[spectre] a terrible day

[heath bunting]

fortunately, most interested parties in the ukraine conflict are using 
their standard modus operandi, making studies of previous operations 
instructive.

syria is an obvious example to guide us in narratives management, 
trusted voices, innocence and outcomes.

eva bartlett and vanessa beeley would be good starting points.




On Fri, 25 Feb 2022, Andreas Broeckmann wrote:

> Dear Mathias,
>
> I hesitate because this argument will change nothing, and more 
> knowledgeable people are making it more elegantly elsewhere, I hope. But 
> I want to shortly respond to your claim that "NATO is not completely 
> innocent of what is going on". From my point of view, this is only true 
> if you regard the Russian claims for its "security" as legitimate and (I 
> find it hard to imagine that you would condone this) if you think that 
> the specific current Russian "response" to the "threat" posed by NATO is 
> therefore in some way justifiable. (What else, from an ethical point of 
> view, could the phrase "not innocent" mean?)
>
> Do you believe that, in order not to become co-responsible for the 
> current situation (what you call "not innocent"), when the Baltic 
> countries requested membership in NATO around 2000, the Western alliance 
> should have said, "no, sorry folks, we cannot do this out of respect for 
> the security concerns of the Russian Federation"?
>
> To the contrary, I would claim that, whatever the circumstances, the 
> Russian military attack on Ukraine, the threats and brutality towards 
> deposing the elected Ukrainian government, the quasi-annexation of the 
> eastern Ukrainian region (and of the Crimean peninsula, we should not 
> forget) are illegitimate, and the misery, death and destruction that 
> this war is bringing to people is unjustifiable and awful.
>
> However, what concerns me more than such weird "shares of guilt" 
> discussions is the question what a feminist and pacifist response or 
> attitude can be in the current situation.
>
> Best regards,
>
> -a
>
>
> Am 24.02.22 um 19:11 schrieb Mathias Fuchs:
>> Dear friends and neighbours,
>> 
>> with all shared emotions about the horrible things that happen in the 
>> Ukraine and with particular sympathies for the victims of Russia's 
>> invasion, might I still put up a thought for discussion?
>> 
>> I saw elderly ladies in the streets of Berlin today carrying signs 
>> saying "Fuck Putin". This is maybe understandable at a private level of 
>> anger, but it underanalysis what is going on there.
>> 
>> Putin is not an individual devil who wants to destroy a nation. The 
>> actions taking are in my view a reaction to international politics that 
>> are a well coordinated maneuvres of Russian Intelligence, Russian 
>> Business and Russian Military. Not Putin as a person.
>> 
>> The Capitalist West has expanded zones of monetary interest and of 
>> military influence towards the East since 1991. NATO countries are at 
>> the border of Russia. This is as if Russia would have installed missiles 
>> in Canada, Cuba, and Mexico. Do you remember the histeria when the 
>> Soviet Union set up missiles in Cuba?
>> 
>> 
>> I hope that this conflict will be solved without costs of life and the 
>> Ukrainian friends have my full sympathies, but we should not fool 
>> ourselves into "Putin did it". This is a much more complex issue and the 
>> NATO is not completely innocent of what is going on there.
>> 
>> Do you remember that NATO is short for "North Atlantic Treaty 
>> Organization"? Is the Ukraine on the North Atlantic? Why does NATO want 
>> to expand to control the entire continent? Could you consider to be a 
>> Russian citizen and be frightened by a military organisation trying to 
>> take over the whole of Europe?
>> 
>> 
>> Thanks for your thoughts
>> 
>> Mathias
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