ok doser
lifeguard at the cement pond
So if they're part of the European Union, explain to me why Joe the Rapist wants to send them six and a half billion dollars in aid?
Ukraine Crisis
- Thread starter annabenedetti
- Start date
annabenedetti
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Idolater
"Matthew 16:18-19" Dispensationalist (Catholic) χρ
My first thought is, 80 years ago we didn't collectively possess enough nukes to wipe out every single major city on earth many times over.
Idolater
"Matthew 16:18-19" Dispensationalist (Catholic) χρ
As long as the new world order is the United States Constitution, I am in full support of it; and I think you should be too.
annabenedetti
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We’re seeing history written before our eyes in Ukraine and Russia. No one knows how it will turn out in the end, but at this point, five days into the unprovoked invasion of a sovereign state, one thing stands out:
It looks very much as though Vladimir Putin has scored what in the soccer world they call an own goal. He took aim at his supposed enemies, and smacked himself in the face.
Consider:
Of course, we know all this may be short-lived. If Putin has to choose between being humiliated and unleashing a truly devastating attack on Ukrainian cities, there’s little doubt which way he will go.
Even as talks between the two sides were under way on Monday, for example, Russian forces struck at the city of Kharkiv, hitting civilian targets and killing many people. There could, unfortunately, be much more such bloodshed to come.
But even if the Russian military does step up its game and overwhelms the much smaller Ukrainian forces, Putin faces the prospect of occupying a large and hostile country, one whose spirit of defiance puts the lie to his claim that Ukraine is not a real country but just an estranged part of the greater Russian cultural space.
Such an occupation would be long and bitter. History is littered with examples of imperial powers that thought they could easily dominate weaker nations and found instead their blood and treasure draining from the wound they had inflicted on themselves (viz: the United States in Vietnam and Iraq; the Russians themselves in Afghanistan; Nazi Germany in the Soviet Union).
Putin would have avoided most of this if he had chosen to invade only the eastern Donbas region, where much of the Russian-speaking population might well have welcomed Russian troops. That would have violated Ukrainian territorial integrity but it would have kept the conflict contained.
Instead, to the surprise of just about everyone, he went for the big prize — occupying all of Ukraine and decapitating its government. Perhaps he believed his own propaganda that Ukrainians would accept, albeit grudgingly, Russian soldiers on their street because, after all, they are one people in the end.
If that was ever true, it certainly isn’t now. Legends are being forged every day in the crucible of war; no one will ever forget the Ukrainian border guards who told a Russian warship to “go [redacted] yourself,” or the plucky president who stayed to fight instead of fleeing the country.
After that, there’s no doubt Ukraine is a sovereign nation that deserves its independence as much as any. That was always the central issue in this conflict, and on that point Putin has already lost the fight.
It looks very much as though Vladimir Putin has scored what in the soccer world they call an own goal. He took aim at his supposed enemies, and smacked himself in the face.
Consider:
- Instead of crushing Ukraine with overwhelming might, his forces are bogged down as Ukrainian soldiers and civilians alike put up a heroic resistance.
- Instead of dividing the West, he has given it common purpose in opposing his naked aggression. Ukraine’s example has stiffened the spines of western nations that were dithering about how far they were prepared to go in standing up to Putin.
- Instead of rolling back NATO, he’s now seeing more countries rushing to join it, for fear they might be next on Putin’s hit list.
- Instead of flexing his economic and energy leverage over Europe, he’s seeing the ruble collapse and sanctions beginning to bite. Russia is now an international pariah.
- And instead of unifying his own people, he’s seeing demonstrations against the Ukraine war breaking out in Moscow, St. Petersburg and dozens of other cities. Decent Russians are appalled by their government’s actions.
Of course, we know all this may be short-lived. If Putin has to choose between being humiliated and unleashing a truly devastating attack on Ukrainian cities, there’s little doubt which way he will go.
Even as talks between the two sides were under way on Monday, for example, Russian forces struck at the city of Kharkiv, hitting civilian targets and killing many people. There could, unfortunately, be much more such bloodshed to come.
But even if the Russian military does step up its game and overwhelms the much smaller Ukrainian forces, Putin faces the prospect of occupying a large and hostile country, one whose spirit of defiance puts the lie to his claim that Ukraine is not a real country but just an estranged part of the greater Russian cultural space.
Such an occupation would be long and bitter. History is littered with examples of imperial powers that thought they could easily dominate weaker nations and found instead their blood and treasure draining from the wound they had inflicted on themselves (viz: the United States in Vietnam and Iraq; the Russians themselves in Afghanistan; Nazi Germany in the Soviet Union).
Putin would have avoided most of this if he had chosen to invade only the eastern Donbas region, where much of the Russian-speaking population might well have welcomed Russian troops. That would have violated Ukrainian territorial integrity but it would have kept the conflict contained.
Instead, to the surprise of just about everyone, he went for the big prize — occupying all of Ukraine and decapitating its government. Perhaps he believed his own propaganda that Ukrainians would accept, albeit grudgingly, Russian soldiers on their street because, after all, they are one people in the end.
If that was ever true, it certainly isn’t now. Legends are being forged every day in the crucible of war; no one will ever forget the Ukrainian border guards who told a Russian warship to “go [redacted] yourself,” or the plucky president who stayed to fight instead of fleeing the country.
