You’ve done nothing to refute the analogy. You just misquoted me and then brought up a whole lot of straw man claims that I never made.
There is no precedent for a US population being a majority in a certain region of another country and being attacked by a foreign entity. If there was a similar situation with 10,000 to 14,000 Americans being killed in 8 years I am sure America would act militarily to stop the killings.
I never claimed anything about Russian speakers being a majority in the Ukraine. You are the one lying here. I said ethnic Russians are a majority in one particular region (the Donbass), I never said they are a majority in the whole country.
Russian speakers versus ethnic Russians is a complete red herring. It is a completely different thing.
Ukrainians are at least as corrupt as their Russian counterparts and you seem to be suggesting the Russians deserved to be killed in their thousands and be threatened to have their only source of income (pension) denied to them in their old age.
Again with the conflation of Russian speaking Ukrainians and ethnic Russians. It’s not the same thing. We don’t know how many of them want to be part of Russia. I’d wager quite a few changed their mind about joining Russia after thousands of their compatriots were killed.
The overthrow of Yanukovych which was preceded by the Maidan protests and the killing by snipers of protestors and police alike was not done by Yanukovych and his forces but by forces hostile to him. The snipers took out people from behind in a hotel where a number of foreigners were staying. Yanukovych’s forces were to the front of the protestors. It was a coup and even the subsequent vote to remove Yanukovych didn’t garner enough votes to pass.
Your figures for the Iraq war casualties do not line up with a official numbers. The claims that Saddam was threatening neighbours with weapons he didn’t even have is laughable. And even if true, none of this adds up to proof of him ever possessing these WMD.
I support the ideals of the US and its constitution but not its actions in most of its military campaigns in the last 60 years. The US has a lot of blood on its hands in Vietnam, in Iraq, in Libya and Afghanistan and Russia will not come close to matching this bloodshed in this conflict. Conservatives in the US need to reign in the arms manufacturing companies and the military industrial complex. The also need to dismantle the CIA and reform the FBI.
No, and from beginning to end, your "analogy" is a total lie, starting with:
winslow: " I never claimed anything about Russian speakers being a majority in the Ukraine. You are the one lying here. I said ethnic Russians are a majority in one particular region (the Donbass), I never said they are a majority in the whole country. "
You actually never specified where in Ukraine Russian speakers are majorities, so it is important to clarify, they are only majorities in three small regions of three Ukraine provinces, Crimea, Luhansk and Donetsk.
That implies, even by your own warped logic, Russians have no legitimate reasons for attacking ANYWHERE else in Ukraine.
winslow: " Russian speakers versus ethnic Russians is a complete red herring.
It is a completely different thing. "
Ukrainians who speak Russian may, or may not, consider themselves to be Russians first and Ukrainians only superficially.
However, if they provide aid and comfort to Russians invading Ukraine, then they are, by definition, committing treason and are subject to Ukrainian military actions.
winslow: " Ukrainians are at least as corrupt as their Russian counterparts and you seem to be suggesting the Russians deserved to be killed in their thousands and be threatened to have their only source of income (pension) denied to them in their old age."
Whether Ukrainians are, or are not, politically corrupt is a matter of great concern in a democratic-type government.
Corruption should be addressed vigorously by opposition parties and a nation's law enforcement.
It is never, however considered a legitimate excuse for outside invasion.
I see you love to distort my words.
What I've clearly suggested, multiple times, is that every single Russian who invades Ukraine needs to quickly die, or surrender or get the h*ll back to Russia.
That is indisputable.
As for civilians working for pensions, disputes are common in every country and are always resolved politically, not by some outside invasion force.
Your whole argument here is ludicrous.
winslow: "Again with the conflation of Russian speaking Ukrainians and ethnic Russians.
It’s not the same thing.
We don’t know how many of them want to be part of Russia.
I’d wager quite a few changed their mind about joining Russia after thousands of their compatriots were killed. "
I would never suggest that every Ukrainian who speaks Russian is a traitor.
But it is a simple fact that every Ukrainian who provided aid and comfort to Russian invaders committed treason and can be dealt with militarily.
My understanding today is that the vast majority of Russian speaking Ukrainians oppose Vlad the Invader's "special military operations".
winslow: " The overthrow of Yanukovych which was preceded by the Maidan protests and the killing by snipers of protestors and police alike was not done by Yanukovych and his forces but by forces hostile to him. "
I don't understand the details -- there were protesters on both sides, and some died on both sides, law enforcement was or was not involved somehow.
What we know for certain is these events gave Vlad the Invader the pretext he wanted for invasion, and so I think it likely Vlad's agents were inciting both sides.
winslow: " Your figures for the Iraq war casualties do not line up with a official numbers.
The claims that Saddam was threatening neighbours with weapons he didn’t even have is laughable.
And even if true, none of this adds up to proof of him ever possessing these WMD. "
You can look those numbers up yourself, there were many different reports covering many different time periods and categories.
I chose one that came from the U.S. military and covered the entire period.
I was especially interested in their breakdown of who caused which deaths. The US military was responsible for about 15% of the 200,000 total deaths.
Of course, that is not to say that only 200,000 people died in Iraq since 2003, only that is the number considered "war deaths".
I'm saying: not everyone who died in Iraq was killed by the U.S. military.
Far more were killed by insurgents.
winslow: " The claims that Saddam was threatening neighbours with weapons he didn’t even have is laughable.
And even if true, none of this adds up to proof of him ever possessing these WMD. "
And yet it happened, numerous reports told us Saddam himself believed he had such weapons he could threaten others with.
And so I'll repeat, nobody has since admitted or credibly claimed that they knew before hand that Saddam had no such weapons.
winslow: " The US has a lot of blood on its hands in Vietnam, in Iraq, in Libya and Afghanistan and Russia will not come close to matching this bloodshed in this conflict. "
For certain, the U.S. has learned a lot of lessons about what works and doesn't work in war.
However, I am satisfied that Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan were fought with the best of intentions and as humanly as possible, under the circumstances.
Libya is another story, Hillary Clinton's Julius Caesar moment when she came, she saw, and then she screwed up everything she touched.
The accuracy of US precision weapons today is vastly greater than those in Vietnam, much less WWII, and so we hold ourselves to much higher standards now.
Russians seem not to, whether in Ukraine or Syria or Chechnya.
And that is yet another reason why they need to be defeated.
winslow: "Conservatives in the US need to reign in the arms manufacturing companies and the military industrial complex.
The also need to dismantle the CIA and reform the FBI. "
Sorry, but you don't "reign in" arms manufacturers, that's another insane idea.
You either order their products or you don't, depending on valid & realistic assessments of what weapons are needed to counter current and future threats.
Quantities and costs per unit are all matters of threat assessment and negotiations.
"Reigning in" has nothing to do with it.
As for the FBI, CIA and others too, I agree something needs to be done, but it's not at all clear what that should be.