#russia has always been a terrorist state in all times

[alina-rubanenko]

Кожен росіянин буде відповідати за все, що вони роблять. КОЖЕН! Кожен з них проклятий. Кожен буде горіти в пеклі!

rUSSIA IS A TERRORIST STATE!!!

#russia is a terrorist state #russia has always been a terrorist state in all times #crimes of russia #war in ukraine #stop war #arm ukraine now #моя україна #україна

[kaleldobrev]

From Russia With Love

Pairing: Soldier Boy (Ben) x F. Supe!Reader

Summary: You’re the first person Ben goes to see after escaping from Russia

Word Count: 1.5k

Warnings: Cursing (5x), Fluff

Authors Note: The sequel to Memories Are All I Have | If you liked this, don’t forget to like & reblog. I really appreciate it! Feedback is always welcome ♡

Forty years. Forty Goddamn fucking years without you. Forty years of not being able to kiss you or hold you in his arms. Forty years without being able to tell you how much he loved you; or hear you saying it in return.

But there was a part of him that started to wonder if you had moved on from him because of how long it has been. There was a part of him that wouldn't have blamed you if you did, but he dreaded the thought of you being with anyone but him. You were the only person he ever dreamt of being with, settling down with. You were the first person to ever tell him, "I love you," and it wasn't just empty words — you had actually meant it.

Despite it being almost forty years without you, he still loved you just as much as he did the last time he had saw you back in 1984.

As he walked along the Manhattan streets, memories of the two of you walking along these very streets started to flood him. He could hear the sweet, sweet sounds of your laughter. He could feel the softness of your hands in his calloused ones. He could hear you faintly saying "I love you" to him in his ear.

But that very brief memory he had of you was quickly started to fade away, as he heard music playing — a song that was all too familiar to him and not in a good way. It was a Russian pop song that the scientists would often play when they would experiment on him. When they would pierce his skin with various knives and force feed him chemical mixtures.

He dropped his bag that he had slung over his shoulders onto the sidewalk; and he could faintly hear someone asking him if he was okay, but their words sounded so muffled like he was under water. Hunched over, everything went pitch black.

19 dead and 12 injured — read the news banner in big, bold, black letters across the bottom of the screen. "Holy shit," you mumbled to yourself, watching the news footage in absolute horror. One second the building in front of you was standing tall and proud; the next second, the sounds of glass shattering and floors collapsing in on itself. Scorch marks could be seen distinctly.

As you watched the news footage, a part of you wondered what Supe could have caused that immense amount of damage. But for the life of you, there was no Supe that you could think of. Homelander briefly entered your brain, but his beams wouldn't be able to cause that kind of damage. Yes, Homelander was powerful, but there was no way he would be able to do something like that, not unless Vought somehow found a way to give him more power than he already had.

"We were able to get the CCTV Footage of who could have caused this terrible tragedy. Unfortunately, due to the angle of the camera, the face could not be seen. But if you think you may know the terrorist reasonable, please contact Vought immediately," the news anchor stated; Vought's number flashing across the screen quickly.

As you watched the footage, it was grainy, black and white, and hard to tell who the terrorist could have been. But from what you could see, it just looked like some guy with an unkempt beard wearing a tracksuit that you hadn't seen since about the 1980s.

The man was standing there holding some kind of bag, and all of sudden the bag just dropped to his feet and he hunched over, kind of like he was having some kind of stomach pain, and a large beam of light just exploded from his body. "Holy shit..." you mumbled.

When Ben arrived at his — your apartment — he couldn't help but have a small sense of nervousness, like there was some kind of knot in the pit of his stomach. This kind of knot was something that he always experienced whenever he was about to get tortured by the Russians, as he never knew what kind of cruel experiments they were going to do on him.

He eyed the door and sighed, hoping that you were still living here, as this was the last known address that he had for you. It was the only place that he had hoped that you would be, as this was the only place he had pictured starting and having a family with you. It was a cozy penthouse about a few blocks away from Vought Tower; and it was a place that you and him had bought together as a home away from home away from Payback.

With a deep sigh, he knocked on the door, praying quietly to himself that you would be the one to answer the door and not someone else.

As you were in the kitchen making yourself some coffee, you heard a knock at your apartment door and raised a brow as you weren't expecting anyone or anything today; not even a package.

As the coffee started pouring into the mug, you started making your way to the front door, and yet there was another knock; but this time, the knock was quicker, almost impatient sounding. You rolled your eyes, and let out a small groan. "Christ on a Cross," you mumbled quietly to yourself. "I'm coming, I'm coming!" You called out, hoping that the impatient knocking would cease.

Ben heard the pads of your bare feet walking toward the apartment door, and he could hear you slightly groaning on the other side of the door, cursing every so often. But one of the phrases you said had caught him slightly by surprise. "Christ on a Cross," he heard you mumble; and a smirk tugged the corners of his lips.

He heard the chain come off the door, and within seconds the door was open before him, and there you were looking exactly the same way you had the last time he had seen you forty years ago. "Fuck, you haven't aged a day Sugar," he said, his voice sounding more gruff than he had expected it to sound.

"Fuck, you haven't aged a day Sugar," a man that strongly resembled and sounded exactly like Ben said before you. But there was no possible way that this could of been him, as you were told by not only Payback, but by Vought and Legend that he had been killed by the Russians, and that his body was taken behind the Iron Curtain. But he had just called you Sugar; and Sugar was a nickname that Ben and Ben alone had called you, and tended to only call you when it was just the two of you alone together.

But the way he was looking at you was the exact same way Ben had always looked at you. It was the look of pure adoration and joy; the look of 'you are the most gorgeous person in the world to me.' And those eyes...those distinctive hazel-green eyes that only Ben had had were staring directly at you.

You were unsure if you were seeing a ghost or having one of your hallucinations, but you reached out your hand toward him and gently placed your hand on his cheek, feeling the caveman like beard underneath your palm. When your hand made contact with his cheek, he almost melted into your touch, and his free hand made contact with the one that was on his cheek; almost checking to see if you were real too.

When your hand touched his cheek, he had to hold back all of the feelings that he had slowly building up over the course of four decades without you; he had envisioned this reunion for so long. "Ben..." your voice was low, soft, almost slightly hesitant as if you were trying to make sure that it was actually him before you. "It's...it's really you isn't it?"

"Yeah, it's really me," he responded almost as low as your voice was.

Your hand released from his cheek, and you stared at him with such longing in your eyes; almost as if you were trying to hold back tears. Without anymore hesitation, you wrapped your arms around him, using that super strength of yours (practically squeezing him, and knocking the air slightly out of him), as your face buried a bit into his chest.

In that instant, Ben dropped the bag that was slung over his shoulder at this feet and wrapped his arms around you; giving you a similar type of embrace that you were currently giving him and rested his chin on the top of your head. "I've missed you so much," you told him; your face nuzzling even more into his chest.

He smiled into your hair and kissed the top of your head; an action that he didn't realize how much he missed doing until now. "I missed you too," he said. And for the first time in his life, he heard his voice breaking.

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#soldier boy x reader #soldier boy x you #the boys #the boys amazon #the boys imagine #the boys one shot #Ben x you #Ben x reader #female reader #reader insert

[mariacallous]

The great fault of the global left is not that it supports Hamas. For how could Western left-wing movements or left-inclining charities or academic bodies truly support Hamas if they were serious about their politics?

No one outside the most reactionary quarters of Islam shares Hamas’s aim of forcing the peoples of the world to accept “the sovereignty of Islam” or face “carnage, displacement and terror” if they refuse.  You cannot be a progressive and campaign for a state that executes gay men. An American left, which includes in its ranks the Queers for Palestine campaign group, cannot seriously endorse lethal homophobia in its own country.  They will turn a blind eye in Palestine, as we shall see, but not in New York or Chicago.

Finally, no left organisation proudly honours the Protocols of the Elders of Zion and the fascist tradition that Hamas embraces with such sinister gusto, although in a sign of a decay that has been building on the left for more than a generation, many will promulgate left-wing conspiracy theories which are as insane as their fascist counterparts.

No, the problem with the global left is that it is not serious about politics. It “fellow travels” with radical Islam rather than supports it. The concept of “fellow travelling,” with its suggestions of tourism, dilettantism, and privilege, is well worth reviving. The phrase comes from the Bolsheviks. After the Russian Revolution of 1917 they looked with appreciation on Westerners who supported them without ever endorsing communism. Artists, writers, and academics who were disgusted with the West, often for good reason, I should add, were quite happy to justify Soviet communism and cover up its crimes without ever becoming communists themselves.

Leon Trotsky put it best when he said of fellow travellers that the question was always “how far would they go”? As long as they did not have live under the control of communists in the 1920s or the control of Islamists in the 2020s, the answer appears to be: a very long way indeed

W.H. Auden said, as he looked back with some contempt on his fellow travelling past, if Britain or the United States or any country he and his friends knew were taken over by a “successful communist revolution with the same phenomena of terror, purges, censorship etc., we would have screamed our heads off”. But as communism happened in backward Russia “a semi-barbarous country which had experienced neither the Renaissance nor the Enlightenment”, they could ignore its crimes in the interests of seeing the capitalist enemy defeated.

You see the same pattern of lies and indulgence in the case of Hamas. Journalists  have produced a multitude of examples of fellow travelling since 7 October but let one meeting of the Oakland City Council in the Bay area of San Francisco speak for them all.

A council member wanted the council to pass a motion that condemned the killings and hostage-taking by Hamas, who, in case we forget, prompted the war that has devastated Gaza, by massacring Israeli civilians. The motion got nowhere

According to one speaker Hamas did not massacre anyone, a modern variant of Holocaust denial that is becoming endemic. “There have not been beheadings of babies and rapings,” a woman said at the meeting. “Israel murdered their own people on October 7.”  Another woman said that calling Hamas a terrorist organization is “ridiculous, racist and plays into the genocidal propaganda that is flooding our media.” Hamas was the “armed wing of the unified Palestinian resistance” , said a third who clearly had no knowledge of the civil war between Hamas and Fatah.

“To condemn Hamas was very anti-Arab racist” cried a fourth. The meeting returned to modern Holocaust denial as a new speaker said the Israeli Defence Forces had murdered their own people and it was “bald propaganda” to suggest otherwise. A man intervened to shout that “to hear them complain about Hamas violence is like listening to a wifebeater complain when his wife finally stands up and fights back”.  

Anyone who contradicted him was a “white supremacist.”

Of course they were.

Now if theocrats were to establish an Islamist tyranny in the Bay area, I am sure every single speaker would scream their heads off, as Auden predicted. They can turn into fellow travellers as there is no more of a prospect of theocracy threatening them than there was of communism threatening readers of the left-wing press in the UK and US in the 1930s.

A serious left would have plenty to complain about. Consider the Israeli position after the breakdown of the ceasefire. The Israeli state is led by Benjamin Netanyahu, a catastrophe of a prime minister, who left his people exposed to the worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust. His war aims are contradictory: you cannot both wipe out Hamas and free the hostages.

