#and talks about allowing ukraine to use the weapons

[the-jam-to-the-unicorn]

Yeah, no idea why the second attempt feels just as a fake as the first one ... /s

[xclowniex]

I want to talk about this article here.

I think it has completely missed the mark.

To sum it up, it talks about Israeli government led and individual jewish/Israeli led memorial projects for Oct 7th.

It's main criticism is that everything happened to quickly for it to be a genuine thing so it must be pro Israel propaganda.

And whilst I do agree that some of what Netanyahu has done isn't really memorial, I disagree with it being pro Israel propaganda, I would say it's more so pro Netanyahu stuff, to prime him as a good candidate for next election. I also disagree with all of the things from the israeli government not being genuine memorial, as some stuff is.

I also disagree with non Israeli government aka jewish and/or israeli led memorials such as the Nova exhibit being pro Israel propaganda. It just feeds into the whole antisemitic tropes of jews doing something nefarious behind the scenes and dual loyality tropes and jews control the media tropes. Sure a few may have ulterior motives, but acting like they all or even the majority do is just gross.

I also vehemently dislike the "the memorials happened too quickly to be genuine" because the reason for the quickness is right there.

People widely believed it didn't happen

Or that it didn't happen to the extent Israel said it did. And well, we know it was as bad as Israeli media reported it to be. But people didn't believe the reports.

And we see this all the time with holocaust denial. How could a country where the majority ethnicity experienced a genocide which still gets denied by people to this day, see the biggest massacre of jews since the holocaust and see it being denied and not go "fuck we need to do something".

Is the way it was went about tasteful? In some cases yes, and some cases no. But that is not what the article is saying.

The trauma of the holocaust is still ingrained in us. Holocaust survivor's are still alive. It ended 79 years ago. How can one not get worried when the history of denial repeats itself?

Then you also have to factor in that people don't dwell as long on history as they once did. Look at how fast the Russian invasion of Ukraine left the front page of the news. Look at how many people online no longer post about it. Look at Congo, Venezuela, Bangladesh. Those countries have all recently had important historical events. Yet how many people online post about them? How much attention did the media give to them before moving on?

How much time do we have to make an Oct 7th memorial before people who aren't jewish or Israeli don't care about it anymore? And it tied back in to the Oct 7th denial. Not to mention the fact that we have not been allowed to mourn Oct 7th. We have not been allowed to grieve.

It is not weaponizing trauma.

Would you dare say the same to black people about slavery? Queer folk about the aids crisis? Because it is very obvious that in those situations and in the current, it is not okay to claim that.

Jews and Israelis are not weaponizing our trauma. We do not have some secret agenda. We are just trying to grieve, to mourn, to honor those lost, using past experiences as a guide.

[silverfox66]

With the release of Jerry Heil's music video All Eyes On Kids, there is a bit more awareness about the abducted Ukrainian children by russia. Someone qoute-tweeted a post about this, and shared that they were shocked to only find out about this and how no one was seemingly talking about it.

And that's the thing: people are talking about it, but by far not enough people care about it. That makes it incredibly hard for news about Ukraine to leave the already established pro-Ukraine bubbles on social media.

It's like people think because Ukraine receives aid from the West that everything is now fine and dandy and under control. But that isn't true. russia is still bombing Ukraine every day. russia is still holding and torturing Ukrainian POW's. russia is still holding thousands of Ukrainian children captive. Ukraine is still not allowed to strike russian targets with western weapons from the US and Germany.

And russian propaganda still has a massive grip over people in the West. Making people believe that russians are just "poor unfortunate souls, forced to fight a war that they don't want". Instead of what they really are: willingly murders, rapists, terrorists, torturers.

Here's a video from Ukrainian Institute on how a small pro-Ukraine post can help:

[juana-the-iguana]

TW: Rape, murder, child abuse

(aka things posted on Hamas' Telegram and Twitter)

Hamas isn't posting photos of maps. Hamas isn't showing Palestinians intervening and trying to stop women from being raped.

They're not talking about how, in the hypothetical scenario where they allowed Palestinians to evacuate buildings they know will be bombed, there are not spaces for them to go.

They're not talking about why the people in Al Aqsa who were beaten after lighting fireworks inside the mosque and aiming them at praying Jews had the right to be there, or all the ways that Jews standing in the Al Aqsa complex last week are offensive.

They're not talking about why it's okay for them to work with Iran and use Russian weapons that are undoubtedly being tested there so they can be used in Ukraine.

They're not arguing that what they're doing actually isn't antisemitic, it's just decolonizing. They're not talking about why we should tolerate fundamentalist Islam and how it's only temporary.

Hamas is flooding twitter and telegram with videos of rape, kidnapping, torture, murder, dead bodies being paraded, hostages being dragged through the streets, fathers being made to watch their kids get executed and kids being made to watch their fathers get beheaded. They are showing videos of Palestinian kids beating a kidnapped Israeli boy and calling him a "dirty Jew" while he calls for his mother. They want us to see Palestinians gleefully eating sweets, lighting fireworks, spitting on bodies and cheering this overall barbarity. They are telling us that they want to kill all Jews. They are telling us this is about a global jihad, not a Palestinian state.

You, anti-Zionist tumblr poster, are doing more work to justify their actions than they are.

