At first glance, most of us thought Russia was out of line invading Ukraine. But then some leading conservatives started questioning things. They got sick of the Democratic-controlled government and MSM whitewashing history and not explaining to the American public how the war came about. We just got out of three years of COVID-19 misinformation, so bad that it probably led to the needless deaths of conservatives overreacting in disgust to the misinformation, so we’re highly skeptical right now of being told how to think.
But the MSM then turned the right’s skepticism around on them and made them look like they supported Russian President Vladimir Putin, which is something completely different. They cherry picked statements by conservative leaders in order to do this.
In a segment entitled, “Our leaders are lying about Putin's invasion of Ukraine, and it's insulting,” top conservative Tucker Carlson said, “They're forcing the entire American population to mouth childish slogans about good versus evil. It's insulting, but worse, it's not helpful.”
He suggested looking to leading UK conservative Nigel Farage to understand the skepticism. Farage warned eight years ago not to provoke Putin, “the moral of the story is if you poke the Russian bear with a stick, don't be surprised when he reacts.” Farage criticized the European Union’s expansion — and why not, conservatives have warned against a one-world government for years. He said encouraging Ukraine to join NATO, combined with NATO conducting joint exercises in Ukraine, needlessly provoked Putin. Bombing Libya —which many believe was a mistake now — and arming the rebels in Syria exacerbated the pressure. Farage pointed out the moral relativity involved, it’s not all black and white, “in the war against Islamic extremism, Vladimir Putin … is actually on our side.”
The Biden administration has been a disaster so far, from the bloody withdrawal from Afghanistan to record inflation and now the Russia-Ukraine war. So Democrat hacks are desperately spinning to look good, forced to defend their actions under President Barack Obama that deliberately antagonized Putin, bringing this on. They’re spinning Carlson’s remarks, especially his obviously sarcastic ones, into making him look like he supports Putin, which isn’t accurate. And they conveniently leave out the fact the Democrats stand to benefit financially from a war in Ukraine.
So far, the Biden administration is doing almost exactly what Carlson advises (Carlson merely seems a little more hesitant about some of the sanctions) — not getting involved militarily to stop Putin, since the ramifications could drag us into another Vietnam War, or at best, another Iraq War.
Sen. Rand Paul was criticized for questioning giving Ukraine financial aid, but that’s because he’s one of the biggest fiscal hawks in Congress, concerned about “taxpayers who are struggling to buy gas, groceries and find baby formula.” Trump said the invasion was “genius,” but that’s not the same as agreeing with it.
A lot of the quibbling gets into the minutiae. Some on the right point out that Ukraine is not a democracy, then get slammed for pointing that out as if they’re on Russia’s side. Well according to ratings and rankings of how democratic countries are, Ukraine’s scores are mediocre. The Economist Intelligence Unit’s 2021 rankings place Ukraine at 86th in the world, tied with Mexico, in a section of countries described as “hybrid regimes” due to their authoritarian leanings. Russia is ranked 124, in the authoritarian section.
Where is the questioning of the left’s motives? They jeered at the right for many years for being too interventionist, accused conservatives of trying to make the U.S. the world’s police. Now they’re doing exactly what they accused us of with a straight face; they’ve become more interventionist than the right. Biden said Putin is a war criminal who needs to be removed from office. So where were they defending the U.S. in Vietnam and Iraq?
It’s surreal watching them condemn the type of statements some on the right are saying that they themselves said about Vietnam. Former Hawaiian Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, a conservative Democrat, has been slammed for asking on Carlson’s show, “Are we prepared to see our loved ones burn alive in a nuclear holocaust in a war with Russia over Ukraine?”
Evangelicals, who generally represent the conservative base, support Ukraine over Russia in similar numbers to the general population. This is more evidence some of our conservative leaders are deliberately being misinterpreted by the MSM.
Amost no one supports Russian troops murdering thousands of Ukrainians. It all comes down to the Democrats cleverly twisting the words of prominent Republicans. During CPAC this year, a plane flew overhead with a banner stating “Putin Welcomes CPAC to Orlando.” Tellingly, it didn’t come from the right; a Democratic political action committee paid for the banner in order to spin the false mantra.
The Democrats are attacking the right for doing what we do, fully analyzing all aspects of a political issue. Unlike them, we value the freedom to think for ourselves and do not enjoy being told by the government and MSM how to think monolithically.
Look at our conflicted history with Afghanistan. The U.S. supported the mujahideen fighters in Afghanistan in the 1980s against the Soviet Union, which enabled the Taliban takeover in the 1990s. But that switched after 9/11, and we worked with NATO and the Northern Alliance to topple the Taliban regime in 2001.
The Democrats are trying to deflect from the fact Putin is not afraid of Biden, so Biden is ineffective at bringing the war to a close. Many believe if Trump had been in office, Putin would have never dared to invade Ukraine. They had “detente,” a word the MSM will never bring up now, but what effectively worked under President Ronald Reagan in dealing with the Soviets. Putin held a begrudging respect toward Trump, and was secretly terrified that if he pushed him too hard, Trump would hit back hard. The real question people should be asking is why have the Democrats decided to do a 180 on interventionism for this war.
Reprinted from WND