And they are correct. I really wish Congress would get their shit together.
It’s obvious, and either many congressmen are an agent of a foreign power, or are truly dumb enough to not realize the unspoken obviousness of this simple fact.
Prefix: I ended up ranting/venting a bit… our government is so frustrating at times:
From a US perspective, it is more a time for other countries to step up in this regard (as they have been), as while continued funding and support from the US will happen, it may be a long time from the US (maybe even 2 to 4 years if this election cycle doesn’t oust/block some of these nutjobs that are either beholden to outside powers, or don’t understand anything outside our own borders).
I’ll take this time to say what many keep unspoken, because Ukrainians have the balls to actually voice it to the world:
No offense to Ukrainians, I want them to win, but even a loss in Ukraine after a sustained long drawn out battle, is of benefit to any country Russia considers an adversary, a place to oppress, or a country were attractive resources. Ukraine should be supported in their opposition to this invasion for as many years as it takes, no matter what. Twenty years, fifty years, however long; there should be no metric of ‘it’s been 2 years, and Ukraine hasn’t won; are they just wasting our money?’. That is just a dumb concept.
I’m not sure we should be dismissive of politicians trying to reduce interventionist foreign pokicy in the abstract. The “US as world police” paradigm is a difficult angle.
From the US perspective, it’s expensive AF, delivers erratic results (see Iraq) and it’s created a lot of enemies over the years, basically handing Russia and China a support base on a silver platter.
On a global level, it does seem a bit weird for everyone to come calling to one nation for support, which doesn’t really encourage a multi-voiced and spirited debate if everything breaks down to “whoever has US backing wins”.
There’s definitely a “we wrote a cheque we no longer want to cash” lock-in factor on this conflict, but maybe it’s also time to stop writing so many cheques.
Unless all countries come together, the idea of a ‘world police’ by any number of select countries is silly.
One nation being the ‘world police’ is even crazier.
We rely on coalitions nowadays to do much (Iraq, Haiti, Yemen, …maybe Yemen again soon…, etc).
Coalitions are better than a single nation, but should really be an organization independent of any nations, that people trust; in the modern world, ideally would be the UN, which has peacekeeping forces, but I don’t know if the trust is currently there with the UN, and a number of ‘bad actors’, namely because the UN doesn’t serve that purpose, it is supposed to be a dialog between nations, not a unifying power, or protector/military force.
The good news on the US front, is for many coalitions to step in, the US is trying to take a back-seat, and have other nations lead them. Not that those other nations don’t have concerns. I’m not up to date on it, but I believe Kenya was being sought to lead the coalition to Haiti to restore peace and order, but I believe there were concerns about the history of Kenyan police treatment in past coalitions. Still, the US should not be the one in-charge of world policing, though that is not to say they shouldn’t be involved in any such action, just they are a piece of the puzzle, not the solution in and of itself.
I’m rambling too much. I think it’s time for me to get off Lemmy for the day. Peace out.
Saying that foreign agents control your politicians is far more damning of those politicians and your country than it is of the foreign agents. Foreign agents are supposed to try to influence the politicians, and the politicians are supposed to resist that influence. One group is doing their job, and the other isn’t.
Ghoulish.
Well, that is russia for you, bunch of war mongers the lot of them. Useless ghouls.
Good on you for seeing this, there might be some hope for you yet!
This is just Zelenskyi’s government in Kyiv sacrificing everyone else to maintain the notion of a Ukrainian state for the wealthy elite who (coincidentally) live in Kyiv. Look at where the rich are. Look at where most conscripts are from.
Ukraine is split into the ultra wealthy (Kyiv), the moderately well-off (Dnipro, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia, Kharkiv), and everywhere else (which is remarkably poor). Kyiv has more than double the GDP/capita of the next richest administrative region. This war devastates the eastern economic centers and solidifies power in Kyiv… And for what?
Ukrainian nationalism have sent hundreds of thousands of men and women to their death for no clear gains. Now, they want to send hundreds of thousands more, because the lives of Ukrainians mean nothing to the people in the white ivory towers of Kyiv. Is the sacrifice of more Ukrainian lives worth it to pursue the Western ideal of crushing Russia (so that the West can collectively focus on the Middle East and China instead)?
They shoud limit the deathtoll by suing for peace instead of continuing to send peoples dying in a war they can’t win. How is it such a hot take to you that humman lives are more important than imaginary lines on a map?
You know who could limit or remove that deathtoll really quick? That would be russia, you know, the ones who rolled into a country with war on their minds and started the whole deathtoll thing.
Why do you expect anybody else to act here? Or is russia untouchable in your view?