Worst of all, the Israeli defence forces are to move to the southern Gaza strip where two million Palestinians are crammed. Just war doctrine holds that a military action must have a reasonable chance of success if the suffering is to be permitted. How, reasonably, can the Israeli army expect to find guerilla fighters hiding in a terrified population?  According to leaks in the Israeli media, Anthony Blinken, the US Secretary of state, was warning the Israeli government that, “You can’t operate in southern Gaza in the way you did in the north. There are two million Palestinians there.” But he was ignored.  A radical movement worth having would surely be putting pressure on the Biden administration to force Israel to listen to its concerns.

The radical movement we have will not engage in practical politics because compromise is anathema to it. Any honest account of the war would have to admit that Israel has the right to defend itself against attack. It is just that the military position it finds itself in now may well make its war aims impossible and therefore immoral.

You can see why practical politics has no appeal. Where is the violent satisfaction in sober analysis,  the drama in compromise? Where is the Manichean distinction between the absolute good of the Palestinians and the pure evil of Israel?  

Meanwhile, ever since the Israeli victory in the Six Day War of 1967, you have been able to say that Jewish settler sites on the West Bank were placed there deliberately to make a peace settlement impossible, and ensure that Israel controlled all the territory from “the river to the sea” forever.

A serious left might try to revive a two-state solution by building an international consensus that the settlements must go. Once again, however, that is too tame an aim. For the fellow traveller watching Palestine from a safe distance, satisfaction comes only by embracing Hamas’s call for the destruction of Israel. Some progressives try to dress up the urge to destroy by pretending that Jews and Palestinians will go on to live together in some happy-clappy, multi-ethnic and multi-confessional state. But most must know they are advocating a war to the death. What makes their position so disreputable is that, if they thought about it calmly, they would know it would be a war that only Israel could win. It is the Israelis who have the nuclear weapons, after all.

The worst of the global left is dilettantish. It advocates a maximalist position which has a minimal chance of success - just for the thrill of it. David Caute, a historian of fellow travelling with Stalin and communism said that the endorsement of communism by fellow travelling intellectuals in the West “deepened the despair” of Soviet intellectuals. “In their darkest hours they heard themselves condemned by their own kind”.

The 2020s are not the 1930s. I am sure that, if I were a Palestinian in Gaza, my sole concern would be the removal of Israeli forces that threatened me and my family. I would either not care about demonstrations in the West or I would receive some comfort from the knowledge that people all over the world were protesting on my behalf.

Nevertheless, a kind of betrayal is still at work. By inflaming and amplifying the worst elements in Palestine the global left is giving comfort to the worst elements in Israel, which are equally determined to make a compromise impossible.

The New Statesman made that point well when it ran a piece by Celeste Marcus.   She came from the Zionist far right, and was taught doctrines that dehumanised Palestinians. She grew up and grew away from the prejudices of her childhood and became a liberal. But after she moved into her new world, she “recognised immediately that progressive leftists feel about Israelis the way radical Zionists feel about Palestinians: these are not real people.”

The result is that for all its power on the streets and in academia the global left is almost an irrelevance.

“To influence Israel,” she writes, “one must be willing to recognise it. Since leftist leaders cannot bother to do this, they cannot be of real use to Palestinians. This is a betrayal of their own cause.”

The dilettantism of fellow travelling always ends in betrayal and denial for the reason Auden gave: terror is always more tolerable when it happens far, far away.

[nevadancitizen]

-> YOU'RE OUT OF TOUCH – I'VE BEEN OUTTA TIME

synopsis: you died six months ago, but you've come back to haunt johnny. not as a ghost, no – as some twisted version of you that johnny still loves. too bad you don't still love johnny, or remember him in any capacity.

word count: 4k

characters: john "soap" mactavish, resurrected! reader

trigger warnings: talk of canon-typical violence, temporal weirdness, hurt + damn near no comfort

notes: first soap fic.. hopefully i've written him well!! also i couldn't resist incorporating madness combat in this somehow lol it's taking over my life (you don't need to know anything about madcom to read this, don't worry). also tumblr user nevadancitizen using the amnesia trope again? it's more likely than you think.

Somewhere in Nevada, a battered body is denied death, so that it may be granted, en masse…

And six months ago, somewhere in Russia, you were killed in action. 

It was a single shot through the skull – nice, clean. You didn’t suffer. Despite your killer more than likely being a terrorist (or working for one), they did you right. It was probably unintentional, but they still did you right. 

Johnny couldn’t bring himself to get out of bed, even to piss, for weeks after. He was completely numb to almost everything. The world passed by while he stood completely still, laying on his side in your shared bed, spooning a pillow that was rapidly losing your scent. 

(He even tried spraying it with your perfume or cologne, but it didn’t work. It was too strong – it didn’t smell like when you wore it.)

Johnny thought all-too-often about what happened after death. He was ready to die, always has been, but he never really thought about what would happen if (or, more accurately, when) you died. He always cast those thoughts away, because he was done losing people. He was done with grief and screaming, pleading to God, and crying so hard he threw up. 

But he eventually returned to his job. He eventually put you to rest. He prayed for the first time in damn near two decades that, if there was really an afterlife, that you were in Heaven.

(He just hoped that, whatever Heaven there was, it was good enough for you.)

But again, six months ago, somewhere in Nevada, a battered body was denied death, so that it may be granted, en masse.

It is a land without sun, without warmth unless you could find it in another body. It is a land without rules, without remorse, without regret. 

It is a land of violence. It is a land that fits you well.

Despite being dead, you were sewed back together and cursed to live once more. Someone put a gun in your hands and told you, “Listen bozo, I don’t care where you’re from – just shoot!”

Of course, Johnny didn’t know this. How could he? He watched your casket be lowered into the ground. He knew it wasn’t empty – he had to confirm your identity in the morgue. 

But he can’t help but feel his stomach drop when Kyle comes rushing into his office, pointing behind him and, in a panting breath, says your name. 

Johnny immediately springs up from behind his desk and almost pushes past Kyle to get out the door. He turns down the hallway to the left, where he knows it leads to the hospital ward. 

“No, Soap – Soap!” Kyle sprints after him, just barely catching his wrist. “Wrong way, man.”

Johnny stops and, in his stunned state, lets Kyle lead him down the hallway to the right, away from the medbay, away from where you were surely waiting for him, recovering.

Kyle leads him into an elevator, scans his keycard, and presses the button for -3. They’re both uncharacteristically quiet. It just faintly registers in Johnny’s mind that the floor -3 is below the parking garages, past where anyone typically goes. 

(Past where anyone can hear screams ripped from tortured throats, really.)

When the elevator doors open, Soap’s greeted by a familiar sight. It’s a grey concrete hallway, with two soldiers on either side, guarding the way in. Doors line the hall, each one steel with a keypad to unlock it.

Gaz leads Soap down the hall and doesn’t stop for a while. Eventually, he stops in front of the last door and takes a deep, almost shuddering, breath.

Gaz inputs the code into the keypad and opens the door, nodding at the inside. “Come on.”

Soap, almost so quick he clips his shoulder on the doorframe, goes into the room. It overlooks an interrogation room, and it’s fit with a double-sided mirror, recording tech, everything.

Soap freezes when he looks into the interrogation room. It – it’s you, but… not you. You’re pacing, and Johnny can only stare. There’s a grey flush to your skin – no, your skin is actually grey – and bandages cover the back of your head, dirty and frayed, like you haven’t changed them in a while. 

You’re angry, a far cry from the person Johnny knew you to be. Sure, you could be angry, and Johnny’s seen you angry, but this…

You’re panting as you pace, fists clenching and unclenching as your eyes dart around the room. Soft mutters and expletives leave your mouth as you look around, surely looking for a way to escape. 

Johnny just keeps staring. You’re… alive? Yes, you’re not what Johnny remembers you to be, but you’re still alive. 

“Fucking – goddamnit!” You bang your fist on the steel table, causing it to rattle. “I don’t have anything to tell you! You’re all cowards –” you turn to the double-sided mirror and point at it “– especially you, Sheriff! Don’t tell me you’re not back there!”

You immediately turn away, your hands coming to clutch at the sides of your head, your fingers digging into the bandages, almost ripping them. “I swear, when I get my hands on you…!” 

“We don’t know what to do,” Kyle says softly. He looks over at Soap, his gaze obviously sad and sympathetic. “Do you want to try ‘n talk ‘em? Even if they’re feelin’ a tad… neurotic.”

Johnny can’t rip his gaze from you as you throw a steel chair at the wall, still cursing out someone named Sheriff and his lackeys. The chair bounces off the wall and one of the legs hits your shin, causing you to curse it out, too.

“Yes,” Johnny says quickly, decisively. 

Soap shifts on his feet, oddly impatient, as he waits for Kyle to unlock the door to the interrogation room. As soon as he does, Johnny shoulders past him and into the room. He hears a faint click as Gaz closes it behind him. 

You immediately whirl on Johnny, your eyes wide and your breath labored. 

“You!” You point at Johnny like it’s meant to be some offensive gesture. “What do you want?”

You move closer, and Johnny catches sight of the dogtags hanging from your neck. You were buried with one, and he kept the other. He even gave you one of his own because, on that day, a part of him died with you. But… instead of two, you have four hanging from the metal chain. 

You shove your finger in Johnny’s chest, your fingernail digging through the thin fabric of his fatigues. “Answer me!”

Soap immediately takes your wrist and cradles your hand to his chest. “Bonnie, please, calm down.”

“Don’t you dare tell me to calm down!” you bark, ripping your hand away from him. “I just lost one of my team and you’re telling me to calm down?!”

“Your team?” Soap echoes.

“Deimos!” you snap. “You – you killed Deimos.”

You take a step back, your fists still clenched and your eyes still angry. “I saw your stupid fucking Engineer murder him. He was dead from the first five bullets, and you know he knew that! But oh, let’s just make sure he’s dead by unloading clip after clip into him.”

You heave a breath, almost growling. “Let’s desecrate his corpse. All because he’s a dissenter. Let’s make it oh-so-hard to bring him back.”

Johnny steps forward, just barely moving his foot, and you jump back like he took out a knife. 

He breathes out your name, soft and unbelieving. “Are… is it really you?”

“Of course it’s me!” You turn and rest your hands on the steel table, obviously resisting the urge to bring your fists down against it. “Always has been, always will be. It’s always me.”

Johnny circles around the table and leans down a little, taking in your face. The grey makes you look dirty and unwashed, like you’ve got a layer of dirt on you that you couldn’t wash away.

You look up at him through your eyelashes. “I know you.”

Johnny’s heart leaps into his throat and, for a hopeful moment, thinks that you remember him, that this is all some sort of stupid trick, that you went MIA instead of being KIA, that this is really you. The you Johnny knows, the you Johnny loves. But his heart is crushed beneath your boot when you speak next. 

“I know soldiers like you,” you say softly. “Soldiers, produced en masse, told to shoot first and die quietly. We’re both clones, you know? But there’s a difference in what we want.”

You stand up straight, glancing at the double-sided mirror before turning your eyes back to Soap. “You follow orders. When they say jump, you ask how high. But I…” you laugh beneath your breath. “I am fighting for change. Normality. You’re comfortable living in this… this chaos.”