[qqueenofhades]

Hwy dod we even need to send more money to Ukraine tho like we’ve already supported them plenty! But let Europe pull their weight and we can go back to spending that money on American policies

Do you read like, any news outside Tumblr, any Ukrainian perspectives, any basic analyses of the conflict, any rationale from Democrats or Congress, or anything? Because, in brief:

Ukrainians are currently facing a full-scale genocide. It has been going on for over a year and Russian military leadership has every plan to continue until fruition. If they stop resisting, there will be no more Ukraine or Ukrainians. So all the "appeasers" or "realists" insisting that Ukraine should "give up land for peace" (which notably worked so well with Czechoslovakia and Hitler in 1938) are basically deciding that it's fine to let the genocide be carried out, if it's even minorly inconvenient for us. Putin and cronies have repeatedly stated that if they are successful in taking Ukraine, they will go further. This is the exact scenario that leads to the "escalation" and/or WWIII that various people keep wringing their hands over. It is far more just and safe for Ukraine to be supported now and to stop that before it gets even worse.

America is not actually giving over buckets of black cash, regardless of what various bad-faith takes claim. They are handing over weapons valued at various amounts of money, along with some financial and budgetary aid. A lot of these weapons are older and would cost more to decommission than they cost to give to a sovereign democracy fighting for its life against an imperialist autocratic neighbor. This is some tiny amount like 5% (if that) of America's bloated military budget. And again: it's actual weapons valued at a certain dollar amount. These cannot be spent on American domestic policies.

The idea that helping Ukraine is directly coming out of our own pockets or preventing us from spending as needed on our own needs is propaganda. It is not good to repeat it.

I wrote this post the other day about why Putin is trying so hard to break American/Western support for Ukraine, and why the hard-right MAGA has enabled him in it. Putin's Russia is the motivating nexus, coordination, and funding center for Russian/European/American far-right theocratic fascism. This whole "America Only" is the exact rationale that appeals to said far-right domestic fascists and gives Putin and other imperial expansionist kleptocrats the justification to just throw away post-WWII international order and declare that any larger and more powerful state can systematically eradicate any neighboring country, claim its territory, destroy its government, kill its people, and get away with it. Because why would they stop, if there aren't any consequences and they are rewarded for it?

Putin has repeatedly interfered in American elections to help Trump and the Republicans. That should tell you something about who he sees as most favorable to his interests and what he would do again if allowed to emerge victorious.

Europe IS actually pulling its weight! They just brought all 27 defense ministers to Kyiv, they have been working on Ukraine's accession talks, they have committed all types of weapons (including the long-range missiles that the US still won't clearly authorize), they've committed a new tranche of 5 billion euros in long-term assistance, etc. But the whole "we should pull out of NATO and leave Europe to fend for itself" was a key isolationist and xenophobic Trump idea. We can see what that led to.

American aid is vital to Ukraine's continued existence as a sovereign country, period, and it is in American interests to continue to provide it as agreed upon. Not least because such an egregious betrayal of a democratic ally would empower the fascists of the world, both Russian and American, and because as noted, if this conflict was not stopped and got bigger, it would then involve American troops. It is a moral, democratic, political, and ethical imperative. This is not a difficult call or a complicated situation, regardless of what the Online Leftist tankies and the MAGA-world nutcases (because horseshoe theory) want you to think.

Слава Україні.

The end.

[dontforgetukraine]

#if a fucking propaganda movie is allowed in a film festival it just proves the west doesn't care

I wouldn't necessarily say that people in the West don't care. This is a failure occurring at multiple levels.

-First is the recognition that RT (and its current and former employees) is an arm of the Kremlin and is used for psyops. The Dept of Justice in America is finally showing some awareness about that, but this needs to happen at the government, business, and civilian level everywhere. -Second is how this film got sponsors and taxpayer money to be made in the first place. What oversight is currently there and how can it be made sure this doesn't happen again? -Third is what oversight is there at these cultural and art events? -Fourth is making sure people are educated and are able to recognize any form of propaganda.

Generally speaking, it's more likely people in the West, especially America, don't know how to recognize Russian propaganda.

I'll speak from an American perspective since that's where I am. We're uninformed due to it not being covered in our education system and media landscape. In addition, our leaders have been too slow to act on psyops. While Russian psyops flood the information space of news and social media, and some of us can recognize it, the propaganda about Ukraine we encounter is different from what's in "Russians at War" with some exceptions (ex. "Whataboutism"). A person that is only vaguely aware of the war and doesn't closely follow what's happening won't necessarily recognize the context and content. That's not an excuse. That's just reality. This is something I have to keep reminding myself, that the people around me don't know how to recognize it unless they are deliberately following the war and looking to educate themselves by listening to Ukrainians and other Eastern Europeans.

There needs to be more education on forms of propaganda and media literacy, and how to build up cognitive resilience. Propaganda doesn't always look like propaganda. I'll refer to a quote I posted from Dietmar Pichler. We typically think of propaganda coming from social media and talk shows, although now in this age its a lot of podcasts and YouTube videos. These are easy to overlook, including film at a cultural and arts festival.

I'll also refer to this quote from Pekka Kallioniemi.

Transparency should be our key weapon against individuals on the fringes who promote Kremlin propaganda… Highlighting and discussing these issues openly can help. Raising awareness about individuals spreading Kremlin propaganda, especially those in positions of power, is vital… Most countries, even those strongly opposed to the Kremlin, will have one or two such pro-Kremlin voices. It’s important to acknowledge that in a democracy, everyone has a voice, even if it’s frustrating to hear Kremlin propaganda. This underscores the importance of education. If people are equipped with cognitive resilience against such misinformation, it loses its impact on society as a whole. Building cognitive resilience through education is crucial. It’s a long-term investment, but it’s an essential competence also for our children’s future, well-being, and security.

