That’s cool. Apparently the school didn’t give a shit.

Well, if there was at that time (I’m talking about around 1990), it certainly didn’t come into play at that school.

I was regularly detained when I refused to participate. As I stated in an earlier comment, this was a private school that felt entitled to be forceful about things like this. I don’t know if the situation was different at the area public schools at that time. BTW, this was 35 years ago, in case that’s relevant.

Is forced the right word? Maybe. Did they beat me? No. I was certainly compelled to do it and punished whenever I didn’t. I went to a private school that regularly expelled students for things like causing disorder. That didn’t happen to me although I was retained after school day after day when I had enough stamina to resist the brainwashing. This went on for years.

I was forced to stand and pledge allegiance to the flag every week day for four years as a US high school student. Just sayin’.

Sounds extremely rational in the context of US trade policies.

Just want to yet again take this opportunity to say a mighty ‘fuck you’ to this president and everyone in this administration. Additionally, all of these ‘guardsmen’ can get fucked as deserving of the mindless violent fascist apparatchiks that they have CHOSEN to become.

I considered this, and it kind of makes sense. But, unfortunately Israel has an effectively limitless arsenal because of US patronage. So, I don’t think it really affects their project.

Allying - to have friendly relations, to help each other, to cooperate, etc.

Is Israel being friendly, helping and cooperating with Ukraine? Yes.

Is Ukraine being friendly with Israel? Yes. Is Ukraine cooperating with Israel? Yes. Is Ukraine helping Israel? To the extent that we know what happening, they are at least lending legitimacy to the Israeli regime. That helps them given that they are facing mounting international pressure, ICJ charges, and cratering public support. The agreement also implies that Ukraine will owe something to Israel at some point. That amounts to a promise to help them, somehow. It’s also very reasonable to speculate that Israel has some repayment arranged behind the scenes, although we can only speculate at this point.

Am I holding Ukraine to a high moral standard? Yes. I appreciate the desperate and immediate danger to Ukraine, but this is the same standard that Ukraine and specifically Zelensky have been demanding from the international community since this started. He has rightly appealed to people’s morality and basic human sense of justice as the reason for supplying Ukraine’s defense. Working directly with a regime as comically evil, as outrageously violent, and destructive as Israel undermines all of that.

This is the most illogical and ahistorical shit I’ve read all day. The only way you can frame the genocide of the Palestinians as defense against an evil entity is if you want to arbitrarily start history at a point decades after Israel began killing and displacing millions of people. That’s the same sort of intellectual dishonesty that Russia has used to fabricate historical rationalizations for their invasion.

Allying with a genocidal nation is a form of support for that nation and it’s genocidal project. I don’t understand why this is so difficult to accept. Or, are you taking the stance that the ends always justify the means when it comes to defense. If so, then you’re taking a stance that has been used by Hamas to justify 10/7, Israel to justify genocide, and Russia to justify invading Ukraine.

I literally cannot understand whatever you are trying to say here.

I reject his. You’re about a half step away from articulating the rationale that Russia has used to justify its invasion of Ukraine. It’s wrong.

Are you suggesting that Israel is getting nothing in return for this? At a bare minimum, Israel is purchasing support for their bloodthirsty expansionist project. Sorry, but I do expect Ukraine to say no. I don’t care what Zelensky’s (or any other leader’s) personal opinion is about anything. The only thing that matters is their actions. Providing even passive support for evil, like that personified by Israel, makes it more likely that nations will behave the way that Russia has against Ukraine. Find another way.

Anyone taking a principled stance against genocide will. Sorry, but Ukraine needs to find another way than to become indebted to a fascist regime like Israel.

I’ve been an outraged and outspoken supporter of Ukraine since before they were invaded. But, this is fucked. Zelensky can get all-the-way fucked if he’s going to ally with the war criminals like this.

Goddamn, that ghoul is still alive?