“Bonnie, what are you on about?” Johnny reaches across the table, trying to take your hand. You snatch it away before he even comes close.

Gaz slides into the room, holding a tablet. You whip your head around and glare at him. 

His eyebrows lift a little, and he raises the tablet, as if in a defensive manner. “Your tablet. It –”

You snatch it from Gaz’s hands before he can talk again. You set it down on the table and stare at it, waiting.

Johnny can just barely see the interface. The top of the screen reads COMBASIC .9(beta). It looks like some sort of chat room. A few messages pop up in quick succession.

FellowD9: GOTEM FellowD9: YOU WERE RIGHT FellowD9: HE WAS COMPLIANT 2BDamned: Neat FellowD9: CHECK MY SECTOR FellowD9: ANCHOR HIM NOW [user:FellowD9 IS OFFLINE]

The messages seem to relax you, even if Johnny has no idea what they’re talking about. You bring a hand to your forehead and laugh breathlessly, then set to typing.

CrosshairF6: lol hey im still alive CrosshairF6: aahw assholes gave me my tablet idk why CrosshairF6: check my sector & get me back 2BDamned: Getting Deimos right now, I’ll get back to you CrosshairF6: better do it right CrosshairF6: saw his corpse, looks like he ran through traffic [user:2BDamned IS OFFLINE]

Johnny watches as you tuck your tablet back in one of the inner pockets of your jacket, casting a suspicious glance at Gaz, like you expect him to take it back. 

Gaz raises his hands and slips back out of the room, leaving you and Johnny.

“So.” You look at Johnny. “Why are you trying to act all buddy-buddy with me?”

“You’re… you were…” Johnny sighs, an overwhelming feeling settling in his chest. “Do you remember… dying?”

“Of course,” you say, like it’s the most obvious thing in the world. “2B brought me back.”

“2B?” Johnny echoes. “Like, the one you were talkin’ to? 2BDamned?”

“Yeah.” You move and lean back against the wall, crossing your arms over your chest. “He’s all doctor-like, y’know? Brings us back when we need it.”

“And he’s… on your team?” Johnny asks. He feels a deep pang of… something in his chest when the thought of you actually being on another team, separate from him, settles in his mind.

You nod. “Yeah. 2B, Hank, Sanford, Deimos.” You tap the dog tags resting against your chest. “We’re a team. Some of us are on a subteam, but still. We’re a team.”

Johnny blinks hard, shaking the thought from his head. “Do you remember anything before you died?”

“Some, but… not a lot. Just blips of fighting, some soldiers, then Nevada.” You shrug. “2B says that happens sometimes.”

Johnny feels his tense shoulders relax, if only a little. “Any one specific soldier, bonnie?”

“No,” you say. You look away and fiddle with your dogtags. “But I’ve got the dogtag of someone named John.”

“John?” Johnny echoes, his heart picking up in his chest. “John ‘Soap’ MacTavish?”

“Yeah.” Your gaze fixes on him again, immediately suspicious. “How do you know that?”

“That’s me, bonnie.” Johnny laughs breathlessly, moving towards you. He makes sure to stay slow and cautious, just in case. “I’m Johnny. Your Johnny.”

You move along the wall, away from him, just slightly. You seem to bristle a little, and bring your shoulders up a bit. “You’re not mine. I don’t own anyone.”

“Not in the literal sense, bonnie,” Johnny laughs, resisting the urge to trail after you. “I’m yours, romantically.”

You bring yourself off the wall, taking a step back. It’s like you’re repulsed by the idea. “I’ve never been romantically involved with anyone. You think I’ve got time for that?”

It’s like Johnny’s been punched in the gut. Tears well in his eyes and he suddenly feels so fucking sick. His feet almost come out from under him as he stumbles to the door, shaking hands putting in the code before slipping out. 

He could take the idea of you maybe not remembering him, sure. He could just re-introduce himself. He could take the idea of you forgetting the time you’ve spent together, because you’d remember, right? But the way you were disgusted by the idea of romance, the vitriol in your voice as you spoke…

Johnny doesn’t like the word ‘relapse’ because he thinks it holds too heavy of a connotation, but that’s the best way to describe what he did for the rest of the day, and into the early hours of tomorrow. He rotted in your shared bed, but instead of feeling numb, he felt his heart being wrenched by your hand, by your words. 

He just laid there, looking at his sketchbook – a good one with thick paper. The one you’d gifted him for your six-month anniversary. It’s filled with drawings of you: candid ones, ones where he had you pose (even though you were embarrassed), ones of you and him, together, doing couple-y things. 

He could only mourn what was lost, because you seemed to have absolutely no interest in recovering it. 

A week passes before you’re able to be let out of your cell. You slowly lost the fire and brimstone that filled your heart as you realized that the 141 really did want to help you. You feel better now that you have a few people by your side, fresh bandages, and a renewed sense of comfort.

(But you forgave yourself for acting like that in the beginning because, in Nevada, no one is nice. Not without an ulterior motive, at least.)

You’re practically on a leash as Ghost leads you throughout the base. He doesn’t talk as he guides you through winding hallways and up an exhaustive amount of flights of stairs. 

Eventually, he opens a door labeled ‘ROOF EXIT.’ He tilts his head towards the door.

“Someone waitin’ for you,” Ghost says gruffly. “And…”

He fishes around in his pocket and pulls out a carton of cigarettes. Your cigarettes. 

Ghost takes your hand and puts it in your palm. “Don’t set anything on fire.”

You close your fingers around it and nod. “Got it, boss.”

Ghost starts back down the stairs, leaving you and the open door to the roof. You move through it and look around. 

Johnny’s sitting, cross-legged, on the concrete roof, facing away from you. It’s dark – obviously, it’s night. You look up and take in the stars, and…

“You have a moon,” you say softly.

Johnny looks back at you, a tentative smile on his face. Like he’s scared to be too hopeful. “Yeah. We do.”

You hum and look at Johnny. 

“Do you…” Johnny glances at the floor, then back up at you. “Do you wanna sit with me, bonnie?”

You slowly move over to Johnny and sit by him. You keep a healthy distance, but you’re still closer than you’ve ever been to him before. 

“Those fags for sharin’?” Johnny asks, a teasing smile on his face. 

You look down at the carton of cigarettes in your hand. You grip them a little tighter, causing the thin carton to crumple a bit. “Sure. Don’t know if you’ll like them, though.”

“Nonsense, bonnie.” Johnny bumps his shoulder against yours. “Let’s give ‘em a go.”

You smile and take out two cigarettes. You hand one over to Johnny. They’re hand-rolled and don’t have a filter, so they look more like joints, but the overwhelming smell of raw tobacco quickly quells that thought.

“Got a light?” you ask.

“‘Course.” Johnny reaches into his pocket and pulls out a small lighter. He lights his own cigarette, then pulls it away with a sputtering cough. 

“Steamin’ Jesus, what is that?” He asks in between coughs. 

You laugh, hitting your knee as Johnny reels from the taste. “It’s good, yeah?”

“Hell no!” Johnny wipes tears from his eyes and looks over at you. Despite his coughing, a soft smile spreads across his face at the way you’re laughing – loud, unabashed. Just like before.

You swipe Johnny’s lighter from his hand and light your cigarette, the cherry basking your face in a soft, warm glow. “Welcome to Nevada.”

“Let’s see that thing.” Johnny reaches over and takes the carton from your hand.

He turns it over, looking at it. The carton is worn, like it’s been refilled many times. There’s no warning about nicotine being an addictive chemical, just a grey box with a simple brand: G01 Choice. There’s a name scribbled on the back – Deimos, in all capital letters. 

“Deimos,” Johnny says aloud. “The man died and you stole his cigs?”

“He’s not dead.” You take the carton back and tuck it into your jacket pocket. “Not anymore. Well, he’s died lotsa times, so I guess he’s an... honorary corpse.”

“An honorary corpse,” Johnny echoes, looking down at the cigarette in his hand. He puts it out on the concrete. “Just like you, yeah?”

You take a drag off your cigarette and blow out the smoke in a single, smooth stream. “Just like me.”

A silence settles as you look up at the moon. You can feel Johnny’s eyes occasionally flitting to you, then back up at the night sky. 

“Your dogtags.” Johnny points in your direction. “Whose are they?”

You look down and tug on the metal chain, causing them to clink together. “Mine, yours, and my team’s.”

“Your team?” Johnny asks softly. “You never told me about them.”

“Yeah.” You look over at him. “I’m part of an extraction team. My partners are Sanford and Deimos.”

A pain, almost so real he thought he was actually injured, runs through Johnny when you say partners. The logical side of his brain chides him a few moments later because you obviously meant it in a militaristic sense, not a romantic sense.

“Can I see them?” Johnny asks.

You nod and take off the chain, then hand them to Johnny. He looks at the dogtags – he recognizes his and yours as being standard military dogtags, but Sanford and Deimos’ are much more… odd.

Sanford’s reads SANFORD / MELEE + EXPLOSIVES / G02 (NEG) / RETURN TO FAMILY. Deimos’ reads DEIMOS / FIREARMS + TECH / G02 (POS) / NO FAMILY. 

Johnny tilts the dogtags so that you can see them and runs a finger along the lettering. “What do these mean, bonnie?” 

You move a bit closer and lean in. “The first lines are their names, obviously. The second is what they’re proficient in. The third is what generation clone they are, and their blood types – there are only two blood types for second generation clones. And the last one is what to do with their bodies if they can’t be revived.”

“Wait, bonnie.” Johnny laughs breathlessly. “Clones?”

“Yeah, clones.” You tilt your head a little to the side. “What, you don’t have cloning technology here?”

“Of course not!” Johnny laughs.

You laugh and bump your shoulder against his. “You people are so primitive.”

Johnny smiles back at you and it’s like nothing is wrong. You both go quiet as you stare at each other until you look away.

“I, uh…” you clear your throat awkwardly. “I’m sorry for being so… abrasive. Earlier, I mean.”

“It’s alright,” Johnny says, almost too quickly. 

You scratch your cheek and glance over at Johnny, then away. “But it’s not, is it? I should’ve handled things better.”

“Someone you know died right before we talked.” Johnny reaches over and, cautiously, puts his hand over yours where it rests on your knee. “It’s expected that you don’t act like yourself.”

Your breath hitches, and Johnny squeezes your hand reassuringly in response. 

“But that’s the thing,” you say. “I’ve seen so many awful things before. People getting shot, stabbed, beaten, Hank tearing people apart with his bare hands. But, Maker…”

You drag a hand down your face, rubbing your jaw. “Deimos is young. So young. He’s only twenty-seven, and he always has a smile like he’s just tied your shoelaces together and is waiting for you to trip. And he’s so smart, even if everyone calls him a bit stupid. Yeah, he’s got a slower reaction time, but that’s what me and Sanford are for, y’know? He…”

You blink hard, trying to will your tears away. A soft, frustrated groan leaves your mouth as you duck your head and put your cigarette to your lips. “Don’t look at me.”

Johnny starts to pull his hand away, but stops when you squeeze his hand. Instead, he squeezes your hand back, averting his gaze.

