After over three decades of covering Russia, I leave in despair.

[dalton99a]

https://www.cnn.com/2022/03/11/europe/leaving-russia-analysis-robertson-intl-cmd/index.html

After over three decades of covering Russia, I leave in despair. One man has extinguished the bright hope many once felt
Analysis by Nic Robertson, CNN
Updated 12:12 AM ET, Fri March 11, 2022

(CNN) I leave Moscow angry and sad.

It feels like a passage out of darkness to light, but left behind are friends trapped in one man's tunnel vision.

Russian President Vladimir Putin isn't just destroying Ukraine, but two nations, condemning Russians to an isolation they didn't necessarily choose.

Over the past couple of months while I've been reporting from Moscow, I've met many people who have been horrified, shocked and numbed by Putin's wanton aggression. Some of them believed him when he said he wouldn't invade Ukraine. Some even knew players in the Kremlin inner circle and thought they understood the President's red lines, but now that trust is blown and they fear he has no limits at all.

....

[orwell]

1. The Russian people are complicit in this...

...just as we were in backing our war criminals in Iraq.

I never understood how US citizens rallied around liar Bush in his incessant march to war with Saddam. The whole spectacle was appalling to me. The night we invaded I stood on a street corner in my tiny rural town holding up a sign condemning our actions. People drove by and jeered at me. I lost many friends that night. I couldn't understand how people could not see that we were going to war on lies.

We were complicit as the Russians are complicit now. We were all swelled with pride watching the spectacle of military greatness, the type of "shock and awe" only a superpower can visit on a vastly inferior opponent. Flags waving. Chest puffed out with pride. The great liberators!

And we re-elected him after it was painfully clear that the whole thing was a setup. We compounded the problem by our inability to admit that hundreds of thousands of people were dying for our imperial deceit and hubris.

Well the Russian people are in that same space. They followed this tyrant into the abyss because it gave them pride. Make Russia Great Again. Liberate the poor Ukrainians.

It's the same old tale, told by the same old men. And it seems to work every damn time.

We have met the enemy...and he is us.

[BigmanPigman]

2. The same old, white men are dying out (hopefully)

and the population of our current minorities will be the new majority in 20 years and maybe then we will see a change.

[NJCher]

3. I did everything I could to stop it

Including distributing flyers at the shop rite the day before the invasion. It was amazing how indifferent people were. Just think how expensive that war is and how deep that mistake was and still is. Our children will be paying for it for the rest of their lives. Imagine how this will impoverish Russians, whose average income is $10,000 a year.

[BeyondGeography]

4. There were massive anti-war demonstrations and nobody went to jail

It was heartening to see those people in the streets; 250k in NYC. This told anyone who opposed that war they were far from alone and they not only were free to show it, but to mobilize, organize and make Bush and anyone who voted for IWR, pay a political price. And that’s what happened.

W.’s approval ratings eventually plummeted and he very nearly lost in 2004. And ask HRC what her IWR vote meant for her 2008 candidacy.

Do you think we’ll see any Fahrenheit 9/11-type movies coming out in Russia before the 2024 elections?

We can compare Iraq and Ukraine as unjust wars, but conflating W’s hold on our democracy with what’s happening now in Putin’s KGB state is not only wrong but a sad form of defeatism.

[orwell]

9. All valid points...

...and yes I am exhibiting defeatism.

I could go through a laundry list but what is the point. I can't even get my own highly educated brother, who holds an abundance of compassion for the weak and marginalized, admit that there is a difference between Republicans and Democrats.

After hours of debate, to the point of damaging our relationship, he really believes that US foreign policy is at fault for most if not all the ills that befall us. ((He is a Chomskyite/Couterpunch/Democracy Now! acolyte.) He even said that there would be no difference between Hillary and Trump before the election.

That is what I am talking about. If his worldview is that unhinged, how do we ever hope to bridge this divide? This is someone who ostensibly should be on "our side." Instead he votes for Russian cutout Jill Stein.

Our biosphere is facing a catastrophe. My own county has been ravaged by endless fires and drought. Trees are dying all around me. Trees that have stood for hundreds of years. And we are still arguing over the price of gas and drill baby drill.

Data doesn't matter.
Evidence doesn't matter.
Reality doesn't matter.

Welcome to the "metaverse."

So yeah, I am defeatist. And my heart is breaking...

[BeyondGeography]

11. Fully get it

I’ve got family members I don’t even (or barely) talk to for similar reasons.

Other than their lack of what I consider to be common sense, I’m mostly struck by their profound ingratitude as they exercise their precious right to freedom of speech while enjoying all the basic comforts and, hopefully, good health. Not to mention peace.

[orwell]

12. I was alarmed about climate change almost 50 years ago...

...enough that by 1980 or so my mother would ask me not to talk about climate change at Christmas so as not to upset the family.

And here we are...

Thanks for letting me vent...

I'm glad some of us still have hope.

[lagomorph777]

7. It shocked me to see so many people around me totally fooled by an obvious lie.

I lost a lot of faith in America during the Bush years; even more during the Trump years.

[Tommymac]

10. I worked and marched my ass off from 2002 until 2008 for AntiWar groups.

At the start 90% of everyone else made fun of me and questioned my patriotism.

At the end I was one of hundreds of thousands at Obama rallies cheering him on, the millions who elected him becasue of Bush's illegal war, and realizing the Anti-War movement won in the end, at least for Bush's War. Too bad thousands had to die first.

(The codpiece helped too.)

The Russian people have options, just like the US people did back then. I only hope that since the Truth is battering at their gates everyday, it will not take so long.

[orwell]

13. From your keyboard...

...to the minds and hearts of the Russian people.

Thank you for your antiwar service!

[Tommymac]

14. First thank you I've ever received for that!!!

Coming from orwell, not sure how to take it.

Seriously, thank you. It was my pleasure and duty. Wish I still had the legs to march that much today.

[Skittles]

17. what is this WE you speak of

I most certainly never "backed our war criminals in Iraq".

[lagomorph777]

8. Unbelievably evil.

[live love laugh]

6. "... they fear he has no limits at all" ✔️

[lindysalsagal]

16. "It's impossible to know where his rage ends, in Ukraine or beyond."

Putin's so called "Special Military Operation" in Ukraine looks like all his previous wars: Syria, Chechnya and Georgia. Lives crushed, cities blindly smashed by long-range rockets and artillery shells to sate his vision.
It's impossible to know where his rage ends, in Ukraine or beyond. Putin insists Ukraine is not a real country, and in fact part of Russia, but will he stop even if he conquers it?

Or is NATO, as he claims, the real problem, suggesting he could stop at the Western military alliance's border? Will there be a new Iron Curtain or will World War III erupt like the last one did -- from the conniving calculating desires of one man?


In Moscow there is no need to answer that. On the way to the airport Saturday, I saw what appeared to be Putin's cavalcade storm past at breakneck speed in a blaze of flashing lights and sirens, traffic in his direction barred from the road. It was a timely reminder, if I needed one, of an emperor unchallenged in his domain.