So, please, don't automatically assume the West doesn't care. There's a long road in this fight for the information space and to educate that needs to happen on multiple fronts. It's going to take all the resources and people we can get against an enemy that is very good at what it does and has been doing it for a long time. I know it's frustrating and it sucks, but there are those of us here that care and I want to reassure people about that. Remember, the enemy wants you to despair.

[mariacallous]

As an american it's so damn frustrating all the choices political leaders here keep making

Aid blocked for 6 months single handedly by johnson while other gop members said they supported Ukraine but refused to sign the discharge petition (and then everyone praises johnson for his "bravery" as if he doesn't have oceans of blood on his hands for that delay)

Biden and the white house wringing their hands over allowing Ukraine to use US weapons on valid military targets getting even more people killed

Which, purely from a selfish point of view, all these choices not only kill Ukrainians, but they also weaken the US geopolitically by making use look like an unreliable partner (because we're being an unreliable partner). Even if you don't care about innocent people dying, a lot of these people care about China, and... do you think it's appealing to our pacific allies to work with us when they see us leaving Ukraine out to dry?

Do you think maybe Taiwan might end up thinking "ok, but will they send the military or will they bicker internally for 6 months?"

It's a disgrace, especially when the most humanitarian thing to do of properly arming Ukraine is also the most self interested thing the US could do and yet we still refuse to do it

Decimating the army of a major geopolitical rival by sending old equipment that we were probably going to have to dispose of soon, spending a minuscule fraction of the US federal budget for massive benefits to the US ranging from dealing serious damage to russia and deterring China, all while not risking any american troops... and we still can't be bothered to do it?

It's... it's just shameful. Makes us look like a joke, makes us look undependable, makes it hard to want to work with us when our own infighting gets in the way of us meeting our commitments

Disgraceful how the policy makers in the US have handled things

...I seriously think that if the US had basically opened the floodgates on support from the start it could have been so much cheaper for us while getting less Ukrainians killed... might have actually made russia think twice if as soon as they invaded they saw massive amounts of military aid in the pipeline... but no, we've been drip feeding it and for all the words about "as long as it takes" we refuse to actually do that

Anyway, sorry about this ask. Just... sometimes I see people make post about Ukraine and... there's not a lot of people I can talk with about this stuff who'll actually listen over here, they don't seem to get how important this is not just in terms of... what's good for us and good for the world, but just... innocent people are dying, people are dying trying to defend their homes because we won't give them the tools they need to defend themselves... and that really really bothers me cause I have a shred of humanity but... but not a lot of other people here seem to get that

Hope you're having as good a day as possible

I agree with you and it's so sad and sobering that there are many who don't see it this way.

[eretzyisrael]

ny Nils A. Haug

[I]t clearly looks as if the Biden administration just wants to please its terrorist-sponsoring adversaries, Iran and Qatar, by allowing their prized client, Hamas, to win the war.

Regrettably, Iran does not seem to be guided by the same humanitarian, ethical, or "natural law principles" embraced by Israel and the West.

A jihadist in Iran's premier militia, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC)... probably sees the job of the IRGC as driving the US out of the Middle East so that Iran can continue to "Export the Revolution" without interference.

It is with good reason that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu complains that the US is withholding, or "slow-walking," military supplies. In Ukraine, for instance, badly needed arms are always "being delivered" but somehow never manage to arrive until long after they might actually have helped.

Although Israel's leaders are well aware of the immense danger presented by Iran, the US and other Western allies evidently cannot be relied upon to prevent Iran from completing its nuclear weapons program. The US appears to like talking, and talking about talking, diplomacy backed up by talking, verbal "understandings" so long as they have no teeth, then paying what looks like bribe money for adversaries not to "make waves," presumably at least not before the America's upcoming November election.

The Biden administration, it seems, would rather deal with threatening situations via... worthless promises from Iran, Russia, China, the Taliban, the Palestinians or whoever else will offer appeasements.

The critical point is that Israel is fighting to safeguard not just its own nation, but the West and the Free World as well. The battle at the moment seems between preserving freedom or having it extinguished by the forces of barbarism, autocracies and theocrats, but most of all by the passivity of the West.... Silky, stealth aggressors include Qatar -- the consigliere of all Islamic terror groups -- which uses money and its media network Al-Jazeera, not military aggression, as its means of persuasion.

Sadly, the Biden administration appears to view Israel not as a sovereign nation but a US satrapy. It is hardly a secret that the US has been trying to oust Israel's elected Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and replace him presumably with a subordinate. That US puppet would supposedly be delighted to have a terrorist Palestinian state next door administered by the terrorist godfather, Qatar, and be delighted to see Iran have as many nuclear weapons as it likes.

If Obama ostensibly conceived of this arrangement [the 2015 "nuclear deal"] to "balance the influence" of Saudi Arabia in the Middle East, the plan has failed colossally. Saudi Arabia, for all its faults, has not tried to enlarge its territory....

At present, both the Biden administration in the US and opposition in Israel to its current government seem to be trying to muscle Netanyahu out. US Senator Chuck Schumer, a Democrat who happens to be Jewish, declared in mid-March that Netanyahu had "lost his way" and called for "new elections" -- not in the Senator's own country, the US, but in that of a sovereign ally, Israel. Would he have called for "new elections" in England, Germany, Italy or France? Biden, unsurprisingly, quickly "embraced Schumer's speech."