To Johnny, it again almost feels like nothing ever happened. Like there’s no Russia, no Nevada, nothing besides you and him on this roof, together. But he’s no fool. He knows things have changed – that Nevada has changed you. 

You breathe out a shaky plume of cigarette smoke. “I just want to go back.”

“But you’re here now, bonnie,” Johnny says. He tries to ignore the crushing feeling in his chest, tries to keep his composure for you. “Aren’t you glad you’re back?”

“I don’t know this place.” You look over at Johnny, your eyes rimmed with unshed tears. “You keep saying that we’re together, that – that this is my home. But how can this be my home if I don’t remember a thing about it? How can you be my boyfriend if I don’t remember a thing about you?”

Johnny exhales sharply, like he’s just got the wind knocked out of him. “Bonnie, please don’t say that. Please.”

“I know violence, and I know bloodshed,” you say softly. “I know Nevada. This place, this world…” You gesture vaguely with your cigarette still in your hand. “It’s not mine.”

“But there is violence here, there is bloodshed here,” Johnny insists. “Here, we fought together.”

“But I don’t remember us being together, in any capacity!” you snap. You take a breath and try your best to soften your words. “All I remember from before is just flashes. I didn’t remember your face. I just had your dogtag and a weird, empty feeling.”

Johnny sighs and feels tears welling up in his eyes. He can’t tear his gaze away from you. 

“You really expected me to trace the bullet and sift through fleeting memories when there was an entire agency playing Pinkertons knocking down our door?” you ask softly. “2B was bandaging my head ‘cause he just finished playing around in my brains and Sanford was shoving a gun in my hands. They pointed me in a direction and told me to shoot. I didn’t have the time to remember you.

“I’m sorry, but I just didn’t.” You squeeze his hand before letting it go.

Johnny immediately scrambles to catch your hand in both of his, holding on desperately. “No, bonnie, please.”

A few tears slip down Johnny’s cheeks as he looks at you. Your face is a mirror of his own, just in greyscale. Your cheeks are stained with tears and your eyes are just beginning to get a bit puffy. 

“If you know you’re gonna be leaving again, then just let me hold your hand,” Johnny says softly, his voice wavering. “Just for a few more minutes.”

You nod and, when you blink, a tear rolls down your already-wet cheek. “Okay.”

Johnny slowly moves so that you’re sitting shoulder-to-shoulder to him. He hesitates before resting his head on your shoulder. You smell just like how he remembers, albeit tinged with the acrid tang of G01 Choice cigarette smoke. You’re just as beautiful as the day he lost you.

“Okay.”

#riptide writes 🌊 #call of duty 🪖 #call of duty x reader #call of duty x you #cod x reader #cod x you #modern warfare 2 x reader #mw2 x reader #mw2 x you #soap x reader #john soap mactavish x reader #john mactavish x reader #soap mactavish x reader #johnny mactavish x reader #johnny soap mctavish x reader #john mactavish #john soap mactavish #soap call of duty #soap cod #soap mw2 #cod soap #madness combat

[misfitwashere]

Putin's paranoia (updated)

Terror, delusion, and self-destruction

Timothy Snyder

Mar 29, 2024

            A week ago, four men associated with Islamic State attacked civilians in a concert venue near Moscow known as Crocus City Hall.  Islamic State (IS-K) claimed responsibility for the horrifying mass murder, and released videos recorded the terrorists' perspective (don't watch them).  Russia has since apprehended four men, who seem to be the perpetrators. 

            Russia has been engaged with Islamic State for some time.  Russia has been bombing Syria since 2015.  Russia and Islamic State compete throughout Africa for resources.  All four of the accused are Tajiks, a people subjected to discrimination inside Russia.

            These are the facts, subject to further verification and interpretation -- and inherently unpredictable, as facts always are.  What was entirely predictable (and predicted) was that, regardless of the facts, Putin and his propagandists would place the blame for the attack on Ukraine and the United States.  On the internet (and in the Russian and Serbian press) this version is present.

            It is not hard to see why.  If Ukraine and the West are guilty, then Russian security services do not have to explain why they failed to stop Islamic terrorists from killing so many Russians, because Islamic terror vanishes from the story.  And if Ukrainians are to blame, then this would seem to justify the war that Russia is prosecuting against Ukraine.

Aftermath of Russian ballistic missile strike on Kyiv, 25 March

            Russian officials make a highly circumstantial argument: the terrorists' car was stopped near Bryansk, which is in western Russia, and so vaguely near Ukraine, which means that the four Tajiks in a Renault were intending to cross the Ukrainian border, which means that they had Ukrainian backers, which means that it was a Ukrainian operation, which means that the Americans were behind it.  The reasoning here leaves something to be desired.  And the series of associations rests on no factual basis.

            The suspects were in a car near the west Russian city of Bryansk.  This much seems to be true.  The first version of the story was that they were headed for Belarus, which would make more sense, given the route.  Anyone with local knowledge would make a still more telling point. Because of the special relationship between Russia and Belarus, the Russian-Belarusian border is porous.  Once inside Belarus, it is relatively easy to pass into the European Union, because the Belarusian regime enables human smuggling into Lithuania and Poland.  Four Tajiks in a Renault would have been, in this sense, welcome in Belarus.  They would have had a decent chance to pay a smuggler to get them into the Schengen zone and thereby escape.

            The idea that the suspects were headed for Ukraine seems to be entirely invented and is extremely implausible.  As of this writing, none of the suspects seem to have said anything about Ukraine, despite the fact that they have been tortured, presumably with such a confession in mind.  And the notion of a Ukrainian escape route makes no sense.  The Russian-Ukrainian border is a place where Russian security forces are concentrated.  It is a site of combat.  It is the last place terrorists would want to go.  Four Tajiks in a Renault would have needed some very, very high-level Russian protection to get anywhere near the Russian-Ukrainian border. 

            Russian propagandists have told the population that it was not Islamic State but Ukraine who is to blame.  ISIS is just a "fake."  The propagandists need not give reasons, and don't.  In the press, one finds the wildest chains of association.  Britain is to blame for the attack (goes one claim) because one of the suspects was once in Turkey and the Turkish president knows the head of British foreign intelligence.

            Only Putin is permitted to set the theoretical tone for the argument for Ukrainian involvement, and yesterday (25 March) he gave that a shot.  His version went like this: Ukrainians are Nazis; Nazis do bad things; a bad thing happened; therefore Ukraine is to blame.  One does not have to be a logician to find the holes.  They are disturbingly large.   While it is true that Nazis do bad things, it does not follow that all bad things are done by Nazis. 

            And the factual premise is empirically false. One should not have to say this at this point of the war, but the Ukrainians are not the Nazis in this conflict.  The Ukrainian far right has never done well in elections, and is far less prominent than in any European state you care to name, let alone the United States.  Ukrainians have an active civil society, a vibrant press, multiple political parties, and freedom of speech.  Ukraine's president won a free and fair election.  He is also, incidentally, Jewish.  The Ukrainian minister of defense, for that matter, is a Muslim.  The commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian armed forces was born in Russia, where his parents still reside.  This kind of political and social pluralism is unusual by any standards.

A Kyivan looks out the window after the 25 March Russian missile strike.

            In Putin's version of the Russian language, of course, the word "Nazi" has no meaning beyond "what I wish for you to consider as the enemy."  If we are going to pursue the question of who the fascists in this war are, however, it is worth knowing that Russia has none of what Ukraine has.  Putin has never won anything like a plausible election to any office.  His regime has crushed civil society, political parties (except his own), and the press.  Putin runs a single-party state where the only principle of the single party is his personal status as its Leader.  He rules at home by terror and prosecutes a genocidal war abroad, in Ukraine, with the help of Russian soldiers who ever more often openly identify as fascists.  Putin himself espouses what is unmistakably a fascist ideology.

            Calling the Ukrainians the Nazis while being the Nazis is not itself a problem within this system, since being the fascists involves living within a big lie.  The challenge to such a system is that reality sometimes intervenes in a way that is hard to control -- as when Islamic State carries out an act of terror.  This brings in a whole set of political and social realities that are usually suppressed in Russian propaganda: the bombing of Syrian civilians since 2015; the bloody resource wars in Africa; the oppression of Tajiks.  

            In Russia's system, it is not simply political convenience that adds the big lie of Ukrainian jihadism to the big lie of Ukrainian Nazism.  It is the deeper need to make reality, or at least psychological reality, conform to the story told by the state.  In the psychological project, more killing is necessary.  Russians are engaged in the project of killing Ukrainians.  Russians in Ukraine torture Ukrainians for being loyal to Ukraine, deport Ukrainian children for assimilation to Russia, and persecute and execute local elites who they regard as threats.  Russians fire some combination of shells, glide bombs, drones, cruise missiles, and ballistic missiles at Ukraine every single day, for no reason that communicates with reality. Yesterday, for example, multiple Ukrainian cities were struck by fifty-seven Russian missiles and drones.

            It is the killing itself that makes the lies true, in a psychological sense.  Russian soldiers who have killed Ukrainians believe they are fighting "Nazis," whatever that means.  And now Russian soldiers write "for Crocus" on he shells they fire at Ukrainians.  Yesterday (25 March) Russia fired two ballistic missiles at central Kyiv, even as Russian authorities announced that the terrorist attack means that they are permitted to kill high officials of the Ukrainian state.

Rescue workers prepare to help victims after a Russian ballistic missile hit the Kyiv Academy of Decorative and Applied Arts and Design. Photo by Kostiantyn Liberov/Libkos/Getty Images)

            Among Ukrainians, all of this generates a weary shrug.  It has been a kind of Western parlor game these last two years to ascertain the "rational" motivations behind Russia's war of atrocity in Ukraine.  Such a debate is attractive in the West, because if one can identify a Russian rationality one can then defend a policy of doing less, or doing nothing, to help Ukraine win the war.  If Russia is rational, then surely some compromise can be found.  This is a Russian leadership, however, that interprets the fact of American warnings about the attack as a reason to blame the United States for it: as the puppetmaster of Ukraine, which is itself the puppetmaster of Islamic State. 

            For Ukrainians, being identified as Islamists as well as Nazis is just one more detail in what is for them a war of self-defense and survival.  And of course, as Ukrainians will remind you, for different audiences the Kremlin also characterizes Ukraine as the center of gay civilization, as an element of the Jewish international conspiracy, and as a Satanist cult.  So (the memes are out there) Ukraine is now a gay Jewish Nazi Islamist Satanist regime.

            The Kremlin goal of identifying Ukrainians as terrorists might matter in the war.  It can be used as an excuse to continue, to mobilize, to commit new kinds of war crimes.  This is one way this will certainly go.  But it is not certain that this development will be stable. 

            It might matter to Russians that Putin's big lie about Ukraine is growing whiskers.  Once forced into gay-Nazi-Jewish-Islamist-Satanist territory, Russians just might be reminded of the late Stalinist purges directed against supposed Zionist-Trotskyite-fascist-imperialist (etc.) conspiracies.  Or, more simply, people inside the regime, backed into a corner by Putin's escalation of unreality, might just realize that the Ukrainian scenario makes no logistical sense, and lacks any evidentiary basis. 

