Polite Invasion
By Mitch Berg
Joe Doakes from Como Park emails:
Russia invades Ukraine, a massive war on par with WW II. Photos don’t look like it. Looks pretty quiet to me. Cleanest war since January 6th.
One wrecked bus shelter. A traffic jam of cars leaving town. People talking on cell phones, waiting to catch public transportation. This could be Minneapolis any day of the week.
There’s one radar antenna damaged and one apartment building on fire (I wonder if it was accidentally hit by rounds intended for the military installation which fell short, or if it was set on fire by mostly peaceful protesters?) Nobody pushing a wheelbarrow with all their belongings. No mile-long columns of marching soldiers. No piles of bodies in the streets.
Ukraine has had weeks to fortify the area but apparently did not. I see no reason the US should do it now.
Oh wait, scroll down a bit to the blonde wearing pink. Now I understand why Lesko Brandon wants the United States involved. I’ll bet her hair smells terrific.
Joe Doakes
Events have perhaps left some of the events in this email behind in recent days…
March 3rd, 2022 at 6:37 am
I saw a map on one of the networks, with arrows indicating the countries where “refugees were going to”, but on the other side, they had one black arrow pointing into Russia, where “migrants were moving”. Seriously? Typical media crap!
Makes one wonder whether or not this whole mess is an orchestrated event to distract from the dumpster fire that is Pedo Joe’s regime.
March 3rd, 2022 at 7:15 am
Watching or reading reports by Western reporters on the Ukraine invasion leads me to ask if those individuals are capable of using a bathroom unassisted. Wars are messy, chaotic events best analyzed long after the fact. We read that Putin’s plans for a quick victory are being frustrated. Perhaps. Recall the Allied invasion of Normandy was frustrated through the month of July 1944. I don’t think Putin or his generals are having fireside chats with the Western press as to what his plans are. Our Generals made that mistake all the time in Iraq and Afghanistan, as if war was a giant sporting event complete with girl sideline reporters and halftime show. Don’t pass the popcorn just yet.
March 3rd, 2022 at 7:20 am
boss, let me remind you, because maybe you forgot amid all the propaganda, that there is a tremendous amount of Russians who had been living in Ukraine for generations. 30% of Odessa is Russian for example. Do you really think they want to be hunted down, rounded up in a building and set afire? What about Russians in the Donbass and Lugansk regions? Of course there is a HUGE amount of people ESCAPING to Russia. I am afraid this “typical media crap” is real. But there is plenty of other crap to focus on.
March 3rd, 2022 at 7:21 am
doc, we are living in the era of instant news and narratives that are written before the events even happen. Hold the popcorn indeed.
March 3rd, 2022 at 7:47 am
I listened to Jonah Goldberg’s podcast yesterday (don’t judge me!). His guest was a professor of international affairs named Paul Miller. Nationalism and wars of nationalism was the topic. Both Goldberg and Miller condemned anything more than notional patriotism. For example, Goldberg said that his idea of the greatest American national holiday was Thanksgiving, because the event it celebrated came before the United States existed.
Jonah Goldberg does not interview people with whom he disagrees, so more than a few strawmen were put up and knocked down by Goldberg and Miller. Neither questioned shared, unspoken assumptions.
They agreed, for example, that the US was poor soil for nationalist sentiments because it was founded on creeds, on actual texts, rather than “blood and soil.”
I would counter that while this may be more true for the US than it is for other nations, it is not an absolute. It is not wrong to love your country and want it to prevail over other nations simply because it is the country of your birth. Loyalty to a nation lies in a hierarchy of values. I, and I think most people, would value it lesser than loyalty to family and higher than loyalty to social class or ethnicity.
It is difficult to wed the idea of patriotism to belief in words, rather than blood and soil. A nation is not a joint stock corporation. If it conceives of itself as one, it won’t last long.
There are other fatal flaws to the idea of nationhood as expressed by Goldberg and Miller, but I am already in tl;dr territory.
March 3rd, 2022 at 8:00 am
jpa;
I don’t doubt the reality. My comment was to question the use of refugees and migrants. How do we know that either group aren’t just residents of those countries going home?
March 3rd, 2022 at 8:16 am
We don’t boss, and it is likely a mixture of both. If only there was a cadre of people, let us call them journalists for a lack of a better word, who would investigate and report the truth. But alas, these “journalist” people do not exist, it is just a made-up word I dreamt of.
March 3rd, 2022 at 8:34 am
Joe Doakes appears to believe that it is Ukraine doing the propaganda. Apparently Ukraine claimed Russia was flattening its cities while only two apartment blocks in Kiev were damaged by missiles.
If China were to strike only two apartment blocks in St Paul, I guess folks in St Paul would not celebrate. They would be thankful to China for not flattening the city.
