Posted on 10/07/2022 11:23:21 AM PDT by Starman417
Vladimir Putin is a bad guy. Vladimir Putin is a megalomaniac. Vladimir Putin is a criminal. All of those things are true. Similarly, Adolph Hitler was a bad guy, a megalomaniac and a criminal. But Vladimir Putin is not Adolph Hitler and Russia in 2022 is not Germany in 1938/39. But in both cases, the future of the world hung on / hangs in the balance. But maybe not in the way you think…
Much of the world was already engaged in war in 1941 when the United States joined the fight. Most of Europe and much of North Africa were under the boot of the Nazis while most of the Far East was controlled by the Japanese. German U Boats were prowling the seas sinking ships around the world from belligerents and non belligerents alike. There was a world war going on, we just weren’t active, frontline participants prior to Pearl Harbor. However one looks at that period, the world as we know it was under fierce attack and eventually would have enveloped the rest of the world, including the United States.
In February 2022 none of that was true. Sure, Russia invaded Ukraine after invading Georgia in 2008 (then leaving after six months) and annexing Crimea from Ukraine in 2014. And sure, Vladimir Putin has been saber rattling about reconstituting the lost parts of the USSR. But the world in 2022 was not the world in 1938/39…
NATO didn’t exist then. The UN didn’t exist then. More importantly, the economic integration of European nations to one another and the rest of the west didn’t exist to the extent it does today. And finally, in the late 1930s the Nazis had the most powerful military on the planet, while today Russia’s troops are rightly seen as inferior to most they would face in the West.
All of that to say when Russia invaded Ukraine in February of this year, the world was not on the brink of anything resembling a world war.
If you took a time machine and went back to February of 2022 and asked the American people would they be willing to spend in excess of $50 billion and send the world into an economic tailspin if Russia invaded Ukraine, my guess is they would have said no. They might have talked about bulking up NATO forces, they might have talked about sanctions, but I doubt they would have supported propping up a corrupt regime in a notoriously corrupt nation with tens of billions of dollars that would have to paid for by taxpayers already struggling under the weight of inflation and economic malaise. Nor would they have wanted to bring America and the world to the brink of a nuclear cataclysm.
But here we are, six months later, exactly there, with Vladimir Putin opaquely threatening to use nuclear weapons and the leader of Ukraine goading the United States to strike first with its nuclear weapons.
What is most sad about all of this is that none of it had to happen. A new piece in Foreign Affairs states
in April 2022, Russian and Ukrainian negotiators appeared to have tentatively agreed on the outlines of a negotiated interim settlement: Russia would withdraw to its position on February 23, when it controlled part of the Donbas region and all of Crimea, and in exchange, Ukraine would promise not to seek NATO membership and instead receive security guarantees from a number of countries.
So essentially, in April, less than two months after the beginning of the war, the parties involved were close to agreement with returning to the status quo of what existed the day before Russia invaded. But the agreement collapsed. Why? Joe Biden…
“As soon as the Ukrainian negotiators and Abramovich/Medinsky, following the outcome of Istanbul, had agreed on the structure of a future possible agreement in general terms, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson appeared in Kyiv almost without warning. "Johnson brought two simple messages to Kyiv. The first is that Putin is a war criminal; he should be pressured, not negotiated with. And the second is that even if Ukraine is ready to sign some agreements on guarantees with Putin, they are not. We can sign [an agreement] with you [Ukraine], but not with him. Anyway, he will screw everyone over” is how one of Zelenskyy's close associates summed up the essence of Johnson's visit.”
Now that’s Pravda, a Russian mouthpiece, but its assertion dovetails with statements Johnson made publically two weeks later:
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said any peace talks over Ukraine are likely to fail, as he compared holding talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin to negotiating with a crocodile. Johnson said dealing with Putin was like "a crocodile when it's got your leg in its jaws" and said it was vital that the West continues arming Ukraine.” And “Johnson said world leaders, including U.S. President Joe Biden, agreed on a call this week that they would continue to supply Ukraine with weapons, including artillery, as Russia intensified its attacks on Ukraine's East.
So, essentially, the combatants had come to a resolution to their conflict when the west shows up and decides they’d rather have more war. The “they” in Johnson’s statement about not being on board with a peace settlement is telling. Johnson was no doubt acting on behalf of the man who “has been wrong on nearly every major foreign policy and national security issue over the past four decades”, Joe Biden. There’s simply no way to believe that the UK was going to put the kibosh on what could be a peaceful settlement to a potential powder keg without Washington’s approval or encouragement.
At the very moment when a fragile peace could have been worked out and negotiators begun to solve the differences between Russia and the Ukraine, Joe Biden steps in and does what he does best, mess things up. The timeline here is interesting… Despite the fact that on March 10th the US promised Ukraine $13 billion and on March 26th Biden told the world that Putin "cannot remain in power," the Russian and Ukrainian negotiators were still able to come to an agreement on a peace deal. And staggeringly, Joe Biden scuttled it.
