Ted Rall for April 22, 2022

Run, hide, the Ukrainians are coming to get you! Maybe after Rall’s friend Putin is done with them.

Actually, we DID know quite a bit about the first two countries mentioned, though less about the various groups who made their residence in or about them. And, strangely, “we” also had quite a bit of information about those groups… but not within the part of the government that made decisions about how to “tune” their behavior from outside.

And we do also know quite a bit about Ukraine and the Ukrainians, possibly even within the government.

Meanwhile, we ALSO know a lot about Putin and the Russians. It’s not true that the enemy of our enemy is our friend, but it IS true that you can know a lot about people and groups by the way they behave. Murder, war crimes, rape… those things tell us quite a lot about Putin…

Well unstable as ukraine is now there no guarantee that it will end up being extremist on the other hand if Russia gets is hand on ukraine it DEFINITELY BE A EXTREMIST UNDER PUTIN

That’s the difference between them and the Muslim countries

Americans “Don’t know much about history” or “Don’t know much about geography” or “Dont know much” (What a wonderful world this would be)

I don’t think it’s a lack of information, it’s a lack of resources that led to the first two cases evolving into what they are. We simply don’t have the resources or manpower to solve or work through every conflict in the world. In the case of Ukraine it’s a well founded fear of a nuclear conflict that’s preventing the west from getting fully involved.

Maybe YOU don’t know anything about Ukraine, but you are not the world.

By the time Putin’s invaders are done, there won’t be much of Ukraine left TO know. His plan seems to be that having cleansed the country of its purported Nazis — and dislocated old people, women, and children (those he hasn’t had slaughtered ) — Putin and his oligarchs can move in populations of “pure Slavic” culture. As if Russians historically under czarist/soviet control are the only valid culture of the region.

Many Eastern European ethic populations must have thought they were at last securely in place within their own borders with the fall of Soviet Communism. But the Neo-Soviet Russia under Putin has bullied its way back into History, like a field of thistles re-sprouting and spreading back.

Look at the refugees fleeing Ukraine now. They aren’t people in strange clothing with strange customs — that we might easily disregard as just more hapless foreigners. They aren’t leading goats and cows (their sole mobile wealth). They appear nearly as we do, European urbanites or American suburbanites in clothing that might be purchased from Target or Burlington. They lead pet dogs and cats and birds in cages. They have credit cards and the latest cell phones. They are confused and desperate that powerful high cultures surrounding them let this happen.

Get used to it. The comfortable chair from which you watch misery and destruction on the other side of the world is not a personal throne that can’t be taken away by storm, or flood, or government — or furious foreign madmen with merely small “tactical” nuclear weapons. Listen … the bell tolls …

Something like S. Korea seemed to be their trajectory before the war. Worst case would likely have been Hungary.

The only terrorist organizations in Ukraine is the Russian Army and Putin’s mercenaries.

In every society, & country there’s good and evil!

Great toon, Ted! As always, food for thought.

Texas and Florida Republicans are currently giving us a lesson on the operational motivations of the Taliban.

Yes we do. Read the Red Famine

Certainly there are some terrible groups/people that the US has historically supported. And, we certainly don’t know the unintended consequences of our support for Ukraine; NOBODY can predict that at this time. However, the “they’re just as bad” argument diminishes how bad the perpetrators are. The USSR invaded Afghanistan because its geriatric leadership thought their Brezhnev Doctrine should be applied to a socialist leadership that had almost no support from its citizens. Assad? A butcher, by pretty much everyone’s standards. Putin? A leader who seems to be caught up in a paradigm that includes messianism, historical falsehoods, fear of a democracy (and yes that means if Ukrainians vote far right, they will be represented) on his border and violence (Chechnya, Syria, poisoning opponents, etc.) to reach his goals. For me, the question becomes, what action helps the most people NOW? Russia invaded. There are over 5 million refugees right now, thousands of Ukrainians dead right NOW. Having “bad actors” on the Ukrainian side doesn’t change that.

We don’t need to know much, just looking at them is good enough, they are white. /s

The only reason one does not know about Ukraine is because their head is stuck in an inaccessible place.

Read some history Ted.

Ted is earning his rubles today.

Normally I support your comics Ted… but you went too far with this one.

That is a complete false equivalence.

