Example of an opinion: [URL]https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/no-ukraine-settlement-unless-washington-talks-moscow-214026[/URL].
Printable View
Example of an opinion: [URL]https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/no-ukraine-settlement-unless-washington-talks-moscow-214026[/URL].
[QUOTE=Questner;2967283]What is the origin of the conflict? [/QUOTE]Easy. Putin wants to be remembered in history as the next Peter the Great. He doesn't care if hundreds of thousands (Russians and Ukrainians, doesn't matter to him) are killed for this purpose.
[QUOTE=Questner;2967283]What are the positions of the parties? [/QUOTE]Ukrainians want to be able to make their own decisions about their own country. Putin believes that he can invade any neighbouring country if he feels like it.
[QUOTE=Questner;2967283]How to end the conflict in a way that will bring open borders, friendship and better life? [/QUOTE]I doubt you will have open borders and friendship between Ukraine and Russia. My family was impacted about both world wars. I can tell you that people don't forget what happened to them during a war.
[QUOTE=Questner;2967283]
1) In 1940 we moved the border west near Leningrad. We are ready to move it again if needed.
2) We have even a saying that Russian Army is used to pay a visit into Berlin and Paris once in a century.[/QUOTE]1) The mighty Red Army had serious problems with the few Finnish, defending their territory. Only during second winter war, Red Army had real success.
The Finnish got only minimal official foreign support, not even from their neighbour Sweden.
Different scenario today: Putler succeeded to bring Finland and Sweden into NATO.
2) The visit to Berlin was badly supported by the USA: About 7,000 tanks, 11,000 aircraft, 400,000 Jeeps and trucks.
Different scenario today.
And, the Chinese will sooner or later liberate their ethnic relatives in Siberia, and ask the RF for historically Chinese territory.
What Putler can do, the Chinese can do, as well.
When was Russian Army in Paris, BTW? I mean, not as friendly visitors?
Anyway, you openly confirm the imperialistic, aggressive attitude of Russia.
[QUOTE=Questner;2967283]I am pessimistic about European future. In 1940 [b]we moved the border west near Leningrad[/b]. We are ready to move it again if needed. We have even a saying that Russian Army is used to pay a visit into Berlin and Paris once in a century. I don't think it would be wise to prompt the invitation.[/QUOTE]You moved the border alright, after dropping up to 1 million Russians dead. I don't think it was wise to remember the disastrous Winter War, the war against a tiny country that destroyed USSR's military credibility; the war that encouraged Hitler to attack quickly; the war Russia kept losing even after Russia's fortunes were reversed and the Nazis were on the run; the war Stalin had to settle because he wasn't willing to pay the price it would cost him to win decisively. Gee, if the Finnish war is the source of your national pride now, you're truly hopeless!
[QUOTE=PaulInZurich;2967349]Easy. Putin wants to be remembered in history as the next Peter the Great. He doesn't care if hundreds of thousands (Russians and Ukrainians, doesn't matter to him) are killed for this purpose.
Ukrainians want to be able to make their own decisions about their own country. Putin believes that he can invade any neighbouring country if he feels like it.
I doubt you will have open borders and friendship between Ukraine and Russia. My family was impacted about both world wars. I can tell you that people don't forget what happened to them during a war.[/QUOTE]Thank you very much. Let me rephrase, for example:
I guess President Lyndon be. Johnson wanted to be remembered in history as the next Barry Lyndon the Great. He didn't care if hundreds of thousands Vietnamese and Americans were killed for this purpose. Vietnamese wanted to be able to make their own decisions about their own country. Johnson believed that he could invade any neighbouring country if he felt like it. I doubt you will have open borders and friendship between Vietnam and the US. My family was impacted about both world wars. I can tell you that people don't forget what happened to them during a war.
Of course, by no means I would try to change anyone's opinion here. It's futile.
[QUOTE=Questner;2967519]Thank you very much. Let me rephrase, for example:
.....
[/QUOTE]I like this argumentation: Billy the Kid robbed the banks. Thus, I am also entitled to do the same.
Fortunately, there are (still) Russians, who privately talk totally different from your official standpoint of view. Writes somebody, who lived and worked several years in the RF.
And several years in UA, too.
I even was a fan of Putin. Before he started to copy Adolf.