Ukraine isn’t fighting “crush Russia” or “consolidate power,” they are fighting to exist as a nation. They are fighting to not be part of Russia, and if you claim Russia doesn’t consolidate wealth into a small few while sacrificing their poor as cannon fodder, you’re unabashedly lying.
Now, do Western nations take advantage of this to severely weaken with no personal loss of life or territory? Absolutely. But just because it benefits the West doesn’t mean it doesn’t also benefit Ukraine.
They are hopped up on nationalism, which is encouraged by the Western warmongers for their own benefit.
You’re right they should just let Russia roll in, murder their population and take their land. #Diplomacy
Ukrainian nationalism as a concept is something that has always been a Kyiv-centered idea. This is true stretching back to the Russian Revolution, as well. The concept of Ukraine as an independent state has always been Kyiv’s idea.
Tell me you don’t understand Russian history without telling me you don’t understand Russian history.
Oh, it’s Ukrainian nationalism causing the deaths is it, not Russia invading? Do you really believe such obvious bullshit and lies?
Well, if Ukraine didn’t stubbornly insist on remaining a nation, there wouldn’t be any fighting. Checkmate western scum. /s
Uh, because they are all within one nation. They identify as Ukrainians.
You could transmute your statement to any other nation and it would be the same. Why do the people in Archangelsk fight for Moscow? Why do the people in Wichita fight for Washington?
Tribalism is an innate feature of the human experience.
Despite Taiwan’s charter stating very clearly that they are the rightful government of China, the people there identify as Taiwanese.
Oh, oops, I don’t think I’m supposed to find contradictions.
Wow, you’re right! You have found the one chink in my armor that completely tears down my statement!
The Romanovs must all be British now.
The Dalai Lama must be American.
Lana Peters is Russian. So are all Ukrainians and Tatars that were forced to migrate.
Pack it up folks, by the decree of Nekandro, you can never be part of multiple tribes or switch ever!
Just replace Ukraine in this post with russia and you have the true facts. Incredible this projection thing, always the same with fascists like you, always blame others of what you do and want.
It’s a war for Moscow that nobody outside of Moscow cares about? At least Moscow hasn’t completely decimated the demographic pyramid of Russia.
ukraine has put off counter attacks because the loss of life isnt worth it, they wait so they can get better equipment. compare that to russia who uses it soldiers as meatgrinders
Russia started this war shooting elementary schools with tanks and launching rocket strikes on hospitals. Do you really think this is just about “the western ideal” of crushing Russia? If you want to see why Ukraine is fighting so hard to not become part of Russia, just look at how shitty Russia has been to its soldiers and people during this war.
Do you really think this is just about “the western ideal” of crushing Russia?
It obviously is. This is what the Anglo Empire’s wanted since the end of World War 2. This is how they’ve been maneuvering NATO ever since it was headed up by the Nazis they saved from Nuremberg and Mossad. Donetsk and Luhansk voted democratically to join Russia; so it’s kind of showing how hypocritical you settlers are about democracy, considering how much materiel came from the West to genocide those who did choose Russia.
“No no no, democracy only counts when we cosign it”-headasses, willing to coup and genocide anybody if it means your order perpetuates. It frankly sickens me you’d try and bullshit that it could be anything else; but I rly don’t know why I expect any better from settler stains.
Ukraine is never going to win this war no matter how hard western libs keep praying.
This is the fate of any country that sells itself out to the imperial core including the EU states who facilitated this bloodbath instead of peace and diplomacy.
I hope Russia does take over the whole of Ukraine because I don’t trust a Ukraine left to its own devices after this humiliating defeat.
Who’s ready for the Ukranian 9/11?
I have not yet seen Russian trolls become so desperate. This must be a good sign.
I love how it’s always gotta be “Russian troll farms” with you settlers. It can never be your own sick-and-tired countrymen. Can never be any of the masses of subjects-of-empire you’ve gentrified, redlined, and incarcerated out of house and home. Can never be the rest of a world sick of Five-Eyes genocides.
It’s always gotta be a faceless troll farm with you genocide-addicted, responsibility-lacking, settler-assed Devils; 'cause if you can just sideline all resistance as ‘paid-for troll farm posting’, you don’t have to do any kind of self-reflection. You don’t have to stop and demand better of your leaders. You don’t have to stop and question if everything you and your ancestors have been told and have been doing for the past 400 years has been wrong.
I can’t wait for your comeuppance to land. I really can’t. I don’t even care if I’m caught in the crossfire anymore, I want to see you collectively catch what you have coming that bad. Please get Replaced already.
That’s pretty much what the non-western corporate media reports. But I learned that no one in the west is ready to face it.
