To those neighbors and allies who share our freedom, we will strengthen our historic ties and assure them of our support and firm commitment. We will match loyalty with loyalty. We will strive for mutually beneficial relations. We will not use our friendship to impose on their sovereignty, for our own sovereignty is not for sale. As for the enemies of freedom, those who are potential adversaries, they will be reminded that peace is the highest aspiration of the American people. We will negotiate for it, sacrifice for it; we will not surrender for it, now or ever. Our forbearance should never be misunderstood. Our reluctance for conflict should not be misjudged as a failure of will. When action is required to preserve our national security, we will act. We will maintain sufficient strength to prevail if need be, knowing that if we do so we have the best chance of never having to use that strength. Above all, we must realize that no arsenal or no weapon in the arsenals of the world is so formidable as the will and moral courage of free men and women. It is a weapon our adversaries in today's world do not have. It is a weapon that we as Americans do have. Let that be understood by those who practice terrorism and prey upon their neighbors. ~Ronald Reagan, First inaugural address.
Depressing thought for the day: It seems like pretty much everybody regards war between Russia and Ukraine (and likely between Russia and the West as well) as inevitable at this point.
Well, at least out leaders and those of most of our allies seem resolved that we, as free people, should do our duty. There was a time I might have been one of the people going into harm's way, but now I know plenty of younger people...one of my younger cousins, and the husband of another one...who might be some of those people, and the kids of a couple of my bros from back in the day.
I just read this afternoon that USAF F-15C Eagle fighters had arrived in Poland, and our allies are moving units forward also. The Baltic States, Poland, and Romania all have their armed forces on high alert.
War is a terrible thing, and don't you dare forget that.
But there are things that are worse, like cowardice and treason. Like not wanting to fight...not because one is against war, but because one agrees with the goddamned enemy.
I started out as a Christian, a Conservative, and a Republican. For those reasons, I absolutely cannot imagine supporting a foreign country or a foreign leader over our own. I don't give a damn.
But the people who, over the last several years, haven't been wrong about a lot of stuff, are saying we can expect to have an active pro-Putin fifth column in this country. And it really burns my ass that this fifth column of pro-Russian traitors will overwhelmingly consist of people who are Christian, Conservative, and Republican.
I'm not any of those things anymore, and I'm not cool with this. I don't give a damn.
It just feels wrong to me, that Americans would support Russia over America. I don't give a damn.
And chances are, if you're under about 40, you wouldn't understand why anyway.
More to the point, these people are supporting Vladimir Putin, a KGB agent who, when it really mattered, stood up to be counted with the enemies of everything that Christianity, Conservatism or Republicanism even stood for.
Or stood for at that time, at least.
Putin would have gladly killed Christians, conservatives and any other anti-Communist people, simply because he was a Chekist.
Now? Republicans seem to regard that as a selling point
in his favor.
Hell, on the eve of this war, Republicans are still busy lying about the last war. Hell, Republicans seem to want to copy the Taliban's achievement of ousting a legitimate government after decades of Civil War and again, I'll be goddamned if I can understand that.
I'm going to be honest here, I think I could sooner understand modern American conservatives accepting the harsh Salafist Islam of the Taliban sooner than I could understand them kowtowing to a goddamned KGB agent!
The Taliban at least verifiably believe in some version of God and have social values in common with...well, what used to be the extreme ends of the Republican spectrum but is now just...depressingly common.
I was taught that if you're an American, you're supposed to support America...as it is...not some fictionalized version based on your political philosophy that only exists in your own head. Not some Idiocracy where the President eats paper and flushes government documents down the goddamned toilet, but America, as a whole, with all of its contradiction, contentiousness and diversity, where we might not agree with what you say...but we'll fight to defend your right to say it.
Of course, nowadays, we have too many people what seem to think America isn't America if everybody gets included. That's not how any of this works. And trust me, Putin will absolutely be able to get most Russian people to at least pull in the same direction. If this goes how I think it will, we'd best do the same.
We're supposed to all be in this together. Whatever happened to the idea that I was raised with, that we're all Americans?
In this time, we need to remember that. If we want to win, anyway.
The Russians sure will...and I'll bet you money, that if some Afro-Russian soldier or a soldier from one of the Buddhist or Muslim parts of Russia distinguishes themselves...the fucking Russians will make a hero of that person just to troll the American "Conservatives."
Hell, just to see how the Republicans debase themselves trying to Pretzel it up logically so they can keep their narrative going. Hell, If I was the Russians, going into this thing I'd be flying a Soviet flag from the radio antenna of every third tank or so...just to watch these idiots fully repudiate the legacies of Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush and spend days contradicting themselves saying that yes, Soviet Communism was actually a good thing..
And the Russians will do something...maybe not that, but certainly something...to see if they can get the Republicans to go full Ted Cruz and bow the fuck down.
And it'll probably work, too. It'll work because they'd rather be useful idiots than free citizens.
And this will leave the rest of us shouldering the burdens they shirk.
Thus, things are going to get harder.
Remember that FOX News, the GOP and Tucker Carlson, they want America to lose...not just to lose, but to be divided by Civil War as well, so that they can break off a part of America and become some right-wing version of East Germany with a wall around it for the 21st Century.
And then they'd want such a place to be some kind of disease-ridden Third World shithole.
You can' reason with that kind of stupidity, you can only kick its ass.
So get after it, while we can.
Blood that has soaked into the sands of a beach is all of one color. America stands unique in the world: the only country not founded on race but on a way, an ideal. Not in spite of but because of our polyglot background, we have had all the strength in the world. That is the American way. ~Ronald Reagan
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