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Fide Women’s Grand Prix Collapses into “Chaos” as Players Withdraw

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Re: Fide Women’s Grand Prix Collapses into “Chaos” as Players Withdraw

#101
post #100
post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Let's take one point at a time: > we DO KNOW that Bush was the biggest force behind the push to keep expanding NATO to Russia’s border and get Ukraine and Georgia in This is simply not true. The initiative (or lack of) has always come from Eastern Europe and that has been the main factor that determined which countries ended up in NATO and which ones did not. Nobody has been dragged into NATO "kicking and screaming",…

It’s not a fact at all. It is an extremely biased oversimplification and massive equivocation. “Eastern Europe” is very broad, consisting of many countries. Within a country there are many viewpoints. Anyone can always be found to say “the initiative came” from them, whether it’s Communists in Cuba / Nicaragua / Vietnam whatever, or whether it’s literal fascists like Pinochet’s revolution in Chile, or the Houthi rebe…

> I have SHOWN you that the actual POPULATION of Ukraine was majority against NATO, for the very reasons given by everyone else — they didn’t want war with Russia and they chose economic and military ties with Russia over NATO. So why was Ukraine’s president working with NATO to get Ukraine into NATO?

Because he thought it was the best way forward. The population didn't think so, so they elected another president who stopped further integration into NATO and ultimately Ukraine didn't end up joining. This is how politics, governance and elections work.

As I've said, whether countries joined NATO or not was up to them. The door was open, but nobody was dragging them in by force as you wrote. That's a lie.

Re: Fide Women’s Grand Prix Collapses into “Chaos” as Players Withdraw

#102
post #99
post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the interest of upholding intellectual integrity, I will admit you have a point, that we don’t actually have a recent official request from Russia to join NATO. On the other hand, to pretend that this process is somehow all about clear rules and truly open door policies, is very disingenuous. Are you saying that this is what Russia would need to do: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=W6ofIQi5XVY Obviously, it’s silly.…

Let's take one point at a time: > we DO KNOW that Bush was the biggest force behind the push to keep expanding NATO to Russia’s border and get Ukraine and Georgia in This is simply not true. The initiative (or lack of) has always come from Eastern Europe and that has been the main factor that determined which countries ended up in NATO and which ones did not. Nobody has been dragged into NATO "kicking and screaming",…

Subverting their democracies and regime-changing their leadership to flip them against Russia is dragging them. If they can't do it by hook, they'll do it by crook. In 2021 they also tried to do the same in Belarus and Kazakhstan, and I'm sure the same narrative would be used: "a silent majority wanted it, they were just afraid to say it, we helped liberate them".

Back in 2008 we see this: NATO leaders promised Ukraine and Georgia on Thursday they would one day join the Western defence alliance after rebuffing U.S. demands to put the former Soviet republics on an immediate path to membership. https://www.reuters.com/article/idINIndia-32818020080403

Some NATO leaders had to rebuff US demands to bring Ukraine and Georgia into NATO. Can you admit that Bush and the US were pressing for Ukraine and Georgia to join NATO at a time when solid majorities of their actual people were against it? Why?

I have told you the reason: they wanted to flip Russia's allies to instead join a hostile military alliance, and eventually host weapons there aimed at Russia. They once had nuclear missiles, which NYTimes says were "all aimed at the United States". To quote them in 1994:

Ukraine, politically and economically unstable since it became an independent state after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, has 176 intercontinental missiles armed with some 1,240 nuclear warheads--all aimed at the United States. It also has 592 nuclear warheads aboard bombers, which would be covered by the agreement. https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1994-01-11-mn-10675-...

My explanation of US motivations is simple and clear, and makes sense. You keep ignoring it, and talking about how "anyone is free to do what they want." US straight up helped foment a revolution in 2014, sending very top people to encourage protestors to cut ties with Russia, and they ended up partnering with the far-right to overthrow their government:

The Guardian in 2013: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=93eyhO8VTdg

BBC in 2014: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5SBo0akeDMY

BBC in 2015: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hE6b4ao8gAQ

Look, I think that Russia is encouraging the same thing in Moldova and Slovakia at this very moment. I don't doubt that CIA in Ukraine, and FSB in Moldova, are always actively trying to regime-change those countries to be more favorable. You speak nothing about this. You act like it's off-limits and dishonest to even put forward basic explanations for why "great powers" do what they do. But we have seen it in proxy wars for centuries. We know how it goes. What makes this time any different?

