361–370 of 1001 posts
Basically Russia becomes North Korea or Putin dies. It's sad, but honestly, Russians tolerated the situation for far too long and the externalities were paid by everybody around them.
But we still haven't stopped buying oil/gas.
And if we did, China might buy it instead.
Here's my take on this, which you are not going to like one bit. It goes like this... The good people of Russia - and I'm not saying this with a tongue in cheek - the vast majority of the people of Russia truly are GOOD people, in the simplest, most sincere sense of the word... But they do need to go through some things. You just don't get to support a murderous communist regime for 100 years and then say "but we had…
> You just don't get to support a murderous communist regime for 100 years and then say "but we had nothing to do with it". If that argument holds (which I'm not saying it doesn't), then how much more responsible are we who have democracy and tell everyone else how great it is we have a say in how our government operates. Surely, we then hold even more of the blame on issues such as the WMD fiasco. Ironically, ask an…
We who have democracy are very responsible for how our Government behaves.
> Surely, we then hold even more of the blame on issues such as the WMD fiasco.
Yes. The average US citizen bears responsibility for the lies of our government that lead to decades of warfare.
I was in high school at the time, strongly opposed Bush, and strongly opposed the war in Iraq. Even so, I bear some of the responsibility for my government's actions.
That's how it is.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Well, intervention in Yugoslavia wasn’t a war started by the US. The Kuwait war was after an invasion by Iraq and at the invitation of the government there, and the US were restrained enough to halt at the Iraq border. The Syrian war was not started by the US, and it has played a minor part there. In fact, it is Russia that has indiscriminately bombed Syrian cities and targeted civilians and hospitals there. Afghanis…
>By far the biggest difference here, I think, is that by being a European war and through the potential for further conflict and nuclear conflict, this war has far larger international ramifications and strategic risks attached to it. To see European cities bombed is to be reminded of what has happened in the past and that it can happen again. That is why it is receiving so much attention. Bombing of Serbia was a bom…
With the 5 veto powers, this basically means nothing.
Could I (US citizen) get in trouble for providing free VPNs to Russian nationals? Would these Russians get in trouble for using my US based VPN? I want to support Russians during this difficult time but I don’t want them to get in trouble. I disagree with sanctioning and punishing ordinary citizens for the actions of the rich and powerful 1%. Imagine how it feel being a US citizen and getting punished for Donald Trum…
>It’s wrong and makes no sense. Of course it does. The responsibility for the actions of the political class has to be carried by the local population. Post-war Germany wasn't like "oh that wasn't our country, you're looking at it with the wrong scope! It was just Hitler!" - I hope you see how this still holds, even though the most Germans would never have approved of Hitlers atrocities. This is not a 1%-issue, you s…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Saying "Ukraine will remain neutral and will not join NATO" would have stopped this war. It's an unpopular fact but it's still true.
And then what? Everybody would be happy ever after? No, Russia wants a pro-Russia government in Ukraine, and they didn't like that Ukraine instead moved away from Russia and Russian influence via things like promoting the Ukranian language instead of Russian. It's a bullying tactic and infringes on a country's sovereignty.
I dont want Ukraine to be pro Russian but I dont want Kyiv to be shelled more. I dont want a nuclear war more.
It absolutely is a bullying tactic, but it's also the desperate act of a country that is trying to protect the integrity of its most exposed border from an explicitly hostile power (NATO).
Earlier quoted context omitted.
You think that talking to Hitler is going to stop a war?
Again I feel like anything I say is just some dude talking from a safe place far from the front lines. But I think the west could have acknowledged the fear of the NATO, the EU could have told Biden that we prefer a good relation with Russia and that if we think our culture is in fact more free, it will leak into Russia via the internet. This discussion can and will take very long. I just wanted to say I’m disappoint…
Democratisation through osmosis has utterly failed. The result has been the subjugation of Hong Kong, genocide in Xinjiang and the invasion of Ukraine. Taiwan is next unless we wake up and make it perfectly clear to these people we absolutely will meet force with force and that we have plenty of hard power to use alongside our soft power. It may be too late for Ukraine, we failed them miserably by playing nice too long, but it's not too late for Taiwan.
What are the possibilities for an average russian citizen to leave russia and start over somewhere in the west? How about visas? Does anyone know?
It would be easier to fix your own government. General strike. They can arrest protesters, but they cannot arrest the entire working population.
This whole situation is so surreal and disappointing. I grew up on Star Trek and somehow I just though we had (almost) arrived in a post-war, federation-like world. We know things should be solved with words because otherwise there are only losers. It’s how we raise our kids. I just keep thinking about how Jean Luc is looking down on us from orbit, slowly shaking his head whispering “Savages.”
Have you been living inside a watermelon.
What are the possibilities for an average russian citizen to leave russia and start over somewhere in the west? How about visas? Does anyone know?
This whole situation is so surreal and disappointing. I grew up on Star Trek and somehow I just though we had (almost) arrived in a post-war, federation-like world. We know things should be solved with words because otherwise there are only losers. It’s how we raise our kids. I just keep thinking about how Jean Luc is looking down on us from orbit, slowly shaking his head whispering “Savages.”