Why is the elected left supportive of a proxy war with Russia?
Examining why the "Squad" and other elcted progressives are supportive of the proxy war with Russia.
At this point, it is almost undeniable that the United States is using the Russian invasion of Ukraine as a proxy war against Russia. As retired U.S. diplomat Chas Freeman put it the United States’ stance on Ukraine can be summarized as:
We will fight to the last Ukrainian for Ukrainian independence
Noam Chomsky recently pointed out in a recent interview with journalist Owen Jones that the United States and the U.K. are refusing to negotiate an end to this war by promising Ukrainian neutrality, putting off the issue of Crimea, and granting autonomy for the Donbas region. Chomsky pointed out that the United States is prolonging this war in an attempt to “weaken Russia”.
Many American politicians are openly admitting this is the reason for sending arms to Ukraine. Democrat Seth Moulton who is on the House Armed Services Committee openly said on Fox News that
We're fundamentally at war, although it's through a proxy, with Russia. And it's important that we win."
Neo-Con congressman Dan Crenshaw admitted on Twitter he supports Arming Ukraine because it will lead to
the destruction of our adversary’s military, without losing a single American troop
Recently the house passed $40 billion worth of aid to Ukraine most of which includes military equipment along with some humanitarian and economic assistance and an additional 13.9 billion towards the state department’s budget. This vote was supported by all house democrats including those such as Ilhan Omar and Alexandria Ocasio Cortez who are often described as representing the left flank of the democratic party.
This vote shows a huge disconnect between the progressives within the democratic party and the rest of the international left. For example, former leftist labor leader Jeremy Corbyn has called for a cease-fire in Ukraine and has criticized NATO expansion. Brazil’s former leftist president and current presidential candidate Lula da Silva has said the United States and Zelensky are as responsible as Putin for the war in Ukraine. Bolivia’s former leftist president Evo Morales has criticized the United States shipment of arms to Ukraine calling the U.S. “the enemy of peace”. France’s leftist candidate in their latest election Jean-Luc Mélenchon opposed weapons shipments to Ukraine and called for France to pull out of NATO. Venezuela’s socialist president Nicolas Maduro has opposed U.S. sanctions on Russia calling them “madness”.
This unanimous pro-war vote was so shocking even the New York times asked why there was so little opposition to it. The New York Times asked why":
lawmakers in both political parties who have previously railed against skyrocketing military budgets and entanglements in intractable conflicts abroad have gone largely silent about what is fast becoming a major military effort drawing on American resources.
The new York Times poses an interesting question, why did no progressives vote against the $40 billion of arms to Ukraine. Some would point to the elected progressives’ deference to the democratic party such as when they refused to do the “force the vote ” plan and instead elected nancy Pelosi with no concessions. Some would point to the fact that elected progressives have often been weak on empire such as when AOC met with right-wing Bolvia coup supporters. These all played a role in the squad’s vote for arms to Ukraine but the biggest reason for this unanimous vote is the sad fact that the left in America can easily be manipulated by neo-cons.
Russiagate
A big part of this manipulation of course is the ridiculous Russiagate conspiracy. Many democrats including the “progressive” ones despise Russia because they blame it for Donald Trump’s victory in 2016. They believe that Facebook memes from Russian troll farms such as anti-masturbation ads and "buff Bernie" memes caused Trump to win the election. They also blame Russia for the hacking of the DNC emails, despite the fact that the F.B.I’s assertion of this has a nonsensical timeline and is based on a report from Crowd Strike, a firm whose CEO admitted they had no evidence to back up this assertion. This leads many of the elected left to have a reflective hatred of Russia to the point that they will happily support a proxy war against it without thinking of the consequences.
Humanitarian intervention
The other reason the squad voted for the arms shipment to Ukraine is that they take the view that American foreign policy is oftentimes done to help people and prevent atrocities. This propaganda has been used to manufacture consent for the war in Libya where many were tricked into believing removing Gadaffi was done to prevent genocide. This was proven false by a U.K. parliament report that proved this was false and the intervention was done for economic reasons, not humanitarian ones. This propaganda was also used to manufacture consent for the dirty war in Syria where calls for more U.S. intervention were made under the grounds of “preventing atrocities” despite the fact that the United States was arming jihadists who themselves were committing atrocities and eventually implemented sanctions that have hurt Syrian civilians. The United States even used this justification for a new cold war in China, accusing China of Genocide in Xinjiang despite the fact that the state department’s own lawyers could not fund evidence that the repression in Xinjiang reached the level of Genocide. All of these campaigns have led many to believe that America is ultimately a good force in the world and that American foreign policy is done to uphold human rights and prevent atrocities. In the case of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, there is no doubt Russia has committed atrocities and has killed innocent civilians. This fact is being used by Americans to frame their arming of Ukraine as something done to stop Russian atrocities. Despite the clear evidence the United States is using Ukraine as a proxy to fight Russia and could care less about Ukrainian lives, the elected progressives believe that voting for arms to Ukraine is actually “humanitarian” and the United States has good intentions.
How this emboldens populist right frauds.
The most unfortunate effect of the Sqaud’s vote is that it has given the populist right ability to posture as more anti-war and anti-military industrial complex than the elected progressives. And on the issue of Russia/Ukraine, they have been. For example, 57 house republicans voted against the aid package to Ukraine, while no democrats have. The only politician in the Senate to block the aid package was not Bernie Sanders but Republican Rand Paul. Several Republicans have used this issue to attack the democrats from the left. For example, Republican Thomas Massie has said he voted against the package because it will “draw us further into the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, put US citizens at greater risk, prolong the war, waste tax-payer money, and increase domestic food and energy prices.” Even far-right Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene attacked Alexandria Ocasio Cortez from the left on this issue tweeting at her “what is the carbon footprint of the proxy war with Russia you voted to fund?”. Of course, all of these '“populist right” politicians do not take a principled anti-war stance and instead oppose a proxy war with Russia because they want a new cold war with China. Marjorie Taylor Greene for example has said she would kick every Chinese person out of the country that is “loyal to the CCP”. As journalist Ben Norton pointed out both parties are pro-war they only disagree on the targets of empire. Democrats are more hawkish toward Russia while Republicans focus on war with China, Iran, and Cuba. Unfortunately, by voting to arms Ukraine the elected progressives and democrats have allowed these cold warriors to appear like they are anti-war.
The assertion that "the elected progressives…" "Refused to force the vote and instead elected Nancy Pelosi with no concessions" is a Jimmy Dore nonsense propaganda statement. https://twitter.com/aoc/status/1337955687666749441