In April 2019 Volodymyr Zelensky was elected president in an election considered free and fair by international and domestic observers. The Ukraine was moving away from being a regime and towards being a democracy.

We are funding and supporting the lawful government of a free country that is being invaded by an adversary. That is not what was happening in your other two examples.

Putin’s army is bombing maternity wards, deliberately targeting ambulances, and killing civilians. The amount of war crimes going on is staggering, and there is no reason to even vaguely consider Russia to be anything but the aggressor.

Rall is so lame…

We knew quite a bit about Afghanistan, and what we didn’t know the Brits were more than happy to tell us. The Taliban and al Qaeda did not “evolve” from the Mujahedeen, The Taliban were one of the factions in the Afghan Civil War consisting of those from the Pashtun areas of eastern and southern Afghanistan who had been educated in traditional Islamic schools. Mohammed Omar spread the movement throughout most of Afghanistan, shifting power away from the Mujahideen warlords.

Al Qaeda was a Saudi led, manned and financed terror group. They were only given safe harbor in Afghanistan.

The ‘Free Syrian Army’ did not turn into al Nusra, made up from Syrian jihadists or ISIL.

We know plenty about Ukraine. That’s why they are not a member of NATO.

Ted is right! We need to switch sides and support poor ole Putin!

Well, Ted, you can rest easy knowing we’re not propping up ANYONE in this conflict to fight a proxy war against Russian imperialism.

…for a change.

Actually we do know a lot about Ukraine. Ted Rall doesn’t know a lot about Ukraine, which makes him a great asset for the Kremlin to push their propaganda. If you think that a little over the top, please consider that Rall is a regular contributor to Sputnik, a Russian state media “news” outlet.

Putin is pushing the denazifying myth to justify the war, but he doesn’t actually believe it. Putin has no problems with the neo-Nazis among the DPR or in his Wagner Group paramilitary squad, and happily looks the other way as the RIM brings Nazi terrorists in from Europe to train on Russian soil.

Yes, there are Nazis in Ukraine, and some of the Azov regiment sport Nazi insignia, but Putin and Rall’s accusations are way overstated. Zelenskyy, who is Jewish, was elected in 2019 with over 70% of the vote. (Since the war started he’s survived two assassination attempts by the Wagner Group.) In the parliamentary elections that same year, the far-right parties combined won 2.5% of the vote, not enough for a single seat.

A month ago I listened to a news report that was heartwarming and sad at the same time. Ukrainian children who had been evacuated to Israel were celebrating Purim in their new home. It wasn’t the Azov regiment that drove them from Ukraine.

This is quite the stretch. You must be 10 ft tall now.

ISIS is a rebranding of AQI, a new thing

We know citizens — including children — are being murdered by Russian soldiers at the command of Putin. Isn’t that enough?

We didn’t know much about the Ukraine when we funded the Government of Ukraine. I think most of us are actually hoping it evolves into the Government of Ukraine instead of a revolutionary insurrection against a colonial power.

OK, here is a bottom line comment from an opinion piece in the WashPost today:

As Putin once put it: “Why do we need the world if there is no Russia in it?”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2022/04/22/putin-biden-russians-existential-choice/

Think about that as you choose whether to support Ukraine or Russia. Do remember that Russia still has nuclear weapons. Ukraine does not.

The US also funded the people who would become their primary allies against the Taliban in Afghanistan. The US specifically avoided funding the groups that would become ISIS because they were basically the same people they were fighting when the US invaded Iraq. The US also supported dictators in Taiwan and South Korea, both of which are now viable democracies.

The US failed to support their allies in Afghanistan after the Soviets left. They gave them weapons but not schools.

In the Ukraine the US is supporting a shaky democracy that has potential against a military invasion.

Maybe the US will support Ukraine after the war is over to hopefully become a sound democracy.

Poo Ton has been threatening the rest of the world, also he was seen clutching at his table and slumping in his chair on national TV.

I Afghanistan they knew full well the other freedom fighters told them only the US though those religious fundamentalists will fight harder than the others more democratic.

The same with Syria so expect the US govt will choose the most fanatical only everyone in Ukraine is fighting against another country invading them now genocide mass murder so that last one in your analogy may not pan out.

Leave it to the military industrial complex.

B.S., we knew a good bit about them. We just decided to go with the ol’ “The enemy of my enemy is good ’nuff” motto. I’m comfortable backing the Ukraine the way we are.