You really, really should watch the video (series) I linked. It’s long, but it says everything I’m about to say. It’s really important to watch it if you genuinely believe that George Soros and the NED caused the Euromaidan.
Second, it is not russophobic to criticize Vladimir Putin. He is a murderer who has killed hundreds of thousands of Russians with his failed color revolution attempt in the Donbas.
Now let me point out the historical facts that your comment missed.
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The US had no part in “dismantling” the Soviet Union. It was the communist coup attempt, the Afghanistan War, and an overdependance on oil exports that ended the Soviet Union.
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The CIA did overthrow governments during the First Cold War (as did the tankies).
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However, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, there was a complete shift in the US’s foreign policy under the Bushes, Clinton, and Obama, which lasted up until the new Cold War we find ourselves in. The US did not overthrow any South American governments during the 90’s-2010’s. The two American attempts at regime change in the 2000’s, Iraq and Afghanistan, were much more heavy-handed than the Cold War era coups, and were explicitly pro-democracy, albeit imperialistic. The failures of Iraq and Afghanistan led to extreme apathy for international conflict in the US, there was zero will from Americans to interfere in Ukraine, even if the US had the resources to do it (they don’t). The US has had universal hegemony, there was no point for them to spend money invading countries.
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The National Endowment for Democracy, founded in the 1980’s, has not had any part in any “Color Revolutions”, all it does is give grants to pro-democracy politicians and groups.
The fact of the matter is that “color revolution theory” is a conspiracy theory (aside from some overzealous political science authors during the Iraq war). This conspiracy theory is 99% promoted by the Russian ruling class to justify their bootlicking for Vladimir Putin.
Russians could have had democracy, but they threw it away, and now all the Russian Tsarists have left are stupid conspiracy theories saying that democracy is a Jewish hoax.
Well, I’ve seen much less nuance and knowledge from other lemmy.ml users, so I appreciate your thoughtful take and arguments.
I’m gonna be honest, I don’t really want to spend time going into all the details here on an online forum.
That’s a good Wikipedia you posted, and I think we can both agree on that as a historical record of the US’s soft/hard power foreign policy.
I think you’re reading too much into Operation Gladio and the “goal” of the NED. Don’t watch what people say, what what they do.
The Iraq and Afghanistan wars were definitely imperialist and I wanted to point out the psychological differences between the US public’s support for those wars, and the CIA coups of the First Cold War, as well as the war fatigue afterwards, but I guess you understood that.
One thing I also wanted to point out is that the foreign policy of the different political power centers in the US can be very different. Even if the CIA and the president think that they should use financial aid or sanctions against a country, that doesn’t mean that congress or the NED will necessarily follow along.
But yeah, Iraq is basically what a “successful” Ukraine war would have looked like for Putin, and it was obviously a massive failure and decade of shame for the US. It is a tragedy that the war crimes committed there were not prosecuted properly.
For what it’s worth, I also don’t defend the modern Trump/Biden America. There were some good achievements and progress in the Bushes/Clinton/Obama years, but there are also some really stupid and destructive people in the US during all administrations.
My main point was just that color revolution theory is a hoax and that the NED didn’t overthrow any governments, and I stand by that.