[QUOTE=Questner;2967519]Thank you very much. Let me rephrase, for example: [/QUOTE]Vietnam or Iraq or whatever have nothing to do with the invasion of Ukraine.
Thank you for making my point that there is no valid reason for Putin to invade Ukraine. He is just a blood thirsty client. He believes that Ukraine has no right to exist.
[QUOTE=Questner;2967283]What is the origin of the conflict? What are the positions of the parties? How to end the conflict in a way that will bring open borders, friendship and better life? How to avoid escalation of this conflict?[/QUOTE]Absolutely. That's what the Russians, Ukrainians and the West should be seeking, not escalation or continuing the killing. Admittedly as pointed out by another poster, open borders (between the EU, Ukraine, Russia, etc) and friendship may be a ways off.
[QUOTE=Questner;2967519]Thank you very much. Let me rephrase, for example:
I guess President Lyndon be. Johnson wanted to be remembered in history as the next Barry Lyndon the Great. He didn't care if hundreds of thousands Vietnamese and Americans were killed for this purpose. Vietnamese wanted to be able to make their own decisions about their own country. Johnson believed that he could invade any neighbouring country if he felt like it. I doubt you will have open borders and friendship between Vietnam and the US. [/QUOTE]Then there was George W. Bush and Iraq. While the Iraqi's weren't able too make their own decisions about their own country, the grand experiment in installing democracy didn't work out too well.
Also, in decades and centuries past, there are the governments, a number of which were democracies, in Latin American and other places, overthrown with the help of Uncle Sam.
There is not a single tyrant in the last 100 years--Lenin, Stalin, Hitler, Mao, Pol Pot, or Putin--who would've been as successful in their genocidal efforts if it hadn't been for a cheerful and enthusiastic assistance from useful idiots in the West.
[QUOTE=Tiny12;2967681]Then there was George W. Bush and Iraq. While the Iraqi's weren't able too make their own decisions about their own country, the grand experiment in installing democracy didn't work out too well.
Also, in decades and centuries past, there are the governments, a number of which were democracies, in Latin American and other places, overthrown with the help of Uncle Sam.[/QUOTE]How do horrible American policies justify Putins invasion of Ukraine?
The narrative about Mr. Putin ambition is a fantasy. It's not a fact, theory or even speculation without being corroborated by his statements or other trustworthy source as defined by the intelligence community. The decision for the SMO was debated and authorized by the whole Security Council of the RF. Such decisions are not rubber stamped.
Ukrainians likely want to make their own decisions, but who would let them? This 'who would let them' is widely and clearly understood phrase both in Russia and Ukraine. It's the West who had all the chances not to intervene, not to spoil, molest, corrupt, bribe and undermine Ukraine's sovereignty but acted otherwise.
[QUOTE=Questner;2967813]The narrative about Mr. Putin ambition is a fantasy. It's not a fact, theory or even speculation without being corroborated by his statements or other trustworthy source as defined by the intelligence community. The decision for the SMO was debated and authorized by the whole Security Council of the RF. Such decisions are not rubber stamped.
Ukrainians likely want to make their own decisions, but who would let them? This 'who would let them' is widely and clearly understood phrase both in Russia and Ukraine. It's the West who had all the chances not to intervene, not to spoil, molest, corrupt, bribe and undermine Ukraine's sovereignty but acted otherwise.[/QUOTE]100% Russian propaganda.
[QUOTE=Questner;2967813]The narrative about Mr. Putin ambition is a fantasy. It's not a fact, theory or even speculation without being corroborated by his statements or other trustworthy source as defined by the intelligence community. The decision for the SMO was debated and authorized by the whole Security Council of the RF. Such decisions are not rubber stamped.[/QUOTE]This is so fucking funny. The guys in the Russian security council don't even wipe their ass unless Putin tells them to. Just a bunch of guys with mentality of slaves. Be careful, if you say otherwise, you will find out if you can fly.
[QUOTE=Questner;2967813]
Ukrainians likely want to make their own decisions, but who would let them? This 'who would let them' is widely and clearly understood phrase both in Russia and Ukraine. It's the West who had all the chances not to intervene, not to spoil, molest, corrupt, bribe and undermine Ukraine's sovereignty but acted otherwise.[/QUOTE]Who said that Ukraine is not even a real country? Right, that was your daddy Vladdy.