After that, there’s no doubt Ukraine is a sovereign nation that deserves its independence as much as any. That was always the central issue in this conflict, and on that point Putin has already lost the fight.
annabenedetti
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War is hell. Some people cheer for it, like crazy Pat Robertson, who wants to get on with the end times:
Televangelist Pat Robertson came out of retirement to say Russia’s president Vladimir Putin was “compelled by God” to invade Ukraine.
We watch most world events in which people suffer and die from a place of relative safety. It usually doesn't affect us because it's far away, so it's easy to have opinions when we're not the ones being rounded up or bombed, or to second-guess those on the ground trying to make the best decisions to protect the most people. It's important now to watch the EU, this is their fight, with all the support we can give them. What has been happening in places like Syria has come home to Europe. But if NATO is involved, it becomes Russia against NATO and changes things entirely.
annabenedetti
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Other democratically free and sovereign countries have their own constitutions. Ours is good for us. Let them have their own democracies without pushing American exceptionalism in their faces.
Idolater
"Matthew 16:18-19" Dispensationalist (Catholic) χρ
They're all poor copies and imitations of ours. Let's quit the charade. It was all 'fun and games' until the nuclear age.
That experiment is over and that hypothesis has been positively denied. By all official accounts Russia is a stable functioning democracy. Also by all accounts President Trump was a madman. Only one constitution permitted WWIII to get that much closer, and it was not ours.
ok doser
lifeguard at the cement pond
I went to the link and read what it had to say about Pat Robertson.
You're lying
Idolater
"Matthew 16:18-19" Dispensationalist (Catholic) χρ
I went looking to see if he is a Dispensationalist of some sort but found this instead:
Pat Robertson Says Marijuana Use Should be Legal (Published 2012)
Making it clear that he does not use marijuana, Mr. Robertson, an evangelist, said he supports legalization because the war on drugs has failed.
annabenedetti
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Where've you been for the last 77 years?
What "all official accounts?" Russia is an authoritarian, totalitarian state dressed up as a republic.
GARRY KASPAROV, RUSSIAN DISSIDENT: "First of all, stop calling it elections. It's a charade. It's the only vote that matters in a dictatorship like Russia is Putin's vote, so you're right showing him voting for himself and that's it."
Idolater
"Matthew 16:18-19" Dispensationalist (Catholic) χρ
The last 77 years was the experiment, Anna. in 1991 the whole world hoped that we had 'cracked' the 'nut' of having multiple sovereign independent states with nuclear weapons 'floating around'. Last week Russia just proved that 1991 was no solution. Therefore the experiment is over.
Official as in the accounts of Russian state offices.
That's your rhetoric and narrative, and I agree with it, but it's not the official record out of Russia.
You mean, NOT "RUSSIAN OFFICIAL", which is the actual word I used?
Supra.
One of the first things to be attacked by ungodly fascists, whether in Russia, China, N. Korea, or among socialist fascist democrats in America is the media, free speech, and dissemination of truth and facts.
I suppose I would support God Bless American capitalism and Christianity also, but that is not what these devils from around the world have in mind. These world movers and shakers are opposed to nationalism, freedom, and the propagation of conservative and Christian thoughts and ideas. They are already on record fully supporting abortion, global warming wasteful spending, conversion from traditional capitalism to a Marxist brand of capitalism, and so forth.
This is what lefties are calling the "Great Reset."
It might be good if old dinosaurs like Pat Robertson and Jimmy Carter stayed inside because they may not be helping by adding more untested opinions to the already thickened mixture of wildly differing views from all sorts.
I support open resistance to enemies of the American state, both foreign and domestic, who foolishly seek to fundamentally change God bless America into the image of a third world failed state just to make peace with bozos around the world who have still failed to learn good governments can only be good in as much as they are in subjection to Jesus Christ.
annabenedetti
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Yeah that's not what the conversation was about.
annabenedetti
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I'm gonna have to follow the experts on this. You understand, I hope.
You actually didn't qualify "official" with "Russian official" in your prior post. "Official" could mean anything.
In this case, if you're going with "Russian official," I'll go with Putin is a lying totalitarian.
annabenedetti
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As the Tanks Rolled into Ukraine, So Did Malware. Then Microsoft Entered the War.
Last Wednesday, a few hours before Russian tanks began rolling into Ukraine, alarms went off inside Microsoft’s Threat Intelligence Center, warning of a never-before-seen piece of “wiper” malware that appeared aimed at the country’s government ministries and financial institutions.
Within three hours, Microsoft threw itself into the middle of a ground war in Europe — from 5,500 miles away. The threat center, north of Seattle, had been on high alert, and it quickly picked apart the malware, named it “FoxBlade” and notified Ukraine’s top cyberdefense authority. Within three hours, Microsoft’s virus detection systems had been updated to block the code, which erases — “wipes” — data on computers in a network.
Then Tom Burt, the senior Microsoft executive who oversees the company’s effort to counter major cyberattacks, contacted Anne Neuberger, the White House’s deputy national security adviser for cyber- and emerging technologies. Neuberger asked if Microsoft would consider sharing details of the code with the Baltics, Poland and other European nations, out of fear that the malware would spread beyond Ukraine’s borders, crippling the military alliance or hitting West European banks.
Before midnight in Washington, Neuberger had made introductions . . . .
annabenedetti
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Patrick Mulder's art on the left, Time's actual cover on the right.
