Ukraine is a complex issue. I think Putis is a terrible person. Ukraine has a terrible history of mistreatment by old Soviet Union and now Russia. And Russia halso has a long history of being invaded by European countries coming through Ukraine.
Action plan:::: do nothing, do not get into this kerfuffle, remember these folks have been fighting for over a 1,000 years.
I thought it was his dance in high heels that did that.
One thing that perplexes me is how is Ukraine receiving military supplies without Russia at least trying to slow that down. Reminds me of Viet Nam where we couldn’t shut down resupply of the Viet Cong from the north and eventually even had to invade Cambodia to try to cut supply. The Russians don’t seem to have any appetite to address resupply. Guess they thought it would not be an issue as they would take over in a week or so. Putin can’t bomb Poland like Nixon did Cambodia. Meanwhile looks like Russia’s own supply lines are not getting food and fuel to their forces in Ukraine. As we would say back in the day, looks like a cluster F...
Putin is a “power” person, sort of like a medieval king. History is replete with people like this, it’s a part of human nature. Some want power, others happy to be serfs.
The problem w/power people of his sort is that they are never content with what they have. They always want more. If you think he will stop at Ukraine, ask yourself, why he wasn’t content with what he already had? This is what puts Ukraine in the “can’t be ignored” category.
We can either work to stop him now, or later when he crosses a line that more people will accept as a “red” one.
Direct military action expands the boundary of the physical conflict but shortens it. Indirect action, like aid, cold war style activities, insurgent support, containment, etc., contains the boundary but extends the duration, perhaps for generations like the first cold war.
If it were a simple matter of waiting until Putin dies naturally, the choice would be obvious - extend the duration. However, the Russian system at this time is autocracy and Putin will just be followed by the next “king”.
I can understand why Trump opposed Nord Stream 2. Germany would receive billions from the US for NATO defense, against Russia, and then happily spend its own billions with Russia buying gas and oil.
But, I think the truth is, if you want to see the kind of threat NATO is designed to guard against end in Europe, then you should want the commercial intercourse with Russia that such activity represents.
Why is Germany in NATO? West Germany, when there were two, sure. But who is Germany guarding in NATO with leaky, rusty, non-functional GDR era missiles?
I am thinking that NATO is the Swamp and that it would not scale itself back at the fall of the Soviet Union, or at least plan to replace defense with peaceful commerce.
We all certainly need to know more than we do, to decide what our “leaders” are forcing on us.
For example the latest figures for Russian soldiers KIA is either 498 or 9700 depending on whether you believe the Russians or the Ukrianians.
That is a difference with a 20X factor, so I can only conclude that whatever 'reports' come from this area are all fiction.
This is much like the chi-com virus, people are dying with it but how many from it?
Never could get a real answer.
The cable news talking heads are all trying to impress us with their new found war experience and as usual give us pretty people with scripted opinions and few facts.
If/when they may slip a fact or two into the mix, who knows what to believe? Not me.
The author must have missed Kamala Harris' brilliant explanation on the subject of Ukraine.
Many of those who resisted the government propaganda on covid are willing to submit as soon as someone waves a flag (not even the flag of the United States). If you thought the damage covid did to our societies, economies, and right to speak and protest was bad, just wait until World War 3.
The various wars in the Mid-East were predicated on “fight them over there so we don’t have to fight them here.” Any fight with the Russians ‘over there’ will end up over here. Every day a 9/11 (or worse). You will not be spectating this on TV, Twitter, or TikTok; you and your families will be a full participants.
“Ukraine: What do I Know?”
Ukraine: Why do I care?
I DON’T!
The devil incarnate, George Soros supports Ukraine. The hideous human Putin started the shooting. If this is chocolate vs vanilla, I’ll have strawberry.
Michael Feldman, who hosted Whadyya Know? had one of the best lines ever (and absolutely true..) “It sits in your stomach like a third Bratwurst…”
Why we're here in a nutshell.
Worse yet, they provocatively and falsely accused Russia of interfering with the 2016 election.
“-- with the exception of Trump’s --”, which is why he had to go and why they have gone to such extreme measures to insure he can’t return to power again.
President Trump was perhaps our and the world’s last painless chance to interrupt their plans for the world, but next came their covid plandemic and all that followed.
So … now here we are, step by stepping our way to their “great reset” that will restructure our world in their image, apparently.
“Nothing can stop what’s coming”?
From the somewhat ignorant, sub-linked Conrad Black piece, some clarity:
“There are essentially three possible outcomes to this war: the total subjugation of Ukraine, as Putin evidently desires; some sort of compromise, probably based on the Russian-speaking eastern provinces, which Russia has already declared to be autonomous, joining Russia and leaving Ukraine, which would then be entirely autonomous, but forced to commit to not joining the western alliance, though it could have a security guarantee from it; or an indefinite and horribly costly war — an urbanized and more intensely conducted version of the Russian experience in Afghanistan and the American experience in Vietnam, though with nothing like the domestic support that America received from the South Vietnamese army and population.
The first alternative, complete subjugation of Ukraine, would be impossible for Russia to sustain, even if it were tentatively able to achieve it, and it would degenerate into the third alternative of an indefinite, horrible and costly semi-guerrilla war.
A negotiated end to this war, though perhaps not imminent, does seem the most likely outcome. This would avoid the disaster of another horrible defeat for the West, following the excessive shutdown in response to Covid, the fiasco in Afghanistan, the astounding spectacle of national self-hate, rising urban crime and violence, and mass illegal immigration into the United States, and America’s abandonment of energy self-sufficiency for spurious ecological reasons in order to treat Mr. Putin with $100-per-barrel oil with which he pays for his evil occupation of Ukraine.
It is now clear that the United States has botched and wasted its period as the world’s only superpower and it is having an aberrant moment of political feebleness and absurdity.”
It seems to me, after reading the whole article Feldman referred to and recommends (What is Russia to Us?
Angelo Codevilla), that Feldman completely misreads Codevilla’ excellent article.
Putin’s actions in Ukraine during the past few months seem to negate everything that Codevilla was counting on as Russia’s rational response. The article is not very supportive of Feldman’s position, as a result.