hearing Putin's Russian Orthodox baptism story. And then American evangelical after evangelical who during the Cold War stood against militant atheism and were American resistance to Communist dictatorship began to fall. Or die, many were WWII veterans who experienced the horrors of life outside our Democratic American safe haven at young ages. Because Russian KGB dictatorship and propaganda is very crafty at keeping ALL Americans AND ALL Russians in a gray fuzzy confused haze as well. It seems like only our Eastern Block Resistance (Ukraine in particular)....Poland...., many of whom have or had ties to the last underground Soviet Russian Orthodox Christian Resistance fighters have successfully climbed out of the gray fuzzy haze and fully understand what is at stake. Yes, not to undermine the also brave Soviet Jewish Resistance as well. Putin is a classic and horrific Soviet styled KGB trained militant atheist. The faster American evangelicals especially, wrap their heads around this concept, the better off we ALL will be.
Thanks Dr. Snyder for continuing to delineate Putin’s tactics as he works to convince Russians of who the “true enemy” is in this horrible incident. His tried and true tactic of flooding the Russian media with a variety of explanations isn’t new nor is the populace’s tendency to decide that at least one of these stories must be true. All of that fits within the paradigm of never admitting any weakness in the architecture of the state he has created while always blaming a stated enemy for any misfortunes. This is not, IMO, Putin’s mastery of the narrative. It’s the current iteration of a narrative that repeated regimes have employed - a narrative that says we have support the motherland in its constant struggle against the designated aggressors who are always trying to dismantle our motherland. And, unfortunately, it’s an age-old paradigm in the education of Russian citizens that they’ve internalized as true; therefore, making it difficult for them to question.
Meanwhile many Americans spend their time divided between uselessly spending their time trying to understand Putin’s psyche or trying to selectively develop a narrative of history since WWII that posits that we and our Allie’s are as much to blame’s for Russia’s situation today as Putin is. The question here is why? Are these endeavors, which many Americans posit, a hold over from the Fukuyaman belief in the end of history of wars because we are all rational actors in developing a global world view? Or possibly are they related to the public narrative spun by American politicians during Putin’s early days when he was “making nice” with the West? Whatever the explanations we, as a nation, have to come to grips with the change in Putin’s world view in the last couple of decades or so and recognize, as do the European countries who’ve directly experienced Putin’s aggressive stances, that Putin is NOT a victim of western designs against Russia but is, in fact, actively pursuing aggressive tactics that belie the established world order that we have all benefited from since the conventions ending WWII.
"tactic of flooding the Russian media with a variety of explanations"
It's tossing spaghetti at the wall and seeing what sticks. Similar to what's called "the Gish Gallop", where you just overwhelm your opposition with lies so they can't pick apart any one of them. It's also a very fascist tactic; throw as many stories out there, even if some contradict others, so "truth" becomes fuzzy and unreliable.
Rationality is one item that is definitely in short supply in Putin's Kremlin. He may actually be taking the steps he has and making the statements he has to incite the Islamic State to commit more terrorist attacks. Because with each such attack, he further tightens his grip on the country, blaming the West and proclaiming that he alone can prevent the next one. That is the hallmark of an authoritarian dictator anywhere.
The West, and the rest of the world, needs to do more to choke off trade with Russia - make the citizens realize it is their Leader who is crazed and taking them down a dark path. Stop buying Russian oil and gas. Stop supplying Russia with goods made in the West. Ramp up all the sanctions. While not seeking to make daily life miserable for the average Russian, they must be made to realize that they need to take more concerted action against their so-called Leader. He is no Leader. He is the second coming of Hitler in so many ways, and the world is in the equivalent of the mid-1930s right now.
This is not the first large scale terrorist attack by ISIS against Russia. In 2015, ISIS blew up a Russian passenger plane of Kogalymavia (Metrojet Flight 9268), killing all 224 people on board. They did it most probably as a revenge for Russia supporting the Bashar al-Assad regime in Syria. ISIS and the Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad are fierce enemies. There have been many smaller terrorist attacks by ISIS against Russia, such as the 2017 Saint Petersburg metro bombing, which "only" killed 15 people.
Another reason for ISIS to hate Russia is Russia's support for the Taliban. These two terrorist organizations, ISIS and Taliban, are also bitter enemies.