US failed in 2008 Ukraine, they failed in 2008 Georgia (because of Russian invasion), they succeeded in Ukraine 2014, then both Russia and NATO financed and perpetuated a proxy war in Ukraine since 2014. Russia's invasion isn't "unprovoked", it is the result of 8 years of warnings and peace agreements (Minsk II) that were never implemented, and the CIA was already training an insurgency in Ukraine, training neo-nazi paramilitaries, just as Russians had been doing in Donetsk paramilitaries, for years:

https://news.yahoo.com/exclusive-secret-cia-training-program...

https://news.yahoo.com/cia-trained-ukrainian-paramilitaries-...

https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2022-02-25/ukraine-cia...

https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2018-07-09/ty-article/ri...

Did I mention NATO in 2009-2011 also coordinated the world's largest disarmament project, by DISARMING UKRAINE OF DEFENSIVE WEAPONS, and then presenting themselves as a solution? They admit it right on their own website, but they spin it as "well, we didn't want the aging Ukrainian weapons to fall into the wrong hands."

NONE of this looks like your (perhaps unintentionally) dishonest characterization of "democracy as usual" in these countries. It's not the majority of civilians choosing to arm far-right militia, nor overthrow their government, nor get pumped full of NATO weaponry. It shouldn't be surprising, since Ukraine was not very democratic and quite corrupt. (The same can be said for Russia.)

Re: Fide Women’s Grand Prix Collapses into “Chaos” as Players Withdraw

#103
post #102
post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Let's take one point at a time: > we DO KNOW that Bush was the biggest force behind the push to keep expanding NATO to Russia’s border and get Ukraine and Georgia in This is simply not true. The initiative (or lack of) has always come from Eastern Europe and that has been the main factor that determined which countries ended up in NATO and which ones did not. Nobody has been dragged into NATO "kicking and screaming",…

Subverting their democracies and regime-changing their leadership to flip them against Russia is dragging them. If they can't do it by hook, they'll do it by crook. In 2021 they also tried to do the same in Belarus and Kazakhstan, and I'm sure the same narrative would be used: "a silent majority wanted it, they were just afraid to say it, we helped liberate them". Back in 2008 we see this: NATO leaders promised Ukrai…

> Can you admit that Bush and the US were pressing for Ukraine and Georgia to join NATO at a time when solid majorities of their actual people were against it?

This is a lie, no matter how many times you repeat it. For example, you quoted a Reuters headline:

> “Bush VOWS to PRESS for Ukraine, Georgia in NATO”

Yet if you read past the headline, GWB was pressuring other NATO allies (mainly France and Germany) to allow Ukraine start membership negotiations, not pressuring Ukraine to join as you represented it.

Your sources do not support what you are claiming.

Your conspiracy theory hinges on the obvious lie of countries being forced into NATO. Remove this lie, and the narrative of "big scary America preying upon poor little Russia" falls apart, because suddenly NATO membership becomes the initiative of Eastern European governments, and if you ask why, then you'll get a long list of crimes against humanity committed by Russia in those countries in the 20th century (and now 21st century too) highlighting the need for defense cooperation in Eastern Europe to prevent it from happening again.

Re: Fide Women’s Grand Prix Collapses into “Chaos” as Players Withdraw

#104
post #103
post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Subverting their democracies and regime-changing their leadership to flip them against Russia is dragging them. If they can't do it by hook, they'll do it by crook. In 2021 they also tried to do the same in Belarus and Kazakhstan, and I'm sure the same narrative would be used: "a silent majority wanted it, they were just afraid to say it, we helped liberate them". Back in 2008 we see this: NATO leaders promised Ukrai…

> Can you admit that Bush and the US were pressing for Ukraine and Georgia to join NATO at a time when solid majorities of their actual people were against it? This is a lie, no matter how many times you repeat it. For example, you quoted a Reuters headline: > “Bush VOWS to PRESS for Ukraine, Georgia in NATO” Yet if you read past the headline, GWB was pressuring other NATO allies (mainly France and Germany) to allow…

I never said “big scary America is preyinf upon poor little Russia”. I said USSR, USA, and China have played these games for years and destroyed countries in proxy wars.

