The Biden administration, along with many of its war hawk allies in the media, is lecturing the Russians about aggressiveness.  Or maybe they are lecturing us so that we don’t stop and notice some of the finer details.

Analyzing the situation in Ukraine is a bit like trying to analyze different regions of the Middle East.  You are dealing with a lot of history, government changes, changes in land control, and different factions of people.  It is a complicated situation to say the least in Ukraine.

But here are some things that aren’t complicated.

First, the U.S. government backed a coup in 2014 that overthrew the democratically-elected government of Ukraine that just so happened to be somewhat friendly towards Russia.

In fact, if the U.S. government hadn’t helped with this coup, then it is likely that none of this would be happening right now.  Crimea wouldn’t have gone to Russia, and Russia wouldn’t have announced independent regions in eastern Ukraine as we are seeing now.

A second thing that isn’t complicated is that, despite assurances to the contrary, NATO has been getting closer and closer to Russia since not long after the breakup of the Soviet Union.

Russia simply doesn’t want NATO (i.e., the United States) right on its border with missiles ready to launch.

Imagine if Russia or any other country overthrew the government in Mexico and then wanted to bring Mexico into its alliance and put missiles near the Texas border.  Do you think that would go over well with most Americans, let alone the war hawks in Washington DC?

This is in no way a defense of everything Putin has done or will do in the future.  He is a politician, and there is little doubt he enjoys his power.  The difference is that he actually seems to care about the people he rules over, or at least his actions seem to indicate that.  And Putin doesn’t seem interested in having a massive war, which can’t always be said for Washington DC.

The Hypocrisy

Even if what is happening now should be considered an invasion by Russia or Russian aggressiveness, and even if the U.S. hadn’t helped overthrow the government in Ukraine in 2014, it is still the height of hypocrisy for American officials and media to be lecturing anyone about invasion and aggressiveness.

Just since the turn of the century, look at U.S. foreign policy.

• In late 2001, the U.S. invaded Afghanistan and occupied the country for nearly 20 years.
• In 2003, the U.S. again went to war in Iraq and occupied the country and is still involved there to this day.
• In 2011, the U.S. invaded Libya and assassinated its leader.
• After not gaining support from Congress or the American people, the U.S. government still went to war in Syria in 2014 and attempted to overthrow the leader there.
• The U.S. government helps to sanction Yemen and starve children in what is already one of the poorest countries on the planet.

And these are just some of the more obvious interventions that mostly involved sanctions, bombings, assassinations, and occupation.  There are many other smaller military and covert operations in other parts of the world.

But the war hawks in the media and U.S. government officials are going to lecture the world about Russian aggressiveness towards Ukraine?