cross-posted from: https://sh.itjust.works/post/30140601

Oleksandr deserted from the front line in eastern Ukraine after watching his fellow servicemen being pulverised by Russian bombardments for six months. Then, those remaining were ordered to counterattack.

It was the final straw for Oleksandr, 45, who had been holding the line in the embattled Lugansk region in the early months of the war. Even his commanding officer was reluctant to send his men back toward what looked like certain death. So when Oleksandr saw an opening to save his life, he did.

“We wanted to live. We had no combat experience. We were just ordinary working people from villages,” the soft-spoken serviceman, who declined to give his last name, told AFP.

His decision is just one of many cases plaguing the Ukrainian military, which has already suffered at least 43,000 losses in nearly three years of fighting, President Volodymyr Zelensky revealed this month. The government is also struggling to recruit new troops. Together, these manpower problems present a critical hurdle for Ukraine, which is losing territory to Russia at the fastest rate since the early days of the February 2022 invasion.

The issue was put under the spotlight in September when 24-year-old serviceman Sergiy Gnezdilov announced in a scathing social media post that he was leaving his unit in protest over indefinite service. “From today, I am going AWOL with five years of impeccable soldiering behind me, until clear terms of service are established or until my 25th birthday,” he wrote.

Figures published by the Ukrainian general prosecutor’s office show that more than 90,000 cases have been opened into instances of soldiers going absent without leave or deserting since Russia invaded in 2022, with a sharp increase over the past year.

Oleksandr said that after leaving the frontline, he remembered little from the year he spent at home in the Lviv region owing to concussions he suffered while deployed. He recounted “mostly drinking” to process the horrors he witnessed but his guilt was mounting at the same time. He ultimately decided to return after seeing young Ukrainians enlist or wounded troops return to battle – despite pleas from his family.

His brother was beaten during the historic Maidan protests in 2013 that toppled Ukraine’s pro-Kremlin leader, and later died. His sister was desperate. “They’re going to kill you. I would rather bring you food to prison than flowers to your grave,” he recounted his sister telling him during a visit from Poland.

It was guilt, too, that motivated Buch, who identified himself by a military nickname, to return to battle. The 29-year-old deserted after being wounded in fierce fighting in southern Ukraine in late 2022 during the liberation of Kherson city. “Just staying under constant shelling gradually damages your mental state. You go crazy step by step. You are all the time under stress, huge stress,” he said of his initial decision to abscond.

In an effort to address manpower shortages, Ukrainian lawmakers in August approved an amnesty for first-time offenders who voluntarily returned to their units.

Both the 47th and 53rd brigades in December announced they would welcome back servicemen who had left the front without permission, saying: “We all make mistakes.” Prosecutors said in early December that 8,000 servicemen that went absent without leave or deserted had returned in November alone.

Still, Siver, commander of the 1st Separate Assault Battalion, known as Da Vinci, who also identified himself by his military nickname, said the number of Ukrainian troops fleeing the fighting without permission was growing. That is partly because many of the most motivated fighters have already been killed or wounded.

“Not many people are made for war,” said Siver, describing how his perceptions of bravery had been reshaped by seeing those who stood their ground, and those who fled. “There are more and more people who are forced to go,” he told AFP, referring to a large-scale and divisive army mobilisation campaign.

But other servicemen interviewed by AFP suggested that systemic changes in military culture – and leadership – could help deter desertions.

Buch said his military and medical training as well as the attitudes of his superiors had improved compared to his first deployment, when some officers “didn’t treat us like people”. Siver suggested that better psychological support could help troops prepare for the hardships and stress of battle.

“Some people think it’s going to be like in a movie. Everything will be great, I’ll shoot, I’ll run,” he said. “But it’s different. You sit in a trench for weeks. Some of them are knee-deep in mud, cold and hungry.” He said there was no easy solution to discouraging desertion, and predicted the trend would worsen. “How do you reduce the numbers? I don’t even know how. We just have to end the war,” he said.