Many, including some who might be looking longingly at Netanyahu's job, have advocated that "Hamas cannot be defeated." Meanwhile, Netanyahu has been doing exactly that.

The US and others have tried to claim that before defeating an adversary, one must know what will happen after the fighting stops, and that destroying Hamas's military capability will just create another whole generation of Gazans who hate Israelis and Jews. Before defeating Hitler, however, no one had suggested that it was important to know what would happen "after the fighting stopped"; the same holds true for Imperial Japan....at present, both Germany and Japan are solid allies of the US and the West. There are probably still Nazis in Germany, but they no longer have the "means, capability or opportunity" to disrupt Europe.

The US appears to be doing the bidding of its terrorist-supporting collaborators, Iran and Qatar, and their supporters -- potential voters in America's heartland -- and those who want Hamas to survive to "attack, time and again, until Israel is annihilated."

All that is required is to make sure that Israel has the ammunition and weapons it needs to fight on our behalf, to make sure they are delivered immediately, and then get out of the way.

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

Mike Luckovich

* * * *

President Biden and VP Harris meet with Ukrainian President Zelensky

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky met separately with President Biden and Vice President Harris on Thursday. The meetings were remarkable on many levels.

First, the Biden-Harris administration continues to present a unified front in supporting Ukraine while placing limitations on the offensive use of American weapons. The Biden-Harris administration’s steadfast support for Ukraine stands in stark contrast to the nearly universal GOP embrace of Putin’s war of aggression against Ukraine. See US Department of Defense, Biden Administration Announces New Security Assistance Package for Ukraine.

Second, Vice President Harris’s meeting and joint press conference with President Zelensky gave VP Harris a more prominent public-facing role in discussing US foreign policy toward Ukraine and Russia. Joe Biden deserves great credit and admiration for his generosity of spirit in allowing VP Harris to take a leading role on an important foreign policy matter. Biden’s action allowed VP Harris to showcase experience on the international stage. Joe Biden’s lack of ego is remarkable for a man who has risen to the nation’s highest office.

In her remarks in a joint press conference with President Zelensky, VP Harris said,

My support for the people of Ukraine is unwavering. [T]there are some in my country who would instead force Ukraine to give up large parts of its sovereign territory, who would demand that Ukraine accept neutrality, and would require Ukraine to forego security relationships with other nations. These proposals are the same as those of Putin, and let us be clear, they are not proposals for peace. Instead, they are proposals for surrender, which is dangerous and unacceptable.

See The Guardian, Harris decries Trump’s ‘proposals of surrender’ as Zelenskyy visits White House | Volodymyr Zelenskyy

Finally, as Biden and Harris were strongly supporting Ukraine, Trump was strongly suggesting that he would sell out Ukraine by demanding surrender. At a press conference on Thursday, the following exchange occurred:

Trump: I believe I will be able to make a deal between President Putin and President Zelensky quite quickly. Reporter: What does that look like? Trump: I don’t want to tell you what that looks like.

Trump's evasion is outrageous on many levels. The press would never accept such evasion from Kamala Harris. Remember when the White House pool reporters literally screamed at Karine Jean-Pierre when she told the press that an army specialist in Parkinson’s Disease did visit President Biden during several dozen visits to the White House. (The next day it was reported that the physician was visiting with veterans of the Iran and Iraq war working in the White House.)

Moreover, it is clear that Trump's secret plan involves telling Zelensky that the US will cut off aid to Ukraine unless it surrenders immediately to Putin. There is no other reasonable inference to be drawn from Trump's refusal to specify his “peace plan.”

Kamala Harris is right. Trump's “proposals for peace” are really “proposals for surrender.” Yet another reason the choice is clear and important in November.

The NYTimes is finally writing about Trump's unhinged press conferences

The press conference at which Trump evaded the reporter’s question about Ukraine was billed as a press conference about immigration. But Trump grew bored of his prepared remarks on immigration and began a free-style jazz improvisation without the jazz. As described by the NYTimes (Gold and Haberman),

Mr. Trump quickly appeared to grow bored with the remarks he read from, and drifted repeatedly toward other topics. He talked about inflation, accused Ms. Harris of lying about working at McDonald’s years ago and nursed his fury over how the ABC News debate moderators handled his face-off with Ms. Harris nearly three weeks ago. At the beginning of the news conference, Mr. Trump struggled at times to articulate his thoughts or make a point clearly. He stumbled over some words as he read from remarks he had plainly not written. He bootstrapped one thought onto another based on whether the words associated with something else, as opposed to having a clear through line. [¶¶] The group of Trump employees and supporters gathered in the lobby along one of the barricades that penned in where Mr. Trump spoke appeared to grow restless, with some looking around, as Mr. Trump talked and talked.

See NYTimes, McDonald’s, Pelosi, Debate Moderators: Trump Speech on Border Veers Off Course.

In the past, the NYTimes reported such remarks as “meandering.” Now, the Times is accurately reporting that Trump is “struggl[ing] to articulate his thoughts.” When Joe Biden spoke with a lifelong stutter, the Times demanded that he withdraw from the presidential race. Now that the Times is acknowledging that Trump cannot think or speak in a logical or linear fashion, the Times is content to describe the sorry spectacle and shrug its shoulders.