But let’s just use your one-sided rhetoric, and see how ridiculous it is. Sure, you’ve convinced me! Big Bad Russia has done things much worse than China and USA have ever done to their neighbors. Their neighbors all want to join an alliance against Russia, unlike all the neighbors of great and benevolent USA and China.

Of course, USA cares deeply about Ukraine’s safety from Russia since 1994, which is why it worked to make sure Ukraine would give up its nukes.

USA and George W Bush cared deeply about Ukraine’s security which is why they pushed NATO to accept the Ukrainian president’s bid to join NATO, even when Ukraine’s own population was against it. They didn’t know what was for their own good. That’s how democracy works, after all.

After Yanukovich was elected and ended this, NATO cared so deeply about Ukraine’s remaining defensive weapons ending up in the wrong hands, that they undertook the largest disarmament program in the world, to rid it of these weapons.

In 2013, USA felt really bad about Ukraine’s economy. They didn’t want Ukraine to have to keep doing business with a neighbor like Russia, who have done bad things like Holodomor and suppressing the Ukrainian language for hundreds of years. So John McCain and other top people went to Ukraine, to help liberate it from the Russian sphere of influence. This was purely out of concern for the Ukrainian people, especially the ones in the West of Ukraine who had voted 30-37% for the far-right Svoboda party. After all, they better some far-right Russophobic ideologies than the fifth column of Russophiles in the east. Ukraine’s destiny lies in Europe!

It is, after all, to improve Ukraine’s own democracy that USA fomented a revolution that overthrew its corrupt, sitting president, who was simply a stooge of Mr Putin. The far-right groups that helped make this happen were merely incidental to what was effectively a people’s uprising — totally different than, say, January 6th in USA. In fact, they were the true patriots, who had Ukraine’s best interests at heart unlike the anti-Maidan protestors, who were astroturfed by Russia.

Russia’s house of cards fell apart. With its stooge gone, it became clear that the vast majority of Ukrainians never really wanted ties with Russia, direct flights with Russia, (not even to visit their 11 million relatives there) to do business with Russian clients, nor even to let people in the Donbas keep speaking Russian in their schools. The USA had finally liberated Ukrainians from having to pretend they liked anything Russian… and Russia should just allow Ukraine to join NATO and stop being such a bully.

But Russia didn’t back down. They armed insurgents in the Donbas because Putin wanted to take over the entire Ukraine and restore the Soviet Union. It was his unspoken dream, because he never says what he really thinks. Thankfully, NATO kept arming the true government of Ukraine, as well as the true patriots (far right paramilitary) who could defend the motherland from the country which had long abused them, and where they had many relatives — and after years of training eventually got the brave Ukrainians to beat the second best army in Ukraine: the Russians, who they always knew were so weak they’d never be able to overrun the country in a few days. It’s not like the CIA planned a destructive Afghanistan-style guerilla war to tear the country apart as long as it can “make the Russians bleed for as long and as hard as possible.” The Russians were know to be weak, and have been losing since 2022, or maybe since 2014. They’ve run out of ammunition and tanks long ago, and are using shovels.

(Btw I am not even making any of the above up… you can’t make this up, it is literally what they say: https://www.thedefensepost.com/2023/03/08/russia-ammunition-...)

Of course, this is just as preposterous as believing that USA has the best interests of Afghans in mind when the CIA funded the Mujahideen, and waves of Afghan Arabs to tear apart the country. We KNOW that in nearly every other case since Laos, the CIA played a role in fomenting these conflicts in order to weaken their rivals (Russia, China, etc) and not out of a concern for the country.

