Corbynservatives Lashing Out at the Truth

If you really want to know how the Russians are doing in their attempt to conquer Ukraine, check out their apologists’ latest contribution to this site. Yeesh (although at least there wasn’t a cite of a Corbynista or a call to hand over 110 million Europeans into tyrannical darkness).

Don’t get me wrong, I admire the dedication of commitment to a mistake. No fewer than seven times came the insistence that swallowing Ukraine was “a matter of existential need and not mere national interest” for Russia – and this was “appreciating realism.” It even bleeds into the bright red text itself.

Now, none of us who post here have the expertise in this that Tom Nichols does – and here’s what he had to say about this idea:

This isn’t about “realism” or “geopolitics” or “balancing power.” This is about Putin and the Soviet Union and he’s not going to stop … this is not about “normal” geopolitics.

… and …

Realism is bullshit and doesn’t explain this.

On one level, the rest is just the usual claims repeated from previous posts regarding everything except Eastern Europe. There are some new bizarre assertions, however. I’ll leave aside the ones involving what “the neoconservative left” was claiming. The more important and troubling assertions involve the war itself.

For instance, the insistence that the Ukrainian military “is getting crushed.” That would be news to the combatants and analysts, who, as I’ve mentioned earlier, are in agreement that Putin has not achieved what he hoped he would right now.

They’re also asserting that NATO “aren’t united even a little bit” – which would come as a surprise to them after Germany joined the rest in sending anti-tank missiles and Sterlings to Ukraine. Meanwhile, the allies agreed to freeze Russia’s central bank assets – an unprecedented escalation that goes above and beyond anyone’s expectations (David Frum called it “the financial equivalent of a nuclear strike”).

Perhaps the Corbynservatives missed that while they were basking in the glow of agreement from the Democratic Socialists of America.

Here’s something else they missed:

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has shocked the former Soviet satellite states of Central and Eastern Europe, drawing strong condemnation even from the region’s most pro-Kremlin politicians.

For some of the countries that fled the Soviet bloc following a series of anti-communist revolutions more than 30 years ago, footage of tanks and troops rolling in to punish a nation trying to pursue its own independent course looks painfully familiar.

Two until now major pro-Russian voices in the European Union, Czech President Miloš Zeman and Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, didn’t mince their words in criticizing Moscow’s most aggressive action since the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979.

But the Corbynservatives are so dedicated to scoring points against their political opponents that they clearly haven’t noticed they’re the only ones left not blaming Russia for this war. Even self-described “pro-Russian” Americans are running for cover (Rod Dreher: “This isn’t hard to understand. Putin has gone way too far this time. Being pro-Russian is not without limits. I’m generally more favorable to Russia than most, but invading Ukraine is too much”).

There is one point of agreement: “Putin doesn’t give a damn about Twitter.” More to the point, Twitter seems not to give much of a damn about anything outside of Kyiv, which is an error for three reasons.

First, Putin’s current failure in taking Kyiv and Kharkiv doesn’t remove the successes he is scoring in the southeast of Ukraine. Second, if Kyiv falls (and apparently Moscow wants it by Monday no matter how many Russians die in the process), it will be a bigger psychological blow than a strategic one. Last but most, it completely ignores the fact of western Ukraine, which by the Corbynservatives’ own metrics has little or no affinity to Russia (Lviv was Polish, then Austrian, and then Polish again, until Stalin seized it in 1939).

But consistency isn’t really a feature of Corbynservatism – save for refusing to blame Putin for anything. So Ukraine and its 44 million citizens become Russia’s birthright; any sign of resistance is fake news; and no one can say otherwise unless they have a vampiric-level bloodlust.

Is this why Putin “thought that the whole war would be easy and everything would be done in 1-4 days“? Are the Corbynservatives the only ones from the West that he pays attention to?

Other links in this point-counterpoint discussion in chronological order from oldest to newest:

–Ukraine Will Continue to Resist Invasion – No Matter What the Rest of Us Think by D.J. McGuire

–Richard Nixon Is Dead by D.J. McGuire

–The Weak Russia Hypothesis by Shaun Kenney

–The No-Self-Determination Hypothesis by D.J. McGuire

–The Peter Pan Hypothesis in Ukraine Will Be Measured In Blood by Shaun Kenney

–Answering the Anti-anti-Putinists’ Ukraine Questions by D.J. McGuire

–War Crimes: Why Turning Ukraine Into Syria Is Terrible Foreign Policy by Shaun Kenney

–Putin Apologists’ Revisionist Approach to History by D.J. McGuire

–Why We Should Establish a No Fly Zone in (Only) Western Ukraine by D.J. McGuire

–The Neoconservatives Get It Wrong In The Ukraine (Again) by Shaun Kenney