Way to downplay the self determination of smaller countries! Ukraine allies with the US for the same reason Vietnam often sides with the US over China: the empire next door is a bigger problem than the empire on the other side of the planet. The US is the lesser evil in those situations, especially in Ukraine's case.
The alternative is being an actual puppet to an empire that sees you as nothing but a buffer and a breadbasket. Being under the thumb of a reformed empire that inflicted famine and genocide on you and other neighbors. The ethnic Russian makeup of post Soviet countries isn't a mistake, but an example of deliberate imperialism by that Russian empire.
In terms of this disrespect, Ukraine got of easy compared to countries like Kazakhstan. I don't care how much you complain about landowners in Ukraine, I dare you to defend the population control and environmental destruction there as anything less than imperialist cruelty.
The Soviet Union was a red-washed Russian empire, not some model system that was much different than the liberty-clad American empire. It was not made of equal states, but a dominant power squeezing the rest. Nationalistic bullshit is what the selfish turn to when capitalism runs its course, and that's what this tankie bullshit is: counter-revolutionary garbage where nothing fundamentally changes. The answers will never be that easy.
Ukraine allies with the US for the same reason Vietnam often sides with the US over China: the empire next door is a bigger problem than the empire on the other side of the planet. The US is the lesser evil in those situations, especially in Ukraine’s case.
Ukraine allies with the west because of years of US imperialism to force the country in a war with Russia for its own imperial interests.
In 2008, Burns wrote to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice: "Ukrainian entry into NATO is the brightest of all redlines for the Russian elite (not just Putin). In more than two and a half years of conversations with key Russian players, from knuckle-draggers in the dark recesses of the Kremlin to Putin's sharpest liberal critics, I have yet to find anyone who views Ukraine in NATO as anything other than a direct challenge to Russian interests."[17]
Ukraine was duped by the west. The west tricked Ukraine into thinking that they would support them and invite them into NATO, but in actuality the goal was always to start a war with Russia. As you can see with Trumps victory in the USA, USA is about to pull the plug on Ukraine and this war will reveal itself for what it always was.
The alternative is being an actual puppet to an empire that sees you as nothing but a buffer and a breadbasket.
Duped by the west into wanting protection from their imperialist neighbor? I wonder why they'd want that? 🤔
America being an evil empire doesn't make Russia justified in throwing half a million lives down the drain like it's nothing. Ukraine was never expected by anybody to join NATO until Crimea, and even then, most of the West would've preferred neutrality for Ukraine. It was a redline for most of NATO as well, because they knew it was more trouble than it was worth. Wannabe imperial powers like Turkey play their own game, even within NATO.
US bad ≠ Russia good. Russia is very, very bad actually.
How utterly vile of you to call a country cowardly because they don't toe your ideological line. Have you considered that maybe China is just that much more of a threat right now? That the world isn't as simple or easy as you want it to be? No, because you're a pathetic coward who can't handle the truth.
This is what the US have done to them. Totally the same as fighting over a few inlets in south china sea /s
I hope china drops pathogenic agent on the US lmao see how you like it when you see your kids for the first time and he doesn't have a nose. Honestly, I'd rather be in the gulag.
Don't worry! The pesticides have already enacted similar horrors on Mexican farm workers for decades. Add that to the effects of pollution on people who live near freeways, my family is intimately aware about such things. They've blamed my autism on it, but I only think my mother's asthma can be definitively linked...
No hug. Not until you promise to stop calling countries cowards for playing empires off one another. Not until you stop simping for empires like it's team sports. Opening your eyes is the only act of kindness I request of you.
You think my friend in kiev gives a shit about dombass or crimea? No, he mostly cares about staying alive and not sent to the butchery. It's not supporting Putin to want the war to end. Putin is sent by the west anyway.
Your friend had no chance of avoiding violence from the Russian state. Ukrainians have to choose either violence from a puppet state, or violence from the Russian invaders. It might seem like the latter is worse, but the genocide they've suffered under the USSR with nobody to fight for them but literal Nazis was fairly miserable too. Famine as a food exporter was brutal, as is family separation and being unable to speak your own language.
Those bombs are what caused it to escalate to this. The US was placing missile and troop deployments at the Russian border, in violation of previous agreements.
Can you provide a link to a page which shows the text of these agreements? Or maybe the Wikipedia pages of some of the specific agreements you are referring to?
So you’ve done the playing dumb part of your script, and legitimizing Wikipedia as a credible source. Now you’ll move onto the part of, ‘actually I know all about those, and here’s why they don’t count.’