Sometimes they say the quiet part out loud and you are so willing to believe the propaganda that you ignore it: https://m.facebook.com/IndianMilitaryUpdate/videos/united-st...

Look, even if they HAD deep concern for Ukrainians, sending them weapons only makes them LESS safe. Did gulf countries and Iran sending weapons to Gaza ever make the PEOPLE of Gaza safer? The Hamas top leaders weren’t even in Gaza during some of the heaviest bombings — but the civilians were. It’s obscene to volunteer OTHER people to perish in large numbers to achieve some imperialist geopolitical ambitions, if you aren’t actually willing to go and sit under bombs with your family yourself, but force others to! That’s my view.

Re: Fide Women’s Grand Prix Collapses into “Chaos” as Players Withdraw

#105
post #104
post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Can you admit that Bush and the US were pressing for Ukraine and Georgia to join NATO at a time when solid majorities of their actual people were against it? This is a lie, no matter how many times you repeat it. For example, you quoted a Reuters headline: > “Bush VOWS to PRESS for Ukraine, Georgia in NATO” Yet if you read past the headline, GWB was pressuring other NATO allies (mainly France and Germany) to allow…

I never said “big scary America is preyinf upon poor little Russia”. I said USSR, USA, and China have played these games for years and destroyed countries in proxy wars. But let’s just use your one-sided rhetoric, and see how ridiculous it is. Sure, you’ve convinced me! Big Bad Russia has done things much worse than China and USA have ever done to their neighbors. Their neighbors all want to join an alliance against…

See? You have nothing but hyperbole to offer.

Entry of Eastern Europe into NATO is now so far in the past that we have a good amount of memoirs and personal recollections in addition to all sorts of documented evidence like laws, policy papers, studies and assessments available from that time. Most of the people who were directly involved are still alive too. But the best you can offer to "prove" that countries were forced into NATO is a small number newspaper snippets blatantly taken out of context. The rest of your long posts is pure rhethorics without any factual substance.

You have made up an alternative reality, which is easy to do if you're on the other side of the globe and have no personal connection whatsoever with those events. But I lived through them and I remember everything very well. I remember the discussions about NATO membership, from the earliest ideas to fully formulated policies, as well as early doubts whether we have any hope of attaining that goal. I remember the stances different parties held in my country. I voted for parties that supported joining NATO, as most people did, and those parties got elected into the government and lead the very long and demanding accession talks that were ultimately fruitful. To say that we were dragged into NATO "kicking and screaming" is plain wrong without any wiggle room.

The memory of atrocities committed against us by Russians in the 20th century, as well as the Russian savagery in Chechen wars in 1990s and 2000s (that reminded us that nothing had changed) were top reasons why joining NATO had near-universal support. And the current war has only cemented that support. NATO is the reason why Russians can't bomb our cities, can't rape our women, can't kidnap our children, can't take away our land like they are doing in Ukraine. The combined strength is too big for Russia to challenge. Even countries like Finland and Sweden that maintained large armies and neutrality for more than 200 years have re-evaluated their foreign policy and joined NATO to deepen mutual cooperation.

Re: Fide Women’s Grand Prix Collapses into “Chaos” as Players Withdraw

#106
post #105
post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I never said “big scary America is preyinf upon poor little Russia”. I said USSR, USA, and China have played these games for years and destroyed countries in proxy wars. But let’s just use your one-sided rhetoric, and see how ridiculous it is. Sure, you’ve convinced me! Big Bad Russia has done things much worse than China and USA have ever done to their neighbors. Their neighbors all want to join an alliance against…

See? You have nothing but hyperbole to offer. Entry of Eastern Europe into NATO is now so far in the past that we have a good amount of memoirs and personal recollections in addition to all sorts of documented evidence like laws, policy papers, studies and assessments available from that time. Most of the people who were directly involved are still alive too. But the best you can offer to "prove" that countries were…

Well, now we see each other’s bias. I am in the USA and see what my country does all over the world and see our propaganda. You are in a Baltic country and were actually a part of the movement to join NATO.