            This can undermine Putin's authority, and the sense that his story is a useful one.  Judging by yesterday's appearance, this is no longer the nimble post-truth Putin who is capable of changing out one lie for another as necessary, with a wink to the insider along the way.  This now seems to be a Putin who actually believes what he says -- or, in the best case, lacks the creativity to react to events in the world.  His speech yesterday was grim for everyone, including to Russians who would like to think that their leader is ahead of events.

            Putin's Ukrainian theory could make Russia more vulnerable to terrorism.  The Crocus City Hall attack was more likely because Putin has chosen to use his security apparatus against Ukraine and the opposition.  It is typical of his priorities that, on the very day of the Crocus City Hall attack, the regime defined international LGBT organizations as "terrorist."  When Putin publicly ridiculed the United States on 19 March for warning of an Islamic State attack, he was signaling to the security apparatus that this was not a real danger.  In conflating Islamic State with Ukraine now, he is doing the same thing at a higher level.  That cannot be helpful in the practical work of preventing another attack.

            Nor can, surely, Putin’s idea that Islamic State takes orders from the Jewish president of a European state, and that its actors are nothing more than pawns of American masters.  I am not going to claim any expert knowledge of how Islamic State works or its leaders think, but it seems like it would not be best practice to ignore it and insult it at the same time.  Publicizing the photos of the tortured suspects, as Russia has done, almost seems like goading Islamic State. 

            And although the official Kremlin position is that Kyiv and Washington and London are to blame, Russians have reacted (to the attack, and presumably also to the photos) by treating migrants and minorities aggressively.  Because Putin denies that Islamic State is the actor, he cannot tell Russians that Islamic State is one thing and Muslims in Tajiks in general are another.  He has created the impression, instead, that Muslims and Tadjiks are the enemy because they work for the West. 

#timothy snyder #thinking about...

[russiantapo4ek]

“I like how you draw Rusame, but as a US citizen I will never accept it, bcuz Russia is a terrorist who unleashed a war with Ukraine, it offends me. Russian is wild (???? what 😂) ofc I prefer Usuk more, u now?“ - wrote to me a dude who retweets patriotic American quotes about “freedom“ and mute evidence that Trump is an agent of Putin. Dude, first of all, for what purpose did you write to me about this, given that I deeply don't care about your opinion with preferences, while you so directly assure how terrible Russia is spreading propaganda (let me remind you that there is propaganda in US too, it has always been, especially nothing it does not differ from the Russian one, do not try to deny it, I know what I'm talking about, I once visited my aunt and listened to American political programs for the sake of interest, should I say how much outright nonsense I listened to, my ears almost withered ...) a retweet was made on your page about Trump as about a Russian agent, and do you willingly believe that? Dude, you're 27 years old, you're two years older than me, and you have the mindset of a 14-year old teenager who believes in all sorts of conspiracy theories and other nonsense from the Internet without any logical evidence. Is Trump an agent of Russia? Really?! Where do such conclusions come from? Election 2016? Does anyone else remember them? Why not Obama then? Not John Kennedy? Btw, he was suspected of fictitious collusion with the Communists only bcuz he wanted to improve relations with the USSR, he was not killed bcuz of suspicion, but your state sources will never reveal the truth about the true motives for the assassination of the president. Why only Trump? Does the American community still believe in this? Well, then I have no more questions for you 😂 is it more like paranoia to see the participation of Russians in everything (as some of you still like to call us “commi“, which we have not been for a long time) in the elections bcuz Russia wants to destroy America? Omg…Dude, I don't support the war, don’t support Putin, but that doesn't mean that I think that the US government is a bulwark of justice, it's far from it, I won't list what terrible things the White house did with other countries, including Yugoslavia/Iraq/Syria/Vietnam, and I don't want to talk about how hypocritical the US treats Russia and after that you claim that there is no propaganda in your country, but only the truth is being told? You know, in Soviet Union, they also believed everything that was said on TV, but the country was isolated, people believed everything that Stalin, Brejnev, Gorbachev said, we did not broadcast anything Western (Russians usually learned about Disney, Tom and Jerry, Looney Tunes and others foreign cartoons after the collapse of the USSR, American delegation often visited Russia, importing a lot of her production, spreading high crime in the country, instead taking away our scientists, Soviet equipment, including the resources of a weakened country). Why ,of all the things that America has done to my country , do I not consider all of America terrible , unlike you ? (Damn it, in the 90’s Russia was literally dying dude, my country could have died if not for humanitarian support, and even after all the hell Russia went through, still wanted to get closer to the US, but the US, oddly enough, was in no hurry to reach out in response…) Were Americans isolated from the world like Soviet Russia ? No. So where does such a superficial judgment about Russia come from? Dude, pls don't provoke me into a polemic with you, you've got the wrong address, I have no desire to continue this meaningless chatter with you, you still won't understand a damn thing from what I've written, bcuz your horizons are limited only by what you are told through liberal channels. They will tell you that every Russian comes home riding bears and that it snows all day in the country, you will believe it without any doubt. Bcuz based on what you wrote to me under the post with art, you think with the logic of the TV 😂

my conclusion: ❌🧠❌->🤡

(guys, I banned this clown, unfortunately, I don't want to show what he wrote, bcuz I deleted all this shit from the comments under my art, you can read my entire answer above, I think adequate people who don't think like him will support me)

Honestly, I still can't understand what he attributed the irl policy with Hetalia to?😂

[republicansaredomesticterrorists]

Biden is ratcheting up the pressure on a desperate Netanyahu who is spiraling out of control. American threats of pulling aid are the only thing that can control Israel. This happens behind the scenes whenever the hardliners in Israel get out of control. When books are written in a few years it will be revealed as always. Israel would never yield to anything other than massive U.S. threats.

It’s past time for this to end. Not just the current war but the whole issue that’s dragged on for decades. The UN needs to be empowered so they can step in and end a crisis like this.

Netanyahu’s response thus far has not been proportional and needs to end. Don’t get me wrong, Hamas brought this on the people of Gaza as they always do. They are a terrorist proxy of Iran and do not represent the ordinary people of Gaza. For far too long they have deliberately gotten Palestinians killed just to sway public opinion against Israel. They brutally slaughter innocent Israeli civilians and then use innocent Palestinians as human shields. Their benefactor, Iran, is itself a proxy for brutal dictator Putin of Russia.

Putin needs a distraction from Ukraine so he meets with Hamas and Iranian leadership both before and during the October 7th war. Hamas needs to play off the Israelis as an enemy so they can keep power on Gaza. Netanyahu and his right-wing party need Hamas as an enemy so they can stay in power. The Iranians, and other Middle East leaders, need to play off Israel and the West to keep the support of their own people.

The other Middle Eastern states will no longer take in Palestinian refugees because once in they never leave. Further they are extremely radicalized and don’t understand how normal life works because for decades they have been pushed into the streets to protest and fight by their proxy masters or some heavy handed Israeli action. Nobody cares for the Palestinians and they are nothing more than pawns to everyone involved. This needs to change. They are people with basic human rights and need peace and prosperity they same as everyone else in the world. They need to free themselves from Hamas and outside influences and the UN and its members need to step up and help them once they are free from the terrorists. For their part the Israelis need to get rid of Netanyahu and his right-wing government. They also deserve peace and security without imposing themselves on their Palestinian neighbors.

This is complicated and I don’t have the answers. It will be a long and arduous procedure that will require effort from all parties. One thing that is clear is that the killing needs to stop. The finger pointing needs to stop. The “what aboutisms” need to stop.

Some will say Russia’s involvement is a conspiracy theory. It’s not and all the world’s intelligence agencies and governments know this. To think otherwise is to be naive. The Russians have supplied all the weapons that Hamas and Hezbollah use and Iran supplies the money. Both states supply the military intelligence reports.

Some of you will forever say what about what the meddling the US and other Western states have done in the past but will never acknowledge what bad actors like Russia, Iran, China, North Korea, and others are continuing to do. These dictators can longer invade and promote terrorism as acts of foreign policy. Next up is Taiwan which will not go well for China that will suffer enormous losses beyond what Russia is experiencing in Ukraine. We can not repeat the 1930’s and be led to another world war by unscrupulous dictators.

[canichangemyblogname]

As Israel continues to bomb Palestinians in Gaza and attack Palestinians in the West Bank, global condemnation of Israel's occupation grows.

Tens of thousands worldwide have taken to the streets between October 13th - October 15th to rally in solidarity with Palestine. The people called for an end to Israeli bombing and the occupation of Palestine.

Several Governments have also voiced criticism of Israeli attacks on Palestine and have called for an end to the bombing of Gaza.

Cuba Brazil Colombia Venezuela Belize Russia Ireland Norway Indonesia Malaysia Oman Qatar Iraq Iran Kuwait Syria Morocco Algeria African Union South Africa

The Arab League and African Union released a joint statement calling on the international community to stop the unfolding humanitarian disaster and catastrophe before it is "too late." They have warned that the coming ground invasion could lead to a genocide of "unprecedented proportions."

However, in stark contrast, the European Council recently released a statement "condemn[ing] in the strongest possible terms Hamas and its brutal and indiscriminate terrorist attacks across Israel." In the same statement, they "strongly emphasize[d] Israel's right to defend itself in line with humanitarian... law."

The fact this condemnation comes over a week after Hamas' attack on the music festival is insulting. This past week has been filled with death from the constant bombardment of Gaza. Israel has dropped more bombs on Gaza in a week than the US dropped on Iraq in a year. There are now about 1 million displaced Palestinians in Gaza. In a week. The state of Israel gave no time for grief and no time for healing before it began its reckless bombing campaign; a campaign that has killed the very hostages they claimed to be freeing. They literally "bombed the freedom" into their own dead Israeli civilians. Israel does not care about its civilians. It would have heeded Egypt's warning about the incoming attack if it did. The State and Government of Israel only care about centralizing power and finalizing its ethnostate from river to sea. If Israelis have to die in the state's bombing campaign for that, so be it. Netanyahu's far-right government has demonstrated time and again that it doesn't give two shits about its Jewish citizens.

The State of Israel will never succeed in providing for the security and comfort of Israeli Jews. It will always fail in this goal. Not because of Hamas. Not because of Hezbollah. Not because of Iran. Not even because of Palestinian resistance to colonization. It will always fail in this goal because it simply isn't the Israeli State's goal. Israel was founded with the intention and goal of displacing the native Arab people to create an ethnostate, not with the primary goal of protecting Jews. Jewish Israelis will always be the State's collateral damage in its primary goal. And they will always be the international community's collateral damage for their security and political interests in the geopolitical region. They're human capital that can be thrown at a fight.

Palestinians are burying their loved ones in mass graves in Gaza. All the living members of 50 entire families have been wiped from the Gaza Civil Registry. The hospitals and morgues are overrun. Israel is bombing hospitals and schools and refugee camps and UN shelters and ambulances and journalists and detonating white phosphorus over civilians. The EU condemnation a week late is nothing short of tone-deaf. They don't care about the victims of terrorism. This statement's release at a time when some EU countries have broken from EU norms to condemn the violence inflicted on Palestinians serves to uphold the international status quo and maintain European security interests in the "Middle East." This comes as Israel continues to fire artillery into Lebanon, as Israel decommissioned Syrian airports in airstrikes, and as Hezbollah and Hamas forces in Lebanon have targeted Israeli settlements and barracks, bringing concerns of war spilling over the region. This also comes as tens of thousands have already taken to the streets to protest their government's stance on Palestine and as people continue to protest in solidarity with Palestine.

