Remember Snake Island (Anarchy In Ukraine II.)

I see a red door
And I want it painted black
No colors anymore
I want them to turn black
I see the girls walk by
Dressed in their summer clothes
I have to turn my head
Until my darkness goes
I see a line of cars
And they're all painted black
With flowers and my love
Both never to come back

I've seen people turn their heads
And quickly look away
Like a newborn baby
It just happens everyday
I look inside myself
And see my heart is black
I see my red door
I must have it painted black
Maybe then, I'll fade away
And not have to face the facts
It's not easy facing up
When your whole world is black

~Paint It Black, The Rolling Stones

I have a confession to make.

I've been pretty deeply impressed by the courage and tenacity of the Ukrainian people.

Everybody from President Zelenskiy himself, to rich and powerful elites to poor senior citizens...is taking up arms to defend their country. Here for example is heavyweight boxing champion and Mayor of Kyiv, Vitali Klitschko, manning a machine gun. Imagine showing up for your duty day and finding out that this pure unadulterated badass, like something out of the Terminator movies, is your squad leader. Do not fuck with that guy. 

I saw a video yesterday, of a squad of Ukrainian Border Guards soldiers on this little island, called Snake Island, telling a Russian Navy warship and crew to go fuck themselves. "Remember Snake Island" could be the "Remember The Alamo" of the 21st century. Certainly, it will be in Ukraine.

Hell, earlier tonight I watched a video of this eerily cheerful Ukrainian soldier taunting the Russians.

And here's the kicker, The Ukrainians *Are* making good on all this talk. For all the savagery the Russians have demonstrated in the last couple days...for example, I watched a video this morning of a Russian tank driving over a car...amazingly the driver survived. The Ukrainians have met that evil with courage and sacrifice.

As Rick Wilson said this morning, courage is the highest virtue.

I'm not joking, imagine the society that is going to be reshaped by the people who are all going through this experience. Imagine being the Russians who have to fight them. The Ukrainians believe in God and Country more than the Russians do, and I think that's already starting to have a telling effect.

Earlier tonight I saw that a Russian Il-76 Candid jet transport was shot down, likely carrying between 150 and 225 paratroopers, plus five crew (Six if the aircraft retained its 23mm tail guns.) A second such aircraft has been shot down since.

Meanwhile asset freezes and international sanctions on Russia and on individual Russians...including Putin himself continue to pile up...including disconnection from the SWIFT financial system.

And convoys carrying munitions are continuing to deliver munitions overland from Poland and the Baltic States. The FGM-148 Javelin ATGM continues to be the star of the conflict, and apparently hundreds of Russian armored vehicles have been destroyed...and thus far it looks like overall, the Ukrainians are inflicting more casualties than they're taking.

The Russians can afford that, it worked in Georgia in 2008. It doesn't seem to be working out that way now, but how much longer can Ivan keep throwing bodies into the meat-grinder?

It's really starting to look like the Russians fatally underestimated the Ukrainians, and I don't think yet that they know all what they're walking into. 

Especially considering that with their iron courage, the Ukrainians have won over the vast majority of world opinion.

Especially to do so this quickly is no small thing, and unheard of in hybrid or insurgent warfare. Normally...as with the FMLN in Algeria or the various Anti-Apartheid groups in South Africa and Namibia...such efforts are the product of years, if not decades.

The Ukrainians managed to win over the world in less than one full day.

The main exception of course, seems to be American "Conservatives" in general, and the Far-right in particular...the FOX News crowd most of all. 

But with the Ukrainians kicking Ivan's ass in the Meme War, even that's starting to fray. Tucker Carlson has shifted from supporting Putin to blaming Biden for not doing enough. 

And hell, when asked for aid by the Russians, Kazakhstan refused to send troops to help them in Ukraine. Instead, they got Chechens...and how that's going to go over with the rabidly anti-Muslim far-right, I couldn't tell you...but it can't be helping much.

It's going to amaze me until the day that I die, that so many Americans think Ukraine shouldn't fight back, and that so many of us don't believe in freedom or self-determination.

You'd think, if these people believed in what they said they did, that there'd be a run on airline tickets to Poland or charter flights to Ukraine by gun nuts attracted to the fact that the Ukrainian Army is basically just giving free AK-47's and ammunition to random people and telling them to go fight the Russians.

Isn't that literally what the gun nuts say it's all about?

Molon Labe, right?

But of course, no takers, because it's all a lie. They only even say that shit because they think Black people and liberals don't have guns.

As I said to one such person today, yet another fool who'd rather be alive than free; "Should they have just surrendered at the Alamo?" 

Note: This person was allegedly from Texas. 

They never answered, and I don't give a fuck. As impressed as I am with the Ukrainians, I am equally disgusted by the quisling cowardice of American "Conservatives."

I mean, for fuck's sake, America exists because we fought back in the face of Empire and superior firepower. World history is littered with such cases...from the Spartans at Thermopylae to the Haitians defeating the French and Greeks fighting the Turks to the Afghans fighting both the Soviets and the USA and winning.

I'm sick of these bad faith, lying morons. All their braying like jackasses about "Freedom" was ever and always total bullshit.

They don't even believe in freedom for themselves.

I can't be the only one who's tired of this garbage.

And in the world outside of places like China and Russia and the US far-right, public opinion will move the needle towards more direct intervention. 

Oh hai, here we go. Facebook just banned Russian state media. Think about that one for a second. They won't ban antivaxxers but they just cracked down on the Russians.

The ship was cheered, the Harbor cleared

Merrily did we drop, below the Kirk, below the hill

Below the lighthouse top...

I still say that in a military context, intervention will take the form of more circumscribed efforts like air support and no-fly zones because of the nuclear question, but if they get such support and continued lethal military aid, I think the Ukrainians can handle the rest of this shit themselves.

Another day dawns, and Kyiv...and thus Ukraine...remains free. Glory To Ukraine!

Respect.

Courage is the highest virtue.

Remember that, because our test will be coming soon, too.

Part I

The martyrs of history were not fools, and our honored dead who gave their lives to stop the advance of the Nazis didn't die in vain. Where, then, is the road to peace? Well, it's a simple answer after all. You and I have the courage to say to our enemies, "There is a price we will not pay." There is a point beyond which they must not advance. This is the meaning in the phrase of Barry Goldwater's "peace through strength." Winston Churchill said that "the destiny of man is not measured by material computation. When great forces are on the move in the world, we learn we are spirits — not animals." And he said, "There is something going on in time and space, and beyond time and space, which, whether we like it or not, spells duty. ~Ronald Reagan

The defenders of Snake Island sure remembered that.

We are spirits, not animals, and those men whose destiny it was to die with courage on that rock stand tall before their God because of it.

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