Wednesday, March 02, 2022

Condemning the Illegal Invasion of Ukraine

In 2003 the US invaded Iraq - a sovereign nation under a dictator - using the "weapons of mass destruction" excuse. At that time, many of us denounced that invasion and condemned their war. Canada did not join "the coalition of the willing". It was Jean Chretien's greatest moment. Ironically, the Conservatives were wetting their pants trying to get Canada to join this illegal war. Stephen Harper, then the leader of the Opposition, wrote a letter in the Wall Street Journal of how wrong Canada was in abstaining from this war. History proved Canada - and the Liberals - correct.

In 2022 Russia invaded Ukraine - a sovereign democratic nation - using the excuse of "denazification and threats posed to Russia by Ukraine". But this time, some people who said US invasion of Iraq was bad are suddenly cheering for Russia and saying it is all NATO's fault.

While living here in Canada enjoying NATO protection.



You can't have it two ways. If tomorrow India feels threatened by Bangladesh's increasing closeness to China, and buying of Chinese weaponry (Bangladesh is on a course to vastly modernize her army), then will you support India invading Bangladesh and bombing Dhaka, just because they "feel threatened"?

The law - even international law - doesn't work like that. An illegal invasion is an illegal invasion, doesn't matter who does it to whom. The fact that Ukraine may have supported Israel, or sold weapons to Myanmar, or some people there right now are being racist towards Africans in Ukraine - all of that doesn't matter. The fact that sovereign nations are freely choosing to join NATO does not matter. 

This is an illegal invasion by Russia, and as a person living in the West I do not want to see a Russian dominated world (or a Chinese dominated world). And in this case, the West is right. 

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