At first l was confused as to why we were going over the same demarcations, and the known facade that Russian tacticians are putting forth. Then as l read on l realized that Professor Snyder’s explanation is more nuanced. I see this expanded piece, as a warning about how the misuse of power can justify rampant disregard for our own sovereignty, not only as Americans, but as world citizens, often without safety or homes!
When speaking of the abuses of power it is best not to generalize and apply “the rules” you are describing to any other situation!
You are simply making a false comparison and drawing inaccurate conclusions.
Those who use this argument to impune Israel, a nation that has been fighting for its own survival since before its inception, end up misrepresenting the complexities of each conflict.
Throwing casualty rates around brings up the old adage: Figures don’t lie, but liars do figure!
As Dante observed 700 years ago, words are powerful. For Putin and Trump, words are chosen to deceive. They both mix self-serving lies with truths, non-facts with facts, whatever achieves the ends.
The Former President of the United States, and the Leader of the Free World, told his communications staff in the White House, "It doesn't matter what you say. Just repeat it and they will believe you." This will be remembered as Trump's most candid, honest, moment. Defraud. Deceive. Divert. Deflect. Blame. Insult. Defame. It doesn't matter what you say if the words achieve the goal. (Compare his appeal to corruption with the integrity of Washington, Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt. And every other American President.)
Putin's speech declaring war on Ukraine (which he says doesn't exist) and the democracy in Ukraine (which he says doesn't matter) is a mess of historical facts mixed with fictions, with the intent to deceive the Russian people, first. The West, second. He continues with his deceptions today.
" In Russia's system, it is not simply political convenience that adds the big lie of Ukrainian jihadism to the big lie of Ukrainian Nazism. It is the deeper need to make reality, or at least psychological reality, conform to the story told by the state. In the psychological project, more killing is necessary. Russians are engaged in the project of killing Ukrainians. Russians in Ukraine torture Ukrainians for being loyal to Ukraine, deport Ukrainian children for assimilation to Russia, and persecute and execute local elites who they regard as threats. Russians fire some combination of shells, glide bombs, drones, cruise missiles, and ballistic missiles at Ukraine every single day, for no reason that communicates with reality. Yesterday, for example, multiple Ukrainian cities were struck by fifty-seven Russian missiles and drones."
This is the key point: Putin's plan is to completely destroy any trace of Ukraine and Ukrainians -- the total annihilation of anything Ukrainian anywhere. He, of course, cannot succeed. Ideas and souls cannot be eliminated from the Universe. Hence, his madness, his increasingly irrational statements and actions. Ukraine is still not dead forever. 🇺🇦Ще не вмерла Україна!🇺🇦
Someone or something has got to make Mike Johnson move on funding aid to Ukraine. He has a lot on his conscience.
He has a conscience?
We are the someones. And we need to raise our voices and be heard now when it counts for the courageous Ukrainian resistance.
A bipartisan majority of Our Representatives (both Dem & GOP) want to sustain aid to Ukraine. The National Security Supplemental Appropriations Act (HR 815) passed in the Senate by a 70 - 29 vote weeks ago.
Speaker Mike Johnson has not brought it to the floor of the House, so Democrats are circulating a discharge petition to force it out of committee and be voted on. The petition needs 218 signatures. It currently has 191-- only one Republican.
Everyone reading this can help by calling Republican Representatives and urging them to sign the discharge petition for HR 815 Ukraine Aid Package before it's too late. Call the U S Capitol switchboard (202) 224-3121 to leave a general statement of support, and call Speaker Johnson's office (202) 225-4000 to insist that he bring HR 815 to the floor.
For phone numbers of about two dozen specific Republicans known to support Ukraine aid, please click on recent Ukraine-related posts at https://www.FeathersOfHope.net
.
In Russia, life is cheap. ☠️ I volunteer usher for a large venue in SoFlo and sure appreciate the police, security guards and metal detectors protecting the public.
Agreed. His Seven Mountain Mandate, is a bunch of hooey! He is a Satanic sheep as a Putin proxy in the USA through his lord and master Treacherous-treasonous-traitorous-tantruming-Trump!
Can you please explain what, "a lot on his conscience." is exactly?
"If Ukraine and the West are guilty, then Russian security services do not have to explain why they failed to stop Islamic terrorists from killing so many Russians, because Islamic terror vanishes from the story. And if Ukrainians are to blame, then this would seem to justify the war that Russia is prosecuting against Ukraine."
