Posted on 03/09/2022 4:20:32 AM PST by MtnClimber
First, and most importantly, virtually no one in the US has got this right, including conservative outlets and pundits. Putin's a thug, but he's an excellent politician and a strong leader. And he’s not crazy, as some seem to surmise. He is a cold, calculating, strategic thinker who has disciplined his mind and body for decades. He’s a Russia first guy. Think Donald Trump minus all that hot air, Big Macs, and add a willingness to off his enemies.
We promised Russia we would not expand NATO when the Soviet Union fell. We went back on that promise and incorporated almost the entire Eastern Bloc into NATO.
Then after 9/11, Bush II unilaterally cancelled the '72 ABM treaty, which until then had frozen nuclear weapon development in the Soviet Union and the US, effectively ending the arms race. Bush's rationale was that we needed to develop new nuclear weapon tech to defeat terrorism. Like we were going to nuke Osama Bin Laden.
Bush's rationale for NATO expansion was also terrorism. So, Bush triggered a fresh arms race. Bush was a decent man, but the more time goes by, the more he looks like an absolute moron to me.
Ukraine belonged to Russia for centuries. They have almost identical cultures and languages. Kiev used to be the capital of Russia. Putin's war is a war of defense. Russia (rightly, in my view) feels threatened by NATO expansion. Russia is a mainly land-based, continental power which desires a buffer with the West. Ukraine serves that purpose perfectly.
The US triggered a coup d'état in Ukraine in 2014, overthrowing the democratically elected president who was Russia friendly, and installing a pro-western, pro-NATO leader. Putin has had his eye on Ukraine ever since but dared not do anything when Trump was in power
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
Thanks for posting.
Why does truitt hate President Trump ?
There was never any signed agreement, just an alleged verbal understanding. I have said this many times, but since 1991, Russia has violated every arms agreement they have signed with us, making them the most modern and powerful nuclear power in the world with more nukes than the US, UK and France combined. And it is Russia, not the US or NATO, that has nuclear weapons on the border of NATO countries, even up against Poland in Kaliningrad.
Meanwhile, the only protection NATO offers the countries that currently border Russia is: the promise that NATO will defend them. NATO does not have any weapons stationed in Estonia or Lithuania that is a threat to Russia or which could stop a Russian nuclear first strike from the mainland.
So this constant refrain about NATO "violating its promises" and causing this war is a load of horeshit from Russia, and keeps getting repeated by the useful idiots.
btt
Uh oh…this will make all the Bidenista deep staters on FR see a serious rise in blood pressure. Didn’t you get the memo? No other country gets to have security concerns except for us.
Those Freepers think that the saintly Ukrainians have the greatest nation on earth that we must all suffer for to protect at any cost. They are totally willing to ignore that our nation is collapsing from within.
As long as the war continues they rake in more and more money. Putin probably gets a slice of it too.
I'm not sure why this is relevant at all, unless the argument is: "its okay to destroy Ukraine because it was once ruled by the evil empire." Ukraine has been its own nation since 1991, and their fierce defense of their country proves they are not a "fake nation" like Putin and the writer apparently claim.
This might explain why Putinists on this forum insist that any news source---even ones they ordinarily like--is engaging in psyops and propaganda if it reports how hard the Ukrainians are fighting and how pathetic the Russians are doing.
It screws with the whole "fake country" narrative from Putin and his trolls.
coup
Yanukovych was removed by a vote of 328 (or thereabout) members of the Ukrainian parliament after he fled the country after unleashing a reign of terror on his country that started with stripping people naked in the snow and beating them on live television and climaxing with sniper fire, which the Russians still blame on Ukraine or "the CIA." We are told this revolution only happened because Obama gave billions of dollars to Ukraine (but actually, the money in question was given over many years by the US government) or because McCain and various Obama stooges made statements or gave speeches in support of the mass protest after it was already ongoing. IOW, Ukrainians have no mind of their own and, even after several elections, can be hypnotized by spell binding words John McCain! Or maybe millions of Ukrainians are paid by the CIA to vote the way they do!
Since that time, Ukraine has had several elections, each one affirming that a supermajority of Ukrainians are opposed to Russia's aggression.
He says W is decent. Not these days. He says Canada has 16 million people. He’s off by 20 or so million but lets not nit pick.
There wasn’t word against Trump in that article. What are you referring to?
I would say that a majority of threads are flooded with Putinists literally rooting for Putin, not merely stating their concerns about the USA, and calling Ukraine a Nazi state, a fake country, and stating that any good reporting on Ukrainians fighting is "propaganda" that is disbelieved. And that if we disagree, we are joining with the Deep State.
It has nothing to do with FReepers claiming the United States "has no security concerns."
I myself was one of the loudest Trump supporters on the forum, getting into 1000+ post fights bashing Ted Cruz and defending Donald Trump. I've campaigned for Trump, donated money, attended his Texas visits when I can. Bashed free trade on this forum, debated people on these topics on this forum and elsewhere.
The idea that your opponents are "Bidenistas" is just pure, unhinged bigotry.
Open your eyes: only one side here is spreading wild, insane conspiracy theories about George Soros tricking Putin into war, military biolabs, secret nuclear programs, Nazis Nazis Nazis!
And all this unhinged BS, I will remind you, started after the original unhinged BS: that the fears of an imminent invasion by Russia were "hysteria from neocon warmongers" and that Biden was plotting a "false flag attack to get us unto war with Ukraine".
If one conspiracy theory failed, they've decided to up the ante by becoming full on Russia apologists.
But all you're doing is making us look like fringe idiots. Normal voters are not going to be believing your wild BS about Saint Putin the Innocent and a black cabal led by George Soros pulling the strings everywhere.
We're letting the Left depict themselves as the Party that is actually strong on National Security and NATO, even though their incompetence and weakness led to this invasion in the first place. While we are quickly being labeled the Pro-Putin party that believes every bit of Russian BS fed to us by shitty Russian blogs and Q-Tard websites.
This article is spot on.
NATO is made up of the snooty snobs of europe and us.
Why the hell does this organization even exist?
Let the snooty snobs fight their own damn war
Wow. This dude clearly works for the systemic communist enemy in this new Soviet Union.
ABM was needed. No treaty of gun control or weapon control ever worked.
Please re-read the first paragraph
Utter nonsense
Ukrainians have hated Russia for a long time
Putin is a thug and very evil.
Great article thanks for posting
The following was the only sentence in the entire article that mentions President Trump. Where do you see the hate?
"Putin has had his eye on Ukraine ever since but dared not do anything when Trump was in power because he feared and respected Trump."
My question too. The cheap shot in the opening let me know this author is worthless
You could have just said Russia has violated every agreement it has ever signed
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