Each of us has biases. Yours is that you didn’t really experience much the opinions of 40% of Russian speakers in your country who are also citizens. If you were in Western Ukraine, you’d also be very frustrated with Eastern Ukrainians who like Russia despite all the horrors of past decades.

Not being in USA or Turkey or China, you are unaware of similar things done by them to their neighbors. Many Christian neighbors of Turkey remember genocides and genocidal rapes for instance. In regard to USA, neighbors remember stuff like this: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_occupation_of_...

However, there are still many in the country that want to maintain ties with the imperialidt country despite this, who have family in that country, etc. In fact, they are breathing a sigh of relief that things got better and do not want to join a hostile alliance for fear that their relations with their neighbor will deteriorate badly and they’ll get invaded again. Cuba was in fact invaded, for instance (bay of pigs invasion) and then called for USSR to help. This led to an escalation and standoff and it is GOOD that it got deescalated. That is what I keep saying.

The factors you bring up are neither exhaustive nor determinative. They are just that — factors among other factors.

Your experience is certainly valuable but it is the experience of many nationalist groups in the world, whether they have their own state or are aspiring to get one (Kurds in Iraq, for instance, or Catalonians). The outcome of NATO expansion was predicted by tons of experts and they were right. Regardless of how much you keep repeating a one sided narrative, Russia’s invasion was not “unprovoked”.

I have tried to address every point of yours directly and show you the larger picture, whereas you’ve IGNORED almost every single one of my points in my posts. You’re welcome to reply to the post right above the one I’m replying to, point by point for once, without again dodging.

Re: Fide Women’s Grand Prix Collapses into “Chaos” as Players Withdraw

#107
post #106
post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

See? You have nothing but hyperbole to offer. Entry of Eastern Europe into NATO is now so far in the past that we have a good amount of memoirs and personal recollections in addition to all sorts of documented evidence like laws, policy papers, studies and assessments available from that time. Most of the people who were directly involved are still alive too. But the best you can offer to "prove" that countries were…

Well, now we see each other’s bias. I am in the USA and see what my country does all over the world and see our propaganda. You are in a Baltic country and were actually a part of the movement to join NATO. Each of us has biases. Yours is that you didn’t really experience much the opinions of 40% of Russian speakers in your country who are also citizens. If you were in Western Ukraine, you’d also be very frustrated w…

> Regardless of how much you keep repeating a one sided narrative, Russia’s invasion was not “unprovoked”.

That's a fringe opinion. Not a single government in Europe shares this view.

If anything, Western Europe has walked on eggshells since 1991, always trying to accommodate Russia at the expense of the security Eastern Europe, constantly downplaying fears and refusing to take defence of Europe seriously.

The narrative if NATO being hostile and encircling Russia is very hard to justify if you look at the key facts:

MILITARY SPENDING of Europe had been and continued to steadily decrease since the end of the Cold War. In 2006, the total spending was 190 billion. By 2014, it was down to 162 billion.[1] As a percentage of GDP, Cold War era spending was 3-5%, now it's 1-2%.

EUROPEAN MILITARY CAPABILITIES were in steep decline too. In 1990, German Army had 308 000 personnel, 5045 tanks, 2136 IFVs. To cut costs, Germany disbanded most of its army and sold off its equipment all over the world, as far as Chile. By 2015, only 61 312 personnel, 225 tanks and 406 remained.[2] The same trends were mirrored in other countries.

AMERICAN MILITARY presence in Europe was also in decline. In 1987, the US had 80 military bases in Europe. 30 years later, less than half remained.[3] Furthermore, these bases are a shadow of their former self: the number of US military personnel deployed to Europe is at the lowest since WW2, down from 320 000 during the 1980s to around 60 000 nowadays, stationed predominantly in Germany and Italy.[4] In 1989, US Army had 5000 tanks in Germany alone. In 2013, the last twenty American tanks departed Europe.[5]

NEW DEPLOYMENTS TO EUROPE were ridiculously small, mainly light infantry for host nation training purposes: as of 2017, a single non-permanent battalion with 800 personnel and 4 jets in Estonia, a 1200-strong battalion in Latvia and another in Lithuania with 4 jets, and 4000-strong armored battalion in Poland. Plus 4 jets in Romania for three months in the summer.[6]

