On Monday, February 24, the third anniversary of what the media calls “Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine,” the United States shocked the world by voting against Ukraine’s United Nation’s resolution condemning the Russian invasion, which reiterated the same rhetoric that we have heard ceaselessly for three long years.
This put the United States and its reliable supporters (besides Ukraine, of course) like Israel and a couple of insignificant Pacific Island nations on the same side as Russia and its supporters, such as Belarus and North Korea. Overall the vote was ninety-three in favor, eighteen against, and sixty-five abstaining, with sixteen not voting. Hungary sided with the United States and Russia, while a few other nations that previously abstained, such as Burundi and Equatorial Guinea, voted against the resolution. With China, India, and many other large countries abstaining, a little over 25% of the global population is ruled by governments that voted “Yes” on the resolution. The American “no” vote represents a substantial change in policy under the second Donald Trump administration.
For three years now there has been rigid enforcement within “respectable” circles in the United States regarding how Ukraine must be discussed. While “full-scale invasion” may sound like it exists for little purpose but to be prejudicial, the reality is that it is to create a contrast with the revolts against Kiev’s rule in Crimea and the east in 2014, which we are meant to believe were entirely the result of a “limited” Russian invasion. One must not forget to call the war “unprovoked,” which is of course repeated endlessly because it is the exact opposite of the truth, as shown thoroughly by the Libertarian Institute’s Executive Director Scott Horton in his recent tome, fittingly titled Provoked. Generally, one must also mention that we are saving Democracy™ from the dictator Vladimir Putin, though one should ignore the fact that Volodymyr Zelensky canceled elections, banned opposition political parties and in fact stopped being the legitimate president of Ukraine almost a year ago.
For its part, the United States was promoting a different resolution which focused on peace and avoided anti-Russian rhetoric or counter-productive maximalist aims such as demanding Ukraine return to its 1991 borders; that’s despite Crimea being fully integrated into the Russian Federation, which it has been for ten years, and no serious person denies that the public there wants to be part of Russia. Most importantly, the U.S. resolution referred to Russia’s invasion as an “escalation” of Ukraine’s civil war, as opposed to an “unprovoked full-scale invasion,” a major change in American policy. It is an objective fact, independent of what you think Russia should have done, that the 2022 invasion constituted an intervention into a civil war near its border, though we are supposed to believe that the Ukrainian Civil War was entirely Russia vs. Ukraine in the first place. All of this shows that the Trump administration is at least posturing itself as serious about making peace in Ukraine instead of continuing the cynical, dangerous, dead-end policy of the prior administration.
The usual suspects are of course apoplectic. Unfortunately for them, Trump 2.0 has realized that there is no appeasing the war party and their sycophants in the media and thinktanks. Their complaints about him selling us out to Russia or whatever other nonsense they insist on spouting fortunately seem to be falling on deaf ears this time around. Trump has made it clear that, at least as in regard to Russia and Ukraine, he would like to be remembered as a peacemaker. His most important subordinate, Vice President J.D. Vance, released a clear statement that there is no end to this that involves Ukraine winning. Even if they ultimately take a somewhat middling approach that doesn’t fully satisfy those of us who have opposed the war from the beginning, it is still aimed at ending this pointless war.
Meanwhile, Europe appears set to continue meddling despite having no ability to do so without U.S. support. The European Union’s top diplomat Kaja Kallas has just announced the sixteenth round of sanctions on Russia, with no hint of irony in thinking this will somehow stop the Russian war machine this time. The United Kingdom also announced new sanctions, despite that no one can name any product they export besides Scotch, and the Russians will surely be fine drinking vodka. Zelensky, who no longer possesses a democratic mandate, is going around telling people he would step down in return for NATO membership for Ukraine, which is a bizarre threat for someone whose term already expired. We may continue to hear “but Ukrainians want to fight”; however, the reality is that Ukraine’s legislature just narrowly voted against a resolution against changing leadership, demonstrating that on all sides of the sweatsuit crusader, the world’s most notable “Little Green Man,” is very nearly finished.
Despite our well-justified fears when this tragicomedy of a war started, it appears that President Donald Trump may successfully get us out of it without getting everyone killed; which is good because the Russia-Ukraine War is far too stupid to be the thing that ends civilization. If the Eurocrats wish to take this war over from the United States, those idiots can have it.
