Tag Archives: Ukraine war

International news

Russians are repeating their mistakes

You’ve heard it said about those who do not learn from their mistakes, correct?

The leading aphorism comes from the Spanish philosopher George Santayana, who said: “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”

It looks to me as though the Russians are learning that lesson the hard way, in real time.

What we once knew as the Soviet Union decided in 1980 to invade Afghanistan, attempting to install a Kremlin-friendly regime in Kabul. The Afghans were fighting for their lives and for the future of their country and then proceeded to kick the Soviets’ backsides out of Afghanistan eight years later.

They had help from sources, such as the U.S. Congress, which appropriated money to supply the Afghan fighters with anti-aircraft missiles, which they used with stunning efficiency.

Fast-forward to early 2022. Russia decided to invade Ukraine, again to install a regime friendly to autocrats who run the Kremlin. The Ukrainians, like the Afghans before them, are fighting for their sovereignty … and are actually winning the war on the battlefield. Once again, the Ukrainians are being helped by arms coming from multiple allied nations that also are appalled at the Russians’ illegal and immoral effort to subdue a sovereign nation.

Can it possibly be that Russian strongman Vladimir Putin is too stupid to understand the wisdom of a learned Spanish thinker?

Stupid? It’s possible … along with too arrogant.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

Praising intel-leaker?

The MAGA wing of the Republican Party is making me sicker by the day. Consider what some of them said about the Air Force National Guardsman who leaked the sensitive intelligence info to the world.

They offered praise for Jack Texiera. The right-wing firebreather Marjorie Taylor Greene said the young man has “told the truth” about the war in Ukraine.

Good grief. U.S. Rep. Greene needs to be stripped of her Homeland Security Committee spot, censured and sent to the back bench where she belongs.

As for Texiera, he should face severe punishment. I won’t call for his execution, as some have done. The young man does need to spend time in prison if he is convicted.

Rep. Michael Turner, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, said Texiera is no one to be admired. At least some reasonable Republicans are treating this matter with the seriousness it deserves.

How does the Biden administration deal with this? Again, it cannot blow it off as a simple mistake. It needs to crank up its investigative tools to get to the bottom of how this reservist got his hands on intelligence that only the top members of the chain of command should be able to see.

I am going to place my faith in the administration’s efforts to stop this kind of travesty from repeating itself.

The MAGA cult, meanwhile, needs to shut its collective mouth.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

International news

It’s no ‘territorial dispute’

Ron DeSantis has provided a grotesque misrepresentation of the war that is raging between two nations in eastern Europe.

The Florida governor and pending Republican presidential candidate calls the war between Ukraine and Russia a “territorial dispute” that does not deserve the United States’s commitment to shoring up Ukraine against the Russians.

Wow! For the record, I intend to look back briefly at what happened in February 2022.

Russia invaded Ukraine, intending to overthrow the government in Kyiv and installing a pro-Kremlin puppet to replace Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. It wasn’t a territorial dispute. It was a blatant, flagrant attempt to overthrow a sovereign government.

What has commenced is a war between democracy and autocracy.

Therefore, the United States has a compelling interest to stand beside Ukraine as it fights for its survival against forces launched by Russian strongman Vladimir Putin.

So, for DeSantis to suggest that the war is anything less than what it is — an intense ideological struggle between good and evil — is to appeal only to the MAGA base of what passes for his Republican Party.

DeSantis is demonstrating a disgusting fealty to Putin and his ham-handed view of governance.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

military news

Happy anniversary, Vlad!

This is an “anniversary” that Russian goon/strongman Vladmir Putin likely never presumed he would commemorate.

It’s been one year since the Russian tyrant launched his illegal and immoral war against Ukraine. He sought to bring the former Soviet republic to its knees in days. It didn’t happen.

What Putin is now realizing, even if he doesn’t admit it, is that people whose sovereignty is threatened by an evil aggressor will fight to the death to protect themselves and their nation.

Ukraine has done that … and then some!

Yes, the Ukrainians have had help. It has come from President Biden, whose leadership has melded the North Atlantic Treaty Organization into a cohesive alliance hell-bent on ensuring the Russians do not attack NATO. Doing so would doom the Russians.

Putin’s cakewalk into Kyiv has turned into a stumble-bum quagmire.

May the Russians continue to suffer the shame they have earned by their conduct on the battlefield. May they also be denied a second “anniversary” of this disgraceful episode.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

International news

Joe Biden: ‘wartime president’

Joe Biden has done the impossible by becoming a “wartime president” without a single American fighting man or woman engaging in combat with a foreign enemy.

