{"id":436765,"date":"2022-04-23T01:12:30","date_gmt":"2022-04-22T22:12:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/evil-thrives-unless-we-fight-it\/"},"modified":"2022-04-23T01:12:30","modified_gmt":"2022-04-22T22:12:30","slug":"evil-thrives-unless-we-fight-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/evil-thrives-unless-we-fight-it\/","title":{"rendered":"#Evil thrives \u2014 unless we fight it"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"ez-toc-container\" class=\"ez-toc-v2_0_84 counter-hierarchy ez-toc-counter ez-toc-custom ez-toc-container-direction\">\n<p class=\"ez-toc-title\" style=\"cursor:inherit\">Table of Contents<\/p>\n<label for=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6a2f07d710529\" class=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-label\"><span class=\"\"><span class=\"eztoc-hide\" style=\"display:none;\">Toggle<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-icon-toggle-span\"><svg style=\"fill: #dd3333;color:#dd3333\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" class=\"list-377408\" width=\"20px\" height=\"20px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" fill=\"none\"><path d=\"M6 6H4v2h2V6zm14 0H8v2h12V6zM4 11h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2zM4 16h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2z\" fill=\"currentColor\"><\/path><\/svg><svg style=\"fill: #dd3333;color:#dd3333\" class=\"arrow-unsorted-368013\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"10px\" height=\"10px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" version=\"1.2\" baseProfile=\"tiny\"><path d=\"M18.2 9.3l-6.2-6.3-6.2 6.3c-.2.2-.3.4-.3.7s.1.5.3.7c.2.2.4.3.7.3h11c.3 0 .5-.1.7-.3.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7zM5.8 14.7l6.2 6.3 6.2-6.3c.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7c-.2-.2-.4-.3-.7-.3h-11c-.3 0-.5.1-.7.3-.2.2-.3.5-.3.7s.1.5.3.7z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/span><\/label><input type=\"checkbox\"  id=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6a2f07d710529\" checked aria-label=\"Toggle\" \/><nav><ul class='ez-toc-list ez-toc-list-level-1 ' ><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-1'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-1\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/evil-thrives-unless-we-fight-it\/#%E2%80%9CEvil_thrives_%E2%80%94_unless_we_fight_it%E2%80%9D\" >&#8220;Evil thrives \u2014 unless we fight it&#8221;<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n<h1><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"%E2%80%9CEvil_thrives_%E2%80%94_unless_we_fight_it%E2%80%9D\"><\/span>&#8220;Evil thrives \u2014 unless we fight it&#8221;<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h1>\n<div>\n<aside class=\"single__inline-module alignleft\">\n<div class=\"inline-module inline-module--columnist inline-module--author\">\n<div class=\"inline-module--author__img\">\n            <img decoding=\"async\" width=\"76\" height=\"69\" src=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2013\/08\/author-jonah-goldberg.png?w=76&amp;h=69&amp;crop=1\" class=\"attachment-nyp_columnist size-nyp_columnist\" alt=\"Jonah Goldberg\" loading=\"lazy\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2013\/08\/author-jonah-goldberg.png?w=152 152w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2013\/08\/author-jonah-goldberg.png?w=114 114w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2013\/08\/author-jonah-goldberg.png?w=76 76w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2013\/08\/author-jonah-goldberg.png?w=38 38w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2013\/08\/author-jonah-goldberg.png 600w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 76px) 100vw, 76px\"\/>     <\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<p>One of the silver linings of the very large dark cloud of Vladimir Putin\u2019s invasion of Ukraine is the clarity it provides. This is, broadly speaking, a contest between good guys and bad guys.<\/p>\n<p>A lot of people who fancy themselves foreign-policy realists roll their eyes at talk about \u201cgood guys\u201d vs. \u201cbad guys.\u201d The world is made up of nation states with interests and those states act rationally on their interests. Good and bad ain\u2019t got nothing to do with it.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019ve never bought this argument, on either analytical or moral terms.<\/p>\n<p>Yes, nations have interests, but the way they define their interests is not always strictly rational. History is full of examples of nations committing vast resources to causes that are extra-rational. \u201cThe mistake of the \u2018realists\u2019 is not their interest in the struggle for power but their deliberate neglect of everything else, especially the non-scientific, contingent, very human feelings and beliefs that most powerfully move people,\u201d the late, great Donald Kagan wrote in \u201cHonor Among Nations: Intangible Interests and Foreign Policy.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>To claim that, say, North Korea\u2019s foreign and domestic policy is simply an expression of its rational self-interest is to declare you don\u2019t know anything about North Korea \u2014 or the decisions its rulers chose to make in turning that society into a xenophobic gulag.<\/p>\n<p>Realists tend to conflate the interests of rulers with the interests of the ruled. It\u2019s hard to find a sane analyst who argues that Putin invaded Ukraine solely in the name of Russia\u2019s rational self-interest rather than his own notions of glory and historical retribution, and it\u2019s even harder to find one who thinks the invasion is objectively in the interest of the Russian people.<\/p>\n<p>Again, while it would have been in everyone\u2019s interest \u2014 however you define it \u2014 for Putin not to have committed this monstrous crime, his choice makes it easy to call him and his enablers the bad guys. Deliberately targeting civilians, sanctioning mass executions and rape, not to mention the intentional wholesale erasure of cities, is objectively evil. The Russian state tacitly admits this when it refuses to tell its own people what it is doing.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1024\" height=\"682\" src=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/04\/Mariupol.jpg?w=1024\" alt=\"A man walks near damaged buildings in the course of Ukraine-Russia conflict in the southern port city of Mariupol, Ukraine April 22, 2022.\" class=\"wp-image-22005911\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/04\/Mariupol.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1535 1536w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/04\/Mariupol.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all 1024w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/04\/Mariupol.