[AndyJackson]

We should be demanding answers to the same questions especially as our economy burns, inflation spikes and the Chinese threat to Taiwan becomes immanent.

[neverevergiveup]

You just know that the pathetically stupid hatefully ideological left would be supporting ‘Russia’ if they were still totalitarian Communists. The left is the new evil empire that Reagan warned us about.

[BobL]

If he wasn’t a Putin Puppet, maybe we could debate Russia’s withdraw timetable.

(basically the Neocon position)

[ifinnegan]

Neville Chamberlain logic.

[rktman]

McCarthyite intolerance? Yeah, I have an intolerance for commies. Is that a bad thing hitchins? Wanker!

[BenLurkin]

Aren’t we supposed to live in a free democracy in which both sides of a question can be discussed

"Just be quiet, Peter. You obviously don't know what democracy means...now."

[hardspunned]

Since 2000 I’ve been looking for the answer as to why the US is still in NATO?

[escapefromboston]

We would be a lot better off if we listened to George Washington’s farewell address.

[kenmcg]

Ah SOS from the commie/ lefties, they love to defame a great American hero who fought communism with every bone in his body.

[cowboyusa]

Again with this nonsence. JOE MCCARTHY WAS AN AMERICAN HERO!

[Varsity Flight]

https://billkloss.law.blog/2022/09/25/russian-straight-talk-v-the-fake-bidens-forked-tongue-big-lies-the-fake-biden-is-an-embarrassment-to-what-leadership-is-supposed-to-be-a-reflection-of-us-led-western-decadence-and/

[Rockingham]

Peter Hitchens and Tucker Carlson and other American and foreign equivalents pose as just wanting to "ask questions" about assistance to Ukraine, but they seem to avoid the obvious answers.

Putin and his corruption and murderous thuggishness were long tolerated by the West so long as they had only domestic and regional consequences. Putin's attack on Ukraine though is different and is part of a larger program directed against the West to recover the influence and power that that the Soviet Union had.

US and NATO opposition to the attack on Ukraine is thus called for as part of defending the interests of America, NATO, and Europe as a whole against Russian aggression. In addition, Putin's conduct resonates deeply with the lesson of World War II that a militaristic autocrat with territoial ambitions in Europe cannot be trusted but must be confronted decisively before he is at full strength.

Where Hitchens and others "asking questions" go completely off the rails for me is in taking up Putin's propaganda lines and embracing the ideas of Russophiles like George Kennan who were doves and appeasers during the Cold War. No small part of Ronald Reagan's greatness was his Cold War aim: we win, they lose. At some point, many conflicts cannot be compromised and come down to who wins and who loses.

Call me a simple-minded neocon tool of the defense industry, but I heard similar derision when I was a Cold War hawk. Is it really so wrong to want the US, Nato, the West, and free societies to win, and for the Soviet Union -- and now an aggressive Russia and Putin to lose? Tell us, Hitchins and Tucker, what is your answer? I'm just askin' -- that's all.

[Paal Gulli]

McCarthyism???? I got news for you , Sparky. Joe McCarthy WAS RIGHT! Hollyweird was and is RIFE WITH COMMUNISTS.

[lewislynn]

A plea for civilised debate, rather than McCarthyite intolerance, on the Ukraine issue

Hypocrite? Or you contradicted yourself Peter.

[Widget Jr]

What is Britain's interest in Ukraine?

First, Britain, Russia, and the United States signed the Budapest Memorandums where Ukraine returned Soviet Nuclear weapons to Russia in exchange for Russia recognizing and guaranteeing Ukraine's sovereignty and borders. China and France signed their own Memorandums as well.

Second, stopping the next USSR/CCCP from getting started and having another Cold War all over again.

Russia did not invade Ukraine thinking US and Europe were strong enough to resist. Putin thought Covid, the global recovery from it, energy sales to Europe, and politic divisions made everyone weak. That was a one of the biggest political miscalculations all time.

Much of his decision making is for "Russian irredentism". Since the fall of the USSR, the "good old days", Russia has created is own mythologized view of its history and manifest destiny to recreate the USSR.

What Russia did in Ukraine is the exact same pattern they did in Georgia and Chechnya. Buy off and stir up trouble, claim a group of "Russian Peoples" is oppressed, or really wants to be part of Russia, build it up over a few years then invade. Blame everyone else and use sheer volume of propaganda to overwhelm the opposition. Wash, rinse, repeat.

The former Soviet states free of Russia domination have some strong objections to this. Estonia has given 1/3 of its military budget to Ukraine. The former Soviet states are not going to wait for the to fall one by one. The battle for their independence, that they do not want to fight on their territory, is in Ukraine.