Now to your political points.
All your apologetics for US aggression sound just like some Russian’s apologetics for Russian aggression in Chechnya, Georgia, Afghanistan etc. A justification can always be found, however flimsy.
Noam Chomsky says Iraq invasion by USA was far more unprovoked than Ukraine invasion by Russia. I happen to agree. Ukraine has a lot of Anti-Russian leaders (who may very well have good reason to be) and they happily collaborated with NATO and US to keep gradually ripping their population away from Russia’s economy, language, cultural, familial and other ties. 11 million people in Russia have relatives in Ukraine and vice versa! Many people objected. They were attacked, millions in the East were simply disenfranchised completely.
Look, you can hear it in their own words… here is Arestovich in 2019 perfectly predicting “a big war with Russia” in 2022 “with 99.9% certainty” with all the details including the attacks from Belarus, the new referendums etc. He says Ukraine MUST have this war, in order to join NATO. The alternative, he says, is that Ukraine will be too integrated with Russia in 10 years. And that is an outcome he simply cannot bear. So since he became an advisor to Zelensky he is ready to sacrifice Ukrainian civilians in a war (of course he himself is not anywhere near the front lines, neither the other politicians, the age of kings going into battle is over). And he even says it would be really “cool” to come out on the other side and join NATO! And the war with Russia would be the price of entry. And Arestovich is one of many who felt it is better to have a war with many civilians killed, than be “absorbed” by Russia… seems that multiculturalism and free trade with EU and Russia wasn’t in the cards. The right wing (such as Svoboda voters, and many Western Ukrainians) had historical grievances with Russia (eg Holodomor) and would gladly try to rip the rest of Ukraine away from Russia if they could. Enter NATO promises and weapons and training since 2014… and many of the weapons fell into the hands of the militias, who were even against Minsk I and II agreements, so all diplomatic solutions deteriorated thanks to USA and NATO promises and weapons.
Hear it in his OWN words before any invasion:
https://intellinews.com/former-ukrainian-presidential-adviso...
This is like Dick Cheney in 1994 perfectly predicting the horribke outcomes of the Iraq invasion but then later going for it anyway. And profiting from the Halliburton profits, too.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=YENbElb5-xY
This is the guy who said we’d be “greeted as liberators” in Iraq. Look, everyone always invokes “genocide” as a justification for invading. Putin did it. USA did it in Libya — back then I fell for it, but later the Pentagon admitted that the claims of Gadaffi bombing his own people from helicopters were unsubstantiated rumors. The overthrow was done, already, and Libya is a failed state for almost a decade. And USA only cared about four statesmen in Benghazi, not millions of Libyans. Just like when it comes to Saudi Arabia, USA govt only cared about Kashoggi and not millions of Yemenites.
Look, USA promised stuff all the time. To Kurds, they promised that they’d get their own country if they helped USA in the Gulf War. Then they abandoned them. Trump did it again recently in Turkey. To Mujahideen, they promised the same thing as Ukrainians, and gave them weapons to fight USSR … ONE MILLION civilians died in that war. How is this any different than Ukraine:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=A9RCFZnWGE0
Here is Nigel Farage warning the EU and Brussels just like many warned Washington and US:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=KqE7UTptgGg
Russia’s red lines were clearly and repeatedly stated for over 10 years: no Ukraine and Georgia in NATO. Now, do I hate Russia’s imperialism? Yes, and China’s and USA’s. USA’s Monroe doctrine is far more expansive than Russia’s. The entire western third of USA is land they took from Mexico. But if, say, China offered Mexico to join a military alliance and house nukes, USA would blow a lid. In fact that’s what happened in Cuba (nevermind that Cuba asked USSR to protect itself after the Bay of Pigs invasion a year earlier… and nevermind that USA did the same thing to USSR earlier in Turkey, which it declassified decades later).
Look, I could say that the pot is calling the kettle black. I could say you have to compare apples to apples. I could quote Jesus about taking the log out of your own eye first. I could use all kinds of expressions people have developed to combat flaming hypocrisy and double standards. But you’d just laugh it off with the word “whataboutism”. There is literally no way to criticize hypocrisy these days once the self righteous momentum gets going. The “trap” you think I fell into, Jesus was fond of using. “You hypocrites!”