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=512 512w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\"\/><figcaption>A man walks by destroyed buildings in the southern port city of Mariupol, Ukraine on April 22, 2022. <\/figcaption><figcaption><span class=\"credit\">REUTERS\/Alexander Ermochenko<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Indeed, the scope of Russia\u2019s lies is so great that the liars are starting to say the quiet part out loud: that truth and truth-telling is an impermissible threat to the Russian regime.<\/p>\n<p>Margarita Simonyan, the head of RT (formerly Russia Today), which once claimed to be a legitimate <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/news\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"2\" title=\"News\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">news<\/a> organization, recently declared, \u201cNo big nation can exist without control over information\u201d and that Russia should follow the Soviet or contemporary Chinese model, which would deny people freedom in \u201cthe political life of their country, in the informational life of the country.\u201d With <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/social-mediaa\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"1\" title=\"Social Media\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">media<\/a> voices like Simonyan in charge, it\u2019s no wonder Putin allegedly polls well in Russia.<\/p>\n<p>There\u2019s equal clarity for the United States. I think the realist case for doing everything possible to assure a Russian defeat is obvious. It is Russian policy to undermine our interests and the interests of our allies around the world.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1024\" height=\"682\" src=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/04\/Margarita-Simonyan.jpg?w=1024\" alt=\"Margarita Simonyan, editor-in-chief of Russian broadcaster RT and the Rossiya Segodnya media group, attends a session of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF) in Saint Petersburg, Russia, June 3, 2021. \" class=\"wp-image-22006025\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/04\/Margarita-Simonyan.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1535 1536w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/04\/Margarita-Simonyan.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all 1024w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/04\/Margarita-Simonyan.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=512 512w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\"\/><figcaption>Margarita Simonyan is the head of RT and recently said, \u201cNo big nation can exist without control over information.\u201d<\/figcaption><figcaption><span class=\"credit\">REUTERS\/Evgenia Novozhenina\/File <\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>But there\u2019s a deeper moral realism involved. In the 1990s, we pushed Ukraine to relinquish its nuclear weapons in exchange for security guarantees. In 2005, a bipartisan effort led by Sens. Dick Lugar and Barack Obama resulted in Ukraine destroying vast amounts of its conventional weapons, on the assumption that those security guarantees would be honored. In other words, we told them we\u2019d have their back.<\/p>\n<p>Putin said those guarantees \u2014 which Russia signed on to \u2014 were null and void because the Ukrainian Euromaidan protests in 2013 ushered in a new Ukrainian state. Whether you buy that garbage is immaterial; Putin\u2019s betrayal of his commitments doesn\u2019t release us from ours. And it is in our interest to be seen as a nation that honors its commitments, both moral and legal.<\/p>\n<p>None of this is to say we should send our own troops into Ukraine \u2014 not that we wouldn\u2019t be morally justified. Igniting a direct war between two nuclear superpowers is a bad idea. Besides, Ukraine isn\u2019t asking for that. It is asking for the modern equivalent of the arsenal of democracy, and we should give it to them, fast. Because Putin is now doubling down on his crimes in eastern Ukraine just to save face. It\u2019s not in our interest that he succeed. And, as the bad guy, he deserves to lose.<\/p>\n<p><em>Twitter: <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/JonahDispatch\">@JonahDispatch<\/a><\/em>\n                        <\/div>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><strong><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\">If you liked the article, do not forget to share it with your friends. Follow us on\u00a0<span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><a style=\"color: #ff0000;\" href=\"https:\/\/news.google.com\/publications\/CAAqBwgKMLG0nwswvr63Aw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">Google News<\/a><\/span>\u00a0too, click on the star and choose us from your favorites.<\/span><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">For forums sites go to <span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/forum.buradabiliyorum.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Forum.BuradaBiliyorum.Com<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>If you want to read more News articles, you can visit our <span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/news\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">News category.<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"color: black;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2022\/04\/22\/putins-war-proves-it-evil-thrives-unless-we-fight-it\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;Evil thrives \u2014 unless we fight it&#8221; One of the silver linings of the very large dark cloud of Vladimir Putin\u2019s invasion of Ukraine is the clarity it provides. This is, broadly speaking, a contest between good guys and bad guys. A lot of people who fancy themselves foreign-policy realists roll their eyes at talk&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":436766,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/04\/newspress-collage-22004557-1650659081383.png?w=1024","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[70897],"tags":[128343,20097,4975,70868,126128,73234],"class_list":["post-436765","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-4-22-22","tag-evil","tag-russia","tag-ukraine","tag-ukraine-war","tag-vladimir-putin"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/436765","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=436765"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/436765\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/436766"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=436765"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=436765"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=436765"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}