Which of course just ignores the cause and effect of Russia being pretty imperialist for the last several centuries. Their foreign policy has been to conquer until they hit water or mountains. Guess what, when you are constantly conquering your neighbors and terrorizing the people then these countries look elsewhere. You aren't invited to join NATO, you have to apply. In regards to Europe... the countries most reliant on Russia are least supportive of the US's efforts, which really shouldn't be surprising. Russia has used energy and food to blackmail parts of Europe and a lot of the world. Russia has no problems starving the world if it can get the world to back off of it.
First - Ukraine gave up their nuclear weapons, in fact they had the third strongest nuclear program in the world when they gave them up. So the analogy doesn’t work. Further 90% of Ukrainians voted for not being part of Russia when the Soviet Union fell. Despite huge levels of Russian interference, Ukrainians voted against the Russian backed candidate. Ukraine wanted to be independent and it is independent. Also, in your analogy, not only is it not remotely similar - but let’s take it at face value. If the USA were to invade Mexico, and state that our intent was to make Mexico part of the USA and we threatened nuclear war - YEAH I WOULD HAVE A PROBLEM WITH IT…. and so would the rest of the world. Russia, unprovoked yet again invaded their sovereign neighbor… they are the invader and have not left. They have threatened the use of nuclear intervention. Seldom are things black and white - but this is black and white.
not sure I've ever read a better description of the military industrial complex than this McConnell quote
Save it - no factual argument is going to get through here. Theres a variety of 70's left /post Vietnam world view that is basically - any issue that the American military industrial complex is on one side of, i must take the opposite side, and therefore i am right. Sometimes this rule works well! The Iraq war was pretty pointless and dumb -> you could have applied this rule and had quite a bit of justification - both contemporaneously and ex post. But sometimes it breaks down, like in Ukraine, and you find yourself on the same side as Putin/Trump/Greenwald and you're parroting Tucker Carlson and Tommy Tuberville and Marjorie Taylor Greene. This is a sign that you should get a new rule!
While I agree that most of what we've given them is older technology that wouldn't be used if we went to war today (except maybe as a last resort). So it's not costing us anything per se. We can watch from afar to see what's working and what's not - and weakening Russia along the way. But while the cost may be low to us, but it's not low to Ukraine. I really feel bad for the people of Ukraine. They really can't win this way. They've put up a better fight than I would have imagined but the end game is still going to be the same. And the longer they fight, the more of their own people they are losing. It's really sad. I know you don't want to give up your freedom but when it's life vs freedom, I'd take life. If you just let me go on living my life in a similar way, I'll keep my thoughts about Putin to myself. Not ideal but they are going to get destroyed if they don't stop..
Yeah, but essentially virtually non-top since Pearl Harbor? Anybody getting thoughts of the Fall of the roman Empire?
I am sorry, not to explain it more though as a right winger you probably believe climate change is a hoax.
Prigozhin and the virgins The Russian elite's obsession with virginity is joined to a desire for conquest. https://open.substack.com/pub/natal...gins?r=2jsjm&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
For once I can agree with Mitch McConnell. I ardently disagree with you, on a host of things. It’s not true that our support for Ukraine is “not costing us anything.” What nonsense. Between January 24, 2022 and May 31, 2023, we have given Ukraine $3.9 billion in humanitarian aid, $26.4 billion in financial aid, and $46.6 billion in total military aid. Those figures are from the very respected Council on Foreign Relations. That the military aid is simply old equipment that we “wouldn’t use except as a last resort” is more nonsense. Where do you get this stuff? You said you “really feel bad for the people of Ukraine.” You don’t post like it. They are fighting for their freedom against a monster, Vladimir Putin, who you won’t give an opinion about. I certainly will. He’s the 21st Century equivalent of Adolf Hitler, with a mad dream of expanding Russia and reclaiming Russia’s former empire, most recently known as the U.S.S.R. - the Soviet Union, that our country and our NATO Allies kept from imposing world domination for almost 50 years. Putin decided to start with Ukraine. In 2014, he invaded and annexed Crimea, which the world has never recognized as legal. Obama’s weak response to it was a mistake. Putin expected a similar response from his former vice-president, Joe Biden. He also expected a weak response from the government and the people of Ukraine. He was wrong on both counts. Putin made a terrible mistake with President Biden, and a terrible mistake with both President Zelensky of Ukraine and the Ukrainian people. To some people, what we are giving Ukraine in aid may seem like a lot. Not to you, obviously, but to many others, but it is a tiny fraction of our yearly defense budget, and the military of Ukraine is putting it to excellent use. They have been busy destroying a huge percentage of Russia’s military equipment and have imposed enormous casualties on the Russian military. Much to Putin’s surprise. The people of Ukraine don’t want your misguided pity. They don’t give a damn about how “sad” their nightmare is making you “feel.” They want all the help they can get to aid them in their fight against Putin’s military. They aren’t asking for our soldiers, or the soldiers of our allies. They are asking for our military equipment so they can continue to use it to destroy the Russian Armed Forces and we need to continue to give it to them. Why? Because they will use it! The people of Ukraine are being subjected to massive war crimes. Putin is deliberately attacking civilians. He is bombing apartment towers, hospitals, he deliberately blew up a large dam holding back an enormous lake very important for Ukrainian agriculture, as well as supplying water for what is easily Europe’s largest nuclear power plant complex. Putin is responsible for destroying entire Ukrainian cities, home to tens of thousands of men, women, and children. And you think Ukraine should give up? That they have any interest in giving up? No. They want Putin and those members of his military who committed war crimes to pay for them, and it is in our interest to help them do just that. For justice.