President Biden signs executive order on gun violence

On Thursday, the President signed an executive order designed to reduce the proliferation of machine guns and “ghost guns,” and improving active-shooter drills in schools. See WhiteHouse.gov, Executive Order on Combating Emerging Firearms Threats and Improving School-Based Active-Shooter Drills | The White House

VP Harris leads the newly established White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention. After President Biden signed the executive order, he handed the pen to VP Harris and urged her to “keep it going.” Kamala Harris then said,

It is a false choice to suggest you are either in favor of the Second Amendment, or you want to take everyone’s guns away. I am in favor of the Second Amendment and I believe we need to reinstate the assault weapons ban. [The American people have a right to] live, work, worship and learn without fear of violence -- including gun violence.

Trump stands by Mark Robinson, pretends he doesn’t know what controversy is about

During Trump's presidency, a standard tactic by Republicans trying to avoid commenting on Trump's latest outrageous statement was to say, “I haven’t seen the tweet.” On Thursday, Trump resorted to that tactic with Mark Robinson, the GOP candidate for governor of North Carolina. When a reporter asked Trump if he will drop his endorsement of Mark Robinson, Trump said,

I don’t know the situation.

Of course, Trump knew enough about Mark Robinson to describe him as “Martin Luther King on steroids.” But now that Robinson has been caught making comments on a porn forum praising Nazis and slavery, Trump “never heard of the guy.” (My words, not his.)

Critically, Trump will not withdraw his endorsement of Mark Robinson no matter what—which should give Democratic candidate for governor, Josh Stein, a reason to keep hammering Robinson and Trump throughout the remainder of the campaign. If Trump can’t un-endorse a guy who says that Mein Kamp is a good read, his antisemitic credentials are incontestable.

[Robert B. Hubbell Newsletter]

[centrally-unplanned]

Gonna talk more about the cluster munitions thing, because I think its interesting:

Weapons are not 'special'; they do not fall into dangerous vs safe categories, no weapon is more or less morally pure than the other. Every weapon of war can be used to indiscriminately kill civilians. From this, the "level 1" reasoning would state that the use of any weapon is therefore equally contextual; you just odds-estimate the "median civilian risk" like any other weapon for its use. From this logic using say tactical nuclear weapons is fine, as it is in fact trivial and common in war to arrive at scenarios where the civilian risk of such weapons is more-or-less as low as conventional weapons.

However, humans are not civilian-risk utility maximizers, and the international order is not composed of dispassionate super-rational agents. We govern things through norms & expectations, and constantly run the risk of sunk costs and moral decay. If we allowed tactical nuclear weapons to be used in Ukraine, first off they would not stay in that "low civilian risk" category; once used the pressure to keep using them increases and the ability for them to slip into far more dangerous territory is quite high compared to conventional bombs. Secondly, it would break the norm for other countries - in Ukraine, Russia could be using tactical nuclear weapons, but are not because they know the US & EU would respond extremely harshly, maybe arming Ukraine with the same. No side wants to open those floodgates.

All of this is to say that norms in war do matter, and you don't want to break them lightly, even if there is a solid use case on the micro-level for the weapon. Building these norms takes time and we are better off for them.

Cluster munitions do not, at all, have this norm. People want it to have this norm; that is admirable, and I think there is merit to it. But those people have failed - the military applications for the munitions are too large, and 'risk profile' however you wish to define it too low, for any major military power to actually limit its use. The fact that the EU & Japan have done so is very telling, as they are the countries that virtually always conduct their military operations as part of joint operations for non-critical security concerns, and with US assistance. Actual militaries who consider themselves to face critical security threats, from China to South Korea to Iran to India, have not done this. No 'norm of war' has emerged against their use. (Some norms around minimum detonation thresholds have emerged, maybe, loosely, and ofc there are norms about how to use them, though they aren't cluster-munitions specific in the main).

So certainly shipping cluster munitions to Ukraine is a setback to those hoping to form that norm, its a real cost. But that cost is much less than violating an existing norm, Russia did not hesitate to use cluster munitions and always has in its other military operations like Chechnya. There is no risk of 'escalation', no new major military power is going to go "its time!" - they all already did that decades ago - its not going to change the status quo. Which means you can get back to the granular questions - does the Ukraine war have applications within the acceptable risk range?

Which I don't know the answer to! My instinct is yes, this war has lots of 'remote' combat sites and Ukraine has no interest in killing its own people, but I am not in the field, I do not know. But the Ukrainian Army is in the field, and my default is that they should be listened to - I would need a compelling case as to why this is a large risk escalation and I haven't seen it yet.

[xclowniex]

About treating countries the same.

Russia got suspended from the Eurovision song contest after invading Ukraine. Israel is allowed to compete. The pro palestinian movement have made me aware that Azerbajdzjan should also be excluded.

One reason people talk more about Israel than other injustices is because people's respective countries side with Israel and sell them weapons. They are critisising their own countries, on top of Israel's military. There is less use in protesting Russia's invasion, because there already are no weapons being sold to them (from their own countries).

There is a scary rise in antisemitism and actual assults. I dont think that pointing at critisism and call for ceasefire and going "what about ___" is the thing to focus on? You do after all seem to agree that the use of exessive destruction need to stop?

I apologize if it came across as whataboutism, that was not the point of my post.

I personally don't care if a person posts more about one conflict than another.

The point of my post was to point out people's thought patterns, not make everyone talk about other conflicts more.

With the Russia Ukraine war thing, obviously there is nuance between that war and the i/p war. However people who call Israel genocidal often do so because of the death count and claim genocidal intent. It is extremely clear that Russia has genocidal intent towards Ukraine. Based on the two things which people use to claim Israel is genocidal, Russia should also be considered so by their logic. But it isn't which is why calling Israel genocidal is antisemitic as they have proven time and time again that they take preventative measure against genocide.

