Originally Posted by Chris

Actually I think a lot of the myths are being generated by Ukraine itself. Zelensky recognised quite early on that Western nations wouldn’t pour their weapons into the country just for them to be captured by Russia. Ukraine has fought an epic propaganda war to show itself worth betting on. Western media laps it up because that’s just what it does.

We live in a society conditioned by blockbuster sci fi and superhero films where it’s difficult for the masses to think in terms more complex than ‘hero’ and ‘villain’. That means we tend to extend the black-and-white judgment far further than we ought to. Ukrainians aren’t angels just because they’ve been invaded. The simple matter is that the rules-based international order that has held more-or-less steady since 1945 relies on countries not doing what Russia is doing right now. Coffee house debates over the relative moral standing of the two nations involved in this war shouldn’t be allowed to obfuscate that.

---------- Post added at 11:09 ---------- Previous post was at 11:06 ----------



Jay … seriously, don’t post on a discussion forum if you don’t want your views challenged. Debate and wise judgment is healthy, but it also requires a willingness to be disagreed with. Jfman is about to disagree with me. That’s fine. Frustrating at times, but fine. This is just how it works.

As for sex trafficiking, well Russia isn’t the sex trafficking police so far as I’m aware. There are ways of dealing with such things; flattening Mariupol with artillery and raping women in Bucha after shooting their husbands in the head aren’t it.

The rights and wrongs of this war have nothing to to with the moral state of either country. Ukraine’s borders should be respected.