Which brings it back to "us." What we allow to happen on our watch makes us accomplices. (I'm speaking of "us" as all Americans. I don't think we are going to get anywhere unless we stop fighting the Civil War over and over. The neo-conservative world view needs to be called out and rebuked.)

That was my opinion after Bucha. For those who need a reminder:

Early on in the war, Russia struck fast and hard in February and March of 2022. Ukraine's army of 130,000 troops had been moved east in preparation for a major offensive to reclaim the two separatist oblasts of Donetsk and Luhansk which had rebelled, declared independence, and which had been in open rebellion since 2014 and the Maidan Revolution. For 8 years, the two separatist regions had fought a bloody rebellion with Russia's assistance: military advisors, trainers, weapons, etc. Russia's soldiers operated there without the Russian flags on their shoulders, but were actively assisting the rebellion. Ukraine had slaughter 15,000 Ukrainian civilians in those two regions in non-stop shellings, shooting, and missile attacks, including regular cluster munitions drops on civilian targets.

Zelensky had prepared an army to crush the rebellion and retake the land. Russia annihilated it within two weeks. They advanced quickly securing the two separatist regions and moving to secure a land corridor from Russia's mainland to Crimea. The Crimean peninsula had been another of Zelensky's targets including having been subject to siege warfare. They'd regularly cut off electricity and water to the peninsula to starve out the Russians. Russia seized control and rapidly reinforced the core infrastructure to the peninsula, including building a bridge directly to Russia (the Kerch bridge). They bypassed and besieged the major cities, occupied land all the way east to the Dnieper River and then went to work consolidating the land and clearing out cities like Mariupol.

In the north, a massive column of Russian troops approached the traditionally Russian cities of Kharkov and Kiev. Both cities were surrounded and besieged. The suburbs were rapidly occupied. Remember, the Ukrainian army was south and east and had just been decimated by Russia's opening salvo. Zelensky was handing out AK-47s to women, children, civilians, and literal criminals telling them to shoot at any Russian they saw. A Russian armored column approached Kiev from Belarus 40 miles long.

Then it stopped.

Everyone was dumbfounded. The entire column just stopped, fully exposed, right on the right, ripe for ambush. It didn't take cover, dig in, move forward, or retreat. 60 kilometers, and they just hung out on the road. Why not just crush Kiev and be done with it?

Because in Istanbul, Putin was negotiating peace. Zelensky was being quite reasonable, so Russia was holding fire in good faith to allow a deal to be reached. Boris Johnson, former UK prime minister got wind of it, and spoke to Zelensky directly imploring him to continue the fight. He promised full support from the UK, including arms, cash, and covert operations from MI:6. Joe Biden offered the same from the US. So Zelensky reneged on the deal, told Putin to go fuck himself (literally) and ordered his remaining forces to attack.

The Russian positions around Kiev and Kharkov were exposed and exploited. CIA satellite surveillance lit up the locations of Russian high-ranking military commanders in the field. Zelensky was assassinating them. Well, Zelensky got the credit, but some sniper was taking them out. Literally dozens of colonel-level or higher commanders were taken out as they commanded troops in the field. So Russia pulled its convoy out of Kiev's suburbs and back to Belarus. They'd be repositioned in several months along the southern front.

In one suburb, Bucha, Russia pulled out without incident. The Ukrainian army drove in with great fanfare and social media gloating about how they'd "retaken" the city, despite the Russians retreating in good order and taking all their gear with them. The streets were clear. 3 days later, social media posts emerged showing the streets littered with the bodies of civilians, some 900 in total. Ukraine went to the NY Slimes and BBCocksuckers and claimed the Russians had murdered them, and that became the global narrative of a Russian atrocity and war crime.

In fact, the civilians were distraught. The ethnic Russian Ukranians had been rounded up by Zelensky's goons and accused of collaborating with the Russian army. They were beaten, tortured, and 900 of them were shot in the streets for this "crime" of "collaborating."

After that, I have been clear. Publicly, I say I want peace. There are no good guys over there so the US has no national interest and shouldn't be there in any form: no money, military aid, "advisors," and certainly no black ops. Privately, I would have been happy to see Zelensky's face splattered on the pavement for what he's done to his own people.