Posted on 03/20/2022 6:10:45 AM PDT by Travis McGee
To understand current events, you need to understand history, and to understand history, you need to study the maps. I've been doing this for a while, and now I have enough of them to make a Ukraine map study thread. Naturally, your opinion may differ, but maps are history frozen in time. In an important way, maps are the historical record.
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Russia purchased Crimea from the Ottoman Empire in the same manner that the USA purchased Alaska from Russia. (In gold, FWIW.)
If Russian Crimea has to be handed over to Ukraine, again, then for sure we have to give Hawaii back to the Hawaiians. Our annexation of Hawaii was done by brute military force, under the policy of "Manifest Destiny." We just outright stole Hawaii, because we wanted it due to its strategic location.
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By all means, the independent nation of Ukraine MUST be kept together, within its modern borders, which go all the way back in time to 1991!
Better to escalate to Nuclear World War Three, than to alter these ancient unchangeable historic borders.
/sarcasm
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How would America react if, during a national economic depression, in the future a stronger China formed an alliance with Canada, Mexico, Cuba and Latin America, and moved troops, tanks and missiles, country by country, closer to the borders of the USA? This is how Russia views NATO in the post-Soviet era.
You can scoff, and protest that NATO is purely a defensive alliance....but tell that to the Serbians, the Libyans, and the Afghans. And don't forget Kosovo, carved out of Serbia by NATO.
The Russians are now faced with American "defensive" ABMs in Poland and Romania. What is the difference between an ABM and a MRBM? Its launch angle, and its warhead.
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I realize they don't teach much history in American schools, but the "Great Patriotic War" map shown below is extremely real to Russians, and very much on their minds. The USSR came within a whisker of total defeat by Germany in 1942. If the Nazis had not been stopped at Stalingrad, Germany would have cut off the Soviet Union's oil supplies, and total defeat and racial extermination would have rapidly followed.
Ukraine joining NATO, with Article 5 guarantees, would mean that American, German and British troops, tanks and missiles would be staged directly against the heart of Russia. The NATO tanks would be just days from cutting off Russia's oil. Missiles would be bare minutes from Moscow. At least the German Nazis had to fight hard to get across Poland and Ukraine to get to Stalingrad.
Ukraine in NATO means that the next time, European military forces will already be located in an advanced attack position. Yes, NATO. Russians are very aware of history. Last time, the Germans were joined in their attack by French, "Viking," and Ukrainian SS divisions, as well as the Spanish Condor Legion, Romanians, Italians and other national military formations. So yes, in NATO, Russians see the potential for a reprise of 1942, but this time with NATO getting a head start by being pre-positioned in Ukraine.
You can laugh, you can scoff, but trust me, this is no laughing matter to the Russians.
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As shown in the last map, much of Ukraine's strategic importance is still related to energy transportation.
Why do you think Hunter Biden was paid millions of dollars to be on the board of a Ukrainian natural gas conglomerate? Why did the sons of John Kerry, Nancy Pelosi, Mitt Romney and other American elites all have their snouts in the trough in Ukraine?
It's about controlling the distribution of energy from Russia to Europe, and mega billions of dollars are involved for the players in charge.
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So who believes that possible escalation to World War 3, with nukes involved, is a better solution than a national divorce in Ukraine?
Yugoslavia was created on the map from whole cloth by politicians in 1918 at the Versailles Conference, and it broke apart into separate nations during a bloody civil war in the 1990s, but at least nuclear weapons were not involved.
Czechoslovakia was also created by politicians in 1918, and after the fall of the Soviet Union it amicably divorced to become the Czech Republic and Slovakia.
Ukraine, invented by V.I. Lenin as the Ukraine SSR within the Soviet Union around the same time as Versailles, is also an artificially invented political construct. The entire history of the current version of Ukraine as an independent nation goes back only to 1991, and the collapse of the USSR.
So which is a better solution? A national divorce, or risking World War 3, with nukes?
https://theconservativetreehouse.com/blog/2022/03/20/lara-logan-gives-a-brutally-honest-assessment-of-ukraine-and-u-s-politics/
Lara Logan Gives a Brutally Honest Assessment of Ukraine and U.S. Politics
March 20, 2022
Lara Logan is not the type of journalist who will pull punches when she shares insight and information. Logan cuts to the chase and avoids pretending the issues are something other than what reality exists.
In this short interview segment, Lara Logan outlines her brutally honest perspective on why Ukraine is ultimately so important to people in power within the DC system.
My own Ukraine map study, for your consideration.
Don’t expect many intelligent replies.
Lara Logan Link
Lara Logan Gives a Brutally Honest Assessment of Ukraine and U.S. Politics
March 20, 2022
That’s for sure.
She was excellent.
“If Russian Crimea has to be handed over to Ukraine, again, then for sure we have to give Hawaii back to the Hawaiians. “
Does this mean you didn’t know that Hawaii was invaded by Tahitians, conquering the original people who were there?
“Our annexation of Hawaii was done by brute military force, under the policy of “Manifest Destiny.”
Wow how terrible, just like the Hawaiian people did to Hawaii.
“We just outright stole Hawaii, because we wanted it”
Just like the Hawaiians did.
Great analysis. Politicians, esp greedy evil ones caused this.
If Ukraine has always been part of Russia, somebody forgot to tell the Ukrainians, because outmanned and outgunned they are putting up one hell of a fight.
Thanks for posting!
You mean a response like “I don’t care they invaded, you Putin puffer” LOL
Don’t worry, it is coming.
—great historical analysis—
Well I’m nervous about communist expansion. So let’s just take over all of the countries south of our border
It is all good stuff. However...
The Democrap American will follow their party into nuclear WWIII and demand they do it.
The Republican American has a visceral reaction to the word ‘Russia’ and will follow the Democraps into nuclear WWIII and demand they do it.
The smart American knows this situation needs resolved without a war and understands the material you have presented and knows the resolution that is needed.
It appears to me that 80% of Americans watch TV propaganda and have decided poor old Russia is beating up on Ukraine and the democraps are right that we should go to nuclear war against Russia.
This means 80% have not read nor understand your materials. Once again, war hides the crimes of the democrap party.
Please tell us all about the people who were already on Hawaii before the Polynesians arrived there more than a thousand years ago.
Hawaiians lived there for a thousand years, then we just took it at gun point, “Because Manifest Destiny.”
If Russian Crimea has to be handed over to Ukraine, again, then surely you must support giving Hawaii back to the Hawaiians.
The Russians purchased Crimea from the Ottomans in 1783, before America had a Constitution.
We outright grabbed Hawaii from the Hawaiians at gunpoint in 1893.
Surely you must support giving Hawaii back to the Hawaiians.
“You can always tell someone who is writing “history” that has no historical education beyond their grade 10 civics class.”
Actually, we can tell when someone thinks an insult is proof of something and is a mental midget for doing so.
You may want to ask Matt what his college degree is and what one of his focuses in the Navy SEAL teams was.
That was when they actually thought they would be independent and the people would ALL be treated as valued citizens. They never were and Ukraine has had puppet regimes installed to serve the interests of other countries before Ukraine.
Ukraine is not one country, any more than Czechoslovakia used to be. Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia and Ukraine were all created on the map circa 1918.
Ukrainian-speaking soldiers from West Ukraine are fighting hard, that’s for sure. And they deserve their own country.
Should we demand that Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia must also be reunited?
Who would not vote to leave the Soviet Union in 1991?
Bogus point.
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