So when the horrors of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine play out in full view, when a Kyiv suburb is turned into a killing field, when a missile strikes a train terminal packed with people trying to flee the war, there’s a powerful impulse for justice. Yet, with the West ruling out military action in support of Ukraine for fear of sparking a wider war, there are limits to what sanctions and symbolic steps can achieve.
“With every image of a murdered civilian lying on the sidewalk in a Ukrainian town devastated by occupying Russian forces, with every interview of a tearful woman mourning dead relatives by the side of a grave, the level of frustration rises around the world,” wrote Frida Ghitis.
“How can Russian President Vladimir Putin get away with brazenly assaulting a neighboring country, targeting noncombatants and killing thousands of innocent people while repeatedly claiming his troops are not committing atrocities or aiming at civilians? Can’t he be stopped?”
The West’s response to Putin’s invasion has been threefold — shipping arms to Ukraine, slapping sanctions on Russia and supporting symbolic measures like Thursday’s UN General Assembly vote to expel Russia from the UN Human Rights Council.
“That the UNGA was able to issue a damning indictment by expelling it from the UNHRC shows that, profoundly flawed as it is, the UN still provides a place for the expression of the world’s outrage,” Ghitis observed.
‘Genocide’
Putin argued before the invasion “that there is no legitimate Ukrainian state that represents the Ukrainian people’s right to self-determination. In a February 21 speech, Putin explained ‘since time immemorial, the people living in the southwest of what has historically been Russian land have called themselves Russians and Orthodox Christians.’ He went on to describe modern Ukraine as a false construction, presenting those supporting Ukrainian sovereignty as terrorists and neo-Nazis,” added Rothenberg, a professor at Arizona State University.
Ruti Teitel, an expert on international law and a professor at New York Law School, observed that “the law of war has long prohibited intentional attacks on civilians, called noncombatants, as well as attacks that do not distinguish between civilian and military targets.”
“A report this week by Human Rights Watch, based on interviews with eyewitnesses, victims and local residents of Russia-occupied territories between February 27 and March 14, documents many law of war violations. Interviewees described repeated rape and summary killings, as well as threats against civilians.”
US officials revealed additional sanctions against Russia last week, targeting two adult daughters of Vladimir Putin, along with relatives of other Russian leaders and two big Russian banks. But so far, sanctions apparently haven’t succeeded in deterring the military campaign against Ukraine.
“The ratcheting-up of sanctions on Russia gives the world the illusion that real action is taking place on Ukraine,” wrote Peter Bergen, “but will they have any effect on Putin’s decision-making? History suggests that this is quite unlikely.”
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Supreme Court’s new justice
With solid support from Democrats and the votes of three Republicans, the Senate confirmed Ketanji Brown Jackson to the US Supreme Court.
Tomiko Brown-Nagin, who wrote a biography of Constance Baker Motley, the first Black woman appointed as a federal judge, noted that “It has taken over 230 years to reach this auspicious moment. Until 1967, when former President Lyndon B. Johnson appointed Thurgood Marshall to the Supreme Court, presidents only selected White men to serve as justices. And for hundreds of years, race and gender not only defined the court’s membership, but the court, in its decisions, also served as an instrument of discrimination against people of color and women …”
The Republican few
“Unfortunately, the issue here is deeper than one unhinged congresswoman. It’s the unhinged, morally bankrupt and chronically dishonest behavior of many of the party’s leading voices.”
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Barack and Joe
Twelve years after the passage of the Affordable Care Act, former President Barack Obama returned to the White House to mark the occasion with his former Veep, President Joe Biden.
Paul Begala, who served in the Clinton White House, noted a shift in how Biden approached the occasion. “Rather than just praising what Democrats accomplished through the ACA, the President explained how Republicans could undermine those gains and leave Americans worse off — a framing his Democratic colleagues would be wise to take note of.”
At another event, Obama was confronted with questions about the war in Ukraine and his handling of relations with Putin’s Russia. SE Cupp wrote that “Obama was asked point-blank if he wishes he’d been stronger on Putin knowing what we do now.”
He replied, “I actually don’t, because the circumstances were different.'”
In a 2012 debate against Republican Mitt Romney, Obama faulted his opponent for labeling Russia America’s greatest geopolitical foe. Asked last week about his reasons for not arming Ukraine, Obama said: “We were concerned about making sure that we did not give (Russia) an excuse for another incursion,” and “You had issues of training.” As Cupp noted, “He stunningly explained how we got to a place where Russia believed it could invade a sovereign nation. He said, Western democracies ‘have gotten complacent.’ Seemingly, the kind of warning Romney was flagging in 2012.”
Ivanka and Jared
Two members of former President Donald Trump’s family have spent hours testifying before the House select committee investigating the Capitol riot, in contrast to onetime Trump associates like Steve Bannon and Peter Navarro, who have refused to cooperate.
“As someone who was in the Oval Office on January 6,” Ivanka “could have offered specific memories of events. Committee members are particularly interested in any discussions about Donald Trump’s 2:28 p.m. tweet chastising Vice President Mike Pence for not supporting the plan to block certification of Biden’s electoral win. They are also curious about the planning and her father’s state of mind on that day.”
“It’s hard to imagine that anyone in the world can better assess Trump’s state of mind than his daughter. The Trumps long operated their business as a close family unit, which meant she worked with him directly. She seemed to enjoy an unusual latitude when it came to establishing an independent identity.”
Elon Musk’s Twitter surprise
As Julian Zelizer wrote, “Musk, a strong advocate of free speech who has used Twitter to spread disinformation and mock politicians, has already suggested he would work with the company to make ‘significant improvements’ … Meanwhile, some conservatives are calling on Musk to allow Trump back on the platform after the former President was permanently suspended two days after the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol ‘due to the risk of further incitement of violence.'”
Trump’s Twitter alternative, “Truth Social, is flailing,” Kara Alaimo wrote. “It was supposed to be ‘fully operational’ by the end of last month, according to its parent company’s chief executive, former Rep. Devin Nunes of California. But now, it’s plagued by a lack of content, technical issues and the resignations of top executives.”
Conservatives take on Disney
Conservatives in Florida and other states are passing bills to regulate what children can be taught in schools. Alongside these efforts, a growing cohort of publishers is offering content designed “to seal conservatives’ children off from a broader culture,” as Nicole Hemmer noted.
“‘Are your children being brainwashed?'”
“That’s the question that greets visitors to the Tuttle Twins website, which sells libertarian children’s books. The books, written by Connor Boyack, are meant to protect children from the ‘socialism and woke-ism’ that the website says American educational and cultural institutions are ‘pushing into the minds of our kids.’ A cartoon on the site shows a mother wielding a Tuttle Twins shield while protecting her frightened children, absorbing the arrows of socialism, Marxism, collectivism, and ‘media lies.'”
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Sports comebacks
Also attempting a comeback was golf legend Tiger Woods, who competed in the 86th Masters tournament this weekend.
“It was just over a year ago when the world was stunned by the news that Woods had been in a horrible car accident in Los Angeles,” Roxanne Jones recalled. “Woods’ right leg nearly had to be amputated but was saved by emergency surgery. Afterward, many wondered whether Woods ever walk again, let alone play golf.”
