Russian invasion of Ukraine

[Magpietothemax]

^ I notice from your comments above that you seem to be very much focussing on the strength of the EU. However, the only way to interpret your comments is that you view the EU as another imperialist alliance who can challenge for world supremacy. You seem to think it is positive for mankind that the EU should challenge US power by increasing its military budget? Rather than spending money on the needs of the working class, health, education etc? Do you understand where that logic leads? You are saying that it is great that the EU is preparing to challenge US imperialism with military power. Lenin would be laughing at you right now, because your very arguments confirm exactly what he explained when he wrote:Ïmperialism the Highest Stage of Capitalism"'. The only way for capitalism to resolve the organisation of the world economy is through global war. Exactly what we are seeing in Ukraine, the antechamber of World War 3.d
I haven't been following your writings over the past decade, but i can see from what you are writing here that you are in favour of a European based bloc to temporarily align itself with US imperialism, and when the opportunity presents itself, stab them in the back.
An imperialist den of thieves, as Lenin said.
^^^^^^
Dam collapse in Dnipro: an ecological and humanitarian catastrophe. No evidence yet as to how it occurred or who was responsible. While NATO and the German government were quick to claim that it was an act of sabotage by Russian military forces, the US government was much more cautious and declared that it was still attempting to assess what happened.

[pietillidie]

^Why you'd be holding your mind back by using the same limited frameworks as neo-Marxian leftists pre-1990 is beyond me. Have you stopped reading and learning since then? It's not even close to reasonable to think that the tiny amount of world knowledge and experience we had decades ago was somehow miraculously sufficient for all time.

On what planet do nations not need to be able to defend themselves? That's basic, responsible risk management. Do you also oppose spending on police forces? Car alarms? Flood levies? Insurance policies? Vaccines? Risk management is an extraordinarily basic expression of human intelligence and planning.

And what strange moral system makes you think allowing nutcases to kill and terrorise others within their sphere without helping defend them is a superior ethical model? Or that the entirety of American existence can be reduced to 'US imperialism' once and forever in all ways. Or that Europe has no right to align with whoever it wants to defend its citizens from attack, economic terrorism and destabilisation?

You still can't seem to cope with the fact that Ukraine, Ukraine's neighbours and the EU have invited the US to defend them from an invading power. It's as if the fact has gone straight through to the keeper; like nothing else on earth matters except the voice in your head screaming 'but American imperialism'.

I'm in favour of nothing but a process of achieving fairer competition, widening the sphere of opportunity for more of humanity to express itself creatively to its fullest extent. And that's exactly what Ukraine has been trying to do by moving away from Russia's stifling, oppressive influence.

That always means achieving a better competitive balance. The EU offsetting the worst of American impulses achieves exactly that. The US helping Ukraine, Ukraine's neighbours, Eastern Europe, the EU and the global economy fend off Putin's violence and destabilisation achieves exactly that.

There is no ideal world; there are only improvements. And sending Putin back home to focus on his own pathetic, oppressive economy, facing the reality of the decline of fossil fuels, does just that. Every situation needs to be engaged on its own merits, which is exactly why the constrained, grossly overgeneralised neo-Marxian thought is not doing your intellectual capability justice.

Oh, and here's a list of the ongoing terrorism my friends in Dnipro and their families face, with this no doubt barely the half of it. What do you think this would this be doing to you psychologically?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2022%E2%80%932023_Dnipro_missile_strikes

[Magpietothemax]

Sorry for your friends in Dnipro. They are victims of a horrific war.
I have full sympathy for all those who are suffering from its consequences, and hope that they will stay safe.
You and I disagree on the causes of this war, and its implications.
That is where it stands.

[pietillidie]

^Look, I really do rate your thinking on a whole heap of things and likely almost everything.

Russia also has its own rationale. I can empathise with being trapped inside a system outside one's control, having lived inside another culture and seen how people have to accept the boundaries they're given. I can also safely assume many Russians themselves hate the place, especially those who have experienced something better. But like Trump's MAGA cult members, while I can understand that they're trapped in a culture outside of time, I'm not willing to let their state extend that misfortunate by imposing it on others. It's not a position taken against individuals.

I love Chomsky as much as the next person, but he has far less world experience than he imagines, whether that be living and immersing himself in another culture, working in a corporation, meeting the payroll of workers, saving a firm from collapse, growing up with limited opportunities, and so on.

Like us the rest of us, he's at his worst when he's poking at things far outside his sphere of experience.

