Masked gunmen installing petty thugs is, like women distributing swords, no basis for a government.

[riqster]

http://bluntandcranky.wordpress.com/2014/03/10/masked-gunmen-installing-petty-thugs-is-like-women-distributing-swords-no-basis-for-a-system-of-government/

"Just stop for a second and focus, OK? The man people call Crimea’s leader was NOT legitimately elected to be such. Unless you’re fool enough to believe in the validity of secret elections held with guns pointed at voters’ heads, and that a man who previously barely got into his previous office as leader of a fringe party with only a few paltry seats could somehow magically win power in his nonexistent “nation” when nobody was looking. In reality, Mr. Aksyonov is a criminal who is part of a Russian land grab that is reminiscent of Russia’s previous actions in Georgia, and Germany’s in Poland:

Crimea has been swept into turmoil over the past two weeks, as Moscow, furious over the fall of Yanukovych and the pro-Western outlook of the new government, used hundreds of Russian soldiers to seize political control of the peninsula. The Russian soldiers — who Moscow insists are members of a Crimean self-defense force that Aksyonov created last year — ringed the regional parliament. Then, with armed soldiers inside the chamber, Aksyonov was named prime minister.

His critics say it’s clear that Aksyonov is simply a puppet, someone installed by Moscow to ease what has become, in effect, a Russian takeover of its former territory.

“If six months ago someone would have told me that Aksyonov would become prime minister, I would have laughed,” said Valentina Tsamar, a prominent Simferopol journalist with the TV channel Chernomorskaya.

So, after Russia took over Crimea’s government at gunpoint, and said fake government called for a fake referendum on “joining” Russia, the “Prime Minister” is already taking steps that shouldn’t be taken until after the election results are known. The obvious conclusion, Gentle Reader, is that the results of the next “election” will be rigged, just as the recent parliamentary “election” was. The results are already known, because the referendum is a farce, a ruse, a smokescreen erected to scare the cowards, fool the foolish, and gull the gullible.

This is as illegal as Mexico storming the Texas Capitol, deposing the elected government and installing a posse of Narcos in its place, and then voting to secede from the United States and rejoin Mexico. After all, there are Mexican nationals in Texas who have to be protected from the American government, right? And there are cultural ties that go back centuries, yes? And such ties surely supersede any silly latter-day political boundaries, right?

Wrong. Just as in Ukraine. This is an illegal land grab, like countless others throughout history (including some by the United States, Britain, France, and so on). And like all those other invasions and occupations, it is illegal as Hell and completely illegitimate.

Those loons of the political extremes who shriek and shout at the West for alleged “imperialism” as it insists on Ukraine following a path based on international law; the jackass Conspiracy Theorists who ignore the facts on the ground and and use their own fantasies in lieu of those facts; said shouters are but useful idiots that are helping the real imperialists in this case. Said imperialists being, of course, Putin and his corrupt buddies."

Source info at the link.

[packman]

1. History it's a Bitch

"This is as illegal as Mexico storming the Texas Capitol, deposing the elected government and installing a posse of Narcos in its place, and then voting to secede from the United States and rejoin Mexico."

Let me rewrite this,

" This is as illegal as a bunch of land hungry discontents storming the area controlled by Mexico, disposing the government and installing a posse of Texans in its place, and then voting to secede from Mexico and join the US, but first declaring itself a Republic to make things somehow more legitimate and grabbing land from the people who lived there for decades."

Agree-from Native Americans, to Native Hawaiians, and all those others we wronged, illegal but the finger of history moves on.

[riqster]

2. Equally true. Thanks!

An excellent reminder that no matter who does it, it's wrong.

[sabrina 1]

7. Or lying about WMD's, invading a country and helping to install a puppet who might be

more friendly regarding handing over, what was it, 80% of that country's resources?

Btw, who installed the current government in Ukraine? Was there an election yet?

Then there is Honduras, Chile, going back a few decades?

Sometimes they fail, coups and invasions, Venezuela, Bush 2002 ...

Seems to be a trend, invading countries and choosing the 'candidates' any one of whom will serve the purpose for the people to choose from.

Coincidental that the guy now in charge in Ukraine was the one the US said they wanted there.

You're right, as Tom Tomorrow says, countries that invade smaller countries on a pretext have no moral authority'.

[riqster]

9. Pretty much in agreement with your entire post.

The Crimean situation, as compared with that in Kiev, stinks worse and has more demonstratrable and overt foreign interference.

But hey, if it turns out that masked NATO troops were running around Kiev in blank uniforms, holding parliament at gunpoint while a PM was "elected", and that Polish troops were massing at the border, etc., then the two situations will be equivalent.

For right now, there is a distinct difference between the two.

[Tommy_Carcetti]

10. Well put. nt

[sabrina 1]

12. That's a matter of opinion since we do not know a thing about either situation, only what

the Corporate media tells us, and we know from Iraq, Afghanistan etc, how reliable THEY are.

But when you look at the world media, we get a different view.

As for NATO troops running around during these invasions, see Libya and Syria eg, not NATO troops, allies like QATAR, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia et al supply the masked 'feet on the ground' for proxy wars now.

