METO Guido

Almost offensive as blaming proven guardians of global security a causal factor in rogue Russian blackmail to retake Soviet era satellites. Got any other methods to judge good & evil? Splendid, let’s hear it. But 1st instruct the jury at what point simple truth becomes abstract. Because that’s where this mission runs off into a massive trench of corpse reeking lies. Refer to exhibit #1; All lay loads on a willing warhorse. Exhibit #2; Thou shall not murder. Exodus. See Hannah Arendt.

Hubcapped

what fundamental strategic reason did Putin have to justify the invasion of ukraine?

Hubcapped

you forget the part where russia invaded ukraine, not the other way around. With all of your attempted intellectual gibberish (which truly is incomprehensible and a case of trying too hard to sound like whatever it is you are attempting) you act like the west is the aggressor. Your diatribes hold no water. This ends when russia wants it to. As soon as ukraine wants to surrender, then sure, you can spin your tale, but until then, at least live in the realm of reality. There is one attacker, one defender……full stop

METO Guido

Does the divided states of America remain a good faith broker for international peace? Hope so. By no means should that ever be confused with insurer or guarantor. As loaded a myth as it ever was. Hannah is right of course. You do really have to ‘think’ about what you’re doing. Now, in the present. There are no absolutes when apartheid cultures clash. Civie targeting is evil. No matter who sanctions it. Turn the script page Dudley dumcap DoRight. Nice to hear from you anyway Nothing doing Friday night again I see.

Excargodog

The usual Russian paranoia. Having been attacked by France (Napolean),

https://www.britannica.com/event/Fre...sion-of-Russia


And Germany (twice),

https://www.britannica.com/place/Rus...re/World-War-I

https://i.ibb.co/TqnpZFZ/IMG-7139.jpg

The second time with the assistance of Finland and Romania

https://www.britannica.com/event/Wor...iet-Union-1941

and resulting in 18 million Russian deaths

https://www.britannica.com/event/Wor...sts-of-the-war


and been promised by the Germans as a quid pro quo for allowing German reunification that NATO would NOT be expanded to their borders,
they DO tend to be a paranoid lot about their neighbors.

So a "strategic" reason? Not so much. But a predictably paranoid one? Yep. And unlikely to be cured by bombing them or Macron grandstanding for his voters that NATO needs to put troops on the ground in Ukraine.

Hubcapped

Ok lets ask a question:
is it better for our security to be at the top of the geopolitical pile or to be disengaged from world politics?

Hubcapped

ok, how do you invade a country that has 6000 nuclear warhheads?

your premise is absolute BS. This is about money and internal politics. Prove me wrong by having an actual answer to the above question. Your talking points are subjectively RU propaganda .

METO Guido

See that’s a leading question. Ask me something I can answer. Promise to give it some thought. We ARE on the same side. Will have to wait until tomorrow though. Because if you’re not heading down to the riding club, I just can’t help myself on such a very cold, damp start of Spring. Happy landings Major.

Lowslung

Have you ever been to the Baltics? Poland? Anywhere in the former Soviet empire? Do you understand that the reason there are large numbers of ethnic Russians and Russian speakers in many of those places is because of deliberate and concerted Soviet policies that encouraged ethnically Russian men to take local wives & have children in these countries in an attempt to Russianize the population? These policies were largely reviled by the occupied populations. And make no mistake, an occupation is exactly what Soviet rule was to these people. In many cases, the Russian overlords simply moved into the very same buildings, offices, and torture chambers that their Nazi predecessors had been in during the war. Frankly, I couldn't care less what "promises" were made to Gorbachev by the west. The Soviet experiment failed & the Russians were in no position to be making demands or declaring ultimatums. Eastern Europe found itself free of the shackles of occupation and understandably desired to guarantee their newfound freedom by joining NATO. They are some of the best allies we have. The populations are happy when they encounter American service personnel, they meet their defense spending goals, and they don't balk at shouldering their share of the work when they deploy with us, which they are generally happy to do. It is exciting to be in places like Prague, Warsaw, Riga, and Bratislava and see people who don't take western freedoms for granted. If the Russians were truly concerned about buffering their own borders against perceived Western aggression, they would've offered their former subjects a better deal than NATO could. They didn't & they won't because in Russian eyes the only purpose that those populations ever served was to act as a human speed bump when they went to war. It's hard to think of better allies than the Eastern Europeans in today's world & that's one of the places on the planet that we absolutely should care about defending. The Russians have no plans to stop at Ukraine, but that particular battlefield represents a unique opportunity in that by helping the Ukrainians fight, we can halt Russian expansionism before it reaches NATO's borders and turns into a hot war that ruins Europe or worse.

Excargodog

Well, AT THE TIME, they didn't HAVE 6000 nuclear warheads. But for all those trying to justify further intervention in Europe based upon the "sunk expense" of our casualties in Europe and WWI and WWII it is useful to remind everyone that the GERMANS were our enemies in both those wars and the Russians were our allies in both those wars and the point of my posting was that Russian paranoia is at least somewhat understandable since they lost an order of magnitude more dead in both those wars than we did. As I've said, they were invaded by the French once losing 200,000 people (from a population at the time of only 25 million), by Germany in WWI losing about 3 million people from a population of ~160 million, and by the Germans again in WWII losing about 27 million people from a population of ~172 million.

Considering the US psyche is still scarred from ~50,000 deaths in Vietnam (out of a 1970 population of 203 million) and ~3000 on 911 (out of a US population of ~300 million) it is perhaps not surprising the country of Russia as a whole is paranoid about potentially hostile troops on their borders. Given their history, it is not surprising they are as b@t$hit crazy/paranoid as they are.

Now you don't have to believe that justifies their actions but if you don't believe that plays a part in their actions, you are simply ignorant.


https://www.maynoothuniversity.ie/re...oia-about-west

Worth the read for those desiring to not share Hub's ignorance.