The thing with Eurovision, Russia was the aggressor and got banned. There was a long term ceasefire in place before oct 7th where Hamas was the aggressor in breaking it. Hamas is also a terrorist organization, designated by the EU.

The IDFs actions have not been 100% the best, however they do investigate incidences where they did wrong, Russia does not. That's the difference. That's why Israel gets to stay.

One is a country doing whatever they want to kill civilians, the other takes measure to prevent genocide and investigates any wrong doings.

To touch on the bit you said about people focusing more on Israel due to their countries being involved, shouldn't they care about all the other countries they send regular aid and military aid to? Shouldn't they want the US to do more to protect Ukraine? I mean, they protest for the US to do more to protect Palestine with aid, so why not protest for the US to do more to protect Ukraine with aid?

All the things that protesters want for Gaza, Ukraine also needs. Yet people don't protest for Ukraine to also get those same things.

[yxlenas]

Hi I'm here to talk about Ukraine vs. Palestine because I hate myself and having a peaceful blog

I've seen more than one weird bad faith take comparing the Russo-Ukrainian War to what's happening in the Gaza Strip, so let's look at the wartime numbers. As of 2024, Ukraine has 2.2 million military personnel and the 31st strongest passport, granting access to 148 countries. They're currently engaged in an accession deal with the European Union and the US sent them 77.8 million dollars in military financing ALONE, outside of the financial aid sent under USAI. Ukraine has been recognized outside of Soviet satellite status by the UN since 1991. 10,500 civilian casualties have been estimated, according to OXFAM, including about 600 children since February 2022. Also, Ukraine is very much under Genocide Emergency currently (updated link thanks to @kyitsya). I made a post with sources about Russia's attempts to destroy Ukrainian culture here that everyone reblogging this one should also reblog.

The POPULATION of Gaza before the beginning of the Israeli bombardment in October 2023 was .1 million people more than the Ukrainian military. They have no sovereign status at the UN. Their passport is 99th in the world and there are only 41 countries that are visa free. There has not been a free election in Gaza since 2007. There is no functional standing army, just the NSF (That has US support, btw)which is also essentially a police force of less than 11,000 people. Even accepting the IDF claim that 15,000 militants have been killed since the October 7th attack, that's approximately 20,000 non-combatants killed, taking into account the UN's altered data. Even after the UN revised data, 14,500 children have been killed. in EIGHT MONTHS. Gaza is experiencing a Genocide Emergency as well (as is Israel, because of the attacks on October 7th).

Militarily, Ukraine is being well supplied and supported. They have a still-functioning government and a standing military as well as international support. Gaza...has none of that. There needs to be a ceasefire, an international consensus going forward, and a sustainable, long term solution that allows for a sovereign Palestine (Including the end of illegal settlements in the West Bank), free and fair elections, and free movement in and out of Palestinian territories for Palestinians. I do not have a solution, I am simply a historian who teaches World History after 1500. But this is not sustainable, and bad faith comparisons and whataboutisms are NOT the move here.

Some FAQ RE collective punishment and US sanctions on Ukrainian use of US armaments below the cut!

But yxlenas, October 7th was a terrorist attack!

Yeah. It was. 1200 people were murdered because of their Jewishness, including a pretty prominent left wing peace activist. (Notice Israel is also currently experiencing a genocide emergency) and Hamas is a designated terrorist organization who definitely does not treat the civilians it is supposed to be governing in any sort of humane or safe way. The ICC issued warrants for those it believes to be responsible for the orchestration of the October 7th terrorist attacks alongside their warrants for Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant. But literally nothing excuses collective punishment (this is a WAR CRIME) which is what expert opinion has declared Israel's actions in the Gaza strip.

But yxlenas, we don't let Ukraine use US weapons on Russian targets inside Russia!

You're right, we don't. Allow me to direct you to Encyclopedia Britannica's article on the Cold War for an explanation as to why we don't do that.

But yxlenas, the bombing of Dresden killed between 25,000-250,000 civilians and helped us defeat the Nazis!

You're right! And it's literally referred to as a campaign of TERROR BOMBING and is considered one of the most controversial Allied decisions of the entire war. Israel also has an AI algorithm to target Hamas militants that is 90% accurate. With tech like that there's very little excuse to be bombing the way they're bombing that ISN'T collective punishment with the goal of eliminating the Palestinian presence in Gaza. Itamar Ben Gvir, the minister of National Security (who is threatening to resign, by the way, good fucking riddance), is actively advocating for the resettlement of Gaza.

[starseedpatriot]

For those who think Trump shouldn’t be POTUS in 2024 because he didn’t fully “drain the swamp” in his first term, allow me to offer some perspective.

Do you remember what it was like in 2017? Do you remember how many people were still completely brainwashed by the TV?

If Trump arrested Deep State actors as soon as he showed up, it would have been chaos, civil war, mass civilian casualties, legitimate threat to NATSEC, breakdown of society, etc.

At the time, a small percentage of the population even knew about the Deep State, let alone believed it was a real thing. Trump and his supporters were mocked relentlessly back then for talking about the Deep State, and now it’s widely recognized as a reality.

A large percentage of Americans believed the MSM at the time that Trump conspired with Russia. On top of that, Trump was hamstrung by the Mueller investigation. If Trump went scorched-earth on the Deep State during this time, it would not have worked. The Leftists were already emboldened to riot due to the BLM insanity. It would have been ugly.