Nice job trying to pre-empt any criticism of your position because you know by your own admission that the role of the Minsk Agreements has been debunked repeatedly. That's also why you didn't mention them by name to begin with.
But no, I was not going to say that, because that would be engaging in a "did not" "did too" slap fight which will ultimately end up going nowhere. I prefer to take at face value whatever you guys claim, and then ask questions about the details of your position until we get somewhere where you'd have to admit that your position is inconsistent with itself, that you claim two or more contradictory things to be true at the same time. Usually at that point there is either no more reply or some crazy deflection.
So answer me this, if you can: Why did the violation of the Minsk Agreements make Putin decide to do a full-scale invasion of Ukraine instead of more negotiations to stop the fighting? Is peace not the ultimate and most important goal?
There it is. Seriously, you NAFO bots need a new script. The playing dumb part of it makes you stand out like a sore thumb.
You’re still doing it, too. Pretending you’re not aware of any of the facts or historical context outside of your comment. Which if I then bring up, then you’ll suddenly be aware of those too so that you can argue against it. I’ve done this back and forth with you turds too many times to be caught off guard. And you haven’t changed your methodology in a couple of years.
Is the intention that you don’t want to reveal too much incriminating info for Ukraine and the west? Like only acknowledge them to argue against them, and hope they’re not brought up at all?
The historical context is clear enough that there is no need to talk about any of it: the current events are a continuation of centuries of Russian expansionist imperialist aggression. Their excuses may change but the fact of Russian imperialism does not.
Yeah, I’m aware y’all don’t like to acknowledge the Maiden Coup, the Nazis in charge, the genocide of ethnic Russians in the Donbas, NATO swarming the Russian border with troops & missile deployments and escalation for years, etc.
Like I said, I’ve been through this with you people before. You can move to the denial portion of the script now. Let’s get this over with.
It's an interesting "coup" when the government before and after the coup is the exact same, and only one official left the country of his own volition. When you say "nazis", do you mean in the commonly understood sense of "fascist ultranationalists" or in the Russian sense of "anyone who has any grievances with Russia for any reason whatsoever"? There is no evidence of genocide in the Donbas other than that Russia said so. Why does Russia have to care about NATO at its borders, what's the problem?
But this is exactly the kind of "did not" "did too" kind of slap fight I have little interest in because all of the points have been made a million times already.
Even if all of what Russia claims about Ukraine was true, none if it is justification for Russia to invade and annex parts of the country. All excuses for imperialist expansion.
A shame, really, that Russia has gone down this path. It could be a wealthy, flourishing, respected country if after the fall of the Soviet Union it had made friends instead of enemies, like most other post-Soviet states have done and are better off for it. But of course Russia couldn't do that: Russian imperialism is forever.
There it is. Denial and justification for Nazis. Literal Nazis, who self identify as such and parade the symbols. Wild that your script still calls for you to deny it while they’re erecting statues of Nazis.
I would say killing Nazis is a perfect reason for an invasion, if that’s actually what they intend to do. Nazi lives don’t matter.
Russia invade inspite of not just agreements, actual treaties, which guarantee Ukraine the liberty to conduct their own foreign policy as they pleased in exchange for their nuclear arsenal.
Except those treaties and agreements were broken by Ukraine and NATO years before the Russian invasion. And every foreign policy expert advised against it at the time. Even Henry Kissinger warned the west was intentionally trying to provoke an invasion from Russia, and not honoring the agreements.
By allowing NATO to position scores of missile & troop deployments at the Russian border, and attempting a genocide against the ethnic Russians they promised to allow some self-governance.
Those bombs are blowing up people in Ukraine, statistically in America's conflicts, it's like 10 civilians to 140 for every "enemy combatant", and I doubt the Ukrainian conscripts are more disciplined and trained than America is.
Do you genuinely believe America has any interest at all in improving conditions for the people of Ukraine? Has that been true one single time since WWII?
There's 3 parties here who can unilaterally end the war that has killed or wounded over a million and displaced millions more, America, Russia, and Ukraine.
Its only choice is how many of it's kids they want to send into a meatgrinder trying to hold onto the Russian-speaking territories whose people it didn't seem to like very much before the invasion, and it seems to like even less now.
There's no realistic way for Ukraine to push Russia out, let alone deal with the resulting insurgency. Same applies if Russia tried to hold the Ukrainian-majority territories. Actually they're probably in for an insurgency either way given their conduct.