The truth is one million refugees and images of destroyed cities and dead bodies. Only one side is trying to hide that.
I think people believe what they ‘want to’ believe. No one cares for the truth anymore.
March 3rd, 2022 at 9:10 am
To clarify how this works: I send emails to Mitch when I feel like writing. He uses what he wants, when he wants, and discards the rest. The linked article is a week old which is why Mitch added the caveat about my email being overtaken by events.
A week ago, as the Russian invasion kicked off, the Left was still all-in for crushing its political opposition for honking in the streets and praising Lesko Brandon for his brilliant negotiations to stave off an invasion of Ukraine, while Ukrainians were walking around Kiev wearing hot pink talking on cell phones.
Even now, after a full week of World War III, the claimed death toll is under 2,000 and that’s if you believe the official numbers, which I don’t. Who are these guys: Imperial Storm Troopers? The A-Team? Their shots-fired-to-kill ratio must be abysmal unless . . . they’re not actually trying to kill civilians? Unless they’re trying to accomplish some other purpose while killing as few civilians as possible?
How can I know what to be outraged about, when all the news is fake news?
March 3rd, 2022 at 9:16 am
If Zelensky doesn’t surrender, Putin will airlift several thousand angry, entitled blacks from Baltimore, Minneapolis, Oakland, Detroit and yes, Chicongo, and drop them on Kiev.
Then they’ll see levels of mindless destruction and wanton violence never thought possible.
March 3rd, 2022 at 9:40 am
Joe, while I’m thankful that the destruction doesn’t rise to the level of the “U.S. Army Air Force Urban Renewal Program of 1942-1945”, I’m still seeing a lot of buildings shelled out and such, the signs that somebody has been waging war on civilian areas. We shouldn’t confuse Russian weakness with Russians being benign here, and we need to remember as well that fortification for bombing and such was done in Ukrainian cities by the Soviets with super deep subways and such. That’s the major reason you don’t see very many bodies on the streets–well, that, and the western press is largely AWOL here. My great uncle, a war correspondent in WWII who actually was wounded at Anzio, would have been appalled.
March 3rd, 2022 at 9:43 am
Things can change quickly in war. It is by its nature unpredictable, you are getting into non-linear regions of human behavior. In 1939, Brit diplomats worried about bombing the German munitions producers, because they were private corporations. A few years later they were firebombing German cities to maximize the civilian death toll.
March 3rd, 2022 at 9:47 am
No, Joe. We can rely on the multiplicity of reports from eye-witnesses on the ground and the legion of fact-checkers combing the news media universe to corroborate or refute what’s out there.
In this instance, Ukraine is winning the narrative war because truth is on its side, whereas Russia is losing it because those who are speaking on behalf of the country have been remarkably transparent when they have lied about what is happening and their motivations for launching this unnecessary war.
Russia’s friends at the UN: Cuba, North Korea, Eritrea, Syria, and Belarus and apparently SiTD have an alt-narrative. This must tell something to even the thickest of observers.
March 3rd, 2022 at 9:52 am
Ukraine is winning the narrative war
Narrative war. You effing unserious loser. And your cutsie-pie provocation to SitD readers and commenters is noted.
March 3rd, 2022 at 9:52 am
You have to avoid the hot take and you need to ignore presentism as well. In the early days of World War Two, Frank Capra produced a series of documentaries collectively called _Why We Fight_. They were intended to be shown to both civilians and soldiers. You can find them on Youtube. The documentaries are pure propaganda, paid for by the US government to promote a war.
Why did Capra think that we should fight? What he thought in 1942 is not the same as we may believe in 2022. Capra stressed the expansionist, militaristic cultures of Germany and Japan, their anti-independent labor and anti-religious ideologies. He didn’t talk much about an American duty to save Europe or about atrocities. IIRC, Jews weren’t mentioned at all. The idea was that if we didn’t fight the Nazis and the Japs with our allies, now, we would have to fight them later, alone, to keep them from invading the US.
March 3rd, 2022 at 9:58 am
Putin’s and Lavrov’s speeches are so patently and obviously absurd and fly so evidently in the face of reality it is surprising that anyone anywhere believes a word of it. While the Ukrainian narrative, led by Zelensky is so much more believable.
March 3rd, 2022 at 10:15 am
Ukraine is winning the narrative war because US media, its ‘fact checkers’ and internet trolls are on its side. Does anyone recall a Brandon Administration official saying something like “Russia believes in territory but we believe in telling the world a better story”? It was about a week ago, I can’t find it now. That’s what I think is happening: we’re being told a story. Doesn’t make it true.
Does no one here recall the word “Pallywood?” Does anyone here believe the technique is applied only to Hated Enemy Israel but not to Hated Enemy Truckers, Hated Enemy Anti-vaxxers, Hated Enemy Trump, or Hated Enemy Putin?