Do not look away. Make your opposition known.

#Call your elected officials about holding the Israeli government accountable #and ending their genocidal bombing campaign #Palestine

[alina-rubanenko]

#день пам'яті жертв голодомору #голодомор #моя україна #україна #слава україні #україна переможе #ukraine #crimes of russia #russia is a terrorist state #russia has always been a terrorist state in all times #Youtube

[shirzan140102]

Some Quick Thoughts about Israel and Palestine

A few weeks after I published my update post about the situation in Iran on here, the October 7th attacks on Israel took place. While I hate that this has become an "I told you so" moment, I must bring attention to the fact that I had predicted something like this happening in the post in question; specifically, towards the end of this post, I wrote:

For instance, do you think they won't get around to attacking Israel or the US?

To be clear, I believe that BOTH Israel and Palestine are the victims here and that the true villain is none other the Islamic Republic. Above all else, the IR and its enablers, Biden, the UN, Canada, the EU, member nations of the EU, and the UK, must be held accountable for all the Israeli and Palestinian blood that's been shed since October. Sincerely, I want to see nothing more than both countries coexisting and thriving, and my heart breaks for everything they've been going through. Both countries deserves better.

Let me be clear, this is all the Islamic Republic's doing. It is an incontrovertible fact that, just like Hezbollah and the Houthis, Hamas is one of the IR's proxies. I especially want to draw everyone's attention to the fact that around the time that it was announced that Biden would unfreeze $6 billion in Iranian assets, Hamas leaders/higher-ups were actually spotted in Iran. And mind you, this is only several weeks before October 7 happened.

People may argue that the unfrozen assets were untouched, but if you pay close attention to what Secretary Blinken and other officials from the Department of State (such as Matthew Miller) have said, it is clear that their reassurances that Iran wouldn't use the money for anything other than humanitarian reasons are empty lies. In fact, their statements are so contradictory, that their words cannot even be taken at face value, and as I said before, they didn't even deny the possibility that the IR could somehow find a way to use the money to sponsor terrorist activities. Let me be clear here: There is no way to guarantee that the Islamic Republic did not use the money to fund Hamas's activities or, considering the fungibility of the money, that they didn't take advantage of having an extra $6 billion to give Hamas more money. Another important factor that cannot be overlooked by any means is the involvement of Qatar, another major backer of Hamas (and a favorite haunt of some of Hamas's leaders), as the supervisor of the unfrozen assets. I need you to ask yourself this: When support of Hamas is so engrained in Qatar's policy, would there be any reason for them to block Iran from funding Hamas, and assuming that they would be accountable to the US government for monitoring the use of the funds, would they want want to honestly disclose what the money is being used for?

And if you think that it's too far-fetched to blame it all on the IR, consider the following:

Although the world has stopped caring about the Iranian people's fight for freedom - which is still ongoing, btw - they know that the people of Iran, especially Iranian diaspora like myself, can't be kept quiet. We are always finding ways to get word out about our struggles, and there is always someone who listens. What better way to distract from Iranian people's voices than by stoking the fires of another conflict?

Russia, as the Islamic Republic's favorite sponsor, is also seeking a distraction from its invasion of Ukraine.

I'd also like to leave everyone with this very brief observation: If you pay attention to how it operates, you'll see many similarities between how both groups operate. Just like how officials of the IR live in luxury and squander Iran's wealth for their own demented goals while the people of Iran suffer, the leaders of Hamas live in peace and safety while they have left the people under their rule in the line of fire.

Finally, if anyone wants to come to me with the argument that the IR cares for the people of Palestine and is genuinely helping them, I regret to tell you that you're woefully misinformed. This couldn't be further from the truth. They don't care how many innocent Palestinians have to die; they're happy to sacrifice as many Palestinians as it takes as long as they can achieve their delusional goal of destroying Israel.

To conclude, whether you support Israel or Palestine, your anger should be directed at one entity and one entity only: The Islamic Republic of Iran. I'm not here to debate whether, in general, Israel or Palestine is in the right; that is much too complex a matter to be discussed in just one hastily written Tumblr post. But in the case of everything that's happened since October 7, it's clear that Hamas was the instigator at the behest of the Islamic Republic of Iran. There are far too many "coincidences" to be overlooked here, and, speaking as an Iranian-American who knows how the IR works, I promise you that this is how everything has happened and, more importantly, that as long as the IR remains in power, there will only be more bloodshed and suffering. And everyone needs to pay attention to this. So, if you must chant for something, chant for the downfall of the Islamic Republic, which has caused all this misery. If you want someone to hold accountable, hold President Biden accountable for appeasing the Islamic Republic so much and for preventing the UK and EU from proscribing the IRGC. Ask the UN why it keeps emboldening the IR by giving rewarding it with high-ranking positions in matters such as human rights. Ask the leaders of these governments and groups why and how they have become so controlled by the Islamic Republic and why they're willing to sell out the safety of their own people to keep a failing terrorist government happy. (Feel free to look at the Burn Book section in the linked post for a more complete list of everyone who deserves your anger.) Because, as I've said before, the IR's goal is domination and destruction, and they're always on the hunt for more victims.

I'll wrap up this post by once again extending my condolences to both the people of Israel and Palestine. You all truly deserve better, and from the bottom of my heart, I'm truly sorry for your pain and distress. My heart is with all of you.

#free iran #iran revolution #palestine #gaza #israel #israel hamas war #israel hamas conflict #israel palestine conflict #current events #things we care about

[mariacallous]

The Palestinian issue has always been close to Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s heart – and a rallying cry for his conservative base. During his two decades in power, Turkey’s strongman has had a tumultuous relationship with Israel, marked by periodic spars with Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and occasional attempts at normalisation. All the while, Erdogan has never shied away from publicly displaying his support for Hamas, hosting its leaders in Istanbul and viewing the group as a legitimate part of the Middle East’s political map.

But after 7 October, Erdogan gravely miscalculated, failing to condemn its atrocities against Israeli civilians and reiterating that “Hamas is not a terrorist organization. It is a liberation movement.” Such strong endorsement of the group at such a painful time effectively led to Turkey being frozen out of hostage negotiations, regional diplomacy, and prospects of playing a greater role in a post-conflict Gaza. Outraged and shaken by Israel’s disregard for Palestinian civilians in its military offensive in Gaza, Erdogan has since blasted Israel for “war crimes” and “genocide,” while criticising the West for its perceived double standards and unequivocal support for Israel.

Had the Turkish president been more measured in his public endorsement of Hamas, slightly more diplomatic in his tone and less willing to endorse Hamas so wholeheartedly after 7 October, Ankara would have likely found itself at the core of international diplomacy on Gaza. In much the same way he did on the Black Sea grain deal and the prisoner swaps between Russia and Ukraine, Erdogan could have led the diplomacy around hostage negotiations and regional de-escalation. He also could have found a bigger global pulpit to make a case for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and grab the international community’s attention for Turkish proposals such as a trusteeship system for a future Palestinian state. 

Instead, 7 October highlighted Turkey’s diplomatic estrangement when it comes to Arab-Israeli matters, despite Erdogan’s popularity on the Arab street. In the aftermath of the Hamas attacks, Turkey was all too eager to play a role in regional diplomacy and emerge as the leader of a regional front that could isolate and pressure the Israeli government to abandon its hardline policies in Gaza. Instead, it was largely bypassed in hostage negotiations, and despite its links with the political leadership of Hamas, Turkey has not emerged as a diplomatic hotspot on the Palestinian issue nor in efforts to avert regional escalation.  

Worse for Ankara, the Gulf states and Egypt – despite their condemnation of Israel’s disregard for civilian lives in Gaza – have made it abundantly clear that they are not interested in entering a united anti-Israel front led by Turkey or abandoning the normalisation track with Tel Aviv.

Ankara’s tepid ties with Washington has not made it any easier for Erdogan. Once the lynchpin of US policy in the Middle East, for almost a decade now Turkish-US relations have been a drama shaped by mutual grievances, which range from Turkey’s objections to US support for Syrian Kurds to Washington’s criticism of Turkey’s human rights record and its burgeoning relations with Russia. To many in Washington, Turkey came to be seen as an “unfaithful ally.” Increasingly, Turkish-US relations look to be on the verge of a slow marital break-up, with deep suspicions and grievances on both sides.

The Biden administration started off in 2021 with a policy of keeping Erdogan at arm’s length, initially intended to better manage the relationship after four confusing years of President Donald Trump. But things have hardly improved much since then. There is little engagement at the leadership level between Erdogan and Biden and the strategic divergence between the two capitals on the emerging world order and its various challenges is stark.

With the war in Ukraine, Washington had to accept Turkey’s balancing act between Moscow and Kyiv and turn a blind eye to Turkish trade with Russia in violation of Western-led sanctions. Inside NATO, there is both appreciation (for closing off the Bosphorus to Russian warships) and frustration (for blocking Sweden’s membership bid for a time and trading with Russia) with Turkey.

When it comes to the Middle East, Erdogan’s pro-Hamas position has irritated the Israeli government and its public so much that it has rendered a potential Turkish role in Gaza is unrealistic, at least in the short-term. For the United States, this created a new level of regional tension that needed to be managed. The US secretary of state Anthony Blinken skipped Turkey in his first tour of regional diplomacy after 7 October, and Erdogan, angry at Washington’s unequivocal backing for Israel, refused to meet with Blinken when he visited Ankara in November.

When the two finally met in January, on Blinken’s fourth trip, the conversation was as much about Gaza as about getting Turkey to ratify Sweden’s NATO accession – a priority item for the White House ahead of the NATO summit in Washington this summer. Turkey finally did ratify Sweden’s accession – much to the relief of Sweden and NATO member states.

The question now is whether or not this provides enough of a basis for a reset in Turkish-US relations – one where the two allies can work together on a number of strategic issues, including European security. The period of estrangement has helped neither side strategically and is particularly glaring at a time when the US is trying to manage its diplomacy around two major wars – both in Turkey’s immediate neighbourhood. Amid such geopolitical turmoil, both Turkey and the US need better relations with one another. But to get there, Washington and Ankara need to manage their divergences and identify common interests – especially on the geoeconomic front. They also need to accept that whatever partnership emerges will be ‘à la carte’ and very different from the perfect alignment of the post-cold war period.

Getting the much-delayed ratification of Sweden’s NATO accession through the Turkish parliament has given a temporary boost to the relationship and created a feel-good moment within the alliance as it prepares for the 75th anniversary summit. Sweden’s ratification will now be followed by the US Congress signing off on the sale of F16s to Turkey – something that Ankara desperately wants.

