Ooo just remembered I have salami in the fridge.Did NATO hold a gun to the collective heads of the Kremlin and force them to start salami-slicing pieces of Ukraine? Or were there other things Russia could have done in order to convince their neighbours to stay in a Eurasian geopolitical orbit, rather than move into a trans-Atlantic one?
If anything, the Russian occupation of Ukraine has become the best advertisement in favour of NATO membership since the end of the Cold War. Putin and his lickspittles might as well accept payment from NATO for being such effective recruiting sergeants.
NoThe message from the pro-war establishment is the same as usual: If you question the narrative and try to see a bigger picture (this is about more than innocent ickle wickle Ukraine being attacked) than you are a friend of "Puťler".
But the difference is now that the pro-war establishment has had years to establish a narrative and much of the supposed "left" (bunch of bloody Guardian reading liberals but hey-ho) has been co-opted.
The outcome of the war between NATO & Russia won't be decided via a demo for peace, but what actually happens on the ground and when Washington decides it is in their their interest to stop.
Speaking of whichAnd another fuckwit turns up.
I DON'T Support the Russian Invasion of de jure Ukraine, I wish we could go back to before 2014 somehow. But it is the powers in Kyiv that have pišşed it all away.Ah yes, the "narrative of the pro-war establishment". Remind me, the foreign troops that have been occupying Ukrainian territory since 2014, along with conducting a wholesale invasion in 2022, where do they come from? They are from Russia, yes? Not NATO? It astounds me how self-professed "anti-war" types in the West will ignore the blatantly obvious. The Kremlin's actions make them as pro-war as it's possible to get short of starting WWIII, but strangely enough they never figure in "peacemonger" rhetoric.
What's this "bigger picture" that apparently excuses Russian warmongering? NATO expansion? OK, let's keep widening our scope. Why might so many of Russia's neighbours prefer a NATO presence over a Russian one?
Nah. This is just putinophile bullshit.I DON'T Support the Russian Invasion of de jure Ukraine, I wish we could go back to before 2014 somehow. But it is the powers in Kyiv that have pišşed it all away.
The "wider picture" is worldwide geopolitics. The "Belt & Road" initiative, oil being sold in currencies other than USD, BRICS, coup d'etats in Sahel Africa......
I've a had a while off Urban and just putting my tootsies back in to it as opposed to being some new "fcukwit" turning up. It is interesting to watch how the tenor has somewhat changed.
Saddam Hussein was a nastier guy than that there "Puťler", but more people questioned back then the narrative of the Iraq war for example.
What do you mean by "de jure" in this context? Isn't it a a term used with regard to legal recognition of a territory's status used in contrast to ""de facto". I wasn't aware that you were an international legal institution.I DON'T Support the Russian Invasion of de jure Ukraine, I wish we could go back
Saddam Hussein was a nastier guy than that there "Puťler", but more people questioned back then the narrative of the Iraq war for example.
What do you mean by "de jure" in this context? Isn't it a a term used with regard to legal recognition of a territory's status used in contrast to ""de facto". I wasn't aware that you were an international legal institution.
As to Iraq, I would have thought the more appropriate comparison would be between Putin and Bush as aggressors trying to establish their place the in history books; and Zelenski and Saddam, with the latter probably being nastier than the former, as victims of imperial overreach.
Saddam Hussein was a nastier guy than that there "Puťler", but more people questioned back then the narrative of the Iraq war for example.
But we then also need to need to talk about money, the media and dodgy practices from "our" ruling class influencing the political discourse domestically and of course how they operate in other European states.
NAFO are a meme spewing irrelevance. As to the Great War analogy, there are no troops from Britain or other NATO states going to fight on that distant land of which you seem to know nothing. Many of the Ukrainians I meet have been dispossessed, robbed, brutalised and in at least on case raped by the occupying forces. Whatever outside interests there may be, they see themselves as resisting occupation, not as pawns of International Capital.I wonder how the NAFO crew are going to argumentativly deal with the situation if and when it comes to pass that NATO doesn't win this war.
Looking back now to WW1, the "rah rah rah, we're going to smash the horrible Huns" rhetoric seems horrible as hundreds of thousands of young working class men died in the squalor of the trenches in a war of the bosses on both sides.