I don’t know the truth of what’s happening on the ground in Ukraine and neither does anybody else, up to and including whoever is pulling Lesko Brandon’s strings this day. Therefore, I decline to be morally outraged by what looks to be propaganda coming from the team which paid for Hunter’s no-show job.
March 3rd, 2022 at 10:19 am
Those sailors on snake island were killed, so Ukranian and Western propaganda machine said. I guess Ukranians figured out how this resurrection thing works since those sailors are quite alive. Russian propaganda machine said sailors were taken into custody, fed and released. I do not trust/believe either propaganda machine, but then one that spins alive and not dead is more credible, no?
March 3rd, 2022 at 10:55 am
It’s easy (and fun) to slag on rAT, but he’s not alone. If there wasn’t an ample supply of nitwits out there, cable and network news would disappear completely. Snopes survives on donations, so some are even stupid enough to pay to be lied to.
Zelensky will cut Putin and his pals in on the money laundering and slavery business, they’ll all share a bottle of vodka and some borscht and the deal will be sealed with hugs and kisses on the cheek.
March 3rd, 2022 at 11:10 am
Putin’s and Lavrov’s speeches are so patently and obviously absurd and fly so evidently in the face of reality it is surprising that anyone anywhere believes a word of it.
Reality.
Reality is a Russian attack on Ukraine with tanks and APCs and men. Lots of men.
Reality is one city after another being surrounded and taken. Sometimes nicely (like Kherson), sometimes not so (Kharkov) – depending on how much resistance is encountered.
Reality is the West cheering on the Ukrainians from the comfort of their offices and (supposed lake-side) homes to fight and die for a Narrative – and expending no more effort nor pain than pouring out their Russky-made vodka (the one with the Russky name that was probably made in Princeton, MN).
Reality is knowing that stopping the import of Russian oil & gas would be catastrophic. For the west.
Reality is knowing that imposing a No-Fly zone over Ukraine would draw the west in a real war. Possibly a nuclear war.
Reality is the real risk that we’re selling the Ukrainians a false bill of goods – just like we did when we promised them NATO membership.
They keep asking for a NATO no-fly zone because they know they can’t win without it.
We aren’t going to give it to them. Where’s that leave us?
The end result of all of our cheering and all of our weapons deliveries could be a repeat of the Second Chechen War.
The Chechens fought even harder than the Ukrainians.
They inflicted horrifying losses on the Russian army, against all odds.
What did it get them? A Russian siege of their capital that laid it to waste.
March 3rd, 2022 at 1:46 pm
Maybe we can rework Richard Thompson’s song to “Vlad’s Gonna Kill Me”:
Vlad’s in a bad mood, Vlad’s got the blues
It’s someone else’s mess that I didn’t choose
At least we’re winning on the Fox evening news
Nobody loves me here
March 3rd, 2022 at 1:47 pm
How long before Putin declares Martial Law in Russia.
March 3rd, 2022 at 1:50 pm
^ It isn’t already? He’s a dictator, you knucklehead.
March 3rd, 2022 at 2:38 pm
^ Dagnabbit Francis, there’s an International crisis on and I’m trying to focus here and now I’m sitting back and trying to stop laughing at you….
March 3rd, 2022 at 2:50 pm
^ Really? So, there’s a dictatorship and the dictator might decide to declare martial law? Is that what you’re saying in your cutsie-pie, oh-so-clever way?
March 3rd, 2022 at 3:12 pm
If we had someone with 1/2 a brain in the WH, we’d be negotiating a deal to give the Donbas region to Russia (their all Russians anyway), and vow never to let Ukraine into NATO. We don’t need them, the Donbas Russians will be happy as clams, Russia gets what they want (and what we’d want if the tables were turned) and Zelensky can go back to money laundering, human trafficking and making homoerotic video’s.
But we have a cabal of Globalist degenerates, manipulating the strings of a geriatric, senile pedophile at the wheel…so that’s out the window.
March 3rd, 2022 at 3:16 pm
Oh, c’mon, blade, I bet if you added all the brainpower in the WH you could get up to a 1/2.
March 3rd, 2022 at 4:04 pm
some things to keep in mind:
1) Russia is the natural trading partner of Russia. Transport by road & river runs easiest N-S between Ukraine and Russia, nor E-W between Ukraine and Europe. Russia needs what Ukraine produces, commodity grain and heavy industrial capacity.
2) There is a class division in Ukraine between ant-Russian sympathizers and Russian sympathizers. This division is seen in Russia itself as well. Almost by definition, Western media is biased towards the POV of the anti-Russian sympathizers.
3) NATO is very unpopular in Eastern Europe. For decades Soviet propaganda has portrayed NATO as Nazism reborn, a dagger pointed at Russia. You and I know that the idea that NATO could be used to invade and conquer Russia is ridiculous, It simply is not that kind of organization. But Many Eastern Europeans, especially those who are less educated, believe otherwise.
