The Conundrum of Iraq and Ukraine, 2 invasions

A Parisian writing in THE WEEK said this…

Putin’s Russia seems to have finally launched its bona fide invasion of Ukraine. And many righteously indignant American lawmakers will surely be eager to try to stop Russia (not at any cost), or at least punish it for doing something reprehensible. Ukraine is a sovereign country, and invading sovereign countries is bad (you know, unless you are the United States).

So that had me thinking about whether or not it MATTERS what the reasons are you are invading.
It does to those in the nation DOING the invading surely. But who cares?
It would have mattered to the Tutsis in 1994 if we had invaded the nation of Rwanda to end genocide, wouldn’t it.
It mattered to the Bosnians when we lead the UN into that sickness and bombed Serbians with aluminum foil shreds obliterating their electrical stations, among other standard sundries
And Iraq? ‘Sorry, we thought you had WMD, but how about some freedom?’

Ah, but the post Crimean Ukraine.
La difference
No one can say we went to Iraq for empire. I mean, look at the place. Much rather drill a big pipe 10,000 feet into North Dakota if it’s oil, or suck some via the XL pipeline (if it ever gets built..maybe 2017) some think we’re after.
But Russia, ahhhh, Russia.

Rule as czar, kill a possible disloyal child, and be looked at as a leader forever, and MURICA?
Ivan actually loves grabbing the land for himself and blowing snot all over you and telling you its insect repellent, while he knows you know it’s snot. The real trick is seeing if YOU have the balls to say its snot and do something about the land grab.
But in Fallujah and Donestsk, they are just as dead. It’s better when WE GO HOME, if and only if, you really want to be free ..i.e. to figure out how to take care of yourself.
Ivan has figured out how to avoid that problem. They leave the natives worse off, kill them if they complain, and then move their own people in, which is of course, PRECISELY how Stalin put Russians into the Ukraine after starving Ukrainians to death in the 1930’s when they complained.

(btw, did you know Robt E Lee sanctioned the Russkies in Novorussiya?)
So, yeah, it makes difference, but if you are the nation being stomped, you have to have finer appreciation of the subtleties, unless you are in a Goma or a Srebenica, in which case the Marine kicking in ANYBODY’S door is a sweet sound.

But you can bet, it won’t be a Russian marine, and THAT, is the difference.