But the real strategic conversation starts afterwards. Once the give-and-take is over, the two allies need to sit and talk about the future of Syria and Iraq and the worsening situation in Gaza. Ukraine and the Black Sea are also burning issues, as is Iran, and the tightening of sanctions on Russia. The Biden administration is painfully aware that Turkey is politically and geographically very close to it all – and more vulnerable than it would like to admit.

All of this ties back to Gaza. At some point, there could be a role for Turkey in the reconstruction of Gaza or within a multinational peacekeeping force. It is hard to imagine the current Israeli government agreeing to a Turkish role – but then again it is hard to see what will happen in the region in a year or two.

For now, Turkey and the US need to take baby steps – learn to talk again, rediscover each other and build some level of trust to better coordinate in the two wars raging on Turkey’s borders. This conversation is largely bilateral, but can benefit Europe and other NATO allies as well. Europeans in particular could benefit from a Turkey that is on better terms with the US by reaching out to Ankara off the back of this détente, and focus on nurturing closer cooperation with Turkey on key security concerns in Europe’s eastern neighbourhood and further afield in the Middle East. From this, they could also benefit from a deeper economic partnership with Turkey – both a top market and a production base for Europe’s. If Turkey manages to tilt towards transatlantic partners in Ukraine, and can play a constructive role in Gaza, it can once again emerge as a useful partner, indispensable for the US and for Europe.

[dieversa]

Late last night no one in Ukraine could sleep. Almost midnight the news broke that a prisoner-of-war exchange had taken place and several Ukrainian defenders had returned home. As time passed, more and more photos and details were released. That was one of the most significant prisoner swaps of the war so far, with 215 Ukrainian soldiers released - including commanders of the Azov regiment, which defended Mariupol.

It's impossible to express the excitement and joy that burst upon us instantly. The last time we experienced something like this was during the Ukrainian army's successes in a counter-offensive. But we remember and do not forget the cost of this. Ukraine pays the highest price in this war declared to us by russia - human lives are the price we pay.

Such sincere joy for people who are strangers in person, but who have become so close to us. Tears, calls and messages to friends, faith, love and strength.

And all this to the nightly howl of air-raid sirens...

This is not euphoria, there is no end in sight to the war, but we have nowhere to go. We are at home. Just remember every day that russia does not seek to end the war, that the russians are not happy about their released prisoners of war, but are angry that they could not kill the Ukrainians. And that, today, in addition to the mobilization in russia, they are once again openly threatening to use nuclear weapons on Ukraine. russia is a terrorist state, and always has been. It's just that russia has been very successful in camouflaging itself all this time and has built a good backdrop. But the curtain has fallen, the decorations have collapsed and the truth has come out.

Thank you for keeping me alive as well as all the people in Ukraine to the Ukrainian Armed Forces, all the defenders and our foreign friends. I dream of waking up and knowing that all our people, our heroes have been freed from the captivity and are already home.

Slava Ukraini!

#war in ukraine #ukraine #україна #russia is a terrorist state #photography #photographers on tumblr #photo #photographer #artists on tumblr #original photographers #art #original photography #original photography on tumblr #light #church #colors #photoblog #azovstal #supportukraine #support ukraine #stand with ukraine #standwithukraine #odesa #ukrainephotographer #ukrainian #одеса #український блог #український пост #stop russia #stop invasion

[ysbnews]

'Vile, Cruel Crime' Putin Breaks Silence on Bombing Which Killed Key Ally's Daughter

EXPRESS UK | By Matthew Dooley | 8/22/2022

VLADIMIR PUTIN has broken his silence over the killing of his key ally's daughter for the first time.

Putin has broken his silence over bombing killed Darya Dugina. - © Getty Images

Darya Dugina, daughter of Russian ultranationalist Aleksandr Dugin, was killed by a car bomb near Moscow on Saturday, August 20. Her father is a political philosopher with fascist views who wishes to unite all Russian speaking peoples into a single nation which could rival the West. His daughter shared many of those views.

Putin offered his condolences to the family of Darya Dugina in a statement on the Kremlin's Telegram channel. He said: "A vile, cruel crime cut short the life of Daria Dugina, a bright, talented person with a real Russian heart - kind, loving, sympathetic and open. "A journalist, scientist, philosopher, war correspondent, she honestly served the people, the Fatherland, she proved by deed what it means to be a patriot of Russia."

Darya Dugina shared the nationalist views of her father - © Getty Images

Ms Dugina's father, Aleksandr Dugin, also made his first public comments about his daughter's death through a statement on his friend Konstantin Malofeev's Telegram channel. He said: "She was a beautiful Orthodox girl, a patriot, a military correspondent, an expert on central channels, and a philosopher. "Her speeches and reporting have always been profound, grounded and restrained. She never called for violence and war. She was a rising star at the beginning of her journey. The enemies of Russia meanly, stealthily killed her."

Darya Dugina's father, Russian ultranationalist Aleksandr Durgin. - © Getty Images 

He called for a Russian victory in the Ukraine in the wake of her death.  He added: "But we, our people, cannot be broken even by such unbearable blows. Our hearts yearn for more than just revenge or retribution. It's too small, not the Russian way. "We only need our Victory. My daughter laid her maiden life on her altar. So win, please!" 

Russian investigators have blamed Ukraine for the bombing - © Getty Images

Russian investigators said Ms Dugina was killed when a bomb blew up Toyota Land Cruiser she was driving in an elite Moscow suburb. The state-run RIA Novosti news quoted an FSB statement blaming Ukrainian special forces for the attack. It said: "It has been established the crime was prepared and committed by the Ukrainian special services." Ukraine has vehemently denied any involvement in the killing.

A memorial service in Russia for Darya Dugina. - © Getty Images

Mykhailo Podolyak, advisor to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, said Ukraine would not carry out such a strike because it was not a "criminal state". He said: "Ukraine, of course, had nothing to do with this because we are not a criminal state, like the Russian Federation, and moreover we are not a terrorist state."

“The Third Man” of the Kyiv government, President Zelensky’s adviser Mykhailo Podolyak - © Getty Images

Ukraine's independence day is August 24 and President Zelensky had warned during his nightly video address on Saturday, August 20, that Russia could do something "particularly nasty" this week. He said: "We should be aware that this week Russia may try to do something particularly nasty, something particularly cruel. Such is our enemy."

#russia #moscow #putin #ultranationalist #Aleksandr Durgin #Darya Durgina #assassination #car bombing #russia is terrorist #barbaric russia

[mild-lunacy]

I don't know if this is where sociocultural rambles like this go, but I have no place else to really go. So OK, one of the most important progressive slogans (starting at least with the American youth response to the Vietnam war) is the 'no to war' stuff. This critique also applies to American interference with Iraq or Syria in similar ways. War has been long understood by people in the West in general and America in particular as a *choice*, that it's just really easy to imagine how it's better to quit. Note, the exception isn't even in US discussions of WWII, but the Civil War and the War of Independence. These are the only wars Americans fought due to existential threats to the country itself.

Anyway, so I think the whole concept of war being necessary sometimes (most prominently when your country is invaded and there's an attempted hostile overthrow of the state) has been forgotten. It's been boggling my mind as I try to imagine how people could honestly imagine Ukrainians are just being unreasonably aggressive in response to actual invasion, and the West is encouraging this aggressiveness for their own reasons. And the only thing I can come up with is that for those arguing in good faith, with no particular sympathy for Russia, it's just that we've all forgotten the point of war. And in America, we've never really experienced it and are pretty insulated from such a scenario.

I mean, both 9/11 and Pearl Harbor have two things in common: 1) at least initially, pretty much no one in the US disputed the need for immediate and strong response; 2) they weren't actually existential threats to the existence of the US.

Like yeah, OK, Japan attacked American territory, and politically or *pragmatically* speaking, the US couldn't just be seen to let that go. At the same time, what are the odds the Japanese were literally going to be able to summon the sheer number of infantry forces and the navy needed to present a realistic threat to American existence? Next to none, though more than a bunch of terrorists could do in terms of direct force. People were shocked and angry, and felt vulnerable, but as a country, was the US ever truly vulnerable to invasion or even a war spilling over on home soil?

Well, we can answer that question in the affirmative, but only if we accept that terrorism = war. But at the same time, you can't really broker a peace with terrorists the way you can with a nation state, either. You can pull out of the Middle East, but there's no actual guarantee the terrorists will be happy with that and leave the West alone in that case. After all, there's always revenge. It takes a long time for even an absent enemy to stop presenting a convenient target.

Anyway, my point is that we're all used to wars of choice. In that situation, the moral high ground goes to whoever chooses peace. You can argue that the war in question is still justified, but it's inevitably an uphill battle. There's good reason so many people are cynical about such wars: so often, the common people on both sides die while the elites get richer on their blood and tears. It's a dark thing, even if you can justify it.

But the attempts by many to pretend that Ukraine resisting a straightforward invasion by a stronger, larger neighbor is a similar situation is just... unconscionable. I can only begin to excuse it in some cases because like I said, Americans and indeed most Westerners alive today haven't experienced a 'just war' (though there's a reason why Putin loves invoking WWII references... for Russia and much of Europe, it was indeed a war facing an existential threat).

When another country violently invades you with the intent of taking over the government and dismantling your national identity and power to resist tyranny, this is the equivalent of attempted rape and murder-- on a broad scale. It's not so much a metaphor as a simple generalization, because the soldiers of that country straight up want to murder you, your friends, your neighbors, and many of them won't stop at raping or pillaging, either.

Not that war isn't always traumatizing and horrific. But not all war is total war, where there are no limits and the society may crumble if the citizens as well as the soldiers don't fight back. This is what we mean when we use the word 'genocide', although no word can capture the reality of such a thing.

The thing is, I think the reality of such a thing is so huge, so terrifying and absolute, that it's essentially unknowable for many. It takes a leap of empathy and imagination to truly conceptualize the ruination of everything and everyone around you, while accepting it's not your fault and either you escape, help the fight (even just in maintaining morale) or you perish. I understand that. That's why I keep thinking about the comparison to telling a person facing repeated rape and (attempted) murder they they shouldn't fight back and others shouldn't help, and they should simply take it and hope it's over quickly.

To be clear, the violent criminal engaging in rape and attempted murder (in fiction, at least) often seems to advise the victims not to struggle or 'make things difficult'. Sometimes there's a little speech about how it'll just be worse if the victim fights back and the criminal has to make an effort. Inevitably, the victim in stories fights back in a way they may not be able to in real life, and the audience certainly doesn't blame them. Because that would just be weird and unnatural, wouldn't it?

Anyway, essentially, when someone has a knife to your throat, and the throats of everyone you love, I imagine that suddenly you too will *want* to fight back, and wish for victory and even vengeance.

In summary: when facing death, either individually or as a people, the moral high ground shifts, and there's a moral imperative to survive. There's no moral or indeed practical benefit to submitting to violent oppression. I mean, there's a calculation that's necessary to avoid nuclear war, certainly, but I'm talking about those wishing and hoping that Ukraine simply submits to its own ruin and the death of its people. It's honestly just kind of ridiculous. The *only* scenario where surrender is indeed better is when it's *necessary*, and fighting further is suicidal, and your country is faced with overwhelming odds or is facing weapons it cannot counter. Even then, in most cases the type of resistance simply shifts to guerrilla warfare and civilian resistance. This is actually the way in which all people will instinctively fight for freedom. It's not just a slogan, after all.