4) This is a Putin problem. If Russia was a European style democracy, like Poland or even Bulgaria, Ukraine would not be facing military invasion.
March 3rd, 2022 at 4:04 pm
Sorry, I meant “Russia is the natural trading partner of Ukraine.”
March 3rd, 2022 at 5:28 pm
Putin will never end this; sanctions will only work if he is deposed by fair means or foul and replaced by a regime that wants to normalise relations and is willing to reject everything that he has done in Ukraine since 2014. This could happen sooner or later but nothing will change in Russia’s policy until it does.
It must be increasingly infuriating, if you’re a wealthy middle class Russian who has just lost their lifestyle and savings, to know that all this can go away instantly if just one man was removed from his position.
March 4th, 2022 at 9:08 am
You’re not alone, E. Lindsay Graham has called for Putin to be assassinated. Which seemed odd to me: I thought extra-judicial killing was banned by Article 5 of the Fourth Geneva Convention.
But then, I thought public display of prisoners of war was banned by Article 13 of the Third Geneva Convention, but Ukraine recently did that with Russian soldiers. So maybe the WW II rules do not apply to modern conflicts? That would upset my world view – it would mean the North Vietnamese were correct to ignore the rules when they tortured American prisoners during the war.
The whole thing is bewildering.
March 4th, 2022 at 10:01 am
SiTD has been much better ever since the Covid-19 and vaccine experts who became voter fraud and “stop the steal” experts turned out to be military experts.
March 4th, 2022 at 10:44 am
Not voter fraud. Election fraud. Like this:
https://legis.wisconsin.gov/assembly/22/brandtjen/media/1552/osc-second-interim-report.pdf
March 4th, 2022 at 1:17 pm
Joe, agreed that extra-judicial killing and public display of prisoners does technically violate the laws of war and the Geneva Convention. That noted, so does starting an unprovoked war and deliberately targeting civilian areas.
In the grand scheme of things, I think the bigger offenses are starting an unprovoked war and deliberately targeting civilians are a much bigger deal, morally speaking, than killing the dictator who started the war or putting his conscript soldiers on display as such. Another point of fact; it appears that whether the Ukrainians have actually tried to off Putin or not, the Russians have clearly tried to kill Ukraine’s PM with at least a trio of dedicated teams. They’re also apparently using munitions banned by Geneva and threatening nuclear power plants.
All in all, the balance of war crimes appears to be heavily on the Russian side of the equation.
March 4th, 2022 at 1:21 pm
Sounds as if the Geneva Conventions are living documents like the Constitution, where Lindsay Graham and Sean Hannity get to pick and choose which sections apply, whenever they feel like it.
If they can do it, so can I, right? ‘Cuz I can think of a few places around town that would be greatly improved by the judicious application of heavy metals.
Good to know.
March 4th, 2022 at 3:03 pm
How do you ever roll back the sanctions on Russia once Kyiv is captured and Zelensky removed? Hard to see it.
March 4th, 2022 at 5:21 pm
I was thinking the same thing about my employer’s mandatory vaccine policy, and masks on airliners, and taking off my shoes to go through security.
When will society be safe enough to be given back a few of those old freedoms?
March 6th, 2022 at 9:33 am
^ I see versions of this talking point floating around. It has to be trolling. It can’t be serious. Although to be fair, it is entirely consistent with modern day conservative ideology to have government dictate decisions to private businesses.
🚨 (on topic) While no one knows for sure why Putin invaded, some have suggested that his primary objective is to outlaw the teaching of critical race theory at Ukrainian universities.
March 6th, 2022 at 11:19 am
That’s an interesting point.
Suppose you are engaged in a regulated industry like, say, banking or insurance. Suppose the junior aide to an elected official drops by to say to you, “This is a nice business you’ve got there. It would be a shame if you lost your business license because you were providing services to terrorists, wreckers, saboteurs, insurrectionists, truckers, the unvaxxed, gun owners, anti-abortion activists . . . .” Suppose you ‘get the message’ and announce you’re suspending services to those deplorable people bitterly clinging to their guns and Bibles.
Is it truly independent action? Or it is oppression-by-proxy? And which side of the aisle is using that technique in Canada, and here in the US?
Masks on airlines are mandated by the federal government, as are shoes in the airport security line. If the SCIENCE says Covid is over, masks are no longer necessary, and vaccines don’t prevent the spread of the disease, why are only a few of the most visible restrictions dropped just in time for a televised speech? When will the rest of the senseless Potemkin regulations fall?
March 6th, 2022 at 11:20 am
Hey, Mitch, take a look at my 11:19, willya? What word triggered the moderation? I’d like to know so I can avoid it in the future.