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Zelensky leaves White House after angry meeting
641–650 of 1001 posts
Re: Zelensky leaves White House after angry meeting
#642I wish the EU was more ... united. Most of the nations were woefully slow to act with Ukraine (hey let's send some token helmets). They've got a totalitarian regime invading democracies in their back yard but don't seem all that united about it ....
Don't forget that Russia has been doing this for a long time. Chechnya, Georgia. Always the civilian population was brutely oppressed and murdered. He's always got some former USSR republic to exterminate. If anything it would be weird if he hadn't picked on the next one. The only difference is that Ukraine is a little bit closer to Europe than the others.
I'm not saying this means we shouldn't defend Ukraine. We should. But I am saying the outrage from the international community is a little hypocritical considering what Putin has been doing for decades. It's either because it's a little closer to our borders (and thus Europe is more worried about itself) or because they have valuable resources that our politicians suddenly care. I find that very sad. We should have cared before. Then we'd have saved many lives and this wouldn't have happened.
It's really got a very strong smell of "let's bring freedom to the middle east! Of course only where they've got lots of oil for us".
Re: Zelensky leaves White House after angry meeting
#643It was as if they invited him to the Whitehouse to set him up for a lecture and scolding. They had no intention of anything other than humiliating him in front of the world. It's shameful what our administration has done.
It was a 40 minute long conversation and everything was fine until the last 5 minutes when Zelensky got mad about Vance talking about using diplomacy with Russia.
Re: Zelensky leaves White House after angry meeting
#644Maybe dumb question, but I asked ChatGPT search and didn't get a straight answer, so: Why is Russia at war with Ukraine? ChatGPT tells me it's because of "western alignment". Trump told reporters 1m people died. Seems a bit excessive to me for political ideas.. I'd have an easier time believing it's a resource conflict or some oil field being liberated or wtv.
It surprises and scares me how few people in the West understand this. It's because staring wars is how dictators cling to power, plain and simple. This is obvious to anyone who follows Russian politics. There's even a term "Crimea consensus", referring to the fact that annexing Crimea made Putin super-popular again after he angered people with his clumsy return to the presidental chair. In 2022 his rating was at all-time low again.
Yes, it's actually a bit more complex than that. Russia never stopped being an empire, it's codifed in their culture in many ways. Yes, there are personal inclinations of Putin. He said in his first ever interview when he got some minor post on SPB government that the Bolsheviks' greatest mistake was giving autonomy (however nominal) to the soviet republics. So those are the reasons too. What's not a reason in any way though is geopolitics. Feeling threatened by NATO, needing this or that resource, access to this or that body of water, fighting Western colonialism (!) - those are all bullshit reasons invented for propaganda.
Re: Zelensky leaves White House after angry meeting
#645I watched the whole press conference. Here's the summary:
- It was amicable for the first 30 minutes.
- It went downhill when Zelenskyy asked Vance slightly hostile questions saying that Putin would not honor the cease-fire.
- Then Vance responded in a more hostile manner saying Zelenskyy should be more thankful and that he shouldn't be litigating in front of the press. And everyone started fighting.
Honestly, the 3 of them acted badly. Both Zelenskyy and Vance started it. And after it was started, Trump just accepted the fight instead of trying to end it. It's sad this ended this way, especially because the press conference was going well for the first 30 minutes.
Re: Zelensky leaves White House after angry meeting
#646Ukraine is in a bind, and the US has the power to do whatever it wants. But boy, will the nations of the world remember this -- how quickly the US can turn from ally to bully. A really bad day for US foreign policy. The EU is going to be thinking long and hard about the future of NATO now.
Its almost like they’ll start paying for their own defense
Re: Zelensky leaves White House after angry meeting
#647[deleted]
Re: Zelensky leaves White House after angry meeting
#648I have invested considerable personal resources into fighting for democracy in my country and ended up having to flee leaving behind a rather comfortable life. The United States has always been an inspiration despite its well-known flaws. Watching this situation unfold is very disturbing. And especially disheartening is the behavior of Republican representatives. A mere month ago these same people were Ukraine's best…
> A mere month ago these same people were Ukraine's best friends and world's dictators' most hawkish enemies
What Republicans a month ago were UAs best friend? I feel like the simping for Russia has been a consistent stance of MAGA since 2016 -- certainly since the 2022 invasion.
Re: Zelensky leaves White House after angry meeting
#649Russia probably has strong kompromats on Trump and his administration. Can't explain it any other way. Why otherwise they would go out of the way to make idiots of themselves in public in front of the whole world? I know Trump has not been an example of tact but this is something else.
[deleted]
Re: Zelensky leaves White House after angry meeting
#650Ukraine is in a bind, and the US has the power to do whatever it wants. But boy, will the nations of the world remember this -- how quickly the US can turn from ally to bully. A really bad day for US foreign policy. The EU is going to be thinking long and hard about the future of NATO now.
I'm sorry, I don't care who you are or what the history between your country and the US is, you don't come and be disrespectful like that and get away with it.
All he had to do was was smile and wave, but Zelensky made it into a dick measuring contest which he was always going to lose.
He is a terrible leader and this is just more proof of it.