The Ukraine war has made odd bedfellows. Pretty much all Americans are pro-Ukraine, but opinion divides on how far we should aid the Ukrainians militarily, and whether we should push for a negotiated peace.
Throughout my lifetime, until very recently, liberals have been 1) reflexively anti-war, no matter how sound the justification for military action seemed to be; 2) always in favor “peace” negotiations, no matter how futile–just consider the entire history of the Middle East; and 3) pro-Russia, the first socialist nirvana.
But with regard to Ukraine, we have a realignment. It is mostly conservatives who urge caution, who worry about the prospect of a wider war or the use of nuclear weapons, and who want to urge a negotiated peace. Liberals, meanwhile, are burnishing their pro-war credentials and posturing like latter-day Curtis LeMays.
Thus we have MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow pressing for more war, denouncing the prospect of peace talks, and explaining that “Russia needs to lose” before there can be any kind of cease-fire.
Why have leftists suddenly become so warlike? Beats me. Maybe, as has sometimes been said, everyone likes a good war, as long as it is a safe distance away. Maybe liberals are coming out of the closet: peace, after all, is not what they have in mind for our country. Or maybe they are just tired of always being pansies.
Whatever the cause, it is disorienting to see our friends on the Left beating the war drums in Ukraine.
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