It’s been a minute since we final checked in on the tankies—that breed of people who assume imperialism is unhealthy, however solely the US could be imperialist. In consequence, every part that’s unhealthy on this planet is the US’ fault. Nobody else has company or independence.
For instance, they declare Russia had no selection however to launch its overtly imperialistic conflict in opposition to Ukraine, as a result of it was merely responding to American efforts to encompass Russia with its NATO puppets. They’re massive supporters of the idea of the “international south,” a supposed coalition of creating nations led by global-north nations Russian and China (despotic regimes—a function, not a bug) as a counterweight to Western hegemony. This beautiful a lot sums it up:
As such, they’re fast to denounce imagined abuses by Ukraine, whereas ignoring Russian abuses. It’s fairly a sight. I’ve written about them earlier than right here, right here, right here, right here, right here, and right here. As of late, they’re celebrating Ukraine’s gradual counteroffensive advances, as they’ve given them the chance to detract from Russia’s conflict failures. In the meantime, tankie voices have gotten an enormous enhance in home American politics with the promotion of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as an effort by Steve Bannon and MAGA Republicans to create chaos within the Democratic presidential major.
Medea Benjamin, founding father of the supposedly anti-war Code Pink, has turn out to be some of the dependable Putin apologists, excusing all method of abuses within the identify of “peace.” But right here she is, extolling Henry Kissinger, somebody who has really carried out conflict crimes, for his shadow diplomacy journey to a repressive, murderous regime.
In fact, it’s not President Joe Biden’s job to barter Ukrainian territory away, however that’s the essence of being a tankie: considering an American president can name up anybody and make a factor occur.
So, no: Biden can’t carry peace to Ukraine. And if tankies and their MAGA allies had their manner and Ukraine funding was reduce, that also wouldn’t finish the conflict. It might simply make it go on, spreading distress and financial uncertainty for a lot longer. Ukraine has zero curiosity in ending the conflict till all its individuals are protected and the occupiers have been expelled. With adequate support, that may occur within the subsequent yr or two. With out it, Ukraine will nonetheless win, however it could be beneath the Afghanistan timeline—which means it might be a decade or two earlier than the international powers have been expelled.
For somebody wanting peace, you’d assume the shorter timeline makes extra sense, however Benjamin and her ilk don’t need peace. They need Russian and Chinese language hegemony, fairly than imagined American management over the world. And for all of America’s and the West’s faults, the facet that fights for democratic self-determination vs. the one run by despots will nearly all the time be the higher selection.
That’s why Taiwan now grants same-sex {couples} the fitting to undertake youngsters whereas China has banned it, together with depictions of gayness on tv or the flicks and homosexual rights teams preventing for inclusion.
Anyway, check out who’s besties with Benjamin:
It’s no shock that these two are so shut, provided that Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is all-in on the tankie ideology:
Actually nothing in that quote is right. First off, he begins with, “I’d say that the true story begins in 2014 when the U.S. authorities, and notably the neocons within the White Home and elsewhere, participated in and supported the overthrow, violent overthrow – a coup d’état – in opposition to the democratically elected authorities of the Ukraine and put in a really, very anti-Russian authorities.”
So Kennedy would have you ever consider that “neocons”—we’re speaking the Dick Cheney crew—have been within the White Home in 2014 in the course of the Obama presidency. And like a great tankie, he doesn’t assume Ukrainians themselves had any company throughout their Maidan “revolution of dignity.” Sure, this orange revolution ousted a pro-Russian authorities, however it was as a result of then-President Viktor Yanukovych refused to signal a legislation handed 355-0 by the legislature creating nearer financial ties with the European Union. Russia had lobbied closely in opposition to it, demanding the nation face eastward as a substitute.
For all of the speak of American imperialism, it was Russia that couldn’t stand the concept of its previous colony shifting towards European Union membership, and used its puppet president to face in the best way of that transfer in defiance of the nation’s democratically elected legislature. It was that very same legislature that ousted Yanukovych after large well-liked protests that killed 80 individuals, with 328 out of 450 legislators voting to oust. Nonetheless, Yanukovych, Russia, and their tankies scream “coup,” justifying Russia’s subsequent invasion of Crimea and the Donbas later that yr.
