Of Course They Did

I did Nizi that coming The State Department has announced that it will lift the aid ban on the Neo-Nazi Azov Brigade in the Ukraine.

I'm not surprised, but I am a bit disappointed.

Given the US support for Pinochet, and the Somosas, and the Pshaw of Iran, and Syngmun Rhee, and Park Chung Hee, and Chaing Kai Chek, it seems that supporting fascism is baked into the bureaucratic culture there.

Given that one of Moscow's main talking points is that the Ukraine is infested with Nazis, and given that there are other units to which aid could be given to, this seems to be a rather egregious unforced error.

To quote (not) Tallyrand, this is worse than a crime, it is a mistake:

The State Department announced that it has lifted its ban on the use of American weapons by the notorious Azov Brigade in Ukraine, an ultra-nationalist outfit widely described as “neo-fascist," even "neo-Nazi."

The group was initially formed in 2014 as a volunteer militia to fight against Russian-backed Ukrainian separatists in the eastern Donbas region, and later incorporated into the National Guard of Ukraine, under the purview of the Interior Ministry.

“After thorough review, Ukraine’s 12th Special Forces Azov Brigade passed Leahy vetting as carried out by the U.S. Department of State,” according to a statement by the Department which referred to the “Leahy Law” that restricts American military assistance to “units of foreign security forces where there is credible information implicating that unit in the commission of gross violations of human rights."

The ban was first put in place in a federal 2018 omnibus government spending package, citing that it was an ultranationalist outfit that openly invited neo-Nazis into its ranks. In addition, both Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have reported on “credible allegations” of “torture and other egregious abuses” by Azov and other volunteer units. U.N. human rights officials have also accused the group of humanitarian violations.

To be fair, extreme human rights abuses and fascism have been aggressively supported by the State Department and the CIA since the Truman administration, so this is not really policy shift.

Still, it is depressing as F%$#.