I imagine your internet will be down, but if not, we are thinking of you. Stay safe during this passing shitstorm. I see it as the dying throes of a political dinosaur. Here's hoping things develop quickly for the better. They must.
yes, both russia and china are facing obvious demographic and political challenges putin is basically saying that ukraine is a fiction and that he as russia's dictator has a higher claim on their lives, liberty and resources he has zero credibility as a human being and his human rights record is predictably horrible
The lanes at all closed airports are blocked by tractors to prevent the possible landing of enemy aircraft with troops
I imagine your internet will be down, but if not, we are thinking of you. Stay safe during this passing shitstorm. I see it as the dying throes of a political dinosaur. Here's hoping things develop quickly for the better. They must.
The West Is Sleepwalking Into War in Ukraine It’s not easy to make sense of how the United States and Europe are responding to Russia’s aggression. Stephen M. Walt writing for Foreign Policy
Well, let's not throw the baby out with the bath water.
First the west is not sleepwalking into a war in Ukraine. It was always known by both sides that NATO would not step in to defend Ukraine. The removal of western diplomats only underscored the fact.
Secondly, the discrepancy between western rhetoric and western resolve is not a contradiction in terms. Why should the west suddenly renege on one of its core principles? Namely that a sovereign country with a democratically elected government has the right to self-determination? It's not NATO's decision to expand but the free will of the Ukraine people to decide their own defense arrangements. Not to forget that the flurry of applications to join NATO by the Baltic states back in the day was precisely in response to the Soviet occupation. That portion of the Ukrainian population wanting to align with the EU and NATO (the majority, I might add) is in exactly the same boat. They are not threatening Russia. They are running away from it.
Yet despite these humbling failures, the present crisis reveals there is still a reflexive tendency to assume the United States has the right, responsibility, and (most important of all) capacity to dictate political arrangements all over the world, even in regions that are more important to others than they are to the West.
All I can say to this is, sure the US has made some ginormous mistakes and committed war crimes quite on a par with what Russia is committing today. Dictating political arrangements is always going to be the wrong way to do it. But as Lazy8 recently said, this is not about us (meaning the US). Moreover, just because the USA has made many disastrous decisions in the past doesn't give Putin the right to invade a sovereign country with a freely elected government, regardless of its historical past. If we believe in democracy, then let's allow the Ukrainians to decide how they want to live.
As to the final point, that the NATO allies have not done enough to bolster their military capabilities. He's absolutely right. We can expect to see the EU change its stance on this soon. Moreover, Germany is right this very minute, doing some serious soul-searching about its stance. It can be expected to shift more in favour of bolstering its military capabilities and probably setting up an EU strike force as proposed by Macron. Ironically, it will do this not simply because of the renewed threat of Soviet-style expansion but because Trump has shown that the US might not always be a reliable partner in future. This shift, in German thinking at least, will also be in response to the fact that its strategy to date of trading with Russia to contain it, just blew up in its face.
So, what has just happened? Well, the cold war just started up again. There will be long-term sanctions and severe restriction on trade with the NeoSoviets, if any trade at all. Russia will be forced to trade with China, which makes it heavily dependent on a larger and more powerful superpower on its immediate border (pretty dumb if you ask me). The EU will militarise. The Baltic states will seek greater assurances. The EU will find alternatives to gas & oil. Inflation is going to climb rapidly worldwide. And China may very well invade Taiwan. There will be shift back to local sourcing (already happening), particularly if China does invade Taiwan and US industrial production will rejuvenate. And sooner or later, the NeoSoviet regime will neo-collapse, again, because, well it's the typical Russian tragedy.
Location: On the edge of tomorrow looking back at yesterday. Gender:
Posted:
Feb 23, 2022 - 2:48pm
deltaindia wrote:
GeneP59 wrote:
And you know what really concerns me is that if he drags Europe and the U.S. into his mess he will attack the U.S. on our grounds and you know if he is loosing he will use nukes in desperation. That’s how mentally unbalanced he is.
in which case he will also die
But not before killing millions of innocent people in his wake.
And you know what really concerns me is that if he drags Europe and the U.S. into his mess he will attack the U.S. on our grounds and you know if he is loosing he will use nukes in desperation. Thatâs how mentally unbalanced he is.
Location: On the edge of tomorrow looking back at yesterday. Gender:
Posted:
Feb 23, 2022 - 2:40pm
And you know what really concerns me is that if he drags Europe and the U.S. into his mess he will attack the U.S. on our grounds and you know if he is loosing he will use nukes in desperation. That’s how mentally unbalanced he is.
According to a CNN poll, half of Russians support the war against Ukraine.
If you have the opportunity and desire, go to the rallies against the war! This will be the best maintenance now !!!
"The heads of the "DPR and LPR" asked Putin to help repel the aggression of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in order to avoid civilian casualties and a humanitarian disaster in the Donbass" Peskov said... I hope it were the last news for today. Trying to sleep)
We'll put our wings over you (as much as that might help)