Here we are, in September and the much of the world is in recession, prices for everything are up dramatically, the US has provided Ukraine with upwards of $60 billion in aid and Europe is facing energy shortages and skyrocketing prices just as winter approaches. And now nuclear war is in the air.
(Excerpt) Read more at floppingaces.net...
No mean tweets, thank goodness. We should all be willing to endure nuclear war for that!
Joe - THE BIG GUYS - OWES Ukraine because he and his fellow 'elites' and their whore monger - drug addicted brats make and launder their money there.
NOT THE HILL THE AMERICAN PEOPLE SHOULD DIE ON...
Anyone who believes biden got 81, or even 71 million votes is probably supporting sending money to Ukraine. Oh, and an idiot.
Joe - "THE BIG GUY" - OWES Ukraine's crooks because he and his fellow 'elites' and their whore monger - drug addicted brats make and launder their money there.
NOT THE HILL THE AMERICAN PEOPLE SHOULD DIE ON...
Gee, you’d think if we wanted a war with Russia we would sent billions of dollars of aid in Ukraine’s fight against them and temp a mad man to use nukes on us ... oh wait ...
Repeating the childish cliches that Putin is a megalomaniac, Putin is Hitler, Putin is a criminal is merely taking a knee and bowing before the DC Deep State. Its self-enforcing stupidity upon oneself.
Russia has interests, and many of those strategic interests are opposed to the values and economics of our present, woke DC deep-state.
Putin is far more rational, well-spoken, and strategic in his thought than most anyone with power in the USA at the moment.
Enemy or not, we blind ourselves by not looking at Putin and Russia rationally.
Russia “annexed” Crimea even though there were already “security guarantees” in place promising Ukraine that Russia would leave them alone. You can understand Ukraine not believing any “security guarantees” from Russia.
One almost gets the impression that the democrats, no, the authoritarian DC set, knows that they will lose power this election AND they would rather see the world burn than allow that to happen.
But we're expelling privileged white men from the military -- and replacing them with pregnant women, Muslims, and trannies. How can you say our leaders aren't rational or strategic in their thinking?
i don’t think Putin will live till 2025, due to an existing undisclosed terminal illness
if Trump were still President, Putin would NEVER, have invaded, and he would have DIED before Trump left office, and thus, avoided this meatgrinder... just sayin
Neville Chamberlain was known for his penchant for appeasing foreign enemies.
https://sonar21.com/americans-better-wake-up-and-realize-the-russians-are-genuinely-pissed-off/
Put yourself in the shoes of the Russian leaders and people. Here is what they have seen over the last 8 years since the democratically elected President of Ukraine was ousted by a western backed coup:
*While professing a deep commitment to democracy, America and Europe ignored the voters of Ukraine and helped orchestrate the unlawful removal of President Viktor Fedorovych Yanukovych on the 22 of February 2014.
*In the aftermath of that coup, the newly installed Ukrainian government embarked on a war against Russian speaking Ukrainians. Ukraine wantonly killed civilians and the west remained silent.
*Despite repeated warnings from Russia that it would not tolerate western efforts to bring Ukraine into NATO, the United States and Europe conducted annual military exercises with Ukraine and provided military training and assistance.
*Russia’s attempt to negotiate in December 2021 with the United States over the status of Ukraine was rebuffed.
In response to Russia’s Special Military Operation, the *United States and Europe imposed “draconian” sanctions and embarked on a full scale attempt to punish not just the political leaders of Russia, but all Russians, including denouncing Russia’s rich cultural heritage.
*The United States and Europe continue to supply Ukraine with weapons and ammunition that is being used to kill the newly incorporated citizens of Russia that reside in the Donbas, Kherson and Zaporhyzhia.
*Russia’s effort to negotiate a peace with Ukraine was shutdown by the U.K.’s Prime Minister, Boris Johnson.
*The United Kingdom, Poland and Ukraine announced a trilateral pact to promote Ukraine’s defense and independence in February 2022.
*The Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe and leading U.S. officials are calling for “decolonizing Russia”–i.e., breaking up Russia into geographic regions. Russia’s Nordstream gas pipelines were sabotaged.
Update on Russian operations in Ukraine for October 5, 2022
- Latest US aid package falls far short of replacing steep Ukrainian losses amid continued offensives;
- Ukraine’s offensive has limited capabilities, will not achieve “victory” over Russian forces in territory deemed “Ukrainian” by Kiev;
- Ukrainian offensive is an “all-or-nothing” proposition, hoping to achieve psychological and political gains toward ending the conflict in ways Ukrainian military force cannot;
- Western analysts celebrate the psychological impact the offensive is having on pro-Russian media, pundits, and even prominent members of Russian society;
- In reality, Ukraine will be left overextended and vulnerable just as Russia’s 300,000-strong mobilization begins shaping the battlefield.
Bkmk
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