"The issue isn't the territory or the land. The issue is what has happened to people in those places, and what is going on now. Everybody in Ukraine knows this, but I don't know that the outside world understands this story. We are talking about concentration camps, mass murder, torture, arrests, torment of children, all inflicted on the…
"The issue isn't the territory or the land. The issue is what has happened to people in those places, and what is going on now. Everybody in Ukraine knows this, but I don't know that the outside world understands this story. We are talking about concentration camps, mass murder, torture, arrests, torment of children, all inflicted on these zones of occupation. And the level of the crime and the knowledge of it is, I think, only just beginning right now to seep out of Ukraine."
This is obviously horrifying, but it's really difficult not to see the WWII parallels. We did not go to war against the Nazis because of the Holocaust, and I think at the time their atrocities against the Jews were not front of mind. The pace of the holocaust accelerated as the war went on. But, I think a lot of Americans in retrospect, upon learning what was going down in the KLs, thought that stopping that kind of evil would have been a sufficient causus belli, and really wished we had've gone after the Nazis just for being so evil.
As Churchill said, you can count on America to do the right thing, after it has exhausted all other options. WWII was mostly fought in a pre-nuclear era, and nuclear weapons must be considered in any calculus in today's world. But this reality that you can just do whatever you want if you have nukes, something no one has really flaunted so brazenly as Putin with this horrible war, is a serious problem.
Anne Applebaum and Timothy Snyder have been writing for months that Russia is programmatically committing genocide in Ukraine. It is policy, just as the extermination campaign carried out by the nazis was policy. We have the chance to do better this time, knowing what we know and understanding the moral imperative. Slava Ukraini also translates as never again.
"But, I think a lot of Americans in retrospect, upon learning what was going down in the KLs, thought that stopping that kind of evil would have been a sufficient causus belli, and really wished we had've gone after the Nazis just for being so evil."
That retrospect came after the war ended and the soldiers who got to see the Nazis and the camps in person came home.
A lot of decent people at the time couldn't imagine that the reports being carried out of occupied Europe by people like Jan Karski were the literal truth: it was too comforting to believe that they had to be hearsay or exaggeration. One of Eisenhower's most prescient acts was to order the extensive filming of the camp liberations and the prisoners immediately after liberation that he did. The record exists to refute the deniers today and sadly, it's still needed. The Ukrainians, taking history to heart, seem to be gathering the same kind of record. Slava Ukraini!
Well, you can do whatever you want if you have nukes, so long as the other guy also does not have them--which is why Kim (DPRK) wanted them so bad, got them, and is not going to give them up--and why the Iranians also want them.
It is why none of them really screw directly with Israel any more.
It is why we get away with a lot of the stuff we get away with
"The issue isn't the territory or the land. The issue is what has happened to people in those places, and what is going on now. Everybody in Ukraine knows this, but I don't know that the outside world understands this story. We are talking about concentration camps, mass murder, torture, arrests, torment of children, all inflicted on these zones of occupation. And the level of the crime and the knowledge of it is, I think, only just beginning right now to seep out of Ukraine."
This is obviously horrifying, but it's really difficult not to see the WWII parallels. We did not go to war against the Nazis because of the Holocaust, and I think at the time their atrocities against the Jews were not front of mind. The pace of the holocaust accelerated as the war went on. But, I think a lot of Americans in retrospect, upon learning what was going down in the KLs, thought that stopping that kind of evil would have been a sufficient causus belli, and really wished we had've gone after the Nazis just for being so evil.
As Churchill said, you can count on America to do the right thing, after it has exhausted all other options. WWII was mostly fought in a pre-nuclear era, and nuclear weapons must be considered in any calculus in today's world. But this reality that you can just do whatever you want if you have nukes, something no one has really flaunted so brazenly as Putin with this horrible war, is a serious problem.
Anne Applebaum and Timothy Snyder have been writing for months that Russia is programmatically committing genocide in Ukraine. It is policy, just as the extermination campaign carried out by the nazis was policy. We have the chance to do better this time, knowing what we know and understanding the moral imperative. Slava Ukraini also translates as never again.
"But, I think a lot of Americans in retrospect, upon learning what was going down in the KLs, thought that stopping that kind of evil would have been a sufficient causus belli, and really wished we had've gone after the Nazis just for being so evil."
That retrospect came after the war ended and the soldiers who got to see the Nazis and the camps in person came home.
A lot of decent people at the time couldn't imagine that the reports being carried out of occupied Europe by people like Jan Karski were the literal truth: it was too comforting to believe that they had to be hearsay or exaggeration. One of Eisenhower's most prescient acts was to order the extensive filming of the camp liberations and the prisoners immediately after liberation that he did. The record exists to refute the deniers today and sadly, it's still needed. The Ukrainians, taking history to heart, seem to be gathering the same kind of record. Slava Ukraini!
Well, you can do whatever you want if you have nukes, so long as the other guy also does not have them--which is why Kim (DPRK) wanted them so bad, got them, and is not going to give them up--and why the Iranians also want them.
It is why none of them really screw directly with Israel any more.
It is why we get away with a lot of the stuff we get away with