Eldar Mamedov addresses beliefs of a couple of board members in this piece in Responsible Statecraft.
[B]McCarthyism, European style: The elite crackdown on Ukraine dissent[/B]
[URL]https://responsiblestatecraft.org/europe-ukraine-war/[/URL]
[QUOTE=PaulInZurich;2967756]How do horrible American policies justify Putins invasion of Ukraine?[/QUOTE]
[QUOTE=PaulInZurich;2967575]Vietnam or Iraq or whatever have nothing to do with the invasion of Ukraine.[/QUOTE]Eldar writes, [B]Stranne (leading Swedish international relations scholar Frida Stranne), while acknowledging that Russias invasion of Ukraine was an egregious breach of international law, [u]pointed to U.S. policies since 2001, such as the invasion of Iraq, noting that they have helped to undermine international legal principles and set the precedent for other countries acting preemptively against perceived threats.[/u]
In the same interview, she also warned that a refusal to countenance a negotiated settlement to the war in Ukraine is leading the world perilously close to the brink of a major military conflict between NATO and Russia.[/B].
[QUOTE=Xpartan;2967719] [b]Useful idiots are guilty too. Blood on their hands.[/b]
There is not a single tyrant in the last 100 years--Lenin, Stalin, Hitler, Mao, Pol Pot, or Putin--who would've been as successful in their genocidal efforts if it hadn't been for a cheerful and enthusiastic assistance from useful idiots in the West.[/QUOTE]If you're going to include Putin with that group then you darn well better include George W. Bush too. By some estimates over 4 million died as a result of what he kicked off after September 11.
Anyway, Eldar writes, "[B] In March 2022, both Ukraine and Russia were close to a deal broadly along these same parameters. It did not work, because, among other reasons, the West encouraged Ukraine to believe that a military victory was possible. The role of then-British Prime Minister Boris Johnson in undermining the talks is now generally acknowledged. What is, however, particularly striking is that Johnson recently himself admitted that he saw the war in Ukraine as a proxy war against Russia a claim made by Stranne and the Quincy Institutes Trita Parsi in their 2023 book, in Swedish, The Illusion of American Peace, for which they were lambasted for purportedly pushing Russian narratives.[/B].
Now, who are the useful idiots, for the benefit of the arms industry and the generals? Academics like Frida Stranne and politicians like Donald Trump who've been pushing for peace since when this lunacy started? Or warmongers like Boris Johnson? A majority of Ukrainians now want negotiations to start to end the war. Are they useful idiots? From the NYT today,
[b]For all of Mr. Trumps bluster, many in Ukraine have pinned their hopes on him to end the war on acceptable terms. A recent poll by the New Europe Center found that 44 percent of Ukrainians trust Mr. Trump, higher than in any other European country, including Trump-friendly Hungary....I hope Trump will do what he promised for peace to come to Ukraine, said Yulia Lymych, 25, a real-estate agent. This is the main wish of Ukrainians. I feel very sorry for the guys who died at war. I have friends who died and friends who are still fighting. My boyfriend is fighting. I want them all to come back home.[/b]
[url]https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/14/world/europe/trump-ukraine-russia.html?searchResultPosition=1[/url]
Is Yulia Lymych a useful idiot?
Putin's not genocidal. That's ridiculous. If he resorted to tactics like General Curtis LeMay or Air Chief Marshal Sir Arthur Harris, who masterminded carpet bombing of Japanese and German civilians respectively, there would be a lot of dead Ukrainian civilians. And that's without using nuclear weapons. This is almost certainly lower than the real number, but the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights has only verified 12,162 Ukrainian civilian deaths through October, 2024.
[url]https://www.statista.com/statistics/1293492/ukraine-war-casualties/[/url]
[B]Priceless LOL![/B]
[QUOTE=questner;2967813]
Pearl #1: The narrative about mr. Putin ambition is a fantasy. It's not a fact, theory or even speculation without being corroborated by [b]his statements[/b] or other [b]trustworthy[/b] source.
Pearl #2:[b] ukrainians likely want to make their own decisions, but who would let them?[/b] this 'who would let them' is widely and clearly understood phrase both in russia and ukraine.[/QUOTE]