Murc’s Law, pro-imperialism from the “left” edition
By 
As the silliness from the Jacobin/Nation/anti-anti-Trump SubStack set in defense of Putin’s apparently imminent invasion of Ukraine ratchets up, the obvious apparently needs to be said:
Ukraine situation has unfortunately broken the brains of some restrainers (a group I normally identify with).
Yes, the US shouldn’t go to war with Russia — but we’re not going to!
The big point is that Russia shouldn’t further attack Ukraine!!!— Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias) February 12, 2022
Apologizing for Putin’s imperialist threats is just pro-war, period. It’s not opposition to a war between the US and Russia because the US is not going to war to stop this and nobody actually thinks otherwise. Nor has Putin somehow been “provoked” into attacking a country that poses no threat to it whatsoever; if he invades, the responsibility for it is 100% on Putin’s shoulders. The idea that opposition to an invasion implies that it’s worth sending troops to fight makes exactly as much sense as arguing that the French government didn’t really oppose the Iraq war because it wasn’t willing to enter the war on Iraq’s side — i.e. none whatsoever. Apologizing for a Russian invasion is just apologizing for Russian invasion however passive-aggressively it’s done.