How did the president do it? By sneaking into war-ravaged Ukraine and delivering one of the more stirring speeches in recent memory, assuring Ukrainians that the United States and our many allies worldwide stand with them in their fight against the immoral invaders from Russia.

“Kyiv stands. Ukraine stands. Democracy stands,” Biden told the Ukrainians. Yes, it’s all true.

It was a remarkable feat for President Biden to venture into Ukraine under the cover of darkness. He strolled the streets of Kyiv, the capital city that just a few months ago was under siege by Russian artillery. Yes, there were sirens blaring to warn Ukrainians of pending danger from Russian artillery. Joe Biden would not be deterred … nor should he.

The visit reportedly buoyed the Ukrainian troops who are fighting valiantly — and successfully — against Vladimir Putin’s armed forces.

To be sure, the president’s visit drew expected criticism from the MAGA wing of the Republican Party back home. These are the nimrods who express skepticism about Ukraine’s ability to fend off the Russians, who invaded their country on multiple phony pretexts uttered by Putin.

Biden, though, has stitched together a strong alliance comprising NATO and EU nations committed to opposing Putin’s land grab in Ukraine as he seeks to reincarnate the Soviet Union-style of ham-handed rule. Putin sought to weaken NATO. Thanks to Joe Biden’s leadership, all he has done is strengthened the alliance formed after World War II to protect Europe against the kind of aggression the world is witnessing at this moment.

Joe Biden spoke like a man in the middle of a struggle. Indeed, he is. President Biden is fighting to preserve democracy, which is fighting for its life against the authoritarian instincts of a brutal killer.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

military news

‘Crimes against humanity’? Yep!

Vice President Kamala Harris laid it on the line while attending a European security conference in Munich, Germany.

She has accused Russian goon/strongman/thug Vladimir Putin of committing “crimes against humanity” while waging the immoral and illegal war against Ukraine.

There you have it. The VPOTUS put it on the record. She is correct to call Putin what he clearly has been. A war criminal!

What in the world will the great powers gathered in Munich going to do about it? For my money, and I’ve said this already, Putin needs to stand trial for the crimes the troops under his command have committed against Ukrainians.

The International Court appears to have sufficient evidence against Putin to put this monstrous leader on trial.

He has ordered the shelling of hospitals, schools and houses of worship. Ukrainians have dug up mass graves containing the remains of women, children and men who clearly were not able to participate in battles on the field.

This individual, Putin, has targeted civilians in a strategy that clearly violates treaties signed that govern the conduct of modern war.

Does that make him a war criminal? Uhhh … yeah! It damn sure does!

The supposed vaunted Russian military machine has been anything but the fearsome machine Putin and his henchmen thought they were commanding. They have learned the bitterest lesson possible, which is that people whose national sovereignty is threatened will fight to the death, which the Ukrainians have done as they have turned back the Russian onslaught.

A war that was deemed to be a cakewalk when Putin invaded Ukraine a year ago has now turned into an epic quagmire. What’s more, Putin has committed multiple crimes against humanity in an effort to get the Ukrainians to surrender.

The Ukrainian armed forces are having none of it.

Vladimir Putin, meanwhile, should be in leg irons and locked up.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

military news

Again, put Putin on trial!

Russian war criminal and all-round nasty individual Vladimir Putin is showing the world — yet again! — why he needs to stand trial in the International Court for crimes against humanity.

Witness the Russians’ bombardment of an apartment complex in the Ukrainian capital city of Kyiv. They are still digging bodies out of the rubble. I lost count of the number of civilians who died in the missile blast; last I heard it was about 30, including at least three children.

It’s good to ask: Why in the name of the rules of warfare do you target an apartment complex? It contains no military value. It is not a part of the country’s infrastructure. It contains housing for families.

Yet the Russians are continuing their assault on these so-called “soft targets” while waging a losing war against Ukraine.

They act on orders from the Kremlin. Who runs the government? Vladimir Putin!

There is plenty of precedent for putting a head of state on trial in absentia. Putin must stand trial for the crimes he is committing against humanity, as the world is witnessing during the Ukraine War.

Putin has been committing crimes ever since he sent his troops in to launch his illegal and immoral invasion of Ukraine. The Ukrainians have fought back heroically and have actually gained the battlefield advantage against the Russian aggressors.

That only has accelerated Putin’s desperation, resulting in the kinds of attacks that have leveled civilian targets … killing civilians, to boot!

This individual needs to stand trial for the crimes he is committing!

