No one is up for any war. The whole idea of collective defense is to avoid war and maintain peace. If collective defense is BS, then it's no longer a deterrent.
Seen a number of these already. Not sure if we are just getting a distorted narrow (positive) view or if this is more widespread. It points to Russian troops are like distance brothers of Ukrainian and they were expecting to be neo-nazi liberators.
DoJ formed a special unit, KleptoCapture, to go after "ill-begotten gain". The DoJ needs to figure out the legal basis - connect them somehow to illegal activities. It's probably complicated but it's been done before.
Nope. What you are doing is attempting to discredit and erode by passive aggressively connecting issues that have nothing to do with the larger issue. This is something that is commonly used by Putin and he has even discussed it in the past. Neo-Nazi’s have nothing to do with the Ukraine invasion, nor does an alleged Holocaust or any of the other CCP and Russian state sanctioned propaganda stories you made reference to, and everything you listed came from the CCP or Russian state controlled media. There is a debate/political tactic developed several hundred years ago that is when a state or politician is in the wrong, blame the other side for exactly what the state is doing… and that’s what you are doing, and everyone can see it. So take your neo-Nazi distraction and shove it up your ass until “Dear Leader” or “Tsar” tells you to pull it out and gives you more marching orders to justify terrible things. It’s the same mentality that lead to Nazi’s and Stalinism and the CCP.
Name calling and insulting, that’s the best you can do? Labeling different opinions as capitalist or communist propaganda, that was how the Culture Revolution in China started, and that’s what’s going on with the so-called democracy loving liberals now. It didn’t start today, but rather started with the “you are either with us or against us” environment. Again, you perfectly avoided my 4 questions to you, and resorting to straw-man argument and fighting your imaginary communist enemy. One-sided free press does take a toll on people.
I agree if the invasion of Ukraine is the end of the conflict we should learn from WWI. I'm not saying there would be no risk of escalation. The risk should be recognized from the beginning. But I'm not sure that is the same as a NATO nation being attacked. A military unit involved in a NON-NATO action might not automatically trigger the Article 5 condition. That should also be agreed upon by the members. But at the same time, the risk of escalation would be part of the deterrent
Not the latest, but here is a list of large companies pulling out of Russia or blocking state media. Mass private companies "sanction" could be more effective and devastating to Russia's economy than gov sanctions. In 10 years, all their technology is multi-generation behind. Whatever happen to Ukraine, Putin already lost. These are the corporations that have pulled out of Russia - CBS News
You can't call on article 5 if you are the aggressor. If you put yourself in a position to start a war (no-fly zone is absolutely going to do that), I'm not sure what happens but I can see NATO countries arguing, nope, not our responsibility. NATO unity would then be broken. Russia would love that. Russia is in trouble and will lose in this war, even if they eventually take Ukraine. US or another major NATO State military intervention BY CHOICE changes the war completely and give Putin a legitimate war, giving him one way to boost the morale of the Russian military and the Russian people. He then can potentially win.
As I keep on saying it will be very very difficult to just put in a no-fly zone over Ukraine as long as Russian planes, radar and anti-aircraft is just across the border in Russia. We've already seen many times in history where what was meant to be a very limited engagement ends up spiraling into something much greater.
That was my take as well on NATO. So then it doesn't put NATO at risk to help enforce a no-fly zone. However, I disagree that enforcing a no-fly zone gives Russia a valid claim of legitimate war. But I agree that internally it can help Putin's case. Putin has already made it illegal for the press to report anything it considers false news which can include using words like "invasion" or "war". I saw an interview with a Russian woman who didn't believe Russia had invaded Ukraine because she said if Russia wanted Ukraine it would just snatch it up in no time. This older woman had no idea what was happening.
I would say this... if NATO wants to be involved, they should go all in. Quickly accept Ukraine as part of NATO and go to war. I think that's a clearer choice and leave very little political confusion. The public doesn't get it yet and seems to be confused about what they are asking for.
Sorry, it's not a legitimate war. What I meant is he's able to claim that it is a WAR and it's legitimate to Russian. He can't do that today. As you noted, he's pulling up the Iron Curtain, fast. He's deadly afraid of public sentiment toward the war. He wants everyone to call it a special military operation against neo-nazi - very narrow. Sooner or later, everyone is going to notice it's a war against their brother, sisters, cousins, father, mothers, and friends in Ukraine. It's 10000x time much harder to keep an iron curtain effective today than in 1940. The Russian people (especially younger) aren't like the people of NK. They tasted democracy, they know the west, they know freedom.
Sorry if already posted: interesting development, as Russia's oil giant Lukoil calls for an end to hostilities. Directly undercutting Putin, as far as I can tell. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/ukraine-russia-lukoil-gas-oil-giant/ (not saying Czary-P will care, but they're the 2nd largest company in Russia's premier economic sector and they employ about 100,000 people.)
Do you think McDonalds, KFC, and Starbucks should close their Russian businesses? McDonalds has over 850 restaurants in Russia.