In Arabic we do say المتغطي بأمريكا عريان so I’m not surprised Ukraine is being hollowed out by the US and left out naked in the cold
“Getting hollowed out and left in the cold” has been Occupied Turtle Island’s modus operandi for what, the past 50 years if not longer? If I were to sit here and list out every country that the Five-Eyed Empire has couped, vassalized, weaponized, then cut loose, often with either a SEAL team or a drone-based execution of their leaders, I’d be here literally all fucking day.
Incredible how you can state basic obvious truth and get mass downvotes. The fact that so many people still can’t comprehend that Ukraine can’t win this war shows the sheer power of western propaganda.
North Vietnam couldn’t beat America. Afghanistan couldn’t beat the Soviet Union and then beat America. And, of course, Ukraine couldn’t resist a Russian invasion for years.
If Russia can lose, then Ukraine can win, and Russia can definitely lose. By some measures, they have already lost. If this war was to “stop NATO expansion” then they lost when their aggression caused Finland to join. If their objective was to reenforce their image of dominance in the region, that has failed spectacularly.
It’s funny that you would bring up Vietnam because there is a parallel there, just not the one you think. The regime in western Ukraine that US backing bears a lot of resemblance to the regime US was backing in south Vietnam, and it’s now collapsing in exactly the same way.
What you don’t seem to understand is that there was already a civil war between western and eastern Ukraine since the coup in 2014. Let’s take a look at a few slides from this lecture that Mearsheimer gave back in 2015 to get a bit of background on the subject. Mearsheimer is certainly not pro Russian in any sense, and a proponent of US global hegemony. First, here’s the demographic breakdown of Ukraine:
here’s how the election in 2004 went:
this is the 2010 election:
As we can clearly see from the voting patterns in both elections, the country is divided exactly across the current line of conflict. Furthermore, a survey conducted in 2015 further shows that there is a sharp division between people of eastern and western Ukraine on which economic bloc they would rather belong to:
Ukraine is not some homogeneous blob, but a country that’s divided precisely along the current combat lines.
Tell me how exactly Russia benefits from the prolonged war with amounting financial cost and casualties that future generations of Russians will pay?
Russia is experiencing demographic crisis before the war, and many men either fled or died, and the country have become beholden to China, Iran and North Korea. And Russia has only issued partial mobilisation, but imagine if the entire country then mobilised more for total war just to try to beat another country that is 1/10th the size and couldn’t do so for two years.
Ukraine mobilised for total war already and they’re willing to die for a bigger goal and for their homeland. Are you yourself willing to be complicit to your country’s decline for handful of rubles that is depreciating in value over time?
Russian sanctions boomerang effect means a year of stagnation for Europe in 2024
The boomerang effect of the Russian sanctions on the EU member states is having a mixed impact. Germany, France and Italy are worst affected as the pain from the changes in energy and input supplies impact their economies, dragging them down into recession, while the less dependent on Russia like Spain and Portugal are already showing signs of recovery, according to ING analysis.
Overall Europe is headed for a year of stagnation that could be worse than in 2023. By contrast Russia reported growth of 3.5%, according to the preliminary results. And on January 18, an ebullient Russian President Vladimir Putin said that growth could come in at over 4% after revisions. The Russian Ministry of Finance (MinFin) also revised its GDP growth outlook for 2024 up to 3.5%, much improved from the earlier Central Bank of Russia (CBR) forecasts of around 2% for this year.
Currently, sanctions seem to be doing more harm to Europe than they are to Russia.
Russia sanctioned-proof themselves in anticipation of the consequences of invading Ukraine. They have long history and experience after all since the Soviet days of international sanctions. However, autarky always shows to only have short term effect but in the long run, the severe consequences always catches up in the end. Just look at how Soviet Union led to its eventual demise and the war in Afghanistan accelerated that collapse. The war in Ukraine will do the same to the current regime.
Conversely, even though the EU had been dependent on Russian fossil fuel before, the boomerang effect you mentioned is only short to medium term because disruption in trade is always expected during a war. But this only pushed the EU to import American gas and accelerate the EU Green New Deal to compensate for the loss of Russian gas and oil.
With Russia only having 1/5th the GDP of Italy and endemic corruption, the failure to subdue Ukraine is only going to eat at the Russian economy and political prestige. Even if Russia wins or gets concessions, it will be a Pyrrhic victory. Because loss of demographics (Russia is experiencing population decline before the war) will have severe consequences to the workforce and economy, the sanctions after the war will continue to hit the Russians, and the country will become more economically reliant to China and by extension politically as well. More importantly, the claim to stop NATO expansion just had the boomerang effect of just admitting two new nations into the alliance. With Russia tied in Ukraine, they loss influence in CSTO as member states resumed border clashes, especially with Armenia becoming frustrated on the issue of Nagorno-Karabakh.
