Something tells me he’s not going to listen…
Article Title:
Why John Mearsheimer Blames the U.S. for the Crisis in Ukraine
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Both Greenwald and Mearsheimer would have a much easier time making their case if, as they wish, Ukrainians had no agency in choosing their own political leaders, governments, and trading partners. Alas, those pesky Ukrainians want to do things their own way.
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Is it normal that the interviewer’s questions assume the tone of, “What the fuck are you talking about??”
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Yes. If you’re interviewed by him it’s called “getting Chotinered”. He’s famous for being relentless, especially with conservatives and right-wingers.
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Two days before the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Russian State Duma introduced a bill attaching fines and prison sentences to a 2021 law banning “any public attempt to equate the aims and actions of the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany during World War II, as well as to deny the decisive role of the Soviet people in the victory over fascism.” What does this bill have to do with the invasion of Ukraine? In short, everything. Russian President Vladimir Putin’s rewriting of the history of World War II has set the stage for his war in Ukraine.
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This question and answer really says it all.
Q: if many Ukrainians wanted to be considered part of Europe. It would seem like almost some sort of imperialism to tell them that they can’t be a liberal democracy.
A: It’s not imperialism; this is great-power politics.
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“Stalin? Molotov-Ribbentrop? Katyn Forest? What are those?”, asks Vlad.
There’s a legitimate discussion to be had about the morality of NATO tantalizing Ukraine with the prospect of membership in 2008 in Bucharest; however someone so amoral as to blithely accept the regimes of both Putin and Xi is not the one to have it with.
Mearsheimer is a very intelligent and educated person but his brand of cold conservative realism always tends to give indirect support to traditional fascist and authoritarian talking points despite his stance of neutrality.
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Shh. Do you want to live out your days in a Russian prison camp?
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If Putin survives this and his number 1 fanboi gets into the White House again there’s a good chance I (and most of the regulars on this BBS) would end up in an American prison camp for acknowledging the existence of those facts.
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If you take “potential nuclear war” out of the risks to consider, it might be a justification. With nukes in the mix, direct support is a non-starter.
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Here’s an earlier piece on Mearsheimer. His argument is that the world works in a moral vacuum, and more wars can be avoided if policymakers embraced that worldview.
“Amorality” and “the lesser of two evils” are a hard sell these days, and for good reason.
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That’s not actually Mearsheimer’s area of expertise. He’s a Middle East history of war professor.
His most recent claim to public fame was his pro-Israel/anti-Palestine book, but that had to have been at least 10-15 years ago now.
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The arrow pointing into Moldova might be very important, if Russia really intents to continue through Ukraine and into a neighboring nation, that was also was a part of the USSR, then there is little reason for any of the other former Soviet republics to assume the won’t also be an the list of conquests.
It’s nothing that wasn’t already assumed, but this is practically a declaration that Russia intents to take back all of what was USSR territory.
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Plus their mapping system doesn’t work, and all the road signs now read “Fuck you, Russian convoy!” /s
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I love how Frida Ghitis always brings such clarity to complex international affairs.
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Oleksiy Danilov, the Head of the National Security and Defense Council, said Ukraine had been tipped off by members of Russia’s FSB.
This might well be disinformation designed to sow distrust in Russian intelligence, but if it isn’t, it’s good
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