But here we are, 100 years later doing it again
Mick Wallace & Clare Daly an unflattering piece in the Irish Times:Mick Wallace is also a tax dodging property developer, and with Clare Daly the most quoted western politicians on Chinese state media.
Both have consistently voted against all sanctions on Russia.
Of course, being a student of history like all good 'leftists' you'll know that it was Labour who took the UK into NATO, and Labour who drove through the UK nuclear weapons program, and they have held to those commitments in every post war government they've formed.
Your version of the left - which is friends with every vile regime on the planet - are not labour, and you are not the left.
NAFO will manage. You don't need to be concerned on their behalf.I wonder how the NAFO crew are going to argumentativly deal with the situation if and when it comes to pass that NATO doesn't win this war.
Looking back now to WW1, the "rah rah rah, we're going to smash the horrible Huns" rhetoric seems horrible as hundreds of thousands of young working class men died in the squalor of the trenches in a war of the bosses on both sides.
But here we are, 100 years later doing it again
Mick Wallace & Clare Daly an unflattering piece in the Irish Times:
How Clare Daly and Mick Wallace became stars of authoritarian state media
It's a bit more complicated than just being a Putinophile, isn't it?Nah. This is just putinophile bullshit.
I don't know why people are drawing parallels between the invasion of Ukraine and the Gulf War. For one thing, there were two Gulf Wars. I supported the first, because Iraq had invaded Kuwait. This was roughly parallel to what is happening now, and nobody thought that Kuwait was necessarily on the side of the angels. That wasn't the point. I didn't support the second Gulf War, because I didn't consider Saddam to be a credible threat to anyone at that particular time. Whether he was in the abstract better or worse than Putin is neither here nor there.
I DON'T Support the Russian Invasion of de jure Ukraine, I wish we could go back to before 2014 somehow. But it is the powers in Kyiv that have pišşed it all away.
The "wider picture" is worldwide geopolitics. The "Belt & Road" initiative, oil being sold in currencies other than USD, BRICS, coup d'etats in Sahel Africa......
I've a had a while off Urban and just putting my tootsies back in to it as opposed to being some new "fcukwit" turning up. It is interesting to watch how the tenor has somewhat changed.
Saddam Hussein was a nastier guy than that there "Puťler", but more people questioned back then the narrative of the Iraq war for example.
I DON'T Support the Russian Invasion of de jure Ukraine, I wish we could go back to before 2014 somehow. But it is the powers in Kyiv that have pišşed it all away.
The "wider picture" is worldwide geopolitics. The "Belt & .
Given the weaponisation of the dollar with regards Russia ...fair enough. Though would say from that perspective Russia already ceded to Beijing. Think that side of things about to heat up (oh and China has misstepped with regards G20)Road" initiative, oil being sold in currencies other than USD, BRICS, coup d'etats in Sahel Africa......
I've a had a while off Urban and just putting my tootsies back in to it as opposed to being some new "fcukwit" turning up. It is interesting to watch how the tenor has somewhat changed.
Saddam Hussein was a nastier guy than that there "Puťler", but more people questioned back then the narrative of the Iraq war for example.
"Seem to know nothing"?
Before the horrible war started I spent the previous 15 years visiting, about twice a year, every corner of Ukraine, from Uzghorod to Luhansk.
My Ukrainian language skills really just enough to survive, but where possible I spoke to as many people as possible and hungrily read all I can about Ukraine in the media.
Also a fair number of contacts with Ukrainians in UA and abroad through working with socially progressive NGOs active in and with Ukraine.
So, not claiming to be an expert; but neither are my opinions and knowledge off the back of a cornflakes packet or given to me by an FSB handler.
The invasion happened nearly a decade ago. It's now time for a few home improvements.Why is crimea called an annexe not an invasion? Never got that. Its not a fucking porch
Fairly sure I'm not in crimea. Could do with repainting the bathroom I guess. Just seems weird to downplay an invasion by giving it the same name as a building extension.The invasion happened nearly a decade ago. It's now time for a few home improvements.
Why is crimea called an annexe not an invasion? Never got that. Its not a fucking porch
BRB on way to annex the neighbours annex. It does need a paint job.It was done politely