The "Ukraine should roll over and surrender to save lives" thing (e.g. Chomsky) is either an inability to understand iterated games or a stalking horse for some other unstated agenda.

— Alan Cole (@AlanMCole) April 17, 2022

I don’t think it’s any of those, mostly, though it is fully moronic. It’s mainly the belief that the West can never do anything right, and all is America’s fault. Sometimes, it is America’s fault but in the case of Ukraine not so much.

This is how those people think: Since America is supporting Ukraine, that makes Ukraine officially bad, therefore Ukraine should allow itself to be destroyed because that is “just.”

Also, a lot of those people are reflexive contrarians, like Ian Welsh. That does not lead to good thinking, even though it means you are often right.