We were on pace to handle it in Trump’s 2nd term, and then they released C19 on the world, the bio-medical police state was implemented, mail-in ballots were sent out en masse, the steal happened, and everything changed.

However, Biden’s disastrous term pretty much confirmed Trump was right about everything, and the American People got a quick 4 year dose of full-blown Orwellian totalitarian dystopia.

This caused a significant portion of the People to wake up to the realities about corruption and degeneration of society that Trump was talking about. The Left, the media, the corporations, all of the elements of the Deep State went completely batshit crazy, exposing themselves to the People.

Now add the optics of Biden weaponizing the DOJ to go after Trump over nothing, and all the sudden, if Trump went after the Deep State in his 2nd the public would not only understand it, they agree with him.

Then add additional layers, like that Biden admin and their Deep State affiliates are 100% responsible for the war in Ukraine, as they are trying to defend their illegal offshore proxy they created via CIA color revolution in 2014. Funding and arming nazi military forces and dragging the US/NATO into WW3 with nuclear superpower Russia and China waiting patiently in the shadows.

Why will Trump drain the swamp on his next term? Because the People get it now. They see what he was talking about. They had a front row seat to witness it for the last 7+ years.

Trump now has the political ammunition and the global support to do what is necessary and rid the world of the Deep State. And equally as important, the Deep State have lost control of the narrative because of the parabolic takeover of citizen journalism thanks to Elon’s introduction of free speech on Twitter.

Trump didn’t have all this going for him his first time around. Now much more of the world is awake, and more of them will continue to wake as WW3 and nuclear destruction looms over us all.

Trump said it himself. “We are in a position to that now because Pandora’s Box has been opened. People will say ‘now we get it’”.

The Left are right; if Trump wins 2024, it WILL be a “Retribution Presidency”.

[head-post]

Europe welcomes Trump: rejection of insults, Zelensky’s new demands, future of Ukraine conflict

While Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is using the Budapest summit to gain support from allies, European leaders are discussing the implications of US President Donald Trump’s presidential election victory, abandoning previous criticism of the Republican leader.

Europe’s political environment

EU leaders travelled to Budapest to discuss at the highest level relations with the United States after Trump’s victory, as well as further aid to Ukraine.

EU officials took the defeat of Democrat Kamala Harris as a victory for Russia, but previously hostile leaders are now trying not to criticise the newly elected US president. If Trump fulfils his campaign promise to end the war in Ukraine “within 24 hours” after winning the presidency, Europe will have to rely only on its own.

However, military experts worry that the only realistic way for Trump to secure such a quick peace is to demand a ceasefire and force the Ukrainians to sacrifice some territory and refuse to arm themselves further.

Global media are urging politicians not to agree to peace in Ukraine, otherwise European leaders will have to continue the fight against Russia on their own. European leaders face a dual threat: Moscow’s geopolitical influence and the US strategic decision to abandon Europe.

Politicians change their minds

Meanwhile, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk retracted his earlier statement about Trump, in which he accused the politician of collaborating with Russian intelligence services. According to WPolityce, representatives of Tusk’s office stopped co-operating with a Polish journalist after she reminded the prime minister of his earlier claims about Trump’s “dependence on Russian intelligence services.”

A member of the Verkhovna Rada (Ukraine’s parliament) expressed hope that he would be allowed to put up a monument to Ronald Reagan in Kyiv. At the same time, Ukrainian President Zelensky said he had a great conversation with Trump on the phone, although he had previously criticised the Republican leader.

I had a great phone conversation with President Donald Trump and congratulated him on his historic convincing victory […] We agreed to maintain a close dialogue and develop our co-operation. Strong and unwavering US leadership is vital for the entire world.

However, Trump reiterated to Zelensky the need to seek diplomatic ways to end the war. The Ukrainian leader agreed with his US counterpart and said he hoped the new administration would take the Ukrainian peace formula into account. Critics said that the phone call was nothing more than an attempt by Zelensky to mark himself on the political stage.

To gain the support of his allies, Zelensky travelled to Budapest to participate in a discussion at a summit of EU leaders. However, they intend to focus on an emergency discussion about preparing the EU for the consequences of Trump’s victory. Zelensky also stated:

Now there are $300bn of frozen Russian assets. Everyone says, ‘What will you do if Trump doesn’t support you?’ Can we take the 300 billion belonging to us? Can we take the 300 billion and buy weapons with that money in every country in the world? Can we decide for ourselves what to do with this money?

The Ukrainian president’s speech in Budapest was not shown in the official broadcast of the summit.

Orbán’s obvious prediction

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán made a statement to Hungarian media that the US would withdraw from the conflict in Ukraine after Trump assumed the presidency.

War is an acute problem, [Ukraine is suffering] a military defeat on the front, the Americans are going to withdraw from this war. A lot of things are being said about Trump, but there is one thing that nobody doubts: he hates war.

Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that his country was ready for peace talks on Ukraine. However, the negotiations should take place not on the basis of Kyiv’s wishes, but on the grounds of “Istanbul” and present-day realities, he added.

The EU feared Trump’s victory as he would demand the bloc increase military spending, experts said. However, they added that despite Trump’s reluctance to fund the war in Ukraine, politicians would force him to maintain his support. Nevertheless, the rapid advance of Russian troops in eastern Ukraine may soon make European and Ukrainian politicians consider early negotiations.