If Palestinians and Iran are guilty, then Israeli security services do not have to explain why they failed to stop Hamas terrorists from killing so many Israelis, because the Netanyahu regime's complicity vanishes from the story. And if Palestinians are to blame, then this would seem to justify the war that Israel is prosecuting against Gaza.
The unprecedented political success of right wing religious extremists in Israel lead to the unprecedented intelligence failure of the Netanyahu regime on Oct 7. Prior to Oct 7 the Netanyahu administration was entirely focused on a Federalist Society style court capture - to deprive all Israelis of their civil rights, as they'd already suppressed those of Palestinians in Israel and the Occupied Territories. In their blinkered arrogance they did not imagine seeing millions of Israelis in the streets peacefully protesting for months. Nor did they credit warnings of an imminent terrorist attack by Hamas. Netanyahu's razing of Gaza is born out of personal and political panic, an impulse for retribution, and a desire for any distraction. If releasing the hostages and destroying Hamas is the goal, then it is a complete failure. At the cost of slaughtering civilians, creating a humanitarian crisis, and turning Israel into the monster its enemies had malignly and mistakenly painted it as, before Oct 8.
Thank you, Lin. The parallels are striking. Add in the victimhood aspect, where if they are the one injured first, they think they can retaliate to any degree, in any manner they decide.
"if they are the one injured first, they can retaliate to any degree, in any manner they decide."
Actually that is not the case. International laws of war and international treaties limit degree and manner of hostilities.
In February, at the urging of Sen. Chris VanHollen (D, Maryland) Pres. Biden issued National Security Memorandum 20. Which says those in line for US military aid must provide credible evidence of compliance with international law. Clearly Israel cannot provide this evidence. Netanyahu has truculently signaled he will go his own way. It is time to let him - by pausing military aid.
"... modern laws of war address the declarations of war, acceptance of surrender and the treatment of prisoners of war, military necessity, along with distinction and proportionality; and the prohibition of certain weapons that may cause unnecessary suffering."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Law_of_war
Lin, I was referring to Netanyahu’s attitude. Which seems to be 1200 Israeli lives and the possibility of another attack justifies 30,000 Palestinians killed and counting, plus starvation and destruction of hospitals, etc. Not that Israel never did any harm to Palestinians previously.
“An eye for an eye” was supposed to be a limit on reprisal, an improvement over unlimited revenge. Not an injunction to take revenge. I am glad that Law of War and Memorandum 20 address proportionality and unnecessary suffering. Better late than never from the US. I have never understood why we still send aid to Israel, a prosperous country.
Putin apologists forgive him for his attack on Ukraine because they think he was betrayed when NATO expanded without his permission. Sort of, “they hit me first, so I can retaliate however I want.”
"Most of the aid—approximately $3.3 billion a year—is provided as grants under the Foreign Military Financing (FMF) program, funds that Israel must use to purchase U.S. military equipment and services. . .
Additionally, $500 million a year is slated for Israeli and joint U.S.-Israeli missile defense programs, in which the two countries collaborate on the research, development, and production of these systems used by Israel, including the Iron Dome, David’s Sling, and Arrow II. Iron Dome was solely developed by Israel, but the United States has been a production partner since 2014. For instance, the U.S. military contractor Raytheon manufactures Tamir interceptor missiles for Israel’s Iron Dome at its facilities in Arizona."
I think the criticism that the US has not held Israel to our own laws regarding military aid is valid. Biden stopped a proposed transfer of weapons because he reasonably thought they might fall into the hands of violent settlers. But he did transfer military aid to the army while trying every diplomatic possibility to work with Netanyahu. Who in part is pursuing the razing of Gaza to use it to split Democratic voters and help reelect Trump.
https://www.cfr.org/article/us-aid-israel-four-charts
I agree the US gives special treatment to Israel. And loves our military contractors. I agree Netanyahu wants to help Trump. Also to avoid holding an election any time soon and be voted out of office and face corruption charges.
Well, you know the Crocus massacre does provide a different context for Islamist savagery than Israeli “settler colonialism.” Ought to make some people think twice about what is going on. Of course, it won’t.
"... a different context for Islamist savagery ..."
Islamist savagery? Do you want to unpack that phrase? In any context. I would think twice about that. At least twice. Even on first glance, it does not seem helpful to understanding or addressing these conflicts.
If you don’t see a deep and nasty Islamist cultural connection between the Bataclan Nightclub Massacre in Paris in 2015, the Orlando Nightclub Massacre in 2016, the Manchester concert massacre in 2017, the October 7 orgy of killing and raping, and the Moscow Cincert Massacre last week—then I urge you to think again.
