I absolutely hate what’s happening in Ukraine, to both the Ukrainian and Russian people who are there, and to Russia’s reputation.
Recently I saw a message from a Russian friend of a friend, asking why the USA can “flatten [Iraq and Iran] into a pancake,” but Russia has to “quietly watch as extremist and terrorist activities occur at its borders.”
They said no one can clearly explain the difference between “democratic” and “authoritarian” abuse.
I found a New York Daily News article, which I thought was a pretty good explanation of some important differences between the Ukraine and Iraq invasions. I think it is a decent response to that person’s question, so I decided to publish a Russian translation.
I encourage you to read the whole Daily News article, but the main differences it mentions are:
- Saddam Hussein was a dictator with a history of murder and violating several United Nations Security Council resolutions. Zelensky is a democratically elected leader with public support.
- The war in Iraq was conducted by a coalition that had 31 member countries at the time of the invasion, including the United Kingdom, Australia, Italy, Spain and Turkey. Vladimir Putin found one on-and-off ally in the dictator next door, Belarus’s Aleksandr Lukashenka.
- There was large support of the war by the citizens of Iraq when it initially began.
- The US tried to justify the invasion in the United Nations (UN) before it began. The Iraq invasion was never condemned by the UN. The Ukraine invasion was near-unanimously condemned by the UN, and Russia never tried justifying it to the UN.
Despite the reasons above, most Americans quickly regretted supporting the invasion of Iraq.
My question to the person, who is arguing that there’s no difference between these 2 invasions: why are you still supporting the war in Ukraine?
Original message from the Russian friend of a friend
Below is a google translation of their message. I apologize if it’s difficult to read.
There is no need to distort – on the Internet a huge number of people are fighting not for Putin and for a “special operation”, but for primitive common sense.
Not a single, I emphasize, not a single newborn “quasi-pacifist” can answer the most elementary questions, such as why the United States and NATO can bomb Yugoslavia and “roll into a pancake” Iraq and Iran, while Russia (and any other countries) should silently look at extremist and openly terrorist activities at their borders.
No one can clearly explain how “democratic” violence differs from “authoritarian” violence and why the first is possible, while the second is categorically impossible. In a word, either the equality of all and everyone is complete, or only “the right of the strong” and the right of war.
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