Oswald in the doorway: the blog of the Oswald Innocence Campaign, by Ralph Cinque

It is surreal to me the way the U.S. is posturing in response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. You would think that we never attacked and invaded any country. All memories of Iraq, Afghanistan, and Vietnam are apparently gone. The most recent one, Afghanistan, ended just months ago, and what a calamity it was. After 20 years of savage and unrelenting war, in which the avoidance of civilian casualties was a very low priority, it ended the way it started, with the Taliban in power. In other words: we lost- but not before killing hundreds of thousands of Afghans and getting over ten thousand Americans killed. But, it's already ancient history and long forgotten. Again, you would think at this moment that we never did any such thing. 

But, the same goes for Putin. He was around during the disastrous Soviet occupation of Afghanistan, which ended much like ours did. But, why would he think trying to seize control of Ukraine would be any easier than seizing control of Afghanistan? The Ukrainians are much better supplied, equipped, and trained. They're a 21st century fighting force, while the Taliban certainly is not. The Ukrainians are getting help and support from countries all over the world. But, who was helping the Taliban? For all practical purposes: nobody. So, knowing that the Soviet Union could not prevail in Afghanistan (and some pundits believe that the Soviet debacle in Afghanistan led directly to the collapse of the Soviet Union) why does he think he can prevail in Afghanistan? What he could have done is just gone into Donetsk and Luhanask, since they are pro-Russian, and settled for that. The world would not have liked it, but I suspect they would have gotten used to it. After all, those regions are already separated from Ukraine. But, doing what he is doing is absolutely crazy. It is so not in Russia's interest. 

Some people are telling me that maybe there are things we don't know, like secret CIA bio-weapons labs in Ukraine. But, I can't think of anything, including that, that would justify what he's doing. 

No, this is going to go down as one of the most colossal mistakes ever made, right up there with the Kaiser going into Belgium and France and Hitler invading Poland. And at this point, he's probably not capable of calling it off because he's crossed the Rubicon, or should I say the Dnieper, and he feels he has to keep on going, and that kind of thing often happens in war. That's why I keep saying, over and over again, that nobody should ever start a war. If there's no war: don't start one. You got problem x with country y? Regardless, you should not start a war. Never, ever, ever start a war.