“Islamist savagery” is the merciless slaughter of innocents energized by fundamentalist Islamist beliefs.
Hamas has/had real reasons for October 7th, other than those claiming they want to destroy Israel, which they know they cannot do. The repercussions must not have been imagined as Israel goes beserk with retaliation to destroy Gaza and the lives of people living there.
Isis also had its reasons for the attack in Moscow.
I agree both Netanyahu and Putin are deflecting blame for security failures.
In Israel the problem goes deep to its beginning as a state and those who did not want to divide the land equitably as per the UN. Rather in the last decades they have been keeping an untenable occupation going especially now with the far right wing extremists running the country. They have the military might to do this. This invited terrorism and will continue to do so until there is a real solution to the basic problem.
Putin is running a gangster state kleptocracy and has nuclear weapons he is threatening to use. He claims Ukraine, a sovereign state, all the while attempting to destroy it.This is a gross violation of international law. ( the UN charter etc.)and Russia should be kicked off the security council. Putin is claiming he is fighting the West, the Euros and especially the US. All this with no justification whatsoever for this senseless war.
There is some rhyming here.
Yes.
As an American Jew and Zionist who grew up in the shadow of the Holocaust, and as a Progressive, I've long thought the appropriation of Zionism by racist right wing religious extremists is *the* national security threat to Israel. AIPAC and the Evangelicals. This is personified by Netanyahu's successive and increasingly extremist regimes. And proven by their intelligence and now military failure. Religion introduces irrational habits of mind into government decision making. Trump's moving the American embassy to Jerusalem effectively ended negotiations for Israeli and Palestinian sovereign and geographically autonomous states. This also contributed to Oct 7. But what is elided by many Left wing narratives is that from the start there was a Right -Left divide in Zionism itself and in Israel. With the Left rejecting colonialism and seeking justice for Palestinians and the recognition of Palestine. Netanyahu is complicit in the assassination of Rabin. The extremists he represents are ascendent. But that is not all of Israel or every Israeli. For decades Israeli military and intelligence chiefs have denounced the Occupation. Tragically some of the Hamas victims and hostages are Israelis who spent their lives protesting for justice for Palestinians. It is wrong of the American Left to elide these Israelis and marginalize their allies. That is another story - of the influence of the antisemitism of Louis Farrakhan's Nation of Islam and Arafat's PLO - and their supporters at Left wing political protests selling copies of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion (a Russian conspiracy theory favored also by the KKK and Henry Ford.)
It gets complicated.
I am with you 100% until the part which starts “ that is another story…..”
My background is similar w half my large extended family in Israel. I have had my head stuck in this saga forever. I think of myself as progressive. I do believe an Israel should exist but this one is a great disappointment.
Yes. Disappointment does not begin to describe it. I hope your family is keeping safe. I am on an island tourist area of Maine. Last Summer there were many more Israelis. I hear Hebrew, I chat. Many were on short visits - taking a break, getting their strength restored, to go back to keep protesting. And now ...
I would think American progressives under Trump would have empathy for Israeli progressives under Netanyahu - but it's like they don't even exist.
The 'another story' is complicated. There are many sources of antisemitism in the American Left.
And, now, the deployment of the Christ killer narrative. As though Netanyahu's crimes were not sufficient in themselves.
A fine essay in the Washington Post
"This Easter, let’s not try to pretend Jesus was a ‘Palestinian Jew’"
(Paula Fredriksen, Aurelio professor of scripture emerita at Boston University, is a historian of ancient Christianity and the author of “When Christians Were Jews” and “Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews.”)
https://wapo.st/4cCmEYL
There will be no Trump second term. I can’t go there. No way…
My family in Israel and here in NY and LA are not on the left or progressive for the most part. Very pro Israel unconditionally whatever and some if not a lot anti arab feelings. I am an outlier and in MA. I have progressive like minded family in Maine. So there are divisions and we don’t discuss. A few of the younger ones I don’t even know in Israel are in the army. Our last trip to Israel was for us upsetting to just feel the situation in the air… the tension. But everyone was pretending and going on living normally not looking over the walls. Israel is an amazing country if not for that huge issue. Much more to say….
"There will be no Trump second term. I can’t go there. No way…"
Whew. From your mouth ...