Read more HERE

[maximumphilosopheranchor]

Zelensky did not appear to be impressed by the American warnings. He would later explain his attitude at the time as follows: “You can say a million times, “Listen, there may be an invasion.” Okay, there may be an invasion – will you give us planes? Will you give us air defenses? “Well, you’re not a member of NATO.” Oh, okay, then what are we talking about?”’ When President Biden called Zelensky in late January to let him know that the Russian attack was almost certainly coming next month, Zelensky asked his American counterpart to ‘calm down the messaging.’ He later told reporters that the constant signals of ‘war tomorrow’ were causing ‘panic in the markets and in the financial sector.’ He estimated Ukraine’s losses from public statements about the coming war at US $ 15.5 billion. (..) But behind the scenes, the Ukrainian administration was asking its friends for weapons. The secretary of the National Security and Defense Council, Oleksii Danilov, had a message for the Western allies: “Don’t scream about this so much. Do you see a threat? Give as ten planes a day. Not one, but ten, and the threat will disappear’. That was the position taken by Zelensky on February 19, three days before the invasion, when he surprised everyone by leaving Kyiv to attend the Munich Security Conference. ‘Whatever happens, we will defend our wonderful land, whether there are 50,000, 150,000 or a million soldiers of any army on our borders,’ declared Zelensky. ‘To really help Ukraine, there’s no need to say how many of them there are – soldiers and equipment. What needs to be said is how many of us there are. To really help Ukraine, there’s no need to keep talking about dates of probable invasion. We will defend our land whether it’s February 16, March 1, or December 31. What we need much more are different dates. And everyone understands perfectly well which ones.’ He was referring to weapons delivery. Zelensky also reminded the conference participants about the responsibility that great powers had assumed in signing the 1994 Budapest Memorandum and removing nuclear weapons from Ukraine. ‘Ukraine has received security guarantees for abandoning the world’s third nuclear capability,’ stated Zelensky. ‘We don’t have that weapon. We also have no security. We also do not have part of the territory of our state that is larger in area than Switzerland, the Netherlands, or Belgium. And most importantly – we don’t have millions of our citizens. We don’t have all this. Therefore, we have something. The right to demand a shift from a policy of appeasement to ensuring security and peace guarantees.’ According to one member of the Ukrainian delegation at the Munich conference, some Western leaders advised Zelensky not to return to Ukraine in light of an imminent invasion and to form a government in exile instead. London or Warsaw, the capitals of Ukraine’s two staunchest allies in Europe, were suggested. Zelensky allegedly refused. ‘I had breakfast in Ukraine this morning, and I will have dinner in Ukraine,’ responded the Ukrainian president.

Serhii Plokhy, The Russo-Ukrainian War

I hate them boasting "oh we did warn you" as if it was some heroic deed deserving a medal. Ok, you did warn and - you refused to help when asked, denied sending the vital weapons. So what did you suggest, what did you expect him to do? To evacuate apparently. It strikes me as a very dishonest and cowardly stance. Zelensky was saving the country's economy that allowed Ukrainians to fight and the Ukrainian military was making preparations, Zaluzhnyi himself spoke about it in Dmytro Komarov's documentary, only it was done in secrecy and with those limited resources that were in their disposal.

[mariacallous]

Following talks in Washington with Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Vice-President Harris said there were some in the U.S. who would give up Ukrainian territory, but that these were proposals for surrender.

Harris said if Russian President Vladimir Putin was allowed to take land with impunity, he could next set his sights on Poland and the Baltics.

Harris reaffirmed the U.S.’s unwavering support for Kyiv as she said it is in Washington’s interests.

She also said Putin could end the war at any time by withdrawing his troops and that there could be no decisions about the conflict’s conclusion without Ukraine.

Zelenskyy met Harris following talks with President Joe Biden.

The meetings with Biden and Harris represent the apex of a high-profile trip to the U.S. during which the Ukrainian leader gave a defiant address to the UN General Assembly.

Original plans had involved the Ukrainian president detailing a much-touted “victory plan” to his U.S. counterpart before presenting it to Harris and former President Donald Trump, who will face off at the polls in November.

Tensions with Trump

The meeting with Trump was called off, however, as the pair traded barbs.

Trump accused Zelenskyy of refusing to negotiate a deal with Putin, and also claimed Ukraine had been “obliterated” by Russia and was beyond reconstruction.

At a campaign rally on Wednesday, Trump described Zelenskyy as “probably the greatest salesman on Earth," due to the amount of aid he has secured for Ukraine’s war effort.

Kyiv has received $175 billion in military and economic assistance from the U.S. since the start of the war and on Thursday Biden announced a further $8 billion.

Meanwhile, the Ukrainian leader questioned the Republican candidate’s ability to broker a peace deal, saying: “My feeling is that Trump doesn’t really know how to stop the war, even if he might think he knows how.”

Zelenskyy has said "peace is closer than we think" and that his country’s attacks within Russia are designed to force Putin to the negotiating table. In this context, he has repeatedly pushed for permission to use western weaponry for long-range strikes inside Russia.

Firmest nuclear threat to date

The Kremlin has warned that such a move would constitute an act of war by NATO and on Wednesday Putin made his firmest nuclear threat to date, announcing the Kremlin was considering new rules for nuclear engagement.

He said that a non-nuclear power attacking Russian territory with the support of a nuclear power should henceforth be considered a joint attack. His comments have been interpreted as a threat to use nuclear weapons in the war in Ukraine.

Biden and Zelenskyy will meet on October 12 in Germany to discuss the Ukrainian leader’s peace plan, the White House said on Thursday.