The Ukraine and neo-nazis

So apparently James Clapper is calling for the United States to arm Ukrainian forces against Russia.

It’s fascinating to me that we arm groups only to find ourselves working against them later. I guess it’s a pick the best of a worse choice for the moment without considering the consequences later, until we have to consider them. In any case, I did not realize how influential the right wing fascists were in the Ukrainian government. What a mess.

But just as was true in Syria: while some involved in the Ukrainian coup were ordinary Ukrainians fighting against a corrupt and oppressive regime, these claims about the fascist thugs leading the fight for the Kiev government are actually true. Writing in Foreign Policy from eastern Ukraine last August, Alec Luhn observed:

Pro-Russian forces have said they are fighting against Ukrainian nationalists and “fascists” in the conflict, and in the case of Azov and other battalions, these claims are essentially true. . . . The Azov Battalion, whose emblem also includes the “Black Sun” occult symbol used by the Nazi SS, was founded by Andriy Biletsky, head of the neo-Nazi groups Social-National Assembly and Patriots of Ukraine.

In September, Shaun Walker wrote in the Guardian about his experience embedding with the pro-Kiev forces of the Azov, which he called “Ukraine’s most potent and reliable force on the battlefield against the separatists.” While dismissing as “overblown” Russian warnings that these groups seek to ethnically cleanse all of Ukraine, Walked described “the far right, even neo-Nazi, leanings of many of its members,” and noted that “Amnesty International called on the Ukrainian government to investigate rights abuses and possible executions by the Aidar, another battalion.” Walker’s principal concern was that these fascist militias intend, once the separatists are vanquished, to seek control of Kiev and impose their ultra-nationalist vision on the entire country.

https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2015/02/27/clapper-calls-arming-ukrainian-forces-actually-empower/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Azov_Battalion

The world is in a frightening place right now. There are no good answers or solutions here. If Russia decides to attack Estonia(a NATO member) next we’ll find ourselves at war with them. So what do you do? It’s a powder keg.

Are humans just a self-destructive species? Is this why no civilization can make it to being far advanced?

Wars and more wars.

There seems to be no way out.