Trump seems to get it wrt Ukraine

Apparently President Trump is either unaware of, or has chosen to ignore the fact the Russia’s primary goal now is to secure the oil and gas resources of Ukrain in the east and around Crimea

If that goal all along, why did Russia openly ask for its secure concerns to be addressed in December, one of which was assures that Ukraine not be allowed NATO membership?

It wasn't the Russians that fomented a revolution in Ukraine in 2014, split the country and set off an eight-year civil war in Donbass. We did that and trained the neo-Nazis that persecuted the ethnically Russian population.

Ukraine is the party violated the Minsk Agreement it signed off on that would have bought peace to Donbass.

At every turn, we've been the aggressors and encouraged Ukraine to take provocation action against Russia and the ethnically Russian population in Ukraine.

So, it's absurd to claim that Putin just decided to invade Ukraine and to rob it of its resources. That lie doesn't cut it with anyone that knows everything we did to create the circumstances that lead to this war.

Why does it matter? Because our meddling foreign policy has pushed Russia into an alliance with Russia and the powers that be, apparently, would love to start a hot war with a great military and nuclear power, one that could lead to WWIII. We're closely to all that than were were with the Soviet Union. IT'S INSANITY AND IRRESPONSIBLE.

OK, I have read the article. It mostly talks about how all this started back in the late 90s during the Bush 1 era when Gorbachev was head of USSR. This article written in March 2022 sums up a lot that has been going on in a lot of places. The article says Hillary “spilled the beans”. What beans? Back in the late 90’s I was watching how the vicious nature of the Russian actions in Afghanistan was growing the hatred of Russia by the Afghans. My son had served in Gulf War 1, and rejoined after several years to put in more than 20 years in Special Forces, including tours in Afghanistan in 2006 and 2013. He is of the opinion that the Taliban appeared to be the future victor from 2000 onward. Thanks to President Trump we pulled out, and although the Taliban are now ruling, a lot of Afghans still feel OK about the US, but still hate the Russians.

As we heard news about the large build-up of Russian forces around Ukraine, I wondered if they would invade, and also engender the same hatred that they succeeded in doing in Afghanistan. I wondered if the Ukranians would put up enough of a fight to do the same thing to the current Russian army that happened to the Soviet army thanks to their brutality and failure in Afghanistan. I was already aware that Putin had become head of Russia based on what appeared to be a series of apartment explosions set by people who wanted an excuse to appoint a secret service “strong man.” Putin just turned out to be smarter than the people who put him in office. I hoped that IF Putin decided to grab the tar baby he might experience the same hatred that the Soviets achieved in Afghanistan. I am publicly “spilling the beans” here at FR that Putin has indeed appeared to achieve the same general world hatred. My question remains, is it “spilling the beans” to predict what should be the obvious conclusion of any intelligent person who has been paying attention for the past 30 years? I don’t think anyone had to trick Putin into doing what he has wanted to do all along—reassemble the Soviet Union. Remember the story of the scorpion stinging the creature carrying him across a river? The creature asked, but why? now you are gong to drown. The scorpion answered, “It’s my nature.” I think Putin’s nature has been obvious for a long time. No plan was needed to lure him into doing what he has always wanted to do.

The article also had a few things to say about Boris Johnson in Great Britain and trouble he is in. An economically knowledgeable friend told me that GB has taken a 40% economic hit because of Brexit. Now those are some interesting beans to spill. This is the first I have heard anything about that possible Brexit result.

You might need a lot of infrastructure and housing to move in a lot of population, but you don’t need all that many people to drill a bunch of oil and gas wells, and send a pipeline back to Russia. For those who have not been paying attention, Putin became concerned when oil majors signed exploration papers in 2012, which directly motivated Putin’s move on Crimea in 2014 which promptly led to canceling of those papers. Putin’s goal is both regaining the Soviet Union AND grabbing all the resources he can. He does not have to be tricked into doing what he wants to do anyway. His ego prevents him from imagining he will fail or destroy his army in the process.

You are right. I should have said early 90s. I was a little confused by the quote I had seen earlier in the link at this post which I will put below, and the fact that during the second half of the 90’s my attention was mostly absorbed by my mother who was dying, my father’s death, and my late husband’s increasing dementia from Alzheimers.

“Mikhail Gorbachev, who single handedly reduced the Soviet Empire to modern Russia, had serious concerns about a reunified Germany in NATO. James Baker, Bush Senior’s Secretary of State, an old fashioned diplomat, reliable, not flighty, prevailed on Gorbachev on the German question, but promised that NATO would not move closer to Russia even “by an inch”.

Baker’s word was not kept. The climax was reached in 1998 when the US senate, after a perfunctory debate, ratified NATO expansion. One of the finest minds on strategy and possibly America’s greatest expert on Russia, George Kennan, gave a prescient interview which I have referred to earlier also.”

I do not see how Ukraine is the exact same thing as Northern Ireland.

One hundred years after the Norman invasion, the Normans invaded part of Ireland which was the start of more than 800 years of English political and military dominance in Ireland. Henry VIII proclaimed himself King of Ireland in 1541.

With English colonies going back to the 1550s, Ireland was arguably the first English and then British territory colonised by a group known as the West Country Men [English and Scottish Protestant settlers]. Gaelic Ireland was finally defeated at the battle of Kinsale in 1601 which marked the collapse of the Gaelic system and the beginning of Ireland's history as fully part of the English and later British Empire.

Compare and contrast the English and Irish with the Russian and Ukraine relationships over a close to a thousand years.

On 1 January 1801, in the wake of the republican United Irishmen Rebellion, the Irish Parliament was abolished and Ireland became part of a new United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland formed by the Acts of Union 1800.

Now consider the absorption of the Ukraine into the Soviet Union.

In 1916 the Easter Rising succeeded in turning public opinion against the British establishment after the execution of the leaders by British authorities. It also eclipsed the home rule movement. In 1922, after the Irish War of Independence most of Ireland seceded from the United Kingdom to become the independent Irish Free State but under the Anglo-Irish Treaty the six northeastern counties, known as Northern Ireland, remained within the United Kingdom, creating the partition of Ireland.

Now consider the fall of the Soviets and the rebirth of the Ukraine yet some areas with Russian populations wanted to remain with the Russian Mother Country.

These divisions erupted into the Troubles in the late 1960s, after civil rights marches were met with opposition by authorities. The violence escalated after the deployment of the British Army to maintain authority led to clashes with nationalist communities. The violence continued for 28 years until an uneasy, but largely successful peace was finally achieved with the Good Friday Agreement in 1998.

/sigh Here we are right now in the middle of the war in Northen Ireland, I'm sorry, I mean the middle of the war in East Ukraine. It is so sad that I have to draw you a picture. It is also sad that the resolution was a negotiated peace between the interested parties, but people like you want to bring on WWIII.

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