Putin is a neocon’s dream come true
I suspect that many antiwar activists are upset not just about the outbreak of war in Ukraine but also by the fact that Putin’s stupid and evil invasion makes U.S. aggressive policies seem reasonable. Putin has managed to unite the world behind U.S. militarism, and U.S. public opinion seems solidly against Putin, as it should be.
But as Thomas Friedman explained in his New York Times piece This Is Putin’s War. But America and NATO Aren’t Innocent Bystanders., and as described in detail here, the United States unnecessarily provoked Putin for strategic reasons, and because the Military-Industrial Complex needs an enemy to justify its existence. NATO expansion was unnecessary, and the U.S. intentionally harassed Russia to weaken it. Putin felt that he needed to defend his people.
The U.S. has launched plenty of evil and stupid invasions all over the world. But few people are aware of those matters, and in the current situation they’re outweighed by Putin’s clear brutality (even before his invasion of Ukraine) and by superior U.S. messaging.
It’s a mystery why Putin fell into the trap.  Perhaps there were covert provocations that we’re not aware of.
Neocons, military contractors and others in the MiC must be in a celebratory mood.
The challenge is to expose U.S. culpability for the crisis without seeming to excuse Russia’s invasion, which was inexcusable.
It’s clear as glass to me — and to many others, I’m sure — that the U.S. and NATO intentionally backed Russia into a corner, provoked them, and were willing to risk a war. Explaining this to the world will take some time. I fear that in the short term, pacifists and progressives will suffer ostracization and blame. I see it on social media already.
You gotta hand it to the people in the U.S. MiC (Nuland, etc) who planned this thing. They backed Putin into a corner, made him look bad — which he is — and covered their tracks. They seem to have pre-designed a slew of social media posts glorifying Ukraine and demonizing Putin.  Even Bernie Sanders is demonizing Putin.
Let’s hope we don’t all die in a nuclear holocaust.
Domestically, my fear is that Trumpian Republicans will be the ones who reveal U.S. provocations and hypocrisy to the public.
Likewise, The Intercept has a convincing article Don’t Be a Tankie: How the Left Should Respond to Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine. While acknowledging some U.S. responsibility for what happened in Ukraine, the article comes down hard on those leftists (“tankies”) who defend or justify Putin. I do think the article fails to express the full extent of U.S. provocations, and I think it’s disgusting that U.S. illegal wars get a green light. Both sides are evil, but in this case, Russia is worse.
Usually The Intercept is pretty far left, so I’m rather surprised at the message of this and other articles in the Intercept.
The MiCÂ won this round. It was all avoidable. The bastards…… They needed a worthy enemy to justify their schemes and their spending. Putin sure fit the bill, and they provoked him to make him even worse than he was.