17% is a high percentage of the population and as in former Yugoslavian nations you have to look after the needs of both sides or else conflict is inevitable.
You don’t seem capable or willing to grasp this."
What I grasp is that you are trying to draw ridiculous distinctions.
Your 17% number is nonsense.
In the USA, 17% (rough estimate) have English ancestry, 17% have German ancestry, 17% are Scots or Irish, 17% are African Americans 17% are Hispanics, and 15% are who knows what, including native Americans.
All of that is 100% irrelevant.
What matters here is, are they Americans first?
If they are, then they are Americans, period.
In Ukraine, whether they speak Russian, or have some relatives in Russia, or maybe moved from Russia is all, total 100% irrelevant.
What matters is, are they Ukrainian first?
If they are not, if they are more loyal to mother Russia than to Ukraine, if they support the Russian invasion, then nothing else matters, they are, by definition, traitors and can be dealt with as traitors, by police or military actions.
FRiend, this is not complicated rocket-science, it's just simple basics of citizenship.
Your refusal to understand simple things tells me there's something wrong inside your head, and you need to figure that out and fix it.
winslow: "There were numerous and frequent reports of Ukraine and ethic Russians clashing on many new stations since 2014 but before the latest conflict.
Saying that no ethic Russians were attacked by the Ukrainian forces is a lie."
Right, there were no attacks on Russian speakers before 2014 because Russians ruled over Ukraine then and, of course, protected their own.
After 2014's Russian invasion of Ukraine, Ukrainians -- Russian speaking or not -- who supported the Russian invasion became, by definition, guilty of treason to Ukraine and as such were subject to police or military actions.
Again, this is simple, basic stuff anybody should understand, so why don't you?
winslow: "There were separatist groups certainly, and if you want to simply label them all as traitors, I would say that reflects a naive and ignorant attitude about living in a post empire region made up of divided nationalities.
There may be different reports on how many casualties there were but there were attacks and the Russians were outgunned and were suffering casualties.
Again, this is a fact."
What's a fact is that some pro-Russians supported the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which made them, by definition, traitors to Ukraine and subject to police or military actions.
What's also fact is that Ukraine was unsuccessful in restoring Russian conquered territories after 2014, which can only mean Russia supplied Ukrainian traitors with adequate men & materials to defend the territories it had conquered.
winslow: "When the Austro-Hungarian empire collapsed at the end of WW1 the treaty of Versailles saw Hungary lose up to two thirds of their territory and probably around six million of their citizens.
Many Hungarians are still bitter about this even now and they probably have a right to be, even if there were on the wrong side of the war."
I have never heard a Hungarian complain that they should now, in 2023, have the right to rule over the people who were freed from their rule in 1919.
Perhaps even they realize how ludicrous that sounds?
winslow: "Do you think the wars between Serbia and Croatia, or Serbia and Albania had any history prior to the 1990’s?
There was a long history of warfare and massacres prior to and leading up to those conflicts.
Croatia had one of the most brutal death camps of WW2 in Jasenovac where hundreds of thousands of Serbs, Jews and Roma were killed.
Do you think in every case there is a simple version of one side being wrong and the other side being right?
Often the media reports assume that the bigger power is bullying the others and trying to aggressively expand."
Right, because, more often than not, that's exactly what's happening, for example, when Serbs attempted to conquer land inhabited mainly by Albanians.
As for what's too simple or not too simple, the basic rule is that people have a right to self-determination, but it's not a 100% unlimited right.
Citizens of one country cannot suddenly decide to become their own country, or join another country.
There must first be what our Founding Fathers called:
- "...a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security."
After the 2014 invasion, then pro-Russians who supported the invasion became, by definition, guilty of treason:
- Article III, Section 3: "Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying War against them, or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort."
Therefore for a Ukrainian politician to threaten to withhold this from ethnic Russians is to threaten them with starvation and a death sentence."
And yet, how insane would a pro-Russian fighting in service of the Russian invasion have to be to think he could still draw his Ukrainian pension?
Seriously, are you a raving lunatic?
winslow: "Saying that this can be addressed by opposition parties is a complete joke since Zelenskyy outlawed opposition parties just like he doesn’t permit a free press there anymore or even freedom of religion.
They are one of the most corrupt countries in the world and have been for some time."
Ukraine is a multi-party constitutionally defined democratically elected republic.
By my count there are nine official parties represented in Ukraine's parliament and many smaller parties.
But in times of military invasion no country allows opposition parties to agitate in favor of the invaders, certainly not the United States.
Ukrainians also hold to several major religions, including Orthodox, Catholic and even some Protestants.
All are free to practice their religions except those advocating for Russian victory.
winslow: "There is no democracy in Ukraine, just a western appointed stooge who is sending other people’s children to die in a war they cannot win so that the US and NATO can test out their latest weapons without shedding soldiers blood."
By my count, Ukraine has held seven elections since 1991, the most recent in 2019, the next one in 2024.
So they are a functioning democracy, by any definition.
As for, will Russia win in Ukraine, my best guess is that so long as Vlad the Invader rules Russia, they will throw everything they have at Ukraine.
When Vlad is gone, the Russians will seek peace and Ukraine will remain independent, part of NATO and the EU.
winslow: "That is exactly what one of Ukraine’s generals just plainly stated.
“We are testing weapons systems for NATO and the US and they don’t even have to sacrifice their own soldiers.”"
Vlad the Invader exposed many weaknesses in the highly touted Russian military when he ordered them to invade Ukraine.
We, of course, were delighted to see the Russian Bear fall on its face.
But there are huge, huge downsides for the West here.
First and foremost, whatever else the Russians are and are not, they are not stupid, and will learn much, just as every war teaches much, about what works and doesn't work.
And Russia will learn all that while fighting a weak enemy like Ukraine, not another major military power.
Just as important to us, by sending our weapons to Ukraine, we are exposing them to capture by Russians and reverse engineering their best features.
The end result, whether Russia wins or loses, will be a much more powerful Russian military.
And it will also wake Europeans from their 75+ year sleep and motivate Europeans to take their own national defenses more seriously.
That will help further reduce American leadership in NATO, whether for good or bad, I can't really say for sure.
winslow: "It takes two to tango.
NATO wanted this conflict and has taken numerous actions to escalate it such as blowing up the Nord Stream pipelines and pouring weapons for Ukraine to fight a conflict they could not dream of with their own resources."
Nonsense, the only one who truly wanted Russia's invasion was Vlad the Invader, nobody else was that insane.
As for Nord Stream, nobody knows for sure who did it, or who ordered them to.
It does demonstrate that dependence on Russian energy is not such a good idea.
Now that Vlad has invaded, Russia must be defeated, period.
My guess is, that won't happen so long as Vlad lives.
winslow: "At some point there will need to be a negotiated settlement.
I don’t know who is winning in terms of gaining ground and economic resources.
The US has gained in energy sales to Europe and you are charging us through the nose for it, so thanks for that."
We are also paying more than double for our energy compared to the President Trump years.
We thank President Biden for that. ;-)
winslow: "The arms companies are enjoying record profits as are the US politicians on both sides who no doubt bought lots of shares in those companies."
Maybe... some might be, but much of the US aid going to Ukraine was diverted from other military projects, and so those arms suppliers will be doing correspondingly worse than they would have done otherwise.
And hopefully Europeans will decide that 1% of GDP for their militaries is just not enough.
That would be a good thing, on balance.
winslow: "The sooner both sides are willing to negotiate, the better."
The sooner Russians withdraw their orcs from Ukraine, the fewer of such beasts will need to die.