  • @kavaEnglish
    2•4 days ago

    i appreciate the detailed write up and the effort in the comment. i’ll try to address some specific points, although I feel like we agree on a lot

    In Ukraine, the president changes, in Russia,… [dictatorship]

    Russia is of course a dictatorship or very close. that much we are in agreement on. but Ukraine isn’t a beacon of democracy either. look at Euromaidan. a series of violent protests led to the democratically elected president being forced into fleeing the country, afterwards a government was appointed into power unconstitutionally and without an election

    this is not the peaceful transition of power you see in stable democracies

    In Ukraine, you can campaign and demonstrate against the government

    In Russia simply standing around with a blank white sign will get you thrown into jail. but also, Ukraine banned a political party that over 10% of population supported early on in the war. they just recently banned the ukrainian orthodox church

    I guess what this ultimately boils down to is that I don’t think the difference is worth dying for. I think even in stable democratic countries like the US or France or England or what have you- the people have relatively little control over the political process. yeah, they have some protests every once in a while and things change marginally

    but generally speaking, the power is concentrated in the hands of the wealthy and they ultimately decide what policies get passed and which get passed over

    so if I’m a regular joe schmoe. why should I risk traumatizing my children and wife when the material conditions for my life ultimately remain identical? i don’t care about protesting as much as I care about putting food in the mouths of my kids

    i understand your perspective and i don’t mean to demean it, I just think that the idealism is a trap and it’s propagated largely by old white guys who stand to gain from young men going off to die. lockheed martin stock jumped over 30% after feb 2022. the shareholders were ecstatic. and right now, over 100,000 men have been annihilated from existence.

    i find no beauty in this. no valor, no nice feeling. just brutal cynical death and greed.

    • @[email protected]English
      1•4 days ago

      look at Euromaidan. a series of violent protests led to the democratically elected president being forced into fleeing the country, afterwards a government was appointed into power unconstitutionally and without an election

      Said president reneged on core election promises (getting closer to the EU), then faced protests, then decided he didn’t like the protests and tried to become a dictator while ordering Berkut to shoot at protestors.

      Which only increased the number and resolve of protestors, so the president went AWOL. He was then impeached – the Rada has the authority to do that, and had the votes, but the procedure was cut short, arguably unconstitutionally so, yes. Be that as it may: There were elections soon after. That’s the fun thing about democracies, you can heal fuckups by having the people be the judge.

      Ukraine banned a political party that over 10% of population supported early on in the war.

      Ukraine banned a political party early on in the war that just over 10% of the population supported in 2019, you mean.

      It generally doesn’t help your case when your party chairman is under investigation for high treason and happily partakes in a prisoner exchange. He’s in Russia now.

      Meanwhile, Germany is in the process of banning a party that currently polls at just under 20%. And yes of course the AfD should be banned they’re Nazis, their influence and poll numbers in fact are a requirement for the ban: Back when the constitutional court had to decide about the NPD they said “they’re small and irrelevant, thus not a present danger”.

      . lockheed martin stock jumped over 30% after feb 2022. the shareholders were ecstatic.

      …I’ll just assume you’re American. You see shifts in the stock market and conclude that that is, for some reason, why people fight. You consider your own nation to be so exceptional that its stock exchange influences the decisions of people half-way around the globe. Ukrainians fight because they know what it’s like to be a colony of Moscow. Because in the end you’d rather die in a trench giving Moscow hell than to die in a gulag building Moscow’s weapons, or in a meat assault against Moscow’s next victim.

      Have you ever wondered what happened to all those men in the occupied territories? Sent to the front with fucking Mosin-Nagants. Such is life as a colony of Russia.

      • @kavaEnglish
        1•3 days ago

        Euromaidan was a confluence of a lot of different factors. It’s virtually impossible to quantify and categorize it under one umbrella term. Some call it a coup, some call it a revolution.

        I think it’s complicated. For example, there was a a genuine discontent among the population- with a lot of emphasis on the item you mentioned, the decision to not move closer to the EU. But there was more at play. Far-right organizations orchestrated and escalated the protests and intentionally provoked more violence. They understood, as many on the far-right do, that violence begets more violence. And violence is a great way to start a chain-reaction that topples the establishment.

        It’s something that’s been increasing in frequency, some successful and some failing. Ie Jan 6th in the US and Jan 8th in Brazil. both right-wing storming of the capital in an attempt to disrupt the democratic process. In the US and Brazil, where there are stronger and more stable Democratic institutions… the establishment remained intact.

        In Ukraine, it toppled like a house of cards.