If you really believe Putin is the 21st century version of Hitler, then it is very clear you have no idea of Hitlers atrocities.
I'm not sure how Putin can sustain old school Soviet v Nazi tactics. Though I suppose they'll have to wall themselves even more to recover the demographic hit whenever this war gets a ceasefire. How Russia is using infantry and mercenaries for attacks in Ukraine In Mother Russia, where Mindless Drone pilots You to its death!
You know nothing. I have a whole row of books on one of my bookshelves by several authors, not only about WW2, but about what led to it, as well. I've read Mein Kampf, Hitler's book that he wrote in prison, to better understand what was behind his madness and the unspeakable atrocities he was responsible for. I've been to Nuremberg and toured the the Documentation Center at the Nazi Party Rallying Grounds, a museum in the north wing of the unfinished remains of the Congress Hall of the former Nazi party rallies. The famous film of the huge Swastika being blown up by the victorious allies? This is where it happened. To quote, "It's permanent exhibition of "Fascination and Terror" is concerned with the causes, connections, and consequences of Nazi Germany." It's incredibly depressing, but well worth touring, despite that. I admire Germany for confronting their history. Not with lies, but with the truth. Speaking of lies, Hitler lied over and over again, and fools like Neville Chamberlain believed him because Neville, remembering the horrors of World War One, was desperate to avoid a war. Hitler was appeased again and again, and all it did was make him stronger. By the time Chamberlain was getting off his plane in London, and like a fool waving his piece of paper claiming he had brought Great Britain "peace in our time," Adolph was back in Munich dancing with glee, amazed that he had gotten both Chamberlain and French Prime Minister Édouard Daladier, and France with the most powerful army in Europe, to sell out Czechoslovakia by handing Hitler the Sudetenland. Here's a description from Britannica: Having at that time one of the world’s best-equipped armies, Czechoslovakia could mobilize 47 divisions, of which 37 were for the German frontier, and the mostly mountainous line of that frontier was strongly fortified. This was "peace" achieved not only with Hitler's lies, but under the watchful eyes of the Fascist Benito Mussolini, the man who, more than any other, from whom Hitler learned about the "glories" of Fascism. Czechoslovakia had treaties with the United Kingdom, France, and even the Soviet Union (which was never consulted during this entire affair) to defend her if she was attacked. They were ready to fight, but to win, they needed their allies to step up. Those allies sold them out instead. A good example, one to learn from. Putin lies, over and over again. He lied in 2014, when he took Crimea and we did nothing. He lied in the run-up to his invasion of Ukraine, over and over again. Joe Biden warned Ukraine and everyone who would listen that Putin was determined to invade. Too many couldn't believe that one of the largest countries in Europe, the largest other than Russia, would be subjected to a massive invasion. After all, this is the 21st Century. An invasion that would destroy cities, that would kill and maim tens of thousands of men, women, and children in the sovereign democracy of Ukraine. That still is killing and maiming countless men, women and children. President Zelensky didn't believe it. It's almost like it was on a whim of Putin's, with the man's generals telling him anything they thought Vladimir wanted to hear. That it would be easy. That NATO would do nothing. That Russia would take Ukraine quick as you please and absorb it into a Greater Russia. Ukraine is fighting off a nightmare, with NATO's help. Russia has come to realize that they are in a nightmare of their own making. Putin should pay a heavy price for creating both. In my opinion.
