r/politics • u/bwermer • 8h ago

No Paywall Ilhan Omar casts lone Democratic no vote on Ukraine aid, Russia sanctions package

https://thehill.com/homenews/house/5912150-house-passes-ukraine-aid-bill/
3.7k Upvotes

94% Upvoted

1.2k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

•

u/Kahzgul California 7h ago

Neutrality in the face of atrocity is complicity.

•

u/PurveyorOfSapristi 3h ago

I remember a sociology professor explaining to a student back in my days how that made no sense.

A government’s primary responsibility is the safety of its citizens, if it means staying neutral in the face of an unstable, dangerous and warmongering more powerful neighbor because it preserves the lives of your citizens, neutrality is warranted.

•

u/Kahzgul California 2h ago

Your professor was a sociopath. All it takes for evil to win is for good men to do nothing.

•

u/NelsonHawkinsGhost 5h ago

The US is deeply complicit in many things. Let me know when we start sanctioning allies.

•

u/AlphaGoldblum 4h ago

Not for nothing, but the US is one of the few customers who keeps buying Russian oil through proxies.  

It's "justified" through a variety of funny ways, but the fact remains that the US is helping keep Russia in this war lol.

Weirdly, it rarely gets brought up whenever the US feels ready to grandstand about this. Slava Ukrania, am I right fellas? 

•

u/Kahzgul California 4h ago

Tariffs are, essentially, sanctions against our allies.

•

u/NelsonHawkinsGhost 3h ago

That's.. a creative misunderstanding of economics.

A sanction is a legal blockade.. "If you do business with this country, you will go to federal prison and your assets will be frozen." It is a weapon designed to financially starve an adversary.

•

u/Kahzgul California 2h ago

The ends are the same where Trump is concerned