Pickletoil
Azov won btw
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Now that I have your attention, I want to talk about how he Russo-Ukrainian Invasion is the most morally one-sided war since 1945
The more I think about it, the more I struggle to find a post-1945 conflict that is as morally one-sided as Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
Most wars are complicated. Even when one side is clearly worse, there are usually legitimate security concerns, territorial disputes, ethnic conflicts, historical grievances, or other factors that create at least some degree of moral ambiguity. That is what makes this war stand out so much.
Russia is an authoritarian state ruled by a man who has spent decades dismantling democratic institutions, suppressing opposition, controlling the media, and consolidating power. Ukraine, despite its flaws, is a democracy with an elected government and internationally recognized borders. The legitimacy gap between the two governments is already substantial before even considering the war itself.
The cause of the war is even more clear-cut. Russia invaded a sovereign neighboring country that posed no military threat to its existence. The justifications have shifted constantly, from NATO expansion, to "de-Nazification," to protecting Russian speakers, but none of them change the fundamental reality that Russia crossed an internationally recognized border and launched a war of aggression. Putin has repeatedly questioned Ukraine's right to exist as an independent nation, making the imperialistic nature of the invasion difficult to deny.
Ukraine's role in the conflict is about as morally straightforward as it gets: it is defending itself against an invading power attempting to seize its territory.
The conduct of the war only widens the moral gap. Russia has been accused of massacres, torture, forced deportations, attacks on civilian infrastructure, and numerous other war crimes. Entire cities have been devastated. Civilian neighborhoods, schools, hospitals, and power infrastructure have repeatedly come under attack. Russia has even resorted to nuclear threats while being the aggressor in the conflict. None of this can be justified as national self-defense because Russia was never defending itself in the first place.
This is why comparisons to Iraq, Vietnam, or other controversial wars are stupid. Those conflicts, however flawed, involved significantly more moral complexity than what we see here. In Ukraine, an authoritarian state invaded a democratic neighbor in an attempt to subjugate it and seize territory by force. The aggressor and the victim are easy to identify.
Ukraine is not perfect, and I am not claiming every Ukrainian action has been beyond criticism. No country at war is. My argument is simply that when you look at who started the war, why they started it, and how they have conducted it, I struggle to think of another conflict since WWII where one side was so clearly in the wrong and the other so clearly justified in resisting.
The more I think about it, the more I struggle to find a post-1945 conflict that is as morally one-sided as Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
Most wars are complicated. Even when one side is clearly worse, there are usually legitimate security concerns, territorial disputes, ethnic conflicts, historical grievances, or other factors that create at least some degree of moral ambiguity. That is what makes this war stand out so much.
Russia is an authoritarian state ruled by a man who has spent decades dismantling democratic institutions, suppressing opposition, controlling the media, and consolidating power. Ukraine, despite its flaws, is a democracy with an elected government and internationally recognized borders. The legitimacy gap between the two governments is already substantial before even considering the war itself.
The cause of the war is even more clear-cut. Russia invaded a sovereign neighboring country that posed no military threat to its existence. The justifications have shifted constantly, from NATO expansion, to "de-Nazification," to protecting Russian speakers, but none of them change the fundamental reality that Russia crossed an internationally recognized border and launched a war of aggression. Putin has repeatedly questioned Ukraine's right to exist as an independent nation, making the imperialistic nature of the invasion difficult to deny.
Ukraine's role in the conflict is about as morally straightforward as it gets: it is defending itself against an invading power attempting to seize its territory.
The conduct of the war only widens the moral gap. Russia has been accused of massacres, torture, forced deportations, attacks on civilian infrastructure, and numerous other war crimes. Entire cities have been devastated. Civilian neighborhoods, schools, hospitals, and power infrastructure have repeatedly come under attack. Russia has even resorted to nuclear threats while being the aggressor in the conflict. None of this can be justified as national self-defense because Russia was never defending itself in the first place.
This is why comparisons to Iraq, Vietnam, or other controversial wars are stupid. Those conflicts, however flawed, involved significantly more moral complexity than what we see here. In Ukraine, an authoritarian state invaded a democratic neighbor in an attempt to subjugate it and seize territory by force. The aggressor and the victim are easy to identify.
Ukraine is not perfect, and I am not claiming every Ukrainian action has been beyond criticism. No country at war is. My argument is simply that when you look at who started the war, why they started it, and how they have conducted it, I struggle to think of another conflict since WWII where one side was so clearly in the wrong and the other so clearly justified in resisting.
Is it more important to you than a conflict that involves the lives of millions of people 
