This is an interesting essay, and rightly provocative, but the situation in Ukraine would seem to involve more than capitalism. Destroying Ukraine in the name of capitalism seems a typical Marxist oversimplification and one that tries, not without interest, to apply Marxist economic principles.
But the economic focus in Marxism is excessively reductionist. The confusion is not so much in the analysis on the ground but the disastrous remedy proposed by Marxism. We need a broad view of history, empire, economics and cultural factors and a better analysis of modernity the incorrect Marxist theories of the economic stage of history. Beset with the curse of capitalism we confront the curse of Marxism. Putin is in the end the fag of Bolshevism, and we need a post-marxist framework to look more clearly at history and economic systems
Ukraine, per se, is not the issue. It is tragically a war-ravaged pawn in a much larger conflict. Nor is the issue about either Russian President Vladimir Putin or U.S. President Joe Biden as leaders. The same history and confrontation would prevail upon their successors. Meanwhile, former U.S. President Donald Trump’s effort to force change on the PRC by imposing the biggest sanctions action in history (i.e., a trade war and a tariff war) utterly failed. Trump was caught up in the same history as Biden, even if each focused on attacking the Russian-Chinese alliance differently.
Source: The Role of Capitalism in the War in Ukraine – CounterPunch.org
1848+: The End(s) of History 