The American government does not care about Ukraine. Nor should anyone - its a non democratic country full of oligarchs which you claim you hate - ppl have just been conditioned to think Russia runs the universe. It's funny...go back 7 years and Obama said we don't need to involve ourselves in their affairs...all the press agreed, the 80s were over. But memes or something can overthrow super powers now.
Do you see a statue of the leader from the leadership council in the Yemeni Civil War? We're supporting that too.
Love the virtue signal about the needy...bc we should tax more as opposed to create opportunity...bc its worked so many times before.
American opinions on the war in Ukraine seem to break into a handful of camps:
1) Screw the rest of the world, it isn't our problem: These people come from across the political spectrum but are mostly concentrated at the ends, the 'far' left and right. On the right it's basically, "That really sucks for them but their issues created it and their resolve has to work it out. And that same thing will happen here if we aren't careful with throwing money in the trashbin and lighting it on fire like we are by sending it over there." On the left it's basically, "War bad. All war bad. You fund war and bombs that make war and blow up hospitals. Bad."
2) They deserve our help as citizens of a sovereign legal democracy that were invaded by a larger, stronger neighbor for said neighbor's material gain: These people also come from across the traditional political spectrum but tend to be concentrated more towards the middle instead of the extremes. Whether their reasoning boils down to humanitarian(self defense), legal(breach of international law), political(it's in American interests to both help them and weaken Russia, the Budapest Memorandum), or economic(lucrative contracts for fatcats) is immaterial as their argument is all basically the same, they deserve our help. It's just about how much to help them. The majority fall into this category and it's where you see all the bickering over just how much money or which types of military vehicles or arms or anti-air capabilities. No NATO boots on the ground.
3) Ukraine bad, Russia good: Almost no one in this category in American politics. There are scattered handfuls of people with various ties out in the public who hold this view, but they have next to no cohesion or political power. They would want us to help Russia and you see zero of that in any media let alone halls of power. Barely a hint on even social media.
4) Russia bad, Ukraine doesn't matter: This group is sadly larger than it has any right to be and hopefully they forgive me for saying this but it's ignorant people. Many goodhearted souls on both the right and left who are anti-Russian, mostly because of the Cold War, and want that bastard Putin to go down in flames. Any side effects be damned. They have to be controlled because they don't know the intricacies of any geopolitical squabble, not even NATO + Russia = NUKES.
Group 2 have so far channeled group 4's rage into the policy they want. Group 1 can't oppose them as they're naturally fewer in number and don't have group 3 to ally with since they basically don't exist. Welcome to basically every major decision to come out of our democracy for centuries. The powers that be manipulate the public with emotional appeals to allow them to engage in activities that will net them profit. The thing about the profit motive though is that it isn't immoral, it's amoral. This time it happens to be that the profitable thing for the military industrial complex is selling help to someone who I personally feel deserves help. That determination is up to each individual to make, but in the real world of real people there is an overwhelming abundance of evidence for which side to pick. Not Putin's. Regardless of how corrupt Ukraine may be, and how many political extremists it may have(Azov), life for its citizens will be better under a more western, open society than under Putin's thumb. Especially now that they've pricked that thumb and made it bleed. Ukrainians know all about that, ask the Cossacks.
Sorry for the novel but just thought it wise to throw my Ukraine take out since much of the conversation from that thread has moved over here since it got nuked.
![[laughing]](http://l.yimg.com/j/assets/img/emoticons/classic/laugh.r191677.gif "Laughing [laughing]")