#me myself and i #and things I've been thinking about lately #on the wish for peace #Ukraine

[misfitwashere]

Putin's paranoia

Terrorism, delusion, and self-destruction

Timothy Snyder

Mar 26, 2024

  On Friday 22 March four men associated with Islamic State attacked civilians in a concert venue near Moscow known as Crocus City Hall.  Islamic State (IS-K) claimed responsibility for the horrifying mass murder, and released videos recorded the terrorists' perspective (don't watch them).  Russia has since apprehended four men, who seem to be the perpetrators. 

Russia has been engaged with Islamic State for some time.  Russia has been bombing Syria since 2015.  Russia and Islamic State compete throughout Africa for resources.  All four of the accused are Tadjiks, a people subjected to discrimination inside Russia.

            These are the facts, subject to further verification and interpretation -- and inherently unpredictable, as facts always are.  What was entirely predictable (and predicted) was that, regardless of the facts, Putin and his propagandists would place the blame for the attack on Ukraine and the United States.  If Ukraine and the West are guilty, then Russian security services do not have to explain why they failed to stop Islamic terrorists from killing so many Russians, because Islamic terror vanishes from the story.  And if Ukrainians are to blame, then this would seem to justify the war that Russia is prosecuting against Ukraine.

Aftermath of Russian ballistic missile strike on Kyiv, 25 March

            Russian officials make a highly circumstantial argument: the terrorists' car was stopped near Bryansk, which is in western Russia, and so vaguely near Ukraine, which means that the four Tadjiks in a Renault were intending to cross the Ukrainian border, which means that they had Ukrainian backers, which means that it was a Ukrainian operation, which means that the Americans were behind it.  The reasoning here leaves something to be desired.  And the series of associations rests on no factual basis.

            The suspects were in a car near the west Russian city of Bryansk.  This much seems to be true.  The first version of the story was that they were headed for Belarus, which would make more sense, given the route.  Anyone with local knowledge would make a still more telling point. Because of the special relationship between Russia and Belarus, the Russian-Belarusian border is porous.  Once inside Belarus, it is relatively easy to pass into the European Union, because the Belarusian regime enables human smuggling into Lithuania and Poland.  Four Tadjiks in a Renault would have been, in this sense, welcome in Belarus.  They would have had a decent chance to pay a smuggler to get them into the Schengen zone and thereby escape.

            The idea that the suspects were headed for Ukraine seems to be entirely invented and is extremely implausible.  As of this writing, none of the suspects seem to have said anything about Ukraine, despite the fact that they have been tortured, presumably with such a confession in mind.  And the notion of a Ukrainian escape route really makes no sense.  The Russian-Ukrainian border is a place where Russian security forces are concentrated.  It is a site of combat.  It is the last place terrorists would want to go.  Four Tadjiks in a Renault would have needed some very, very high-level Russian protection to get anywhere near the Russian-Ukrainian border. 

            Russian propagandists have told the population that it was not Islamic State but Ukraine who is to blame.  ISIS is just a "fake."  The propagandists need not give reasons, and don't.  Only Putin is permitted to set the theoretical tone for the argument for Ukrainian involvement, and yesterday (25 March) he gave that a shot.  His version went like this: Ukrainians are Nazis; Nazis do bad things; a bad thing happened; therefore Ukraine is to blame.  

One does not have to be a logician to find the holes.  They are disturbingly large. 

            The premises do not work together.  While it is true that Nazis do bad things, it does not follow that all bad things are done by Nazis.  And the first premise is empirically false. 

            One should not have to say this at this point of the war, but the Ukrainians are not the Nazis in this conflict.  The Ukrainian far right has never done well in elections, and is far less prominent than in any European state you care to name, let alone the United States.  Ukrainians have an active civil society, a vibrant press, multiple political parties, and freedom of speech.  Ukraine's president won a free and fair election.  He is also, incidentally, Jewish.  The Ukrainian minister of defense, for that matter, is a Muslim.  The commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian armed forces was born in Russia, where his parents still reside.  This kind of political and social pluralism is unusual by any standards.

A Kyivan looks out the window after yesterday’s (25 March) Russian ballistic missile strike

            In Putin's version of the Russian language, of course, the word "Nazi" has no meaning beyond "what I wish for you to consider as the enemy."  If we are going to pursue the question of who the fascists in this war are, however, it is worth knowing that Russia has none of what Ukraine has.  Putin has never won anything like a plausible election to any office.  His regime has crushed civil society, political parties (except his own), and the press.  Putin runs a single-party state where the only principle of the single party is his personal status as its Leader.  He rules at home by terror and prosecutes a genocidal war abroad, in Ukraine, with the help of Russian soldiers who ever more often openly identify as fascists.  Putin himself espouses what is unmistakably a fascist ideology.

            Calling the Ukrainians the Nazis while being the Nazis is not itself a problem within this system, since being the fascists involves living within a big lie.  The challenge to such a system is that reality sometimes intervenes in a way that is hard to control -- as when Islamic State carries out an act of terror.  This brings in a whole set of political and social realities that are usually suppressed in Russian propaganda: the bombing of Syrian civilians since 2015; the bloody resource wars in Africa; the oppression of Tadjiks.  

            In Russia's system, it is not simply political convenience that adds the big lie of Ukrainian jihadism to the big lie of Ukrainian Nazism.  It is the deeper need to make reality, or at least psychological reality, conform to the story told by the state.  In the psychological project, more killing is necessary.  Russians are engaged in the project of killing Ukrainians.  Russians in Ukraine torture Ukrainians for being loyal to Ukraine, deport Ukrainian children for assimilation to Russia, and persecute and execute local elites who they regard as threats.  Russians fire some combination of shells, glide bombs, drones, cruise missiles, and ballistic missiles at Ukraine every single day, for no reason that communicates with reality. Yesterday, for example, multiple Ukrainian cities were struck by fifty-seven Russian missiles and drones.

            It is the killing itself that makes the lies true, in a psychological sense.  Russian soldiers who have killed Ukrainians believe they are fighting "Nazis," whatever that means.  And now Russian soldiers write "for Crocus" on he shells they fire at Ukrainians.  Yesterday (25 March) Russia fired two ballistic missiles at central Kyiv, even as Russian authorities announced that the terrorist attack means that they are permitted to kill high officials of the Ukrainian state.

Rescue workers prepare to help victims after a Russian ballistic missile hit the Kyiv Academy of Decorative and Applied Arts and Design. Photo by Kostiantyn Liberov/Libkos/Getty Images)

            Among Ukrainians, all of this generates a weary shrug.  It has been a kind of Western parlor game these last two years to ascertain the "rational" motivations behind Russia's war of atrocity in Ukraine.  Such a debate is attractive in the West, because if one can identify a Russian rationality one can then defend a policy of doing less, or doing nothing, to help Ukraine win the war.  If Russia is rational, then surely some compromise can be found.  This is a Russian leadership, however, that interprets the fact of American warnings about the attack as a reason to blame the United States for it: as the puppetmaster of Ukraine, which is itself the puppetmaster of Islamic State. 

            For Ukrainians, being identified as Islamists as well as Nazis is just one more detail in what is for them a war of self-defense and survival.  And of course, as Ukrainians will remind you, for different audiences the Kremlin also characterizes Ukraine as the center of gay civilization, as an element of the Jewish international conspiracy, and as a Satanist cult.  So (the memes are out there) Ukraine is now a gay Jewish Nazi Islamist Satanist regime.

            The Kremlin goal of identifying Ukrainians as terrorists might matter in the war.  It can be used as an excuse to continue, to mobilize, to commit new kinds of war crimes.  This is one way this will certainly go.  But it is not certain that this development will be stable. 

            It might matter to Russians that Putin's big lie about Ukraine is growing whiskers.  Once forced into gay-Nazi-Jewish-Islamist-Satanist territory, Russians just might be reminded of the late Stalinist purges directed against supposed Zionist-Trotskyite-fascist-imperialist (etc.) conspiracies.  Or, more simply, people inside the regime, backed into a corner by Putin's escalation of unreality, might just realize that the Ukrainian scenario makes no logistical sense, and lacks any evidentiary basis. 

            This can undermine Putin's authority, and the sense that his story is a useful one.  Judging by yesterday's appearance, this is no longer the nimble post-truth Putin who is capable of changing out one lie for another as necessary, with a wink to the insider along the way.  This now seems to be a Putin who actually believes what he says -- or, in the best case, lacks the creativity to react to events in the world.  His speech yesterday was grim for everyone, including to Russians who would like to think that their leader is ahead of events.

            Putin's Ukrainian theory could make Russia more vulnerable to terrorism.  The Crocus City Hall attack was more likely because Putin has chosen to use his security apparatus against Ukraine and the opposition.  It is typical of his priorities that, on the very day of the Crocus City Hall attack, the regime defined international LGBT organizations as "terrorist."  When Putin publicly ridiculed the United States on 19 March for warning of an Islamic State attack, he was signaling to the security apparatus that this was not a real danger.  In conflating Islamic State with Ukraine now, he is doing the same thing at a higher level.  That cannot be helpful in the practical work of preventing another attack.

            Nor can, surely, Putin’s idea that Islamic State takes orders from the Jewish president of a European state, and that its actors are nothing more than pawns of American masters.  I am not going to claim any expert knowledge of how Islamic State works or its leaders think, but it seems like it would not be best practice to ignore it and insult it at the same time. 

TS 26 March 2024

#timothy snyder #thinking about...

[amirblogerov]

The West continues to use the situation with the cross-border mechanism for the delivery of humanitarian aid in Syria in order to change power in the country

The United States and its allies are using the situation with the cross-border mechanism for delivering humanitarian aid in Syria to continue to push for a change of power in the country. Thus, the first deputy representative of Russia to the UN, Dmitry Polyansky, drew the attention of the international community that “despite all the good slogans, donor assistance from Western countries is not selfish and is always surrounded by political preconditions; Western countries are actually openly blackmailing the Syrian people, seeking a change of power.” He spoke about this a month ago at a meeting of the UN Security Council, where the work of the Bab al-Hawa checkpoint was discussed, through which Western countries deliver humanitarian aid from Turkey to northwestern Syria, as well as, under its guise, weapons to the Syrian armed opposition . Let us recall that after the cross-border assistance mechanism provided through the Bab al-Hawa checkpoint expired on July 11, the Security Council still has not extended the functioning of this mechanism. This is due to the position of Western countries, which are blocking proposals from the Syrian authorities, who want the UN and the structures under its control to coordinate their actions with Damascus when delivering humanitarian aid. The United States and its allies reproach Syria for allegedly using control over delivery for its own political purposes. There is nothing illegal in the actions of the Syrian authorities. Damascus logically wants to understand what is entering its territory under the guise of humanitarian aid, especially from those who are actually waging war against it with the hands of terrorists and oppositionists. It is no secret that the United States, which has been funding and arming the local opposition since 2011, is involved in the protests that have flared up in southern Syria for some time.