Adam Something ripping Cornell West’s anti-NATO stance to shreds in a YouTube community post
Another day, another famous American leftist going insane on the topic of Ukraine. For the millionth time, why the “pro-peace” position is actually pro-war:
If peace is made now, the front lines solidify, and Russia walks away with a quarter of Ukraine’s sovereign territory.
Ukraine will not be let into the EU or NATO with territories under Russian control, so there will be no hard guarantee against future Russian aggression.
Russia might sign an agreement, a soft guarantee that they won’t invade Ukraine again. However, they already broke every previous agreement when they launched their war in 2022. Therefore Russian soft guarantees are worthless.
Peace now would set a precedent that invading your neighbor pays, since if you drag the war out long enough, you get to walk away with conquered territory. This would mean the end of our international rules-based order, which would immediately lead to worldwide chaos, with regional wars erupting all around the world. Some of the prospective participants of said regional wars are also nuclear powers.
Conclusion: if peace is made now, Ukraine stays in dangerous limbo, its territories occupied, with a worthless Russian pinkie promise about not invading again. Peace now makes another Russian invasion in the near future more likely. It would also destroy the rules-based order, engulfing the whole planet in regional wars, some of which would be nuclear.
Bonus: Russia itself refuses to negotiate with Ukraine. Their position remains “give us everything we want”.
From the replies (Cornel West quotes W. E. B. DuBois talking about a third world war):
Fun fact about about W.E.B DuBois: He once defended the Japanese invasion of China 1937 and their conquest of Southeast Asia in 1941 saying that it was “benevolent colonialism” and that they were an anti imperialist force fighting against Western colonialism.
The Japanese government itself claimed to be liberating Asians from European colonialism and leading Asia to “co-prosperity”.
ETA: I can’t find it now, but someone on Twitter said that DuBois called Koreans and Chinese “Uncle Toms” because they fought their Japanese “brothers” instead of allowing Japan to colonise them in a spirit of Asian brotherhood.
Historically, well-intentioned pacifism drives a lot of isolationist Useful Idiocy. And for some on the left, well-founded anti-imperialism can transform a defensive alliance that serves as a counterweight to expansionist fascist regimes into a sinister organisation because it’s dominated by the bad ol’ U.S. Unfortunately, Brother West has bought into both brands of nonsense.
It hasn’t been that long since people more or less accepted Putin taking Crimea, but sure, he’s a reasonable man and surrendering eastern Ukraine will bring peace in our time. There are no extremely well-known historical precedents to suggest otherwise.
If a pacifist risks or sacrifices their own life for the sake of non-violence in the face of aggression, that might be admirable, or foolish, or both, depending on the situation and on your political and philosophical views.
But when the pacifist wants to risk, or sacrifice, the lives of others when they themselves aren’t at risk, like West and all the other pundits and politicians who want peace in Ukraine no matter the cost to Ukrainians… In such a situation, they are cowardly and foolish at best.
I would say much worse, because they are willing to sacrifice others for their principles or peace of mind. That is the epitome of selfishness. Or Farquad-ness.
Conspirologist Girkin says he believes Prigozhin’s mutiny was “successful” and the balance of power is shifting in the Russian leadership with powers backing Prigozhin slowly taking over. He says they want to lead Russia to withdraw from war.
I say they’re going to lose either way but any internal struggle is welcome - great observation by the terrorist.
Russian major general Ivan Popov (58th combined arms Air Defense Army) recorded a message saying that he was relieved from duty from his position.
Please listen below to the audio; I’ve added subtitles.
He says he is removed for telling the truth to the high command.
He complains that they don’t have counter-battery capabilities and means of recon.
He then accuses the higher command of stabbing them in the back by beheading the army in the most trying times.
Ivan Popov, commander of the 58th Army of the Russian armed formations, currently in Zaporizhzhia, who was removed from his position earlier today says that Ukrainian artillery and missile strikes are causing significant casualties to the occupiers holding defence.
Explaining in an audio message, Popov says he delivered a damning report about the state of Russian counter-battery fire directly to Chief of the General Staff Gerasimov which resulted in his immediate dismissal.
In a four-minute audio message, Popov talks about betrayal from the most senior military leadership, echoing the sentiment expressed by Wagner mercenaries:
"A difficult situation with the leadership emerged. It was a choice between remaining silent and afraid and saying what they wanted to hear, or calling things for what they are. In your name, in the name of all perished comrades-in-arms, I didn’t have the right to lie. Hence I named all the problems that exist today in the army regarding operations, supply. I pointed the attention to the most important tragedy of the modern war - the lack of counter-battery fire, lack of artillery reconnaissance stations, and mass casualties and injuries of our brothers from enemy artillery.
I also raised a number of other issues, expressed them to the highest levels, did it openly and very brutally. Due to this, the seniors likely felt some danger in me and instantly, in one day, put together an order to the Minister of Defence and got rid of me.
As many commanders of regiments and divisions said today, our army was not broken through the front, but our most senior commander hit us in the back, thus treacherously beheading the army in the most difficult period."
Hmmm, Belgium and Netherlands both increased their spending by a comparable amount. Are they going to redraw the borders of Baarle-Hertog/Nassau by force?
I’m inclined to wonder if Nichols is being excessively optimistic:
It’s true that the Russian army has lost its grip on all the original grand plans and does not seem to have been issued any particularly inspiring replacements; but “stand there and try to lose slowly” can either be the outcome of organizational paralysis and a failure to get realistic information to people willing to respond to it; or an ugly-but-functional strategic goal if there’s reason to believe that some attempt to force a status quo is viable and so grubbing over each individual map square will change how the lines get drawn.
Please listen below to the audio; I’ve added subtitles.
