Posted on 03/19/2023 8:46:27 PM PDT by ganeemead
That’s rediculous!!!
Why is Poland a bargaining chip? Might as well be the UK! or Mexico!
Poland is a NATO member. Russia touches Poland and it’s over for Russia. NATO won’t just be sending weapons, they will be using weapons in mass.
And of course Putin wants to avoid Ukrainian long range missiles. He doesn’t want Ukraine to do to Russia what Russia has been doing to Ukraine. Not that Ukraine would ever stoop as low as Russia has during this war.
The real problem (much as dennisw notes) is that Russian leadership does not know how to properly respond to a socio-economic (includes cultural) threat* to said elite, so, they resort to subjugation of neighbors, brutal if need be.
*When one listens to street interviews of Ukrainians, it appears maybe 2/3 have relatives in Russia. Therein lies much of the root of the problem...
All three countries—U.S., Russia, and Ukraine—all still acting like gang members hanging out at the local drugstore when the future of billions of people is at stake.
You can’t act the same way you always did, guys. Get it together.
“Traditional Russian Mongol brutality is falling out of favor even among Russians. Hundreds of thousands of Russians fled rather than be conscripted, and few ethnically Russian Ukrainians have rallied to support the invasion.”
The Russian Mongolian inheritance can go three ways. They can have Mongol blood. They can have Mongol mentality. From back when Mongolians occupied Moscow. Or they can have both..... Please notice how Mongolian Leonid Brezhnev looked. I think there is a Winston Churchill quote about Russians being Asiatic.
____________
The Mongol invasion was the reason Russia formed
https://www.rbth.com/history/332313
WebIn 1237, the Mongols, led by Batu Khan, invaded Rus’. They took, ravaged and burned Ryazan’, Kolomna, Moscow, Vladimir, Tver – all the main …
Estimated Reading Time: 7 mins
The Denisovans were from Siberia.
How about America gets out of NATO/Europe and in exchange Russia withdraws from Ukraine. That way they all win something.
“The real problem (much as dennisw notes) is that Russian leadership does not know how to properly respond to a socio-economic (includes cultural) threat* to said elite, so, they resort to subjugation of neighbors, brutal if need be.”
No nation that has suffered being under the Russian boot wants to return to this status. This means all of Eastern Europe, especially Ukraine and Poland. Half of Germany was Communist..... BUT they loved doing gas pipeline deals because of stupid Greenies and German industry that roared with cheap Russian gas. This worked out great until the bored Tsar Putin decided to invade Ukraine.
All great Tsars need wars to feed their degenerate egos!
“How about America gets out of NATO/Europe and in exchange Russia withdraws from Ukraine. That way they all win something.”
Then Russia invades Ukraine again in a few years. Nice try “Ace”
That assumes that the West wants this to end.........
All indications are that the fops and wankers want out now...
I don’t think we should weaken NATO in the face of Russian aggression.
NATO needs to pay their fair share. But now is not the time to enforce that.
That’s not actually a bad idea. After that cut defense by 75% and go back to our stance prior to WWI and WWII. A small army and a strong Navy. We have nukes. No country can threaten us without inviting utter annihilation. Explain to Taiwan that civil war losses have consequences and negotiate a Commonwealth with China similar to what we have with Northern Mariana Islands. Ukraine goes back to borders before Russian meddling with US pulling out of NATO, adding Finland and Sweden. We retire as world policeman and rebuild our country.
It is always that simple to the simple minded.
Kookery. Kiev is already in a much better position than a year ago. My guess is the Ukrainian spring offensive will retake southern Kherson and push the Russians back in Donbas. The result will be the Russians close to their Feb 22 start lines. They will have gained nothing from this war. At that point, negotiations can start about a peace.
Russia has been weakened so much by the war in Ukraine that it will be years before they can threaten another country.
After the fall of the USSR, the Ukrainians had the opportunity to compare how things worked in the EU versus how they worked in Russia. As a result, they wanted to be more like the EU and less like Russia.
Meanwhile, Putin and a large enough slice of Russia remained unreconciled to the collapse of the USSR. They pined for the old days when the Warsaw Pact and Soviet communism empowered Russian imperialism.
As best as I can tell, Putin and his allies want a modern form of tsarism and the traditional Russian policy of imperial domination of its neighbors, with Ukraine being the key piece that would enable decisive power moves against Europe.
For a time, Putinism worked, backed as it was by Russian oil and gas and other resource wealth, founded on one-man rule, corruption and gangsterism coordinated by the security services, and enjoying the feebleness and acquiescence of the US and NATO toward years of Russian bad behavior.
Yet every policy and strategy -- even the most successful -- have their limits, just as every gambler eventually goes broke if they do not know when to quit. And Putin seems to have lacked the innate sense and good advice needed to see that Ukraine was too large a prize to be taken by Russia -- and especially not by Russia's incompetent military.
My brother and I go back and forth over US support for Ukraine. Against his "Don't poke the bear" line, my response is that I do not want to poke the bear, I want to kill it. It has gone rabid and has been eating its neighbors. Now that the bear is in a trap, this is our chance to kill it before it starts after our friends in NATO.
My plan for peace is simple: victory, meaning Putin dead and Russia broken.
Agree. My undergraduate degree was in history.
Is it worth Nuke War? Is it worth five American Cities? or ten? Let me know. USSR is no more. How many American Death will be worth getting Russia to change leaders? 20 Million? maybe 40 Million. Maybe 100 Million? Before Russia falls you can bet that Kiev will be the first to be turned into a big glowing hole in the ground.
When Russia experiences enough defeat in Ukraine and enough economic calamity at home, they will oust Putin. The there will be a peace deal.
“Russia has been weakened so much by the war in Ukraine that it will be years before they can threaten another country.”
Let’s hope so. Also hope that Norks and others don’t sell them ammo and artillery shells. Putin reminds me of the oft repeated line from Laurel and Hardy — ““Here’s another nice mess you’ve gotten me into, Stanley.”
Putin will be remembered as Tsar Numskull The First. “He was bored, so he started a dumbass War”
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