I do a lot of 'sweat equity' for democracy. Including phone banking and door knocking for Democratic candidates. In 2016 I knew Trump would win. 2020 I totally did not know. I was in DC cycling over to the White House to see the BLM fence. Suddenly a block away, traffic stopped, there was silence, then horns honking, people screaming, popping up out of the sun roofs of cars waving flags, hanging out building windows, pouring into the streets towards the WH - the election had just been announced for Biden. It was a mad scene. I never made it to the WH. The next morning I cycled over very early to see the fence. The streets were empty. There were champaign corks on the ground. I will be doing everything I can for *that* outcome.
Interesting article and the comments…whew…they’re exploding as to whether or not Jesus was Palestinian! Lots of daggers are being thrown every which way.
Yes. Just in time for Easter. The Christ Killer charge. It's back. In truth it was never gone.
I understand sources of antisemitism which inform the antisemitism of the Left. The Gospels and preaching of christian churches, the Soviets, Louis Farrakhan's Nation of Islam, Yasser Arafat's PLO ... for example. And the anti Zionism, which is not necessarily the same thing but is often inextricably enmeshed. It is unfortunate. It has mislead many in the American Left to abandon and then elide the Israeli Left - people who have spent decades struggling with their own government for justice for Palestinians. One might think that progressives living under the ascendency of the racist right wing religious extremist Republican regime, might have some consideration of Israelis living under Netanyahu regimes. The impassioned antisemitic and antiZionist flourishes are unnecessary. The crimes of the Netanyahu regime speak for themselves.
Slava Ukraini 🇺🇦 I think that it is time to remember that Russia lost the war in Afghanistan in the 1980's.
The Ukrainian forces can prevail if provided with the ammunition they need.
https://www.britannica.com/event/Soviet-invasion-of-Afghanistan
I continue to wonder if Zelensky's refusal to go along with Trump's "request," revealed by Alexander Vindman's heroic whistle blowing, played a part in Putin going to war with Ukraine. I imagine Putin was infuriated that Zelensky wouldn't cave to Trump's pressure. And perhaps this war is at least, in part, punishment from Putin to Zelensky.
Had Zelensky played Putin's part the way Putin wanted him to, most likely Russia would now entirely control Ukraine and have moved into it's next country or countries of conquest.
Professor Snyder's "The Road to Unfreedom" lays out very clearly that Russia has a long, long history of believing Ukraine is part of their country (much as Hitler claimed the Sudentenland was "historically" part of Germany). Putin believes he's reassembling the Russian Empire, and, if he wins Ukraine, the Baltics are probably next. All this "Nazi" and "Western gay values" bullshit is just justification for empire and a way of keeping the Russian people paranoid.
Pam Smith: What played a part in Putin’s going to war in Ukraine was that President Biden withheld the antitank missile’s call javelins for six months starting in June 2021, as a gesture of appeasement to Putin. These were the javelin missiles that Trump eventually supplied Ukraine. It’s Biden’s attempted appeasement of Putin that’s much more important important in Putin’s decision. Trump did provide the missiles—which Obama had refused to do after Putin’s seizure of Crimea and which Biden stopped doing. Maybe if Biden had not blocked the javelins, Putin would have thought twice. We’re you aware of any of this?
“Publicizing the photos of the tortured suspects, as Russia has done, almost seems like goading Islamic State. “
There will now be more attacks by Isis K. I still do not understand why the current Tajik Terrorists did not fight to the death or have suicide vests at the end. It doesn’t match other ISIS terror scripts to escape and be captured. Why not blow themselves up when it appeared they would be captured? Especially in Russia, where they would be tortured?
I've wondered about the same, Ted. Perhaps these captives are decoys? The real assailants are now in Belarus? Or preparing for their next target?
I’ve read a lot about the FSB, KGB, and Russian Mafia and tactics. It’s not uncommon for a FSB agent to use a cutout/dark intermediary to hire killers for hire. We may never know in this case. All four will be dead in a week, maybe a month. Case closed. That will inform our suspicions.
On my recent flight from CPH-MIA I sat next to a mother with three teenage kids. The oldest of the kids, a young girl slept almost the entire trip, and when I asked her what language they spoke, she said Russian. But she quickly added that they came from Belarus and weren’t Russians.
She also told me that she was so tired, as they had already travelled for a long time. I still wonder why it took them so long to travel from Belarus to Copenhagen? I never saw them in MIA baggage claim and also wonder if they even made it through US Immigration.