        Here’s some leftist reading material

        https://jacobin.com/2022/02/maidan-protests-neo-nazis-russia-nato-crimea

        https://voxukraine.org/en/denial-of-the-obvious-far-right-in-maidan-protests-and-their-danger-today

        and here’s a research article looking at the violence that led to the eventual dismantling of the government

        https://www.jstor.org/stable/26532701

        It appears that the far right Svoboda party was the most active collective agent in conventional and confrontational Maidan protest events, while the Right Sector was the most active collective agent in violent protest events. The Maidan protest events where the far right groups were mentioned were also larger (more participants reported) than the Maidan protest events where the far were not mentioned indicating that the far right were not on the periphery of the Maidan protests but in the center of the events.

        Lots of this was funded by opposition parties

        According to Ihor Kryvetskyi, the main Svoboda sponsor, who bought the main stage of Kiev Maidan camp, three major opposition parties spent approximately $6,000,000 to support the Kiev camp with Svoboda’s share of roughly 30%.

        Which likewise received a lot of funding by the US - through organizations like NED. With billions spent in Ukraine since their independence in 91, roughly $200M annually, a lot of this money ultimately trickled down to the correct sources.

        So here’s the rub-

        You talk about your anarchist comrades, so I’m guessing you’re a leftist. But what Euromaidan was, if we’re going try boil down a complex multifaceted event into a single sentence: a far-right coup supported by the US that toppled a democratically elected government and allowed a new government to be appointed unconstitutionally. That same government immediately started cooperating with the CIA after which Russia invaded literally only a couple days later.

        Do you see why I think Ukraine is not some beacon of democracy? Of course Russia is a hellhole. But Ukraine is a banana republic. It’s like Guatemala in the 50s or Cuba before the revolution. It’s a government propped up for a purpose and it will be disposed of when it’s no longer useful. And that moment is coming soon.

        So if I put myself in the shoes of some joe schmoe, why should I risk my life and my family’s life for this? It’s a joke. The bigger the lie, the more people believe.

        We’re seeing such a large right-wing resurgence all over the globe that even self-identified leftists are supported right-wing causes. We’re starting to see this in the US, for example, with the left becoming progressively more and more anti-immigrant. I don’t know. I think we’re doomed, if I’m being honest

        • @[email protected]English
          1•3 days ago

          ou talk about your anarchist comrades, so I’m guessing you’re a leftist.

          Wasn’t me but I’m also an Anarchist so w/e.

          But what Euromaidan was, if we’re going try boil down a complex multifaceted event into a single sentence: a far-right coup supported by the US that toppled a democratically elected government

          The fuck. A coup would not have resulted in elections. A far-right coup would not have resulted in the likes of right sector and svoboda losing seats. The “US support” narrative is complete BS, the type of work the US did in Ukraine is above board, also, the EU is way more involved.

          Your whole line of reasoning here is contingent on wanting to prove the “US is exceptionally powerful and evil” narrative, shared by both the Kremlin and certain portions of the US left (or at least they think they’re leftists).

          You know what? Don’t talk to me, it probably won’t do a thing. Talk to people from Ukraine.

          But Ukraine is a banana republic.

          It doesn’t want to be. Its people do not want it to be one, and they’re willing to fight for it. And before you get confused, now: If Ukraine ever was anyone’s banana republic at any point then Moscow’s.

          We’re seeing such a large right-wing resurgence all over the globe

          …there’s not a single far-right party with a seat in the Rada. It’s completely ALDE and EPP, with Opposition Platform being banned (those would be S&D if they weren’t Russian stooges).

          • @kavaEnglish
            1•2 days ago

            A coup would not have resulted in elections

            Really?

            Iran 1953, US-supported coup that led to an election that coincidentally resulted in a pro-US government coming to power Chile 1973, US-supported coup that led to elections which resulted in top 3 tier list Latin American dictator Pinochet Guatemala 1954, US-supported coup that led to elections which resulted in a military junta that perpetuated the worst genocide in Latin America Cuba 1952, Batista, supported by US, led a coup and then immediately held elections. Resulting in a brutal violent government that terrorized people so deeply they went full commie

            Brazil 1945 Brazil 1964 Iraq 1963 Egypt 2013 Thailand 2006 Sudan 1985

            All led to elections immediately or shortly after the coup

            Do I really need to go on? In a country that is ostensibly a democracy, it’d be more surprising if there aren’t elections after a coup.

            “US support” narrative is complete BS, the type of work the US did in Ukraine is above board, also, the EU is way more involved.

