putin dolphins
'Evil Russian dictator' playing with dolphins.
Liberals correctly mocked Bush when he said of the Iraq war and the war on terror: "You're either with us or you're against us."

After all, such a black-and-white approach cuts off the ability to think, to look at the facts, and to address complexity.

But the government and mainstream media is doing exactly the same thing in regards to Ukraine. In essence, they're saying:
You either support without question the new Ukrainian government - including military assistance from the U.S. and NATO - or you're with Putin.
As former Associated Press and Newsweek reporter Robert Parry writes:
The demonization of Putin in the Western media has been so total that anyone who dares question the most extreme interpretations of his behavior is denounced as a "Putin apologist." Indeed, any attempt to present a nuanced narrative of what has happened in Ukraine is dismissed as somehow promoting Russian imperialism or spreading Russian propaganda.

This oppressive "group think" has, in turn, made formulating any rational policy toward Russia and Ukraine politically impossible in Official Washington.
In the run up to the Iraq war, millions of Americans pointed out that Saddam Hussein might be an awful tyrant, but the "weapons of mass destruction" claims were false and so we shouldn't plunge headlong into a disastrous war. (The protests against the Iraq war were the largest protests in history, and yet the politicians plowed ahead with the disastrous war and refused to listen to the facts ... or the will of the people.)

Millions of patriotic Americans are now saying the same thing about Ukraine. We're saying:
  • Ukraine is complicated: the East and Crimean South which were previously part of the Soviet Union support Russia,while most of those living in the Western region of Ukraine despise Russia
  • Putin might be an awful tyrant, but there's no evidence that he's trying to take over the world
We loyal Americans who were born and raised in the US are not secret Putin apologists, just as we were not closet Saddam supporters.

But we can't afford any more disastrous wars ... and we should stay the h@ll out of conflicts which do not directly threaten the security of the United States.

That actually makes us patriotic Americans ... the Founding Fathers said that America should not get involved in foreign entanglements.