Thought for the Day - Slava Ukraine!

One of the things which has annoyed me in recent months is the way some people; both overly well meaning but nonetheless; thoughtless idiots, crippled by Political Correctness on the Left and argumentative, ignorant trolls, crippled by their own stupidity on the Right, have taken to saying of the coverage of the illegal invasion of Ukraine by Russia, and / or of the way we - in the West - have responded with aid or by taking refugees, with a line that goes something like this;

"What about Syria/Afghanistan/Yemen/Congo . . . you didn't / don't treat them like this?"

Well. here's the thing . . . The Afghanistan's, Iraq's, Iran's, Tunisia's, Yemen's, Mali's, Sudan's, Rwanda's and Burma's of this World are (and often have been for some time/centuries) first and foremost squalid little spats between squalid little local chiefs, warlords, priests or witch-doctors, criminals, self-appointed 'strong men, or just those with the guns or the keys to the Treasury, all these other wars, conflicts or revolutions are the same hated track of humanity's B-side, playing over-and-over and depressingly getting us nowhere.

But, all of human history is about the slow and steady rise of liberal, tolerant, secular democracy, and while no one sensible would claim it's been easy, no one sensible would claim we are there yet - indeed we are in the middle of one of the periodical 'Right Wing backlashes' which make the rise of right-thinking so slow - and no one sensible would claim it'll ever be a 'done deal', not with capitalists fighting against it every step of the way, nevertheless, it has brought us - recently - over half a century of relative peace and prosperity at home; in Europe, North America and Australasia.

However, in Ukraine, the Orks of Mordor have come out of the backward-thinking, backward-looking back-woods of the East to attack civilisation and try to tear-down the very tenets of democracy which the civilised world hold uppermost, with brutality, ignorance, lies, fake news, torture, execution, rape, murder, looting and other human rights abuses not seen since Hitler's Orks swept across the same lands.

So god-damned right we're going to support Kyiv, we're going to help the Ukrainians, we're going to send money, arms and blankets and we're going to make a fuss.