LR:
I haven't argued with that. I'm sure it is absolutely correct. What I point out though - and I feel that to any reasonable person I have made a valid case - is you cannot claim that for their Syrian activities whilst rejecting out-of-hand the fact of the Ukraine war's condemnation under the same laws. It's having your cake and eating it. AKA (real) hypocrisy.
Either International Law is an ass, in which case it obviously can't be reasonably used in support of Russia in Syria. Or it's authoritative. In which case what the Russians have done in Ukraine is illegal.
In your mind you have made ‘....
a valid case’ but that is easy to do when, as you have a habit of doing, you leave out anything that would counter that view, or shift the time line. It seems those that want their cake and eat it are supporters of your rather one sided view, which is wholly supportive of US involvement in events. So any ‘
reasonable’ person, would see that your case is a very selective and one sided view. How can those that openly ignore inconvenient International Law, possibly condemn others for doing so?
Lets take Ukraine from the point the troubles started?
In contravention of International Law, there was a US sponsored and organised coup to invoke regime change in Ukraine. All well documented.
In brief: Without any attempt at an election the US installed an extreme right wing fascist government; the US and their allies then recognised this government within hours; the fascist thugs threw out the existing parliamentary members that disagreed with them; they then threatened openly the ethnic Russians particularly in the east; threatened to withdraw Crimea’s autonomy and throw the Russians out of Sevastopol. No condemnation from the US for this intent for a more-or-less a proposed genocide?.
The Russians left their base in Crimea and locked down Ukraine military bases to remove the immediate threat to the population (
BTW: This is not contrary to Intl. Law but a breach of the terms of their treaty with the now deposed elected Ukraine government); IMO: had the elected government still been in power they would have approved this move; their actions prevented what later happened in Odessa and Mariupol the deliberate slaughter of hundreds civilians; the elected autonomous Crimean Government held a referendum where over 90% of the population voted to break away from Ukraine; the US and its allies dismissed the referendum and declared result as invalid; then the Crimean government asked Russia to annex Crimea; which they did.
When requested to also annex Donbas and Luhansk, the Russians declined because
it was against International Law. They have without doubt been supporting the Eastern Oblast rebels to defend themselves against the unelected government forces, but for you to condemn that as a breach of Intl. Law when you can clearly see what the US and its allies have done in Syria, supplying and supporting foreign Jihadi’s to invoke your regime change, would be the extreme example of hypocrisy.
If the US could instantly recognised this illegal fascist government when the people were never even given an opportunity to vote .......... why did they not accept the clear choice of the people in Crimea to exercise the right to self determination and break away from Ukraine? Had the US applied the same consideration for the wishes of the Crimean’s and recognised the result of their referendum ............ Russia could not have been accused of breaking any International Law.
It was what the US didn’t do that made it appear that it was Russia that ‘
invaded’ and ‘
then annexed’ Crimea. So ....to any reasonable person, a clear case of ‘
false news’ to demonise Russia for something they didn’t actually do.
The US didn’t recognise the Crimean referendum and accept that was the wishes of the people because that did not suit their plans. This is an example of what the western powers claim as justification for all the wars they start. ..... the right of people to self determination but that is always conditional and is only accepted by the US if it is the outcome the US wants. Unless you believe Samantha Powers almost hysterical claim that they were marched to polls at the barrel of a gun ............Crimea’s separation from Ukraine and a return to Mother Russia was the choice of the vast majority of the people and still is today.
Now, what international Law did Russia break? 
A reasonable person would agree that they hadn’t breached
ANY Intl’ Laws but the same clearly cannot be said for the US! The government was illegal; the coup was illegally instigated by a foreign power; recognition by the US was also illegal, as the government took power through a coup.
To me ..... it was the US recognising the coup government but not the result of a referendum ..... that is the hypocrisy!
