freediver wrote on Mar 4
th, 2023 at 12:15pm:
MeisterEckhart wrote on Mar 4
th, 2023 at 12:09pm:
Gordon wrote on Mar 4
th, 2023 at 11:06am:
MeisterEckhart wrote on Mar 4
th, 2023 at 10:51am:
Ah, the post-truth world!
He's parroting Putin who made the claim in his address to the Russian parliament.
Putin is on the hook for a lot, but is it also fair enough to say the west (USA) conducted itself in a way that 100% ensured Putin would follow he course he did?
No, this war was always going to happen.
Ukrainians made a fateful decision when they decided to cast their lot with western political governance models and western values, as they indicated that they would be exiting the Russian cultural and political sphere of influence.
That's when it became, for Russians, not just an insult but a perceived existential threat.
It's what Putin and Lavrov really mean when they say Ukraine started it.
So Ukraine is to Russia what Vietnam was to the US?
NO. Viet Nam was never a part of the US. But the Ukraine was once a part of Russia. Viet Nam is a socialist/communist country. There are just too many differences between these countries to make this analogy.
Since the 90's, America/NATO has done everything to provoke and contain Russia. NATO/US were warned for many years about their expansion into Eastern Europe, and that the Ukraine was the final line in the sand. As this would completely encircle Russia with American/NATO missiles and bases. Not to mention, surrounded by countries with different political ideologies.
Remember what happened when Cuba decided to acquire missiles from Russia, as a deterrent for any future attacks by the US(the Bay of Pigs)? The US said that these missiles posed an existential threat to its sovereignty. America was willing to start WWIII if Russia didn't remove its missiles(the Cuban Missile Crisis).
But of course no existential threat to Russian sovereignty exists. Even while the US and NATO member nations, are openly conducting a proxy war against Russia. And, are trying to completely surround Russia with their missiles and bases. Obviously, just another one of American's double standard.
Russia knows that it could never win a conventional war against NATO/US. But by having the largest nuclear arsenal in the world, it doesn't have to. If Putin feels that his country is going to be destroyed by the combine might of 30 NATO and other counties, he might just decide that the nuclear option is his only option left. Do you think Hitler would have used nukes, if he had any??
And, at 5 miles per second(Mach 23), he could reach anywhere in the US in under 30 min. Or, in 10-20 min. if fired from Russian subs. And, there is nothing anyone can do, once these nukes are fired! Or, the nuclear winter that will follow. Oh, and there are no self-destruct code, once the missiles are fired. Except in the movies!
I'm sure that NATO/US, are willing to fight to the very last Ukrainian. And, I'm sure that this war would have ended many months ago, if not for foreign intervention.
I'm sure no one is expecting Russia to "just call it a day", and simply follow the instructions of Capitalist ideologues! Or, simply return home and let the capitalists take control over the rest of Russia's border countries. I remember just how irate/ballistic Australia went, at the thought of Papua New Guinea having China's flags in Port Moresby.
We should just mind our own business. Especially, when there is a risk of destroying all of mankind involved. When the first nukes drop, it won't matter anymore who was right, and who was wrong. Will it??
Excellent post.
As I say, "justice" is in the eye of the beholder.
My solution to our collective insanity is to accept rule of law as defined by an ICJ dedicated to upholding the principles of UNUDHR, with national disarmament overseen by a UNSC whose members are themselves relieved of the law-destroying veto power.