It seems to me completely normal that the US was less sanctioned by "the West" when they invaded Iraq than how Russia was sanctioned when they invaded Europe.
I'm not American and I opposed the invasion at the time, but it was harder to argue because Saddam's Iraq had very few redeeming qualities, had been waging aggressive wars of its own, and its main role in international trade was as a member of the OPEC cartel.
Whereas Ukraine, for all its problems, is a far more democratic county with far more friends, no history of aggression, and a critical source of food for many nations.
If Russia had invaded Belarus or Tajikistan instead of Ukraine, I doubt there would have been any real consequences.
You don't need to speculate. There were no real consequences when Russia invaded Georgia, and that's even a democracy, although unfortunately too small to be relevant.
War making is the universal party in the US.
This is like shouting at a wall.
So let’s demonstrate near the White House and the Kremlin. I assure you both outcomes are different. Let’s set up a fund that allows me to criticize the government, pretty sure I can do that in the US, and good luck doing that for Russia.
You get the idea. There is definitely a difference.
This depends on what one finds importand and what not. My wife says, for example, that there is no difference except for nature, climate and a few minor thigs.
I say - there is more than a few differences, but still two countries have more in common than people think.
>let’s demonstrate >I assure you both outcomes are different.
If the result if the same (the government changing or not changing its policy or decisions) than there is no difference.
Yes in one scenario you may end up dead (and not necessarily in Russia) but this is not what's important here.
yet I fail to see any single example in recent US history where citizen action has been able to stop a war in foreign lands. They were not even to stop an actual invasion of Iraq, so let me question the point of potential protests.