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May 26, 2023
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Greg Olear's avatar

But defeat them we did!

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Helen Bird's avatar

My grandmother survived WWII & the London blitz, taking in a young woman from Berlin and assisting a couple who helped Jews escape. I remember the many stories she told me while growing up in a post war Britain. But the one that has stuck with me all these years later, was the sheer brutality of the Russians. She maintained they were worse than the Nazis. Great piece Greg & Arthur. Thanks to you both!

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Greg Olear's avatar

Oh, wow, Helen, that's amazing about your grandmother!

And yes, as Arthur points out in the interview, the Russians are always like this. It's how they roll, and always have.

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SOSSI DERIAN's avatar

Boy for such a great writer in this area we defiantly disagree! Certainly not good guy, bad guy shot going on here. That’s in Israel and we support them too! Zelensky is not a good guy. Try a deeper look at the scene. And Putin’s not as bad as we were in Iraq! So, please get real! This poor Zelensky stuff is getting old!

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Greg Olear's avatar

What Putin's doing in Ukraine is intentional genocide. That's not what we did in Iraq, not at all. Listen to Arthur's podcast, please. Look at the images from Mariupol. Read Zarina's dispatches on these pages.

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Earl Heflinger's avatar

Funny you should draw a parallel between the war in Ukraine and Evangelical Christianity with respect to the predictable three-act script in the war between good and evil. To me, there’s an interesting essential contrariness in those two scenarios. The Ukrainian ‘good guys’ have claimed their personal power and risen up in righteous indignation over having been wrongfully attacked; whereas the Russian soldiers are largely puppets, relying on some (to them) intangible force—Putin—to drive whatever motivation they have to continue fighting. Evangelicals may say they’re fighting the cosmic forces of evil—the Devil—but mostly these days they’re fighting a culture war against ‘woke’ individuals who have claimed their personal power—which is often why they’ve left Christianity. Meanwhile, the Evangelicals themselves, the self-appointed ‘good guys’, rely on their Big Daddy in the sky to bail them out. Your point about good supposedly winning in the end is well taken. But some wars involve guts, and some rely on faith.

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Greg Olear's avatar

Well put, Earl. Thanks for sharing that frame.

In the interview, we talk about the people on the left who want a ceasefire, and what that really means. Arthur points out that the leftists are basically opposed to imperialism, but they can't seem to grasp that Russia is the imperial power here, and that this is imperialism on a grand scale.

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Kindness is Great's avatar

One of the things I wanted to talk about...was the friendships made between Ukraine and Americans BEFORE that happened.

That was not strategic. It was real. It is not fair to say, "Americans suddenly care about Ukraine because of this war."

There are hundreds and thousands of instances where Ukraine was loved by individual Americans. Those were FRIENDS. GODDAMNYOU RUSSIA. You had no reason to do this. It doesn't benefit your economy or your prestige.

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Greg Olear's avatar

Good point about the friendships.

If there is a hell, Putin will roast in it.

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Lynell(VA by way of MD&DC)'s avatar

Thank you, Greg, for amplifying the many voices we have on our side, Arthur Snell among them. Also, Nina Burleigh and Pete Strzok made a terrific appearance on the Five/8. Much gratitude!

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Greg Olear's avatar

Thank you!

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