Condescending comments need not to reply. I am attempting to see past the narratives and past the Great Social Media push. (IE: The modern MSM) Putin: Views this as Civil War Ukraine nationalist: Views this as an invasion. If Ukraine maintains control and retains its governance, we can call it an invasion. If Putin is able to setup a government and maintain control while an insurgency continues, this would constitute a civil war. I feel this is closer to a long standing civil war, but narrative needs not to change. Bottom line, the general Russian populace is not a fan of Putins actions. Think 1776 (clearly a civil war/rebellion) vs 1812 (invasion by a country who felt entitle to take back what they claimed their land). Semantics. @Invisible Fan What are your thoughts on this being more about controlling the farmlands? China and Russia proper both struggle with food. If Ukraine joins NATO, both Russia and China are ****ed. Starve two great nations until they revolt. I feel the Ukraine issue is a bit more complicated than the usual toxic sheep waiving Ukraine flags in their social media profiles. I believe this is more of a proxy war between the West and China than Russia and Ukraine. I am not a fan at all of powerful nations waging proxy wars on on poor/struggling nations, sovereign or not. I believe widening the doors for economic opportunity brings more peace. Sanctions do the opposite. These thoughts by no means are an endorsement for Putin, Hitler, neo nazi's or any other simple minded insults.
At this point some of Putins threats are coming across like Onion article headlines. https://www.pravda.com.ua/eng/news/2022/03/5/7328496/
They didn't and weren't close to doing so just because we didn't want to ruffle feathers. He invaded anyway, so f**k him.
What is interesting is how quickly the world can literally strip you naked if you get on their wrong side. All your money vaporizes, your wealth siezed, your leaders become war criminals. You are literally destroyed and in one week with one decision... and you're a shanti town. That's all it took. But just as fascinating is that about 2 billion of the people in the world don't agree with what we are doing. It's like cancel culture on speed. The key to the future is clear as day, side with the most populous nations at all costs, and don't get on the wrong side of it.
If you call it a civil war in Russia, you face up to 15 years in prison due to new Russia's law that passed unanimously yesterday.
Personally I haven’t seen all that much confusion even with my Trumper friends who very few are still pro Putin after this. Most people just want the US to do more but can’t exactly articulate it yet. This is a heavily propagated war on all sides because all players here are trying to write narratives that serve their purpose post conflict. Our narrative serves a purpose of being able to re-engage with whoever controls Russia on areas of mutual interest. Russia’s narrative seems pretty obvious from Putin’s perspective. But nobody right now doesn’t understand that the US is involved. The Ukrainian line to give the media is to ask for a “no fly zone” because they actually want the US to be fully involved because they are trying to survive so it’s understandable. They also have been very understanding of the reasons why the US isn’t even though they keep pushing for it…. Again… understandably. The issue here for everyone is how this ends and what does the US really need to do to end it. That’s really the center question that people can’t wrap their heads around. Putin doesn’t have the checks and balances around him like a US president does that allows the US to exit a losing battle like Afghanistan or Vietnam. Even then the US with those checks and balances still can drag a stupid war on for decades. So I think people actually are getting a good sense of what is going on even on the right at least up until now. However where we go from here is anyone guess. The US actually had good success in a proxy war via Afghanistan in training their army and supporting their government. Only in this case you have a much much better government to work with and more capable fighting force with the will to fight. We’ll just not be able to have military troops on the ground but we can have advisers and troops miles away in Poland to train and resupply. I think the US has a chance actually to make this work as an effective proxy war. It’s just about the air support which is the main issue right now to solve. We should have supplied Kyiv with the same air support system that we gave Israel.
If Putin were right on this, then he wouldn't be trying so hard to lie to his own people about it. This whole thing where Putin is ensuring state media only refers to it as a "special military operation" versus an "invasion" or "war"...is nonsense. Now, Russia just passed a law punishing "fake news" promoters with up to 15 years in prison. Putin knows it's unjust. It's why he has to control the narrative. Putin just wants to end this according to his terms and then thinks that sanctions will go away with business back to normal in short order. The sad thing is...he's probably right.
Except, of course, that Ukraine is a sovereign nation recognized by the entire world ... including Russia. Even Putin is not calling it a civil war. .
Also as I stated, semantics. But thanks for making my point in regards to the new era of social media; truncate the source material, remove context to make a false point.
The type of thinking that has led to so many wars including Iraq Wars I and II. Laughably at times you seem to at least acknowledge the roll of profits in the military industrial complex. Similarly it is very annoying to see Fox through MSNBC being all over the Russian oligarchs' misdeeds war profiteering and gigantic yachts and lifestyles without the awareness of the similarities to our own billionaires who of course can never be referred to as oligarchs.
Semantics of what a civil war is? Why not just call it a conflict with aliens from outer space if words no longer have meaning? No one - except you, apparently - considers this a civil war. Even Russia has said they are invading Ukraine because it's essential for their future security. You seem to really really want to be a contrarian in all things just for the sake of it and being able to try to sound smart instead of because of it ever having any merit.
The Repugs and their 5th columnist Joe Manchin will push for cutting off Russian oil and then a couple of months later try to make inflation as their main issue i November. The Biz press will talk non-stop about inflation when crying crocodile tears about how they would like to help little American children who will no longer have the type of family support that made the Covid economic crisis the first one in recent memory that did not greatly increase child poverty.
I don’t understand what false point you’re talking about. Ukraine is a separate sovereign nation. That is a fact. Putin today threatened to remove Ukraine’s statehood. You don’t do that if you don’t consider it currently sovereign.
Isn't that the confusion? There is a belief among many, I think, that our military can tiptoe into this and tiptoe out of it. You can't tiptoe into this. That's wishful thinking. You have to enter it assuming it will be war. Ukrainian is very diplomatic led by a great leader. Being a former actor is now seen as a strength (remember when everyone was worrying that he was going to be a pushover) showing how creative and engaging he can be with his people and the world. They need help and they want to continue winning the heart and minds of people throughout the world. They aren't going to want to "force" any outsider military to fight for them but they will push to get what they need. And so far, the world has responded at an amazing speed in both the gov and private sphere, and military weapons deliveries. This war ends when Putin decided to end it. Just like how it started, it's all up to him.
Not all billionaires are the same. There is plenty of reason to criticize Bezos and musk but they are the same as many of the Russian oligarchs. For one their wealth was lategely built on products that people actually want to buy rather than picking up the remains of a failed centrally controlled command economy.
Can someone clarify the talk about war crimes? First off, it's a war like what do you plan to do? He already has an army killing thousands of people. Second off, the USA bombed a freaking doctor's without borders hospital and just said 'my fault' .
This started last week and the video updates the hackers's success. As an aside, the anonymous hackers are giving cover to the US's own cyber attacks ... plausible deniability if you like.