            Billions of USD flowed into Ukraine. There’s history of US involvement in Ukraine. It’s even in the public record they tried a coup shortly after WW2. We don’t have to speculate on that one, you can look it up.

            I don’t understand why this is so hard for people to believe. Here let me ask a few basic questions

            1. Do you believe the US acts in its own interests?

            2. Do you believe that the US is willing and capable of acting covertly in order to advance its own interests?

            3. Do you have even a shallow understanding of 20th century history? If so, have you read about or heard about any of the myriad of different coup and coup attempts that the US has attempted all across Latin America and the Middle East?

            4. If you answered yes to all of these things, why the hell do you think it’s so outrageous that the US was involved in Euromaidan?

            There’s plenty of evidence. You say Europe was more involved but that isn’t true. US has not only given more than all of Europe for this war, but it had pumped more money into Ukraine since Ukrainian independence than all of Europe. It’s not hard to understand why. It’s the expansion of western power eastwards.

            What I find interesting is people like you when you’re talking about domestic policy, you’re perfectly rational.

            “The government is run by an oligarchic elite who look out for their own interests and don’t care about the working people or the ideology they claim to represent.” I have a feeling you agree with that statement.

            But all of a sudden we talk about foreign policy and you turn into a patriot jingoist.

            But you know what’s interesting? That jingoism has a short half life. The same thing happened with the invasion of Iraq. During the invasion of Iraq, everybody believed it was for freedom and democracy. Nation building and WMDs.

            Today though, you won’t find a soul defending the American aggressive invasion of Iraq. Why? Because everybody understands, both implicitly and explicitly, that the US acted in a pragmatic and amoral way to advance its own interests. The propaganda that created justifications was just that, propaganda.

            Today, it’s obvious. Yesterday, it wasn’t. Tomorrow, this Ukraine proxy war will be obvious. Today, there’s too much active manipulation for people to see straight.

            • @[email protected]English
              1•2 days ago

              led to an election that coincidentally resulted in a pro-US governm

              Do you have any data to back up that insinuation? Like, at least a believable hypothesis of how the CIAFBIATF managed to falsify an election in a way that OSCE observers aren’t even suspicious?

              If you answered yes to all of these things, why the hell do you think it’s so outrageous that the US was involved in Euromaidan?

              It’s not outrageous at all. You’re just vastly overstating the influence the US has on anything. People from the US on the ground during Euromaidan btw wanted protestors to talk to Yanukovich and to come to a compromise, and the protesters wanted to hear none of it, they wanted Yanukovich gone after the shit he pulled. Euromaidan, if anything, shows how little influence the US has, not how all-powerful it is.

              Also can you stop treating a whole fucking nation as nothing more but puppets of foreign influence, with no agency of its own. Ukraine has a vibrant civil society, in many, many ways more healthy than the US one not to speak of the Russian one (which is basically non-existent because Putin made sure Russians slid back into fatalism). They have every right to decide their own fate and here you stand, saying “no they cannot be acting on their own accord, they cannot do anything on their own, it must be foreign influence because CIA evil”. That’s what your argument boils down to and it’s silly and several light-years removed from material analysis.

              Talk. To. Ukrainians. I know it’s a bit harder in the US than it is over here because you don’t have refugees living literally next door but there’s plenty of them online, plenty who speak English. Talk to them. Ordinary people.

              Oh and also watch Servant of the People if you have any time to kill at all.

              • @kavaEnglish
                1•2 days ago

                Do you have any data to back up that insinuation

                Note that your quote is in reference to the Iranian 1953 coup.

                Like, at least a believable hypothesis of how the CIAFBIATF managed to falsify an election in a way that OSCE observers aren’t even suspicious

                I explained it. US support of both civil organizations that promote pro-western policies and far-right organizations. The money trail is there. NED used to share their recipients on their website up until a couple years ago, but you can still find it on the internet wayback archive. Whatever was sent openly through NED you can count on another amount of money being sent covertly to uglier groups

                Here’s the thing- I’m not trying to take away agency from Ukrainians. The US did not create Euromaidan. They promoted it and they tried to support the material conditions that allowed Euromaidan to happen. But the outrage was real. The protests were real. It’s not so much the US created it as the US took advantage of it. Never let a good crisis go to waste.

                Also can you stop treating a whole fucking nation as nothing more but puppets of foreign influence, with no agency of its own.