[David]

I thought this was a good piece on Prigozhin and modern Russia in general:

https://samkriss.substack.com/p/the-beautiful-russia-of-the-future

[David]

I saw this and thought it worth posting as I’ve seen this false claim – that the Ukrainian military killed 14,000 civilians in the Donbas before last year’s invasion – repeated here previously:

https://mkaradjis.com/2022/06/16/on-the-fantastic-tale-that-the-ukrainian-army-killed-14000-ethnic-russians-in-donbas-between-2014-and-2022/

[pietillidie]

^Yep, just another of the 'but both sides' dumbness out there, and encouraged by an irresponsible media, that wreckers like Putin and Trump feast on.

[Magpietothemax]

[David]

So you’ve disputed the messenger’s credentials, but do you dispute the facts? I didn’t post this because it’s an authoritative source – I’ve never heard of this guy before – but because it articulates already well-established facts in a straightforward manner.

(At any rate, the site you quote from denouncing the author is scarcely credible itself. With all due respect to WSWS for their steadfast commitment to Julian Assange when others have been appallingly wishy-washy about his case, they are also obstinately contrarian and far too easily swayed by tankie taking points. I also find their constant raging against other socialist groups as "the fake left" utterly self-defeating, self-marginalising and corrosive to any broader left solidarity. I wouldn’t trust them to tell me the time of day on anything to do with Syria or Ukraine, any more than I would trust CNN or the ABC on the other side to be impartial observers.)

At the end of the day, I don’t care who says it: the claim about the Ukrainian military killing 14,000 civilians in the Donbas, as was stated on national TV by that guy who was nonetheless wrongfully kicked out of the audience by Stan Grant, is an outrageous lie and needs to be vigorously disputed lest casual observers swallow it as fact.

[Magpietothemax]

"at the end of the day, you don't care who said it"...well that is a real issue, because in judging the truth of anything in politics, the history, character and political orientation of the individual who says it is surely of critical importance.
Karadjis defends terrorist cannibals, drug trafficking KLA criminals, and tries to discredit Seymour Hersch without any evidence whatsoever. He is a member of a political organisation which in 2012 totally supported the witch hunt against Julian Assange. (In 2012, Socialist Alliance was demanding that Assange return to Sweden to face bogus rape claims. Most recently, Socialist Alliance has tried to cover its tracks by demanding the end of Julian Assange's persecution, without ever accounting for their 180 degree u turn on this question)
Yet you think that this track record is irrelevant in judging the merit of his claims regarding the war in Ukraine??
Naturally it is up to you how you determine what is true and what is not, but in the end success depends on how much you really want to find it.

[roar]

^^ and others defend the likes of Putin. Is he any better?

Talk to any non-russian living in any of the countries that border russia and there will be a consistent opinion on who is to blame.

[think positive]

well this is getting interesting!

[David]

MTTM, Sy Hersh was a genuinely heroic journalist in years gone by, but his own journalistic practices have come into question of late (and not just from libs and neocons). Like some on the left, it seems to me that he’s become a little too willing to buy into the state propaganda of the Putins and Assads of the world.

Yet when his Nord Stream pipeline story came out – based on the testimony of one anonymous source – I didn’t do what you’re doing here and dismiss it out of hand because of who wrote it (and I still haven’t); I’m interested in what’s true, not who said it.

We all have a responsibility to be critical media consumers, and the more you dig down, the fewer people you find who are 100% on your side on everything that matters. That’s actually a good thing to recognise, because it keeps you alert. But just as Trumpists take legitimate scepticism of mainstream media and channel it into blind faith in websites filled with penis enhancement surgery ads, some on the anti-imperialist left become too easily swayed by counter-narratives from other sources.

WSWS to me is a website that consistently gets some important things right, but is also extremely doctrinaire and blinkered. I can’t imagine them ever admitting they got something wrong, and I think that says something. They’re pulpit-thumpers first and foremost, and their writing radiates serious "you’re with us or you’re against us", preaching-to-the-choir energy. I find that a strange disposition if the goal is to fight for the interests of common people. But, again, I don’t dismiss what they say out of hand because they said it, because ad hominem dismissal is not a serious approach to finding truth.

If you believe that the BBC is always right, you’re inevitably going to fall for some Western propaganda narratives; if your starting point is that the BBC is always wrong, on the other hand, you’re bound to fall for some even more egregious propaganda on the other side. But if you read media critically and with awareness of how power and influence operate in different sectors, then you’re going to be better equipped with the ability to recognise when you’re being lied to. Because the truth is, in fact, out there.

[David]

[Magpietothemax]