So no, there was no violent overthrow of the Ukrainian authorities by neocons within the Obama White Home. That’s actually straight out of the Russian propaganda handbook, which Kennedy is blissful to regurgitate, as is the second a part of that quote above: “The federal government that got here into the Ukraine started enacting a collection of legal guidelines that turned the Russian populations of the Donbas area into second-class residents. They illegalized, basically, their tradition, their language, and so they started finally killing them. They killed 14,000 of them. And it prompted a civil conflict within the nation.”
To begin with, it isn’t “the Ukraine,” which is one more tankie inform. Russia has promoted the usage of the “the” as a strategy to diminutize the territory as a colony, not a nation. Like “the Donbas.”
Moreover, there was no “civil conflict,” however an invasion by Russian forces. The army chief on the time was Igor Girkin, the conflict prison we love-hated due to his vicious Telegram criticisms of the 2022 Russian invasion and criticisms of high Russian generals and political officers. That every one got here to an finish final week as Putin lastly grew bored with all of it and had him arrested. Girkin wasn’t Ukrainian. He was a colonel within the Russian GRU—Russia’s external-facing intelligence group (akin to our CIA). Kennedy claims the CIA spurred a civil conflict, when it was actually and brazenly a Russian GRU intelligence operation.
In the meantime, one solely has to take heed to any video of Kyiv or another Ukrainian-held metropolis within the nation to appreciate that individuals are free to talk all of the Russian they need.
And nobody killed anybody in Donbas till Russian forces got here in and tried to take the territory by drive. Then it turned a sizzling conflict, and sure, individuals die in wars, even these sparked by hostile Russian intelligence officers.
This has been the tankie line ever since Ukraine launched its counteroffensive and didn’t shortly win. It calls for that the U.S. and NATO pull its assist as a result of solely ravenous Ukraine of sources will result in “peace.” This line of considering makes a number of unfounded assumptions:
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A cease-fire is an efficient factor. A cease-fire would enable Russia to reset, rearm, and refocus for the following section of its conflict. It has been pushing since 2014; what makes anybody assume that Russia’s acknowledged conflict goals—maintaining Ukraine inside its colonial sphere of affect—would change simply because the weapons went silent? And what makes anybody assume that this is the settlement that Russia would abruptly honor? Its historical past of damaged guarantees is simply too lengthy to ever belief the nation once more.
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If Ukraine retains preventing, the place’s the cease-fire? This complete tweet is inherently contradictory. The thought of any cease-fire is that everybody stops preventing. If Ukraine can maintain going at its personal discretion, that’s not a cease-fire. In fact, a tankie would counter with “properly then, we don’t need to assist that continued preventing.” And certain, that’s true. But when the objective is to finish the conflict, then this silly plan does nothing to finish it.
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If this settlement does nothing to cease the preventing, how are thousands and thousands of lives supposedly saved? No lives are saved by leaving Ukraine to fend for itself. It might simply imply, at finest, low-level battle (just like the one we’ve seen since 2014) persevering with to decimate lives on the entrance. All of the whereas, Russia would maintain lobbing rockets and missiles into civilian areas, whereas economically blockading Odesa and different Ukrainian Black Sea ports. The one strategy to save lives, long-term, is to defeat Russia. Something brief simply prolongs it indefinitely.
On the plus facet, not all tankies are hopeless causes.
It certain could be good if all of them skilled Russia firsthand. Which may shatter a number of illusions.
A Russian occupier laments the babushka who reported on their actions to Ukrainian intelligence after pretending to feed them.
He notes that she was “taken away.” Not all Ukrainian defenders put on camouflage.
On the very least, Russia must be booted from UNESCO.
Russian sources report actual advances by Ukrainian forces north and south of Bakhmut. I’ll go away the small print for Mark Sumner’s replace tomorrow, however the areas round Bakhmut have confirmed essentially the most fertile for Ukrainian beneficial properties. For one, Russian forces haven’t been capable of create the multilayered defenses and deep mine fields we’ve seen elsewhere. And secondly, this space simply isn’t that essential, strategically, so it doesn’t really matter a lot if Ukraine ultimately liberates the ruins of Bakhmut. Extra here.