Meanwhile, Latvia plans to phase out teaching Russian. 🇱🇻 #ProtectDemocracy
Thanks for this additional appraisal. It is astonishingly on point to make the observation, even if as a strong hypothetical perspective,:
"... Because Putin denies that Islamic State is the actor, he cannot tell Russians that Islamic State is one thing and Muslims in Tajiks in general are another. He has created the impression, instead, that Muslims and Tadjiks are the enemy because they work for the West. "
This also has a significance as perspective, perhaps also better characterized 'hypothetical' , on Trump, his supporters among members of the US House and US Senate, and other of his supporters who regularly attempt to character their political opponents (thus labelled ONLY because these people do not share their views of American society, rule of law civil society, and the US Constitution and its governance system) and many groups of Americans and others as wittingly or unwittingly anti-Trump and anti-Trumpism.
In both instances, vast numbers of people are mislead and misinformed to the extent that they are lead to the false and extremely un-factual and dangerous (universally dangerous) conclusions that they must both fear and oppose these others and that norms that they apply to themselves and to those they like need not be applied to these others.
In both instances, the vicious distortions of peoples' characters and the diversity of aspirations and thoughts are consciously made and broadcast to others from the misplaced fear-based awareness that only others can and do cause one's sense of insecurity, personal danger, of obstacle to living within one's own willful controllable human ecology. This 'helpless and endangered' sense of personal moment and relational agency is so well illustrated by the two very different but very similar willfully acted out career paths of Putin and of Trump. Each and both have such tragic character and tragic living situation histories, and each and both willfully (if not deliberately) makes decision after decision that enforce and more deeply embeds each in tragic conflict with people and institutions around them.
Self-destruction. "Terror, delusion, and self-destruction".
In our support for the Ukrainian self-defense and the reconciliation and novel building of Ukrainian society and of its relations with the communities of the world, it seem to me to be so important and necessary to constantly remind myself to ask them to help us to have the facts - all the facts that they individually and collectively can provide - to assist us in our dialogue with them to dialogue with improved understanding, mutual understanding. This, I choose to believe, is also vital to our domestic American political dialoguing; I must make strenuous efforts and do so conscientiously and continuously to foster mutual understanding, no matter how hard that is when it causes me to question my own 'living map' of others and of the novel realities of the world.
To think more, to think more often beyond the possibilities imposed by fears, and to think of others as having similar capacities to think and to think without the blocks imposed by fears -- these ways of thought and thoughtful perception are, I believe, what has enabled President Zelenskyy and his close supporters (which include the majority of Ukrainians) to consciously support themselves and seek supports from others in order to overcome fear and to continue willfully to build self-defense, to improve self-defense and to work within the notion of 'successful and internationally supported and shared goals of self-defense' leading directly and realistically to a democratic, secure postwar domestic and international civil environment. Environment is the conscious and the practical creation of rule of law, of humanitarian values for social and international relationships, and of a competence-based confidence in doing better future together.
As Tony Judt points out in Postwar, A History of Europe Since 1945, this sort of thinking and thoughtful effort must be on-going and its must have consciously enforced gradual and inclusive character.
Perhaps this is also part of choosing, and doing so with the conscious intention that this is mutual and shared human capacity, to be a 'free' choice-maker and to inform freedom in personal willful agency. A person need not fear the collapse of personal previously held ideas and emotional preferences when conscientiously engaged with others in becoming better and more mutually informed. I am free to have failed ideas, views, emotional preferences; I am being free when I make choices and acting within the intention of personal responsibility to myself and to others, predicated on the awareness that choices and actions may and often do reflect a sense of collective and mutual need but ALWAYS and in all ways do arise from incomplete and partial perception and understanding of the world. Choice, responsibility, mutuality of respect and commitment, limited understanding, willingness to correct and to voluntarily proceed together
This stood out to me: “The Ukrainian far right has never done well in elections, and is far less prominent than in any European state you care to name, let alone the United States. Ukrainians have an active civil society, a vibrant press, multiple political parties, and freedom of speech. Ukraine's president won a free and fair election. He is also, incidentally, Jewish. The Ukrainian minister of defense, for that matter, is a Muslim. The commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian armed forces was born in Russia, where his parents still reside. This kind of political and social pluralism is unusual by any standards.”