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

International news

Politics goes topsy turvy

At almost every level imaginable, one can see evidence of our political world being turned upside down, topsy turvy, poked in the eye, ear and gut.

Let’s examine briefly one of those levels.

Imagine for a moment how Republicans a generation ago would have reacted to a Kremlin strongman deciding to invade a sovereign nation. Why, they would have jumped on their congressional desks and shouted at the top of their lungs that we need to do all we can to stop such naked aggression.

Not these days, man. Oh, no. We have a former president of the United States leading an amen chorus of cultists in standing up for the Russian invaders. Russians invaded Ukraine in February. The Ukrainians have fought valiantly and successfully against the aggressors.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy spoke to a joint congressional session, which greeted him as the hero he has become. Two right-wing radicals, Reps. Lauren Boebert and Matt Gaetz, sat on their hands while their colleagues stood and cheered Zelenskyy’s entrance into the chamber.

These two nimrods echo the belief of their own political hero, Donald Trump, who has called Russian hitman Vladimir Putin a “genius” for invading Ukraine; he also has lavished Putin with praise for being a “strong leader.” Oh, never mind that Putin derives his strength by intimidation and execution of those who disagree with his policies.

Imagine such acceptance of that criminality coming from, oh, Ronald Reagan, or Barry Goldwater.

It wouldn’t happen. Men such as them would never find a good word to heap on a trained killer.

Oh, boy, those conservatives today are singing an entirely different dirge. Disgusting …

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

Of course they clapped … Tucker

Tucker Carlson, the right-wing blowhard who — to the best of my knowledge has zero foreign policy experience — cannot understand why Congress stood in virtual unison and applauded the remarks delivered by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

Why, it’s as if Congress has blinders on, said the Fox News gasbag.

Well, as an old guy with whom I once worked, would say, “Well hell, fire and save matches.” 

Of course Congress would stand virtually as one — a couple of right-wing soreheads notwithstanding — to applaud the heroic head of state who is facing the Russian invaders’ onslaught with courage and grit.

And … so damn what if he showed up in his customary olive-drab military wear? Carlson called it a demonstration of “maximum disrespect.” Bullsh**, Tucker! Did you bellow your disgust when independent U.S. Sen. Kyrsten Sinema presided over the Senate wearing a sleeveless denim blouse? Of course not, you nimrod!

Congress wants to help defend a democratic state against an onslaught initiated by a war criminal presiding over the Kremlin. Is it expensive? Well … yeah! It is! No one doubts that the United States is paying a hefty price in sending defensive weapons to Ukraine to help fight the Russian invaders.

Tucker Carlson: Congress Disagrees On Everything Bitterly, But When Zelensky Comes They All Applaud | Video | RealClearPolitics

Moreover, the Ukrainians are putting that expense to good use as they have seized the initiative on the battlefield and have pushed the Russians out of territory they seized.

As for Congress “clapping like seals” at Zelenskyy’s appearance before the joint legislative body, let ’em applaud. The Ukrainian president has earned our admiration.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

Sickening boorishness on display

Political boorishness is a remarkable trait to witness unfolding in real time, especially when it is aimed at a visiting head of state.

Consider what happened Wednesday night as most members of Congress stood and applauded the entry of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy into the House chamber to speak to a joint session of Congress.

At least two Republican House members — members of should be called the MAGA Cult Cabal — chose to sit on their hands. I refer to Lauren Boebert of Colorado and Matt Gaetz of Florida.

Think for just a moment about the man they were snubbing. President Zelenskyy came to this country at considerable risk to his safety to speak to Americans about the struggle he is fighting against the illegal and immoral invasion of his country by Russian military forces.

He spoke to us from the podium in the House chamber in English. He offered his profound and heartfelt thanks for the support shown by President Biden and by members of both parties serving in the House and Senate. He told us the money we are spending for Ukrainian defense is “not charity,” but it is an “investment” in Ukraine’s struggle on behalf of democratic principles.

Not everyone is on board with that, obviously. Boebert and Gaetz represent a segment of Congress that prefers to attach strings to our aid to Ukraine. However, for these two nimrods to sit on their hands and not extend to a heroic head of state the courtesy of their applause is reprehensible on its face.

They sat there intending to make some sort of idiotic statement.

It is fair to wonder whether the likes of Boebert and Gaetz will ever condemn in loud voices the war crimes that are occurring in Ukraine as Russian thug Vladimir Putin orders his troops to fire on schools, hospitals and residential developments, inflicting casualties on women and children.

They remain silent on those events while demonstrating their boorishness in the presence of a hero.

Sickening.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com