You got the edit right, thanks yeah. Playing over the what-ifs of how this could have been diffused is painful; And considering how some high profile people against the war in Ukraine had previously committed atrocities is more than a little frustrating - Henry Kissinger and John Bolton come to mind. That being said, it is a, "the milk has already been spilt, lets clean it up" situation. If a monstrous person says the war shouldn't be, that doesn't mean the war should have began. Your points of criticism of the past dickheads can be construed as trying to excuse or divert blame for current atrocities there. It is kind of incendiary, people will just disengage and drop back to insults. General butt naked also comes to mind. The horror of what he did is hard to overstate. In his mind does his current occupation make him a purely self interested hypocrite, a person working to help his community, or both? If their self interest isn't in conflict with the humanism then sometimes it really is both, at least in their view. Focusing on not having had justice for the critics, i.e. vengeance or reparations, feels like it sows doubt in the thread about the good faith intent of your posts. It sucks because this is the kind of thing where communication really helps inform people rather than make them dig in their heels at perceived misinformation. Similarly, the past shit heads being so high profile really detract from getting consensus about the future and understanding the faults of the past.

Age of information, not communication and all that