I’m sorry, are you expecting me to take Anatol Lieven and John Mearsheimer seriously?

And how is this analysis any different from any of the other self-satisfied “only the capitulation lobby TRULY cares about Ukraine” writing that I’ve subjected myself to since 2022?

He in particular has long been more of a post-academic celebrity than an actual scholar or expert.

Chomsky territory, and just as vain and arrogant.

They believe that they, uniquely, are free of any moral or material responsibilities for their beliefs. Those who support Ukraine should go die in a trench, while these guys do little else but post on social media and write articles for Jacobin and Quincy.

They pretend at being "above it all."

Neither of these guys, nor any of those like them (ex: Marcetic) care about Palestinians or Ukrainians. Their arguments ultimately support a “multipolar” and anti-western/NATO/“atlanticist” position. Ukrainian defeat and parasiting off Palestinian suffering are useful to them. It’s pure ideology. /2

And so they tell their critics to go die in a trench and go back to wrapping themselves in the mantle of “Ukraine’s only real defenders.”

We don't have to dignify that by treating their arguments as anything but what they are: masks for an ideological agenda and/or greed and grifting. /end

When that is punctured, they have absolutely nothing else to fall back on — certainly not the depth of their expertise. Witness the huge meltdown in the wake of Jeffrey Sachs being called a "liar" on TV. /10

But if there's one thing these jackals hate more than anything, it's being called out as charlatans and bad actors. Whatever "authority" they have comes from the illusion that they're knowledgeable, capable analysts. /9

It’s enough, I think, to make note of their hypocrisy and sleaze, and to refuse to be drawn into pointless “debates” that will only ever end up in one place: with them declaring “so why aren’t you at the front?” and patting themselves on the back for their cleverness. /8

None of us, moreover, needs to waste time “refuting” their arguments, because these people are uninterested in honest discussion and are impervious to argument anyways. /7

Meanwhile, arguing that Ukrainians, “for their own good,” should suffer all of those things requires nothing on their part. But none of us are under any obligation to pretend that this air of detachment and analytical neutrality is anything but a performance on the part of bad faith actors. /6

Tellingly, however, they do not believe that their own positions come with any particular responsibilities: believing that Ukraine deserves freedom from territorial dismemberment, occupation, rape, torture, and genocide, apparently comes with it the obligation to go to the trenches. /5

Some of them even have the audacity to assert that if you disagree with them and you’re not serving at the front lines then you’re a hypocrite, a warmonger, a coward, and a “chickenhawk.” /4

They are licking their chops, declaring that the war is over; that they were right all along; and, most importantly, that NATO/the West has been served a humiliating and historical defeat. /3

With setbacks along the front; with the corruption scandal unfolding in Ukraine; and with the United States’s appalling betrayal, these people have their knives out. /2