And why do WE care what Europe, Unkraine and Russia are up to in the first place? Why do we have so much to say about these places, we seem to be all over the world, while this country badly needs attention?

This is not a US problem, except for those with money to invest once the IMF starts selling off Unkraine's assets to private interests, see Greece, Argentina, read Shock Doctrine if you haven't. But we sure are not there for the people, see Iraq, Afghanistan, any Latin American country during the reigns of terror of our School of the Americas backed Dictators there.

And what does the average American know about places they never heard of until we start rattling sabers over one of them, after which Americans suddenly become experts on each of them, even if they can't find them on a map?

I'm really not sure what your point is. Mine is, we have destroyed countries with our interference, and after Iraq no one in the world wants our opinion on these issues, not until we start arresting war criminals.

We lost a lot because of the past decade of using 9/11 as a pretext for our 'world wide war on terror'.

How about letting other people solve their own problems, or if we really want to help people, why not the CAR which badly needs help right now, or the Congo?

And why don't we stop supporting Dictators, like Karamov in Uzbekistan, the genocidal murderer and torturer, or Uganda where they are passing laws that endanger the freedom and lives of Gays, or the Bahrain dictatorship which has been brutalizing its own citizens for asking for basic human rights?

Or Saudi Arabia eg.

We can't go around preaching 'human rights' or laughably pointing out 'corruption' when we bail out Wall St criminals and support some of the worst human rights abusers in the world, ignore war crimes and expect anyone to take us seriously, can we? Or do people really think we can?

[riqster]

15. I would say that acknowledging our own crimes does not take away our obligation

...to do what we can when we see crimes being committed by others.

My blog has links to multiple sources that agree: the Crimean situation is being stage-managed by Russia, just as Iraq was by the Bushistas. Are you saying that since Bush has managed to escape justice, no one else should be held accountable?

[Fumesucker]

3. All the self-awareness of a rutabaga n/t

[riqster]

4. Complexity R us.

My wife is half-Irish and half-Shawnee. One part thief, the other victim.

I am a descendent of religious refugees whose lands were stolen, and then came here to settle on land stolen from others.

Few of us can claim to have completely clean mitts in this matter. But it is still, I think, worthwhile to stop land grabs from happening in our current time.

[Fumesucker]

5. I was referring to the hypothetical Texas-Mexico incident described in the OP

Whoever wrote it had all the self-awareness of a rutabaga.

[riqster]

6. Well, then, I'm a rutabaga.

The example in the first reply was better than mine, but both are decent allegories for the current actions in the Crimea.

[Fumesucker]

8. One was history, the other was fantasy

[riqster]

11. Change the word "fantasy" to "allegory ".

In any case, that isn't the point. Do you think that the situation in Crimea is not similar to either of the examples presented?

[sabrina 1]

13. And oil grabs. And what did you mean by 'one part thief' re your wife's background?

[riqster]

16. The Irish.

Immigrants who, like other European groups, settled on land stolen from the native Americans.

[sabrina 1]

19. Okay ... they still don't have all THEIR land back yet though and everyone in this country is

sitting on stolen land.

Maybe we humans ought to take a break from fighting over land and resources, stop pointing fingers at each other trying to gain some advantage, when no one can claim to be completely blameless, and since we don't seem to have progressed much as a species, and hold some kind of Global Conference where everyone confesses to their OWN 'sins' rather than pointing at others' for a while. Then maybe move on to discussing the World's Resources and how we can SHARE them rather than everyone trying to grab them for themselves.

Everyone knows all these invasions and wars are about power over the world's resources so I don't know why they keep lying about it.

Does anyone believe they are about 'human rights'? Do WE care about the people of Libya, Egypt, Tunisia, Ukraine, other than when the spotlight is on our latest foreign interventions, after which we forget all about them?

Same thing with everyone else claiming their 'concerns' are for the 'people'.

Isn't it way past time for our species to stop these practices of invading and killing and pillaging for resources which hasn't changed since the beginning of time?

How about someone takes the lead and tries to begin some evolution from our primitive past and rather than resort to same old wars and invasions, start thinking about what it will take for the Planet to survive rather than how each separate country can grab it all and control it and profit from it?

We haven't progressed much at all as a species.

[riqster]

20. I like the idea, and hope we can see it someday.

[NuclearDem]

14. Bloody peasant.

[riqster]

17. What a giveaway!

[WorseBeforeBetter]

18. Leave the "Gentle Reader" to Miss Manners.

"Loons," "shriek," "jackass," "shouters," "useful idiots" — why this name-calling fluff would appeal to anyone is truly a mystery.

[riqster]

21. The fact that I am not gentle does not mean the reader is likewise obnoxious.

In fact, many are far nicer than I. Only a few are as cantankerous or more so, so the sobriquet will remain.

[muriel_volestrangler]

22. K&R

for the title, though it's also a fair point (or should that be 'fair cop'?)

[riqster]

23. Now, we see the violence inherent in the system!

The blog post title actually gave the whole line, but DU has a smaller character limit in its title field.