Wednesday, March 30, 2022

Today's News: Strange days indeed

Does anyone remember how, before the US invaded Iraq in 2003, there was a bizarre collection of odd con men characters hanging around the Bush Administration -- Cheney and Rumsfeld were convinced that the Iraqis were so stupid and these guys were so beloved that Iraq would just give them the keys to the kingdom as soon as Saddam was deposed.  It was an attractive delusion because they thought the invasion would go just swimmingly and the American military wouldn't have to do anything more than hold a few parades and go home.
Well, it looks now like Russia had the same delusion about the stupidity of Ukrainians and the cleverness of the group of con men who were going to take over right away -- apparently Russia thought they had a lock on some Ukrainian turncoats who could happily step in to run the country for them as soon as Zeleskyy and crew resigned. 
I'll bet you're not surprised to find that it didn't work out that way.
Markos has a major article tonight about how the Russians apparently thought they had bribed the leadership of many cities of southern Ukraine to surrender as the Russian troops were driving in. No wonder the officers brought their dress uniforms for the parades, instead of packing extra ammo. 
It didn't work - except apparently for one city near Odessa called Kherson, and even these folks have now expelled their turncoat government and taken their city back. 
So the question, which I highlighted above, is whether it was stupidity or betrayal that cost Ukraine the city of Kherson—a loss that is costing them dearly in blood. 
Maybe the answer is simple—did the governor run north, into Ukraine, a coward? Or did he flee south, into the arms of Russia. 
Given the sums of money Russian intelligence was handing out, the latter might be the best bet. 
 But this story is also one of hope, because this could've easily been the story of that entire region of Ukraine, seduced by FSB payoffs, handing over entire cities without a real fight. 
Things might look different if Mykolaiv, Odesa, Zaporizhia, Kharkiv, Sumy, and lots of other smaller cities had taken Russia up on its offers. Instead, Ukraine held fast everywhere except in Kherson, and the rest has been history. 
There may or may not be some peace talks happening soon - nobody quite believes Russia is truthful when it says it wants to pull back from the Kyiv area. But people are edging closer and closer to describing the Russian movement as an actual "retreat". Or maybe not: The Former Guy is trying to make himself relevant again - by asking Putin to make up some dirt about Biden. Would Republicans have wanted Herbert Hoover to ask Hitler for some trash-talk about Roosevelt? Did Nixon publically ask Khrushchev to dish the dirt on Kennedy? 
(And actually, we know now that in both cases there was some scandal to be found.)
But what a scumbag Trump is. He doesn't seem to realize yet that Russia is now a pariah nation: In Canadian news today, First Nations, Métis and Inuit delegates continue their discussions in Rome with Pope Francis about the shame and horror of Canadian residential schools -- Monday the Pope met with Metis and Inuit delegates, today the delegations participated in several tours, Thursday he will meet with First Nations delegates, and Friday with all delegations.
The Vatican has a significant collection of Indigenous sacred artifacts in its museums that should be repatriated:
Finally, on a side note, the slap heard 'round the world is still resulting in some new twitter memes. 
Here's the latest one I noticed:
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