Posted on 02/28/2022 3:06:05 PM PST by CondoleezzaProtege
Well, I was wrong. Putin has gone much further than I thought he would.
A consequence of EU and NATO expansion, which came to a head in 2014. It made no sense to poke the Russian bear with a stick.
These are dark days for Europe.
(Excerpt) Read more at youtu.be ...
A politician publicly admitting he was wrong? We must be in the end days.
Nigel Farage should have a dipstick for checking his soy level.
He’s wrong about the 2020 election.
Being invaded (and even overrun) isn’t unique to Russia. To say that Russia somehow deserves a buffer state when it’s already 4x the size of its EU neighbors combined is to say that the EU are its vassal states to be conquered and annexed at leisure.
It’s of a piece with the Chinese BS about the “Century of Humiliation”(TM) and “Unequal Treaties”(TM). You want to talk about humiliation? The German states that gave rise to Leibniz, Goethe, Beethoven, Hegel, Kant, etc were sliced and diced for most of the last millennium. But the sprawling continental-scale Chinese empire that sat on its laurels for pretty much its entire existence and whose achievements are insignificant relative to Germany’s alone is humiliated by a few minor defeats in which the country continued existing in its historical form? That’s not a sign of humiliation. That’s a sign of overweening unearned arrogance - that the normal state of the entities outside of China is prostrate at its feet.
Russia might have a foothold in Europe, but its mentality isn’t far removed from the Mongol Khan to whom Alexander Nevsky submitted and swore fealty 800 years ago, to get a leg up on his European rivals. Its mindset is that of Oriental tyrants, which is presumably why Putin gets on so well with Xi Jinping.
Putin is an invade-the-world, invite-the-world imperialist, he’s just the Russian version. Every other European country got the memo after 1945 that 1.) imperialism was dumb and self-defeating, doubly so if you are trying to cobble together an empire within Europe, 2.) starting intra-European wars is the greatest crime against humanity imaginable.
Russia wants buffer states? Why doesn’t Germany get buffer states then? Why doesn’t France get buffer states? Buffer states are for Russia’s security? Seriously? Do you think that Napoleon is going to mass his troops in Poland and march on Russia? Those days are over. Russia is 4x the size of its European neighbors *combined*. It has all the security it needs, and has had it for the last 80 years. This has f***-all to do with their security. They just want to tell their neighbors what to do, and are willing to get people killed for the privilege.
Putin is not done. The UN overstepped their hand. Dumbest crap I have ever seen.
I highly recommend it.
He says he was wrong about the current situation; however, overall he predicted the expansion of NATO and the EU would provoke Russia to millitary action. He says he did not think it would invade all of Ukraine.
However, the West needs leadership now, and must stand firm against Putin.
I told my next door neighbor to be a buffer neighbor. I told him that he should have no visitors and no second amendments rights on his property.
He gave me a Snake Island response.
[I told my next door neighbor to be a buffer neighbor. I told him that he should have no visitors and no second amendments rights on his property.
He gave me a Snake Island response. ]
You are correct I’m afraid. Putin is far from done. This is just a warm-up.
Oops.
That’s sorta what folks wind up saying about the left in general.
They trust the marketing ploy of making things “fair” and when the bodies start piling up they say “I never would have realized...”
Russia may have moved from communism, but the marketing ploy of the left is just cover for totalitarianism.
So putin may not be a “commie” but he’s definitely part of the “russian swamp” that had totalitarian power in those commie days.
He just wants that power back now.
Right there with Nigel, my question is, was this a sudden change in Putin, or the plan all along?
What would you say if Russia sponsored two coups d’etat in Canada, each time ousting a US-friendly government, and replacing it with an anti-US, pro-Russian government?
>>He gave me a Snake Island response.
He surrendered?
Because accepting new member countries seeking security against an aggressive former oppressor is the same as invading one of those countries?
When a psychopath ex husband burns down the house where his ex was applying for shelter, you don't say "Well, they shouldn't sheltered abused women!"
Very well said. Nobody else gets to annex neighboring peoples to have “buffer states.” Why the hell should the Russians?
This war is a war between two factions of the left: a nationalist, neo-Stalinist state (Russia), and a transnational corporatist progressive superstate (US/NATO). Ukraine is in the middle.
Which of these left factions is worse?
Twenty years ago, I would have unequivocally have said Russia. But after having heard endless lies from our “intelligence agencies”, and having watched them manufacture evidence to try to remove Trump from office twice and finally oust him by throwing an election, I’m not sure.
I detest both of these left factions.
[What would you say if Russia sponsored two coups d’etat in Canada, each time ousting a US-friendly government, and replacing it with an anti-US, pro-Russian government?]
The fact is Yanukovich ran on a platform of EU accession. He did a U-turn because he lied. He was on Putin’s payroll from the very beginning. He imprisoned political opponents, and was in the process of gathering more power to the presidential office and making himself president-for-life when the Maidan protests broke out.
Remember - the EU did not invade Ukraine. In fact, the EU has continued to keep Ukraine at arms’ length, saying it needed to do more - in terms of cleaning up the Russian-style corruption that enabled Putin to amass a $200b fortune* - to qualify for entry.
* https://nypost.com/2015/02/16/investor-putin-could-be-worlds-richest-man-with-stolen-200b-fortune/
Trump promised not to push Nato on Russia’s doorstep and under his watch Ukraine would not become a member of NATO as long as Russia kept its hands off Ukraine . He understood Russia’s need for a buffer .
Germany has buffer states. Poland comes to mind. Plus France etc. It’s called the EU and Germany runs it. The U.S is a little fortunate it has huge oceanic buffers on both sides. Not sure U.S would countenance Canada or central America allying with China as far fetched as that might seem now. The sniff of an alliance between Mexico abd Germany in 1917 got The U.S knickers in a twist. They basically manouvered to to get Mexico to go neutral. Exactly what it should advise Ukraine to do. Forget Nato. Forget German hegemony via the EU
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