                Small powers get subjugated by big powers. Are you claiming somehow Ukrainians are unique in this? That they are racially or culturally superior to every other small country that the US supported and instigated coups in? Are you taking away the agency of Guatemalans, Cubans, Iranians, etc? Why is Ukraine special?

                They have every right to decide their own fate

                That’s great, I 100% agree. But I’m not sure if you’re ever been in a liberal democracy. It’s not the people that actually get to decide what happens. It’s the powerful private interest groups that happen to control the levers to power.

                saying “no they cannot be acting on their own accord, they cannot do anything on their own, it must be foreign influence because CIA evil”.

                Again, the same argument could be made for every single other US-supported coup. Do you deny these have ever happened? Have you read about any of them?

                Talk. To. Ukrainians. I know it’s a bit harder in the US than it is over here because you don’t have refugees living literally next door but there’s plenty of them online, plenty who speak English. Talk to them. Ordinary people.

                Two things here. a) I have a couple Ukrainian friends and their views are more nuanced than yours. b) just because somebody comes from a country that does not make their opinion magically correct. Exhibit A talk to some Trump voters and determine whether or not they have an accurate representation of reality. Exhibit B look back at the invasion of Iraq. Do you believe the average American had an accurate understanding of what was happening at the time? War = massive amounts of propaganda being pumped into our media systems. It obfuscates the truth and most people do not care so they just take the official narrative and run with it. As it turns out, however, official narrative is the last thing you should trust in a war

                • @[email protected]English
                  1•2 days ago

                  I explained it. US support of both civil organizations that promote pro-western policies and far-right organizations. The money trail is there.

                  Far-right organisations and parties have less influence in Ukraine right now than in pretty much any other European country. Money trail or not, that’s not speaking towards the US being able to influence things.

                  “Pro-western”, whatever that means, has been popular in Ukraine for quite some time. Ukrainians only have to look over the border to Poland (you’re aware that they’re bordering each other and the languages are almost mutually intelligible? Just making sure) how beneficial being part of the EU is. Tons and tons of Ukrainians, year after year, went into the EU as seasonal workers. They’re no strangers to us, we’re no strangers to them. I shared a lecture hall with Ukrainians, that was still back in Kutshma times and boy what progress Ukraine made in the meantime. What wasn’t universally popular was a hard break with Russia, many people had faith in Russia, too, being able to work towards shaking off the shackles of kleptocracy, of autocracy. That changed with Crimea and by now it has completely shifted.

                  While I’m at it: Are you claiming that these elections were not fraudulent. That fraud was the cause for the Orange revolution.

                  Whatever was sent openly through NED you can count on another amount of money being sent covertly to uglier groups

                  …the sum of that money is peanuts, btw. Every single Ukrainian oligarch can, and indeed has, outspent the NED. Fun thing about Ukrainian oligarchs is that plenty of them don’t like to be under Moscow’s thumb, either, they don’t want to pay dues to Russia’s mob.

                  Small powers get subjugated by big powers.

                  You read too many geopolitical “realists”, as they call themselves. Small powers band up and beat large powers. Small powers fight wars of independence that ruin big powers.

                  every other small country that the US supported and instigated coups in?

                  Cuba, Vietnam. Did the US achieve what it wanted, there. What about Afghanistan. Afghanistan broke both the USSR and the US. Tell me more about how small powers get dominated.

                  Two things here. a) I have a couple Ukrainian friends and their views are more nuanced than yours.

                  I have also more nuanced views than I’m expressing here. I don’t get to express them because you’re being a conspiracy theorist, before we can get to nuance we’ll first have to deal with the elephant in the room.

                  Do you believe the average American had an accurate understanding of what was happening at the time?

                  Somehow, Europeans had a much clearer picture. Maybe you should listen to us more. Americans are notoriously self-absorbed, the upper echelons might be less uninformed but y’all are still just as jingoistic. Case in point: Your assertion, against all evidence, about domination. Left, right, educated, dropout, doesn’t matter, it’s very hard to find yanks who don’t buy into that shit. It’s the water you swim in and I’m currently trying to get you to see it.

                  Go back to your school days. How often have you heard that America is the biggest and greatest and most powerful? How prevalent is that kind of thinking in the minds of your compatriots? Even if you disagree with how that power is used: Do you still believe that it, indeed, exists? That is what I’m talking about. You may question one thing, but you’re not questioning, even examining, the deeper layer of y’alls national delusion.