Also if an asshole came up to you, shot you in the leg and demanded your house, how would you react when people around you said "just give him the garden and cellar as compromise"
Ever heard of an analogy? Also you were the one saying Ukraine should just yield to the imperialist power invading their country, puppet
Edit:
My brother in Christ, what does my country have to do with this? At least you saw your own bullshit and deleted it, if only you had the same realization about the other shit you spew
But we both know you won't do shit. You are a first world coward from a country that consistantly have been on the wrong side of history - on ukraine, on palestine, on coal,... My grandma told me about you people. I grew up with memorials for this or that german massacre and collective punishment. Your opinion doesn't count.
Being in favor of war and human misery is in the germanic zeitgeist unfortunately. You guys need a totale Rückverdummung
Mate, the only thing you have to say is that Ukraine is getting fucked over left and right. Instead you find the strangest ways to twist that into apologizing for Russian imperialist interests.
statistically in America’s conflicts, it’s like 10 civilians to 140 for every “enemy combatant”, and I doubt the Ukrainian conscripts are more disciplined and trained than America is
Surely you understand the very different nature of America's recent conflicts (air strikes on small numbers of militants living among civilians) to the war in Ukraine (frontlines where civilians have been evacuated and every building has been destroyed). Or taking your numbers of 10 to 140 civilians for every enemy combatant, are you suggesting that Ukrainian soldiers have killed on the order of a million to ten million civilians as "collateral damage"?
Do you genuinely believe America has any interest at all in improving conditions for the people of Ukraine?
I believe that is irrelevant to the Ukrainians. They are happy to get any support they can to help fight off their would-be oppressors. Whether or not America is interested in improving the conditions for the people of Ukraine, it only takes one look at Russia and then at the EU to see where the common people have a better standard of living.
There’s 3 parties here who can unilaterally end the war that has killed or wounded over a million and displaced millions more, America, Russia, and Ukraine.
Of those three, only Russia can end the war unilaterally with no downsides to any party. Ukraine can only end the war unilaterally if they want to be subjugated under Russian oppression. I fail to see how America could end the war unilaterally. Even if they cut all military support to Ukraine, Ukrainians will keep fighting because they do not want to be ruled by Russia.
I am under no impression that Putin wants to save Ukraine. I am observing that what is happening is far worse than if they had agreed to the peace deal they had in 2022, and far far worse than if they simply enforced the minsk II agreement.
It would have been better if Russia had abided by the Minsk II agreement. Better yet, if the Budapest memorandum had been enforced and Russia not invaded its sovereign neighbor to begin with. But power is the only language Russia speaks.
Ukraine desperately wants those bombs. They remember what it was like living under Russian imperialist rule. They remember that Russia genocided 10% of their population the last time they were conquered.
The government of Ukraine wants those bombs to take control over a territory filled with people they are openly hostile to. The people, like all people, want to live in peace.
Do you really think that this particular bourgeoisie democracy, unlike all the others, represents the people? One that has suspended elections and throws people in prison for "questioning Ukraine's territorial integrity"?
Every single military action the US has taken since WWII, the US has been acting directly contrary to the interests of the people it claimed to be helping, and every single time the US population gets duped into thinking this time they're there to help. Why do you think this one is different?
What they're defending against is being raped, murdered, starved and having their children stolen by Russia. All you Tankies always try to distract from and ignore the suffering and mountain of corpses left in Russia's wake. You don't get to ignore the 300 thousand children stolen by Russia or the 5 million killed in the Holodomor.
distract from and ignore the suffering and mountain of corpses
You are the one advocating for more human lives to be sacrificed over some nationalist horseshit. Every bomb we send adds more corpses to the pile. I want peace as quickly as possible.
The Holodomor happened years after Russia achieved their so-called "peace". The suffering and death in Ukraine will only increase under Russian subjugation. The only way to put an end to it is for Russia to lose and preferably Putin be brought in front of the Hague and publicly hanged for his crimes against humanity.
The holodomor happened to the USSR during wide-spread crop failure, it's kinda irrelevent to modern Russia.
The suffering and death in Ukraine will only increase under Russian subjugation
There will be similar amounts of suffering and death under the other bourgeoisie democracy run by a literal billionaire. Either would be far, far better for the people than what they are experiencing now.
Putin be brought in front of the Hague and publicly hanged for his crimes against humanity
Yup, same with Zelensky, Biden, Trump, and most every other leader who could stop this and doesn't.
The only way to put an end to it is for Russia to lose