Dear Tennessee Star,
We are in a teachable moment about political agendas, the way the left creates and abandons their narratives, and even how a nation goes to war.
For example, the media recently ignored the most historic divorce of the era. No, it’s not Johnny Depp and Amber Herd, or Tom Brady and Gisele. It’s the American left and Russia – former name: Union of Soviet SOCIALIST Republics. The biggest consequence of that stunning reversal is the party that used to call for detente with Soviet Russia now wants to facilitate military action toward Putin and Russia.
The difference is not the end of the USSR or the reign of Vladimir Putin. Putin is the personification of the socialist Russia with which the left previously wanted to make peace. He’s a former KGB operative. His mantra is that the worst event in human history was the collapse of the Soviet empire. His sole goal in life is to revive the Soviet Union. And, like Bernie Sanders and AOC, he is a SOCIALIST.
Let’s review the history of the left and socialist Russia. It was the left that produced spies and apologists for socialist Russia. (See the Rosenbergs, Alger Hiss, Klaus Fuchs, etc.). It was socialist Bernie Sanders who had his “strange honeymoon” in the Soviet Union. (Note: “fact checkers” have since assured us that the trip Bernie and his wife took to the Soviet Union immediately following their wedding was not their honeymoon, and that their “real honeymoon” was a different trip they took a year later).
It was leftist groups that used to facilitate “cultural exchange visits” and tourism with socialist Russia in the mid to late 1900s. And, it was Secretary of State Hillary Clinton who sought to “reset” our relationship with Putin’s Russia.
But recently, the left’s needs have changed. The left’s “Dear John” letter was short. Sorry comrades, but we have a narrative to protect. Now, “Russia-Russia-Russia” is a centerpiece of the left’s recent talking points: Russia meddled in the 2016 election, hacked Hillary, hacked the DNC server, is Q-Anon, colluded with Trump, is behind the Hunter Biden laptop “disinformation,” and that a “Putin tax” is to blame for the Biden-era US economy.
“Russia-Russia-Russia” was poised to become the next Gulf of Tonkin Resolution. It drove a swell of support for US military action against Russia in the early days of their invasion of the Ukraine. But only days later, the attention of the left’s social media minions was redirected when Will Smith slapped Chris Rock on a celebrity awards show. Then, that historic event took the lead among stories that were “trending” and stole all the impetus from the left’s call to war. (I nominate Will Smith for the Nobel Peace Prize! He may have saved the world from nuclear annihilation!)
If there is a U.S. – Russia war, it will be a war born of a political theme. Remember that when the bodies are returned to Dover. And pray that they aren’t followed by missiles over the Arctic.
Pray that President Trump’s initiatives to produce a mutually sacrificial peace succeed. And as the war continues, pray that we avoid the incident that sends the situation in Ukraine spiraling out of control.
If you think that confronting Putin in Ukraine is a geopolitical imperative, remember that during the 1960s, we were told that if communism was not stopped in Vietnam, it would not be stopped. Today, decades after the fall of Saigon and US involvement in an eight-year war that cost fifty-three thousand American lives, some of the world’s largest capitalist entities manufacture a significant amount of the world’s shoes in Vietnam.
If you think that U.S. military involvement in Ukraine is a moral imperative, remember that before and during the Russian invasion of the Ukraine, there has been multiple conflicts in Africa, each with a clear aggressor and victim. The liberal media has given them next to no coverage, even though their horrific impact is almost exclusively upon people of color. After ignoring these wars, wouldn’t going to war in Ukraine be an example of “white privilege?” (Where is Black Lives Matter when you really need them?)
Yes, Putin is evil (and like Bernie Sanders and AOC he’s a socialist!) and Ukraine is the victim. But there are no angels here. Nothing worth the life of one U.S. service member.
Most of all, what realistic gain is there to expect from a continuation of this war?
It used to be the left that resisted war. Now, it is apparently up to the rest of us.
Please, give peace a chance.
Sincerely,
Ken C.
Nashville, TN
