Soldiers of Misfortune in Vindman’s Ukraine Bubble

American Greatness: MSNBC analyst Malcolm Nance had had enough. “I’m done talking,” he exclaimed in April when he went on the air wielding an AK-47 rifle. Nance revealed he had volunteered for the International Legion of Territorial Defense of Ukraine. This assignment lasted all of three months and Nance didn’t exactly maintain radio silence during his time there. But now he is back stateside, appearing again on Zerlina Maxwell’s show, explaining why he characterizes “domestic terrorism” in America as “white extremism,” when he never would characterize terrorism abroad as Muslim or Christian in nature.

Put another way: Nance is a big talker about the threat of Russia in Ukraine who felt the urgent need to “volunteer” as an armed combatant in the war. He bugged out soon after the Russians achieved a major military breakthrough by taking control of the Luhansk region. So, the problem he was “done talking” about in April had, if anything, gotten worse during his time in country. Apparently this top-notch national security analyst decided  it was the right time to demobilize because the threat of “white nationalism” in the United States is much worse. 

Nance has compared the modern American Right to terrorist insurgencies in Syria and Libya. Lately, he’s settled on the Provisional IRA. This is ironic since Joe Biden recently compared the Palestinian people to the oppressed Irish people who fought the British in a centuries-long struggle for national liberation.

Pallets of Grandiose Claims

Whatever purpose Nance had in Ukraine, in practice he presented a blowhard’s-eye view of a war he was supposed to be fighting in as part of America’s noble commitment to spreading democracy abroad. This war propagandist characterizes opponents of U.S. involvement as Kremlin operatives, white supremacists, or gullible hillbillies. In an interview on Philadelphia’s WHYY radio, Nance claimed extravagantly that the United States had intelligence on the impending Russian invasion that had been worth “pallets of gold bars.” He said the Russian now have moved into a second phase of the war in which they’re focused on holding on to the Donbass region. He stated, incorrectly,  that the Donbass was fully seized in 2014. Finally, he insisted, “Ukraine is absolutely winning.” When a caller objected to his characterization of Russians as lacking humanity, Nance went on a long tirade about how Dostoevsky held the same opinion.

Chatting by the Meat Grinder

The biggest irony of the interview was when Nance mocked American right-wing militia members buying AR-15s after he had boasted of volunteering for a foreign army that mass-conscripted young men, often shipping them to the front with little to no training. Nance’s tall tales also omit the story of actual foreign volunteers in the ILTDU who have made it to the “meat grinder” as he repeatedly called it.  more here