Russians live in such a gray haze unless they have seen outside the country. What else can people do to remain sane but live in an unknowing gray haze? We experienced a similar effect under Trump. It was and is difficult to listen to his finger nails on chalk board bullshit guttural sounds. Then think if this haze of mental survival lasted for decades and generations including persecutions to anyone who tries to claw up and out of the fuzzy gray haze. Suddenly there is a collapse of power and Russia is no longer Communist. By the late 1990s there were Russians who still did not know that had happened. They would not or could not watch tv or keep up with any sort of current events. Some could not afford a tv. Others, the more educated, knew current events under authoritarianism is utter nonesense and bullshit. Then Putin began to come into power. Mostly only educated Russians knew. Putin ordered people to become Russian Orthodox, get baptized, and wear an Orthodox cross necklace showing their baptism. So Russians did. About the only thing Russians know is that following orders and not standing out means survival and most likely there is some propaganda about how following orders will grant a more prosperous life. Maybe that is why many Orthodox converts with their baptismal necklaces were allowed to work outside the country? Look at the Olympics, the ice skaters wore their baptismal necklaces, the synchronized swimmers performed to Russian Christian Orthodox themes. Many did not know why, others probably were grateful for a mental change. But most, after decades and generations of militant atheist rule did not have a clear concept of what Christian Russian Orthodoxy even was. With the exception of what was left of the underground and educated Russian Orthodox believers who's families had long resisted Communism. Which had become very few and far between. They kept warning with mutters under their breath that a KGB thug coming to power would not end well. Their friends exiled outside Russia backed their claims and even more vocally voiced their disapprovals of a KGB thug coming to power. For twenty years. Twenty years of knowing a KGB twenty year strategical cycle, and watching it come to fruition, has to be brutal to anybody's well being and mental health. Starting the twenty year cycle with Bush Jr. "looking into Putin's soul" after hearing Putin's Russian Orthodox baptism story. And then American evangelical after evangelical who during the Cold War stood against militant atheism and were American resistance to Communist dictatorship began to fall. Or die, many were WWII veterans who experienced the horrors of life outside our Democratic American safe haven at young ages. Because Russian KGB dictatorship and propaganda is very crafty at keeping ALL Americans AND ALL Russians in a gray fuzzy confused haze as well. It seems like only our Eastern Block Resistance (Ukraine in particular)....Poland...., many of whom have or had ties to the last underground Soviet Russian Orthodox Christian Resistance fighters have successfully climbed out of the gray fuzzy haze and fully understand what is at stake. Yes, not to undermine the also brave Soviet Jewish Resistance as well. Putin is a classic and horrific Soviet styled KGB trained militant atheist. The faster American evangelicals especially, wrap their heads around this concept, the better off we ALL will be.
Thanks Dr. Snyder for continuing to delineate Putin’s tactics as he works to convince Russians of who the “true enemy” is in this horrible incident. His tried and true tactic of flooding the Russian media with a variety of explanations isn’t new nor is the populace’s tendency to decide that at least one of these stories must be true. All of that fits within the paradigm of never admitting any weakness in the architecture of the state he has created while always blaming a stated enemy for any misfortunes. This is not, IMO, Putin’s mastery of the narrative. It’s the current iteration of a narrative that repeated regimes have employed - a narrative that says we have support the motherland in its constant struggle against the designated aggressors who are always trying to dismantle our motherland. And, unfortunately, it’s an age-old paradigm in the education of Russian citizens that they’ve internalized as true; therefore, making it difficult for them to question.
Meanwhile many Americans spend their time divided between uselessly spending their time trying to understand Putin’s psyche or trying to selectively develop a narrative of history since WWII that posits that we and our Allie’s are as much to blame’s for Russia’s situation today as Putin is. The question here is why? Are these endeavors, which many Americans posit, a hold over from the Fukuyaman belief in the end of history of wars because we are all rational actors in developing a global world view? Or possibly are they related to the public narrative spun by American politicians during Putin’s early days when he was “making nice” with the West? Whatever the explanations we, as a nation, have to come to grips with the change in Putin’s world view in the last couple of decades or so and recognize, as do the European countries who’ve directly experienced Putin’s aggressive stances, that Putin is NOT a victim of western designs against Russia but is, in fact, actively pursuing aggressive tactics that belie the established world order that we have all benefited from since the conventions ending WWII.