                  • @kavaEnglish
                    1•2 days ago

                    Far-right organisations and parties have less influence in Ukraine right now than in pretty much any other European country.

                    Show me, please, another European country where the far-right was able to fund hundreds of protests which they purposely escalated to violence (following traditional right-wing patterns, ie Mein Kampf) and those protests were key in toppling the government.

                    They played kingmaker. In return they get incorporated and legitimized. Ie Azov which started as a neonazi militia becomes an official part of the government. Now they’re “tolerant and inclusive” but if you look at the leadership, it turns out they’re the same guys who joined when it was neonazis.

                    “Pro-western”, whatever that means, has been popular in Ukraine for quite some time

                    “pro-western” means messages that bring Ukraine closer to the Western block and away from the Russian block. US money has been openly flowing since independence in 1991, with covert money almost certainly going back much longer (remember, the US tried a coup in Ukraine after WW2. you can read a history book about it)

                    languages are almost mutually intelligible?

                    i’d imagine it’s like spanish to italian. close and if you have had exposure you’ll be able to pick up more than someone who hasn’t.

                    That changed with Crimea and by now it has completely shifted

                    invasion of Crimea happened because of Euromaidan. literally a few days after there was a coup that installed a pro-western government. Russia got desperate and decided it was now or never. at the time, less than half of people supported the protests. mostly split on west/east. it was not so universally supported even though history is slowly being rewritten.

                    right now, ukraine has lost almost a quarter of their population. and that included their most pro-russian citizens (crimea+donbas). so now they are more ideologically homogenous. it may seem like there was a major change but it’s deceptive

                    While I’m at it: Are you claiming that these elections were not fraudulent

                    i haven’t made a single claim about any election in ukraine being fraudulent or legitimate. in the west we don’t have to fake votes. elections are bought in other ways. you know what’s the greatest correlation for campaign success in the US? $$$

                    …the sum of that money is peanuts, btw. Every single Ukrainian oligarch can, and indeed has, outspent the NED. Fun thing about Ukrainian oligarchs is that plenty of them don’t like to be under Moscow’s thumb, either, they don’t want to pay dues to Russia’s mob.

                    billions of pure liquid cash in the right hands is not peanuts, especially in a poor country like Ukraine. $200M a year is enough to hire thousands of people full time.

                    You read too many geopolitical “realists”, as they call themselves. Small powers band up and beat large powers. Small powers fight wars of independence that ruin big powers.

                    it’s history. do you deny this? small powers get subjugated by big ones. big ones have a gravitational orbit and pull in small powers to advance their interests. it’s a tale that goes back to Athens and the Delian League. I’m not really sure what you’re arguing against here. it’s not a controversial take i’m making

                    Cuba, Vietnam. Did the US achieve what it wanted, there. What about Afghanistan

                    ok let’s back track.

                    1. whether or not US was successful does not change the fact that the US had a long track record of coup attempts

                    2. only Cuba had a US-supported coup attempt. and they succeeded. about a decade later there was a communist revolution, but for that decade American companies owned a majority of the arable land in Cuba.

                    similar story in Guatemala. Chiquita owned the majority of farmland there. It’s why the CIA overthrew the government. for $$$. The fact that there happened to be a military dictatorship that perpetuated genocide did not matter

                    similar story in Iran (your Europe was involved in this one too, by the way) except with oil

                    because you’re being a conspiracy theorist

                    it’s a cheap way to shut down a conversation. if the US has done something like 20+ times in the last century and it’s actually done that thing in Ukraine before, you cannot pretend like it’s such a wild thing.

                    Europeans had a much clearer picture

                    Europeans were involved in Iraq too, buddy. Propaganda was just as strong over there. People were just as misinformed. Same thing in Libya. Same thing right now in Israel. When US says “let’s go” the Europeans go

                    Americans are notoriously self-absorbed, the upper echelons might be less uninformed but y’all are still just as jingoistic. Case in point: Your assertion, against all evidence, about domination

                    Just an FYI I was born in Latin America. In a country where the CIA toppled a democratically elected government which resulted in a military dictatorship.

                    I’m not sure if I’m willing to defend here with you basic geopolitics and history. for example Germany and Japan were subjugated by the US after WW2. Small power bends to big one. This is basic stuff. I have a feeling you are young and have not yet had time to read and absorb information yet.