Quote (ofthevoid @ 8 Oct 2024 19:25)
Not one inch eastward has been memory holed in we were always at war with east Asia 1984 esque fashion. But to be expected when we are storybook good guys and everyone of our geopolitical enemies are always the anti-heroes. Shit, we can fuck up 5 countries in a 20 year time frame and no one cares, no sanctions, no nothing, while our geopolitical enemies doing the same to one country are viewed as evil oppressor incarnate. I guess if we spam 'unprovoked' enough time on western airwaves it must be true.
That's a highly misleading framing. First, the West having screwed up in Iraq and Afghanistan doesn't logically imply that it is in the wrong with regard to Ukraine. Second, the West had let Russia get away with annexing Crimea and having its proxy forces take over Donetsk and Luhansk. We only imposed inconsequential, perfunctory sanctions for that. This inaction was a tacit admission by the West that Russia had some point back in 2014, that the situation was murky enough, and that the pro-Russian provinces of Ukraine should probably be allowed to secede if/when the west of the country moves toward the EU/NATO.
The 'unprovoked' claim mostly refers to the situation in 2021 and 2022, when the conflict was at low intensity and the status quo was rather stable. Launching a full-scale invasion in this specific situation, at this specific point in time, was unprovoked/uncalled for.