"tactic of flooding the Russian media with a variety of explanations"
It's tossing spaghetti at the wall and seeing what sticks. Similar to what's called "the Gish Gallop", where you just overwhelm your opposition with lies so they can't pick apart any one of them. It's also a very fascist tactic; throw as many stories out there, even if some contradict others, so "truth" becomes fuzzy and unreliable.
Rationality is one item that is definitely in short supply in Putin's Kremlin. He may actually be taking the steps he has and making the statements he has to incite the Islamic State to commit more terrorist attacks. Because with each such attack, he further tightens his grip on the country, blaming the West and proclaiming that he alone can prevent the next one. That is the hallmark of an authoritarian dictator anywhere.
The West, and the rest of the world, needs to do more to choke off trade with Russia - make the citizens realize it is their Leader who is crazed and taking them down a dark path. Stop buying Russian oil and gas. Stop supplying Russia with goods made in the West. Ramp up all the sanctions. While not seeking to make daily life miserable for the average Russian, they must be made to realize that they need to take more concerted action against their so-called Leader. He is no Leader. He is the second coming of Hitler in so many ways, and the world is in the equivalent of the mid-1930s right now.
This is not the first large scale terrorist attack by ISIS against Russia. In 2015, ISIS blew up a Russian passenger plane of Kogalymavia (Metrojet Flight 9268), killing all 224 people on board. They did it most probably as a revenge for Russia supporting the Bashar al-Assad regime in Syria. ISIS and the Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad are fierce enemies. There have been many smaller terrorist attacks by ISIS against Russia, such as the 2017 Saint Petersburg metro bombing, which "only" killed 15 people.
Another reason for ISIS to hate Russia is Russia's support for the Taliban. These two terrorist organizations, ISIS and Taliban, are also bitter enemies.
At first l was confused as to why we were going over the same demarcations, and the known facade that Russian tacticians are putting forth. Then as l read on l realized that Professor Snyder’s explanation is more nuanced. I see this expanded piece, as a warning about how the misuse of power can justify rampant disregard for our own sovereignty, not only as Americans, but as world citizens, often without safety or homes!
When speaking of the abuses of power it is best not to generalize and apply “the rules” you are describing to any other situation!
You are simply making a false comparison and drawing inaccurate conclusions.
Those who use this argument to impune Israel, a nation that has been fighting for its own survival since before its inception, end up misrepresenting the complexities of each conflict.
Throwing casualty rates around brings up the old adage: Figures don’t lie, but liars do figure!
As Dante observed 700 years ago, words are powerful. For Putin and Trump, words are chosen to deceive. They both mix self-serving lies with truths, non-facts with facts, whatever achieves the ends.
The Former President of the United States, and the Leader of the Free World, told his communications staff in the White House, "It doesn't matter what you say. Just repeat it and they will believe you." This will be remembered as Trump's most candid, honest, moment. Defraud. Deceive. Divert. Deflect. Blame. Insult. Defame. It doesn't matter what you say if the words achieve the goal. (Compare his appeal to corruption with the integrity of Washington, Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt. And every other American President.)
Putin's speech declaring war on Ukraine (which he says doesn't exist) and the democracy in Ukraine (which he says doesn't matter) is a mess of historical facts mixed with fictions, with the intent to deceive the Russian people, first. The West, second. He continues with his deceptions today.
" In Russia's system, it is not simply political convenience that adds the big lie of Ukrainian jihadism to the big lie of Ukrainian Nazism. It is the deeper need to make reality, or at least psychological reality, conform to the story told by the state. In the psychological project, more killing is necessary. Russians are engaged in the project of killing Ukrainians. Russians in Ukraine torture Ukrainians for being loyal to Ukraine, deport Ukrainian children for assimilation to Russia, and persecute and execute local elites who they regard as threats. Russians fire some combination of shells, glide bombs, drones, cruise missiles, and ballistic missiles at Ukraine every single day, for no reason that communicates with reality. Yesterday, for example, multiple Ukrainian cities were struck by fifty-seven Russian missiles and drones."
This is the key point: Putin's plan is to completely destroy any trace of Ukraine and Ukrainians -- the total annihilation of anything Ukrainian anywhere. He, of course, cannot succeed. Ideas and souls cannot be eliminated from the Universe. Hence, his madness, his increasingly irrational statements and actions. Ukraine is still not dead forever. 🇺🇦Ще не вмерла Україна!🇺🇦
Thank you Dr. Snyder. Is it possible that you have a Russian Language version
of this post. If you do and you would like to know about my purpose in requesting one
I am happy to let you know.