Speaking of MISSILES, NATO and Russia agreed in the founding act of 1997 that NATO would not station any missiles in Eastern Europe. NATO has upheld that commitment for a quarter of a century. The only missiles in Eastern Europe are Russian Iskanders and Kalibrs in Kaliningrad.[7] The hypothetical often repeated "Cuba armed to teeth with missiles" scenario already exist in Europe, with short-range Russian nuclear missiles pointed at Europe. And yet no-on is crying about provocations and proposing that Europe should preemptively bomb Moscow.

Until Russia invaded Ukraine in 2014, Europe was unilaterally disarming itself to the extent that Germany didn't even have enough equipment for joint exercises with other countries.[8] Any notion of existential threat to Russia from such armies is severly misguided to put it mildly. If Russia was worried about security, it only had to wait.

And in a way, it did. Russia waited until Europe became weak enough (in their assessment) not to pose a credible threat to Russian plans, and then used the power vacuum to do what they wanted to do. But it turned out to be a miscalculation. Unlike previous blitzkriegs, Russia is now bogged down in unwinnable war and Putin has damned Russia for a generation, and Europe is re-arming for the first time since the end of the Cold War. Historically the most pacifist party in Germany is now the strongest advocate for military aid to Ukraine. Finland and Sweden I already mentioned, their abandonment of neutrality is a shift of historic proportions. Calls for appeasement towards Russia used to be in the mainstream, now they have become a career suicide for European politicians.

In ten or fifteen years' time, conspiracy theorists will be writing books on how Putin was a CIA agent sent to weaken Russia and again blaming the west, because that will be the most plausible explanation for the utterly destructive actions over the past two decades. And Russia itself will go through hardships comparable to early 1990s. Not to mention that hundreds of thousands of ethnic Russians are dead on both sides of the Russian-Ukranian border, and just today Putin announced another mobilization to send another few hundred thousand to death, and for what? What are they dying for? Russian society will implode once it comes to terms with the fact that Putin has brought them 10 Afghan war worth of losses in a single year because Putin, isolated from everyone due to Covid, hallucinated in his bunker that 800 marines in Estonia and 4 fighter jets in Romania were encircling Russia.

[1] European military spending: https://www.eeas.europa.eu/sites/default/files/styles/full_c...

[2] Bundeswehr's size: https://www.fpri.org/docs/germany_military.png

[3] US bases in Europe: https://www.statista.com/chart/11403/the-us-militarys-europe...

[4] US troops in Europe: https://images01.military.com/sites/default/files/styles/ful...

[5] Last US tanks leave Europe: https://www.stripes.com/us-army-s-last-tanks-depart-from-ger...

[6] NATO presence in Eastern Europe: http://cdn.statcdn.com/Infographic/images/normal/7877.jpeg

[7] Iskander range: https://img.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/files/2016/1...

[8] Broomsticks instead of machine guns: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2015/02/19...

Re: Fide Women’s Grand Prix Collapses into “Chaos” as Players Withdraw

#108
post #107
post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, now we see each other’s bias. I am in the USA and see what my country does all over the world and see our propaganda. You are in a Baltic country and were actually a part of the movement to join NATO. Each of us has biases. Yours is that you didn’t really experience much the opinions of 40% of Russian speakers in your country who are also citizens. If you were in Western Ukraine, you’d also be very frustrated w…

> Regardless of how much you keep repeating a one sided narrative, Russia’s invasion was not “unprovoked”. That's a fringe opinion. Not a single government in Europe shares this view. If anything, Western Europe has walked on eggshells since 1991, always trying to accommodate Russia at the expense of the security Eastern Europe, constantly downplaying fears and refusing to take defence of Europe seriously. The narrat…

> That's a fringe opinion. Not a single government in Europe shares this view.

This is not a fringe opinion. The fact that European governments don't share this view is just because they are obediently following the master's guidelines.

Ask people in the streets and you will find out that lots of people will think that in many, many European countries.

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