“Why do I care about the borders of Ukraine at least enough to risk American treasure, when we have so many problems at home?” Greenwald moans. It would be impossible to make Greenwald care about the fate of vulnerable democracies threatened by the rapacious despotisms for which he shills. But for those whose political worldview has progressed beyond adolescent anti-Americanism, it should be obvious why the civilized world has a stake in preventing dictatorships from changing national boundaries by force.

It is one thing to say that the West should do whatever it takes to avoid conflict with Russia over a territorial dispute between people about whom we know nothing, even if it means letting Putin gobble up more of Ukraine. Dogmatically arguing the case of America’s enemies, however, as Greenwald does, inevitably leads to blaming the victim. “I know we’re not supposed to think this way,” Greenwald recently tweeted, his every utterance a courageous intervention against the Powers That Be, “but imagine if members of the Russian Parliament went to Cuba or Mexico or Bolivia and boasted that they were arming groups there to fight the US, then returned to Moscow and claimed it was the US interfering and acting provocatively.”…

“What happened to Glenn Greenwald?” ask his erstwhile allies on the left, who bewilderingly utter the same question about anyone who dares stray from the party line. Greenwald is not, as many of his critics lazily allege, a Russian agent; that would imply that his motivation is pecuniary rather than heartfelt. Greenwald remains what he has always been: a sincere enemy of liberal democracy and a genuine lickspittle for tyrants.