Posted on 05/16/2022 5:26:33 PM PDT by UMCRevMom@aol.com
International Law? Thats funny. The west just stole $300 billion in Euro deposits from Russia. They simply voted to steal it.
Blinken signed this commitment on Nov 10, 2021 in the midst of the Russian buildup on the Ukrainian border. It has received very little notice publicly and Congress was AWOL. Provocation is not too strong of a word. We should have been marshaling diplomatic efforts globally to avoid the imminent conflict. Instead, we led Ukraine down the primrose path to war.
surrender by any other name still smells the same as Snakespear would say.
Trying to save some of his Khazarian mafia cohorts. 😏
This is exactly the purview of the red cross. They should work with the UN to house captured prisoners from both sides of a conflict obviously in separate compounds. Make sure they get good medical care. Let their families visit them. Make arrangements for prisoner swaps. Plenty of press access. With all these peaceloving weenies who keep asking why we can’t all just get along, you’d think this would already be an ongoing program.
Shame.
All these Ukrainians are patriots. Some of these had amputations without anesthesia. I HATE Putin for what his INVASION did to Ukraine as well as Russia.
With a program like that in place, the only thing that keeps them bound is they’ll wanna go home to fight again. If there was some sort of mechanism that could be generated that guaranteed they couldn’t fight again, POWs would become more of a processing thing than years of being abused.
It certainly was a provocation for Russia to be building up forces on the Ukraine border, although I remember at the time hearing it was supposed to be practicing military maneuvers. I guess the whole world did not imagine Putin would do something so rash as invade. And the US people in the know, both in the administration and on the various Congressional defense related committees, probably thought the same. I’m not sure that failure to imagine how evil, or ill, Putin was constitutes leading Ukraine down a primrose path to war.
I’m not sure the $300 billion is stolen, rather it is probably frozen. We did something similar with $billions of Iran’s money with the capture of our Embassy people as a result of the Iran revolution. Eventually it was released back to Iran after agreements were signed. Some FReepers accused the Democrats of paying Iran for the agreements. It was merely releasing money that we had held for decades. I wonder if they got the original amount, or if there was accrued interest paid? I wonder what Russia will have to agree to in order to get their money back.
I recall reading that during our Revolution and our Civil War there was something called Parole. This was granted to captured British soldiers. It may have been reserved for officers as Parole was granted to men of honor whose word was respected. They swore not to return to the fight.
Those $hundreds of billions were released by obambam to Iran. I’m sure he only got, say 15% cut. There were all kinds of irregularities to the whole thing.
The US-Ukraine agreement was like waving a red flag in front of a bull. Putin's July 12, 2021 article, On the Historical Unity of Russians and Ukrainians should have set off alarm bells. Putin put out the red lines and we chose to cross them. The war could have been avoided.
You have been played by the MSM and the Ukrainian propaganda machine.
My take...
1. Putin underestimated Ukraine on the 1st offensive, and their capabilities.
2. Putin is setting for the southeast of Ukraine, which is also the economic heart of it, and has the highest level of Russian speakers and Communist Ukranians who support Putin, Russia and the Soviet Union.
3. Putin haven’t played anything closest to his highest card yet, not including WMDs. He doesn’t want to show too much to NATO.
4. Putin is trying to bait Ukraine into launching an offensive into the Rissian held areas in the Southeast, in hopes of tearing apart what remains of Ukranie’s armed forces. Fixed in position Russia can cause alot of damage and potentially break Ukraines armed forces, or at minimum force a stalemate. They also have their own high tech drones, as well as their own supply of Turkish Baktyir drones (and ones captured from the Ukes). Iglas and Kornets are just as deadly if not more, than Javelins and Stingers.
5. Ukraine is suffering high losses, but is doing well in keeping the exact figures secret, even from NATO.
6. If Ukraine falls or Russia gets a victory in negotiations, Taiwan is soon to follow. The west can’t allow this. But of NATO gets into a shooting war with Russia China will invade anyway.
7. Sanctions have allowed Russia to do things internally that they haven’t been able to do since the “collapse” of USSR1. It also frees up more industry for war production.
There are also Communist volunteers fighting for the Russians in Ukraine.
I believe Putin has been planning this since collapse of soviet union in 1991. Putin is even speaking of invading other nations after Ukraine.
Not surprisingly, you did not address the point of my comment.
Provocation is not too strong of a word. We should have been marshaling diplomatic efforts globally to avoid the imminent conflict. Instead, we led Ukraine down the primrose path to war.
Our current group is not too bright on diplomatic efforts. Russia is the aggressor, but we helped spur them on. There were repeated statements in favor of Ukraine joining NATO. There may have been a plan for Ukraine to send forces into Luhansk and Donetsk. Whatever, there was a massive miscalculation about the Russian response. For decades, Russia repeatedly drew a red line on Ukraine and NATO, akin to the Monroe/Polk doctrines. His bluff was called and it was not a bluff. Oopsies.
I’m not sure that failure to imagine how evil, or ill, Putin was constitutes leading Ukraine down a primrose path to war.
And if Ukraine had not gone about failing to implement the Minsk ceasefire agreements, and blathering about becoming a member of NATO, it would not have invited Russia to visit an attitude adjustment upon them. Russia's doctrine toward Ukraine was as clear as the USA Monroe/Polk doctrine caliming two continents.
Beyond the issue of right and wrong, there is the issue of poking the bear when the bear is the biggest, baddest SOB in the valley and can kick your ass. Relying on others to put boots on the ground to fight your war is not a wise choice if it involves Russia and an unwinnable war. Nobody was obligated and nobody volunteered for that one.
Nobody had to imagine that Putin would do what he considered necessary. That's like putting missiles in Cuba and being surprised that the reaction was a naval blockade (an international act of war) and a threat to carry forward to a nuclear war if needed. That was not considered evil or ill when we did it.
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