291–300 of 395 posts
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Disclaimer: Russia is an authoritarian country and not a shining example of freedom. That being said.... If you were Russian and you'd spent the last century watching the West undercut you and try and control you at every step (for valid reasons in a lot of cases), you'd be threatened, too. They went from being a superpower to having 100 million more people than California with the same GDP, while watching their own…
>history has been exceedingly cruel to the Russian people Their leadership just doesn't/didn't value human lives very much. How about you put yourself in the shoes of people who's lives were ruined by Russian expansionism? Oh, and why should we care about their pride at all?
How about you put yourself in the shoes of people who's lives were ruined by Russian expansionism?
And we absolutely should. Why not do both?
Oh, and why should we care about their pride at all?
Understanding motives is very important.
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Unless you think the Russian government is filled with incompetent idiots I don't think they're incapable of understanding American resistance to the idea of war over Latvia regardless of what the President says.
> Unless you think the Russian government is filled with incompetent idiots I don't think they're incapable of understanding American resistance to the idea of war over Latvia regardless of what the President says. If one thinks that "they understand what we think anyway" then the whole idea of foreign poilicy, military posture, diplomacy is moot - it's just various mind readers knowing what everyone thinks :) Obviou…
Trump says keeping everyone guessing is his core policy so maybe you guys see more eye-to-eye than you think.
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"The EU was primarily funded as a way to prevent Europe from being destroyed by inner conflicts again, which makes some sense after two devastating world wars that left Europe in ruins and killed millions of citizens. It's sad that this is sometimes forgotten and only emphasized by older politicians." This is such an important point. Whatever problems the EU indeed might have, its role in keeping the peace in a conti…
>>Whatever problems the EU indeed might have, its role in keeping the peace in a continent that has seen war almost uninterruptedly over the course of its history cannot be emphasized enough. I think you are confusing the EU with NATO.
Of course it can only help with preventing incidents between member states and other cooperating actors.
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1. Just like Crimea?
Are you suggesting that "Krym is Russian teritory" in a same way "Falklands are a British territory" ? Are you suggesting that Ukraine invaded Krym and Russia had to respond? I think that is flat out wrong. I am not saying that you can't be of an opinion that invasion of Falklands was not justified and annexation of Krym was. I am just saying that these two incidents are not comparable.
Regardless of whom you believe is correct, the Russians kinda demonstrated more respect for Democracy with respect to Crimea than the West did.
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I'd love some statistics on this - what is the proportion of immigrants who are doctors, and how does that compare to the native population (for Germany, the U.K., etc..)? How does it depend on the immigrant's country of origin? And, if the goal is to reduce medical costs - why not accept only doctors?
I'm sorry, but I'm too lazy to dig up those statistics for you. Part of the reason is that I consider your question to be fundamentally misdirected. First, I'd like to point out that medical staff form just the tip of the iceberg in terms of wage-reduction by immigrants. For example, my father in law lives in an old age home staffed almost entirely with low-wage foreigners - a mix of immigrants, migrants, what-have y…
And, are you saying the stance of governments to their people is "We need more workers - breed faster, or we'll import someone who will"? Britons are now an ethnic minority in London, but only racists would be bothered by the same taking place in their countries, I guess.
From the article: "It needs to move toward more military integration, which means streamlining procurement. European armies use too many different weapons systems: seventeen main battle tank families compared with just one for the U.S.; 20 types of fighter planes compared with just six; and 13 kinds of air-to-air missiles compared with three." While I dont doubt there are efficiencies to be had, I feel they fail to r…
Wait wait.. Russia plainly invaded two of its neighbors, and annexes part of them. Is that just "behaving badly" in your book?
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Wait wait.. Russia plainly invaded two of its neighbors, and annexes part of them. Is that just "behaving badly" in your book?
Well, we pushed NATO onto the borders of Russia. I can't imagine the US would be too happy with Russian military bases on our borders.
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And Kosovo used to be part of Serbia. Just because a region is/was a part of your country does not mean you can do whatever you want in there.
So I guess you can do shelling and ethnic cleansing of those who don't support your desire to break away? http://www.rferl.org/a/Eyewitness_Accounts_Confirm_Shelling_... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethnic_cleansing_of_Georgians_...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_crimes_in_the_Kosovo_War#K...