Russo-Ukrainian War 2014-23 and Invasion

[The Brain]

Who or what is Tomi Lahren?

[Josquius]

Pronouns?wut?

[Duque de Bragança]

The cruel irony is that the uprising against Lukashenka turned out to be a huge setback for the forces of democracy.  It essentially handed the country on the platter to Putin.

Yep, having that kolkhoz manager in power who had a troubled and unstable relation with Putin certainly seems like a lesser evil now.

[Duque de Bragança]

Yes, complete exclusion from sporting and cultural events. Let them have their own leagues and shows with Belarus and their other puppets.

That's far from glorious but I could see some serious support for that given Russia is still in the contest for the Wahhabi World Cup.

[garbon]

Who or what is Tomi Lahren?

someone irrelevant

[Eddie Teach]

Has Kelsey Grammer spoken yet?

Are you listening?

[The Brain]

Has Kelsey Grammer spoken yet?

Are you listening?

With 'bated breath.

[Crazy_Ivan80]

AKK's party was in power for sixteen years until two months ago, so she must ask herself why she was not able to convince her party or society at large regarding her views.

In this case I fear there's butter on all the parties heads, as well as on all the electorate, of all western countries (at least the european ones).
Balls of light indeed.
No fucking balls left.

Hopefully we've got time enough to turn it around and grow some new ones.

[Berkut]

Lets not screw around with sanctions, and just go with a full embargo. No business with Russia. No buying, so selling. Nothing.

Turn them into a pariah state like North Korea.

[Tamas]

Lets not screw around with sanctions, and just go with a full embargo. No business with Russia. No buying, so selling. Nothing.

Turn them into a pariah state like North Korea.

Uhm, what about all them profit targets? 

[The Brain]

Yeah. It's time to draw a bottom line in the sand.

[OttoVonBismarck]

Big picture--no war with Russia, obviously. But Alexander Vindman is basically spot on with this, he has done a lot of good analysis. The West needs to accept some truths here:

1. We are complicit in this. Both by ignoring previous Russian aggression and by largely funding Russia's modern state. The USSR in part was always a sick man economically despite being a superpower militarily because its access to Western markets was always massively limited. We did occasional detentes and economic liberalization with them, but until the mid-1980s the USSR had nothing remotely like the economic relationship with the West that Russia has now enjoyed for almost 40 years. This economic relationship, just like the one we gave to China, lets them create happier, more prosperous nations but does nothing to rein in their revisionist aggressive tendencies.

There is nothing on this earth that says the West has to have such close economic relationships with Russia and China. These countries are forming an axis of autocracy that have now shown they are willing to use force abroad to destroy democratic countries that might serve as an alternative to their systems of rule. This is a threat as grave as the Soviets and needs to be treated like such. The approach is not sanctions or other such things--it is literally a total re-shit back to Cold War thinking with Russia as the primary enemy and China added in if they drift out of normative behaviors too far.

2. We put a stop to Russian aggression in Europe for almost 70 years the only real way you put a stop to it--with the serious, credible, and overwhelmingly destructive threat of military force. There was no easy or obvious way to leverage such a thing in Ukraine, but we need to leverage it now in the Baltics. We need a serious and permanent U.S. military deployment along Russia's borders with the Baltic states, and a significant shift of military deployments from Germany to Poland. Germany was where we had most of our NATO forces in the Cold War because it was the front line with the Warsaw Pact. Poland is now the obvious front line and needs to be hardened beyond all imagination. We need to significantly increase total troop deployments in Europe, above and beyond redeploying existing troops. We need to be fully willing to put advanced missiles and other weapon systems right on Russia's borders in the Baltics and Poland.

Vindman said this and was absolutely right: We have tepidly refused to do much to really protect Ukraine because we feared it could escalate into a war with Russia. But Russia and Putin fear a war with the United States. The only way Russia will go to war with the United States is if we go to war with him. Understanding that means we also understand we have (and had--in Ukraine, sadly we missed our opportunity) bigger cards to play than many of the ultra-conservative foreign policy types are who have been preaching detente and hesitance in response to Putin for 20 years.

[OttoVonBismarck]

The other reality is we also need a strong Germany. Germany has historically been the most powerful state in Europe and its presence on the sidelines can no longer be the norm if the West and its values will survive the 21st century.

[The Brain]

The other reality is we also need a strong Germany. Germany has historically been the most powerful state in Europe and its presence on the sidelines can no longer be the norm if the West and its values will survive the 21st century.

Like I've said before, I think it's high time Germany stopped letting itself be defined by the actions of nutjobs during an era that is quickly passing from living memory. These days it just looks more and more like an excuse.

[FunkMonk]

Yeah. It's time to draw a bottom line in the sand.

We have to learn to synergize with externalities and launch new ventures into a Russophilic paradigm. Think of the shareholder value to be maximized.