Replies

Chad C. Mulligan: "I doubt anybody pays or coerces most of these amateur Pro-Putin Posters, so we are left with Ideology or Ego.
Take your pick.
But I'd like to add a fifth category: Dopamine."

Well... there are other groups...

Amish distribution in swing states,
their numbers are small and they often don't vote,
but could be decisive in close elections.

Conservative religious pacifism has a history which goes back hundreds of years and includes denominations like Quakers, Mennonites, Amish, Brethren in Christ, and others.
Their sincerity and legitimacy cannot be doubted, and they are always granted "conscientious objector" status by the US government during wartimes.
Their numbers are small, but could be decisive in a "swing state" like Pennsylvania.
However, they generally practice "separation from the world" and so we wouldn't expect to see them posting on forums like Free Republic.
US Libertarians such as Sen. Rand Paul, generally oppose all wars that aren't directly in defense of US territory or treaty obligations.
Paul's dad, Congressman Paul, voted in favor of the 2001 AUMF after September 11, but I can't find where he ever voted for another, and that includes a long list of operations going back to the Vietnam era.
Overall numbers of Libertarian voter numbers are relatively small, but there are millions, and they can be decisive in some swing states, of which New Hampshire, Michigan and perhaps Omaha Nebraska come to mind.
Libertarian numbers are small,
but could be decisive in swing states.
How many Ron & Rand Paul Libertarians do we have on Free Republic?
I don't know, but it surely can't be a majority and certainly not the two-to-one numbers we see here.
More important, Libertarians like the Pauls, and like Christian pacifists, are generally polite and well-mannered to a fault.
You would not expect to see them using the mocking, scorning and personal assaults we see from anti-Ukers here.
1960s era Long-haired counter-culture hippie-type anti-war freaks -- now in their old-age dotage, become more "conservative" but also want to bring back the romance (and free-sex?) of "hell no, we won't go!"
"So, let's give away another country to the Ruskies and Chi-Coms, it'll be great -- we'll smoke pot and make 'free love' while they work their will on whomever they conquer next.
What could go wrong?"
But I highly doubt if these are the anti-Ukers we are seeing here, on Free Republic.

And I don't know why Donald Sutherland suddenly comes to mind. R.I.P.

Bottom line is I can't say where FR's anti-Ukers are coming from, since their abusiveness is not traditional American anti-war pacifism, at least as I remember it, from the outside.

I don't know where self professed “conservatives” like this come from:

1) Back a Democrat President.

2) Regurgitate what they head in a liberal MSM: CNN, MSNBC, CBS...

3) Back interventionist, expansionist, expeditionary military campaigns where you cannot articulate a viable national security argument for us.

This runs ENTIRELY against conservative ideas.

Mr. Z was not democratically elected, we installed him (our big tech, our media, our money, our intel). He is today a dictator, and we make sure he stays there, safe and secure. Not sure where that is in step with these ideas of “democracy and sovereignty” you like to use as some moral cause, or how that is in line with our founding principals.

Even Jefferson was brought into conflict but you can make a national security argument, the Barbary Pirates were hijacking our ships, taking people prisoner and actually enslaving them... Something had to be done. That is NOT the case today with Ukraine.

There was (((NO))) eminent national security argument to be made for this: https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/ukrainian-president-zelenskiy-holding-talks-with-biden-adviser-says-2021-12-09/

YOU CANNOT EXPLAIN RATIONALLY AND TRUTHFULLY, how this was needed for our national security right there and then. YOU CANNOT EXPLAIN HOW THIS WAR, is making us as average Americans any wealthier, safer, or more free. In fact, this war is squandering our wealth and brings our people and military into the cross-hairs of others. YOU CANNOT EXPLAIN how this war has benefited Ukraine which is worse off today and none of this had to be.

Though I do not always agree with Rand or Ron Paul (although I have learned to respect them), they are not from my state, they more or less have consistently held a classical view in step with the values of the US Constitution and our Founding Fathers. May it be Covid, Ukraine, FISA... they are pretty consistent, and quite frankly, hats off to them: https://www.paul.senate.gov/op_eds/courier-journal-op-ed-dr-rand-paul-heres-how-we-prevent-war-ukraine/ (that was 1 month before the war began)

This entire war could have been prevented, and when it does end, we will be at exactly the same spot we were before the war: Ukraine is not in NATO and stays neutral.

"Bottom line is I can't say where FR's anti-Ukers are coming from, since their abusiveness is not traditional American anti-war pacifism, at least as I remember it, from the outside."

Well, I was born, and have lived in NY State for going on 77 years. I've been on FR going on 27 years. I've been here consistently with the same screen name all those years, with no warnings, no self-inflicted break, no suspensions, no lock-outs.

Instead of calling us anti-ukers, how about calling us pro-Americans, who are for America-First, not some spit of land the size of Texas, 5,000 miles away that this country has no national security interest in. Your first priority is apparently Ukraine, and not protecting America from the scum destroying it from within, and allowing it to be continuously invaded across our borders by God knows who. While we were fighting the commies overseas, we took our eye off the ball at home, and domestic communism reared its ugly head, and has flourished in America ever since, and it will completely destroy this country if we let it. I'm not willing to let it, and I'm not willing to let the Neo-cons continually divert our attention once again from this country's well-being, by engaging in another endless proxy war with Russia in Ukraine. We fought a proxy war with Russia in the Korean War, in Vietnam, in Afghanistan when Russia invaded that county. Who saw clear victory in those wars? Only the individuals who had investments in the military industrial complex. They were the clear winners, not the people who actually fought in those wars.

Don't you care about the billions of unaccounted-for tax payer dollars being shipped overseas? There has been no mandatory accounting for where any of it has gone. Yet Biden and Congress keep sending more without knowing where it's going, or what it's being used for. And for that you call us anti-Ukers, and you do it because you like labeling people without any justification for that labeling. The only justification is the one you make up, and throw out there, hoping it will stick. Talk about liberal tactics.

If somebody came to you, and asked you to help them financially, and you helped them the first time, then they kept coming back again, and again asking for more money, but were never willing to explain where all the previous money you gave them had gone, wouldn't you eventually want an accounting for that money you had shelled out to them? If you didn't, then you are an easy target, and a fool.